“Let us go where the guns are loud”: How Esther Omam Builds Peace in Cameroon

“Women peacebuilders run to the problem when everyone else is running away,” said ICAN’s CEO and Founder, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. This statement could not be truer of award-winning Cameroonian peacebuilder, Esther Omam. Esther’s career has seen her go from development worker to humanitarian responder to mediator and peacebuilder, in the South-West region of Cameroon. Esther has negotiated humanitarian access into some of the most remote and dangerous pockets of the Anglophone Crisis and in 2019, she successfully persuaded key non-state armed group leaders to lift a three-year school ban. Despite threats, rumor-mongering, and kidnappings, Esther has remained steadfast in her commitment to humanitarian and peacebuilding work because in her words:
“This is a passion; you don’t do it for money. You do it because you are interested in saving lives, causing change, and leading social healing so that the wounds, pain, and suffering of your people are relieved.”
Esther Omam is the Executive Director of the NGO, Reach Out Cameroon, a member of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (MWC) network and became a member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) in 2020.
Longstanding socio-economic grievances and political marginalization of Cameroon’s Anglophone population by the Francophone-dominated government sparked protests in October 2016. The escalation of violence has brought the country to the brink of civil war with devastating social and humanitarian consequences.
2016 (October) – Protests and strikes began over the imposition of the French language in Anglophone courts and schools.
2016-17 – Popular uprising demanded an end to the socio-economic and political marginalization of the Anglophone regions and people. Government armed forces responded with violence and a military clampdown targeting demonstrators.
2017-18 – Escalation of violence between government security agents and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) who demanded secession of the Anglophone regions from the Republic of Cameroon.
2018-Present – Continued conflict and social and humanitarian crisis: 3,000 people killed and over 600,000 displaced.
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