Thesis directed by Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary (University of Grenoble Alpes) and Claude-Ernest Kiamba (Catholic University of Central Africa) 

Subject : (Trans) border spaces, territorialities and conflicts in Central Africa. Case of the Eastern and Southern border basins of Cameroon 

Abstract

This work makes the hypothesis that the conflicts detected in some territorial margins of Cameroon are (equally) shaped by incompatibilities and divergences in the expression of territorialities in these spaces. Territorialities, understood in their socio-geographical sense in the wake of Raffestin's work, refer to representations, ambient speeches (official and local) and practices that mediate the relationships of actors to the border spaces targeted here. This conception of territoriality finds fertile convergences with sociological and geographical works respectively oriented towards a renewed attention for banality and an interest on the "geography from below". Thus, these are plural forms of conflicts that can be observed with their socio-historical roots, their own dynamics and historicity and their connection to regional dynamics. The study of active and latent conflicts in the borderlands, with an entry privileging territoriality, also makes possible to present the complexity surrounding Cameroonian borders in the variety of its forms, the lability of its functions and the plasticity of its localization and situation. Two Cameroonian borderlands make possible such an analysis, namely Kye-Ossi in the South region and Garoua-Boulaï in the Eastern region. They are inserted in cross-border areas covering portions of territory in conflict (CAR) and territories where singular forms of insecurity formerly latent seem to emerge (Equatorial Guinea).

Keywords: Border - Cameroon – Conflicts – Cross Border spaces - Garoua-Boulaï - Kye-Ossi - Migrants - Refugees – Territoriality.