Emmanuel Macron recognized, after having endorsed the conclusions of a report of historians who had been given to him in January, that “war had taken place in Cameroon”. An episode still largely unknown, in which “the colonial authorities and the French army have exercised repressive violence of a multiple nature”.
Emmanuel Macron officially recognized that France had led “a war” in Cameroon against insurrectional movements before and after the independence of 1960. A word hitherto absent from official speeches, which he has written black on white in a letter addressed to his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, made public this Tuesday, August 12.
The French president endorses the conclusions of a report of historians who had been given to him in January and which “clearly highlighted that a war had taken place in Cameroon, during which the colonial authorities and the French army exercised repressive violence of a multiple nature”.
“The war continued beyond 1960 with the support of France to the actions carried out by the independent Cameroonian authorities,” he added.
\ UD83C \ UDDEB \ UD83C \ UDDF7 \ UD83C \ UDDE8 \ UD83C \ Uddf2 Emmanuel Macron officially recognized that France had led “a war” in Cameroon against insurrectional movements before and after the independence of 1960, marked by “repressive violence”, in a letter Paul Biya. pic.twitter.com/bMYIpcnWJI
-Agency France-Presse (@Afpfr) August 12, 2025
Still according to the report, the shift in the repression of the colonial authorities to a war undoubtedly made “tens of thousands of victims”.
“Tens of thousands of deaths”
Historian Karine Ramondy, who led the research of a Franco-Cameroonian commission set up in 2022 explains to the Monde that “the archives notably reveal targeted violence over women, some of which were pregnant”.
“By adding the various figures provided by the French military authority […] It is possible to estimate this official assessment at 7,500 fighters. “But the figure, which does not take into account the civilian dead, or the dead followed by injuries, surely remains below realities.” The most plausible assessment remains tens of thousands of deaths “.
Renew relations with African countries
The French president had announced in Cameroon in July 2022 the launch of work of a Mixed Franco-Cameroonian commission aimed at shedding light on the fight of France against independence and opposition in Cameroon between 1945 and 1971.
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The report of this commission, chaired by historian Karine Ramondy, is part of Emmanuel Macron’s memorial policy vis-à-vis Africa. As a reminder, traveling to Kigali in 2021, the president had recognized the responsibility of France in the genocide of the Tutsis perpetrated in 1994.
This approach therefore aims to appease relations between France and certain African countries, vis-à-vis which it has suffered strong oppositions in recent years. At the start of the year, France retroceded its last armed base in Chad, while the relationships between many countries in the Sahel and France are not in good shape.
