Civil war gives Cameroonians little to cheer about at Africa Cup of Nations

Security officials in southwest Cameroon are on red alert and locals are afraid as separatist fighters threaten to target the Africa Cup of Nations, reports Josiane Kouagheu in Limbe

A soldier with the Africa Cup of Nations mascot in Limbe, Cameroon (REUTERS)

For more than two decades, Paul Sebastian was an avid follower of the Cameroonian football team: buying all the kit, watching every match on TV, and even travelling abroad to see them play.

Yet as Cameroon prepares to host the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) starting on Sunday, the father-of-three will not be tuning in.

Furthermore, he wishes the tournament wasn’t happening at all – especially in his city of Limbe, home to one of the country’s six Afcon stadiums. He is far from the only one who feels that way in southwest Cameroon, one of the country’s two Anglophone regions riven by civil war since 2017, when conflict broke out between separatist fighters and government troops in the largely Francophone nation.