Yaoundé, November 16, 2025 (True Cameroon) — A young Cameroonian soldier was killed early this morning in an attack in Belo, North West Region, marking yet another painful loss in a conflict that has dragged on for nearly a decade. The killing, reported at around 7 a.m., comes amid growing despair among both civilians and security forces trapped in a war that shows no sign of resolution.
While different actors have circulated their own casualty figures over the years, one reality remains incontestable: too many lives civilian and military have been lost, and the political crisis that fuels this violence remains deliberately unresolved.
I. The Human Cost of a War Without a Political Horizon
Every new death in this conflict is not just another statistic.
It is:
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a broken family,
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a traumatized community,
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a deepening wound in the national fabric,
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and a reminder of a political failure stretching over decades.
Young soldiers sent to frontline zones often come from modest backgrounds, enlisted in search of stability or opportunity, only to be deployed into a conflict created by political negligence, structural marginalization, and decades of unresolved grievances.
The tragedy in Belo is one more name added to a list that continues to grow because those in power have not provided a credible pathway to peace.
II. A Conflict That Should Never Have Become a War
The Anglophone crisis began with teachers and lawyers asking for reforms in 2016.
What Cameroon needed then was dialogue, decentralization, accountability, and political courage.
Instead, the state chose:
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repression,
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arrests,
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militarization,
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denial,
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and the refusal to address structural injustice.
The result was predictable:
a political problem became a security crisis,
and a security crisis became a war.
Every soldier who dies today is paying the price for political decisions made years ago by leaders who remain insulated from the consequences of their own choices.
III. Soldiers and Civilians Are Caught in the Same Trap
The young soldier killed in Belo is not fundamentally different from the young civilians killed in this conflict:
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neither wrote the policies that led to war,
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neither benefits from the status quo,
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both are victims of a broken system,
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both are casualties of a leadership that refuses structural change.
In truth, the people dying in this conflict are the poor, the young, the powerless never the decision-makers.
This is the tragedy of Cameroon’s political order under the CPDM system:
the nation bleeds while the ruling class remains untouched.
IV. No War Should Continue Without a Plan for Peace Cameroon Has None
Nine years into the conflict, Cameroon still lacks:
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a clear peace strategy
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a credible negotiation framework
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genuine decentralization
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constitutional reforms
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accountability mechanisms
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confidence-building measures
Instead, the state relies on a security-first approach that has failed repeatedly.
If military solutions could end this conflict, the war would have been over years ago.
The death in Belo is proof again that there is no military exit to a political problem.
V. The CPDM Regime’s Responsibility Cannot Be Ignored
Cameroon’s ruling system must confront what the country already knows:
1. Centralization created the grievance.
The refusal to reform governance structures made violence predictable.
2. Militarization escalated the crisis.
Sending soldiers into villages without addressing root causes guaranteed long-term conflict.
3. Lack of political will sustains the war.
Peace requires courage not cosmetic dialogues or empty speeches.
4. Accountability has been absent.
Neither state abuses nor abuses by armed groups have been independently investigated.
5. Youth continue to die for the mistakes of an aging political class.
The death in Belo is not an isolated event.
It is the consequence of a political system that has chosen control over resolution, and silence over reform.
Conclusion: Belo Is Not Just a Tragedy It Is a Warning
Another young soldier is dead.
Another family is grieving.
Another community is shaken.
And Cameroon moves on, as if endless war is normal.
But every killing exposes the same truth:
Cameroon will continue losing sons and daughters soldiers and civilians alike until the country confronts the political roots of the crisis and chooses peace over power preservation.
The tragedy in Belo is not just about who fired the bullets.
It is about a system that allows bullets to determine the future at all.
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