{"id":28929,"date":"2018-05-29T07:19:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T07:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=28929"},"modified":"2018-05-30T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T07:42:12","slug":"cameroon-bishops-condemn-monstrous-violence-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/29\/cameroon-bishops-condemn-monstrous-violence-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"CAMEROON: Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019 &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>CAMEROON<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2>Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Catholic bishops of Cameroon have issued an urgent plea signed by Monsignor Samuel Kleda, President of the Cameroon Bishops\u2019 Conference, following the brutal army crackdown against an independence movement in English-speaking regions of Cameroon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The escalating humanitarian crisis that resulted is described by the bishops as a situation \u201cmarked by blind, inhumane, monstrous violence and a radicalization of positions that alarms us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In their statement, the bishops plead for an end to violence: \u201cLet us stop all forms of violence and cease killing each other&#8230; Let us save our country, Cameroon, from a baseless and futile civil war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The call for both sides to dialogue as a way out of the security crisis in Cameroon\u2019s Anglophone region has been reiterated by the Bishops: \u201cWe, the Bishops of Cameroon, believe that a process of mediation must now be imposed to find a way out of the crisis\u2026 We are all brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The international movement Crisis Group has identified the church as the most potent political mediator between the government and separatist elements. Its 26 April report titled \u201cCameroon\u2019s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue\u201d stated that the clergy needed to unite with a strong common position in order to be seen as credible mediators.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In an interview with the BBC, Bishop of Mamfe in the southwest region, Andrew Nkea, spoke at length about the harrowing experiences that bishops went through during a tour of burnt down regions in the violence-hit parts of the Anglophone regions \u2013 Northwest and Southwest. The bishop stressed that violence has been on both sides &#8211;\u00a0 while the army was burning down entire villages, the separatists were also burning down schools and other state institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Caritas workers in Mamf\u00e9, south-western Cameroon, at the epicentre of the Anglophone crisis report \u201cNot a week goes by without houses being burned down, people kidnapped or killed. Fear has taken over this territory.\u201d 45,000 people in the diocese have been displaced, leaving behind ghost villages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;The security situation is incredibly precarious and most people instead of working in their fields have fled their burned houses to hide in the bush,\u201d observed Hippolyte Sando of Caritas.\u00a0 A refugee from south-west Cameroon now living in Nigeria, said \u201cSoldiers are burning villages. People are living in the bush. If you even walk up to the roadside you can be shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Cameroon\u2019s former French and British territories have been riled by armed violence between government and secessionist forces. In October 2017, activists in the English-speaking minority regions, which represent 20 percent of the population, declared a so-called independent Ambazonia Republic, in defiance of the French-dominated government of President Paul Biya.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The crisis is under-reported, with no journalists being allowed into conflict areas, but at least 150 people including 64 civilians are thought to have been killed so far in running battles between the army and separatists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">160,000 people are displaced in Cameroon and at least 26,000 fled into Nigeria but the total may be 40,000, according to the UN. Four-fifths are women and children. Only five in 100 refugees have proper shelter, the rest sleeping rough in abandoned buildings or out in the open.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Eyewitnesses report constant shootings deaths and kidnappings were still taking place in the areas of Mamf\u00e9, Limbe, Buea, and Nisan Aragaki. As Caritas Mamf\u00e9 wrote:\u00a0 \u201cIn these conditions, going back home would be suicide. The situation remains tense and gives no sign of better days ahead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nigeria\u2019s bishops, while urging tolerance, warn that the refugee influx in Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states is compounding the poverty of local communities. \u201cWe are lacking food, shelter, clean drinking water,\u201d said one Nigerian village leader. \u201cPeople are sick and dying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>ACN Malta<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAMEROON Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019 &nbsp; The Catholic bishops of Cameroon have issued an urgent plea signed by Monsignor Samuel Kleda, President of the Cameroon Bishops\u2019 Conference, following the brutal army crackdown against an independence movement in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The escalating humanitarian crisis that resulted is described by the bishops as a situation&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CAMEROON: Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019 - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/29\/cameroon-bishops-condemn-monstrous-violence-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAMEROON: Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019 - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CAMEROON Bishops condemn \u2018monstrous violence\u2019 &nbsp; The Catholic bishops of Cameroon have issued an urgent plea signed by Monsignor Samuel Kleda, President of the Cameroon Bishops\u2019 Conference, following the brutal army crackdown against an independence movement in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. 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