“We live in fear,” said Edouard, a French-speaking resident of Limbe, a coastal town in Cameroon’s southwest anglophone region where francophone people have been frequently targeted by armed English-speaking separatists.

Trepidation has given way to terror in the cosmopolitan tourist town of 85,000 with a significant francophone population as the anglophone separatist crisis has grown following a symbolic independence declaration a year ago.

A number of French-speakers — both military and civilian — have fled the town with its sandy beaches and lush mountain backdrop after coming under attack. “I moved my family to Douala because we live in fear” here, said Edouard, a young secretary referring to the country’s nearby economic capital.

Other French-speakers, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, described how their loved ones had been “tortured” by the separatists seeking to break away from Cameroon. Cameroon’s southwest, including Limbe, and northwest are home to largely French-speaking Cameroon’s anglophone community who make up around one fifth of the population.

The separatists have vowed to disrupt presidential elections on Sunday in which President Paul Biya, who has dismissed the nascent insurgency as mere “trouble”, will seek a seventh term.

Edouard said he will never again return to Mile 4, the outer suburb where he had lived for years until his departure in July. Flanked by rolling hills, the area is isolated from the rest of the town and is one of the few places where separatists armed with machetes roam with impunity, according to witnesses.

When the men of the separatist movement are not asserting their presence in Mile 4, they hide in the nearby foothills. Late on the night of September 26, there was an attack on Mile 4’s police station that claimed the lives of two officers. The army encircled the area for several days following the audacious raid.

Several other attacks apparently intended to intimidate the area’s French speakers have been reported in Mile 4.

– ‘Situation could deteriorate’ –

“They came into the areas and started demanding which were the French homes,” said a resident.

“They came to my house twice to kidnap me — but fortunately they didn’t find me. “They (also) tried to kidnap a neighbour but he managed to escape.”

The resident added that the separatist elements came to the area nightly, singing the anthem of their self-proclaimed “Ambazonia Republic” in front of French households.

The increasing number of incidents persuaded Edouard to move his family, first staying at a hotel before securing accommodation in another suburb.

On Church Street, a smart road in the town centre where stylish young people sat on cafe terraces drinking and laughing, French and English groups sat apart.

“Generally people mixed here. But because of the crisis there’s a climate of mistrust — the anglophones mistrust the francophones, and vice versa,” said Edouard.

“The current situation could deteriorate into something worse,” warned a member of a local community organisation who declined to be named.

Anglophones in Cameroon have long felt marginalised and have previously called for greater recognition with the more vocal among them advocating for the creation of an independent nation in the southwest and northwest.

– ‘They think we’re inadequate’ –

The separatist movement erupted into violence a year ago with hundreds killed in the conflict.

“(The crisis) has allowed anglophones to conclude that they are unable to have anything more to do with us because they think we’re inadequate,” said Danielle, who moved to Limbe in 2005, and lives with an anglophone.

But Lessly, one of the few anglophones willing to speak about the situation, said the violence engulfing Cameroon’s English areas has a number of origins.

“A typical anglophone citizen who you’d meet on the street sees the destruction and killing perpetrated by the army as acts perpetrated by francophones,” he said.

He conceded that the crisis has damaged relations between the English and French communities because many anglophones do not realise that “in that very army, there are English speakers”.

“Division isn’t good and complicates life for everyone — socially and economically,” added the young businessman.

The apparent separatist goal is to seize control of Limbe’s Sonara oil refinery — the country’s largest — where the majority of staff including the managing director are French-speaking.

The town is also home to an elite army rapid intervention force which is often spotted heading to or from inland flashpoints of separatist violence including Kumba and Mamfe.

Source: AFP

Diverse and football-mad Cameroon is Central Africa’s biggest economy but troubled by mounting unrest in its disgruntled English-speaking regions, where there is a push to break away.

Here is some background about the mainly francophone country ahead of October 7 elections in which President Paul Biya — the second-longest serving leader in Africa — is seeking a seventh term.

– ‘Africa in miniature’ –

The Atlantic Ocean nation, which sits just above the Equator, has this nickname because its many ethnic groups and diverse geographic and climatic zones are said to make it representative of the continent.

At the end of World War I, the German protectorate of Kamerun split into French- and British-mandated regions. The French section became independent as Cameroon in 1960 and was later joined by a part of the British area, the remainder of which chose to unite with Nigeria.

The country’s name comes from that of one of its main rivers, which 15th century Portuguese explorers called the Rio dos Camaroes, or River of Prawns, and is today the Wouri.

Francophones are in a majority while anglophones represent around a fifth of its more than 23 million people.

The population is young: three-quarters were aged less than 25 in 2014, according to a census that year.

– Biya, 36 years at the top –

In 1982 Cameroon’s ailing founding president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down in favour of his prime minister, Paul Biya. Nearly 36 years later, Biya is still in the job.

Aged in his mid-80s, he has a reputation for being tightly in control behind a smooth and discreet exterior.

He was able to extend his rule via a controversial 2008 constitutional revision that did away with limits on the number of terms a president can serve.

In Africa only Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been in power for longer, since 1979.

– Anglophones seek secession –

Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region and Southwest Region have been in deep crisis since late 2016 as a secessionist movement pushes for independence.

It started with demonstrations, encouraged by English-speaking lawyers and teachers, to protest against perceived discrimination by the francophone majority.

Clashes between troops and separatists take place on an almost daily basis and have led to dozens of deaths and the displacement of nearly 200,000 people.

In October 2017 separatist leaders issued a symbolic declaration of independence for a new republic called “Ambazonia”.

Cameroon has also been confronted since 2009 with attacks in the far north by jihadists from Nigeria’s Boko Haram, but these have diminished over the past months.

– Economy diverse, too –

Cameroon has abundant commodities like oil, high value timber, minerals, coffee, cotton, cocoa and cassava.

It is the largest economy in the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

In 2017 growth slowed to around 3.7 percent, due to the maturity of the main oil fields and to an avian flu epidemic, according to the World Bank.

It is expected to pick up in 2018 with new gasfields in operation and construction for its hosting of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Poverty is however rising, including because of rapid population growth, climbing by 12 percent between 2007 and 2014 to affect 8.1 million people, according to the World Bank.

Only one in 10 of the working population has an official job and a third of inhabitants live on less than two euros a day.

China is its biggest trading partner and foreign investor.

– Football felines –

Football is a near religion in Cameroon with the national team, Les Lions Indomptables (The Indomitable Lions), considered among the best on the continent and winning the Africa Cup of Nations five times, including in 2017.

However its hosting of the 2019 tournament is in doubt because of delays in infrastructure construction, with a final decision due in November.

AFP