There are risks of a clash between government troops and supporters of the Anglophone secessionist Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) in the oil-rich South-West Region. The SCNC plans to hoist its flag to show its territorial autonomy and hold a national assembly on the side-lines of burying its late former chairman Ayamba Ette Ottun.
Under Ayamba the SCNC has witnessed an unprecedented split into several factions, mainly based on age, between the council’s older leaders and the more militant younger generation. The latter blame the former for having lost the thrust of the mission for outright independence of the Cameroon's two Anglophone regions: South-West and North-West. Their quest for Anglophone autonomy is based on claims that the country’s Francophone majority government and people marginalise them and treat them as second class citizens.
Ayamba's funeral will, however, be used as a reconciliatory platform for the SCNC's various domestic and expatriate factions A new and vibrant leader is expected to be elected by about 5,000 SCNC activists attending the national assembly in Mamfe. Menas Associates learnt during a visit to the South-West Region that the tussle for the leadership has been heating up but that Paul Abine Ayah is the name on most lips.
For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.
© 2014 Menas Associates
No comments:
Post a Comment