Cameroon: British Minister Calls For Dialogue After Buea Meeting

British Minister of State for Africa Harriett Baldwint has stressed the need for Cameroon to adopt dialogue to resolve unrest in the Anglophone region.

Baldwin of West Worchestershire who doubles as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) made the call after a trip to Cameroon.

The trip afforded her the opportunity to meet with a number of stakeholders in the restive region especially in the southwest capital of Buea.

The meeting took place at Mountain Hotel Buea, with  Harriett Baldwin alongside H.E Rowan Laxton, British High Commissioner to Cameroon.

“Important visit to Buea in South West Anglophone region hearing from local people about the impact of the ongoing dispute and the urgent need for dialogue,” she said in a tweet accompanied by a photo of a meeting of leaders in Buea.

Some other work she did had to do with environment conservation and the opening of an educational facility.

We discussed a broad range of issues, including the growing refugee crisis, internally displaced due to the current crisis, conditions of detainees with some facing trial in military courts and some detained without charges or trial, continuous arrests ongoing in North West and South West Regions, burning of houses and villages reportedly done by the military, killings going on in both regions and the conditions of the terrorised civilian population caught in the middle of war.
Raising concerns on the extradition of Ayuk Tabe Julius and 46 others arrested in Nigeria. Currently detained incommunicado, with no access to family and lawyers.

In the presence of civil society representatives and clergy, we mutually agreed that, finding solutions to the human rights and security situation remains a priority.

However, to find a long lasting solution to the crisis, The United Kingdom and other international partners must push for dialogue with representatives of the people.
—Agbor Nkongho
CENTRE for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.