{"id":32127,"date":"2017-01-27T01:57:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/cameroon-shuts-down-internet-in-english-speaking\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T01:57:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:57:21","slug":"cameroon-shuts-down-internet-in-english-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/cameroon-shuts-down-internet-in-english-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon shuts down internet in English-speaking areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Government orders internet blackout after protests against what activists call marginalisation of English-speakers.}<\/p>\n

English-speaking regions of Cameroon have now been without the internet for more than a week after Anglophone teachers, lawyers and students went on strike over alleged bias in favour of Francophones.<\/p>\n

Wednesday marks the eighth day since the authorities ordered the country’s telecommunications providers to shut off internet connections to the regions of Northwest and Southwest.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera contacted Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the country’s minister of communications, who pledged to comment on the situation but he has yet to do so.<\/p>\n

The internet blackout came after the government outlawed at least two Anglophone groups – Southern Cameroons National Council and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium – and arrested some of their leaders. <\/p>\n

The groups had been pushing for so-called Ghost Town actions, in which they urge members of the public to stay at home and shops and businesses to shut. <\/p>\n

The aim is to peacefully protest against what activists call the marginalisation of the English-speaking regions by government imposing the French language on their schools and courts.<\/p>\n

The towns of Bamenda, Yuku, Nkambe and Buea came to a standstill on January 9, according to pictures and videos posted online.<\/p>\n

Using hashtag Bring-Back-Our-Internet, many on social media expressed their outrage at the government’s response to the protest. <\/p>\n

Protests in the Anglophone regions have been going on for years, but intensified late last year when protests turned violent.<\/p>\n

Anglophone teachers, lawyers and students have been on strike since early December with many urging peaceful protests to call for the establishment of a two-state federation.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Cameroonian President Paul Biya reportedly signed a decree establishing the National Commission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism in the country.<\/p>\n

Activists, however, rejected the measure saying their strikes and protests are about more than language.<\/p>\n

The discontent<\/p>\n

Areas controlled by Britain and France joined to form Cameroon after the colonial powers withdrew in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

As a result, the country now has 10 semi-autonomous administrative regions; eight are Francophone, while the Northwest and Southwest regions are home to approximately five million English-speakers.<\/p>\n

Anglophones in the country have long complained that they face discrimination, saying that they are excluded from state jobs as a result of their limited French language skills.<\/p>\n

They also complain that official documents are often only published in French, even though English is also an official language.<\/p>\n

There are issues in the judicial sector as well.<\/p>\n

The country’s legal system is largely based on French civil law, but English-speaking regions still operate under the English common law.<\/p>\n

Cameroonian lawyers say that the government is sending French-educated civil law judges who do not understand English common law to their courts.<\/p>\n

Anglophone Cameroonians believe that only a complete overhaul of the administrative departments in the country and an inclusive federal constitution can end their woes.<\/p>\n

Cameroon had adopted a federal government system in the 1960s but this system was later dropped after a referendum.<\/p>\n

\"Protests<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Government orders internet blackout after protests against what activists call marginalisation of English-speakers.} English-speaking regions of Cameroon have now been without the internet for more than a week after Anglophone teachers, lawyers and students went on strike over alleged bias in favour of Francophones. Wednesday marks the eighth day since the authorities ordered the country’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32127"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32127"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}