Hello friends of the steemit community, this is @hermannsol. I am a Cameroonian from the English speaking region Bamenda. It is with a severe ache in my heart that i decided to write on this today.

source
Growing up as a Child, i've always loved to travel out there and pursue a career of my choice abroad. That is to say in all honesty that being a Cameroonian by birth and having lived my entire life here, i've never been proud to be called a Cameroonian. It marvels me so much to hear others say how much they are proud of their country but when i looked at my country back then there was nothing to be proud about. In fact it even got to a point that i felt like i didn't belong here. That's how much i detested my country as a young person. I was very far from the word patriotic. And why? Simply because of the state of the country. The problems of corruption, unemployment, poor leadership with a president i have seen all my life as leader. He is currently 36yrs in power and has announced his intentions to run again for another term of 7yrs. He is 85yrs old now and should he win, that will make him 92yrs old when his term expires and 43yrs in power. The irony of the whole thing is voting is just a formality nowadays because we know the winner already. He can run for office as many times as he wants and always wins.

With that in mind, i always saw Cameroon as a terrible and messed up place. I didn't like it at all and would have grabbed the least chance i had to get out. Here is a place where you cannot even ptotest against the regime, you get jailed, labelled a terrorist and sentenced for saying the truth. You cannot do anything against the regime and most have just learned to roll with it.
Growing up, i knew we needed a change and i have been praying for it for i knew only prayers and doing that which is right could bring the change. I used to watch news and i see of how people in Arab nations and countries experiencing war suffered, people displaced and poverty. I will thank God for the peace in my country. I will say to myself atleast we have peace even with all these problems. Atleat i had one thing to be proud of as a Cameroonian and that was peace.

source

Now i don't even have that anymore. It all changed by this time in october 2016 when the people of the English region rose up and started their protests. It started like a small issue and now has culminated into a civil war. The media has misinformed the entire globe of what is happening and the world fails to really understand what is happening here. The media announces only minimal cases of deaths but the true numbers are shocking. The military instead of protecting the citizens is attacking and killing them. Many harmless parents, children, youths have died and continue to die because of this. Just today, i felt so bad in church when i saw people who have escaped their homes, families and children all displaced to strange places. Life has become so tough and insecure. It has become a state of emergency.
The one thing i was thankful and proud of has been taken from me. The chaos, tears, gunshots and deaths i used to watch on TV are now right before my very own eyes. My worst nightmare is now a reality that i can hardly believe. The lives that have been lost, husbands living their houses and never coming to their wives, Children losing both parents and so many lives lost everyday, students unable to go to school because of the insecurity in the country and many more effects. I personally could not go to school last year because of this issue i wasted a whole year of my life and that is nothing compared to what others have lost.

This is why when i look at my country Cameroon now, all i can ask myself is:

Is there anything left to be proud of?