Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the Southern regions of Cameroon since secessionist groups declared the independence of the region on 1 October 2017.

The ongoing dispute and clashes in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon are deeply concerning. The Cameroonian authorities need to take urgent steps to de-escalate current tensions and to establish a meaningful process of dialogue to address the root causes. During my visit in February to Cameroon, I met with the Prime Minister and the Ministers of External Relations, Territorial Administration, and Defence where he discussed the ongoing tensions in Cameroon's Anglophone regions. The Foreign Secretary met the Cameroonian Prime Minister during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and pressed for urgent action to resolve the dispute and associated violence. I also delivered the same message to Commonwealth Minister Mbayu when I met him here in London.