Their insides cramped with fear, pupils’
eyes dart from their teacher towards the windows during class, unable
to concentrate on their lessons.
“We have a phobia, the danger is always there,” said Boris Bouba, a 20-year-old student at the school.
“When we are in class, we are always keeping watch on the windows. We can never fully concentrate because we are afraid.”
As the school year wraps up, pupils
gathering in the tree-lined courtyard appear impatient to get their
reports and leave as soon as possible.
“We are always on the alert,” school headmaster Jean Felix Nyioto told AFP, seated behind his desk in a cramped office.
“At any moment gunfire crackles on the other side, but also from time to time here [in Fotokol].”
The other side refers to Gamboru, a
Nigerian village descended upon by swarms of Boko Haram fighters in May.
The extremists opened fire on residents in an attack which local
sources say left at least 300 people dead.
The Fotokol high school is just 300 metres away from Gamboru, separated by only a small river.
However, there is no fence or security for the nearly 600 uniformed youngsters who file into its classrooms every day.
His expression taut, Mr Nyioto describes
how bullets from Gamboru regularly zing through the high school, and
mortar shells fall nearby.
However, the headmaster is currently
more anxious about flyers that recently appeared on the streets of
Fotokol, threatening direct attacks on the school and its teachers.
“Boko Haram has threatened to burn down
the school, customs and government buildings. We are so scared of being
targeted,” said another student, Ali Abba.
Boko Haram, which has been waging a
violent insurgency in Nigeria’s north since 2009, loosely translates as
“Western education is forbidden”.
The hardline Islamists have burned down
many schools, often massacring students in their sleep. In February
nearly 60 Nigerian pupils were killed in an attack on their dormitory
before it was razed to the ground.
Their deadly insurgency hit
international headlines in April when 219 schoolgirls were taken hostage
in the remote northeastern town of Chibok.
Cameroon, which shares 2,000 kilometres
of border with Nigeria, is increasingly targeted by Boko Haram. The
Islamist militants have already kidnapped several foreigners there.
In May, suspected gunmen from the group took 10 Chinese road workers captive in an attack which killed a Cameroonian soldier.
The girls at Fotokol high school are particularly afraid of what Boko Haram may have in store for them.
“I am so scared Boko Haram will come to
our school and kidnap us,” said Sidonie Dimissigue, 15, a Christian who
says she has been wracked with anxiety and unable to concentrate in
class since hearing of the Chibok attack.
“Thoughts are racing through my head. I speak to Daddy about them to try and calm down,” she said.
Alice Kouvou, 20, said she decided to stay in school despite efforts by her parents to get her to leave Fotokol.
She is afraid the kidnapping of the
Nigerian girls will “radicalise Muslim parents who already don’t like
sending their children to school”, especially girls.
Surrounded by fellow pupils, Ali Abba
pulls out his cellphone to show them a series of gruesome images. In
one, about 20 bodies are heaped on top of one another.
In another, burned out cars are seen.
“These are pictures of the Gamboru massacre,” said Ali, who says he was in the town two days after the attack.
The raid on Gamboru took place as students were sitting their final exams.
“When the explosions started all the
students abandoned their work,” said Mr Nyioto. They jumped out of the
windows to escape and some were later found up to 15 kilometres away, he
added.
“Some were crying, others completely
lost their minds,” the headmaster explained, adding he was concerned
about the students’ “sanity”.
The students are not the only ones suffering.
Five teachers hastily left town before
the end of the school year as the danger mounted, and the high school
has only 10 teachers left.
“The establishment risks being left empty. Everyone says they are going to leave,” says the headmaster who has vowed to stay.
Cameroonian soldiers, who arrived in
Fotokol a few days earlier as part of an effort to beef up security in
the region, are seen as the school’s only hope.
Some 300 soldiers and paramilitary
officers have been deployed in the town to provide security for
residents and allow children to safely attend school.
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