Cameroon Denies Canada's Mediation With Separatists
Cameroonian government officials have denied Canada's foreign ministry's announcement that Cameroon and some separatist factions have agreed to a peace process, with Ottawa assigned to help. The officials said that no such role was mandated.
Cameroon government spokesperson René Emmanuel Sadi said Yaoundé had not entrusted any country with the role of facilitator or mediator with separatists in its western regions.
The denial of Canada's mediation deflated hopes for talks to end seven years of fighting that has left thousands of people dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Switzerland has also made attempts to mediate the conflict, but with little progress. Canada says the conflict has killed more than 6,000 people since 2017, displaced 800,000, and deprived 600,000 children of access to education.
InFocus
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Cameroon's government has deployed at least 100 troops to Gayama, a village on the border with Nigeria, after clashes between Cameroonian separatists and Nigerian herders left at least 12 people dead.
Officials say the fighting broke out after herders who crossed the border in search of food for their cattle refused to pay taxes the rebels demanded.
Abdoulahi Aliou, the highest-ranking government official in Menchum, the administrative unit in charge of
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Six years on, the crisis in the Anglophone (English-speaking) regions of Cameroon continues. Recent reports indicate that over 6,000 people have been killed, writes Laura-Stella Enonchong for The Conversation.
Cameroon was colonised by Britain and France - occupying 20% and 80% of the territory respectively. They introduced both their language and their legal traditions in their respective spheres of influence.
The conflict's origins
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A map showing the territory claimed by the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
