Issue Analysis: Crisis in Cameroon

A picture taken on February 17, 2015 show Cameroonese soldiers patrolling in city of Waza, northern Cameroon. Cameroon’s army says it has killed 86 Boko Haram militants and detained 1,000 people suspected of links to the Islamist group, as central African leaders held talks on how to combat its bloody insurgency. Five Cameroonian soldiers were also killed during the clashes in the Waza region near the border with Nigeria, defence ministry spokesman Didier Badjeck said on February 16. AFP PHOTO / REINNIER KAZE (Photo credit: Reinnier KAZE/AFP via Getty Images)

The crisis in Cameroon has been in the making since the end of World War I when the Treaty of Versailles established the two territories of British and French Cameroon. Since that time, deep cultural differences led to political divides, and when British Cameroon’s path to independence arose, the territory was not allowed an actual path to freedom but a path to being a sub-state of a larger state. Hoping for autonomy, the Anglophones chose to reunify with French Cameroon, only to be duped by then-President Ahmadou Ahidjo, leading to bitterness between then Anglophones and Francophones and off and on conflicts. These subconscious tensions rose again in 2016, triggered by disparities in the Cameroonian education and political system, and since the country has plunged into a humanitarian crisis that the international community has remained largely silent upon. Though diplomatic talks between the Anglophones and Francophones have been encouraged, it seems no one is willing to truly champion the Anglophone cause and set things right — help British Cameroon (Ambazonia) gain its right to a sovereign state and to exercise its self-determination.

The Current Cameroonian Crisis

Cameroon is a nation that once was known for stability; however, in 2016, the rivalry between the Francophone government and the Anglophone regions returned with a…