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Cameroon Orders Internet Restored to Restive Anglophone Region

by Reuters

   YAOUNDE, CAMEROON --

   Cameroon's government said on Thursday it had restored the internet to
   its restive Anglophone region, three months after cutting it amid
   protests against the predominantly French-speaking government of
   President Paul Biya.

   Cameroonian forces have cracked down on protests in the
   English-speaking region that erupted last October, beating and
   arresting protesters, some of whom face the death penalty in military
   courts.

   The unrest has exposed national divisions between the regions of
   Cameroon that were historically colonized by the French and the
   British. It has also been a lightening rod for opposition to Biya's
   35-year rule.

   "It seems that the conditions that preceded the suspension of the
   internet to that part of the national territory have much changed,"
   Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma said in a statement.

   "The head of state therefore instructs the [communications] minister
   ... to re-establish internet connections in the northwest and southwest
   regions."

   Map of Cameroon

   Pulling the plug on the internet was a particular blow for Cameroon's
   'Silicon Mountain,' as it was called locally, a cluster of tech
   start-ups in the region that had been flourishing prior to the
   crackdown.

   At least six protesters have been shot dead and hundreds others
   arrested during the rare challenge to state authority, prompting
   criticism from human rights groups.

   Activists had condemned the internet shutdown as a form of collective
   punishment.

   At the end of World War I, the League of Nations divided the former
   German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors.

   After independence in 1960, voters from the smaller English-speaking
   zone opted to join Cameroon rather than neighboring Nigeria, but they
   have often felt marginalized by the Francophone government in Yaounde.

   "Finally, it's back. I'm on Facebook right now, so I'm very happy,"
   said a user in the northern city of Bamenda after the internet was
   restored. "Everyone is getting back in contact to let each other know
   the lines are OK."