A joint press briefing by some government ministers on preventive measures of terrorist attacks took place yesterday in Yaounde.

Barely two weeks to the start of the 2015/2016 academic year in Cameroon, education stakeholders are streamlining measures to nip any terrorist attacks in schools and universities in the bud. This explains why a joint press briefing took place in Yaounde yesterday August 25, 2015, initiated by the Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa.

The press briefing which aimed at sensitising families and young people on terrorist attacks and preventive measures they should adopt as schools resume for the new academic year was also attended by different ministerial departments notably, Zacharie Perevet of Employment and Vocational Training, Bidoung Mpatt of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Issa Tchiroma Bakary of Communication and representatives of Basic Education amongst others,

The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, stated that the preventive measures families are called upon to observe, are in response to the suicide-bombing strategy Boko Haram terrorists have adopted. The family, which forms the basic unit in every society, the Minister insisted must be more vigilant and demonstrate patriotism by assisting the security service with intelligence information. While urging families to uphold the education of their children on the kinds of interactions, activities, objects and documents they manipulate, Abena Ondoa called on women and children particularly to bar terror by refusing any form of collaboration, help and complicity with the enemy.

The Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Bidoung Mpatt, in his declaration outlined a series of civic education sensitisation campaigns being carried out in his ministry through the National Civic Service Agency for Participatory Development and decentralized structures of his ministry all over the country. The Youths, Bidoung Mpatt added, must at all times and places, be implicated in the operation to annihilate Boko Haram.  

To the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the good example of a commercial Motor-bike-rider in Maroua who dropped one of his suspected clients to the Police Station is worth emulating. While calling on Cameroonians to remain united without fear, Issa Tchiroma reminded Boko Haram leaders that no one has ever succeeded to put asunder a united people. On his part, Employment and Vocational Training Minister, Zacharie Perevet, stressed the need for general mobilisation with every family involved to eliminate the enemy.