Trial of Anglophones: Lawyer Asks Biya to Stop The Prosecution

A Cameroonian lawyer has asked President Paul Biya to "stop the prosecution" of some of the leaders of the Anglophone protest, after a postponement Thursday of the trial in Yaounde of several of them, including the host Mancho Bibixy.

"The President of the Republic should intervene again to order the cessation of" legal proceedings against English speakers, told the press Emmanuel Simh, a lawyer for several defendants.

In August 2017, Mr Biya had already decreed the prosecution of certain English-speaking leaders arrested in the context of the Anglophone contestation that began at the end of 2016.

Trial of Anglophones: Lawyer Asks Biya to Stop The Prosecution

The crisis in the two Anglophone regions of the Northwest and Southwest, at the time fueled by militants calling for a return to federalism abandoned in 1972, has turned into a low-intensity conflict between the army and radical separatists claiming a self-proclaimed republic, the "Ambazonia".

On Thursday, the hearing of eight accused including one of the leaders of the Anglophone protest, Mancho Bibixy, was postponed to April 13.

Mancho Bibixy, known as "BBC", a radio host and one of the main leaders of the first protests at the end of 2016 in the North West region, was arrested in early 2017. Since then, his trial has been postponed many times.

In a parallel case tried Thursday at the same military court in Yaoundé, another anglophone was found guilty of apologizing for terrorism, secession and hostility against the homeland. His sentence will be announced on April 13th. The Anglophone crisis "is political" and "it must have a political solution",

according to Mr. Simh. "It's the only one able to restore peace in the Northwest and Southwest," the two Anglophone regions in crisis, he added at the end of the hearing. Hundreds of Anglophones are being held in various prisons for alleged involvement in the unrest that has rocked English-speaking areas since November 2016.

It was Thursday, however, not possible to determine their exact number. In late January, 47 radical separatists including the self-proclaimed president of "Ambazonia" were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, where they will be judged, according to Yaounde.