Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – The President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya during his 2012 New Year message on December 31, 2011, announced that the 50th anniversary of the country’s reunification will take place in Buea, the capital of the South West Region.

“I would like to say that the fiftieth anniversary of our reunification, which took place as you are, on October 1, 1961, will be celebrated with all the necessary solemnity,” he said.

“It will take place in Buea, as soon as possible, with the desired dignity and fervor because we should always remember that reunification was our nation’s first step towards its unity”, President Paul Biya explained.

The golden jubilee of Cameroon’s reunification was to take place around October 2011, but failed because it coincided with the October 9, 2011 presidential election in which President Paul Biya won 77.98 percent of the votes cast.

He first announced the celebrations of the golden jubilee of Cameroon’s independence and reunification in the 2010 New Year message on December 31, 2009.

Celebrations marking 50 years of independence of the country took place in May 2010. It was indeed the independence of the French part of the country which was the United Nations Mandated Territory controlled by France that got its independence on January 1, 1960.

The English part of the country, present day North West and South West Regions, called the British Southern Cameroons, was the UN Mandated Territory controlled by Great Britain.

After French Cameroon had independence in 1961, the United Nations gave two options to the British Southern and Northern Cameroon’s to gain independence either by joining the Republic of Cameroon, the French part of the country or the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The decision was taken in a plebiscite on February 11, 1961. A great majority of the present day North West and South West Regions voted to become independent by joining the already independent French Cameroon while the British Northern Cameroons voted to join the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The French and British Southern Cameroon’s therefore reunited on October 1, 1961 and became the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Buea where the golden jubilee of reunification is to be celebrated was first of all the capital German Cameroon before the Allied Powers defeated Germany in the First World War and partitioned Cameroon between Britain and France.

It was also the capital of British Southern Cameroons and consequently the capital of the English part of the country.

It will be the first time government will be celebration the reunification of the two parts of Cameroon.

Before now only the secessionist movement, the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) used to celebrate October 1 every year as the Independence Day of the Southern Cameroons.