Time for Biya to embrace new approach to resolve armed conflict in NW, SW.

Mindboggling headlines like: Cameroon: Thousands protest separatist attacks, seek release of abducted clergy; Armed separatists prevent health workers from assisting Monkey Pox patients; separatist conflict has now become a question of money etc are trending in the international media.

They are just a synopsis of the inhuman atrocities regularly being committed in the North West and South West regions by combatants to illustrate the six-year macabre armed conflict pitting defence and security forces against separatist fighters in various splinter and even self-rival groups.

For the pathway to peace which main trajectory of discontent is in the form of state, the Biya regime organised a controversial Major National Dialogue three years ago.

For the government, it was said to be a panacea that will bring peace. But when members of the follow-up committee later met with the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, to evaluate the progress in the implementation of resolutions taken at the dialogue, there was incontrovertible evidence that despite impressive rate of implementation, peace and security were still thousands of miles away from seeing the light of day.

Decentralisation, which Yaounde has insisted remains non-negotiable, is still unsatisfactory with government reluctant to provide sufficient funds to councils on time.

The impact of the Special Status or House of Chiefs offered to the two English-speaking regions as appeasement is not felt. The president of the North West House of Chiefs, kidnapped since last December, has not even gnawed on the conscience of the government just like that of Catholic priests and Christians in Mamfe, to concede the aggravating nature of the war and failure of the Major National Dialogue. 

Separatists calling the shots from abroad did not attend the Major National Dialogue for fear of their safety since many of them had been placed on the wanted list by Yaounde. 

In June 2019, Switzerland offered to mediate talks between Cameroonian authorities and separatists in a bid to end the escalating violence.

“Switzerland was tasked by a majority of the parties with facilitating an inclusive negotiation process,” the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department, FDFA, said in a statement following two days of talks with the opposing camps.

The mediation efforts supported by the United Nations, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Germany, Belgium, European Union and others, got stalled, but were later re-launched last year as fighting and atrocities intensified.

But last month, there were credible reports that the government of Cameroon had rejected a third party mediation to resolve the conflict

According to authoritative media reports, "the chief envoy on the Swiss-led mediation, Ambassador Gunther Bachler, informed the Ambazonia Coalition Team, ACT that it is ending its efforts toward brokering peace in the nearly six-year-long war in Southern Cameroons".

The reports quoted separatist sources as saying while rejecting mediation, the government of Cameroon reportedly called on the Swiss government "to stay engaged, notably seeking their good offices to support Cameroun’s Major National Dialogue which Yaounde claims can resolve the ongoing violence in Cameroons”.

Truth be accepted, the Major National Dialogue has not brought security and peace.

Last September, the Head of State, Paul Biya, gave approval for the entry of Special Forces in the fight against attacks by separatists.

“I have the honour to inform you, for necessary diligence, that the President of the Republic has given his very high agreement for the deployment of a detachment of special forces in the theatres of operations of the second and fifth joint military (RMIA 2 and RMIA 5),” read a copy of the correspondence sent by the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, to Joseph Beti Assomo, Minister Delegate in Charge of Defence.

Despite that deployment, the conflict has not ended, confirming to historical and research-backed facts that only dialogue can bring peace and not bullets.

That path to dialogue has been explored through the Major National Dialogue and the Swiss initiative to no success.

The Canadians are proposing another pathway to peace as this daily newspaper reported yesterday. It is "a transparent, inclusively negotiated peace process leading to a free, fair and internationally-supervised referendum that includes a clear question on institutional arrangements".

Will President Biya, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Head of State, accept the third pathway for peaceful resolution of the conflict that guns cannot?

At The Guardian Post, we advise he does without any waste of time.