French President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged the violence committed by his country’s forces in Cameroon during and after the Central African nation’s struggle for independence.
It followed a joint report by Cameroonian and French historians examining France’s suppression of independence movements from 1945 to 1971.
In a letter to Cameroon’s President Paul Biya made public on Tuesday, Macron said the report made clear “a war had taken place in Cameroon, during which the colonial authorities and the French army exercised repressive violence of several kinds in certain regions of the country”.
“It is up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events,” he said.
However, Macron fell short of offering a clear apology for the atrocities committed by French troops in its former colony, which gained independence in 1960.
The French leader cited four independence icons who were killed during military operations led by French forces, including Ruben Um Nyobe, the firebrand leader of the anti-colonialist UPC party.
France pushed hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians into internment camps and supported brutal militias to quash the independence struggle, the AFP news agency quotes the report as saying.
Tens of thousands of people were killed between 1956 and 1961, the historians’ report said.
Macron also expressed willingness to work with Cameroon to promote further research on the matter, while highlighting the need for both countries to make the findings available to universities and scientific bodies.
Under Macron, France has attempted to confront its brutal colonial past.
