Christian World | Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda tells Vatican News peace is hard to regain after about ten years of conflict in Cameroon's English-speaking regions

ACW | October 28, 2026 — Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda, president of Cameroon's National Episcopal Conference, told Vatican News on October 28, 2026: "Peace is priceless," adding that it is "not easy at all to regain."

Vatican News reports that he urged people in peaceful countries to protect peace and people in war-torn countries to work to restore it. He said: "For about four or five years, children were all banned from going to school." According to Vatican News, schools are now gradually reopening.

The archbishop said Pope Leo XIV's April 2026 visit to Bamenda boosted peace efforts. The Pope met leaders at St. Joseph's Cathedral during the visit. Nkea has compiled a book, "The Catechism of Pope Leo XIV on Peace," with 100 questions and answers drawn from the Pope's Bamenda speeches and his homily of April 16, 2026.

Background: Vatican News reports that the Anglophone Crisis began in late 2016, when lawyers and teachers in the English-speaking regions protested against marginalisation by the French-speaking majority. The protests, at first peaceful, became an armed conflict by 2017 between government forces and separatist fighters. About 80 percent of Cameroonians speak French and about 20 percent English. ACW earlier reported that the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad calls dialogue the only option.

Why it matters: Vatican News reports the conflict has lasted about ten years with no decisive victory for either side; it says the fighting has caused heavy loss of life, widespread displacement and refugee flight, but gives no figures.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Source: Vatican News — Cameroon: "Peace is priceless", Bamenda Archbishop reflects on the toll of war

Photo: Vatican News