Cameroon: strong emotion after Emmanuel Macron's words

Text by: RFI Follow

The broadcast on Saturday February 22 of a video featuring President Emmanuel Macron, questioned by an activist at the Salon de l'Agriculture, on Cameroonian socio-political news, is arousing empty emotion in Cameroon.

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The French president was arrested on Saturday by the activist on socio-political news in his country denounced human rights violations after the death last week in Cameroon, of several people including a majority of children in the during a military operation. Emmanuel Macron denounced “ intolerable ” human rights violations in Cameroon.

In Yaoundé, the government does not react directly to the words of the French president, but unreservedly condemns the act, " of a man who thought he should arrest the head of state of a country with which Cameroon maintains relations of 'friendship '. The spokesman for the Cameroonian government, René Sadi, describes the man's remarks as untruths. For its part, the Web is inundated with reactions of disapproval and indignation, going so far as to demand an apology from Paris.

These five minutes of exchange between Emmanuel Macron and this activist , known under the name Calibro Calibri literally put Cameroon on the boil, suddenly causing an eruption of indignation among a large part of the public with for ground d privileged expression, social networks. And there everything goes, between misunderstanding and anger, the words to disapprove of the form and the content of this impromptu discussion are not hard enough, reports our correspondent in Yaoundé , Polycarpe Essomba .

On his Facebook page, a certain Manou Nyemeck is astonished at the stature of the protagonists on the one hand the president of a foreign power and on the other hand the one whom he considers as a " brigand ". Duval Ebalé, also on his Facebook page, through a video, is indignant at the discourteous tone used by the French president and above all is alarmed by the term pressure used several times by Emmanauel Macron, " pressure " that he says he exerted on his counterpart Paul Biya and which would have led to the release of certain prisoners, including Maurice Kamto.

" It is a paternalistic and infantilizing communication ", analyzes political scientist Mathias Eric Owona Nguini. For this academic, this sequence, beyond appearances, would be a staging skillfully orchestrated by the Élysée to pass certain messages. Conversely , other commentators, there too numerous, salute the courage of this activist, now wearing the coat of " resistance hero ".

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• Cameroon
• Emmanuel Macron
• France
• Paul Biya

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