Jutha Gupah, Maiduguri December 20, 2019
The lingering Camerounian questions over withdrawals of military from Southern and Northern Cameroons to create United Nations Organisation (UNO) state of Cameroon by UN; are begging for answers since World War I. Even though the political development had been interesting, Cameroun was a German territory, before the later was defeated in the war. After Germany’s defeat, France and Britain divided the territory between them under the watchful eyes of the League of Nations. The larger part (Southern Cameroons) was occupied by the French speaking country, while English speaking (Northern Cameroons) was a minority. In 1960, The French speaking Cameroon got its independence in 1960 and established a new country known as; “La Republique du Cameroon.” The following year, the English speaking opted to join Cameroun and a bilingual nation was created.
The Anglophones however; continued to complain of marginalization. According to Cameroon UN workshops Coordinator and Chairman of steering committee, Prof. Martin Ateh; “The Government has been controlled by the Francophones, while Paul Biya became the President in 1982.” He said this was after the country’s first President; Ahmadou Ahidjo left office from the same Francophone territory. The ongoing imbroglio could be traced to late 2016 when the English speaking lawyers and teachers went on the streets of Camerounian capital, Yaounde for peaceful protest. They claimed that the minority Anglophones are being forced to assimilate into Francophone legal and educational systems. This did not go down well with the Camerounian Government as it used force to quell the protests and violence. The U.S has watched the political developments, as it allegedly violated human rights in Cameroun. US Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, Tibor Nagy also told journalists recently told that the U.S takes allegations of human rights violations in Cameroon seriously.
Amnesty International (AI) also reported last September that over 400 civilians had been killed. But the Camerounian military claimed that 170 of their troops also died in the violence. The United Nations High Command for Refugees (UNHCR) in a separate statement said: “Fifteen thousand refugees have fled to neighboring Nigeria and that the figure is likely to rise before the end of this year.” The only first and last meeting the Cameroonian government held with the separatists, who are demanding for their separate new country of Ambazonia; was in 2019. “Despite these dialogues with Camerounian authorities, the war continues to linger with loss of many lives and property,” said Prof. He said the 72-hour ultimatum for President Biya to pull out the military from Southern Cameroons (territory) was not surprising to the affected citizens. According to him, US is only performing her role as the policeman of the World. Political watchers also believe that the U.S intervention is coming rather too late especially with her interest in the territory. “Boko Haram insurgency has made the U.S military to remain in Cameroun; as the global policeman,” he said, stating that the U.S Government does not want a worsening situation to lose more lives and property.
He said depending on Biya’s resistance to military pull out, the US may be riding on crest of violence in the Cameroun to remove one of longest serving presidents in Africa. Political analysists and commentators on Friday in Maiduguri, Borno state, said: “U.S’s intervention could likely spell doom for Nigeria, particularly the border states in Northeast, Nigeria. Their coming among other things is to allow the Anglophone separatists to have a country of their own. It has already been reported that the new UNO state of Cameroon will also comprise 24 Local Government Areas in Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states of Nigeria. The composition of the 86,214 square kilomtre country; has also been confirmed by UN Workshop Coordinator and Chairman Steering Committee, Prof. Ateh. He said the Cameroonian military pull out from Southern territory is to pave way for the freedom fighters to actualise UNO state of Cameroon by UN on July 10, 2020.
