Rape, Stigma, Poverty - the Lot of Urban Refugees in Cameroon

Yaounde — Eleven-year-old Christian* and 13-year-old Pauline* stare down blankly at the health cards grasped tightly in their hands at the Red Cross medical centre in Cameroon's capital.

Both fled conflict in Central African Republic (CAR) in June 2013 and resettled as refugees in Yaoundé. Both have since been the victims of sexual assault and rape. Both are struggling to survive on their own in a large, foreign city.

Christian, his head still partly covered in medical tape, recalled what happened on 7 July when the two were returning home from the house of Mama Florence, a local Cameroonian woman who offers them food from time to time.

"Four thugs came out of an abandoned house, knife and screwdriver in hand," he told IRIN. "It was like a horror movie. We were forcibly taken inside [and raped]."

Pauline had already been attacked and raped once before in Yaoundé, in late 2014.

"In [CAR], I used to wish to die," she told IRIN. "I fled to escape that violence, but I still suffer. Maybe I should have died there, because here we are the prey of paedophiles."

No safety net in the city

There are no official figures, but many teenage refugees who end up scraping by in major cities across the globe are subjected to violence and sexual exploitation.

In rural areas, refugees are often welcomed in and cared for by host populations, whereas in cities they are not only on their own when it comes to finding food, shelter and other necessities, they are also often stigmatised and taken advantage of. Without the same support system, they are generally a lot more vulnerable.

"We are aware of the phenomenon of sexual abuse against refugees, particularly in Yaoundé," said Damien Noma, executive director of local NGO Respect Cameroon.

"The problem extends beyond refugees, of course, but most abusers are nationals who are aware of the status of their targets, and these aggressors tell them: 'you cannot complain because you are not at home.'"

Many urban refugees don't know their rights, or, if they do, they're too afraid to exercise them.

Christian and Pauline, for example, told LLI they didn't initially report their rapes because they were too frightened of the Cameroonian authorities.

"Most suffer more because there is a lack of knowledge of the laws and regulations and international conventions meant to protect them," said Noma. "The refugee just doesn't know that his rights go beyond the sole consideration of basic needs."

The stigma facing refugees here is considerable. They are often accused of being unruly, disrespectful, dirty, or of carrying disease. Others face frequent harassment by the police, including beatings, intimidation, illegal detention and corruption, according to Cameroon's Association of Human Rights.

Many female refugees end up becoming involved in prostitution or human trafficking.

"Last month, my girlfriend and I were rounded up and kept overnight, under the pretext that we were prostitutes," said Genevieve Anaki, an Ivoirian refugee in Yaoundé. "The policemen robbed us and demanded sexual favours before our release."

Gerard Tsamo, a lawyer in Yaoundé, told LLI: "They [urban refugees] are in constant danger, especially when it comes to violation, detention, deportation or sexual exploitation."

Is anyone helping?

In a country with high levels of joblessness - at least 6.3 million of Cameroon's overall population of 22 million were either unemployed or underemployed last year - extreme poverty is pervasive among urban refugees.

"Before the attack, I would shine shoes, wash cars, and sometimes stole just to survive," Pauline said.

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says that in 2014 it offered humanitarian assistance and protection to some 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers residing in urban areas in Cameroon, in conjunction with the government.

Activities included documenting urban refugees so that they receive aid, improving community relations between local citizens and refugees, and ensuring that livelihood needs are met.

The police say they too are working to protect refugees - not to take advantage of them.

"It's wrong what you are told [about refugees being detained and beaten]," Paul Ella, a police officer in Yaoundé, told LLI. "The police here are responsible and we are well trained to respect human rights, even those of refugees."

Urban refugees here share the challenges of those living in the poorest neighbourhoods of Yaoundé, such as extreme poverty and limited access to basic services, but they also face additional barriers because of their uncertain legal status and lack of proper documentation.

"Access to rights... would build them up, inform them and engage them," Linda Oyongo, who works with Cameroon's Association of Human Rights, told LLI.

What Lies Behind the Rise of Jihadist Movements in Africa

The failure of African states to adequately address their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and economic differences provided the fertile ground on which rebel groups now prosper.

Africa arguably faces the biggest threat to political stability since the collapse of colonialism in the mid-20th century.

The threat comes in the main from the proliferation of militant Islamic groups in parts of the continent. These groups, which strike at the heart of African cohesion  and nation-building, include:

al-Queda in Islamic Maghreb - in the northern and western Africa region, covering Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania;

Boko-Harram in north-eastern Nigeria;

al-Shabab in Somalia;

 Mulathameen Brigade in Algeria;

 Ansar al-Dine in Mali;

 Seleka in the Central African Republic; and

Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia.

Journalists, analysts and scholars provide crucial insights into the identity and practices of Africa's rebel groups. But credible information is invariably a casualty of war. This requires people to exercise a high level of critical analysis to attain an unbiased understanding of conflict in Africa.

The consequences of the support by the West for oppressive African regimes needs to be considered. In turn, strident Muslim aggression needs to be understood in relation to the influence of Western-based Christian fundamentalist groups in Africa. Many devout Muslim believers see this as a muted form of the   Christian crusade sthat endured for 200 years.

Some 800 years later, the current conflict is understood as a continuing fight for the purity of an Islamic belief. For them, defeat is not an option.

Drivers of the jihadist conflict

Understanding jihadist conflict in Africa needs to address at least the following five elements.

Ideological conflicts

TheSykes-Picot agreement,which entrenched European dominance in the Arabian Peninsula in the wake of the first world war, plus the West's protection of the newly established state of Israel in 1948, resulted in a resurgence of Islamic extremism in global politics.

The effects of the Cold War escalated, and the African independence struggles resulted in a plethora of African coup d'etats, counter-coups and deep-seated tensions in the 1950s and 1960s. This ideological conflict soon mutated into resource wars and economic deprivation, manipulated by religion and culture, still today.

Dominant groups

African notions of state have their roots in colonial law, which resulted in political control by a dominant group. This "crime", says world-renowned Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani, led to the politicisation of culture, religion and indigeneity to the exclusion of subservient and minority groups.

The failure of African states to adequately address their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and economic differences provided the fertile ground on which rebel groups now prosper.

The gap between the basic principles of democracy and political participation, and their non-implementation, has contributed to the stand-off between government and individual ethnic, cultural and religious groups.

Economic dependency

Capitalism, deeply entrenched in the global economy, has produced dependent African economies. Only a minority of grassroots Africans have been drawn into the middle and upper classes which, in the words of South African political analyst Steven Friedman, constitute an exclusive club "never meant to be for everyone".

In the absence of compromise between the two ends of this economic divide, the fabric of African co-existence is under serious threat. This contributes significantly to the fight-back by Africa's poor, which includes a growing number of alienated and unemployed young people.

Toxic mix of religion and poverty

African poverty acts in a symbiotic relationship with religion, which is a powerful mobilising force among poor communities.

Priests, mullahs, rabbis and other religious leaders are frequently associated with extremist views which they communicate through religious language and symbols that acquire apocalyptic dimensions involving a choice between divine wrath and favour. They demand dogmatic obedience by their followers, while promising rewards in heaven.

At the same time, there are inspirational religious leaders and grassroots believers in Islam and Christianity who affirm the supremacy of God and Allah over state and rebel leaders.

But their focus on the pre-eminence of the divine is largely suppressed as institutional religion is captured by the dogma of ruling and rebel groups. This lifts the political conflict into the realm of spiritual encounters between rebels and the state.

Driven by different forms of propaganda, this dogma promotes and legitimates violent behaviour. Believers engage in civilian massacres, kidnapping and abduction, rape of women and girls, forced marriages and the killing of so-called infidels and apostates. The slaughter of rebels by government forces also occurs under this rubric.

Dehumanisation of the other

The extent of this violence, driven by a sense of exclusivity, moral superiority, religious intensity and blind submission to authority has resulted in the endemic demonisation and dehumanisation of "the other".

This is true among Christians, Muslims, members of opposing groups or those who are indifferent to the prevailing conflict. It is evoked by rebel groups as well as strident state officials who sanction violence as the only solution to the prevailing conflict.

There are no quick answers to the toxic mix of the above five ingredients. Understanding and unravelling the intertwined causes will require critical elements that need to be creatively reviewed by African leaders, credible facilitators and a pool of multi-disciplinary analysts.

Karl Marx warned that "the tradition of dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living". The past needs to be pondered as a basis for each new African generation to create a new future.

If individual African countries, together with regional and global agencies, fail to embrace this responsibility,
 Africa's much-heralded economic progress is likely to be engulfed in an ideological war which knows no state borders.

AU.ECOWAS WHY ARE YOU SILENT ABOUT THE DEATH OF THOUSANDS OF AFRICANS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

The recent drownings of African migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Sicily, have caught global attention and stirred an uproar.

This is hardly the first time illegal migration by boat has claimed the lives of Africans, though this latest incident has been for many the last straw. European Union member states had to call an emergency meeting in the wake of the recent calamity, the recurrence of the phenomenon having become something of a moral burden for the West.

As former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan tweeted, "The #migrants dying in the #Mediterranean Sea are not unwanted trespassers. They are human beings."
Annan is quite right. The deaths of thousands of human beings in such horrible conditions is nothing short of a human disaster and could not have left the "moral" West indifferent.

Conversely, on the African continent, our leaders do not seem to be bothered by this umpteenth accident. Does this attitude equate to indifference? Is it really that our leaders just don't care? And if they don't, how can we ever hope that this situation will improve?

The issue is far more complex than it seems. Recent events expose not only the inability of African governments to provide jobs for their predominantly youth populations, but they highlight the level of desperation of these young (mostly) men who have little hope of a better future in their countries due to the lack of clear and concrete government policies targeting their demographic.

In my view, the lack of reaction on the part of the African leadership is not due to indifference but rather to discomfort, guilt and helplessness.

One month after the event, Senegal is unable to tell how many of its citizens were victims. This is no doubt the case for each of the other African countries involved.

Senegalese officials and human rights organizations are busy discussing numbers and facts - how many died? How many similar events have taken place in the last year? Where did the Senegalese victims depart from?

Officials went as far as to say that those who have lost their lives left Senegal more than three years ago. In my view, this is a grotesque attempt to shirk the current administration's responsibility. It also completely misses the point.

The bottom line is that even one life lost is one life too many. But as is often the case, Africans turn to the West for solutions, going so far as to critique Europe for calling a meeting to talk about illegal migration without inviting those main players involved: African leaders themselves.

This is ridiculous. It should be Africa that is calling a meeting and inviting Europe, not the other way around. If Africans don't respect themselves, why should they expect respect in return? Why should the West take the lead in African matters?

Until now, no African body has called for an emergency meeting - neither Ecowas nor the African Union. This is despite news of more migrants' boats being intercepted or rescued from the Mediterranean nearly every day.

African leaders need to start getting serious if they want to be taken seriously. Whenever the continent is in a dire situation, the leadership is wanting.

Reports have shown that the migrants come from all over the African continent. Therefore the AU, as the continental body, should take the lead in addressing this issue. They should engage Europe on the best solutions to illegal migration that would address not only the human rights of the migrants, but also the drivers of illegal migration and how it might be curbed.

The attitude of the African leadership contrasts glaringly with that of the African youth who have been very vocal on social media, denouncing the deafening silence of their governments and expressing anger at leaders who are quick to hop on a plane with taxpayers' money to stand with the West when it's #JesuisCharlie, but who are voiceless when the African ship keeps submerging, when it's #Mediterranean #Migrants #Kenya #Garissa and #BokoHaram.

We can salute Africa's youth for taking such a stance. The issue now is how to empower them to push their governments into action. Civil societies all over Africa should go beyond blaming governments, and play a more active role in sensitizing young people and putting pressure on governments to have clear development policies and opportunities for them.

This is no easy task. But it's one that if not addressed sooner rather than later will put thousands more lives at risk.