“Voting Day and Bullets”: Anglophones’ Fears Ahead of Cameroon’s Elections | Election news

Bamenda, Cameroon – On the day of Cameroon’s last presidential election in October 2018, Annie Nsala*, then 16, watched from her living room window as Anglophone separatist fighters wreaked havoc on the streets of Bamenda, shooting and threatening voters to deter them from reaching polling stations.

This was the first time elections had been held since the outbreak of armed conflict in the English-speaking minority in the northwest and southwest. regions in 2016

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As people ran around in panic, Nasala dropped to the ground to avoid stray bullets and slowly crawled to the safety of her bedroom.

She says that the violence she witnessed that day left a scar, and the trauma is still etched in her memory.

During the nearly decade-long conflict, Nasala also lost at least three relatives to “difficult circumstances,” a reference to armed violence in her part of the northwest.

But her hope for a better country has prompted Nsala, now finally of voting age, to register in July, where she plans to make her mark in Sunday’s presidential election.

The 23-year-old told Al Jazeera: “I’m not doing anything wrong. I want to vote, but I don’t know whether I will vote or not,” for fear of a repeat of what happened in 2018.

“We live in constant fear that something will happen that day,” Nasala said.

“We feel that we have restrictions from both sides. On the one hand, there is the lack of security guarantees from government forces for movement, and on the other hand, the Amba boys (local name for separatist fighters) threaten us.”

“We don’t know what to expect”

Nsala’s concerns are echoed by others in Bamenda, the capital of the northwest, as well as in the southwest, another region that has seen years of tensions and violence.

For decades, English-speaking citizens of the two regions have complained of marginalization by the French-speaking government in Yaoundé. This escalated when separatist fighters began fighting against government forces several years ago.

Since the outbreak of the crisis, the separatists have also prevented the English-speaking population from participating in government-organized activities, such as National Day celebrations and elections. They have imposed boycotts, lockdowns and ordered people to stay home on such occasions, as they also did in the run-up to the vote this month.

Eve Soh*, another hopeful first-time voter, lives in the Habakan neighborhood of Bamenda – one of the “red zones,” or what the government describes as hotspots of insecurity.

According to Soh, hardly a month goes by without shooting and confrontations between separatist fighters and government forces.

The same scenario is also playing out in other red zone neighborhoods like Natankar, where residents say frequent gun battles, arrests and kidnappings are also common.

Against this backdrop, some voters are on the fence about this weekend’s election.

Soh told Al Jazeera that some people are reluctant to even talk about the elections for fear of being targeted by separatist fighters.

She added, referring to the fighters, “No one knows who will vote and where. There are spies around. Everyone is afraid of death or (being) kidnapped by the boys.”

“It’s a critical moment but I have no idea what it’s going to be like. How am I going to go out to vote that day without getting shot?” Soh wondered.

“Some of us are trapped. If the lockdown continues, how will you get out? How will we vote? How will you decide who runs this country and possibly stop the violence?”

According to media reports from 2018 polls, more than 20 separatist fighters demonstrated in the streets of Bamenda to intimidate voters on election day.

Reports said that two separatist fighters were killed by army gunfire after attacks on polling stations at that time.

At that time, more than 2,300 polling stations in the Northwest had been selected for the presidential election. But security threats reduced the number to 74.

This year, according to data published this week by the Electoral Commission of Cameroon (ELECAM), the North-West has 596 polling stations and perhaps 135,974 voters, while the South-West has 1,908 polling stations and about 405,823 voters.

Pia is looking forward to another term

As Cameroonians across the country plan to vote to elect a new president, current President Paul Biya, 92 and the world’s oldest leader, is eyeing an eighth term.

He joins 11 other candidates on the starting list. Among them are two former government ministers: Issa Chiroma Bakare and Bello Buba Maigari.

When he was communications minister under Biya, Bakare publicly stated that there was no Anglophone crisis. But in the run-up to these elections, he visited Bamenda during his election campaign and apologized for his past words.

“I understand that many of you suffered because of this statement. You felt hurt, but I also suffered because I had no other choice,” he said, also pledging to secure the release and pardon of political prisoners if he wins the election.

Maigari, a former Minister of State for Tourism, also visited Bamenda during the election campaign and promised that if he wins, he will engage in dialogue with separatist leaders to work towards a lasting peace.

Biya came to power in 1982 when the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, resigned. A new term would see him in power for nearly 50 years.

The anglophone crisis began under Biya in 2016, beginning with peaceful protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the central government’s imposition of French-speaking judges and administrators in their schools and courts.

The demonstrations quickly spread to include ordinary people demanding English-speaking independence, until in 2017 government security forces launched a violent crackdown on demonstrators.

This has added to years of Anglophone resentment at being a neglected and marginalized minority. The anger quickly turned into violence between government forces and separatist groups fighting for the breakaway state of Ambazonia. The violence did not stop.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said in its latest report in June that Cameroon was now the site of the world’s most neglected displacement crisis.

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 6,000 civilians have been killed by government forces and armed separatist fighters in the northwest and southwest since late 2016.

According to the US Committee for Refugees and Migrants, instability in the Northwest and Southwest has displaced more than 900,000 people fleeing violence internally and another 60,000 to flee abroad.

New elections and the same fate?

When the 2018 presidential election was held, only a small portion of the population in troubled English-speaking regions voted despite high voter interest.

Vote statistics These results indicate that the activities of armed groups affected turnout: in the northwest, only 5.36% of people voted, while in the southwest, turnout was 15.94%.

Jeremy Frew*, a father in his 40s and native to Bamenda, told Al Jazeera that despite the lack of security, he went out to vote in 2018.

But he says the crisis has now reached new and extreme levels, meaning he faces the “risk of not participating.”

“It is difficult to know if one can go out (and vote) as they did in 2018,” he said.

“We had to stay in our homes for several days (due to lockdowns imposed by separatist fighters).”

In 2018, the situation was “different” and the threats now appear to have increased, Frew said.

“The situation has gone from bad to worse,” he lamented, adding that nearly a decade of separatists using weapons to try to bring about change had not been successful.

“I want to see change through the ballot box. It did not happen in 2018, but it may happen this year,” he said, stressing that elections are the only way to defeat Biya’s government.

“Holding hearts in hands.”

According to Telarius Attia, a political scientist based in Bamenda, the security situation in the northwest is “extremely difficult.”

Attiya told Al Jazeera that separatist groups are redoubling their tactics and are mostly ignorant of the security forces.

“In 2018, the firepower of non-state armed groups was not as strong as it is today. They used advanced explosive devices and we do not know how far they might go on Election Day,” he warned.

“It will be a day of voting and bullets,” the analyst said of the elections in English-speaking regions. “Voters will have to choose between casting their ballot under the bullets or keeping their ballots at home and remaining safe from the bullets.”

Attia said that voters in the region “hold their hearts in their hands and wait to see what the result will be.”

But he also advised separatist groups to understand that nothing will change if they prevent people from voting.

Attia emphasized: “For the past nine years, they have been using their guns and bullets and nothing has changed; but then if they want change, I believe that change can come from the ballot boxes.”

Stephen Echocho, a peace and conflict resolution expert based in Buea, the capital of the south-west region, agrees.

Ekuchu, director of the Center for Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa, an NGO, told Al Jazeera that although the southwest has a “volatile security situation,” the northwest is “in complete disarray.”

Both have been subject to a lockdown imposed by separatist groups for about three weeks. But experts say the northwest has borne the brunt of the crisis, having seen years of increasing violence and stricter lockdowns.

“The lack of security will hamper voter turnout,” Echochu said. “There are places controlled by non-state armed groups, and their activities are present there. In these areas, people will not be able to vote.”

“There are a lot of people who want to vote, and they won’t. If the security situation is good, residents will exercise their political rights; if not, they will protect their lives.”

Echochu also urged the national government to address the conflict once and for all.

“We need to ensure security for voters before, during and after elections – and to ensure free and fair elections,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Bamenda, Nasla says that despite the risks, she is determined to head to the polls on Sunday – even as she hopes that one day she will be able to do so without feeling afraid.

“I wonder if some of us will one day be able to vote as freely as our brothers and sisters in other areas,” she said.

*Names have been changed for security reasons.