Cameroon’s National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms,NCHRF, has raised concerns on the persistent extremist attacks going on in the North West and South West regions.

The commission equally condemned in strong terms the recent attack on a female student in the Northwest Region.

In a release publicised on June 12, the NCHRF wrote; “The National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, is very concerned about the persistent extremism of some dissenters who have in recent times resorted to violent assault, characterized by attacks on the physical and moral integrity of pupils they wish to prevent from attending classes and taking part in official examinations.

“On June 5, 2017, ANGERE Chantal Chatelle NTAMULUM, a student in Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) of Ntamulum (Bamenda) was brutally assaulted by two criminals armed with machetes…This case of violation of the right to education that began with the teachers call for a boycott is neither new nor isolated. It is symptomatic of the drift, intolerance and violence that the originators of the boycott have been applying since November 2016, to impose their views on the crippled population and thereby take hostage the education system of the Northwest and Southwest Regions”.

The commission in the release also highlighted the case of Thérèse MBAKOP,a nineteen-year-old student in Form 5 C at Nguéa Lotin de Limbé College, who suffered a fracture of cervical vertebrae after falling from the second floor of the school building, while trying to escape from aggression when some young vandals armed with clubs disrupted a lesson. Going by the release, Therese was admitted at the Neurosurgery Department of the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala.

Taking a stance, the commission vehemently condemn the call for a boycott of classes and examination characterized by the use of violence as a means of expression in a constitutional state, and calls on the authorities to take all necessary measures for the immediate arrest of all those suspected of having assaulted the young ANGERE Chantal Chatelle NTAMULUM, and for those that are found guilty to be punished in an exemplary manner.

The Commission also applauds Government’s initiative to take full responsibility for the medical costs associated with the care received by the victim at the Bamenda Regional Hospital and the Mbingo Baptist Hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment.