Cameroonian Bishops alarmed by the increase in violence

Vatican News English Africa staff – Vatican city.

Archbishop Samuel Kleda of the Archdiocese of Douala and President of the Bishops' Conference of Cameroon has said, in a strongly worded statement, that the situation in the country’s Anglophone region is deteriorating. The Cameroonian prelate says the situation is "marked by blind, inhuman, monstrous violence and radicalisation of positions that alarm us a lot." This is according to an Agenzia Fides report. 

Caritas Cameroon also says the situation is worsening

Caritas Cameroon has also noted that anyone thought to sympathise with Anglophone activists in Cameroon is targeted by the army. “Sadly the reality is going from bad to worse,” reports Abbé Kisito Balla Onana, Director of Caritas Cameroon.

Fr. Emmanuel Bekomson, Director of Caritas Calabar in Nigeria, confirms that the conflict situation is “seriously aggravated” by exchange of fire spreading to more parts of south-west Cameroon, the Nigerian priest was quoted as saying.

A barefoot protest by young Cameroonians in the diaspora

This week, Emmanuel Neba Fuh a Cameroonian activist with two other Cameroonian colleagues based in the United States, were in Italy, walking barefoot in the streets of Rome. They explained that it was their way of protesting the atrocities in the English speaking region of Cameroon. Fuh told Vatican News they want the world to honour the “never again” pledge that commits the international community to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to the UN Convention, countries pledged (at the time of enactment) never again to allow the evil of genocide to recur. Fuh and colleagues maintain that what is happening in the English speaking region of Cameroon is fast degenerating into genocide. The three Cameroonians say they are not members of the secessionist Ambazonia militants.

Ambazonia is the name separatists have given to the English-speaking area they want to become independent from French-speaking Cameroon.

Caritas Cameroon needs humanitarian aid to support the displaced.

Agenzia Fides also reports that Caritas is currently the only relief agency operating in the severely affected English-speaking areas of southwestern and northwestern Cameroon supplying much-needed food, water, medical supplies and shelter.

Caritas Cameroon needs more support.