South West: Stakeholders embrace community dialogue to achieve peace.

This was shortly after the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Dr Chief Joseph Dion Ngute, chaired a meeting to launch President Paul Biya’s community dialogue call to enhance peace across communities.

Speaking to The Guardian Post, Senator Nfon Mukete IV Ekoko said the situation in the English-speaking regions "is no longer an ideological war, it is an economic war".

The traditional ruler said the nature of the conflict has changed since 2017 when everything went violent. He said some actors are prolonging the conflict because for personal economic benefits at the expense of the general good.

He stressed that community dialogue “has always been essential, but more so now, where after 10 years of an armed conflict, people are tired. Both sides are tired”.

The Bafaw paramount ruler stated that: “Dialogue has to take place at the local level, from bottom up. Like anywhere in the world where there is war, people learn to survive. After 10 years, evidently, there are certain people who benefit from the war going on. That interest group will never want that war to stop".

According to the Senator, even when actual fighting reduces, the perception of war is sustained through scare-mongering and social media blackmail. 

He lamented the negative branding of the South West as a "red zone" which scares away investors and diplomats. Such branding according to him, hurts business and investment opportunities.

On Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, DDR, he stressed that the training at the centres must be relevant. 

"You don't expect somebody who was making a lot of money doing shady business to leave that to just come and sit down. Even in DDR, the kinds of training have to be appropriate, in a way that when they come out, they can be relevant citizens in the community," Nfon Mukete noted.

The President of Wupulo Cultural and Empowerment Association, Okumbo James Assam, attributed the persistent security threats in Akwaya to the Subdivision’s enclaved nature.

The bad roads, he said, makes movement difficult, impeding even the work of security forces in dealing with separatist fighters.

Assam revisited the work done to get 18 separatist fighters, drop their guns. The ex-fighters were presented to the Prime Minister during the meeting. He recounted a four-year struggle marked by fear, suspicion and sacrifice.

He said at the beginning of the process, elites were afraid to be associated with the process of getting the fighters surrender. This, he said, was because of the fear of being accused of siding with separatist fighters.

When Biya extended an olive branch to the fighters in the bushes, Assam said they had to work to convince the fighters to surrender even amid mistrust and misinformation.

He appealed for a special administrative laissez-passer in liaison with Nigeria to allow Akwaya negotiators easy passage through Nigeria to Akwaya;

This, Assam said, is vital as movement currently requires leaving Cameroon, entering Nigeria and re-entering Cameroon at a high cost and risk.

Sincerity needed in process 

For Tanyi Lord from Eyumojock Subdivision in Manyu Division, community dialogue “initiative will help us a great deal”. Tanyi stated that “the most important thing is getting information from people on the ground to fully capture the pain and loss”. 

He also said many fighters are fed up but are held back by threats.  Tanyi called on Government to facilitate the process with stipends to the fighters and those facilitating their surrender.

"The government should at least pass through the right resource persons because what we need is sincerity of heart and of purpose," Tanyi stated.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3925 of Wednesday September 30, 2026