The crisis in Southern Cameroons is now in its second year and the spark that led Cameroon down the fiery rabbit hole of the Anglophone revolution is still much alive and active. Frankly speaking, a lack of leadership in Yaoundé, Abuja and the African Union allowed the peaceful strike action led by Anglophone teachers and lawyers to metastasis into a horrific violent conflict, providing an opportunity for the powerful Anglophone Cameroon Diaspora to come in and initiate a struggle that is ending up with the creation of Africa’s newest nation-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The one million dollar question is, does it represent a policy shift by the UN/Buhari administrations based on the notion of a shared common objective with Paris in Cameroon? Either way, it has blown a violent wind into the boats of those who argue that President Paul Biya should remain in power as a check against anti French forces in the CEMAC region.

There are indeed several controversies with that argument and most glaringly is the fact that it ignores the war crimes and other atrocities committed by the Biya regime. That long and horrific list includes helicopter gunboat attacks, mass killings, mass graves and the targeting of hospitals and schools, not to mention the arrest and torture of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians. Keeping Biya in power is undermining France’s credibility and core values including those of the United States.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that Mr. Paul Biya doesn’t have the military capability to hold Cameroon together. The case of the Far North region abandoned by the army following massive deployments to Southern Cameroons serves as an illustrative example. Ever since the crisis in Southern Cameroons started, the Far North region has seen several deadly attacks carried out by the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Although Cameroon government’s forces have repeatedly claimed that the terrorist group has been defeated, they have been unable to secure the Far North while engaged in their assault against Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces. The situation is also true in the Central African Republic as attacks are now rampant in areas under the control of the Cameroon army and the gendarmerie.

To be accurate, what’s left of the French Cameroun army is an empty shell, precariously held together by France, the US and Chad in decreasing levels of importance. Any plan to keep Biya in power clearly runs counter to French and American interests. Upon closer examination, the very fabric that held French speaking and English speaking Cameroonians together is irreparably torn.

Biya took over from the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1982 and to rule Cameroon, the so-called Roman Catholic Christian had to tailor his approach to the few ethnic groups in the Centre and South regions while appeasing the Muslims in the Grand North with numerous political positions and oppressing the Anglophones and at the same time setting the Bamilekes against one another.

In practice, it meant Biya controlling all levers of power and reinforcing his leadership through funny arrangements. He only thought of the Anglophones in 1990 and gave them a prominent position as Prime Minister with the emergence of the SDF party. Correspondingly, the individuals of the Anglophone community that had positions in government were those upon whose patronage he relied. In essence, Biya created a new tribe in Southern Cameroons-the CPDM tribe and demanded complete and total loyalty. Members of this CPDM tribe in Southern Cameroons are presently looking the other way while Biya and his army soldiers are killing hundreds of Ambazonians and destroying their towns and villages.

Many corrupt UN and African Union officials fail to recognize that Biya and his gang had forbade the development of any form of opposition or liberal centers of thought and cohesion — much less a free press — that could challenge his authority.

For 35 years, the key unifying driver of allegiance and cohesion was political appointments followed by loyalty to the Right Royal President. Now that the state of Cameroon has broken down, Biya and some Beti Ewondo political elites are trading the crisis in Southern Cameroons as the most attractive and unifying alternative ideology for all French Cameroonians.

The initial lawyers and teachers strike in Anglophone Cameroon may not have been designed to bring about separation but the way the crisis has been mismanaged has become central in influencing the trajectory of the uprising nonetheless.  Having failed in every aspect of nation building, Biya stands today as a great magnet to which all diplomats from the EU, US, the AU or UN are attracted. The reason is simple: At 85, Biya is prepared to dish out millions of dollars to anyone who can guarantee his continued stay in power and protect his family.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Many political observers now think this will happen. But we of the Cameroon Concord News Group are praying that it doesn’t…

But if it does happen, it will be way different from what happened in the pre and post colonial era involving the Bassas and the Bamilekes.

How the UPC struggle unfolded: Even though the French and the Ahidjo governments reportedly sold it out to the world as a “no victor no vanquish” it’s an open secret that La Republique du Cameroun won by exterminating thousands of Bassas and Bamilekes.

La Republique du Cameroun won basically because of international support from France and other French speaking countries in the present day CEMAC region. The UPC freedom fighters such as Reuben Um Nyobe, Dr Felix Roland Moumie and Ernest Ouandie on the other hand, did a lot of things that were considered magical. The truth is that they could have done more. The Bamilekes and the Bassas have not forgotten that thousands of their relatives died.

Cameroon has not changed at all, the country is still not able to produce anything even tooth pick or condensed milt let alone refine crude oil. So in this edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we attempt an explanation of what will play a crucial role is the dynamics of International politics as regards the current crisis situation in Cameroon under Biya?

China was not this powerful in the 50s and 60s, they will likely support a change of leadership in Yaoundé. The UK loves a united and democratic Cameroon. US under Trump presidency is all about what benefits the US economically and enriches the elite and Biya is aware that US support only goes with selling military hardware. So the only escape route left vis-à-vis the USA is for the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to up their propaganda game in the US so majority of Americans who are Christians see the Southern Cameroons war as a persecution of largely Christian Ambazonians by a regime that murders even Roman Catholic Bishops.

Russia can come in if the IG tables a better deal to President Putin. France will of course support a one and indivisible Cameroon, but they have their hands full with possible terrorist attack at home due to influx of terrorist into the French society under the guise of refugees.

Another factor is strategy: The Cameroonian army under Biya is ill-equipped, poorly trained,badly paid and commanded by unpopular Beti-Bulu military officials, but they can engage foreign help very early in the war in order to end it quicker. They will intensify information dissemination and propaganda to counter whatever is coming from Southern Cameroons. They will move quickly to seal off access to water and crude oil and they will be more aggressive in taking out the Ambazonian leadership even with the help of the CIA. (Read statements made by the current US ambassador on the Southern Cameroons crisis)

For Ambazonians, they will take advantage of millions of their people scattered all over the western world to prosecute the restoration war. They will instead secure their borders than marching to Yaoundé like they wanted to do with the SDF and suffered loss then. They will want to secure access to water and oil, use the oil to negotiate internationally. The Interim Government will likely have more spies than the UPC group. Southern Cameroons will not allow people in other parts of La Republique not to notice that there is war. Sooner or later, the Southern Cameroons war will be felt all over enemy territory; guerrilla tactics, guided missiles launch to take out key facilities in French Cameroun, bomb detonation in various cities, assassination and kidnap of key individuals. It will be a fight to finish as no Southern Cameroonian will want to lose.

Another factor is internet and information dissemination, both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun are already sending out information and it goes viral in seconds. The internet is playing a crucial role in the Ambazonian war.

A critical factor is that the different regions in Cameroon are already taking different stands; there is no longer a united French Cameroun position. The Littoral have since disassociated themselves from any Beti-Ewondo agenda. The Grand Nord simply wants Biya to hand over power back to them.  The Bamilekes are adopting a neutral position unlike before.

We are dealing here with two extremist sides and opinions can be misinterpreted by one side or the other leading to punitive exactions that can involve bodily harm or arson. Most extremists involved in this imbroglio are hardly enlightened enough to interpret and understand fair comment. Participating in the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE is like walking a tight rope.  However, you can send us your thoughts via email:cameroonconcordnews@gmail.com or cameroonintelligencereport@gmail.com

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons has continued to bring desperation to the people of Southern Cameroons, while giving the government a very bad name. For more than six months, the two English-speaking regions of the country have become the theatre of a gruesome war game that is consuming lives and rendering many in the region homeless.

The killing of ordinary civilians has radicalized an entire people and many Southern Cameroonians who were federalists have simply converted themselves into secessionists. The killing of loved ones and friends has traumatized many Southern Cameroonians, making many to hold that the government must pay for its crimes.

To many Southern Cameroonians, it is impossible to live with a government that is decimating its own population. They hold that the killing and roasting of civilians alive clearly points to the government’s decision to pursue military action to a conclusive end. To them, the government understands only one language – an iron fist – and it will stop at nothing to achieve its goal even though it knows that in this case, the odds are stacked up against it.

The government’s plan to address the Southern Cameroons crisis is spreading death and suffering among the population. Reports of what is playing out in many towns in the region are mind-boggling. The destruction and roasting of the vulnerable is really stranger than fiction. The Biya government is inflicting red terror on the people of Southern Cameroons; a people who simply wants the government to listen to them and to address the issues that have blighted their lives.

Government atrocities have included killing innocent civilians through reckless soldiers who are trigger-happy. The government has also resorted to burning homes in many towns and villages as a means of bringing the tough-hearted Southern Cameroonians to their knees, as they are suspected of sympathizing with Southern Cameroonian freedom fighters who have been avenging the deaths of those civilians killed by the alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers.

But none of these strategies is breaking down the people of Southern Cameroons who are determined to walk away from a union that has brought them more degradation and pain than happiness. The people of Southern Cameroons have become the victims of Foncha’s greed. His determination to reunite the two Cameroons has left many crying.

Similarly, the government has also been arresting thousands of Southern Cameroonians, many of whom are innocent and have nothing to do with the eerie drama that is playing out in the country’s English-speaking regions. Those arrested have been shipped to different parts of the country and no word has been heard from them. The government is clearly violating its commitments under international law.

According to the country’s laws, it is illegal to hold anybody incommunicado for months without granting them access to a lawyer or family members. But the country’s government has been violating its own laws and it is not paying attention to calls by the international community for it to comply with its international commitments.

According to the country’s authorities, Cameroon is an advanced democracy wherein fundamental human rights are respected, but the reality on the ground is contrary to even the basic rules of democracy as defined and recognized by the international community.

Even Southern Cameroonian leaders who had been arrested in Nigeria in early January 2018 and hastily repatriated to Yaounde in late January, are still sitting in the country’s Gendarmerie headquarters in Yaounde and neither their lawyers nor their families have been allowed to see them. This is really unsettling for many human rights groups which have always alleged that the government is committing human rights violations in Southern Cameroons.

Although the country’s communications minister, Issa Tchiroma, has once acknowledged that those in government custody are in good health, many Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians, have continued to question the veracity of the minister’s statement, as he has been caught many times lying. Mr. Tchiroma is a pathological liar whose words are not worth their weight in gold.

The drama playing out in Southern Cameroons is déjà vu. Southern Cameroonians had already prepared their minds for such extreme measures. The measures have been taken straight from the government’s torture book that had been drafted for it by the French in the late fifties when East Cameroonian freedom fighters were asking for genuine independence from France.

As the French delayed to grant independence, East Cameroonians organized themselves with the little resources they had to fight a more equipped French army. In a bid to put up a good show, East Cameroonians founded the “Marquisard Movement” that gave the French a good run for their money.

To chop off the movement’s head, the French organized undercover activities which led to the elimination of East Cameroonians leaders who were living abroad. Felix Moumie, the poster boy of the revolution, was killed by a fake journalist in Switzerland with thallium that was dropped in his tea.

 The French followed up by killing and maiming the Bassas and Bamilekes who were supporting the rebellion. Whole villages in East Cameroon were simply wiped off of the country’s map. This was intended to strike fear into the minds of East Cameroonians who had the intention of supporting the rebellion against the Ahidjo regime that was never considered as being legitimate by the freedom fighters.

 Their trick worked in the fifties and sixties. Francophone Cameroonians have been cowered forever and many will never dare criticize the government for its atrocities in the English-speaking regions of the country and this is already creating tensions between Southern Cameroonians and their francophone counterparts who have been sitting on the fence ever since the crisis started in October 2016.

Today, the French-supported government of Mr. Biya is rehashing those tricks in the pious belief that they would bring peace to the two restive English-speaking regions which had happily joined East Cameroon in a referendum that was doomed to failure right from the beginning.

But Mr. Biya and his government seem to have chosen the wrong people for a fight. Their strategies are not yielding the right results. Despite the burning and killing, Southern Cameroonians are standing their ground. They fully understand that if they yield, the government will resort to harsher methods. Instead of bowing to the government, Southern Cameroonians have decided to pick up arms against a government that has never seen dialogue as a means of resolving issues.

The government’s brutality has simply bred hatred and murder. It has produced many armed groups that are today making it hard for anybody in the region to have a contrary view. Federalists who thought they could help bring about peace are today an endangered species.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been playing out for almost two years has finally entered a critical phase. Violence has become normal in that part of the country. The government’s military violence has triggered a wave of violence that will be hard to root out. Many army soldiers are being brought down by the bullets of armed masked men and anybody suspected of collaborating with government officials is considered an enemy and death is the penalty for such an act. Many have already been killed by these unknown armed men and the government seems to be helpless.

On Friday May 11, 2018, a list of new targets was sent to the Cameroon Concord New Group’s global headquarters in England. Former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, Minister Paul Atanga Nji, Senator Tabetando, Governor Okala Bilai, Divisional Officer Joseph Oum II, Member of Parliament Susan Okpu, former minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, former Minister Ogork Ntui Ebot, former minister Benjamin Itoe, minister Victor Mengot Arrey, Prof Echu George, Senator Achidi Achu  and Prime Minister Yang Philemon are some of the names on the list that was sent unanimously.

The list also includes all CPDM senators and parliamentarians in the English-speaking regions. Things seems to be spiralling out of control. These men and women are in the cross hairs of Southern Cameroonian fighters. The government seems to be out of resources. Its security apparatus seems to be failing the people. Even senior government officials are no longer safe. The battle lines have been drawn and any Southern Cameroonian collaborating with the government has become a target. Blood will continue to flow until the entire region becomes a river of blood.

Southern Cameroonian fighters seem to be making significant progress. They are making a mockery of the government’s military action. The Yaounde government is now scrambling for a peaceful resolution as it has noticed that it is dealing with a very dicey situation. The government is under enormous pressure as the killing of army soldiers becomes a daily ritual in Southern Cameroons.

It is clear to the government that there will never be a convincing military victory in this battle that will surely last for decades. The government is gradually coming to terms with the fact that it was a huge mistake to declare war on Southern Cameroonians who were simply complaining about a system that has reduced them to second-class citizens.

The dynamics are changing. The government’s arrogance is gradually being eroded by the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters whose actions have struck fear in the minds of many army soldiers. The government is today staring down the barrel of defeat, as its treasury continues to lose money and its soldiers feeling really despondent as they face the prospect of dying in the rocky and dense jungles of Southern Cameroons.

Many government officials know that defeat is staring the government in the face. Many want to sue for peace, but they don’t know how to proceed as their arrogance has muddied the waters and made reconciliation challenging. Even the governor of the South West region is also contemplating smoking the pipe of peace after having called Southern Cameroonians dogs. He now knows that state authority comes from the people and not the other way round.

The nightmare the government manufactured for itself is not going away anytime soon. The “two cubes of sugar” that Mr. Fame Ndongo, the country’s higher education minister, referred to at the beginning of the crisis have simply refused to melt. Those cubes of sugar are putting up a good show. It is obvious that there are many more scenes in this struggle that will surely play out in a manner that will be far from being pleasant.

Meanwhile, the Southern Cameroons Interim government is continuing to step up pressure on the crumbling Yaounde government. The government’s Communications Secretary, Chris Anu, has delivered very bad news to the Biya government and the Francophone majority. Southern Cameroonian fighters will continue to step up operations in the coming days. Mr. Biya’s army soldiers who thought they would simply sweep through the region and kill the rebellion are now in for real trouble. There will surely be no respite until the Yaounde government withdraws its troops.

Mr. Anu has also announced that all French-speaking Cameroonians must leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by the end of this month. He added that all Southern Cameroonians lodging French-speaking Cameroonians must kick out their tenants by the end of the month. Those Southern Cameroonians who do not comply with the Interim Government’s decision will be dealt with by the brave defense forces of the land.

He added that Southern Cameroonians should stop paying taxes to the French Cameroonian government in Yaounde, stressing that all the taxes should be directed towards the prosecution of the war of liberation. This is very likely to affect the country’s economy; an economy that is already in the throes of an economic and financial crisis.

As the tension increases, the Yaounde government is gradually coming to terms with the fact that Mr. Biya’s declaration of war on the people of Southern Cameroons at the Nsimalen International Airport upon his return from a Francophonie conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, was a pure error of judgement.

Indeed, Mr. Biya and his government had completely misinterpreted things. It appeared they were reading an old script; a script that was designed for another problem that had nothing to do with the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters. He had clearly underestimated the determination and will of a few to bring about change in a country. Indeed, he had failed to understand that those who make peaceful change impossible only make violent change inevitable.

The government has been anything but humble during this crisis. Its relentless pursuit of peace through military violence has divided the country for ever. The government’s arrogance and inefficiency are costing the country huge amounts of money and the loss of human life is really disturbing. Both soldiers and civilians are being killed in a conflict that could have been avoided. This is a mistake that will remain in many minds for decades. The country’s history has been tainted with the blood of many innocent lives.

But there is no mistake that cannot be fixed. Many mistakes have already been made and it will be preposterous to continue making more of such mistakes. Cameroon needs peace and that peace cannot come if the killings continue. The government has a huge responsibility in this. It must change its strategy. If it thinks it can make Cameroon one and indivisible by seeking to impose peace on Southern Cameroonians, then it is not yet ready to smoke that pipe of peace that the international community is calling on it to smoke.

There is no ideal way to secure peace than through negotiations. The government must come down its Ivory Tower to meet Southern Cameroonians halfway. The country’s English-speaking minority has proven that a few people can bring change in a country that has been rejecting change for decades.

Cameroon will never be the same again.  The government’s ill-advised decision to declare war on a section of its population will always come back to bite it. Times have changed, and mentalities must keep pace. Negotiations should be the government’s administrative tool of choice. The government has to embrace new ways. It should understand that intimidation will not cut it. Even long jail terms will not address the issue. Southern Cameroonians are resolute. They are not going to give in just because they are being intimidated and killed.

They have been living a life of marginalization for years and they think they must put an end to such dictatorship. Cameroon belongs to all and every citizen must be made to feel at home wherever he finds himself. But with so many lives cut short by this senseless war, it will be hard for real negotiations to take place.

Southern Cameroonians want to live in their own country. For 56 years, they have been victims of government discrimination. The Yaounde government has never respected its commitments towards the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. The government’s mistakes have really made it hard for Southern Cameroonians to live with their French-speaking counterparts.

The rift is there. It will be hard for these wounds to heal. Many people have lost their lives, and the pain will linger for a long time. The government has a lot on its plate. It has to take a long and hard look at its script. Its current script is simply making Southern Cameroons independence possible. The government will have to bend over backwards if it really wants to hold the country together.

For now, it is obvious that most Southern Cameroonians will never like to look at any other option. Their quest for federalism has been quashed by the government and their leaders have been thrown in jail where it is believed they are being tortured.

If the government wants real negotiations to take place, it must release all Southern Cameroonians who are being held by the Yaounde government. Amnesty must be granted to all Southern Cameroonians living abroad. And a new governance structure must also be proposed. The country belongs to everybody and it is wrong for a few to think that they are more Cameroonian than others. The ball is in the government’s court. If it does not act fast, the situation will further deteriorate and things will spiral out of control. There is still time to make the right decisions. Better late than never!

Similarly, handing down long jail sentences to Southern Cameroonian fighters in Yaounde will never dampen the determination of those who are still fighting. The crisis can only be addressed at the negotiating table and this will only be possible if President Julius Ayuk Tabe and those in jail are released. The Diaspora is still very active and it is time for the government to build a long reliable bridge for the Diaspora to come to the negotiating table.

The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is rich. It has more than three million members and thanks to these hardworking Southern Cameroonians, those on ground zero have been able to make the government feel the pinch of its stupidity and dishonesty. After more than five decades in exile, the Diaspora also wants to play a key role in the management of the country’s socio-political landscape.

 The government must disabuse its mind. Military violence will not secure the peace. It must stop sending young Beti soldiers to the region. All they have done is to provoke the people and increase hatred for the Betis who have been responsible for the burning of homes. Many people are already shouting revenge and this will come once Mr. Biya leaves power. The government still has time to change such thinking.

By Kingsley Betek

French Cameroonians are now seeing the very bad omen and a very bad sign that the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon is heading towards disintegration. The situation looks just like Zaire under the late Congolese thug, Mobutu. And everything points to the fact that the 36 years old CPDM government is tacitly in support of the practice of nepotism and the genocide that is happening now in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

Every well-meaning Cameroonian including Cardinal Christian Tumi has spoken, advised and pointed out the danger of allowing army soldiers killing innocent Southern Cameroons civilians and burning down their towns and villages. Regrettably, before things assumed this dangerous dimension, the 85 year old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya had tactfully and craftily handed over the entire security apparatus to his Beti Ewondo kinsmen. This explains why French speaking Cameroonians including their political elites are looking the other way while Beti-Ewondo soldiers are perpetrating their atrocity in Southern Cameroons.

The genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons is not something that is speculative but one that is staring everybody in the face. Yet a veteran media guru Boh Herbert and one Cho Ayaba claiming to be Anglophone leaders have reportedly joined La Republique du Cameroun to denounce the leadership of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

A situation where the Delegate-General for National Security, the National Gendarmerie boss, the Army Chief of Staff, the Minister for Defense and all the nation’s intelligence services are in the hands of the Beti-Ewondo ruling clan not from the Center and South regions but predominantly from the South is very disturbing! Such a thing never happened in the days of President Ahidjo.

Let us examine calmly and honestly the composition of the entire Biya security council. It is made up of only Betis, and the only person in their midst is Paul Atanga Nji, an Anglophone man who does not command anything. The nation is suffering the worse nepotism in its history and it is facilitating the breakdown.

For 57 years, the French Cameroun political elites supported by successive French governments designed the composition of government of the Cameroonian federation and its agencies in such a manner that failed to reflect the bilingual and federal character of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Consequently, the desire to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty is no longer in the Southern Cameroonian DNA.

Paul Biya’s nepotism, sectionalism and parochialism go contrary to our Anglo-Saxon spirit, but the President does not give a damn and unfortunately all Southern Cameroonians serving in his government seems to be very docile. The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government has flouted every provision of both the old and the new constitutions and every violation of the constitution in an Anglo-Saxon tradition is an impeachable offence. But instead it is Biya and his gang that regularly queries the action of the members of the Francophone dominated National Assembly and the Senate, threatening to remove their leaderships.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group cannot imagine this kind of massive killings being done by these rampaging French Cameroun army soldiers in Southern Cameroons and Boh Herbert and his acolytes such as Cho Ayaba are unable to join the majority following of the Interim Government to help our people.  There are other Ambazonians whose own contribution has been limited to names calling—Milan!! Atam Milan!! Milan!! Milan!! Milan!! This begs the question: Are these men truly Southern Cameroonians?

The Southern Cameroons freedom fighters on Ground Zero have pushed so hard and have successfully created a state within a state. All what they need is a Diaspora leadership to help them complete this onerous task and in good time.  As we have seen from numerous global best practices including the ANC in South Africa, all Southern Cameroons Diaspora groups should rally behind the Interim Government or keep quiet and do their own thing.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia under Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako should not acquiesce in the face of the flurry of attacks, but should stand firm in the defense of Southern Cameroonians.  It will be unfair to the Southern Cameroons nation to say someone like Cho Ayaba is a leader. A Southern Cameroonian who spent more than a decade in Germany producing fake SCNC documents for Nigerians and Congolese fostering their asylum claims for a fee now turns around to attack a legitimate government loved and supported by Ambazonians!!  Again, if you look at that Cho Ayaba crime syndicate critically, you will see that 99 per cent of the men and women in his insignificant team jumped into the struggle for their personal interest not Southern Cameroons. Cho Ayaba is notorious for such nasty things as his best friend ever in Germany was a Bamileke citizen known as Jean Monie who assisted him in his fraudulent ventures.

Many Ambazonians have been militating in many other Southern Cameroons groups before eventually joining the fighting that started two years ago. To you we say the Interim Government remains the best thing that ever happened to Southern Cameroonians. Correspondingly, every Ambazonian should support Dr. Sako and his team. Let Ambazonians ignore Cho Ayaba and Boh Herbert who have all along been trying to execute a hidden agenda that is now not hidden.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The country lost a true patriot and statesman in the person of Hon Willie Ndep Orock Effiom; former Grand Chancellor of National Orders and former Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly. His was a life of leadership and service to the nation

“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” once observed the famous British historian, Arthur James Balfour. The Rt. Hon Willie Ndep Orock Effiom; former Grand Chancellor of National Orders and former Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly, who will be committed to mother earth next Saturday, May 12, 2018 in his native Nsanaragati, Eyumojock Sub-Division, in Manyu; was by every measure, a great man in his own right. The passing of Pa Effiom, as he was fondly called, is a great national loss; but it is also an occasion for the country to celebrate a truly great life and a man of virtue. No doubt, his death elicited an effluence of encomiums for a man who ran the race and never stumbled. Born April 3, 1931 in Nsanaragati; the 4th and last surviving child of Pa Obi Effiom and Mama Katching Ojong both of blessed memory, the inevitable end overtook the “Rock of Nsan” in December last year. Pa Effiom was 86 years old.With his passing, Manyu has lost one of its most authentic political voices.A prodigiously gifted man with granite determination, his compelling life story is a profound journey, which took him from the hinterlands of Nsanaragati to Mamfe; where he attended primary school; before a foray into politics that began a public service career spanning over 50 years.Pa Effiom shaped and witnessed Cameroon history; he spoke truth to power and exits the stage a fulfilled man. Befittingly, he will be honored with a state funeral. His family, friends and the entire nation should be proud of his acclaimed virtues.Such are the memories of outstanding men in history.

Every man is unique. There is only one Pa Effiom; who in all honesty and sincerity was not born great. It could not be rightly said either that he had greatness thrust upon him. From all available records, he worked hard and tirelessly for his greatness, in most cases, defying long odds. Orphaned at a very tender age, the young Willie Ndep Orock Effiom worked as an aide to a Nigerian businessman, Mr. Anya and put himself through primary school in Mamfe town. Like many of his generation, he proceeded to the Teacher Training College and graduated as a teacher. He was subsequently appointed Headmaster of Nfuni primary school; from where he launched his illustrious political career built upon rock-solid grassroots endorsement.

As party politics took hold in Southern Cameroons, his charm and gift for leadership raised his visibility and public profile, eventually attracting the attention of KNDP party barons who drafted him as their candidate in the 1959 elections into the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly. At the relatively young age of 28, Pa Effiom was virtually a political underdog. In Mamfe West, he was up against the KNC candidate; the formidable Victoria-based businessman, Solomon Ashu Arrey (later Chief SA Arrey of Ossing) and SE Takunchong of Besongabang who defied party orthodoxy to run as an independent, ostensibly because of his name recognition. Pa Effiom, the political dark horse upstaged the apple cart by winning a landslide. The results according to the Southern Cameroons Information Service Press Release No 249 of January 29, 1959, showed Effiom (4,004 votes); SA Arrey (1,702), and SE Takunchong (297). The political establishment could not but take notice!

It is to his adroitness as a one-man political powerhouse, that as a freshman MP, he was appointed Secretary of Public Works and Transport in the first cabinet of Prime Minister JN Foncha in 1959. After the December 20, 1961 elections, in which he soundly defeated SE Takunchong (CPNC) and SEM Agbaw who ran as an independent, Pa Effiom established himself as a political force to reckon with in Mamfe politics. The West Cameroon Gazette, Vol 2, No 2 showed that Effiom won 5,969 votes (68.1%) while Takunchong got 2,049 (23.7%) and Agbaw 643 (7.4%). In January 1962, he was retained in the cabinet as Secretary for Education, and held other cabinet portfolios such as Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary, until he left the executive branch of the then West Cameroon government in 1967 following his election as Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly and President of the House of Chiefs; a position he held until the federation was abolished in 1972.

After the West Cameroon gov’t was dissolved in 1972, Pa Effiom returned to Mamfe and was elected Member of Parliament from 1973 until 1990. In 1988, he faced one of the strongest challenges in his political career during the legislative elections featuring the Khaki list, which he headed and the Green list led by DA Wanobi, whom he had mentored. In the end, Pa Effiom fought the political battle of his life and defeated the Green list. It was the last election he would ever contest and although he returned to Parliament where he was elected President of the Finance Committee, his tenure was cut short after Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections called, in the wake of the country’s return to multi-party politics. He was appointed Grand Chancellor of the National Orders in July 1990; a position he held until he retired from government and active public service in 2007.

Although loyalty to friends trumped other considerations, when it came to politics, Pa Effiom was a conviction rather than consensus politician. He never aimed to convince his political opponents;he sought to defeat them. While he neither schemed, nor bulldozed his way to seek power for its sake, Pa Effiom had a strong handshake and a long memory; he was an encyclopedia of events with accurate dates. He remembers all and forgets nothing. He demonstrated a rare courage and determination to succeed in the rough and tumble of politics, where he had to fight several battles. For someone who believed absolutely in himself and his own abilities and trusted his gut instincts, Pa Effiom was, however, no less trenchant in battle.When he went to war against his political opponents, his legendary patience gave him enough staying power and he took no prisoners.The trademark placid poker face he wore like a ventriloquist gave him an unpredictable mien of sorts and reinforced the mythology of his persona, creating an overwhelming feeling of awe. People whispered that it was not a wise man that will oppose whatever Pa Effiom wanted in politics and there was a long list of political casualties as credible deterrence.He exuded trust and loyalty and his principled leadership and selflessness confounded even his most ardent critics and detractors.

Pa Effiom was a very private family man who shunned publicity, but he was also an unapologetic conservative and traditional iconoclast, who feared no one and was very comfortable in his own skin.He had no time for women liberals;his formidable wife, Lucy Tabe Effiom, who passed away in 1998 after a protracted illness was never allowed to work.After the passing of his first wife, Pa Effiom remarried Gladys Oben Effiom. A man of honor even in death,Pa Effiom is survived by eight children: Ria Enaw (USA), Raymond Ayem Effiom (USA), Dr. Charles Effiom (Britain), Dr. Bisong Effiom (Britain) Obi Bernard Effiom (USA), John Okem Effiom (South Africa), William Ofa Effiom (Mamfe) Ntui Effiom (Yaoundé);eight grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins and family friends to mourn him.

People who saw Pa Effiom from a distance will never know he was more than just a rigid politician. A great conversationalist with a roaring, infectious laughter, Pa Effiom was a light-hearted man of fulsome humor and a man of many worlds; a universe of politics and public service, all neatly woven by a life of quiet philanthropy and sacrifice for his people which he did without any fanfare or publicity.Having experienced poverty and financial hardship firsthand as a young man, Pa Effiom had a naturally generous and feeling heart. He lived for others. He troubled himself very little about material things.His life also reflected a truth to self-personal philosophy. Where many would have sniffed out dubious means from our corrupt system to enrich himself and family members, Pa Effiom was tenacious in his moral responsibility.He left a worthy footprint on the sands of time as an inspiring example of fortitude, magnanimity and dignity and his revulsion for materialistic wooliness, profligacy and vulgarity on the part of public officials was without measure.

As a member of the CPDM party where he played the role of wise man, Pa Effiom witnessed some of the checkered parts of Cameroon’s political history, notably the unresolved Anglophone question.With his demise, certainly departs a huge slice of Anglophone history, but in the wake of Biya’s anti-Anglophone war, Pa Effiom displayed a posture that many have construed as aloofness, from a man whom character, history and providence placed in the firmament of eminence; and he served the nation well. When many had thought he would deploy his political capital and acumen to help resolve the Anglophone problem, Pa Effiom’s silence was deafening. His usual taciturnity, iron-cast audacity and moral strength were largely unfelt even as soldiers waged a campaign of terror against his own Manyu people. This was inconsistent with a moral disposition that normally would require him to speak out. By acting otherwise, he placed himself on the wrong side of history.

That notwithstanding, his legacy of personal integrity represents a high value system difficult to reestablish in a country embroiled in governance anomie and blatant moral bankruptcy. Politicians and those seeking leadership positions should see in Pa Effiom’s life an open book from which to learn the wit and wisdom of selfless patriotism. Indeed, even older generations of politicians like Nfon Mukete, Enow Tanjong, Mafany Musonge and Achidi Achu, rather than burn themselves out straddling the political space with younger aspirants, should, like Pa Effiom, cultivate the disposition of statesmanship and maintain an eloquent taciturnity of being kingmakers and oracles of the polity. To Cameroonians who are distraught and overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of Cameroon’s rudderlessness as well as those who are plundering the nation’s resources to amass needless and scandalous wealth, Pa Effiom’s life is a lesson in contentment and serenity.The “grandmaster of Manyu politics” has paid his dues. He leaves the stage a fulfilled man and totally at peace with himself.“There is no cause for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval,” wrote George Santayana. Cameroon has not only lost a father-figure but also a symbol of its rich history and character.Pa Effiom will be sorely missed.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA and Soter Agbaw-Ebai Dublin, Ireland

The Republic of Cameroon under President Biya lost the title of “One and Indivisible” long ago. It has suffered tribalism, corruption, nepotism, state terrorism, ritual killings, police violence and abject poverty. But none of this compares with the destruction being inflicted on Southern Cameroonians today by a war orchestrated by the 85 year-old dictator, President Paul Biya.

The UN says some 40, 000 Southern Cameroonians have fled the crisis into neighboring Nigeria and are in need of some kind of humanitarian aid. The territory now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is on the brink of collapse. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has announced to the world and its powerful Diaspora that the Ambazonian economy has crumbled, leaving Southern Cameroonians with impossible choices. Each day hospitals in the various counties are crowded with bodies of Southern Cameroons civilians killed by French Cameroun soldiers.

The worst of it is that the African Union, the UN and the powerful European Union seem unperturbed. Southern Cameroons has been a French Cameroun colony for 57 years under the direct supervision of successive French governments and the territory has not produce great African voices like Wole Soyinka, Desmond Tutu and Kofi Anan to make known their case as it concerns French Cameroun rule in Southern Cameroons. This explains why the AU, the EU and the UN are ignoring Southern Cameroons.

Interestingly, the West including the United States of America is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the 85 year-old French Cameroun dictator who has been in power for 35 years and Biya is waging his war against Southern Cameroonians with Western war helicopters and munitions.

The war in Southern Cameroons has become more intractable with some political observers saying the Anglophones are too weak to rule over a united Cameroon but too powerful for the French Cameroun army to defeat.  This week, President Paul Biya fired General Melingui Nouma as commander of French Cameroun forces in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and replaced him with a little known figure in the military, Colonel Djotsa. Indeed, Colonel Djotsa has much to learn from his predecessor’s experience that even with the most sophisticated weapons, it is all but impossible to defeat a resistance that is well entrenched in a civilian population. The international community will always blame the stronger side for the pain of civilians. For the weaker lot, survival is victory. This is the current state of affairs in Southern Cameroons.

Consequently, even though the Biya Francophone regime keeps claiming that Southern Cameroonians started the war, the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government in the USA has accused the government in Yaoundé of war crimes. Often the accusation is justified. In their French Cameroun military campaign, they have been careless and incompetent. Francophone troops have attacked schools, markets, Christian churches and leaders including hospitals. They have burnt down towns and villages in both the Northern and Southern Zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The French government has accorded President Paul Biya “plein pouvoir’ or a kind of carte blanche to act recklessly. President Emmanuel Macron may be thinking that it is all part of guaranteeing French hegemony in Southern Cameroons; or he may hope to profit by selling the Biya regime lots of old French military equipment and protect the oil fields in Southern Cameroons.  Whatever the case, President Macron is damaging French’s interests and if President Buhari of Nigeria falls, the French will not be happy with the end results in Southern Cameroons. The Southern Cameroons war is an unwinnable war.

Dialogue with the Biya regime is unrealistic. A deal should involve a complete withdrawal of all French Cameroun forces and administrators from Southern Cameroons and the removal of President Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate from office including holding of elections and creating a new political structure.  French Cameroun and Southern Cameroons will then need an inclusive negotiation to be chaired by the United Nations. None of this will be easy. But a reasonable peace offer coming from a decent and new French Cameroun leader is more likely to crack the Ambazonian Interim Government than the reckless military campaign.  We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are submitting that if wars are to be fought at all, they should be short, and have limited aims.  This so-called President Biya’s war against Southern Cameroonians seems to be going nowhere.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been playing out for almost two years has finally entered a critical phase. While Southern Cameroonian fighters are making huge advances, which are making a mockery of the government’s military action, the Yaounde government is now scrambling for a peaceful resolution as it has noticed that it is dealing with a very dicey situation. The government is under enormous pressure as the killing of army soldiers becomes a daily ritual.

It is becoming clear to the government that there will never be a convincing military victory in this battle that will surely last for decades. The government is gradually coming to terms with the fact that it was a huge mistake to declare war on Southern Cameroonians who were simply complaining about a system that has reduced them to second-class citizens.

Currently, the dynamics are changing. The government’s arrogance is gradually being eroded by the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters whose actions have struck fear in the minds of many army soldiers. The government is today staring down the barrel of defeat, as its treasury continues to lose money and its soldiers feeling really despondent as they face the prospect of dying in the rocky mountains and dense jungles of Southern Cameroons.

Many government officials know that defeat is staring the government in the face. Many want to sue for peace, but they don’t know how to proceed as their arrogance has muddied the waters and made reconciliation challenging.

Even the governor of the South West region is also contemplating smoking the pipe of peace after having called Southern Cameroonians dogs. He now knows that state authority comes from the people and not the other way round.  In a discussion with retired Justice Mbeng who had been kidnapped by Manyu fighters a month ago, the Southwest governor, Okalia Bilai, gathered that it would be hard for the government to win the war, as the Southern Cameroonian fighters are determined to bring the government to its knees.

Retired Justice Mbeng who has tasted the anger of the fighters has advised Mr. Okalia Bilai that the fighters were more organized than the Cameroon military. He stressed that there would be no military solution to the problem. He added that Southern Cameroonian fighters were very disciplined, and corruption was not their potion. He urged the governor to work for peace if he felt Cameroon should be one and indivisible.

In recognition of these facts, the country’s president, Paul Biya, has dismissed General Melingui Nouma, a war monger, who was until May 6, 2018, in charge of military operations in the Southwest region of the country. He is being replaced by Colonel Djotsa who is very little known and will have little or no impact on the ground.

The nightmare the government manufactured for itself is not going away anytime soon. The “two cubes of sugar” that Mr. Fame Ndongo, the country’s higher education minister, referred to at the beginning of the crisis have simply refused to melt. Those cubes of sugar are putting up a good show and this is ensuring that the fighting continues. It is obvious that there are many more scenes in this struggle that will surely play out in a manner that will be far from being pleasant.

Meanwhile, the Southern Cameroons Interim government is continuing to step up pressure on the crumbling Yaounde government. The government’s Communications Secretary, Chris Anu, has very bad news for Mr. Biya and the Francophone majority. The Ambazonian fighters will continue to step up operations in the coming days. Mr. Biya’s army soldiers who thought they would simply sweep through the region and kill the rebellion are now in for real trouble. There will surely be no respite until the Yaounde government withdraws its troops.

Mr. Anu has also announced that all French-speaking Cameroonians must leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by the end of this month. He added that all Southern Cameroonians lodging French-speaking Cameroonians must kick out their tenants by the end of the month. Those Southern Cameroonians who do not comply with the Interim Government’s decision will be dealt with by the brave defense forces of the land.

He added that Southern Cameroonians should stop paying taxes to the French Cameroonian government in Yaounde, stressing that all the taxes should be directed towards the prosecution of the war of liberation. This is very likely to affect the country’s economy; an economy that has already taken a nosedive due to many economic and financial issues.

As the tension increases, the Yaounde government is gradually coming to terms with the fact that Mr. Biya’s declaration of war on the people of Southern Cameroons at the Nsimalen International Airport upon his return from a Francophonie conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, was a pure error of judgement.

Indeed, Mr. Biya and his government had completely misinterpreted things. It appeared they were reading an old script; a script that was designed for another problem that had nothing to do with the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters. He had clearly underestimated the determination and will of a few to bring about change in a country. Indeed, he had failed to understand that those who make peaceful change impossible only make violent change inevitable.

Following the president’s arrogant speech, was that of the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, who said his soldiers would implement the president’s decision without batting an eyelid. Little did he know that he was dealing with a hard nut to crack. Southern Cameroonians had taken a lot of pressure for a long time and they now think their fate is worse than death. They are prepared to fight to a finish.

The government should have read the writing on the wall. If grandmothers could participate in demonstrations across the region on September 22 and October 1, 2017, the government should have known that something was really amiss. A rat does not come out of its hole running, except there is something chasing it out of the hole. When old men and women decide to behave like young men, know that they are ready to die. This is the message the government refused to read on September 22, 2017 and this mistake has come back to bite it. It’s use of brute force to intimidate and check any possible rebellion on October 1, 2017, only produced tough fighters and an unpleasant surprise for itself.

The fighters on the ground had already designed their war plan and all they needed was the right time to implement it. That was what the government offered to them on a platter of gold. Southern Cameroonians had already acquired arms and they had a pool of willing fighters who were determined to frustrate the country’s military efforts. The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora had decided to make its impact and importance felt by the Yaounde government that had ignored it for decades.

For more than five decades, the Yaounde government had not paid attention to the growing numbers of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora. Many of its members who had left the country due to the government’s marginalization policy and discrimination had made up their minds to make the government pay for its crimes.

The Diaspora, which comprises some of the country’s finest engineers, lawyers, journalists, mathematicians, economists, translators, interpreters, medical doctors, etc; was prepared to cut down Mr. Biya’s arrogant government to normal human proportions.

Following the outbreak of violence, the Diaspora promptly organized fund-raising efforts which have helped to keep the fighters busy and effective. Over the last six months, more than USD2 million has been raised to purchase arms and sustain the fighters.

Currently, there are also fund-raising efforts to rebuild all the houses that have been burnt down by the irresponsible Yaounde soldiers. These resources are also being used to help those who have been wounded to recover from their unfortunate situation. Southern Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria have also been beneficiaries of the Diaspora’s largesse.

This speaks to the unity among the Southern Cameroonian population both at home and abroad and this trend is going to continue until the Yaounde government comes to the table for negotiations that will only focus on divorce issues between Southern Cameroons and “La République du Cameroun.”

Today, the conflict has taken a turn for the worse. The Yaounde government is at its wit’s end. It is simply out of options as all its measures have fallen flat on their faces. It has killed so many young men in the belief that it will deplete the pool of willing fighters. But this pool of fighters is determined to stay the course. The fighters have been increasing on a daily basis despite the risks involved.

The government has over the last weeks focused on burning homes and in the process, it is killing the vulnerable who cannot run into the bushes and mountains of Southern Cameroons. This strategy is turning out to be counter-productive, as it is producing brand new and dangerous fighters. Revenge is on every fighter’s mind. The “Code of Hammurabi” has finally taken root in Cameroon.

But each time the government kills a fighter, it creates more than ten new ones. Its arrogance has radicalized many and even girls have decided to pick up arms to bring an end to the government’s arrogance. This has indeed surprised the government which had thought that a heavy military presence in the English-speaking regions would help restore peace.

Even its new Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, who had displayed the enthusiasm of a neophyte when he just came to power, is now realizing that the issues will not be addressed through threats, long speeches and peace plants. He also knows that there is a price on his head. He, in particular, has been responsible for the escalation of the crisis and this has angered many Southern Cameroonians.

He is already out of steam and his masters in Yaounde are already questioning if he can be up to the task. He had promised to bring a speedy end to the conflict and that was why he had been granted the territorial administration portfolio, but the changing nature of the conflict remains a jigsaw puzzle to Mr. Atanga Nji who always and erroneously thinks that the gold-standard to conflict management and resolution is military violence.

His gold standard is gradually crumpling. It has only added to the chaos in the region and from every indication, all the actions taken by the government over the last two years are simply working in favor of a Southern Cameroons independence. The government seems to be reading from an old script written by Indonesians when they were oppressing Timor Leste. And that script is actually working for Southern Cameroonians who have produced some of the most effective fighters.

The fighters are determined. They know they are in for a long haul. They understand that there will be a positive outcome, but that will take a long time. They are also aware that over time, the government will run out of money and its soldiers will desert the military.

For now, Southern Cameroonian fighters understand that they are winning. They believe that the government’s indiscriminate burning of homes is a clear sign that its frustration is boiling over. According to a young fighter in Muyuka who called the Cameroon Concord News Group global headquarters in the United Kingdom, the odds are on their side.

“We are winning bigly. The ill-trained soldiers are biting the dust here in our country,” he said, adding that “we have come up with new strategies to frustrate them in the battlefields. Worse of all, we are promising them hell with our few weapons. The Special Forces are all trembling in their underwear. Any of them who shows up here in our territory will surely find out what we have in store for them. Now, when we kill those low-class, ill-behaved infidels, we cut off their penises. This is to ensure that if they go to Hell or Heaven, they will not be able to bother any of the girls they will meet over there. If Hell cannot accept people without a penis, Heaven will surely not accept these infidels who have come to pollute our lives. The message is clear, as a few of them have already paid the ultimate price.”

The fighter who elected anonymity also said “the government is already running out of patience. Its soldiers are deserting the military and its coffers are running dry. We will continue to erode its confidence until it surrenders. The Yaounde government must understand that we are not Bassas and Bamilekes who were easily crushed during their struggle for independence. We are enjoying large support from our brothers abroad and the Interim Government is doing a great job at sensitizing our people. We know President Julius Ayuk Tabe will soon be released. The government has not got many choices. We will continue to humiliate it, one battle at a time. We will make them pay for the mess they created in Muyenge last week. We have already sent a few of them to the grave following that chaos in Muyenge.”

The government’s arrogance and inefficiency are costing the country huge amounts of money and the loss of human life is really disturbing. Both soldiers and civilians are being killed in a conflict that could have been avoided. Its decision to slaughter hundreds of Southern Cameroonians on October 1, 2017, has turned out to be a huge mistake.

But there is no mistake that cannot be fixed. Many mistakes have already been made and it will be preposterous to continue making more of such mistakes. Cameroon needs peace and that peace cannot come if the killings continue. The government has a huge responsibility in this. It must change its strategy. If it thinks it can make Cameroon one and indivisible by seeking to impose peace on Southern Cameroonians, then it is not yet ready to smoke that pipe of peace that the international community is calling on it to smoke.

There is no ideal way to secure peace than through negotiations. The government must come down its Ivory Tower to meet Southern Cameroonians halfway. The country’s English-speaking minority has proven that a few people can bring change in a country that has been rejecting change for decades.

Cameroon will never be the same again.  The government’s ill-advised decision to declare war on a section of its population will always come back to bite it. Times have changed and mentalities must keep pace. Negotiations should be the government’s administrative tool of choice. The government has to embrace new ways. It should understand that intimidation will not cut it. Even long jail terms will not address the issue. Southern Cameroonians are resolute. They are not going to give in just because they are being intimidated and killed.

They have been living a life of marginalization for years and they think they must put an end to such dictatorship. Cameroon belongs to all and every citizen must be made to feel at home wherever he finds himself. But with so many lives cut short by this senseless war, it will be hard for real negotiations to take place.

Southern Cameroonians want to live in their own country. For 56 years, they have been victims of government discrimination. The Yaounde government has never respected its commitments towards the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. The government’s mistakes have really made it hard for Southern Cameroonians to live with their French-speaking counterparts.

The rift is there. It will be hard for these wounds to heal. Many people have lost their lives, and the pain will linger for a long time. The government has a lot on its plate. It has to take a long and hard look at its script. Its current script is simply making Southern Cameroons independence possible. The government will have to bend over backwards if it really wants to hold the country together.

For now, it is obvious that most Southern Cameroonians will never like to look at any other option. Their quest for federalism has been quashed by the government and their leaders have been thrown in jail where it is believed they are being tortured.

If the government wants real negotiations to take place, it must release all Southern Cameroonians who are being held by the Yaounde government. Amnesty must granted to all Southern Cameroonians living abroad. And a new governance structure be proposed if it wants any negotiations to take place. The country belongs to everybody and it is wrong for a few to think that they are more Cameroonian than others. The ball is in the government’s court. If it does not act fast, the situation will further deteriorate and things will spiral out of control. There is still time to make the right decisions. Better late than never!

By Kingsley Betek

Cameroon Concord News Group Production

For close to two years, Cameroon has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Cameroon, once touted as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, has finally joined the chaos that has characterized life in countries bordering the sub-region’s economic power.

A crisis that started as simple protests by lawyers, teachers and students in Buea and Bamenda has brutally shattered the image the country had cut for itself. Over the last six months, the protests have metamorphosed into a full blown armed conflict, as the government disregards all appeals from many across the world for meaningful and inclusive dialogue.

The government is frozen in time and this gives it the impression that only an all-out military victory can bring peace to this once prosperous nation. It still believes that actions taken in the early years of the country’s independence to put an end to a bloody “Marquisard movement” could also work in the 21st Century.

But its failure to comprehend that times have changed and that other factors have come into play will keep it in the jungles and mountains of Southern Cameroons for a long time. The sixties and seventies were still part of the continent’s dark ages. Many people were not literate and poverty was a constant presence among the populace. The Bamilekes and Bassas who masterminded the independence struggle were still poor and had very few friends around the world.

Today, the world is a totally different place. Many people are educated. Education rates in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon stand at well over 80%. Besides, more than 50% of the region’s population lives out of the country and this makes it possible for the region to survive any government onslaught against those on the ground.

With more than 3 million English-speaking Cameroonians living out of the country, it is very possible for this large Diaspora to financially support those facing the government’s “scorched-earth” policy. The region’s Diaspora has been out of the country for more than 40 years and the majority of the region’s Diaspora lives in prosperous countries such as the USA, Canada and the UK where economic opportunities abound.

It is this Diaspora that is helping the pool of willing fighters back in Southern Cameroons to give the government a run for its money. Across the globe, there are monthly fund-raising efforts to ensure that those on the ground have access to the weapons they need to protect themselves against a government that has declared war against its own people.

Besides fund-raising efforts for arms, there are also fund-raising efforts to ensure that all those whose houses have been razed get rebuilt once the region secures its independence. Southern Cameroonians want to prove to the government that its brute force will only help them gain their independence sooner, rather than later.

Many people across the globe are already pointing out that the government’s reckless and irresponsible reaction to the crisis is already granting Southern Cameroons its independence, one day at a time. Some point to what happened to East Timor, also known as Timor Leste.

The Asian Island was also a victim of oppression from Indonesians for decades, but when the courageous people of Timor Leste decided it was time to walk away from the union, they challenged their oppressor and despite the intimidation and killings by Indonesians, East Timorese stood their ground. They knew that some people had to die for them to have a free and prosperous nation.

After many years of bloodshed, on August 30, 1999, a UN-sponsored referendum led to an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voting for independence from Indonesia. Immediately following the referendum, anti-independence Timorese militias — organized and supported by the Indonesian military — commenced a punitive scorched-earth campaign. The militias killed approximately 1,400 Timorese and forcibly pushed 300,000 people into West Timor as refugees. The majority of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed during this punitive attack.

On September 20, 1999, the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) was deployed to the country and it brought the violence to an end. Following a United Nations-administered transition period, East Timor was internationally recognized as an independent nation on May 20, 2002.

This is exactly what might happen to Southern Cameroons as the government relentlessly pursues its diabolic campaign to destroy Southern Cameroons and to kill its people. The government of Cameroon has to take a hard and long look at its actions if it does not want to clone Indonesia’s mistakes.

But from every indication, the Cameroon government seems to be happily cloning the Indonesian example. It seems to be reading from a script produced by the Indonesian government. A script that has caused Indonesia to lose some of its best Islands that were noted for their tourism potential.

If the Cameroon government does not put an end to its military campaign, it will soon be losing Southern Cameroons. The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is also willing to make this happen. “La République du Cameroun” has failed Southern Cameroonians and the brave and hardworking people of these English-speaking regions are willing to walk away from this hastily stitched marriage that was arranged by Foncha and Muna who only thought about their own interest.

Many people across the globe are still marveled at the Cameroon government’s ignorance of world politics and arrogance. The government has demonstrated a lot of arrogance ever since this crisis started with some ministers such as Fame Ndongo and Joseph Beti Assomo making statements that have only made matters worse. Mr. Assomo, in particular, has sent young Beti soldiers to the region to wreak havoc and Southern Cameroonians are aware of this.

There are even rumors that before long Southern Cameroonian fighters will soon be chasing Francophones out of Southern Cameroons in an attempt to bring the international community into the conflict. The world still has time to step in to prevent the chaos that is still being prepared in the jungles of Southern Cameroons.

The government’s arrogance and inefficiency are today costing the country huge amounts of money and the loss of human life is really disturbing. Both soldiers and civilian are being killed in a conflict that is unnecessary. The government’s decision to slaughter hundreds of Southern Cameroonians on October 1, 2017, has turned out to be an unfortunate error of judgment and its cost to the nation is incalculable.

The country’s fragile economy has been badly hit. Corporations such CDC and Pamol that are located deep into Southern Cameroons’ heartland are struggling to stay afloat. Their businesses have been seriously affected, as Ambazonian fighters stage incursions in the region on a daily basis.

Falling oil production and prices have also hit the government like a ton of bricks. The Southern Cameroons crisis that the government thought would end after a few weeks is gradually robbing the country’s economy of its vitality. The country’s economic indicators are unfortunately trending very low and it is obvious that the days ahead will be bleak for the country’s civil service.

Even the country’s military is already dealing with some challenges. The Southern Cameroons crisis has eroded its financial resources. The payment of per diems is gradually becoming a tough challenge despite the signing of a presidential decree by the country’s reclusive leader, indicating that each soldier fighting in the two English-speaking regions will be earning CFAF 30,000 a day as per diem. The money has not been flowing the way of the soldiers and many young army soldiers are deserting the military for fear of being killed by the tough Ambazonian fighters who are giving the government a run for its money.

Today, nobody in the region is safe. Government killings are totally to blame for the escalation of violence. Many young lives have been destroyed and businesses have shut their doors as a result of the government’s arrogance and military violence. Silicon Mountain that was noted for its large number of start-ups has been completely wiped off the country’s business landscape.

Similarly, many homes have been burnt to the ground by soldiers and the most disheartening thing is the roasting of vulnerable people by army soldiers who are considered by the population as alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved.

Today, the Internet is awash with videos of government atrocities in the two English-speaking regions of the country. The old and vulnerable, including children, have been killed by government troops. The government’s collective punishment campaign is fanning embers of enmity and hatred. The bitterness resulting from the government’s ill-advised decision will fuel violence in the region for many decades.

The government’s reaction to Southern Cameroonian demands has been anything but effective. This reaction has gone a long way in creating a bloody conflict that is not necessary. Many people have been radicalized, including young girls who now hold that it is their duty to help bring independence to their people. The radicalization has, unfortunately, led to the creation of many armed groups in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

As a response to the creation of these armed groups, the government has stepped up its killing spree to prove that it is in control of the territory. It is strange to see a duly constituted government come down to the level of a ragtag army. It is even stranger to see the government engage in the killing of its own citizens just because they have expressed their minds.

This conflict has really disrupted life in many parts of the country. In the English-speaking parts of the country, schools and courts have remained closed and a generation of children is being traumatized by the images and pictures they are seeing on the ground. Besides the trauma, these kids will wind up illiterate as there are no prospects of school resuming anytime soon, especially in rural areas where there is no government authority. The government itself has simply surrendered and does not consider the education of these kids as a priority.

Many people around the world who have been watching Cameroon descend into chaos think the country’s government should actually embrace peace, but the country’s ailing leaders want to take the country to the grave with them. Many of these observers have been waiting for the government to lay the ground work for the much-touted inclusive dialogue that the country’s president has been talking about.

But Mr. Biya and his government are not in the mood to smoke the pipe of peace. Though Mr. Biya had declared in New York during a session of the UN General Assembly meeting in late 2017 that “we all are hankering after peace”, he seems to be more interested in war than peace. Mr. Biya is being accused today across the globe as someone who is paying lip-service to the notion of inclusive and sincere dialogue.

Many observers hold that he is more interested in keeping power than in making Cameroon the beacon of peace many want. He and his government see governance as a do-or-die affair and any dialogue that could diminish their power will never be something they will contemplate.  They know their time is almost up, but they hold that they must go down with the entire country. Their attitude is shocking many around the world. The fighting in Cameroon is not only taking away innocent lives, it is also robbing the country of its scarce development resources.

To government officials, the atrocities being committed by government troops in Southern Cameroons are simply war games worthy of their admiration.  They seem to be deflecting public opinion from the fact that Southern Cameroonians, who have been victims of the government’s marginalization, simply want to be heard. They want years of injustice and disrespect to be addressed. But wont to violence and dictatorial ways of doing business, the government is unrelentingly pursuing its legendary policy of violence which has transformed an entire region into a massive killing field.

The government must look into the mirror of history to learn the lessons of cohabitation and minority management. Its mistakes are gradually granting Southern Cameroons the independence it needs. History is replete with many examples of how to handle demands by minorities. If the government has opted for the Indonesian script, it should be rest assured that Southern Cameroons will be independent sooner, rather than later. There is time for it to review this script if it wants to keep Cameroon one and indivisible.

But if it continues to kill and maim innocent civilians, then it should be ready to bid farewell to Southern Cameroonians who are only too happy to kiss goodbye to a country they once thought was also theirs.  The ball is in the government’s court. Intimidation and killings will not deter Southern Cameroonians from fighting. They are sick and tired of a government that only understands one language – an iron fist.

They want to walk away from the Francophone majority that has made their lives a living hell. In many Southern Cameroonian minds, they are already independent. It is just a matter of time for their independence to be recognized by the international community just as it did recognize Timor Leste.

Mr. Biya and his government have to learn the lessons of history. No two times will ever be the same. Using strategies of the past to repress Southern Cameroonians will only make it possible for the English-speaking minority to hold on to its claim of independence.

The government has to come up with new strategies, strategies that should seek to win hearts and minds and not those that seek to break them. It is up to the government to make the right decisions. Southern Cameroonian claims are legitimate. That is no longer in doubt.

You never address legitimate claims with guns and bullets. You discuss them and see how to appease the people. Mr. Biya and his government are getting it all wrong. They are indirectly granting Southern Cameroons the independence they are seeking to prevent.

By Kingsley Betek and Ebot Etchi with contributions from Soter Agbaw-Ebai at the Cameroon Concord News Group Global Headquarters

A look at the data behind the headlines amid the worsening crackdown by the army of 86-year-old Cameroon president Paul Biya in Southern Cameroons tells a pathetic story. The UN under very strong French influence has crafted a response and each time the Ambazonian issue is raised up with disturbing evidence, the Antonio Guterres’ gang are quick to say  we haven’t seen this or that video. The UN has blatantly refused to call it “Africa’s largest humanitarian crisis” in modern times.

“It’s complicated”. This is often how the crisis in Southern Cameroons is described by the French government and the French surrogates in the African Union including the corrupt Buhari regime in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and these words paint a picture of mass killing on the side of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. If we look at the French Cameroun media headlines we assume that its entire ok and some so-called “separatists” are behind the unrest.

So two years into the Southern Cameroons crisis and 57 years into the killing of Anglophone leaders, we have looked at the data on who is killing who. The truth is shocking. The vast majority of Southern Cameroons civilians killed – 99% according to human rights groups and international media sources – have been killed by the government of President Paul Biya and its allies.

This matters as we enter a civil war scenario in Cameroon under the CPDM regime. All efforts at stopping the Southern Cameroons uprising will fail unless we understand where it is coming from. The story of the data is unarguable – if we want to stop the killing of civilians in Southern Cameroons we have to address the brutality of the government of Mr. Paul Biya and its allies.

In this edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers if the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia should embrace a military response to the killings of Southern Cameroons civilians?

Generally little understood by Francophones, the Anglophone problem dates back to the independence period. A poorly conducted re-unification, based on centralisation and assimilation, has led the Anglophone minority to feel politically and economically marginalised, and that their cultural difference are ignored.

The current crisis is a particularly worrying resurgence of an old problem. Never before has tension around the Anglophone issue been so acute. The mobilisation of lawyers, teachers and students starting in October 2016, ignored then put down by the government, has revived identity-based movements which date back to the 1970s. These movements are demanding a return to the federal model that existed from 1961 to 1972. Trust between Anglophone activists and the government has been undermined by the arrest of the movement’s leading figures and the cutting of the internet, both in January. Since then, the two Anglophone regions have lived through general strikes, school boycotts and sporadic violence.

Small secessionist groups have emerged since January. They are taking advantage of the situation to radicalise the population with support from part of the Anglophone diaspora. While the risk of partition of the country is low, the risk of a resurgence of the problem in the form of armed violence is high, as some groups are now advocating that approach.

The government has taken several measures since March – creating a National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism; creating new benches for Common Law at the Supreme Court and new departments at the National School of Administration and Magistracy; recruiting Anglophone magistrates and 1,000 bilingual teachers; and turning the internet back on after a 92-day cut. But the leaders of the Anglophone movement have seen these measures as too little too late.

International reaction has been muted, but has nevertheless pushed the government to adopt the measures described above. The regime in Yaoundé seems more sensitive to international than to national pressure. Without firm, persistent and coordinated pressure from its international partners, it is unlikely that the government will seek lasting solutions.

The Anglophone crisis is in part a classic problem of a minority, which has swung between a desire for integration and a desire for autonomy, and in part a more structural governance problem. It shows the limits of centralised national power and the ineffectiveness of the decentralisation program started in 1996. The weak legitimacy of most of the Anglophone elites in their region, under-development, tensions between generations, and patrimonialism are ills common to the whole country. But the combination of bad governance and an identity issue could be particularly tough to resolve.

Dealing with the Anglophone problem requires a firmer international reaction and to rebuild trust through coherent measures that respond to the sectoral demands of striking teachers and lawyers. There is some urgency: the crisis risks undermining the approaching elections. In that context, several steps should be taken without delay:

• The president of the republic should publicly recognise the problem and speak out to calm tensions.
• The leaders of the Anglophone movement should be provisionally released.
• Members of the security forces who have committed abuses should be sanctioned.
• The government should quickly put in place the measures announced in March 2017, and the 21 points agreed on with unions in January.
• The government and senior administration should be re-organised to better reflect the demographic, political and historical importance of the Anglophones, and to include younger and more legitimate members of the Anglophones community.
• The National Commission on Bilingualism and multiculturalism should be restructured to include an equal number of Anglophones as Francophones, to guarantee the independence of its members and to give it powers to impose sanctions.
• The government should desist from criminalising the political debate on Anglophone Cameroon, including on federalism, in particular by ceasing to use the anti-terrorism law for political ends and by considering recourse to a third party (the church or international partner) as a mediator between the government and Anglophone organisations.

In the longer term, Cameroon must undertake institutional reforms to remedy the deeper problems of which the Anglophone issue is the symptom. In particular, decentralisation laws should be rigorously applied, and improved, to reduce the powers of officials nominated by Yaoundé, create regional councils, and better distribute financial resources and powers. Finally, it is important to take legal measures specific to Anglophone regions in the areas of education, justice and culture.

Cameroon, facing Boko Haram in the Far North and militia from the Central African Republic in the East, needs to avoid another potentially destabilising front opening up. If the Anglophone problem got worse it would disrupt the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018. Above all, it could spark off further demands throughout the country and lead to a wider political crisis.

I.Introduction

Since October 2016, protests around sectoral demands have degenerated into a political crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. This crisis has led to the re-emergence of the Anglophone question and highlighted the limits of the Cameroonian governance model, based on centralisation and co-optation of elites.

The Anglophone area consists of two of the country’s ten regions, the Northwest and the Southwest. It covers 16,364 sq km of the country’s total area of 475,442 sq km and has about 5 million of Cameroon’s 24 million inhabitants. It is the stronghold of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and plays an important role in the economy, especially its dynamic agricultural and commercial sectors. Most of Cameroon’s oil, which accounts for one twelfth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), is located off the coast of the Anglophone region.

The politicisation of the crisis and the radicalisation of its protagonists is mainly due to the government’s response (denial, disregard, intimidation and repression), the diminishing trust between the Anglophone population and the government and the exploitation of the identity question by political actors who have aggravated the population’s resentment to the point that probably most Anglophones now see a return to federalism or even secession as the only feasible ways out of the crisis.

What is the Anglophone crisis about? Who are the protagonists? How is it perceived by Francophones? What is the government’s response? How has the international community reacted? What role are the Anglophone diaspora and religious actors playing? In order to reply to these questions, Crisis Group has relied on documentary research and conducted around a hundred interviews during several visits to the Anglophone regions, Yaoundé and Douala, between December 2016 and May 2017. The report analyses the structural factors that caused the crisis in the Anglophone regions, the strategies and motivations of the actors, and the political and economic consequences. It formulates recommendations aimed at breaking the deadlock and rebuilding trust, with a view to facilitating a genuine dialogue and identifying sustainable solutions.

II.The Roots of the Anglophone Problem: Colonial Legacy and Failure of the Centralised Model

A.The Colonial Legacy

The German government and the traditional Douala chiefs signed a treaty in July 1884, establishing a protectorate called Kamerun. Its territories were shared out after the German defeat at the end of the First World War. The League of Nations appointed France and the UK as joint trustees of Kamerun. The Anglophone problem and a number of other weaknesses in present-day Cameroon have their roots in the colonial period.

During the period of the mandate and the trusteeship, each colonial power shaped their territories in their own image. This resulted in major differences in political culture. English was the official language in the territory under British administration. The justice system (Common Law), the education system, the currency and social norms followed the British model. The system of indirect rule allowed traditional chiefdoms to remain in place and promoted the emergence of a form of self-government to the extent that freedom of the press, political pluralism and democratic change in power existed in Anglophone Cameroon prior to independence. The territory was administered as though it were part of Nigeria and several members of British Cameroon’s Anglophone elite were ministers in the Nigerian government in the 1950s.

In contrast, the Francophone territory was directly administered by France following the assimilationist model, although colonisers and the traditional elites also practised a form of indirect government, especially in the north of the country. French was spoken and France’s social, legal and political norms shaped the centralist political system of successive regimes. Bogged down in a total war against the nationalist movement (Union des populations du Cameroun – UPC), which challenged French presence, the Francophone territory was less democratic.

B.Independences and Reunification: Different Dreams in the Same Bed

The process leading to the reunification of the two Cameroons is at the heart of the Anglophone problem. The Francophone territory gained independence on 1 January 1960, becoming the Republic of Cameroon. The British territory comprised Southern Cameroons and Northern Cameroon. In the referendum held on 11 February 1961, Northern Cameroon chose to join Nigeria and Southern Cameroons chose to join the Republic of Cameroon. Southern Cameroons became independent on 1 October 1961 when it joined the Republic of Cameroon.

At the time of the 1961 referendum, the political landscape in Southern Cameroons was already dynamic.  According to reputed historians, the majority of the population aspired to independence. But the UK and some developing countries were against it on the grounds that Southern Cameroons would not be economically viable and that it was best to avoid the creation of micro-states. They advocated a vote in favour of joining Nigeria. The UN therefore excluded the independence option and limited the referendum to a choice between joining Nigeria and reunification with the Republic of Cameroon.

The main figures among the Anglophone political elites, Emmanuel Mbella Lifafa Endeley, John Ngu Foncha, Solomon Tandeng Muna and Agustine Ngom Jua, pleaded at the UN for an independent state of Southern Cameroons, or alternatively for temporary independence during which time it would negotiate the terms of unification from a better position. The UN’s rejection of the independence option left two opposing camps during the referendum. Endeley, the leader of the Kamerun National Congress (KNC), campaigned in favour of joining Nigeria. Foncha, the leader of the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP), who left the KNC in 1955, Muna and Jua campaigned in favour of reunification with the Republic of Cameroon. Influenced by these prominent political leaders and by a certain fear of being absorbed by the Nigerian giant, the vote went in favour of reunification.

Representatives of Southern Cameroons and the president of the Republic of Cameroon, Amadou Ahidjo, met at Foumban in the west of Francophone territory from 17 until 21 July 1961 to negotiate the terms of reunification. Even today, the failure to keep the promises made at the Foumban conference, which did not produce a written agreement, is among the grievances of Anglophone militants. The Anglophone representatives thought they were participating in a constituent assembly that would draft a constitution guaranteeing an egalitarian federalism and a large degree of autonomy to federated states, but Ahidjo imposed a ready-made constitution that gave broad powers to the executive of the federal state to the detriment of the two federated states (West Cameroon and East Cameroon). The Anglophones, who were in a weak position, accepted Ahidjo’s constitution and only obtained a blocking minority by way of concession.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Cameroon approved the federal constitution in August 1961 and Ahidjo promulgated it on 1 September, while Southern Cameroons was still under British trusteeship. The constitutional process for reunification and abandonment by the British left Anglophones with the impression of having been deceived by the Francophones, and also explains the bitterness of Anglophone militants toward the UK.

C.The Centralist Model and the Emergence of Anglophone Grievances

Since 1961, unification and centralisation have been the political dogmas of the Ahidjo (1960-1982) and Paul Biya (1982-) regimes. After reunification on 1 October 1961, Cameroon became a federal republic, but in practice inherited a shaky federalism with an unequal distribution of power between the two federated states in the federal assembly and in the government.

Amadou Ahidjo was the federal president and John Ngu Foncha was both vice president of the country and prime minister of West Cameroon, in line with the constitutional provision according to which the vice president must be from West Cameroon if the federal president comes from East Cameroon, and vice versa. At the time of reunification, Ahidjo already had a near political monopoly in East Cameroon. Only West Cameroon represented a serious obstacle to his hegemonic ambitions. In 1961, he set about bringing West Cameroon under control through a mixture of repression and exploitation of divisions among Anglophones. At the federal level, despite the constitutional guarantee that English and French would both be official languages, French was the administration’s language of preference.

On 20 October 1961, Ahidjo signed a decree reorganising federal territory into six administrative regions, including West Cameroon, and appointed a federal inspector for each region, who was to report to the federal president. That provoked discontent among Anglophones, because West Cameroon could not at the same time be a federated state according to the constitution and an administrative region by decree. The federal inspector had more power than the elected prime minister of West Cameroon and showed it on a daily basis by humiliating members of the federated government and parliament.

In 1962, Ahidjo signed several orders limiting public freedoms. With the war against the UPC still at its height in East Cameroon, the arbitrary arrest and detention of opponents and trade unionists accused of subversion became common. Although these arrests took place mainly in the Francophone part of the country, Anglophone leaders became concerned about the repressive direction that the federal executive was taking. Other measures, such as the introduction of driving on the right-hand side of the road, the imposition of the metric system and the FCFA as currency took place during the 1960s. The change in currency entailed a reduction in the purchasing power of the Anglophone population by at least 10 per cent. Ahidjo also demanded that West Cameroon cut all links with the UK with the result that it lost several export duty advantages afforded to Commonwealth countries.

The federated states did not have financial autonomy and depended on grants from the federal state. Understanding where the real power was located, the Anglophone elites competed with each other for positions in the federal government, spending more time trying to please Ahidjo than defending the Anglophone population. Ahidjo took advantage and manipulated the rivalries among the elites and the ethnic and cultural divisions between Grassfields in the north, which had cultural and linguistic links with the Bamilékés of the west Francophone region, and the Sawa in the south, who had cultural and linguistic links with the Francophone coast. The result was political chaos in West Cameroon, including a split between Foncha and Muna, who left the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) in 1965 to form the Cameroon United Congress (CUC).

In 1965, in order to further weaken Foncha, who he believed to be less accommodating on the Anglophone question, Ahidjo tried to use his constitutional powers to appoint Muna as prime minister rather than Ngom Jua, Foncha’s heir apparent in the KNDP, the majority party in the West Cameroon parliament. He was unsuccessful in this because of strong opposition from the federated parliament. But one year later, taking advantage of divisions among the Anglophones, Ahidjo called for the creation of a single party in the two Cameroons, in the name of national unity. Strengthened by the support of some Anglophone leaders, such as Endeley and Muna, who saw an opportunity to dethrone Foncha, he succeeded in his objective. The Cameroon National Union (CNU) was formed in 1966 and the other parties were dissolved. Foncha, Jua and Bernard Fonlon (assistant general secretary at the presidency) were initially opposed but changed their views for fear of losing their positions in the federal government. The single party resulted in the Anglophones losing all their institutional leverage to plead their cause. In 1968, Ahidjo was able to appoint his new ally, Muna, as prime minister, replacing Jua.

Once the single party was formed, Ahidjo intensified centralisation, going so far as to suppress federalism on 20 May 1972, when Cameroon became the United Republic of Cameroon, following a referendum. Anglophones continued to challenge the legality of this change on the grounds that the 1961 constitution did not provide for any alteration in the form of state and stipulated that only parliament could amend the constitution.Anglophone militants also consider that the referendum should not have taken place throughout the country and should have been limited to West Cameroon, which had the most to lose. Finally, they claim that it was not possible to hold a free and transparent referendum in the context of the time and that the ballot was marred by serious irregularities.

It was also in 1972 that Anglophones really began to challenge their marginalisation. At the CNU National Congress in 1972, Bernard Fonlon publicly criticised the creation of the unitary republic. Other prominent Anglophones, such as Albert Mukong and Gorji Dinka were also fiercely opposed. Foncha and Jua wrote privately to Ahidjo and expressed their opposition in the official media.

When Paul Biya succeeded Ahidjo in November 1982, he further centralised power. On 22 August 1983, he divided the Anglophone region into two provinces: Northwest and Southwest. In 1984, he changed the country’s official name to the Republic of Cameroon (the name of the former Francophone territory) and removed the second star from the flag, which represented the Anglophone part of the country.

Anglophones formed movements and associations to resist their assimilation. In 1994, they protested in vain when the government, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced the privatisation of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), which played a major economic and social role in the Anglophone part of the country. In that same year, the government’s move to standardise the Anglophone and Francophone education systems provoked strong resistance from teachers’ unions and the parents of pupils and it finally had to create an independent General Certificate of Education (GCE) Board by presidential decree.

Unification left Anglophones with a sense that their territory was in economic decline, because it entailed the centralisation and/or dismantling of West Cameroon’s economic structures, such as the West Cameroon Marketing Board, the Cameroon Bank and Powercam, as well as the abandonment of several projects, including the port of Limbé, and airports at Bamenda and Tiko, with investments in the Francophone part of the country winning out.

In particular, unification left the impression of a democratic setback, cultural assimilation and a downgrading of political status. Many Anglophones are convinced that the Francophone part of the country followed a strategy to marginalise Southern Cameroons and are still not sufficiently aware of the disastrous impact the economic crisis of the 1980s also had on several Francophone regions. When the multiparty system was restored in the 1990s, the Anglophones seized the opportunity to make their grievances heard. On 26 May 1990, the Social Democratic Front, a new pro-federalism opposition party, with a national vocation but with a strong contingent of Anglophones, was formed in Bamenda. It gained ground in the Anglophone part of the country before extending its influence into Francophone provinces. It then participated in the October 1992 presidential elections and came close to winning it.

With the prospect of a review of the constitution to adapt it to the multiparty system, the Anglophones organised the All Anglophone Conference (AAC) in 1993 and called for a return to federalism. The Consultative Committee for Review of the Constitution rejected this option in favour of decentralisation. Meanwhile, after resigning in 1990 from the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), the name adopted by the single party in 1985, Foncha and Muna, yesterday’s rivals, resigned from the consultative committee in 1994 and openly criticised the assimilation of Anglophones. In that same year, a second All Anglophone Conference (AAC2) was organised in Bamenda and some of the participants called for a two-state federal system or secession.

During this period, Muna and Foncha launched diplomatic offensives at the UN to demand independence for Southern Cameroons. The position of the Social Democratic Front, which rejected secession and proposed, in the context of Francophone opposition to a two-state federal system, a four-state federal system, was judged to be ambiguous by some Anglophone militants, who in 1995, formed movements calling for two-state federalism or secession: the most well-known was the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the youth wing of which, Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL), resorted to low-intensity violence. Since 1996, the SCNC has taken further diplomatic initiatives at the UN, the African Court of Banjul, the Commonwealth and national embassies.

After the golden age of the 1990s, dissent weakened and the focus switched to the Anglophone diaspora’s advocacy in the international community and the creation of an Anglophone consciousness through the education system, writings of Anglophone intellectuals, the churches, associations and the local media. However, SCNC militants continued to organise protests in the Anglophone regions every 1 October and spectacular actions such as the proclamation of independence by the Ambazonia Republic on radio Buea in 1999 and in 2009. Despite the emergence of Anglophone movements, centralisation continued and Anglophones lost even more political strength at the national level. In 2017, there was only one Anglophone among 36 ministers with portfolio.

The roots of the Anglophone problem lie in a badly-organised reunification that was based on centralisation and assimilation, and in economic and administrative marginalisation. Personal and ethnic ambitions and rivalries among the elites did not help matters. They have not always been able to present a common front to defend an increasingly heterogeneous Anglophone cause. Since the 2000s, the Anglophone question has deeply divided society. It finds expression in the mutually negative perceptions of the Anglophone and Francophone populations and the occasional reciprocal stigmatisation. The current crisis represents an especially worrying resurgence of this old problem. Never before has the Anglophone question manifested itself with such intensity.

III.From Sectoral Mobilisations to the Resurgence of the Anglophone Problem

A.From the Strike to the Crisis

The current crisis began on 11 October 2016 in Bamenda when lawyers from the Northwest and the Southwest went on strike. Their demands, ignored until then by the justice ministry, were related to the justice system’s failure to use the Common Law in the two regions. The lawyers demanded the translation into English of the Code of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) and other legal texts. They criticised the “francophonisation” of Common Law jurisdictions, with the appointment to the Anglophone zone of Francophone magistrates who did not understand English or the Common Law, and the appointment of notaries, to do work done by lawyers under the Common Law system. A lack of trust in the government and the brutality of the security forces aggravated the problem and radicalised the public.

On 8 November 2016, the lawyers mobilised hundreds of people for a march in Bamenda and reiterated their demand for the full restoration of the Common Law system as it was at the time of the federal system. They added a demand for federalism. While the march was taking place peacefully, gendarmes violently dispersed the crowd, manhandled some lawyers and arrested some motorbike taxi drivers (“Okada boys”). In response, some youth and Okada boys set up barricades at several crossroads and clashes between demonstrators and gendarmes left several wounded.

On 21 November, teachers went on strike as well. They organised a rally against the lack of Anglophone teachers, the appointment of teachers who did not have a good command of English and the failure to respect the “Anglo-Saxon” character of schools and universities in the Anglophone zone. At the rally, several thousand people joined teachers to express grievances ranging from the lack of roads in the Northwest to the marginalisation of Anglophones. The police and the army violently dispersed the demonstrators. Several people were severely beaten, dozens of others were arrested and at least two people were shot dead, according to a report by the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms the (Commission nationale des droits de l’Homme et des libertés, CNDHL). Several other incidents took place in Bamenda at the end of November, leading to riots

On 28 November, the crisis, which had until then been limited to the Northwest, spread to the Southwest. Students at Buea University organised a peaceful march on the campus to call for the payment to students of the president’s achievement bonus, denounce the banning of the University of Buea Student Union (UBSU) in 2012 and protest at the introduction of a penalty for late payment of education fees and the additional fee charged for accessing examination results. The university rector’s response was to call the police onto the campus. They brutally repressed the students and arrested some of them in their homes. Female students were beaten, undressed, rolled in the mud and one was allegedly raped.

The most violent confrontation took place on 8 December in Bamenda when the CPDM tried to organise a pro-government rally in the Anglophone regions. The angry crowd prevented the rally from taking place. In violent clashes, four died, several were wounded and around 50 arrested. Demonstrators set fire to a police station, government buildings and vehicles. The prime minister, the CPDM secretary general, the governor of the Northwest region and the national security adviser, who were due to attend the rally, had to hide all day in the governor’s residence to escape the violence. The government responded to these demonstrations by militarising the region, causing the social climate to deteriorate even further.

The violence in Buea on 28 November and in Bamenda on 8 December aggravated the crisis and led to extensive media coverage. Images of abuses by the security forces quickly spread on the internet and on to international television channels. They had a decisive impact on public opinion and opened the Pandora’s box of the Anglophone problem.

Further incidents took place in January and February 2017 in Bamenda and other towns such as Ndop. They led to riots that left at least three dead, while government buildings and vehicles were set on fire. From October 2016 to February 2017, at least nine people were killed and more sustained gunshot wounds. There were 82 arrests, including of journalists and lawyers, according to the communications minister and about 150 according to the SDF. They appeared before a military court under the terrorism law. The security forces also arrested and intimidated prominent Anglophones. For example, Paul Abine Ayah, a judge at the Supreme Court, was arrested without a warrant in March on charges of funding the Anglophone campaign. He has since remained behind bars.

B.The Government and Anglophone Actors: Strategies and Motivations

Faced with the Anglophone crisis, the government tried to maintain the status quo. However, realising there were limits to what it could achieve with repression, it began talks with the striking unions. At the end of November, the prime minister formed an ad hoc inter-ministerial committee charged with leading negotiations. It comprised four Francophone ministers and was placed under the supervision of the prime ministry’s cabinet director. At the start of December, the lawyers and teachers formed the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC, “the Consortium”). It was initially formed by four lawyers’ associations and several teachers trade unions, with Félix Khongo Agbor Balla as president, Fontem Neba as secretary general and Wilfred Tassang as treasurer.

On 25-26 November, the prime minister unsuccessfully conducted a first mission to Bamenda to open negotiations. He arrived without concrete proposals, perhaps expecting that the promise of dialogue and his presence would be enough to end the strike. This visit was an early sign of the divisions within the Anglophone elites working within government institutions in Yaoundé. While the prime minister recognised the existence of the Anglophone problem and invited the trade unions for talks in Bamenda, other prominent Anglophones, such as the minister and permanent secretary at the National Security Council told the media in Yaoundé that there was no Anglophone problem. This inflamed opinion in the region, making the prime minister’s mission impossible and, especially, confirming the Anglophone belief that the prime minister, a post occupied since 1996 by an Anglophone, had no real power.

From December 2016 to January 2017, the ad hoc committee conducted several missions to Bamenda. The list of union demands increased from eleven to 25 between November and January but negotiations nearly reached an agreement, with the government saying it was ready to meet 21 of the 25 demands. However, on 13 January, police abuses, against a backdrop of rumours, provoked riots in Bamenda and the negotiations collapsed. On 14 January, the Consortium cancelled a meeting with the committee, condemned the violence perpetrated by the security forces and declared a two-day Operation Ghost Town in the Northwest and the Southwest. The government responded by shutting down the internet in the two regions on 17 January, banning the Consortium and the SCNC and arresting Consortium leaders and several activists such as Mancho Bibixy, claiming that the Consortium had conditioned agreement on the introduction of federalism.

Crisis Group has gathered many witness statements, some contradictory, of the 13 January 2017 events, which marked a decisive break in attempts at dialogue. Some said that the security forces opened fire at point-blank range on motorbike taxis. Others said that Anglophone movement radicals tried to introduce the issue of secession into the debate, with the result that both sides hardened their positions. Although these incidents contributed to the failure of negotiations, they were not the only reason. In fact, the tension in the two regions, the repression by the security forces and the radicalisation of public opinion had put Consortium leaders in a difficult position. They were forced to go beyond their own sectoral demands – especially as the 21 points accepted by the government only included the teachers’ demands, not the lawyers’ demands – and to deal more broadly with the Anglophone problem. According to a Consortium leader, “repression by the regime has opened a Pandora’s box and the public has forced us to put the Southern Cameroons issue on the table”.

Negotiations were difficult because of the deep distrust between the government and representatives of the Anglophone community. The ad hoc committee did not inspire much confidence, because most of its members were Francophones. Consortium members did not believe that the government would keep its promise to meet 21 of its 25 demands. So they proposed federalism in order to guarantee implementation of reforms and achieve a more general solution. Meanwhile, the government believed that the trade unions had a hidden agenda involving secession and that this was why they continually added to their list of demands.

Probably to avoid the crisis spreading to the Francophone part, the government brandished the spectre of secession by conflating Anglophone grievances and the division of the country. Some Francophone intellectuals said that federalism was only a step on the road to secession. There were some indications, such as the positions taken during the negotiations and confirmed in several interviews, that some members of the regime in Yaoundé tried to strengthen the position of the more radical Anglophones with the aim of presenting the Anglophone contestation as a dangerous attempt to divide the country. The government also claimed there was a plot, presenting the Anglophone strike as an initiative funded by the diaspora and supported by groups who were trying to destabilise Cameroon.

After the arrest of Consortium leaders on 17 January, continued school closures and an intensification of Operation Ghost Town, the government took measures in the justice and education sectors to try to calm the situation. In December 2016, it had already announced the recruitment of 1,000 bilingual teachers, a FCFA2 billion (€3 million) grant to private schools and the redeployment of Francophone teachers away from Anglophone regions. On 23 January 2017, the president of the Republic created a National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism.But Anglophone militants criticised this as too little too late and regretted that nine of the commission’s fifteen members were Francophones, that most of them belonged to the older generation and that several were members of the CPDM. The commission is handicapped by its remit, which gives it no power to impose punitive measures, and restricts it to preparing reports and advocating for bilingualism and multiculturalism. Some of its members have recognised this weakness.

The government announced other measures on 30 March, including the creation of new benches for Common Law at the Supreme Court and new departments at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (Ecole nationale d’administration et de magistrature, ENAM), an increase in the number of English language teachers at ENAM, the recruitment of Anglophone magistrates, the creation of a Common Law department at Francophone universities and provisional authorisation for Anglophone lawyers to act as notaries in the Northwest and the Southwest regions.On 20 April, the government turned the internet back on after a 92-day cut. Although these measures were a significant first step, they did not meet the concerns of the trade unions or resolve the political component of the Anglophone question. They were made rather late in the day, when the public were already calling for the release of detainees and negotiations on constitutional reform with the aim of introducing federalism.

Anglophones continued to take action. When the internet was cut, protesters used text messages and phone calls to organise protests. When it was restored they reverted to mainly using WhatsApp. More recently, the campaign has nevertheless weakened, especially in the Southwest, partly because the economic consequences have become hard to bear for the public and also because of government pressure. New radical groups are using intimidation, threats and violence to maintain support for the movement. The public, elected representatives, parliamentarians and religious leaders regularly receive text messages and calls from Cameroon and abroad, informing them of Ghost Town days, now called Country Sundays. For example, a Francophone teacher at the University of Buea received eleven text messages and six telephone calls in a single day after ignoring a call to take part in Operation Ghost Town. Country Sundays take place every Monday and every national holiday or commemoration day. Anyone not adhering to the movement faces harassment and threats.

Threats are sometimes carried out. Between January and June 2017, dozens of shops in markets at Bamenda, Buea and Limbé, about fifteen government buildings and vehicles and a dozen schools were set on fire for not observing Country Sundays. These violent incidents have fuelled the government’s strategy of demonising the Anglophone campaign, all the more so as exiled Consortium representatives distanced themselves late and rather timidly. The authorities and the security forces also used tough methods to break the movement, intimidating the public and printing companies that produced pamphlets, and threatening heads of schools and business owners with revoking their licences if they took part in the strikes. The security forces worked with telephone companies and money transfer agencies to identify and arrest the local contacts of secessionists in exile and block the transfer of funds from abroad to the Anglophone regions.

The two sides have made abundant use of propaganda. The government as well as Anglophone militants have circulated false information on the internet and in text messages and pamphlets. In particular, the government has exploited the idea of false news to sow doubt and avoid responsibility for human rights violations by casting doubt on their veracity, even in confirmed cases.

The Anglophone diaspora did not initiate this crisis, contrary to previous challenges to the government. It only took a dominant role after the 17 January arrest of Consortium leaders. Internet-based campaigns contributed to mounting public anger and increased the popularity of secessionist ideas. The diaspora helped to give the crisis a higher profile at the international level by organising demonstrations outside the parliaments of Western countries and through diplomatic initiatives, such as commissioning the American law firm Foley Hoag to call for the independence of Southern Cameroons. This crisis also marked a generational renewal within the Anglophone movement and the diaspora. The historic standard-bearers of the Anglophone question who were members of the SCNC, the Cameroon Anglophone Movement or the AAC were not centre stage. Militants of the 1990s from Cameroon University, who emigrated in the period after 1995, were succeeded by young people from Buea University and the University of Buea Student Union, who left Cameroon more recently.

Although the great majority of the Anglophone diaspora probably supports the current protest movement, a minority has reacted in a hostile manner to calls for secession and to the movement as a whole, to the extent of sometimes writing to the authorities of the countries where the leading exponents of the secessionist current are living to call for their expulsion.

The movement is also weakening because of internal divisions over ideology, strategy and actions. Some Consortium leaders, such as Wilfred Tassangand Harmony Bobga, respectively in exile in Nigeria and the U.S., broke with the official federalist line and formed the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF), which advocates secession. Even the Consortium’s interim leaders in the diaspora, such as Mark Bareta and Tapang Ivo, now support secession.

Within the secessionist movement, divergences persist about strategy and operational methods. Some want to prioritise diplomatic offensives, while others put the emphasis on supporting Operation Ghost Town. There are also differences about whether to use violence, which are intensified by rivalries and the struggle for power. Since March, several small violent groups have been formed. On social networks, they circulate contact details of people and organisations failing to observe Ghost Town operations, as well as those of local authorities and senior Anglophone officials hostile to the strike. They call on the public to burn down their properties. These groups also call on citizens not to pay tax and encourage attacks on Francophones.

Christian denominations supervise most schools and universities in the Anglophone regions. At the beginning of 2016, the Catholic bishops of the two regions wrote to President Biya and travelled to Yaoundé to meet him, but he did not receive them. On 22 December, they published their letter in the form of a memorandum listing most of the Anglophone grievances.The government accused them of fuelling the crisis and began to intimidate members of the clergy and the heads of schools, calling on them to open their schools, which had been closed since the beginning of the crisis. In April, a fictitious association of parents lodged a complaint against the bishops and ministers, making the government more unpopular in this zone where religious leaders are respected. However, though the latter back the Anglophone cause, the fear of reprisals from the instigators of Operation Ghost Town rather than support for the strike explains the decision of Catholic and Protestant institutions to not resume their courses.

The Anglophone protest movement also caused division among Francophones and Anglophones within the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC). In January 2017, at a meeting in Mamfé, Francophone bishops criticised their counterparts for not opening their schools, while the latter regretted the Francophone clergy’s ignorance of the Anglophone problem and the threats to which they had been subjected. In April, the archbishop of Douala and NECC president published a statement deploring the legal proceedings against the bishops but calling on them to open their schools. This statement, criticised by Anglophone militants, undermined the legitimacy of the archbishop, who had been mentioned in January as a possible mediator.

One year from the next presidential elections, the governing elites in Yaoundé fear that the crisis will spread to Francophone regions, which share some of the socioeconomic difficulties experienced by Anglophones and where frustration took a violent turn in 2008. As the government perceives the crisis as a threat to its survival, it considers intimidation, violent repression and the internet shutdown as a risk worth taking, despite possible pressure from the international community. It feels the economic consequences and the possible electoral slump of the CPDM in the Anglophone regions at the next elections are a reasonable price to pay, because they are limited from a national point of view.

C.The International Community’s Response

The international response has been led by the U.S., multilateral organisations and international civil society. On 28 November 2016, the U.S. State Department published a communiqué calling for dialogue in the Anglophone regions and calling on the government of Cameroon to respect fundamental freedoms. In December, the UN Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa condemned the violence and asked Cameroon to respect minorities. On 18 January 2017, the president of the African Union Commission expressed concerns about acts of violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions and called on the government to seek dialogue. The UN Special Representative for Central Africa visited Yaoundé in February and April. He met Consortium leaders in prison and signed a communiqué calling for the release of prisoners, the restoration of internet and dialogue.

On 23 March, during President Biya’s visit to the Vatican, the Pope invited him to pursue dialogue and respect minorities. These statements helped to secure an end to internet shutdown in March, but did not result in any moves toward the structural and constitutional reforms requested by Anglophones.

Bilateral responses and the European Union (EU)’s response has been the weakest. Except for the U.S., Cameroon’s Western partners, such as France, the UK, Germany, Canada and the EU have not made any public statement, saying they are exercising discreet diplomatic pressure on Yaoundé. The strongest reactions have come from international civil society, especially from the UK Bar and organisations like Amnesty International.

The lack of coordination of the international response has undermined new initiatives. Several European countries planned to publish statements but, in the end, remained silent, clearly for fear of finding themselves isolated. Other partners with economic interests in Cameroon probably preferred to tacitly support the regime, which protects them against Chinese competition. In February, some European countries wanted the European Union to issue a joint statement on the Anglophone question, but the initiative was blocked by other member states anxious to avoid criticising Cameroon too openly because of its role in the fight against Boko Haram.

This relatively timid reaction can be partly explained by diplomats’ hesitation to intervene in a crisis whose consequences are limited to the country in question, without repercussions in the sub-region, and which remains less acute than other crises in Africa. Although limited, the gains made by discreet pressure confirm them in their opinion that private diplomacy is the best strategy. More generally, Western countries have tended to deal with Cameroon in the context of its relative stability compared to other Central African countries and the low risk that the Anglophone crisis will lead to partition of the country. Cameroon’s role in the fight against Boko Haram reinforces this attitude.

The government of neighbouring Nigeria has not got involved in the current crisis. Moreover, it is wary of the Anglophone protest movement, because it fears that an independent Anglophone Cameroon could act as a base for separatist Nigerian movements. Nevertheless, some inhabitants of south-eastern Nigeria sympathise with Cameroonian Anglophone activists, although this probably does not amount to any substantial support.

IV.A Political, Economic and Social Crisis

A.The Political Consequences

The current crisis has increased support to federalism among the Anglophones population – which most probably was already high – and reinforced support for secessionism. This new configuration shows the depth of the Anglophone problem. Ghost Town operations and school closures could not have continued for nine months without the adherence of a large proportion of the population. As the population becomes more frustrated and disappointed, its desire for fair integration and willingness to coexist with Francophones is eclipsed by aspirations for autonomy.

Although most Anglophones want federalism, there is no consensus about the number of states in a future federation. A two-state federation, as before unification, or a four or six-state federation to better reflect the sociological composition of the country and make the idea of federalism acceptable to Francophones, or ten states to copy the current pattern of Cameroon’s ten regions? Some people insist that however many federated states are created, the federal capital Yaoundé should not be included in any of them. For some Anglophone activists, federalism seems to be a maximalist negotiating strategy. They raise the bar high in order to obtain at least an effective decentralisation, with genuine autonomy for the country’s ten regions, starting with improvements to and the full application of current laws on decentralisation.

The debate on the shape of the federation also reveals divisions that often undermine the Anglophone movement – between the Northwest where the “Grassfields” ethnic groups, close to the Bamiléké, are in the majority, and the Southwest, dominated by Sawa ethnic groups. Most Anglophones in the Northwest favour a two-state federation, as in 1961. The southern elites and indigenous groups have always denounced the demographic, political and economic domination and monopolisation of their lands by Northern migrants, and therefore tend to prefer a ten-state federation in order to preserve their autonomy. Some of them, notably the Bakweri minority, would even form a federated state with the coastal Sawas (the Douala) rather than with the Grafis of the Northwest. Other southerners propose a federation with several states or a two-state federation with genuine decentralisation within the two regions of the Anglophone federated state.

The Anglophone protest movement has tried, with some success, to go beyond these old divisions, partly because several members of the Consortium are southerners. However, when, at the end of January, the traditional chiefs of the Northwest wrote to the president of the republic to ask him to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture, the traditional chiefs of the Southwest responded by sending a motion of support to the government and calling on the youth of the Southwest to break with the disorder caused by northerners. However, the public has not shown itself to be very divided. Although Ghost Town operations are reducing in intensity, they are also observed in the Southwest and are sometimes stronger in towns like Kumba, where young people have denounced the ethnic rhetoric of their elites.

The crisis has revealed the gap between the concerns of the Anglophone population and the Anglophone elite, which has for a very long time tried to mediate between them and Yaoundé and sometimes even supported a firmer repressive position. In fact, the prime minister and the Anglophone elite, which tried to mediate at the start of the crisis, have been jeered by crowds.

The lack of legitimacy of Anglophone leaders is also true, to a lesser degree, of opposition leaders. In November 2016, the president of the Social Democratic Front was booed in Bamenda when he tried to calm an angry crowd. The crisis caused tension in the SDF between a more radical group that, like the deputy Wirba, calls for a two-state federation or for secession, and a more traditional group that wants a four-state federation or, for the most moderates, effective decentralisation. To better reflect opinion in its electoral base, the SDF strengthened its commitment to a four-state federation in 2017, while also taking symbolic steps such as not attending the 20 May march in solidarity with Anglophone detainees. Even in the governing party, the CPDM, Anglophone deputies have expressed their concerns to the government. In March 2017, they begged the head of state to at least restore internet access and release Anglophone political detainees.

The Anglophone crisis is a classic case of a dissatisfied minority while at the same time the result of structural problems. First, it reveals major governance failures, with a lack of decision-making capacity accentuated by the all-powerful president’s prolonged absences from the country, a false decentralisation, the lack of legitimacy of local elites, tension between generations, a political system that relies on co-opting traditional chiefs and local elites, and a policy of regional balance that has been hijacked to their own advantage by families close to the regime.

Second, the crisis is prolonging restrictions on civil liberties which have become more pronounced since 2013: a ban on demonstrations, the arrest and beating up of political party militants, journalists and researchers. It has even served as a pretext for greater repression, with the use of anti-terrorist legislation for political ends, greater control over social media and threats against journalists. Finally, the regime’s refusal to negotiate on fundamental questions and its sometimes brutal response highlight its authoritarian nature.

The crisis could have an impact on the 2018 elections and even on the African Cup of Nations football competition in 2019. If the present situation persists, it will be difficult to organise peaceful elections in the two Anglophone regions. But when elections take place, the stance of Anglophone militants who have gained in popularity during this crisis will be crucial. Anything seems possible at the moment: a boycott, support for the SDF or the emergence of new movements. In 2016, the SDF appointed a Francophone secretary general for the first time in an attempt to start rebuilding a national base, but then immediately radicalised and moved closer to the Anglophone position because of the crisis. Will it again moderate its positions and try to gain support among Francophones, which it has not managed to do since 1997, or will it prioritise the Anglophone zone, in the hope of improving on its performance in the last elections? Whatever happens to the SDF, the CPDM and the Francophone parties are henceforth in a weak position in the Anglophone regions.

B.The Economic Consequences

Economic marginalisation has played a major role in provoking discontent among Anglophones. Even though the two Anglophone regions are suffering no more than some Francophone regions from the prolonged economic crisis, Anglophones feel their potential is not being realised (or is being deliberately wasted) and feel abandoned.

No serious economic study has been published on the economic impact of the crisis, but there is no doubt that the isolation for several months of these two regions, which contribute around 20 per cent of Cameroon’s GDP, has had an impact on them as well as on the national economy. In 2016, the Anglophone regions were among the most digitally connected in Cameroon, just behind Douala and Yaoundé. Shutting down the internet paralysed several sectors of the local economy, notably banking and microfinance. The local economy is based on the oil sector (9 per cent of GDP), timber (4.5 per cent), intensive agriculture, including large plantations owned by the Cameroon Development Corporation and other smaller plantations that supply Douala and the countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, as well as cocoa, rubber, etc.

Anglophones and Southerners in particular often complain about the low proportion of Anglophones in the workforce and in decision-making posts in state oil companies, such as the National Refining Company (Société nationale de raffinage, Sonara), based in the Southwest, and the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (Société nationale des hydrocarbures, SNH).The crisis has hit all sectors of the local economy, except for hydrocarbons and forestry, which has had an impact on some commercial sectors and industries in the Francophone regions. Several estimates put the direct cost of cutting access to internet alone at CFA2 billion (€3 million).

C.The Social Consequences

The crisis has revealed the divisions between Francophones and Anglophones in Cameroon. Francophones are generally unaware of the reasons for the Anglophone problem and view Anglophones who are calling for federalism or secession with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion and even make fun of them. Anglophones are critical of Francophones for their lack of solidarity. While many Francophones say they support the Anglophones’ demands, the latter believe that this support is in word only and that Francophones do not really understand the problems that stem from being a minority. In fact, very few representatives of Francophone civil society organisations and political parties have visited the Northwest and the Southwest since October 2016. Francophone teachers did not come out in support for their ill-treated Anglophone colleagues. When Anglophone lawyers were beaten up and illegally arrested, support from the Bar was tardy and limited, leading some Anglophone lawyers to call for the creation of their own Bar.

Another stumbling block is that most Francophones are opposed to federalism and prefer effective decentralisation. Some Francophones also criticise Anglophones for “tribalising” issues and making it sound like they are the only ones affected by problems that are, in fact, national. They point out that some Francophone regions are less well off than Anglophone regions. Francophone teachers in the Anglophone zone complain about discrimination in the universities, while Francophone citizens complain about their stigmatisation and the calls for violence against them issued since January 2017. Some Francophones make fun of Anglophones and support government repression. There are of course exceptions, such as Abouem Atchoyi, former higher education minister and former governor of the Southwest and the Northwest, who published a long article in January 2017 asserting the legitimacy of Anglophone demands.

However, the crisis has also raised awareness. Some Anglophones said that public services in Yaoundé treat them better and that official communications pay greater attention to bilingualism. The crisis has highlighted the economic resilience of the Anglophones, which is essentially based on the solidarity of Anglophones living in the Francophone zone and abroad. However, it has also caused social problems that were not anticipated by the strikers: for example, the boycott of schools has entailed extra childcare demands, which falls mainly on women, and increases in juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancies and school dropout.

V.Ending the Crisis: Resume Dialogue and Deal with the Real Problems

Even though the violence, which raged from November 2016 to January 2017, has come to a halt, aspects of the crisis remain: radicalisation of the diaspora and a segment of the population, a loss of confidence in the government and targeted social violence. The trial of Anglophone militants is flawed in ways that illustrate persistent problems: it has been repeatedly postponed and conducted in French, with only rough translations provided if at all, and this for offences committed by Anglophones in Anglophone regions.

If a lasting solution is not found, the next resurgence of the Anglophone problem could be violent. The haughty attitude and cynicism of senior government officials, notably when they say that “as long as the Anglophones do not take up arms, the current strike does not worry [us] unduly”, could promote instability. “What can the Anglophones do? If they don’t want to go to school, so much the worse for them”, added a senior official. They are mistakenly relying on the strike losing impetus and the emergence of divisions among strikers, because although the campaign has weakened since May and even if it fizzles out, the fundamental problem will remain and people will continue to feel dissatisfied.

Within the secessionist movement, although the official objective remains independence through non-violence, there are growing calls for violence. Messages calling for the armed struggle circulate among WhatsApp groups and instances of targeted social violence have been recorded (intimidations, arson, beatings). On Facebook and YouTube, the Southern Cameroons Defense Forces regularly announce their imminent arrival to liberate Ambazonia. In July 2017, an Ambazonia Governing Council made its appearance online and Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was elected prime minister in an online vote. All this needs to be taken seriously, all the more so as some secessionist groups have circulated videos encouraging violence, for example, explaining how to make Molotov cocktails.

Partisans of armed violence have not yet put their ideas into practice because they do not have either the resources or enough support from abroad. They are still a small minority, even among those in favour of secession. But questioning of the central principle of non-violence, inherited from the SCNC, gives cause for concern. The reason why the crisis has not descended into armed violence is also that the main actors have not wanted it to. Neither did they expect a crisis of such scale and duration.

A lasting solution to the Anglophone problem requires measures to calm the situation and rebuild trust between the government and Anglophone actors, coherent measures to respond to sectoral demands and institutional reforms to address the national governance problem of which the Anglophone issue is symptomatic. It is unlikely that any of these measures will be taken without international pressure.

A.Take Conciliatory Measures, Rebuild Trust and Launch a Genuine Dialogue before the Elections

It is difficult to envisage a credible dialogue unless the government takes conciliatory measures and until trust is rebuilt between the parties. A discourse of tolerance, openness to dialogue and recognition of the Anglophone problem by the head of state would constitute a first important gesture. This should be immediately followed by several measures to calm the situation: release members of the Consortium; invite exiles to return to the country; halt legal proceedings against Anglophone clergy; open legal proceedings against security forces responsible for abuses; reshuffle the government and senior officials to increase the political representation of Anglophones and replace the senior officials whose actions have exacerbated tensions; and restructure and reconstitute the Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. Finally, the President of the Republic should visit the Anglophone regions.

The government could then go on to reconstitute the ad hoc interministerial committee, this time with parity for senior Anglophone officials, and broaden its remit beyond dealing with sectoral demands. This would require decriminalising the political debate, including on federalism, and considering recourse to a third party (Catholic Church or an international partner) to mediate.

B.Respond to Anglophone Concerns

Once negotiations have begun, the government should make concessions with a view to improving the political and administrative representation of Anglophones. The government should also increase public and economic investment in the Anglophone zone and ensure that the majority of the security forces and administrative and legal authorities deployed there are Anglophones. Finally, it should apply the measures it has announced or that were decided with the Consortium and take additional measures to strengthen the semi-autonomous character of Anglophone educational and legal systems.

C.Reform Governance in the Medium Term

The Anglophone crisis has showed the limits presidential centralism and a governance system that depends on co-optation. Implementation of effective decentralisation could mitigate this problem at the national level. It appears to be the only alternative to federalism and has the advantage of being able to satisfy Francophones, the vast majority of whom reject a two-state federal system and, at the same time, moderate Anglophones, who are open to the idea of a ten-state federation or decentralisation.

The executive and the senior levels of the administration are the only real opponents of decentralisation. That is understandable: it would take away the presidency’s complete control over the regions and could – by opening the way for local democratic experiences with possible national impact – threaten the regime’s absolute power. But there is a serious risk that the crisis could deteriorate and, in time, destabilise the country. A government-backed decentralisation could provide a more consensual and peaceable future. A genuine decentralisation could even encourage a healthy process of renewal within the CPDM. Several Francophone leaders and some senior government officials are favourable to such a development.

Decentralisation could take place on the basis of the ten current regions. It would require full application and the improvement of existing laws. At the moment, decentralisation is deficient: government-appointed representatives run the big cities, play the role of super mayor and only report to the President of the Republic, rendering town councils inoperative. The latter have to wait for their budgets to be allocated by the government representatives, which provokes discontent among both opposition mayors and those belonging to the ruling party. The transfer of financial resources (the percentage of which is not detailed in legal texts) has only increased from 4 to 7 per cent in 13 years, while it is 20 per cent in other decentralised unitary states like Kenya and Ghana. Other powers are not always transferred and remain in the hands of authorities appointed by Yaoundé.

If a new attempt at decentralisation is going to be acceptable and effective, it must reduce the powers of administrators appointed by Yaoundé by creating regional councils, introducing elected regional presidents, transferring significant financial resources and powers, and implementing measures that are already provided for in law. It should also take legal measures specific to Anglophone regions in the areas of education, justice and culture (not currently covered by legislation).

D.A Firmer International Response

A firmer response from the international community could help to avoid the conflict from deteriorating and threatening the stability of this pivotal Central African country. It could begin by emphasising the right of Anglophones to discuss their future and that of their country, to better political representation and to expect greater official willingness to take into account cultural and linguistic differences. Public condemnation of the use of anti-terrorism laws for political ends would also be an important first step.

The UN, the UK, the U.S., France and the African Union should speak up on behalf of the international community. The UK and the UN are historic actors in this process. France is a strategic partner for Cameroon, and the biggest aid donor in Anglophone Cameroon. But Anglophones believe that it acts as a brake on the international community’s response, even though it has sought to promote multilingualism and multiculturalism within Francophonie. The Cameroon government does listen to the U.S., Cameroon’s most important security partner and home of the largest part of the Anglophone Cameroon diaspora. The first major international actor to react to this crisis, it should keep up the pressure. These countries and organisations should encourage the Cameroonian government to take measures to calm the situation, engage in a genuine dialogue and reform the governance model, including the implementation of decentralisation. It should also make itself available to mediate if necessary during negotiations, if the parties so desire.

VI.Conclusion

The violence that was rife between November 2016 to January 2017 in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions and the support for the Operation Ghost Town that followed, showed that the Anglophone problem is deep-rooted. It will not be resolved by denying it exists or by repression, but by dialogue and institutional reform. In the context of pressure from the government and the financial difficulties of continuing the strike, some people have disassociated themselves from the movement and more would do so if it were not for the threats of secessionists. However, they are still dissatisfied. After sacrificing an academic year and resisting pressure from the government and secessionist militants, the risk is that they will become increasingly bitter if no reasonable progress is made, especially on educational reform and governance.

The government is wrong to bet on the crisis running out of steam. The threat of a second year of school closures hangs over the beginning of the next academic year. With a year to go before the next presidential and general elections, it would not be politically sensible to ignore the dissatisfaction and anger of a fifth of its population, especially as Francophones share some Anglophone grievances. Above and beyond the electoral question, the sporadic violence of the last few months and the use of social networks have shown that some secessionists are ready for the armed struggle. The opening of a front in the West could prove to be dramatic for Cameroon, which already faces Boko Haram in the Far North and militias from the Central African Republic to the East.

Nairobi/Brussels, 2 August 2017

Appendix A: Map of Cameroon

Map of Cameroon Crisis Group

Appendix B: Timeline

A timeline of Cameroon’s history is available in the PDF version.

Appendix C: Glossary

AAC: All Anglophone Conference

CACSC: Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium

CAM: Cameroon Anglophone Movement

CATUC: Catholic University of Cameroon

CDC: Cameroon Development Corporation

Cemac: Communauté économique et monétaire de l’Afrique centrale (Central African Economic and Monetary Community)

Cenajes: Centre national de la jeunesse et des sports (National Centre for Youth and Sports)

NECC: National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon

CNC: Conseil national de la communication (National Communication Council)

NCHRF: National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms

CUC: Cameroon United Congress

ENAM: Ecole nationale d’administration et de magistrature (National School of Administration and Magistracy)

IMF: International Monetary Fund

FWM: Free West Cameroon Movement

GCE: General Certificate of Education

INS: Institut national de la statistique (National Institute of Statistics)

KNC: Kamerun National Congress

KNDP: Kamerun National Democratic Party

NOWELA: Northwest Lawyer’s Association

OHADA: Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires (Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa)

NGO: Non-governmental Organisation

CPDM: Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement

SCACUF: Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front

SCDF: Southern Cameroons Defense Forces

SCNC: Southern Cameroons National Council

SCRM: Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement

SCYL: Southern Cameroons Youth League

SDF: Social Democratic Front

SNH: Société nationale des hydrocarbures (National Hydrocarbons Corporation)

Sonara: Société nationale de raffinage (National Refining Company)

SYNES: Syndicat national des enseignants du supérieur (National Union of Teachers of Higher Education)

UBSU: University of Buea Student Union

CDU: Cameroon Democratic Union

UNC: Union nationale camerounaise (Cameroon National Union)

UNDP: Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progress (National Union for Democracy and Progress)

UPC: Union des populations du Cameroun (Union of the Peoples of Cameroon)