Archbishop Kleda Survives Gun Attack |
The Catholic Church in Cameroon said shots were fired at
the residence of Archbishop Samuel Kleda, bishops’ conference president, after
he criticized policies by the government of President Paul Biya.
“Projectiles
were shot at the Archdiocese of Douala headquarters, breaking its windows,” the
local vicar general, Msgr. Dieudonne Bayemeg, said in a statement. “There were
no human injuries, and the police arrived immediately, accompanied by the
archbishop, cathedral rector and household guards.”
The
statement, issued after the late-evening May 3 attack, said the bullets hit the
room of the archdiocesan finance officer, Msgr. Alan Nibile, who threw himself
on the floor.
It added
that inquiries were continuing and said Catholics in the central African state
had been asked to “pray and remain calm.”
Meanwhile,
the Actualite du Cameroun news agency described the attack May 7 as an
“attempted assassination” and said it was widely believed linked to Kleda’s
demands for a government dialogue with separatist groups and for Biya not to
seek re-election.
Cross-border
Islamist insurgents from Nigeria-based Boko Haram have targeted Catholic clergy
and killed hundreds of police, troops and civilians in Cameroon’s Far North
region since allying with Islamic State in March 2015.
Since
2016, army units have also been deployed against separatists in Cameroon’s
English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions. The separatists have declared
an independent state, “Ambazonia.”
In a
Dec. 5 interview with Cameroon’s La Nouvelle Expression magazine, Kleda urged
Biya, in power since 1982, not to run for a fifth term in October elections and
accused the president’s backers of “seeking to protect their personal interests
and retain their privileges.”
In a
Jan. 1 Douala cathedral homily, he said society was being “paralyzed and
destroyed by corruption at all levels,” which had “plunged the country into
moral and spiritual crisis.”
In an
April 17 television interview, he warned mass unemployment was depriving young
people of prospects and said the government should negotiate with secessionist
and rebel groups and permit the election of regional presidents.
“Decentralization
allows peace, since people in a given region can then think about their
future,” the archbishop said.
“Peace
through armed force is never a true peace. Since we are all in the same country
and all brothers, our message is to stop the violence immediately at all costs,
without vengeance, and accept others who don’t think like us.”
The
Cameroonian bishops’ conference is engaged in legal action over the alleged
murder of Bishop Jean-Marie Bala of Bafia, whose body was found floating in a
river in June 2017 in what justice officials ruled was a suicide.
Meanwhile,
in an April 23 commentary, the conference’s news agency, L’Effort Camerounais,
urged the international community to “open its eyes” to “human rights abuses
and extrajudicial executions” by government forces in the country’s Anglophone
regions.
It added
that young men had been rounded up, shot and “dumped in public squares as a
deterrence to others,” and accused the army’s spokesman, Col. Didier Badjeck,
of ignoring “evidence of military atrocities that lies scattered far and wide
like autumn leaves.”
“Despite
the frequency and magnitude of such atrocities, the government remains in
denial, indicating it intends to pursue its dehumanizing acts,” the church
agency said.
“There
may be growing calls for dialogue, but the government seems to have a draconian
solution to the ongoing crisis: Hit them with such brutal force that those
lucky to survive will never dare raise their heads again!”
Source: National Catholic Reporter
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