Economist and Statistician, Dieudonne Essomba has told the Cameroon government it can’t beat separatist fighters in the North West and South West regions, regardless of the arsenal it possesses.
He was speaking as a consultant on Vision 4’s Club d’Elites show yesterday, where he mentioned that the armed conflict can be resolved by compromise and dialogue only.
“Who are you to refer to secessionists as terrorists?” He asked. Those fighting against the security forces in the Anglophone regions, he noted, are not terrorists; “… I’ve always said that the Anglophone Crisis is an affair of over 40 years and that you cannot just defeat them this easily. When I made these statements they were still using matchets and stones as weapons…”
“Cameroon,” he stated, “doesn’t have the economic, political, diplomatic, financial, and strategic means to defeat the Anglophone secessionist movement. It is impossible. The least that can be done now to appease Anglophones is not even a Federal state but a Confederation…”
“If the government persists on unitary terms, the Amba boys,” Mr. Essomba warned, will fight to the finish.
He mentioned that it was sad to see separatist fighters kill multiple soldiers every week, and that the government approach had failed.
Cameroon, the economic expert went on, dislikes the truth, the reason why the crisis keeps getting worse
“The Amba boys have evolved. They have gathered experience, and are armed. They started from nothing and have succeeded to rise,” he told panelists.
He was categorical over the fact that because the state of Cameroon is in a crisis, “it is not capable of financing this war”.
To him, “secessionists are a direct consequence of a poorly framed development”.
The analyst’s call is one of many others for government to reconsider its strategy in putting an end to the armed conflict in the Anglophone regions.
Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in and out of the country, as the government battles nonstate armed groups fighting for the state of Ambazonia.
Speaking up, Essomba added, has often brought him issues.
“My life and that of my family were threatened when I said the government was not going to defeat the Amba boys. We don’t like the truth in this country and it is that same truth is drowning us…,” he said.
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