The Far North region is at the forefront because of terrorist activities carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram.
1.6 million. This is the number of students enrolled in primary and nursery schools in Cameroon who did not have a birth certificate in 2019. These figures are from the National Civil Status Office (Bunec), a public body in charge of management civil status.
“The Far North region is primarily affected by the scale of the problem, the size of its demographics and the terrorist activities carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram. In 2019, this region alone had more than 400,000 students without birth certificates, ”says Tobie Ndi, in charge of communication at Bunec.
According to the diagnostic study and additional assessment of the civil status system in Cameroon conducted in 2016, the low level of birth registration can be explained by a multitude of factors. Among the most important are the administrative obstacles linked, among other things, to the non-functioning of civil status centers or their remoteness from the populations.
Administrative and financial barriers
The study also points to financial barriers. Indeed, the regulations provide for the free declaration and registration of births, but in fact they are conditioned by the payment of fees both in health facilities and in civil registration centers.
Ignorance of the texts in force and the neglect of the populations are not to be outdone. These are encouraged by administrative tolerance, in the name of which the sanctions provided for against the non-declaration of births are hardly ever applied.
However, recalls the communication from Bunec, “an unregistered individual is considered a ghost, victim of the phenomenon of invisibility and threatened by the risk of statelessness“.
The Civil Status Rehabilitation Program
For several years, Bunec has been trying to implement the Civil Status Rehabilitation Program. He claims more than 10,000 officers and registrars of civil status already trained. In addition to “awareness-raising, education and information actions for the population and other stakeholders in civil status, such as judicial personnel, administrative, religious and traditional authorities, elected officials, intermediaries community, ”says Tobie Ndi.
In addition, the public authorities are working for the extension of the civil status service. Moreover, a map of civil registration centers has been drawn up and includes 374 main centers spread across the 360 municipalities and town halls of the 14 largest cities, 2,455 secondary centers and 46 civil registration centers …