World Mission Fund supports peacebuilding work in Cameroon
Cameroon has faced multiple conflicts in recent decades. Most prominent among these is the “Anglophone Crisis” in the North West (NW) and South West (SW) regions of Cameroon, The Boko Haram Insurgency in the Far North Region, and agitation in the eastern region from Central African Republic and the Northern Region from Chad.
Particularly in the NW and SW regions of the Republic of Cameroon, armed conflict for about
7 years has resulted in thousands of deaths, injuries with over 2 million internally displaced persons and severe social and economic suffering.
Religious Leaders in Cameroon constituted themselves into a recognized Ecumenical Religious Leaders’ Forum for Cameroon led by the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, our Methodist Church in Britain (MCB) partner, in an attempt to work for peace and possibly participate in arriving at resolutions that can end the destructive war. They carried out workshops to create a collective awareness on the situation and the need for God’s people to take responsibility for peace as early on as 2019, but could not continue for lack of the means and due to the Covid Crisis.
It is that an Ecumenical Round Table of National Religious Leaders (Christian and Muslim) takes place, with European partners, relevant Ambassadors and the Cameroon Prime Minister, to unify different parties in the Cameroon conflict and move forward the Peace Process.
This Round Table will bring together Religious Leaders and other Stakeholders in the conflict, it will be an opportunity to work together to formulate a strategy for promoting peace-making initiatives, to gain a deeper understanding and strategize a way forward.
The hope is to provide a frame-work for ‘kick-starting’ the Peace Process in Cameroon and nurturing a co-ordinated approach in which the Religious Leaders play a major role in encouraging understanding and peaceful actions within the communities.
If the outcomes are successful, it could have a huge impact on grassroots communities in Cameroon thanks to inter-religious peace work and collaboration.
World Mission Fund Support: £6,000
Through World Mission Partnership, Irish Methodists make an annual contribution to the World Mission Fund.