“Ignoring pain, suffering in people’s hearts is ignoring peace”: Cameroonian Catholic Bishop on Post-Election Violence

Clips shared by local outlets on various social media platforms depict demonstrators alleging that officials tampered with the ballot tally to secure an advantage for Cameroon’s long-serving president, Paul Biya.

Protests were equally reported in the city of Dschang, Maroua, Garoua,  Ngaoundéré, where angry protesters claimed victory for opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

Speaking to journalists on October 23, Bishop Abbo said, “Every day, I receive at least 10 to 20 people in my office. Listening to them, one senses that the current climate is an overflow of pain, a deep suffering in people’s hearts.”

He denounced the manipulation of public sentiment by political and social actors, warning that such tactics exploit long-standing wounds.

“These manipulations have found fertile ground in suffering that already existed. Suffering that has taken root and is now overflowing. That is why we must look beyond the present moment and work toward solutions that go to the very root of the problem. And that root, I believe, is injustice,” he said. 

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“If we want to eradicate the hateful and violent rhetoric we keep hearing, we must fight the injustice that feeds it,” Bishop Abbo said.

The Catholic Church leader weighed in on a campaign that seeks to preach peace and non violence as the country awaits the proclamation of the results of the polls on Monday, October 27, by the country’s Constitutional Council.

“The awareness campaign we are about to carry out in our families, workplaces, and communities, will it really be enough to safeguard peace in our region?” he posed. 

Bishop Abbo continued, “I may be wrong, but I believe the roots of our concerns run much deeper. The solutions we are proposing today are short-term measures. In the medium and long term, we must engage in a new struggle to preserve this peace.”

In the Sunday, October 12 poll, President Paul Biya, Africa’s second-longest serving Head of State after President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, sought his eighth term.

President since 1982 in the Central African nation, where Presidents have a seven-year mandate, the 92-year-old Cameroonian is the world’s oldest Head of State.

Constitutional amendments that President Biya’s party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), spearheaded in 2008, abolishing the two-term presidential limit, brought about his “extraordinarily long tenure”. 

After the presidential polls, the opposition contender, Tchiroma, reportedly announced himself the winner.

His declaration was promptly dismissed by Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji, who denounced it as unlawful and “a matter of serious concern.”

The ruling CPDM also condemned Tchiroma’s claim as a “grotesque hoax,” maintaining that only the Constitutional Council is authorized to officially declare the winner.

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