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Bloomberg
Cameroonian President Paul Biya announced a government change, creating a new ministry and appointing two officials from the nation’s Anglophone regions to top positions in an apparent bid to address a secessionist crisis in the central African nation.
Biya, 85, established a Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development and named Paul Atanga Nji, who hails from the restive Northwest region, as minister of territorial administration, according to a government statement read on state radio. Another Anglophone official, Pauline Nalova Lyonga Egbe, will lead the Ministry of Secondary Education, the statement said. Biya is Africa’s second-longest serving head of state.
While Cameroon is due to hold presidential elections in October, the government has been struggling to quash a popular movement that wants the two Anglophone regions to secede from the larger French-speaking territory. Secessionists have killed more than a dozen members of the security forces since the crisis began in late 2016. The leaders of the movement have been detained and will probably face trial this year.