And 51 for Cameroon Unity Day. A country torn apart by separatist conflict in the northwest and southwest areas and surges of tribalism. The question of unity is diminishing and opinion is divided.
The newspaper L’Essentiel, published in Douala, the economic capital and rebellious city, reports “The land threatens unity”. And sets the scene. Persistent secessionist tendencies in the North-West and South-West regions, hate speech, identity withdrawal, conflicts related to access to land, tribal political parties, politics with the problem of regional balance, are all threats to the unity of Cameroon. Issues that call for deep reflection on this eve of the celebration of the 51st Unity Day.
A position shared by the daily La Nouvelle Expression, another Douala newspaper. On the 51 years of unitary state, the newspaper poses a “Chronicle of a disillusion”. On May 20, 1972, a very controversial referendum led to the birth of the United Republic of Cameroon. Fifty-one years after the institution of the unitary state, the exacerbation of tribalism, the withdrawal of identity, and more recently the Anglophone crisis which almost turned into a civil war, reveal the failure of the policies carried out by the successive regimes Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya to ensure national unity.
As an illustration, the newspaper returns to the Anglophone Crisis to inform of a “Precarious calm on the eve of May 20”. The separatists call on the populations to observe a dead city in the North-West and the South-West. In the meantime, a precarious calm prevails in the main localities of these two regions, with sporadic attacks by the separatists. As for nearly seven years. .
Cameroon Tribune, the daily with public capital which appears in Yaoundé, the capital and seat of the institutions sees rather in the Army and the Nation a “total Fusion”. For the newspaper, In addition to ensuring the unfailing security of people and property, while preserving the territorial integrity of the country, the defense and security forces have also positioned themselves, for years, as real actors of development in public works, health, education or civil protection. Achievements that meet with the massive support of the populations and strengthen the relationship of symbiosis.
In the same dynamic, L’Equation, another Yaoundé newspaper follows in the footsteps of the government newspaper to speak of “The attentive ear of the Head of State”. The vision of the Head of State, in the consolidation of a harmonious coexistence between the communities, a permanent dialogue and social tolerance, contributed to the lifting of the suspension of the Touristique Express agency. Today, it is a question of implementing the commitments made for the modernization of the fleet, retraining and training of personnel.
