The main challenger to President Paul Biya in Cameroon’s October election has said the president is ‘‘the only one responsible’‘ for the conflict in the English-speaking regions of the country. Joshua Osih hails from the English-speaking North and Southwest regions in Cameroon which have been plagued by a political crisis since 2016.
The crisis has degenerated into a conflict between armed forces and English-speaking separatists, killing dozens, including at least 80 soldiers and police. 200,000 people were also forced to flee their homes.
“We have a president who does not understand what is happening in Cameroon, who spends most of his time abroad and who thinks that sending the army as he did in the 1960s with the UPC can solve this problem. He can’t.
“We have a problem with the system and this system has meant that we do not have simple political solutions to simple problems. We have a president who does not understand what is happening in Cameroon, who spends most of his time abroad and who thinks that sending the army as he did in the 1960s with the UPC can solve this problem. He can’t, Osih said.
Unlike other candidates, Osih says he is “against” a probe into charges of alleged abuses committed by the army in English-speaking areas, saying he believes, “there is a political responsibility that is far superior to the responsibility of mere military “.