Central Africa, in UN terminology, especially the Economic
Commission for Africa, is defined to consist of ECCAS countries.208(*) These countries are
Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, CAR, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville,
Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola and Sao Tome and Principe. This
region is sometimes defined in relation to the Gulf of Guinea, which on its
part regroup ECCAS littoral countries plus Nigeria, Benin and possibly Togo.
Several countries have leadership ambitions in the region, the
most out-spoken being Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola and Gabon. But Cameroon is more
likely to constitute a better leader of the region and partner of the US.
According to Chouala, «Nigeria is considered over-populated, huge, with a
strong Moslem community and potentially explosive».209(*) For these reasons, Nigeria
will hardly be able to lead the Gulf of Guinea; it cannot lead ECCAS because it
is not a member. Cameroon's leadership position is affirmed because being a
CEMAC and ECCAS leader, relaying English and French, with a hegemonic position
in the franc zone. As for Angola, Chouala refutes its leadership capability,
saying that «Angola has a limited strategic peak given its situation at
the lower slope of the continent».210(*) This unfavorable geographical location gives credit
to Cameroon, which is situated at the center of the Gulf, and which enjoys a
Franco-British culture, more favorable for the other countries of the area.
Though La Lettre du Continent211(*) has reported that the US is targeting the south of
Angola for the construction of a US military base, such a base does not
necessarily make of Angola the leader of the sub-region and choiced partner of
the US. As for Gabon, it will be unable to lead the sub-region because of its
economic, geographical, demographic and linguistic size, as well as its little
access to countries like Chad and CAR, deficiencies which Cameroon overcome. As
for DR Congo, though geopolitically well situated and has a hegemonic history
in the sub-region, the political situation marked by conflicts and the
consequence of that on its economy, gives the leadership preference to Cameroon
which has a more stable political and economic situation.
Cameroon's stable political and economic situation must be
juxtaposed with the regional picture of armed conflict and civil unrest.
Studying security issues in Central Africa, Ndjock Bapah saw the region as
«that part of the continent where current African affairs are focused for
close to ten years».212(*) Writing in 2001, conflicts were still raging in such
countries in Central Africa as Chad CAR, the Two Congos, Angola, Rwanda,
Burundi and parts of Cameroon. It was a real challenge to the international
community, as Ndjock wrote,
«Faced with this `spiral of conflicts', the UN, on the
proposition of Cameroon (shared by the other states of the sub-region of
Central Africa), created on 28 May 1992, the Permanent Consultative Committee
of the United Nations on Security Issues in Central Africa
(PCCUNSI-CA).213(*)
The role of Yaoundé was quite central, not only in
coordinating and hosting different meetings, but also in providing ideas,
personnel and funds for the creation of a sub-regional security
apparatus.214(*)
More so, it is the wish of the US to see Cameroon play a more
important role in sub-regional and regional issues, a role that measures it
politico-economic prowess. In US minds, the weight of the countries in the
Central African sub-region, and especially their socio-political conditions
make Cameroon an unavoidable interlocutor on the political scene of the area,
playing a more active security role. The US, according to Chouala, «is
nurturing a strategy of co-sharing of regional influence with
Cameroon».215(*)
This co-sharing is because the US is relatively new in the region, is
geographically far off and has little knowledge of the region, especially that
the region is prey to several political conflicts. It is in the same
perspective that the meeting between the European Union and Central Africa
opened in Yaoundé on September 20, 2006.
