ABSTRACT
The hard handedness of the Cameroonian government‟s security forces against the peaceful demonstration by lawyers, teachers and civil society organizations from Anglophone Cameroon in 2016 escalated an already tense security situation in the country. The repressive response of the state security forces led to civilian deaths and the displacement of over 437, 000 people, mostly in the Anglophone regions of North West and South West of the country. Using a qualitative approach, the study examines the causes of the crisis as well as its ramifications on the people and on peace and development in Cameroon in general. The study found that the causes of the crisis are deep in history, and that the crisis had economic, political, social, and psychological ramifications on Anglophone Cameroonians and the country as a whole, as well as on Nigeria, its western neighbor. The study further noted the efforts of international actors such as the UK, US, and Switzerland, along with ECCAS and the African Union (AU), which have used largely diplomatic approaches to resolve the crisis. The study recommended, among other things, that these external actors intensify their efforts to bring a lasting solution to the crisis.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Research Problem
The genesis of the Anglophone Crisis is traced to World War 1 when the country was unequally partitioned between France and Britain, following the defeat of Germany (Konings & Nyamnjoh, 1997). The Anglophone Crisis, as it is commonly called, refers to the divide between the English speaking and French speaking parts of Cameroon. This divide poses a major challenge to the efforts of the post-colonial state to forge national unity and integration because the Anglophone Cameroonians have allegedly felt marginalized in the predominantly Francophone country. This has resulted in heightened tensions between the two sides and has led to the reintroduction of arguments and actions in favour of „federalism‟ or even
„secession‟ (Konings & Nyamnjoh, 1997).
Unlike the secession cases of South Sudan, Kosovo, and Crimea that turned out to be relatively „successful‟, there have been some unsuccessful attempts at it. These include the attempted secession of Quebec from Canada, Scotland from UK and Catalonia from Spain (Sterio, 2018). On the continent of Africa, cases of secession include the unsuccessful attempts of Biafra from Nigeria, the successful secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia, (Keller, 2007) and more recently, the case of Cameroon.
The Republic of Cameroon which is situated in Central Africa, is bordered by Nigeria to the West and North; Chad to the Northeast; the Central African Republic to the East; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo to the South. Since her attainment of independence in 1960, Cameroon has been faced with many challenges, primarily with regards to internal integration of regions that were previously under English colonial rule.
