For more than two years, schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been closed following a peaceful demonstration by lawyers and teachers in 2016 against injustice and widespread marginalization.

The demonstrations were followed by the violent military action and this has pushed the country into a military conflict with government troops killing more than 3,000 civilians. The schools are bound to remain closed as government troops are killing students and teachers.

Last week a teacher of the Cameroon Protestant College (CPC) Bali, Mr. Ndeh Blaise, was gunned down by a trigger happy soldiers for no reason. The teacher, who was going to town to run some errands, was stopped by soldiers on patrol. He was asked to present his national identity card, which he promptly did. He was asked by one of the soldiers to undress. He reluctantly did that given that there were some passengers around some of whom were women.

He was later ordered by the soldier to face a wall which he did without question. He was shortly after shot to the leg by the soldier and while lying on the ground, the other passengers rushed to help him, but the said soldier ordered them to stay away or they would be killed. The other passengers were ordered to leave and a moment after, they heard gunshots. It was Mr. Ndeh who had taken a bullet to the chest, a bullet that killed him instantly.

With situations like this, it is hard for schools to resume. Parents are scared of sending their children to school and teachers are reluctant to go to school as both the country’s military and Southern Cameroonian fighters have made them their target.

Many teachers and students in the English-speaking regions have simply migrated from the region for fear of being killed. The conflict in the region has taken unacceptable proportions and the population is moving out.

Last week, things took a turn for the worse. Huge crowds could be seen traveling from the English regions to East Cameroon where they hoped they would find a safe place. The situation was overwhelming and even the South West governor, Okala Bilai, who once called the people of his region “dogs”, had to plead with the residents to cancel their trips. But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The fear was prompted by threats by Southern Cameroonian fighters to implement a strict movement of goods and persons within the region from September 20, 2018 to October 7, 2018. It should be indicated that Cameroon will be having presidential elections on October 7, 2018 and this has ignited a new wave of fighting and killing in the region as the government seeks to mop up the environment.

Campaigns for presidential elections scheduled for October 7, are currently underway and it is generally held that Mr. Biya, considered by the ruling crime syndicate as its natural candidate, will emerge as the winner in an election that has already been rigged.

The movement of the population has prompted new tensions in the cities vacated by the population. As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

While the majority of the population is out, those who do not have relatives out of their main towns have opted to stay and this is costing them their lives. Government militias dressed in the country’s military fatigue are on a rampage. The government has trained a group of Beti killers and unleashed them on the Southern Cameroonian population. A massacre of a global scale is unfolding in many villages and towns in the English-speaking regions.

Pictures emerging from the region are too graphic to be shown. The story is hard to tell. Young men hiding in their homes have been reduced to a mass of flesh as army soldiers move from house to house to carry out a mission they have been handed by Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed; there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

“They have trained killers to kill young able-bodied Southern Cameroonians in the region. This is not the right time for any young man to be in the Southwest and northwest regions. The government has decided to cleanse the region and its militia and military are working hand in glove to implement a plan put in place by the defense minister and his collaborators,” the source said.

“The days ahead will be the bloodiest. The government has no respect for human life. I am really ashamed to be called a Cameroonian. I wish I could express myself in public, but the position I hold makes it hard for me to speak. I am dying in silence. Our country is going through the toughest moments in its history. How can a complaint by a peace-loving people be allowed to degenerate into a civil war,” he added.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many parts of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

While the killings are going on, the Yaoundé government has decided to seal its leaps. The massacre speaks to a well-orchestrated genocide. The government of Cameroon has decided to wipe out all adult males from certain communities as a move to end any opposition it might face in the region.

With presidential elections on the horizon and October 1 which is considered by many Southern Cameroonians as their independence day, the government is hard at work to ensure that it faces no challenges in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch, has not expressed any regret about what is happening in his country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaoundé government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

On the contrary, the defense minister has only issued a press statement indicating that among those who have fled the carnage in the Southwest and Northwest regions to Yaoundé, are some terrorists who have to be neutralized.

The press statement therefore implies that government security forces will be carrying out attacks and searches in neighborhoods inhabited by Southern Cameroonians. The government seems to be rolling out its genocide plan and it is clear that Southern Cameroonians are not safe even in the nation’s capital.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions has finally migrated to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become ghost town as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 20, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

The crisis in Cameroon will not be coming to an end anytime soon. The devil is at work in that part of the world. Government troops and the fighters are all committing atrocities that could not have been associated with Cameroon a few years back. The world has to step in if the carnage must stop. Mr. Biya has finally achieved his goal – leave Cameroon with a civil war once he leaves the stage. The country has finally inherited the dictator’s legacy that has affected many countries on the continent.

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda

Armed men have reportedly attacked Saint Joseph’s College Sasse in the Fako County, wounding more than 20 people. An unknown number of armed men, using machetes and homemade guns, staged the attack on Saint Joseph’s College Sasse late Sunday, according to the Francophone governor Bernard Okalia Bilai. No one was killed, he said.

It is still unclear whether the attacks were carried out by Southern Cameroons separatists or armed militia sponsored by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji. The wounded children were rushed to hospitals and hundreds of parents started pulling their children from schools.

“It is a terrible situation. We are not safe at home, our children not safe at school,” said Enanga Luisy, a mother of two students. At least half a dozen schools in Buea have asked parents to take home their children.

Last month, armed separatists used social media to warn parents against sending their children to school. The government, however, assured the parents it had taken enough security measures to protect the schools.

The violence comes weeks ahead of Cameroon’s Oct. 7 presidential elections that separatists say should not take place. At least 70 schools have been torched since a crisis began in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest areas in 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested the overbearing use of the French language in the bilingual country.

Separatists then took up the cause, arming themselves and demanding a separate English-speaking state they call Ambazonia. More than 3000 people, including soldiers and police, have been killed in mounting violence since.

Thousands have been fleeing from the northwest and southwest areas but the government is urging them to return saying their security is assured.

Camcordnews with files from (AP)

Several members of the Sasse Old Boys Association in the Irish Republic queued at the Dublin International Airport and gave a hero’s welcome on Saturday to the veteran leader of SOBA UK and members of his delegation. The Dublin airport reception was a display of SOBA Ireland’s support, independence and alumni culture to the responsible leadership of SOBA UK.

A key figure in the Soban community in the Diaspora, Akoh Arrey, has spent more than a decade building SOBA UK including solid partnerships with SOBA Germany, Ireland and the United States. He was elected president of the association in 2014 and he is credited with helping to develop a welfare scheme that has been beneficial to all Sobans in the UK.

Addressing members of the SOBA Ireland family on Saturday the 15^th of September, President Akoh Arrey said ,”We are delighted to announce the SOBA UK Residential Convention which will take place from the 21st to 23rd September 2018. The Gala night will be on Saturday 22nd September 2018 at The Hilton, St George’s Park in Burton Upon Trent. Last year, we had a very successful Convention at Dunchurch Park, Rugby, Warwickshire which continued to set high standards for SOBA UK.”

The SOBA UK leader added that “This year we are going to the splendid venue at The Hilton, St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trend. This is the Home of England National Teams befitting of a World Cup year, which saw the England National Football Team make it to the last 4 teams in the World Cup football tournament. We believe that Sobans, their families and guests will have a fantastic time in such a wonderful venue.”

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that the theme of this year’s SOBA UK Convention is “Together We Succeed“,  a reflection on the difficult year the association and people have had both in the UK and Cameroon. The focus will also be on the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions in Cameroon which has led to thousands of people being displaced and significant loss of lives. SOBA UK will be looking to assist where possible and will also be seeking support from the public.

For his part, President Charles Eyombo thanked Akoh Arrey for his support to SOBA Ireland over the years and assured SOBA UK of SOBA Ireland’s participation in the up coming Residential Convention. SOBA UK President was accompanied to Dublin by Chief Batey the current Financial Secretary and the much respected SOBA UK patron in the person of Hon. Francis Suppo.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai in Dublin

Children at the Government Primary School Limani dance with joy as they meet each other in class for the first time in several years.

Cameroon has re-opened 40 schools on its northern border with Nigeria that were sealed four years ago because of threats from Boko Haram insurgents. But while students are happy returning, many of their teachers are absent and have been replaced by troops from the Multinational Joint Task Force still fighting the Islamist group.

The children’s school in Limani is one of the forty near northern Cameroon’s border with Nigeria that authorities reopened this week, citing improved security.

Cameroon closed around sixty schools in the area beginning in December 2014 because of the threat from Boko Haram.

The Islamist militant group, whose name roughly translates as “non-Islamic education is a sin,” had launched an all-out assault on villages near the Lake Chad area.

Cameroon says hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attacked and torched schools, including the Limani primary school.

Ibrahim Nassourou was nine years old when the school was shut. He and his parents fled to a neighboring village where Nassourou was unable to attend school.

He says when he was told that their school in Limani had been reopened he shouted with joy because he can now again persue an education.

Cameroon authorities are touting the absense of a major Boko Haram attack for the past year and are urging parents to return their children to the re-opened schools. Troops are protecting the schools, they say.

But parents are reluctant to trust promises of safety. Only about 20 percent of the students have come back.

Teachers are also noticeably absent.

At the Limani Primary School’s Class Five, troops from the Multinational Joint Task Force have traded their weapons for teaching manuals and chalk.

Cameroon-born staff corporal Blaise Fonkon says teaching is part of their social outreach program.

“We have [a] humanitarian line of operation. In that humanitarian line of operation, we have of course the school situation. Through their school, if they actually know what they are supposed to do here, they will be engineers, they will be teachers, they will be doctors and I am sure that they will change this country,” Fonkon said.

Classroom teacher Edison Abunaw says despite assurances of their safety, most of his teaching colleagues do not wish to return.

And between Boko Haram’s attacks and kidnappings, and villagers hiding in fear, he says, the fate of many former students is still not known.

“We used to have about 500 to 600 pupils, but we have about two hundred [now]. Most of the parents, they don’t tell us what happened to their children so we are confronted with situations where we cannot easily explain what happened to the child,” Abunaw said.

Abunaw notes classes only started September 3, so he says it is too early to say if more teachers and students will return.

Cameroon is giving absent teachers two weeks to come back to their jobs.

Mayor of Fotokol town Abouzari Mahamat says the government has promised to rebuild schools that Boko Haram damaged.

He says the engineering corps of the Multinational Joint Task Force, which is fighting Boko Haram, has promised to construct new classes and repair those that were destroyed. Mahamat says, thanks to the presence of the troops, peace is returning and children can now go to school.

But Mahamat acknowledges that reconstruction has been slow because contractors also worry that fighting could return.

VOA