In regards to the conflict between Choas-Mousgoum-Massa Arabs, Mounouna Foutsou, Youths Affairs Minister speaks out.
Dear Arab brothers, Mousgoums, Massas ... I first address my sincere condolences to all the families of the victims of the conflict which has been in the headlines in recent days. To the injured, I wish a speedy recovery.
How many deaths of men! What material damage! So many phone calls received! What worries! What a future for young people wasted! ...
Also, as a son of this community, a youth educator and a promoter of citizenship, I feel obliged to challenge us.
Remember, we are all brothers, sons and daughters of the same father, perhaps different mothers.
Moreover, in the case of logone and chari, mousgoums, massas, kotokos ... do they not all speak the Arabic language? Isn't this a mark of cultural identity common to these peoples? How many centuries of living together? We are called to continue to share our common living spaces, God has decided so!
Let us instead draw on our ancestral values, in order to find solutions to the conflict which causes us more distress today. Yes, where has our love of neighbor gone?
I remember well that in the Massa man, any stranger encountered on his way is called BANANNA (my friend), a term that has become a baptismal name for the Massa and even for all the neighboring communities, a sign of friendship and of living together in a friendly way. . It is in this climate of friendship, of fraternity that we all lived during these centuries of common life. Obviously, the pitfalls between brothers were not lacking but always resolved in the family, on the well-known principle of: "whoever wounds his brother heals his wounds" and the community organizes the "meal of reconciliation and fraternal communion".
Today the worst has happened. But we have, once again, the duty to return to these founding principles of our secular life.
Also, I urge all stakeholders to follow this approach, now recommended by the Government embodied by the Governor of the Far North Region, staying in the logone and Chari at the moment for this purpose. Unfortunately, I was not able to be physically present at his side following his invitation, but I am wholeheartedly with the strong delegation which accompanies him and make mine the resolutions which will result from it.
Indeed, let us respect and have confidence in our republican institutions, it is a question of citizenship, civility and patriotism!
Far from a speech, it is a cry from the heart that I launch in the direction of all the actors for a return to peace. It is priceless. Without peace, there is nothing possible. Peace is to our communities, to our country, what health is to our organism. Let us all be beggars of peace, as the President of the Republic, Head of State, HE Mr. PAUL BIYA, who is also always listening to us, has always recommended to us, let us not forget that. Let us express to him our possible concerns, rather than wanting to resolve them through fratricidal violence, murderous and destructive for all.
May God appease the hearts of all, in his peace and mercy, may he bless our dear and beautiful country Cameroon!
Yaoundé on December 12, 2021
MOUNOUNA FOUTSOU
Communication Unit
MINJEC