Classrooms empty in Anglophone Cameroon amid ongoing 'shutdown' On the day when schoolchildren would normally be returning to classrooms, things are far from normal in the restive anglophone regions of Cameroon, where schools have for the most part have remained shut during the last two conflict-filled years. Since 2017, Cameroon's army has battled anglophone separatists seeking an independent state in response to perceived discrimination from the country's francophone majority. Tensions have risen following the sentencing of charismatic separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe to life in prison.