Can New Roads Heal Old Wounds? Bamenda Welcomes Infrastructure, But Trust Remains Fragile

By A.J.

Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, has commissioned the Babadjou–Bamenda road, opened the Mile 4 bridge, launched the reconstruction of new urban roads, among major projects under the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development.

These are important steps forward for a region long battered by conflict.

For many people in the North West Region, these projects carry more weight than just smoother travel or better commerce.

Since the start of the Anglophone Crisis, insecurity, school shutdowns, displacement, and destruction of infrastructure have been daily realities.

Public services suffered, and many communities felt neglected. Roads turned bad, markets closed, bridges damaged or destroyed, and trade routes became dangerous or impossible to use.

So when the Prime Minister inaugurates a major road like the one linking Babadjou to Bamenda, or opens a bridge in Mile 4, they aren’t just concrete and steel. They are signals.

But rebuilding doesn’t happen with bricks alone. Trust must be rebuilt too. People will watch to see whether these promises are kept: whether the roads are maintained; whether people displaced by violence are included; whether access to education and health that was broken can be restored; whether local voices are included in planning and benefit.

In recent years, citizens in Bamenda have loudly complained about the terrible state of roads, especially in areas like Nkwen or Sonac Street.

Roads become impassable when it rains. Economic activity slows; children often cannot get to school; clinics are harder to reach as was personally witnessed by Secondary Education Minister, Nalova Lyonga.

The hard truth is that these infrastructure projects—roads, bridges, markets—may help reduce a lot of suffering, but they must come along with an end or at least a reduction in violence, guaranteed security, and a sense that the government cares about all citizens, including those in conflict zones.

For people in Anglophone areas, development has often felt like something promised but never delivered fully, or delivered unevenly.

During this visit, PM Joseph Dion Ngute had a chance to show more than construction crews and ribbon cutting.

He could have shown that development in the North West is not just a campaign slogan or political optics.

If these projects work, if they reach the people who suffered most, and if the rebuilding includes justice, peace, and dignity, then new roads might help heal old wounds.