Cameroon’s external relations minister, Lejeune Mbella Mbella has called on the United Nations to assist in the fight against terrorism.
In an address at the 75th UN General Assembly, the minister who was representing President Paul Biya highlighted the challenges government is facing. Cameroon, he said, “… has endeavored to make progress towards poverty eradication, towards the promotion of the rule of law and towards improvement in the quality of education.”
Like in other low-income nations, he said the road is still long.
Reiterating Cameroon’s role as a troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, Minister Lejeune noted that the engagement has been ongoing for decades today.
The country, he went on, has also been contributing its own quota to combat climate change which poses a formidable threat to human life.
He also recognised the need to guarantee food security as a top priority for the state.
“… In this spirit, my country has adopted a national poverty reduction strategy. These are efforts that have been undertaken by my country Cameroon and yet these efforts have been stalled by the atrocities perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect in the northern part of our country,” said minister Lejeune.
He added that “… These difficulties are compounded by a sociopolitical crisis in our North West and South West regions. In those regions, armed gangs terrorise the population.”
In its effort to maintain peace and order, he explained that the state was employing population-friendly measures.
“The initiatives of the government are geared towards protecting the people there and restoring normal living conditions in the areas concerned. These initiatives have become to bear fruit,” he stated.
The minister of external relations in his presentation dwelled on human rights and the rule of law, tenets he noted the state is doing all it can to uphold. Regarding the Anglophone crisis, he added that “… We have embraced consultation and concertation and we have successfully organised a wide-ranging national dialogue exercise to inter-alia address root causes of the crisis in the North West and South West regions with the aim of delivering on suitable solutions.”
These exchanges he went on, led to the adoption of a law on decentralization, “… a law which inter alia grants special status to the North West and South West regions and provides for the implementation of a recovery and development plan for these regions.”
“… We must acknowledge that it is difficult for a country to singlehandedly combat terrorism. For this reason, it behooves me to call upon the UN to close ranks and combat terrorism where ever it manifests itself,” he urged.
