कैमरून में संघर्ष स्कूलों को बंद रखता है

कैमरून में संघर्ष ने ओवरटाइम के कारण शहरों में तालाबंदी लागू कर दी, उत्तर-पश्चिम और दक्षिण-पश्चिम क्षेत्रों के कस्बों और गांवों में यह सुनिश्चित करने के लिए कि स्कूल लगातार चौथे शैक्षणिक वर्ष के लिए बंद रहें.

क्षेत्रों में भारी सैन्यीकरण है, with troops battling insurgents who use hit-and-run tactics.

Schools were due to open on 2 सितंबर – instead parents and children have been fleeing their homes in their thousands as they fear an escalation of the conflict.

Children abducted

Most schools in the two regions – including in villages – have been empty for three years, with buildings covered by long grass.

कुछ क्षेत्रों में, the government deployed troops to guard classrooms but with the army being the main enemy of the separatists, this increased the risk of attacks by separatist gunmen.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, यूनिसेफ, कहते हैं the ban on education has affected about 600,000 बच्चे, से अधिक के साथ 80% of schools shut और कम से कम 74 schools destroyed in the troubled regions.

In one incident, 80 pupils, their principal and a teacher – who defied the lockdown – were kidnapped last year, before being released about a week later.

Separatist fighters denied involvement, but the government blamed them for the abductions.

The conflict has its roots in the government’s decision to increase the use of French in schools and courts in the mainly English-speaking regions in 2016.

It triggered mass protests and morphed into a rebellion the following year as some civilians – angry that the government deployed troops to crush the protests – took up arms.

Thousands of people – civilians, separatists and soldiers – have been killed and more than 500,000 displaced.

The economy is also in ruins, with businesses going bankrupt and workers not being paid.

Child soldiers

Worst of all, children have been orphaned and some of them have gone into the bush to join one of the many armed groups that have emerged to fight for what they call the independent state of Ambazonia.

What was once unthinkable has become a reality: कैमरून – like some other African states – now has child soldiers.

They blame government troops for the deaths of their parents and have vowed to take revenge.

The separatists have targeted schools, more than anything else, because they are the softest of targets, and because they want to thwart the government’s efforts to make children – the next generation of English-speaking Cameroonians – fall under greater French influence.

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