More than 150,000 children have gone missing in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions amid the ongoing armed conflict, now in its eighth year. The figures were revealed during the 7th session of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development (PPRD) of the North-West and South-West regions, held on July 4 in Bamenda, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.
According to Paul Tassong, president of the PPRD steering committee, NGO reports indicate that separatist groups abducted many of these children without issuing any ransom or public demands.
This worsening security crisis has also driven over 200,000 children out of classrooms across the two regions.
In its June 2025 report on the Situation of Children in Cameroon, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that school enrollment in these areas remains alarmingly low, with some children having missed school for more than five years.
The report also states that, in 2024, 334,000 people were displaced from the North-West and South-West, including 174,000 who crossed into Nigeria. The conflict has crippled the education system: 41% of schools are closed, leaving 223,749 children out of school and increasing their vulnerability to recruitment by non-state armed groups.
To address this humanitarian crisis, the government launched the PPRD, aimed at rebuilding and stabilizing the affected areas. Over the first five years, the state and partners mobilized over CFA600 billion—a dramatic rise from the plan’s initial budget of 89 billion, later reassessed to CFA2,500 billion due to escalating needs.
With this funding, the government has rebuilt nearly 120 schools—71 in the North-West and 49 in the South-West—as part of broader efforts to restore basic services and community infrastructure.
Since late 2016, the two Anglophone regions have faced a violent separatist insurgency, initially triggered by grievances over perceived marginalization. Armed groups have enforced school boycotts, and attacks on students, teachers, and school buildings have become widespread.
This article was initially published in French by Frédéric Nonos
Edited in English by Ange Jason Quenum