Photo Credit: by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images  /  French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes President of Cameroon, Paul Biya as he arrives for a meeting for the One Planet Summit’s international leaders at Elysee Palace on December 12, 2017 in Paris, France.

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The  surprise move by the United States to  cut some $17 million in military aid to west-central Africa nation Cameroon should put France to shame.  The U.S. announced last Thursday it is slashing the nearly $20 million in aid earmarked for such items as airplanes, patrol boats, armored vehicles, and drones over growing concerns of serious human rights violations in Cameroon.  Horrific videos circulated online last year showing Cameroonian security forces shooting and killing civilians,  including children, and in one incident a woman who had a small baby strapped on her back which  was also killed.  Cameroon’s main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, who insists he won last October’s presidential election, was arrested last Sunday and charged with insurrection. 

Amnesty International Calls On Cameroonian Authorities To Improve Human Rights 

“Instead of taking steps towards improving the country’s human rights record, we are witnessing the authorities becoming less and less tolerant of criticism This must stop. The authorities should now allow people to enjoy their human rights including by ending the crackdown on peaceful demonstrations and dissenting voices.”

Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa Deputy Director. 

France Says It Will Not Follow The U.S. Action In Cutting Any Military Aid With Cameroon:

Q : Are you considering the possibility of suspending military cooperation with Cameroon, as the United States has done?

 A : “France is bound by a partnership agreement on defense in which it acts according to current international norms. Our structural cooperation on security and defense with Cameroon focuses on officer training. We supply advisors to the International War College, the Command and Staff College, and the International School for Security Forces in Yaoundé. Recognized by a number of nations, these international schools host interns from more than 25 African countries.  In full compliance with international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, this cooperation also aims to assist Cameroon’s security and defense forces to combat terrorism and particularly Boko Haram in the northern part of the country, while protecting local populations. This cooperation is ongoing.”

France Foreign Ministry Statement at Press Briefing Feb. 7, 2019. 

The French Republic Was Also Quiet On The Uproar after comments made by Cameroon’s Deputy Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Momo in which he appeared to justify the Holocaust, in which some six million Jewish people were killed in Nazi Germany.  It is not  rocket science to figure out that France is putting its political/economic interests in Cameroon ahead of any concern over human  rights violations in its former colony. But France’s silence equates with complicity. Remember Rwanda. 

The burgeoning Anglophone crisis in Cameroons’ Northwest and  Southwest regions has been a grave cause of concern for the U.S.  Last November, the U.S. State Department, condemned the kidnapping of students and staff from the  Presbyterian Secondary School of Nkwen near Bermenda, Cameroon.

” We urge an immediate halt to the indiscriminate targeting of civilians and burning of houses by Cameroonian government forces and to attacks perpetrated by both Anglophone separatists against security forces and civilians. The systematic intimidation based on ethnic and religious affiliation, including in Yaoundé and Douala, must stop. ”  

-U.S.  State Department  Spokesperson Heather Nauert

Is Cameroon’s Days As Reliable U.S. Partner Numbered?

Some good perspective on the  U.S. military relation with Cameroon is provided by Michael Shurkin,  senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, in his commentary piece. 

“The problem is that under Biya, the Cameroonian government is rapidly becoming more authoritarian and bloody-minded, making insecurity worse, rather than better. The country’s days as a reliable partner seem numbered.”

Michael Shurkin.

France insists that on-going military assistance with Cameroon is essential in the battle against terrorism and Boko Haram.  However, France may have helped  create a police/military monster in the process that  is out of  control.

“In the fight against Boko Haram, the Cameroonian military has racked up a deplorable record of human rights abuses committed against civilians in the name of counterterrorism, including abuses committed by the American-trained Rapid Intervention Brigade.”

Michael Shurkin.