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Efforts made by some Swiss diplomatic officials to bring government and separatists on a dialogue table has been slow these weeks, after attempts at bringing both parties to table failed.
According to the African Intelligence West Africa newsletter, Swiss diplomats backed out of the race for mediation in the last few weeks after separatist leaders based in the United States refused to participate.
The talks were being led in partnership with the Geneva-based Centre of Humanitarian Dialogue. Switzerland is also concerned by the incident at the terminal of the Douala Port Authority which highlighted the interest of the Italian-Swiss firm, which won the call for tenders to manage the container terminal.
The journal reports that several initiatives are in the process to compensate for the withdrawal of the Swiss. The Swiss had been attacked by some top Cameroonian officials as they asked the European nation not to interfer into their internal affairs.
A collective of newpapers published hate stories on Swiss mediation. Some separatist leaders also took to their facebook pages to condemn the Swiss government for going through the wrong persons to dialogue.
It revealed the former BAR president Akere Muna is in the process to initiate a dialogue that would by overseen by the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and the former chairperson of the African Union commission, Alpha Oumar Konare. They are expected to meet in a forum in February 2020.
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