8, February 2021
Education in Crisis in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia 0
The Anglophone regions of Cameroon have since late 2016 witnessed a sociopolitical crisis which has deteriorated overtime and led to violent clashes between armed forces, loss of lives and property, internal displacement and a growing climate of fear and incertitude. The current crisis has its roots in grievances which date back to the early 1960s. Recent events have led to the escalation of violence and armed confrontations between government forces and Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs). Much of this violence is targeted at local communities and, in particular, at schools, with pupils and teachers frequently facing attacks. The atrocities that have been perpetrated during these attacks have directly affected the areas in which SODEI works and operates. Schools have been regularly attacked by armed groups, and tragically this has led to the loss of lives and the horrific traumatisation of many children and teachers.
NSAGs fighting the government adopted a school boycott/disruption strategy since 2017 to apply pressure on government. This was accompanied by Monday ‘ghost-towns’ and other spontaneous calls for ‘lockdowns’, especially on commemorated national days, sometimes lasting for several days. The school boycott strategy has had a severe impact on children’s ability to attend school and learn. Currently, there is disagreement as to whether there has been a shift from the boycott strategy. There have been no formal declarations from recognized non-state actors or groups involved. Calls for a return to normal functioning of schools from some individual actors have been challenged by other individual actors and groups. Meanwhile, schools and school pupils/students have continued to be subjects of attack and violence as of November 2020. Defiance of calls for school boycott and other lockdown measures have led to repercussions. Students, teachers, and infrastructures of schools accused of ‘violating the boycott’ have been targeted. In addition, confrontations between NSAGs and state security forces around the vicinity of schools have sometimes led to casualties and caused trauma to pupils and students. Such instances have led to the suspension of school activities for several weeks, affecting many schools within the vicinity of the confrontation and beyond. This has caused many to question the presence of security forces around schools as a security measure.
In addition to the threat of or direct acts of violence leading to school disruptions, other factors such as social media misinformation, false alarms and panic have led to the further disruption of school activities. The response from the Cameroonian government and external international institutions to the school crisis have been questioned. Many have blamed the government for not living up to its commitments to ensure a conducive learning environment, despite endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration in September 2018. UNICEF reported that as of January 2020, nearly 900,000 children in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon are impacted by the crisis and in accessing education. On its part, the reaction by the international community has not been robust enough in terms of condemnation and action to ensure that the right to education is upheld. The Norwegian Refugee Council has referred to the crisis in Cameroon as one of the most neglected in the world. This research seeks to identify and provide an overview of all the converging factors leading to disruption of school activities, outline a timeline of school attacks, and provide an educational needs assessment for children of school going age in the Anglophone regions. It provides a brief background to what is now known as the Anglophone crisis, a timeline on attacks in schools and other factors including, social media misinformation, false alarms and panic, leading to further disruption of school activities. The report also captures the wider sociopolitical context and events that have a direct or indirect impact on the school crisis in the Anglophone regions, including national celebrations, the 2018 presidential and municipal elections, the impact of COVID-19, the Boko Haram crisis in the North, and the crisis in Central African Republic, which has spillover effects into the country. The report includes an educational needs assessment for the affected Anglophone regions and establishes that because of the violence and disruption, many have sought educational alternatives through informal learning methods, as well as relocating to neighbouring towns in the French-speaking parts of the country, or to other relatively safe urban areas of the Anglophone regions. The report primarily relies on secondary research, focusing on scholarly articles, relevant articles from reputable and unbiased news sources, press releases and other reports from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
SODEI exists to champion and empower children and young people through extending educational opportunities, encouraging civic engagement and nurturing youth participation. We believe unconditionally in the rights of children and young people to self-expression, equal opportunities and, most importantly, access to education. Furthermore, we believe in the importance of education as a universal right not only to improve and protect the lives of young people, but also to increase.
Culled from Reliefweb
16, March 2021
Southern Cameroons Crisis: The tales of agony are heartrending 0
Prior to October 2016, not many Southern Cameroonians thought they would ever be internally displaced in a country they felt was theirs nor did they ever think they would become helpless refugees in neighboring Nigeria.
But in October 2016, their lives suddenly changed, unfortunately for the worse. The country’s English-speaking minority had had enough of government instituted marginalization and discrimination, with lawyers and teachers downing their tools and taking to the streets to make their grievances known to a government that had decided to be deaf and blind to the sorry plight of Southern Cameroonians.
The Yaoundé government has never been reputed for dialoguing and it views dialogue as a sign of weakness and it was in no mood in 2016 to change its old bad ways.
This is a government that has a huge tool box but in that massive box, there is only one old rusty tool – violence – which has not been effective in recent times.
Times have changed but the mindset of those ruling the country seems to be frozen in time. Of course, if you have a hammer, everything you see will surely be misconstrued as a nail that needs to be hit hard and that was where the government made its mistake that has triggered a bloody insurgency that has caught the attention of the international community, with many Western governments calling out on the corrupt Yaoundé government.
The government’s reaction to the demands of the country’s English-speaking minority has created a pretty mess that has left thousands of Southern Cameroonians both at home and out of the country in a really unfortunate situation.
While those who are internally displaced are living rough in towns and cities in East Cameroon, those who skipped the border into Nigeria to escape the government’s Kafkaesque brutality are gradually losing hope and many are calling on kind-hearted individuals to stretch their hand of charity to them.
Among those who escaped to Nigeria are desperate women whose children are not having access to Nigeria’s educational system.
Though education at the primary school level is free, there is no guarantee that children from poor backgrounds can have the education they need to cut out a place for themselves under the sun.
If many Nigerian children cannot access education due to poverty, how will refugee children whose parents escaped their native Southern Cameroons, living everything behind, have access to such education?
Education is simply not the availability of brick and mortar. Buildings alone will never guarantee a child unfettered access to quality education. Food, transportation and books will surely guarantee a child a bright future, especially in an environment wherein the government makes the education of everybody living within that geopolitical entity a huge and significant necessity.
But this is not the case of Southern Cameroonian children who are seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria. The schools are there but Southern Cameroonian children are unfortunately at home because their parents cannot afford textbooks and other school materials that they need to be effective in school.
At the secondary school level, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) subsidies are helping, but they do not go far enough. They do not cover many needs expressed by these refugee children and this is really retarding their progress. Their main concern is only to acquire education that will make them useful citizens of the world but education does not seem to be within their reach.
But the agony is more painful when you consider that there are young graduates among the refugees who are unfortunately and unhappily watching unemployment robbing them of their happiness and youthfulness.
In search of a reliable anchor, they have been bouncing in and out of the settlements where they have been caged in Nigeria in search of hope and happiness.
They are without jobs and it is almost impossible for them to learn a trade. A hungry man is an angry man and these young men bear their anger on their faces. They are frustrated and disappointed by leaders who have placed their ego above their citizens’ interest.
Their country of origin – Cameroon – has rejected them and despite calls by the international community for the Yaoundé government to embrace dialogue and negotiations which will enable refugees to return to their homeland, the Biya government insists that only violence can bring this conflict to an end.
These young men are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their country does not think of their future and their host country clearly lacks the means and resources that can enable them to change their ugly and unfortunate fate.
Many of them want to further their education, but they lack the resources that can make their dreams come true.
This unfortunate situation has been compounded by the lack of scholarships and good Samaritans who can help them go back to school are few and far between.
To many of these desperate young men, their future is bleak and this uncertainty might push many into crime or push them over the border to Cameroon where their last option will be to bear arms in order to eke out a living.
While Nigeria and the international community are doing their best, the Yaoundé government must step in to help these youths who may become a millstone around everybody’s neck if they are not made to see hope in the future and the beauty in life.
By Ngalle Lyonga in Nigeria reporting for the Cameroon Concord News Group