UNITED NATIONS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of people in need of humanitarian aid in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions has increased eightfold over a year, a UN spokesman said Friday.

More than 1.3 million people currently need humanitarian assistance in the Anglophone regions, compared with an estimated 160,000 last year, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday highlighted the impact of the crisis on children, noting that half of the people in need are children.

In the impacted region, over 80 percent of schools have been closed, partly because of a ban on education by non-state armed groups. More than 600,000 children are out of school, in some cases, for the past three years, said UNICEF.

Students, teachers and school personnel have been exposed to violence, abduction and intimidation.

However, the humanitarian appeal for Cameroon is only 18 percent funded, said Dujarric.

Since 2017, separatist fighters in Cameroon have staged attacks in the English-speaking regions in protest of marginalization by the country's French-speaking majority. Enditem

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