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The separatist crisis in Cameroon deepened this week after a military tribunal handed down life sentences to the separatist movement’s leader and nine of his followers. As observers warned that the sentences would make it harder to bring the two-year conflict to an end, separatist militias launched reprisal attacks that killed at least two people and forced dozens more to flee their homes.
The conflict has its roots in concerns within Cameroon’s minority English-speaking population that they have been historically marginalized by the French-speaking majority. A 2016 strike in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions culminated in a declaration of autonomy in October 2017. The situation rapidly deteriorated from there.