Search for lasting peace in NW, SW: PM rallies SW stakeholders for community dialogue.

The move, which is in response to the December 31, 2025, call of President Biya for community dialogue, aims to identify practical and workable measures to fast-track the return of peace for development projects to fully take off and improve the lot of compatriots. 

The meeting to launch the dialogue initiative held at the Buea Mountain Hotel yesterday. In attendance were administrative, municipal, religious, traditional and authorities, civil society and community-based actors, politicians, business operators among other stakeholders. 

Peace non-negotiable 

In his address, the Prime Minister described grassroots dialogue as a key driver for the restoration of normalcy in all aspects of life in the Region. He was emphatic without sustainable peace; no meaningful development stride can gain steam in the Region. 

He appealed to all and sundry to help convince those still carrying arms in bushes and fueling insecurity to drop their weapons and embrace peace. 

“This meeting is not a meeting to blame anybody, it is not for us to be giving all kinds of excuses…this meeting is a meeting for peace. We need peace first. It is non-negotiable…we are saying that without peace, nothing else can happen,” Dion Ngute said. 

He told all actors that the return of peace in the Region is non-negotiable, owing to the stark human and developmental toll the ongoing crisis has caused in the past years. 

The PM, also an elite of the South West Region, drew the attention of all stakeholders to the devastating reality facing the Region, especially youth; many of whom joined armed groups at early ages and are now battling to return to school for basic education at the age of 14 or 15 years.

The PM regretted that though economic activities have picked steam in some parts and there is increasing fluidity of circulation in hitherto challenge road stretches, the local population continues to pay a heavy price of the prolonging crisis. 

“All of us sitting here are stakeholders in peace. We are all stakeholders in peace. I dare say that even those unfortunate young people in the bushes, they are also victims. We are all affected by the crisis in one way or another,” he said. 

He also lamented that the insecurity in the region is further stalling hard-fought-for development projects in the road and others, forcing contractors to flee abandon projects. 

“We are losing out on investments,” Dion Ngute stated, regretting that the situation is further delaying other giant projects that could take off in the Region. 

“I can assure you. I have a small commission which is dealing with a major power plant that was supposed to be in Limbe,” he told participants at the gathering, lamenting such has been stalled because funders believe the region is still a red zone. 

Dion Ngute was blunt that collective efforts to restore normalcy in peace in the Region will turn things around in no distant time. 

“It is time that we organise ourselves and we put an end to this because nobody will do it for us,” he appealed, further noting that all community actors have what it takes to tell those carrying arms in bushes that “time has come for them to leave”. 

Dion Ngute appealed to grassroots actors to build trust and encourage those still hiding and wreaking havoc to come out of the bushes. 

“We are getting information from amongst their midst that many of them are tired. They are looking for a way out. Let us give them that way out by encouraging them to come out,” he said.

Dion Ngute used the occasion to underscore the need for both internal and external elite, traditional and religious leaders to federate forces with the administrative and security officials for sustainable peace. 

He assured those still carrying arms in the bushes but are afraid to surrender and reintegrate through the Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration centres. 

“The issue of fear for them should not be and this is the message which you should carry to them. Because ultimately, if we don’t do it, we will keep ourselves comfortably and lose those children who are there in the bushes. It is for us to appeal to them and tell them enough is enough,” he stated. 

Dion Ngute said suggestions from the meeting will be used to add to those already engaged by government to reach out to the gunmen and get them out of the bushes. 

Enter SW Governor 

Speaking earlier, the Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, presented the balance sheet of the ongoing crisis in the administrative unit.

He in synopsis recounted strides the government has made from to restore normalcy in the region through the directives of the Head of State. 

Okalia Bilai said the President of the Republic has invested enormously to relaunch the activities of agro-industries such as PAMOL Plc, the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC. 

The administrative authority also invited other community leaders in the Region to support the peace initiatives of the Head of State by collaborating with administrative and security officials.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3924 of Tuesday September 29, 2026