A LOCKDOWN WITHOUT A PATH TO PEACE BECOMES ANOTHER BURDEN ON THE PEOPLE

A LOCKDOWN WITHOUT A PATH TO PEACE BECOMES ANOTHER BURDEN ON THE PEOPLE

The lockdown in the North-West and South-West Regions can only have meaning if it creates genuine pressure for dialogue and an urgent resolution of the crisis—not if it simply ends and everybody returns to the same dangerous situation that existed before it began.

If, after the lockdown, schools reopen, businesses resume, vehicles return to the roads and life goes back to “normal” without any serious effort to address the crisis, then we must ask a difficult question:

What exactly did the lockdown achieve?

A lockdown cannot become an endless cycle in which ordinary people close their businesses, children lose school days, families lose income, teachers live in fear and communities suffer—only for everything to reopen until the next shutdown.

That risks punishing the very population the struggle claims to protect.

If peaceful pressure is to continue, it should increasingly take the form of organized, nonviolent civic action calling unmistakably for dialogue, protection of civilians and an immediate political effort to resolve the crisis.

The objective must be clear: END THE CRISIS—not endlessly manage its consequences.

Nonviolent resistance has value only when it advances the welfare and legitimate grievances of the people. When a method repeatedly leaves ordinary citizens poorer, children further behind in education, businesses weaker and communities more frightened without moving the parties toward a solution, that method must be reconsidered.

After years of suffering, the North-West and South-West do not need another routine of lockdown → reopening → violence → lockdown.

We need a pathway from protest to dialogue, from dialogue to compromise, and from compromise to peace.

HOW MANY MORE MUST DIE BEFORE YOU END THIS CONFLICT?

How many more soldiers and separatist fighters must be killed before you end this conflict?

How many more innocent civilians must be murdered, kidnapped, tortured or displaced before you end this conflict?

How many more families must be shattered, widowed, orphaned and driven from their homes before you end this conflict?

How many more schools must close, and how many more children must lose their future to prolonged lockdowns and school dropouts?

How many more communities must be destroyed and livelihoods ruined before you end this conflict?

How much more blood money do war profiteers want to make before they finally allow this war to end?

Enough of the killing. Enough of the kidnappings. Enough of the suffering. Enough of profiting from human misery.

Sit down. Negotiate. Find a just political solution. END THIS CONFLICT NOW!

Dr. David Makongo

#HowManyMore

#EndTheWarNow

#EnoughIsEnough

#StopTheKillings

#StopTheKidnappings

#ChildrenDeserveEducation

#NoMoreBloodMoney

#DialogueNotDeath

#PeaceNow

#EndTheAnglophoneCrisis