Amid ongoing violence pitting the country’s French-speaking majority against an embittered Anglophone minority, Cameroon’s leading Catholic cleric, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya, has consecrated the contested Bamenda Episcopal Province to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The province corresponds to the territorial circumscription of the North West and South West regions of Cameroon where a separatist war has been raging for six years. The two English-speaking regions constitute 20 percent of the country’s 27 million people.

For decades, people in the two regions have complained of marginalization from the Francophone-dominated administration in Yaoundé.

The pent-up frustrations reached a head in 2016 when Anglophone teachers and lawyers took to the streets to protest what they considered was the overbearing influence of French on the Anglo-Saxon education and Common Law systems practiced in the two regions.

The central government responded with lethal force. A separatist fringe developed and took up arms to fight for the independence of the two regions.

Amid the resulting violence, at least 6000 people have been killed, more than 700,000 people have been displaced, and an additional 70,000 Cameroonians have found refuge in Nigeria.

While ending the Marian Year and at the same time launching the Year of the Eucharist on December 6,2022, Nkea said it’s only when the entire family of God raise their voices in supplication to Mary that peace can return to the two regions.

“The Blessings of God have come down upon us in abundance,” Nkea told congregants at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Abango as he closed the Marian Year launched in December 2021, while launching the Year of the Eucharist.

“Because all the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda are present in this Shrine today, we have decided that we shall consecrate the entire Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Peace,” Nkea announced.

“We shall appeal for her maternal intercession, so that we can know peace once again in our Church province, which corresponds to the territorial circumscription of the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. This is not our choice. It is not even our decision. It is God Himself who has decided to make it this way.”

Nkea recalled the issues he raised while launching the Marian Year in 2021 during which he dedicated the Bamenda Archdiocese to Marian care.

“Our country has been passing through a lot of difficulties,” Nkea recalls telling Christians back then.

“For the last five years, we have known fighting, killing, destruction of property, and all kinds of evil associated with war. We never knew we could see these things in our country. It is not ending. It is still continuing. Our human intelligence seems to have been blocked while looking for a solution,” Nkea recalls.

Back then, he told Christians in his diocese to raise their voices in unison in prayer for a return to peace, given the incessant killings, rapes, extortions and destruction of property.

He recalled calling on the Christians to not allow “Our Lady to have any rest until peace has come back amongst us and the killings have stopped.”

“Peace must return to Bamenda. Peace must return to our society,” the priest said, to a thunderous ‘Amen’ from the congregation.

“Jesus the Prince of Peace must come back to Cameroon, so that we all can say like the Psalmist, ‘in his days justice shall flourish’…”

He had called on Christians to visit the Marian Shrine every week in prayer and supplication to Mary.

“Our Mother Mary cannot be in Heaven and we her children are suffering on earth. All Catholics are invited to pray the Rosary daily – individually, in groups, in families, in small Christian communities, etc., so that our prayer will rise up to Heaven like one big smoke of incense. She (Mary) must hear us. And Jesus must hear us.”

Nkea said those prayers were bearing fruit, a testament to the presence of all the bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province on November 6 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

“We never thought it would be this way,” the cleric said. The crisis had always meant difficulties in travelling, and Nkea implied that for clerics and Christians to have turned out in big numbers at the shrine means that peace was gradually returning to the regions.

“We shall not wait until we have total peace before we come to thank Our Lady for what she has done for us. We have gathered here in Abango to close the Marian Year and to tell Mary: “We thank you… We shall continue our prayers, and we shall continue to use this Shrine, so that our prayers shall not cease to storm the gates of heaven for us to have lasting peace.”

“Why shall we not have peace when Jesus is the Prince of Peace?” he asked. “And Our Blessed Mother Mary is the Queen of Peace?”

“Peace is a gift of God, because God is Peace. He blesses his people with Peace. That is why after the Resurrection, Jesus Christ assured his disciples: Peace I give you. My own peace I give you-A Peace which this world cannot give. Such Peace was only possible because Jesus had reconciled us with God and with one another.”

Nkea said only prayer will grant Cameroon that kind of peace.

Culled from Crux

The Diocese of Mamfe has directed that prayers of thanksgiving be said for the release on Saturday of nine people who were abducted in September from a local parish.

The nine were released Oct. 22.

“I urge each of you to pray a decade of the rosary in thanksgiving to God for the safe release of our brothers and sisters who were kidnapped,” Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo of Mamfe said in an Oct. 23 statement to the diocese.

“I am sincerely grateful to all those who joined us in this collective effort in praying for the safety and release of our brothers and sisters,” he said, adding: “Words will only do scant justice in expressing my sentiments of gratitude to all those who collaborated with us in the process of negotiating for their safety and release.”

On Sept. 16, unidentified gunmen attacked St. Mary parish in Nchang, in Cameroon’s Southwest Region. Nine people were abducted and buildings on the parish premises, including the church, were burned down.

The attackers kidnapped Father Elias Okorie, Father Barnabas Ashu, Father Cornelius Jingwa, Father Job Francis Nwobegu, Father Emmanuel Asaba, Sister Jacinta C. Udeagha, Nkem Patrick Osang (an assistant catechist), Blanche Bright, and Mme. Kelechukwu.

In his statement announcing their release, Abangalo said: “Permit me to use this opportunity to commend your collective efforts at prayer.”

“I seize this opportunity, once again, to condemn the act of desecrating the church, in the strongest terms possible, and to decry the need for the enhancement of human dignity.”

“Taking away the freedom of our fellow brothers and sisters in order to make money at all cost is inhuman and should be desisted from whoever engages in such,” the Cameroonian bishop said.

“For those who make utterances — categorical or implicit — which fuel such actions, I suppose it is time to rethink your approach and ensure that the dignity of the human person is upheld in every way possible,” he added.

The release of the nine abductees came days after a video emerged on social media showing them asking Abangalo to secure their release.

On Oct. 24 Abangalo announced that a Mass of thanksgiving for the release of the captives was to be said the following day at the cathedral in Mamfe.

The arson attack on St. Mary parish is one of the latest incidents in the context of Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis.

The crisis is rooted in conflict between the English- and French-speaking areas of Cameroon. The area was a German colony in the late 19th century, but the territory was divided into British and French mandates after the German Empire’s defeat in World War I. The mandates were united in an independent Cameroon in 1961.

There is now a separatist movement in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, which were formerly the British Southern Cameroons.

Unrest in Cameroon has been ongoing since 2016, when the country’s Anglophone community began protests to demand the return of federalism.

Secessionist militants in the English-speaking region of Cameroon have also sought violence against government forces and began attacking military troops in 2017.

Source: CNA

Nine captives, including five priests and a religious sister, were released in Cameroon Saturday, more than a month after they were kidnapped.

The group’s release on Oct. 22 was confirmed by Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo of Mamfe, reported the Vatican-based news agency Agenzia Fides.

The kidnappers struck on Sept. 16 at St. Mary’s Church in Nchang, in the troubled Southwest Region of Cameroon. They reportedly burned down the church and seized five priests, a religious sister, a male catechist, a female cook, and a 15-year-old girl living with the sisters. The captives were dubbed the “Nchang Nine” by local media.

“I take this opportunity to once again condemn in the strongest possible terms the desecration of the Church and to point out the need to protect human dignity,” Bishop Abangalo said.

“Depriving our brothers and sisters of their freedom to obtain money at any price is inhumane. For those who make statements that fuel such actions, I believe it is time to rethink one’s approach and ensure that the dignity of the human person is defended in every possible way.”

Agenzia Fides said that, although the kidnappers’ identities had not been confirmed, one of the freed captives thanked the Freedom Fighters of Ambazonia in a short video “for having released us without paying any ransom.”

Ambazonia is the name of an unrecognized breakaway state in the English-speaking area of the predominantly Francophone Cameroon.

Agenzia Fides said that the Freedom Fighters of Ambazonia could be a new organization seeking international attention through the kidnapping or “a criminal group hiding behind a political acronym to carry out kidnappings for extortion purposes.”

The Diocese of Mamfe is in the ecclesiastical province of Bamenda, which is overseen by Archbishop Andrew Nkea.

In an Oct. 4 interview with The Pillar, Archbishop Nkea said that the Church had maintained contact with the kidnappers throughout the ordeal.

“They were asking us for money and we don’t have money to give. And even if we had the money, we know that if we start, we’ll never stop. And it’s something we had agreed that we would not do — give money to kidnappers — because then we endanger the lives of all our priests and our Christians,” he said.

Pope Francis appealed for the Nchang Nine’s release during his Angelus address on Sept. 25.

The kidnappers issued a video on Oct. 19 showing the captives pleading for Church leaders to secure their release.

A civil war — known as the Anglophone Crisis or Ambazonia War — has raged since 2017 in Cameroon, pitting separatists against government forces, with Church workers often caught in the middle of the conflict.

Source: Pillar Catholic

Pope Benedict welcomed Revered Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai in the Vatican on Thursday making him feel at home and showed great concern for the Catholic community in English speaking Cameroon that is facing difficulties.

It was a wonderful feeling meeting Pope Benedict, Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai told Cameroon Concord News.

Pope Benedict was keen to know about the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa. He was pleased the Cameroonian priest was teaching his theology in the USA.

Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai told Pope Benedict that his theology is loved and cherished all over the world. Dr Agbaw-Ebai also said Benedict’s teachings is contributing much to society and to the development of humanity, especially through a course called Joseph Ratzinger and the Enlightenment education.

Below is Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai’s address delivered during his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI

Holy Father, first of all, I wish to thank you immensely for accepting to meet me. This is a day that I never hoped for, though I have prayed for it for over 21 years. It is truly a miracle. Thank you for your generosity in receiving me. You have been the decisive spiritual and academic director of my life. I wrote my doctoral dissertation in theology on your theology of the Logos, starting with your inaugural lecture, God of Faith, God of the Philosophers. Vielen Dank.

Secondly, thank you very much for your great theological writings. When I was going for graduate studies, my Bishop then, Bishop Francis Teke Lysinge, said to me: You are going to study the theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Remember, his Theology is very spiritual. You must grow in holiness as you study him.

Holy Father, your theology has shaped and is shaping and forming a generation of young priests from Africa.

Your theology has shown us that it is beautiful to become a priest of Jesus, a friend of the Bridegroom, to use an image from your dear Augustine of Hippo.

Your theology is loved by so many young African priests and seminarians, and for that, we say, thank you.

Holy Father, presently, I teach theology and philosophy at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, MA. There, also, your theology is loved and cherished.

In fact, I teach a course called Joseph Ratzinger and the Enlightenment. Many seminarians take this course. They sent a photo of the class for me to give you, which I will give you soon. The seminarians of St. John’s Seminary and the Faculty asked me to convey their love to you.

Holy Father, with the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda, Most Rev. Adrew F. Nkea, we are setting up the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa, to make your theological corpus known in the continent of Africa.

We organized a Conference at the Catholic University in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to mark the 10th anniversary of your visit to Cameroon and Angola.

We also organized a Conference at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Africae Munus. We have also organized two conferences at the University of St, Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Chicago, bringing together African scholars who work in the US, to discuss and engage your theology, and form networks of support for each other along the pathway of Jesus Christ, which your theology clearly shows out to us.

Next month, to mark your 95th Birthday, we will be having another conference at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, bringing together theologians from Africa to engage your beautiful classic, Introduction to Christianity. Please pray for this Conference.

And Holy Father, finally, and most important of all, the Archbishop of Bamenda and President of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Most Rev. Andrew Nkea, will be inaugurating the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa as a Constituent College of the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda. I hereby present to you the program, and I ask for your blessing as we begin this Theology Institute for the Continent of Africa dedicated to the study of your great life and great theological legacy, for the good of the Church in Africa and beyond, just like the Ancient Catechetical School of Alexandria.

I beg for your prayers for all these intentions, Holy Father, and also, your prayers for 5 priests, a nun, and a catechist, kidnapped in the Diocese of Mamfe in Cameroon, my home diocese, who are currently in a terrible situation in the forest. Please pray for their release and for the comfort of the peoples so affected by this conflict in Cameroon. I will also leave a list of prayer intentions with Archbishop George.

Vergelt’s Gott, Geliebter, Heiliger Vater, und Danke schön.

Rev. Maurice A. Agbaw-Ebai

St. John’s Seminary, Boston MA/Boston College, Boston MA/Merrimack College, North Andover, MA

127 Lake St Brighton MA 02135 USA

Reported by Chi Prudence Asong

A video has emerged on social media that shows five Catholic priests, a nun, and three others who were kidnapped last month in Cameroon’s Mamfe Diocese pleading with their local ordinary to secure their release.

On Sept. 16, unidentified gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic Nchang Parish of Mamfe Diocese in Cameroon. Nine people were abducted and buildings on the parish premises, including the church, were burned down.

The attackers kidnapped Father Elias Okorie, Father Barnabas Ashu, Father Cornelius Jingwa, Father Job Francis Nwobegu, Father Emmanuel Asaba, Sister Jacinta C. Udeagha, Nkem Patrick Osang (an assistant catechist), Blanche Bright, and Mme. Kelechukwu.

In the 45-second video circulated Oct. 19, Father Jingwa, one of the abductees, provides updates about their welfare and pleads with Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo to do “everything possible” to secure their release.

“So far it has not been easy. If you look at us, you will see our faces are very dismal, very unhappy,” Jingwa says in the video.

He adds: “It is quite difficult and we are only begging My Lord that you do everything possible to get us out of here.”

“It is a matter of do or die,” the priest laments.

“You see for example, I have been very sick, my brothers too are not feeling fine at all,” he continues.

“Please kindly, My Lord, help get us out of here. Do whatever it takes to listen to this voice and do what they ask of you. Thank you.”

In a Sept. 21 interview with ACI Africa, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese said the abductors “are only asking for money.”

“Those who abducted these people and set the church ablaze are only asking for ransom,” Nkea said.

“They are demanding $100,000 and they have been arguing and coming down. They are somewhere around $50,000 but we don’t have even a dollar to pay for this kind of thing,” he added.

According to Nkea, the abductors, who claim to be separatist fighters, “see the Church as a soft target to be able to make money.”

“But the Church has no money to pay ransom,” Nkea told ACI Africa.

The archbishop further said that the abductors “are claiming that the Church has not been supporting the struggle for independence by separatist fighters and so they want money.”

“We have tried to explain to all those who have … tried to abduct ministers of the Church that the Church cannot be paying ransom to separatist fighters or to criminals,” said Nkea, who has been head of the Bamenda Archdiocese since February 2020.

The arson attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Nchang Parish is one of the latest incidents in the conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and the southwest regions. The conflict was sparked by a protest involving lawyers and teachers in 2016.

An armed separatists’ movement claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on the protests.

English is spoken by about 20% of Cameroon’s population, who have long complained about being marginalized by the French-speaking ruling class.

On Sept. 17, members of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference called on those behind the abduction “to release them without further delay.”

In a statement issued Sept. 21, Bishop Abangalo appealed for prayers for the safe release of the nine abductees.

Source:  ACI Africa

The Most Rev. Andrew F. Nkea, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda and President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon visited the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in the US.

The man in the clerical collar was in Boston as part of a partnership formed to foster collaboration between the Archdiocese of Bamenda and the Church in Cameroon with the Archdiocese of Boston and the Church in the United States of America. 

Archbishop Nkea had traveled back and forth before, but this recent visit was a chance to share the Roman Catholic faith and build relationships.

Revered Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai who initiated the visit told Cameroon Concord News that what caused the Cameroonian Archbishop to come to Boston is love and that love is what propels partnership.

His Grace Archbishop Andrew Nkea spent the week touring the archdiocese and meeting with the Rector of St. John’s Seminary, Boston MA,  the President of Boston College and above all with His Eminence Cardinal O’Malley, Metropolitan Archbishop of Boston.

Archbishop Nkea also met the Most Rev. Robert P. Reed, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, the Dean of Woods College of Advancing Studies, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Solemn Vespers at St. John’s Seminary and Faculty/Seminarians of Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, the President, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA and with Representatives of the Pontifical Missionary Societies, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files

Archbishop Andrew Nkea came to the Catholic world’s notice in 2018 at the youth synod in Rome.

Amid much hand-wringing about losing contact with the younger generation, Nkea spoke with refreshing confidence about how parishes in his west-central African homeland of Cameroon were full of young people.

In 2019, Pope Francis named him Archbishop of Bamenda in Cameroon’s Northwest Region. He took up the post as his country was wracked by a conflict known as the Anglophone Crisis, which pitted government forces against separatists intent on creating a breakaway state in Cameroon’s English-speaking territories.

The Catholic Church — which spans the divide between Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon — has suffered amid the complex crisis. Just last month, gunmen seized five priests, a nun, and three lay people at a church in Nchang, a village in Cameroon’s Southwest Region. Pope Francis appealed for their release, but at the time of writing, they remain in captivity.

The Pillar spoke to Archbishop Nkea on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. He was visiting the English Diocese of Portsmouth, which is twinned with the Archdiocese of Bamenda.

He discussed the Church’s continued growth, his approach to kidnappers’ demands, and Cameroonian Catholicism’s distinctive features.

Archbishop Nkea, what is Christianity?

Christianity is being like Christ. The name “Christianity” comes from Christ, and to be Christian is to be like Christ. And therefore Christianity is this movement of people who want to become like Christ, that in every day of their lives, they make an effort to be like Jesus Christ.

At a Vatican press conference during the youth synod in 2018, you said: “My churches are all bursting, and I don’t have space to keep the young people.” Has the Church continued to grow in your archdiocese since 2018?

The Church has continued to grow, I would say. You know that we are in crisis in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. But I will say to you without fear or favor that we have seen God’s miracle within the crisis, that our churches continue to be full, the people continue to pray, and the Church is going from strength to strength. Especially with the young people. The young people, despite the difficulties they’re going through, are very committed to their faith.

You said in a Vatican News interview that “the Church in Cameroon is already steeped in the synodal process because of the pastoral plan which we have and in the pastoral plan everything begins from the base.” What is the pastoral plan?

Our pastoral plan is for the whole ecclesiastical province of Bamenda, comprising five dioceses of what we call the Anglophone extraction of Cameroon. In this pastoral plan, we have tried to see, number one, how to consolidate our Christians in the faith and, secondly, how to guarantee a transition of the faith from one generation to another.

One of the things that comes into this pastoral plan is to get the governance of the Church to start from the grassroots and to move up. So, from the families to the small Christian communities, to the mission stations, to the parishes, to the deaneries, before you get to the diocese. And this is the way our Church functions.

Everybody belongs to a small Christian community. And therefore, all the Christians in a particular neighborhood know each other. They have fellowship together. They have small Christian community Masses. And it has built an incredible bond among our people.

That’s why I was saying that we are already within the synodal process, because decision-making begins from the grassroots and the decision is spiraled up to the top, but it must come from the grassroots. Therefore, we don’t take decisions at the top and ram them down the throats of the faithful. But the suggestions come from the bottom and find their way up. And that is how the thing works in Bamenda.

Are small communities different from parishes?

Yes, they are not parishes. Our structure is different. We have parishes and within those parishes, you have what we call mission stations, where the priest goes for Mass, but there is no resident priest there. So there are mission stations, and in those mission stations, there you have small Christian communities. Every mission station has small Christian communities. That will be a group of about five to 10 families within the mission station that kind of take care of each other, watch the back of each other, and that is what it is.

So parishes are not small Christian communities. Small Christian communities are in mission stations. In the little quarters where Christians live, they form small Christian communities, and we call that the Church in the neighborhood.

What activities do the small Christian communities do?

They do Gospel sharing. They teach catechism to their children. And if there’s any fundraising, they do it within the small Christian communities. They accompany those who are bereaved.

It is really important that the Christians feel they belong and they are not isolated when they are in times of joy or in times of trouble, that they have their Christian community as a support. And that is what these small Christian communities are meant for.

The priest only visits them now and again. And this is the important thing, because everything does not depend on the priest. We are trying to make the Church, the Christians, not depend totally on the priest for everything.

For example, if there is a sick person in the community, the small Christian community will visit the sick person and pray with them. And then one of the leaders will inform the priest, who will come for anointing. But the daily visits, or the once-a-week visits, are done by the small Christian community and not by the priest.

You’ve said it’s been difficult sometimes to involve men in the small communities. Why is that?

The men claim to be more busy, and they don’t make time to attend the small Christian community meetings. They want to come once a week to the parish church and attend Mass and go back. Then they have the time to go and watch football or do something else.

But I think slowly, slowly, we’re trying to get the men involved. We have discussed that in our men’s association, to see how to get the men fully involved in the small Christian communities. And in that way, it is the whole family that is involved in the small Christian community: It’s not just a thing for the women and children.

Have you found ways to help men to take part in the communities?

Yes, the Gospel sharing, for example. Reading the Bible and discussing it is not a thing [only] for women. The men just have to develop the interest. From the parish, we send out a text for reflection for the week. And when the men start going, they start finding it very interesting. They don’t stop anymore. They start sharing together. Sometimes when they are sick, they get the whole community coming to visit them and pray with them, and they get more involved. It’s slowly, slowly, but it’s taking root.

Do you have any news about the Catholics kidnapped on Sept. 16 at St. Mary’s Church in Nchang?

We have been talking from time to time with the kidnappers, like I mentioned on the BBC News. They were asking us for money and we don’t have money to give. And even if we had the money, we know that if we start, we’ll never stop. And it’s something we had agreed that we would not do — give money to kidnappers — because then we endanger the lives of all our priests and our Christians.

So they are trying to ask for money. They’ve been negotiating, and going down and down. We are just explaining to them, if you don’t have some food to eat, we can give you some food to eat, but not give you money to go buy guns. The Church can’t do that. So that is where we are: Going forward and backward, trying to get them to understand.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Yes, I think for one thing, we should all be united in prayer. Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, who was an apostle of peace. And you discover how much the world lacks peace, how much individuals lack inner peace, how much small communities lack peace. Now we really need to pray for peace, not just peace between fighting and warring nations, but also internal peace for our people. We need to pray.

Secondly, we need to see this thing of Francis of Assisi as personal, because Francis prayed “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” It was not to “make us,” and so let us try to see how each individual can contribute. Not to bring war, not to bring hatred, not to bring doubt, but to bring peace, to bring hope, and to bring joy to others. I think this is where all of us as Christians have to look toward one direction.

Culled from The Pillar

Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, the head of the communications department of the bishops’ conference, told a local television station on Oct. 2 that “when money is concerned, it is very difficult to detach a person from his source of income, even if that source is human blood.”

Cameroon is 80 percent French-speaking and 20 percent English-speaking, a result of the country being divided by France and Britain during the colonial era. The two English-speaking North West and South West regions continued to use the British education and common legal systems, but faced marginalization by the Francophone majority for decades.

In 2016, a series of protests by English-speaking teachers and lawyers were violently suppressed by the central government, leading to the present separatist insurgency. So far, over 4,000 people have been killed, and over 700,000 people displaced.

“The conflict…has become what the Frenchman calls ‘L’economie de la Guere.’ It is now a war economy,” Mbuy told the television station.

The priest said the war has turned into a fight for economic benefits, not only by separatists, but by those in government as well. There have been reports of government soldiers arresting people and only releasing them upon the payment of a bribe.

Meanwhile, kidnapping for ransom has become an important way to raise funds for the separatist forces.

On Sept. 16, 30 unidentified gunmen kidnapped five priests, a nun, and three laypeople in the village of Nchang the country’s South West Region.

“The bishop has not been able to get the priests released,” Mbuy said, noting the church has refused to pay the $50,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

The priest said this “war economy” means the parties don’t want to negotiate, making it difficult for the church to work for peace.

Mbuy noted the Catholic Church has played a key role in trying to resolve the crisis from the beginning. In 2016, the bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, which covers the two Anglophone regions, wrote an open letter to the central government tracing the origins of the problem and how best to resolve it.

The priest then lamented the fact that clergy and religious have been targeted in the conflict by both sides, both because of the peacemaking efforts and also for their ransom value.

“This armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions – which should never have been in the first place – is taking on a very wrong approach in conflict management.” Mbuy said.

“You do not touch the person who could help you resolve your problem. If you go for the person who in the end can help you resolve your problem and who has the capacity to help you resolve your problem, then you are shooting yourself in the foot, because the church at the moment, and I can say that without any fear, has the unique moral force to help resolve the armed conflict in the North West and the South West,” he said.

“You can’t force somebody to sit down and talk. You can only discuss with somebody who is ready for a discussion,” Mbuy said.

He also expressed his regret that despite the neutrality of the church, both sides have a history of accusing the church of supporting their opponents. However, the priest reiterated the church’s impartiality in matters of conflict.

“The aggressor and the aggressed are both children of God and the role of the church is that of mother and teacher. When your children are fighting, as a mother you try to bring them together for reconciliation. You do not come as a teacher and take on one side without showing where the truth is. So the church, as a teacher, has to show the truth,” he explained.

Meanwhile, a series of peace marches has been taking place in the capital city Yaoundé to mark the anniversary of the Major National Dialogue that took place Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2019.

The peace conference resulted in greater autonomy for the Anglophone regions, including the creation of regional assemblies, but separatist groups refused to participate in the dialogue and have not accepted the results.

Source: Crux