YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Jane Ndamei’s dream of becoming a doctor nearly cost her life five years ago.
The 20-year-old student from Cameroon’s restive southwestern region was sitting for her Grade 12 exams when she suddenly heard gunshots. Shortly afterwards, armed men stormed into the school, forcing Ndamei and her peers to flee the exam hall.
“It was the sound of death and I really thought I wasn’t going to make it. I silently prayed for a miracle,” she recalls.
Ndamei, then 15 years old, was one of 2.8 million children in West and Central Africa whose education has been suspended by violent conflict in recent years, according to the United Nations. Since June, more than 14,000 schools have been closed in 24 countries in West and Central Africa due to violence and insecurity.
The separatist crisis in western Cameroon and extremist group Boko Haram’s incursions in the north left 1.4 million school-aged children in urgent need of educational assistance by 2023, according to a report by the aid group Norwegian Refugee Council. The UN said that in 2019, the year the Ndamei school was attacked, 855,000 children were out of school in northwestern and southwestern Cameroon, where armed separatist groups targeted schools.
The Central African nation has been plagued by fighting since English-speaking separatists launched an uprising in 2017, aiming to break away from the area dominated by the French-speaking majority and establish an independent, English-speaking state.
The government has accused the separatists of committing atrocities against English-speaking citizens. According to the International Crisis Group, more than 6,000 people have been killed and more than 760,000 others have been displaced in the conflict.
Since the beginning of the conflict, separatist fighters have initiated and enforced a school boycott as a means of pressuring the government for political recognition.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, separatist fighters opposed to the central government’s French-language education system have murdered and kidnapped students and teachers, burned and looted school buildings, and intimidated families to keep their children out of school.
“The deliberate targeting of schools and the systematic denial of education due to conflict are nothing short of a catastrophe,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s regional director for West and Central Africa.
“Every day a child is kept out of school is a day stolen from their future and from the future of their community,” Hamadou added.
Ndamei had to move to the French-speaking western region of the country and stay with extended family members to continue her education. She is now following a university nursing course.
“I had the privilege of staying with relatives in regions not affected by the crisis, but many of my classmates did not have this opportunity,” Ndamei told The Associated Press.
She said many have become young mothers.
“You see 11- and 12-year-olds sitting in the house, and before you know it they’re pregnant and their future is ruined,” Ndamei said. “Parents are frustrated, children are frustrated.”
Nelson Tabuwe from the northwestern town of Batibo said his three children – aged 10, 12 and 15 – have not been to school for almost seven years because of the separatist conflict.
“My last child, Jude Ngam, aspired to be a mechanical engineer. His older sister, Janet, has always wanted to be a doctor, and my eldest daughter, Claire, has always told me she wants to be a teacher,” Tabuwe told The Associated Press.
The 61-year-old and his family fled the separatist conflict in their hometown and found refuge in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé. The adjustment was difficult: the entire family lived locked in one room with very little money and Tabuwe could not find a permanent job in the capital.
“We came here with nothing,” Tabuwe said.
Since being displaced by the violence, he says it has only become more difficult to provide for his family. Tabuwe’s three children, who do not yet go to school, have to help their parents earn money.
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