International Women’s Day in Cameroon:
Women Celebrating As Gov’t, Separatist Ignore Their Cries

By Timfuchi Aaron

Women in Cameroon are today celebrating the International Women’s Day just like their counterparts worldwide. The the theme of this year’s celebration is: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.

Women are often regarded as vectors of peace in most countries. But that is not the case with Cameroon. As the women of Cameroon commemorate International Women’s Day, this day amidst the crisis ravaging the North West and South West regions, their calls and quest for peace have been ignored and ignored by the government as well as separatist leaders.

Despite several actions and activities carried out by these women for a return to normalcy, the separatist fighters, and government officials have all ignored it as people keep dying every day in these two regions.

Street demonstrations and lamentations that have been organized in the divisions and even regional head quarters seems to have just been a drop of water on a duck’s back. These women have organized lamentations aimed at calling for both parties to end the war in the Anglophone regions, sue for peace and forgiveness. This has been done in Buea and Bamenda. But, the government and separatist leaders have given a deaf ear to such calls.
The women of Cameroon organized the All Women Conference in Yaoundé in 2021.

For three days over 1000 women raised their voices in unison, demanding an end to violence and calling for the return of peace.

Almost a year after the conference, the crisis is still on. The women have also written several memos calling for an end to the crisis. These memos have reached all those involved in the crisis but they have given a deaf ear to it. Several Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs have engaged these actors in peace workshops or seminars but the crisis keeps raging on.

The women are thus celebrating this year’s Women’s Day in the face of indecision from both the government and separatist in relation to the plight of their peers in the North West and South West regions.