Stuff. From politics to flash from housing boom boom boom town this is where they are. Welcome to the 77 percent. This weekend g. W. Is the state every news africa coming up in the next 15 minutes National Dialogue in cameroon weeklong talks to end the separatist crisis kicked off today but Key Stakeholders boycott it is the exercise do and whats at stake. We get it right this country is back on track oh we get it wrong this country might fall off the precipice so we really dont have much of a choice weve got to get it right and thats what this is all about. And alshabaab strikes again in somalia well tell you why this time is different. Hello im christine will welcome to news africa its good to have you along a National Dialogue opened in cameroon today its an attempt to end of conflicts in the countries and phone provinces we have people want independence now what you see in blue is a food cameroon and that is where most of the in your speak is who account for about a 5th of cameroons population of 24000000 people live the rest of cameroon is largely french speaking now the biggest beaking area is actually divided into 2 regions called northwest and Southwest Province the 2 provinces saw the missives some Self Governance and language rights including bilingual schools but many complain all francophone favorite discrimination in education in the Justice System and in the economy they took up and have been fighting to establish a breakaway state they call amazonia thats the design your flag now the week long talks will call by a president whos hoping to end the crisis that has killed more than 1500. 00 people since fighting broke out in 2017 between the army and the separatists now at the beginning of september the separatist imposed a weekly lockdown that saw some flee the area and its taking its toll on those whove remained. Gunshots arson and soldiers on the street residents of the English Speaking regions in cameroon have had enough of the violence and the monday lockdowns. That everyone is affected by me to my car was burned and i was not the only one all my neighbors in the very 1st we woke up very early in the morning we saw all the cars in flames as. Traders in blue way in cameroon Southwest Region say theyre under relentless pressure to choose sides if they close shop they risk being punished by the authorities but if they stay open they face the wrath of separatists for ignoring the call to strike thats created uncertainty. Because of the you know we need to stop. More do we mean by that many people here have joined protests against a marginalization of the English Speaking regions but their patience is wearing thin really it is very full it is today. So really would need a piece so were pretty. Me. It was before tuesdays Unification Day but until the dialogue starts to take effect the country is more divided than ever instead of the capital you know one day now we our reports have blasi all is standing by good to see you blaze so how did the 1st stay off the National Dialogue. On this 1st deal of the National Dialogue we may need to Industries Including the. U. S. Ambassador to come but the most. Talked about issue here is the super leaders did not show or none of them i mean to be gone to. Controlling the groups on the ground did not show up and the reason is that the. Risk that im brought to come from nigeria. And one should be. One i want to say this is one of the delegates who is attending the summit and then will pick up from there. Put it by looking at the form of the speech its very important that we dispose of the form of history that is the central theme thats suppose to be sent out of these dialogues because thats why we went to the streets thats why the crisis got it thats why people took up arms against it so we cannot be year and talk on that things without talking about the form of the. Days misinformed us talking about the forming office stained tool what does that mean and. What that means is that because coming up to a good moment he says centralized system and the forming of the studio talking about the federal system knowledge of governance because when he preaches solid income rooms now the african region to come roun on french came together in effect of job on 1006 to one they came together and they are good to have a federal system but in in 1972 the den preston our mark why he abandoned or unity government which is to be a central i system so for people like i want one many of the ones who are not necessarily support us opposition this movement to believe that the best we all the meeting weve between separatist and the government is to have of address you stand with their group to control their resources and also remember that if we would listen to his talk of be called up when we interviewed he and he talked about the root cause of this crisis that this crisis began because. We were controlled by a francophone so a great and many others what they have been getting for is that they want us to address them ok you mentioned in the beginning that the super says need is are not in attendance but doesnt this undermine the whole exercise of such Key Stakeholders and not taking pot. A lot of people that we have spoken here chris were going to here believe that does that look itself is not the solution the believe that this dialogue is a stepping stone to move to the a troll solution called the crises so a lot of them are hoping that with these dialogue the government will be pretty more accepting of course the opposition and so maybe did the separatists move who kind of have a sense that the government is willing to listen to them so it will be a lot of people as the expecting that of some good resolution to be taken of the end of the dialogue and then maybe the separatist come on board all right thats lazy all in one day for us reporting on that National Dialogue thank you. Our next story is in somalia which has suffered another day off bloodshed this latest attack happened in the capital city way and he tell you a military convoy hit an explosive device it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties as a result then 100 kilometers away militants carried out a major attack on a u. S. Military base used by u. S. Forces. In the past 3 months alone alshabaab has carried out several major attacks in july a suicide bombing in mogadishu killed the citys mayor inside his office if you days later the group targeted a Popular Hotel in the usually safe town off. Then just a little over a week ago they raided the lead military base killing more than 20 so molly soldiers. Im now joined by my colleague told me a lot people whos reported extensively from somalia and have it for many years good to have you told me so what do we know about cities twin attacks well if you look at the attack that happened in mogadishu that targeted an Italian Military convoy most of the time in somalia when when people are moving around especially foreign as and most especially westerners they move in very heavy security so for this convoy to have hit an explosive like this shows that al shabaab must have planned this very well or there must have been some lapse in the convoys own security but then the major one i would say was what happened in the balad ugly military facility thats a major air base just not far from mogadishu its an air base thats used mostly by the u. S. Forces they train local Somali Military there but they also use it as a launching pad for drone attacks and militants raided the place they used a car bomb to try to breach the parents the external security and then try to storm with gunmen they were repelled but the fact that they even tried this in the 1st place shows that theyve become even bolder ok so theyve become even bolder as you say by what weve seen in this attack but give us a sense of just how big the presence of al shabaab is in somalia when we hear from the government they almost give the impression that this is a group that theyre diminishing but just give us a sense of the scale of how much these people occupy in the country well the government for years has said theyve been pushing back but think about it if you have a Somali National army you have the u. S. Forces you have the African Union amisom troops as well all of them working together to fight al shabaab but also is present has a major presence in southern and central parts of somalia where its not just carrying out attacks its not just like a pest its actually in certain parts of of the country. Operating like a government its taxing locals forcing people to pay taxes otherwise it threatens them with a tax so this is a group thats trying to be a kind of de facto government in these parts of the country but as i mentioned its also getting bolder in the kinds of attacks of carrying out the not just general attacks on the people who are going for high a profile targets who are even better protected but than the average somali person so that shows of this group know is not just bold in terms of its spirit but also has the resources to try and carry out these attacks right i mean and that begs the question what they accomplished today what does it tell us about the ill for all fight against al shabaab what clearly if all these foreign and local forces are working together in the air on the ground. Even offering amnesty east to. Bob militants and giving them a way out of this militancy and yet thats not working to stop this group think clearly that military approach is not working and theyre probably has to be more to be done some other way maybe involving the local communities maybe involved offering all the option of talks which is actually rejected it said it doesnt recognize this local government it calls it and infidel government and so it says its not going to engage with them but clearly this military strategy on its own is not working and there has to be some other approach for long Term Solution all right well well keep our eyes on that story and thankful for that insight as to me illegible thank you. And that is it for now from news africa as always you can catch all our stories on our website and Facebook Page were always interested to know what you think about the stories that we do have and perhaps the stories in your country that you think we should be giving some coverage to. And well leave you now with pictures from fashion week with some of you gunned as best design is at the showcasing their latest creations will see you next time. Because. Clubs gave away their home advantage. And journey to the base of the. Last weekend away to. The. Shock of not mixing up the top of. The mainstream to the locations of. 16. Most girls. In support. Of. The real book