Cameroon holds its breath as separatists’ anniversary looms
LIMBE: Cameroon is nervously awaiting the first anniversary tomorrow of a declaration of independence by its English-speaking minority less than a week before the country plunges into presidential elections. Attacks are occurring daily in the two regions that are home to this French-speaking country’s anglophones, and many say they are afraid. In the worst-affected areas, some people have fled with whatever possessions they can carry.
Others say they rarely venture out of their homes, fearing separatists as well as the security forces. On October 1 2017, radicals declared the creation of the “Republic of Ambazonia,” covering two English-speaking regions incorporated into francophone Cameroon in 1961. The declaration went largely unnoticed outside Cameroon, and “Ambazonia”-named after a bay at the mouth of the Douala River-has been recognized by no-one.
But the move marked the start of a
crisis that has cast a shadow over the October 7 elections, in which 85-yearold president Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years, is seeking a seventh straight term in office. “The army killed lots of people on October 1,” Monsignor Emmanuel Bushu, bishop of the Buea, capital of Southwest Region, said at the time. “For nearly two weeks, they shot at people like you shoot at birds.”
Mounting toll
Biya’s crackdown coincided with a surge of bloody attacks by the separatists, gunning down troops and police and burning schools and other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. At least 400 civilians have been killed this year, according to the International Crisis Group think-tank. The government says 109 members of the security forces have been killed since the end of 2017.
Atrocities have been committed on both sides, according to watchdogs. “The brutal attacks against ordinary people and security forces are further proof of the horrific escalation of violence,” Amnesty International said on September 19. According to UN figures, 246,000 people in the Southwest Region have fled their homes, and 25,000 have sought shelter in neighboring Nigeria, many of them living from hand-to-mouth in the forests. Estimates of displaced people in the neighboring Northwest Region-the other restive anglophone region-are not available.
The government has imposed tight controls, including over the mainstream media, and both sides are fighting for public opinion in the domain of social media. The economic damage, too, has been severe. The state-run palm oil company Pamol has deserted some of its plantations, and cocoa and coffee production has stopped because villages have abandoned their crops, the Cameroon NGO Human Is Right said in July. The government has set up an emergency aid fund for the two regions, to which many Cameroonians have given generously.