Cameroon: “Ghost Town” Atmosphere Marks Start of New Academic Year in NW/SWRs

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, Cameroon – The start of the 2024-2025 academic year in Cameroon's North West and South West Regions has been greeted by an eerie silence, as the ongoing Anglophone crisis continues to cast a shadow over the education sector. Dubbed ghost towns, the two-week lockdown imposed by separatist groups has kept schools across the regions largely deserted on what should have been the first day back to school for thousands of children.

For many students, parents, and teachers, the hope for a return to normalcy was overshadowed by fear and uncertainty, with classrooms remaining empty and streets devoid of the usual back-to-school hustle and bustle.

In towns like Bamenda and Buea, which are key educational hubs in the English-speaking regions, schools remained shut as the ghost town order took effect. Businesses were closed, public transportation was almost absent, and parents opted to keep their children at home for safety reasons. The separatists have maintained their stance against the functioning of schools, often threatening those who defy the lockdown orders with violence.

In some areas, a few private and mission schools attempted to open their doors, but attendance was minimal. The Anglophone crisis, now in its seventh year, has severely disrupted education in the North West and South West regions. Over the past few years, many schools have been burned, teachers kidnapped, and students threatened by armed separatists seeking to impose their educational boycott. The lockdowns, often enforced on Mondays, have made it difficult for any sense of routine to return to school.

The Cameroon government has repeatedly called for schools to reopen, emphasizing the importance of education for the future of the country. The Governor of the South West Bernard Okalia Bilai, recently urged parents and teachers to defy the ghost town orders, describing education as a national priority.

He said: “It has always been the main preoccupation of the Head of State, the entire government, who have been coming to the field to support us to accompany the children to schools. We cannot have all the ambitions we have for our children, and our country, without educated children, an educated population. The Head of State said it several times, schools to children, politics to politicians.”

“We should not use our political fight to sacrifice the children, the future of this country. The children of this region, in particular, have suffered enough. So, for three years now, four years now, the populations have understood, and we want to continue, build the population, all the stakeholders, to maintain that stand, that for all whatever it is, we cannot allow the people to disturb the education, the schooling of our children.”

Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai added: “Today we have invited all the stakeholders, mainly the official, the local official elected, who have been instructed that next week all of them should go to their base to accompany the children to schools, to demonstrate that the school is very important. The mobilization should be a general mobilization. The members of parliament should go back to assist the resumption of the school.”

Despite the challenging environment, there have been efforts from various civil society organizations and religious leaders to promote the resumption of school activities. In a statement released by Archbishop Andrew Nkea, he called for children to be allowed to go back to school peacefully

His Grace Andrew Nkea, Archbishop of the Bamenda Archdiocese said: “My main message to all the people of the Northwest and the Southwest regions, where we have been having this socio-political crisis affecting schools especially, is that everyone should put hands on deck. Teachers, parents, businessmen, motorbike riders, everybody should put hands on deck to ensure that children have a smooth going back to school and that the children can study in a calm, peaceful and quiet atmosphere. This is very, very important for all of us.”

“Education is very important for every individual citizen of this country. And therefore, you can give a man anything in the world. Without education, you have left him empty.”

The continued disruption of the academic calendar is taking a heavy toll on the future of children in the Anglophone regions. Many students have missed years of schooling, while some have dropped out entirely. Education experts warn that if the crisis persists, the North West and South West regions could face a “lost generation” of children with limited educational opportunities and reduced chances for future employment.