By RFIPalled on 11-09-2019Modified on 11-09-2019 at 02:36

The president announced it Tuesday night September 10, at an address to the nation. These talks should be called quickly before the end of the month as the country has been shaken for almost two years by a separatist crisis that has now killed nearly 2,000 people.

The announcement will be delayed. It was not until the twentieth minute of a speech that lasted only thirty years that Paul Biya convened a major national dialogue. " This dialogue will allow us to examine ways and means to meet the deep aspirations of the northwest and southwest populations, " said the president.

Paul Biya

11-09-2019 - By RFI

If the idea is not new in itself, as long as it has been suggested long months by various actors inside and outside the country, Paul Biya has rebelled against the analysis of the nature of the Conflict: " The proliferation of these initiatives has, unfortunately, sometimes been based on simplistic and false ideas based on secessionist propaganda. This is the so-called marginalization of Anglophones, the persecution of the English-speaking minority by the French-speaking majority, the refusal of dialogue by our government for the benefit of a military solution to the crisis or ridiculous accusations of genocide. As for the dialogue itself, the question has always been asked : with whom? "

The talks should bring together " all parts of society ", including representatives of defense and security forces, as well as those of armed groups and victims. It is the Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Nguté, himself from the south-west, as Paul Biya has pointed out, who will chair this dialogue, after holding consultations.

" The future of our compatriots in the northwest and southwest is within our Republic. Cameroon will remain one and indivisible . "

" It is a positive gesture, but it is still necessary that this dialogue raises the real questions, such as that of federalism, " said Jean Tsomelou, secretary general of the Social Democratic Front, the main English-speaking party in the country.

63 CAMEROON _Son MORNING reax SDF - Jean Tsomelou

11-09-2019

The announcement came three weeks after separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe and nine of his supporters were sentenced to prison and while several Cameroonian opposition leaders are on trial for insurrection.

    On the same subject

    Cameroon: two years in prison for Mamadou Mota, number two of the MRC

    Cameroon: the trial of opponent Maurice Kamto returned to 8 October

    Cameroon: no return to school in two English-speaking regions

    comments