The World Council of Churches has condemned an attack on a school in Cameroon late last week in which at least seven children were killed and a dozen more injured.
Gunmen on motorbikes attacked the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba in the country’s troubled Anglophone South West Region on Saturday.
Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary of the WCC, said in a statement that the organisation joined with “churches and all people of good will in Cameroon and around the world in condemning this abhorrent act, in commiserating with the families and communities affected, and in praying for the healing of the wounded children.”
“This atrocity against innocent schoolchildren piles yet more unbearable pain upon pain,” he said.
Cameroonian church leaders have called for action in the wake of the attack.
Roman Catholic Bishop Agapitus Nfon, of the Diocese of Kumba, was reported as asking in the wake of the attack “how much of the blood of our children need to be shed before something concrete and immediate is done?”
“How long will the powers that be and are capable of restoring peace and tranquility in the distressed North West and South West Regions sit and wait?”
Meanwhile, the Rt Rev Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, reportedly said in a communique issued on 25th October that he prayed for justice for the victims and accountability for those responsible.
“May those behind these gruesome killings of God’s children be imprisoned by the judge of the human conscience even before they are found out, prosecuted and sentenced.”
Fighting in Cameroon’s South West and North West regions have claimed more than 3,000 lives since 2017 and forced more than 700,000 people to flee their homes.
A spokesman for the UN Secretary-General António Gueterres said in a statement on Sunday that the attack was “another disturbing reminder of the exacting heavy toll on civilians, including children, many of whom have been deprived of their right to education”.
“Attacks on education facilities are a grave violation of children’s rights.”
