Cameroon’s President Paul Biya on Thursday ordered the release of 289 Anglophone activists detained for “misdemeanors.”
“I have ordered the discontinuance of proceedings pending before the Military Tribunals against 289 detainees arrested for misdemeanours, in connection with the crisis in the North-West and South-West Regions,” Biya tweeted after a statement announcing the release was made public by the presidency.
The statement said Biya’s decision was meant to give “young compatriots” in the two war-torn English-speaking regions of the country “who wish to renounce violence” the opportunity to participate in “nation-building.”
The list of those to be freed was not immediately available to media and it was still unclear whether leaders of the Anglophone independence movement were part of the list.
“There are over 1,000 Anglophone Cameroonians who have been detained since the conflict started. So only a few will benefit from this presidential decision. I cannot ascertain if the Anglophone leaders including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe are among those to be released,” John Fru Nsoh, lead counsel of the detained Anglophone leaders, told Xinhua.
Tabe is the “President of Ambazonia,” a new Anglophone nation that armed separatists are seeking to create by seceding from the Francophone-majority Cameroon.
Fighting is still intense in two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where more than 430,000 people have been displaced internally, according to the United Nations. Enditem
