As vote counting continues following Sunday’s presidential election in Cameroon, separatist rebels in the English-speaking areas of the country have tried to disrupt the transporting of ballot boxes by calling for a total ban on all travel.
Source: BBC AFRICA
In many parts of Cameroon’s English-speaking regions no voting took place at all due to the insurgency.
On Sunday, three separatists who were accused of opening fire on passers-by were shot dead by security forces.
President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years, is widely expected to win a seventh term in office.
The Red Dragons, Tigers and Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) – these are just some of the armed groups which have sprung up to fight for independence in English-speaking parts of Cameroon, posing a major security threat to Sunday’s elections, in which President Paul Biya, 85, is seeking to extend his 36-year rule.
In the absence of reliable opinion polls, it is impossible to gauge the level of their support but the authorities’ brutal crackdown has only pushed more of the local population into the arms of the separatists, analysts say.
The militias, formed in the past 12 months, have made many small towns and villages in the two main Anglophone regions, the North-West and South-West, “ungovernable”, something unimaginable just a few years ago, Nigeria-based Cameroon analyst Nna-Emeka Okereke told the BBC.
“They probably have 500 to 1,000 active fighters, but more importantly they have the morale and determination to fight for the independence of what they call Ambazonia state,” he said.
The militias have repulsed attempts by the powerful Cameroonian army, including its elite US-trained troops, to defeat them because of the support they command in the two regions, Mr Okereke said.
“Women will cook for them, share information with them on troop movement and, in at least one instance, even helped lure a soldier to his death in Manyu Division [in the South-West],” Mr Okereke said.
