Cameroon has been making headlines as another hot spot of instability in Africa. This time, the conflict is along linguistic and cultural lines, between the Francophone majority in the country, who comprise over 80 percent of the population and dominate politics, administration, education, professions and the military, and the Anglophone minority in the western provinces of Cameroon, who make up little more than 15 percent of the population.

The current conflict began two years ago as a protest by middle-class professionals, predominantly lawyers and educators, against the policies of the Francophone central government, perceived to be further marginalizing English speakers and English-speaking areas. The government of Paul Biya, which has been in power since 1982, believed those initial protests were a challenge to the authority of his regime, and responded with a severe crackdown. This, in turn, led to a full-fledged, generalized secessionist movement among the English speakers in the west.

So far, this is in line with the course of post-colonial African politics. But emerging information from within the country is increasingly setting alarm bells ringing, and the international community needs to monitor the situation very closely.

Initial reports of extrajudicial killings of women and children carried out by the central government army personnel are starting to look like systematic campaigns of violence against civilians, with thousands already dead. Entire villages have been evacuated, as some 500,000 people, well over ten percent of the Anglophone population, have been displaced from their homes as a result of indiscriminate state aggression. And attitudes are only hardening on both sides.

Rwanda’s voices are also echoing in response to these international developments. The situation in Cameroon only started making news after an American citizen was caught in the crossfire and killed. This is despite the fact that the United States has been aware that a good proportion of the documented atrocities seem to have been committed by the Rapid Intervention Battalion, an elite military unit that the US trained to fight Boko Haram in the north of Cameroon.

France, the former colonial power, is taking a stand of wilful ignorance that is eerily similar to its attitude toward Rwanda in the months leading to that genocide. And nobody else wants to go anywhere near Cameroon, since none of the major international players have strategic interests in the area – and certainly no interests tied to the Anglophone minority.

The Western press is also taking a rather strange stance on this conflict, which they often term a “near-civil war”. But a civil war implies that there is some kind of equivalence of power between the two parties, as if there was any doubt about which side might prevail. This is simply not the case here. No amount of hardened “secessionist insurgents” is going to pose a real threat to the Francophone government, or indeed the Francophone regions. Short of the two sides coming together to agree on some kind of compromise – and at this stage neither is contemplating such a thing – there are exactly two possible outcomes: Either the Biya government decides to just cut the two Anglophone regions loose and carry on with the Francophonie, or it decides to drown the two provinces in blood.

The decision over what happens next rests entirely with the Biya government. So far, there are no international power players interested in pressuring the government in one direction or the other. And at every given opportunity, the government has chosen to escalate the matter.

We may not be talking about genocide this week, but it is squarely pointing in that direction. There is nothing to suggest that the internal dynamics of the crisis, or the conduct of the Biya government, will divert the course of events, or that it will slow down.

Perhaps the best hope for Cameroon at this moment in history is, in fact, the US. The US has some leverage over Cameroon’s government and has already cut some military assistance to the Biya government over the escalating humanitarian crisis. But can we have any faith that the Trump administration will initiate a sufficiently robust policy response to a developing humanitarian crisis? That would be out of character for the administration. And as long as that remains the case, Cameroon’s most likely outcome, tragically, looks like Rwanda.

Source: alarabiya.net

Cameroon’s electoral body Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) attempted to register at least 10 million voters before the legislative and municipal elections in September, said ELECAM Chairman Enow Abrams Egbe.

During the first annual meeting of the body, Egbe called on all eligible voters in the country to “exercise the right to vote and to participate in the choice of the country’s leaders.”

Voter registration throughout Cameroon and in the country’s diplomatic representations abroad began in early January.

Cameroon will hold at least two elections, including legislative and municipal elections scheduled for September, according to the electoral calendar. Regional elections could also be held in the year.

According to ELECAM statistics, about 6.67 million people were registered in the presidential election in October last year, including 19,420 abroad, with a turnout of 53.85 percent.

“We hope that calm and peace will return to facilitate the registration process,” said ELECAM’s Director General Erik Essousse.

Cameroon is facing growing insecurity in its two anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest, where separatists want to create a new nation called “Ambazonia.”

Xinhuanet

There is great expectation among Cameroonians for a solution to its numerous conflicts, especially that orchestrating in the Anglophone regions as the United States Assistant Secretary of State in charge of African Affairs, Nagy Tibor, arrives the country on March 17th for a two-day official visit.

According to the State Department, Ambassador Tibor will be meeting with Cameroonian authorities to discuss security issues and the ongoing war in the two restive regions. This has pushed many Cameroonians to see the high level visit as part of the solution to the country’s unending conflict in two of its richest regions economically. While the government has been mum about the visit, it has been making the rounds in both the conventional and social media.

In the last two weeks, the U.S government and lawmakers have been very vocal about the prevailing situation in the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon, askeing their government to take firm measures. Just as he started his African tour on March 4th, Tibor, in an interview on the French international radio channel RFI , said the government of Cameroon should grant more autonomy to the Anglophone minority so that they can be able to manage their affairs by themselves. The diplomat also urged the government to release opposition leader, Professor Maurice Kamto and members and sympathizers of his party who were arrested on January 28 after organizing a peaceful march two days earlier.

He later on in another interview expressed his regrets over the happenings and stated that, “my heart breaks for Cameroon,” while promising to take the matter to the highest international instance. Moreover, on March 12th, the U.S government released a damaging human rights report on Cameroon detailing the excesses of the security forces as well as armed separatists in the two Anglophone regions and as Boko Haram militants in the North of the country among others. Prior to the publication of the report, the Chairman of the U.S House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, prayed the Secretary to use his visit and challenge the decision of the Cameroonian authorities to incarcerate political opponents as well as its alleged human rights violations in the Anglophone North West and South West regions.

The government of Cameroon sleepless has on several occasions explained its policies, insisting the military has maintained a technique of “professionalism” in its mission to the Anglophone regions and the North. Communication Minister Rene Sadi also accused the U.S government of interfering in Cameroon’s internal affairs while stating that the opposition party members were arrested and charged for purely common law crimes and not politically motivated questions.

Since the advent of the conflict in the two English speaking regions, the U.S government has never taken such a firm stance. Moreover, it has also expressed so much interest in the arrests and incarceration of politicians recently. It is to be noted that Ambassador Tibor is no stranger to the politics and political players of Cameroon, having served as a diplomat in charge of Cameroonian affairs in the early 1990s.

The conflict in Anglophone regions of Cameroon began as a peaceful protest by lawyers and teachers in September 2016 and has since transformed into a war between government soldiers and armed separatists who are clamouring for the creation of a state for Anglophones called Ambazonia. The conflict has led to some of the worst human rights violations in the history of Africa with thousands being killed – some burnt alive in their houses – and reports of torture and disappearance. The United Nations has reported that the conflict has created more than 400,000 refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and about 2 million persons have been affected.

The situation in the country has been worsened by the arrest of opposition leader and Chairman of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Maurice Kamto, who was the official runner-up in the October 7th, 2018 presidential election which saw incumbent Paul Biya being re-elected. However, Kamto and his peers argued that there were gross irregularities which is why they were protesting on January 26th. They also challenged the government to stop the war in the English speaking regions and call for dialogue.

Source: The Organization For World Peace