Emmanuel Macron recognizes the war waged by France in Cameroon and the role in the death of Ruben Um Nyobé

In a letter addressed to Paul Biya and made public on August 12, 2025, Emmanuel Macron officially admitted that France had led “a war” in Cameroon before and after the independence of 1960. The French president admitted the responsibility of the army to the death of the independence leader Ruben Um Nyobé, evoking “multiple repressive violence” committed during this period.

French President Emmanuel Macron has crossed a historic course in the recognition of the colonial past of France in Cameroon. In a letter addressed to his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya, and made public on Tuesday August 12, he recognized that “France had waged a war” against Cameroonian insurrectionary movements, both before the independence of 1960.

This war, according to Emmanuel Macron, was marked by “repressive violence of a multiple nature” exercised by the colonial authorities and the French army. According to RFI, the French head of state also admitted that the French military operations had continued after independence, in support of the Cameroonian authorities, and that the French army brought direct responsibility in the death of Ruben Um Nyobé, an emblematic figure of the struggle for independence.

The Head of State thus endorses the conclusions of a report of historians submitted last January. This document highlighted the reality of a conflict long denied or minimized in Franco-Cameroonian relations and detailed the nature of the military operations and the repression carried out.

A recognition expected for decades

This declaration comes as the calls for official recognition of this war have multiplied over the years, carried out by historians, human rights associations and descendants of victims.

For many, the death of Ruben Um Nyobé in 1958 symbolizes the brutality of French repression against Cameroonian independence aspirations.

Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya had met on August 15, 2024 in the National Cemetery of Boulouris-sur-Mer, in the south-east of France, on the occasion of a commemoration ceremony. This presidential gesture could open the way to memory initiatives and more in -depth historical work between Paris and Yaoundé.

The reaction of the Cameroonian authorities and civil society will be decisive to measure the political and symbolic impact of this recognition.