ASSESSMENTS

Cameroon's Fighting Words Are in English

May 3, 2017 | 19:04 GMT

French President Francois Hollande meets Cameroonian President Paul Biya at the Elysee Palace in January 2013. France's colonial legacy in Africa shapes many of today's conflicts.
French President Francois Hollande meets Cameroonian President Paul Biya at the Elysee Palace in January 2013. France's colonial legacy in Africa shapes many of today's conflicts.

(PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images)

Cameroon's English-speaking community, about 20 percent of the population, is at odds with the majority of Cameroonians who speak French, the country's official language. The dispute is political: Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, recently shut off internet to the country's English-speaking regions for 93 days, before switching it back on April 20. Though the restoration of the internet could be viewed as a step forward, the Anglophone crisis, as the conflict has become known, underscores inherent divisions in Cameroon -- ones that can't be resolved with the flick of a switch....

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