It is for this reason, that a team from the United Nations Women Commission is currently in Cameroon, where they have been consoling internally displaced women living in Douala, littoral region, as well as the South West and today, Centre region.

The team is headed by Liberian born Laymeh Roberta Gbowee, Secretary General at the United Nationals Security Council. They began a fact-finding mission on Monday, as they are also here to investigate why the Anglophone crisis, persists.

At the Women Empowerment centre in Douala, they listened to painful stories from female war victims, who are now displaced and fighting to meet up with family demands. Stories of women living in bushes without appropriate hygienic conditions especially during their menstrual period, were raised, as well as poor living conditions.

It was a scene of tears in Douala, as the Nobel Peace prize winner, Laymeh Roberta Gbowee, asked participants to open up, as strict measures were taken to ensure none of their lives were put at risk.
She will be in Yaoundé this Tuesday, where she is expected to carry out same event with women affected by the war, and civil society organisations.

Gbowee arrived Cameroon on Saturday, where she was received at the Douala International Airport by the Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Celestine Ketcha and the Littoral regional governor, Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua.

Her main objective is to evaluate the implementation of Resolution1325(2000), of the United Nations Security Council.
The Security Council adopted this resolution on women and peace and security on 31 October 2000. The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction and stresses the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

Resolution 1325 urges all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts. It also calls on all parties to conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict. The resolution provides a number of important operational mandates, with implications for Member States and the entities of the United Nations system.

Since the Anglophone crisis became an armed conflict, over 400,000 persons have been displaced, with a majority of them being women and children. It is same for Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, with over 30,000 persons. There have been several reports on rape and other forms of abuse on women, perpetrated by both military and armed separatists.