CELCOM/ONACAM

Interview protocol

1. Mr. Director General,

At a time when Cameroon is commemorating the 38th anniversary of its national unity, which coincides with the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of our country's independence, how have the changes undergone by the structure you are leading today evolved?

Response

Obtaining independence for our country was not an easy task, because both internally and externally, several countries experienced social movements and even dissidence. Some have had to fight with other countries for the freedom of their people; others have had to conduct law and order operations to pacify their countries. Before the era of independence, our compatriots were part of the contingent of "Senegalese riflemen" who fought alongside France and Great Britain in the First and Second World Wars. After their demobilization, some of them returned to the ranks of the young Cameroonian Army while others found jobs in the civilian sector or simply chose to devote themselves to field work in their villages thanks to the money they were paid upon their demobilization. When Independence was achieved, some regions of the country experienced troubles; the young Cameroonian Army in which demobilized ex-combatants and young Cameroonians who voluntarily at the call of the High Command constituted a special force called "National Civic Guard" took part in the pacification of the country and mastered this rebellion.

These veterans used to live in community because they joined the army at a very young age created the Cameroonian branch of the Union Fraternelle des Anciens Combattants d'Expression Française (UFACEF/CAM) in order to meet and share their concerns and memories, exchange and help each other. The first President of this movement was the late Doctor Simon Pierre TSOUNGUI. This movement through our Government promoted the creation in 1965 of the National Office of Veterans and War Victims of Cameroon, abbreviated as ONAC, whose mission was to deal with all problems relating to veterans who served either in the National Armed Forces or in the Armed Forces due to institutions prior to independence and concerning their rights and benefits. This new structure was also the link between our veterans and the representatives of the governments of these countries, for all that concerned their rights and benefits. In the same way, the ONAC supported the veterans by granting them various aids related to health, funerals, the fitting out of cripples, the schooling of their children and facilitated their reconversion into civilian life. The Cameroonian veterans who fought under the British Crown were grouped under a movement called FUCEMOC in English, "Fraternal Union of Cameroon Exservicemen of the Crown".