YAOUNDE, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon celebrated the International Women's Day on Friday amid growing calls for an end to an ongoing war in the two English-speaking regions of the country.
This occasion should be used to remember those who are facing difficulties in the Northwest and Southwest and comfort and hope should be brought to them, Cameroon's Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Therese Abena Ondoua told reporters.
First Lady Chantal Biya presided over celebrations marking the annual event in the capital, Yaounde attended by some 60,000 women.
Activities in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest took place amid tight security and timidity following calls from armed separatists for women to boycott the event.
Women in the two regions used the occasion to stress on the need to end the conflict.
"Women need to take the lead in solving the sociopolitical crisis plaguing the two regions," Judith Morfa, Southwest regional chief of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family said in an address to women.
"We are losing our women, husbands and children every day and this is traumatizing to women. We call for cease fire," Eileen Manka'a Tabuwe, spokesperson of a women movement that seeks to stop violence in the two regions told Xinhua.
Armed separatists seeking to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions have been clashing with government forces since November 2017.
United Nations estimated that about 430,000 people had been displaced internally by the conflict.
