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Solange Angwi nearly toppled over from her seat. Since the start of the match between Mali and Equatorial Guinea in the round of 16 of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) football, the 26-year-old young woman has risen with each Equatoguinean ball shot to encourage players. ” Go ahead, go ahead! Run, be careful exclaims this stylist with red braids.
Around her in the bleachers of the Limbé stadium, a seaside town located in the English-speaking south-west of Cameroon, where the match is being played this Wednesday, January 26, most of the spectators have taken up the cause of Mali. But Solange chose to support Equatorial Guinea where her big sister lives.
That day, Limbé hosts its last CAN match. Solange, ” football enthusiast “, went to the stadium for the first time since the start of the competition. When her older brother offered her her ticket, she first ” hesitated by fear “. Fear of a stampede first, while in Yaoundé, Monday, January 24, a crowd movement at the Olembé stadium left eight dead and 38 injured. Fear, too, about the security conditions while this part of the country lives under the threat of separatism.
Since 2017, the North-West and South-West, the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, have been embroiled in a civil war between the Cameroonian army and the separatists who are fighting for the independence of this part of the country. According to the non-governmental organization International Crisis Group (ICG), more than 6,000 people have been killed in this conflict and more than 500,000 others have been forced to leave their homes to take refuge in the surrounding forests, French-speaking regions of the country or in neighboring Nigeria.
Military handguns
Secessionist leaders have threatened to attack the event. Before the start of the African Cup, several explosions sounded in Buea, the regional capital of the South West, causing injuries. The army has increased its numbers and all along the roads, soldiers, weapons in hand, monitor and control cars. ” They want to make sure we don’t carry weapons or bombs », explains our driver.
On Wednesday, January 12, exchanges of fire between soldiers and armed groups left several injured in Buea, sheltering CAN teams. Human rights organizations regularly denounce the abuses committed by both sides. ” I’m afraid of the amba boys (the other name of the separatists). But I didn’t want to miss the unique opportunity to see a CAN match live. I’m here just because I love football “says Solange. Like her, many spectators say they are there to ” see the players in the flesh », « watch the beautiful game ” and ” have fun “.
Albert Mbih, fan of Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, attends his third match, “ although I’m still afraid that a bomb planted by the separatists might explode “. This neat looking quadra, is in conflict with ” everybody ” In his family ” because of football and this AFCON “. His mother criticizes him for supporting the government when she had to flee the locality of Jakiri, in the North-West, to take refuge at his home in Limbé. His wife ” do not understand “how her husband, ” can celebrate ” while ” cry again his brother and other family members killed “.
” I know there is war but I am here because I love football too much. I don’t support anyone, neither the army nor the separatists, insisted this father of four children, two hours before the match. At home, when I come home from work, I only put on the sports channels. From morning to night. »
“Football is magic”
Three rows down, wide-eyed Dylan raves about everything: the stadium which is beautiful like the white ones you see on TV, the giant screen, the people “. Earlier in the day, dozens of free tickets were distributed in his neighborhood in Limbé. Some chose not to come” because they are afraid too “. He took his because, ” for the first time in my life i wanted to see a live football match “. Above all, he fears nothing: “There are soldiers and police everywhere. They even protect us on the way back “, assures this schoolboy.
Beside him, Alain and Modeste, his two best friends, nod in agreement. ” I like the terrain. I like players. I like the atmosphere. Screams. The songs. I like everything », Rejoices Alain Mbuh, pink mask under his chin. ” Football is magic. It brings joy or sadness. In any case, whatever team we support, we come back from the stadium with emotion exclaims Hannah, a young teacher who received a free ticket from her manager.
An opinion shared by Guy Stephen, his colleague, a mathematics teacher, who hopes all the same that after the joy of the CAN, we can think of solving the Anglophone crisis. There have already been too many deaths “. Despite the tournament, far from the spotlight, the violence has not ceased in English-speaking Cameroon: a senator was assassinated as were several soldiers and civilians.
