Cameroon Issues - 2023

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

Joint Border Commission with Nigeria reviewed 2002 ICJ ruling on the entire boundary and bilaterally resolved differences, including June 2006 Greentree Agreement that immediately ceded sovereignty of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon with a full phase-out of Nigerian control and patriation of residents in 2008; Cameroon and Nigeria agreed on maritime delimitation in March 2008; sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 350,428 (Central African Republic), 115,847 (Nigeria) (2023)

IDPs: 1.01 million (2023) (includes far north, northwest, and southwest)

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Cameroon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities prosecuted and convicted more alleged traffickers; the government extended the 2020-2021 national action plan for an additional two years and conducted trafficking awareness  activities; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to improve anti-trafficking capacity; officials investigated fewer trafficking cases and identified fewer victims, and did not investigate allegations of security forces involvement in sexual exploitation of women; officials prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers; standard operating procedures for the identification and referral of trafficking victims were not widely disseminated; the government did not pass draft anti-trafficking legislation pending since 2012 to address victim and witness protection in conformity with international law; nonetheless, because the government devoted sufficient efforts to meet the minimum standards, Cameroon was granted a waiver per the TVPA from a downgrade to Tier 3, therefore Cameroon remained on Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year (2022)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cameroon, and traffickers exploit victims from Cameroon abroad; deteriorating economic and education conditions and diminished police and judicial presence caused by conflict in the Northwest and Southwest has left displaced persons vulnerable to trafficking; parents may be lured by promises of education or a better life for their children in urban areas, and then the children are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking; teenagers and adolescents may be lured to cities with promises of employment and then become victims of forced labor and sex trafficking; children from neighboring countries are forced to work in spare parts shops or cattle grazing by business owners and herders; Cameroonians, often from rural areas, are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and African countries (2022)

NOTE: The information regarding Cameroon on this page is re-published from the 2023 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Cameroon 2023 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Cameroon 2023 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.