By Moma Sandrine
The Social Democratic Front (SDF) party will be distributing humanitarian aid to persons displaced as a result of the crisis rocking the country. The items that include medications, sanitary pads, blankets, clothes, shoes, plates, oil, corn, beans, rice and other food stuff were initially intended to be shared to Cameroonian refugees based in Nigeria.
The SDF party had long intended to take these items to Nigeria but failed to do so as they were not given approval by the state. Bamenda II Mayor, Balick Awa Fidelis, coordinator of the sharing committee told the press, “Unfortunately, the green light for us to transport these things from here through the boarders into Nigeria was not given. Why it was not given, we cannot tell. But I want to believe that it has to do with politics.”
Following the restriction placed on the SDF party to take these items across Cameroon’s boarders, the party officials then decided to distribute these items to displaced persons in Cameroon. This decision was made public during a meeting that held on Tuesday, August 7 at the residence of SDF National Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi.
While presiding over the meeting, Mayor Balick said that since the party could not have the items reach Nigeria, internally displaced persons in the North West and South West regions are the new beneficiaries, “effectively, what the SDF originally thought was that the internally displaced persons could be taken care of by you and me and that those who are outside don’t have relatives so the SDF thought that the best thing to do was to support them in the form of food, clothing and so on…now that we could not go, we are going to share these items to our internally displaced within the two regions, the North West region and the South West regions.” He however added that displaced people in other regions of the country who can be identified will also benefit from these items.
Diverting the items meant for the Nigerian refugees does not mean they will not have support from the party, “we have not given up on the refugees in Nigeria. They are Cameroonians and so we feel for them. We are still working,” Balick added.
To this effect, the SDF party is calling on all displaced persons in the country to get registered through any SDF official, so as to benefit from these items. The distribution commences as soon as the displaced persons are identified Mayor Ballick concluded.