By Eromo Egbejule
 |
| President of Cameroon Paul Biya is now open to a dialogue with Anglophone rebels. Lintao Zhang/Pool via Reuters |
Earlier this week, Cameroon's absentee president, Paul Biya, addressed
his countrymen – calling for a national dialogue later this month on a
multitude of problems facing the Central African country.
Biya’s address came as a shock to the country’s
estimated 25.8 million people who are not accustomed to public pronouncements
from the reclusive president, who has been in power since 1982.
Chief among the problems is the Anglophone crisis,
which has pitted groups from the bilingual country’s two unequal parts – its
80% French-speaking majority versus its 20% English-speaking minority – against
each other.
Bubbling tensions
Tensions have been bubbling under the surface between
both sides since before the country became a unitary state in 1972. The latest
round of conflict began with a 2016 protest by teachers and lawyers about the
right of North-West and South-West regions to maintain Anglophone legal and
educational systems.
The protests against marginalisation have continued
for three years running as soldiers from the Francophone-majority government
have been sent to quell the uprising by armed separatists agitating for the
secession of the region that has now been described as the Republic of
Ambazonia. Ambazonia declared its independence on 1 October 2017.
Opposing views
But opinion is divided on the ground about how to
resolve the crisis. The separatist rebels do not have widespread support, with
many groups calling for devolution and federalism to increase local autonomy.
In the conflict, more than 30,000 people have fled
across the border into neighbouring Nigeria, while another 500,000 have been
internally displaced. Many people have also been killed in extrajudicial abuses
ordered mostly by government soldiers.
Crackdowns
In January 2018, Julius Ayuk Tabe, self-proclaimed
president of Ambazonia and members of his ruling council were arrested in
Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and extradited to Cameroon for trial. In August 2019,
they were sentenced to life imprisonment by a military tribunal in Yaoundé,
Cameroon’s capital.
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