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| There are no mills in Mbozo-Kaé |
The region has
eight months of extreme dryness and four months of extreme rainfall, says
Kounai Robert, a youth animator in Mbiga-Zidim, a village in Mokolo subdivision
of the Mayo Tsanaga Division.
The four months
of rain fall are characterized by floods as the region is surrounded by
mountains that do not hold the rain, coupled with the fact that the region is a
plain. This was confirmed by a visit to Mbozo-Kaé village in the Meri sub
division of the Diamare division. Situated some 32 km from Maroua, the chief
town of the region, the over 450 people of the village trek for 5km to have
drinking water during the dry season.
There, a family
head told this reporter that the weather conditions and the sandy soil do not
favour farming. This, he said has cause the population of the area whose main
activity is farming to remain very poor.
According to Mr
Bouba Sodje a family head in Mbozo-Kaé village, for them to grind their millet,
they have to trek some five kilometers to Douroum, a neighbouring village. In the
same way, for them to fetch water, they depend only on Douroum; likewise when
they need health facilities
Ftang Ouzzang
is another village in Meri sub division ‘extremely’ inhabited by women. Here, it
is the same sorry story. No schools, health centers, potable water, extreme
poverty, etc.
The staple food
of the entire Extreme (Far) North region of Cameroon is millet. This cereal is
very scarce in some parts of the region.
Despite a
program by a non governmental organisation, Network for the fight against
Hunger and Poverty, RELUFA that makes cereals available to the population of
this area, they lack grinding mills, potable water, schools and health centers.
In Moudoumboui
village in the Ndoukoula subdivision of the Diamare, the story is same.
Like in
Mbozo-Kaé and Ftang Ouzzang, Mr Ndjidda Guilidi an inhabitant of Moudoumboui, said
the extremely poor soil fertility of the area does not favour farming which
remains their main activity.
In Mbozo-Kaé, families
are so poor that a family’s budget for a year hardly exceeds CFA 5000 Frs, says
Wabi Djam a family head in the village. With a bag of millet selling at CFA
16000 Frs., it is difficult for these families to acquire this staple food.
The extreme
poverty situation, Bouba Sodjé said has lead to extreme rural exodus.
In most of
these villages, RELUFA has created community grain banks where villagers borrow
cereals during hard times and repay in kind during harvest. This program though
appreciated by the beneficiaries cannot completely solve the problems of
villagers.
“We need to
send our own children to school, grind our millet in Mbozo-Kaé…” says Mr Sali
who pleaded with RELUFA to call on government to think of granting them a
grinding mill and a school in future.
According to a
2011 World Food Program report, the rate of food insecurity in the Far North
region of Cameroon stands at 17.9%, followed by the North with 14.6% while the
East region is third with 10.3%.
Besides the natural factors, Sandrine Bikelle, Programs Assistant at
RELUFA says structural factors also account for the extreme food insecurity in
the Extreme North Region of Cameroon. She argues that poor management of
harvests by peasants, illicit exportation of farm produce by peasants and
insufficient access to farm inputs by farmers also contribute greatly to the
problem of food insecurity that the region faces.
And that is just “the sorry story of Cameroon’s North of Extremes.
Blessed be Cameroon.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi
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