Cameroon: despite tensions, the country celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Cameroonian Union
The boulevard du 20 mai in Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, on February 5, 2022. A parade is organized on the boulevard on May 20, 2022, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cameroonian Union.
© Nicolas Bamba/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Public holiday in Cameroon this Friday, May 20 for National Unity Day.
In Yaoundé, a military and civil parade will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1972 referendum, which put an end to the federal form of the State – an Eastern Cameroon, a Western Cameroon – to give birth to the United Republic of Cameroon.
In the capital, the inhabitants say they are attached to this national unity and regret the tensions that the country is experiencing.
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With our special correspondent in Yaoundé,
Amélie Tulet
In front of a neighbour's shop, Eddie drinks late afternoon beer with friends.
The news from the North-West and South-West of Cameroon saddens him: “
I am not happy to see our brothers dying every day.
Really, we have to manage to end this war.
Bring a lot of Cameroonians around the table to get out of this crisis.
»
Next to him, Senghor launched into the sale of generators in the face of power cuts.
He too says he is very attached to the idea of national unity.
He lives in Yaoundé without any problem with his neighbors from all over the country and deplores the hate speech circulating on social networks: “
I would like that, when I go to the far north, I feel at home there.
Because I am Bamileke.
Whether I come back here, to the Centre, to the South, I am at home everywhere.
I want it, it's not 100% but I want it.
I really want it to be national unity.
»
► To read also: Cameroon: the final preparations for the 50th anniversary of the Republic on May 20
"
We are together
"
A generation below, Rose, Sandy, Aïcha and Myriam study physics together at the University.
For them, divisions should not even exist anymore.
“
Our wish is that the conflicts, the wars cease, that we are really in symbiosis
”, explains one of them.
Another adds: “
It worries us, I see that ethnic groups are quarreling, it's bad.
We really have to try to review this, because Cameroon is one.
»
The four young women congratulate themselves on being "
living proof of national unity
".
In their small group, one is Muslim, another Eton, another Bamileke... "
And we are together
", they claim.
Aïcha will parade on Friday on the boulevard du 20-Mai.
The others will watch the parade on television.
On the official program, it is indicated that
Paul Biya
will present himself for the parade on the boulevard at noon.
His arrival will be very observed after the return to the country of the president Thursday, May 19: aged 89, the head of state has just spent “
a brief private stay
” in Europe, according to the terms of the civil cabinet of the presidency.
The President of the Republic, HE Paul BIYA, accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Chantal BIYA, returned to Yaoundé at the end of the afternoon of Thursday, May 19, 2022, after a brief private stay in Europe.#PaulBiya#Cameroon pic.twitter .com/kzZ4NfmuoJ
— CELLCOM PRC (@PRC_Cellcom) May 19, 2022
A day for unity despite the crises
In front of the official platform, soldiers and civilians must parade for an hour and a half.
The format of the ceremony is reduced, officially, for health reasons.
Elsewhere in the country, other celebrations are planned.
But in the two regions of the former West Cameroon, the current North-West and South-West, armed groups impose confinement on the inhabitants in certain areas.
On the side of the opposition parties represented in the National Assembly, Josuah Osih, of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), "
regrets that apart from May 20, national unity is the rest of the year an empty concept for the government
”.
Cabral Libii, of the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), speaks of “
a national unity in crisis
” and “
a deleterious political climate
”.
On the side of the majority party, three days ago, the secretary general of the central committee of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), Jean Nkuete, called on the militants to make Friday "
a parade of response, persuasion and deterrence
" .
.
According to government sources, the current crisis is "
certainly a test, but also an opportunity for a reinvention of the unitary State, yesterday centralized, today decentralized, with the appearance of the regions on the institutional scene and the recognition of the special status of the North-West and South-West regions
”.
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Paul Biya