The Anglophone armed conflict which is a transformation from Anglophone Identity problem escalated in 2016, but can be traced back to the colonial time. From 1884, the Republic of Cameroon was a German protectorate. In 1916, though, Cameroon was split between the British and the French into British Cameroon and French Cameroon.
Under the wave of decolonization that took place in the 60’s, though voted by the UN on 30th April 1961 to be independent (64 Countries for), Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons was denied outright independence and was obliged to join either French Cameroon or Nigeria. They voted for French Cameroons with the understanding of a Con-Federate state. However, French Cameroon quickly defied treaty agreements. On 30th Sept 1961, gendarme forces from French Cameroon were deployed across Southern Cameroons and the mobile wing police, an erstwhile elite Southern Cameroons force was abolished. The constitution of French Cameroon was imposed on Southern Cameroons and for the next 57 years, all the institutions of Southern Cameroons have since collapsed and Southern Cameroonians have been marginalized and the Southern Cameroons Anglo-Saxon educational system and common law system have been near extinction. French Cameroon has tried to completely assimilate the people of British Southern Cameroons, with no success. Over the years there have been multiple uprisings by Southern Cameroonians to fight for justice and right the wrongs of French Cameroon.
The recent escalation began in September 2016, when Common Law Lawyers from the NW & SW regions launched protest marches in all major cities of the Anglophone territory, following warning signals they had sent to the Cameroon Government for tacitly eroding common law practice from the bi-jural system in the Cameroonian judiciary. During the protests, some of the lawyers were severely tortured and maimed by Cameroon security forces, causing them to desert the courts in protest.
This brutal attack on the lawyers prompted all the other civil society organizations and trade unions in the Anglophone Region to come together to support the lawyers and also to stop the erosion of the Southern Cameroons way of life in their different areas. Because of continued threats from the Government, these leaders formed a Consortium of all the unions and organizations speaking for Anglophones. They then made a call for students, teachers, and lawyers to stay at home and for periodic civil disobedience in order to get the government to listen.
Even though there were Initial discussions held between the government and Consortium leaders in Bamenda and Mamfe the Government turned around and banned the said Consortium labeling it an illegal terrorist group.
Thereafter, the consortium leaders, Agbor Balla, and Fontem Neba and many more were arrested in Buea on January 17, 2017, and whisked off to Yaounde where they were detained at Kondengui Maximum Security Prison. This was followed by a 4-month internet block in these regions from Jan 2017 to April 2017. Then began the crackdown on all Anglophones as leaders that didn’t flee were arrested alongside students, Judges Etc. A sitting Supreme Court Judge Paul Abine Ayah was also arrested arbitrarily. Since September 2017, schools in these regions have only been timidly operational, breeding a whole generation of kids without access to education.
Since then, the killing of even innocent citizens in the Anglophone Regions of Cameroon has increased. The phenomenon scaled up to the burning of whole villages by the military in the NW & SW regions like Kembong and Kwa Kwa, sometimes with people in their homes. This sent the villagers fleeing into the bushes to take up permanent residence, with some killed by reptiles of various forms as well as the invading military. As at now, depending on who you talk to, more than 200-260 villages and 15 hospitals have been burnt down in the South West and North West Regions, an estimated 7000 to 10000 people killed with several thousand wounded. About 100.000 to 200.000 refugees from the Anglophone regions are estimated to be currently living in Nigeria while over 600,000 -1,000,000 people internally displaced, predominantly living in the bushes as well as other major cities and towns in Cameroon. Be they refugees or internally displaced persons, IDPs, their situations are preoccupying as death and disease are steadily on the increase.
Also the fact that the Cameroon Government was able to abduct more about 50 people from Nigeria, including some leaders of the Southern Cameroons and send them back to Cameroun where they languish in jails, has further created a distrust in the authorities in neighboring countries from refugees making adequate and appropriate assessment of the needs of most of the refugees difficult.
CRRI, hopes to offer to the best of its abilities assistance to these displaced people until such a time when they will be able to return to their homes and get properly settled in to continue with the pursuit of life.
