Francophonising the Anglophone Problem: Struggling English-language papers call on Biya for bailout ⁰

Publishers of English-language newspapers in Cameroon are calling on President Paul Biya to establish a special fund to help them recover from the devastating effects of the Anglophone crisis, which has been felt in the country’s North West and South West regions since 2016.

The separatist war in the two English-speaking regions – which make up 20 percent of Cameroon’s population – has killed at least 6,000 people and forced over one million from their homes over the past seven years.

It has also crippled businesses, including the English-speaking newspaper sector.

“Prior to the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, English-language newspapers used to have advertising jobs from companies like the Cameroon Development Corporation … and other well established private companies,” said Ngah Kristian Mbipgo, CENPA president and publisher of the country’s only English-language daily newspaper, The Guardian Post.

“English language newspapers have, because of the crisis, lost more than 80 percent of their readership in the North West and South West Regions.”

Readership ‘fizzled out of existence’

Yerima Kini Nsom, Yaoundé bureau chief at The Guardian Post said the bulk of the paper’s readers were in the separatist flashpoints of Kumbo and Nkambe, all in Cameroon’s North West region.

The result of all this is that only the very resilient news organisations have been able to stay afloat.

Source: RFI