Mount Cameroon Race Champion Cries Out Against Killings, School Boycott

By Tata Mbunwe

Ali Mohamadou, the winner of the men’s category of this year’s Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, has said his plea is that belligerents of the Anglophone Crisis should embrace dialogue and let children return to school.

Winning the race for his first time in 4 hours, and 31 minutes, the 23-year-old’s first word to the press was that, “Our children should go back to school.”

He furthered that “Without education, we are zero. We have lost many people. People are dying every day. Please, I’m pleading with the government and the Separatist leaders in the diaspora – they should let students go back to school.”

He wept loudly, and, as security officers tried to calm him down, he said: “I cry because of the Kumba massacre, the Ngarbuh massacre, the Mbororo massacres, which means it is very painful”.

Coming from Jakiri, Bui Division of the Northwest region, where the crisis is intense, Mohamadou said his victory brings hope to his people and community back home.

“100 percent of myself is not up to 1 percent of my (athletic) club,” he said, asking God to bless his trainers and his people back in Kumbo. “I thank God that today I did it and I hope the whole Kumbo is happy.”

He told the press he dropped football for athletics after being motivated by world athletic champion, Usain Bolt.