Cameroon

4, June 2025

Cameroon tops list of world’s most neglected displacement crises ⁰

Cameroon is now the world’s most neglected displacement crisis, according to an annual listing by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) released on Tuesday.

The NGO ranked the 10 most neglected displacement crises in 2024 based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media attention, and a lack of effective political initiatives.

Cameroon tops the list for the first time since 2019, overtaking Burkina Faso.

Cameroon hosts more than 1 million internally displaced people. Civilians in the country’s Northwest and Southwest regions have suffered violent clashes between state security forces and separatist groups since 2016, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.

Lake Chad Basin, in Cameroon’s far north, is also the theatre of a protracted conflict with non-state armed groups. Violence and water scarcity in the area, the latter heightened by climate change, have driven displacement.

Cameroon also welcomes nearly half a million refugees from neighbouring countries, mostly the Central African Republic and Nigeria.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said Cameroon’s crisis is “a case study in global neglect: little diplomacy, underfunded and underreported.”

Humanitarian funding received by Cameroon in 2024 covered less than half of the country’s response needs.

The situation could get worse as some major donors are cutting foreign aid budgets, including the United States and several European countries.

“Displacement isn’t a distant crisis: it’s a shared responsibility. We must stand up and demand a reversal of brutal aid cuts which are costing more lives by the day”, said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC.

Overall, eight African countries made the list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, including Ethiopia in second, Mali in fifth, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in seventh place.

“Funding alone cannot halt the suffering. Without effective conflict resolution, disaster prevention and diplomatic engagement, these protracted crises will go on and on. More people will be displaced, and more lives will be shattered”, Egeland said.

Source: Africa News

4, June 2025

Cameroon loses US protections, told to self-deport ⁰

The Trump administration has announced it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Cameroon on August 3, 2025, citing improved conditions in the country, according to a notice published Tuesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said a review of current conditions and interagency consultations determined that the West African country no longer meets the criteria for TPS designation, and that individuals who had utilized the program could self-deport.

“This decision will leave many of our community members without the crucial protection they need,” Nils Kinuani, federal policy manager at African Communities Together, told Newsweek in a statement. “We maintain that the ongoing armed conflict and other unsafe conditions in Cameroon clearly warrant a redesignation and extension of TPS.”

Why It Matters

The announcement is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to lift protections from deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who benefited from TPS.

Secretary Noem argues the program has been abused, but immigration advocacy groups have warned that many immigrants would be vulnerable to abuse, torture, or arrest should they be forced to return home.

What To Know

In a brief statement on Tuesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that it would allow TPS to lapse for Cameroonians on August 3, 2025.

A Federal Register notice said DHS had reviewed conditions in Cameroon, alongside other federal agencies, and determined that “while certain conditions that led to the initial designation of TPS for Cameroon may continue, they do not pose a serious threat to individual safety due to ongoing armed conflict and do not result in Cameroonians being unable to safely return.”

Department Of Homeland Security

A U.S. Department Of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection sign is displayed at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Headquarters on May 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The U.S. Department of State currently lists Cameroon under a Level 2 “exercise increased caution” warning, due to ongoing armed violence, civil unrest, crime, health, and kidnapping concerns in different parts of the African nation.

Source: Newsweek

2, June 2025

Port of Douala and partners sign CFAF50B deal for logistics expansion ⁰

The Port Authority of Douala (PAD) and Douala Port Container Solution SA (DPCS) have signed a landmark agreement to build a 25-hectare logistics platform dedicated to the storage and management of empty containers. Signed on May 30, 2025, in Douala by Cyrus Ngo’o, Director General of PAD, and Evariste Eloundou Onana, General Administrator of DPCS, the project is set to transform operations at the Port of Douala’s timber dock.

The public-private partnership (PPP) is financed and will be executed by DPCS, a project company of the Cameroonian group Project Partners, which specializes in the port, shipping, and maritime industries. The agreement spans 28 years, allocating one year for design studies, two years for construction, and a 25-year operational phase.

Development plans include a 21-hectare area for container storage, a 1-hectare zone for empty container repairs, and a dedicated refrigerated container management area. This refrigerated section will feature approximately 240 outlets, designed to proactively address potential congestion at the main container terminal.

Beyond core container facilities, the project encompasses the construction of a head office, a 5,800-square-meter technical zone, and a 5,000-square-meter green space. Supporting infrastructure will include two 300-square-meter gatehouses, a 5,000-square-meter engine maintenance area, and a 4,000-square-meter administrative building housing various offices for the logistics zone’s services.

DPCS will also undertake complementary activities, such as stacking and preparing empty containers before the stuffing of raw materials like cocoa, coffee, or cotton. The platform will additionally offer rentable storage space. The total project cost is estimated at 50.4 billion CFA francs, with DPCS contributing 10 billion CFA francs (20%) in equity and securing the remaining 40 billion CFA francs (80%) from financial partners.

According to PAD, the project is projected to yield an impressive internal rate of return of approximately 18%. By the end of its operational period, it is expected to generate total revenues of around 220 billion CFA francs. DPCS will receive an estimated 128 billion CFA francs (58%), while PAD royalties and state duties and taxes are projected to amount to 91 billion CFA francs (42%).

Joseph Nguene Nteppe, Head of the Analysis and Cooperation Division at PAD, stated the initiative is expected to create 1,200 direct and indirect jobs. Furthermore, he noted its contribution to modernizing and securing handling operations at the Port of Douala, simultaneously boosting the port’s overall revenues.

Source: Business in Cameroon

31, May 2025

Biya has been hiding cancer for years ⁰

After he peed on his trousers during national day celebration, Cameroon Intelligence Report sources in Yaoundé revealed late on Friday 30 May, 2025 that President Paul Biya has been suffering ever since he had a prostate cancer operation in New York City some two decades ago and he is no longer capable of governing.

The 92-year-old leader’s May 20 outing, caused a political and ethical storm all over the nation with his acolytes and close allies now saying that he is unfit to rule.

A well placed medical source who confirmed that Biya may not get to October sued for anonymity on grounds that he will be denounced for breaking the medical confidentiality rule.

Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) drew heavy criticism from its viewers for airing very little on the president during the gala inside the Unity Palace.

Biya’s cancer has been kept a state secret for years even after the operation in New York.

Biya is no longer fit to govern because he is so unwell and he spends most of his time lying down in his villa in Mvomeka’a, and is frequently too tired to look at documents.

An unnamed source was quoted recently as saying that Mr Biya knew about his cancer even before he changed the constitution that made him president for life.

In a country where every CPDM baron’s illness is being kept secret, no one expects Etoudi to be open about Biya’s bill of health.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that President Biya underwent cancer treatment in the United States under an assumed name in a process that was teleguided by the late Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou. Since then he has been receiving treatment which involved him being put on a drip every day, even at summits and on state visits.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

30, May 2025

Yaoundé: police dismantles bank robbers’ network ⁰

Police have dismantled a criminal network responsible for multiple robberies in Yaoundé, the capital. According to CRTV, the gang stole goods over CFA10 million worth of goods in multiple raids, including two robberies in the Nkoabang district and another at a poultry farm about 30 km from the city center.

The Judicial Police Department (DPJ) arrested the suspects after a three-week investigation. “These criminals, most of whom were repeat offenders, operated with bladed weapons, automatic pistols, and other techniques,” said Senior Superintendent Christian Ngom, head of the DPJ’s studies, research, and criminal investigations department. Police seized a vehicle, gas cylinders, electronic devices, and various stolen goods.

Robberies remain a persistent concern in Cameroon. On April 11, assailants attacked a money van in Nkolafamba, also in the Centre region, stealing more than CFA700 million. In September 2024, police arrested six suspects for armed robberies, including at the home of a widow in Emana, where property worth about CFA2 million was taken.

Authorities are reinforcing their commitment to combating insecurity. They urge citizens to collaborate more closely with law enforcement to strengthen the effectiveness of security efforts.

Source: Sbbc

28, May 2025

French Cameroun: Seven die in multi-vehicle collision ⁰

At least seven people died Tuesday in a collision involving several vehicles in Cameroon, according the police.

The tragedy occurred along a major highway in Matomb locality in the Nyong-et-Kelle department in Centre region where the capital of Yaounde is located.

Witnesses said two trucks collided and blocked traffic for hours, and a second collision involving about 10 vehicles ensued.

State broadcaster CRTV reported that five people died on the spot and two others died from injuries as they were being rushed to a local hospital.

Those injured are receiving treatment in the hospital, the prefect of Nyong-et-Kelle, Chaibou, told reporters after visiting the scene of the accident.

Formal inquiries have been launched into the exact cause of the tragedy, the police said.

Source: Xinhaunet

26, May 2025

BBC says ‘Nowhere is safe’ in Southern Cameroons as Ambazonians trapped between separatists and soldiers ⁰

Ngabi Dora Tue, consumed by grief, was barely able to stand on her own.

The coffin of her husband, Johnson Mabia, sat amid a crowd of stricken mourners in Limbe in Cameroon’s South-West region – an area that had witnessed scenes like this many times before.

While on a work trip, Johnson – an English-speaking civil servant – and five colleagues were captured by armed separatists.

The militants were – and still are – fighting for the independence of Cameroon’s two anglophone regions in what is a predominantly francophone country. A near-decade-long conflict that has led to thousands of deaths and stunted life in the area.

When he was abducted four years ago, Dora struggled to reach Johnson. When she eventually heard from separatist militants, they asked for a ransom of over $55,000 (£41,500) to be paid within 24 hours in order to secure his release. Dora then received another call from one of Johnson’s relatives.

“He said… that I should take care of the children. That my husband is no more. I didn’t even know what to do. Tuesday he was travelling, and he was kidnapped. Friday he was killed,” says Dora.

The separatists responsible had not just murdered but decapitated Johnson, and left his body on the road.

AFP Demonstrators march during a protest against perceived discrimination in favour of the country's francophone majority on September 22, 2017 in Bamenda — What began as demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 then escalated into a conflict

The roots of the separatist struggle lie in long-standing grievances that stretch back to full independence in 1961, and the formation of a single Cameroonian state in 1972 from former British and French territories.

Since then the English-speaking minority have felt aggrieved at the perceived erosion of rights by the central government. Johnson was just an innocent by-stander, caught up in an increasingly brutal fight for self-determination and the government’s desperate attempts to stamp out the uprising.

The current wave of violence began almost a decade ago.

In late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region’s courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial systems.

The protests rapidly spread, and led to a call for the closing of shops and institutions.

The response of the security forces was immediate and severe – people were beaten, intimidated and there were mass arrests. The African Union called it “a deadly and disproportionate use of violence”.

Cameroon’s defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this or other issues in this article.

Armed groups were set up. And, in late 2017 as tensions escalated, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

BBC

We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets. Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze”Blaise Eyong
Journalist

To date, five million anglophone Cameroonians have been dragged into the conflict – equivalent to one-fifth of the total population. At least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.

“We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets,” says Blaise Eyong, a journalist from Kumba in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon, who has produced and presented a documentary on the crisis for BBC Africa Eye, and was forced from his hometown with his family in 2019.

“Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze. Or you hear that someone was kidnapped. People’s body parts chopped off. How do you live in a city where every single morning you’re worried if your relatives are safe?”

There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called “a major national dialogue” in 2019.

Although the talks established a special status for the country’s two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical terms.

Felix Agbor Nkongho – a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested – says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared.

“There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists,” he tells BBC Africa Eye.

“But over the last two years, I don’t think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?”

But it is not just the separatists who are accused of abuses.

Organisations such as Human Rights Watch have recorded the brutal response of the security forces to the anglophone independence movement. They have documented the burning of villages and the torture, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings of people in a war largely unseen by the outside world.

Examples of state-sponsored brutality are not difficult to find.

A photo of John's hands clasped in his lap. You can't see his face — John, who talked to BBC Africa Eye on condition of anonymity, was tortured and forced into signing a document without being allowed to read its content

John (not his real name) and a close friend were taken into custody by Cameroonian military forces, accused of buying weapons for a separatist group.

John recalls that after being incarcerated, they were given a document which they were told to sign without being given the chance to read its contents. When they refused, the torture began.

“That is when they separated us into different rooms,” says John. “They tortured [my friend]. You could just hear them flogging everywhere. I could feel it on my own body [too]. They beat me everywhere. Later they told me he accepted and signed and they allowed him to go.”

But that was not the truth.

A month after his arrest, another man arrived in John’s cell. He told him that his friend had, in fact, died in the room he had been held and tortured in. Months later John’s case was dropped and he was released without charge.

“I just live in fear because I don’t really know where to start from or where it is safe to start from or how,” says John.

Part of the separatists’ strategy to weaken the state and its security forces is to push for a ban on education which they say is a tool of government propaganda.

In October 2020, a school in Kumba was attacked. No-one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but the government blamed separatists. Men armed with machetes and guns killed at least seven children.

The incident sparked, for a brief moment, international outrage and condemnation.

“Nearly half the schools in this region have been shut,” says journalist Eyong.

“A whole generation of kids is missing out on their education. Imagine the impact this will have for our communities and also for our country.”

A man in shorts and a bullet-proof vest walks along a dirt road, lined with houses, with a Cameroon flag behind him. He is with two others similarly dressed. — John Ewome (R) can be seen patrolling the streets of Buea in anglophone Cameroon looking out for separatists

As if the violence between the government forces and the various separatist groups was not enough, an additional front has opened up in the war. Militant groups in the separatist areas have emerged to fight the Ambazonians in an effort to keep Cameroon united.

A leader of one of these groups, John Ewome (known as Moja Moja), regularly led patrols in the town of Buea in search of separatists until he was arrested in May 2024.

He, too, has been accused of human rights violations, of public humiliation and torturing unarmed civilians thought to be separatist sympathisers. He denies the accusations. “I’ve never laid my hands on any civilian. Just the Ambazonians. And I believe the gods of this land are with me,” he told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the cycle of abductions and killings continue.

Joe (not his real name) was – like Johnson – taken hostage by a separatist group, keen to maintain control through fear – and to cash in.

“I walked into the house, and found my children and my wife on the floor while the commander was sitting in my kitchen with his gun very close. All around me, my neighbour had been taken, my landlord had been taken. So when I saw them, I knew it was my turn,” says Joe.

He was led into the forest with 15 other people where he witnessed the execution of two of his fellow captives. But he was eventually freed after the military discovered the camp.

Johnson was not as lucky and, about two years after his funeral took place, news arrived that neither were his five colleagues kidnapped with him. Their bodies had just been found.

More families will now have to try to come to terms with their enormous loss. For Ngabi Dora Tue, sitting with her young child in her lap, the future feels almost overwhelming.

“I have debts I have to settle I don’t even know how to settle,” she says.

“I thought of selling my body for money. And then I Iook at the shame that would come after, I just have to swallow the difficulty and then push forward. I was very young to become a widow.”

The BBC has asked for a response from the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), which claims to be the largest separatist force.

It responded that there are a multiplicity of separatist fighters now operating in the anglophone region.

The ADF said it operates within international law and does not attack government workers, schools, journalists or civilians.

Instead it has blamed individuals and fringe entities acting on their own accord who are not members of the ADF for these attacks.

The group also accuses government infiltrators of committing atrocities while claiming to be Ambazonian fighters to turn the local populations against the liberation struggle.

A map of Cameroon showing the English and French-speaking areas.

24, May 2025

Germany: Catholic Women Association members urged to invest in spiritual growth ⁰

The 2025 Retreat for members of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) in Europe that started on Friday, May 23 in the beautiful city of Wuppertal in the Nordrhein Westphalia region drew an inspiring assembly of devout women, united in faith and purpose, under the leadership of their respective branch executives.

The gathering is skillfully being coordinated by Rev Father Alphonse Liwonjo and the European CWA Coordinator alongside host Presidents Christy Atabong, Frida Mua, Susan Abolo and Loveline Nana.

Drawing from the rich theological and spiritual traditions of the Church, Rev Fathers Terence Noro and Alphonse Liwonjo expounded on the significance of the theme “As pilgrims of hope, women in leadership aspire to develop spiritually and intellectually”.

Rev Father Alphonse Liwonjo furthered that the Wuppertal retreat has provided a sacred time of grace, mercy, and renewal and urged the women to fully embrace the plenary indulgences offered by the Church, emphasizing the indispensable role of conversion and sacramental reconciliation.

Rev Father Liwonjo enjoined the CWA members to emulate Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and ensure that they prayed the rosary with total submission to God. He also encouraged the mothers to invest in their spiritual growth.

Also speaking were engineer Tambe Mathias and Lady Buma Sarah who impacted the women on spirituality and leadership deep within the CWA.

The retreat recorded an impressive turnout from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Germany.

The convention will end on Sunday.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai in Wuppertal

22, May 2025

May 20: Pope Leo XIV sends blessings, wishes for prosperity ⁰

On the occasion of Cameroon’s annual National Day marked on May 20, Pope Leo XIV has extended his prayerful best wishes and Papal blessings to the Central African nation’s President and citizens, and called for continued commitment to peace, justice, and respect for human dignity.

In a statement issued Monday, May 19 through the Apostolic Nuncio in Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, the Holy Father wishes the people of God in Cameroon prosperity that is based on the country’s rich heritage.

“On the occasion of the national day of the Republic of Cameroon, I am pleased to offer to Your Excellency the best wishes for you and for your fellow citizens,” Pope Leo XIV says in the message addressed to Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya.

The Roman Pontiff adds, “I entrust to the lord everyone’s efforts to build a future of peace and prosperity by drawing on the rich human and cultural heritage of your country, with a concern for justice and respect for each person.”

“May God pour over your excellency and all the Cameroonian people His abundant blessings,” the Holy Father implores in favour of the people of God in Cameroon celebrating their 2025 National Day, organized under the theme, “Army and Nation united for a Cameroon turned towards peace and prosperity”.

Cameroon’s National Day marks the country’s transition to a unitary state in 1972, following a national referendum. Prior to this, the Central African nation operated under a federal system, with East and West Cameroon functioning semi-autonomously.

Initiated by the then President, Ahmadou Ahidjo, the 1972 referendum led to the adoption of a unitary constitution and the birth of the United Republic of Cameroon.

May 20 has since become a symbol of national unity and a day that brings together and celebrates Cameroon’s unity in the diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and cultural communities.

Cameroon is to hold a presidential Election in October 2025.

President Biya, who has held the seat since 1982, is expected to vie for an eighth presidential term in the Central African nation, where Presidents have a seven-year mandate. His “extraordinarily long tenure” was occasioned by constitutional amendments that President Biya’s party, Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), spearheaded in 2008, which resulted in the abolition of the two-term presidential limit.

The Cameroonian President, Biya, is Africa’s second-longest-serving Head of State after President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.

The Central African nation’s English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent. An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.

School boycotts have become common in the Cameroonian region as have enforced moratoriums on public life known as “ghost towns”.

According to a March 2025 report, Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis “has caused over 900,000 people to flee internally and 60,000 people to flee abroad.”

The report indicates that “as of February 2025, more than 500,000 internally displaced people were in Anglophone-majority regions.”

The UNHCR has reported that Cameroon plays host to over 400,000 refugees primarily coming from the Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, Chad, and Niger; more than 17,000 asylum seekers; and over 1 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) “with an additional 658,544 returnees.”

More than 3.3 million people stand in need of humanitarian aid in Cameroon.

In January, the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) called on the people of God in the country to take personal responsibility in realizing the development of the country.

“There is a need, therefore, for every single Cameroonian to take his or her responsibility for the construction of our country,” Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya said during the opening ceremony of the 48th Annual Seminar of NECC in the Catholic Diocese of Buea.

The Local Ordinary of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to its evangelizing mission, saying that NECC members “will continue to serve reconciliation, justice, and peace.”

Source: aciafrica

22, May 2025

Gunfire rips through Southern Cameroons on National Day ⁰

Military parades and civilian march pasts marked the 53rd edition of Cameroon’s National Day on May 20. It’s frequently framed as a day of national unity by the authorities, but that framing rings hollow with millions of citizens in Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions.

For many in the two regions which constitute 20 percent of Cameroon’s nearly 30 million inhabitants, it’s a stark reminder of betrayal, marginalization, and bloodshed – and that was on full display on Tuesday in several parts of the Anglophone regions.

Images of brute violence surfaced online showing suspected separatists beating up school children who had set out to March.

In Kumbo Diocese – a flashpoint of separatist violence, Bishop George Nkuo told Crux that the town woke up Tuesday to the sound of gunfire and explosions.

“We are celebrating national day in Cameroon today and this morning we got up in Kumbo to gunshots and a heavy explosion,” Nkuo said.

“This again is to announce that all is not well in Cameroon. While some people in Cameroon may be celebrating this morning, we got a strong reminder here that there is no peace and people are living in fear,” he told Crux.

This dates back to May 20, 1972. On that day, a controversial referendum organized by Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, scrapped the federal constitution that was the mainstay of a fragile union between La Republique du Cameroun – that gained independence from France in 1960 – and the British Cameroons, which gained independence from Britain a year later.

The resultant unitary state was seen by Anglophone Cameroonians as a violation of the federal constitution, and a step towards the assimilation of Anglophones. And so, what Ahidjo sold as a blueprint for national unity ended up as the seeds of today’s disunity.

For decades, Anglophones complained. They protested, asking for equal treatment under the law, but these complaints were either just ignored, or brutally suppressed.

The pent-up anger burst into the open in 2016 when teachers and lawyers in the two Anglophone regions took to the streets to protest the imposition of French in Anglo-Saxon schools and courts. Again, the government responded by imprisoning the leaders of the teachers and lawyers trade unions, and by using lethal force against protesters.

The door to dialogue was thus shut close, and a separatist uprising ensued, with many taking up arms to fight for the creation of a new state for Anglophone Cameroonians to be called Ambazonia.

Nearly a decade of fighting has left at least 60,500 people dead, and more than a million displaced. Entire villages have been burned down; schools and hospitals have been destroyed.

“Those of us who love this land want to see concrete measures taken to arrest this senseless war,” Nkuo told Crux.

“It’s a cry for peace, justice and reconciliation. Our people have suffered enough. There is no celebration here in Kumbo and there is a deadly silence,” the bishop said.

The government has made some efforts to bring about peace. In 2019, it initiated what it called a Major National Dialogue.

The National Dialogue made a series of proposals, including the adoption of a special status for the two Anglophone regions; the restoration of the House of Traditional Chiefs; the immediate relaunch of certain airport and seaport projects in the two regions; the rapid integration of ex-combatants into society; the deployment of Bilingual teachers to Anglophone schools, and the deployment of Anglophone lawyers to Common Law Courts.

Separatists have dismissed all these concessions as too little, too late, insisting they will continue to fight for the freedom of “Ambazonia.”

It seems like the option for independence resonates with most Anglophone Cameroonians, going by the results of a study carried out in 2019 by the late Cardinal Christian Tumi.

The prominent religious leader conducted a survey before the Grand National Dialogue which revealed that 69 percent of Anglophone respondents expressed a preference for secession rather than federation or decentralization. Interestingly, the questionnaire did not explicitly offer secession as an option, but many respondents wrote it in under “other options.”

President Paul Biya has made it clear that Cameroon will remain “one and indivisible.”

The celebration of the National Day is yet another emphatic statement to that effect.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea, who doesn’t believe that the solution to the Anglophone Problem lies in secession, told Crux that only love will help Cameroon overcome its many problems.

“As Cameroon celebrates its National Day, I have only one message to all Cameroonians, citizens and leaders: Love Cameroon,” Nkea told Crux.

“When I look at the way Cameroonians function, it is difficult to be convinced if we love our country. Love Cameroon and always work for the good of the country and not for individual benefit,” he said.

“Love Cameroon means dying to ourselves and sacrificing what we want for ourselves so that the country may live. Love Cameroon,” the archbishop said.

Source: Crux