Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) may flee for the same reason but end up with different status, the technicalities lying in whether their geographic end point is intrastate or across state borders.32 A refugee is a person that flees his or her country triggered by persecution, war or violence33 and under UNHCR humanitarian regime, is entitled to broad protections and assistance by the receiving state. Often protective frameworks and legal regimes for refugees are better developed than for IDPs, which can be little to non-existent. Where refugees return home and ongoing conflicts affect their ability to a smooth reintegration, they often end up being internally displaced returnees. In some instances, as happened in Cameroon in 2018, a country may be both a source country and host country of refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs and returnees which strains country resources significantly. According to UNHCR, Cameroon had multiple internal displacements in 2018 and by September 2019 there were 1,154,900 IDPs of whom 347,923 were returnees, and 403,208 refugees.34 The debilitating effect of internal displacement has been described by the United Nations as ‘one of the most tragic phenomena of the contemporary world.’35 When it arises from conflicts, forced displacement is associated with gross human rights violations and hardships. The breakdown in familial and socio-cultural ties, deterioration of social amenities such as education, social services, employment food, shelter and medicine, and sexual violence, abuse and exploitation exacerbates the plight of IDPs but more so women.36 A confluence of risk factors may also emerge whereby within a conflict area, natural disasters such as floods, desertification, disease and famine coincide. Such circumstances can increase the vulnerabilities of women and girls and compound discrimination, marginalisation and exploitation. Response mechanisms to counter such challenges require multisectoral challenges and can weigh heavily on a host country’s resources, with implications for adequate humanitarian assistance. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Ebola Virus Disease that broken out in 32 UNHCR and partners ‘Protecting Refugees: A field guide for NGOS’ UNHRC ‘What is a refugee?’ Available at https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/ 34 https://data2.unhcr.org/en/country/cmr 35 UN Economic and Social Council ‘Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement’ General E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2 11 February 1998 36 ibid 33 22