This Is How Paul Biya Wanted To 'Drown' The Anglophone Crisis

The Cameroonian government announced the suspension of International Crisis Group, following the publication of a report titled "Cameroon: the worsening of the Anglophone crisis requires strong measures". A measure that risks marginalizing the country on the international scene.

After the denials, the sanction. The Cameroonian government has decided to suspend the International Crisis Group (ICG) from any activity on the extent of its territory. To explain this decision, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma has not been tender: "We are dealing with a real pest destabilization, in the pay of secessionist movements and unacknowledged interests that only dream of installing chaos in our country ".

The reason for this wrath is a report published last October 19 in which the NGO believes that, lack of an "urgent reaction" of politicians, there is a risk of seeing the crisis anglophone degenerate into "armed insurrection".

This Is How Paul Biya Wanted To 'Drown' The Anglophone Crisis

In view of the content of the report, the reaction of the government, with accents of indictment, seems surprisingly virulent. Of course, ICG, like other actors in international civil society, are not sacred cows. But to address his message of firmness, Cameroon could have favored the demonstration to imprecation.

To justify the relegation of this organization to the purgatory of semi-clandestinity, it is better to expose substantiated facts rather than evasive allegations of connivance with the secessionist nebula.

Especially when it is aimed at an NGO financed at 40% by "friends" of Cameroon - like the German, Canadian, Swiss and Finnish governments - and whose board of directors puts personalities above all others. suspicion of "destabilization", like billionaire Anglo-Sudanese Mo Ibrahim or the former president of the Swiss confederation, Micheline Calmy-Rey ...

Exercise of internal communication and strategy of denial

Do not be naive. Typing as deaf on ICG and, in the recent past, on Amnesty International and Freedom House, is above all a communication exercise for domestic consumption. Sign that the strategy of denial, which had for keywords "There is no English problem", still structures the governmental communication.

The fact remains that the Cameroonians did not wait for the ICG report to take the measure of the seriousness of the troubles. Photos, videos and writings are daily exchanged via social networks.

The hyper susceptibility staged by the government also aims to put a camisole to whistleblowers. Can she "bully" ICG and others? Not sure. Investigating and collecting data will be more complicated and the credibility of the reports will be more contested. Except that, to prevent ICG from working will not guarantee the tranquility of the rulers.

The temptation of the closed session

The temptation of the closed session often has the effect of whetting the appetite of the media and other actors ready to turn their spotlight on the situations that one would like to withdraw from the glance of the world.

Integrating conspiracy theory into official discourse is irresponsible. Given the complexity of the Anglophone crisis, the words of those responsible should never be freed from the grip of facts.

To bend the chest against the alarms concerning the protection of the minorities and the non-respect of the human rights is to communicate wrongly. To take the party of degenerating into a dispute the publication of the least unflattering report is not a sign of openness and is to be marginalized in the global advancement of the world.