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Separatists Warn Against Reopening Schools in Crisis Zones

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - The new school year in Cameroon begins this Monday
   with the government determined to reopen at least 4,500 schools closed
   in its English-speaking regions as a result of the separatist crisis.
   But the separatists, who have warned that they will not allow any
   school to be opened unless their leader, Ayuk Tabe and nine others
   given life jail sentences by a military tribunal, are freed, have
   already attacked and wounded at least nine teachers for defying their
   instructions.

   Teacher Elmer Tabot,28, and her two children arrived in Cameroon's
   capital Yaounde from the English-speaking south western town of Menji
   on Monday.

   She says she is one of the nine teachers who were abducted and beaten
   by separatist fighters with some of them having their fingers chopped
   off.

   "Our house was burned and a business place that we were managing was
   burned, so even the transport fare to come here was very difficult,"
   she said. "Things were very hard. People helped us to raise that money
   that we can reach here. So I have gone through a lot of difficulties."

   Tabot says they were accused of defying instructions by separatists for
   them not to go to school to prepare the opening of the 2019/2020 school
   year in Cameroon.

   The separatists had, on social media, vowed that schools will not
   resume in the English-speaking regions until their leader Ayuk Tabe
   Julius and nine of his supporters, given life sentences by a military
   tribunal in Yaounde, are freed. The tribunal said it had found them
   guilty of secession, terrorism and hostility against the state of
   Cameroon.

   Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon's English-speaking North West
   region says the population should not be intimidated and should send
   their children to school. He says all measures have been taken to
   protect both teachers and school children.

   "The security services assure the population that all is set for class
   resumption. I am appealing therefore to the population of the north
   west region that they should send back their children to school. To
   those that have attempted to send their children elsewhere, bring them
   back," he said.

   Violence erupted in Cameroon's English-speaking regions in 2016 when
   teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of
   the French-speaking majority.
   The government responded with a crackdown that sparked an armed
   movement for an independent, English-speaking state.

   The separatists started attacking schools and kidnapping teachers and
   students vowing to make the regions ungovernable by the central
   government in Yaounde.

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