Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Receives Attention from CNN

Cable News Network(CNN)

CNN Inter­na­tion­al Anchor, Zain Ash­er talks with Judd Dev­er­mont of the Cen­ter for Strate­gic and Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies (CSIS) about the Anglo­phone cri­sis in Cameroon.

A desta­bi­liz­ing war between the gov­ern­ment in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Anglo­phone sep­a­ratists has been going on for more than four years. Hun­dreds of civil­ians have died as a result. Thou­sands have been dis­placed and are now refugees in neigh­bor­ing coun­tries. Most nego­ti­a­tions to resolve the con­flict appear to have failed.

With each pass­ing day that the sit­u­a­tion goes on, it becomes a dis­tant mem­o­ry, even while the pain and suf­fer­ing of civil­ians con­tin­ue. Mean­while, oth­er con­flict sit­u­a­tions on the African con­ti­nent, such as the Tigray cri­sis in Ethiopia, have gained more atten­tion, even spurring quick reac­tions from pow­er­ful nations and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions such as the Unit­ed States and the Unit­ed Nations.

Why the Cameroon sit­u­a­tion remains pro­tract­ed, and unre­solved after many years is the sub­ject of much debate. But experts seem to think French inter­ests in Cameroon may be part­ly to blame for the stale­mate. In his com­ments with Cable News Net­work or CNN, Judd Dev­er­mont of the US-based Cen­ter for Strate­gic and Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies added cre­dence to the role that France con­tin­ues to play in Cameroon and why this may be a hin­drance to a res­o­lu­tion of the Anglo­phone situation.

“It has been neglect­ed and that’s been a real tragedy,” Dev­er­mont told anchor Zain Asher. 

Because of CNN’s glob­al reach and influ­ence, the inter­view received lots of views, shares, and com­ments on social media since it aired on June 2. 

As an orga­ni­za­tion cast­ing a crit­i­cal lens on how the news media treat the news about the African con­ti­nent, we at Africa News Mat­ters, believe in the impor­tant role of the media as a pub­lic good. CNN deserves cred­it for res­ur­rect­ing the issue of con­flict that remains unre­solved in Cameroon after many years of blood­shed. This is exact­ly why we are writ­ing about it here. 

In addi­tion to the tur­moil in the anglo­phone regions of Cameroon, sep­a­ratist lead­ers in the con­flict have been picked up, tried by Cameroon’s mil­i­tary tri­bunal, and giv­en life in prison. Oth­ers, includ­ing oppo­si­tion leader Mau­rice Kam­to, have expe­ri­enced jail time or have been silenced for their own dis­agree­ments with the admin­is­tra­tion on the con­duct of elec­tions, and oth­er state mat­ters. Oppo­nents of the Paul Biya admin­is­tra­tion have nowhere to go but to stick their heads in the sands.

The Cameroon gov­ern­ment appears to be slow-walk­ing the process to peace and seems unwill­ing to sit down for real nego­ti­a­tions, accord­ing to Dev­er­mont. “The gov­ern­ment so far has only made very super­fi­cial con­ces­sions, its real­ly dragged its feet.” 

Too far apart, there are now too many sides in the con­flict. The sep­a­ratist war is being run from Wash­ing­ton D.C., as well as from dis­parate loca­tions in Europe, and the African con­ti­nent. Entrenched, and unbend­ing, the Biya admin­is­tra­tion is dug in about Cameroon’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al integri­ty which it says is non-negotiable. 

Amer­i­can politi­cians have flown to Cameroon to see things for them­selves and to dis­cuss with the gov­ern­ment. The Unit­ed Nations (UN), the Euro­pean Union (EU), and gov­ern­ments in Europe know what is going on. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty is aware of the cri­sis based on these news media accounts. Yet, there has been no seri­ous action to stop the admin­is­tra­tion from killing civilians.

We are count­ing Cameroon as one of the casu­al­ties of French malfea­sance in Africa.  How they prop up dic­ta­tors, turn a blind eye to what­ev­er is going on, and reap the ben­e­fits of impe­ri­al­ism; the pro­duce, the oil, the slave labor, all of which feed the French system.

Recent­ly, French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron apol­o­gized to the peo­ple of Rwan­da for what he said was the French role in the 1994 Rwan­dan geno­cide which killed more than 800,000 civil­ians. How many world lead­ers noticed that the French gov­ern­ment made the stun­ning apol­o­gy, is hard to tell? A litany of French atroc­i­ties across the con­ti­nent is not too far to fetch – Ivory Coast, Cen­tral African Repub­lic (CAR), Mali, The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (DRC), Rwan­da and Burun­di, Niger, and Chad.