When Biya’s regime unleashed the military, peaceful protests gave way to an armed separatist insurgency. At least 6,000 people were killed in the subsequent violent confrontations, displacing over half a million, and leaving 1.3 million in need of aid.

Dismissing the reports as “phantasmagorical” and “a clumsy attempt at disinformation”, Tchiroma, as the government spokesperson, had accused human rights organizations documenting the atrocities of being in cahoots with the secessionists.

“I 100% agree that the military committed atrocities,” he said in his election campaign. “But as minister of communication, my duty was to defend our armed forces,” he reasoned. “Today, I speak as a free man.”

He has even offered to hold a referendum to return the country to federalism – a long-standing demand in the Anglophone region. “I say it clearly: centralization has failed,” he said. As the communications minister, however, Tchiroma had reportedly banned the national media from using the word.

They both seem pretty awful. Tchiroma has about faced in a matter of months and nobody seems to actually care about the western part of the country.