People are beginning to live in fear for their lives. The once peaceful cities and serene villages see dead bodies scattered on their streets in broad daylight. People lock themselves in rooms for safety and wouldn't dare take a walk on the street.

In January 2019 for instance, Nairobi had undergone terrorist attacks leaving 21 people dead. Cameroon since 2016 continues to suffer from political conflicts between the Anglophones and the government. According to the UN and one of our members in Cameroon this crisis began when the two Anglophone regions (Southern regions) in Cameroon felt too suffocated and marginalised by the Francophones who make up eight regions (Northern regions) out of the entire ten regions in the country and therefore demanded for equality.

However, the initial peaceful demand has escalated into a bigger crises resulting in the death of hundreds of citizens and displacement of thousands. The crises according to our member, does not seem like it would end anytime soon and citizens are feeling desperate and frustrated wishing for a breath of fresh air away from all these.

Statistics show that there are 9 million refugees and internally displaced people in Africa. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), 2.7  million people were newly displaced in Africa during the first six months of 2017 equivalent to 150,000 forced from their homes daily with three quarters of these due to conflicts and violence.

The most disheartening about all these is that the ones deeply affected are children and youth who form majority of the continent’s population. Children can no longer afford to dream of a future and hope to live long enough to work towards it. Children can no longer play with their mates and experience the joy of childhood because at their young stage they are forced to only think of survival. Young people are forced to become child soldiers without any care for their lives or future. In place of toys guns have become their play tools. The youth are been rid of the opportunity to develop and contribute to development and each day has become one to worry if it is the last.

The continuous violence and insurgencies in the region has resulted in high levels of malnutrition, increased poverty levels, stunted progress in development and decision making, reduced education of young people and negatively impacts on their health and total well-being.

As socialist educators very much centred on well-being and development of children and youth as well as all manner of people there are so many things we can do to counter this situation:

• • Peace and Human Rights Education - Socialist educators should integrate peace and human rights education into their activities to ensure people have fair knowledge of using dialogue to counter conflicts so they do not result in violence. Also when people  have more knowledge of human rights they are well aware of how much they are entitled to and where their rights end in order to not abuse the rights of others.
• • Encourage and ensure participation of young people and people likely to be left out in peace building - socialist educators must encourage young people and marginalised people to take active participation in decision making processes of their communities.This would ensure their views are heard and integrated into development agendas. When this happens everyone would feel respected and involved in community development and decision-taking which would help avoid conflicts.
• • Be a safe environment and support for young people and people who have faced violent conflicts- socialist educators should provide safe spaces where people such as immigrants, internally displaced people and people who have been involved in violent conflicts can share their experience, find solidarity and learn of new ways to deal with their challenges and situations.

Socialist educators can help change the narrative and must try as much as they can to ensure people living in conflict zones feel safe and protected.