As discussed in previous posts, since 2016 Cameroon has been experiencing violence, and a de facto civil war, between its dominant Francophone citizens and its minority Anglophones. That violence has been continuing.[1]
Now thousands of people in the English-speaking areas are fleeing to the French-speaking capital of Yaoundé. One of those people, Pamela Njoke, and her two young children waited four hours in her hometown of Bamenda to get on a packed bus to go to the capital. She said, “People are dying everywhere. It is horrible.”
There also are bloody battles between the government and Anglophone separatists seeking to form a new nation they call Ambazonia. An estimated 400 have been killed and thousands displaced. One of the leaders of a group of separatists has asserted that the October 7 national presidential election is banned in the Anglophone regions and any attempt to conduct the election will result in “military” action against such attempts.
On September 27 the separatists attacked a prison in the northwestern part of the country and freed 100 inmates.
The government also is fighting Boko Haram militants in the north of the country with additional abuses on both sides,. On September 30 President Paul Biya on a re-election campaign stop in the Far North region asserted that Boko Haram had been defeated in the country.
All of this violence and disruption are expected to suppress voting in the October 7 presidential election.
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[1] Essomba & Searcey, Thousands Flee in Cameroon as Separatists Battle for a New Nation, N.Y. Times (Sept. 24, 2018); Assoc. Press, Cameroon Lurches Toward Election Amid Separatist Conflict, N.Y. Times (Sept. 26, 2018); Reuters, Cameroon Separatists Free 100 Prison Inmates Before election, N.Y. Times (Sept. 27, 2018); Assoc. Press, Boko Haram Has Been Repelled, Cameroon’s Leader Declares, N.Y. Times (Sept. 30, 2018); Reuters, As Cameroon Votes, Thousands Are Silenced by Violence, N.Y. Times (Oct. 4, 2018).