tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/anglophone-crisis-46816/articlesAnglophone crisis – The Conversation2021-10-07T14:49:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1684282021-10-07T14:49:39Z2021-10-07T14:49:39ZWe turned to Twitter to understand conditions on the ground in Cameroon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424946/original/file-20211006-19-wlghsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social media can provide short descriptions of the issues that people are facing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sidoine Mbogni/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past five years there has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-twitter-has-been-used-in-cameroons-anglophone-crisis-118272">conflict</a> in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, with no solution or end in sight. There have been political, social and cultural differences and antagonisms for several decades. But the current conflict began in 2016 when lawyers and teachers started protesting over the increasing use of French in the legal and educational systems in these regions, known as Anglophone Cameroon.</p>
<p>The government of Cameroon’s poor handling of the crisis contributed to its escalation into an armed conflict. Thousands have been killed, are living in the bush, or have fled to other parts of the country (becoming internally displaced persons) or in neighbouring countries as refugees. The warring parties did not heed the UN secretary general’s <a href="https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/un-secretary-general-calls-global-ceasefire-focus-ending-covid-19-pandemic">call for a global ceasefire</a> to focus on ending the conflict in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>As a result, the conflict continues to have a negative impact on all aspects of life, particularly the livelihoods and health of citizens in the battleground regions of the north-west and south-west. Access to already inadequate health <a href="https://www.msf.org/doctors-without-borders-forced-withdraw-medical-teams-north-west-cameroon">services</a> has been reduced. More insights about how the conflict is affecting the health of citizens are needed to understand the situation and propose solutions.</p>
<p>We set out to understand how the conflict was affecting the key determinants of health. These include poverty, particularly in contexts where there is no universal healthcare and where the cost of living continues to rise.</p>
<p>As is the case in other conflict and war situations, it was difficult to collect public data. So we <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JPZ5P3DGIYNW5IMWDNMA/full?target=10.1080/13623699.2021.1955759">examined</a> tweets to understand what topics were being discussed. </p>
<p>In 2019, the number of mobile phone subscriptions in the country was <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/640150/number-of-mobile-cellular-subscriptions-in-cameroon/">21.4 million</a> out of a population of around <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/cameroon-population/">27 million people</a>. Data for phone usage is expensive, and internet access is not reliable. Hootsuite, a social media management platform, reported that <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-cameroon">approximately</a> 23% of the population – 6.21 million people – were internet users. And of these, 4.3 million were active on social media platforms.</p>
<p>This report estimated that there were fewer than 125,000 Twitter users in the country. Nevertheless, we believe examining the use of Twitter can provide insights about the crisis because social media can provide short descriptions of the issues that people are facing. </p>
<p>Our use of Twitter to gather information isn’t novel. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002717721392">Scholars</a> are increasingly using social media to collect data about conflicts. But we have not found many studies exploring health and the social determinants of health using this approach.</p>
<p>We used the descriptions shared on Twitter to provide a more visible and robust picture of health related issues. This approach can help identify health challenges and how they’re affecting citizens.</p>
<h2>How we examined tweets</h2>
<p>We collected and analysed 1,868 tweets posted from 1 October 2016, the month when the conflict began, to 1 September 2019 to understand what people were discussing. The tweets were from everyday citizens, the government, news outlets and nongovernmental organisations that were communicating with people in Cameroon and abroad to draw attention to the effects of the crisis on citizens and, in some cases, what actions had been taken by the government.</p>
<p>Our focus was on the social determinants of health, often used to understand public health issues. <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-IER-CSDH-08.1">These</a> are the non-medical factors that influence the health of people. They include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>policies and systems such as social, economic, employment, education and health policies and systems </p></li>
<li><p>social attitudes and practices related to inclusion and discrimination </p></li>
<li><p>factors influencing daily life in other ways such as housing, food, and cultural policies and practices. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our findings showed that Twitter was being used to share information and to call for action. Analysis of tweets revealed eight distinct themes: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>neglect from government related to health </p></li>
<li><p>education </p></li>
<li><p>loss of employment </p></li>
<li><p>increased poverty </p></li>
<li><p>housing and homelessness </p></li>
<li><p>social exclusion and oppression </p></li>
<li><p>women and gender inequality </p></li>
<li><p>health services.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>People felt neglected by the government. There were negative tweets and <a href="https://twitter.com/drfombong/status/913519818443251712?s=20">criticisms</a> of the government’s neglect of its citizens and lack of support during the crisis.</p>
<p>Tweets also referred to failures in the education system. Most schools in the north-west and south-west regions have remained closed for years with teachers and students staying at home due to insecurity. Several <a href="https://twitter.com/AnicetMani/status/1168361799126781954?s=20">tweets</a> called for schools to reopen. </p>
<p>Tweets also referred to a deterioration in work opportunities. Some businesses were closed, resulting in <a href="https://twitter.com/ElizaTalks/status/929801829126459393?s=20">job losses</a> for thousands of people. Many who were still employed either went for several months without pay or received salary cuts.</p>
<p>There was also evidence of poverty increasing because of the conflict. Despite these impacts, some tweets reported that the government was <a href="https://twitter.com/RefugeesIntl/status/1146761081563570177?s=20">discouraging humanitarian support</a>.</p>
<p>Thousands of people lost their homes and were displaced. Several villages were either <a href="https://twitter.com/ECheshu/status/1065259639988719616?s=20">burned down</a> or seized by the military or non-state armed groups. Hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced within Cameroon or fled to neighbouring countries as refugees.</p>
<p>People experienced social exclusion and oppression. There were tweets about the lack of human rights and the prevention of <a href="https://twitter.com/njakatu/status/1124958497425317889?s=20">freedom</a> of expression. Children’s rights were violated, with references made to child trafficking, slavery and a decrease in basic education.</p>
<p>Women and girls were very vulnerable. Sexual violence and <a href="https://twitter.com/hansdemarie/status/915962251479314432?s=20">rape</a> increased. Some pregnant women were forced to give birth in unsanitary conditions with minimal supplies.</p>
<p>Health services were difficult to access. The fighting resulted in the destruction of some hospitals and clinics. Some nongovernmental organisations provided <a href="https://twitter.com/superiorhf/status/1145751491807973377?s=20">services</a> to the vulnerable population.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Our findings highlight two important points. The first is the need to develop and implement effective systems to collect data in regions and circumstances where conventional methods of data collection are limited. </p>
<p>The second is the various inequities that are affecting the citizens of Cameroon amid the ongoing political conflict.</p>
<p>Using Twitter to collect data demonstrates the importance of identifying new ways to actively explore the social determinants of health in understudied regions and situations. </p>
<p>In addition, our results have highlighted several disparities that have resulted from, or have been exacerbated by, the consequences of the conflict that continues to negatively impact the citizens of Cameroon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As is the case in other conflict and war situations, it was difficult to collect public data. So we examined tweets to understand what topics were being discussed.Julius T. Nganji, Adjunct Lecturer, University of TorontoLynn Cockburn, Adjunct Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045832018-10-08T15:19:36Z2018-10-08T15:19:36ZCameroon presidential poll underscores the need for term limits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239730/original/file-20181008-72113-1boj9nv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cameroonian President Paul Biya votes in the presidential elections in the capital Yaounde. He has been in power for 36 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE/EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The official results of Cameroon’s October 7, 2018 presidential election are due <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/cameroon-votes-as-separatists-pose-a-threat-biya-win-likely/2018/10/07/e11be120-ca01-11e8-9c0f-2ffaf6d422aa_story.html?amp;utm_term=.4cc85477087a&noredirect=on&utm_term=.28d02b799133">in two weeks</a>. But they’re not expected to yield any surprises. Paul Biya (85), who became president in 1982, is almost certain to retain power for a <a href="https://fr.euronews.com/2018/10/05/cameroun-paul-biya-brigue-un-septieme-mandat">seventh term</a>. If he wins and stays in power until 2025 – the end of his next term – he would have run the country for a whopping 43 years. His overextended rule has been marked by <a href="https://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/cameroon/">corruption</a>, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/cameroons-presidential-election-will-the-votes-count/">patronage politics</a>, and a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43469758">largely absent president</a>.</p>
<p>The election has taken place amid a great deal of uncertainty and insecurity. Municipal and legislative elections were postponed by a year because of <a href="https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/cameroon-postpones-legislative-municipal-elections/">too volatile a space</a>, though government cited more technical reasons. Only senatorial elections were held in <a href="https://democracychronicles.org/presidential-elections-in-cameroon/">March 2018</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cameroon-separatists/anglophone-cameroons-separatist-conflict-gets-bloodier-idUSKCN1IX4RS">biggest tensions</a> have been between the English-speaking – which represent <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cameroon-population/">20% of the population</a> – and French-speaking parts of the country. After the presidential polls opened on Sunday, <a href="https://www.whig.com/article/20181007/AP/310079953">violent confrontations</a> broke out in English speaking regions of the North West and the South West. Almost no polling took place in these regions following calls by separatists for a lockdown (stay at home), which would mean in effect that no people would leave their houses to vote.</p>
<p>Biya is almost certain to return to power given the government’s well-oiled election machine and its use of the security sector to manage dissent. Elections over the past 10 years have been <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/10/world/africa/cameroon-elections/index.html">marred by accusations of fraud</a>. These elections will be no different.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Biya’s credibility and legitimacy are increasingly being tarnished. And there is growing support for alternative candidates.</p>
<p>The election is a reminder of the importance of defined term limits for presidents. Although Cameroon’s <a href="http://confinder.richmond.edu/admin/docs/Cameroon.pdf">1996 Constitution</a> limited presidential mandates to two seven-year terms, Biya’s party repealed the term limits in 2008 so that he could extend his stay.</p>
<h2>The main contenders</h2>
<p>This year’s election has pitted Biya against <a href="http://www.crtv.cm/2018/08/liste-des-candidats-a-lelection-presidentielle-2018/">eight opposition candidates</a>. The major contenders are Joshua Osih of the <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2018/02/24/cameroon-s-main-opposition-sdf-elects-49-year-old-candidate-to-face-biya/">Social Democratic Front</a>; Maurice Kamto of the <a href="https://www.mrcparty.org/">Cameroon Renaissance Movement</a>; Cabral Libii Li Ngue candidate for <a href="https://www.lebledparle.com/actu/politique/1104138-cameroun-le-parti-univers-de-nkou-mvondo-investi-cabral-libii-comme-son-candidat-a-l-election-presidentielle">Univers party</a>, and <a href="https://akeremuna2018.com/profile/">Akere Tabeng Muna</a> of the <a href="https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/2018-presidential-election-akere-muna-kicks-off-campaign-with-convention-in-yaounde/">Popular Front for Development</a>.</p>
<p>The Social Democratic Front has become a household name in Cameroon since its inception in 1990 and its candidate, Osih, is popular.</p>
<p>For his part, Kamto who heads up the Cameroon Renaissance Movement was a former minister in Biya’s regime. He <a href="http://www.crtv.cm/2018/09/maurice-kamto-presidential-candidate-for-mrc-party/">resigned from government</a> in 2011 to form his own political party. He draws his support from the western region and the urban middle class.</p>
<p>Cabral is a young university lecturer who has been outspoken in his criticism of the regime and has captured the imagination of young Cameroonians. Muna is the son of the former vice president and an international jurist. He aligned with Kamto two days before the election.</p>
<p>Kamto and Cabral attracted large crowds at their rallies. But they are unlikely to gain a majority of votes given that the state’s machinery is stacked against them.</p>
<h2>The issues</h2>
<p>Three major issues dominated the run up to the elections: political transition, the economy, and security.</p>
<p>After 36 years as president, the opposition and other observers view Biya’s exit as long overdue. But he is unlikely to step down as has been the case of other African leaders who have overstayed their terms. And the opposition forces are not yet strong enough to force a change in leadership.</p>
<p>Cameroon is central Africa’s largest economy, producing oil, gas, timber, and cocoa. Nevertheless, it faces a range of major economic challenges. These include <a href="https://theodora.com/wfbcurrent/cameroon/cameroon_economy.html">stagnant per capita income, inequitable distribution of income</a>, <a href="https://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/cameroon/">corruption</a>, nepotism and a <a href="https://www.businessincameroon.com/companies/1307-7263-in-cameroon-the-informal-sector-weighs-as-much-in-gdp-as-in-south-africa-and-mauritius-but-less-than-in-nigeria">large informal economy</a>. It also has substantial debt, constituting<a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/cameroon/government-debt-to-gdp"> 35% of its GDP</a>.</p>
<p>Of all the issues affecting the election, security is the biggest. For nearly two years there have been protests in the North West and South West against what Anglophones describe as general marginalisation as well as the “Frenchification” of their courts and schools. The protests have been met with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/biya-must-stop-the-killings-in-cameroon-and-lead-the-search-for-peace-100026">brutal crackdown</a> which in turn triggered an armed pro-independence insurgency.</p>
<p>On top of this <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/anglophone-crisis-looms-cameroon-presidential-election-181004081327023.html">Cameroon has been challenged</a> by the violence of Boko-Haram in the North, the instability of the Central Africa Republic in the East and the separatist movement in the South. Clashes with the separatists have already left <a href="http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/africa/Amnesty-says-scores-killed-in-Cameroon-violence/4552902-4767086-f6kq23z/index.html">400 people dead</a> and 20 000 displaced as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.</p>
<h2>Implications for African politics</h2>
<p>Some commentators have pointed to the problem of <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/choiceless-democracy/">“choiceless democracies”</a> in Africa. Leading economist <a href="https://prabook.com/web/thandika.mkandawire/497006">Thandika Mkandawire</a> <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200804171247.html">has noted that</a> “African leaders exhibit a wide array of unethical ways when it comes to capturing, retention, and exercising of political power, the long-term result being the tendency by a people denied the right to a free choice of their leaders to write electoral lists in blood.”</p>
<p>This is once again playing out in Cameroon. The country has a president who has captured the state to the detriment of many of his people. And people increasingly see violence as the only means through which they can have their voices heard and their needs taken into account.</p>
<p>Across Africa pessimism is replacing the mood of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/democracy-in-africa-the-ebbs-and-flows-over-six-decades-42011">1990s</a> when multi-party democracy was on the rise. Old tendencies of authoritarian leaders remaining in power beyond their term, corruption and the pillaging of public resources persist. These in turn is leading to a rise in conflict.</p>
<p>The African Union (AU) and regional intergovernmental institutions seem unable to hold leaders like Biya to account. This despite the AU’s proclamations of <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/silencing-the-guns-by-2020-ambitious-but-essential">“silencing the guns”</a> in Africa by 2020, and creating an Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law <a href="https://au.int/en/agenda2063">by 2063</a>. All Africans need to take a principled stand on presidential term limits as it is impacting on the development, peace and security of the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Ngah Kiven is a University of Johannesburg GES Scholar</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Hendricks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Paul Biya’s credibility and legitimacy are increasingly being tarnished, amid growing support for opposition candidates.Cheryl Hendricks, Executive director, Africa Institute of South Africa, Human Sciences Research CouncilGabriel Ngah Kiven, PhD candidate in Political Studies at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/982482018-06-24T07:21:37Z2018-06-24T07:21:37ZCameroon’s Anglophone crisis threatens national unity. The time for change is now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224195/original/file-20180621-137717-1xr78ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cameroon's President Paul Biya has been in charge for nearly 40 years. His people want change.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/LINTAO ZHANG</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cameroon’s governance and security problems have historically attracted little outside attention. But this seems likely to change, for two reasons. The first is the <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/cameroon-electoral-uncertainty-amid-multiple-security-threats">growing political crisis</a> in the Central African nation’s English-speaking region. The second is a <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/cameroon-opposition-party-picks-presidential-candidate-20180224">presidential election</a> scheduled for October 2018.</p>
<p>Roughly <a href="https://qz.com/1097892/cameroons-anglophone-crisis-is-danger-of-becoming-a-full-blown-conflict/">20% of the country’s population</a> of 24.6 million people are Anglophone. The majority are Francophone. The unfair domination of French-speaking politicians in government has long been the source of conflict.</p>
<p>Activists in the country’s Anglophone western regions are protesting their forced assimilation into the dominant Francophone society. They argue that this process violates their minority rights, which are <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-explains-why-cameroon-is-at-war-with-itself-over-language-and-culture-85401">protected under agreements that date back to the 1960s</a>. Anglophone political representation and involvement at many levels of society has dwindled since the Federal Republic of Cameroon became the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972. There are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/12/world/africa/ap-af-cameroon-deadly-violence.html">growing calls</a> for the Anglophone region to secede from Cameroon. </p>
<p>This festering conflict represents <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/cameroon-electoral-uncertainty-amid-multiple-security-threats">a major test</a> as Cameroonians prepare for the October elections.</p>
<p>Three things are urgently needed now in Cameroon. The first is to understand the origins of the crisis. The second is to support an inclusive national dialogue. And the third is to ensure that the 2018 elections are free and fair for all.</p>
<h2>Growing crisis</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAgBBzrjMUI">Before 1961</a>, the Southern Cameroons were a British administered territory from Nigeria. They elected to join the Republic of Cameroon by UN plebiscite in 1961 around the time of decolonisation. </p>
<p>A power-sharing agreement was reached: the executive branch of government was meant to be shared by Francophones and Anglophones. But that agreement has not been upheld and, over the years, Anglophone political representation has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAgBBzrjMUI">steadily eroded</a>.</p>
<p>The crisis came to a head in late 2016 when lawyers, joined by teachers and others with similar grievances, led protests in major western cities demanding that the integrity of their professional institutions be protected and their minority rights respected. </p>
<p>President Paul Biya responded by deploying troops to the region and blocking internet access. When peaceful demonstrations were met with violent repression it exacerbated tensions and escalated the conflict to a national political crisis. </p>
<p>On 12 June 12 2018, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/12/world/africa/ap-af-cameroon-deadly-violence.html">Amnesty International issued a report</a> documenting human rights violations in Cameroon. <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/cameroon-electoral-uncertainty-amid-multiple-security-threats">The International Crisis Group says</a> that at least 120 civilians and 43 members of security forces <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/un-says-160-000-anglophone-cameroonians-fled-violence-145916871.html">have been killed</a> in the most recent waves of violence. </p>
<p>More than 20,000 people have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, and an estimated 160,000 are displaced within Cameroon. </p>
<p>Some human rights activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/05/30/africas-next-civil-war-could-be-in-cameroon/?utm_term=.0880fcf57106">worry</a> that Cameroon could be the site of Africa’s next civil war.</p>
<p>Agbor Nkongho, an Anglophone human rights lawyer and director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, told the <em>Washington Post</em>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are gradually, gradually getting there (civil war). I’m not seeing the willingness of the government to try to find and address the issue in a way that we will not get there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another issue is that there are diverse views even within the Anglophone and Francophone communities about what would be best for Cameroon going forward.</p>
<h2>Obstacles to national unity</h2>
<p>In October 2017 the separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of the <a href="https://www.ambazonia.org/">Republic of Ambazonia</a>. His interim government laid claim to a territory whose borders are the same as the UN Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under British rule (1922-1961). </p>
<p>The interim government’s spokesman, Nso Foncha Nkem, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL7HM47aqA8">invited</a> Francophones to leave the region and called on Anglophones in Biya’s “rubber-stamp” government to return to Ambazonia and support the movement. He also pleaded for unity, asking that Anglophones speak in one voice. </p>
<p>However, that call has not overcome the challenges posed by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAgBBzrjMUI">diverse viewpoints</a> within the Anglophone population itself. Some favour secession. Others want to return to the 1961 federation and the power-sharing agreement. There are those who prefer decentralisation that would devolve power to regional leaders, and some who simply want an administrative solution that would leave the Republic of Cameroon as it stands. </p>
<p>And among the Francophone population, there is some support for the radical separatists, while some see the Anglophone situation as a general crisis of governance and others deny any problem exists. </p>
<p>Mongo Beti, a Francophone novelist and activist who spent 30 years in exile, observed after <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820363?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">returning home</a> in the 1990s that a general absence of identification with a viable, unified nation due to various divisions had frayed Cameroon’s social fabric and was a significant impediment to progress. </p>
<p>It is unclear whether Biya, who is 85 and in power since 1982, will run for re-election. His 38 years in office as a corrupt, absent leader have left <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/cameroon-electoral-uncertainty-amid-multiple-security-threats">the nation in tatters</a>. The vast majority of Cameroonians, whether Anglophone or Francophone, are hungry for change. </p>
<h2>The way forward?</h2>
<p>There is an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAgBBzrjMUI">urgent need for an inclusive national dialogue</a> to harness this desire for change. </p>
<p>The government must recognise that it faces a substantive national crisis and take extraordinary steps. A general conversation about governance in all its regions is also necessary. Given the depth and severity of people’s grievances, a holistic approach is needed that would address issues of governance, security, and civic engagement to mend the bonds that have been broken. </p>
<p>This is necessary if the current crisis it to become an opportunity to develop a new road map for the future that could empower citizens.</p>
<p><em>Phyllis Taoua is the author of African Freedom: How Africa Responded to Independence (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and was a Tucson Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phyllis Taoua does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some human rights activists worry that Cameroon could be the site of Africa’s next civil war.Phyllis Taoua, Professor of Francophone Studies (Africa, Caribbean), Faculty Affiliate with Africana Studies, World Literature Program and Human Rights Pracice, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.