By Tata Mbunwe
The 15-year-old girl who died in the massive explosion that hit Nkambe on 11 February was an internally displaced person from Bui, who had been forced by armed conflict to pursue education in Nkambe.
Cherish Lemnyuy Bonge, who was the lone casualty of the separatist bomb attack that injured over 70, had been living in Nkambe since 2022, because of her quest for education.
She was admitted into Form Three at Government High School Nyanji, Nkambe in 2022 and got promoted to Form Four last year.
Intense conflict and separatists’ ban on education in her place of origin, Bui Division, had earlier forced her parents to relocate her from Bui to Douala to acquire education.
But in 2022, the parents decided to move her to Nkambe, where there was relative calm, because it was closer to Bui.
Unfortunately, the tragic explosion that disrupted Youth Day celebrations in Nkambe shattered her dreams and brought the young life to an abrupt end.
She died on the spot when an improvised explosive device went off at a crowded spot near the Nkambe grandstand on Youth Day.
“I feel sorry for Lenyuy’s family from Bui, whose daughter was killed just because she was seeking education,” said Hon Ngala Gerard, the Member of Parliament for Nkambe Central.
“You won’t imagine that this child left Kumbo for Douala and then the father thought it wise to bring her closer to Bui. That’s why he brought her from Douala to Nkambe and she’s been going round seeking for education and you think that somebody should not encourage children to go to school. It’s just absurd,” the MP added during a recent interview.
Hon Ngala is among many Anglophone elite who have been pushing for education in the English-speaking Regions since 2016, when education got disrupted by a general protest against marginalization.
Separatists, who later “hijacked” the protests and declared independence in 2017 continued to wage a fierce war against education and used force to enforce anti-school campaigns.
The conflict has disrupted the education of more than 700,000 school children in the two English-speaking Regions, according to the UN.
It has also led to the burning of dozens of school and the killing, torture and kidnapping of hundreds of students, teachers and education promoters.
The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), states that about 2,245 schools in the North West and South West regions are still not functioning in 2024.
Thousands of school children have been forced to seek education in other areas of the English-speaking Regions that are considered safer, but it turns out, like with the case of Nkambe, that nowhere is safer.
Cherish Lemnyuy is the latest victim of what many say is a senseless war against education, which has persisted despite numerous condemnations from national and international bodies.
Hundreds of people attended Lemnyuy’s funeral in Nkambe on Wednesday, February 14, an emotional event that pictured the harrowing reality lived by most English-speaking Cameroonians since 2016.
