• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Joint Public Issues Team

Churches working for peace and justice

  • Home Page
  • Who We Are
    • Six hopes for society
  • Issues
    • Economy
      • Tax Justice
      • Reset The Debt
      • Living Wage
    • Environment
      • Net Zero in My Neighbourhood
    • Poverty and Inequality
      • The Cost of Living Crisis
      • Universal Credit
      • Truth and Lies
      • Enough
      • Rethink Sanctions
      • Faith in Foodbanks
      • Housing and Homelessness
    • Asylum and Migration
      • Refugees
      • End Hostility
      • The Asylum System
    • Peacemaking
      • The Arms Trade
      • Nuclear Weapons
      • Drones
      • Peacemaking resources
    • Politics and Elections
      • Elections
      • Meet Your MP
      • Art of the Possible
      • Brexit
    • Other Issues
      • International Development
      • Modern Slavery and Exploitation
        • Forced labour in fashion
  • Get Involved
    • JPIT Conference 2022
    • Newsletter
    • Events
    • Walking with Micah
  • Resources
    • Advent
    • 10 Minutes on… podcast
    • Politics in the Pulpit?
    • Stay and Pray
    • Season of Creation
    • Prayers
    • Public Issues Calendar
    • Poetry
    • Small Group Resources
  • Blog

Women of Churches in Cameroon call for an immediate halt to Violence

Blog, Peacemaking · 24 September, 2020

On 21 September, International Day of Peace, women from a wide coalition of churches in Cameroon released a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire after violent conflict in the Anglophone region [1].

Women from churches in Cameroon’s Anglophone region have called on both the government-controlled military and armed separatist groups to immediately cease violent conflict. Their statement requested that both parties sign a written ceasefire agreement by November of this year, to ensure a six month ‘pilot ceasefire’, during which peace-making negotiations could occur [2].

Cameroon’s Anglophone region has experienced over four years of violent conflict between the military and separatist groups, centring around disagreements between the Anglophile minority population and Francophile majority and government [3]. To date over 3000 people have been killed. As of July this year, the UN found that 4.33 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Cameroon [4] as a result of both this conflict, and ongoing violence in northern regions of the country.

At the end of 2019, around 700,000 people had been internally displaced in the Anglophone region [5] and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the impact on the communities affected.

Recent weeks have seen an escalation of violence, with the government cracking down in an effective military siege on regional capital Bamenda. Local churches have reported reporting looting by soldiers, food and medicine shortages and frequent human rights abuses on local people [6]

In response to this situation, the statement makes reference to the disproportionate effect of violent conflict on women, arguing that they ‘bear the brunt of … violent conflict irrespective of historical background, cultural, linguistic and political affiliation’ [7].  Drawing on the United Nation’s Security Council Resolution 1325 which highlights that peace efforts are more sustainable when women are involved, the statement asks that negotiation commissions created following this ceasefire are gender balanced and involve female community leaders [8].

This statement joins a number of pre-existing calls for a ceasefire. In April of this year, the JPIT partner Churches joined the UN Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire to allow countries to respond to the threat of coronavirus [9]. Following this, on 1 July, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing their support for a global ceasefire, demanding general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all situations on its agenda [10].

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is coordinating ecumenical work on dialogue and peace.  On the International Day of Peace, the Church held a service centred around ‘Shaping Peace Together’. The service’s sermon began with the reading of Psalm 34:14; ‘Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’ As we look at the Anglophile crisis in Cameroon from abroad, we should echo the Church in Cameroon’s prayer that peace be sought and pursued. We should thank God for this community of women that embody this, and ask that the demands laid out in their statement are adopted in full.

Prayer for the situation in Cameroon
–  
God of hope, 
We thank you that you bring peace where there is conflict,
 healing where there is pain, 
and unity where there is division. 
 
We pray for those in Cameroon who are displaced from their homes, 
separated from their families, 
and facing the dangers of COVID-19 without a safe place to stay.
 
We lift up to you all that have lost loved ones to violence, 
had their livelihoods destroyed, 
and their education taken away from them. 
We ask that you bring them comfort. 
 
We thank you for this group of women who are actively seeking your peace and pursing it for their country, 
all those working in Cameroon to protect the vulnerable, 
and those bringing healthcare to the sick.
 
You call the peacemakers blessed, and claim them as your children.
Would they be a light for others, 
and an example of your love.
 
We ask that you would guide all those involved in decision making within this conflict,
that they would grant this request of a ceasefire,
and there would be an end to the violence.
 
Let your peace prevail Lord. 
 
Amen


[1] Ceasefire Call by Women statement attached below

[2] Ceasefire Call by Women statement attached below

[3] https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/cameroon/report-cameroon/

[4] https://www.unfpa.org/data/emergencies/cameroon-humanitarian-emergency

[5] https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/cameroon/report-cameroon/

[6] Statement by Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon.

[7] Ceasefire Call by Women Statement attached below

[8] http://undocs.org/en/S/RES/1325(2000)

[9] http://jpit.uk/global-ceasefire-statements/

[10] http://jpit.uk/un-security-council-adopts-the-call-for-a-global-ceasefire/


A Ceasefire Call from Women

Filed Under: Blog, Peacemaking

Meg Read

Previous Post: « Security, defence, and development: an integrated review
Next Post: Nestlé confirms Fairtrade KitKat decision »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Posts

  • Local elections: what have they got to do with climate change?
  • Homes for Ukraine – One Year On
  • Response to the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ – March 2023
  • Ukraine Invasion – One Year On
  • JPIT’s Review of 2022
  • What does Government Support for Asylum Seekers really provide?
  • God with Us – the Refugees of Calais and Dunkirk
  • How can we respond to COP27?
  • Statement on the conclusion of the COP27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
  • COP27 – what should we be looking for?
  • “He has filled the hungry with good things” – What we need from the Autumn Budget
  • What are the stories we should tell about the humanitarian crisis at Manston Airport Asylum centre?
  • How can we be sure that the products we buy are not the result of modern slavery?
  • Why I hate Warm Banks (and why my church is opening one)
  • How does our theology call us to challenge Poverty?
  • Introducing Alfie
  • Biden says nuclear risk is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Churches respond to risk to benefit levels
  • Briefing on the ‘Mini Budget’ for the Enough to Live group
  • Introducing Hazel

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Footer

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Quick links

Stay and Pray
Politics in the Pulpit
Faith in Politics podcast
Public Issues Calendar
Useful Links

Our work

About Us
Meet the Team
Join the Team 
Internship
Our Newsletter

Contact us

25 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5JR

Tel: 020 7916 8632

enquiries@jpit.uk

Copyright © 2023 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in