18 of these feminicide cases recorded in 52 days. No, this is not the synopsis of a horror movie on Netflix, this is reality, Cameroon! Since the beginning of this year, the finding is macabre.
Between 2019 and 2020, 130 women had already suffered the same fate, of which 60% were domestic violence. The report published in 2022 by the news channel France 24, entitled “Cameroon: impunity persists despite a sharp increase in the number of feminicides”already mentioned the laxity of the authorities in the face of this alarming and growing situation.
What is a feminicide?
According the World Health Organizationfeminicide is the intentional homicide of a woman,
but there are broader definitions which include any killing of girls or women simply because they are women. In 2021the United Nations for Women counts 45,000 women and girls who lost their lives because of their gender, including 17,200 in Africa. A number that could be even more significant due to the lack of statistical data from a large majority of African countries.
What is the State of Cameroon doing to protect women?
In the daily life of Cameroonians, violence against women is almost commonplace. Almost all of us have already seen people (mostly men) rape a girl or a woman without anyone intervening. They are even numerous in the houses to regularly cheat death in view of the beatings and other attacks suffered.. It is therefore important to ask ourselves what the State is doing… Our dear State, which has already shown us so much of its assumed sexism.
18 Femicides in 52 days and radio silence… Yet we have a dedicated Ministry that seems likely to have other things to do. Perhaps a cooking festival to organize, to remind us of the place of women? The Ministry of Justice which, in the norm, should take up these cases on its own so that investigations are carried out and the culprits judged, remains just as silent. To believe that the fate of these women does not matter.
We do not expect much in this dear and beautiful country, but it still manages to surprise us. There “status of women” only matters on March 8when it comes to organizing useless parades in eccentric loincloths and expensive banquets to hold pompous debates where alcohol flows freely.
It is our duty to all of us to demand justice for these women, these girls, these sisters, these mothers. Strong justice that will put an end to this bloody trend for good. May their souls find peace despite the injustices perpetrated, as the other would say: “Cameroonians, God save us! “.