An unsettling calm is quietly prevailing in Cameroon after the much-totted Major National Dialogue called by Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, who has been in power for 37 years. Though the Major National Dialogue fell short of the expectations of many groups, especially the country’s Diaspora and Southern Cameroons separatists who have been locking horns with the Yaounde government for more than three years, many around the world thought that with a huge dose of objectivity and rare honesty on the government’s part, Cameroon, a country once considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, could make giant strides forward towards peace.

Cameroon, the Central African sub-region’s engine of growth, had been caught in a downward political and economic spiral following demonstrations and protests by the country’s English-speaking minority in October 2016 which met with a tough response from the Yaounde government that is wont to military violence and averse to negotiation or dialogue.

Since then, the two-English-speaking regions have become ungovernable. The country’s military has killed some 3,000 civilians and erased some 200 villages from the country’s map by torching homes and destroying property. Separatists, for their part, have also taken a page out of the government’s book of violence and since 2016 when the conflict erupted, more than a thousand soldiers have been sent to an early grave, with many killed in the most horrible manner.

Some of the armed groups have resorted to beheading soldiers and dismembering those they accuse of betraying the cause. However, observers have been arguing that some of the gruesome acts captured on video are the handiwork of armed groups created by the country’s Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, to commit some of those atrocious crimes with the objective of giving the rebellion a very bad name.

The violence playing out in the two English-speaking regions has resulted in the internal displacement of more than half a million people, while a similar number is currently living in neighboring countries such as Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Many Southern Cameroonians have escaped to unknown destinations and millions are targeting countries such as Canada, the United States and Great Britain where they can find a sanctuary after decades of marginalization and persecution by the Francophone government.  

The country has continued its onward march to the bottom of the abyss, as the violence escalates. The country’s economy has taken deadly blows to the liver following the destruction of the economy of the two English-speaking regions of the country and there are no indications that it will soon come off the life support equipment it has been hooked up to. Major state corporations such as the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) and PAMOL, all located in the country’s Southwest region, have been put out of business due to the conflict and this has cut the government off some of its major revenue streams.

The devastating impact of the conflict has been worrisome to the international community which, for  long, has been calling for an inclusive dialogue. With Mr. Biya’s announcement of the dialogue, many around the world thought that the penny had finally dropped and that all the issues plaguing the country would be discussed during the week-long Major National Dialogue, which some analysts say was hastily convened by the government to subvert the Swiss Initiative that has been welcomed by Southern Cameroonians and the armed factions.

But true to its nature and logic, the Yaounde government ensured that only those items it had included on the agenda could be discussed to the displeasure and chagrin of many Cameroonians living abroad. The international community was taken aback, but it welcomed the initiative, arguing that it was a first step towards the search for a peaceful and sustainable solution to the conflict that has put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The government did not only design the event’s agenda, it also chose the participants. It is generally held that you make peace with your enemies, but the Yaounde government decided to make peace with its friends. Only those who could play by its script were given an opportunity to share their perspectives.

Though a few opposition faces were brought in, government agents kept a close eye on them and their effort to change the event’s agenda met with stiff resistance from government representatives who had received firm instructions from the presidency not to yield to any pressure, if ever there was any. The government even invented its own Amba boys – a name for the ferocious Southern Cameroonian fighters who have given government troops a run for their money – to come and demonstrate in front of the cameras and international community that they had renounced violence and were seeking the country’s clemency and rehabilitation.

But the “comedians” who passed off as Amba Boys turned out to be prisoners and a few impostors. The impostors have melted into the crowd while the prisoners are back in their jails reflecting on their fate. For the impostors, they know they are not supposed to cross the Mungo – the boundary between East and West Cameroon – as their lives will never be the same again.

 Many of such “comedians” have already been beheaded, including one who was received by the Northwest region’s governor. He had claimed that he was a fighter and wanted to walk away from the fighting following the government’s launching of its demobilization programme. He also promised to talk his former colleagues into abandoning their weapons. Unfortunately, he never had the time to convince even a single fighter, as he was dismembered the following day and his body dumped in a public place.

The Major National Dialogue that had inspired a lot of hope is turning out to be a hullabaloo, a scheme designed by the government to hoodwink the international community into believing that it was finally prioritizing peace over military violence.  Some recommendations had been submitted to the country’s long-serving president, but many Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians, are not expecting much from a government that is both judge and jury in a devastating conflict. The Biya regime has a way of solving its problems. It simply sits out the issues, hoping that time will settle the matter.  

Some agents of the government have been working hard to sell the “Special Status” that has been recommended for Southern Cameroons, but this will not cut ice with the English-speaking minority that has complained about marginalization for decades. The separatists are still in action and they hold that they still have a huge stomach for a fight. Their war chest might have diminished over the last year, but their determination to roll back the Yaounde government from their land seems to be paying off.

On October 1, 2019, the separatists celebrated their independence in many parts of Southern Cameroons, and it was clear that the Yaounde government had run out of gasoline. There were no soldiers or gendarmes to stop Southern Cameroonians from celebrating their independence. Today, it is normal to see some government officials who had caused the conflict to escalate go on bended knees to call for peace. Some who thought it would be easy to silence Southern Cameroonians have now become apostles of peace and are crisscrossing the country to preach peace according to the corrupt ruling party.

Some are calling for a federal system as a middle ground that will calm minds and bring about peace in the country. But after more than three years of fighting and killing, will it be possible to reunite the country and reconcile? From every indication, the anger runs very deep and the separatists have gained a lot of ground that they might never want to yield.

The international community has recognized them and even the Americans and European Union now recognize them as forces that must be at the negotiating table if peace must be a reality in Cameroon. Last week, the United States ambassador in Cameroon said the world was still looking forward to the inclusive dialogue the international community has been calling for, a message that has been reiterated by the European Union. This really rattled the Yaounde government which finally forced its communication minister, Rene Sadi, to hold a press conference on the matter.

The U.S message simply implies that the Major National Dialogue has not been recognized abroad and will surely not deliver the goods. If the Yaounde government is looking forward to genuine reconciliation, it must walk away from its old ways. The Southern Cameroons crisis has shaken the country to its core and the country’s unity has been put through its paces. If proper actions are not taken to bring about genuine reconciliation in Cameroon, the country might continue to drift into more chaos that could linger for a long time, making reconciliation impossible.

By Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this message has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

For close to two years, the situation in Southern Cameroons has continued to deteriorate and nobody, not even the government, believes that it is time to change course.

The killings have continued on both sides, but the government still holds that a swift military victory is possible before the presidential election that will take place next month. The hardship in the two English-speaking regions of the country has increased exponentially over the last year and all what is on the minds of government authorities is keeping the people in check.

Yaoundé authorities seem to be frozen in time. In other places, the rule is for dialogue to ensure that things do not deteriorate, but ever since the conflict started, the government has kept on insisting on using an iron fist instead of an olive branch.

Many analysts are wondering when the killing and madness will come to an end. They hold that a different approach could have produced different results and this issue could have been laid to rest a long time ago.

The little infrastructure the two regions possess is deteriorating on a daily basis as both parties do what they can to prove that they have an upper hand. Today, the road leading to Bamenda from East Cameroon has been destroyed by Southern Cameroonian fighters and this is going to cost the region a huge fortune.

Many people agree that Southern Cameroonians have suffered a lot, but the killing of fellow Southern Cameroonians by Ambazonian fighters and the willful destruction of roads and other economic infrastructure has left many people wondering.

Some observers are calling for those in charge of the fighters on the ground to take a second look at their strategies.  The burning and destruction of scarce infrastructure is clearly affecting innocent civilians and it is calling into question the objective of those who are committing this act.

The prime suspects in this are usually the Amba boys. It is believed that they want to wreak as much havoc as possible in order to bring the government to the negotiating table. But there are also some doubts as the government has been caught several times in the act of destruction in order to wreak havoc on innocent people.

Many people have been asking lots of questions. First of all, why would Amba boys commit such an act on a Sunday morning? Why would Real Amba Boys Attack travelers and make themselves hated as the Cameroon Army whose modus Operandi has always been to disrupt movement  in fake claims of checking and enforcing security?

However, while these acts must be strongly condemned, the condemnation should be put in perspective. These extreme measures by the fighters are a reflection of the people’s frustration with a regime that has for long despised its own people.

Ever since the crisis started, many eminent people across the world have called on the government to change its strategy but the president of the country, Paul Biya, and his collaborators still see military action as the only option and this is what is causing the escalation.

The devil seems to be at work in Cameroon. Power and money have caused the government to lose its decency. In normal environments, peace talks will be going on to avert the worst. In Cameroon, that is not happening. Even when the country’s economy is taking the heat, the Yaoundé regime still holds that it can only crush opposition by force.

Many state corporations are going under because of this conflict, but the regime is still not changing its position.

PAMOL, CDC and SONARA located in Southern Cameroons are all facing tough times and many employees of these corporations have lost their jobs as a result. But this is not cutting ice with the government.

When is the government going to figure out that dialogue can produce more results than military action? When will it know that innocent civilians are being killed for crimes they have not committed?

When will it understand that to live in peace with other people, it must not use brute force?  Why has the government taken a position that is not tenable? The more it wants to destroy the fighters, the more the fighters want to prove that they can stand the test.

These extreme positions are not helping anybody. A shift in thinking and mentality could bring about peace and unity instead of military action. Cameroon is on the brink. The devil is at work in Cameroon. Many lives have been ruined. Many young men and soldiers have been rushed to an early grave.

Many people have been displaced and the suffering in Southern Cameroons is gradually spreading to East Cameroons as the number of displaced people increases by leaps and bounds.

The world cannot continue to play spectator to a situation that is resulting in thousands of deaths. Another Rwanda is silently playing out in Cameroon and the AU is doing nothing to check this madness that is being encouraged by the government.

Cameroon needs help. The world has to come in to stop the blood flow. The country is heading to the bottom of the abyss and if something is not done, the entire sub-region will be destabilized.

By Kingsley Betek