More than 80 per cent of schools in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon are closed, as the security situation and living conditions continue to deteriorate due to the three-year conflict between the Government and armed groups, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported on Friday.

Speaking to journalists at the UN offices in Geneva, UNICEF Spokesperson Toby Fricker said that some 1.3 million people, including around 650,000 children, are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Around 450,000 of these people, half of whom are children, are internally displaced.

Thousands of people do not have access to essential basic services, such as healthcare and safe drinking water, and livelihoods have been destroyed, the spokesperson told reporters. The ability of humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF to deliver aid, is being hamstrung by the conflict, he added.

Children and their families are suffering from the effects of armed violence; attacks on their homes and schools; abduction, sexual violence and recruitment into armed groups; and imposed lockdowns, or “ghost-town” days, set in place by non-State armed groups.

Future of an ‘entire generation’ at risk

The school closures are the result of a ban on education imposed by militia groups, which has affected more than 600,000 children, seen at least 74 schools destroyed, and exposed students, teachers and school personnel to violence, abduction and intimidation.

Mr. Fricker said that targeting education is “putting the future of an entire generation of children at risk, children who with the right support and opportunities can build a more stable and prosperous future.”

He pointed out that, when children are out of school, they face a higher risk of recruitment by armed groups and are more likely to be exposed to child marriage, early pregnancy, and the accompanying trauma and long-lasting emotional distress that these experiences bring.

UNICEF has helped some 15,000 displaced children attend formal schools in host communities outside the affected region, and trained teachers to provide psychosocial support for children dealing with the effects of conflict and displacement, said Mr. Fricker, adding that UNICEF is working with religious and community leaders to attempt to re-open schools

The three-year crisis in Cameroon escalated out of protests in the Anglophone region, calling for greater autonomy. Following a visit to the country in May, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that the situation risks spiralling “completely out of control, if measures are not taken to reduce tension and restore trust”.

UNICEF has called on the parties to the conflict to protect all children and their families; allow humanitarian access to all people in need, according to international humanitarian law; and to protect and re-open schools, and ensure safe learning spaces for children, without conditions.

Source: UN News

The connection of Guterres-favored China and Cameroon continues: “Fifty-nine students from the Confucius Institute in Cameroon received a scholarship on Friday from the Chinese ambassador Wang Yingwu.  The scholarship was shared among the students who performed exceptionally well in the Chinese proficiency test (HSK) and during the class.

Ariane Zetchounag, 24, level 2 student at the Confucius Institute and a receiver of the Chinese ambassador scholarship, said the prize will assist her in learning Chinese language more proficiently.  “By studying China and its culture, these young Cameroonians will be carriers of the message of friendship between our two countries,” ambassador Wang said.

Friday’s ceremony also congratulated the outstanding Chinese teachers of the 2018-2019 school year.  One of the awardees was Gao Yajia, who is leaving Cameroon after volunteering for two years.  “It’s an unforgettable moment, and I’m so grateful to my students, my colleagues, and my family who I missed so much during my stay abroad,” Gao said. She was very attached to his Cameroonian students, “one day we would meet again in China.”   Yeah.

Others are bought in, including the EU. On June 13, state media of China which props up Biya and has essentially purchased Guterres and the UN he runs reported: “YAOUNDE, June 13 (Xinhua) — A European Union (EU) official on Thursday praised efforts by the Cameroonian government to initiate dialogue to end the conflict in the country’s troubled English-speaking regions.  “We welcome the statement by President (Paul) Biya and the declaration that the Prime Minister (Joseph Dion Ngute) made in the regions showing opening for dialogue,” said Gerardus Gielen, head of the European External Action Service Central African Division.” The EU, which allows Guterres to rough up and ban the Press right in the UN, is hitting a new low with this.

Source: Inner City Press

Officials with UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, warned Friday that conditions in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions continue to deteriorate with 1.3 million people now needing humanitarian aid.

The armed violence and attacks have forced 450,000 people from their homes, about half of them internally displaced children, said UNICEF spokesman Toby Fricker during a press briefing in Geneva.

“Thousands of people lack access or have reduced access to basic services such as healthcare and safe drinking water, and livelihoods have been destroyed,” he said. “As of December 2018, an estimated 40 percent of health facilities in the South-West region were not functioning.”

More than 80 percent of schools in the English-speaking regions of the country’s northwest and southwest have been closed, with some children out of school for three years now. At least 74 schools have been destroyed and more than 300 students and teachers have endured abductions.

“The targeting of education is putting the future of an entire generation of children at risk, children who with the right support and opportunities can build a more stable and prosperous future,” Fricker said.

The aid workers, based in centers in Buea and Bamenda, need US$20 million to respond to the emergency, and UNICEF is appealing to donors and the international community for help.

Cameroon’s crisis began with peaceful protests, led by lawyers, teachers and other professionals, against structural discrimination in October 2016. Their calls for reforms sparked a wider movement that was crushed by 86-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for nearly four decades.

An armed separatist movement evolved in response to the political and social tensions, which have warranted the concern of the African Union, European Union and others in the international community.

Source: Africa Times

A tribute was held Friday at an army headquarters in Yaounde to the 17 soldiers and eight civilians killed June 10 by Boko Haram in Darak, on Cameroon’s northern border. Retired teacher Clement Ndzana was among the hundreds who came to honor the fallen soldiers. He said the sacrifices made by the military were not in vain because Cameroon has remained united and none of its territory is under the terrorists’ control.

The government of Cameroon also celebrates its military for protecting state institutions and defending the country against Boko Haram and separatist forces in the northwest and southwest.

But not everyone in the country approves of the military’s actions. Some accuse the military of heinous crimes, including the killing of civilians and burning of homes.

Mary Yekong, 60, said her family of four has lived in a room in Obili, a neighborhood in Yaounde, for five months. They fled from the northwestern village of Meluf, which she said government soldiers attacked. The soldiers torched at least 30 houses, including hers, she said.

Yekong said the family ran, leaving behind their old and sick mother, when the Cameroon military arrived and began shooting indiscriminately in the air. She said that from where she was hiding, she saw two of the troops carry their mother out of the house before setting it ablaze. The government blamed separatist fighters for the burnings, in which nine people were killed, but Yekong said she thought the military was responsible because the attackers used armored cars, which separatist fighters lack.

Rights groups have accused Cameroon’s military of conducting extrajudicial killings and burning down of homes in its campaign against separatists and Boko Haram insurgents. In one of its reports, Amnesty International said investigators gathered credible evidence that Cameroonian soldiers were pictured in a video carrying out the horrific extrajudicial executions of two women and two children. The government insists the army is professional. However, Col. Jean Legrand Mvondo Akoutou, director of Cameroon military justice, acknowledged there had been some cases of alleged abuse that were being investigated by a tribunal. He said suspects were to be presumed innocent until found otherwise.

Akoutou refused to give examples but said many cases of abuse had been punished.

Source: VOA