(MENAFN) French President Emmanuel Macron has formally recognized France’s responsibility for “repressive violence” during and after Cameroon’s struggle for independence, according to a letter addressed to Cameroonian President Paul Biya. While the letter stops short of a full apology, Macron accepted Paris’ role in the deaths of four pro-independence leaders—Isaac Nyobe Pandjock, Ruben Um Nyobe, Paul Momo, and Jeremie Ndelene—killed between 1958 and 1960 under French military operations.

The acknowledgment follows a January report by a joint French-Cameroonian commission of historians, which concluded that a war had occurred in Cameroon during which French colonial authorities and the army employed multiple forms of repressive violence, continuing even after independence in 1960 through support of Cameroonian authorities.

Macron’s letter also pledged to open French archives, support further historical research, and form a joint working group to implement the commission’s recommendations, aiming to address historical grievances and promote reconciliation. The announcement is part of Paris’ broader effort in recent years to confront its colonial-era abuses in Africa, including previous acknowledgments of France’s roles in the Rwandan genocide and the 1945 Setif massacre in Algeria.

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