Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have been in a state of violent unrest since October 2016. This began with lawyers and teachers protesting against the erosion of the special status for law and education in the Anglophone regions. Subsequently, the conflict turned violent, with military forces and rebel groups fighting in the hinterlands, displacing more than 765,000 civilians, who fled to the Francophone parts of the country or to neighbouring Nigeria. In this paper, I consider the situation of Anglophone Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled to the Far North of the country, a region that since 2013 has been significantly affected by violence perpetrated by the Islamic terrorist organisation Boko Haram. In particular, I explore the IDPs’ motivations for moving to this region, their reception and their coping strategies. Importantly, this study reflects on the effects of the Anglophone conflict on youth and their visions of the future, as many have not been able to return to school for several years.
