Now a Question of Money and Blood!
The bloody conflict in the North West and South West regions, which started as a wildcat strike by teachers and lawyers soon escalated with various descriptions.
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Six years into the conflict government spin doctors still prefer to refer to it as “the situation”, but separatist hawks have insisted it is a “revolution” on “the road to Buea”.
A “Revolution, like Saturn, will successively devour all its children, and finally produce despotism, with the calamities that accompany it” -to borrow from the 17th century French politician Pierre Vergniaud. People resident in the two warring regions will agree with Vergniaud that they are being devoured, maimed, deprived of their rights to economic and educational activities on Mondays and sporadic lockdowns and kidnapped for ransom.
“The separatist conflict has now become a question of money”, said Fr. Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, Director of Social Communications of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, on Cameroonian television. “When it comes to money, it is very difficult to separate a person from his source of income, even if that source is human blood”.
The trending kidnap atrocity involves five priests, a nun and three lay people picked up at the Catholic church in the town of Nchang in Manyu Division of the Southwest region. They were later released.
Other high profile kidnappings included that of the president of the North West House of Chiefs since December last year and six divisional delegates of Ndian now presumed dead.
The litany of atrocities committed by both separatists fighters are defence and security forces according to various human rights groups have been estimated at some 6000 with hundreds of villages burnt, over 77 000 refugees and about half a million lamenting as Internally Displaced Persons.
A research by the University of Toronto, Canada notes that the “crisis poses an existential threat to millions of Cameroonians and risks undermining Cameroon’s national stability as well as that of the Central and West-Africa sub-regions.
This magazine shares that objective view of the researchers. But what is the solution?
The government has played all its cards with the controversial Major National Dialogue as the main joker but the atrocities continue.
The separatists are in various splinter groups some even fighting themselves but these cycles of political rivalry feuds, vendettas and vengeance, intertwined with deep-rooted, seemingly intractable struggle for power has not diverted them from their dream mission to Buea which them term “restoration of Southern Cameroons independence”.
History teaches that no war, conventional or asymmetric warfare has been resolved by the bullet. A super power and economic power like the United States knows that better drawing from its fail experience in Afghanistan and Vietnam .
Several proposals have been made both by personalities of mettle , organisations and countries. Douala based peace crusader and internationa legal consultant Ntumfor Barrister
Nico Halle and Cardinal Tumi of blessed memory had proposed internal solutions through genuine dialogue with no-holds-barred. Issues in contention are decentralisation, federation and separation.
The United States, United Kingdom, France, African Union and the United Nations have all made identical recommendations. The Swiss dialogue which was viewed as a panacea failed and there is still no sign of light at the end of a dark tunnel.
Father Mbuy, the spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference noted that – “A profoundly wrong approach to conflict management is being adopted. You don’t touch the person who could help you solve your problem, because it’s like shooting yourself in the foot”, emphasizes the priest, according to whom “the Church right now, and I can say this without any fear, possesses the only moral force capable of helping to resolve the armed conflict in the North West and the South West”. However, Fr. Mbuy complains that although the Church continually professes its neutrality, both sides accuse it of supporting their enemies”.
In six years, the Biya regime has failed to “neutralise “the separatists and there is no evidence that it will do so anytime soon as the marauders, with some armed robber have turned the “revolution” into a money and blood affair.
The only option it has is to listen to the various voices of wisdom recommending a genuine and inclusive dialogue on a neutral ground because the pervasive insecurity in the country will continue to be blamed on the government since it has the constitutional prerogative to ensure the safety of citizens and properties.
