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The dark clouds of terrorNorthern Cameroon near Nigeria is also a victim of the abuses of the Islamist Boko Haram. Our brother Ferdinand OWONO Ndih, head of the Yves Tabar pre-novitiate in Mokolo, wrote this letter on September 26. We join in thought and prayer with our brothers at sisters.
I had to quickly get to Mokolo where the
situation is not at all happy because of the Islamic Boko Haram sect. It is
spreading terror, and life is becoming unbearable. Tomorrow we will bury a
catechist who was beheaded on Sunday as he walked home after presiding over
prayer in his community in the absence of a priest. That same Sunday, the
chapel at Ldoubam (a few kilometers from the border near Mokolo) was burned and
a village destroyed by a hundred individuals
armed “to the teeth”. They opened fire on a population that was taking its
Sunday walk in peace. In the disturbance, a policeman and a young teacher fresh
out of Normal School in Maroua were beheaded. It’s horrible what we are
experiencing in this part of the national triangle.
Thank God, we have an army (BIR: Rapid Intervention Battalion) that gives the best of itself and achieves significant victories, but given the extent of the border, it cannot be everywhere. In short, the situation is sad and the cost of living is undergoing a significant surge.
Here at the pre-novitiate, we will have 16 young men; 10 are already here, but 6 from Nigeria are not here yet because Cameroon has closed its border in the north because of the BH sect and in the south because of the Ebola disease. What’s to be done, I do not know. Currently we have started a program with those who are here until things become clearer. (OMI France, October 2014)
