Prince Bengha Ngochia Martin, the president of Regional Center for the Welfare of Ageing Persons in Cameroon (RECEWAPEC), issued a statement saying recent conflicts in northwestern Cameroon have rendered more than 100 elderly people either dead or homeless and “extremely vulnerable.” 

Two villages in the Mbessa and Oku area in northwestern Cameroon clashed on March 6, 2007 over a land dispute. According to Prince Martin, the conflict claimed 62 lives, mostly of the elderly “as they can neither run nor react,” he said. RECEWAPEC team estimated that about 120 elderly have lost their homes.

The area of the conflict is mountainous and is characterized by subsistence farming. There is a shortage of arable land and the people farm even on the steep hillsides.

Instigating Conflict for Personal Gain

According to official statistics, Cameroon’s population of about 16.5 million encompasses 350 ethnic groups. Sporadic eruption of interethnic violence is common, but anthropologist Charly Gabriel Mbock cautions there is more to ethnic conflict than tribal disputes. 

“The elites of Cameroon...instigate or worsen inter-ethnic divisions for personal gain,” he told IPS in 2006. “The public powers clearly draw an advantage from the disorder provoked by the elites, to the extent that ethnic manipulation has become a business for most politicians and senior government officials.”

On May 25, 2007, following the clashes between Oku and Mbessa communities in February and May, the province governor Koumpa Issa threatened to confiscate and reallocate the area to “any development corporation” if the communities fail to demarcate the disputed boundary. 

Cameroon’s natural resources include petroleum, bauxite, iron ore, timber, and hydropower.

More Information on Armed Conflict in Africa

More Information on Armed Conflict in Other Areas