By DOH JAMES SONKEY
Civil Society Organization known as Women in Alternative Action, WAA Cameroon, has urged the population to shun post election violence looming over the official proclamation of the results of last October 7, 2018 presidential election in the country.
This was at a press briefing last October 18, 2018 at their Yaoundé head office, where the Executive Director of WAA Cameroon, Justine Kwachu Kumche warned that “if hate speeches and threats to violence is not checked and controlled in Cameroon at this fragile moment, then the situation would be worse than the one in the Far North, North West and South West regions”.
She explained that WAA Cameroon in collaboration with the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, GPPAC decided to take advantage of the International Day of Conflict Resolution celebrated on the 3rd Thursday of October every year to blow the peace whistle over Cameroon.
The introductory statement of the declaration paints a bleak future, should Cameroonians not heed to peace calls “the people of Cameroon are suffering; between the Anglophone crisis which has been deteriorating since 2016, the spillover of Boko Haram in the Far North, the Central African Republic conflict on Cameroon’s border in the East, and the electoral violence in recent weeks, hundreds have been killed and an estimated quarter of a million people are displaced.”
The Executive Director of WAA Cameroon justified their initiative by the fact that “the current context of presidential election of last October 7, 2018 has been where, for the first time in recent years, there has been serious pre-election and post-election declarations and threats by political parties”.
While encouraging the setting up of a neutral peace and reconciliation committee whose members are elected from political parties and civil society organizations to address grievances and promote reconciliation and healing in the country, WAA Cameroon vehemently condemned “any attempt to jeopardize the sacredness and sanctity of human life through any form of violence”.
Encouraging political parties especially candidates at the last polls to choose dialogue for the sake of sustainable peace, Justine Kwachu Kumche also requested all Cameroonians to resort to dialogue for a peaceful and progressive Cameroon.
Women in Alternation Action, WAA Cameroon, as a member of GPPAC from East and Central Africa, works to support initiatives that promote gender justice, equality, peace building innovation and sustainable opportunities for women, youth and girls in Cameroon and the Central African sub region.
On its part, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, GPPAC founded in 2003 is a worldwide member-led network of civil society organizations active in the field of conflict prevention and peace building.