I don’t think I’ve done my part to educate people on the ongoing issues in Cameroon so here goes

First a brief history lesson for better comprehension. Cameroon was first colonised by Germany and after the loss of Germany in WW2, it was partitioned between Britain (British Cameroons) and France ( French Cameroons). France was given the lion’s share of this partition.

French Cameroon became independent of France 1 Jan 1960 and after a UN referendum, British Cameroon was given the choice to join their neighbouring French Cameroon or Nigeria and the decision was to join French Cameroon making it the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Cameroon is officially a bilingual country. The only other country with this structure is Canada where the anglophone areas retain the British culture and the francophone areas retain their French cultures. So imagine say Congo and Nigeria in one country

Cameroon has 10 regions, 8 of which are French speaking and 2 English speaking. As with minorities of most countries, the anglophones are often overlooked and marginalised but for the most part the country remained peaceful until 2016 when the anglophones called for change.

The appointment of non- English speaking judges in anglophone regions was the immediate cause. Anglophone lawyers argued that they couldn’t argue before judges who couldn’t understand them. Students also argued that non- English speaking teachers were practically useless.

Anglophone teachers and lawyers led peaceful protests and in a turn of events a brave man called Mancho Bibixy cried out that anglophone people have been suffering in all aspects of life for decades and everyone turns a blind eye. This started a revolution among the anglophones

Protests against anglophone marginalisation but this was all met with crickets until there was a school/work lockdown in the anglophone regions. The resistance finally became violent and the government sent military to these anglophone regions which resulted in many casualties.

You probably didn’t hear about this in 2017 because there was an internet blockade in the anglophone region for 3 months infringing on the human right to freedom of speech. For a whole year, the president did not once mention the anglophone struggle

Life in the remaining 8 Francophone regions went on normally as the 2 anglophone regions suffered bloodshed. This wasn’t a unified Cameroonian issue, this was an anglophone crisis

A group of anglophone scholars frustrated by a government that didn’t care for them demanded secession (separating from French Cameroons) promising a new state for the anglophones Ambazonia. Although farfetched, many were excited by this breeding separatists

Separatists resumed non peaceful protests burning down buildings and once again military was involved leading to even more casualties. Separatists and talks of secession were now considered an act of terrorism arresting the anglophone scholars and separatists.

Lives were lost, Livelihood in these anglophone regions can never be the same and so many who can afford to have fled these regions for their own safety. No real change has been achieved because it warrants rebuilding the country’s entire political structure.