Opposition leaders have been arrested and the internet has been cut in English-speaking regions for more than a week.

Cameroon's main language is French, but about a fifth of the country's 22 million people are English speakers.

They are concentrated in the country's northwest and southwest regions, which were colonised by Britain.

English speakers have long complained of discrimination.

They say that official documents are always in French and that the language barrier disqualifies them from most government jobs.

Some support breaking away to form their own state.

In recent weeks opposition leaders from the English-speaking regions have been arrested.

Thousands of English-speaking teachers, lawyers and students have gone on strike to protest against alleged marginalisation.

In response, internet service in English-speaking areas was cut off more than a week ago.

That, in turn, has led to a new campaign using the hashtag "Bring Back Our Internet".

The government says that the internet blackout and arrests of political leaders are necessary to maintain peace.

So, what does this mean for Cameroon?



Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Elvis Ngolle Ngolle - Former Minister of Special Duties in the Office of the President of Cameroon.

Julie Owono - Head of the Internet Desk at Internet Without Borders.

Albert Nchinda - Political Analyst.

Source: Al Jazeera News </s> English-speaking regions of Cameroon have now been without the internet for more than a week following recent protests in the country. This shutdown comes after the government outlawed at least two Anglophone groups - Southern Cameroons National Council and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium took to the streets to protest over the marginalization by the French-speaking led government. Wednesday, January 25, 2017, marks the eighth day since the authorities ordered the country’s telecommunications providers to shut off internet connections to the regions of Northwest and Southwest.However, Cameroonians have also been receiving texts from authorities warning them not to post 'information they can’t prove' on social media.See the text message sent to a Cameroonian below: </s> PREMIUM TIMES’ partner, the African Investigative Publishing Collective, has called for international solidarity to protest the internet blackout that is suffocating the southern Cameroon regions since January 22.

In a statement Thursday, the AIPC said the blackout has cut off one of its members, veteran investigative editor, Bisong Etahoben, in Cameroon, from its interactions and transnational investigative projects.

The group said the Internet blackout was intended to suffocate protests in Anglophone regions against the mainly Francophone elite.

The AIPC said it was adding its voice to “protest against this repressive act by Biya’s autocratic regime which stifles communication, press freedom, contacts between Cameroonians and their relatives in the diaspora, and working relations between journalists like Chief Bisong and international colleagues, not to mention online money transfers for international work projects such as ours and from Cameroonians in the diaspora.

“In view of the poverty that reigns in many parts of Cameroon, which the Biya government has notably failed to address during its decennia-long reign, this is adding injury to injury.”

The Cameroon government has justified the blackout with the argument that social media were being used by ‘people with evil intentions to propagate false information to threaten the public and create panic.’

The AIPC said the government’s claim “is as nonsensical as, sadly, familiar in a world increasingly pervaded by a disdain for facts.”

The AIPC also published a clip sent out by Chief Bisong Etahoben just before the blackout. </s> Authorities in Cameroon have started sending text messages to mobile phone users across the country warning people to stop spreading “fake” news, reports the BBC Hausa service’s Muhamman Babalala from the capital, Yaounde.

This is coming as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) denounced the head of the state-linked National Council of Communication for threatening to close down media which talked about the troubles in English-speaking parts of Cameroon.

The areas have been hit by a wave of protests over what people say is an attempt to impose French on them in schools and in the courts.

Cameroon was colonised by Germany in the 19th Century and then split into British and French areas after World War One.

Later, areas controlled by Britain and France joined to form Cameroon after the colonial powers withdrew in the 1960s.

Most people in the central African state speak French. </s> Bakary said vandals who mingled with the demonstrators smashed shops in the northwestern town of Bamenda during the protests during which one person was killed.

A second security source said the demonstrators also wanted independence for Cameroon's two English speaking regions and the departure of President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and is one of Africa's longest serving rulers.

French is spoken in eight of Cameroon's 10 regions and English in the northwestern and southwestern regions.

Bakary said reinforcements in Bamenda were helping security forces return the situation to normal. He said the protests posed no threat to Biya.

"Unions were complaining of being a bit marginalized and said they were discriminated against because of the (English) language," Bakary told Reuters.

"There are some politicians who are using the situation as a tool for leverage to pursue their own interests," he said, noting that the government was open to dialogue and ministers had met for talks to work out how to resolve the problem.

Reuters television footage of Bamenda on Tuesday showed security forces scouring the streets for protesters, and several barricades and one avenue blocked by flames in the market area.

A woman walking with two young children stopped in her tracks at the sound of a gunshot. It also showed residents fleeing as riot police and soldiers marched through almost deserted streets.

It was not immediately possible to contact residents or union members - who had organized the protests - in the town. </s> Bakary said vandals who mingled with the demonstrators smashed shops in the northwestern town of Bamenda during the protests during which one person was killed.

A second security source said the demonstrators also wanted independence for Cameroon's two English speaking regions and the departure of President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and is one of Africa's longest serving rulers.

French is spoken in eight of Cameroon's 10 regions and English in the northwestern and southwestern regions.

Bakary said reinforcements in Bamenda were helping security forces return the situation to normal. He said the protests posed no threat to Biya.

"Unions were complaining of being a bit marginalised and said they were discriminated against because of the (English) language," Bakary told Reuters.

"There are some politicians who are using the situation as a tool for leverage to pursue their own interests," he said, noting that the government was open to dialogue and ministers had met for talks to work out how to resolve the problem.

Reuters television footage of Bamenda on Tuesday showed security forces scouring the streets for protesters, and several barricades and one avenue blocked by flames in the market area.

A woman walking with two young children stopped in her tracks at the sound of a gunshot. It also showed residents fleeing as riot police and soldiers marched through almost deserted streets.

It was not immediately possible to contact residents or union members - who had organised the protests - in the town. </s> Manokwari: Indonesia has imposed an internet blackout in the Papua and West Papua provinces, after sending 1500 officers, in an attempt to stem unrest triggered by the heavy-handed treatment of Papuan protesters on Java island from spreading, an official says.

Data communications have been shut down since Wednesday in the provinces "until the situation gets back to normal," Communications and Information Technology Ministry spokesman Ferdinandus Setu said on Thursday.

Police sent 1200 reinforcements to three West Papua districts, where most of the violence has taken place this week, spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said on Wednesday. The military has also sent 300 additional troops.

In the latest unrest, protesters torched a traditional market and government buildings in the town of Fakfak on Wednesday, police said, but insisted the situation was under control. </s> "Unions were complaining of being a bit marginalised and said they were discriminated against because of the (English) language"

By Sylvain Andzongo

YAOUNDE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Security forces in Cameroon arrested about 100 people during days of protests over alleged discrimination against minority English-speaking people, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary and a senior security source said on Wednesday.

Bakary said vandals who mingled with the demonstrators smashed shops in the northwestern town of Bamenda during the protests during which one person was killed.

A second security source said the demonstrators also wanted independence for Cameroon's two English speaking regions and the departure of President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and is one of Africa's longest serving rulers.

French is spoken in eight of Cameroon's 10 regions and English in the northwestern and southwestern regions.

Bakary said reinforcements in Bamenda were helping security forces return the situation to normal. He said the protests posed no threat to Biya.

"Unions were complaining of being a bit marginalised and said they were discriminated against because of the (English) language," Bakary told Reuters.

"There are some politicians who are using the situation as a tool for leverage to pursue their own interests," he said, noting that the government was open to dialogue and ministers had met for talks to work out how to resolve the problem.

Reuters television footage of Bamenda on Tuesday showed security forces scouring the streets for protesters, and several barricades and one avenue blocked by flames in the market area.

A woman walking with two young children stopped in her tracks at the sound of a gunshot. It also showed residents fleeing as riot police and soldiers marched through almost deserted streets.

It was not immediately possible to contact residents or union members - who had organised the protests - in the town.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg in Accra; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. </s> LOME (Reuters) - Togo security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of anti-government protesters carrying out a late night sit-in at an intersection in central Lome as part of a bid to end the 50-year-old Gnassingbe family dynasty, witnesses said on Thursday.

A man holds up a sign which reads, "leave the power", during opposiition protest to call for the immediate resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe in Lome, Togo, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Noel Kokou Tadegnon

The move to disperse the crowds comes after two days of mass country-wide protests involving tens of thousands of people that have amounted to the biggest challenge to Faure Gnassingbe’s rule since he succeeded his late father 12 years ago.

In the past, security forces have violently suppressed protests, killing at least two people during an opposition march in August and hundreds after the contested election in which Gnassingbe took power in 2005.

But up until late on Thursday, police officers armed with batons had watched passively at protesters wearing the red, pink and orange T-shirts of the opposition, who danced and blew whistles as they wound through the streets of the capital Lome.

It was not immediately clear how the opposition would respond to the security forces’ intervention with tear gas late on Thursday. The head of the main ANC opposition party, Jean-Pierre Fabre, had earlier pledged to remain seated on the tarmac of the Dekon crossroads until Gnassingbe left power.

“We want the end of this 50-year-old Gnassingbe regime. Enough is enough,” Kodjo Amana, a 42-year-old baker, shouted over a chanting crowd earlier in the day.

The protests in the West African country of 8 million people have proceeded despite widespread reports of network outages confirmed by non-governmental organization Internet Without Borders. Other African incumbents in Gabon and Cameroon have used network cuts to control criticism and suppress protests at sensitive times.

Residents said that text messages had also been blocked on Thursday. The communications minister could not be reached for comment, although another minister said earlier this week that the cuts had been carried out for security reasons.

“VERY FRAGILE”

The president’s father Gnassingbe Eyadema seized power in a coup in 1967, a few years after the territory known as “French Togoland” that was once in German hands became independent from colonial power France.

The current president this week sought to appease opponents by tabling a draft bill to reform the constitution and reintroduce a two-term limit that his father scrapped in 2002.

But opposition leaders are skeptical about the implementation of the reforms that the government has stalled on for more than a decade and Prime Minister Komi Selom Klassou confirmed on Thursday that the term limits would not apply retroactively.

That could mean that Gnassingbe, 51 and currently in his third term, could remains in power for two more mandates from the next election, until 2030.

Gnassingbe sent a Tweet from his official account on Thursday, saying that he had met with the U.N. Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, on the subject of reforms. A spokesman for the latter confirmed the meeting without elaborating on its content.

State TV said Thursday evening that parliament, which still needs to approve the bill, will meet for an emergency session on September 12.

However, if the protests resume, analysts say Gnassingbe may find himself isolated amid growing criticism of autocratic rule in West Africa.

“The president’s position is very fragile and we do not think his peers in ECOWAS or his friends in Europe will help him if things get ugly,” said the head of research at NKC African Economics, Francois Conradie.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Togo, a regional financial hub that aspires to be an African Singapore, is at odds with West African neighbors which mostly have laws restricting presidential mandates.

The government, along with Gambia’s, voted in 2015 against introducing them across the 15 members of the ECOWAS regional body which Gnassingbe currently chairs. Since then, Gambia’s longtime leader Yahya Jammeh has been voted out of power.

African rulers, notably in Rwanda, Burundi and Burkina Faso, have moved to drop term limits in recent years in order to remain in power. In some cases this has sparked strong opposition that has led to violent unrest; in others, leaders have been driven from power, as happened in Burkina Faso.
Protests take place in Cameroon following the arrest of several opposition leaders and internet services being cut off in the nation's English-speaking areas.