Cameroon’s Refusal to Recognize Palestine: A Reflection of Yaounde’s Anglophone Denial?
By Hans Ngala
As Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas continues to reduce the Gaza strip to a little more than a pile of rubble, photos and videos have begun emerging of starving children. These images, which depict some children as young as just a few months old, reduced to bones and skin, have caused the stance of a growing number of countries to begin to shift significantly.
The UK and the Netherlands are the recent additions to a growing list of European countries and Israeli allies who are now rethinking their stance on the Israel-Palestinian conflict as more evidence of Israel’s excesses continue to emerge from Gaza. UK prime minister Keir Starmer has announced that the UK will recognize the state of Palestine in September if Israel failed to meet certain conditions agreeing to a ceasefire and a two-state solution. This shift from previous unwavering support for Israel, demonstrates growing frustration with Netanyahu’s leadership which Israel’s own allies now say are violating international law and causing mass starvation in the Gaza strip.
In late July, 2025, French president Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to make the announcement on his official X page, saying France would recognize the state of Palestine during the UN General Assembly in September. This is a markedly different position from that held by Yaounde which voted to remain neutral on the question of Palestine during a UN gathering in 2024. This leaves Cameroon and Eritrea as the only two African countries that have chosen not to recognize the state of Palestine.
Yaounde is obviously conflicted over the issue due to its ties to Israel. Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion ( Bataillon d’intervention rapide , BIR) has been trained by Israel for years, way before the October 7 tragedy. While Cameroon obviously has close ties with Israel, this decision to maintain neutrality over Palestine runs deeper than just its ties with Tel-Aviv. As Yaounde battles with separatist fighters in its Anglophone regions west of the country on the border with Nigeria, the symmetry with the Palestinian issue is not lost: both regions want increased autonomy and Yaounde finds itself in a particularly difficult conundrum. Should she recognize Palestine as a state while refusing to grant the same recognition to Anglophones in its own very backyard? Recognizing Palestine would mean straining relations between Yaounde and Tel-Aviv and ending years of military cooperation at a time when Yaounde is bent on winning the war militarily, with support from Israel, similar to how Israel is bent on winning the war with Hamas militarily.
In 1986, the then Israeli Prime Minister visited Cameroon. This was in the early years of Biya’s now-43-year-old presidency and this show of support – at a time when a good number of African countries and the international community condemned this visit.
Since then, the world has stood firmly behind Israel, acknowledging its right to defend itself from Hamas, especially after October 7. However, the tectonic plates are now shifting slightly and countries are trying to be on the right side of history. Cameroon maintaining its non-recognition of Palestine seems to be a continuation of Biya-era policies which place Cameroon on the wrong side of moral issues.
Already, Cameroon’s global reputation is hanging by a thread as it is. Biya being the world’s oldest and longest-serving non-royal ruler by some accounts, hardly shows Cameroon in a positive light. Add that to the country’s position on Palestine and you have a country with a very poor record on the international scene that cannot speak with a clear moral conscience on the issues of the day.
Cameroon’s refusal to recognize the state of Palestine places it among a shrinking minority of countries unwilling to take a clear stand on a humanitarian crisis that has shocked the conscience of the global community. This silence—framed as neutrality—has profound implications not only for the Palestinian people, who are enduring relentless bombardment, mass displacement, and starvation, but also for Cameroon’s international image and moral credibility.
For Palestinians, every missed opportunity for diplomatic recognition is a denial of their right to exist as a sovereign people. Cameroon’s position adds weight to a status quo that allows Israel to continue policies of blockade, occupation, and military aggression with little consequence. As more countries rally behind Palestine’s right to statehood, Cameroon’s stance effectively contributes to a narrative that delegitimizes Palestinian claims to autonomy, dignity, and survival. Ironically, Palestinians’ pain has largely been shoved aside as Israeli grievances take center stage in most Western news coverage, similar to how the Anglophone Conflict has also been ignored both by Biya’s government and the international community, featuring for the third time in June 2025 on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s list of “the world’s most neglected displacement crisis”. In moments of historic injustice, silence—or neutrality—becomes complicity.
