YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – At the start of the 2026/2027 academic year in Cameroon, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, warns against the forced boycott of schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.
For the past ten years, the North West and South West regions have been reeling from a separatist crisis, with the boycott of schools a cornerstone of the separatist strategy.
The statistics have been stark. According to UNICEF, the crisis has forced the closure of more than 6,000 schools, affecting more than 800,000 children.
A report by Save the Children indicates that, on average, children in the North West region have lost three and a half years of schooling due to the crisis, and that the number of teenage pregnancies in the North West region has increased by 45 percent because of the crisis.
In addition, thousands of teachers have fled the region, with the World Bank reporting that absenteeism rates in both regions are as high as 50 percent.
According to Human Rights Watch, armed groups have attacked at least 75 schools and abducted over 150 education personnel since 2016.
Bettencourt says children have become the ultimate victims of these developments.
With schools opening their doors on September 7 for the start of the 2026/27 academic year, the Portuguese-Canadian prelate warns that forcing kids out of school is “utterly diabolical.”
“As the new school year begins, our thoughts go to the most vulnerable members of our community, the children,” the archbishop said.
“Preventing children from going to school is wrong,” the nuncio said in a video message published on September 1.
“Violence is never acceptable. Let that be quite clear,” he added.
Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo in the North West Region has issued a similar call, telling Crux Now that children’s right to education must not be negotiable.
“Ask me what can be the greatest gift that can be given to children, especially the underprivileged, in a community plagued by sociopolitical unrest, and I will remind you of what men of old used to say: that the man who turns his back to education invites poverty into his household,” Nkuo said.
Kumbo has been the epicenter of separatist violence, and the impact on society has been incalculable.
“Kidnappings and torture — both physical and psychological — have tragically become common in Kumbo over the past few years. I have witnessed thousands of children of all ages leaving Kumbo out of fear,” Nkuo told Crux Now.
“The population is on edge; they are terrified of the lockdowns and the chaos that rules the streets,” he added.
“We have seen so many people flee Kumbo because they have been targeted, and the number of victims is staggering. I have seen people begging for food just to feed their children,” the bishop explained.
“Confused and lost, they face military checkpoints and heavy separatist controls on the roads where we are all advised to stay away. So many people have been kidnapped — victims of a senseless cycle of abduction,” Nkuo told Crux Now.
On Aug. 30, the bishop celebrated Mass for a male-dominated Church group in the diocese known as the Samba Action Group. It’s an annual Mass usually celebrated at the start of each school year.
Given the crisis’s impact on education, the group has initiated what it calls “Giving Someone a Future,” with the overarching aim of supporting the bishop in sponsoring underprivileged children in school.
Nkuo said he was glad that, despite the ongoing socio-political crisis, the group has continued to encourage children to pursue an education.
“This resilience is remarkable given that kidnappings and torture, both physical and psychological, have been all too common in Kumbo in recent years,” the bishop said.
Describing the members of the Samba Action Group as modeling the Christian values of parenthood, he noted that “even those [members] who may not have had the educational opportunities they desired understand that education is indispensable for any society hoping for a bright future.”
“Is this, then, not an initiative worthy of emulation and support by all?” Nkuo said.
Meanwhile, various separatist factions, historically united in calling for a boycott of schools in the two regions, have been sending mixed signals ahead of the start of the new school year.
The Ambazonia Governing Council (AGovC), the largest separatist faction, has urged parents to facilitate the unconditional return of children to school.
The Interim Government (IG) has also said it is open to allowing kids to resume school.
John Mbah Akuroh, who leads The Consortium, a civil society group advocating for the independence of Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, told Crux Now that separatist groups had ended the era of school boycotts.
“We don’t do school boycotts anymore,” he said.
“We need our children back in school, and we are doing everything to ensure that children go to school in a very conducive environment,” Akuroh told Crux Now.
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