GBHS Foumbot: IDP students decry harassment

Students from the North West Region of Cameroon displaced by the Anglophone crisis seeking refuge in Fombot, Noun Division in the West Region of Cameroon have decried what they call intimidation and harassment by students of French expression in Government Bilingual High School, GBHS, Foumbot.

According to one of the parents of these internally displaced students, speaking to Mimi Mefo Info on the basis of anonymity, “… the students who are indigenes of Foumbot brutalize and beat our students from the North West. They organize a barbaric action called ‘Retour’ in French just to harass the students. Our children sometimes come back home with wounds as the French boys beat and intimidate them not to ask questions in the English language in class.”

According to the parents, complaints of these harassments have been submitted to the office of the principal of GBHS Foumbot several times with no action taken.

Reacting to the accusation, Njouendou Ibrahim, Principal of GBHS Foumbot says “…there is nothing as intimidation of IDP students taking place in the school. I will find out more from the vice principal and other teachers but I can say categorically that this is not happening in my school. “

An assertion of the principal confirmed by the Vice-principal in charge of the anglophone section of the school.
To Ndongche Francis, “GBHS Foumbot has been a bilingual school for many years and we have never registered such cases. I am an anglophone and cannot sit and watch that happening. If there is harassment, then it has not come to our notice. If it exists then we will handle that accordingly.”

To the senior discipline master of GBHS Foumbot, issues of some students brutalizing and harassing others are not new in the school. Speaking to Mimi Mefo Info on phone Tuesday, January 26th, 2021, Nkekeng Augustine says “…accusations of students being harassed are true to an extent. Natives students are very rough and aggressive. They intimidate students and threaten them not to report to school officials.”

Nkekeng Augustine attests that he has solved issues as such but those involving native students maltreating those coming from the North West have not been reported to him.
“Am calling on students that are maltreated to come and report to me. We will take appropriate measures to protect them as students of the school,” he said.

To the senior discipline master, his office pays particular attention to IDP students given that they have earlier been traumatized by the crisis.

Thousands of students and pupils from the North West region have taken refuge in the West region and Noun division in particular since 2016 when the anglophone crisis started.

Mbatho Ntan.

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