Cameroon’s Silent War: The Anglophone Crisis and the Urgent Call for Change
I just finished listening to a recent report on Radio France Internationale (RFI) about the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon — a report that underscores a painful truth: despite efforts by the Biya regime to mask it, Cameroon has remained a divided nation for over eight years.
The silence surrounding the Anglophone
crisis is not due to a lack of suffering or injustice. It is the result of a
calculated political effort to suppress the truth, control the narrative, and
maintain a grip on power. What many outside (and even inside) Cameroon still
fail to fully grasp is the root cause of this ongoing tragedy — an intentional
attempt by President Paul Biya to assimilate English-speaking Cameroonians into
a centralised, Francophone-dominated state.
A Crisis Born of Assimilation and Injustice
The crisis, now in its ninth year, is not
simply a cultural misunderstanding or a dispute over language. It is a
deep-seated political and historical issue. When Cameroon gained independence,
the union between the English-speaking and French-speaking territories was
based on a federal structure — a form of governance that would respect the
distinct identities, legal systems, and administrative traditions of both
sides.
But this balance was disrupted when
President Biya, with the backing of France, unilaterally changed the form of
the state from a federal system to a unitary one. In doing so, he began a
systematic erasure of Anglophone identity: replacing the common law system with
the civil law system, sidelining English-speaking institutions, and
marginalizing the voices of the people from the North-West and South-West
regions.
State Violence and the Role of the Military
For more than eight years now, the Biya
regime has responded not with dialogue or reform, but with brute force. The
military has been deployed to English-speaking regions where they have been
accused — by local and international observers — of arbitrary arrests, torture,
killings, and the burning of entire villages.
Thousands have been replaced. Countless
others live in exile. And many more remain behind bars — prisoners of
conscience in a state that criminalizes dissent.
Worse still, this campaign of violence has
been supported, or at least tolerated, by certain Anglophone elites —
individuals who, for political or economic gain, have sided with a regime that
continues to brutalize their own communities.
And yet, these regions are among the
richest in Cameroon, particularly in natural resources like petroleum. It is a
cruel irony that the areas generating much of the country’s wealth are the same
ones being subjected to systemic violence and neglect.
A Nation at the Crossroads
As Cameroon approaches its next
presidential election, there is growing hope — and urgent need — for change.
The unity of Cameroon cannot be decreed
from Yaoundé. It cannot be built through military might or by silencing
dissent. True national unity will only come when the rights and identity of
English-speaking Cameroonians are respected and restored.
That path begins with political change. For
too long, the Biya regime has maintained its grip on power through
manipulation, repression, and fear. But the tide can turn — if Cameroonians
from all walks of life, both Anglophone and Francophone, rise up and vote for
genuine change.
It is not just about electing a new
president. It is about choosing a new future — one where justice, inclusion,
and democracy are more than empty words.
Conclusion
The Anglophone crisis is not an isolated
issue. It is a symptom of a deeper sickness within the Cameroonian state — a
refusal to respect diversity, a fear of decentralisation, and a dangerous
addiction to authoritarianism.
But the people still have power. With the
coming elections, they have an opportunity to reject the politics of division
and violence and build a nation that truly belongs to all its citizens.
The question now is: will they seize it?
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