Macron Acknowledges France’s Role in Cameroon’s Independence Struggle

Edited By : Safae Fathi

French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged in a letter made public on Tuesday that France engaged in a conflict characterized by “repressive violence” in Cameroon before and after its independence in 1960. This marks the first official recognition by France of its actions against Cameroon’s independence movement as a war.

The letter, addressed to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, follows a January report by a French-Cameroonian commission of historians established during Macron’s 2022 visit to Yaoundé. The commission detailed France’s involvement in mass forced displacements, internment of hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians, and support for armed groups suppressing Cameroon’s struggle for sovereignty between 1945 and 1971. Macron also acknowledged France’s role in the deaths of prominent independence figures who were killed in military operations led by French forces between 1958 and 1960.

The conflict originated in the 1950s with the nationalist Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) pursuing full sovereignty and reunification. Even after independence was granted in 1960, the French-backed government continued to confront the UPC for several years. Macron’s letter aligns with his previous acknowledgments of France’s colonial past, including responsibility for the 1994 Rwandan genocide and post-World War II violence in Senegal, while he has so far refrained from issuing an official apology for abuses committed during the Algerian conflict. This development occurs amid growing scrutiny of France’s role in its former African colonies, particularly in the Sahel region.