The French war in Cameroon, now officially acknowledged, does not exist in isolation. It echoes France’s other brutal “dirty wars” of decolonization, particularly in Indochina and Algeria, and can only be fully understood in that context.
The tactics used in Cameroon—including counter-insurgency, collective punishment, and the torture and assassination of nationalist leaders—were honed in these other conflicts. The French military developed a doctrine of “la guerre révolutionnaire” (revolutionary warfare) to fight independence movements, and Cameroon became another laboratory for these methods.
However, unlike Algeria, which was a national trauma that deeply divided French society, the war in Cameroon was conducted largely in the shadows, with little public awareness or debate in France. It was a “hidden war,” allowing the military to operate with even fewer constraints.
By acknowledging the war in Cameroon, France is implicitly admitting that the brutal methods of the Algerian War were not an exception but part of a broader, systemic approach to maintaining its empire. It forces a recognition that the violence was not an aberration but a core component of French late-colonial policy.