France’s President Emmanuel Macron has formally recognised what he called France’s “repressive violence” in Cameroon during and after the country’s fight for independence in the late 1950s – a rare admission of a long-overlooked part of France’s colonial history.
In a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, published on Tuesday but sent last month, Macron described the conflict as a “war” and accepted France’s “role and responsibility” in events that left tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The statement follows a landmark report in January by a joint historical commission, which found that France’s counter-insurgency campaign included mass forced displacement, internment camps and support for violent militias.
The violence continued after Cameroon’s formal independence on 1 January 1960.
Macron launched the commission during a 2022 visit to Yaoundé, tasking 14 French and Cameroonian historians with reviewing the period between 1945 and 1971.
Drawing on declassified archives, witness testimonies and field research, the group painted a stark picture of France’s efforts to suppress the growing independence movement after World War II.
While most of Cameroon came under French control in 1918, following Germany’s defeat in World War I, nationalist demands intensified after 1945.
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Forgotten conflict
According to the report, between 1956 and 1961 France’s military campaign claimed “tens of thousands” of lives.
For many in France, the conflict barely registered at the time. Unlike Algeria’s 1954-1962 independence war, it involved mostly African troops and remained largely out of public view.
But Paris maintained close ties with Cameroon’s first post-independence leader, Ahmadou Ahidjo, whose authoritarian rule lasted until 1982.
Biya – now 92 and the world’s oldest head of state – has been in power ever since.
He is seeking an eighth term in October’s presidential election, though opposition hopes have been dealt a blow – last week the constitutional court rejected the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, his main challenger.
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Colonial reckoning
Reaction to Macron’s letter in Cameroon has been mixed. Mathieu Njassep, head of the Association of Cameroonian Veterans, welcomed the acknowledgement but said France must “go further” and consider reparations.
Macron did not address compensation in his letter, but pledged to open France’s archives to researchers and proposed a new bilateral working group to monitor progress in research and education.
The move fits into Macron’s broader – and often contentious – approach to confronting France’s colonial past. In recent years he has backed reports on France’s actions during Algeria’s war of independence and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
These studies have acknowledged “overwhelming responsibilities” but stopped short of formal apologies, something Macron has ruled out in the Algerian case.
