<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/18/there-is-no-hope-here-the-young-africans-risking-death-to-start-a-new-life-abroad>
"In Douala, Cameroon, a funeral is being held for Bryan Achou*, whose body was
pulled from the Mediterranean and returned to his family less than a year ago.
Friends and relatives commiserate about his fate. “He’s a child from my
neighbourhood. In less than two weeks, we lost two children: one was in the
ocean between Turkey and Greece, the other was in Tunisia,” says one woman.
“Really, before 2035, this country will have been emptied of its citizens,”
another mourner says.
This is a reference to the government’s new development paper
Cameroon vision
2035, an outline of plans by the president, the 90-year-old autocrat Paul
Biya, to turn his ailing, conflict-ridden country around. Judging by the
resignation in the reactions to the remark, no one here believes it will
succeed. There have been so many plans since Biya came to power in 1982.
Those gathered here – business people, teachers, office workers – are not
starving. Nor are they directly affected by the armed insurgency in western
Cameroon. But they understand why young people want to leave, even if it means
they risk death.
Shortly after attending Achou’s funeral, Elizabeth BanyiTabi, a Cameroonian ZAM
reporter, hears that a friend plans to leave the country via the American
route: flying to Brazil and taking buses north from there, eventually reaching
the notorious Darien Gap jungle crossing at the Panama border. From there she
will have to walk through dense rainforest, risking attacks by poisonous
snakes, spiders and criminal gangs. Survivors of the 80km trek from Colombia to
Panama have described it as being “littered with bodies”. BanyiTabi’s friend
knows this as another of her friends died there not long ago. “Yet, I’ll try,”
she says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
