Cameroon: Anglophone Crisis Towards Resolution? National Dialogue in Yaounde

This includes the adoption of a special status for English-speaking regions and the recruitment of 500 translators.

The year 2019 ended satisfactorily for the participants of the Grand National Dialogue why, after reviewing the recommendations of these meetings, Paul Biya, the President of the Republic, moved on to their implementation.

On 24 December 2019, it enacted the law establishing the General Code of Decentralised Local Authorities. This law devotes a chapter to the special status required for the two English-speaking regions, i.e. the North-West and the South-West, in accordance with Article 62 paragraph 2 of the Constitution, which states that

"the law may take into account the specificities of certain regions with regard to their organisation and functioning".

Special status was therefore one of the nine recommendations adopted during the dialogue. It was examined by Commission 8. This Commission was responsible for decentralisation and local development issues.

The enactment of this law was welcomed by government members such as Grégoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security. On his official Twitter account, he posted a tweet welcoming the act of the Head of State and calling on Cameroonians to work for the implementation of the law.

" The PR (editor's note of the President of the Republic) Paul Biya published this 24 December 2019 (editor's note of December), made public the text that lays clear foundations for the special status of the NW&SW regions (North-West and South-West editor's note). this promulgation, we can say that the fruits confirm the promise of the flowers. BRAVO to the Head of State! All at work for a harmonious implementation',

one reads on Mintss' twetter profile.

Recruitment of 500 translators

It is not only the law establishing the General Code of Decentralised Territorial Communities that can be cited as a recommendation of the Grand National Dialogue that has already been implemented.

There is also the recruitment of 500 translators and interpreters in the public service. By presidential decree Paul Biya ordered this recruitment.

It was 21 November 2019. In the text, the Head of State was said to have ordered Joseph Dion Ngute the Prime Minister to make this recruitment. Some political analysts welcomed the decree, saying it paved the way for the implementation of the recommendations of the Grand National Dialogue.

The recruitment of 500 translators and interpreters in the public service takes place over a five-year period. It starts in 2020. It is about enabling public administrations to have access to professional interpreters and translators.

Based on the fact that in these administrations, the absence of translators is a real problem. It should already be mentioned that in 2016, at the beginning of the English language crisis, lawyers requested English translations of Ohada's texts.