Reportage

Insecurity in northwest Cameroon prevents families from burying loved ones

Audio 01:22

The cemetery of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Bamenda, in the northwest of Cameroon, and its improvised tombs to have more space, July 18, 2022. ©

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The North-West region of Cameroon has been affected for more than five years by the Anglophone crisis, as travel has become very complicated and dangerous.

Due to insecurity, families often have to give up burying their loved ones in their home village, heartbreaking in a region of highlands called Grassfields, where resting on the land of these ancestors has a deep meaning in the culture. local.

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With our correspondent in Bamenda,

Alphonse Tebeck,

with

Amélie Tulet

in Paris

At the morgue in Bamenda, capital of the North-West region, several families in tears are there for the lifting of the body of a deceased loved one.

Some

will not be able to return to the village

for the funeral and must resolve to bury the deceased in town.

As for Cyprian, originally from Donga-Mantung department:

“ 

It was too difficult to bring the body to the village, because of the hostilities, the fighting, the roadblocks.

I buried my grandfather without his family, without those who knew him, they weren't there.

It is very very painful, because those of the village could not participate.

My grandfather did not receive the traditional tributes, it disconnects us from our traditions, from our cultural values, those that have kept us all together for centuries.

 »

Njinuwo Godlove takes care of the cemetery of Saint-Joseph Cathedral in Bamenda.

Under the red earth, stone slabs have been used for some time to compartmentalize graves and bury up to three coffins there:

“ 

For lack of space, we try to rationalize the space in the cemetery.

Because for three years, 75% of the people buried here are not from this parish.

If only one coffin was placed per grave, the cemetery would be full a long time ago.

 »

Many hope for the return of

peace to the North West region

so that they can bring the mortal remains of their loved one back to the land of their ancestors, and thus restore the link between the dead and the living.

 To read also: 

Cameroon: MSF further restricts its activity in the English-speaking south-west

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  • Cameroon

  • Social issues