in Tiko, in south-west Cameroon, Adeline rubs the gap in her right hand where her index finger used to be. She arrived in the town in July 2018, having fled Ekona, 15 miles away. In that village soldiers terrified civilians by burning houses and shooting indiscriminately as part of a crackdown on militias that want the primarily English-speaking areas of Cameroon to secede from the predominantly Francophone country. Adeline hoped Tiko would prove a sanctuary.
It quickly became one of the most centralised countries in Africa. Today just 1% of public spending is devolved to local governments, versus more than 50% in Nigeria. The country is officially bilingual, but the roughly 20% of people who mainly speak English claim decades of marginalisation. Promises of devolution have been broken.
Security forces have burned more than 220 villages in the Anglophone region, according to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa in Buea. One was Ekona. Formerly the site of a bustling market, today it is an eerie place, where the walls of charred houses are pockmarked with bullets. Mass displacement is having grave effects on public health. There are outbreaks of monkey pox and measles, partly because of plummeting vaccination rates. Before the crisis about 70% of women gave birth with medical help in the north-west region. Today 3% do so. The result is more women and babies dying in the course of childbirth.
The sabotage of education is one reason why many Anglophones are growing angry at the separatists. Ernest Molua notes that people used to refer to them as “our boys”; now they say “those boys”. The professor at the University of Buea believes that most Anglophones want more autonomy, ideally within a federal Cameroon, not independence.
So, is it more serious than if they are speaking another language?
Africa doesn't deserve independence. The worse error made by western powers listening to liberal ideology after that only war sickness corruption and migrants
The term 'burning' is an understatement. It's a genocide against the english speaking people of Cameroon.
Why they speak English in Africa ?
Banna we! ... the root of this conflict stems from the languages of those who colonised this country. ZakesMda
The divisions on the map is full of history and socio-cultural significance. The so called big brother neighbor to the west is in pains for travesty of history: holding down progress of homogeneous ethnicities for fraudulent contraptions.
These regions need to return to Nigeria. Simple BBCAfrica NGRPresident NGRSenate HouseNGR diplocam_minrex AFP FRANCE24
Africa, please! 😡
alllibertynews Trigger happy soldiers!!!
Cameroon's President, Paul Biya celebrated his 37th year reign yesterday 11/6/2019. I wonder what he has to show for it because since 11/6/1982 Cameroon has been on a free fall into a bottomless pit. Unemployment, inflation, chaos, corruption... etc. have reinged for 37 years.
These fools are fighting for nothing! Both were/are not their's anyway. Why would not they come to terms for the sake of the poor people?! Who is behind all this?
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