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ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 29-- The African Union (AU) and its partners on Friday commended recent measures taken by Cameroon's President Paul Biya to defuse political tensions in the West African country's troubled Anglophone regions. This came after a meeting between the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and Cameroon's president Biya, accompanied by the Secretary-General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) Louise Mushikiwabo, and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, on the current political situation in Cameroon, according to the joint declaration issued on Friday following the conclusion of the tripartite visit. The African Union and secretary generals of the OIF and Commonwealth welcomed the convening of the Grand National Dialogue which ushered in a new dynamic and which recommended, inter alia, the acceleration of decentralization, the special status of the North West and South West regions, and the review of the education and legal systems, including the measures taken by President Biya to defuse political tensions. The three officials also emphasized that "dialogue remains the preferred path to be encouraged within the present Cameroonian context." The tripartite mission, which is said to be an extension of the visits that the leaders of the three organizations had undertaken over the last months to Cameroon, envisaged to encourage the ongoing national efforts for the implementation of the Conclusions of the Grand National Dialogue, and support the pacification of the situation, peace-building, national cohesion and unity in Cameroon. | 
