Separatists and jihadists threaten Cameroon’s Africa Cup of Nations, which starts on January 9

Threatened on the one hand by Anglophone armed separatists, risks of attacks by Boko Haram jihadists on the other, the Africa Cup of Nations football (CAN) It will be inaugurated on Sunday, January 9, in a Cameroon in a context of great tension in the security section.

In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially the new wave of the omicron variant, which triggered speculation on a new postponement of the most important football competition on the African continent, security is the other great challenge for the organizers in a country at war in a part of its territory.

For four years, the southwestern and northwestern regions, inhabited mainly by the Anglophone minority (the population of Cameroon from other regions mainly speaks French), they are the scene of a bloody conflict between armed groups that demand independence multiplying deadly attacks and the security forces who carry out a relentless repression.

The violence has already caused more than 3,500 deaths and 700,000 displaced people in the west of the country, and civilians are the main crime victims in the two camps, according to international NGOs and the UN.

Some armed groups have announced that they will carry out acts to disrupt the normal development of the tournament, even threatening by letter the teams of group F (Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia) that are going to play in Limbé, a seaside resort, and are they will train in Buea, cities located in the Southwest region.

“Strong message”

“The threats are very serious,” says Blaise Chamango, head of the Buea-based NGO Human Is Right. “On Wednesday, there was an explosion in Limbé in a take-away establishment, it is a strong message,” he added by phone to AFP.

“The government has deployed heavily armed soldiers in almost every roundabout in Buea and especially Limbé. The defense and security forces carry out systematic arrests and searches in various neighborhoods, ”explained Chamango.

There is also nothing to indicate that the separatists will not try to act in the political capital Yaoundé or in Douala, the economic capital and the most populated city, where they have already perpetrated small attacks in the past.

On Friday, in his end-of-year television message, President Paul Biya, who, at 88, has led the country with an iron fist for almost four decadesHe spoke of “several cases of surrender” in the armed groups. But “they continue to carry out criminal activities, multiplying improvised explosive device attacks and the killing of unarmed civilians”Warned the head of state, whom NGOs accuse of being completely inflexible on the issue of English-speaking regions.

Faced with the threat, the government insists that “security is guaranteed.” Requested by the AFP, neither the government nor the African Football Confederation (CAF) have wanted to give details of the planned security device.

“Exceptional device”

During Monday in the capital Yaoundé, about 250 km east of the border of the English-speaking areas, the atmosphere was much more relaxed and only a few security agents watched the last preparations in the new Olembé stadium, built for this CAN and temple of the national team, the Indomitable Lions.

“The security situation does not really cause any problems other than in the northwest and southeast, but I believe that our defense forces have enough experience to respond,” wants to believe James Mouangue Kobila, president of the Commission on Human Rights and Professor of Public Law.

“The security device is exceptional in view of what is at stake and we organized the Championship of Africa of Nations (CHAN), in January 2021, without incident,” he argues.

But Cameroon faces another threat, in the extreme north of the country, with the attacks of the jihadists, which have declined since the death last May of Abubakar Shekau, the head of Boko Haram.

Rival group Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) has consolidated its territory in the Lake Chad region and carries out sporadic forays into Cameroon.

These two Islamist groups could take advantage of the CAN speaker to carry out attacks, especially in the north, in Yaoundé and Douala.

“I do not believe that the jihadists can alter the CAN, unless they carry out a great coup, something that is always possible”, estimates Guibai Gatama, director of the publication L’Oeil du Sahel, the informative reference in the north of Cameroon .

“The stadium in the northern region that will host group D (Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Guinea Bissau) in Garua, is very far from its perimeter of action”, more than 300 km, he argues. (D)