It has emerged that Pope Francis who received Cameroon’s presidential couple at the Vatican last week, asked the Cameroonian Head of State to respect the historical backgrounds of his country and guarantee the respect of human and minority rights.

According to this report, by romereports.com, a statement from the Vatican said President Paul Biya and his host discussed issues related to the promotion of national cohesion and recognition of the richness of Cameroon’s different historical and cultural traditions with respect for human and minority rights.

Before the departure of the President and elegant First Lady Chantal Biya, the Pope handed the president a sculpture which symbolizes peace and wished for Cameroon to continue in the path of peace. The aging Cameroonian leader for his part offered a sculpture of an elderly person, noting that the memory of the elders represents the wisdom of a country.

It should be recalled that in the wake of the on-going protests that have brought education and the judiciary to a standstill in minority English-speaking Cameroon, Catholic Bishops issued a memo to President Biya.

In the memo signed by George Nkuo, Bishop of Kumbo and  President of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference BAPEC, Cornelius Fontem Esua, Archbishop of Bamenda, Immanuel Bushu, Bishop of Buea, Andrew Nkea, Bishop of Mamfe, Agapitus Nfon, Bishop of Kumba the Bishops pointed out the genesis of the crisis noting that a major part of it, is the systematic erosion of the historical traditions and cultures of citizens in the protesting regions.

The clergymen used the historically background of the country to demonstrate the root cause of the ongoing uprising..” They wrote; It should be clear, from this brief historical sketch what the crux of the so-called Anglophone Problem is. No matter what some self-appointed elite and spokespersons for Anglophone Cameroonians as well as government Ministers say in public, the participation of various strata of the population and the growing popularity of separatist movements among young and older members of the Anglophone community demonstrates that there is an Anglophone Problem.  There is a consciousness among Anglophone Cameroonians that all is not well and something needs to be done about their plight.