Cameroon: The enigmatic kidnapping of ambassadies

First an American missionary died in the crossfire of separatists and government soldiers. Then alleged Anglophone separatists kidnapped dozens of students in their immediate neighborhood.

And on Tuesday: the grand inauguration of Paul Biya, Cameroon's ruler for 36 years and last re-elected, in a poll one month ago that can not be called that.

ETIENNE MAINIMO / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

Paul Biya on Tuesday in Yaoundé

The escalation of the conflict between English-speaking separatists seeking to establish an ambassadorial state in western Cameroon and the francophone central government is currently underway in a script. And political activists from the Anglophone part of the country accuse the government of doing just that: a staging.

On Monday, several news agencies sent word that separatists had seized up to 79 students and three teachers. With the abduction, Cameroon's political crisis has reached a new level: hundreds have died since the beginning of the year by the violence. But there was no such mass deportation.

The news goes back to provincial governor Deben Tchoffo, a retainer of head of state Biya, who blamed "terrorists." In addition, a video showing some of the students from Nkwen's Presbyterian boarding school and their kidnappers should prove that separatists were taking the teenagers out of their dormitories.

In the film, a man in broken English explains that the youths would be free if the call for a free ambazonia was heard. A short time later autonomy activists from the region were sure: the video was a brazen staging of the military, the beard of the man just glued and the kidnapper a francophone military. In short, the action is merely a state operation to discredit the separatists.

Hahahahaha its as pathetic as this LRC devilish government think they can fool people. The guy speaking is a Francophone who can not even pronounce the name Ambazonia well. Anybody in his right senses wants to know he is not Ambazonian. We must overcome. Land of Glory pic.twitter.com/LIq5UzSrDY

Is that conceivable? At least, the government of Biya has so far had little scruples to proceed with full state severity even against peaceful separatists. When they proclaimed their fantasy state Ambazonia just before the presidential election in early October, hoisted flags and sang their anthem, the government imposed curfews, restricted the Internet and arrested and abused numerous demonstrators.

In the election, the participation in the English-speaking provinces southwest and northwest was below ten percent. The African Union Observer Commission subsequently questioned equality of opportunity for candidates and cautiously called for reform. In addition, separatists had proclaimed an election boycott, and apparently enforced this by force of arms, reported the British "Guardian".

People in anglophone Cameroon see themselves as disadvantaged

The origin of the conflict lies in the colonial era, because Cameroon is a fusion of a former French and a former British occupation area. Since the end of 2016, the old tensions are escalating again. At that time, protested against changes in education and law in West Cameroon.

At first, lawyers had demonstrated against too many French-speaking judges in the Anglophone region. Then there were teachers who feared for English and Anglo-Saxon schools. Both protest movements demanded more autonomy for the western provinces. And both were brutally beaten down by the police.

Since then, the situation has worsened: Governor Tchoffo declared his province of North West safe and controlled by the government. But not far from the provincial capital Bamenda, separatists control the villages and build roadblocks against a government army offensive, according to the British Economist and the US New York Times newspaper.

The country was close to civil war, according to the reports of early October. According to "NYT", 160,000 people had already fled violence. 600 people died, 160 of them security forces. In Bamenda, the hospital morgue is full of unidentified victims, the Economist wrote, referring to local sources.

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Following his inauguration, Biya now has two options: continue the hard line and use the kidnapping - staged or otherwise - as legitimizing a new wave of violence on his security forces. Or disarm after his inauguration and try to pacify the conflict.

The too often absent President Biya

It will not be easy. After all, since the end of 2016, state violence has united opponents of the president in the west of the country like never before. Too many families have lost their children, the separatists want Biya more and more independent and independent. Bad sign for the country whose president could never heal the wounds of the colonial era despite more than three decades in power.

And Biya is known for being in Europe rather than in his homeland. In Geneva, the US "Wall Street Journal" wrote recently, Biya and his wife Chantal are such regular guests that they already have their own code names in the local hotel Intercontinental. They were simply called "he" and "they".

At his inauguration, the seventh, the old and new head of state had to be in the capital Yaoundé in any case.