CMR has fought a valiant fight against Boko Haram - Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Interview: United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke about the Nigerian insurgency, the US-Africa Summit last August and other issues.

I will like to start by saying welcome to Cameroon

Thank you so much. I am so delighted to be here.

Why your visit to Cameroon whereas President Paul Biya was in the United States just last month? What has brought you here so soon?

I have been meeting over the past year with the Cameroonian Foreign Minister and we committed many months ago about my coming to Cameroon. But I am in the region attending a meeting that the Nigerian Government hosted on Boko Haram in which we and your Foreign Minister were invited along other neighbours including Canada, Germany and some of the multilateral nations, to talk about how to move forward on dealing with Boko Haram. You know Cameroon is a key country in fighting against Boko Haram.

They have launched several attacks in Cameroon, including, I am told, one as recently as today (Saturday 6 September, editor’s note). Your Vice Prime Minister’s family was attacked. We want to see how we can assist Cameroon and other neighbouring countries in dealing with the situation.

While we had some opportunity when the President was in Washington to have discussions, I thought my visit here would provide an opportunity to have in-depth discussions on areas where we might better cooperate with the Cameroonian government. It was also an auspicious time for me to come because our Ambassador, who has been in waiting for about a year, arrived in the country just about two weeks ago. I wanted to welcome our Ambassador and present him to the Head of State.

Now that you have had a number of contacts with Cameroonian officials, how would you size up the state of relations between America and Cameroon?

I would say on the heel of the US-Africa Leaders Summit that relations between Cameroon and the United States are excellent. We have a number of areas of cooperation; bilateral issues that we are dealing with. But most importantly, we are cooperating in a huge security issue in this region, Boko Haram. We have also been cooperating with Cameroonian government on dealing with the situation in the Central African Republic and we have worked over many years with Cameroon in relation to bilateral issues of mutual interest. The Boko Haram insurgency seems central in your current visit. What specifically is the nature of cooperation involving the United States, Cameroon and other neighbouring countries affected by the group?

We are supportive of Cameroon’s efforts and commitment to fighting Boko Haram, but we know that Cameroon cannot do this alone. So we and others should provide support because it is a regional threat and not just a Cameroon problem. We are looking at what kinds of equipments we may be able to provide to the Cameroon military in the future, humanitarian assistance to refugees who have crossed the border from Nigeria, as well as refugees from the Central African Republic.

I understand there are above 200,000 from the Central African Republic, 20,000-30,000 Nigerians are on the Nigerian border. We also talked about sharing information with the Cameroonian government and seeing how we can better coordinate work with Cameroon and regional partners in the Lake Chad Basin. This is with a view to seeing how we can better support a regional component that would fight Boko Haram to include Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon as well as Benin.

The kidnapped of school girls in Chibok, Nigeria, last 14 April 2014, resulted in much international outcry and promises of support. Yet, five months after, nothing has happened. Is the international support actually waning?

Fighting terrorism is not a one-day, two-day, and one month affair. It requires commitment over an extended period of time. We know that we are not going to be able to defeat Boko Haram overnight. We are doing all we can to support the Nigerian government efforts to bring back the girls. I will add that it is not just the Chibok girls.

Boko Haram has been raiding villages, taking girls and forcing young boys into fighting since they started in 2009. So sadly, it is more than just the 200 girls, it is also your Vice Prime Minister’s wife, the Mayor of Kolofata, ten Chinese businessmen and we do not know who else they may have taken. This is going to be a long term effort. It is not going to be easy. If I can accomplish anything as Assistant Secretary, it would be to bring back those girls to their parents. So, we are still committed to bringing the Nigerian girls home, but we want to be sure that we bring them home safely.

You must have had the opportunity to assess the Cameroonian response to the Boko Haram insurgency during your discussions with the Head of State and may have heard about the 25 Cameroonian soldiers killed by the extremists. How would you react to the Cameroonian approach to the problem?

I am aware of the Cameroonian soldiers who died and I take this opportunity to express my condolences to their families. Cameroon has fought a very valiant fight against Boko Haram and they have had a lot of successes. I think that Boko Haram knows that when they come into Cameroon, they would get riposte, and that the Cameroonian military is going to fight back. I know this is not easy.

I am not a military person so, I cannot give you an accurate assessment of military capabilities. But I know that the Cameroonian military has been fighting hard. I commended the President for those efforts. He responded that he is absolutely committed to providing the Cameroonian military with the resources that they need to continue the fight until Boko Haram is no more.

Besides Boko Haram, you also had the opportunity with the Head of State to look at the just-ended United States-Africa Summit which took place in Washington, DC. What would you say was the major outcome?

I am still feeling the glow of the summit. One of the major successes of the Summit, and I heard this from President Biya, was that it focused on business and investments. We had a one-day business forum where we brought 300 companies from across Africa and the United States.

The companies had the opportunity to engage with each other and with the Heads of State. Cameroon hosted, along with the Corporate Council on Africa, its own investment discussions with companies on 31 July 2014. The President was very pleased with the results. Cameroon has also been identified as one of the countries that have to be added to the Power Africa Initiative and we look forward to be working with the Cameroonian government on moving that agenda forward.

What is the Power Africa Initiative meant for?

It is meant to bring electricity to 60 million households in Africa. When you fly above Africa, everybody uses this analogy, crossing from Europe into Africa you cross into the Dark Continent. You see dots of electricity but not intense electricity. If Africa is to take off economically, it needs to have power. It needs to have electrical power that is affordable and reliable. So Power Africa is about bringing affordable and reliable electricity to the continent. It is not about the United States providing this, but bringing together countries, the private sector with the United States’ backing to invest in electricity. General Electric, a huge electricity company in the United States has expressed interest in working in Cameroon. They have been working across Africa for many years.

AES just left the country, creating doubts about the rating of American companies as far as the country’s business worthiness is concerned?

I think American companies need to be convinced that it is possible and profitable to do business in Africa, but it is also important that African countries provide a business climate that is attractive, reliable and that there is confidence in the transparency. We had some discussions about that during the summit.

We need to be sure that corruption is stemmed because companies will not want to do business where they know that they will constantly be harassed for payments under the table. I think all the leaders at the summit came away with the clear understanding and commitment that they need to address the issues and President Biya also committed to that.

You have four key areas of concern: Strengthening democratic institutions; supporting African economic growth and development; advancing peace and security; promoting opportunity and development. How would you look at the concerns in Cameroon?

They are all in progress. There are no countries that are perfect. We do not have a perfect democracy in the United States. It is a process that requires continuous nurturing and continuous work. So, we are working with Cameroon and other governments in the region to move their democratic process forward so that all governments work for their people. I think on the economic front, eight of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world are on the continent of Africa.

African economies are growing on an amazing pace. There is an increasing Africa middle class, and we need to help countries build on this economic growth in such a way that jobs are created, investments are made in infrastructure, schools are built and jobs are created so that all the young people coming out of the universities and high schools have jobs.

The third area is investing in people and as you know, the theme of the Summit was “Investing in the Next Generation.” Our Young African Initiative has offered an enormous opportunity for us to meet with and engage with some of the most extraordinary young people across the continent. Some of them came from Cameroon.

They spent six weeks at the universities, learning about entrepreneurship, civic education, civil society, public service and volunteerism, and how to take their dreams to the next level of accomplishment. The entrepreneurs among them would be the next generation of billionaires on the continent t of Africa.

After your exchanges with various officials in Cameroon, do you see greater prospects in relations between American and Cameroon in terms of say youth, business opportunities, etc?

I do. We discussed a range of issues with our government counterparts and they understand what our priorities are. They listened intensely to what we had to say and I do expect that there would be changes, new initiatives and progress. I do not consider any country in the world as perfect. We talked about politics, democracy and we have common interests in these areas. We also talked about investing in youths.

That is a huge thing because if countries do not invest in youth, they will not succeed. The Cameroonian government knows what their policies are. I talked with the President about his vision for the future and we had a very good, rich and productive discussion.