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1 [1] (March 12, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govxyv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Cogrsioa Rese h erc Updated March 12, 2019 Cameroon Cameroon is a diverse, resource-rich, majority Francophone country bordering the Gulf of Guinea. President Paul Biya, age 86, is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders. He was reelected in 2018 and has no clear successor. Cameroon faces security and humanitarian challenges on three fronts: the Nigerian-origin Boko Haram insurgency in the north, a separatist conflict in the Anglophone provinces in the west, and cross-border threats from the Central African Republic (CAR) in the east, where some 275,000 CAR refugees reside. The state's militarized response to Anglophone unrest has inflamed that conflict, while an early 2019 crackdown on Biya's top Francophone political rival may spark a broader crisis. Cameroon also faces wildlife poaching and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. U.S.-Cameroon relations came to emphasize counterterrorism cooperation as the Boko Haram crisis expanded regionally in 2014-2015. Cameroon has become a major recipient of U.S. security assistance in Africa, and U.S. military personnel have deployed there to conduct regional surveillance operations. Since 2018, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has signaled plans to withdraw some military personnel due to broader efforts to realign its activities toward countering great power competition in Africa. U.S. officials also have curtailed some planned security aid for Cameroon, citing human rights concerns. Politics President Biya has been in office since 1982, having previously served as prime minister. Parliament removed constitutional term limits in 2008, provoking large protests that state security forces violently suppressed. Biya won another seven-year term in October 2018 amid claims of fraud, voter intimidation, and irregularities as well as violence and low turnout in the Anglophone regions. Each past contest has featured allegations of fraud, institutional bias, street violence, and/or opposition boycotts. Cameroon's political system endows the head of state with strong executive powers, including the ability to appoint and dismiss the prime minister, cabinet, judges, generals, and governors. Numerous parties compete in elections and the local press is diverse, but opposition activism is constrained by restrictions on political freedoms and the media. Repression has escalated in the context of the Boko Haram conflict and the Anglophone crisis, as authorities have detained journalists and imposed a climate of fear on the media, per Reporters Without Borders. The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM, or RDPC in French), holds 148 of 180 seats (82%) in the National Assembly. The CPDM also holds 90% of elected seats in the Senate, in which 70 out of 100 members are indirectly elected and 30 are appointed by the president. Local and parliamentary elections were delayed from 2018 to late 2019, and could serve as flashpoints for violence amid an ongoing crackdown on civil space. Figure I. Cameroon at a Glance Source: CRS graphic. Data from CIA World Factbook + IMF (2018). Cameroon's opposition has long been fractious as the CPDM has co-opted or repressed political challengers. In January 2019, authorities arrested dozens of members of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) who were protesting alleged electoral fraud. Among those detained was MRC leader Maurice Kamto, a former state minister who came in second in the 2018 election. Kamto and other MRC officials remain in detention on state security charges; if convicted, they could face the death penalty. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, has called for their release. Authorities also have banned public rallies, including by the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the largest opposition party in parliament. Historically rooted in the Anglophone regions, the SDF's performance in the 2018 polls was likely hampered by low turnout in its traditional stronghold. Boko Haram Insurgency Boko Haram has carried out hundreds of attacks in northern Cameroon, which shares a porous border with the group's stronghold in northeast Nigeria. The group appears to have used northern Cameroon as a rear base for years before beginning to operate more openly there in 2013. As of early 2019, Cameroon's Far North hosted 245,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 136,000 refugees from Nigeria, according to U.N. agencies. Cameroonian authorities allegedly have repatriated some Nigerians by force, in violation of international refugee conventions. The crisis has devastated the local economy and contributed to food insecurity in an already poor and remote region. Cameroon-along with Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Benin- is a member of an African Union-authorized Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to counter Boko Haram and its Islamic State-affiliated splinter group. The MNJTF has received U.S. and other donor support. The regional force https://crsreports.congress.go\