Mbengwi, NWR, Cameroon - Recovering from years of violent conflict

June 27th, 2020 marked the first time I dared to travel out of my main city in Bamenda to one of the surrounding villages which had been plunged into armed conflict since November of 2016. Mbengwi, which once used to be a hub in Agricultural pursuits amongs others had been reduced to a conflict zone where people feared to visit.

Burnt building, part of a school compound in Mbengwi

This is the case with most of the surrounding small towns and villages in both of the English speaking regions in my country Cameroon. There has been mass exodus, hundreds of thousands of refugees and Internally Displaced persons and thousands of lives lost in this unfortunate conflict.

You can read more about the Anglophone Crisis here.

These photos were taken by me with my Samsung Galaxy S8+ on June 27th 2020 when we visited Nyen a village in Mbengwi to lay to eternal rest the mother of one of my friends who had sadly passed away. During our visit to Nyen, we came across this once very populated Nursery and Primary School which used to serve most of the population around there.

Partial view of what used to be the nursery school's playground

Partial view of what used to be the nursery school's playground

What used to be the nursery school's merry go round

These gongs are usually used as time-tellers... timekeepers ring them to inform the whole school about times such as break time, short breaks, etc.

Abandoned caterpilla destroyed by separatist fighters

As the anglophone crisis rages on, inhabitants of the English speaking regions continue to pray daily for a miracle as they increasingly believe that's what can get them out of this sad situation.

Visiting these ruins for the first hand served as a reminder to me how far we had fallen as a people.