Governors in Cameroon claim that a number of the 750,000 people who were displaced by the separatist violence in two western districts are making their first homecomings since hostilities started in 2017. No significant separatist attack has been reported in the past six weeks, according to the military, which is a sign that peace is returning to the areas where 3,500 people have died in the past five years.
Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, has a motor park where hundreds of people wait to be taken to Bamenda. Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region, is one of two places where separatists and the government have been at odds for the past five years.
According to the Cameroonian police, it is the first time in a number of years that so many people are traveling to Bamenda.
A 44-year-old teacher named Benedict Ndi is traveling with his wife and four kids. Ndi claims that after leaving Bamenda, his family will travel another 70 kilometers to their hamlet of Ndop.
Ndi claims that before leaving with his wife and kids last week, he returned to Ndop to make sure that peace was indeed returning.
“Seeing indications of bullets on a lot of buildings was quite unsettling, but astonishingly, surprisingly, people are having fun, and there is business during the day,” Ndi remarked. “There is a great deal of motion.” I spoke with a couple males, and they expressed their happiness that there is now some peace and calm. They may now support their families while working.
Instability started in Cameroon that year when the government put a stop to peaceful protests led by English-speaking teachers and lawyers who felt undervalued by the country’s mostly French-speaking population.
Officials now say that the violence is getting better and that people who had to leave their homes in the Northwest and Southwest can go back safely.
The Northwest region’s governor is Deben Tchoffo. Along with the displaced children, according to him, government employees and business owners who fled separatist crimes are also going back to their towns and villages.
According to Tchoffo, “the security situation has greatly improved, allowing many people to return to their respective villages.” The diaspora is returning to celebrate weddings as well. The administration is operating effectively. Traditional leaders are regaining power, and several regions have resumed their political activities. The Northwest is doing well on a global scale.
The troubled Southwest area is receiving thousands of new residents, according to the government of Cameroon. According to the region’s governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, returning civilians are enjoying tranquility.
He says that in the last six weeks, there have been no major separatist incidents in the southwest of Cameroon.
Bilai says that Cameroon’s military has made it much harder for separatists to launch attacks using people power.
Families are returning after five years, according to Bilai.
Most of the time, locals are the ones who apprehend terrorists and aid in the confiscation of weapons. They are the ones calling in law enforcement to declare that this individual is a suspect.
People whose homes have been destroyed should notify local officials, according to Bilai. According to the government, money is available to repair wrecked homes under the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest Regions.
The rebuilding and development plan calls for building roads, schools, hospitals, public buildings, marketplaces, individual homes, and villages in places where fighting has destroyed everything.
Separatist organizations dispute claims by the military that they have lowered their firepower on social media sites like Facebook and WhatsApp. They claim to have asked fighters to scale back their assaults against the military so that Christmas can be celebrated by the populace.
