By Nfor Nkfu
The United States of America has again come under pressure to end the conflict that has been raging in the English speaking North West and South West regions of Cameroon for almost four years and counting.
The pressure this time is coming from some eleven human rights, civil liberties, social justice and religious organisations around the world.The aforementioned groups in an open letter dated April 6th ,2021 challenged the US government to take a leading role in the resolution of the crisis .
...."As you maybe aware,attempts by the government of Cameroon to resolve the crisis have failed because of its unwillingness to address head on the root causes and its resort to military force to address otherwise political grievances of citizens", the letter reads in parts.
The epistle also notes that,"attempts at conflict resolution have failed to bring parties to the table as high levels of deaths, brutality, and suffering continue"
According to reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Cameroon,"three million people are affected with 1.4million in need of immediate help.The UN Refugee Commission's statistics show that 70.000 people have fled to Nigeria as refugees with 711,000 internally displaced.Thousands of people have been killed and more than three hundred villages burnt down",the letter noted
While asking the US to grant temporary protection measures for Anglophones seeking assylum, the letter revealed that,"as a result of the ongoing conflict, Anglophone Cameroonians have become the leading assylum seekers from Africa at the US southern border with Mexico"
Enumerating envisaged measures-some culled from US Senate resolutions,the eleven organisations enjoin the Biden adminstration to lead efforts to bring the conflict to an immediate end.
Amongst the undersigned organisations of the open letter are, World Council of Churches, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International,The Global Campaign For Peace and Justice in Cameroon,Refugee Council of Australia, Presbyterian Church (USA),Neutra Angenda,JuventuleXlapaz, Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights organisations,Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative, Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations and Sam Soya Centre for Democracy and Human Rights.