A SURPRISING LETTER FROM OUR MSC CONFRERE, JONAS HASSAN, WHO WORKS IN FORMATION IN CAMEROUN.
Jonas studied at Marymount, Castle Hill, in a renewal program in 2017. He also visited MSC communities in Australia, especially the Northern Territory. He keeps in touch, especially with Formation news. This was an unexpected letter about his current holiday – not exactly our idea of a holiday.
Jonas writes. Hello Peter. Hope you are doing fine. Am on holidays. My family is fine but all spend the night on the mountain because they know neither the day nor the hour that the terrorist group Boko Haram will target them once more. They leave their house around 5pm and go down at 6am. Many of them left the village permanently and others settled temporarily in Mora and Maroua. They seek to kill only men.
The big problem is the children suffering from the cold weather of December, and especially the school, that is among the five big primary schools in the diocese with nearly 1500 children that are at risk of depopulation.
I wanted to go to the presbytery but my parents have forbidden me and the parish asked me to go to Mora. I will stay either at Mora or at Kourgui in an ancient presbytery. I can spend the day in the village but by 16h I leave. The government says it has no staff because all went to North and south west of Cameroon in trouble since 3 years. The soldiers are tired and discouraged by the duration of the war and especially the high ranks soldiers who take everything.
I have already been to some officers to hear them, but nothing came out. It is expected by 15th December reinforcements with the last exit. I experienced such a situation in 2014 in Bourha when hundreds of Nigerian Christians took up my parish hunted by the same terrorist group but right now am very overwhelmed. A special intention for the villagers. Thanks.
Mora is a town in northern Cameroon. Mora has a population of 55,216 making it the 5th biggest city in Far North. The German fort of Mora was the last German fort in Cameroon to surrender during World War I
