Manyu Elites, Chiefs Call On Youths To Drop Arms

YAOUNDE, Cameroon-Sunday June 17, 2018-7:40 PM local Time (Cameroon News Agency) Chiefs and Elites of Manyu Division in the South West region of Cameroon have extended an olive branch to some youths who have taken up arms, urging them to drop their weapons and return to their respective communities.

This was among the resolutions taken when Chiefs and Elite of Manyu Division, met in  Yaoundé Saturday June 17, 2018, under the chairmanship of His Excellency Victor ARREY-NKONGHO MENGOT, Minister in charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic and Patron of the Manyu Elements Cultural and Development Association (MECDA), to review the socio-political and security situation in their Division of origin, marked by an armed conflict that has disrupted the ordinary course of life in the Division.

THE MANYU COMMUNIQUE

• RECALLING  past initiatives undertaken to bring about peace and a return to normalcy in Manyu Division, notably through:

• Advocacy campaigns to educate and  raise awareness to the benefits of education and economic activities to the community,
• Open political discussion forums attracting broad participation,
• Direct contact and exchanges with local socio-economic professional and cultural groups,
• Town Hall meetings with the population of the 4 Subdivisions,
• Appeasement missions across the Division.

• DEEPLY REGRET the dislocation of economic activity and the disruption of community life in Manyu Division
• VEHEMENTLY CONDEMN the killings, violence, kidnappings for ransom, and destruction of public and private property across the Division
• DECRY the manipulation of youths through social media postings emanating both internally and externally, particularly from the Diaspora, pushing them towards radicalization, drug abuse and endangering their lives through armed confrontations with security forces
• TAKE STRONG EXCEPTION to the emerging culture of hate speech which is setting youths and communities against one another
• ENCOURAGE our internally and externally displaced brothers and sisters and children to return home.
• NOTE WITH SATISFACTION that although the functioning of schools continued to be disrupted in some parts of the Division, effective presence of candidates for the 2018 GCE examination reached the commendable rate of 94%

CONSEQUENTLY

•  EXTEND an olive branch to our youths who have taken up arms and urge them to drop their weapons and return to their respective communities.
•  CALL on our youths to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment favorable for the construction of the Mamfe-Akwaya , and the Bakebe-Menji-Dschang Roads.
• APPEAL to the Head of State, President Paul BIYA, to consider the convening of an all-inclusive, broad-based dialogue to examine urgent questions of national interest.
• APPEAL to the Head of State, President Paul BIYA, in promoting the spirit of national reconciliation, to show clemency to all those imprisoned in connection with the Anglophone Crisis.
• APPEAL to the Head of State, President Paul BIYA, to envisage the implementation of an Emergency Reconstruction Plan to rebuild villages and other infrastructure destroyed during the Anglophone Crisis.
• APPEAL to the Head of State, President Paul BIYA, to contemplate the urgent creation of a Special Rehabilitation and Reinsertion Fund to assist the return of internally and externally displaced persons to their respective communities, and in facilitating the resumption of their normal lives through agricultural and economic activities.

AND FINALLY

• Reaffirm our unflinching support and attachment to the Head of State President Paul BIYA and the Republican Institutions he incarnates.

                                    Done in Yaoundé this 16^th June, 2018

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