Consultations have begun in Cameroon ahead of a national dialogue ordered by president Paul Biya. Civil society groups and opposition political parties are calling for the unconditional release of Anglophone separatist leaders and other political prisoners before discussions begin.

Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute began consultations with political party leaders, civil society activists, opinion leaders, traditional rulers, lawmakers and clergy on September 11, one day after President Paul Biya called for a national dialogue to solve the separatist crisis rocking his country.

Prince Ekosso, president of the United Socialist Democratic Party, says among the recommendations they are strongly making for the announced dialogue to be successful are the unconditional release of all people he says are illegally held in prisons and detention centers and an end to the separatist war in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

“Mr. Biya should call for a cease-fire. He was the one who declared war against the separatists. Release all those who are political prisoners in Cameroon including Maurice Kamto and Tabe Ayuk Sisseku [Julius Ayuk Tabe], and he should create a situation where all Cameroonians can express their will,” said Ekosso.

Biya declared war on the Anglophone separatists in November 2017 and said he would crush them if they did not surrender.

In August, the Yaounde military tribunal gave life sentences to Julius Ayuk Tabe, the leader of the separatist movement, and nine others it said had been found guilty of secession, terrorism and hostility against the state.

Opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who came in second in the October presidential election, but claims to have won, is on trial with dozens of others in a military tribunal on insurrection charges.

Biya has insisted that he will maintain Cameroon as one nation and indivisible. Justin Roger Ndah, assistant secretary-general of the opposition MRC party says they are urging the government to accept discussions on the form of the state.

He says Paul Biya should not think that speaking about the form of the state during the expected national dialogue is a taboo subject and an indication of his weakness. He says it is fundamental for all issues disturbing Cameroon to be brought to the discussion table and required constitutional amendments be made when the time comes.

Siddi Haman, a senior official of Biya’s CPDM party says people should see in the expected dialogue the president’s true will to bring peace to the country.

He says all Cameroonians should have confidence in Biya, who, as the father of the nation, has called for the dialogue. He says after the dialogue the president can use his constitutional power to grant the desires of the people, as the most important thing he is asking for before he leaves power is to maintain Cameroon as a peaceful, one and indivisible state with every one living in harmony.

The conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions has killed more than 2,000 people, internally displaced more than 500,000 and caused more than 50,000 Cameroonians to seek refuge in Nigeria, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

Key leaders of Southern Cameroon, who are fighting to become a sovereign country to be known as Ambazonia Republic, have rejected the olive branch extended by President Paul Biya of Cameroun. Biya is asking them to put an end to the ongoing insurrection. President Biya made the call few days ago in Cameroon following the resumption of hostilities as a result of the life jail slammed on Mr Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the leader of the Ambazonian struggle, alongside nine others by government.

 The 10 men were reported to have been forcibly taken last year from Abuja in Nigeria after they won a High Court case supposedly against the Biya government for detention in Cameroon.  A number of people spoken to in Calabar, where a good number of Southern Cameroonians are living as refugees said, they were not going to dialogue with Biya and called on him to release the movement’s leaders as they would be the ones to dialogue with him, if there was need.

 Two of the leaders, including the coordinator of the Cameroonian refugees in Cross River State, Pastor Tabichou Afangha and a renowned medical doctor, George Geh, insisted on their independence, which they claimed they got in October 1961. Afangha said, “The call for dialogue by Biya is a big joke; it is madness. The essence of the dialogue has been grossly abused. Who is he calling to dialogue with? We are Ambazonians? “We only gained the status of Cameroun when we united with the other parts of the country after the fake union put together at the Fouban conference in East Cameroun.

 Biya later dissolved that union when he enacted law number 84/01 of February 4, 1984.  What we are asking Mr Biya is to implement his own law, the restoration law, which dissolved the illegal merger between La Republique du Cameroon and Southern Cameroon, now Ambazonia. “Could there have been eruption of violence, killings and destructions if Biya had respected his own law?  When he has given life jail to our leaders he wants to dialogue with foes? In Ambazonia we have always been a peaceful people, but he unleashed wanton violence on us,’’ Afangha added.

 Also speaking on Saturday, Dr Geh, who has worked as a medical consultant for different state governments in Nigeria said, “We will not dialogue with Biya. He is extremely dangerous and untrustworthy. We want our independence, which we won in 1961.’’ He said the system in Cameroon was repulsive, repressive and brutish, maintaining that they had suffered suppression and intimidation under the French-controlled region for too long. “All the schools in Southern Cameroon, an English-speaking territory, are taught in French language or pidgin English and administered by Frenchmen.  In the judiciary, they apply French/Napoleon aw instead of the Common Law. The French law states that one is guilty before he is proven otherwise. If you don’t speak French you cannot win any case in Southern Cameroon.’’ Geh disclosed that when they had a plebiscite on whether to join Cameroon or Nigeria, they would have preferred to remain in Nigeria but they feared that the Igbo, who were already domineering, would continue to enslave them; hence they opted for Cameroon. He further explained that it was the United Nations resolution 1608 that granted them independence in 1961. He added that Britain tricked them. “We were a trusteeship territory managed by Britons, who were supposed to sit with East Cameroun and ensure that our independence was guaranteed. There were three options, but Britain rather said we should decide whether to join other parts. They left out the third option, which was to choose to become an independent country. Britain did not want to lose its investments. France gave them £20million and took over our territory and Britain vamoosed without any preparation for our independence,’’ he alleged.

 A female leader who refused to give her name said President Biya should account for her children and siblings who were allegedly slaughtered by forces loyal to him before any form of dialogue. She said the international community should prevail on the Biya government to stop the killing of her people, adding that Ambazonia should be actualised in her lifetime. But Bishop Nicholas Nyemeck Biten expressed a contrary opinion, saying, “It is a welcome approach to bring back all the people together. It is a long time both national and international press waited for this moment. Now, it is left to know the blueprint of the programme as he said he had given a mandate to the prime minister to meet with all those concerned for a large debate.’’

www.dailytrust.com.ng

The announcement by President Biya to convene a national dialogue constitutes a positive development in the search for a solution to the crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.” This was said by Maja Kocijancic, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations at the European Union commission, according to a press release published on September 11, 2019.

Indeed, days ago, president Paul Biya announced that national dialogue will be organized to find solutions to the socio-political crisis in South-west and North-west Cameroon.

“All actors, including armed groups and the diaspora, should be able to take this opportunity and contribute to an inclusive process that would take full account of the expectations of the population. The European Union continues to support all efforts to this end, in coordination with its international and regional partners,” Maja Kocijancic added.

Let’s note that in preparation for this dialogue and as indicated by the president, prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute started a series of meetings with various political and social actors since September 11, 2019.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon’s opposition and leaders of the Anglophone separatist movement have reacted to president Paul Biya’s call for national dialogue to resolve the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Biya on Tuesday announced that he intends to open a major “national dialogue” later this month in a bid to solve the conflict between security forces and armed separatists from the anglophone minority in the west.

Separatist leader dismisses dialogue call

The leader of the separatist movement, Ayuk Tabe dismissed Biya’s call as a ‘non-starter’.

“The speech was a non-event and a non-starter,” separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said in a message relayed by his lawyers.

In August Ayuk Tabe was sentenced to life in prison along with nine of his supporters, a move that made the prospect of peace seem even more remote.

Ayuk Tabe is the first self-proclaimed president of “Ambazonia”, a breakaway state declared in October 2017 in two English-speaking regions of the central African country.

He described Biya’s dialogue initiative as “an awkward and grudging attempt timed to avoid UN sanctions, considering that the UN will be deliberating on the anglophone crisis this September and Mr Biya and his regime has been amply put on notice.”

He added that “President Biya unilaterally declared the ongoing war in the Northwest and Southwest regions. He must unilaterally declare an end to the war that he declared.”

Opposition calls for ‘amnesty before dialogue’

The opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), on Friday called for a “general amnesty” for detainees linked to the separatist crisis and a “ceasefire” before participating in the “grand national dialogue” proposed by Biya.

During a meeting with the prime minister who is leading the dialogue, the party transmitted “preliminary conditions for (its) participation in this long-awaited inclusive national dialogue”.

“We have unequivocally noted that the announced inclusive national dialogue cannot effectively prosper without a calm environment: the declaration of a ceasefire and the guarantee of a general amnesty for all those involved at any level in the English-speaking crisis,” the statement states.

At midday, however, SDF Vice-President Joshua Osih qualified this text in an interview with AFP: “These are proposals, we should not try to qualify them, but it seems obvious to us that this is justified”, he explained, adding: “we have talked about our vision of dialogue, it is up to them to react unless they want a monologue”.

The Anglophone crisis

Since November 2016, when the government violently cracked down on peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in the Anglophone regions, the francophone-majority country has been mired in the unrest.

More than 2,000 people have been killed while over 500,000 have been displaced as the English-speaking separatists demand independence in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The UN has said that its Secretary General Antonio Guterres “welcomes the announcement” by Biya and “reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to support the dialogue process.”

But many commentators said that if Biya’s overture is genuine, it will have little chance of headway as long as separatist leaders remain behind bars or in exile.

Agencies

Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Thursday held consultative talks with the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), on national dialogue to end conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

SDF First Deputy President Joshua Osih welcomed the initiative but regretted that it took “so many years” for the dialogue to be announced. “Now that the dialogue has been called, we are waiting to see what it looks like, see what is on the table, see what is to offer,” Osih said. “We are ready to give all our good assistance to make sure that this situation in the Northwest and Southwest is brought back to normal.”

Ngute said the talks are to lay the ground work for the national dialogue, which is expected by the end of September. On Tuesday, President Paul Biya, in a rare address to the nation, said the national dialogue will focus on “ways and means of meeting the high aspirations of the people of the Northwest and Southwest regions.”

Crisis has rocked the two Anglophone regions for over two years after armed separatists declared the “independence” of the regions that constitute a minority in the largely French-speaking Cameroon. Over 530,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Source: Xinhuanet

The separatist leader of Cameroon’s English-speaking community on Thursday dismissed President Paul Biya’s call for national dialogue to end the country’s anglophone crisis as a “non-starter”.

Biya on Tuesday announced that he intends to open a major “national dialogue” later this month in a bid to solve the conflict between security forces and armed separatists from the anglophone minority in the west.

“The speech was a non-event and a non-starter,” separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said in a message relayed by his lawyers.

In August Ayuk Tabe was sentenced to life in prison along with nine of his supporters — a move that made the prospect of peace seem even more remote.

Ayuk Tabe is the first self-proclaimed president of “Ambazonia”, a breakaway state declared in October 2017 in two English-speaking regions of the central African country.

Since then the francophone-majority country has been mired in the unrest which has left more than 2,000 people dead as English-speaking separatists demand independence in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

More than 500,000 people have been forced from their homes as a result, according to the Human Rights Watch group.

Ayuk Tabe described Biya’s dialogue initiative as “an awkward and grudging attempt timed to avoid UN sanctions, considering that the UN will be deliberating on the anglophone crisis this September and Mr Biya and his regime has been amply put on notice.”

He added that “President Biya unilaterally declared the ongoing war in the Northwest and Southwest regions. He must unilaterally declare an end to the war that he declared.”

The UN has said that its Secretary General Antonio Guterres “welcomes the announcement” by Biya and “reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to support the dialogue process.”

But many commentators said that if Biya’s overture is genuine, it will have little chance of headway as long as separatist leaders remain behind bars or in exile.

AFP

President Paul Biya’s call for dialogue on the separatist crisis in Cameroon’s two anglophone regions was given a cautious welcome on Wednesday by some, although several separatist leaders swiftly and bluntly rejected it.

The 86-year-old president, apparently softening his stance, said he would convene a “major national dialogue” later this month.

It will “examine the ways and means to respond to the deeply-held aspirations of the populations in the Northwest and Southwest regions but also in all the other component parts of our great nation,” Biya said in a TV address late Tuesday.

His announcement came ahead of the second anniversary of the declaration of the “Republic of Ambazonia” — the self-proclaimed breakaway state for the two English-speaking regions where separatists have launched an armed campaign for independence from the majority French-speaking state.

More than 2,000 people have died, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) thinktank, while the UN says at least half a million have fled their homes. The cost to Cameroon’s economy, meanwhile, is mounting.

In a statement, the UN said Secretary General Antonio Guterres “welcomes the announcement” and “reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to support the dialogue process.”

“All Cameroonian stakeholders” should participate, it said.

• Separatist leaders jailed –

But many commentators said that if Biya’s overture is genuine, it will have little chance of headway so long as breakaway leaders remain behind bars or in exile.

In May, Biya’s prime minister had already said the government was willing to host a dialogue with the separatists.

Yet three months later, separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe was sentenced to life in prison along with nine of his supporters — a move that made the prospect of peace seem even more remote.

A leading Cameroonian anglophone lawyer and human rights campaigner, Felix Agbor Nkongho, gave Biya high marks for the openness of the proposed forum.

It would include members of political groups, civil society and religious groups, as well as representatives of the armed forces and armed rebel groups, according to the announcement.

“The call for an all inclusive dialogue is very appreciated,” the lawyer said in an interview with AFP.

But, he said, “the government should now allow anglophones of various political thought to mobilise, organise themselves and take part without fear of arrest or other punishment for their ideas.”

In the Southwest Region’s capital Buea, prominent local campaigner Blaise Chamango said the hosting of a dialogue was “something that people have been asking for for a long time.”

But he also pointed to a radicalisation of the pro-independence movement over the last three years, after Biya rejected more moderate demands for autonomy or a federal state.

“The separatists have become more radical, and everything that Yaounde (the government) puts forward is seen as a poisoned chalice.”

Peace would be impossible if the separatists are not given a seat at the table, he suggested.

• Separatist scepticism –

Biya’s offer was notably given an immediate thumbs-down by several separatist groups, gathered in an association called the South Cameroon Liberation Movement.

“We will not allow him to use a circus like this to lure the international community,” it said, calling on Biya to withdraw all troops and government officials from the two anglophone regions.

“We will not be party to any national dialogue. The period for dialogue died a long time ago,” Ebenezer Akwanga, a separatist leader, told AFP from the United States.

“We want a comprehensive negotiated settlement on the terms of separation. We will settle for nothing less!”

English speakers — who make up roughly one fifth of Cameroon’s 24 million inhabitants — mostly live in the two regions that were formerly a British colony until they were folded into post-independence Cameroon in 1961.

Anger at perceived discrimination by francophones against anglophones in justice, education and the economy has built for years.

Cameroonian newspapers that are sympathetic to the opposition also questioned the point of the exercise — “a dialogue with ghosts,” said one headline.

Biya, in his speech, made no reference to releasing jailed leaders, although he reiterated an offer to a “pardon” any separatists who voluntarily lay down their arms.

Those who refuse to do so will face “the full force of the law” and of the country’s security and defence forces, he warned.

Source: AFP

The national dialogue recently announced by Cameroonian President Paul Biya has been praised by the UN general secretary António Guterres. This was revealed by the secretary’s spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a statement published on September 10, 2019.

“The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement made today by President Paul Biya on the launch of a national dialogue process in Cameroon. He encourages the Government of Cameroon to ensure that the process is inclusive and addresses the challenges facing the country. He calls on all Cameroonian stakeholders, including the Diaspora, to participate in this effort. The Secretary-General reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to support the dialogue process,” the spokesman wrote.

The dialogue announced by Paul Biya will be articulated around themes that will answer the concerns of residents in the South-west and North-west. It will also bring answers to issues like bilingualism, cultural diversity, social harmony, reconstruction and development of regions affected by the sociopolitical crisis, the education and legal system, decentralisation and local development. Issues like the return of refugees and displaced persons, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants as well as the diaspora’s role in the country’s development will be addressed.

The socio-political crisis started about three years ago in South-west and North-west Cameroon. It started as corporate demands expressed by lawyers and teachers but gradually became violent pro-independent claims with armed groups wreaking havoc, death, and grief.

21,291 Cameroonians fled to Nigeria to avoid combats between armed groups and the regular army, according to the UNHCR. International Crisis group indicates that at least 1,850 people have died during the 20 months of combat.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The west African nation of Cameroon is plagued by near-daily clashes between security forces and anglophone separatists that can be traced back to its split between Britain and France 100 years ago.

Here is some background:

WORLD WAR I SPLIT

Germany was stripped of its African colony of Kamerun after its 1918 World War I defeat when the League of Nations, the forerunner to the UN, split the territory between victors Britain and France.

Four-fifths went to France, becoming independent Cameroon in 1960.

The British portion, along the border with Nigeria, became independent in 1961. A northern Muslim-majority section chose to join Nigeria while the remaining southern area was unified with Cameroon in a federation.

The federal structure was scrapped in 1972 and the anglophone portion was annexed.

ENGLISH-SPEAKING MINORITY

Largely francophone Cameroon has 10 regions, two of which are mainly English-speaking: Northwest Region, whose capital is Bamenda, and Southwest Region with Buea as its capital.

They are home to around 14% of Cameroon’s population of 23 million.

The two regions are permitted some self-governance and language rights, including bilingual schools. But many complain of francophone-favoured discrimination in education, the justice system and the economy.

DEADLY PROTESTS

Calls for a breakaway English-speaking state mounted in the 1990s with demands for a referendum on independence accompanied by low-level unrest.

In 2001, secessionists defied a ban on rallies to protest the 40th anniversary of unification with Cameroon and were confronted by security forces. Several people were killed and secessionist leaders arrested.

The separatist Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) set up a “government” in Britain and leaders moved into exile.

There was a new outbreak of violence in 2016 after lawyers went on strike to demand the right to use Anglo-Saxon common law. Teachers followed, protesting at the appointment of francophones in the region.

While some protesters want only a return to federalism, a minority is pushing for the creation of an independent state called Ambazonia.

ARMED REVOLT

In January 2017, senior secessionist activists were arrested and charged with terrorism and rebellion. President Paul Biya halted their trials in August, apparently trying to calm the situation.

In October 2017, separatist leaders issued a symbolic declaration of independence. At least 17 people were killed in clashes on the sidelines.

Radical separatists took up arms in late 2017, attacking security forces and torching symbols of the administration, such as schools. They also kidnapped police officers, civil servants and businessmen, sometimes foreigners.

CIVIL WAR

In April 2018, the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), which defies the separatists, described the violence as “civil war”.

Separatists torched the Northwest Region home of SDF leader Ni John Fru Ndi in October and also kidnapped his sister, who was later released. Fru Ndi was briefly kidnapped twice in 2019.

A US missionary was killed in the unrest in October 2018 and the following month 79 schoolboys were kidnapped in Bamenda but freed two days later.

In December 2018, Biya ordered the release of 289 people arrested in connection with the crisis. However, in August 2019, separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe and nine others were sentenced to life in prison for charges including “terrorism and secession”.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in violence between separatists and security forces in the anglophone regions since October 2017, Human Rights Watch says. Around 530,000 have fled their homes, according to the UN.

EWN