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

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

The so-called internal affairs of French Cameroon are false because Southern Cameroon is a nation of its own now colonized by French Cameroon. Was the speaker of French Cameroun National Assembly born after 1984? At least, if he is that young, he could claim that he never knew there was la Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons in 1960; that in October 1, 1961 these two countries came together to form a federation and were West Cameroon and East Cameroon.

Does the old man called speaker know Charles Assale who was Prime Minister of East Cameroon (Republique du Cameroun) and John Ngu Foncha Prime Minister of West Cameroon (Southern Cameroon). If Mr. Speaker of the Republic of Cameroon national assembly is too young, he should visit history.

The war between the Republic of Cameroon and Southern Cameroon is a war between two countries though one of them is colonized. A war between two nations is not a domestic affair. When French Cameroon was fighting their war of liberation, France never tell the world that that war of a domestic war. These are the type people who when beating their wives ruthlessly would tell neigbours and relatives not to interfere with their domestic affairs because it is husband and wife since he happens to be the stronger and should be allowed to kill his wife.

When we liberate ourselves, no one would come to interfere when Betis shall be warring against Bamilikes. That would truly be an internal affair. If it’s an internal, can someone explain to us “How a French colony came to have one part speaking English?”

A senior member of Cameroon’s Parliament on Tuesday called on the international community and the government to be more “objective” in resolving the conflict in the two English-speaking provinces of the West African country.

The remarks by Enoh Tanjong, the eldest member of Cameroon’s National Assembly, is believed to be made to show the stance of the Parliament for the first time since the armed conflict started in 2017.

“Solidarity and objectiveness of the international community and the government are fundamental in resolving the conflict,” he said while denouncing “in the strongest terms” the violence perpetrated by “gunmen” in the troubled regions.

“The international community particularly has to be more objective in assessing the political tensions in Cameroon,” Tanjong said as the new parliamentary session opened.

According to the United Nations, more than 430,000 people were internally displaced in the clashes between the government forces and the armed separatists seeking to create an independent nation in the English-speaking Northwest Region and Southwest Region.

“For once the dean (eldest member of parliament) has decided to mention the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions. I hope this is the beginning of many things to happen. We need peace to become a reality in Cameroon. This session might be very decisive,” another member of the National Assembly, Joseph Mbah Ndam, told Xinhua.

The parliamentary session, which will last through April 12, is widely expected to come up with a blueprint to end the conflict. It will also elect a new executive bureau for the National Assembly and the Senate, the upper house.

Xinhuanet

What started as a struggle for sovereignty by citizens of southern Cameroon has spiraled into a full-blown crisis. Rebel groups seeking an end to what they consider domination of the anglophone south by the francophone north have taken up weapons against the government’s security forces, causing hundreds to die while tens of thousands are forced from their homes.

Factories have been shuttered, roads have become impassable, warehouses have been destroyed, and truck drivers are routinely kidnapped for ransom.

The current crisis heated up in 2016 when activists in Cameroon’s western provinces protested the official use of the French language in these predominantly anglophone regions.
In the past two years, those protests have turned deadly.

A prominent Cameroonian scholar and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, Achille Mbembe, observes that Anglophone Cameroonians “don’t feel there is a place for them in the current administrative and political order in the country.”

People complain about being marginalized because the administration doesn’t speak their language, Mr. Mbembe says, adding that the controversy over language is an expression of deeper, long-held grievances around good governance and equitable political and social representation.

Humanitarian problems

UN Secretary-General António Guterres in September 2017 urged Cameroonian authorities to “promote measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis, including by addressing its root causes.”

In her report to the 39th session of the UN’s Human Rights Council last September, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet mentioned the crisis in Cameroon: “Fighting has intensified in the so-called anglophone regions between security forces and armed groups.

“The government has not acted to promote the conference on dialogue suggested by religious leaders, and there is still no mechanism in place which could envisage a halt in hostilities in the short term.”

Approximately 437,000 people are internally displaced across the affected provinces, said David Malan of the local Norwegian Refugees Council Office in an interview with Africa Renewal.
Most displaced people are taking refuge in remote rural areas or in surrounding bushlands and forests, several humanitarian agencies confirmed. Mr. Malan added that “getting them needed help has proved challenging.”

Business

Cameroon’s GDP growth had been projected to reach 3.8% this year, a rebound from the previous year, due to an increase in natural gas production. That goal is now likely unattainable.
The country’s economic growth “depends on the government’s ability to successfully handle the violent secessionist conflict in the two anglophone regions,” the World Bank stated last October.

The western provinces, hotbed of the crisis, produce cocoa and coffee, the country’s two main agriculture exports. Oil production, which accounts for an estimated 40% of the country’s GDP, mostly takes place in the coast of the Southwest Region.

Groupement inter-patronal du Cameroun (GICAM), an association of business leaders, declared in September that violence in two anglophone regions in the west of the country was forcing companies to halt operations.

Due to the crisis, GICAM estimates total loss of revenue as of October 2018 to be about $470 million, while 13,000 jobs, mostly in the agricultural sector, have been or are about to be lost.

Regional concerns

While fighting so far is within Cameroonian borders, there are fears its escalation could destabilize all of Central Africa and parts of West Africa.

Cameroonian refugees have begun moving to border communities in Cross River State in the south of neighboring Nigeria. They arrive nearly destitute and eke out a living in low-wage jobs.
They are mostly young people and women who have witnessed violence firsthand. “I could not take any clothes. There was shooting—they killed my uncle and shot my cousin,” a 39-year-old mother of four told UNHCR, in a story published on the refugee agency’s website.

Janet Obi, who used to trade in cocoa and clothes back home in Cameroon, is now tending cornfields in a village in Nigeria, the Qatar-based media company Al Jazeera reported in August.
“I get paid between 500 to 1,000 naira [$2 to $4] a day,” Stella Obi (no relation of Janet) told Al Jazeera as she worked the soil in a small vegetable field. “I never tasted this kind of suffering when I was in my village in Cameroon.”

These refugees are “employed as cheap day labourers, mostly in cocoa fields,” Chiara Cavalcanti of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) told Africa Renewal. Just as it is for western Cameroon, cocoa is Cross River State’s main commercial agricultural product.

Meantime, rights groups continue to denounce both the activities of the separatists and the central government’s tough response. Political observers warn that government crackdowns may exacerbate the situation.

Cameroon gained independence in 1961 and operated a federal system comprising two former UN trusteeship territories: French Cameroun and British Southern Cameroon. In 1972, the federal state was abrogated in favour of the United Republic of Cameroon, which was later renamed Republic of Cameroon.

In 1990, the first All Anglophone Conference was held in Buea, the historic capital of British Southern Cameroon. The participants called for a return to a federal state by April 1993, deeming the federal arrangement a better option than the prevailing unitary system.

The dream of a federal government did not materialize, sparking complaints over the years by people in the western regions that they were being marginalized by the central government.
Although the government has made efforts to address the situation by promising an inclusive approach to governance, few or no actions seem to have been taken, which prompted the latest protests and the ensuing violence.

The Catholic Church steps in

The Catholic Church recently renewed its calls for dialogue. “The Catholic Church can help break this dangerous stalemate,” suggests the Brussels-based international policy research group International Crisis Group (ICG).

Some 30% of the Cameroonian population is Catholic, giving the religious body clout to bring the warring parties to a peace table, the ICG believes.

Still, there appears to be divisions between anglophone and francophone clergies. Those divisions “stand in the way of [the Catholic Church] playing a constructive role,” notes the ICG.
To resolve the crisis and bring stability to the country, Mr. Guterres indicated his preference for a “genuine and inclusive dialogue between the government and the communities in the South-West and North-West regions.”

Culled from NewsGhana

On August 31, 2006, my friend Bate Besong wrote a dedicated poem titled “Why we laugh at politicians and give them names”.  That poem and its premonitory message impels me to struggle to find the underlying message behind the poem dedicated to me by a friend with whom I spent time discussing everything from literature to history, law, Marx, Osageyfo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Nwalimu Nyerere, CLR James, Marcus Garvey, politics generally, cultural issues, religion, maths, music etc.  On occasion, he talked to me about many of his students whose potential intellectual bravery and literary ingenuity he admired. One of the names he mentioned was Dr Joyce Ashuntangtang.

Why do I bring up this name among others in this brief memorial statement?  The name surely came up many times, but he first mentioned her name when we discussed the show of shame which is celebrated in Cameroun March 8, every year as the “Women Day”.

Bate Besong and I opposed the celebration of March 8, in ways that portrayed the African woman as hypnotised political tools.   He opined that a celebration of the African woman should be in the systemic and societal recognition of women and their contribution toward human development.  He hoped for a new generation of women intellectuals whom he believed will challenge the operating political, social and cultural order.

Bate Besong died on 8th of March 2007 the day set aside every year for showcasing the collective enslavement of women by the Cameroun systemic crime syndicate.  This was not the intendment of the Peking Women Conference nor that of the international community that decided to use the ceremony every year to raise awareness on women related issues and women contributions as equal partners in efforts to protect and promote universal human values without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality or any discriminatory basis whatsoever.  The Cameroun ceremony is the opposite of what the international community intended.

At the time of his death, I was not aware of the poem he dedicated to me and the underlying message in the poem.   Our revulsion for the treatment of women by the crime syndicate so-called new deal, and the sycophantic submission of the population and the bastardising of scholarship and faculty admission that we discussed and despised has not abated.  I have watched the younger generation whom Bate Besong told me about and his predictions are true.  So therefore, was Bate Besong a Prophet?   In the context of present-day commercial religion and prophesy, BB would never accept this title.  BB went into the originality of the grassroot authentic creativity of some pathfinders to support his prediction that the challenge to the pervasive influence of contemporary Africa status quo will come from the grassroots, his students and their contemporaries.

We both agreed that a musician of Kalabari origin in the Nigeria Delta called Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson fitted in this category.   Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson challenged the highlife music status quo in his time, imposing respect and recognition from highlife musical giants like E.T, Mensah, Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, Roy Chicago, EC Arinze, Chief Osita Osadebe. He died at the age of 32 after changing the face of highlife music and eternalising his musical genre for eternity. The religious and cultural messages conveyed through his music which he sang with passion at times made him cry on stage accompanied by his ever-increasing audience.  Yet the music and the messages he delivered were the products of his work of art, some of which he composed on stage. While in Port Harcourt attending the conference of the African Bar Association, I requested and met Chief Tony Odili aged 93 and still and performing, the renowned percussionist of the Rex Lawson band. He confirmed in reasonable detail, what Bate Besong told me about Rex Lawson and his revolutionary change of the status quo in the Nigerian and West African highlife music. Nigerian gospel music is a derivative of the Rex Lawson highlife music revolution.

In the poem dedicated to me, Bate Besong in poetic form reminded me not to forsake the liberation struggle.  He again raised our collective worries that years of enslavement and mental slavery had ruined generations of intellectuals and so-called elite on whom the people placed their hopes for liberation, freedom and independence.  He like me believed that the peoples ‘moment would come when terror, fear and death will rather than scare the people, embolden them to take back their destiny, freedom and independence.   As if to bid me and everyone goodbye, he in conclusion, enjoined us:

“No one should ask why things are as they are

These questions will be answered at the right time”

That right time is here for all to see and nothing will stop the wind of liberation and freedom which is blowing over the land.   The relics of the old social order is fighting back through terror, treachery, corruption, criminality, distractions, confusions and all manner of sideshows.   But Ground Zero and the generational liberators whom Bate Besong identified are out in arms fighting to win. And win they shall. Not the politicians whom Bate Besong came to distrust and made their treachery the subject of his premonitory poem to me. No not them.  Their betrayal of the peoples’ aspirations has exposed them for what they have always been.  This critical peoples’ moment when long deferred questions are finally been answered at the right time as BB predicted will consign them to ignominy and derision.  This is also the moment to know “why we laugh at politicians and give them names” and for them to take stock of their treachery and the futility of their Iscariot politics of thirty silver and the unconscionable complicity in the extermination of  their own people to satisfy the blood feeding of a vampiric dictator.

This memorial message should have been posted on March 8, 2019 but in honour of the greatest revolutionary and visionary seer of our times Dr Bate Besong, the judgment of the Abuja High Court exposing another international conspiracy and  violations which like the McCleod Slave deal or bazaar aimed to stifle our march to freedom, it is but appropriate to place my considered opinion  on the judgment in honour of Bate Besong the liberator, the Obasinjong warrior, the seer, and may I with his permission, call him the genuine prophet at the service of freedom and liberation of the sovereign people of the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia.

By Chief Charles A Taku