By Guest Writer
Fon Nsoh, Coordinator of the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development (COMINSUD) a Bamenda-based Non-Governmental Organisation has been distinguished with Peace Man of The Year 2025 Award by the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). According to the Moderator of the PCC, Rt. Rev. Miki Hans Abia who signed the Certificate of Recognition on behalf of the PCC, Fon Nsoh through his NGO has contributed immensely to peace and social cohesion in Cameroon. “In heartfelt appreciation of your remarkable dedication to advancing peace and social cohesion in Cameroon: we are delighted to recognise you as the peace Man of the Year 2025”, the message on the certificate reads.
The recognition accorded Fon Nsoh done during a solemn ceremony recently at the PCC Synod Office Hall in Buea, was witnessed by people of different social strata within and without the PCC.
It is worth noting that Fon Nsoh has been contributing in working for peace since 2014 when COMINSUD was created with the support of Bread for the World. COMINSUD’s work is based on the Community PeaceBuilding and Conflict Transformation with a focus on Community Peacebuilding and youth leaders’ initiatives that promote Just and Peaceful societies by upholding the values of positivity, equality, inclusion, tolerance and non-violence. The idea to start COMINSUD began when conflict manifestation has been recorded as one of the growing forms of discontent with violent inter-community clashes, farmer/herders (grazer) clashes, political street riots and attacks on persons and properties especially (1990 -1997), street protest and riots due to high cost of living (2008) and of recent the Anglophone Crisis that started in 2016, turn into an armed conflict at the close of 2017 persisting till today. The Anglophone crisis triggered a humanitarian crisis due to armed confrontations, and widespread civilian displacement, kidnappings, targeted killings and so on.
The North West Region it should also be noted remains a multi-layered conflict environment;
Bui, Momo, Mezam, Boyo, and Ngoketunjia stand out as the most insecure Divisions, driven primarily by the armed insurgency.
Donga-Mantung and Menchum due to farmer–grazer conflicts with a cross-border dimension with violent attacks from Nigerian armed grazer.
Political tension and division manifested across political lines.
Inter- community and tribal conflicts some date back from precolonial times, others associated with the creation of new communities and some resulting from poor handlining of existing conflicts by the administration.
Award-winning Fon Nsoh
Born in Mankon Town – Bamenda, he is an Educationalist and Development Practitioner. With over 29 years of engagement in community transformation processes he has a vast wealth of experience in the domains of:
Sustainable livelihoods, environment and resource management
Local Governance, democracy, human rights and peace work.
Humanitarian and resilience actions.
He is the current Coordinator of COMINSUD and one of the founding members of Community Initiative for Sustainable Development a leading NGO in the Cameroon civil society space.
His path on peace work began in 2014, transforming the challenging context of interethnic/tribal conflict within communities and resource managements challenges between farmers and herders in the North West Region. With the socio-political crisis that break out in 2016 and degenerated into an armed conflict in the Anglophone Regions of Cameroon. Fon Nsoh’s attention has been largely contributed on how to build peace, reduce violence and suffering faced by civilians. Some of his landmark achievements in the domain of peace work include:
The Back-to-School Campaign between 2018–2020 from the call for school boycott with attacks on education that resulted in less than 10 % of schools functioning. He organized reflections meeting with key stakeholders, promoted media and social media campaign and solicited a negotiator who engaged with local and diaspora groups to plead the need to allow schools to function.
The Campaign for Just and Peaceful Societies 2017– 2025: Using the Community Peace Building approach, over 250 Community Peace Builders and Youth Leaders have been trained, empowered, stimulate and engage to lead broad spectrum change actions necessary to bring positive contributions towards reducing violence and alleviate suffering within community across the North West Region. Via this campaign, the values of positivity, inclusion, equality and tolerance are promoted with the bases for a Just and Peaceful Societies.
Fon Nsoh is an active member of the Civil Peace Service Bread for the World Partners’ Network Cameroon with 17 CSO and FBO members. As one of the Focal Persons of the Network in the North West Region he leads campaigns for peace education on youth settings focused on school non-school setting and campaign for the promotion of a common identify.
