Southern Cameroons: Consortium leader tells SDF MPs Francophone members of gov’t demonstrated bad faith ¹

Dr. Fontem Neba, one of the emblematic figures of the Southern Cameroons struggle incarcerated at the Yaounde central prison located in Kondengui in the Central Region has said that the Anglophone problem has taken a dramatic u-turn because of bad faith on the part of the CPDM regime in Yaounde. Dr Fontem made the declaration during a meeting with parliamentarians of Social Democratic Front on April 5, 2017.

Fontem Neba returned to the relations between the government and the arrested leaders. “There is so much to be said in the Anglophone crisis that continues to get bogged down. You must know that the crisis which is on-going is linked to the bad will of the leaders. Negotiations between the Government and the unions of Anglophone teachers had resumed. I must quickly say that the strike had taken another turn. The people followed closely all our actions; And it was no longer possible to circumvent them.”

Dr Fontem Neba pointed out that during the last meeting of the ad hoc committee; the trade unionists expressed the wish to have a moment of consultation. The objective of this consultation was to lift the strike slogan. “But the members of the Government did not understand. Yet they wanted a truce and wished absolutely to report to the Head of State that the strike had been lifted and we refused. That is why the state moved on to higher gear of arresting us.” For the Southern Cameroon leader if the government had listened to the Consortium, the crisis would not be at the current level.

By Rita Akana