City of Madison Mayor and Common Council Pass Proclamation for Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Awareness Month

Since 2017, the English speaking regions of Cameroon have been in a conflict that has resulted in the death of thousands and displacement of many more. Referred to as the Anglophone Crisis by some, this conflict is a result of historical, political, economic, and social tensions. In situations of war and conflict children, women and youth are often greatly impacted and this crisis in Cameroon is no different. Several global organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the UN have called attention to it. Others right here in the US have lend their voice calling for peace. I join these voices to raise awareness on the conflict on going in selected regions of Cameroon, and hope all parties will work their way towards a peaceful resolution. See the proclamation below.

Whereas, according to Human Rights Watch (2022) armed groups and government forces have committed human rights abuses, including mass killings, across Cameroon’s English speaking (Anglophone) regions since 2016. Conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon has caused considerable instability and human suffering, with more than 3,000 known deaths as of 2018. United Nation agencies note that as of 2020, estimated 3,000,000 people in Cameroon are in need of humanitarian assistance, estimated 60,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria, and about 700,000 persons are internally displaced; and

Whereas, the Anglophone area consists of two of the country’s ten regions, the Northwest and the Southwest. It has about 5 million of Cameroon’s 24 million inhabitants. It plays an important role in the economy, especially its dynamic agricultural and commercial sectors. Most of Cameroon’s oil, which accounts for one twelfth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), is located off the coast of the Anglophone region; and

Whereas, in October 2016, English-speaking lawyers, students, and teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon took to the streets to peacefully protest marginalization of English-speaking Cameroonians by the Government of Cameroon in the legal and education systems, as exemplified by the appointment of French-speaking judges and teachers in the Northwest and Southwest regions and the publishing of important legislation solely in the French language; and

Whereas, in 2017, armed groups in the northwest and southwest regions responded to the repressive and violent actions of the Government of Cameroon by targeting government officials and facilities as well as civilians and traditional leaders seen as sympathetic to the Government of Cameroon and brutally enforcing “ghost town operations” (general strikes) and school boycotts in the Northwest and Southwest regions; and

Whereas, lengthy government-imposed shutdowns of the internet and social media in the Northwest and Southwest regions, totaling 240 days between 2017 and 2018, had a devastating impact on the economies and educational institutions in the regions, undermined freedom of expression, prevented the free flow of information related to the conflict, and restricted the ability of local communities to interact and communicate;

Whereas, the Anglophone problem dates back to the independence period where a poorly conducted re-unification based on centralization and assimilation has led the Anglophone minority to feel politically and economically marginalized, and that their cultural difference are ignored; and

Whereas, numerous credible reports from human rights monitors, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, have documented the excessive use of force by government security forces against Cameroonian civilians living in the Anglophone regions, including the burning of villages, the use of live ammunition against protestors, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual abuse, and killing of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly; and

Whereas, the Department of State 2019 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Cameroon documented killings of civilians, kidnappings, abductions, and hostage taking, beatings, attacks on health workers and media, restrictions on movements of persons and goods, and use of child soldiers as a result of this conflict; and

Whereas, the United Nations Children's Fund estimates more than 855,000 children are out of school due to the conflict, and the Department of State added Cameroon to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act List in the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report as a foreign government “identified during the previous year as having governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces, or government-supported armed groups that recruit or use child soldiers”; and

Whereas, United States citizen Charles Wesco was shot and killed near the town of Bamenda, Cameroon, on October 30, 2018, and, in November 2018, the Department of State stated, “In memory of American missionary Charles Wesco and all others who have lost their lives in the Anglophone Crisis, we urge all sides to end the violence and enter into broad-based reconciliatory dialogue without preconditions.”; and

Whereas, national and international outrage followed the massacre of at least 23 people, including 15 children and 2 pregnant women, by government security forces and allied militia on February 14, 2020, in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung division, in the Northwest region, and a commission of inquiry established by Cameroonian authorities ultimately led to the arrest and charging of 3 soldiers for murder; and

Whereas, on June 5, 2020, amidst increasing concern over attacks on freedom of the press and detention of journalists on politically motivated charges in recent years, Cameroon authorities confirmed that an Anglophone journalist covering the conflict, Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, known as Wazizi, who was arrested in August 2019 and transferred to a military facility, died in custody shortly after his arrest, an acknowledgment that led to widespread condemnation and calls for an independent inquiry; and

Whereas, in February 2019, the Department of State announced that it would withhold some security assistance to Cameroon, including equipment and training, citing credible allegations of human rights violations by state security forces and a lack of investigation, accountability, and transparency by the Government of Cameroon in response; and

Whereas, on December 26, 2019, the United States terminated the designation of Cameroon as a beneficiary under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (19 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) because “the Government of Cameroon currently engages in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, on behalf of the residents of Madison, Wisconsin do hereby proclaim the month of November 2022 as

The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Awareness Month

in the city of Madison

and pledge to support Wisconsin representatives in Washington D.C working on this issue.