Cameroonian President, Paul Biya, who is marking his 36th year in office, has imposed a week-long night curfew in the country’s restive English-speaking areas, citing fears of an “imminent” attack by separatists. Dozens of people have been killed in the two English-speaking regions since last October after a violent crackdown on protests by the Anglophones against the French-speaking government.
Many English-speakers have accused the Francophone majority of discrimination and that has fuelled a separatist movement. Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said the curfew which came into force on Wednesday, was due to concerns of imminent attacks in several cities by separatists, backed by mercenaries from neighbouring Nigeria.
The English-speaking minority occupies Cameroon’s southwest and northwest regions and accounts for about a fifth of the population. In October, separatists declared the two regions as the self-proclaimed Republic of Ambazonia, which caused the government to react with undue force.
According to a Police statement, 22 policemen and soldiers have been killed in the violence but officials in the capital, Yaounde, have kept quiet about the number of separatists killed in the disturbances. The spiraling violence has prompted an estimated 30,000 Cameroonians to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.
President Biya, who has held power since 1982, called on young Cameroonians to be “patriotic internet users”, describing the situation in the Anglophone areas as improving. The reference to the internet follows a series of video clips circulated online alleging that Camerounian soldiers committed atrocities against separatists.
But the authorities have denied that troops were responsible for the alleged gruesome killings in English-speaking regions as portrayed in the video clips.
