Steem greetings @everyone, and I hope we are doing well in our various communities. Today after a hectic workday in the field and I saw Many families in pain after losing everything they had during the ongoing Anglophone crisis in Cameroon which has become an armed conflict.
Returning home, I was wondering what is the world turning into. I started reflecting and imagining what is going on in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Congo, in Central Affican Republic, etc. What has humanity turned into practising more hate than love?
While wondering about the pain people are undergoing due to conflict, as I open my door, deafening sounds of gunshots respond to my imagination. I could only hear my 4 years old son screaming while on the floor asking his sister “…is it safe to wake up and stand”. I was also lying down on the floor terrified and confused because we do not know the direction of the gunshots and also stray bullets can come from any direction, and you become a victim of circumstance.
Apparently, the population is trapped in-between those actively taking part in the conflict. As it is often said “…when two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers”. Indeed, the population over the last 8 years and counting has witnessed untold misery.
Villages are empty because some of the inhabitant's houses were burnt down by those actively taking part in the conflict. Staying back in the villages, there is no freedom of speech because you are either targeted by separatist fighters and named “black legs” because they think you are an informant to the state forces. While the state armed forces can easily implicates you as collaborating with separatist fighters.
I remembered in 2017 when the state armed forces went to my village of origin, took my father and my cousin with a host of other villagers. We were alerted but we had no power to do anything. They were severely tortured for no good reason. When they realised they were innocent people, they took them to the government hospital and kept them there and disappeared. We had to search the whole day till in the night when we were informed that they were at the regional hospital. We had to pay hospital bills we did not plan for.
The incident of today made me to reflect on the situation of people suffering now as a result of the armed conflict. The prices of foodstuffs is skyrocketed today because most farmers have moved into urban areas to seek refuge. Most of the vast farmlands are in the villages and now have become bushes because no one to farm them.
There are some areas where the education of the children has been completely destroyed. Separatist fighters used education as a weapon to fight the government. They burnt down schools, kidnap students and teachers and created havoc within communities. Most elites especially the educated ones are not welcomed in their own homeland.
Their properties in the villages are easily targeted and burnt down to ashes because they failed to support the separatist fighters financially.
Where are we really heading to with all these conflicts? What type of society are we building? What legacy are we living behind for our kids and future generations?
Maybe you have been asking yourself these same questions. Today I will let you know that the society is not made up of a single individual. Therefore we should learn to spread love and not hate, we should learn to embrace peace and not war, and we should learn to love each other as we love ourselves. This way, we build a peaceful society and a peaceful world.
NB: All images are my property from my iphone gallery.