Dignitaries of the north accused of complicity with Boko Haram, enrolments of young recruits on the Cameroonian soil: the proliferation of attacks by Islamists in Cameroon woke up the old political feuds between north and south, in a climate of widespread psychosis.
Regional antagonisms are certainly not new in Cameroon: there is much resentment between the Christian south which concentrated the bulk of the wealth of the country and a Muslim in the north marked by poverty and drought, to the farthest reaches of the Chad and Nigeria.
But the attacks of Boko Haram exacerbate them. "Not to the accomplices of Boko Haram": in a forum published early September, a collective of politicians close to the power set fire to the powder keg, accusing openly dignitaries of the north of the country of complicity with the Islamists Nigerians of Boko Haram, and of "attempts to incite the partition of the national territory".
The signatories advocate "a total war against the foreign Islamist sect and Boko Haram and his accomplices in Cameroon", which would be "primarily in the northern regions (north) ". The provocation defensible, without however mentioning names, accused those who "agree to play a role of passive accomplices or facilitators for the actions of this sect" and form "of this fact +Boko Haram of Cameroon+ ".
This "Call of the Lekie" brings together several ministers and members of this department, which is part of a vast geographical whole commonly called "Grand-Sud" - bastion of President Biya-, by opposition to the "North". Among the signatories, several friends of the regime, such as Henri Eyebe from Ayissi, minister in charge of the greater control of the State.
The reactions of the dignitaries of the North Cameroon didn't have long to wait. The most virulent came from the chairman of the National Assembly, draw the attention of hon. members Right Honorable Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, who denounced an "attempt to rwandisation of Cameroon".
"The populations and the elites of the North enroll in false against such allegations of nature to cultivate hatred against fellow", he offended in a press release.
For Mr. Djibril, these accusations are "inappropriate, dangerous for the cohesion of the Cameroon and detrimental to national unity".
"The whiff of stigma which they are carriers call more for the partition of the Cameroon than to its construction or for the mobilization of all to fight a common enemy called Boko Haram", he added.
In the opposition, other voices were raised to denounce the "Call of the Lekie". Jean-Michel Nintcheu, member of the Social Democratic Front (SDF, main opposition party) "condemns with the utmost force those remarks which are an incentive unconstitutional to ethnic division and regionalist of the Cameroonian people".
The Cameroonian press has reported on the rumors of the existence of a supposed internal rebellion in the north, aimed at destabilizing the regime of Paul Biya, 81 years, and 32 in power. The Cameroonian Government tried for several days to extinguish the fire, stating that "there is no Boko Haram Cameroon".
His spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary has condemned last week the "malicious intent" which are "believe that the exactions of Boko Haram against Cameroon are in reality a manifestation of an internal rebellion to the country".
"It is possible that Boko Haram has been able to recruit, in the border villages, a few compatriots in precarious socio-economic situations, recognized Mr. Tchiroma Bakary. But it is a marginal phenomenon". Several hundreds of young Cameroonians have in effect been conscripted these last few months to join training camps of Boko Haram in Nigeria, according to the security sources contacted by the AFP.
Moreover, according to a recent report of International Crisis Group (ICG), "several traditional leaders are suspected of being accomplices or adherents of local bandits having operated for the account of Boko Haram". According to this report, some of the abductions of westerners perpetrated in the region since a year "have been under-treated" locally.
The experts have emphasized on several occasions the risks to see the legislation face the frustrations of a youth abandoned to itself, in one of the poorest regions of the country, with a low rate of enrolment and a record unemployment rate. The cultural and linguistic links very strong exist between communities - including the Kanuri African - the north-west of Nigeria and of the Extreme North Cameroon, or members of the same families sometimes lived on both sides of the border, favoring the movements of populations and trade.
"The current leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, is himself Kanuri African. These sociological factors facilitate the penetration and the concealment of components of Boko Haram in this part of the Territory.
