Cameroonian youths are really going through tough times. This remains a fact as thousands have been caught in the toxic spiral of unemployment, frustration and bitterness.

Many have been to the university and many of them are unable to find jobs that can keep them busy and out of crime and out of psychological torture.

This situation is very disheartening, especially as the whole notion of education has been designed to enable young people become useful to themselves, their families and their country.

Many young people are slowly dying and many are very intellectual. Knowledge is being wasted in Cameroon.  Their education has not offered them the type of job many of them thought they could get.

Some people blame youth unemployment in Cameroon on government employment policy failure, lack of appropriate skills on the part of the graduates, shrinking global economic growth, poor business environment, etc.

Despite these challenges, the million dollar question remains. How can Cameroonian youths be made employable so that they can compete favorably at home and with their colleagues in other countries in the global job market.

While some factors responsible for youth unemployment are clearly within the government’s purview and can only be addressed by the government, others could be addressed by other social actors, the private sector and the graduates themselves.

One of such ways is to help the students get the skills that might enhance their chances in the job market.

Skills development is an idea whose time has come and both the graduates and government must embrace this idea.

The government should help graduates with certain degrees to complete certification programs which will help the graduates to be job-ready.

Graduates of economics, for example, should be made to undergo short-term post-graduate training which will enable them specialize in areas in which they want to work.

 A graduate diploma in risk management, project management, environmental economics and other areas of specialization will help some of our graduates to achieve their goals in life.

Those who have studied accounting and finance in our universities could be granted scholarships for them to carry out accounting and finance certification programs which are very costly.

With education also being provided online, these students could be made to study from the comfort of their homes, especially as Internet connection in Cameroon is improving.

Many of our graduates come from poor backgrounds and if left unaided, they might never be part of the labor market and this will only increase their frustration and anger with a country they consider to be theirs.

Many young Cameroonians go to university without the orientation they need to make good educational choices. Education is an investment and it could be stressful if these young Cameroonians leave school without the prospect of having a job.

Many of them are future lifelines for their aging and ailing parents, and without much needed support, they may not be of any help to their families, communities and the country.

Many young Cameroonians have read law, but a law degree alone will not be able to open doors for many of them. To qualify as a lawyer in Cameroon, especially in the English-speaking part of the country, Cameroonians are expected to be graduates of recognized law schools.

Unfortunately, Cameroon does not have a law school and this is really frustrating for many young aspiring Cameroonian lawyers. There is a school of magistracy in Yaounde, but admission into this school is complicated.

It is rumored that admission into this school is for the highest bidder. How can young people from poor backgrounds get admitted into this school? Is excellence something Cameroonians can still count on?

The government can really help those who want to become lawyers by setting up a law school within the University of Buea or Bamenda to make things easier for future lawyers.

Other countries are simplifying things for their citizens and it is time for the Cameroon government to take a look at the possibility of creating a law school in Cameroon.

Many young Cameroonians are brillant, but they seem to be excluded from efforts at making the country a better place.

Reducing youth unemployment will not only be an issue of presidential degrees, it must be a demonstration of long term commitment by the government to eradicate this problem that has robbed many young Cameroonians of their happiness.

Universities in Cameroon should start working with private sector experts to understand the needs of the labor market so that new training programs could be made available in those universities.

In many countries in the world, the private sector has a say in educational curricula and short courses sometimes get taught by industry experts who help to orientate future graduates.

A graduate of journalism will be pointed in the right direction by industry experts. These experts can help young graduates gain much-needed experience through paid internships or volunteering programs.

Lack of experience can hold a brillant graduate down for years. Skills development programs, apprenticeship programs and experience-based training may help many young people to gain a better understanding of the job market.

Government policies in this regard will go a long way in helping young Cameroonians find jobs both within and out of the country. If left unaided and if their unemployment periods are long, many of these brilliant young men might put their knowledge to other things and in many cases to the wrong things like scamming, stealing and other illegal practices.

The Cameroonian private sector has a stake in this issue. It must work with the government in this regard to get the right manpower which will result in greater productivity and output.

Helping the young Cameroonian find work should be a partnership between many stakeholders. It is time to establish such a partnership which will inspire hope in young people.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, more than 5.5 million people have fled the country of which more than 50,000 have been welcomed by France. These refugees have been granted temporary status that entitles them to work and receive social and medical assistance.

However, foreign students who were living in Ukraine and who were also forced to flee have been exempted from this scheme – and they now find themselves in a complicated situation that risks jeopardising their university studies and, possibly, their professional careers.

When he fled the port city of Odesa a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, Merdi couldn’t have imagined his journey would turn into an obstacle course with the goal being to stay in France. “We thought France would welcome us, but that is not the case. They tell us we don’t have a nationality – that we were in Ukraine only to study and now we have to go home,” said the 26-year-old Congolese student, who arrived in France on March 11.  

Merdi’s case is not an isolated one. According to the Union des étudiants exiles (Union of exiled students) and the France Fraternités union, there are around 1,000 foreign students who have fled Ukraine and are experiencing the same difficulties staying in France.

The crux of the problem is administrative and dates back to early March, when many European Union countries pledged to move quickly to help those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. France decided to implement the EU’s “temporary protection directive”, aimed at aiding displaced persons. Valid for three months, it grants several protections to refugees, including the right to a place of residence as well as access to jobs, education, and social and medical assistance.

But the foreign students living in Ukraine were excluded from this emergency measure.

“France excluded foreign students from the temporary protection measures by giving them a one-month residence permit instead,” said Pierre Henry, president of the France Fraternités union. The rationale being that, “their countries are not at war, so they can go home”.

Sabar, an Algerian student who fled Lviv when the war started, also found himself in difficulty upon his arrival in France. “The prefecture gave me just a one-month residence permit. Now, they want me to return to Algeria. But I don’t want to – I spent a lot of money to go to Ukraine, study and get my diploma,” the 25-year-old said.

‘The Kafkaesque option’

After arriving in Paris on March 14, Sabar endured two days of hardship before finding a hotel that welcomed refugees. “I slept outside near a train station,” he said.

Now trapped in an administrative quagmire, he just wants to continue his studies in France. “I tried to enroll in several universities in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. But they didn’t reply.”

“They are going to tell me that if I want a six-month residence permit to be able to stay, I will have to be registered at a university or have a guarantee of employment. My problem is that I haven’t found anything in a month. But I don’t want to leave,” Sabar said.

The same goes for Merdi, who just wants to continue his studies abroad. “I am afraid that I will be told to go back to Congo. If I can, I would like to continue my studies at a university here. That’s the only thing I want.”

The plight of African students who have fled Ukraine has spurred many in France to action. Among them is a group of university presidents and lecturers who are alarmed by their circumstances.   

In a contribution published in “Le Monde” newspaper in April, the academics called for France to “continue educating the students that Ukraine chose to welcome”. Leftist student political organisations, such as Le Poing Levé (Raised Fist), are trying to increase the pressure on university presidents to enroll these students who find themselves caught in the middle of world affairs.

“It is an absurd situation,” Henry said. “We have chosen the Kafkaesque option rather than offering protection for all.”

He said these students, who have no intention of returning home, will soon find themselves in very precarious circumstances on French territory.

“It is a real waste, because these are French-speaking students. Since half of their education is already complete and considering their professional prospects have been totally destroyed by the war, the logical thing would be to allow them to register in France and continue their studies,” he added.

Some universities are, however, beginning to change their position and accept foreign students. “Twenty or so are in the pre-registration phase and taking applications,” Mathieu Schneider, president of the Migrants in Higher Education network of French institutions, told “Les Echos Start” media on April 19.

‘Everyone is a victim of this war’

The administrative status of students caught up in this situation remains up in the air. France’s prefectures, which handle immigration applications, favour taking a case-by-case approach, with decisions seeming to vary from one regional administration to another.

Several people, including a Congolese student living in Aveyron, said they had received provisional residence permits good for several months instead of for just one (which remains the official rule).

So which requirements currently prevail? Contacted by FRANCE 24, the French ministry of the interior detailed the arrangements available to people eligible for temporary protection, notably through Campus France, which allows eligible people to apply to enroll in French higher education.

Regarding the situation being faced by foreign students in France, the ministry said the treatment of third-country nationals is part of the EU Council’s temporary protection directive, noting: “If a third-country national is not eligible for temporary protection, he or she should return to his or her country of origin.”

However, other countries, including Portugal and Spain, have chosen to adapt the EU framework and welcome all those fleeing Ukraine.

The Council of Europe has been alarmed by the varied treatments displaced people are getting in EU member states. A report published at the beginning of April referred to a “double standard” in the reception of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants depending on their country of origin.

Foreign students thus either have to relocate to those countries that have decided to universally welcome those fleeing Ukraine or return to their countries of origin. The other option is to apply for asylum or a residence permit, provided they meet the required conditions, and hope for the best.

Sabar and Merdi have an appointment at the prefecture in the next few days to find out what their future holds. The young Algerian says continuing his studies and staying in France is “the best thing that can happen”.

Merdi still does not understand why he is being treated differently from another refugee: “No one wanted to leave Ukraine to come to France. It’s not our fault. It’s the war that caused all of these problems. Everyone is a victim of this war.”

“It’s the Ukrainians’ country, but we also lived there,” he said. “We paid for university. We have the right to be treated like them. There should be no difference.”

Source: France 24

The Global Think Tank for Africa, a not-for-profit organization, has reached out to internally displaced children in the town of Mamfe where there are thousands of IDPs who fled the fighting triggered by protest by teachers and lawyers in 2016. 

The event took place on March 22, 2022, in Mamfe and it brought together kids from many schools in the town. The Global Think Tank has made the donation of school supplies to pupils in Mamfe a continuous event and yesterday’s event is the third organized by the not-for-profit organization.  

Many of the kids from the rural areas lack basic school supplies and The Global Think Tank for Africa has been donating school materials to primary schools in Mamfe town and this has been made possible by donations and resources from people of good will. 

Speaking on the occasion, the Executive Director of the Global Think Tank for Africa, Dr. Joachim Arrey, used the occasion to urge other organizations and individuals to help the children who have been displaced by war. He thanked donors like Mr. Donald Besong of the United Kingdom, who reached out to the Global Think Tank for Africa so that the not-for-profit organization could deliver on its mandate.

“We will continue to bring much-needed assistance to those children who have been sent away from their homes by a war they know nothing about. I am urging other people to come to the help of these children. They deserve a fair chance at life. They know nothing about this war and without education, their future will be compromised. Education is a key that can open many doors and granting these children an opportunity to acquire education is like preparing them for a bright future,” Dr. Joachim Arrey said.   

Also speaking during the occasion, the Inspector of Basic education for Mamfe Central, Mr. Harman Taku Arreyngang, expressed his appreciation for the gesture, urging other donors to help children affected by war to have access to education.

“I am calling on the elites of the Manyu Division to come to the help of these children who desperately need their support. Education is important in a child’s life and anybody who reaches out to a child, especially when he or she is in need, is giving that child a fighting chance at life,” he said. 

The Global Think Tank for Africa has promised more assistance in the coming months and its commitment to the education of children can be seen through its donations.  

By Philip Nkongho in Mamfe town

Cameroon has sent government ministers and governors to convince disgruntled teachers to return to classrooms and teach. The teachers have been protesting for a month, demanding better pay and the payment of salary arrears, some dating back 10 years.

Cameroon officials say opposition politicians and what the government calls irresponsible civil society groups are encouraging protesting teachers to continue to defy state authority.

The government says several dozen politicians and civil society groups are asking children to not go to school and teachers not to teach until the government provides all their needs.

Cameroonian teachers have been protesting for a month, demanding better pay and working conditions.

Eleven political parties, including the Social Democratic Front, the Union of Cameroon People and the Cameroon Peoples Party, have asked the government to find satisfactory and definitive answers to the teachers’ demands. They said the protest is legitimate.

The government has asked senior state officials including governors and ministers to convince teachers to return to classrooms and teach.

Nalova Lyonga, Cameroon’s minister of secondary education, says Cameroonian President Paul Biya promised to pay teachers’ outstanding transportation fares and salary arrears gradually starting this month.

“Teachers, please come back. Don’t go to the streets. There is no need to go to the streets because the head of state is listening. We are going to make the teachers proud. We have to do that, so let me get my teachers back,” she said.

Lyonga said many teachers refuse to return to the classrooms but did not say how many.

The teachers say about 80,000 of them are owed a total of about $200 million.

Biya this month ordered the payment of $4 million in back pay for striking teachers who graded exams. Teachers dismissed the amount as insufficient.

Cameroon also promised to pay $34 million this month and said the rest of the transportation fares will be paid gradually. While some teachers returned to work, others again said the money is largely insufficient.

Eloundou Patrice, a spokesperson for OTS, a teachers’ pressure group spearheading the protest, says when a similar protest was held in 2017, Cameroon’s government said Biya ordered the payment of salary arrears. Eloundou says one month of salary arrears for some teachers was paid, and when the protest was called off, the government stopped settling the debts to teachers. He says he does not trust Biya and his government.

The government continues to claim it will improve the living and working conditions of teachers by providing their needs gradually.

Teachers say some of them are owed up to 10 years of salary arrears. They also asked for the monthly salaries of primary school teachers to be increased from about $150 to at least $400 and those of secondary school teachers to be increased from about $400 to at least $800.

Source: VOA

Teachers in Cameroon are refusing to work, citing unpaid salaries, some dating back years. Government-led negotiations Tuesday failed to reach an agreement, putting the education of hundreds of thousands of children on hold.

Students at Government Bilingual High School Deido in the city of Douala sing that the government should pay their teachers so children have access to education.

In the song, the children say their dreams of becoming government ministers, doctors, journalists and entrepreneurs will be shattered if the government fails to listen to teachers.

Architect David Muluh has three children in the school. He says he visited the school on Wednesday to find out why teachers come to school but refuse to teach and “because of COVID, children have not been regular in school. If they continue losing [education] because their teachers are on strike, the children’s future is jeopardized. So, my plea is that the government should look into their problems.”

Muluh said school attendance in Cameroon has not been regular since the central African state reported its first cases of COVID-19 in March 2020.

He said during the Africa Football Cup of Nations, which Cameroon hosted last month, the government interrupted classes so students could fill empty football stadiums. He said children have no time to waste if they are to prepare for this year’s final examinations, expected in May.

Ten Cameroon teachers’ associations and unions last week announced a strike against what they call the disrespect of teachers by the government.

The teachers say the monthly salaries of primary school teachers should be increased from about $150 to at least $400. They are also asking the salaries of secondary school teachers to be increased from about $400 to at least $800.

Valentine Tameh, president of the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon, says his colleagues are particularly angry because the government has recruited more teachers than it can pay and now owes several years of unpaid salaries.

“You have teachers who have gone for 9 years, 10 years, without salaries and the government has kept promising and kept promising and promising and what is most irksome is that those who have money, go and give bribes and they have their arrears, they have their salaries.”

The sides negotiated Tuesday, and the government promised to look into the teachers’ grievances and pay the outstanding salaries of at least 17,000 teachers, though it did not say when.

A statement from Fouda Seraphin Magloire, secretary general of the prime minister’s office, said the teachers agreed to suspend the strike.

Geography instructor Appolinnaire Ze, a spokesman for the disgruntled teachers, says the teachers agreed to no such thing.

Ze says all teachers should go to school, but should not teach. He says school children should be calm and understand that teachers are going through a very difficult time. Ze says teachers should be humble but courageous to ask intimidating police and government officials if the police and government officials can also work for so many years without being paid.

The government denies that its officials and the police are trying to intimidate the teachers.

Source: VOA

Education is on standby in Cameroon’s English-speaking South West and North West regions, where students and the education system are paying a high price for a war between separatists and the Defense and Security Forces (DSF).

This year’s traditional Feb. 11 Youth Day parade was marked by the burning of dormitories and threats against students at Queen of the Rosary College Okoyong in Mamfe in the South West region by armed separatists the night before.

The video of the fire was posted on social media, infuriating the public and upsetting the national and international communities. The attack has renewed debate over the state of education in Cameroon’s separatist-afflicted regions, which have been ravaged by the separatists since 2016.

“Feb. 11 is not to be celebrated in the North West and South West because of the war that is going on. We are at war. We should not pretend. Sometimes we do this to get the attention of the international community because we know that they are following all the events closely. Our videos are war strategies,” ‘Daddy Boy’, leader of the Ambazonia Military Forces (AMF), a group of separatist fighters, told Anadolu Agency by phone.

The English-speaking minority in this bilingual Central African country feels marginalized and has staged a series of protests since 2016 calling for independence.

The unresolved conflict has resulted in at least 15 attacks on schools and 268 abductions of students and education professionals, deteriorating the security situation, closing schools and depriving 700,000 students since 2017, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Separatists have “attacked, intimidated or threatened thousands of students, education workers and parents in an effort to prevent children from attending school,” it said.

Local authorities and non-governmental organizations also reported school massacres in which at least 11 students and at least two teachers lost their lives between 2020 and 2021. Of these students, the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) documented two killings between October and November 2021 by the DSF.

“Armed separatists bear full responsibility for these targeted attacks on education, but the response of the Cameroonian government and security forces has been inadequate and is hampered by the numerous abusive counterinsurgency operations in the Anglophone regions, which have spread deep mistrust among the civilian population victimized by these operations,” according to HRW.

Daddy Boy reported that when the struggle began in 2016, the only objective was to stop schools with the help of civil society in order to get the government’s attention.

”But things have changed on the ground and the struggle persists. We found out that at this stage, schools have no effect because we are now in a total war, so there is no point in disturbing the students from going to school,” he said.

He is convinced that the government is working on school attacks also through the military in order to incriminate the separatists and stir up international outrage.

“We are here to support and protect these children as our top priority, not to harm them in any way. I speak as a fighter on the ground. If we were killing children, then there would be no schools, and yet there are still schools open. To enter the premises of a school and mourn all the students is nothing for us because we know all the roads and the environment of our towns, but we cannot do that because we all know what we are fighting for,” he said.

Human rights lawyer Agbor Nkongho Felix Balla said that although the Cameroonian government has signed the UN Safe Schools Declaration, its military has not provided school security.

Following the Oct. 24, 2020 massacre at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba in the South West region, where at least seven children aged 7 to 12 were killed by bullets and knives and a dozen injured, the Ministry of Communication said the attacked school had launched its activities without the government’s knowledge and therefore could not benefit from the same protective measures as other schools.

The secessionists’ objective was to break the momentum observed in the resumption of classes, it said, also accusing Cameroonians in the diaspora of orchestrating these despicable killings and fueling the climate of insecurity in the Anglophone regions.

The separatists denied it, calling it “false allegations” and blamed the security forces for some of the school attacks. The government has refuted the charges, saying these are intended to discredit the military.

Student soldiers

Meanwhile, Balla warned of the possibility of the uneducated generation of Anglophone youth joining criminal fighters because they lack other economic survival skills.

“Before joining the struggle, I was a student and at the same time a businessman. But after the murder of my three brothers and the way we’ve been mistreated, I decided to fight as a separatist,” said Daddy Boy.

He cited former classmates and teachers who are on the battlefield with him today “because they have definitely lost everything they owned, from their homes, businesses and personal belongings.”

“Many of our people have joined this fight not because they desire separation or a separate country, but because they are frustrated and have nowhere else to go. Some join because their family members are imprisoned,” he explained.

“For others who are dissatisfied, joining the war provides them protection from the AmbaBoys (or Ambazonians),” he added.

Despite the “pain,” he said he is ready to end the fight and return to school at any time if he has the opportunity to, and in a different atmosphere — this after the release of war prisoners, the Anglophone zones’ demilitarization, a general amnesty and after a real peaceful dialogue with “a third party mediation on neutral ground.”

The dialogue organized on Sept. 30, 2019 by Cameroon’s President Paul Biya was, according to him, “a monologue” without a real willingness to engage in dialogue because the necessary conditions were not met and separatist fighters were exposed to the possibility of being arrested or killed.

If the government and separatists could have ended the conflict, they would have, according to Arrey Elvis Ntui, a senior Cameroonian expert with the International Crisis Group (ICG).

“The government and the separatists are pursuing a military strategy, in part because of the government’s reluctance to engage in inclusive talks with these Anglophone groups. What is sorely lacking is a mediation effort that can reduce the mistrust between the parties and bring them to the negotiating table,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Humanitarian Coordinator in Cameroon, Mr. Matthias Z. Naab is deeply concerned by two more attacks against schools in the South-West region.

On 8 and 11 February 2022, armed men from non-State armed groups burned down two schools, respectively the public primary school of Molyko in Buea, and Queen of Rosary Catholic College in Mamfe, both in the South-West region of Cameroon. These two incidents are the latest of several attacks on students, education staff and premises, depriving more than 700,000 students from their right to proper and safe education in the North-West and South-West regions.

“Education is a fundamental right to all children, yet many have not been allowed to enjoy this right. Children are traumatized, parents are scared, teachers and school administrators are afraid. With education under attack, the future of thousands of young Cameroonians is at risk. This is unacceptable,” said Mr. Naab. “Education establishments should be safe spaces for all students and teachers. Therefore, I call upon all perpetrators to refrain from actions that impede access to education, in accordance to Security Council Resolution 2601 (2021),” he added.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners in Cameroon condemn in the strongest terms all actions targeting education.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

There are no students in the playground of the high school in the Bomaka district of Buea — just the odd goat grazing on overgrown grass.

Buea is the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest Region — one of two regions gripped by violence after anglophones launched a campaign to break away from the country’s French-speaking majority.

In Bomaka, almost all the schools have been closed since 2016. It has just one junior school that remains open, but whose rollcall has slumped from around 600 to just 69 today.

“The crisis has killed the schools,” said Isaac Bissong, its headmaster. “Many pupils have left this neighbourhood to study elsewhere because they are afraid.”

In one classroom, only eight students were present when AFP visited. The silence in the once-bustling corridors was heavy.

Unlike other schools in the country, the green, red and yellow flag of Cameroon was nowhere to be seen — “that could get us into trouble,” said Bissong.

The school is located less than three kilometres (two miles) from Muea, one of the separatists’ strongholds and the scene of many clashes.

Bissong provides whatever security he can for the school, although he is not armed.

He sits on a chair at the school entrance, on the lookout for potential trouble.

– Deaths and threats –

Anglophone separatists in the Southwest and neighbouring Northwest Region regularly attack schools that they accuse of teaching in French.

Teachers and other civil servants have been killed after being accused of “collaborating” with the central government in Yaounde.

The predominantly French-speaking country is ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Biya, 88, who has been in power for 39 years.

Years-long grievances among the anglophone minority brewed for years, overflowing into a declaration of independence on October 1, 2017.

Armed separatists launched attacks on the security forces, triggering a violent crackdown.

The spiral of bloodshed has claimed more than 3,500 lives and forced around 700,000 people to flee their homes, according to monitors.

NGOs say that killings of civilians and abuses have been committed by both sides.

According to UNICEF, in 2019, some 850,000 children were not in school in the English-speaking regions.

In October 2020, a dozen men stormed the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba, in the Southwest Region, opening fire on pupils.

They killed seven children aged between nine and 12. A dozen others were shot or macheted.

On November 24 this year, four students and a teacher were killed by gunmen in the Southwest.

– ‘Children are dying’ –

“Children are dying, and teachers too, for providing an education that these armed people do not want, believing it is not good for their region,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP during a visit to Buea.

“There’s a generation of children who are on the verge of becoming illiterate because they have not been to school.”

In the streets of downtown Buea, armed soldiers were on patrol.

Blaise Chamango, a parent, said she was constantly worried for the children’s safety.

“Before leaving them at school in the morning, I pray”.

“When we send our children to school, we can receive threats,” said another parent, Manu Dao. “I am sad because their future is at stake.”

Many families have fled.

In the Southwest’s coastal area of Souza, one school is hosting 596 displaced English-speaking children this year, out of a total of 1,087 pupils.

The pupils are sometimes crammed 90 to a class.

“Many of them are in a state of shock,” said school official Joseph Mencheng.

“Many have seen people killed, their parents in some cases. Sometimes, in the middle of a lesson, they bring up some horror they have experienced.”

Stephanie, aged 12, is in a class with children years younger than her.

“I left my village because there was a war and I couldn’t go to school for three years,” she explained.

Nine-year-old Dipanda is talking with three classmates in another crowded classroom.

She comes from a small village in the Northwest Region. She says she is delighted to be back in school after classes were stopped “because of the war.”

Source: AFP

Cameroon’s English-speaking bishops have condemned attacks on schools in the country’s conflict-ridden North West and South West Regions.

Their latest statement comes after four students and a teacher were killed on Nov. 24 at Government Bilingual High School Ekondo-Titi in the South West region.

Schools have become a battleground as Anglophone separatists fight the majority French-speaking government in the African country. For many years, the separatists imposed a schools’ boycott, which they enforced with violence.

“Our hearts have been pierced again!” said Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamemda, in a statement he signed on behalf of all the bishops of his ecclesiastical province, which overs the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

“In recent times, we have painfully witnessed an agonizing drama involving, among other evils, the targeting and killing of pupils, students and teachers … We have hardly recovered from the cruel killing of Enondiale Tchuengia Carolaisse, killed in Molyko-Buea on Thursday, October 14, 2021, and the brutal killing of another pupil, Brandy Tataw, on Friday, November 1, 2021, in Nkwen-Bamenda, then we are confronted again with the killing of four more innocent Cameroonians within the protected area of a school,” said the archbishop.

“These innocent victims are not the cause of the socio-political crisis, and their deaths cannot be the solution. Their murder is totally senseless and unacceptable,” Nkea said.

A local government administrator confirmed the attack, telling Crux that “separatist fighters laid ambush in the school before students arrived. They were dressed like soldiers to give students the feeling that they were actual soldiers guarding the school.”

Timothee Aboloa identified the students as Emmanuel Orume 12, Joyceline Iken 16, and Kum Emmanuel, 17. The teacher, Celestine Song was 58 years old and a mother of four.

“It was quite a frightening scene,” said Henry Agbor, a local resident.

“I heard a loud explosive. I was standing around the Okada beach park ready to take a bike to the beach before the mayhem broke out. Besides the teacher and students who have died, many students are also wounded,” he told Crux.

“We never expected this,” said Father Gaetan Ndongo.

“The attacks are creating fear around the place and the education of our children has been systematically sacrificed,” he told Crux.

The recent attacks are a grim reminder of the price education has had to pay in the separatist war in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, now in its 5th year.

The darkest date was probably Oct. 24, 2020, when six children were killed by suspected separatists at the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba.

Several other schools were attacked the following month, leading to the deaths of at least three other students.

Earlier this year, on Oct. 14, a soldier killed Enondiale Carolise, a student on her way to school in Buea. Another girl, Tataw Brandy, was killed by a soldier in Bamenda on Nov. 10.

The United Nations says more than 700,000 children have been forced out of school during the conflict, with 2 out of 3 schools being shut.

Yasmine Sherif, the director of Education Cannot Wait, said the Cameroon crisis is among “the most complex humanitarian crises in the world today.”

“Children and youth are having to flee their homes and schools, are threatened with violence and kidnapping, and being forced into early childhood marriage and recruited into armed groups,” said Sherif.

“We call for urgent support from donors to respond to this forgotten crisis. We call for the respect of human rights and adherence to the principles of international humanitarian law and the Safe Schools Declaration, and for partners to redouble efforts so all children and adolescents can get back to the safety, protection and hope that quality learning environments provide,” she said.

The bishops have condemned violence as a means of problem solving, insisting that life must be protected.

“We, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, condemn these barbaric acts, which violate all International Laws and Conventions safeguarding the inviolability of schools and the protection of learners (pupils and students), and teachers, offend against the fundamental right to education, and breaks the Fifth Commandment of God,” the statement reads.

“We have been persistent in our call for the respect and defence of human rights, especially the right to life, openness to dialogue, an option for the truth and recourse to peaceful means as the best way to a durable solution,” it continues.

While calling on the government to ensure the security of schools, we make a special appeal, once more, to all perpetrators of violence to allow the genuinely human feelings of love, pardon and benevolence to flow into their hearts so that the safety and security of all may be guaranteed, alongside the right of all young people to life and to an education and a future,” the statement added.

Source: Crux