At workshop in Yaounde: Stakeholders mapping regional action plans on implementation of national DDR strategy.

This is the focus of a two-day workshop, which opened in Yaounde Monday. The gathering was organised by NDDRC in partnership with African Union, and technical assistance from Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, BICC. 

According to NDDRC, the workshop aims to review and enrich draft regional action plans developed by regional centres in Far North, North West and South West Regions.

Officials said the workshop is also to identify gabs, align priorities and ensure full coherence with the national DDR strategy, define implementation modalities, timelines and responsibilities for each component of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration. 

Yhe goal, they added, is to integrate gender during protection and inclusion as operational priorities, strengthen inter-disciplinary coordinates with the implementation of the produced action plans. 

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Senior Adviser at BICC, Milena Berks, hailed the significant milestone covered in terms of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration in Cameroon, noting that it has been years of practical experience and shared vision. 

She stated that the output of NDDRC reflects national commitment to promote peace across the country.

On her part, Mimtsa Marthe of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, also saluted efforts by the Cameroon government in looking for lasting solutions towards ensuring peace in conflict-affected areas and reintegration of ex-combatants.

She used the occasion to call for coordinated efforts in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

Opening the workshop, the National Coordinator of National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Committee, NDDRC, Fai Yengo Francis, said since the creation of the committee in November 2018, it has made significant progress.

He said the NDDRC has disarmed and demobilized over 12,000 ex-combatants across the Far North, North West and South West Regions through its regional centres in Mora, Buea and Bamenda.

“We have developed key instruments like the DDR regional strategies, the procedural pattern, standard operational procedures…This work has contributed to reducing violence, restoring trust and opening pathways out of armed conflict for ex-combatants, victims and their families,” Fai Yengo said. 

He added that the process reached a decisive milestone in December 2025 with the technical validation of Cameroon’s first national DDR strategy. 

Fai Yengo noted that the document, which is a product of two structured workshops, extensive consultations with ministries, regional centres, civil society and international partners, now provides the verified framework for NDDRC’s work. 

“It is nationally approved, technically strong and aligns with regional and international standards. It is, simply put, the strategic premise upon which this workshop is built,” he added.  

Recalling a landmark achievement that the exercise has recorded, Fai Yengo said in December 2024, NDDRC conducted the first largescale formal reintegration operation in the Far North Region, facilitating the official discharge of 708 ex-combatants, including 447 children and more than 100 women previously associated with armed groups. 

“This milestone demonstrated that our system was effective. It also showed us clearly what is needed next; solid, well-researched regional action plans, that allow us scale up and sustain these results,” he disclosed.

It should be noted that the action plans will seek to emphasis reconciliation and ensure sustainable peace and restore state authority through a gender and conflict-sensitive agenda. 

The action plans, he said, will also move towards an inclusive DDR, including women, the youth, persons with disability, among others.

They will also incorporate gender strategy, strong results framework, valid monitoring and evaluation system, children standard operating procedure and disarmament standard operating procedure. 

The workshop, it was disclosed, is the first of two. The second will seek to analyse and validate the action plans which will be developed in the first workshop. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3840 of Tuesday July 07, 2026