Voices from 'Ground Zero': Interrogating History, Culture and Identity in the Resolution of Cameroon's Anglophone Conflict

Peaceful resolution of the current ‘Anglophone conflict’ in Cameroon is urgently needed, not least due to its devastating impact on the civilian population. Now in its sixth year, this internationally neglected conflict is between government security forces and armed separatist groups calling for an independent state of Ambazonia in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions. Such demands for secession have arisen out of historical marginalisation of the Anglophone regions, with the current conflict triggered by government repression of peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers in late 2016. This report highlights the voices of those most-affected civilians, inclusive of internally displaced persons and those who remain in the conflict zones, known locally as ‘ground zero’. Such voices have hitherto been ignored and excluded from any official dialogue.