TITLE:
Special Status in Cameroon: Beyond Federalism and Secession as a Constitutional Framework for Resolving the Anglophone Crisis (2016-Present)
AUTHORS:
Elvis Williams Mbwoge
KEYWORDS:
Cameroon, Anglophone Crisis, Special Status, Constitutional Accommodation, Asymmetric Decentralisation, Federalism, Secession, Conflict Transformation, Regional Governance
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.16 No.4,
October
23,
2026
ABSTRACT: The Anglophone Crisis, which escalated in 2016, constitutes one of the most consequential constitutional, political, and security challenges confronting Cameroon since reunification. This study examines the Special Status conferred on the North West and South West Regions by Law No. 2019/024 as a possible constitutional response to the governance dimensions of that conflict. Employing qualitative documentary analysis, constitutional interpretation, and comparative institutional analysis, the study situates the Special Status within debates on constitutional accommodation, asymmetric decentralisation, federalism, and conflict transformation. It advances the qualified argument that the arrangement is best interpreted as an intermediate constitutional form: it recognises historical, legal, educational, linguistic, and cultural particularities within a decentralised unitary state, without reallocating sovereignty through a federal settlement or endorsing territorial separation. Its practical efficacy, however, remains limited by insecurity, incomplete fiscal decentralisation, uneven institutional capacity, and persistent political mistrust. Comparative evidence from South Tyrol, Northern Ireland, Aceh, and Scotland suggests that differentiated autonomy is most likely to be effective where formal recognition is combined with clearly specified competences, material resources, democratic legitimacy, and sustained political dialogue. The article concludes that the Special Status should be regarded as an incomplete and revisable institutional framework rather than as a self-executing settlement.