YAOUNDE, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- At dawn in Mbende, a neighborhood in the resort town of Limbe in Cameroon's Southwest Region, 89-year-old Vivian Njie lit her firewood stove. This time, the pot on it was not empty.
Inside, long-grain white rice donated by China bubbled gently. Njie, a grandmother of 15, stirred the rice prepared for the 19 people in her compound.
"Before, we would cook a small quantity of rice and divide it into five plates," she said. "Today my grandchildren will eat until they say, 'I'm full.' That alone is peace."
For nearly a decade, Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions have borne the brunt of an armed separatist conflict.
Farms have been deserted, roads to markets have become dangerous, and cultivated land has declined by 20 to 40 percent in the worst-hit areas, pushing up food prices.
In early 2026, humanitarian agencies warned that 2.9 million people across Cameroon, including 1.5 million children, needed assistance.
It was against this backdrop that aid from China arrived. In June, Cameroon received food commodities from China, including 1,630 tonnes of rice and 880 tonnes of wheat bound for conflict-affected regions.
To date, 9,000 bags of rice have been sent to Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region, where distribution has already begun. Another 10,700 bags have been sent to Bamenda for distribution across the Northwest Region.
In Limbe, City Council Mayor Paul Efome Ngalle supervised the handover of the supplies to community leaders, saying the aid came as the city was "stretched to its limits."
"This rice donation from China is not just food; it is solidarity," Ngalle said. "A lot of vulnerable groups in our municipality were really touched."
At a distribution point in Buea, families lined up with ration cards. Each household received rice.
James Nkemasong, 48, fled his village in the Lebialem division two years ago with his wife and five children. He now rents a single room in Buea.
"This rice will feed us for weeks," he said, lifting a 25-kg bag onto his shoulder. "Things have been really tough for me and my family. We barely eat three square meals a day. But this rice has brought us relief."
A similar story is unfolding in Muyuka, another town in the Southwest Region, where Judith Mbah, 38, cooks for 12 internally displaced persons.
"The rice from China is soft, and it doesn't waste firewood," she said. "We mix it with beans and a little oil. The children call it 'sweet rice' and ask for it every day."
When the rice arrived in Limbe, it was not only for those displaced by war; it was also for people who had nothing left.
Early August brought hard, fast rain to the coastal town at the foot of Mount Cameroon. Runoff poured down the slopes with no outlet, flooding neighborhoods and triggering landslides that crushed homes. Three people lost their lives.
For a community already carrying the weight of displacement caused by the separatist conflict, the floods meant a new crisis: not just lost homes, but also lost food.
John Molua lost much of his property in the flooding. "The rain keeps coming. But this rice gave us stability and hope for weeks. Most of the victims got some, and we were very relieved. It came right when we needed it," he said.
Xiao Guofeng, economic and trade counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Cameroon, said the donation was one of 10 concrete actions announced at the 2024 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
"This food donation is a concrete example of China-Cameroon friendship. It embodies China's policy toward Africa, which is guided by the principles of sincerity, solidarity, friendship and candor, as well as a sound understanding of friendship and shared interests," Xiao said.
Mayor Ngalle noted that the gesture reflects more than 55 years of Cameroon-China cooperation. "That gesture alone deepens not only the relationship between nations, but also the relationship between citizens, the people-to-people relationship," he said.
In places like Buea and Limbe, where conflict and flooding have stretched families thin, the sacks are doing what aid is meant to do: keep people going.
Back in Mbende, Njie served the rice. Her grandchildren ate quickly, then ran outside to play. She watched them and smiled.
In a region that has seen too much hardship, a hot plate of rice is feeding hope, one bowl at a time. ■