“Every day was a struggle”: Cameroonians navigate mental health challenges amid conflict

Image description: A parched piece of land in the shape of a human head with flowers blooming at some of the cracks.

Yaounde, Cameroon (Minority Africa) — On a fateful day in 2018, Rick went from renting a bike on his way home from school to blacking out in a gutter in Bamenda, Cameroon. Rick and everyone that day were running from the Cameroonian security forces. 

“I noticed a massive group running in all directions, some towards me. Before I could turn around I heard a gunshot right next to my ear.” Rick narrates his ordeal that day. “I remember screaming so much and in panic, I ran into a gutter. I only woke up hours later in the evening and the town was deserted. The memory remains fresh in my mind, it never goes away” 

Rick’s hometown, Bamenda, was the focal point of the Coffin Revolution, spearheaded by journalists in Cameroon’s NorthWest region. The revolution was in reaction to the government’s use of security forces to suppress a peaceful protest organized by Anglophone lawyers who were protesting decades of grievances over the marginalization of English speakers in Cameroon.

‘’As an Anglophone in a country divided by language, I faced discrimination and barriers to education from a young age, I saw the disparity with getting job opportunities and even in the way Anglophones were spoken to in government ministries.” All of these Mario, a champion of justice in Bamenda, says, encouraged his push for advocacy in him and thousands of others.

Thousands of students and young people were beaten and dragged on the streets daily which added fuel to the fire and sparked a full-fledged war, with various armed factions emerging, operating independently from exiled political leaders.

Efforts at dialogue faltered, continuing violence, leading to a unanimous declaration of independence by Ambazonian nationalist movements in October 2017 which the Cameroonian government rejected, responding with more military deployments and massive arrests. 

In 2017, Mario due to his activism, was arrested and detained for four agonizing months at one of these raids. 

“I was dragged like a thief. I begged and cried to no avail, we were 50 in number taken in a police van. We have seen our brothers die and were willing to do anything to fight injustice” he says. “I was stripped of all my rights, tortured for days nonstop. They turned me into a shadow of myself, I feel numb and hopeless. I don’t think I have anything to offer.”

Mario’s spirit was broken by the brutality of his arrest and the reality of what was faced by the anglophones on a daily basis. Despite his family’s best efforts to provide support, Mario’s mental health continued to deteriorate, to date. 

Anna, a student, traces her mental health challenges to when the conflict began.

’’Thankfully I was at home because university hostels were sadly raided. People were raped, arrested and destruction was the order of the day, each day was even more soul-wrenching than the last, people were killed in their own homes, and all we could do was cry ourselves to sleep.’’ 

Still, Anna has been a victim of one of the government’s various raids. On a rare outing after the lockdown – the first time in years Bamenda was calm and devoid of general instability – Anna and her grandmother witnessed in real-time the brutality of the conflict. 

‘’We had to stay indoors for so long that it was hard to recall dates because the police had raided the city. There were massive ambushes, arrests, and beatings all the time,” Anna says. 

“We got to the city at about 9 am that morning, precisely at Commercial Avenue but as the day went on, the atmosphere shifted into a scene straight out of a nightmare. I was mortified, military convoys, armored cars and gunshots rumbled through the streets, I recall not being able to move at all”

Talking about the period, after the attack, Rick says; “every day was a struggle, I was sad, it was one of my lowest points in life. Thankfully, I had a family that held my hand and took each day with me till I became better.”

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Anna was able to get medication over time to help with the panic attacks after getting a diagnosis from a clinic in Yaounde. She was also able to get a therapist through Fora Network, a Canadian non-profit. 

Thousand of Bamenda youths who the conflict has seen their way of life upturned, leaving them constantly finding safety while facing traumatic events, are unable to get any form of help or mental health support. While some manage to make it through day to day life, others like Rick disappear, with no information on whether they are alive or not.

Talking about the effects of the aftermath of the crisis, Dr Ketsi Ursula Fang, a psychotherapist at Baptist Hospital, Mutengene, says, “An increasing number of people in different age groups are coming into our center daily as the town has become a death toll. A lot of people are going through the worst decline in the state of their mental health than we had seen in such a long time.”

Despite this, there is still so much stigma around mental health-related issues and little or no support system to support those with mental health-related issues of any sort. The crisis has kept the city broken and challenged financially in a way that even those interested in therapy or psychosocial practices cannot afford a mental health professional.

“The average person in Bamenda has seen dead bodies and body parts on several occasions. People are no longer afraid of gunshots as they are the normal order of the day. People can even tell you the type of rifle and whether or not you should be scared,” Anna says.

For them, the road to healing is met with obstacles, but with each step forward, there lies the possibility of redemption. Through advocacy, awareness, and compassion, we can begin to address the wounds of the mind, forging a path towards a future defined not by conflict, but by resilience, understanding, and hope.

Edited/Reviewed by Samuel Banjoko and Uzoma Ihejirika