26, August 2025
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Archbishop Nkea says priests ‘ready to die for the Gospel’ 0
Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda in Cameroon’s North West region says priests serving in the war-ravaged English-speaking regions of Cameroon “are ready to die for the Gospel.”
Nkea was speaking to Crux on the sidelines of the 78th Ordinary Meeting of Bishops of the Bamenda Episcopal Conference that took place in Bamenda from Aug. 16-22.
The Archdiocese of Bamenda oversees the suffragan dioceses of Buea, Mamfe, Kumba, and Kumbo and covers the entire English-speaking regions of Cameroon, areas devastated by nearly nine years of ongoing conflict.
The conflict stems from the complex colonial legacy and post-independence political arrangements in the country.
Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the German colony of Kamerun was partitioned under League of Nations mandates, with France administering the larger eastern section and Britain governing two smaller non-contiguous areas – Northern and Southern Cameroons – adjacent to Nigeria.
In 1961, a UN-sponsored plebiscite resulted in the reunification of the British Southern Cameroons with the former French territory to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
The federal structure was dismantled in 1972 following a controversial referendum in favor of a centralized unitary state dominated by a Francophone majority government.
This centralization led to decades of perceived marginalization among Anglophones, which make up roughly 20 percent of the population, who felt their distinct legal and educational systems based on British common law, cultural identity, and political participation were eroded.
Resentment festered over the systematic appointment of Francophones to key positions in Anglophone regions, the exploitation of their rich natural resources, and the perceived imposition of French language and practices in Anglo-Saxon schools and courts.
The pent-up frustrations erupted into large-scale protests in 2016 led by lawyers and teachers demanding reforms.
The government took a hardline, ultimately escalating the crisis into a violent armed conflict with separatist groups declaring independence for the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia.”
The conflict has led to at least 6,500 deaths, according to the International Crisis Group. Nearly a million people have been forced to flee from their homes, with over 70,000 people seeking refuge in Nigeria.
The conflict has also made investments in infrastructure difficult, worsening an already dilapidated road network.
Nkea told Crux that amid the conflict and the social difficulties, Catholic priests and Bishops in the region have kept faith with their mission of spreading The Good News.
“Priests have given their lives for the faith. They are ready to die for the gospel, and therefore, where there is a Christian, there is a priest,” the archbishop told Crux.
“The priests are determined, and we have very heroic priests and nuns who are running hospitals, running health centers, schools and other social services,” he said.
The archbishop noted that while conflict and inaccessibility present real challenges, they are external to the core mission of the Church.
“Those two problems are not problems of evangelization. They are social problems, but they don’t touch our spreading the gospel,” he told Crux.
“Personally, when traveling to areas inaccessible by car, I park the vehicle and continue by bike. For places even bicycles cannot reach, we proceed on foot. We see videos and accounts of priests and bishops walking great distances to connect with their communities. I want to emphasize that these transportation challenges are social problems, not obstacles to evangelization itself,” the archbishop explained.
“Wherever there is a Christian, we make every effort to reach them,” he said, emphasizing the determination of the clerics and religious in the two regions to leave no believer “without spiritual support,” regardless of their location or the challenges involved in reaching them.
Youth education and economic empowerment
The bishops during their meeting also addressed what Nkea called the “desperate situation” of unemployed youth amid the socio-political turmoil, and said the Church was revolutionizing education access to ensure that no youth is left behind.
He said this is done not only by making sure that schools are open, but through the establishment of diocesan-wide Education Funds.
These funds, supported by benefactors and friends of the dioceses, specifically target underprivileged children who cannot afford school fees, as exemplified by the Archbishop’s Education Fund in Bamenda covering costs for students in places like Mbesa.
“If you go to St. Agnes School Mbesa, there is an archbishop’s batch there. And from the first year…and they are now in their fourth year, the archbishop pays a percentage of their school fees every year just to ensure that these children have the opportunity to go to school,” Nkea said.
Recognizing the limitations of purely general education, the bishops have also emphasized a strategic pivot towards technical and professional training. They are adding technical sections to existing colleges and developing vocational training centers across dioceses, aiming to equip those who dropped out due to the crisis or other reasons with practical skills for self-reliance and establishment in life.
The bishops toured the sprawling campus of the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC) in Bamenda, to assess its significant infrastructure modernization.
Nkea said it has been equipped with WiFi-connected classrooms, large digital screens enabling international lectures, like recent medical training from Dallas, and new facilities designed to ensure competitiveness and sustainability.
These upgrades, he said, are essential to accommodate rapid growth and position CATUC for the future in the digital age.
Justice and peace in an election year
The bishops during their meeting also prioritized the critical issue of justice and peace, acknowledging its significance, especially in a year in which some 8.2 million Cameroonians are expected to vote for a president.
Drawing inspiration from the National Episcopal Conference, they resolved to actively engage in the upcoming presidential and other elections.
“We are going to deploy election observers in all the polling stations in our ecclesiastical province to have a feel of what Cameroonians will go through in these elections and be able to make an evaluation after,” Nkea told Crux.
He urged Cameroonians to foster a sense of peace before, during and after the elections, noting that he has witnessed too much death and devastation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and it won’t be a good thing that “our country witnesses such devastation again.”
Source: Crux
8, September 2025
The Roman Catholic Church is concerned about a new term for Paul Biya 0
As an important presidential election is approaching in Cameroon, scheduled for October 2025, Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala has just published a sixteen-page pastoral letter in which he provides a damning assessment of the situation in his country. This situation has been exacerbated by the candidacy of the current head of state, Paul Biya, the ailing, 92-year-old candidate for re-election.
Samuel Kleda does not mince words: the archbishop regularly denounces the “moral depravity” in his country. In the letter, distributed and read in the parishes of his diocese on August 8, he speaks of “a society shaken by multiple ills that afflict all social strata.” He attributes the widespread malaise, which is fueling growing discontent in the run-up to elections, to “anti-evangelical acts” deeply rooted in the country’s governance.
These ills include governance marked by corruption, a perverted democracy, endemic poverty and unemployment, illegal immigration, a crumbling road network, difficult access to drinking water and electricity, opaque management of oil resources, injustices in the mining sector, and security crises in the English-speaking regions and the Far North. These scourges pervert the relationship between citizens and their leaders, leading to abuses of power and injustices.
The Archbishop also deplores a socially unbalanced economy, where the country’s wealth is diverted to finance the lavish lifestyles of an elite, while the majority of the population lives in poverty: “The country’s natural resources are plundered to enrich a minority, while the majority of citizens suffer from hunger,” he writes. This situation creates a gaping gap between the rich, who are increasingly prosperous, and the poor, who are increasingly deprived.
But the Archbishop of Douala also does not spare Cameroon’s democratic system, which he describes as “corrupt.” He denounces a political system marked by institutional violence, intimidation, and lies: “A democracy where political actors are despised, brutalized, and imprisoned is doomed to failure,” he asserts.
The exodus of young people is described as a “brain drain.” Bishop Kleda notes that, faced with the lack of hope for a better future, thousands of young people are leaving the country, sometimes risking their lives, in search of better employment, living, and educational conditions abroad. “This flight deprives Cameroon of its young talents, scientists, engineers, and health professionals, to the benefit of countries offering better opportunities,” he laments. This phenomenon, he believes, seriously compromises the nation’s future.
The Archbishop also highlights the security crises tearing the country apart. In the English-speaking regions, where a secessionist conflict that began in 2016 has already caused more than 6,500 deaths and displaced 800,000 people, he condemns both the atrocities committed by the separatists—assassinations, assaults, and kidnappings—and the brutality of the army, which “razes entire villages on mere suspicion.”
In the Far North, attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram are sowing terror and devastation. Faced with these dramatic situations, Archbishop Kleda urges the government to redouble its efforts to restore peace in all regions affected by these crises.
As the presidential election approaches on October 12, 2025, Kleda appears to be suggesting that Cameroonians mobilize for a change in governance: “Choosing a president of the Republic is a civic duty that falls to each of us and will shape the future of our country,” he declared.
Kleda’s remarks sparked strong reactions, particularly from those close to President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and is running for an eighth consecutive term at the age of 92. Professor Owona Nguini, an ally of the president, accused the archbishop of meddling in politics: “The bishop has strayed from his priestly mission to engage in partisan politics,” he declared.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Archbishop Kleda concluded on a note of hope, inviting Cameroonians to unite in prayer: “On the eve of the presidential election, I invite you all to join me, your brother, so that together we may raise our voices to Almighty God, to implore peace for our country, a spirit of love and service in families and for each of us,” he wrote.
It is a peace and social cohesion that is at risk of being undermined as the October 2025 election draws closer.
Source: Crux