A Catholic priest and three Catholic teachers in Cameroon’s troubled southwest region are recovering from bullet wounds after they were shot in what church authorities say was a targeted attack on the Catholic primary school in St. Martin of Tour’s Kembong Parish on 26th September.
The attack comes amid the country’s struggle with seven years of separatist violence, and the Catholic Church still seems to be the only possible peace-negotiating partner. According to Father Christopher Eboka, the Mamfe Diocese’s director of communications, the attackers entered the school in search of Father Elvis Mbangsi, whom they shot four times-on the left wrist, right thigh, left knee and right foot. The other teachers were each shot twice in the legs.
The priest and the four teachers are recovering from their wounds at the Bamenda Regional Hospital. Despite attacks on the church and its people, there is increasing consensus that a workable solution will only come from the Catholic Church, whose members account for 40% of Cameroon’s 27 million people. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a 2018 report that other than the Catholic clergy, “there are few prospective peacemakers.”
Cameroon’s majority French-speaking citizens have long been accused of marginalising and attempting to assimilate English-speaking citizens. The English-speaking separatists are seeking their own state called Ambazonia.
Picture: A file photo shows burned and damaged buildings in Kembong, Cameroon. A Catholic priest and three Catholic teachers in Cameroon’s troubled southwest region were recovering from bullet wounds after they were shot in what church authorities say was a targeted attack on a Catholic primary school in Kembong, 26th September 2023. The attack comes amid seven years of a separatist conflict in the African country. (OSV News photo/Josiane Chemou, Reuters)