Emmanuel Macron admits French colonial “repression” in the fight against the independence of Cameroon

French President Emmanuel Macron recognized the violence committed by the forces of his country in Cameroon during and after the struggle of the Central African nation for independence.

He followed a joint report by Cameroonian and French historians examining the abolition by France of independence movements from 1945 to 1971.

In a letter to the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, made public on Tuesday, Macron said that the report clearly indicated “a war had taken place in Cameroon, during which the colonial authorities and the French army exercised repressive violence of several kinds in certain regions of the country”.

“It is up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events,” he said.

However, Macron did not make clear apologies to the atrocities committed by French troops in his former colony, which obtained his independence in 1960.

The French chief cited four independence icons which were killed in military operations led by the French forces, including Ruben Um Nyobe, the brands leader of the anti-colonialist party UPC.

France has pushed hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians in internment camps and supported brutal militias to cancel the struggle of independence, the AFP news agency cites the report as.

Tens of thousands of people were killed between 1956 and 1961, according to the report of historians.

The decision to investigate and publish the conclusions on the role of France in the Cameroon’s independence struggle was made in 2022 during Macron’s visit to Yaoundé.

He followed the pressure from the interior of the country so that France recognizes its atrocities in its former colony and the repairs of wages.

Macron also expressed his desire to work with Cameroon to promote additional research on the issue, while highlighting the need for the two countries to make the results available to universities and scientific organizations.

The BBC contacted the Government of Cameroon to comment on the admission of the French president.

Although Macron did not address calls for repairs, this is probably a key discussion point in Cameroon in the future.

Under Macron, France has tried to confront its brutal colonial past.

Last year, he recognized for the first time that his soldiers had made a “massacre” in Senegal in which West African troops were killed in 1944.

Macron previously recognized the role of France in the Rwandan genocide, in which around 800,000 ethnic and moderate Hutus Tutsis died and sought forgiveness.

In 2021, he said that France had not respected the warnings of imminent carnage and had too long “a silence valued at the examination of the truth”.