Mayo-Tsanaga Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Profiling, July-September 2021

Violent extremism carried out by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria and government measures to contain it have led to intense population movement and human suffering in the Lake Chad basin. Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad are particularly affected. Since 2014, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Far North region of Cameroon has steadily increased due to attacks by armed groups, in particular Boko Haram and rival groups. The situation of IDPs is worrying for the authorities.

In 2019, new waves of conflict and violence, associated with flooding, triggered more internal displacement. As of October 2021, the Far North region had 341,535 IDPs and 124,310 returnees (IOM DTM Round 22). In order to ensure the protection of IDPs in the three departments most affected in the Far North (Mayo-Sava, Mayo-Tsanaga et Logone-Et-Chari), a need was expressed by the different actors in the region and the authorities for credible detailed statistics on the IDP households and individuals that could be used for planning purposes. In this light, UNHCR supported the authorities in undertaking an IDP pilot profiling exercise between July and September 2021 in Mayo-Tsanaga.

The profiling collected data on a number of topics that could be used to assess the needs of the IDP population and identify solutions, namely living conditions, food security, essential items and legal protection. The profiling was carried out by UNHCR and the Comité Mixte de Protection which composed mainly of public service agents in the department of Mayo-Tsanaga. The profiling covered 85,908 IDPs in 17,572 households in 201 sites and villages. These data are an anonymized sample of the original data, and include two tables from two questionnaires: one at the household level and one at the individuals household member level.