Cameroonian Independence War

The Cameroonian Independence War, often known as guerre cachée, or the Hidden War, is the name of the independence struggle between Cameroon's nationalist movement and France. The movement was spearheaded by the Cameroonian Peoples Union (UPC). Even after independence, the rebellion continued, shaping contemporary politics. The war began with riots in 1955 and continued after Cameroon gained independence in 1960. Following independence, the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo requested continued French military intervention to fight the UPC rebels. The UPC rebellion was largely crushed by the Cameroonian Armed Forces and French Army by 1964. This war is often forgotten because it occurred at height of France's biggest colonial independence struggle, the Algerian War.

The war is believed to have produced some 61,300 to 76,300 civilian deaths, according to estimates from the British embassy assembled in 1964, with 80% of the dead being from the Bamileke Region. General Max Briand, the commander of all French military forces in Cameroon, gave an estimate of 20,000 people killed in the Bamileke Region in 1960 alone. Some modern estimates for deaths go into the hundreds of thousands or even millions, but are believed to not be reliable. Overall, estimating the number of deaths is difficult as the French administration did not keep meticulous records of the number of people killed.

Cameroon's own movement began in the early 1950s, after the founding of the Cameroon Peoples Union (UPC), Cameroon’s first and most prominent nationalist party. The party was centered around two main goals: separating from France and establishing a socialist economy. The party was founded in 1948 by Ruben Um Nyobe and his colleague, Felix-Roland Moumie.

The burgeoning nationalist movement was met with the challenge of a colonial administration that wanted to neutralize it. In a letter that was written to the colonial high commission in 1954, Um Nyobe wrote:

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