Editorial: Armed conflict in NW, SW; Yaounde shouldn't forget death toll.

The death toll, as reported by Human Rights Watch, is over 6,000, among them separatist fighters, defence and security personnel and civilians. 

Over half a million compatriots are internally displaced while hundreds of thousands of others are in refugee camps, mostly in neighbouring Nigeria and other countries around the world.

Yet, it has not gnawed on the conscience of the world. The killings, maiming, languishing in refugee camps, collateral burning of entire villages, kidnapping for ransom, destruction of health and educational infrastructure, and terrorising innocent villagers, persist.

But that pervasive mayhem in the two English-speaking Regions has been forgotten. The proof is in glogal headlines like: "Cameroon's Forgotten Anglophone Conflict", by International Crisis Group; "Cameroon, Africa's forgotten war: How the world moved on",  by The East African, daily; "Cameroon: A major and forgotten crisis", by the Catholic news. La croix international and "Time to resolve Cameroon's persistent yet forgotten crisis" by the Institute of Security Studies, are just a few examples.

 The ISS, in its research findings in October last year, pointed out that "Cameroon's Anglophone conflict undermines national unity and is arguably the most damaging of the country's multiple crises".

The warp logic to forget the war, which has been on since 2017, is that it is an "internal affair" of Cameroon. 

But the repercussions are global, with over three million Cameroonians in need of humanitarian assistance from the international community. 

Cameroonian refugees are stressing other nations and the internally displaced living in squalor, many out of school and struggling with unwanted pregnancies and diseases.

Previously, when the war started, the Yaounde regime used to organise public funeral ceremonies for killed members of the defence and security forces.

That has been forgotten and even there hasn't been any official explanation as to what happened before three other police compatriots, in their prime of life, were killed in Buea on August 25, 2024, while they were on duty.

The Guardian Post recognises government's efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict through the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, which the Head of State brandished as an "extra mile". 

There has also been the Major National Dialogue with its Special Status for the two embattled Regions. 

But the conflict persists, sporadically and leaving in its frightful trail sorrows of death and agony for the bereaved family, friends and neighbours.

At The Guardian Post, we appeal to the powers that be not to forget that separatist fighters may be in splinter groups, disorganised, weakened and even fighting within themselves, but the "war" is not yet over.

There is no doubt separatists cannot and will never win the war, but government can equally not resolve what has been unanimously recognised as a political problem, by using the military to resolve it.

International initiatives by the Swiss and Canadians have been rebuffed by Yaounde, just as clarion calls for an inclusive dialogue on a neutral ground. What next?

We can try a home brewed solution recommended by peace crusader, Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, who after a tour of the two Regions at his personal initiative and expense, laid it out in a media interview in December 2017, the peak of the fighting.

He appealed to President Biya to offer forgiveness, reconciliation, repatriation of refugees back to the country, and general amnesty for all those implicated in the conflict. 

Ntumfor Nico Halle said after that, Biya should set up a "commission for justice, truth and reconciliation, which should be a platform for dialogue, constituted by personalities of dignity, probity, and honesty to diffuse tension".

One month after that public supplication by Nico Halle, multi prize-winning peace maker, President Biya created the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism with him [Nico Halle] as a member. 

It was charged with “maintaining peace, consolidation of the country’s unity, strengthening the people’s willingness and day to day experience with respect to living together".

Like other initiatives, it has failed because the fighting continues. No matter how those who are having political and financial benefits, which Nico Halle terms as "blood money", from the conflict, try to conceal its existence, it remains on the radar of the conscience of humanity that has no border. 

At The Guardian Post, we join Ntumfor Nico Halle to implore President Biya to try Nico Halle's recommendation, which is adapted from that of South Africa, used by the legendary and the late Nelson Mandela, to bring peace and justice in his country, after a brutal civil war.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3214 of Friday August 30, 2024