Cameroon: Anglophone secessionists to ratchet up tension in oil-rich South West Region

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

How will Cameroon finance pay rises?

Minister of Finance Ousmane Alamine Mey has explained that Cameroon spends CFA820 billion (US$1.69 billion) a year on government workers’ salaries.

President Paul Biya’s 5% increase in these monthly salaries will increase government spending by CFA30 billion (US$62 million) in the second half of 2014 and increase this year’s total expenditure on civil servants’ wages CFA850 billion (US$1.75 billion).

Mey did not explain, however, how the government intends to pay for the additional CFA30 billion. This is worrying because the government’s 2014 budget has already been concluded. 

Menas Associates believes that the additional income will come from increasing oil revenues. Fortunately, Cameroon is expected to witness a surge in oil production in 2014, from 24 million to 30 million barrels as new oil fields come on stream. 

Increased oil production could, therefore, provide the necessary additional revenue to finance this year’s 5% pay increase for the civil servants.

For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates