Embrace Humanity Even in War, Archbishop Appeals to Warring Forces in Cameroon

Schools in the Anglophone regions of the Central African nation have been closed due to the protracted skirmishes. 

During the over four years of fighting, at least 3,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations, and over a million forced from their homes. In addition, several villages have been totally destroyed.

In one of the attacks that attracted global condemnation last October, gunmen opened fire on students at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy, leaving seven children dead in the wake of the attack.

In the January 5 report, Archbishop Nkea says that Cameroon’s long-running Anglophone crisis could continue for decades and calls upon the people in the country to be patient as they wait for the resolution of the conflict.

“Look at Ethiopia and Eritrea. It took at least forty years of fighting and talking before they came to a conclusion. For South Sudan, it was 48 years of fighting and talking before they came to a conclusion. I don’t understand what is wrong with Cameroonians. You start a fight, and you want results the next day,” the Archbishop is quoted as saying.

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He adds, “Whoever started this war has plunged our country into something that the effects will follow us for at least 50 years.”

Last year, the government organized what it called a “Major National Dialogue” to try finding solutions to the crisis.

The meeting, which caught Pope Francis’ attention, proposed several recommendations, including the adoption of a special status for the two Anglophone regions, the restoration of the House of Traditional Chiefs, the election of local governors, the immediate reinstatement of certain airport and seaport projects in the two regions, and the rapid integration of ex-combatants into society.

However, Nkea observed that the Major National Dialogue, in which he took part, was a charade, saying, “The people’s hope is in dialogue.”

Catholic Church leaders had wanted a neutral entity including Western countries and the United Nations, to oversee talks. Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese told ACI Africa in an October interview that he “was disappointed and indeed not satisfied with the way this dialogue was carried out.”

In the January 5 report, Archbishop Nkea says, “What we did last year, if the government considers that that was dialogue, then the government does not understand dialogue. And if the boys who were fighting considered that that was dialogue, it means they do not understand dialogue.”

Archbishop Nkea explains, “Dialogue is a discussion between a small group of people, opposing parties who look at the things that divide them and look for common ground. You cannot do this with a thousand people.”

The Archbishop who has been commissioned by the government to go to Cameroon’s South West Region to explain what that Major National Dialogue was and what it could achieve has since been criticized by separatists who claim he was compromised by the agreement, an accusation he refutes, saying his only mandate was to preach peace.

“If I don’t talk peace, what will I talk on earth? I better resign; until my last breath, I will talk about peace,” the 55-year-old Cameroonian Archbishop says.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.