This was during an annual session chaired by the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Grégoire Owona, on August 19, 2025, with the National Committee for the Fight against Child Labour, outlining new strategic objectives focusing on education, justice, and employment promotion.
A bucket on the head, trays at hand, this is what the National Committee for the Fight against Child Labor has gathered to confront as concerns underage children. On the streets of Yaoundé, the committee’s discussions are a world away from the daily reality. Each day, young children navigate through dense traffic, on their small head balancing heavy loads for sell. They sell water, fruit, plums, and groundnut. These children are a common sight, yet their presence breaks the national labor law, that is Section 86(1) of the Cameroon Labor Code prohibiting any form of child labor for children under 14, it is common to see children younger than 10 hawking fruits, water, and other items on the streets, including the capital Yaoundé. “The work exposes them to constant danger” says the minister of labour and social security.
The speeding cars and motorcycles, risking serious accidents. The long hours under the sun take a toll on their health. The annual session which was chaired by the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Grégoire Owona on August 19, 2025 aimed at emphasizing on strengthening actions under the National Plan to reduce child labour.
Behind this reality is the heavy weight of some families challenges « it is not as dangerous as they think, we do not wish anything to happen, the children help us and it is a way of training, and increase income” Mavis Etena a mother say. Many families see no other option. Sending a child to hawk on the streets is not a choice but a necessity for survival and preoccupations. The few coins a child brings home can mean the difference between meals. In some cases, the children are entirely on their own, acting as both the child and the parent, forced into early responsibility.
The annual meeting among the committee’s brings together officials to assess strategies. They review existing laws that is law guiding underage children from hawking and propose new measures for protection. Angelique Ahanda, head division for standards and international corporation, as recommendations says « we will continue sensitization, improve actions involve in the national plan for labor work”.
The committee’s work is a battle against an issue rooted in economic hardship. Their challenge is to find a way to protect childhood while addressing the difficult circumstances that force children onto the streets in the first place.
