The Camerounian government has come out strongly against the armed separatist factions that have fueled a decade-long crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions. In a blunt editorial marking ten years since unrest first erupted in October 2016, defence spokesperson Captain Cyrille Atonfack Guemo dismantles the narrative of a spontaneous liberation movement, branding it a calculated ploy for violence and self-enrichment.
From protests to predation: the unravelling of a political facade
The crisis in the North-West and South-West regions began with seemingly legitimate grievances from lawyers and teachers demanding language rights and educational reforms. Yet what started as organised labour demonstrations quickly mutated into a sustained armed insurgency, Atonfack Guemo argues.
He questions the spontaneity of a movement that, within months, saw well-coordinated attacks across multiple locations, with attackers wielding modern firearms and employing military-style tactics. Such coordination, he asserts, required extensive prior planning, financing, recruitment, and training—hardly the hallmarks of a grassroots uprising.
The insurgents’ claim to be fighting for the region’s marginalised people, he contends, rings hollow when their actions directly harm the very communities they purport to represent. Schools have been torched, health centres destroyed, and civilians subjected to extortion, abduction, and sexual violence. Instead of fostering development or civic participation, the armed groups have imposed a reign of terror that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes into sprawling displacement camps.
Broken promises: the myth of separatist liberation
According to Atonfack Guemo, the separatist agenda was never about political emancipation—it was about power, control, and profit. He highlights a glaring contradiction: leaders who preach freedom while stripping communities of their livelihoods, sabotaging education, and terrorising residents into submission.
He also takes aim at the diaspora financiers—overseas Cameroonians who, in his view, have poured vast personal fortunes into sustaining the rebellion rather than investing in reconstruction or social services. Their children attend elite international schools, they enjoy security abroad, yet the regions they claim to champion are trapped in cycles of violence, poverty, and underdevelopment.
In his words, these figures are not freedom fighters—they are ‘wannabe potentates’ whose true goal is to govern over lawless territories they can exploit at will. Their rhetoric of liberation is exposed as a hollow cover for personal enrichment and territorial domination.
A call for vigilance and national unity
Atonfack Guemo ends with a rallying cry for Cameroonians to reject the false promises of separatism and uphold the values of patriotism. He warns that the fabric of national unity is under threat—not by external forces, but by internal actors who have weaponised division for their own gain.
The defence spokesperson calls on all citizens to remain alert, reject manipulation, and reaffirm their commitment to a united Cameroon where justice and security prevail for every community.
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