Two weeks after the start of the school year, Cameroon is outraged by an act of violence perpetrated by a teacher on a student in the town of Ebolowa, in the south of the country. The facts took place on Thursday, September 15. The young student in first class, still hospitalized, was only saved after surgery.
With our correspondent in Yaoundé, Polycarp Essomba
The young student’s classmates report a particularly brutal scene. This morning of Thursday, September 15, in the middle of a work session with their supervisor, guidance counselor in the establishment, a sudden fight broke out, opposing the teacher to the student Ulrich Ateba, aged 17.
The teacher, in an unspeakable outburst of anger, will thrash the young learner with particularly violent blows. The beating will lead Ulrich Ateba to the hospital, where he will be diagnosed with a fractured abdomen, requiring surgery and removal of the spleen. His doctors will then be reassuring, indicating that he is now out of danger.
But the echo of the drama will reach the ears of Pauline Nalova Lyonga, the Minister of Secondary Education, who will hurry to make the trip to Ebolowa, at the bedside of the young student.
If the worst was thus narrowly avoided, this news item shocked public opinion and brought up to date, barely two weeks after the start of the school year, a context of tension and distrust between students and teachers. . This attack also revived painful and still fresh memories, like the tragedy that occurred a few months ago in a high school in Yaoundé, where a student had stabbed his teacher to death.
► Also to listen: 7 billion neighbors – Physical violence in schools