Pope Leo XIV gestures to the crowd as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Bamenda International Airport in Cameroon April 16, 2026. (OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters) At the start of the 2026/2027 academic year in Cameroon, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, warns against the forced boycott of schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.
For the past ten years, the North West and South West regions have been reeling from a separatist crisis, with the boycott of schools a cornerstone of the separatist strategy.
The statistics have been stark. According to UNICEF, the crisis has forced the closure of more than 6,000 schools, affecting more than 800,000 children.
A report by Save the Children indicates that, on average, children in the North West region have lost three and a half years of schooling due to the crisis.
According to Human Rights Watch, armed groups have attacked at least 75 schools and abducted over 150 education personnel since 2016.
With schools opening their doors on September 7 for the start of the 2026/27 academic year, the Portuguese-Canadian prelate warns that forcing kids out of school is “utterly diabolical.”
“As the new school year begins, our thoughts go to the most vulnerable members of our community, the children,” the archbishop said.
“Preventing children from going to school is wrong,” the nuncio said in a video message published on September 1.