Kumbo Diocese issues “urgent alert” on human trafficking surge ⁰

Cameroon’s Catholic Diocese of Kumbo, which is part of Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, located in the country’s conflict-affected North West region has issued an “urgent alert” on a surge of human trafficking in the Episcopal See.

In a statement shared with ACI Africa on Tuesday, April 8, the Coordinator of the Commission for Justice and Peace in the Cameroonian Catholic Diocese says that traffickers, who are now capitalizing on the region’s crises, “keep changing their strategies.”

“The Justice and Peace Commission of Kumbo Diocese have been sensitizing us on issues of trafficking over the years,” Sr. Minkoue Falie says.

In the statement dated April 4 and titled, “An urgent alert on the situation of human trafficking in the Diocese of Kumbo”, Sr. Falie observes, “The ongoing crises in the two Anglophone regions have increased vulnerability, unemployment, and hardship in our communities. Traffickers are taking advantage of this, and the rate of human trafficking has drastically increased in the past years.”

“We write once again to call your attention to the growing phenomenon of human trafficking taking roots in our diocese,” the Cameroonian member of the Congregation de Notre-Dame (CND) says, encouraging families whose members have fallen victim to human trafficking to report the matter “as a matter of urgency”.

The Justice and Peace Commission Coordinator continues, “Many of our sons and daughters, friends, and relatives were promised jobs in big companies and are now stranded in Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, etc., always demanding more money for one thing or another as we write.”

“As a matter of urgency, we call on any family whose child or children have fallen victim to get in touch with the Diocesan Justice and Peace Office as soon as possible with useful information to enable the office to respond to this worrying issue,” Sr. Falie says in the one-page statement addressed to the people of God in the Diocese of Kumbo.

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent. An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.

School boycotts have become common in the Cameroonian region as have enforced moratoriums on public life known as “ghost towns”.

According to a March 2025 report, Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis “has caused over 900,000 people to flee internally and 60,000 people to flee abroad.”

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The report indicates that “as of February 2025, more than 500,000 internally displaced people were in Anglophone-majority regions.”

The UNHCR has reported that the Central African nation plays host to over 400,000 refugees primarily coming from the Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, Chad, and Niger; more than 17,000 asylum seekers; and over 1 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) “with an additional 658,544 returnees.”

More than 3.3 million people stand in need of humanitarian aid in Cameroon.

In recent years, however, there have been reported instances of former separatist fighters laying down arms, transitioning into professional careers, and advocating for peace.

Source: ACI Africa