Response to Violence in NW & SW:

Biya’s Humanitarian Plan Will Change Nothing

– Hon. Joshua Osih, SDF Presidential Candidate

By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde

Joshua Osih

Opposition SDF candidate for the 2018 presidential election has said that the urgent humanitarian plan proposed by president Biya as solution to the ongoing hostilities in NW and SW will not work the magic; it will simply not work. According to Osih, not only is plan badly timed it’s huge budget features nowhere in the state budget.

            “It is surprising that they adopt such a plan when Cameroon is on the brink of bankruptcy. What is the more intriguing is that they are talking of a plan with a huge budget even when there is no provision for such a plan in the 2018 state budget.”

            “… Today they want to use the tax payers’ money to try to buy peoples’ consciences; I don’t think it will work,” declared Joshua Osih in an interview on RFI.

            Announcing the humanitarian relief assistance last week, the government talked of a total of 84 soldiers and police officers killed in the ongoing conflict in NW and SW since October 2017. Yaounde also accused armed separatist groups of burning 120 schools and of recruiting child soldiers. This was sharply denied by the self-proclaimed Commander of the Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, Cho Ayaba Lucas.

            «It was the Government of Cameroon that declared war on Ambazonians. And we had since warned President Biya that we would defend our people and our territory from external brutality by his regime. So, we owe no excuses to Cameroon if soldiers are killed in the ensuing conflict,” Ayaba said on his facebook page.

            “There are more than 160 000 internally displaced persons due to the activities of government forces, who burn down villages and send combat helicopters to kill civilians. Many families were forcefully displaced by the soldiers,” noted Cho Ayaba.

            He added: « We have identified the schools burnt by government forces. There is the GHS Bamenda for instance that soldiers occupied for weeks and which was burnt in the night. We also know that in some villages civilians set fire on some schools, but these civilians are not members of the ADF which is a responsible force»

Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Wednesday 20 June 2018 announced the Urgent Humanitarian Plan proposed by President Paul Biya to rehabilitate displaced persons and reconstruct destroyed property in NW and SW. He said the plan budgets 12,7 billion francs CFA (about 20 million euros) to be financed by « the state budget, call for national solidarity and contributions from international partners».

            It is believed that by this plan President Paul Biya has realized that the violence in the NW and SW cannot be solved by military force; a change of strategy could be expedient. And this may just be the turning point.

            Commentators say the president may be right in his thinking giving that the over 160 000 internally displaced persons and the 34 000 refugees in Nigeria are already facing acute humanitarian challenges which need urgent relief, and any further escalation of hostilities will only swell the numbers and add to the already huge death toll.

What’s more, giving that presidential elections will be held in under 4 months (in October at the latest), the president must do everything to calm flaring tempers if only to increase voter participation or even make the election possible.

            It should be noted that the separatists have already succeeded to force the president to postpone parliamentary and council elections. And any postponement of the presidential election will only reduce the president’s legitimacy in office, something president Biya would never want to happen.

            The Humanitarian Plan therefore may just be President Biya’s Mea Culpa to Anglophone populations. It is with the aim to divert the hearts and minds of Anglophones from the separatist rhetoric, which promises heaven on earth should Ambazonia come to be.

            Biya’s Humanitarian Plan could also be in response to the suggestions of the US Ambassador to Yaounde, who during an audience with the president in May this year, called his attention to ‘targeted killings’ of civilians by government forces and suggested to the president to start thinking seriously about his post-presidency legacy.