Cameroon: The Anglophone Crisis — A Border That Was Never Ours
Cameroon: The Anglophone Crisis
A Border That Was Never Ours
In the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, a war has been fought since 2017 that has killed over 6,000 people, displaced nearly 1 million, and forced more than 70,000 to flee to Nigeria as refugees. It receives almost no international coverage. It began with lawyers and teachers going on strike. It became a war because the government chose bullets over dialogue. And it exists at all because two European powers, a century ago, decided to split a people between two languages and call it governance.
The Colonial Root
Cameroon was first colonized by Germany (1884–1916). After Germany’s defeat in World War I, the territory was divided between Britain and France under League of Nations mandates. France received the larger eastern portion; Britain received two non-contiguous strips in the west — one bordering Nigeria to the north, one to the south. These were administered not as a unified territory but as appendages of British Nigeria.
In 1961, a UN-supervised plebiscite asked the people of British Southern Cameroons whether they wanted to join Nigeria or join the newly independent French Cameroon. They chose to join French Cameroon — on the explicit promise of a federal system that would protect their distinct legal, educational, and cultural institutions. That promise was broken in 1972, when President Ahmadou Ahidjo abolished the federation and created a unitary state dominated by Francophone institutions.
The Anglophone regions — the Northwest and Southwest — have been governed by a Francophone-majority state ever since, with their common law system, English-language schools, and distinct administrative culture systematically marginalized.
The Crisis: 2016 to Today
In late 2016, Anglophone lawyers and teachers launched strikes protesting the appointment of Francophone judges and teachers to Anglophone courts and schools — officials who did not speak English and were unfamiliar with common law. The government’s response was to arrest protest leaders and deploy the military. Peaceful demonstrations were met with live ammunition. The movement radicalized.
By 2017, armed separatist groups had formed under the banner of Ambazonia — the name for the proposed independent Anglophone state. The Cameroonian military responded with documented atrocities: burning villages, extrajudicial killings, and the detention of civilians. Separatist groups have also committed atrocities, including attacks on schools and the killing of civilians accused of collaboration.
As of May 2026: The conflict continues. President Paul Biya — in power since 1982, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders — has refused meaningful dialogue. A Major National Dialogue in 2019 produced a “Special Status” for the Anglophone regions that has not been implemented. 6,000+ killed. 1 million+ displaced. 70,000+ refugees in Nigeria. The war is in its ninth year.
Why the World Is Silent
Cameroon is a stable partner for Western governments — it cooperates on counterterrorism, hosts refugees from neighboring conflicts, and maintains predictable trade relationships. Paul Biya’s government has faced no meaningful international pressure to negotiate. France — Cameroon’s former colonial power and closest ally — has been conspicuously silent. The African Union has not intervened. The crisis continues because it is convenient for it to continue — for everyone except the people living it.
Key Facts
- Cameroon was split between Britain and France after WWI — a division that created today’s crisis.
- The 1961 federation promise was broken in 1972 when the unitary state was imposed.
- The crisis began in 2016 with peaceful strikes by lawyers and teachers.
- The government responded with military force. The movement became an armed insurgency.
- 6,000+ killed. 1 million+ displaced. 70,000+ refugees in Nigeria.
- President Biya has been in power since 1982. He is 91 years old as of May 2026.
- No meaningful peace process is underway as of May 2026.
- The conflict is in its ninth year and receives almost no international media coverage.
NZETE: The Beacon
The Anglophone Crisis is colonialism’s most precise wound: a people divided not by culture, not by history, not by choice — but by the language of their colonizer. Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians are the same people, from the same land, separated by a line drawn in Europe. The war between them is not their war. It is the inheritance of someone else’s map.
NZETE refuses that map. We see one Cameroon. We see one Africa. The divisions that were imposed on us — by language, by border, by ethnicity, by religion — are not our identity. They are our wound. And wounds, when named and tended, can heal.
The continent is watching. The diaspora is watching. We will not look away from Buea, from Bamenda, from the villages that have no name in international headlines. You are seen. You are family. The tree holds.
Sources: UNHCR, ACLED, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, The Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Last reviewed: May 2026.