Macron acknowledges France's role in "repressive" war against Cameroon independence

Paris [France], August 13 : French President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged that France waged a "war" against independence efforts in Cameroon that was marked by "repressive violence," France 24 reported on Tuesday.

The acknowledgment came in a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya sent last month. It follows an officially commissioned report published in January that found France had carried out mass forced displacement, pushed hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians into internment camps, and supported brutal militias to suppress the country's push for sovereignty, France 24 said.

"The historians of the commission made it very clear that there was a war in Cameroon, during which the colonial authorities and the French army carried out repressive violence of several kinds in certain parts of the country in a war that continued after 1960 when France supported the actions carried out by the independent Cameroon authorities," Macron wrote in the letter.War

"It is incumbent on me today to accept France's role and responsibility in these events," he added.

Macron announced the creation of the historical commission during a 2022 trip to Yaounde. Composed of 14 French and Cameroonian historians, the panel investigated France's role in Cameroon between 1945 and 1971 using declassified archives, eyewitness accounts, and field surveys, France 24 reported.

Most of Cameroon came under French rule in 1918 after Germany's defeat in World War I. A brutal conflict unfolded when the country began seeking independence after World War II, which France violently repressed, according to the report. Between 1956 and 1961, France's fight against Cameroonian independence claimed "tens of thousands of lives" and displaced hundreds of thousands, the historians said.

For many in France, the war went largely unnoticed as it mainly involved African colonial troops and was overshadowed by France's war in Algeria from 1954 to 1962. Even after independence in 1960, Paris remained closely involved in Cameroon's governance, working with the "authoritarian and autocratic" government of Ahmadou Ahidjo, who ruled until 1982.

Biya, in power since 1982, is the country's second president and at 92, the world's oldest head of state. He is seeking an eighth term in the October presidential election. The opposition has struggled to challenge him, with groups like Human Rights Watch accusing him of suppressing opponents. Last week, Cameroon's constitutional court rejected opposition leader Maurice Kamto's candidacy, a decision Kamto called "arbitrary," France 24 reported.

Macron said France would facilitate access to its archives to allow researchers to build on the commission's findings. He also proposed a bilateral "working group" to monitor progress in ongoing research and education, France 24 added.

Macron has taken tentative steps to address once-taboo aspects of France's historical record, though critics say he has not gone far enough. A 2021 report concluded France bore "overwhelming responsibilities" in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, while a 2020 review of France's actions during Algeria's war of independence called for a "truth commission" and other reconciliatory actions. Macron has, however, ruled out any official apology for torture and other abuses carried out by French troops in Algeria.

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