Cameroon Conflict: A War Entering Its Tenth Year — and Time Is Running Out for Everyone

Time, once assumed to favor stability, now threatens to erode it. In conflicts like this, there are ultimately no winners — only societies that emerge wounded for generations.

By Carl Sanders
Guest Contributor The Independetistnews

A Crisis That Refuses to End

As Cameroon’s conflict in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions enters its tenth year, one reality has become unavoidable: time has solved nothing. Instead, it has deepened wounds, hardened positions, and pushed both the state and separatist movements into a stalemate with mounting humanitarian and economic costs.

What began in 2016 as protests by lawyers and teachers over language rights and judicial marginalization evolved into one of Central Africa’s most protracted conflicts. Initial demonstrations were met with security crackdowns. Moderate voices were sidelined. Armed groups emerged. And what might once have been resolved through political reform became a war of narratives, identities, and legitimacy.

From Protest to Armed Conflict

For years, officials and commentators in Yaoundé insisted the crisis would be resolved quickly. Security operations were presented as necessary and temporary. Yet nearly a decade later, the conflict persists, despite military deployments, political initiatives, and international appeals for dialogue. The endurance of the crisis reveals a deeper truth: force alone cannot resolve disputes rooted in history, governance, and identity.

The Historical Dispute at the Core

At the heart of the conflict lies an unresolved question dating back to decolonization. In 1961, the British-administered Southern Cameroons voted to join the already independent Republic of Cameroon rather than neighboring Nigeria. Many Anglophones now argue that the terms of that union were gradually eroded, leaving them politically and economically marginalized within a centralized Francophone-dominated state.

Successive governments have dismissed separatist claims, framing the crisis as terrorism or banditry. Separatist groups, in turn, portray their struggle as one of national liberation. Between these competing narratives stand millions of civilians caught in the middle.

Civilians Caught in the Middle

Schools have closed for years in some areas. Entire communities have been displaced internally or across borders. Businesses have shuttered. Infrastructure has deteriorated. Families face insecurity not only from clashes between armed groups and security forces, but also from criminal elements exploiting the chaos.

Neither side has achieved decisive victory. Instead, both have paid a high price. Cameroon’s economy strains under security expenditures and declining investor confidence. The Anglophone regions face economic collapse and social fragmentation.

A Forgotten Conflict with Regional Risks

Meanwhile, international attention remains sporadic. Overshadowed by crises elsewhere, Cameroon’s conflict rarely captures sustained global focus. Diplomatic engagement has been cautious, with external partners reluctant to challenge a long-standing regional ally.

Yet ignoring the crisis carries risks beyond Cameroon’s borders. Instability in Central Africa affects regional security, migration patterns, and economic development corridors stretching across the Gulf of Guinea.

No Military Victory in Sight

The uncomfortable reality is that neither continued military operations nor total separatist victory appear likely. The conflict has instead settled into a grinding stalemate — and stalemates left unresolved tend to produce long-term state fragility.

A durable solution requires political courage on all sides. It demands recognition that grievances cannot simply be dismissed, and that governance reforms — whether decentralization, federalism, or other arrangements — must be meaningfully discussed rather than rejected outright.

A Choice Between Dialogue and Decline

For separatist leaders, it also requires confronting the harm inflicted by prolonged conflict on the communities they claim to defend, and acknowledging that armed struggle alone may not deliver political legitimacy or viable statehood.

Cameroon now stands at a crossroads: double down on force, or reimagine coexistence through negotiation and reform. The cost of delay grows with each passing year.

Time Is Running Out

The tragedy is that this conflict was not inevitable — and its worst outcomes remain avoidable if leaders choose dialogue over denial.

Time, once assumed to favor stability, now threatens to erode it. In conflicts like this, there are ultimately no winners — only societies that emerge wounded for generations.

The question is no longer who can endure the longest. It is who is willing to change course before the damage becomes permanent.

Carl Sanders