Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis

As Anglophones became increasingly associated with the opposition, the discrimination they faced as a linguistic minority intensified over the ensuing decades.

Written by Natalie Letsa

Mar 2, 2020

Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-second session. UN PHOTO/CIA PAK

On 9 February, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, convened another round of legislative and municipal elections that his ruling party will be sure to dominate. However, on 26 February, Cameroon’s constitutional council ordered a rerun of the 9 February elections in a majority of the country’s Anglophone regions, due to allegations of irregularities and fraud by President Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party.

Meanwhile, ongoing violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions (the Northwest and Southwest regions) rages on as the Biya regime fails to address the needs of its most prominent linguistic minority. Because of the violence, voter turnout in the most recent presidential election (held in 2018) was historically low at 5.4 per cent and 15.9 per cent in the northwest and southwest regions, respectively. When the final results of the 2020 elections are announced in the coming weeks, similar participation rates will be expected.

But it is important to note that voter turnout in the Anglophone regions—as well as most of the rest of the country—has always been low, a feature of an autocratic system where elections hold no hope for a change in political power. It is precisely this lack of democratic freedom or representation that is at the heart of the so-called Anglophone Crisis, which has reached a boiling point in Cameroon today. The crisis is unlikely to be resolved until Cameroon undergoes a more fundamental process of structural change to its political and social systems.

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About the Author

Natalie Letsa

is an Assistant Professor of Political Economy. Their research focuses on African politics and economic development.

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Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis