U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Secretary Blinken’s announcement today that the United States will impose visa restrictions on individuals who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

“For nearly four years, the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon have experienced one of most neglected human tragedies on the African continent. Countless atrocities and grave human suffering continue without much notice or intervention from the rest of the world,” said Ranking Member Risch. “I’m glad the United States is taking more definitive action against those undermining a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, and is acting on the Senate’s call for targeted sanctions in a bipartisan resolution that I introduced. Today’s action is a good first step to increasing accountability for those undermining peace in Cameroon.”

On January 1, 2021, the Senate agreed, by unanimous consent, to a bipartisan resolution introduced by Ranking Member Risch regarding the Anglophone crisis (S.Res.684). A key provision in the resolution urged the United States government to consider imposing targeted sanctions on individual government and separatist leaders responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.