NSOH Christopher NDIKUM (PhD) Associate Professor of Political Science Head of Department of International Relations And Conflict Resolution-University of Buea

Benin Conference 2018

Topic: Discuss the Political Situation of

Introduction: Cameroon is a country divided into ten regions. She is today faced with many challenges in her different regions. These regions are the Northern where the Boko Haram terrorist phenomenon is found since 2014, in the Eastern, where a large number of refugees from the Republic of are based since 2013 and in the North West/South West regions where there is the conflict known today as the Anglophone problem which started since the reunification of the two peoples-The Southern and the Republic of Cameroon. Respectable ladies and gentlemen, permit me draw your attention to the fact that with the collapse of the , the international community thought it was time to address the issues of human rights and democracy that were plaguing the world. Little did the international community foresee the coming of 1. The war against terror, 2. Climate change and 3. The eruption of intra-conflicts. Cameroon is a victim of these three challenges. I will peruse the Cameroon political situation today in addressing some of these challenges and the issue of refugees. It does not mean that the one that will not be treated is of little value. In this

1 exposé, I will present, 1. Refugee crisis in the Eastern region, 2. Boko Haram Phenomenon and 3. The Anglophone problem. 4. The recent Presidential elections that just took place on the 7th of October 2018.

1. Refugees in the Eastern Region of Cameroon 2013

Since 2013, the socio-political conflict of Central Africa republic created a large number of refugees who are today settled in the Eastern region of the country. The sudden large in-flow of refugees into the country, posed some enormous problems to the Cameroonian government, though a traditional country in hosting refugees but was overwhelmed by the number. It became a great challenge to provide basic needs like lodging, health, education, food, and to convince the people of this region to understand the humanitarian needs of these people. These refugees were fleeing from conflicts in their country of origin. At the early days of their arrival, it was difficult for the Cameroonian government to identify the in-depth reason why they were fleeing their country. This made the government to commit an error by putting these people together which led to some security challenges because Muslims and Christians were put in the same camps. The conflict of Central African Republic started as a political problem and later mutated to an identity conflict. That is poor governance of the diversity of Christians/Muslims that constitute the country. This identity conflict was now transported into the various camps in the Eastern region of Cameroon where these people are lodged. This refugee crisis in the Eastern region has been pre-occupying the Cameroonian government. I should however mention that the collaboration of the UNHCR, and many international and national NGOs with the are tackling some of

2 these challenges though they continue to persist. The government is guaranteeing security in this region as one of her responsibilities and as earlier said, working with other bodies to sustain basic needs of the people. It is not an easy task for the government so, the challenges are there.

2. Boko Haram Terrorist Sect of the Northern Region

The Boko Haram is a terrorist Islamic sect that emerged from in the early 2000. Their main agenda was to create a purely Islamic state ruled by Sharia law. This group has distorted and perverted Prophet Mohamed`s teachings and adopted an extremist position of Islam to the extent that they considered “Western Education as forbidden by Islam.” The sect considers the ideologies of the western world as inauthentic, illegal and forbidden, thus their desire to combat western ideology in any country it is found. This ´sect finally made its way into the Northern part of Cameroon in 2014. They started with kidnapping and later resolved into using various violent tactics of asymmetric warfare against the state in creating fears, spreading terror and blowing-out their ideology. With this challenge, the Cameroon government joint the international community in its fight against global terrorism and launched an attack against the terrorist sect that is still ongoing. Since asymmetric warfare is still very new to Cameroon as well as many militaries of the world, the fight against the terrorist group is a great challenge to the government. At the moment, the government is using both hard and soft powers to address the issue of . Formerly, the government did not have a boarder politics but today Cameroon is taking various measures to protect its boarders from transnational crimes like trafficking, illicit trade, and other trans-boarder crimes. On the soft power, the government has indulged into continues

3 trainings of youth and other people, providing various social amenities to the youth of this region in order to improve their standard of living. This will make it difficult for the terrorist’s sect to recruit youth or any other person in their sect. On hard power, the Cameroonian government and other states in Africa and the world have come together in using the military to fight against this terrorist sect. What I term “Joint Initiative against Terrorism”. However, it should be mentioned that this is not yet over so, the threats still persist.

3. The Anglophone Problem

Before I explain the political situation in Cameroon and the Anglophone problem, I wish to crave your indulgence first of all that the whole world is today undergoing the challenges of diversity, pluralism, difference and multiculturalism. At the international level, there is the conflict of Universalism versus Cultural Relativism where other regions of the world believe they are being dominated by ideologies originating from Europe and Northern America. At the same time, at the domestic level, even the most developed democracies that built their foundations on HOMOGENEITY are today suffering from this conflict of diversity in various ways. So, I wish to say that it is as well a serious issue in Cameroon today. At the same time, I wish to thank you for the interest you have in Cameroon, to help stabilize her, if possible. This state is a very strategic country in the Gulf of Guinea and so needs to be stable. Coming back to this type of conflict, we already saw it in Kosovo, Rwanda, the then Republic of Sudan, Eritrea/Ethiopia, just to name a few.

Today in Cameroon, the undertone of the Anglophone problem is, identity, conflict of diversity. Though, I will limit myself to the recent political turmoil,

4 it should be emphasized that this conflict originated from both external and internal factors at the advent of independence. Since very few conflicts are sudden, the Anglophone problem has been gradually escalating through the various stages of conflict escalation. Of recent, it has become so visible with the teachers and lawyers trade unions that raised their professional- identity challenges in the country in 2016. The teachers complained that the government has been sending Francophone teachers and lecturers in Anglophone parts of the country who do not master the Anglo-Saxon educational system and cannot express themselves in English. With this approach, the quality of education in these regions is dropping. Meanwhile, lawyers complained that judges of civil law background of Francophone extract of the country without knowledge of the common law practiced in the Anglophone part of the country are occupying the courts in Anglophone regions. Furthermore, these judges make submissions in these courts in French not respecting the fact, if the people understand them or not.

These complains brought a political stalemate in the country. At the early stage, the government entered into negotiation with the trade unionists but as we know, it is in most cases difficult for a conflict to be settled at the negotiation level where both parties mostly are emotional and at times manifest strong and inflexible stance, especially in bilateral negotiation which was the case in Cameroon. As the negotiation failed, many Anglophones went on the street protesting peacefully carrying peace plants in the different regions. This led to clashes between the police, military and the population where some military officials used live bullets killing some of the protesters, went into university students’ residential areas and have girls raped, brutalized and many of the protesters caught, detained until

5 today and the government shot down internet supply for three months in this zone.

It should however be mentioned that some of the leaders like Barrister Agbor Balla, Dr. Neba Fontem of the consortium and others were released from detention which was a good gesture from the government, but some of the key leaders like Sisiku Tabe, Tasang Wilfred are still detained with many others. Due to the hard power used by the government to handle the peaceful protest from the beginning, the Anglophone population was provoked and kept on clashing with the military. In course of the resistance from the population, the dead of some military personnel were registered. This made the President to make pronouncement on the 30th of November 2017 against the rebels calling them terrorists and fully deployed the military.

According to the government, the deployment of the military was to combat and bring to an end the prevailing violence. On the contrary, this deployment has radicalized the conflict and led many deaths, on both sides, that is, military personnel and civilians, displacement of people both internally and beyond the national boarders becoming refugees, structural and direct violence, child soldiers, rampant kidnapping, destruction of the economy, infrastructures, trafficking, unwanted pregnancies, schools closed down, many villages razed with fire, food markets burnt, crimes against humanity, war crimes from both sides, war economy has been established in the country and many armed mercenaries, militia groups and even bandits have joined the fight.

However, the government has been taking certain soft power approaches to appease the situation. Some of these measures are, recruitment of

6 bilingual teachers, the Commission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, the Commission of Emergency Relief and of recent, the creation of a Commission of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation. As we know, there is no ultimate way of solving a conflict, however, there is a standard procedure which is inclusive, convincing to the parties in conflict. Some of these measures implemented by the government to resolve this conflict are very good but misplaced.

The Way Foreword

The Government should indulge in short, middle and long-terms strategies in resolving this conflict once and for all.

My opinion is that the government should have indulged into an inclusive, fair and transparent dialogue that will build trust amongst all the stakeholders of the conflict. In this I mean, calling for ceasefire, release of the detained leaders and others involved in the conflict, address the root causes which are Root-based and Need based issues for sustainable peace and security. This will be a pro-active and not reactive strategy. If this is done, we can now come to Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation of the militia groups.

At this level, I urge that we should avoid a blame game but put our energy to encourage the government of Cameroon to indulge into meaningful inclusive dialogue.

Thank you for your Attention

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