Pre-talks between Cameroon’s government and Anglophone separatists, facilitated by Canada, have opened the door to a long-overdue peace process, but Yaoundé has baulked. The government should embrace these talks, while domestic and external actors should put their full weight behind the initiative.

Having cooperated with efforts to bring Cameroon’s government and Anglophone separatists into formal peace talks, Yaoundé should now commit to participate in them. On 20 January, Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, announced that the two sides had agreed to start peace negotiations. The announcement raised hopes that there might be a way out of the grinding seven-year conflict in mostly Francophone Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions, the North West and South West. For months, Ottawa had led secret “pre-talks” that seemingly helped the two sides overcome key hurdles to initiating a formal dialogue. Shortly after Joly’s comments, Anglophone leaders issued a joint statement affirming their commitment to participate in negotiations with Canada’s facilitation. But three days later, Cameroon’s government brushed aside Canada’s efforts, denying that it had asked a “foreign party” to broker a resolution to the conflict. The denial revealed deep divisions among top Cameroonian officials and came as a surprise, given Yaoundé’s previous engagement in the Canada-led pre-talks. While this last-minute rejection after months of careful work was a blow to peace efforts, the government can and should correct its course and get the talks on track.

Yaoundé’s brusque dismissal of Canada’s initiative leaves talks in limbo and risks perpetuating, or even escalating, the conflict. Separatist militias immediately responded to the government’s statement with a fresh campaign of violence in the North West and South West regions, erecting roadblocks and firing rocket-propelled grenades at army convoys. Their leaders started discussing the possibility of bringing the militias under a single command or organising joint operations against security forces under the banner of a united Southern Cameroon military front. In Yaoundé, meanwhile, the defence ministry launched a drive to recruit nearly 9,500 new soldiers. Its special forces stepped up patrols in the Anglophone regions and attacked separatist positions.

After seven years of hostilities in the Anglophone regions, the prospect that the parties might miss an opportunity to put hostilities behind them is jarring. The trouble in the North West and South West regions began in October 2016, when lawyers and teachers led protests calling for a two-state federation to preserve the Anglophone legal and educational systems, which they felt were being encroached upon by the Francophone-led central government. The military’s heavy-handed response to peaceful calls for greater autonomy prompted Anglophones to form militias, leading to armed conflict the following year. Since 2017, the fighting has claimed over 6,000 lives in the Anglophone regions and displaced nearly 800,000 people. Making up 60 per cent of the displaced population, women and children face differentiated risks, including gender-based violence and child trafficking. Recent estimates state that the conflict has disrupted the education of over 700,000 children.

Yaoundé has thus far been reluctant to consider a political settlement with the separatists.

Yaoundé has thus far been reluctant to consider a political settlement with the separatists. Previous peace initiatives have foundered. In January 2017, the government suspended negotiations with Anglophone civil society leaders in the city of Bamenda, in the North West region, before arresting them, triggering widespread Anglophone calls for the two regions’ secession. In 2019, President Paul Biya ignored a Swiss offer to facilitate talks, instead organising what purported to be a national conference, but without inviting the most influential separatist leaders. In April 2020, Cameroonian officials began talks with imprisoned separatist leaders, only to suddenly call them off after a second encounter in July of that year. In October 2022, while again rejecting Swiss efforts to push forward with their initiative, the government started low-level consultations with Anglophone leaders in the diaspora. This time around, the separatists’ discretion and clear commitment to finding a resolution persuaded some in Yaoundé to participate at senior levels in pre-talks, with Ottawa’s facilitation, leading observers to believe that the government was ready to take the next step and fully engage in formal talks.

It should. Committing to the Canada-facilitated peace initiative would allow President Biya to change the perception that he has little interest in a political solution, prevent yet another escalation of the conflict and contribute to stabilising the country ahead of elections that are likely to be fraught. The presidential, legislative and local polls due in 2025 are already fuelling familiar political and ethnic tensions that tend to surface during election cycles. Politicians from rival power blocs are positioning themselves to succeed Biya, who has served as president for 40 years and will turn 90 later in February. Cameroon has not seen a single democratic transfer of power since gaining its independence in 1960 and has a history of contested polls, leaving the 2025 elections freighted with uncertainty. Among other reasons for concern, separatist militias forced many Anglophones to boycott votes in 2018 and 2020.

If formal negotiations proceed, they will benefit from good work done in the pre-talk phase. Those pre-talks set as a priority the establishment of confidence-building measures, such as a cessation of hostilities, protection of the right to education and the release of prisoners. Reaching agreement on some or all of these in the next phase of dialogue could ease the suffering of millions of Cameroonians. Building on these achievements, the talks could then turn to issues that will be at the core of any settlement, such as designing a consensual political reconfiguration of the Anglophone regions; reforming the security sector; disarming the rebels; establishing transitional justice mechanisms to address abuses committed over the course of the conflict; and launching economic reconstruction.

Already the Canada-facilitated initiative has yielded clear benefits.

Already the Canada-facilitated initiative has yielded clear benefits. Anglophone faith leaders (Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Muslims and Anglicans), as well as civil society and women’s groups, are more supportive of the prospective Canada talks than of previous initiatives. More critically, the facilitation has also persuaded rival separatist movements to form an orderly bloc. Drawing on earlier efforts by Swiss facilitators, Canada managed to bring together four major separatist groups, with a fifth announcing its commitment to the peace process after Joly’s statement. In the past, separatist groups appeared too divided to reach consensus among themselves. This time around, their unity offers the Cameroonian government a clear counterpart in negotiations.

Key outside interlocutors – including France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, the U.S. and the Vatican, and multilateral organisations such as the African Union, European Union and UN – should urge Cameroon not to miss this opportunity. They should underscore the benefits that a commitment to formal talks would bring Yaoundé on the security, humanitarian and diplomatic fronts. Should the impasse be overcome, Canada should convene an inclusive discussion among interested Cameroonian parties that would allow them to agree on a negotiation framework that addresses the two sides’ concerns about the agenda for future talks.

To set the talks up for success, Ottawa should seek a public commitment from the Cameroonian government to stick with the process and clarify misconceptions among some Cameroonian parties that Canada seeks a bigger role than to facilitate or is driving toward a particular outcome. For their part, Cameroon’s government and separatist movements should work closely with faith leaders, women’s groups, civil society organisations and politicians to build domestic support for the talks, as suggested by Yaoundé in its 23 January statement. Outside parties should monitor progress closely and provide persistent support, and France should use its close relationship with Cameroon to press for positive momentum.

Progress toward an enduring settlement has not come easily. The tumultuous relationship between Cameroon’s Anglophones and the central government is marked by years of frustration, mistrust and, since 2017, gruesome violence. Unpacking and addressing the two sides’ differences will take time, effort and good faith. The Canada-facilitated process represents a crucial chance to begin this long-overdue work. All those with an interest in the peaceful resolution of Cameroon’s festering Anglophone conflict should do what they can to ensure this opportunity is not squandered.

Culled from International Crisis Group

The nation has been run by the same man, Paul Biya, for decades. But as the 89-year-old fades from public view, high-stakes maneuvering is underway, which may have led to the brutal murder and mutilation of a well-known journalist.

Martinez Zogo was a journalist at Amplitude FM, an independent radio station in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé — and he became well-known for denouncing corruption. On Jan. 22, Zogo was found dead at the age of 51 — his body was severely mutilated.

From the moment the killing was reported, this central African nation of 27 million has been plunged into fear and a deep, potentially fatal regime crisis.

On Monday, one of Cameroon’s most prominent businessmen, Jean-Pierre Amougou-Belinga, was arrested at his home by about 100 security agents, who first had to neutralize his ten or so bodyguards. Amougou-Belinga is suspected of being the mastermind behind the journalist’s murder.

But that was just one in a series of arrests made in recent days, including the head of Cameroon’s counterintelligence service, as well as several members of the intelligence services. Reporters Without Borders, which has been investigating the case, reports that it has seen the statement of the Director of Special Operations of the counterintelligence service, Justin Danwe, who acknowledges his involvement. The Paris-based organization for the protection of journalists thus issued a statement that Zogo’s murder was a crime of the state.

Other journalists were reportedly threatened, including Haman Mana, director of the daily newspaper Le Jour, whom Martinez Zogo had visited a few days before his disappearance and who’d been told he would be next “on the list.”

Threat of instability in a key African country

If this were only a matter of settling scores over corruption, it would already be quite sordid; but everything seems to indicate that it goes far beyond that, that we instead are witnessing the war of political succession taking place in Cameroon.

The country’s President, Paul Biya, who will soon be celebrating his 90th birthday, has run the country for more than 40 years — a record! For a long time now, he has been an “interim” president, passing lengthy stays in Switzerland, meeting only once or twice a year with the Council of Ministers.

The country could be one of the continent’s engines of growth.

This transition has thus left a lot of room for officials to compete for influence, including the all-powerful Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. It is still too early to know how this murder and subsequent arrests fit into these maneuverings, but it appears that the stakes are clearly high enough to kill, denounce and betray.

Cameroon is a key country in central Africa, and it is in no one’s interest to see it sink into even greater instability as the end of Biya’s long reign continues to drag out.

Boko Haram and oligarchs

The northern part of the nation, bordering Lake Chad, continues to face the threat of Boko Haram jihadists. The English-speaking West is in the grip of a civil war that has been going on for years, due to failures by the central government to keep its promises. All the while, much of Cameroon’s wealth is being captured by a predatory oligarchy.

And yet, it is an oil-rich, agricultural and modestly industrial country that could be one of the continent’s engines of growth. Its fate is of sufficient concern to its partners that French President Emmanuel Macron went there last summer, at the risk of appearing to support Biya, whom he has also criticized on repeated occasions.

Last week, several Cameroonian personalities from the diaspora as well as from within the country called for a national dialogue in an article in the French daily Le Monde before, they said, “a catastrophe occurs.” With the latest news, one wonders if the catastrophe has not already begun.

Source: Worldcrunch

The Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon has called on the African country’s government to accept the offer of mediation made last week by Canadian authorities with a view to a possible agreement with Anglophone separatists that would end a conflict that has left more than 6,000 people dead since 2017.

The current situation of the process is confusing, because the Canadian government presented itself as a mediator last Friday but days later the Cameroonian authorities rejected any involvement of Ottawa in negotiations with the separatists.

In this scenario, the NGO calls on the Government of Cameroon “to renew its commitment to the Canadian process” since “the killings, lawlessness, destruction and impunity prevailing in the conflict zones have only generated more violence and insecurity”.

“In this regard, the solidarity of the government of Cameroon with the Canadian process is vital,” the group added in a statement posted on its website.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly did not exactly comment on the Cameroonian government’s refusal but assured that the warring parties have already held three meetings in Ontario and Quebec. “The Cameroonian government approached us and we also invited a UN representative present during the mediation,” the minister assured on Tuesday.

Cameroon’s Anglophone regions–Northwest and Southwest–have been rocked by conflict following the crackdown on separatist movements after Ambazonia’s self-proclamation of independence on October 1, 2017.

The previous year, this area–once part of British colonies in Africa but which decided to join French Cameroon–was the scene of peaceful protests to demand greater autonomy or independence arguing discrimination by central authorities, also on language issues.

Since then, armed groups have proliferated and support for the separatists, hitherto rather marginal, has increased. The government has responded with a harsh crackdown, during which human rights organizations have accused the security forces of committing atrocities.

Source: EUROPA PRESS

An embarrassing setback in a Canadian peace initiative in Cameroon has demonstrated the challenges that could hamper Ottawa’s planned new Africa strategy this year, but federal officials are optimistic the peace talks will still proceed.

The federal government is planning to release its Africa strategy in the early months of this year, aiming to boost Canada’s engagement with African countries. The unexpected reversal in Cameroon, however, is an example of the complexities that can trip up Canadian efforts on the continent.

On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced that Canada had accepted a “mandate” to facilitate peace talks in an armed conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people in Cameroon in the past six years. She said the Canadian role reflected its “engagement to work with our African partners” – a reference to the government’s broader goals on the continent.

Ms. Joly’s announcement specifically listed Cameroon’s government as a participant in the Canadian-mediated peace process. Just three days later, however, the Cameroonian government issued a strong denial, insisting it had not accepted any foreign country to become the mediator or facilitator of peace negotiations.

Ms. Joly, speaking at a federal cabinet retreat in Hamilton on Tuesday, was asked about Cameroon’s denial. “Our goal is to be patient and take a deep breath,” she told journalists. “Peace talks are complicated and messy, but we stand ready to help.”

Ms. Joly said it was the Cameroonian government that had originally approached Canada for help in the peace process.

The government’s rejection of a Canadian mediation role dominated the front-page headlines in Cameroon’s newspapers on Tuesday. Local media commentators said there were pro-war hawks in the government who wanted the conflict to continue and were deliberately sabotaging the Canadian peace initiative. They noted that the government had walked out of a similar Swiss-led peace process last September after three years of talks.

“Analysts say there are some government bigwigs behind the scenes who have been throwing spanners in the works to frustrate the initiatives for peace talks,” a leading Cameroonian newspaper, The Guardian Post, reported on Tuesday.

It cited a “jealous rivalry and egocentric spirit” in some government factions as the reason for the official denial of the Canadian announcement.

Despite the government’s statement, the other participants in the peace talks – regional leaders in English-speaking regions who are seeking to secede from Cameroon – continue to support the peace process.

Ms. Joly’s press secretary, Adrien Blanchard, said the Foreign Affairs Minister’s announcement last Friday still stands. “We remain in contact with the parties,” he said on Tuesday.

Asked about Canada’s planned new Africa strategy, he said the work on the strategy is continuing. “Our objective is to broaden our coalition of states to tackle the most pressing issues,” he said.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said Ms. Joly should have exercised more caution before making an announcement about Canada’s role in Cameroon.

He pointed to the collapse of the Swiss-mediated talks last year and the problems the international community has had encouraging Cameroon’s President to engage in a dialogue with the anglophone minority in Cameroon.

“To this point the Cameroon government has not shown through its action any real desire to sit down with the opposition to talk about how to settle this conflict,” Mr. Chong told The Globe and Mail.

He said this episode is another example of the Trudeau government “focusing too much on communication without doing sufficient legwork on the ground to ensure this is what all parties had agreed to.”

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said she doesn’t believe the Canadian government was lying when it said it would be a mediator in Cameroon peace talks.

“It’s not like Canada was making this up. It’s not unusual for there to be bumps in the road during a peace process,” she said. “It looked like the Cameroon government backed out under internal pressure. I’m not 100 per cent sure it was Canada’s fault.”

Ms. McPherson, who has worked for decades in international development, said she feels like Canada can play an important role in Cameroon’s future.

“We certainly hope that’s the case – that they are able to assist with the peace-building. We are a bilingual country like Cameroon. This is a long-standing conflict in a country that needs some support from countries like Canada.”

The worsening conflict between Cameroon’s security forces and separatist groups in the primarily English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon has forced more than a million to flee their homes since the conflict erupted in 2016.

The English-speaking regions have felt excluded by the French-speaking majority for decades. Their grievances date back to the early 1960s when British-controlled and French-speaking regions were merged to form a single country.

Culled from The globeandmail.com

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime on Monday said it had not asked Canada to mediate its conflict with the people of Southern Cameroons, apparently denying a statement from the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry that it had been assigned to work on a peace process.

On Jan. 21, Canada’s foreign ministry said it had accepted a mandate to facilitate a peace process between Cameroonian authorities and some Ambazonian factions in English-speaking regions to resolve a conflict that has killed over 6,000 people since 2017.

Still with Canada, a construction company Magil has managed to salvage its contract with the ruling crime syndicate for Olembe stadium, at the heart of a bitter battle behind the scenes between Minister- Secretary General Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and sports minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi.

Elsewhere, a series of anonymous letters purportedly signed by National Assembly Speaker Cavaye Djibril have sought to settle scores with several ruling party figures from the Far North region. Investigators recently questioned Cavaye’s top aide about these poison-pen letters.

Biya and his criminal gang in Yaoundé have recently taken some steps towards a post-Biya era with a round of regional nominations. The main obstacle they now face is introducing Franck Biya as National Chairman of the CPDM and also keeping control of the northern regions and Southern Cameroons.

In the latest episode in the never-ending conflict between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Cameroon government Francophone dominated armed forces, elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion have continued to search the palaces of several high Anglophone traditional rulers.

In Etoudi, the position of Minister Ngoh Ngoh, who enjoys the support of first lady Chantal Biya, seems to be under threat. Until now, he has always managed to save his skin.

And finally, Biya will not let Marcel Niat and Cavaye retire out of fear that their retirements could raise unspoken questions about his own position as head of state.

By Chi Prudence Asong

While Cameroonians across the world are optimistic about the resolution of the socio-political crisis which has fractured the country and hurt its economy, the hawks in the Yaounde government who are clearly frozen in time are seeking to scuttle plans by the international community to engineer peace in the Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

In a press release signed by the country’s communication minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, who also doubles as the government’s spokesperson, it is clear that the government stuck in its old ways and prepared to throw a monkey-wrench into the peace process which has received global approval with Canada designated to play a leadership role. The press release stresses that it is first and foremost up to the people of Cameroon and the leaders to seek ways and means to address problems facing the country.

It must be pointed out that Cameroon’s current leaders have never been voted into power by the people of Cameroon. For more than 30 years, no free and fair elections have ever been held in Cameroon and rigging elections is the only way the current regime knows. 

The Yaoundé government is noted for its dishonesty, and it will be preposterous for any reasonable person to trust a word from a government which is on its last leg. Mr. Rene Sadi’s unfortunate release should not dampen anybody determination to bring peace to the country.  

Cameroonians must be willing to drag their so-called leaders to the negotiating table if real change has to occur in the country. Only a massive revolution will change things in Cameroon and Cameroonians must accept that some people have to die for others to live in peace. Power never concedes and freedom is never granted on a platter of gold.

Cameroonians – both Anglophones and Francophones – should join forces to engineer a regime change in Yaoundé.

By Rita Akana 

The announcement by the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, to the effect that there is a peace process aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon has generated a lot of enthusiasm in Cameroon, especially in the country’s two English-speaking regions where many innocent civilians are still being killed and others being exploited by government soldiers sent to the regions to help restore peace and unity. 

The announcement clearly points out that “Civilians are bearing the brunt of the ongoing crisis in Cameroon, with more than 6,000 people having lost their lives since 2017. In addition, nearly 800,000 people have been displaced as a result of this crisis, and 600,000 children do not have full access to education.

The announcement also underscores that Canada welcomes the agreement by the parties to enter a process to reach a comprehensive, peaceful and political resolution of the conflict, underscoring that the parties have also agreed to form technical committees to begin work on confidence-building measures.

Canada, a trusted partner around the world, holds that the agreement to enter a formal process is a critical first step toward peace and a safer, more inclusive and prosperous future for civilians affected by the conflict and the North American country is ready to provide much-needed leadership in the resolution of a conflict which has left many dead.

Canada therefore “… commend all parties for engaging in substantive dialogue. We encourage all stakeholders to support and work with the parties to advance and contribute to an inclusive process to reach a lasting and sustainable political settlement, stressing that “Canada has accepted the mandate to facilitate this process, as part of our commitment to promote peace and security and advance support for democracy and human rights. Our role also reflects Canada’s engagement to work with our African partners to build a better future for everyone.

It should be recalled that Canada does not support Cameroon’s dislocation and has underscored, through many media, that it has had significant experience with its own minorities which it intends to put at the service of Cameroon so that the different communities can live in peace and work tirelessly towards the attainment of economic prosperity. 

Canada is a middle-class civilization which runs on equitable distribution of resources so that its citizens can have the best possible living conditions. Canada believes in federalism and it holds that with a federal structure, Cameroon can become the continent’s envy. 

Canada’s federal system is cost-effective, and it grants the citizens unfettered access to their leaders and the right to run their own affairs except for foreign affairs, natural resources and the military. Canadian federalism diminishes conflicts among the various communities, and this has made Canada one of the best countries to live in the world.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey