AFRICA/CAMEROON – Bishops warn of increases in drug abuse in schools

AFRICA/CAMEROON: Bishops warn about an increase in drug abuse in schools

Yaoundé (Agenzia Fides) – “We are concerned about the growing frequency of drug abuse and violence in our schools”. This is the alarm call of the Bishops in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, Anglophone western Cameroon. Here, a civil war is taking place between the army and secessionist militias.
Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC), made a Sunday, August 21 statement in which they urged the government “intensify awareness on the harmful effects of indulging with the abuse of drug and in violence” as well as expressing concern over “the growing frequency and violence in schools all across the Country during the 2021/2022 School Years”.
The Bishops highlight some serious news stories in which students were involved in orgies and the murder of teachers or their peers.
The Bishops ask that the government intensify its awareness of the harmful effects of drug abuse and violence and strengthen the application and enforcement of measures to stop the sale, circulation, and use of illegal drugs.
Young people should be “evangelists for their peers”. They stress that “no one can do this better” than them.
Nearly six years of war have destroyed the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, which make up 20% of Cameroon’s nearly 27 million residents. Separatists are trying to create a new state called Ambazonia.
According to the Cameroonian government, at least 4,000 people were killed and more than a half a million forced from their homes by the war.
Joseph Dion Ngute, the Cameroonian Prime Minster, stated that there was a 72% drop off in school enrollments in the separatist area between 2017 and 2022. UN says that over 700,000 children have been forced out of school and that two of the three schools in the region have been closed as a result of violence.
The Catholic Bishops lament the protracted conflict in the country’s Anglophone regions, including “the piteous and distressing cries of anguish”, which they say they hear every day as a result of “banditry, kidnappings, assassinations, lynchings, armed robberies and reckless use of force by some armed groups and some security agencies”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 25/8/2022)

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