America Sends 300 Soldiers To Cameroon to Prolong the Dictatorship of Paul Biya

It was reported this week that the United States has sent 300 soldiers to Cameroon, ostensibly to fight against Boko Haram. However, this is going to feed into the narrative of stability which is often the pretext for maintaining dictatorship. The narrative of national security has fed into Paul's Biya's dictatorship for over 31 years and the sending of American soldiers to Cameroon does not only serve the public transcript of fighting Boko Haram but also the private transcript of supporting Biya's dictatorship. This is not to suggest that the United States has been averse to supporting dictatorships but it should make us suspicious each time Barack Obama waxes sanctimonious about the nature of leadership in Africa.

A while back American soldiers were sent to fish out the Lord Resistance Army's Joseph Konyi from the forests of central Africa. Nothing has come of that. Just as nothing has come of the fact that soldiers were also sent to #BringBackOurGirls. Would something come out of the fact that 300 soldiers are being sent to help fight against Boko Haram, something which thousands of soldiers from Central Africa and Nigeria could not do? If anything is sure to come out of this, it is the prolongation of the dictatorship of Paul Biya in Cameroon.