Globally unrecognized entity representing English-speaking minority concentrated in the Southern Cameroons (Northwest Region and Southwest Region of the Republic of Cameroon).
Entity seceded and declared independence from Cameroon on October 1, 2017, with bloody consequences [Link]
The Southern Cameroons were administered by the United Kingdom from 1922 to 1961 (called the 'British Cameroons') until absorbed by referendum on October 1, 1961 into the Francophonic Northern and Eastern halves which united as the Republic of Cameroon on January 1, 1960.
Efforts by the French-speaking majority and the Cameroonian government (under an authoritarian dictatorship since birth) to forcibly 'Frenchify' the region combined with open discriminatory practices by the federal government served to inflame independence passions over the last few decades.
English-speaking Prime Ministers led the Southern Cameroons (renamed West Cameroons upon the land's accession to the Republic of Cameroon in 1961) until the authoritarian federal government abolished the post in 1972. A government in exile operated in neighboring Nigeria until moving (partially) back into the Southern Cameroons in 2017.
Capital of the self-declared independent state is Buea. Its largest city is Bamenda.
