Title: Combatting the Surge of Conflict-Related Sexual and Physical Violence in Cameroon´s Northwest Region: A Path to Justice, Healing and Empowerment

Abstract

Women and girls in Cameroon experience multiple forms of violence ranging from physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence. Violence against women and girls especially sexual and physical is a threat to women’s lives and wellbeing and limits their bodily autonomy and confidence. Violence against women and girls have been existing in Cameroon over the years like other countries and there have been various measures ranging from civil society to government interventions to curb these ills.

The issue of violence against women and girls especially sexual and physical violence has exacerbated especially in the conflict affected Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. It has been characterized by both impunity by the perpetrator and silence from the survivor and the community. This armed conflict has been characterized by gun violence between state armed groups and nonstate armed groups known as “separationists” fighters. This situation has led to heightened insecurity, closure of government owned justice institutions, schools especially in rural areas as they are targets of kidnappings, burn downs by nonstate armed groups. Women and girls have become more targets of sexual and physical violence by armed groups and civilian men because with the weakened justice systems, impunity and security concerns there is fear of threats to lives if the women report or speak up. The Northwest region, especially in the rural areas, has been characterized by many young girls moving to the urban areas as internally displaced people to work as domestic staff especially due to the shutdown of schools. Leaving their families and support networks, this exposes them even more to exploitation and sexual abuse with employers taking advantage of their vulnerabilities.

There are so many civil society organizations like Rural Women Center for Education and Development (RuWCED) who are working to address issues of gender-based violence and violence against women and girls in the Northwest region. These interventions have been contributing a great deal to support women and girls. What this project is doing differently is first understanding and utilizing the power of survivor centered and community-based approaches in addressing violence in a region where there are weakened justice systems and heightened security concerns.

At the core of this project is the believe in the power of community and people to bring change and in this case, we’re engaging local traditional leaders, bike riders who are mostly men and communities to get the needed support and safety for women and girls. In collaboration with RuWCED, these traditional leaders will be trained on using their localized laws to protect women and girls in their communities against sexual and physical violence. We’re also leveraging the influence of bike riders and radio stations to carry out community sensitizations on sexual and physical violence. It doesn’t just end there; we’re also linking victims to the needed health and counselling services and connecting internally displaced girls to free vocational training programs for their economic empowerment. By this, it is also amplifying the services of these other organizations in this chain, and they work they do in broader support of women and girls. We also utilizing local radio stations to sensitize communities on these forms of violence against women and girls, how to provide support and where to report. The radio programs will also be a channel of information on the existing vocational centers that will be shared.

This survivor centered and community-based approach is different and the best possible way to address these issues while ensuring the safety and security of women and girls. In a fragile state that is characterized by fear and threats to lives, getting the support of communities and working in collaboration with them will better address the issue of violence against women and girls. Through this intervention though not limited, we hope to engage at least 50 traditional leaders and the association of bike riders who are mostly men as champions of change and the protection of women and girls through workshop sessions and a demonstration march pass respectively. Through this intervention, we will also engage community members through fourteen radio sensitization programs on sexual and physical violence against women and girls.