US Grant Cameroon Refugees Temporary Stay Permit

The United States has granted temporary protected status to nearly 40,000 Cameroonian refugees living in the US, who have fled a separatist conflict in the west of the country and an Islamist insurgency in the north.

It gives them the right to stay and work in the US for 18 months.

The Department of Homeland Security added that the status could be renewed if the security situation in Cameroon did not improve.

The International Crisis Group says more than 6,000 people have been killed and more than 700,000 have been displaced in clashes between separatists and security forces since 2017.

Human Rights Watch says the Islamist violence in northern Cameroon has led to a major humanitarian crisis displacing more than 300,000 people since 2014.

BBC/Christopher Ojilere