Cameroon strongly criticized the use of the flags of separatist groups from the English-speaking regions of the country to represent Cameroon during a program aired on TV5 Monde on Tuesday night, which has since acknowledged a “mistake” and issued apologies.
“The government of the Republic expresses its outrage and vigorously protests against this serious and unacceptable mistake made by a media outlet of the stature of TV5 Monde,” lamented the Ministry of Communications on the state-run Cameroonian radio-television.
Cameroon Reacts Against TV5 Monde
On Tuesday night, the international French-speaking channel broadcasted a summary table of Africa Cup of Nations matches, associating the name of the country with the white flag with light blue stripes of “Ambazonia,” the state unilaterally declared by Anglophone rebels in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.
“An odd emblem that in no way corresponds to the flag of Cameroon,” point out the authorities, who describe the armed separatist groups established in these regions as “terrorists.” A conflict erupted at the end of 2016 after President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over 41 years, violently suppressed peaceful protests by Anglophones in the two regions, who felt ostracized and marginalized by the central government in this former French colony.
Since then, the government has massively deployed troops there, and civilians are severely affected by clashes between separatists and regular armies. The conflict has claimed over 6,000 lives and forced more than a million people to flee, according to the International Crisis Group. In its statement, the Cameroonian government demands “prompt rectification of this unfortunate mistake” which “confuses the minds of national and international opinion” and indicates that it has taken steps with the channel to “prevent any recurrence of this nature.”
Acknowledging a “lack of vigilance in the production chain,” TV5 Monde has offered “its most sincere apologies” to Cameroon, as well as to Guinea Conakry whose flag was also incorrect in the table and indicates having “acknowledged this failure” several times on air.
Cameroon in the Eighth of AFCON 2023
The channel’s statement emphasizes the “particular emotion” caused by its mistake in Cameroon and announces that it will “scrupulously ensure to use the one and only flag”: green, red, yellow with a yellow star.
Besides this major blunder by TV5 Monde, the Cameroon team is looking ahead to Saturday, with their duel against Nigeria. An eighth-final clash that could see the return of Vincent Aboubakar.
On the official page of the Indomitable Lions, it is announced that Vincent Aboubakar and Clinton Njie have returned to collective training. After their epic victory against Gambia in the third match of Group C, the Indomitable Lions resumed training on Wednesday in Bouake. The starters from the previous match underwent a session indoors at the CAN city, supervised by Daniel Che Awa, one of the team’s physiotherapists. Meanwhile, Rigobert Song and the rest of his staff directed the reserves on the technical high school’s field. This intense session, lasting 90 minutes, marked the return to collective training for Vincent Aboubakar and Clinton Njie, now available for the remainder of the competition, as indicated by the Indomitable Lions page.
This player’s return to training was confirmed by our colleagues at Equinoxe TV. “Injured in training in Yamoussoukro three days before the start of Cameroon’s competition, Vincent Aboubakar is back after ten days of unavailability. One can easily imagine his impatience: to score against Nigeria on Saturday, January 27,” explains the blue channel, which has several journalists in Côte d’Ivoire.
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