Yaounde – A national dialogue to end separatists agitation in Cameroun’s English-speaking regions has opened on Monday.
The talks, led by Prime Minister Joseph Ngute, will find “lasting solutions’’ to the conflict in the Anglophone regions and “also other problems” in Cameroun, Minister of Communication Emmanuel Rene Sadi said.
Hundreds of delegates from the 10 regions of the country are taking part in the dialogue that is expected to end on Friday.
Camerounians from all walks of life, including the opposition, diaspora and members of armed groups are attending the dialogue, George Ewane, spokesperson of the national dialogue, said.
Some leaders of the separatists mainly based out of the country have declined an invitation to participate in the talks, stressing that the talks are not “inclusive and sincere.”
Since 2017, armed separatists have been clashing with government forces in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in a bid to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia.”
Hundreds have died and more than 530,000 have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the UN.