Camerounian Students Caught In Boko Haram's Crossfire

Students in northern Cameroun, Central Africa are now living in permanent fear of Boko Haram attack, this is according to AFP report.

The report published on Wednesday, 3 June, 2014, informed that stray bullets regularly penetrate through the courtyard of the Fotokol High School in the northern Cameroun, a terrifying reminder of the Boko Haram gunmen carrying out deadly raids.

 

Cameroun, which shares 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) border with Nigeria, is increasingly targeted by Boko Haram members.

 

It was gathered that many of the students across the Nigerian border are usually cramped in fear as they constantly look through the windows during class.

 

“We have a phobia, and the danger is always there,” Boris Bouba," a 20-year-old student at the school said.

* Students of Fotokol school in northern Cameroun.

“When we are in class, we always keep watch through the windows. We can never fully concentrate because we are afraid,” he added.

 

The report added that the pupils, at an occasion, gathered in the tree-lined courtyard, appeared visibly impatient to get their reports and leave as soon as possible.

 “We are always on the alert,” the school Headmaster, Jean Felix Nyioto, said while sitting behind his desk in a cramped office.

 

He said: “From time to time here in Fotokol, gunfire crackles on the other side.”

 

The Fotokol High School is just 300 metres (nearly 1,000 feet) away from Gamboru, separated by only a small river, where the extremists opened fire in an attack which local sources said left at least 300 people dead.

 

* Members of Boko Haram sect

It was revealed that there was no fence or security for the nearly 600 students who file into their classrooms every day.

The school's  headmaster is said to be more anxious about flyers that recently appeared on the streets of Fotokol, threatening direct attacks on the school and its teachers.

 

“Boko Haram members have threatened to bomb down the school, customs and government buildings. We are so scared of being targeted,” another student, Ali Abba said.

 

The Islamist militants have already kidnapped several foreigners there. In mid-May, suspected gunmen from the group took 10 Chinese road workers captive in an attack which left a Camerounian soldier dead.

 

The girls at Fotokol High School are particularly afraid of what plan Boko Haram may have for them. “I am so scared Boko Haram will come to our school and kidnap us one day,” Sidonie Dimissigue, 15, a Christian said.

 

Kouvou, 20, said she decided to stay in school despite efforts by her parents to get her to leave Fotokol, adding that she is afraid the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls will “radicalise Muslim parents who already don’t like sending their children to school, especially the girls.”

 

Camerounian soldiers arrived in Fotokol a few days ago as part of an effort to beef up security in the region.

 

About 300 soldiers and paramilitary officers have been deployed in the town to provide security for residents and allow children attend lectures in the school safely. 

 

It could be recalled that the Camerounian government recently deployed 1,000 troop to secure its border with Nigeria.

 

The Boko Haram sect is blamed for the death of over 4000 people in Nigeria since 2009.

 

The group was blacklisted by the United Nations, UN, in May after the insurgents kidnapped no fewer than 276 schoolgirls at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, northestern Nigeria on 14 April, 2014.