Attackers armed with guns and machetes killed at least
eight children Saturday in a raid on a school in southwestern
Cameroon, the United Nations said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack on the bilingual
school in Kumba, but the area has been caught up in violence
between Anglophone separatists and government forces for three
years.
“At least eight children were killed as a result of gunshots and
attack with machetes,” at the Mother Francisca International
Bilingual Academy, a statement by the local UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
“Another twelve were wounded and taken to local hospitals,” it
added, which would make it one of the worst such attacks in the
region to date.
A source close to police added that the children were killed
when a “group of nine terrorist assailants” stormed the school and
opened fire on pupils aged between nine and 12 years.
“There are no words for the grief nor condemnation strong enough
to express my horror at the brutal attack which targeted primary
school children… while they were sitting learning, in their
classroom,” said President of the African Union Moussa Faki Mahamat
on Twitter.
“I unreservedly condemn the acts of barbarism committed in
Kumba. Murdering children… is to attack the very foundations of our
nation,” said Cameroon Public Health Minister Malachie
Manaouda.
Two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, Southwest and
Northwest provinces, have long chaffed against perceived
discrimination from the country’s French-speaking majority.
The two regions have become the centre of a conflict involving
separatist militants who have targeted the army and demanded local
government offices and schools close.
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Fighting has claimed more than 3,000 lives and forced over
700,000 people to flee their homes since 2017.
Authorities did not blame any group for Saturday’s attack.
Chamberlin Ntou’ou Ndong, prefect of the Meme department where
the Kumba school is located, vowed however that “these people will
be caught whatever it takes. I repeat, whatever it takes.”
In early September, the army launched its latest operation
against militants in the Northwest region.
Since it began, the movement became more radicalised, and
separatists renamed the regions the Republic of Ambazonia, which
has never been recognised internationally.
Their strategy included a school boycott, said Arrey Elvis Ntui,
a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group in
Cameroon.
“Around 700,000 young people were excluded from the school
system owing to the conflict,” he told AFP.
“The government and anglophone civil society have put a lot of
pressure on separatist groups to allow their children to go back to
school, and some that had closed in recent years have begun to
resume classes again,” Ntui said.
Last year, two students were killed by separatists in Buea, the
capital of Southwest Region in what an official described as
“reprisal” for opposing the forced school closures.
In 2018, insurgents killed a principal, mutilated a teacher and
attacked several high schools.
Separatists have also increasingly resorted kidnappings and
extortion, along with attacks on troops and police, and arson
assaults on public buildings and schools.
The government has responded with a crackdown, deploying
thousands of soldiers.
AFP
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