Cameroon, the Commonwealth, and crisis

Commonwealth intervention in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7171616
AutoresElena Frogameni (0000-0003-3322-8661, University of Oxford Department of Politics and International Relations, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen114
Número4
Páginas399-416
Fecha de publicación2025-07-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Round Table (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0035-8533 • E-ISSN: 1465-4008
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00358533.2025.2516706
OpenAlexW4411691662
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas24

Since 2017, secessionist conflict has separated Cameroon on territorial, historical and linguistic lines, with widespread destruction in its majority-Anglophone North West and South West regions, and a severe government crackdown on Anglophone advocacy and political organisation. Despite entering its eighth year of civil war, Cameroon has remained off the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’s (CMAG) formal agenda, experiencing little oversight or political intervention from the Commonwealth despite prolonged mass death, displacement and political conflict. This article examines the past and present relationship between Cameroon and the Commonwealth in the context of Cameroon’s ongoing civil war. The author argues that the limited CMAG response is explained due to Cameroon’s long-held emphasis on sovereignty and resistance of international influence, complex legacies of the British government’s handling of the period of decolonisation in Anglophone Cameroon, and international uncertainty regarding intervention on issues of language conflict and discrimination. This article concludes that continued limited Commonwealth political engagement on the crisis leaves open pathways of instability at a time of continued destruction in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, lessening international attention to the conflict, growing alternative foreign investment and rising political turmoil ahead of future changes of government

Commonwealth · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Intervention (counseling) · Political science · Global Political and Social Dynamics · International Development and Aid · Law · Medicine