US Extends Protected Status for Cameroon Amid Escalating Violence in Country

The wreckage of a burnt out car is pictured, allegedly destroyed by separatists fighter in a recent attack, as a Cameroonian soldier (L) patrols the edge of the abandoned market in the majority anglophone South West province in Buea, on Oct. 3, 2018. Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images

Prince Hansel Ndi Mbanyamsig was drinking in a bar, while Cletus Aburo Njohgo was in his home that fateful afternoon on Oct. 4, 2023,  when four gun-wielding Cameroon anglophone separatist fighters came for them.

The two farmers in their 40s were then forcefully brought to a market square in Guzang, Batibo district of the country’s war-torn northwestern region, with a heavy charge leveled against them: spying for the Cameroonian military.

Without further ado, the rebels opened fire on them with rifle rounds in front of the crowd of villagers that had gathered. Among them were  Mr. Njohgo’s wife and children. After this, the rebels mounted their two motorbikes and sped off.

“No one imagined that the men were going to be executed by firing squad and once this happened, the crowd dispersed with everyone running for their dear life,” an eyewitness, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted, told The Epoch Times.

“One of the men protested his innocence but was asked to keep quiet. The other man was speechless. It was my first time witnessing such a horrible act. Before leaving, the armed separatists warned that they will come for whosoever dared think of avenging their deaths,” he said.

Earlier on Sept. 19, the Cameroon military displayed the body of a self-styled separatist fighter called “Field Marshall Bitter Kola” in a public square in Kumba in the embattled southwestern region.

He was killed the previous day alongside four other fighters following a shootout with government soldiers.

The above incidents are the latest in the resurgence of violence in a conflict that has roiled Cameroon’s predominantly English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions for seven years now.

“Incidents like this are occurring on a near-daily basis in the anglophone regions, and they are currently and largely perpetrated by non-state armed groups, though abuses by Cameroonian security forces continue to occur,” confirms Billie Burton, co-director of the Cameroon Database of Atrocities.

Ms. Burton told The Epoch Times in a chat that the anglophone regions of Cameroon are today trapped in a “vicious cycle of violence” that can “only result in civilian death, injury, and trauma.”

A man walks past the entrance of the bilingual Lycee of Buea, capital of Southwest Cameroon, one of the two regions of the country in the grip of a violent crisis on Sept.24, 2019. Reinnier Kaze/AFP via Getty Images

“I find the continued mutilation and ‘extra-lethal violence’ perpetrated against civilians to be particularly concerning [and disturbing],” she said.

“That non-state armed groups, including the most well-known separatist groups, have openly claimed such serious human rights violations is, in itself, a devastating indictment of the Anglophone Crisis today.”

In the face of the worsening security situation in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Oct. 6, announced the extension and redesignation of the central African nation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from Dec. 8, 2023 (when the current one ends), through June 7, 2025.

The move followed a Sept. 28 petition filed by a group of 30 U.S. lawmakers calling on the Biden administration to renew and re-designate TPS for Cameroon to protect the more than 20,000 Cameroonians estimated to be currently living in the United States—many of whom they say arrived after the original TPS declaration was made.

“Deportees from the United States are at particular risk of being targeted for actual or alleged opposition to the government, and they have experienced arbitrary detention and other abuses upon return,” the lawmakers wrote.

Mr. Simon Munzu, retired Chair of the Coalition of Cameroon Federalist Groups and Activists (CCFGA) Steering Committee and former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General told The Epoch Times that by deciding to redesignate Cameroon for TPS, the U.S. government recognizes that such persons “risk losing their lives, liberties, and livelihoods” if they are deported to Cameroon in the midst of the armed conflicts going on in certain regions of that country.

“It is clear that normally, any person from Cameroon who enters the United States illegally is liable to be arrested, detained, processed, and sent back to Cameroon by competent U.S. authorities,” he said.

Through the TPS, he further explained, the United States offers these individuals the possibility of staying legally, working, and traveling in the United States for renewable periods of 18 months at a time without fear of arrest, detention, or deportation.

“This measure, among others, demonstrates the Biden administration’s pragmatism in dealing with the human consequences of the armed conflicts in several parts of Cameroon.”

Residents from the Western region of Cameroon arrive at the bus terminal in Buea following renewed clashes in the restive anglophone region on July 15, 2018. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

Rebecca Tinsley, a London-based activist with The Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon also welcomed the decision as a testament to the Biden administration’s realization that the “tragedy” of anglophone Cameroon “continues unabated.”

“The futile violence on all sides targets innocent civilians, wrecking communities, and those who are seeking sanctuary in America deserve protection,” Ms. Tinsley told The Epoch Times.

“We must hope that the U.S. government will persuade the Biya regime to rejoin Canada-led peace negotiations. At the moment, these talks are the only chance to chart a secure and prosperous path for all citizens of Cameroon.”

Ms. Burton of the Cameroon Database of Atrocities says while the TPS extension is a “positive move” domestically, the United States needs to reinforce this with renewed efforts to resolve the crisis in Cameroon.

“American leadership can play an important role in resolving the conflict, but only in coordination with like-minded allies.”

Conflict Has Colonial Roots

At least 6,000 people have died in Cameroon’s two anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions since 2016 after English-speaking lawyers and teachers in those territories took to the streets to protest the appointment of French-speaking teachers and magistrates in anglophone schools and courts.

More than 730,000 have been displaced from their homes while 2.2 million others—or one in two inhabitants—are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.

The present-day Republic of Cameroon stemmed from a complex colonial history, the distortion of which fuelled the present conflict.

Initially annexed by the Germans in 1884, the territory was later divided and ruled as separate entities by the French and the British in the aftermath of the defeat of the Germans in World War I.

At independence in 1960-1961, the two territories reunited and formed a federal state, with the French-speaking section constituting about 80 percent, and the English-speaking section constituting about 20 percent, both in territory and population.

However, the federal structure that guaranteed the rights of the minority anglophone section was dissolved in 1972 following a controversial referendum.

Mr. Munzu identifies two root causes of the present socio-political and governance crises in Cameroon.

“The first is the programmatic domination, marginalization, assimilation, and takeover of anglophone Cameroon orchestrated by successive francophone-led regimes in Yaounde.

“The second is the excessive concentration of governmental power, authority, and resources at the center.”

The former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General believes “only federalism” can address both of these root causes and pave the way for a durable peace and normalcy in all the 10 regions of Cameroon.

“Neither a decentralized unitary state nor the breakaway of parts of Cameroon can adequately address these root causes,” he told The Epoch Times.

“We have a long way to go, but, in the last two years, Federalists have made steady progress in carrying this core message  about federalism to Cameroonians at home and abroad.”

The francophone-dominated government of 90-year-old President Paul Biya who has been in power for 41 years, has repeatedly pulled the plug on mediation efforts.

In September 2022, Mr. Biya halted a government-sponsored Swiss-led dialogue.

A new initiative saw discreet pre-mediation meetings with several separatist groups in Canada late last year.

For months, Canada had led secret “pre-talks” that seemingly helped the two sides overcome key hurdles to initiating a formal dialogue with anglophone leaders issuing a joint statement affirming their commitment to participate in negotiations with Canada’s facilitation.

But three days later, Cameroon’s government brushed aside Canada’s efforts, denying that it had asked a “foreign party” to broker a resolution to the conflict.

The government has intensified its pursuit of a military solution, hoping to take advantage of widening fragmentation between the armed separatist groups, which it calls “terrorists.”

Ms. Burton blames the “scandalous neglect” of the anglophone crisis on two factors: the product of larger-scale conflicts or conflicts that involve the “interests of major powers”, and secondly,  the outcome of the “powerful diplomacy and manipulation” of the international community by the Cameroonian government.

“That the UN last held a meeting [albeit Arria-formula] on the crisis in 2019, despite severe, sustained deterioration and intensification since tells you everything you need to know,” she told The Epoch Times.

But Mr. Munzu thinks that the solution to conflict lies in the hands of Cameroonians and not the international community.

“This is an internal problem that is not seen as posing a threat to international peace and security,” he points out.

“While it causes untold suffering, hardship, and various kinds of deprivation to masses of ordinary Cameroonians, it does not significantly upset the balance of power among external stakeholders or jeopardize their strategic interests in Cameroon.”

External actors may—as some have done—offer material assistance to assuage some of the egregious humanitarian and human rights consequences of the armed conflict, he says. They may also—as some have done—offer to mediate and facilitate negotiations for a peace settlement.

“Other than that, there is no compelling reason why they should get themselves directly involved,” according to Mr. Munzu.

“Cameroonians should  stop deceiving themselves that their situation raises the same stakes for the international community as those of Ethiopia, Ukraine, or Sudan that you have cited.”

Tibor Nagy, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, laments that because the Cameroon Government has not made “a genuine effort” to calm the violence in the two English-speaking regions by offering the residents their full rights, violence has not only continued, but the movement for separation “is growing.”

“Instead, the government has followed a “divide and rule” strategy and offered symbolic decentralization and local power sharing. This means sadly that the violence will continue,” Mr. Tibor told The Epoch Times.