Jane Ndamei’s aspiration to become a doctor almost ended tragically five years ago.
While taking her Grade 12 exam, Ndamei, then 15, heard gunshots and panicked. Armed men stormed her school, forcing Ndamei and her classmates to flee for their lives. “It was the sound of death. I prayed silently for a miracle,” she recalled.
Currently, Ndamei is one of 2.8 million children in West and Central Africa whose education has been disrupted by violent conflict. The United Nations reported that over 14,000 schools have closed across 24 countries due to violence and insecurity.
In 2023, the separatist crisis in western Cameroon and Boko Haram attacks in the north left 1.4 million children needing educational support. In 2019, the year of Ndamei’s school attack, 855,000 children were out of school in northwest and southwest Cameroon.
The conflict began in 2017 when English-speaking separatists rebelled against the French-speaking majority. The fighting has claimed over 6,000 lives and displaced more than 760,000 people.
Separatist fighters have targeted schools, killing and abducting students and teachers. This has forced families to keep children out of school. “Every day that a child is kept out of school is a day stolen from their future,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
Ndamei was fortunate to move to the French-speaking western region to continue her education. Now enrolled in a nursing program, she expressed concern for her classmates. Many have become young mothers due to the conflict.
In Batibo town, Nelson Tabuwe’s children have been out of school for nearly seven years. Tabuwe, 61, fled the violence and now lives in Yaoundé, struggling to provide for his family. “We came here with nothing,” he said, highlighting the harsh realities of displaced families in Cameroon.
