09
Jun 2022

While the Nation has not yet finished dealing with the emotional shock of the “blunder” of certain elements of the army which occurred on the 1st June  2022 in Missong, in the North-West Region, we are informed of a deadly attack of an  outpost of the elements of the GPIGN in NJIPTAPON.

The toll of this disastrous attack is still awaited. We already know that it would be the work of English-speaking armed rebels and caused several deaths in the ranks of the Defence and Security Forces.

In my own name and on behalf of members and sympathisers of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), we extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.

How many deaths, civilians and soldiers, will it take for the power in place to understand that it has dragged the country into an impasse?

To the organic intellectuals and other caciques of the CPDM regime who hold forth on the Army’s ability to continue the civil war in the NOSO for another fifty years, to those military leaders who are indifferent to the heavy toll already suffered by the Army in this absurd war, the CRM recalls that soldiers who have fallen by tens on this front unnecessarily open for almost six years, they are dear, irreplaceable beings for their families, children, spouses, friends and comrades.

It is urgent for our country to stop this bleeding in the ranks of our Army, which the Nation must spare and reserve for the defence of the national territory and other external attacks.

From the beginning of the aggression of our country by the Boko Haram sect in 2014, the CRM had proposed to the government the adoption of a law on the wards of the Nation. Such a law is intended to allow underage orphans of members of the Defence and Security Forces who have fallen at the front to benefit until they reach majority from State support for their education and Health care.

But unfortunately, despite the ever increasing number of orphans of the National Army because of the various armed conflicts that hit the country, this proposal has never caught the attention of the regime.

The military condition is an essential element in the commitment of the soldier. Those who lead us must understand this because, in the face of enemy fire, the soldier is preoccupied with the answer to the question of what will become of his underage children if he ever falls. This response is decisive for his commitment and his ardour in combat.

It is time for the State to acquire the legal and financial means to assume its obligations vis-à-vis the orphans and spouses of soldiers who died for the Nation.

Done in Yaoundé on the 9th June 2022
President Maurice Kamto