Conflicts in Neighboring Countries Affect our Partner Radio Stations

Trevor Package, Mon 10th, May 2021, 10:19

Programs and programming in seven community radio stations working with us (Change Communications) in the implementation of our project: Developing a Democratic Culture in Rural Communities Using Radio Cameroon have been affected by spillovers of the civil war in the Central African Republic (CAR), to the east, and periodic incursions by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram from neighboring Northern Nigeria to the west.

The radio stations slightly affected by Boko Haram activities in Northern Cameroon are Sava FM in Mora, FM Demsa in Gashigah and Echoes des Montagnes in Mokolo. Each of these localities is found less than 20 km away from the Nigerian border where the Islamic terrorists are operating. In fact, a French Priest Georges Vandenbeuch was on November 13, 2013 kidnapped from his home, a dozen kilometers away from  where the radio house, of “Echoes des Montagnes) is situated.  In early January of this year, Cameroonian soldiers launched an offensive in the small locality of Bankie, against Boko Haram terrorists fleeing heavy bombardment by the Nigerian air force. Bankie, the battle field is less than 20 kilometres away from Mora where one of our partner radios, Sava FM is found. None of these radio stations has suffered any attack from Boko Haram, but their broadcasts schedules have been disturbed.

Equally affected by conflicts are our partner stations in the East region of Cameroon which shares over 1000 kilometers of borderline with the CAR where a civil war has been raging for over 12 months now. The radio stations directly concerned are situated in the Cameroonian border localities of Garoua-Boulai,   Batouri, Ndelele, Kentzou,  and Yokadouma. In fact, our partner stations in Garoua-Boulai and Kentzou were recently forced to suspend broadcasts because the two localities were directly attacked by Seleka rebels from neighbouring CAR.  In other stations, interactive programs were suspended for some time for security reasons. It was feared that, rebels could seize the opportunity on air and intervene to cause confusion and disturb the peace inside Cameroon territory. For the same security concerns, broadcast periods were shortened, especially as concerned night broadcasts.

However, it is important to note that, in some of the stations affected, the journalists Change Communications trained, are showing a good mastery of one of the modules in the training content, that of: “managing dangerous talk on air”. It was a module to initiate the trainees on how to manage a dangerous live incident on air, or manage a broadcast session during difficult circumstances. Some of the former trainees are at the moment ably using the radio to assist the government, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugies (UNHCR) in the border localities with the Central African Region. Radio messages intended to guide arriving refugees on what to do and what not to do are broadcast on radio. According to Cameroon’s Interior Minister Mr. Rene Sadi, there are 52000 refugees settled in 205 camps along the border with CAR. It is not an easy business to carry out messages on air to an aggrieved and devastated audience like the refugees.  Some of the broadcasters are expressing the wish to have more specialized training in dong broadcasting at the rural level under conflict circumstances or situations.

In any case, the situation at Cameroon’s borders with the CAR and Northern Nigeria is gradually coming to normal following robust security and military measures taken by the government of Cameroon. It is our greatest wish   that the situation gets to quite normal to enable our partner radio stations involved to attain some of our objectives – broadcast as many interactive and debate programs as possible within the project time frame. These are among key expected outputs of our project.