Civilians trapped as Cameroon army battles separatists

Bloomberg

Cyprain fled his home when separatist fighters in Cameroon’s Northwest region threatened to kill him after he served government soldiers.
He’s one of a growing number of civilians trapped between the army and roaming gangs of English-speaking insurgents fighting to break away from the majority-Francophone nation. The conflict has decimated the local economy in the conflict zone, and according to the United Nations, left hundreds of people dead and displaced about 437,000 people.
“The military burn houses, destroys, loots property and kills citizens,” Cyprain, 41, said on condition that his surname not be used out fear for his safety during an interview in the port city of Douala, where he now stays with relatives. “Separatist fighters attack, kidnap and even kill people they suspect are their enemies.”
There’s no end in sight to a conflict that started in late 2016 with peaceful protests against the dominance of the French language in schools and courtrooms of the Northwest and Southwest regions, where most people speak English. President Paul Biya, 85, said on Twitter last week he’ll order the defense forces to “neutralise” all fighters who don’t lay down their weapons, a warning he first gave in his traditional year-end speech.
Africa’s second-longest serving head of state, Biya extended his more than three-decade rule in the central African nation by winning disputed presidential elections in October.
“The army hasn’t been able to take back control of rural areas, and there’s an increasing rivalry between separatist militia that fight each other over leadership and territory,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup, an analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “The roads are either controlled by separatists or by defense forces. The population is suffering harassment from both sides.”
That’s isolated the area from the rest of oil-dependent Cameroon, which is a key regional hub, with roads and ports that are vital for landlocked neighbors including Chad and Central African Republic.
Cameroon’s top state-owned agribusiness said this week it has lost $61 million as a result of the crisis and more than half of its 22,000 employees are unable to work.
The roots of the crisis date to the decision by the colonial powers to split the nation after World War I into a French-run zone and a smaller, British-controlled area. Since they were unified in 1961, the English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained they don’t have equal job and educational opportunities as the French speaking
majority.