Fred Muvunyi, a former chairman of the Rwanda Media Commission, is an editor at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.
An American missionary was shot dead on Tuesday in Cameroon during clashes between the separatists and government soldiers. Charles Wesco, 44, was traveling with his wife, son and a driver when they came under fire.
More than 400 civilians have already died in the conflict between the country’s French-speaking majority and its English-speaking minority. But perhaps the tragic death of a Westerner — one who had devoted his life to helping Cameroon — will now prompt the United States and Europe to stop looking away.
President Paul Biya, in power for 36 years, is set to be sworn in next week for another seven-year term after claiming victory Oct. 7 in elections marred by allegations of fraud. Despite ample evidence of vote tampering and insecurity on election day, Washington was quick to congratulate the people of Cameroon on what it called a “largely peaceful elections.”
Cameroonians, who have long been yearning for peace, can hardly be blamed for regarding that statement as a mockery. Most of them, not only the English-speakers who are fighting desperately for independence, had hoped that Biya would leave the palace. Those hopes are now dashed.
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1 comment
Why will the Western world not look the other way. This low life, wife murderer called Biya has facilitated the used of the people of Ambazonian first as “guinea pigs” for chemical weapons test, then again for use in the test of several questionable vaccines and people dare to be surprise at the double standard of the west? Please wake up and smell the coffee. Had it been it was Robert Mugabe or Gadhafi that was President in Cameroun, all hell would have broken loose. In Africa, the West always talk with both sides of their mouth as long as they have stupid Africans in charge who can be remote controlled.