Last week, the Donald Trump administration announced it intends to cut trade benefits for...Cameroon...by January 1, 2020. Cameroon has thus lost privileged access to the US market offered under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)...[that]...allows sub-Saharan African countries to export to the US without a customs duty. 

In his message to Congress, Trump said Cameroon had failed to address concerns regarding government forces’ persistent human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and unlawful detention and torture. The violations have persisted in recent years as English-speaking communities demand independence from Cameroon, alleging marginalisation by the government of President Paul Biya.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, Human Rights Watch Senior Central Africa Researcher, said the US termination of the designation of Cameroon as a beneficiary country under AGOA should be a wake-up call to Biya’s government. “It should stir action from other international partners to Cameroon to publicly address serious human rights concerns in the country,” Allegrozzi said.