CI-NEWS

When will the Anglophone Crisis end?

2020-02-11

No: 470

When will the Anglophone Crisis end?

By Chris Ngumah

The Anglophone Crisis started in 2016 with lawyers and teachers’ protests but was later compounded by separatists’ calls for the independence of the two English- speaking regions of Cameroon.

The separatists claim that the English-speakers (former Southern Cameroons) have, since their union with La Republigue du Cameroun in 1961, been subjected to marginalization by the majority French-speakers.

The crisis has forced thousands of Cameroonians to run helter-skelter, searching for new homes and safety.

But the Cameroon government insists that the country remains one and indivisible.

The Government likens separatists as terrorists whereas the separatists see themselves as Anglophones’ freedom fighters.

It would be recalled that, on January 17, 2017 the Cameroon government banned a group spearheading the independence of Anglophones, which was named Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC). The former said SCNC was a serious threat to national unity.

The maximum punishment for terrorism in Cameroon is the death penalty and many arrested for allegedly instigating the crisis have been prosecuted and jailed, including Sisiku Julius AyukTabe, president of the Republic of Ambazonia.

Many people are living in fear, some have gone in to hiding and many others are fleeing abroad, in search of protection. Suspected separatists are arrested every now and then.

For example, the story is told of a certain Boning Ngueko, who grew up in Kumba, a fief of separatist fighters but was working in Douala. Reports said he was fond of briefing his Douala neighbors on the Anglophone struggle.

But the said Ngueko, born on January 1, 1970, narrowly escaped being arrested in July 2018 when police stormed his Bonaberi –Douala residence, on a tip that he was a separatist.

It was unclear how he escaped and whether he returned to Kumba, where his family had weeks earlier reportedly been attacked by an unidentified group asking for huge sums of money.

Ngueko is not alone in his plight. There are hundreds of others with human rights abuse stories to tell since the Anglophone crisis morphed into an armed conflict between Separatists and Cameroon Military and security forces.

Government has accused Anglophone activists in the Diaspora such as Chris Anu,Mark Bareta ,Cho Ayaba,Tapang Ivo, Eric Tataw of instigating and sponsoring anti-government protests and spearheading calls for the independence of Anglophones.

Rights groups report that the crisis has led to the deaths of over 2000 people, the burning of over 200 villages; over 600 thousand people are internally displaced and over 40 thousand others are seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria. Property valued at billions of FCFA has been destroyed.

The Cameroon Government, last year, held what it described as Major National Dialogue intended to resolve the Anglophone Crisis and the recommendation of the Dialogue included granting Special Status to the two English-speaking regions. Many Cameroonians think the recommendations of the Dialogue are addressing the Anglophone problem and want armed groups and the military to drop their guns.

But the separatists are still fighting and insisting on complete independence for Anglophone. And the question on every lip is: when will the Anglophone Crisis actually end?

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When will the Anglophone Crisis end?