Families wake at night to the sound of gunfire, grabbing only what they can carry as they flee into the forest. Over 765,000 people have been forced from their homes, with another 70,000 crossing into Nigeria as refugees. Elderly people who couldn’t escape fast enough have been burned alive in their homes, while pregnant women give birth without medical care in makeshift forest shelters. The 2.2 million people needing humanitarian assistance struggle to access food, with children showing signs of malnutrition and stunted growth. Aid workers face harassment and violence when trying to reach desperate communities, while government checkpoints block food and medicine from entering areas suspected of separatist sympathy, using hunger as a weapon of war.

Sources: UNHCR “Cameroon Situation” (2023), UN OCHA “Humanitarian Needs Overview: Cameroon” (2023), Médecins Sans Frontières “Healthcare Under Siege in Cameroon’s Anglophone Regions” (2022)

While anglophone regions produce 60% of Cameroon’s cocoa and house the country’s only oil refinery, local communities see little benefit from this wealth. Farmers work unpaved roads to transport crops, while their children study in dilapidated schools. Despite the regions’ rich resources, poverty rates have increased by 70% since 2016, compared to just 20% nationally. Young people leave school to find no job opportunities, while watching government investments flow to francophone areas. Only 18% of national development funds reach anglophone regions despite their producing roughly 25% of GDP. This stark inequality feeds the sense that independence is the only path to economic justice and community development.

Sources: World Bank “Cameroon Economic Update” (2022), National Institute of Statistics Cameroon “Regional Development Index” (2020)

For English-speaking Cameroonians, their language and heritage face systematic erasure. Students struggle to learn when teachers who don’t speak English are assigned to their classrooms. Citizens cannot understand court proceedings as francophone judges who lack training in common law preside over anglophone courts. When people seek government services, they’re often turned away with the phrase “go and learn French,” despite English’s official status. Job applicants with anglophone names or education face discrimination, while public announcements and safety information go unheeded because they’re issued only in French. This daily erasure of identity fuels the conflict, as people fight to preserve their cultural heritage and pass their mother tongue to the next generation.

Sources: UNESCO “Language Rights Monitoring in Cameroon” (2019), International Crisis Group “Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How to Get to Talks?” (2019)

Those detained face horrific conditions designed to break their spirit and body. Family members describe loved ones returned with broken limbs, cigarette burns, and signs of electric shock torture. Security forces routinely use waterboarding, severe beatings, and sexual violence to extract “confessions” or simply to punish perceived support for autonomy. The death of journalist Samuel Wazizi while in military custody in 2019 highlights how detention can be a death sentence. Families often pay bribes just to confirm if their relatives are alive, while those who speak out about torture face threats themselves. Despite the widespread nature of these abuses, perpetrators enjoy complete impunity, knowing they’ll never face consequences for their actions.

Sources: UN Committee Against Torture “Concluding observations on Cameroon” (CAT/C/CMR/CO/5), CHRDA “Torture and Abuse in Detention Centers” (2021), Committee to Protect Journalists “Samuel Wazizi Case” (2020)

Ordinary families find themselves caught between armed separatists and government forces, with both sides inflicting terrible suffering. Mothers have watched children die in attacks like the February 2020 Ngarbuh massacre, where soldiers killed 21 civilians, including 13 children, in their homes. Students face kidnapping and threats for attempting to attend school, while teachers are targeted for continuing to teach. Healthcare workers risk their lives providing basic care as 34% of health centers have been destroyed or abandoned. The violence has torn communities apart, with over 6,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their ancestral lands for overcrowded refugee camps or dense forests where they lack shelter, food, and medicine.

Sources: UN OCHA “Cameroon: North-West and South-West Situation Report” (2023), Human Rights Watch “Cameroon: Civilians Killed in Anglophone Regions” (2020)

Anglophone community members and activists who speak out for autonomy or independence face immediate reprisals. Peaceful protestors, citizen journalists, and even bystanders are swept up in mass arrests, with over 1,000 people detained since 2016. Many languish in overcrowded cells for months or years without trial. When teachers, lawyers and students organized peaceful marches, security forces responded with tear gas, live ammunition, and mass roundups. The government’s abduction of separatist leaders from Nigerian soil in 2018 and their subsequent life sentences showed the lengths authorities would go to silence dissent. Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, considered the president and general leader of the Ambazonian movement, has been held as a political prisoner and charged with terrorism despite his consistent calls for nonviolence. Even prominent opposition figures like Maurice Kamto face detention, demonstrating how political expression has been effectively criminalized.

Sources: Amnesty International “A Turn for the Worse: Violence and Human Rights Violations in Anglophone Cameroon” (2018), Human Rights Watch “Cameroon: Events of 2022” (2023), International Crisis Group (2024), “The Fight is Existential” Guardian Newsweekly (2025).