Cameroonians Receive Temporary Protected Status in Response to Ambazonian Conflict
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday1 that nationals of the country of Cameroon have been designated for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Cameroon joins several other countries that are currently designated for TPS according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services2: Burma (Myanmar), El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
TPS was created in 1990 to allow nationals of designated countries that are confronting an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions to stay in the US and obtain work authorization.3
Cameroon has experienced internal political conflict and civil war since 2016 when a series of protests by English-speaking Ambazonians in northwest Cameroon near Nigeria were suppressed by the French-speaking Cameroonian government.
Deutsche Welle, the German news outlet, has a useful video with on-the-ground reporting on the conflict.
The linguistic division of the country is a legacy of colonialism: Cameroon was administered by both the British in British Cameroon and by the French in French Cameroon. Cameroon formally received independence in 1960.
Although politically stable until recently, the current Anglophone Crisis (aka Ambazonian War or Cameroonian Civil War) has produced around 1 million internally displaced people and nearly half a million refugees according to the UN.4
The US Department of State’s human rights reports (updated just this past week) characterize violence in the country this way:5
“Casualties rose in the Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. Anglophone separatists used improvised explosive devices with greater success. ISIS-West Africa increased attacks in the Far North Region. The government continued to crack down on the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement.“
Note that the United States produces annual human rights reports on every country in the world except for the United States.
The best map I could find related to the current crisis came from a report by the International Crisis Group.6
Guerline Jozef, a founder of the Cameroon Advocacy Network, told the New York Times7, “We have been fighting for a very long time to get T.P.S. for Cameroon. The way the U.S. was able to quickly provide protection for Ukrainians while denying protection for Black and brown vulnerable people is proof of a double standard.”
The Cameroon Advocacy Network, which appears to be the most recognizable voice for Cameroonians, celebrated the announcement.
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Secretary Mayorkas Designates Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status for 18 Months. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/04/15/secretary-mayorkas-designates-cameroon-temporary-protected-status-18-months
The USCIS provides additional information about TPS, including how to apply, on their website here: https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status.
The American Immigration Council has a useful explanation here: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/temporary-protected-status-overview.
See the UNHCR page for Cameroon here: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/cameroon.html.
See the 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Cameroon, Executive Summary here: https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cameroon/.
Click here for the report titled “Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How to Get to Talks?“: https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/272-crise-anglophone-au-cameroun-comment-arriver-aux-pourparlers.
The article “U.S. Offers Protection to People Who Fled War in Cameroon” by Miriam Jordan, is available here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/cameroon-temporary-protected-status.html.
I wish the TPS designation had come quicker. In Tijuana in 2019 for Al Otro Lado's Border Rights Project, I interviewed four English-speaking Cameroonian asylum seekers who had been caught in the middle, threatened and harmed by both government forces and the "Amba Boys" who pressured them to join the separatist movement. I hope the folks I met -- teachers, a graduate student, a shopkeeper -- were allowed into the U.S. so that TPS can help them. No such luck for those from TPS countries hoping to get into the U.S., though, is that correct?