Carrying only a rucksack, sleeping mat, dressed in black Cassock with his head shaved, Fr. Lado embarked Monday on a 250 km pilgrimage that should take him from Douala to Yaoundé. He wants to draw attention to the suffering brought about by the war in Cameroon, now in its fourth year.

Fr. Lado told Fidespost that his walk was a pilgrimage to pray for dialogue, justice, peace and reconciliation in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon.

“To pray, on the one hand, for dialogue, justice, peace and reconciliation in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon and, on the other hand, to do penance for the reparation of crimes against human dignity committed in these regions. I draw on these Christian values, which are simply human. These are: Fraternity, dialogue, justice, reconciliation and peace,” wrote Fr. Lado recently in an open letter.

Detained in Edéa

On Tuesday, Fr. Lado’s journey was abruptly interrupted when police detained him in Edéa, a city located along the Sanaga River in the Littoral Region. He was later released and is continuing with his walk. After his release, Fr. Lado said he was in good spirits. “I explained to them (police) that I was on a pilgrimage which has a long religious tradition … but they violated my civil rights,” he said.

Support for the education of children of IDPs

Fr. Lado has placed his pilgrimage under the theme, “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4: 9).

“If the Church, the (Cameroonian) authorities and the Ambazonians do not sit around the table to find a solution to this crisis, I will do my part,” said Fr. Lado when he first announced his decision to walk.

Fr. Lado also says he wants to do penance for the reparation of the crimes against human dignity that have been committed during the conflict. “This march,” adds Fr. Lado, “is a call for solidarity to support the education of children of Internally Displaced Persons or refugees, who are living precarious lives.”

Why else I am walking?

“I am walking so that human blood stops flowing in our country. I walk so that the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully in Cameroon is respected. I walk in solidarity with internally displaced people and refugees from the Anglophone crisis. I walk to exorcise in me and in us the demon of indifference. Walking is not just a human right, but a divine right. I walk to make it work,” explained Fr. Lado.

Fr. Lado said his march is also in solidarity with hundreds detained, in Cameroon, on 22 September, after demonstrations called by the opposition party, the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC). The demonstrators want national dialogue, electoral reforms and the return of peace to the Anglophone regions of the country. The Cameroonian government deems demonstrations in some regions as illegal.

UN Rights Experts condemn government heavy-handedness

The government has been accused of using excessive force and deploying heavily armed security forces to prevent peaceful demonstrations. UN human rights experts, this week, demanded that authorities release the prominent opposition leader and others arrested during the country-wide peaceful protests. They urge the government to stop intimidating political activists.

The experts further want an impartial investigation into all human rights violations, including allegations of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment of protesters, and that perpetrators be brought to justice.

“We are extremely worried about mass arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists who express dissent,” the experts said. More than 500 people were reportedly arrested after opposition-led protests on 22 September. About 200 of these are still being held in detention. They could face terrorism or national security charges and a trial in a military court simply for exercising their fundamental freedoms, said the UN rights experts.

A four-year war that no one is winning

The four-year separatist conflict has created widespread displacement of half a million people. More than 3 000 persons have been killed. Children in the conflict zones have not been able to attend school for close to four years. Earlier this month, some parents and teachers in the conflict zones braved threats from armed groups and reopened some schools.

At the heart of the crisis, in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. Cameroon is a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict, that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

Fr. Lado: The outspoken academic

The outspoken and controversial Fr. Lado is not a stranger to the Cameroonian government. He has been raising his voice from about the year 2007 when he was the vice-dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Management at the Catholic University of Central Africa, in Yaoundé. He has also been a critic of Paul Biya who has been President of Cameroon for 38 years.

Fr. Lado holds a doctorate in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford. He has written and spoken on issues of Anthropology, Catholic Pentecostalism, trends in African Catholicism, and on social change in sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: Vatican News

Two facilitators from the Bible Society of Cameroon’s literacy program in the Far North region have been killed by Boko Haram over the past few weeks.

After a two-year lull, attacks by Islamic militant group Boko Haram in that region are on the rise again, and are claiming many victims. Among the lives recently lost were two literacy facilitators from the Bible Society of Cameroon’s Alpha Program in the Parkwa language. One of them died in early August, and the second in mid-September.

“We’ve lost the engine of the church.” – Patrice

Jonas, 42, an elder in the Union of Evangelical Churches in Cameroon, was killed on the night of August 8 while standing guard outside the church with three other people. Patrice*, who lives opposite the church, describes what happened.

“Boko Haram usually turn up in the villages at around 10pm so when it got to 11pm those on guard thought they weren’t coming – so they fell asleep. They didn’t fire their weapons in the air or light torches, which they usually do, so Jonas was taken by surprise in his sleep. The other two managed to escape but Jonas was shot in the head twice.”

The church ‘s pastor confirms Patrice’s words but is still in shock, too overwhelmed to be able to talk about what happened. Marcel*, one of the translators working on the Parkwa Bible, was almost killed by Boko Haram last October. He was a friend of Jonas and describes him as hardworking, someone who was calm and serious in everything he did.

Many people have fled their villages since the attacks resumed in the region. Boko Haram members have warned those who have chosen to stay that they will continue to bury their dead because “living on the mountainsides doesn’t mean you’re in heaven”. In other words, they are not beyond Boko Haram’s  reach.

After Jonas’s death, the church built his family a hut at the top of the mountain, which is more difficult for Boko Haram to get to. Olivier*, the Bible Society’s delegate for the Far North, North and Adamaoua regions, went to visit his widow.

“We found her absolutely devastated by the terrible loss she has suffered, but also ill because the humidity on the mountain attracts insects and reptiles,” says Olivier. “They are living in a terribly precarious state. One of the children has festering wounds on his legs and two of them had left for a town 27 kilometres away to find plastic – so that the family can lay it beneath their bed mats, to insulate them from the ground.”

“It is this Bible that will bring hope and heal the wounds of the Parkwa-speaking people”. – Luc Gnowa.

On September 18, barely 40 days after Jonas’s death, Boko Haram killed yet another literacy facilitator, Joseph.

A catechist in the Catholic Church, Joseph was 43 and had eight children. He was a friend of Jonas. Marcel was among the group who went to collect Joseph’s body.

“The villagers were hiding in caves,” he says. “One of Joseph’s children was sick and crying. Fearing that they would be discovered, some of the villagers asked Joseph to take his wife and child and return to his hut. That’s where Boko Haram found them. His wife was able to escape with the child, but not Joseph. We have lost one of our best Parkwa literacy teachers.”

In the village, people live in fear. They can flee … but where to? What would they live on? There is flooding in the area, and living conditions are extremely difficult. Diseases are decimating the population and famine is rising due to a ban on cultivation in the area surrounding the village – this is to ensure that anyone approaching can be seen. But people have nowhere to go.

“After the murder of our two team members, who were responsible for preparing the community for the arrival of the Bible in Parkwa, our task becomes even more urgent,” says General Secretary of the Bible Society of Cameroon, Luc Gnowa.

“It is this Bible that will bring hope and heal the wounds of the Parkwa-speaking people. The translation of the Bible into the Parkwa language is truly taking place under the most painful conditions. Even at the official ceremony to launch the translation project, we had to leave the village in a hurry because we were warned of a possible attack by Boko Haram.”

“You know, when God sends you on a mission, he doesn’t say what conditions you will face when you go. He says, ‘Go, I’m sending you.’ He sent us to this people and we must accomplish our mission. We are convinced that, with him, we will complete our mission, despite the actions of the enemy.”

Please pray for our Parkwa-speaking brothers and sisters, that God will intervene for these people who have seen their men die and for all those in the Far North who have been bereaved due to the actions of Boko Haram.

Please lift up these families who have lost everything and for the Bible translators who are so distressed by what has happened that they are finding it difficult to concentrate. May the Lord’s name be glorified and give us victory, so that his children can finally live in peace and safety.

Source: Eternitynews

An ecumenical statement has been released by UK Church leaders on the situation in Southern Cameroons. The Bishops of Southwark and Chichester have joined with other church leaders in a joint statement on the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons.

Bishops Christopher Chessun and Martin Warner, together with senior Methodist and Roman Catholic leaders, have called on the international community to respond.

We hear the cry of our sisters and brothers in Cameroon’s Anglophone region, who are facing daily violations of their human dignity. Recent reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention and attacks on civilians demand a response from the international community. We call on the UK government to work with other European countries on robust diplomatic action to halt the violence and help bring about a negotiated settlement that protects the rights all Cameroon’s people. We also express our closeness to the churches that are working with local communities to reject violence and pursue the path of dialogue, and we assure them that they have not been forgotten.

Revd Richard Teal, President of the Methodist Conference 

Rt Rev Christopher Chessun, Lord Bishop of Southwark, Church of England Lead Bishop for International Affairs

Rt Rev Declan Lang, Catholic Bishop of Clifton, Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Department of International Affairs

Carolyn Lawrence, Vice-President of the Methodist Conference

Rt Rev Martin Warner, Lord Bishop of Chichester (companion link to the Anglican Diocese of Cameroon)

Rt Rev Philip Egan, Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth (twinned with the Catholic Diocese of Bamenda)

Christians have left Cameroonian churches that claim COVID-19 does not exist. The defecting Christians say they saw some who obeyed church instructions to ignore barrier measures infected or dying from the virus.  Christians are being accepted into other congregations.

This song “When God Speaks” blasts through loudspeakers at Winners Chapel, a popular church in the Fouda neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. The song, by the Nigerian gospel singer Frank Ugochukwu Edwards, is played to welcome 23 new members.

Among them is 37-year-old Annabella Tabot. Tabot says she left the Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries because her pastor deceived them, saying that COVID-19 did not exist. Tabot says the pastor asked her 60-year-old husband not to go to the hospital and was instead praying for healing from evil spirits.

“His health condition kept on deteriorating and he finally died. Luckily the government came in and isolated him and the other family members were not contaminated,” she said.

In August, Cameroon’s government closed Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries for preaching that COVID-19 is a hoax. Many of its 300 members defied government orders and kept worshiping in front of the closed church.

Tabot said more than 100 members left the church when her sick husband died, shortly after he was suspected of having COVID-19 and forced to go to the hospital by the government.

The Association of Pentecostal Churches in Yaoundé reported that at least 270 Christians left from six churches that preached against the existence of COVID-19.  Protus Ngala, pastor of Redemption Ministries says 11 of his followers left.

“I have gone to some of the people,” he said. “I made some questionnaires and passed them over to the church [remaining members] to try to know what needs to be adjusted. I try to do all of those things to make sure that I am a better leader. I understand that I also could be defective.”

Ngala said he has always believed that COVID-19 exists but thought it could be treated through prayer and fasting.

Governor Naserie Paul Bea of Cameroon’s Center region says the Christians are changing churches after a rigorous campaign he led to educate the public on the dangers of COVID-19. He says churches that do not respect barrier measures to protect against the virus will be punished.

“We need to limit the activities of some of these groups,” he said. “We cannot be in a state that is saying one thing and another person is preaching another thing. The [churches] are there to be a relay, not only of the government but equally to teach the people what the Bible says.”

Sociologist Paul Emmanuel Somb of the University of Yaoundé says the high wave of defections show people are not happy with most churches’ teachings. 

He says many new churches should face reality and acknowledge that their teachings truly do not respond to their member’s growing spiritual and health needs. He says pastors, priests and Imams should be true guarantors of the uprightness and morality of people who are counting on them. He says religious leaders who deceived their followers, saying that COVID-19 does not exist and collected money from them, claiming to instead deliver patients from evil spirits should be held responsible for their actions.  

Since March 5 Cameroon has reported more than 19,000 COVID-19 cases, with 415 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University data. 

A health worker wearing protective equipment, disinfects a member of medical staff amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an hospital in Douala, Cameroon, April 27, 2020.

The central African state blames negligence, lack of knowledge and the failure of some churches to educate their members on the dangers of COVID-19 as among the factors in the increasing number of cases.

Culled from VOA

A catholic reverend father identified as Jude has slumped and died while preaching the Homily during mass on Sunday, 30th August 2020.

It is understood from the caption of the video that Rev.Fr Jude was the spiritual director of CMA Diedo in Duoala, Cameroon’s commercial capital city.

It was observed from the video that the clergy while speaking, first paused for a few seconds and then slumped while still at the pulpit, sending commotion and noise into the congregation.

The cause of his death could not be established at press time.

Source: Naija News

Cameroon’s 27 million people have two official languages – English and French – but the people in the two linguistic groups are divided, adding to the nation’s woes and those for its church leaders, along with another affliction, Boko Haram extremists.

Rev. Miki Hans Abia, synod clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, lives in the southwestern part where most of the minority Anglophones live as the result of the country’s complex colonial history and explains his church’s role in the peace process.

“I believe that the Church in Cameroon is part of the solution to bring about peace and reconciliation to these conflicts,” he said. The church has more than 500 pastors serving 1.5 million Christians in the country.

Most Anglophones live in the southwest, and they are a significant minority in the country, where about 70 percent of the population are Christians, and some 24 percent are Muslims.

“It is no secret that the once-admirable nation of peace in the African continent is today experiencing the worst crisis or conflict situation in her history,” he says. “I won’t dwell on the Boko Haram incursions in the northern part of our country. I would rather focus on the Anglophone crisis because it affects our community and the church directly.”

One million displaced

Increasing violence and insecurity in Cameroon has forced more than one million people from their homes. Since 2014, Cameroon has also struggled to support refugees fleeing violence and civil war in neighbouring countries, according to the International Rescue Committee.

The scourge of 2020, COVID-19, and the related conflict in Africa’s Sahel region have dwarfed Cameroon’s Anglophone-Francophone conflict in people’s minds.

“It is now at the level of violent armed conflict between the English-speaking militia (Amba Boys) and the nation’s military and security forces. The devastation is enormous.

“There are hundreds of thousands of persons internally displaced. Thousands are refugees in neighbouring countries, many brutally murdered, many more living in sorrowful conditions in faraway bushes, kidnapping and requests for huge ransoms, wanton destruction of property and whole villages burnt down,” said Abia.

News outlets report on the government cracking down on protests and political opponents.

Njie Samuel Kale is the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon’s education secretary and said that the church has struggled to convince parents to send the children to school in some safe areas due to threats, acts of arson, kidnappings and killings.

“Some scholarships and materials were offered to needy kids as well as continuous support to internally displaced persons. Over 60 percent of our operations are grounded in terms of schools, health facilities and even churches.

“We continue to witness a growing number of displaced people,” said Kale.

Peace proposals

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has submitted a list of proposals to the national president, Paul Biya.

These call for the holding of an inclusive national dialogue, release of all those detained in connection with the unrest, a decentralized government system, and conservation of the Anglo-Saxon system of education that was “adulterated.” It also seeks a ceasefire, withdrawal of the military from the streets, and protection of the English judicial system of common law.

“The clergy and top laity also took part in several top meetings called by the government to bring peace and held audiences with ministers, the prime minister and the head of state,” said Kale.

From the latter part of the 19th century until World War I, Cameroon was a German colony. During that conflict, the British invaded from Nigeria, and the French took the bigger northern part under League of Nations mandates, the start of the current linguistic divide.

Reunification started in 1961

Created in 1961 by the unification of a British and a French colony, the modern state of Cameroon has also struggled to find peace and unity. The mainly-Muslim far north has been drawn into the regional Islamist insurgency of the Boko Haram group.

Abia said, “The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, in communion with other churches and religious bodies, has played a very active role in an attempt to bring peace and reconciliation to conflicting parties and situations.”

He noted that the church is hard-hit in the country’s conflict because about 80 percent of its adherents, activities and economic ventures are found “in the war zone” and the church is predominantly English-speaking.

The Cameroon Presbyterians’ leadership has intervened and mediated in what he refers to as “the Anglophone crisis rocking the restive north-west and southwest regions of Cameroon.”

“The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has organized, amongst others, interfaith services for all religious bodies in Cameroon. In some of such gatherings, her international partners were invited and actively took part in the peace discussions. Resolutions from such discussions aimed at peace and reconciliation were forwarded to the government of Cameroon,” explained Abia.

The church’s hierarchy championed by its head, the moderator, has regularly signed pastoral letters to its communion recommending “salient proposals” for the reinstitution of peace and tranquillity in war-torn areas in Cameroon.

“The church has been actively involved in peacebuilding initiatives from time immemorial and has continued to remain a cardinal point in preaching peace and reconciliation.”

Grand National Debate

For example, the church took part in actively organizing with the government a Grand National Debate (2019) to reinstate peace in Cameroon.

“Currently, the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is a major player in the government-led Reconstruction Plan; advising that peace and reconciliation are prerequisites for reconstruction, that the minds of all parties and stakeholders must be reconstructed first before material things,” said Abia.

The church works with its foreign partners to help counsel the Cameroon government and other conflicting parties.

For example, in March 2020, the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon led an international delegation for a meeting with the prime minister of Cameron to brainstorm on concrete measures to resolve the crisis in Cameroon.

“The prophetic voice of the church through her pastors and other preachers of peace have been of great importance to de-escalate the conflict in the two Anglophone regions,” said Abia.

The church has a committed group called the Peace Office that engages in peace workshops with a variety of funding partners.

“I believe that the church in Cameroon is part of the solution to bring about peace and reconciliation,” said Abia.

Culled from World Council of Churches

This music is played on loudspeakers by a group of seven members of the Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

The four women and three men move from house to house and street to street calling themselves end time evangelists. Thirty-two-year-old Prudence Mayah, the group leader is referred to by church members as sister.

She said last month God revealed to them through their pastor Ngoa Atangana that nations are wasting the time and resources being spent on fighting COVID-19.

“We are asking everybody to go on their knees and pray and know that there is nothing as coronavirus,” Mayah said. “It is God’s punishment for wrongdoing, for the several wars people are fighting in the world. A man marries a man and a woman marries a woman, so God is very angry.”

Among the 45 homes the group said it visited on Monday is that of 49-year old farmer Lionnie Fotso. Fotso said she believes in the teachings of the small church, and will follow its orders not to wear masks.

Fotso said Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries has just confirmed her thoughts that COVID-19 is a hoax. She said no member of a group of 300 farmers where she belongs has ever attested that she saw a COVID-19 patient and none of them has been sick of the so-called coronavirus.

COVID-19 is very real, killing more than one million people worldwide since December. There have been more than 17,000 cases in Cameroon alone, and about 400 deaths in the Central African state.

But that doesn’t stop the Tabernacles church, which has about 300 followers and reaches more people with broadcasts on Yaounde radio stations.

Last week, Governor Naserie Paul Bea of Cameroon’s Center Region said three students refused to take their secondary school certificate exams because they were asked to wear masks.

When the student’s parents were asked to come to school and convince their children to wear the masks, the parents chose to take the children home. The parents said they were members of the church.

The governor said he has ordered the church to follow instructions on COVID-19 prevention or be arrested. ‘We have already closed down this church for anti-government policies,” Bea said. “You can imagine, some of our youths have refused vaccinations. Some of them are now refusing barrier measures (against COVID-19). Some of them refuse even to go to the hospitals, (saying) that if you die, they can pray and you come back to life.”

Even with the closure of the church, members have continued organizing their daily prayers and meetings in front of the sealed building.

The church says it also sends out fifteen groups of seven on a daily basis, to preach its erroneous message about COVID-19.

Source: VOA

Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaoundé hosted talks between representatives of Cameroon’s government and leaders of English-speaking separatist groups earlier this month.

 Another Catholic prelate, Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda (which lies in the English-speaking region) reported that the talks “took place in a very relaxed atmosphere” and the government is “seriously considering” proposals for a ceasefire.

Source: Catholic Culture