Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said Thursday that peace and stability are gradually returning to the country’s Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest that have been ravaged by over five years of armed separatist conflict.

“Schools in most of our towns and main suburbs have gone operational. We have also observed so many cultural jamborees. Fresh vegetables, fresh groundnuts and other food products from the Northwest which had completely disappeared from the market have returned. This clearly shows that many of the farmers in those regions are beginning to feel more comfortable, more confident in going to their farms,” Ngute said in the capital Yaoundé during a meeting to evaluate strides made since a national dialogue was held in 2019 to find solutions to the conflict.

He said economic activities have resumed, many of the major roads were now passable and separatist fighters were dropping their arms to join disarmament and reintegration centers in the regions.

“This shows that life is steadily returning to normalcy and we must together work to consolidate this,” Ngute added.

Separatist fighters have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation in the two English-speaking regions.

Source: Xinhuanet