Women sensitised on armed conflict

ACAFEJ organised a roundtable conference on the subject recently in Douala.

Gender-based violence goes beyond mere rough treatment and seizure of women’s property to violence women undergo during armed conflicts like what is going on in trouble spots around the world.

As a result of the ongoing armed conflict in Far North Region, the Littoral Chapter of Cameroon Association of Female Jurists, ACAFEJ, together with some civil society organisations, recently organised a sensitisation campaign through a roundtable conference on the theme: “Women and Armed Conflicts.” This was to sensitise women living faraway from conflict zones on the atrocities the affected suffer.

Participants brainstormed on how to be of help to conflict victims who are scattered all over the country; from the Far North to the East Regions where the Central African Republic crisis has resulted in the massive influx of refugees into the country.

According to ACAFEJ’s President, Esther Ngalle Mbondjo, most women do not realise that they are war victims. She explained that if people flee their countries because of conflict and settle where there is no conflict, they are considered as direct war victims, while their neighbours are indirect war victims.

Together with the Cameroon Women in Leadership and other organisations, participants agreed to prepare projects for submission to bodies like the European Union, UN Women and HCL, for possible funding in order to help direct war victims.

According to Gilles Herbert Fotso, about 200 refugees troop into the country everyday, with their health, education and feeding as the greatest challenges.