Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
This domain tests concepts of peace and security, the institutions that maintain order, the methods used to resolve conflict, the main threats to Cameroonian society and the peacebuilding responses to them.
Key concepts
Peace is more than the absence of war: negative peace is the absence of direct violence, while positive peace is the presence of justice, participation and functioning institutions. Conflict is a normal incompatibility of interests; violence is only one way of handling it. Human security shifts the focus from protecting borders to protecting people's lives, health, livelihoods and dignity.
Security institutions
The defence forces, the army, navy and air force under the Ministry of Defence, defend territorial integrity, including against Boko Haram in the Far North and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The Gendarmerie and the National Police maintain internal order and investigate crime; they are bound by law and answerable to the courts. The Lake Chad Basin Commission's Multinational Joint Task Force coordinates the regional response to Boko Haram.
Conflict resolution methods
Negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication operate alongside customary methods: the palaver before elders, the chief's or Lamido's court, family councils and traditional assemblies such as the Ngondo. Restorative approaches aim at compensation and restored relationships, whereas litigation produces a binding, enforceable decision. The National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (Decree No. 2018/719) handles ex-combatants.
Major threats
Boko Haram attacks and suicide bombings; armed separatism in the North West and South West with school closures and displacement; farmer-herder conflicts over grazing corridors; electoral violence and hate speech; youth unemployment exploited by recruiters; cybercrime.
Peacebuilding responses
The Major National Dialogue held in Yaounde in 2019 produced, among other measures, the special status of the North West and South West Regions (Law No. 2019/019) within the decentralisation framework, plus support for bilingualism. Early warning, dialogue, amnesty and reintegration programmes seek to break cycles of violence.
Worked example
Herdsmen and farmers clash in a grazing corridor. Causes: unclear land titles, land pressure, weak enforcement of grazing rules and distrust. Escalation ladder: village mediation committee, then the administrative authority (Senior Divisional or Divisional Officer), then the customary ruler, then the courts and the land commission. Marks come from naming the actors and the sequence, not only the causes.
Traps
Equating peace with silence or with the absence of all conflict. Reducing security to the army. Blaming one community only. Forgetting that bringing a grievance to lawful authorities is itself a peacebuilding act.