Cameroon: back to school disrupted by separatists in the North West

A school teacher in Cameroon.

(illustrative image) © RFI/Nicolas Champeaux

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Classes for kindergarten, primary and secondary school students officially resumed on Monday, September 5 at the national level.

A return to school disrupted by the crisis in the two regions with an English-speaking majority of the country.

If in some towns in the South-West, such as Buea, students have returned to school normally, in the North-West region, for example, many children have not been able to return to school. 

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In several districts of Bamenda as in many parts of the North West region, students stayed at home on Monday.

In these areas where armed groups are active, every Monday is declared a “ghost town” day.

This imposed confinement, some separatists want to extend it all week, others all September.

While another faction, the Ambazonia Governing Council, is calling on families to send their children to school starting today, but only in schools that follow its movement's rules.

In these establishments, history books from the French-speaking educational system are prohibited. 

In Buea, in the South West region, students returned to school as normal on Monday.

In its communication dedicated to this new school year, in Yaoundé, the government assures that the results of the past school year are "

" in the North-West and South-West regions.

A year marked by “ 

”. 

According to Human Rights Watch, over the past five years, 700,000 students in the two regions have been deprived of education due to insecurity.

The NGO still had this year, between January and June, 33 students and five teachers kidnapped by separatists, and at least three schools attacked. 

For this new school year in Cameroon, the strike slogan launched by three movements (OTS, OTA) and Seca to denounce the lack of application of the measures announced last March after Operation Chalk Dead.

A strike movement to demand the payment of all teachers' salaries in particular.

No figure for the moment to assess whether this strike slogan has been followed in the establishments.    

So far, everything is going very well.

The teachers have picked up the teaching materials and are currently heading to the classrooms.

Report: back-to-school day in establishments in Douala

Polycarp Essomba

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• Cameroon

• Education