Armed fighters who identified as members of the Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, attacked Government Primary School Upper Mbot, in Donga Mantung Division of the restive North West Region, where they set ablaze didactic materials and the Cameroon Flag.
The ADF is one of several armed separatist groups that have been opposing school resumption and the use of Cameroon’s national symbols in the English-speaking regions.
The group, loyal to Lucas Ayaba Cho’s Ambazonia Governing Council, AGovC, stormed the primary school on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
Finding no one on the school premises, they gathered some didactics—mostly textbooks — and set them ablaze.
They also set ablaze the Cameroon flag, which was flying on the school campus.
“These are things gathered from Government School Upper Mbot. We came here, and there were no teachers in the school. We don’t know where they went to,” one of the fighters could be heard saying in a video circulated on social media.
Setting fire on the school materials, the male voice added, “We have decided to burn the things.”
“This is also the flag of La Republique on fire. We are Ambazonia fighters under the ADF grand command under Ayaba the great,” he said.
Separatist Ambazonia fighters have repeatedly targeted schools since the escalation of the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis in 2017.
Some pupils and teachers have paid with their lives as the situation keeps deteriorating.
Many schools in the rural areas in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions have been forced to shut down due to insecurity and threats posed by the fighters.
Attacks on schools in the two regions have been repeatedly condemned by human rights and religious organizations, who believe children must be allowed to enjoy the basic right to education.
