Cameroon is poised to hold parliamentary and municipal elections in February but a bloody separatist conflict and political tensions are set to cloud the vote, experts say.

Anglophone separatists are fighting government troops in western Cameroon while the north of the country has come under attack from Boko Haram jihadists.

“These elections will not have optimum credibility,” Cameroonian academic Richard Makon told AFP, contending that in the present climate, “peaceful” polls were impossible.

“The security challenges in the Northwest and Southwest Regions are enormous,” he said, referring to a conflict between English-speaking separatists and security forces that have claimed more than 3,000 lives in two years.

The two regions with an anglophone colonial past are home to around 16 percent of the population of 25.8 million in the mainly francophone country.

In a remote region called the Far North, about a tenth of the population lives in deep poverty and at the mercy of Boko Haram.

Southern Cameroon long avoided such troubles, until men from the west recently launched ethnic attacks, wounding several people and setting businesses ablaze.

Despite the unrest, in a surprise move veteran President Paul Biya recently announced elections on February 9.

Members of parliament and town councils were last elected in 2013. Their five-year mandates ran out in 2018, but Biya has extended them twice.

The 86-year-old Biya has ruled the country for 37 years. He was returned to office in an election last year, which saw a significant drop in votes in the English-speaking regions.

– Plunging back into chaos? –

The 2018 presidential election triggered a major political crisis.

The runner-up, Maurice Kamto, immediately challenged the result and his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) held protests.

Arrested at one of the demonstrations, Kamto was jailed in January but released in October following foreign pressure.

The 65-year-old opposition leader has since been denied permission to organise rallies.

The MRC has for months insisted that holding elections should depend on a definitive return to peace in the anglophone regions.

Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions, AFP

Kamto’s party has not said if it will contest the poll, though individual CRM members have announced they will run for office.

“The risk is that Cameroon will plunge into the chaos of post-electoral confrontation,” Emmanuel Simh, the CRM’s third vice-president, said.

“It will enshrine the partition of the country — on one hand, we will have the francophone regions where the population will be able to vote, and on the other, the anglophone regions where it will be impossible to do so,” he warned.

– Special status –

Last month, Biya’s regime arranged what it called a “major national dialogue” to settle the anglophone crisis but the main separatist movements boycotted the forum.

One of the key recommendations of the talks was more autonomy for the English-speaking regions.

Biya has steered Cameroon for nearly four decadesLudovic MARIN, AFP/File

But the initiative must be adopted by parliament, which has yet to consider the proposal.

The election announcement was a surprise, given that the resolutions of the major national dialogue “have not even begun to be taken into account”, Makon said.

“It’s a little hard to envisage elections being held in the best conditions to produce legitimate winners who are accepted by the population,” he said.

Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) is a colossus with 148 seats in the 180-member national assembly.

For all their doubts, opposition parties are caught between a rock and a hard place, Makon said.

“They must take part in the election because if they don’t, they will be shut out of political decisions for five years,” he said.

On the other hand, he argued, the ruling party “will no longer have a crushing majority… because of the ground taken by the MRC and the rise of (other) parties.”

He gave as an example the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), led by Cabral Libii, a 39-year-old journalist who placed third in the 2018 presidential poll.

Source: Digital Journal

A senior Southern Cameroons political elite whose names we are withholding has emphasized the necessity of another Conclave to restore unity and end the division at all levels among Ambazonians.

The Ambazonian citizen, who served as special adviser to the jailed leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, made the comments to Cameroon Concord News in Dusseldorf in Germany, saying there was a consensus in Ground Zero on holding another Conclave in South Africa or anywhere in Europe.

The Southern Cameroons strategist currently on a mission to the Federal Republic of Germany observed that there was need for stake holders in the Ambazonia conflict with French Cameroun to come together and push Southern Cameroonians out of the current deadlock and restore unity and strengthen the resistance front against the French Cameroun-France occupation.

He noted that the Ambazonia Interim Government under Vice President Dabney Yerima should summon Southern Cameroonians to another very intensive and productive conference that will get everyone on board and help market the Amba Bonds Project.

Ever since he was appointed as Vice President of the Interim Government, Comrade Dabney Yerima has worked with responsibility and power to put an end to divergences and achieve reconciliation and establish a resistance system based on the principle of partnership.

The Ambazonia Interim Government has also been working with several Southern Cameroons resistance groups and forces to implement a project of national liberation to expel the French Cameroun occupiers and to regain Ambazonia national rights throughout Southern Cameroons territories.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe aide insisted that everything should be done to get the Amba Bonds Project right pointing out that any failure will be the end of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has been seeking rifts among Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia resistance groups to distract them from their main priorities.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Dear friends of the media,

Thank you for your presence.

Since the beginning of the making public of the existential question in the North-West and South-West Regions which was allowed to degenerate into a problem, then to a crisis and now to an armed conflict reminiscent of a civil war, the SDF has deployed all possible means to draw the attention of parliament and the government on the threat to national unity if definitive solutions were not found for these existential problems raised by the English Speaking minority which freely took a political decision on the 11th of February 1961 to, on the attainment of its independence on the 1st of October 1961, join the then independent Republic of Cameroon in a Federation of two States equal in status.

It is important to stress that the root causes of this problem has nothing to do with language, the patronage of appointments, special status just to name these. They are just a manifestation of the problem.

This problem as succinctly articulated in the Rambler Newspaper No.0132 and reproduced in the Cameroon Panorama No 728 0f June 2019 states that the English-Speaking people of Cameroon who came into a union with the French Speaking people of Cameroon were also a separate people. They joined the union bringing along with them a set of core values which included:

–              A Legal/Judiciary System

–              An educational system

–              An economic/infrastructure system

–              A political system

–              A security system

–              A traditional/cultural system

–              An administrative system.

The present conflict arose when contrary to the Foumban agreement all these were gradually and systematically deformed, adulterated, polluted, dismantled and erased through discrimination, marginalization, domination, subjugation and assimilation by the Francophone majority government. All this was to satisfy some weird ego that was sloganized as ‘national integration’. It has failed. 

The core value systems of the English-speaking people need to be restored, protected and defended.    

The National Executive Committee of the SDF party has met several times since 2016 and at each time came out with special resolutions decrying the inaction of the government and its application of strategies that rather inflamed the people of these two regions.

The National Chairman of the SDF has written personal letters to the President of the Republic drawing his attention to the gravity of the situation but these letters fell on deaf ears. The National Convention of the party did same but was equally ignored.

The SDF has even taken a political risk for the sake of peace and national unity by putting forward its chairman as a mediator in this self-imposed conflict which was brought about as a result of poor governance, arrogance and self- deceit. This worthy offer was treated with contempt.

The National Chairman of the SDF was further mandated by the National Executive Committee to seek ways and means in collaboration with the Churches, the traditional leaders, the political elite and civil society for a definitive solution to this crisis. His findings were made available to government and the public in a blue print document that clearly stated the root causes of the problem and proposed long lasting solutions to the problem. The regime equally ignored this effort. 

The SDF Members of Parliament engaged new actions as the crisis worsened.  

When the situation in Bamenda degenerated into the teargassing and the shooting with life bullets of the population, we, the Members of Parliament of both houses of Parliament, went to Bamenda to show our concern.

When the university of Buea authorities in collaboration with the administration brought mayhem on the university students in Buea, we also went to Buea to similarly show our concern and gather facts on the atrocities.

Armed with these facts, on our return to Parliament, we confronted the authorities of the National Assembly and the Senate to immediately engage in seeking a long lasting solution to the crisis through frank parliamentary debates. The deaf ear that the CPDM dominated houses gave to our requests resulted in very fiery denunciations from the rostrum on our part.

As can be seen, the SDF has made a lot of efforts to get the CPDM regime to join forces with it to nib this crisis in the bud. The CPDM consistently ignored the SDF preferring to consider it as ‘the face behind the mask’. Instead they went around  talking largely to its members and sympathizers to( itself )  thus allowing the situation to degenerate into the mess that we now find ourselves.

Things came to a head when government systematically and recklessly abducted the English Speaking citizens with whom it was negotiating  and deported them to detention centers in Yaoundé to eventually face trial in the French Language before the Yaoundé Military Tribunal on trumped up charges.

This led to calls on the SDF Members of Parliament by their electorate to resign from Parliament. These calls were intensified when on the 22nd of September and 1st October 2017, the military opened fire from the ground and from the air with helicopter gunships on unarmed citizens of the North-West and South-West Regions killing several hundreds, maiming thousands and many more thousands becoming refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and elsewhere and hundreds of thousands becoming internally displaced persons. These calls have intensified with time thus effectively making their elected representatives internally displaced persons.

The present situation is too ghastly to contemplate as the recently pompously labeled Major National ‘Dialogue’ failed to address the problem. This unilaterally organized and conducted ‘dialogue’ fell far short of the call by the United Nation,  the international as well as national communities (excepting the CPDM), for an all-inclusive dialogue without pre conditions in order to get to the root causes of the conflict and seek solutions for its resolution. The SDF tabled to the organizers of this ‘dialogue’, proposals that would have rendered it inclusive and to take place in a serene atmosphere but they were all turned down.

Notwithstanding this contempt with which the party was treated, the SDF decided to participate in the ‘dialogue’ because of its long standing quest for peace and a return to normalcy throughout the country.

The results of the ‘dialogue’ so far after more than six weeks has been the appointment of Senior Divisional and Divisional Officers throughout English Speaking Cameroon and the calling for elections timed to disrupt the November budgetary session of Parliament.

If this problem is not given a political solution, any military solution will just make it lie low to resurface with vengeance in future. It is worth noting that very few of the leaders and fighters in the Restoration movement were born before 1961.

Consequently, having regard to all of the above and many more and in keeping with the SDF party policy,

The SDF Parliamentary Group informs the national and international communities that it is taking action to implement party policy at the level of Parliament which in summary calls for a definitive solution that will bring to an end the civil war in English Speaking Cameroon thus   enabling the resumption of normal social, economic  political activities. And for children to go back to school, having been absent from school for four years as a result of this crisis.

Done in Yaoundé this 12th day of November 2019.

Signed:

The SDF Parliamentary Group Leader

Hon. Chief Paul NJI TUMASANG MP

Before Cameroon gained political independence from France and Britain in 1960 and 1961 respectively, it was governed as two separate entities by the erstwhile colonial masters. When the Anglophone Cameroon gained independence in 1961, there was a referendum that was conducted to determine whether it was to remain with Nigeria where it had been before independence or to join the Francophone Cameroon. We recall that the second broad spread political party in Nigeria was named the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons before its renaming to the National Council for Nigerian Citizens. The Anglophone speaking Cameroon opted not to remain with Nigeria and instead joined their francophone brothers.

The country became bilingual as a result of the newly found amalgamation and a regional form of government was adopted by then Presidency of Ahmadou Ahidjo to cater to the diverse interests of the different territorial regions. Regionalism was necessary in view of the fact that the Francophone speaking part of the country had much more territories and a population advantage and so it was imperative to protect the yearnings and aspirations of the minority Anglophone speaking part.

This initial arrangement worked well under Ahidjo as there was relative peace in the country. The cracks started when the present Paul Biya came to power in 1982 after Ahidjo’s sudden resignation which was not in the character of the typical sit tight African leader.

Biya, a brutal dictator who has ruled the country with a tight fist for over thirty-seven years ensured that power was centralized and there was an imposition of the francophone way of life on the Anglophone. The legal system, education and all other facets of life bore a francophone colouration.

Politicians and activists from the Anglophone Cameroon fiercely fought back and ensured that the constitutional amendment in 1996 provided for a decentralization of the government. This was all on paper as Biya continued with his unitary style system of government.

Things got to a head in 2016 when a separatist Anglophone movement was formed which led to secessionist agitations for the creation of an independent state of Ambazonia. Sorrow, tears and blood freely flowed as thousands were brutally hacked to death by the francophone government forces with millions internally displaced which saw many of them flee from the country.

On September 10 this year, President Biya started a national dialogue with the aim of permanently resolving the lingering crisis. He went ahead to appoint English speaking Joseph Dion Ngute as the country’s Prime Minister in a bid to pacify the Anglophone speakers who make up about one fifth of the total population. This move sadly backfired as most Anglophones do not trust Ngute whom they view as elitist and aloof as he has never really identified with their plight. He is seen as a Francophone stooge who will only do the bidding of his masters in Yaounde.

Human rights attorney Felix Agbor Balla, one of the masterminds of the 2016 protests, told DW, “there must be possibilities of a federal state: “The crisis began with the demand for decentralization. Without talking about the state, we will not find a solution.”

Presbyterian cleric Samuel Fonki, one of the mediators in the crisis, criticizes the government for ignoring the conflict for too long. “Now, after pressure from outside, they want to show the world that they are doing something: ‘Look, we’re making dialogue.’ As if to underscore what a minister said behind closed doors about the “big show.” A gala is planned for the last day of the dialogue. Fonki, however, is certain: “If there are no external observers, the facts will not come to the table.” But the said minister refuses: No, one only wants to speak from brother to brother, without interference from outside.

Whether and how the “Ambazonians” will be represented remains unclear: the government has sent invitations to separatist leaders abroad. But many reject the dialogue they dubbed “Biyalog”, which they say is a “waste of time and taxpayers’ money,” as separatist leader Mark Bareta wrote on his Facebook page. He went on to say that the government knew what the Anglophones wanted, so no one needed to come to Cameroon extra.

The crisis may get further exacerbated with the controversial re-election of Biya which may lead the protesters to go back to the trenches.

The bloodshed is too much and it must stop if the country is to make any meaningful progress. There is the need for the Biya led government to include trusted Anglophone leaders who genuinely represent the interests of their people rather than the government allies among the Anglophones. The demands of the Anglophone protesters especially that of regionalism, decentralization and greater devolution of powers must be met by the central government for lasting peace to reign.

This peace protest must be autochthonous and devoid of any form of interference from Paris. It is high time African leaders solve their internal problems with home grown solutions rather than permanently outsourcing their thinking caps to the uncaring west who will only give them mere placebos at best.

Source: The Nigerian Voice

Lawmakers from Cameroon’s leading opposition party have threatened to boycott the entire remaining session of Parliament this year in protest over executive inaction on the armed conflict in Western Cameroon.

The Social Democratic Front representatives sat out the re-opening of the country’s two houses of parliament – the National Assembly and the senate – on Tuesday, November 12.

It will be the third and final session of the legislative year during which Parliament will scrutinise proposals on government spending for 2020 before dissolving for legislative elections in February.

They accused President Paul Biya of “throwing into the waste paper” recommendations of September’s Major National Dialogue on resolving the conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

“Nothing has happened to make us feel that some action is being taken (to resolve the conflict), SDF Parliament Group leader in the National Assembly Paul Nji Tumasang said after the Tuesday boycott.

Mr Tumasang said the members reserved the right to boycott the entire session if measures are not taken to end the violence that has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

Source: The East African

Cameroon’s main opposition party Social Democratic Front (SDF) said on Tuesday it will not take part in the legislative and municipal elections scheduled next year, arguing that insecurity in the English-speaking regions does not favour credible elections.

Denis Nkemlemo, SDF’s national secretary for communication told reporters the decision was reached “after deep reflection” by top officials of the party.

“The security situation in the Southwest and Northwest regions is such that elections cannot take place there because the war is ragging on,” Nkemlemo said, adding that organizing elections when one part of the country is “tearing apart” will only facilitate the split of the country.

The SDF that enjoys widespread support in English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest has reiterated that it will only consider to partake in the elections if “concrete and durable” solutions to the conflict have been effected.

On Sunday, President Paul Biya decreed that elections for members of National Assembly and municipal councillors will take place on February 9, 2020. Separatists have vowed to disrupt the elections in the Anglophone regions.

Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji on Monday stressed that “all necessary security measures” shall be taken to ensure that the elections take place peacefully.

Source: Xinhuanet

Legislative and municipal elections will hold in Anglophone regions of Cameroon despite growing threats from armed separatists, officials of the Elections Cameroon (Elecam) said on Monday.

Chairperson of Elecam Enow Abrams Egbe said the eagerness demonstrated during the registration process in the troubled regions was a clear sign that “people in the regions are ready to take part in the elections”.

“We are convinced that elections will take place in the regions. Elections Cameroon will put in place all measures to ensure the elections are hitch-free. Elections should unit and not divide the country,” Egbe said.

“We are working in collaboration with the security forces, so together we believe we will overcome the challenges,” he added.

He was speaking in the capital Yaounde during a meeting convened by Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji to evaluate the readiness of the country to organize the elections.

On Sunday, President Paul Biya decreed that elections for members of National Assembly and municipal councillors will take place on February 9, 2020.

Separatists fighting for the independence of minority English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest have vowed to disrupt the elections in the regions.

Nji stressed during the meeting that “all necessary security measures” have to be taken to ensure that the elections take place peacefully.

Source: Xinhuanet