Hans Ngala urges Dion Ngute and Bilai to address Anglophone grievances beyond disarmament

Hans Ngala, political affairs editor at Cameroon News Agency, has called on Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and South-West Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai to address governance, justice for victims and the detention of Anglophones alongside efforts to persuade separatist fighters to lay down their weapons.

In an open letter to the two officials, Ngala welcomes their efforts to end the conflict in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions but warns that disarmament alone will leave the grievances behind the violence unresolved.

“Let us not confuse silencing the guns with peace,” he wrote.

The letter asks authorities to revisit the demands raised by teachers and lawyers before the conflict became an armed struggle. It also questions what provision is being made for bereaved families, children whose education has been interrupted and communities facing kidnapping for ransom.

Ngala begins by congratulating the officials on their peace efforts and acknowledging the burden borne by ordinary citizens.

“Your call for combatants to lay down their weapons is both welcome and necessary,” he wrote. His concern, however, is that authorities may be treating disarmament as a sufficient answer to a conflict with political and social causes.

The appeal comes amid renewed government calls for community leaders to engage armed fighters. At a meeting in Buea on 28 September 2026, Dion Ngute encouraged local leaders to persuade fighters to surrender their weapons and enter the government’s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme.

Revisiting the grievances that preceded armed conflict

Ngala recalls discussions between teachers, lawyers and the government during the tenure of former Prime Minister Philemon Yang. He argues that Anglophone grievances were already urgent before armed groups took to the bushes.

He links the collapse of those discussions, the banning of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, arrests, the internet shutdown and military abuses to the subsequent escalation of the crisis.

The historical record documents negotiations between the government and the Consortium in early 2017. On 17 January that year, authorities banned the Consortium and arrested its leaders, lawyer Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla and academic Fontem Neba. Amnesty International said both had signed a statement that day calling for protest activities to remain peaceful.

Authorities also cut internet access in the two English-speaking regions. Services were restored on 20 April 2017, after approximately three months.

For Ngala, understanding that sequence remains necessary to resolving the conflict. He asks what teachers and lawyers demanded, why negotiations failed and how protests over rights developed into armed confrontation.

The original protests included opposition to the deployment of French-speaking teachers and magistrates in the English-speaking regions. Human Rights Watch documented the government’s violent response to demonstrations and the later escalation of separatist violence.

Ngala argues that authorities must now discuss how the North-West and South-West are governed, including what should change after the conflict.

“We must be willing to engage in the difficult, but necessary conversation about how the two Anglophone regions are governed and managed and what MUST change post-conflict,” he wrote.

Justice, detainees and interrupted education

The letter challenges officials to explain what peace would mean for people who have already suffered losses.

Ngala asks what happens to families who have lost relatives and to children whose education has been disrupted for nearly a decade. He also raises the possibility that grief, trauma and mistrust could lead some people to seek revenge.

“What justice and reparations will be available to victims of the conflict?” he asked.

His questions place victims’ needs within the peace process. Even if every fighter surrendered, he argues, authorities would still have to address the consequences of deaths, interrupted schooling and damaged relationships within communities.

The letter also calls attention to Anglophone detainees, asking whether they will remain imprisoned or whether a peace initiative will include a commitment to their release.

“Shouldn’t the release of those detainees precede everything else?” Ngala wrote.

He presents those questions as issues that officials must confront directly if they want an agreement that communities will accept.

Warning over kidnapping networks

Ngala also asks how authorities intend to tackle criminal gangs that have exploited insecurity in the two regions to kidnap people for ransom.

He questions whether measures are in place to dismantle those networks and prevent kidnapping from becoming a permanent feature of life in affected communities.

Drawing a comparison with neighbouring Nigeria, he warns against allowing ransom kidnapping to become entrenched even as authorities pursue disarmament.

“What measures are being put in place to dismantle these networks and prevent kidnapping from becoming a permanent feature of life in our communities?” he asked.

His appeal combines an end to armed violence with action on criminal insecurity and changes to regional governance. He argues that residents must have a say in how their regions are governed and managed.

“Peace cannot simply mean the absence of gunfire,” Ngala wrote. “It must also mean the presence of justice and a form of governance that allows the NW and SW a say in how their regions are governed and managed.”