CERAC women console Northwest conflict victims

By Ephraim Bam

The impact of the recent inter-tribal war between Mbesa and Oku has been felt right to the nation’s capital of Yaounde. For this, the Minister of Commerce Madam Ama Tutu Muna, who was personal representative of the First Lady Madam Chantal Biya; founding president of the Circle of Friends of Cameroon (CERAC), came to Mbesa with some CERAC women to hand over gifts to the war victims.

Welcoming the personal representative to his locality, the Mayor for Belo sub-Division; Hon. Bernard Tosam thanked the CERAC women for the great attention paid to Belo. He thanked them for visiting Mbesa shortly after visiting Mbingo Baptist Hospital during the World Leprosy Day. While regretting the consequences of the inter-tribal war, the mayor said Belo Council has stood by the war victims of Mbesa since the crisis began, providing them resources such as food, clothing, rehabilitation and also helping to keep the forces of law and order in the village to restore peace, but lamented that their meagre resource were not enough for the people. He thanked CERAC for coming to their aid and appealed to the personal Madam Ama Tutu Muna to inform the First Lady that the people of Mbesa are crying and seriously need assistance to rehabilitate the many homes destroyed and to reconstruct the destroyed pipe-borne water system.

The former deputy mayor for Belo, on behalf of the people, thanked the CERAC women for the significant consignment of gifts they had brought. To him, this consignment will bring comfort to the war victims. In return for these gifts, he asked the CERAC women to express their appreciation to the First Lady for her motherly gesture. Talking to the people of Mbesa, Madam Ama Muna expressed shock and pain over the terrible destruction she saw in the village. She called on the inhabitants to be courageous and take heart while stating that she and her members came purposely to console with the war victims and their families. She promised to recount her experience to the First Lady when she returns to Yaounde for onward reaction. Under one of the key objectives of CERAC, which is to give assistance to the needy, the CERAC women and the personal representative of the first lady brought to Mbesa some gifts which will help to lessen the pain the war victims are going through.

The consignment included bags of rice, bush lamps, water gallons, margarine, cutlasses, hoes, mattresses, blankets, bedspreads among many others, which were handed over to the fon of the village to distribute to the people.