A silent crisis, civil war is COVID resistant
by Sabriye Tenberken
Corona has had the world in its grip for more than nine months and looking back, we are wondering, what are the major changes worldwide?
For sure, people all around the world become more health and hygiene conscious which could result in lesser infections. Besides the additional trash of used masks and medical suits, the environment has certainly benefited from lesser road and air traffic.
But what about conflicts and war?
On the 30th of March, right at the beginning of the Corona crisis, we contacted our seven alumni from Cameroon, where there is an ongoing civil war between the Francophone and the Anglophone regions since the last four years.
For those who don’t know, Cameroon is a multi-ethnic, multilingual country. This has been one of the causes for various conflicts. But since 1961, the most obvious conflicting point is the fact that one part, the Eastern region is administered by French speaking Cameroonians and the South and North Western part by those who were under British law and speak mainly English as their official language.
All Cameroonians that we had trained till date come from the north-west and south west parts of Cameroon. They speak English and all of them fear being in between the battle of Anglophone separatists and Francophone governmental forces. All of them have experienced violence, killing, kidnapping, hunger, looting and war related lockdowns.
And then, there was Corona and I was surprised to hear the enthusiasm in their voices:
“Can you imagine? It seems so peaceful as we now seem to have one common enemy and that is Covid.”
One of our former participants wrote: “I am in lockdown! But now, not because of flying bullets, but because of health reasons!”
And another kanthari dreamt of sending his children to school. As a protest against the Francophone government, rebels have pressured the communities into closing all educational entities. Thus, schools had been closed… for more than three years. Due to Corona, the Ambazonian rebel fighters agreed to a cease fire. “Isn’t it crazy?!” one of our kantharis, who is a community leader, said: “While the whole world closes schools, we may finally open them again!”
The first setback of their enthusiasm came two weeks later when one of our alumni who lives in a conflict affected zone messaged us about an attack on his family and neighbors. It happened just a few days before he was supposed to get married when several young armed men appeared in their village. They shot his fiancée’s older sister and kidnapped four more villagers including a newborn baby.
“So, the cease fire only lasted two weeks?” We asked him. Despite the suffering and loss of his family members, he remained positive. “The ones who did this, were usual criminals, not fighters. The separatists seem not to wish to endanger the corona lockdown.”
For a while they seemed to be fine. Despite the Covid related difficulties, they were surprisingly active and pursued their project plans. Well, fundraising was an issue though. Funds that were granted were suddenly withdrawn by some supporters. And yet, they continued. Planting forests, training youth and adults in agriculture and business enterprises, alternative educational projects, holding peace dialogues and much more…
Whenever we wanted to know whether they are ok and safe, we only heard positive answers: “Don’t worry! We are okay, life is good! Even if we have limited means, we can still make a difference! And that is what counts!”
And then, only a few weeks ago, we got news from the western part of Cameroon:
“We are right in the middle of a conflict between Ambazonian fighters and governmental forces!”
Ambazonia is the name of the autonomous southern region of Cameroon. In 2017, these so called “Ambazonians” declared independence from the Frankophone region. They even went so far as to create a flag, an anthem and their own currency, the “Ambacoin”.
The government that is mostly French speaking was not amused and the battle started. Although the civil war had a little ‘corona-pause’, the unrest continued and the fear of violent attacks is in the air every day.
We heard the following from a few sources who to remain anonymous for security reasons:
“The more the government fights against Ambazonians, the stronger the separatist movement grows. We, the common people have been caught in the middle. To track down Amazonians fighters, the forces attack the entire communities, targeting everyone without exception. And this is what happened to our community in Belo. During the recent attacks, homes of civilians have been burned. Houses, crops and food stocks are no more. They believe that we support the Ambazonian fighters. Some people are killed, others flee into the bushes. People here are afraid of the unknown. No one can be sure whether their lives are safe, so they are going into hiding.”
“Recently in a community right next to me, the forces attacked the people, killed some of them and looted the crops. All because of a suspicion that they were with the Ambazonian fighters.”
“There are a lot of uncertainties around the south west and north west region. In September, the north west region witnessed an intense ghost town, from Monday to Friday. People were allowed only to go out of their homes on Saturdays and Sundays to buy food. The authorities had banned the use of motor bikes because the Amba (separatists) boys use bikes to carry out their operations. This resulted in a tremendous shortage of food in other parts of the country, because the north West produces 40% of essential crops. When the authorities realized that it had a serious impact, even on the French speaking zones, the ban was lifted.”
“Women are very much targeted. The military goes into the communities and befriend women and trick them to get information that exposes the Amba boys. In turn, these women are caught by the Amba boys and mutilated or burned alive. This happened in Muyuka, in the South West Region and some other places in the North West as well.
“In the last attack, several of my community members were killed. The rest left the community. Several tried to flee but drowned in a river. And after the army left, the fighters came and suspected that so called “Black legs” (spies) are leaking information to the governmental forces.”
“During that attack, it was early in the morning, we gathered in our church, and suddenly we heard gunshots, immediately most of our community members escaped to the bush. Bullets were flying around our heads. Some of us spent the night at the banks of the stream.”
“Now, all markets are closed. We cannot buy food. Also, there is no public transportation available. There is no way to leave home. When the army comes, gun shots are all over the place. We do not know, where to run to. Many people have died, and many are traumatized. I try to provide support wherever I can, try to restore hope to them. Many have lost their property and all belongings. Belo town is empty. No soul. Now, where my office used to be, there is nothing left, only bushes. This left me with no other choice than to rebuild an office in this village. But for how long we are safe here, no-one knows.”
And in the midst of all this chaos, most of our kanthari graduates are still active. They do whatever they can to make the most with the limited resources they have in hand.
To help them, we would like to encourage the readers of this blog to contribute to the emergency fund. You may add the keyword Cameroon and we ensure that all the funds will reach the active kantharis in North and south West Cameroon.
You can donate here. Thank you for your support!
Also, we would like to ask you to send the link to this blog to other interested persons and motivate to donate for our Cameroonian kantharis who are working hard for a better future.
Cameroon- Timeline
1884: Cameroon colonized by Germany.
1919: German Cameroon divided into Francophone (80%) and Anglophone (20%) administrative zones.
1960: East Cameroon (French) becomes independent.
1961: Northwest and south west Cameroon, both English speaking, had the option to either join Nigeria or Francophone Cameroon. The desire to stay independent went unheard. North Cameroon joined Nigeria and South Cameroon, South West and North West became a self-administrated English-speaking territory.
1984: First declaration of Republic of Ambazonia, pushed by an independence movement of southern Cameroonians.
2016: Protests of English-speaking teachers and lawyers
2017: Declaration of independence of the republic of Ambazonia
Till date the conflict has caused more than 3,000 deaths and more than 700,000 refugees.