Night falls in Bonabéri, a working-class district of Douala and in the alleys of dimly-lit streets, young female figures wait for customers.
These girls are young, and sometimes underage. Majority of these young girls come from the North-West and South-West Regions of Cameroon. Forced out of their homes by war, they have found refuge here – but at what price?
Her name is Brenda, a 17 year-old young lady from the North-West who sleeps in a dilapidated room with two other girls. « I fled Bamenda when my aunt and uncle, who take care of me when my parents died, got killed. I slept in Mboppi at the market, then came here. I started going out with men to eat », she confides frankly.
On the other hand, 21-year-old Jeanine moved with her mother, who worked in agriculture, and her sisters. “I have to do it so that we can eat at home,” she says, « I have two little sisters who have gone back to school and my mother doesn’t have a job at the moment. This job is risky – I was raped once by a group of 4 men, but I still come out here every night to feed my family.”
This is the story of dozens of girls. Without assistance, without documentation, without jobs, and sometimes without family, these girls fall into risky jobs like prostitution. Their daily lives are a mixture of violence, diseases, abuse and silence. Bonabéri has become a tragic end for those whose lives have been affected by the war.
The authorities turn a blind eye and humanitarian organisations struggle to identify these young girls. These young women, already traumatised by the war, are suffering a second form of violence: that of indifference.
