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Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
This book reveals how communities protect themselves when external support is absent.
Drawing on participatory research from Cameroon's conflict zones, the authors document the remarkable agency and creativity of conflict-affected civilians employing non-violent methods to protect one another from violence. With international and national NGOs under strict government controls in the Anglophone regions, local communities have developed their own innovative self-protection strategies that offer sustainable pathways through conflict.
This important study shifts unarmed civilian protection discourse away from externally-led interventions towards genuinely civilian-centred approaches, offering crucial insights for practitioners, policy makers and scholars working in conflict-affected contexts worldwide.
Gordon Crawford is Research Professor in Global Development in the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University, UK.
Nancy Annan is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University, UK.
Kiven James Kewir is Research Hub Leader for Central Africa at the African Leadership Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Niger-Thomas Atim Evenye is Executive Director of the Authentique Memorial Empowerment Foundation (AMEF) in Kumba, Cameroon.
Sakah Bernard Nsaidzedze is Managing Director of Big Steps Outreach Network (BONET) in Bamenda, Cameroon. He is also Lecturer at Heritage Higher Institute for Peace and Development Studies, Cameroon.
1. Introduction
2. Conceptualising Unarmed Civilian Protection
3. The Anglophone Conflict and its Impact on Civilians
4. Community-based Unarmed Self-Protection Strategies
5. Successes and Challenges
6. Locally-led Civilian Self-Protection and Adaptive Peacebuilding
7. Conclusion