Over eight million students across Cameroon were expected to return to school today for the 2025/2026 academic year, according to the state daily Cameroon Tribune.
In Buea, the capital of the South West Region, where armed conflict has been raging since 2017, the atmosphere remained calm, with most schoolchildren staying indoors.
The poor turnout was attributed to persistent fear of the weekly Monday “ghost town,” added to fears of a month-long lockdown announced by separatist groups.
Lockdowns in past years have caused low school turnouts in most parts of the English-speaking regions as separatist fighters repeatedly sought to disrupt education.
Just days ago, they announced a lockdown beginning Monday as a means of resisting the government. In videos circulated online, separatist fighters warned people to stay indoors during the lockdown.
In the past, those who defied such restrictions have been abducted or killed, a strategy that has been widely condemned.
While communities on the outskirts of Buea are often the hardest hit, relatively safer areas in the city, such as those inhabited by administrative officials usually record student presence due to security presence.
Despite separatist bans that halt business activity and restrict movement until weekends, parts of Buea often witness timid operations on school days.
More than 200,000 children remained out of school in the Anglophone Regions in 2024, according to the United Nations.
Statistics released by UNICEF Cameroon on August 13 also revealed that 45 percent of schools (2,533 out of 5,517) were non-functional in the Anglophone Regions as of March 2025.
Separatists have attacked several schools since the armed conflict set in late in 2017, including killing seven children during an attack on St Francisca Nursery and Primary School in Kumba in 2020.
