Nairobi, 29 February, 2020 / 2:00 am (ACI Africa).
Members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Africa have, in a statement, expressed their concerns about the violence and loss of innocent lives in the Central African nation of Cameroon and proposed “inclusive dialogue involving Anglophone separatists” as the only appropriate solution to the protracted crisis.
“We, the Jesuit Superiors of Africa, representing all Jesuits in Africa, are deeply concerned about the violence and the loss of human life in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon,” reads part of the statement by the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM), the body that brings together Jesuit Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar.
In the statement dated February 27, the Jesuit Superiors on the continent express their solidarity with the Catholic Bishops in Cameroon and across the world, human rights groups and other concerned bodies and individuals “in condemning the Cameroonian government’s continuous use of force as well as the violence perpetrated by militia groups that has led to loss of innocent lives.”
The concerns of the leadership of the Jesuits in Africa and Madagascar are being expressed against the backdrop of a recent military invasion of Ngarbuh, a village in the Catholic diocese of Kumbo, that left 24 civilians dead and hundreds displaced.
“On Friday 14th February 2020, the military invaded Ngarbuh at 4 a.m. and we are told that twenty-four (24) people were killed among whom were pregnant women and little children,” Bishop George Nkuo of Cameroon’s Kumbo diocese recounted in his February 18 letter.