ZCZC
BCN-20
CAMEROON-VOTE-ECONOMY-FOCUS
Cameroon economy hard hit by anglophone unrest, jihadist
attacks
YAOUND, Oct 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – In theory Cameroon’s economy
has a lot to recommend it: a wealth of commodities such as oil,
diamonds and gold, and good agricultural conditions.
But as 85-year-old Paul Biya seeks a seventh term in office
in Sunday’s presidential election, the economic outlook is far
from rosy.
In reality businesses are shutting down and unemployment is
shooting up in the country’s restive anglophone regions, while
there is chronic underdevelopment in the north where Boko Haram
attacks are common.
Coffee and cocoa are key economic mainstays of the country’s
two English-speaking regions. Seventy-five percent of Cameroon’s
arabica coffee comes from the anglophone northwest.
Last month the country’s employers’ group GICAM estimated
that exports for both crops were down 20 percent, blaming the
insecurity and the displacement of people escaping the unrest.
Fighting has become a daily occurrence in both anglophone
regions since late 2017 when separatists issued a symbolic
declaration of “independence” from mainly francophone Cameroon.
The flag of the self-styled Republic of Ambazonia replaced
the Cameroonian colours in a number of villages in the anglophone
region.
There are now more than 1,000 separatist fighters who control
“a significant proportion of rural areas and main roads”,
according to the International Crisis Group.
Their attacks are often aimed at symbols of state power, but
francophone businesses and foreigners deemed supportive of the
central power have also been targeted.
At least 10 business heads and employees have been kidnapped.
Others were killed outright.
MORE/HR/1038
ZCZC
BCN-21
CAMEROON-VOTE-ECONOMY-FOCUS 2 YAOUND
– Long-term consequences –
Faced with the threat of attacks on employees, vandalised
premises, torched workers’ housing and stolen vehicles, many
companies have shut up shop.
According to the Human is Right NGO, based in Buea in the
country’s southwest, at the heart of the nascent insurgency,
unemployment has soared to 70 percent in the agricultural sector.
The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), one of the
country’s biggest employers, has also had to take evasive action
in the anglophone zone.
Only seven of its 29 production sites are still fully
operational, according to GICAM.
“Everything is shut down, the schools, the businesses. This
is a town without life in it,” complained one resident of Buea,
which used to be one of Cameroon’s economic hubs.
The army and the separatists clash on a daily basis in the
suburbs. Shots can be heard on a regular basis inside the
university, the main seat of learning in Cameroon’s English-
speaking areas.
“This crisis is going to have long-term consequences,” a
humanitarian worker said.
Short-term consequences include the “serious disruption” of
the communications network, according to GICAM. If the pylons
haven’t already been destroyed by the separatists then maintenance
has been made impossible by the insecurity.
In an area which is in any case very rural, “there is no more
access to the outside world,” the Buea resident bemoaned.
“It’s drastic for the economy and for the future of the
population. they are leaving, the businesses have closed, the
fighting’s going on — what kind of future do we have?”
A total of 246,000 people have fled their homes in the
southwest and 25,000 have left the country altogether for Nigeria,
according to UN figures.
MORE/HR/1039
ZCZC
BCN-22
CAMEROON-VOTE-ECONOMY-FOCUS 3 LAST YAOUND
– Heightened poverty –
Meanwhile, in the Far North region, Boko Haram jihadist
fighters have been launching attacks since 2014, killing 2,000
civilians and soldiers and kidnapping about 1,000 people,
according to the International Crisis Group.
A militant movement that reviles Western influence and seeks
to impose an Islamic state based on sharia law, Boko Haram has
caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people since taking up arms
in Nigeria in 2009.
The main tools to fight them there include encouragement to
desert, and the use of around 14,000 vigilantes to provide
intelligence for the security forces and protection for villages.
The economic impact here is of a different kind.
Even before the arrival of Boko Haram the region was the
poorest in Cameroon.
Unlike the formerly vibrant anglophone regions, the Far North
was suffering from stunted development. The attacks have
heightened the poverty in the region.
“I had my field in Djakana, but I had to flee because of Boko
Haram,” said Ali, a resident who has moved from the countryside
into the town of Mora.
President Biya, during a visit to the Far North capital
Maroua on Saturday, stressed his wish to reconstruct the region.
He promised major projects, including oil exploration, a
railway to neighbouring Chad and initiatives to bring back the
tourists who have avoided the area since the arrival of the
jihadists.
BSS/AFP/HR/1040