Catholic bishops in the African nation of Cameroon, which has been gripped by civil conflict since 2016, have warned that ethnic differences are being “manipulated” and “weaponized” to foment division.

In an August 22 statement from the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference, which brings together the bishops of the largely English-speaking northwestern region of the country, the prelates condemned what they called “the attempt to manipulate and weaponize ethnic differences for the disruption of social cohesion.”

Given that Cameroon, despite a population of just 27 million, contains 250 different ethnic groups, examples of such tensions abound. One of the most prominent at the moment is a clash between supporters of the main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, and longtime President Paul Biya.

Kamto, an ethnic Bamelike from the western region of Cameroon, insists he won the 2018 presidential election, although Biya, a member of the Beti people, was declared the victor by the country’s Constitutional Council. Supporters of both men, mostly drawn from their respective ethnic groups, have developed a fractious relationship.

“Ethnic strains are rising alongside hate speech, trends which, if they escalate, could endanger Cameroon’s stability,” states a December 2020 report from the International Crisis Group titled, Easing Cameroon’s Ethno-political Tensions, On and Offline.

In 2019, people of Bamelike origin along with Bamouns, also from the western regions, were targeted in Sangmelima, Biya’s home town, with shouts that they should “go back to their villages.”

Within the context of the crisis in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, there are already concerns that French-speaking citizens could become objects of attacks, and there could be reprisal attacks on English-speakers living in Francophone regions.