Separatist Groups in Cameroon Agree to Ceasefire

Lexington — After four years of conflict, the Southern Cameroon Defense Forces (SOCADEF), an Anglophone separatist group in southern Ambazonia, has agreed to a ceasefire. This move comes in response to the UN’s call for an “immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world” to create conditions that would better protect the most vulnerable citizens from the Coronavirus pandemic. The Cameroon government has yet to respond to the idea of a ceasefire.

The Ambazonian War has raged for several years, displacing 1.5 million people internally and affecting nearly 4.5 million according to UN records. The war between a French-speaking majority and English-speaking minority erupted in 2016 when the government unleashed an outsized beatdown of peaceful demonstrations by Anglophones discontented with being treated like second-class citizens.

Since then, both the government and separatist military forces have committed war crimes, killing, looting, intimidating and kidnapping unarmed citizens. Calls for warring sides to open up dialogue have been largely ignored.

Map courtesy of Mikrobølgeovn — *Map courtesy of* *Mikrobølgeovn*

Ambazonia is controlled by several different separatist groups. SOCADEF is just one of the groups who wields influence in the Anglophone region. Although they support the ceasefire, the Ambazonia Governing Council which controls the Ambazonia Defense Forces, said they would not agree to a ceasefire unless the government agreed to remove Cameroonian forces from Ambazonia.

This puts the ball in Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s court – he has yet to respond. Despite the division in action, the UN sees this as a crucial first step in creating an environment where rivals can put aside their differences and fight against the common enemy, COVID-19.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s plea for a global ceasefire applies to all conflict-ridden areas of the world. Areas like Syria and Yemen where millions are displaced without any access to healthcare or security can become “super-incubators” for the coronavirus. Conflict-ridden regions with fragile or non-existent healthcare systems could easily become decimated by the fast-traveling virus.

As such, he has called for the G20, the world’s top 20 economies, to meet virtually to coordinate efforts to suppress the pandemic and support weaker countries. Pope Francis has echoed these calls for ceasefire, pleading that warring sides to “stop every form of bellicose hostility and to favor the creation of corridors for humanitarian help.”

In spite of low numbers of testing, Cameroon has already seen 88 confirmed cases and two deaths due to COVID-19. Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam appear to be hotspots for the virus. The displaced, disabled, chronically ill and elderly are at particularly high vulnerability – the ceasefire would allow the government and humanitarian workers to focus their efforts on battling the invisible virus without sacrificing resources towards the Ambazonian War.

It is the hope of world leaders tasked with resolving the Ambazonian conflict that this ceasefire “could promote the beginning of a dialogue after the coronavirus pandemic is over.” How parties on both sides react remains to be seen.