Separatist fighters killed Amos Vernyuy, the pedagogic animator number 1 at the Divisional Delegation of Basic Education for Bui. Separatist fighters attacked and killed the native of Bui Division on the night of Saturday, September 28, 2024.
The Regional Delegate of Basic Education North West announced the brutal killing of Amos Vernyuy by separatists in a message circulating on social media.
The local teaching population told MMI that Vernyuy had been a pillar in the educational sector of Kumbo, “we respected him a lot,” a teacher said on the basis of anonymity. “His untimely death has left a deep void within us in Kumbo and Bui Division at large,” said one of his collaborators.
Many describe the act as heinous, and it is not the first in the troubled North West and South West regions of Cameroon. Since the armed conflict in 2017, more than 500 teachers have faced challenges, with many losing their lives, which has created a difficult working environment for educators.
Impact on Teachers
Rose, a teacher in Ngoketunjia, informed MMI that she has abandoned teaching due to the frequent attacks on teachers. “I’m scared. I learnt a trade and I’m working away from the anglophone regions to stay alive for my family,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to see us teachers attacked by those we taught in school,” said another teacher in one of the schools in Momo Division.
Before 2016, teachers had tabled a number of grievances to the government for redress. In 2016, the teacher’s trade unions came together with the Lawyer’s Association to demand for governance reforms that, according to them, would move the nation forward and better the situation of Anglophone Cameroonians who felt marginalised at the time.
Since then, med groups have emerged, with the attack now shifting from the attack of security forces to the population, teachers included.
The education sector, according to stakeholders has suffered the most given that hundreds of thousands are still out of school, with just about 300 schools functioning out of over 500 schools in the North West region alone.
Authorities condemn atrocities, including the recent killing of Vernyuy, and call for calm. Across the board, people demand resolution of the conflict and justice served.
