Anglophone Conflict Kills Booming SW Economy
The ongoing conflict in Anglophone Cameroon is has dealt
a terrible blow to the economy of the otherwise richly endowed SW region of the
country, which has easily become the epicenter of deadly hostilities between
separatist fighters and government forces.
This
situation has been highlighted by the Buea-based NGO, Human is Right, which
noted in a release, Wednesday, that, the oil plantations of Pamol PLC in Ndian
division have been ‘deserted’, while the cocoa and coffee producing activities
in the region have been halted because the farmers have abandoned their farms
to seek safe havens elsewhere.
According
to sources close to Telcar Cocoa, arguably Cameroon’s biggest cocoa exporter,
the company’s cocoa export has dropped by about 80% due to the insecurity in
the SW region.
Human is
Right reveals that Telcar authorities have had to negotiate financially with
leaders of armed gangs just to secure their installations in enclave villages
like Ngusi and Nyasoso in Kupe Muanenguba division.
The NGO
adds that the CDC plantations and factories have not been left out in the
losses due to the crisis, with the company’s plantations in Ndian and Meme
divisions totally abandoned.
With
these two giant agro-industries (Pamol and CDC) and the cocoa exporter (Telcar)
so affected, the economy of the SW is virtually on its knees, notes ‘Human is
Right’, which adds that the burning down of CDC’s banana stocking facility in
Tiko has only made the situation worse for the company, which can now barely
sustain itself or pay its workers salaries.
Added to
the arson at the CDC, a petrol-filling station was burnt in Muyuka, while
several trucks transporting finished products of the brewery company, Les
Brasseries du Cameroon, were also burnt in Kumba and Mile 4 Limbe.
The
difficulties faced by companies in the region due to the crisis have caused the
unemployment rate in the agriculture sector to rise to about 70%.
Localized
in the NW region at the unset of violence in early 2017, the armed conflicts
have increasingly relocated to the SW region. Initially concentrated in Manyu
and Ndian divisions, the gun battles have moved down to Kumba, then Muyuka,
Ekona and now Buea and Limbe.
Divided
in splinter groups, the separatist fighters are giving the government defense
forces a run for their money and time. They sporadically attack military
positions almost on a daily basis, with casualties registered on both sides
after every attack.
During
the crisis, schools and other public and private property have been burnt down
or destroyed by the separatist fighters. There have also been killing of
security officers and kidnapping and at times killing of administrative
personel and other civilians.
For their
part, government forces have carried out collective reprisals, at times burning
down whole villages and shooting indiscriminately at civilian populations. The
US Department of State said in a statement that there have been ‘targeted
killings’ on both sides. It called for an end to hostilities and for the
government to engage dialogue with the separatists.
The
crisis in Anglophone Cameroon which started as peaceful expressions of
grievances by teachers and lawyers easily went violent when the government
responded to the peaceful protests with arrests, incarcerations and killings of
suspected leaders. Today the radicalization has assumed run-away proportions,
while the violence has gone out of control.
Observers
say with the Anglophone crisis, the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North and
rebel incursions in the East, Cameroon has become a conflict nation and has
lost its erstwhile reputation as an Island of peace in an ocean of conflicts.
It is
feared that the presidential election billed for 7 October might not go on
peacefully, especially if something is not done to arrest the situation before
then.
President
Paul Biya, 85, who has spent 36 years in power, is running for a 7th
consecutive reelection.
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