Religion

20, September 2018

Religious leaders denounce atrocities in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Religious leaders of the Protestant Council, the Islamic Superior Council and the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon on Wednesday condemned acts of violence in the two war-torn Anglophone regions of the country, the Southwest and the Northwest.

“We denounce the arbitrary and indiscriminate killings of Cameroonians by armed forces and the Amba Boys,” the leaders said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cameroonians generally refer to armed separatist forces as “Amba Boys”, as they seek to form a new nation called “Ambazonia”.

“We denounce the rampant attacks on educational institutions and the deprivation of children of their right to education,” the statement said, criticizing the “sluggishness and inadequate methods” with which the government is acting to solve the problem.

The leaders who said they were speaking “in one voice and on behalf of all believers and people of good will” insist the conflict can only be resolved through reconciliation and peace.

“We call on the government to promptly initiate and announce a national plan for resolving this crisis, taking into account its real and profound causes in view of establishing veritable peace,” Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the National Episcopal Conference and one of the signatories of the statement told Xinhua.

An armed conflict is in progress in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon where armed separatist forces have declared “independence”.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has displaced over 180,000 people internally and at least 30,000 are seeking refuge in neigbouring Nigeria.

Xinhuanet

16, September 2018

Pope Francis expels Chilean priest under probe ⁰

Pope Francis has removed a Chilean priest under investigation in a case involving the sexual abuse of children.

The Archdiocese of Santiago said the Pope had decided to defrock Reverend Cristian Precht, local daily El Mercurio reported on Saturday.

Precht was a former head of the Church’s Vicariate of Solidarity human rights group, which in the 1980s challenged ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet to end the practice of torture in Chile.

The Chilean religious leader has since been accused of sexual abuse as part of an investigation into allegations against members of the Marist Brothers religious community.

Precht has previously denied the charges.

The Catholic Church worldwide is reeling from crises involving the sexual abuse of minors, deeply damaging confidence in the Holy See.

The scandals have been the most serious in Chile, the United States, Australia, and Ireland.

Chile’s Santiago Archbishop

Cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests have led to many investigations, trials, and convictions.

There have been numerous allegations of attempts by Church authorities to cover up abuse.

Pope Francis has formerly expressed “shame and sorrow” over the matter.

Addressing an event in Ireland, attended by some victims of such sexual abuses, the pontiff admitted that the Church had failed to address the “crimes.”

Pope Francis has said he has a zero tolerance policy toward the sexual abuse of minors in the Church, but he has also been accused of ignoring warnings on the matter.

7, September 2018

Anglican diocese of Cameroon celebrates ten years ⁰

A CELEBRATION of ten years of the Anglican diocese of Cameroon was held in the open air at the largest city in Cameroon, Douala, on 26 August.

The day dawned bright and dry, and 1500 worshippers celebrated a eucharist, accompanied by choral music, and a sermon by the Bishop of Ohaji Egbema, in Nigeria, the Rt Revd Chidi Collins Oparaojiaku.

The eucharist was celebrated by the Bishop of Cameroon, the Rt Revd Dibo Thomas-Babyngton Elango. He also invested 15 Knights — lay members who have contributed spiritually and materially to the development of the Church — during the service.

The Bishop preached in the centre of the quadrangle of open-sided marquees erected to shade the congregation from the sun. He commended the faithfulness of the Anglican Church in Cameroon, and congratulated the diocese on its achievements over the past decade. He reminded listeners that all things were achieved only by the grace of God.

The congregation responded with loud Amens of approval, and joined enthusiastically when he began an unaccompanied rendition of “Great is thy faithfulness”.

Sustained by a packed lunch of chicken and rice, the congregation enjoyed musical contributions from the diocesan choir, which sang an anthem by Handel, and by visiting choirs, which sang traditional African spirituals and modern gospel. The Boys’ Brigade provided percussive interludes. The service was long, and at points chaotic, but always joyful.

The Church of England link diocese of Chichester was represented by Canon Mark Payne, the Rector of St Pancras, Chichester, and Canon of the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels, Douala.

Anglicanism was brought to Cameroon in the mid-20th century by an expatriate community of West African business owners, who set up churches, including what is now the cathedral. Cameroon was initially a missionary area under the Church of the Province of West Africa (CPWA). It was only in 2008 that it achieved full status as a diocese in the CPWA, and Bishop Elango was ordained and consecrated to the office of Bishop: the first Cameroonian to hold the position.

The diocese has now expanded to 28 churches across nine parishes, served by 16 full-time clergy and eleven catechists. The diocese has an ambitious and largely self-funded building programme of churches, clergy accommodation, schools, and a health clinic. In a country without a welfare state, this contribution to education and health care has a significant impact on the life chances of young people in particular.

The tenth anniversary comes at a time of significant civil unrest in Cameroon, as anger and frustration in Anglophone regions about perceived marginalisation by the Francophone majority spills over into violence. The Anglican Church ministers to both English and French speaking communities.

Culled from Church Times

4, September 2018

Cameroon Catholic bishops urge voters to choose responsibly ⁰

Catholic bishops in Cameroon have issued a pastoral letter to say voters should be able to exercise their right to freely, peacefully and responsibly choose leaders in the upcoming presidential elections.

“According to the teachings of the church, the people should be at liberty to exercise their sovereignty by freely, peacefully and responsibly choosing their leaders,” the bishops said in their pastoral letter dated Aug. 24.

Current President Paul Biya, hoping to embark on a seventh term, is now 85 years old and has been in power since 1982. In the presidential elections of Oct.7 he will challenge a divided opposition that is putting forward eight candidates.

Points of instability

These elections fall at a particularly tense moment and there are many areas of instability across the country. Since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis in 2016, the northwest and southwest regions have witnessed many deaths and there is no immediate end to the hostilities in sight.

The Nigerian border region in the far northeast is in a state of extreme volatility with deadly attacks carried out by Boko Haram. Since 2014 over 2,000 Cameroonians have lost their lives in terrorist violence and more than 1,000 have been abducted.

On top of these internal issues, are conflicts in Central Africa which have pushed more than 150,000 people over the border to seek refuge in eastern Cameroon.

Members of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon have expressed concern that these crises will have a negative effect on the upcoming presidential elections.

They state that free and transparent elections are the only way to “guarantee peace, stability and justice.”

They call on Cameroonians to choose candidates capable of dealing with the country’s social, economic and political issues and tackling inequality, corruption, unemployment and Boko Haram.

The Anglophone crisis

The Anglophone problem began in 2016 with remonstrations and complaints among lawyers and teachers who protested their marginalization in the country’s legislative and education systems, which are largely francophone.

Their protests led to strikes which turned into deadly confrontations between Cameroonian security forces and those supporting secession of Anglophone regions.

On July 25, Cameroonian religious leaders announced their involvement in resolving the secession crisis.

Among those who added their names are Cardinal Christian Tumi, retired archbishop of Douala, Babila George Fochang, a priest from the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Tukur Mohammed Adamu, an imam from Bamenda Central Mosque, and Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, chief imam from Buea Central Mosque.

To this end, they were planning a general conference for Anglophones from Cameroon and the diaspora on Aug. 29 and 30 in the city of Buea (southeast). However, a few days after the announcement, it was reported that the conference had been postponed indefinitely.

Source: La Croix International

31, August 2018

Archbishop Vigano: Corruption has reached top at Catholic Church ⁰

The former Vatican ambassador to the United States, who called on Pope Francis to resign over allegations that he was covering-up child abuse by priests, says corruption has reached the top levels of the Church hierarchy.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who has gone into hiding over fears for his safety since his 11-page testament released over the weekend, told an Italian journalist that he did not act out of anger or revenge.

“I spoke out because by now the corruption has arrived at the top of the church hierarchy,” Archbishop Vigano was quoted as saying.

The 77-year-old papal ambassador, who is known for his conservative views, said that he has “never had feelings of vendetta and rancor in all these years.”

Vigano also said that he was “serene and at peace” after publishing the letter, but saddened by what he described as subsequent attempts to undermine his credibility.

He claimed there was a “conspiracy of silence not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia.”

In the letter published on Sunday, Vigano accused Pope Francis of having known for years about the sexual misconduct by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, but preferred to ignore those allegations and instead rehabilitated him as a powerful figure in the American church.

Vigano accused a long list of current and past Vatican and US Church officials of covering up the case of Cardinal McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month.

Pope has declined to respond to the allegations.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano seated next to then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, front row on (L), is seen at a fundraiser on May 10, 2013. (File photo)

Where is Vigano?

The Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli, via whom Vigano has been communicating, said that the archbishop had “purchased an aeroplane ticket.”

Recounting a meeting with Vigano, Valli said the archbishop told him he would leave the country.

“He cannot tell me where he is going. I am not to look for him. His old mobile phone number will no longer work. We say goodbye for the last time,” Valli said.

Vigano said in the letter that he was being punished for uncovering corruption in the Vatican.

He wrote that Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI were aware of sexual abuse by McCarrick, who led churches in the Washington region from 2001 to 2006.

The letter has prompted reaction from within the Catholic community. The church’s conservatives, who regard the Pope as unsuitably liberal, called for a full investigation into Vigano’s allegations.

The Pope was in Ireland when the letter was released on Sunday. During his 36-hour visit to the country, he apologized to people in Ireland and “begged for God’s forgiveness” for several abuse scandals within the Irish church over many decades.

If proven, the allegations would be extremely damaging to the reputation of Pope Francis and the Vatican, which has already come under pressure since the pontiff prompted international outrage in January by defending a controversial bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse by a fellow Chilean priest.

The Vatican was rocked this month by a devastating US report into child sex scandal that accused more than 300 priests in the state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1950s.

Source: Presstv

27, August 2018

Former United States Nuncio says Pope Francis knew about the McCarrick Scandal and should resign ⁰

During the night between August 25 and 26, while Pope Francis was resting in Dublin, the newspaper “La Verità” in Italian, “The National Catholic Register” and “Lifesite News” in English, and “InfoVaticana” in Spanish published – respectively introduced by Marco Tosatti, Edward Pentin, Diane Montagna, and Gabriel Ariza – the stunning accusation by the former apostolic nuncio in the United States, Carlo Maria Viganò, against those at the highest levels of the Church, starting with the pope himself, who knew for some time about the scandalous homosexual activity of the no-longer-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but in spite of this did nothing about it.

Viganò was the Holy See’s ambassador in Washington from 2011 to 2016, after having been from 1998 to 2009 a delegate in Rome for the pontifical embassies, with the faculty of overseeing the personal dossiers of candidates for the episcopacy. And he had proof that as of 2000 the Vatican authorities had been informed by the nunciature in the United States of McCarrick’s immoral conduct, without this hindering his promotion as archbishop of Washington and as cardinal.

In 2006, it was Viganò himself who sent the secretary of state at the time, Tarcisio Bertone, a dossier against McCarrick compiled over the previous years by the nuncios in the United States at the time, Gabriel Montalvo and Pietro Sambi. And he did the same in 2008, forwarding to the highest Vatican authorities a report redacted by one of the most assiduous investigators of sexual abuse in the States, Richard Sipe.

In both cases, he received no reply. But when the information reached, by means unknown, Benedict XVI himself, there was an effect. Between 2009 and 2010 McCarrick was subjected – Viganò writes – to the following sanctions:

“The Cardinal was to leave the seminary where he was living, he was forbidden to celebrate [Mass] in public, to participate in public meetings, to give lectures, to travel, with the obligation of dedicating himself to a life of prayer and penance.”

The sanctions were communicated to McCarrick by then-nuncio Sambi. But they were never put into practice, with the full support of the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who continued to host the reprobate at the seminary of his diocese and to treat him with full honors, only to declare now that he never knew anything about his misconduct.

Then, in 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope, and on June 23 he received Viganò in audience, after he had become nuncio in the United States. Who today reports as follows the words he said and the pope’s reaction:

“Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.’ The Pope did not make the slightest comment about those very grave words of mine and did not show any expression of surprise on his face, as if he had already known the matter for some time, and he immediately changed the subject.”

The fact is that Francis not only did not require McCarrick to submit to the sanctions that had been imposed on him by Benedict XVI, but he kept him close until a few weeks ago as his chief adviser in the key appointments that are reshaping the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, promoting his proteges. “It was only when he was forced by the report of the abuse of a minor,” Viganò writes, “that he took action [regarding McCarrick].”

But in the judgment of the former nuncio in the United States, for Pope Francis the case could not be seen as closed. Viganò writes at the culminating point of his indictment:

“Francis is abdicating the mandate which Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brethren. Indeed, by his action he has divided them, led them into error, and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock. In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them.”

Viganò’s “Testimony” is highly substantiated and charges other important cardinals, from Pietro Parolin to Sean Patrick O’Mallet to Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga. It is absolutely a must-read, in its entirety.

Source: L’Espresso

25, August 2018

Papal visit to Ireland dominated by calls for action on church abuse ⁰

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has used the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years to demand action by the Roman Catholic Church to address the systemic cover-up of child abuse by persists and church institutions.

An Alitalia flight carrying Pope Francis, his entourage and the Vatican media corps touched down at Dublin airport on Saturday morning for a brief visit to Ireland, a country that has been devastated by clerical abuse.

“Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, industrial schools, illegal adoptions and clerical child abuse are stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic Church. Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors,” Varadkar told a state reception attended by the Pope.

“Holy Father, I ask that you use your office and influence to ensure this is done here in Ireland and across the world … We must now ensure that from words flow actions.”

The Catholic Church faces its worst credibility crisis in years. Scandals in Ireland, Australia, Chile and the United States have put pressure on the Pope to more fully address the issue of child sex abuse.

‘Repugnant’ abuses a source of shame for church

Addressing the reception attended by some abuse survivors, Pope Francis acknowledged that the failure of Church authorities to address “repugnant” clerical abuses was a source of shame for the Catholic community.

“I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the Church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” he said.

“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.”

The number of people turning out for the Papal visit is expected to be about a quarter of the 2.7 million who greeted John Paul II in 1979, indicating how the country has changed since abuse cases came to light in the 1990s.

In 1979, contraception, homosexuality, divorce and abortion were illegal in Ireland, and more than nine in 10 people attended mass each week.

Those pillars of Catholic teaching have been overturned, with voters approving abortion and gay marriage in referendums over the past three years. Mass attendance is also now well below 10 percent in some Dublin parishes.

The papal visit coincides with the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMOF) — a global Catholic gathering that takes place every three years.

Pope Francis is also set to attend an outdoor mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Sunday.

16, August 2018

US clergy sex abuse revelation fuels push to reform sexual assault laws ⁰

The latest revelation of widespread child sexual abuse by US Catholic clergy has given impetus to efforts by legislators, including a Pennsylvania lawmaker who has said he was raped by a priest as a child, to make it easier to prosecute such cases.

Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Rozzi, 47, said he has fought for years to give people who say they were sexually assaulted as children more time to report such crimes to police in Pennsylvania, one of 14 US states considering bills to extend the statute of limitations for such offenses.

“We’re going to get what the victims want,” Rozzi said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, a day after a grand jury found that about 300 priests had sexually abused about 1,000 children over the past 70 years in Pennsylvania.

“You either support victims or you support pedophiles,” Rozzi said.

The grand jury report was the latest revelation in a scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church since the Boston Globe in 2002 reported that priests had preyed on young boys and girls and that church leaders had covered it up.

Similar reports have emerged in Europe, Australia and Chile, prompting lawsuits, sending dioceses into bankruptcy and undercutting the moral authority of the leadership of the Church, which has some 1.2 billion members around the world.

A statute of limitations is a law requiring that prosecutors bring a criminal case within a certain time frame. The advocacy group Child USA said such statutes can block justice as children may not realize they were victims of sex crimes for decades.

Amy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the bishops’ political arm in the state, declined on Wednesday to say whether bishops supported or opposed eliminating statutes of limitations.

“The time to discuss legislation will come later,” she said. “Our focus now is on improving ways that survivors and their families can recover.”

In the past, the group had spoken out against the idea. The national bishops’ conference did not respond to a request for comment.

Some 41 states have eliminated statutes of limitations for criminally prosecuting child sex abuse. Earlier this year, Michigan and Hawaii passed laws giving victims more time to report sexual assaults on children.

Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to raise the age for reporting child sexual abuse. In 2002 it lifted the age to 30 from 23 and five years later raised it to age 50.

State legislators are ready to take up Rozzi’s bill eliminating the limit, said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Representative Dave Reed. “It’s definitely something that he’s looking to bring up sooner than later,” Miskin said.

Tuesday’s report could help push through bills in states from California to New Hampshire that would relax the limits for criminal or civil action on sexual assaults on children, said Marci Hamilton, chief executive of the advocacy group Child USA.

Sexual abuse of children extends far beyond the Catholic Church, with teachers and sports coaches also facing accusations.

Given that child abusers in positions of power can continue to assault children for decades, making it easier to prosecute them could prevent future abuse if abusers are imprisoned or lose their positions, Hamilton said in a telephone interview.

“What we want to do is to find out who the hidden child predators are,” said Hamilton, who is also a professor of religion and law at the University of Pennsylvania.

Costs related to such cases have taken a heavy toll on church coffers, reaching nearly $600 million since July 2013, according to a May report by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

US church leaders have said that they have implemented extensive new measures to prevent the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

(Source: Reuters)

11, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bishop Bushu says Rev. Father Sob was assassinated ⁰

The Bishop of Buea says a priest who died in the July 2018 in the restive South-West region of the country was assassinated disputing claims that the death was as a result of a stray bullet.

His Lordship Immanuel Bushu is reported by local press to have said Rev. Fr. Nougi Alexander Sob was assassinated. “Father Sob was with two other people in his car when he was shot at close range with a silencer gun.”

The Cameroon Catholic church reported the death of the parish priest of Bomaka, a district of Buea, at the time the report said by “unidentified individuals.”

“We have received photographs of the body of the deceased priest, Alexander Sob Nougi,’‘ an official communication by the church issued in Yaoundé read, specifying that the perpetrators of the murder remain unknown and that the body is mutilated.

Security in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, the north-west and south-west, has deteriorated considerably.

Fighting became daily between the security forces and armed separatists demanding the creation of an independent English-speaking state.

Catholic Church as conflict mediator

The Catholic Church is the only actor capable of “promoting dialogue” between the insurgents and the government, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) research centre in April.

It represents almost a third of the Cameroonian population, according to the ICG, which deplored the Catholic Church’s “divergent positions” on the Anglophone question and invited it to “overcome its divisions and display its neutrality”.

This increasingly violent armed conflict in the English-speaking zone, as well as that against the jihadist group Boko Haram in the north of the country, could disrupt the presidential elections scheduled for 7 October, according to analysts.

President Paul Biya, 85, declared his candidature last week for a seventh consecutive term.

His supporters believe that he is best able to respond to the English-speaking crisis, his opponents accusing him of being responsible for the crisis.

Source: Africa News

5, August 2018

Cameroon cardinal helping organize conference to tackle Anglophone Crisis ⁰

Cameroon religious leaders are coming together to help seek a solution with the country’s ongoing Anglophone Crisis, with Cardinal Christian Tumi leading efforts to ease tensions between the country’s French-speaking majority and an English-speaking minority that says it is being persecuted.

Tumi, the Archbishop emeritus of Douala, joined with Christian and Muslim leaders to call for an Anglophone General Conference to take place Aug. 29-30 in the town of Buea.

The cardinal told Crux the leaders hope to offer a unique “pastoral approach” to tackle the crisis.

The Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon are majority English-speaking, a legacy of the colonial history of the country: Cameroon was originally German, but after World War I the defeated country transferred it to the allies, and it was divided between France and Britain.

At independence, the two parts were reunited, and currently about 20 percent of the country’s nearly 25 million people is anglophone. The Catholic Church is the largest religious group in the country, representing about 40 percent of all Cameroonians.

In October 2016, strikes by lawyers and teachers over perceived attempts by the Francophone administration to assimilate the legal and educational systems practiced in the two English-speaking regions turned violent, and morphed into rising demands by Anglophone Cameroonians for independence.

The government has been accused of razing entire villages and extrajudicial killings in their hunt against separatists, who are calling on the English-speaking areas to form a new country, called ‘Ambazonia.’

Separatists have also been accused of atrocities, and have attacked Cameroonian security forces, and kidnapped opponents for ransom.

“We believe that the moment has come to put an end to the conflict through a frank, inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue on the Anglophone Problem,” the religious leaders said in a statement.

“We recognize that absolute necessity for the people of the Southwest and Northwest Regions to hold a preparatory general conference in order to agree on the issues to be examined at the national dialogue on the Anglophone Problem and to freely designate their representatives at that dialogue,” the statement continued.

“Accepting our moral responsibility to promote peace and harmony among all God’s children, we hereby freely take the initiative to constitute ourselves into a college of conveners for the purpose of summoning the required General Conference of the people of the Southwest and Northwest Regions.”

They said the conference will be broad-based, bringing together representatives of traditional and religious authorities, civil society leaders, professional associations, women and youth groups, trade union organizations, and other members of civil society. The religious leaders said participation in the conference “will be open, and limited to all Cameroonian citizens living in Cameroon or abroad who fall in one of the following two categories”:

Those whose ancestral origins are within the territory that today constitutes the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon; or those whose parents or grandparents, not having their ancestral origins in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, settled permanently in this territory as of Oct. 1, 1961, when the former ‘British Cameroons’ formally joined Cameroon.

Tumi told Crux that because there were already several currents of thought among Anglophones themselves as to what the problem is and how it should be handled; the conference becomes much more necessary.

“There are some calling for secession; others for federalism and others for decentralization. All that we are saying is that anybody who wants to take part in this dialogue should be objective, that is to say – when you come to the dialogue, you must be able to give and take.”

Similar conferences had been held before – one in Buea and the other in Bamenda in the early 1990s, but Tumi believes the one he and other religious authorities in Cameroon want is different.

“We come with a pastoral approach,” the cardinal told Crux.

“We have no arms. We preach love and forgiveness, objectivity and truth. Our insistence will be on those virtues. If intellectually you are convinced that what the other person is saying is true, you are obliged by intellectual honesty to accept,” he said.

The religious leaders said in their statement that such an initiative can only succeed if government releases all those who have been arrested in connection with the crisis, as well as create the conditions necessary for all English speakers to participate, including separatists.

They also called on “the Government of Cameroon and the various armed groups that now operate throughout the territory of the Northwest and Southwest Regions, to declare an immediate end to military hostilities in these two regions and thus create favorable conditions for finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the Anglophone Problem and to ending the Anglophone Crisis in our country through dialogue.”

But the government has raised objections to the proposals, especially the inclusion of separatists in any talks.

“We can’t place the republican army, which today is deployed to fight for the territorial integrity of our nation on the same footing as armed groups, terrorists who kill, slaughter, behead, burn schools, [and] commit despicable crimes,” said Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s communications minister.

Tchiroma also criticized the religious leaders for asking for the release of all those arrested in connection with the crisis.

“You can’t also ask a state that is ruled by law like ours, to release those who have killed, massacred and who are today awaiting trial,” he said.

However, the call of Cameroon’s religious leaders for an end to the military campaign in the Anglophone areas has gotten the support of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

“The World Council of Churches condemns all forms of violence in Cameroon and calls on the government to stop using any force to punish its people in the English-speaking region of Cameroon,” said Isabel Apawo Phiri, the WCC acting general secretary, in an Aug. 2 statement.

“Cameroon authorities must immediately cease the use of disproportionate and deadly force against civilians and protect the human rights of all,” she added.

Meanwhile, 85-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, announced last month he will seek another term in office when national elections take place in Cameroon in October.

Source: Crux