Attackers Storm School With Weapons, Kill Several Children In Cameroon

At least eight children were killed and a dozen wounded after attackers stormed a school in southwestern Cameroon with guns and machetes, the United Nations said. Arriving on motorbikes and in civilian clothes, the men attacked the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, at around midday on Saturday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, described by the UN as “the worst atrocity” since the resumption of the school year earlier this month. It was

not clear if the attack was linked to a continuing struggle between government forces and armed groups in the English speaking west seeking to form a breakaway state. “At least eight children were killed as a result of gunshots and attack with machetes. Another twelve were wounded and taken to local hospitals,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA said in a statement. Some children were reportedly injured jumping from second storey windows. Videos circulating on social media filmed by

local journalists appeared to show adults rushing from the school with children in their arms, surrounded by wailing onlookers. One photo verified by the media showed the inside of a classroom, where a pile of dried blood had pooled on the floor near some scattered flip-flops. “They found the children in class and they opened fire on them,” city sub-prefect Ali Anougou told the media. Isabel Dione ran into the school to search for her 12 year old daughter when she heard about the shooting. She found her on the floor of a classroom

bleeding from the stomach. “She was helpless and she was shouting ‘mum please help me’, and I told her ‘only your God can save you now’,” Dione told the media. The girl was rushed to hospital where she is undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound. Local education official Ahhim Abanaw Obase confirmed six deaths of children aged between 12 and 14 and added that another eight had been taken to hospital. “I am shocked and outraged by the killing of innocent school children [who] were attending school to get an education,” said Matthias Z

Local education official Ahhim Abanaw Obase confirmed six deaths of children aged between 12 and 14 and added that another eight had been taken to hospital

Naab, the UN’s resident humanitarian coordinator in Cameroon. “Children have a right to education. Violence against schools and innocent school children is not acceptable under any circumstances and can constitute a crime against humanity if proven in a court of law. I call on the competent authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into this tragedy,” added Naab. African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said: “There are no words of grief nor condemnation strong enough to articulate my full horror at the brutal attack

targeting primary schoolchildren … as they sat learning in their classroom.” Prominent separatist leader Ayuk Tabe described the attack as “inhumane” in a Twitter post and said “anyone responsible for these atrocities must be brought to book.” Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions - the Northwest and Southwest Regions - are home to a large minority of English speakers in a country where French speakers are the overwhelming majority - a situation that is the legacy of the decolonisation of western Africa by France and Britain

more than 60 years ago. In late 2016, long-standing complaints of political and economic discrimination against English speakers by the central government spilled over when lawyers, students and teachers began calling for reforms. The government’s lethal response to the protests provoked rebels to declare in 2017 independence for a region they call “Ambazonia”, triggering a stronger crackdown by the authorities. Both sides have since been accused of committing atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 3,000 people and

An empty clasroom is seen following a shooting at a school in Kumba

forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. William Lawrence, senior adjunct professorial lecturer at the American University in Washington DC, US, called Saturday’s attack an “escalation that we have not yet seen in the anglophone crisis in Cameroon”. “Think about it symbolically - we have a bilingual school that represents a united Cameroon being attacked and children being the victim of something that wasn’t their fault at all,” he told the media. “It’s horrific and it’s gruesome.” Both sides have since been accused of

committing atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 3,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. William Lawrence, senior adjunct professorial lecturer at the American University in Washington DC, US, called Saturday’s attack an “escalation that we have not yet seen in the anglophone crisis in Cameroon”. “Think about it symbolically - we have a bilingual school that represents a united Cameroon being attacked and children being the victim of something that wasn’t their fault at all,” he told the media. “It’s horrific and it’s gruesome.”