Lawyers in Cameroon's North-West and South-West regions marched in Bamenda in 2016 to protest the use of French in courts that apply common law and the posting of Francophone magistrates to those jurisdictions. Ten years later, the grievances that set off the march remain only partly addressed, and the dispute has been overtaken by an armed separatist conflict in the two regions.
The lawyers' movement drew on a longer institutional history. The North-West and South-West were administered as part of Nigeria until a 1961 plebiscite, and the federal structure that joined them to Cameroon was abolished by referendum in 1972. The 1996 constitution as amended in 2008 names English and French as official languages of equal status, and the 2019 national dialogue, convened by President Paul Biya, created a National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism and provided for special status for the two regions. The lawyers argued that these provisions did not reach the courts where they worked.
The government has taken measures in response to the original complaints. It has created a common law section within the Supreme Court and posted English-speaking magistrates to courts in the two regions. The lawyers who organised the 2016 march say implementation has been incomplete, and that the common law bench remains understaffed and that judgments written in French are still handed down in courts that apply common law. The Ministry of Justice has not published a full accounting of which measures have been applied and which have not.
The march also set off a wider conflict. What began as a professional protest by lawyers and teachers was followed by a general strike in 2016 and 2017, and by the emergence of armed groups seeking independence for the two regions. The government has described those groups as separatist fighters and has deployed security forces against them. The original demands of the lawyers' associations have been largely displaced in public debate by the independence question, and the lawyers' associations have at times been divided over how closely to associate with it.
The consequences run through the courts. Cases in the North-West and South-West have been delayed by insecurity, by the closure of some courts, and by the difficulty of posting magistrates to areas where armed groups operate. Defendants held in connection with the conflict are tried in military courts, a practice the lawyers' associations have challenged and the government has defended as necessary to the security situation.
The next indication will come from the Ministry of Justice's annual report on the judicial map, which is due to be presented to Parliament in the 2027 budget session. The National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism is also due to publish its next review of the implementation of the 2019 national dialogue's recommendations. The lawyers' associations have said they will decide at their next general assembly whether to press the government for a timetable on the common law bench.