YAOUNDE — 

The government of Cameroon says its security forces did not abuse protesters during clashes in two regions last month. Students and professionals in English-speaking parts of Cameroon were denouncing what they call the overbearing influence of the French language in the bilingual country. The United States has expressed deep concern about the situation.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma says contrary to widespread media reports, the military did not abuse the rights of protesting teachers and lawyers in the English-speaking regions of the central African state.

“The law enforcement officers [military] handled demonstrations in Bamenda and Buea with respect and professionalism, in strict compliance with international norms and commitments of Cameroon in matters of human rights. Investigations are under way and in the event of proven misconduct, the government will take some corrective and disciplinary measures in compliance with the provisions laid down by the law,” he said.

Tchiroma said Cameroon will not tolerate any attempts to disrupt the country’s hard-earned national unity, insisting that requests for Cameroon to return to a federal state, a political system scrapped in a 1972 referendum, can not be granted.

The spokesman said he was reacting to a statement issued November 28 by the U.S. State Department. That release expressed concern about the deaths, injuries and damage that resulted from protests which turned violent in Bamenda and Buea, the respective capitals of Cameroon’s Northwestern and Southwestern regions.

U.S. ambassador to Cameroon Michael Hoza has also expressed concerns over the violence. He met with Cameroon’s president Paul Biya and explained his country’s position on the protests that turned violent.

“It is the American government’s position that Cameroon has great strength and diversity, Cameroon has a wonderful history of tolerance and both President Biya and I agreed that dialogue is the future for Cameroon. We know that there are many discussions and we are certain that Cameroon’s people will find solutions and they have to live together in tolerance as they have for many, many years,” he said.

The ongoing protests were called by English-speaking lawyers, followed by teachers and then university students protesting the dominance of French in Cameroon. The lawyers have complained that some judges posted to English-speaking areas are not fluent in the language.

The U.S. has extended its deferral of all non-essential travel for U.S. embassy personnel to the Northwestern and Southwestern regions until December 6 due to the unrest.

Anti-government demonstrators block a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON —
Several people were killed and hundreds more were arrested or are missing Thursday in northwest Cameroon in violence that followed rallies by the country’s English-speaking minority. They were protesting what they call the overbearing influence of French in the bilingual country. Some are demanding a return to federalism while others are asking for secession from the Republic of Cameroon.

Protesters in Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region of Cameroon, came out to stop the ruling CPDM party and the prime minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang, from organizing a so-called “Peace rally,” intended to halt Anglophone protests that started last month.

Yewong Petra, a resident of Bamenda, says the military shot at protesters who were hoisting blue and white flags that are an symbols of the English speaking regions that want to separate from the French speaking parts of Cameroon.

“The people of Bamenda are hoisting a flag that is not recognized,” Petra said. “You cannot, in a nation, hoist a flag that is not recognized by the people. If it was a white flag, I would understand it is for peace. Hoisting a flag that symbolizes something like a secessionist attitude is going to provoke the military.”

The government said two people were killed, but some residents and media outlets reported there were at least seven deaths.

Soldiers clear a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
Soldiers clear a road in Bamenda, Cameroon, December 8, 2016.
In 1961, a vote was held in what are today’s northwest and southwest English speaking regions of Cameroon. The referendum was over whether to join Nigeria, which had already obtained independence from Britain, or the Republic of Cameroon, which had obtained independence from France. Voters elected to become part of French speaking Cameroon, and the country practiced a federal system of government. English and French became the official languages of Cameroon.

Ebune Charles, historian at the University of Yaounde, says since 1972, when a new constitution was adopted replacing a federal state with a unitary state, French speaking Cameroonians have failed to respect the linguistic and cultural nature of the minority English speaking Cameroonians.

“We were supposed to have predominantly English speaking administrators in the predominantly English speaking regions of the northwest and the southwest, and that is not the case,” Ebune said. “We were expecting official documents signed in both languages; that is not the case. Presidential decrees come only in one language. If you look at the level of the military, that is where it is so scandalous. It is just in one language but we are in a bilingual country.”

Charles also pointed out that the country’s currency is printed only in French, notice boards even in the English speaking regions are mostly in French, and more than 70 percent of radio and TV programs in the state media are in French.

The ongoing protests started when lawyers in the English speaking regions asked for French speaking judges who are not of the common law system to be transferred out of courts in those regions. They declared that justice can’t be rendered when the judge, the advocate and the suspect can’t communicate.

They also asked that the OHADA business law used by French African countries be translated into English.

When those requests were not granted, they refused to defend clients in court.

Teachers also went on strike to protest what they said was an overbearing influence of French in schools.

Professor George Dopgima Nyamdi, politician and former presidential aspirant, says the situation degenerated because the government has refused to listen to the cries of English speaking Cameroonians.

“If things like this happen to a country, it means there is something fundamentally wrong that must be addressed,” Nyamdi said.

As the strikes continue, with violence closing schools, universities and markets, the Catholic Church has been calling for dialogue.

“The prime minister … is setting up a committee, he has appointed the chairperson of the committee so why not give him a chance,” Cornelius Esua Fontem, the archbiship of Bamenda said. “There is a move of dialogue and we should not refuse that move. We want the government to prove that they too are coherent.”

It is not the first time English speaking Cameroonians have protested. In 1984, they created the “Cameroon Anglophone Movement” to press for a return to the federal system, which eventually started calling for independence.