By Noela Ebob Bisong
Tibor Nagy, United States Under Secretary of State for African Affairs, will today, Thursday, May 16th 2019, stand before the United States 115th Congress, to present his reports on the subject: Democracy, Development and Defense: Rebalancing U.S.-Africa Policy.
The open hearing shall be take place within the committee on Foreign Affairs in the US House of Representatives, at 10 am.
Though the information does not clearly state whether Cameroon will be one of the subjects on discussion, yet speculations are high that the deteriorating Anglophone crisis in Cameroon and its humanitarian effects will surely not escape Nagy’s witnessing of the African situations in line with the subject of the day.
Tibor Nagy it should be recalled had previously taken a somewhat controversial stand on the violence in Cameroon, where he had blamed the Cameroon government under President Paul Biya for being responsible of violence in the country, but had spoken business when he met with Biya in Yaounde, only to go back to the US and release certain messages which were interpreted as him maintaining his previous stand on the country, that of holding the Biya government responsible.
Other witnesses during the hearing include Ramsey Day, (Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Africa/U.S. Agency for International Development) and Michelle Lenihan (Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African affairs/U.S. Department of Defense).
Many are of the opinion that this Thursday open hearing will again present a platform for strong messages to be sent to the Cameroon government, following the recent resolution released by the House of Representatives on May 7 2019, urging the Cameroon government and armed groups to respect the human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, to end all violence, and to pursue a broad-based dialogue without preconditions, to resolve the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country. The congress had equally outlined five key issues which it urged both the Cameroon government and separatist fighters to adhere to.
It should also be recalled that the open hearing is coming barely three (3) days after the United Nations Security Council discussed on the humanitarian situation in Cameroon, with representatives of member states taking clear stands on the issue.