Self-Reliance (Autonomization) and Livelihood Assistance to Anglophone-Cameroonian Refugees in Nigeria: Evaluation and Value Judgment

Humanitarian Action has become one of the top developmental discourses that have taken a greater percentage of media headline news. Within the 21^st century, with the geometric increase in the number of humanitarian crises in African and Cameroon in particular, most humanitarians, have been caught between the frames of “autonomization and livelihood” of (to) humanitarian migrants caught within the closets of humanitarian crises. Juxtaposed with politics and monetary strings, against neutrality and humanity notions, 90% of refugees in Africa, South of the Sahara have been rendered dependent on mere food assistance from humanitarian donors, which has given room to high dependency ratio on monthly humanitarian assistance. This article examined the initiatives made by humanitarian institutions, led by UNHCR/WFP in rolling-back the high dependency ratio of Anglophone-Cameroonian Refugees in Nigeria on mere foodstuff assistance from the humanitarians. From the quantitative and qualitative analyses made based on empirical evidence, Anglophone-Cameroonians who left North and South West Regions as from 2018 for Nigeria as a result of Violence orchestrated by the separatist fighters and the military, received humanitarian assistance from donors in Nigeria.  This work stands on ground that; fewer efforts were made at rendering the Anglophone-Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria self-reliance by joint efforts of UNHCR and WFP. This was as a result of the belief in short-live of the Armed Conflict in North and South West Regions of Cameroon, as a result of immense pressure from International Communities (ICs) and from Great Nations for an immediate ceasefire for an inclusive dialogue. These pushed the funders of humanitarian organizations to embark on mere livelihood assistance to the Anglophone-Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, rather than rendering them autonomous.

Keywords: Self-Reliance, Livelihood Assistance, Autonomization and Refugees,