Ambazonia Leaders call for School Resumption, cast Doubt on Security

Secretary of State for Communication & IT for Ambazonia

Leaders of the Ambazonia have in an unanticipated outing, called on parents to enrol their children for the 2018/2019 academic year, in the troubled Regions of the former Southern Cameroons.

In the media outing, which got to most people via YouTube and other social media platforms, the Communication Secretary of the pro-independence movement, Chris Anu, announced that parents in the two Anglophone Regions could send their children to school if the security situations permit.

            “The Interim Government’s position and that of the frontline leaders was very clear emerging from the Washington DC All Ambazonia Consultative Conference (AACC). And the position is that the right to education is inalienable. As such, should parents deem that the right environment exists and that it is safe to send their kids to school anywhere in Ambazonia – schools where anything French, including French teachers, are kept away, parents alone are in the position to make that call,” Anu stated.

            In a communiqué clarifying their pro-school stance, Chris Anu wrote that they “cannot vouch for safety and security of any child going to school and any school campus opened for business. The decision of any child going to school will have to be the sole discretion of his or her parents.”

            In a seemingly controversial stand, the leaders of the movement said some school campuses have been transformed into military barracks and that since most of those targeted by soldiers are youths, some of which are of school-going age, they remain sceptical on how safe the students will be.

            The spokesperson also stated that they won’t advise any young person to leave any abode where they feel comfortable, and come to certain places where they risk being shot.

            The pro-school stance was welcomed by most of the people living in the troubled Regions, but many have cast doubts on the leaders’ commitment to their words, given other pronouncements like the one saying that they cannot vouch for the safety of any student.

            Schools in the troubled Regions have been grounded for over two years, owing to the Crisis that spiralled into an armed struggle, making the school areas which in some cases were targeted, very unsafe especially those in rural communities.