Yaounde — In Cameroon, the Muslim community is starting a week of prayers for peace against terrorism, crime, and a deadly separatist conflict. The prayers, to mark the ending of the holy month of Ramadan, come after the military said scores of people were killed this month in separatist clashes. Authorities say there has also been a deadly crime wave in the capital.
Hundreds of civilians gathered Monday in Nkolmesseng, a neighborhood in Yaounde, to pray for peace in the central African state. The civilians said they are praying for the welfare of the country troubled by terrorism, crime, and the ongoing separatist crisis in the mostly English-speaking west. Cameroon is a majority French-speaking nation.
Claude Abe, a sociology lecturer at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaounde, says he is a Christian but has joined Muslims in prayer because human life which was sacred and precious in Cameroon as it was in other African traditional societies is today trivialized up to a point where some people kill at will.
He says frustration, joblessness, religious intolerance and poverty have led to increasing violence and barbarism all over Cameroon.
Cameroon's military reports that at least 35 people have died in three weeks of fighting between government troops and the separatists, while 15 civilians were killed in an increasing crime wave in Yaounde.
In one scene reported by local media, a family of six was found dead with machete wounds in the town of Nnaga Eboko.
Other mutilated corpses were found on street corners by civilians. Police say they are investigating what they call a spike in heinous crimes.
Sitan Mohammadou Kongyuy, a Muslim youth leader at Nkolmesseng, says the prayers for peace will be said in all Cameroonian mosques until the end of Ramadan.
"Islam originates from the word peace and we cannot practice Islam in an environment that is not peaceful," he said. "Cameroon is facing so many challenges as far as peace is concerned especially when we consider the activities of Boko Haram, the rebels in the Central African [Republic] border and we consider the separatist fighters in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. It is very important for all Muslims in Cameroon to intensify prayers for peace in his country."
The Council of Imams and Muslim Dignitaries of Cameroon organized the prayer for peace.
The council's coordinator, Moussa Oumarou, says Cameroon will develop if its children embrace peace and stop the ongoing conflicts.
Cameroon has been fighting within the past 10 years to secure its northern border with Nigeria and Chad from Boko Haram.
Troops are also combating separatist fighters in Cameroon's English-speaking western regions, and the military reports that rebels from the Central African Republic regularly cross Cameroon's eastern border, kill civilians, seize their cattle and abduct villagers for ransom.
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Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji says Cameroon's government will welcome any initiative that can bring peace to troubled regions of the central African state.
"I told the religious leaders, especially the imam, that living together is something which is very important for President Paul Biya," he said. "I urge all the communities to work for the common good in a peaceful environment where Christians and other denominations work and live together without problems."
Muslims in Cameroon say the prayers will end with Eid al-Fitr, a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.
