School burnings fuel Cameroon conflict
AT LEAST half a dozen schools in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions have been burnt in the past month as a general strike in the areas enters its 10th month.
The strike began last November with Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting that English-speaking citizens are marginalised in the bilingual but Francophone dominant country.
Reopening divisions apparently settled in a decades-old unification process and as the government cracked down on the demonstrations, activists soon started demanding federalism or secession.
Some parents in Bamenda, Cameroon’s largest English-speaking city, said it was no longer safe after their children’s school, the Baptist Comprehensive High School, was set ablaze two weeks ago.
As the burnings continue, residents say schools are being targeted for failing to respect a call to strike issued by Anglophone protesters. Messages on social media this month have called for businesses to close three days a week until Anglophone activists are released from prison.
The upheaval poses a serious challenge to the government of President Paul Biya, which is also grappling with havoc caused by Boko Haram spilling over its borders from Nigeria in the north and militia incursions from the Central African Republic in the east.
Security experts fear further upheaval may disrupt the scheduled general elections next year. At the centre of the conflict is the fact that French-speaking regions dominate the government and the education and legal systems, although English-speaking Cameroonians form 20% of the 23 million population.
Since late last year, protests and strikes have escalated over the economic and political marginalisation of English speakers.
Secessionist groups, aided by the Anglophone diaspora, have emerged this year and are seeking to radicalise the population.
The mobilisation of lawyers, teachers and students has revived identity-based movements which date back to the 1970s. The secessionists are demanding a return to the federal model of 1961 to 1972.
“While the risk of partition of the country is low, the risk of a resurgence of the problem in the form of armed violence is high,” said the International Crisis Group.
Biya, a strongman who has been slammed for fuelling tensions, has sought to crack down on the protests. In Bamenda, at least four people have been killed since the crisis began. Security forces have fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters.
Three civil society leaders face the death penalty on treason charges for organising protests. Hundreds of others have been detained.
It is expected that Biya will contest next year’s presidential poll at the age of 85, although he is widely regarded in Cameroon as the personification of the current crisis. – CAJ News and Voice of America