Is Cameroon’s latest wave of violence bankrupting state-agribusiness?

Ladd Serwat, Africa Senior Analyst at ACLED, said: 

Escalating violence is threatening the operations of Cameroon’s second-largest employer, with at least 39 reported fatalities already in 2026 as armed forces and separatists clash around agricultural plantations, along with widespread violence targeting civilians. If the violence continues to escalate, the state-owned Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC)—which employs nearly 20,000 people—risks ceasing operations in more dangerous areas.

The most fatal violence has taken place in Munyenge and Mbonge, where Ambazonian separatists and military forces have fiercely contested the area and conducted deadly targeting of civilians, including the numerous farmers working in these areas. So far in 2026, there have already been 36 cases of violence around these plantations. This follows a peak in violence in 2025, with ACLED data recording 80 cases of political violence at localities with CDC plantations in the South West and Littoral regions.

Since the outbreak of conflict in the Anglophone region of Cameroon in 2016, agricultural plantations linked to the CDC have become major flashpoints for violence involving Ambazonian separatists and state forces. Separatists tend to target civilians suspected of collaborating with the Francophone central government; given the state-owned status of the CDC, many of these agricultural workers face intense targeting.