Catholic bishops warn Biya: Address youth problems quickly or face another strike!

Meeting for the first time since the social strike of February, the Catholic bishops took the opportunity to tell the president that the explosion of last February was the result of the failures of his polices. And it is in correcting them that he could avoid a repeat
experience

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

A three-day meeting in Yaounde of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, the executive organ of the Catholic Church in Cameroon, has called on President Paul Biya to pay even greater attention to the social problems of Cameroon and particularly of its youth.

A keynote address made at the opening of a three-day conference that ends in Yaounde today warned the president that unless he addresses these issues with a measure of urgency there would be another social crisis before long.

The speaker was Bishop Samuel Kleda, co-adjutor of the Douala diocese, who chaired the meeting as its vice president in the absence of Victor Tonye Bakot, the archbishop of Yaounde, who is in France for medical reasons.

During the meeting the bishops also discussed how to get the youths of Cameroon join in the world Catholic Youth Day.

It was disclosed that of 400 Catholic youths sent to participate in this event in Italy in 2002 only 30 returned to Cameroon, while the rest used the opportunity to migrate, one reason why the Catholic
Church is concerned about the government resolving the issue of youth unemployment.

Last February, a transporters’ strike instantly became a welcome opportunity for the wide public to express their dissatisfaction with the policies of President Paul Biya that have over the years visited poverty and other economic hardships on the people.

The strike was accompanied by rioting, looting and extensive damage of public and private properties.

More than 100 youths were killed, most of them by live bullets in clashes with armed law enforcement agents.