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

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