Cameroon opens dialogue to end separatist crisis
YAOUNDE: Cameroon launched a national dialogue yesterday in a bid to end a separatist conflict in the country’s anglophone provinces, though key rebel leaders have already refused to participate. Nearly 3,000 people have died and half a million fled their homes since fighting broke out in 2017 between the army and insurgents who want independence for Cameroon’s two Englishspeaking provinces.
The talks opened at the Congressional palace in the capital Yaounde yesterday, an AFP journalist said, and debating would begin after a speech by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, who is leading the negotiations. The dialogue is scheduled to run to October 4. President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 37 years, hopes the talks will end the crisis that is also hurting the economy of the coffee and cocoa-producing Central African state. October 1 marks the second anniversary of the spiral towards conflict - the declaration of the self-described “Republic of Ambazonia” for Cameroon’s Englishspeaking minority.
Even before it began, the national dialogue ran into trouble with many activists arrested and experts voicing skepticism that it would yield tangible results. English-speakers account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million, who are majority Frenchspeaking. Anglophones are mainly concentrated in two western areas, the Northwest Region and the Southwest Region, that were incorporated into the French-speaking state after the colonial era in Africa wound down six decades ago. Many locals in the two regions complain of discrimination and marginalisation.
In a report published last week, the International Crisis Group estimated that around 3,000 people have been killed by separatist violence and the military crackdown. The ICG said the talks do not include separatists or anglophone leaders who support more federalist solutions. “It thus risks further frustrating anglophones widening the gulf between the two sides and empowering hardliners,” the group said.
“The government should make greater space for anglophones, particularly federalists who are willing to attend. It should also seek a neutral facilitator.” Biya’s government has rejected both a return to more federalism and any proposed separation. But anglophone supporters are also divided between those two options for their regions. The government’s dialogue spokesman George Ewane said Cameroonian authorities had held preliminary discussions with some separatists, adding that even hardliners were welcome to join the talks.— AFP