The leadership of the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC) is soliciting funds to assist students affected by the protracted crisis in the English-speaking regions of the Central African nation.

In a statement issued Monday, December 5, the Vice Chancellor of CATUC says, “Two years ago, cases of students whose parents’ fortunes had changed drastically as a result of the Anglophone Crisis came to our notice.”

“Some parents had lost everything-businesses, farms, homes, cows, etc. – and were unable to pay tuition fees for the children who were already enrolled in the university,” Fr. Joseph Awoh Jum says.

Fr. Awoh notes that a “good number of students, including students of the Medical School, were going to drop out as a result.”

“Our immediate reaction was to appeal to people whom we knew – our friends, family, colleagues, alumni, former schoolmates, and students – for assistance,” the Vice Chancellor of the Catholic institution based in Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese says.

He notes that a few of the donors “responded to our appeal and gave us donations which kept these students in school, for some time.”

In addition, Fr. Awoh says, “The Archbishop of Bamenda provided school fee loans to four of our medical students who were threatened with dropping out so that they could complete their training, work in Archdiocesan health institutions and eventually pay back these loans.”

“These students and their families are extremely grateful to all those who contributed to keep them in school and keep their dreams alive,” the Vice Chancellor says.

However, Fr. Awoh says, “Those of them in the middle of their medical training still have a long way to go and would appreciate whatever assistance they can get to take them to the finish line.”

“In these difficult times, the university and her proprietors can only offer so much assistance and are working towards the establishment of an endowment fund to cater for such cases in the future,” he adds.

The Cameroonian Catholic Priest goes on to appeal for aid, saying, “We would greatly appreciate whatever assistance anyone would like to offer to keep these unfortunate students’ dreams alive and to assist families rendered desperate by the Anglophone Crisis.”

“Please, give this appeal a thought and, if your heart tells you to contribute your widow’s mite to this noble cause, contact us at info@catuc.org for guidance on how you can do this,” he says.

He continues in his December 5 statement, “We thank you in anticipation of your kind help and pray for God’s abundant blessings on you and your people.”

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent. An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.

School boycotts have become common in these areas, as have enforced moratoriums on public life known as “ghost towns”.

On August 21, members of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC) lamented the protracted conflict in the country’s Anglophone regions, that has been characterized by “the piteous and distressing cries of anguish”.

The Catholic Church leaders at the helm of Bamenda Archdiocese and the Dioceses of Kumbo, Kumba, Mamfe, and Buea Dioceses underscored the need to respect the dignity of the human person created in God’s image and likeness and the sacredness and inviolability of human life.

Source: aciAfrica

Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Cameroonian Civil War, has been raging between the country’s government and Anglophone separatist parties in the north- and southwest since 2016. The separatist parties have been accused of kidnapping and attacking innocents, but the nation’s administration has also been heavily criticized, accused of human rights violations including torture and extrajudicial murder as well as employing disproportionate force against protestors and failing to adequately address the Anglophone minority’s concerns. There has been little progress in settling the war, which has displaced over 700,000 people and resulted in more than 2,000 deaths. Away from the front line, children, especially girls, are also among the casualties of this war.

The war has “wreaked havoc on the education of Cameroonian children,” UNICEF asserts. The English-speaking regions of Cameroon once had the best education in the country, the organization says, but now face “a permanent policy of non-schooling put in place by non-state armed groups.” Due to pressure from Anglophone civil society, certain separatist groups formally called off the school boycott in 2020, but attacks on schools continue unabated; “Children have been forced to evacuate their homes and several schools have been shut down,” UNICEF says, and those that stay open are frequently decrepit or overcrowded. Many teachers have “been compelled to leave the nation” and departed without being replaced. “This has left youngsters with little educational opportunities.”

Girls have been particularly negatively affected. Parents whose wages have decreased choose to send their sons to school while keeping their daughters at home to assist with chores or small trades. Families who can afford it are currently sending their children to schools in Cameroon’s Francophone regions, but others have simply fled, leaving their daughters to fend for themselves in the Anglophone sectors: unschooled and susceptible to recruitment for prostitution.

This lack of access to high-quality education exacerbates the already serious issues plaguing Cameroon’s Anglophone communities. Demonstrations by Anglophone attorneys and educators regarding the marginalization of the country’s English-speaking population were the initial tinderbox for the conflict in 2016. The separatist militias were only established after the Cameroonian military repressed demonstrators, turning peaceful protest into violent confrontation.

Instead of boycotting schools or threatening to close down voluntary learning centers, the parties in Cameroon’s conflict should utilize the beginning of the school year to alleviate children’s suffering in the Anglophone areas and develop trust with the local community. Separatist activists in Cameroon and elsewhere should cease all school boycotts immediately. If they do so, the Yaoundé administration should recognize the gesture as a de-escalation step. By keeping classrooms accessible and students safe, government and separatist leaders might offer a rare opportunity for dialogue and a lasting cease-fire.

In addition to increasing its assistance for the education system in Cameroon, the international community should assist the Cameroonian government in paying teachers’ salaries, renovating schools, and supplying educational materials. For such assistance to be sustainable, it must be needs-based, impartial, and inclusive of all Cameroonian areas and educational institutions.

The Anglophone Crisis is harming the futures of children who have not even begun to live. The conflict has had a severe impact on the education system as a whole, and both Cameroon and the world must take action. International allies dedicated to resolving the Anglophone crisis should promptly remind all parties of their responsibilities to protect civilians and safeguard children’s right to education.

Culled from The Organization for world peace

Members of the 1985 batch of the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) Mamfe who pride themselves as being the children of Mrs. Getrude Jingwa, Late Pa Ojong, late Mr Nkeze, Mr Abang Vitalis, Mrs. Bridget Agbaw-Ebai, late Mr Peter Okafor, late Pa Ojongfong, late Teacher Orock Café and the tough disciplinarian the late Arrey Michael who was their headmaster met recently in Enugu, Nigeria as depicted in the picture below. From left to right,

(Police officer)ASP Okereke Roseline Ekemma of the  Rivers Police Headquarters in Rivers State, Ayim Christopher Tanye of  Enugu state, Kalu Anthonia Chibuzor of Umuahia Abia state, Okoye Cordelia Chinasa Jemeni from Lagos, Prophetess Okafor Eugenia Nkolika Uchendu of Onitsha in Anambra state and Pastor Acholam James Ekpo Eze ( Amoros) of Abakaliki in Ebonyi State.

The Class of 85 Nigeria Chapter used the opportunity to thank their brothers and sisters, those on ground Zero (Cameroon) and those in the Diaspora for making the reunion a remarkable one.

Members are also looking forward to other reunions which should result in fundraising efforts for their beloved Alma Mater.

They urged those who are not yet part of the reunion effort to join and to make meaningful contributions towards the development of the group which reminds them of their childhood days in Mamfe.

Members of the group promised to keep in touch and to keep the flame burning.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Class of 85)

Officials in Cameroon say armed separatists have chased several thousand children from schools just days after the students returned to classrooms for the first time in years. Troops sent to restore school security in the western regions say they have killed at least 13 rebels in clashes over the last month.

Cameroon’s military says separatist attacks this month on western villages, mostly on schools, sent thousands of schoolchildren, teachers and villagers fleeing for safety.

Lingalla Prudence is among students who on Monday fled Kumbo, an English-speaking town in the Northwest Region. The separatist conflict has disrupted her education so often that the 21-year-old, who should be in college, is still trying to finish high school.

“We were in school, and some people brought guns and chased us out of the school and kidnapped some teachers and all the children are out of school,” she said.

Teachers’ associations say the Anglophone rebels are targeting state schools, which they view as a tool of the French-speaking majority’s rule. But they are also attacking religious and private schools.

Joe Tiemuncho, coordinator of the Parent-Teachers Association for Presbyterian schools in Cameroon, said separatist attacks and threats have shut down scores of schools that had reopened, some for the first time in years, when the school year started on September 5.

“Many schools have shut down given the intimidations that are coming from separatist fighters,” he said. “Teachers, learners and school managers are afraid to get into full-swing activities because it is unpredictable, you can’t say what will happen in the next few minutes. Some teachers have even had their arms amputated. Students have been kidnapped and they [fighters] continue to kidnap teachers, students and others asking for ransom.”

Cameroonian military spokespersons weren’t allowed to speak with reporters on a trip to the area, but they did confirm that hundreds of troops were deployed to restore security so classes can resume.

The military says the separatists also declared a lockdown in the English-speaking western regions that paralyzed trade. Separatists that declared the lockdown say it is in response to a government ban on community schools that the rebels control.

Cameroon in August closed more than 200 community schools that rebels said they controlled.

The military says in the past week troops killed at least 13 rebels during clashes in the towns of Kumbo, Oku and Ndop.

Rebel spokesman Daniel confirmed their fighters were killed and said they also killed government troops.

Cameroon’s military did not confirm any fatalities but said a few troops were wounded.

Cameroon’s anglophone rebels want to create a breakaway state they call Ambazonia, separate from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority. The U.N. says the rebel conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than a half-million since fighting broke out in 2017.

Culled from the VOA

The foundation of any state is the education of its youths. Unfortunately, this does not apply to Southern Cameroons where over a million children in the region’s rural areas have been held captive by Amba fighters who have very little faith in education and the Yaoundé government which does not really care if some of its citizens are in school or not.

For more than five years, many children in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been robbed of their right to education following a strike by lawyers and teachers which met with extreme violence from the Biya regime.

The violence which ensued has not only killed many young children, it is still having a huge impact on the most vulnerable segments of the society, especially children in rural regions of Southern Cameroons who are being threatened with death by Amba fighters who hold that no child should go to school until Southern Cameroons gets its independence from the Republic of Cameroon.

Schools effectively started in Cameroon last week, but many children in Akwaya Subdivision, Mamfe Central Subdivision, Eyumojock Subdivision and Upper Bayang Subdivision, all of which are in Manyu Division, are still at home, hoping that a miracle will occur for the so-called Amba fighters to allow them to go to school.

Cameroon Concord News last week sent a team to Manyu Division to find out if rural kids were back in school, but it turned out that school resumption which is supposed to be national is indeed not national as many Manyu kids are still at home.

Children in Kendem, Ossing, Kembong, Ntenako, Ndekwai, Sumbe, Akriba, Mbinjong and Bakebe are still at home with many really worried about their future as the years go by.

According to the Cameroon Concord News team, the blame lies squarely with the separatists who are determined to rob the children of their right to education.

Many parents are very disappointed and mad at the separatists but they cannot speak up because of the presence of gun-toting irresponsible Amba fighters who still erroneously think that their country will be the best without its people going to school once the Yaoundé government grants independence to the two English-speaking regions of the country.

“We are really desperate. Our children have been at home for more than five years and there is no sign that the independence will ever come. We need help. Our liberators have become a huge problem onto us and our children. If the Biya government is really a problem as Amba fighters tell us, it at least allows children to go to school in East Cameroon. The new invisible administration, which manufactured false hope for us, is now a millstone around our necks,” an angry parent who brought two of his young children to Mamfe town for them to go to school said.

“We are stuck with this rogues who are permanently threatening to kill us if we send our children to school. Which nation has ever developed without its population being educated?” he asked.

In Ntenako and Ndekwai where the schools have been invaded by wild weeds, the parents have begun speaking up against the band of criminals who pass off as liberators.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News team, an agree parent who elected anonymity said that “we can longer allow this to continue. We must work with the government for these rogues to be arrested or killed by the military. They came here promising to protect us, but we now need protection against them. Our children cannot go to school and the idle criminals keep harvesting our crops without our permission. We are scared of talking but if the government could deploy more troops here we will report all those boys who are making life unbearable to us,” he said.

“Some of these criminals even sleep with our daughters and wives for free and many are even pregnant for these thieves. We are really frustrated and we are using this medium to call on the government to come and help us. We are stuck,” he said angrily.

Even if the separatists call for a resumption of schools in the rural areas of Southern Cameroons, it will take years for things to return to normal. Most teachers in those rural areas have fled and many cannot be accounted for. Some have even left the country, but they are still receiving their salaries.

Worst of all, some of the school infrastructure is decaying and some villagers are even stealing school property.

In Ossing in Manyu Division, a bunch of low class, ill-behaved commoners have taken off the roofing sheets of the Ossing Government Primary and Secondary Schools and sold to some villagers.

All the academic and other records have been soaked by rain because these criminals took off the roofing sheets.

Currently, the Ossing Village Council is working hard to bring those who have committed these odious crimes to justice.

Some of those who purchased the sheets have been identified and they are being made to pay hefty fines for purchasing stolen property, a city councilor who elected anonymity told the Cameroon Concord News team.

“It is unfortunate that our own people are destroying our own infrastructure. How can we ever develop if our own people cannot go to school. I have never known a worse revolution than this,” he regretted.

I hope time will bring some wisdom to this revolution which is completely off its rails. Its leaders are completely unhinged and they are simply unaware of the adverse consequences of their misguided actions, he concluded.

By Our senior international correspondent Dylan Tambe Ashu

Cameroon’s power utility threatened to take retaliatory steps against the University of Douala, citing payment concerns. Eneo said it would suspend electricity supply to the university if it does not repay the CFA1.7 billion in unpaid bills it owes.

“Errors and omissions exempted, the review of your accounts in our books to date reveals that you still owe us CFA1,760,818,212, excluding interest on arrears,” the company wrote as a “formal notice to pay before suspending the supply of electricity.”

This situation highlights the issue of unpaid bills within public administrations. As a reminder, the government has begun to implement a plan to repay a total of CFA182 billion of debt to Eneo from December 2021.

Source: Business in Cameroon

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the U.S. government will forgive $10,000 in student loans for millions of debt-saddled former college students, keeping a pledge he made in the 2020 campaign for the White House.

The move could boost support for his fellow Democrats in the November congressional elections, but some economists said it may fuel inflation and some Republicans in the U.S. Congress questioned whether the president had the legal authority to cancel the debt.

Debt forgiveness will free up hundreds of billions of dollars for new consumer spending that could be aimed at homebuying and other big-ticket expenses, according to economists who said this would add a new wrinkle to the country’s inflation fight.

The actions are “for families that need them the most – working and middle class people hit especially hard during the pandemic,” Biden said during remarks at the White House. He pledged no high-income households would benefit, addressing a central criticism of the plan.

“I will never apologise for helping working Americans and middle class, especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations,” Biden said, referring to a Republican tax cut passed under former President Donald Trump.

Borrower balances have been frozen since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, with no payments required on most federal student loans since March 2020. Many Democrats had pushed for Biden to forgive as much as $50,000 per borrower.

Republicans mostly opposed student loan forgiveness, calling it unfair because it will disproportionately help people earning higher incomes.

“President Biden’s student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces in order to avoid taking on debt,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday.

The administration has yet to determine the price tag for the package, which will depend on how many people apply for it, White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice told reporters. Student loans obtained after June 30 this year are not eligible, she said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the administration has legal authority to forgive the debt under a law allowing such action during a national emergency such as a pandemic. Earlier, Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik had called the plan “reckless and illegal.”

American university tuition fees are substantially higher than in most other rich countries, and U.S. consumers carry $1.75 trillion in student loan debt, most of it held by the federal government. Biden said other countries could bypass the United States economically if students are not offered economic relief.

Pandemic pause

The administration will extend a COVID-19 pandemic-linked pause on student loan repayment to year end, while forgiving $10,000 in student debt for single borrowers with annual income under $125,000 a year or married couples who earn less than $250,000, the White House said.

Some 8 million borrowers will be affected automatically, the Department of Education said; others need to apply for forgiveness.

The government is also forgiving up to $20,000 in debt for some 6 million students from low-income families who received federal Pell Grants, and proposing a new rule that protects some income from repayment plans and forgives some loan balances after 10 years of repayment, the Education Department said.

A New York Federal Reserve study shows that cutting $10,000 in federal debt for every student would amount to $321 billion and eliminate the entire balance for 11.8 million borrowers, or 31% of them.

Inflation impact

A senior Biden administration official told reporters the plan could benefit up to 43 million student borrowers, completely canceling the debt for some 20 million.

After Dec. 31, the government will resume requiring payment on remaining student loans that were paused during the pandemic. The official said this would offset any inflationary effects of the forgiveness. Payment resumptions could even have a dampening effect on prices, the official said.

Former U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers disagreed. He said on Twitter that debt relief “consumes resources that could be better used helping those who did not, for whatever reason, have the chance to attend college. It will also tend to be inflationary by raising tuitions.”

Similarly Jason Furman, a Harvard professor who headed the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, said debt-cancellation would nullify the deflationary powers of the Inflation Reduction Act. “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” he said.

Moody’s analytics chief economist Mark Zandi sided with the White House, saying the resumption of billions of dollars per month in student loan payments “will restrain growth and is disinflationary.”

Source: REUTERS