French President Emmanuel Macron sent a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya, dated July 30 but released this week, in which he officially acknowledged his country's use of repressive violence before, during, and after Cameroon's struggle for independence.

Macron stated that the historians of the Franco-Cameroonian Commission studied the war that began in 1956, finding that colonial authorities and the French army deliberately used repressive violence against the Cameroonian population. He added that the war continued after Cameroonian independence in 1960, with France supporting state repression in a post-independence power struggle that lasted through 1971.

Macron pledged to open France's archives and declassify documents pertaining to French actions in Cameroon; however, he did not apologize, nor did he mention any further steps toward reconciliation.

The letter follows release of the report by the Franco-Cameroonian Commission, which traced the history of violence in Cameroon from 1945 to 1971. The commission was initiated by Macron following a trip to Cameroon in 2022. The report found France responsible for numerous atrocities, including sending hundreds of thousands to internment camps and funding paramilitary death squads. Much of the repression was directed towards the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), a left-wing political party which was the main force in the independence movement. France denounced the UPC as communist and banned the party, which forced the movement underground, thus beginning a protracted guerrilla war that ended with pro-France Ahmadou Ahidjo as the head of the newly independent state in 1960.

However, French political violence and repression against opposition groups, particularly the UPC, continued after independence. The report details France's assassination of UPC leaders Paul Momo, Isaac Nyobè Pandjock, Jérémie Ndélélé and Félix Moumié, as well as UPC founder Ruben Um Nyobè. Nyobè preached a doctrine of non-violence, and any mention of him was banned in Cameroon until the 1990s.

Head of the Association of Cameroonian Veterans and former UPC soldier, Mathieu Njassep, said the acknowledgement is a welcome step, but urged France to go further and consider reparations.

This acknowledgment comes in sharp contrast to France's previous denial of its atrocities during the Cameroon war, despite established historical consensus. Macron has also acknowledged French responsibility in the Rwandan Genocide, war crimes committed during the Algerian War, and the 1944 Thiaroye massacre in Senegal, making the most recent acknowledgment the latest chapter in Macron’s careful and calculated moves toward admission of France's violent colonial and neo-colonial history in Africa.

From JURIST, Aug. 14. Used with permission. Internal links added.