An ambulance dispatched by a Catholic Church-run hospital in Cameroon continued saving lives this month amid fresh outbreaks of violence between the military and armed groups.

Elengu Noella, 27, told voanews.com that the vehicle whisked her and four other women to safety during a firefight between security personnel and separatists but two of her three children were killed in the heavy fighting near the town of Buea.

Cameroon said this week it is mobilizing troops along its northern border with Nigeria as Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa, step up their attacks.

In January alone, the military has recorded five incursions by insurgents near the border and in the Lake Chad basin, with three people killed last week, the media reports.

Meanwhile, Cameroon, which is also fighting separatists in its English-speaking western regions, is believed to have sent thousands of refugees back to Nigeria.

Filippo Grande, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has repeatedly urged the Cameroon government in the capital Yaounde to “refrain from further forced returns and to ensure protection to those fleeing insecurity and persecution in Nigeria.”

The situation worsened in Nigeria in 2018, capped by a brutal massacre in November when a Boko Haram strike on a military base killed up to 100 soldiers.

Now Cameroon seems bent on sealing off the border as the terrorist group continues to recruit fighters from within its territory.

Defense Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rene Claude Meka has vowed to fight fire with fire, saying this year will see Cameroon fight for national unity and territorial integrity.

“2019 will not be a bed of roses,” Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on Jan. 21.

“We shall continue with various operations in the far north, northwest and southwest regions, and reactivate special operations in the Adamawa region where criminal groups specialized in kidnapping are wreaking havoc.”

Source: La Croix International

Cameroonian Christians are crying out against the ongoing violence in their country, where churches are being converted into military barracks and believers are forced to flee. “We need peace and the United Nations intervention,” a Methodist Christian, whose identity wasn’t revealed, told Protestant Digital.

“Many people die every day, homes and villages are burned, there are famished people and also those who take refuge in Nigeria. We do not have a voice in our country.”

The violence in question stems from protests in the English-speaking region of the country, where some militant groups have created the self-proclaimed Republic of Ambazonia in opposition to what they say is oppression from the French-speaking side of the country.

Hundreds of people have been killed this year, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee as refugees. Some 50 primary and secondary schools and Christian hospitals have been affected, while at least four churches have been converted into military barracks.

“The government of Ambazonia, which controls most of the Northwest and Southwest, has placed a group of soldiers in the school until the crisis is resolved,” the Methodist Christian said. “There are often shootings between different forces, and a stray bullet can kill a minor.”

Kidnappings have also been rife. Seventy-nine children were taken by gunmen from a Presbyterian Church school but were returned earlier in November.

“They look tired and psychologically tortured,” said Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the country’s Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian school said that it will close due to concerns over safety.

“It is unfortunate we have to close the school and send home 700 children,” Forba said. “Their security is not assured by the state and armed groups constantly attack and kidnap them.”

American missionary Charles Wesco was killed late in October when he was caught in “crossfire” between the Cameroon army and English-speaking separatist forces, the U.S. government said.

Wesco had only moved to Cameroon with his family, which includes eight children, earlier in October after selling most of his possessions in the U.S., in order to serve as missionaries with the Believers Baptist Church in Warsaw, Indiana.

In October, on the occasion of a community bank holiday, Forba declared in a statement: “Given what the English-speaking community is going through at this time, we cannot have a celebration while many of God’s children are being killed, suffering or living as internal or external refugees.

“The emphasis should be placed on supplying the Working Fund for the Mission, to allow the church to continue assisting our pastors and brothers displaced by the armed conflict that has brought pain and suffering to many.”

Source: The Christian Post

Christian Cardinal Tumi has paid homage to the Kenyan Priest shot and killed by Cameroon government troops in Kembong in the Manyu County. The Cardinal performed the Roman Catholic ritual on the remains of late Father Cosmas Ondari before the corpse was flown to Kenya.

Father Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Mill Hill missionary, was “brutally and recklessly murdered” at the Kembong church where he was serving as the parochial vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish, the Bishop of Mamfe, Andrew Nkea, said in a statement.

“He was killed by government soldiers, who were shooting at random from their passing vehicle,” Bishop Nkea said, citing eyewitness accounts. “I visited Kembong Parish on Thursday, November 22 and personally counted 21 bullet holes on the church building… the blood of the murdered priest was still clearly seen on the cemented entrance, just at the door,” the prelate recounted.

Bishop Nkea called for thorough investigations into the heinous crime committed against an innocent and peace loving missionary, adding that the culprits be brought to justice. The Biya Francophone regime claimed Ambazonia Restoration Forces killed the priest on the instructions of a Southern Cameroons activist, Eric Tataw.

By Rita Akana

Three Claretians (Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) have been kidnapped in the Anglophone region in southwest Cameroon. They are: Fr Jude Thaddeus Langeh Basebang, Fr Placide Muntong and a student from the same religious congregation.

The three were kidnapped on Saturday, 24 November, by armed men on the road to Muyenge, where they were going on a mission of evangelization and assistance at the local parish.

So far there is no further information on the identity of the kidnappers.

Several religious have been victims of the violence in Cameroon. On November 21, Fr Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Kenyan missionary from the Missionary Society of St Joseph of Mill Hill, was shot dead in Kembong, a few kilometres from Memfe, the provincial capital of the South-Eastern Province.

Source: Fides

Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaoundé says the Catholic Church can play a big role in helping Cameroonians affected by the secessionist uprising in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, as well as the millions of Cameroonians affected by poverty and other hardships.

During an event to launch a fund-raising to benefit the poor and destitute of Cameroon, the archbishop talked about charity as a major part of the Christian faith, and the role the Church’s aid agency Caritas has to play.

“The Caritas Foundation-Cameroon is the voice of the bishops at the service of the poor,” Mbarga told journalists during a press conference in Yaoundé on Nov. 12.

“The bishops have decided to not remain indifferent, vis-à-vis the growth of misery. That is why we put in place the Caritas Foundation. That means that henceforth, we have a reliable instrument to sensitize the population on the need for generosity, mobilize for the African hospitality and above all mobilize for Christian charity,” he said.

The archbishop pointed out Cameroon was host to hundreds of thousands of refugees who need “to find a home among us. The needy should find help.”

Most of the refugees in Cameroon are fleeing internal conflicts in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Mbarga said the poor and destitute require access to water and healthcare, young people need support to set up enterprises, and projects of community interest need to be carried out.

“Remember that Caritas is an institution for aid and development,” the archbishop said.

Of great concern to the archbishop is the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, where government forces have been fighting separatists in Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions for nearly two years now.

Teachers’ and lawyers’ strikes in 2016 over perceived attempts by the francophone-dominated administration to destroy the Anglo-Saxon-educational and legal systems practiced in Anglophone Cameroon mutated into political demands for independence by the Anglophone minority, who make up around 20 percent of the population.

Now separatists wish to establish a new country, called Ambazonia.

The crisis has led to the displacement of at least 437,000 people, according to the UNHCR, most of them in dire need of humanitarian assistance. In addition, 58 schools have been destroyed and 3.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

“This year’s fund-raising naturally targets those in need and in emergency situations,” Mbarga said.

“Last year, we were living in relative peace. This year, we are faced with very heavy humanitarian needs. How do we take part in that reconstruction work as Christians and how do we come to the help of the affected families, who have lost loved ones? How do we help in rebuilding schools and hospitals that have been burnt? All these require of us, generosity,” the archbishop said.

While the Anglophone crisis has dominated the news from the country, Cameroon’s rates of poverty remain disheartening: At least 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and 70 percent of the country’s over 25 million people still don’t have access to potable water.

The Director of Caritas Foundation Cameroon, Father Kisito Mballa Onana, said Cameroon was also suffering from a refugee crisis as a result of the fighting in the Anglophone regions.

“They live under precarious conditions,” he said.

“The Church wants to do something in terms of improving their living conditions, education, training and healthcare.”

Cameroon was governed under a federal system of government between 1961-1972, giving English-speakers a large degree of autonomy from the French-speaking majority.

The Catholic Church has been opposed to secession, calling on the authorities to initiate an inclusive dialogue with the various stakeholders.

In a May 16 letter, the bishops called for an end to the fighting.

“Let’s stop all forms of violence, and let’s stop killing each other. We are all brothers and sisters; let’s engage in dialogue, reconciliation, justice and peace.”

But the situation has continued to get worse.

“These last days, the number of deaths and people kidnapped has continued to rise…the secessionists are gaining ground. They too are violent and kill people,” Onana told Crux.

Source: Crux

The stakes are high and believers are running out of places to go as Cameroon wages war on two fronts. Illia Djadi – Africa Bureau Chief at World Watch Monitor – describes a Boko Haram insurgency in northern Cameroon. “Ministers in that area are not safe,” he notes. “They had to leave the area or [be] attacked, ransacked, set on fire, destroyed by Boko Haram.

“We had a number of stories of church ministers killed by Boko Haram. Attacked and killed.”

At the same time, government forces are fighting armed separatists in western Cameroon.

Fighting in the North

(Screenshot)

Boko Haram officially began expanding its operations from Nigeria into Cameroon in October 2014. However, northern Cameroon was one of the first places authorities searched six months earlier following Boko Haram’s infamous Chibok abduction. Last month, 57 Chibok captives were spotted at two Boko Haram strongholds.

On Holy Week in April 2014, Boko Haram abducted hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria, sparking international outcry. Over 50 girls escaped during the initial months of their captivity, and 106 have been released so far. One hundred are still thought to be in the grasp of terrorists.

Furthermore, Boko Haram terrorists are reportedly raiding and pillaging villages throughout northern Cameroon, stealing food and destroying property. “They (Christians) had to leave,” says Djadi.

“They had to run for their own life, for their own safety, and for the safety of their children and families.”

Fighting in the West

As explained in this report by BBC News, the clash between English-speaking separatists and Cameroon’s French-speaking government began last year. The conflict has killed hundreds since then, and approximately 436,000 have been displaced.

(Screenshot captured from Charles Wesco memorial video)

American missionary Charles Wesco was caught in the crossfire at the end of October. Wesco and his family moved to Cameroon from Indiana to begin missionary service 12 days before he was fatally shot.

“This American missionary has become [the] victim of an issue…but before him, other church ministers, leaders, have also been killed,” Djadi states.

The separatist conflict may seem limited to western Cameroon, Djadi adds, but it could quickly become a regional issue.

“That’s exactly what happened with Boko Haram. It first affected north-eastern Nigeria, and now…it is affecting northern Cameroon. It is affecting Chad, it’s affecting Niger.”

3 ways to pray for Cameroon

For their safety, believers are being told to leave both northern and western Cameroon. Djadi says the dilemma is more complicated than it appears.

“They have a strong sense of their calling, to go there even if it’s not safe,” he explains.

“That’s the key issue: what to do? There’s no easy answer.”

While the crisis in Cameroon is multifaceted, there are three specific ways you can pray. First, pray for peace.

“For missionaries [and] churches to run their ministries, they need peace,” notes Djadi.

Second, ask the Lord to protect His followers in Cameroon, and pray for wisdom as they make difficult choices. Third, “pray for the Cameroon authorities, political authorities, for wisdom.”

Source: Mission Network News

Three Franciscan sisters and 13 novices travelling from Bamenda to Shisong in Northwest Cameroon have been released, after they were captured by separatist fighters in the small village of Bamessing yesterday.

The hostage-takers were positively identified by an ecclesiastical source as the “Amba boys” – separatist fighters using hit-and-run tactics to engage the armed forces of the Republic of Cameroon in a guerilla warfare for the separation of English-speaking Cameroon from French-speaking Cameroon and the independence of the new nation they have named ‘Ambazonia.’

This nearly three-year conflict has led to several hundred deaths on both the militia and government forces sides, 300,000 refugees in Nigeria and more than 80,000 internally displaced persons in Cameroon.

The separatist fighters are known to dig up trenches on the main road leading from Bamenda, the capital city of the Northwest Region, to many other villages and towns surrounding it, mainly in a bid to prevent military transport and soldiers from reaching their hideouts.

The kidnappers held the religious sisters and their novices hostage in a remote bush overnight, as negotiations took place between an official of the Diocese of Kumbo and the hostage takers.

A source at the Diocese of Kumbo confirmed that the Amba boys had taken the sisters hostage because of what they perceived to be the support of the Church for a peace conference convened by Christian Cardinal Tumi.

The sisters and the novices were released unharmed on the afternoon of November 16. They were handed over to representatives of the Diocese of Kumbo. The conditions of their release were not clear.

Source: Catholic News Agency