Rumours of snap election split Cameroonian Diaspora

Cameroonians in the diaspora are uneasy following widespread rumours that President Biya might call early elections. While many Cameroonians resident in South Africa are clamouring for an end to Biya’s 34-year rule, those in Paris are praying the President to seek another term “in order to properly articulate his economic emergence vision of 2035.”

According to Solomon Amabo, a Cameroonian journalist resident in South Africa, there was an uneasy atmosphere at the Cameroon High Commission in Brooklyn, Pretoria, on April 22 as three opposition political parties rallied their supporters and mounted barricades at the entrance of the Embassy, demanding for an end to Biya’s stewardship.

“Enough is enough, we have had enough of Biya rule,” the protesters drawn from the Social Democratic Front, SDF, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CMR and the Cameron People’s Party, CPP, reportedly chanted as they besieged the Embassy.

The SDF Chairman in South Africa, Milton Taka, was quoted as saying, “We are protesting as Cameroonians in the Diaspora who want political and other reforms in our country. We have had enough. We are charting a path for the Third Republic post Biya era.”

To the CMR leader in South Africa, Nestor Djomatchui, “We are sending a strong signal to the Biya regime that after 34 years at the helm of our beloved country, he has contributed to the deterioration and disintegration of the country. He should retire. Let Cameroonians come out in their numbers.” Augustine Sofa, the CPP leader in South Africa, said they were protesting as part of their struggle for a better Cameroon

“We want economic and social transformation of our country,” Sofa stated. Kum Bezeng, a militant of the CPDM, averred that even though it is a democratic right for Cameroonians to vent out their anger at the regime, it would have been proper for them to explore other avenues instead of washing the country’s democratic and diplomatic dirty linen in public.

To him, a party like the SDF that is represented in Parliament should have used the right channel to forward its grievances.

As the coalition of political parties was demonstrating for democratic reforms in Cameroon, the Cameroon High Commission in South Africa was swamped with Black Marias to preempt any destruction. The demonstration in South Africa may have set precedence to others, especially back in Cameroon, where the opposition political parties have been operating in splinters.