Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) A New Paradigm in the Resolution of the Ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon: Myth or Reality
- February 16, 2021
- Posted by: RSIS Team
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue I, January 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
René Ngek Monteh
HTTC/University of Yaounde 1
Abstract
Postcolonial conflict and wars in African countries are still on the rise, despite numerous efforts to put an end to them. Since then, some African states have made advances in post conflict peace building and intergroup reconciliation. The attacks by terrorists in the Far North Region for over five years now, and the violence propagated by armed separatist groups in the North West and South West Regions since 2016 have left a crushing impact on the socio economic and political life of Cameroon. The crisis that started as a corporatist claim in the predominantly two English-speaking regions of the country and to which no appropriate solutions were provided, was hijacked by the secessionist movement. It was from this backdrop that the President of the Republic of Cameroon signed a Decree in November 2018 to establish the National DDR committee as an attempt to solve the ongoing Anglophone crisis. This paper examines the relevance of DDR in reforming the security and political sector in the Anglophone Regions. This paper utilizes mixed-methods to ascertain this objective. Amongst the several results we found out that the DDR in these Regions can significantly contribute to peace building despite the numerous challenges it faces.
Keywords: Anglophone crisis, DDR, civil war, peace-building, separatist.
I. INTRODUCTION
Cameroon in the past decade has witnessed intensive violence between government forces and Boko Haram insurgency in the Northern region, and lately in the Anglophone regions’ (Northwest and Southwest) pro-independence armed struggle. The crisis began in October 2016 with protests by teachers and lawyers, which escalated into an armed insurrection at the end of 2017
