Give Stella a chance - educate a victim of war.
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Hi
I'm Mekila.
Cameroonian born and bred and MSc student in Africa and International Development at the University of Edinburgh. I will like to draw your attention to the most brutal and most neglected crisis in Africa currently, the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon.
What began in 2016 as peaceful protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the central government’s placement of French-speaking judges and teachers in English-speaking courts and schools, including a systematic erosion of Anglophone Common Law procedures, deteriorated into a violent conflict and humanitarian disaster following the central government's use of disproportionate force. President Paul Biya’s military is now battling armed separatists, including opportunistic bandits, while civilians are helplessly caught in the crossfire.
The UN estimates that about 679,000 Anglophone Cameroonians have fled into the bush where they live in dire conditions. At least 4,000 people have been killed, and 60,000 people are now refugees in Nigeria and more than 1,000,000 people are in danger of famine. And for four years now running, more than 986,000 students and pupils are out of school.
I am fundraising £1000 within six weeks to support the effort of the Sisters of St Anne to fund the education of 100 internally displaced children from the Anglophone regions of Cameroon for the 2021/22 academic year. I will greatly appreciate a donation of just £1 and above to help us achieve this project.
Amidst the current crisis, some religious sisters of St Anne based in Bamenda (a town in one of the Anglophone regions) have been instrumental in providing shelter for displaced families. As the new academic year approaches, the target is to get children from these displaced families back to school. Organizing this fundraising is my support to them. send me a message if you want me to keep you updated on how many children we have helped.
Historical background of the crisis
Cameroon has had an “Anglophone Problem” since at least 1972 when constitutional changes eroded its federalist system, and probably since the British Southern Cameroons joined French Cameroun in 1961, due to marginalization of the English-speakers by the largely French-speaking central government (the country’s population is 20% Anglophone, 80% Francophone).
From 1919 to 1960, there were two Cameroons. The larger territory was administered by France, using the French legal and education systems and language. The smaller territory was administered by Britain. At their schools, students spoke English and studied for O and A-Levels, and in their courts, English Common Law was dispensed by English-speaking judges.
In 1961, a referendum asked the inhabitants of British Cameroon if they wanted to join next-door Nigeria or French-speaking Cameroon. A third choice – independence – was not on offer.
English-speaking Cameroonians in the north voted to join Nigeria, while those in the south voted to join French Cameroon. This meant they were an immediate minority in the new Federal Republic of Cameroon. The constitution guaranteeing a federation of equal Francophone- Anglophone rights was soon dismantled in 1972 by the Francophone- majority government which consolidated its power. Until recently, only one of 36 cabinet members was Anglophone.
The conflict today
Armed separatists demand that the two Anglophone-dominated regions of Cameroon, called North West and South West (NWR and SWR), become a new country called “Ambazonia.” They are using increasingly violent methods and higher levels of weaponry, including an IED (improvised explosive device), at the International Women’s Day parade in Bamenda on March 8, 2020.
Moderate Anglophone civil-society leaders continue to call peacefully for increased Anglophone autonomy to solve the crisis, such as going back to a version of Cameroon’s original federalist system (officially in place from 1961-72), perhaps using a Quebec-Canada form of constitutional settlement.
President Biya, in power since 1982, evidently believes that military force will defeat the separatists. The Cameroon military has repeatedly burned homes, killed and harmed civilians, and committed atrocities while rampaging through villages. The government of Cameroon has arbitrarily detained thousands of Anglophone Cameroonians, including journalists.
War crimes & atrocities
There is impartial and overwhelming evidence that the Francophone-dominated government of Cameroon is committing war crimes against its Anglophone civilians in NWR and SWR. There is also overwhelming evidence that armed separatist groups, although they began in self-defense, are now doing the same.
War crimes include indiscriminate shooting, burning, mutilating,
torturing, kidnapping for ransom, and raping unarmed civilians. Hospitals, schools, humanitarian aid, humanitarian workers, and an airplane have all been targeted.
The UN estimates that 679,000 Anglophones have fled into the bush where they live in dire conditions. At least 3,000 people have been killed, and 60,000 people are now refugees in Nigeria. More than 1,000,000 people are in danger of famine.
The Cameroon military has frequently burned villages, including homes with people inside them, as a tactic of terror or collective punishment. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) recorded 206 villages either partially or fully burned from the start of the conflict to April 2019. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and BBC News Africa have also reported widespread burnings and property damage by military forces. There are credible reports of soldiers shooting civilians from helicopters, spraying tear gas at people emerging from Sunday mass, and committing atrocities as they rampage through villages.
Boycotts enforced by separatist militias have closed schools, markets, and businesses, with an estimated 850,000 children missing out on education for more than three years. Lockdowns have prevented civilians from leaving their homes for days at a time. Separatists have taken students and teachers as hostages, chopped off limbs of civil servants and teachers and in September 2019 publicly beheaded and mutilated a prison wardress who was visiting her home village.
A June 2019 report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and CHRDA found evidence of crimes against humanity in Anglophone Cameroon. University of Toronto’s Cameroon Database of Atrocities has verified through open-source methods an incident of soldiers burning down a school in Eka in January 2019 and an incident of suspected non- state separatist fighters beating women who were carrying babies on their backs in July 2019, for instance.
Reports by Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, and other impartial bodies list atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by both sides, including the killing of humanitarian workers, burning of humanitarian aid, attacks on hospitals and medical personnel, attacks on churches and religious personnel, attacks on schools and school staff, kidnappings for ransom, kidnappings as punishment, burning of homes, indiscriminate shooting, extrajudicial killings, whippings, beheadings, mutilations, arbitrary detentions, etc. Women, children, and other marginalized populations such as the disabled are the hardest hit.
On February 14, 2020, the Cameroon military allegedly massacred over 20 civilians, including 14 children, in the remote village of Ngarbuh. On the 24 of October 2020, unidentified gunmen attacked a private school in Cameroon's Anglophone South West region, killing 7 children and injuring at least 13 others.
The Cameroon government has largely avoided international scrutiny due to its usefulness to the international community: Cameroon is fighting Nigeria’s Islamist Boko Haram rebels in its Far North. In addition, the country hosts 350,000 refugees fleeing violence in the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Further, the Cameroon government hires lobbying firms in the United States to temper bad press.
About Me
I am a MasterCard Foundation Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. I studied Classical Philosophy at the Catholic University of Cameroon 2017- 2020. Before moving to the UK in October 2020, I volunteered with several relief agencies in the war-torn Anglophone regions of Cameroon such as the Metumah's Foundation, Caritas Internationalis, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reach out to war victims. You can use this link to view my linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/mekilangwambe
Thanks
Mekila
x
I'm Mekila.
Cameroonian born and bred and MSc student in Africa and International Development at the University of Edinburgh. I will like to draw your attention to the most brutal and most neglected crisis in Africa currently, the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon.
What began in 2016 as peaceful protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the central government’s placement of French-speaking judges and teachers in English-speaking courts and schools, including a systematic erosion of Anglophone Common Law procedures, deteriorated into a violent conflict and humanitarian disaster following the central government's use of disproportionate force. President Paul Biya’s military is now battling armed separatists, including opportunistic bandits, while civilians are helplessly caught in the crossfire.
The UN estimates that about 679,000 Anglophone Cameroonians have fled into the bush where they live in dire conditions. At least 4,000 people have been killed, and 60,000 people are now refugees in Nigeria and more than 1,000,000 people are in danger of famine. And for four years now running, more than 986,000 students and pupils are out of school.
I am fundraising £1000 within six weeks to support the effort of the Sisters of St Anne to fund the education of 100 internally displaced children from the Anglophone regions of Cameroon for the 2021/22 academic year. I will greatly appreciate a donation of just £1 and above to help us achieve this project.
Amidst the current crisis, some religious sisters of St Anne based in Bamenda (a town in one of the Anglophone regions) have been instrumental in providing shelter for displaced families. As the new academic year approaches, the target is to get children from these displaced families back to school. Organizing this fundraising is my support to them. send me a message if you want me to keep you updated on how many children we have helped.
Historical background of the crisis
Cameroon has had an “Anglophone Problem” since at least 1972 when constitutional changes eroded its federalist system, and probably since the British Southern Cameroons joined French Cameroun in 1961, due to marginalization of the English-speakers by the largely French-speaking central government (the country’s population is 20% Anglophone, 80% Francophone).
From 1919 to 1960, there were two Cameroons. The larger territory was administered by France, using the French legal and education systems and language. The smaller territory was administered by Britain. At their schools, students spoke English and studied for O and A-Levels, and in their courts, English Common Law was dispensed by English-speaking judges.
In 1961, a referendum asked the inhabitants of British Cameroon if they wanted to join next-door Nigeria or French-speaking Cameroon. A third choice – independence – was not on offer.
English-speaking Cameroonians in the north voted to join Nigeria, while those in the south voted to join French Cameroon. This meant they were an immediate minority in the new Federal Republic of Cameroon. The constitution guaranteeing a federation of equal Francophone- Anglophone rights was soon dismantled in 1972 by the Francophone- majority government which consolidated its power. Until recently, only one of 36 cabinet members was Anglophone.
The conflict today
Armed separatists demand that the two Anglophone-dominated regions of Cameroon, called North West and South West (NWR and SWR), become a new country called “Ambazonia.” They are using increasingly violent methods and higher levels of weaponry, including an IED (improvised explosive device), at the International Women’s Day parade in Bamenda on March 8, 2020.
Moderate Anglophone civil-society leaders continue to call peacefully for increased Anglophone autonomy to solve the crisis, such as going back to a version of Cameroon’s original federalist system (officially in place from 1961-72), perhaps using a Quebec-Canada form of constitutional settlement.
President Biya, in power since 1982, evidently believes that military force will defeat the separatists. The Cameroon military has repeatedly burned homes, killed and harmed civilians, and committed atrocities while rampaging through villages. The government of Cameroon has arbitrarily detained thousands of Anglophone Cameroonians, including journalists.
War crimes & atrocities
There is impartial and overwhelming evidence that the Francophone-dominated government of Cameroon is committing war crimes against its Anglophone civilians in NWR and SWR. There is also overwhelming evidence that armed separatist groups, although they began in self-defense, are now doing the same.
War crimes include indiscriminate shooting, burning, mutilating,
torturing, kidnapping for ransom, and raping unarmed civilians. Hospitals, schools, humanitarian aid, humanitarian workers, and an airplane have all been targeted.
The UN estimates that 679,000 Anglophones have fled into the bush where they live in dire conditions. At least 3,000 people have been killed, and 60,000 people are now refugees in Nigeria. More than 1,000,000 people are in danger of famine.
The Cameroon military has frequently burned villages, including homes with people inside them, as a tactic of terror or collective punishment. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) recorded 206 villages either partially or fully burned from the start of the conflict to April 2019. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and BBC News Africa have also reported widespread burnings and property damage by military forces. There are credible reports of soldiers shooting civilians from helicopters, spraying tear gas at people emerging from Sunday mass, and committing atrocities as they rampage through villages.
Boycotts enforced by separatist militias have closed schools, markets, and businesses, with an estimated 850,000 children missing out on education for more than three years. Lockdowns have prevented civilians from leaving their homes for days at a time. Separatists have taken students and teachers as hostages, chopped off limbs of civil servants and teachers and in September 2019 publicly beheaded and mutilated a prison wardress who was visiting her home village.
A June 2019 report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and CHRDA found evidence of crimes against humanity in Anglophone Cameroon. University of Toronto’s Cameroon Database of Atrocities has verified through open-source methods an incident of soldiers burning down a school in Eka in January 2019 and an incident of suspected non- state separatist fighters beating women who were carrying babies on their backs in July 2019, for instance.
Reports by Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, and other impartial bodies list atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by both sides, including the killing of humanitarian workers, burning of humanitarian aid, attacks on hospitals and medical personnel, attacks on churches and religious personnel, attacks on schools and school staff, kidnappings for ransom, kidnappings as punishment, burning of homes, indiscriminate shooting, extrajudicial killings, whippings, beheadings, mutilations, arbitrary detentions, etc. Women, children, and other marginalized populations such as the disabled are the hardest hit.
On February 14, 2020, the Cameroon military allegedly massacred over 20 civilians, including 14 children, in the remote village of Ngarbuh. On the 24 of October 2020, unidentified gunmen attacked a private school in Cameroon's Anglophone South West region, killing 7 children and injuring at least 13 others.
The Cameroon government has largely avoided international scrutiny due to its usefulness to the international community: Cameroon is fighting Nigeria’s Islamist Boko Haram rebels in its Far North. In addition, the country hosts 350,000 refugees fleeing violence in the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Further, the Cameroon government hires lobbying firms in the United States to temper bad press.
About Me
I am a MasterCard Foundation Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. I studied Classical Philosophy at the Catholic University of Cameroon 2017- 2020. Before moving to the UK in October 2020, I volunteered with several relief agencies in the war-torn Anglophone regions of Cameroon such as the Metumah's Foundation, Caritas Internationalis, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reach out to war victims. You can use this link to view my linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/mekilangwambe
Thanks
Mekila
x
Organizer
Mekila Ngwambe
Organizer
Scotland
