SUMMARY
The conflict between the Bafanji and Blikumbat tribes was centered on the division of land. The violence erupted after a quarrel between Blikumbat locals and a Bafanji traditional chief, in which the car of the chief was seized. While this was the apparent trigger of the violence at a scale that eventually resulted in the conflict being recorded as active in UCDP data, the hostilities had been present for a long period of time.
The dispute had been active and the villagers adversaries for decades when the Government of Cameroon intervened, in 1968. The government intervention was aimed at bringing clarity as to how the ownership of the disputed land should be distributed. The subsequent ruling awarded the land to the Bafanji tribe, much to the disapproval of the Blikumbat population. Boundary pillars were erected to mark the ownership; the situation was described as one of “armed peace”. The relative stability brought about by the government’s intervention lasted until the 1990s, when the dispute once again flared up, causing damages and fatalities. The event has been described as an attack by Blikumbat men, targeting Bafanji people. Contrary to the pattern of violence recorded in this conflict previously, namely that of man to man arms combat without arms, this episode was fought with homemade rifles, cutlasses, petrol-bombs, spears, and a wide variety of other homemade armaments. The introduction of these weapons to the conflict resulted in a significantly higher death toll than previous episodes of violence; during a few days in the summer of 1995 approximately eighteen people were killed. One reason for the upsurge in activity at this time was the ongoing democratization process in the country, during which new subdivisions were created, one of them being the Blikumbat sub-division, with Blikumbat village as its headquarters. This led to a new situation in the already volatile region; the previous government intervention that was favorable to the Bafanji’s was, in the eyes of the Bafanji tribe seriously violated by the creation of new sub-divisions.
After the violence in 1995, the dispute did not result in any bloodshed until the beginning of 1998. The conflict and the issues at stake were the same as they had been during the previous skirmishes. The trigger of the violence was, as mentioned above, the apprehension of a car belonging to a tribal chief of the Bafanji. This seemingly trivial episode acted as the starting point for violence that during February and March of 1998 caused the deaths of over 50 people.
The actual violence resembled that of 1995 with homemade rifles, and various weapons being used. The violence did not abate until security forces intervened and managed to separate the groups. In the aftermath of the fighting the prefect of the locality where the lion part of the violence took place, in the vicinity of Bamenda village, stipulated that the carrying of homemade rifles would henceforth be subject to legislation and that a license would be mandatory for any gun owner. These more restrictive laws surrounding weapons seem to have been successful; the conflict has, since 1998 not resulted in any major clashes. During a conference of CPDM (Cameroons People’s Democratic Movement) in 2006 the issue of the Bafanji – Blikumbat hostilities were brought to the fore. During the conference hopes for a non-violent future were expressed, and the importance of democracy was stressed. The conference was followed up by yet another in 2009, this time with a peace proposal that was accepted. A joint committee was subsequently formed to take care of the practicalities surrounding the peace deal. Leaders of both tribes attended the conference and it was seen as the end of the century-long land dispute that had raged between the two groups and resulted in numerous deaths.
The activity in this conflict was concentrated on the historical homelands of the Bafanji and Blikumbat tribes, with the actual fighting taking place near the village of Bamenda which is located in the North-Western province of Cameroon.
The non-state conflict between the Bafanji and Blikumbat tribes is first included in UCDP data in 1998. In late February of that year clashes resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
