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ConflictsAfrica

Children's drawings shed sinister light on Cameroon conflict

June 22, 2021

The conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon has been raging since 2016. A series of children's drawings shows the degree of violence that pervades their lives. WARNING: Disturbing images.

https://p.dw.com/p/3vHu9
Drawing of a fighter killing another fighter using a pistol
Graphic drawings by children of violence have emerged from Cameroon's Anglophone regionImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

"I told them to draw whatever they wanted. After 15 minutes, the kids had completed their task. Most of them were drawing weapons, guns and armored cars," explains child protection caseworker Tatiana Bie from Kumba in southwestern Cameroon. She works for the Reach Out, an NGO which works with victims of conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone regions.

Child's sketch showing men with knives
Drawings of attacks and weapons featured heavily in the seriesImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

It seemed like a benign task for the children at an orphanage near Kumba, where Reach Out operates. In the region, there exists a state of civil war.

Children have been kept out of school since 2016 as warring militias and Cameroonian government troops clash. Schools, children and teachers have become targets. Deadly attacks on school grounds, such as the massacre at Kumba in October 2020 have received international attention, and condemnation.

Cameroon school attack

But this series of drawings created by about 60 children in Anglophone Cameroon indicates the violence is far from sporadic, and plays a significant role in their daily lives.

Horrific images

"The kids can even tell differences between weapons," says Reach Out coordinator Marc Serna, who suggested conducting the drawing exercise to Reach Out caseworkers after hearing of a similar program among refugees from Darfur. He says caseworkers did not prompt the children to draw scenes of violence — only to draw pictures about their lives.

Child's drawing of woman in a dress with blood, and drawing of an axe
Red ink for blood shows the violence that preoccupies the minds of the childrenImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

The drawings are simple, but striking in their detail and include a lot of graphic references to violence.

Dr. Shelly Evans, a counselor who has worked with children affected by conflict in Uganda, Sudan and Sierra Leone, has seen the drawings. The pictures, she says, "suggests that this is what they are living every day".

"[The pictures] were drawn in just black or blue ink. But the blood was prominent in bright red ink, so everything else was just kind of faded into the background, except the blood," says Evans.

The illustrations also prominently feature an array of weapons, sketched in noticeable detail, which the characters hold, and use on their victims.

"Also, the size of the weapons was enlarged in some of the drawings. That takes up most of their thought," says Evans.

"The characters, in some of the pictures are smiling, as if this is a normal part of their daily life or activities, as horrific as it is." 

Child's hand drawing of an armored car with soldiers
The smiles on the faces is particularly concerning for Dr Shelly Evans, pointing to a type of normalityImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

Detriment to children's education

The attacks on schools in the  Anglophone regions since the conflict began have set back education programs by years, and there are fears of a generation of Cameroonians not receiving an education.

According to the Reach Out coordinator, Serna, the violence affects children in rural areas especially, because schools are more vulnerable to attacks.

"Every child will have a gap of maybe two years, three years, but some of them have five year gaps and they'll never go back to school," Serna explains. "This is one of the most neglected crises in the world. We know that every day there are atrocities committed against civilians."

Map of Cameroon 's Anglophone regions
Cameroon's Anglophone regions have been unstable for since 2016

Precedent from Darfur

The concept of using drawings for children living in conflict zones to work through the trauma came about by accident. In the mid-2000s, Rebecca Tinsley, who is joint chair of the Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon NGO, was working in Chad with refugees from Darfur in Sudan.

"We wanted to talk to women who had survived the ethnic cleansing in Darfur, but they had children around them and were distracting their mothers. So somebody had the idea of giving the children paper and crayons. And all we said was to the children, go away and draw us a picture about your life."

Children play with a ball in a yard
Reach Out tries to provide safe spaces for young children in Cameroon's Anglophone regionsImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

The result was a disturbing, and detailed, collection of drawings that illustrates the presence of violence in the children's lives.

"We smuggled the drawings out of Chad and we took them to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. And they said, this is amazing," according to Tinsley. "This is evidence of the context of genocide, because the Sudanese regime refused to allow any human rights groups or any journalists."

The exercise was a form of therapy where the children were able to record what was happening to them, and "express their fear" in a society that often interpreted fear as a sign of weakness, she says. 

While admitting an international legal process stemming from the drawings in Cameroon is a still a "long way off", Tinsley hopes the drawings bring attention to the severity of the conflict. "We have a moral duty to get the international community to see what is happening, because it requires the international community to put pressure on the government of Cameroon to enter peace talks."

Child's drawing of a gun and a knife
Detailed drawings point to a concerning familiarity with the weapons among the children Image: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO

For caseworkers like Tatiana Bie, performing their jobs includes severe personal risk, often without the necessary resources. But she and her colleagues are determined to give the children spaces to work through their trauma, and at least some psychosocial support.

"We make sure that they associate with friends, and that they play together. When a child plays with a friend or is amongst people who would like make him play and laugh, some of those bad thoughts would be going out of him." 

Child's drawing of a gun pointing at a man carrying a knives
Shocking depictions suggest the children have witnessed horrifying scenes first-handImage: Marc Serna/Reach Out NGO
DW Africa's Cai Nebe smiles into the camera
Cai Nebe Producer, podcaster and reporter for DW Africa