Lives of Southern Cameroonians means nothing to Francophones ²

The exiled leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium who recently fled to Ghana and Nigeria have voiced concern about expulsion and killing of Southern Cameroonians by troops loyal to the Biya regime.

The international community says a lot but does nothing to save the lives of Southern Cameroons minority in La Republique du Cameroun. The Consortium leaders opined that the world is now aware of what is going on in Southern Cameroons but international bodies such as the African Union and the UN keep saying exactly what everybody else knows, but it doesn’t choose to do anything about it.

The reality is that the lives of Southern Cameroonians are meaningless to Biya and the Francophone political elites including some Western powers generally, because the greater interest is for economic exploitation of West Cameroon.

A four-month crackdown on the Southern Cameroons minority has seen hundreds including a Member of Parliament, veteran journalist Tina Nene Nganda, Barrister Eyambe and the Secretary General of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society flee to Ghana and neighboring Nigeria.

The violence against Southern Cameroonians by Francophone soldiers and police officers is a blow to efforts put by an Anglophone Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang to reach a comprehensive peace with the Cameroon’s Anglophone minority.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium leaders further criticized the 84 year-old Biya saying, “The international community considers him a person of peace. It’s total hypocrisy. If he is a true democrat and somebody committed to human rights and peace, he should be speaking up on the violation of Anglophone’ rights in the country.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in Lagos