A single student out of 4,000 showed up on the first day of the new term at one high school in Bamenda, the English-speaking city at the heart of a deadly conflict in Cameroon over language in this bilingual West African country, reports Yahoo! News.
Teachers have joined a strike led by lawyers resentful over the official use of French in the English-speaking part of the country. Recent protests have called for "ghost town" strikes in major cities. The government shut down the internet in the English-speaking region, digital advocacy group Access Now has said.
Tensions are so high that 10 people were killed in demonstrations over language discrimination in Bamenda in December, according to a coalition of human rights groups based in the city. The government sent in 5,000 troops to stabilize the city.
Two officials with the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have been charged with terrorism and rebellion against the state for their role in the recent protests and face the death penalty if convicted. The government has banned the consortium's activities. Another activist, Bibixy Mancho, faces the same charges.
Amnesty International has called for the release of Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla and Fontem Aforteka'a Neba, saying that "this flagrant disregard for basic rights risks inflaming an already tense situation."
Hundreds have been arrested, including protesters who stopped the singing of the Cameroonian national anthem, dismissing it as a foreign song. Some hoisted a new flag, declaring that they are no longer part of French-speaking Cameroon.
Longtime President Paul Biya has said he is open to negotiations but will never accept any attempts to destabilize national unity.
Over the weekend, state media reported that teachers' union leaders had agreed to suspend the strike and that classes would resume Monday, though opposition outlets said the report was incorrect.
As the strike continues, one student, 17-year-old Oben Ashu, said he's afraid his education — and his future — will be compromised. "They should give us the room to go back to school and be studying while the government and the teachers sit down in a table and discuss how the problem can be solved," Ashu said.
Cameroon is made up of areas that were once colonies of France and Britain until the early 1960s. English speakers constitute only 20 percent of Cameroon's population, though the constitution says English and French should be equally important. But most official documents are still available only in French, and teachers with little English ability are often sent to English-language areas of the country.
Read more of this Associated Press report published by Yahoo! News.