Cameroonian Prime Minister calls for peace in troubled English-speaking region

Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute called on Cameroonians in the troubled Anglophone region of the North West to embrace peace, saying it is the prerequisite for the region’s development.

“I bring you a message of peace. Let us embrace peace, forgive each other and develop our region,” Ngute told a crowd at a rally in Bamenda, the capital of the region, where he is participating in a mission of four day peace.

He added that the government is also relying on women whose children have joined armed separatist groups to convince their children to drop their guns.

“A woman’s power is very strong. I call on all mothers in the Northwest region to use this unique bond and exceptional power of peace by asking their children to leave the bushes, give up and to embrace peace, ”says Ngute.

At least 13 separatist fighters symbolically laid down their weapons on the ceremonial grounds after the prime minister’s speech and urged other fighters to do the same.

Cameroon’s two English-speaking North West and South West regions have been ravaged by a four-year armed separatist conflict since 2017.