2024-03-18 03:30:41
It is a cry of distress that never ceases to resonate on the web. Since last night, a Cameroonian father has been making calls for help on social networks to try to find his 12-year-old daughter, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. A post that has gone viral and shared thousands of times in just a few hours, a sign of an unprecedented mobilization of Internet users in Cameroon and elsewhere.
Contacted by the editorial staff of 237online.com, the distraught father testified: “ My little darling has been missing since last night and we haven’t heard from him since. We contacted the police, visited hospitals, questioned the neighborhood… Nothing! It’s as if she had evaporated. I’m worried to death. »
The kidnapping trail favored by investigators
If for the moment no leads have been ruled out, the first elements of the investigation seem to favor the theory of kidnapping. According to our information, the teenager was seen for the last time yesterday late afternoon as she returned from school, before mysteriously disappearing just a few meters from the family home.
A procedure which unfortunately recalls many similar news items that have occurred in recent months in Cameroon. With the increase in kidnappings for ransom, many families live in the psychosis of seeing their child disappear overnight. A scourge which spares no social class and which plunges the entire country into anguish.
The unprecedented mobilization of Internet users
Faced with this tragedy, Cameroonian Internet users have decided to mobilize massively to try to find the trace of the missing teenager. Shared tens of thousands of times, the father’s desperate message became in just a few hours the rallying point for a veritable nationwide cyber hunt.
Supporting screenshot, everyone gives their testimony or their supposition to try to advance the investigation. Some claim to have seen the young girl in this or that locality, others promise a reward for any information allowing them to locate her… A 2.0 hunt which testifies to the formidable capacity for mobilization of social networks in such circumstances.
The specter of human trafficking networks
But beyond the emotion aroused by this disappearance, it is also the anger that dominates among many Internet users. Because for many, this tragic news item reveals the powerlessness of the authorities in the face of the criminal networks which are plaguing the country. Child trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced begging… There are numerous and well-established channels for getting hold of the most vulnerable minors.
« It is time for the government to finally take stock of this scourge and dismantle these mafia networks that are destroying our families. How many more children will have to disappear before strong measures are taken? », protests an Internet user under the publication which has gone viral. A feeling of abandonment and fed up shared by many Cameroonians exasperated by the inaction of the public authorities.
Child protection, a great national cause?
For the experts consulted by 237online.com, this new disappearance must sound like a final alarm signal. According to them, it is high time to make child protection a major national cause and to mobilize all necessary means to stem this scourge.
This involves in particular a drastic strengthening of border controls, better coordination of police and gendarmerie services, but also and above all a vast awareness campaign aimed at families. Because too often, unfortunately, it is lack of awareness of the risks and economic insecurity that throw these children into the dens of the wolves.
A vast project from which the authorities will not be able to escape for much longer. Otherwise, there will be an increase in tragedies like that experienced by the family of this 12-year-old girl, somewhere in Cameroon. And whose fate, as we write these lines, unfortunately remains more uncertain than ever…