Cameroon Fails The Test Of Government

By Rebecca Tinsley*

Newly released research shows a continuing pattern of attacks on schools in the restive English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The reports from the Cameroon Database of Atrocities illustrate the destruction of two schools using satellite imagery, photographs, videos, and weather data to verify the time and location of the attacks.

Although the government in Yaoundé endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration in 2018, Cameroon remains one of the most dangerous countries for children to attend school, according to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA).

The two schools covered in the reports are in the North-West Region – Government School in Nyugu in Balikumbat attacked in September 2024, and Government Technical High School Esu in Esu attacked in December 2023. Each school was most likely destroyed by separatist Anglophone militia according to reliable media reports.

The self-styled “Ambazonia” separatist insurgents use violence and the threat of violence to deter Anglophone parents from sending their children to government-run schools, because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the Francophone-dominated government in Yaoundé. Throughout the separatists’ boycott of these schools, teachers, students, and administrators have been kidnapped, tortured and killed in the eight-year-long conflict. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also catalogued abuses against civilians by the Cameroon security services, often behaving with impunity. 

The UN has estimated that more than 800,000 children out of a total population of six million in the Anglophone regions have been unable to attend school in the worst periods of the insurgency. Civil society groups express concern that a generation of Anglophone children have missed their education, facing the prospect of exploitation, poverty and joblessness as a consequence.

According to the GCPEA, in 2022-23, there were 54 attacks on schools in Cameroon, mostly in the North-West and South-West English-speaking regions, with at least one million children deprived of education. 

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum points out that countries that fulfill their duties in protecting their citizens tend to also be the most prosperous. “The oldest and simplest justification for government is as protector: protecting citizens from violence,” writes Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter. “The most important priority of government as investor is indeed education, but education cradle-to-grave.”

It is notable that Government School Nyugu was recently built with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) implementation. It was part of Cameroon’s “Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the Northwest and Southwest Regions.” However, the destruction of the school by insurgents raises questions about the security afforded government projects in the Anglophone regions, or the sincerity of Yaoundé’s attempts to develop English-speaking communities. 

The Cameroon Database of Atrocities has logged 1,900 incidents since its inception in 2019, including 70 incidents in 2025 alone. These statistics may, however, be a massive understatement since many acts of violence are not reported or recorded. The UN believes at least 6,000 people have died so far in the conflict, while more than a million have been displaced by the violence.

If citizens believe their government has a duty to protect the population from aggression, then Cameroon’s rulers fail the most basic test. If the Safe Schools Declaration means anything, then Cameroon’s rulers get a failing mark on that as well.

The Database of Atrocities is an apolitical, nonpartisan volunteer team that offers a secure location storing information about attacks perpetrated during the Anglophone Crisis. The Database verifies incidents when evidence permits.