On behalf of the Head of State, Prime Minister Philemon Yang held talks with visiting Peter Maurer on May 15, 2015.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, will expand its operations in Cameroon beyond mere training in International Law to a more operational organisation to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict and violence in the Lake Chad basin. This was the message delivered by ICRC’s President, Swiss-born Peter Maurer, on May 15, 2015, at an audience granted in Yaounde by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang, on behalf of the Head of State, Paul Biya.

Peter Maurer told the press after the audience that refugees and internally displaced persons will receive direct assistance in food, shelter, medicine, water and sanitation. The ICRC will also use its wide database and contacts with displaced persons to enable families that have been separated and living all over the region, to reunite. He said that support will also be given to local populations because they are generous in receiving displaced persons.

To achieve these objectives, the ICRC will need the Cameroonian government. “I was very pleased to meet the Prime Minister and to have his full support and appreciation of the work of ICRC, which we do in close cooperation with the Cameroon Red Cross; our highly appreciated and foremost partner here,” said Peter Maurer. The ICRC boss was accompanied to the audience by ICRC’s new Chief of Operations for Africa, Patricia Danzi, and the Head of the Yaounde-based Regional ICRC Delegation for Central Africa, Simon Peter Brooks. Before leaving the country on May 16, 2015, the delegation travelled to Maroua, Far North Region where they met administrative, military and detention authorities.

Peter Maurer, a career diplomat, has been the President of ICRC since October 17, 2011 when he was so designated by the Assembly of the organisation meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.