9, January 2019
The war in Cameroon 0
History defines us. Perhaps it is the only thing we truly own. Embrace it, own it. Mend it where it was once broken, enlighten it where it was once misguided, for what you are this minute isn’t what you were only a minute ago.
For peace to return to Cameroon, Anglophones and Francophones must first realise that at one point, they shared a common history, under German Cameroon. But like a river that splits into two courses at some point, they broke off only to be joint later downstream. This is not disputed.
What is disputed is the fact that during this separate journeys, each of them acquired new and separate experiences on their independent courses, perhaps new streams flowed into them, they flowed through new landscapes acquiring new flavours, visited different places with different sunsets and sunrises, making new friends and partnerships. Though they later became one again at the new confluence further downstream, they were essentially different by now; chemically, physically, in what they now know and have seen and experienced, where they have been, and enriched by new and different life principles and values.
The Francophone led leadership in Yaounde must realise and appreciate this difference, which they haven’t for over five decades. They can’t erode a people’s culture with guns, regardless of how that culture was acquired, for the effects of colonialism are an integral part of our history that we can never run away from. As sad as it is. The mass killings in Anglophone Cameroon must be brought to a stop via a political solution of inclusive dialogue without any precondition. In essence, the two Cameroons have to revisit the Fumban drawing board.
Peace can’t be achieved simply because the government that caused the problem in the first place is asking separatists fighters to put down their arms, because the government didn’t buy them the guns. You can’t ask a revolting people to stop revolting without proposing a tractable solution to their grievances, you can’t do so either by threat of the gun to which they have become accustomed. And you can’t eradicate someone’s family and expect them to love you, live with you, dine with you and laugh with you as if you are best friends. Worse, trust you.
What the Cameroonian government is doing to the Anglophones in Cameroon is criminal, calling them terrorists and all. Citizens can’t step out in the streets to protest for legitimate reasons and you turn your big guns on them, guns bought with their money, money from all the natural resources that are being wantonly exploited in their backyard.
It is this stupidity, lack of vision and diplomacy that sparked the wrath of the Anglophone Cameroonians, now operating under the name of the separate state called, Ambazonia, to retaliate and sought to protect themselves. The Francophone leadership in Yaounde without thinking, joyfully declared outright war against the 8 million Anglophones, add or take, by calling them terrorists, as the most parsimonious way of solving the differences.
The same regime once said when Yaounde is breathing Cameroon is alive when the Anglophone regions were in strife. The same regime at one time or another, called Anglophones enemies in the house. And at the onset of the present conflict, the Francophone led national assembly refused to discuss the problem because Anglophones are supposed to tow the line quietly. How much provocation should a people be subjected to before they break? Even a fool, under these circumstances, is bound to revolt at some point. This is the point where we are unfortunately at now.
No happily married man or woman would deliberately destroy a gratifying union, except they have lost their minds to the devil. Marriages only fall apart because of discontent and an accompanying inability to mend the problem.
Source: Not available
11, January 2019
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Indifference is no answer 0
If indifference could address an issue, the Southern Cameroons crisis that has already lasted for more than two years and consumed close to 5,000 lives, would have been over a long time ago. But the more the government pretends to be busy with other things, the more the situation escalates.
The killing in the two English-speaking regions is still going on, with the government seeking to take the media’s focus off this ugly situation that has given the Yaounde government a very bad name.
More Southern Cameroonians are still dropping dead, as government troops pursue their “linguistic cleansing” in the region. In towns like Kumbo, Mamfe, Kumba and Muyuka, there have been running battles between government troops and Southern Cameroonian fighters.
Despite the government’s determination to mop up the region of the fighters, it is becoming obvious to many minds around the world that a military solution will be a distant tomorrow affair.
Though it is business as usual in French-speaking Cameroon, the fear of attacks by Southern Cameroonian fighters is ever present in many minds, especially in the regions bordering the English-speaking regions.
As the government pursues its scorch earth policy in the region, it is also creating more radicals and fighters. Despite the killing of young Southern Cameroonians in the months leading to the country’s presidential election, more young men and women have recently swollen up the ranks of the fighters, especially in places like Lebialem, where government military trucks were recently ambushed, resulting in the death of many army soldiers.
It is rare for government officials to talk about the number of army soldiers killed and even when they provide figures, they make sure the figures are too low in order not to shock the docile Francophone minority. But sources in the military hold that many army soldiers have met their death in Southern Cameroons and many cannot even be accounted for as they have been killed and their bodies dumped in shallow graves by Southern Cameroons fighters.
The Southern Cameroons crisis has been a millstone around the government’s neck and despite the economic and financial pressure that the conflict is generating, the government seems to be pretending that all is well.
All cannot be well with the country, given that the economy of the English-speaking region has collapsed. Southern Cameroons’ economy accounts for a huge percentage of the country’s GDP and, alone, it represents a huge source of foreign earnings for the country’s economy.
The disruption of major economic operations in the region has hit the country’s economy like a ton of bricks. Major state corporations like PAMOL and CDC have simply gone under and it will take tons of money for these companies to be revived. The government should be concerned about such disruptions and it should be doing all it can to ensure peace returns to this part of the country.
Rather than focus on the military component, it should be fostering peace through negotiations and dialogue and not through physical elimination and intimidation. It should even let the population understand that the fighting in that part of the country is seriously impacting the country and its economy.
But faithful to its philosophy of mystifying everything, the government has been working hard to disguise many things. The country’s president, Paul Biya, has been championing this unacceptable approach and it seems there is a code of silence that all government officials must comply with. It is hard for any government official to make mention of the crisis that is gradually killing the country.
While receiving diplomats on Wednesday in Yaounde, Mr. Biya surprised members of the diplomatic corps, as he spoke about other crises in the world without making mention of the huge crisis in his native Cameroon that has created a huge humanitarian disaster.
More than half a million Southern Cameroonians are currently internally displaced and a similar number is in neighbouring countries, especially in Nigeria, following the government’s brutal crack-down in the region which has not helped matters.
But members of the diplomatic corps did not hesitate to remind Mr. Biya that it is out of place for him to talk about other global crises that were half a world away from Cameroon while turning a blind eye to the Southern Cameroons crisis that has damaged the country’s economy and destabilized even Cameroon’s neighbours.
The dean of the diplomatic corps who hails from Gabon had to speak in English to remind the ageing Biya that his country was bilingual and that it is unfair for him to only speak in French. The Gabonese advised Mr. Biya that the world was prepared to help him when and if he decided to take the necessary steps to put an end to the military violence in his country.
It was a nail-biting experience for many government officials who were very ill at ease with the message of the diplomatic corps. But instead of being uncomfortable when Southern Cameroons is mention, the government should be looking at ways of addressing this issue that has made the government unpopular, especially the president who is being accused of being ineffective and blind to the suffering of the population.
The international community has already urged the government to initiate a long and inclusive dialogue that will help the Yaounde government to address those thorny issues that are pitting it against the country’s English-speaking minority.
Many experts argue that war has never addressed any issues and the Cameroon situation will not be an exception. They also contend that with the killings that have taken place in the country, negotiations will be challenging.
However, they are quick to point out that both sides will have to learn how to forgive if they want peace to reign. Southern Cameroonian fighters must understand that a military solution is not in the cards. They must also figure out that pushing the Yaounde government out of their territory is a very remote possibility.
The world has very little appetite for secession and Southern Cameroons has not received a lot of assistance from the international communities. Even Cameroon’s neighbours are against a secession in Cameroon as this might open the flood gates in their own countries, especially in Nigeria where the Biafra movement is very strong and is posing a huge threat to the country.
The Yaounde government, for its part, will have to understand that it cannot continue insisting on state authority. State authority does not imply killing all the citizens just because a point has to be proven. The Yaounde authorities must also understand that Cameroon will never be the same again and regardless of the solution that works out, the system must undergo many changes if Cameroon has to be one and indivisible.
By Kingsley Betek