Since 2017, Cameroon has faced two major internal crises threatening its geopolitical stability: the Anglophone conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions and herder-farmer conflicts in the Far North. The central government’s suppression of Anglophone cultural institutions and their military crackdowns that began in 2016 have fueled an unprecedented secessionist movement. The ensuing violence has killed 7,500 people while jeopardizing Cameroon’s control of key energy resources, with the Anglophone regions producing 90% of Cameroon’s petroleum, nearly a third of the country’s total exports. This latest crisis stems from historical efforts to impose a Francophone identity that is at odds with Cameroon’s original 1961 constitution, which guaranteed federal protections for Anglophone legal and educational customs– with these customs becoming explicitly targeted by Yaoundé starting in 2016. The government’s inconsistent responses to Anglophone minority rights, including extraterritorial arrests and neglected negotiations, are a central driver of separatist resistance in the Northwest and Southwest regions.
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