Nations Charter. Cameroon has also signed onto various international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). 4. Violations of Freedom of Expression On January 17, 2017, the government ordered the suspension of internet services in the Northwest and Southwest Anglophone regions of Cameroon. The shutdown lasted 94 days and adversely impacted the region‘s 5 million residents. For three months, the shutdown went nearly unacknowledged by the Cameroonian government or mobile phone companies. Yet the evidence shows that the government ordered telecommunications companies to shut down internet access in Anglophone regions. A letter from Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL), Cameroon‘s national telecommunications company, to the minister for post and telecommunications confirms that the company ―coercively enforced‖ the government‘s instructions to suspend internet services ―in certain sensitive regions‖. 22 The internet outage came amidst a new wave of government repression, after months of protests against the dominance of French-language use in courts and schools. In Cameroon‘s Constitution, French and English are meant to be co-equal languages. However, the country‘s Anglophone minority maintains that public services, including the educational and judicial systems, favor French and discriminate against Anglophones, a frequent complaint raised in demonstrations by teachers and lawyers. In December 2016, these protests escalated into clashes with the police in which at least four were killed and many others were injured. In response, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) and Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) led ―Ghost Town‖ strikes, in which they ask members of the public to stay at home and shops and businesses to close. On the same day these organizations were banned, the internet was shut off. The internet blackout created ―internet refugees‖, as Anglophone Cameroonians were forced to travel into Francophone regions or Nigeria to get internet access. The ―Silicon Mountain‖, which is located in the affected region, was especially crippled by the loss of internet. After weeks of commuting to the almost 74 km from Buea to the commercial capital of Douala to access the internet, tech developers built an internet ―refugee camp‖ in Bonako, a village near the toll gate separating the Southwest from the Francophone region of Littoral.23 The lengths to which Anglophone Cameroonian internet users went to restore their connections underscores the critical role of the internet in providing access to economic, social, cultural, and 22 Bergelene Domou (Dbergeline). „Quand la souveraineté du Cameroun tient à la suspension d'Internet par l'État..en y forçant les opérateurs privés #FreeFreedom #FreeCameroon.‟ 21 Jan 2017, 5:28 AM. Tweet. 23 Abdhi Latif Dahir, „Reeling from an internet shutdown, startups in Cameroon have created an “internet refugee camp‟ (Quartz Africa, 28 March 2017), <https://qz.com/942879/an-internet-shutdown-in-cameroon-has-forcedstartups-to-create-an-internet-refugee-camp-in-bonako-village/> accessed August 1, 2017