CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to Study

According to Bruno Sohn (1963), an internal or domestic conflict refers to a situation when two opposing parties within a state have recourse to arms for the purpose of obtaining power in the state or when a large portion of the state rises in arms against a legitimate government.

Another definition by Myers (1990) maintains that it is the armed conflict between an established government and one or more insurgent movements whose aim is to overthrow the government or the political, social, or economic order of the state (Myers, 1990:). Internal conflict has also been defined by Frey-Wouters to cover any movement which for economic, social, racial, ideological, or other reasons aims at overthrowing the government by the use of force and changing the structure of the state. The marginalisation of the Anglophone spark up the current crisis. This crisis has been intensifying over the years as government measures to bring peace in the two Anglophone regions are not sufficient.

This has affected Cameroon’s relationship with U.S in particular and external world as most states are today having complicated relations with Cameroon as a result of the crisis  Taylor (1975) defines international relations as a discipline which tries to explain political activities across state boundaries. According to Ola (1999), international relations is the study of all forms of interactions that exist between members of separate entities or nations within the international system.

The state of the conflict in Anglophone Cameroon is such that increasing tensions are noticed as the days go by. This has had direct and indirect effects to the population of the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon as people have witnessed violations, destructions and deaths. Therefore, the circumstances leading to this study will be explained in the paragraphs that follow.

According to the Peace and Security Report (2020: Vol. 1) carried out by the Institute for Peace and Security Studies Addis Ababa University, Cameroon is one of the most diverse and resource-rich countries in Africa, sitting at the cross roads of West and Central Africa.

It is home to about 250 ethnic groups from the ancient tribal kingdoms in the West and the Pygmies in the South to the pastoral Muslims in the North. Besides its rich indigenous culture, ethnic diversity and geography, Cameroon has also had a checkered colonial history. The failure to jointly and effectively administer “Kamerun”,a former German protectorate, resulted to the partitioning of the territory between Britain and France in 1919. The French mandate comprised most of the former German territory (over 167,000 square miles) while the British mandate was an elongated strip of land along the border of colonial Nigeria.

It consisted of Northern Cameroon (about 17,500 square miles) and Southern Cameroons (about 16,580 square miles), including the historical Ambas Bay Protectorate. This large difference in territories awarded to France and Britain resulted in the present day Cameroons majority of Francophone and the Minority Anglophone population respectively. France territory was granted independence in 1960 while Britain’s Southern Cameroon gained independence by joining the already independent La Republique Du Cameroon on 1st October 1961.

According to Le Vine (1961), the unification of Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun came prior to their two-state federation agreement during the July 1961 Foumban constitutional conference. They drew up a federal constitution that guaranteed independent administration and respect of each state’s cultural identity. Southern Cameroons became West Cameroon, aconstituent state of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Both the English and French languages, a heritage from the colonial rule, eventually became the country’s official languages. Following a referendum on 20 May 1972, a new constitution was adopted which replaced the federal state with a unitary state.

The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon and afterwards the Republic of Cameroon through another revision of an Article of the Constitution in 1984. In a reversal of the Foumban agreement which made Cameroon a federation of two states, West Cameroon lost its autonomous status and became the North West and South West regions of the Republic of Cameroon, and West Cameroon was referred to by Le Vine (1961) as the “bride” and implied that the Republic of Cameroon was the “bride groom.” The country’s post-colonial and independence arrangements, therefore, help in understanding the depth of Anglophones’ grievances (Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) Addis Ababa University).

According to Amnesty International (2018), the security situation in Cameroon is mainly characterized by the Anglophone conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon which is the main point of focus in this work, although there also exists terrorist insecurity in the Far North. This Anglophone conflict started due to the longstanding grievances of Anglophones in the North West and South West regions against the Francophone dominated government which escalated into what is today known as the “Anglophone conflict” in October 2016. This conflict initially started as peaceful protests of Anglophone lawyers and teachers and ultimately degenerated into an armed insurgency.

This research therefore seeks to analyze the effects of intra-state conflicts on Cameroon’s relations with certain international partners like the U.S and the rest of the world with particular attention to the Anglophone conflict as it is currently the country’s most challenging conflict with implications on national and regional stability and most importantly, the implications on Cameroon’s relations with the U.S and the rest of the world. The concern is to find out how such upheaval came to affect a country that has prided itself for decades as a beacon of stability in a conflict prone region.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

The state of Cameroon which was known as a peaceful country has recently been hit by domestic conflicts, which have become violent conflicts today most important of which is the Anglophone conflict in the two English speaking regions of South West and North West. The populations of these regions are all suffering the effects of this conflict as both the young and old are violated by armed men.

There have been attempts by the government of Cameroon to handle this particular conflict. To resolve this conflict, the government of Cameroon has resorted to measures such as dialogues, negotiations or the use of the military in cases that needed such solutions. However, these interventions have yet to have any significant effects due to the inability of the government of Cameroon to effectively resolve or manage such conflict.

The Anglophone conflict has been shown to have negative effects on the population of Cameroon and most especially, Cameroon’s relation with certain international partners like the  U.S the rest of the World and this has increasingly become an area of concern in the relationship between the state and other foreign bodies. From 2018, the Anglophone conflict drew increasing international attention and became a challenge to Cameroon’s foreign relations.

Today, the separatists enjoy support from  Nigerian , who have helped arrange arms deals(Journal du Cameroon June 16, 2019). Many Western countries have been mounting pressure on Cameroon to open a dialogue with the separatist. Many international conferences have been held about the Anglophone conflict in Cameroon like in May 2019, an informal discussion was held at the United Nations Security Council, a milestone of after two years of little international involvement. On June 20, 2018, the European Union supported the entry of United Nations bodies to the Anglophone region, and called upon the Cameroonian government to allow this.

Growing interventions have been coming in from various states in the world in response to the Anglophone conflict.In that like Ghana has taken in refugees who have fled from the Anglophone regions, same with Nigeria (Journal du Cameroon June 16, 2019).

The South African government criticized the Cameroonian government for being insincere in its efforts to end the conflict and for committing human rights violations. In 2018, an Israeli human rights lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to cancel all licenses to export Israeli weapons to the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR). In May 2019, Kuwait criticized the Cameroonian government for lacking political will to end the war.

According to the United States’ report on Human Rights Practices (2017), Cameroonian forces carried out arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture, violations of freedom of expression and unlawful detentions in harsh prison conditions. In 2018, the United States formally accused the Cameroonian Army of carrying out targeted killings.

In February 2019, the United States decided to cut military aid worth 17 million dollars over Cameroon’s human rights record, as well as withdrawing Cameroon’s invitation into the State Partnership Program. In October 2019, President Donald Trump canceled a trade deal with Cameroon, citing human rights abuses.

The inability of the state to handle this conflict has exposed Cameroon’s weakness to the world  especially as the crisis started as a peaceful protest of Anglophone lawyers and teachers. Hence, Cameroon has been referred to as a weak state. Persistent interventions by other states in response to the Anglophone conflict has either strained Cameroon’s relations with some countries and or reduce the trust some countries had in Cameroon for upholding certain values. Addressing this problem will have practical benefits to Cameroon as peace will be restored in Anglophone Cameroon, and Cameroon will have the ability to relate with other states without any domestic and international distractions.

1.3 Research Questions

1. How have the relationship between Cameroon and US seen any significant change in recent time What is expected by the Cameroon government to bring a stop to the crisis and improve the relationship between the two parties?
2. What are the major consequences forced by the Cameroon government in relation to the withdrawal of US aid?

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