Ambazonians, my dear fellow countrymen, good evening. On behalf of my family and the Interim Government of Ambazonia, I would like to wish you all a happy, and prosperous 2018. We are grateful to God for giving us the opportunity to see another year. We thank Him for all good things we have experienced and even the sad ones too, for He says, “All things work together for the good of those who love Him.” He is our anchor in all situations and at all times -in the past, in the present and in the future. And we are thankful to Him for this day.

This is a special moment for me because the advent of a New Year is often a reflection moment. We look back to the past year and look forward to the new one. As we reflect over 2017, in the context of our independence restoration struggle, it is important to address a number of questions: how we got here in the first place,what the Interim Government is doing to actualize the Independence of Ambazonia, what goals we have achieved,what challenges we face, and what the forward-looking agenda for 2018 is. In that context, I would like to make use of this opportunity to address our ongoing direct action to fully actualize the independence of Ambazonia from the illegal occupation of La République du Cameroun.

Post our restoration declaration, you called for the formation of an Interim Government to coerce and channel our collective efforts aimed at running our government from our political capital in Buea.

You now have one of the most dynamic and transparent Interim Governments and some of the most committed Ambazonians who will remain focused on delivering great results until we get to Buea. Your Restoration Council or Parliament is also being constituted and its members will be announced to you soon. We are very mindful of your expectation that it is representative and manned by very dedicated, committed and resourceful Ambazonians. The goal of this dedicated group of women and men, that of our Ambassadors, our Frontline leaders, that of our country leaders and all leaders of our freedom train is to lead all Ambazonians to total freedom in Buea. The key to making this journey quicker and shorter is UNITY.  We must unite for the sake of the our suffering masses, let’s transform unity from the virtuality of social media platforms into the realities and challenges that face us on a daily basis as we ascend our undulating but morally, legitimate and politically charged journey towards the restoration of our statehood.  Our people yearn for genuine unity in which we put our differences aside and focus on getting to Buea.

I mean the type of unity that we witnessed in the glorious days of the 22nd of September and the 1st of October when our people rose as one, held hands and declared with one voice that were no longer afraid of being free.

I mean the unity demonstrated by you from every little corner across our land, from the borders of Nwa, to Akwaya, and down to Bakassi, from the hilltop of Oku, to the plains of Ndop, from the shorelines of Victoria, to the mighty Mount Fako. Yes, unite, from the heartland of Manyu where our people have shown tremendous resolve and to the banks of the River Mungo where even nature reminds us that we no longer belong.

This is a patriotic call and I appeal we all heed the call.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

My Fellow Ambazonians.

In 1953, British Southern Cameroonian representatives in the Eastern House of Assembly in Enugu seeking self-autonomy declared “benevolent neutrality” and walked out of the House. This marked the birth of the fight for an independent Southern Cameroons – the land and territory that God blessed us to live in and raise our children happily. Till date, we have never gained that unconditional independence. Our land is illegally occupied, our resources indiscriminately exploited, and our people assimilated and marginalized in political, economic and social spheres in a union with La Républiquedu Cameroun (LRC) that never was since 1961.

For more than half a century, we have been deprived of our inalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Looking back, I am thinking of major political figures like Emmanuel Mbella Lifafa Endeley, John Ngu Foncha, Solomon Tandeng Muna and Augustine Ngom Jua who believed in the vision of an independent Southern Cameroons and fought till their dying times. Think of activists like Albert Mukong who suffered brutal and inhumane treatment in the infamous Kondengui prison for fighting injustice that engulfs Ambazonians within the LRC system. Think of statesmen like Ambassador Henry Fossung, Barrister FonGorji Dinka, NjohLitumbe, NforNgalaNfor, Augustine Ndangam and the many others who have sacrificed all their lives for the liberation of Ambazonia. Think of nationalists like Cho Ayaba and Ebenezer Akwanga who have lived out their lives in exile seeking and fighting for a free Southern Cameroons.

Think of former Supreme Court Justice Ayah Paul Abine, Barrister Felix Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Niba who endured the stink of Kondengui for standing up to LRC to ensure that the educational and legal systems are consistent with our culture. I cannot leave out Comrade Tassang Wilfred and Barrister Bobga Harmony who are now in exile for standing up against the systematic assimilation of our people. These are the fathers of Ambazonia. They are our true patriots.

If you do not remember why we are here, think of the Buea University students who were raped, killed, arrested, and bathed in sewage by armed security forces of LRC. Think of those protesting lawyers who were publicly beaten and humiliated by police officers and their wigs and robes seized. Think of when Member of Parliament for Jakiri Honorable Wirba Joseph denounced LRC’s despicable repression of university students in the rostrum of LRC’s Assembly House.

Think of 22nd September when over 2 million of us within the territory of Ambazonia and across the world peacefully attracted international attention to our fight for freedom. Think of the 1st October independence declaration when millions of you marched to the palaces following the declaration of independence by the Governing Council. In return, our unarmed citizens who were carrying peace plants and shouting “no violence’ were beaten, shot, killed and kidnapped by armed LRC soldiers.

If you still doubt why we are here, remember the over 400 Ambazonians who have been killed by armed security and paramilitary forces of LRC during peaceful protests and assemblies. I am thinking of Amin Benjamin, a computer engineer and a technology entrepreneur role model who was gunned down in his prime by LRC soldiers on October 1^st. He studied in India and returned home in high spirits to invest in his own people, but little did he know that his life would be cut short. I am also thinking of the assistant Mayor of Ndu, Martin Fon Yembe who was tear gassed to death not on the streets, but in his own residence on October 1.

How about the 800 plus,injured through indiscriminate close-range live bullets fired by LRC armed security and paramilitary forces during peaceful associations. I am thinking of that 93-year grandmother Mrs. Sarah Afah in Ekona who now lives with a fractured head after armed soldiers break into her home, tortured her and hit her forehead with the barrel of the gun. Additionally, I am thinking of the 14-year girl Wiyfengla Eileen Fola who miraculously survived close-range live bullets that shattered her right eye and face in Kumbo. She has lost her sight and her ability to hear and speak well for life. And she is currently in dire need of finance to undertake reconstructive eye surgery abroad. Furthermore, I am thinking of 24-year ZAMA BELDWIN who lives in Mankon. He was shot in the back at Mile 6 Mankon on 1 October.  His spine was shattered beyond repair. He is now stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. At the time of the incident, Zama had completed high school and was about to start university education in the sciences.

Think of the over 4000 Ambazonians who are either locked in jails across LRC territory, kidnapped, killed or missing. I am thinking of 42-year Dzenjo Germaine, a single mother of an 8-year son and an office assistant in Victoria. She was arbitrarily arrested from her residence on 21st September, taken to Yaoundé and detained at SED, later charged with terrorism, sponsoring terrorism and Secession, like any Ambazonian who has been arrested, then transferred to Judicial Police and currently in Kondengui Central prison without any hearing or trial. Significantly, I am thinking of activists, journalists and teachers, including ManchoBibixy, Penn Terence, Eselacha Martin, Tsi Conrad, Kwabeh Zacks, Tah Emile Agwe, Tamngwa Marvin, Awah Dzeyangha Jnr, and Kingah Valentine, who are still languishing in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen and warders who view them as second-class citizens and slaves in LRC.

I make this lengthy narration to remind you that we did not ask for the present situation, it was forced upon us.  A joint request by both the lawyers and teachers for a forum where some of the grievances could be discussed fell on deaf ears.  La République instead decided to embark on a campaign strategy of bribery and corruption in order to instigate division amongst our leaders. When they did not succeed to bribe nor divide them, they resorted to intimidation, brutality and indiscriminate arrests.

Today, as I have just stated, Yaoundé’s prisons are overflowing with innocent people, who have been denied justice and their only crime is that they are Ambazonians.  It is a similar situation in the prisons of Buea where we learnt only last week that close to 500 of the detainees have been poisoned through the food offered to them. Bamenda, Bafoussam and Douala prisons are full, there are equally countless others that La République’s army has killed and buried in mass graves that are still to be uncovered.  Right now there are about 40,000 refugees across the border in Nigeria. This is where we are and how we got here.

At this time. I will like to use this opportunity to extend my heartfelt gratitude to His Excellency Muhamadu Buhari, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Governors of Cross River state, Benue State,  Taraba State, and of course, the good brothers and sisters in Nigeria who have opened their country to host all of our people.  May God bless them and may God bless Nigeria.

To family members of the dead, those injured, missing, and kidnapped, we want to say our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families. We also want to convey the grief and the sadness and the anger that we feel.

My Fellow Ambazonians

Let me be clear why direct action is our only way forward now. In any fight for freedom there are four broad phases: collection of the facts to determine the justness of the cause; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all of these stages in LRC. It is an established fact we have been assimilated and marginalized in our educational and legal cultures as well as in economic and political access since 1961 by LRC government.

Reputed international organizations including the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International have confirmed this fact. Catholic and Protestant Churches on Ambazonian territory with over 80% followership across Cameroons have documented this injustice and have offered practical recommendations to LRC.

The United States, the United Kingdom and France have condemned significant violations of the rights of Ambazonians by LRC forces and urge both parties to dialogue. The African Union and the United Nations have noted same. On the basis of these conditions, the Ambazonia leadership sought to negotiate with LRC for a peaceful separation and peaceful neighborly co-existence. The leadership took a first step and pledged to call off sit-in strikes from schools throughout the territory on 8 January 2018. Yet, for over one year since we started ghost towns, civil disobedience and peaceful protests, the president of LRC has deliberately refused to recognize our quest for autonomy and has failed morally to sympathize with the families of innocent Ambazonians killed, injured and missing in Ambazonia.

LRC has rather labeled us secessionists, called us terrorists, and has ordered armed soldiers to shoot and kill Ambazonians. To exacerbate the crisis, Paul Biya declared war on over 8 million Ambazonians and over our territory on 30 November.

My Fellow Ambazonians.

It is now clear to all of us and to the international community that LRC and Ambazonia are two separate people with defined internationally recognized territories, justice systems, education systems, and social norms. These are the hard, brutal facts for why we are on an irreversible path to complete independence. Should LRC consistently refuse to engage in good faith negotiation, any separation through military confrontation will end up in the kind of tense neighborlinessthat exists betweenIsrael and Palestine.

By waging war on us, they thought it was going to be the secret that breaks our backs and end our resolve and fortitude to pursue our inalienable right to freedom and self-determination.  But our youths have demonstrated the highest level of resilience and courage in the face of an immeasurable level of adversity.  The resistance efforts demonstrated by our youths has taken Paul Biya by surprise and his regime is now so embarrassed.

I feel privileged and proud that we are blessed with such youthful exuberance in Ambazonia, Southern Cameroons. We have youths that would rather choose to die rather than live another day with the corrupt and oppressive regime of La République du Cameroun. This Interim Government stands with the youths and supports them because self-defense is a universal human right protected under the charter of the United Nations. The forces of occupation in our territory, especially those deployed in Mamfe and the rest of Manyu are suddenly realizing that no matter how equipped and trained an army can be, it cannot break the will of a people who have been incessantly deprived of human dignity and freedoms.

Because of the bravery of our youths in resisting the foreign occupation, we are now hearing that mothers of soldiers sent to fight in Mamfe from La République du Cameroun, are crying out loud and asking their children to defect from La République’s army and not have to die fighting a senseless war against the peaceful People of Ambazonia. The other day, Le Messager newspaper actually reported that almost 700 of La République du Cameroun’s soldiers deployed to fight in Mamfe have defected from the army, not also wanting to die fighting a meaningless war. If francophones are defecting and refusing to fight, how much more do we expect of our Ambazonian brothers who are still in the army?Why would you want to go to war against your own brothers and sisters? My appeal to you is to come back home, join us and let us fight a more worthy and dignified cause.

WHAT IS THE VISION?

Now let me talk about the vision of our direct action to independence. Our goal is to achieve recognition of Ambazonia as an independent, democratic, sovereign state in the international community of nations. The Interim Government is working concurrently on eight basic steps to restore full independence of Ambazonia.

First, demonstrated cultural group: It is well established that Ambazonia is a unique cultural group – education, legal, and politics – running from the northern to the southern zone with 13 counties: Boyo, Bui, Ndonga-Mantung, Fako, Kupe-Muaneguba, Lebialem, Manyu, Meme, Menchum, Mezam, Momo, Ndian, and Ngoketunjia.

Second, a history of institutional assimilation, annihilation and marginalization. There is no gainsaying and denying that Ambazonia has witnessed these since 1961. We are reminded of the actions of those before us, like the late Dr. John NguFoncha, Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon from October 1st, 1961 to May 13th, 1965—who led a delegation of Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) to the United Nations in 1994 to request that it support their movement for greater autonomy in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions under the despotic regime of Paul Biya. Prior, he had resigned from the Cameroon’s People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) in 1990 because of institutional assimilation and marginalization of Ambazonians.

The Interim Government continues to work with the living fathers of Ambazonia to demonstrate this need at the international level.

Third, independent representative system of government: At the fourth Conclave in Nigeria, the Conclave resolution established the Interim Government of Ambazonia, established strategic departments and my humble self SisikuAyukTabe assumed the position of first President. As required, I have since formed a cabinet which comprises of ministerial departments, headed by dedicated Secretaries of State, each working hard to develop and produce guidelines and map out strategies on how to operate and manage sectors under their department. It is on this basis that our territory is named the Federal Republic of Ambazonia (although the UN books and governments recognize our territory as Southern Cameroons).

Fourth, economic means and stability: According to a report of August 2017 by the International Crisis Group, at the time of the1961 referendum, the UK and some developing countries were against the option of full independence for Southern Cameroons on the grounds that it would not be economically viable and that it was best to avoid the creation of micro-states. The argument has since been disproven. The Interim Government is preparing guidelines and developing rules and mapping operational strategies to demonstrate that Ambazonia has the economic means and stability to establish and protect our new state. These documents will further show that the economic means will not bankrupt LRC upon the full independence of Ambazonia.

Fifth, no other option: Independence is an inalienable right. The Interim Government is working with various stakeholders to demonstrate there is no other better option to independence. The International Crisis Group report affirms this Ambazonia right to independence.

Although France and the UK treated Cameroon as a colony,

it was legally in fact an administered territory. Article 22 of

the League of Nations Covenant of 28 June 1919

states that the international “mandate” status applied to

“colonies and territories”  that, as a consequence of the war,

had “ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States

which formerly governed them” and that “are inhabited by

peoples not yet able to stand by themselves”.

The regime of “trusteeship”, introduced in 1945 by the newly

created UN, granted more rights to former colonies and territories

and was consistent with the UN’s wish to gradually end colonisation.

Sixth, cultural groups: Our social groups are made of traditional rulers and the various cultural groups at home and in the diaspora. The Interim Government is working to engage them to document wide support for Amabazonia. This is often demonstrated through a referendum just like our ancestors and parents voted in a referendum in 1961 to join LRC.

Seventh, support from nations and international community. This has been the major diplomatic offensive of the former Governing Council and will continue to be the major task of the Interim Government. A comfortable support is said to be established when a government official recognizes Ambazonia as a state and offer to host an embassy of Ambazonia. And on behalf of the people of Ambazonia, I will like to thank Mr. Arne Gerecke, Member of Parliament of the Free Voters Party in Germany for taking our case to the European Parliament for discussion at that level.

After Ambazonia is recognized by national governments that host our embassies and our referendum is endorsed by the AU and UN, then we would have achieved recognition of Ambazonia as an independent, democratic, sovereign state in the international community of nations. This vision underpins all our conversations and direct actions.

Fellow Ambazonians,

Looking forward, my priority will remain the economy. Our economy will be our lifeline. Without a strong economic base our social models and welfare will be at risk. Last week during a high-level meeting with our international partners and friendly nations, I was asked why I think we are ready for the restoration of our independence now; and what are assurances that we could not possibly turn out to be another failed and violent state? I looked into the resilience in the eyes of our people and found the answers, and yes, we are ready for our independence because of the following reasons: –

1. Our Human Capital
2. Our Natural Resources and
3. Our Political Maturity

I understand a lot among us will quickly say we are a people, we have a territory and now we have a government, but the obvious question that will come to mind will be how sustainable will this people, government and territory be?

Let me assure you that our nation will be sustainable, peaceful and prosperous. The people of Southern Cameroons have one of the most educated population in the continent and I can state without fear that we can easily find a person with a college/high school education in every home in Southern Cameroons.

The opportunities presented by our abundant natural resources are endless from our fertile agricultural lands suitable for agriculture, timber, cocoa, coffee, tea, heavy gold, iron ore, bauxite, diamond, oil and gas deposits and as a vibrant and hard-working people, we will be the food basket in the sub-region.

I understand the uneasiness and uncertainty of our brothers and sisters who are currently employed and working with the government of LRC and private institutions in Southern Cameroons. Yes, I am in your shoes, and I feel the uncertainty in you. The questions that elude all of us in our dying need for this independence is; how prepared are we for it? What if this independence is granted to us tomorrow, then what next? Who are we going to call for our electricity, telephone, water supply, pharmaceuticals, gasoline, shipping, road infrastructure, airports, and hospitals that will uphold the basic necessity and standard of living of our people?

Rest assured that the Interim Government is in extensive and advanced negotiations with major companies and stakeholders in the USA, China, UK, France, Nigeria, South Africa and Germany and they are ready to step in and offer their products and services to the people of Southern Cameroons. Rest assured that there is a lot of work being done in the background away from the noise and frenzy of social media, and Yaoundé is aware of some of these engagements with friendly nations and this explains their desperation and assault on our people.

Our priority will be to open up paved farm to market roads to facilitate the transportation of our farm produce to markets, particularly in Nigeria, strengthen and develop our budging IT sector, and make Silicon Mountain a major IT hub in the region and we will expand on our service industry through small business creation to encourage and support our entrepreneurial youths.

THE SCHOOL QUESTION:

Permit me to shift attention to the lingering schools resumption question. Many people are asking whether schools will resume on January 8th as we had previously announced. You will recall that in that announcement, we listed the conditions under which we will support school resumption. The conditions included La République du Cameroun withdrawing all her troops from our streets, the unconditional release of Mancho Bibixy and thousands of other detainees. As you are already aware, none of these demands have been met as I speak. On the contrary, hundreds of our people continue to be massacred daily, we have more detainees in prisons today, – more than the number it was when we first made this demand. The situation is worse when you factor what is happening in Manyu into the picture.

In Manyu in particular, schools cannot re-open because every child as I speak is in the refugee camp, forced from their home by occupation troops. Teachers too are either in refugee camps or have escaped to unknown safety, if they have not been slaughtered by LRC terrorist forces.  Many of the schools in Manyu and elsewhere in our territory have been burnt down by soldiers or gendarmes of La République du Cameroun, as we recently saw them burning homes in Kembong.

Faced with this stark reality and handicap, we are asking ourselves, how can we say children should go to school when most of the schools no longer exist?  How can we say children should go to school when they will be burnt alive in their sleep by La République’s terrorist forces just like they did to Presbyterian Secondary School (PSS) Bafut?  How can we say children should go to school when they will be raped and robbed daily by La République’ssoldiers? How can we ask children to go back to school with such high levels of insecurity on our streets which are flooded with gendarmes, soldiers and police, ready to victimize, shoot and kill just because they are Ambazonians?

How can we say that children go back to school, when our streets are flooded with spying, secret agents who are ready to kidnap any child with no remorse, then turn around and ask for a ransom?  How can we ask that children go back to school when Mamfe and the rest of Manyu cannot go to school? How can we say children should go to school when their peers, teachers and parents are suffering in refugee camps or languishing in jails? That would be a manifestation of poor judgement, recklessness, and above all a show of lack of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Manyu and other parts of Ambazonia that have been hit very hard by the crisis. It will be an abuse of compassion and empathy which are virtues that we pride ourselves in.

I would like to seize this opportunity to reiterate the conditions under which school resumption would be given a green light. Your Interim Government will immediately encourage school resumption once La République du Cameroun fulfills the conditions listed below:

• – A withdrawal of all their troops from all the towns, markets, farms, and streets of Ambazonia.

• – The unconditional release of ManchoBibixy and all other Ambazonians currently illegally detained in different detention facilities across La République and colonial facilities in Ambazonia.

3 – The return of all refugees to the safety of their homes and the commencement of compensation procedures to the physical and material damages inflicted on them and all the other victims across Ambazonia.

These are the conditions under which the Interim Government is going to approve school resumption.  We encourage every parent to ensure that their children stay home for their own safety.  It is part of the numerous sacrifices that we will pay for our freedom. The good thing is that when it is all said and done, those children would have had a better future than what La République du Cameroun currently offers them.

PARLIAMENT:

In the past one year, we have been appealing to all Southern Cameroons Parliamentarians and Senators to draw inspiration from 1953 with the Enugu Eastern House of Assembly and leave LRC’s parliament and return to Buea and join the struggle. So far, other than the Hon. JosephWirba, all of them still remain in Yaoundé. Now their terms are over. Unfortunately for them, we have resolved that LRC will not be organizing any elections on our territory.Our invitation is therefore still out there to all the representatives to take this time and do some soul searching and join the revolution before it becomes too late. We have gotten to the point in this revolution where you no longer can remain on the sidelines.

Fellow Ambazonians,

Our freedom is a given right. We shall never retreat or surrender,else the blood of the fallen like the blood of Abel, cries out against us. At the 4th Conclave, Comrade ManchoBibixy was declared the face of the revolution for the restoration of our statehood.  We remember him and thank him immensely for his patriotism, leadership, sincerity and fearlessness in the face of adversity in captivity.  I know many of you have been worried today after hearing the news about his ill health.  I want to reassure you that he is being looked after and the doctor has confirmed that there is no serious threat to his health presently.  We cannot forget the rest of our compatriots under illegal detention; Comrades Penn Terrence,  Asaah Patrick Ndangoh, Abang, Maxwell, Numvi Walters and hundreds more who remain in the captivity of LRC.

We fight to honor our elder statesmen, Barrister Fon Gorji Ndinka, Ambassador Henry Fossung, Mola Njoh Litumbe, Dr. Nfor Nfor Ngala, Pa Augustin Ndangam, Prof. Carlson Anyangwe and many more. We will never retreat nor surrender until the aspirations for a free Ambazonia dreamt by all of us and our leaders who have gone before us: H.E. John Ngu Foncha, H.E.Dr. EML Endeley, H.E. Augustin NgomJua, H.E.  S.T Muna, Chief Ayamba, Pa Albert Mukong, Dr. Bernard Forlon and many more. We have never come this far to freeing our country, hence we cannot go back to our vomit.

We have never seen the collective resolve of our people this strong for a free Ambazonia. Nobody ever imagined we all as a people across all age groups and walks of life: teachers and lawyers, taxi drivers and ‘okada riders’, professionals and ‘buyamsellams’, farmers, our people serving in La République’s security forces, petit traders, the unemployed, youths, nurses and doctors will come together with such resolve.  Let us continue to withstand all forms of brutality and remain resilient till we have our country back; a country with responsible and accountable public service, backed by strong institutions, not strong people; a country that respects democratic institutions and Human Right values, a country where people and not power is in charge.  This will always remain the pillar of our country and our communities.

Let us thank God for taking us this far and let us equally thank Him in advance for the many victories he has for us. Permit me to end this address with a quote from Afeni Shakur and Frantz Fanon:

“Nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them“.  Afeni Shakur.

“Freedom fought for is better than freedom compromised“. Frantz Fanon:

Short live the struggle,

Long live the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,

May God bless you all.

Happy New Year!

This is not a normal war. Though hard to understand and believe, it appears to be a one-sided war in which faceless gunmen proffering allegiance to the separatist Federal Republic of Ambazonia kill government troops but do not get killed even in face-to-face shootouts. It is a war that manifests signs of mysticism, difficult to explain for an urbane reporter without sounding superstitious. But the troops themselves, who face the reality, are no longer in doubt. Locked in battle with gunmen whom they believe do not succumb to bullets, about every government soldier in Mamfe and elsewhere in Manyu division now has a tiny piece of red cloth wrapped on the barrel of their gun. “People familiar with the Odeshi ritual in Nigeria have advised that red pieces of cloth can neutralize the Odeshi charm,” a gendarme told me.

That is so even for the reputably highly efficient and redoubtable Special Forces or Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR). They too believe the red cloth is a potent antidote to neutralize the mystical bulletproof charm or “Odeshi” said to have been acquired from neighbouring Nigeria by the Ambazonia fighters. I do not want to believe this, but until I find a shrine where the contrary can be proven, the actors on the ground give much to convince the prying observer that I am.

Telling this story, I become the first journalist to physically and independently report from the epicentre of this nascent war pitting defence forces of the Government of Cameroon and separatist fighters, otherwise called Ambazonia Boys or Odeshi Boys.

Over several weeks, I have been receiving calls from people who want to share their experiences, observations and even secrets with me. They say they feel comfortable speaking to me. They say they find me credible and trust I will use the information responsibly. I have been meeting people from the field, most of them volunteering to share their testimonies. These past few weeks, I have been compiling notes from the flashpoints and visited the Gendarmerie in Mamfe located at entrance to Egbekaw village, only metres from the west bank of the navigable River Manyu that  links Nigeria and is believed to be the access way of the Ambazonia gunmen from Akwaya subdivision on the east bank.

The Mamfe Gendarmerie appears to be the command centre of the government’s first column of military containment where gendarmes, regular troops and BIR as well as scores of young gendarmes-in-training are all stationed for the assignment. It appears to be the main target of the separatist fighters. They are apparently staking the fortunes of their war on dislodging Yaounde’s hold on Mamfe. In two successive weeks only in December 2017, they carried out as many assaults on the military command. It looks like attacks elsewhere are only distractions before they return to their main target – Mamfe Gendarmerie.

Back to Journalism

Amid the flood of what is perceived as half-truths, exaggerations or outright propaganda from both sides and the apparent resignation or impotency of my journalist-colleagues, most of whom are helplessly printing or broadcasting versions of war tell-tales, I decide to brave it into the war-zone. It is a risky venture but I brave it for the sake of journalism, lest my noble profession should lose its relevance in the swell of government domination of state media and others at its beck and call with its version of the story. On the other hand, fairytales – not all always false, not all always so true – are flooding social media to the point where a major social media actor, arguably doing a formidable job which Ambazonia partisans must applaud, has become the most reliable “war correspondent”. That is an aberration for journalism! (Yet, social reporting remain reliable hints or tip offs for investigation by journalists.) In the middle of government and social media extremism, visibly intimidated private media are quoting UNRELIABLE SOURCES, while others are more preoccupied with personality massaging or supporting instead of reporting.

I am a militant of journalism (I don’t mean militant journalist here). It takes some trouble saving one’s thing. I am an Anglophone; an unapologetic advocate for the rights of Cameroon Anglophones and a voice calling for resolution of this conflict through dialogue. But I am a journalist and journalism is the only profession I practice. It is supposed to be the watchdog and fourth estate in Cameroon today. It also ought to be in any future arrangement that may emerge out of this conflict. Journalism must be kept on its feet. It must not be subdued nor traded for whatsoever prospects.

The present skirmishes are signs of the first inter-Cameroon war in my time. I was not born at the time of the pre- and post-independence UPC/Marquisard war. There may never be another. This is my war. I must report it. Daring into Manyu is not for a reporting picnic. It is like venturing into a community ravaged by a new, unfamiliar, plague. What with the risk and the uncertainty over how to approach the unknown.

Cameroonians are not used to war. Cameroonian journalists have generally not reported war independently nor dared into a war zone to live its realities. A couple of them robbed shoulders with gunmen when sea piracy erupted about a decade ago. A few have been privileged to be embedded with government forces in guided, guarded, tours in the war on Boko Haram in the north of the country. A few were recently airlifted by government forces to some locations in Manyu. But who expects independent reporting from an embedded journalist in Cameroon? Many of them, so naïve, inexperienced and obviously excited, often return from such “privileged” guided tours with such overdose of enthusiasm, they go parroting government propaganda even better than the government and military spokespersons.  Some, of another generation, who were in Yaounde during the 24-hour failed coup of April 6, 1984, could have been considered war reporters just for that.

Mamfe is not in Syria. It is not Aleppo. But even Aleppo was covered by foot reporters. I must cover Mamfe and the rest of this war. I am a bona fide journalist and can do regular newsgathering, approaching and duly presenting myself to actors and officials on the field to record testimonies, explanations and possibly rebuttals. But from my previous “war reporting” experiences, fixing and leading foreign journalists embedded with military guides to cover Boko Haram, I am familiar with the likely impediments of administrative bottlenecks. I know the usual silence from field commanders and local administrators until they obtain clearance from their bosses up the ladder, all the way to Yaounde. And I know how much more respect and consideration our authorities give to foreign journalists than to us, locals.

I did not want to be seen to be disobeying an injunction. I did not want to be obliged to obey injunctions. I did not want to be denied a story by administrative foot-dragging or outright silence. So, I decide to go undercover, opting to avoid officials or official briefings and resorting to informal sources or trusted secondary sources. But the risk of face recognition, because of my TV appearances, could “betray” me.  Everywhere I go, people approach me, saluting my contributions to the burning national debate after recognizing my face, voice or name, they say. That ruins my wish to go about unrecognized. But my future reporting there won’t be undercover.

But I am not a spy. I do not seek to compromise the fortunes of any side in this conflict, not even because of my own allegiances. I do not wish to expose any side to danger. I won’t risk my life, my honour and my professional independence for that. I am just in quest of the truth. The people and the world have a right to know. It is possible I could be as militant as spokespersons or propagandists for the Government of Cameroon and Ambazonia were I in their shoes. I am also a communicator. But in this context, I am a journalist and noble duty behooves me to place my cherished but beleaguered profession on a pedestal for redemption.

Decision-makers, especially the commander(s)-in-chief, need a true picture of the situation on the ground. This is also a situation report. Amidst endemic corruption, even security and intelligence reports are often distorted and sexed up under the influence of field commanders and their upward networks to suit political or material interests. My findings could help present a true picture of the plight of troops and fighters to decision-makers who may otherwise be deceived by false administrative and skewed media reports. It may help them review the rationale for the war.

Recalling my 2005 Investigative Journalism lessons in the Mashav training on Media Strategies For Social Change in Haifa, Israel, I understand that as government homogeneity is a fallacy, exposure of lapses in the dysfunctional segment of a government, though seeming to embarrass the entire government, could help the functional bench of that government to make amends for the general good.

On the benefit of doubt, I concede it to our decision-makers that some of their suicidal utterances and decisions thus far may have been guided (or misguided) by the lack of a true understanding of the reality on the ground. It is the duty of authentic journalists to go fetch the truth and hold up the mirror that reflects that truth. Neither embedded reporting nor state media cover-up even after field assignments can help decision-makers in this. My reporting can. I am independent, though they are not more patriotic than me.

Investigative journalism is way out of the ordinary. If ordinary war zone reporting is risky, investigative reporting in the war zone is a flirt with death though not necessarily suicidal. Twice I find myself facing the barrel of the gun, finger on the trigger. Faced with this reality, I am repeatedly cautioned against taking the risk of making pictures for my story, even stealthily. I apologize for publishing an incomplete story – one without sufficient befitting illustrations, if any. I take seriously to the warning that even bare streets in Mamfe now have eyes and ears and I could be spotted and suspected of some form of foul play. I am taking no chances. I am not offering myself to be arrested for whatever reason or my chest to be hit by a bullet. I am no Odey Chi; neither am I suicidal. I am not in quest of heroism or martyrdom; I am just in search of a story, and I do not want it killed prematurely. I dock and get out of potential harm’s way once I sense danger. I recall advice from one of my editors at Seattle Post-Intelligencer (USA) where I worked in 2006 as an Alfred Friendly Fellow: “The perfect is enemy of the good.” I reason that my quest for a perfect story could ruin my chances of giving you a good story. At least, thankfully, you can read this story. It is not exhaustive. It does not have to be. It is not a penetration into the secrets of God. Journalists – even investigative journalists – are just men who try to go beyond the ordinary, striving to uncover what is hidden or unavailable to ordinary news reporting, without pretending to land a rocket in Heaven.

The Eyewitness

Between my Manyemen village traditional obligations on the weekend of December 8-10, 2017 and my teaching duties in Yaounde and across two other regions, often beginning on Wednesdays, I find a window between Sunday, December 10 and Tuesday, December 12 to spend time in Mamfe about two hours’ drive from Manyemen midway along the Kumba-Mamfe road. Like in my military embeds covering Boko Haram, I strangely crave to witness real time combat. But if I cannot, I contend with coming the closest possible to the theatre of war to see, hear, taste, smell and feel the realities of the budding war.

Hopping off a bus heading to Bamenda at the junction village of Bachuo-Akagbe at about 6pm to connect to Mamfe town, local drivers warn it is getting late to enter Mamfe following a 7pm entry “curfew” observed by the military. As we approach the GRA roundabout from Mile 1 a couple of minutes before 7pm, a strong flashlight beams at us from the distance. It is the military checkpoint signalling no further thoroughfair into town. I am lucky. We could have been stopped at the Okoyong checkpoint. Our driver quickly turns back and uses a backstreet road to take us into town. Evidently, the military are avoiding night traffic around the GRA entrance which leads to both their barracks, their installations and the residential quarters of local authorities.

I want to see things for myself. I look around, listen to street conversations, speak to people, sample the views of local politicians, walk around and mingle with the troops, incognito, where they sip liquor at bars opposite the Mamfe Gendarmerie, clutching their guns. I spend nights at places at the same time risky and privileged; places where I could be caught in crossfire but also not miss the reality of a gun battle if there was one. That too is the paradox of war reporting: the more real, the more risky, the bigger the story catch. Staying at such places, I also want to meet the people most involved or affected by the skirmishes.

Sometimes, I get different versions of the same story from sources all inside Mamfe. I begin to realize that simply being in Mamfe does not automatically confer everyone there the status of a “reliable source”. After all, gun battle theatres are not carnivals. People flee from, not rush towards, gunshots. So, in the end, few locals are authentic eyewitnesses. I must pick and choose and scrutinize my sources.

I try to compare what I have read or been told with my own observations on the ground. I take a critical look at what makes sense. Sometimes, nothing seems to make sense but with some sense of probability and plausibility, here I am trying to tell a sensible story all the same, with every professional effort to be truthful, balanced and fair.

Mamfe Market Fire

The pre-dawn fire at the Mamfe market on December 12 upset one rare quiet night’s sleep after turbulent gunshot nights. It razed over a dozen shops in one row at the clothing section of the market. Sleepy-eyed locals jump out of bed as a red ball of fire lights the dark night. Above the fire, a small ball of light easily understood to be a military drone hovers for about an hour, apparently taking pictures of the disaster before descending slowly towards the Gendarmerie premises. Feeling like the fire is one too many calamities for Mamfe, a man repeatedly screams at the top of his voice to be heard several metres away: “What have we done that they are doing this to us? Why can’t they leave us alone?”

Just so I do not go away with the wrong understanding of who “they” stands for, I approach the lamenting man still under the pre-dawn darkness and he says he believes the fire is not an accident, nor is it a criminal act. So, who does he think would have lit the fire to burn the market? He takes a curious look at me as if searching my face, hoping he could recognize me. The darkness not helping matters, he looks away and goes silent. Someone else standing by says, as if on behalf of the first, that he believes the fire is meant to discredit those defending the Anglophone cause. He too stops short of laying the full blame. But I understand the undertone and return to bed with the impression they are both choosing their words carefully and avoiding to open up without being sure who they were speaking to.

December 7-8 Attack

The deputy commander of the Gendarmerie Company receives a tip off from an informant that Ambazonia gunmen are preparing to launch an attack on Mamfe and have pitched tent in Kajifu, one of the first villages in Akwaya subdivision on the left branch after the Satom Bridge over the River Manyu. (The right branch goes through Eshobi.) Acting on the tip off, a squad of gendarmes and soldiers storm the village in the early afternoon of Thursday, December 7. They find no gunmen. The troops also meet the village deserted. The raid on Kajifu leaves a curious outcome. The wife of that Gendarmerie deputy commander hails from Kajifu. The next day, neighbours hear her weeping and wailing for hours, claiming that government troops have massacred her entire village and left her brother dead. It later turns out that is not true. Her brother returns safe from their bush hideout. The curiosity is, if indeed her brother and villagers had been massacred, her own very husband would have been directly or indirectly responsible for it.

The desertion of Kajifu ahead of the military raid suggests the gunmen and the villagers might have had some form of counter-intelligence about the planned government military raid. It also suggested that some undercover informants could be double-dealing. That could be suicidal. My source says the Gendarmerie informant paid the capital price as he was tied to a tree and beaten to death when his betrayal was found out.

The military failing to pre-empt the attack on Mamfe with the raid on Kajifu, the Ambazonia Boys stormed the Gendarmerie that same night. Eyewitnesses, mainly neighbours at Egbekaw where the Mamfe Gendarmerie Brigade, the Manyu Gendarmerie Company and the Motorcycle Highway Traffic Squad or “Routier” are located, heard or saw armed youths arrive at the Gendarmerie premises at about 10pm. Peeping through windows even into the dark night, they could tell some had guns and others machetes. They were masked and dressed casually. No uniforms in particular. They sang Ambazonia “patriotic” songs including lines of the Ambazonia anthem. The shootout that ensued lasted nearly two hours. The most visible signs of the shootout I see are bullet holes on the fence of a logging company, Wizma, less than 100 metres from the Gendarmerie. While the neighbourhood looks deserted as a result, a 10-year-old girl filling water into a drum at a house nearly inside the Gendarmerie yard looks unmoved. I ask her whether she is not frightened by the gun battles around home. She simply chuckles and proceeds with her chore. An adult relative says, as if explaining for her, “In Mamfe today, the sound of gunshots is like the sound of music.”

After the December 7 shootout, the gunmen seize a Gendarmerie pickup and drive off. The vehicle is found at dawn abandoned near the Court premises around Yaounde Quarters. Where the gunmen go to after that remains a mystery. Some of the pupil gendarmes who broke bounds to hang out all night for fun miss the gun attack. When the return to base towards dawn, they remain hidden behind houses in the neighbourhood several hours after dawn, both fearing further shootouts and also waiting for the opportune moment to sneak back to their makeshift camp at the Mamfe Guest House besides the Gendarmerie; a way to avoid punishment from their supervisors.

The exact casualty count is not known but eyewitnesses can tell of at least three gendarmes killed in ambush or in cold blood shortly after the gunmen arrived: a gendarme on guard at the Company Commander’s residence within the Gendarmerie precincts and a Lieutenant who had only reported for duty in Mamfe two days before, are the first victims. The Lieutenant was the one said to have scaled up the ceiling to hide but without much luck. In their final act, the gunmen take a trainee gendarme hostage, drag him to the backyard of the Boy’s Quarters of a building opposite the Brigade, tie him up at and are about to set him on fire when some among the separatist fighters cautioned against lighting a fire. “We may burn someone’s house if we burn him,” said one of them.

Conflicting versions say some gunmen advised that they set him free as a show of good faith. Some locals claim they overheard the assailants say, “Let him go and spread the good news.” Others say it was finally decided that the young gendarme be beaten to death. It is believed there was a fourth military dead when a body was found on Saturday, December 9, two days after the gun battle, behind Donayo primary school in the neighbourhood. Locals conclude the body was that of a fourth military victim because it was taken away in a military ambulance. “They cannot carry the body of Ambazonia Boys or even civilians in their ambulance,” a neighbour tells me. However, counting every dead – an elusive exercise and a futile penchant for detail – is not the focus of this story.

Military Casualties

The propaganda war on military death count is teeming. For strategic reasons linked to public and troops morale, the military logically keep their casualties and death count secret. The government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma said only one gendarme was killed in the December 7-8 attack. Social media stories reported scores dead after each shootout. On the other hand, arm-chair “investigative reporters” who sought to debunk claims of military deaths by pointing to the absence of military casualties and bodies at local civilian hospitals and mortuaries, might have totally missed the point. Military casualties won’t be interned at civilian hospitals. Military sources say their doctors are better skilled to treat their kind of casualties. Also, for security reasons, it is unsafe to intern their casualties at several dispersed locations, lest they should expose them to further risks of attack from assailants. “We prefer to treat them at our own health facilities which are often within military barracks and sufficiently secured,” said a military source. They also say because of the need to preserve the perceived invincibility of troops, wounded soldiers cannot be taken to civilian hospitals, which may dampen civilian morale.

Minimizing the death count quarrel, I have been telling myself to perhaps depend on ceremonies to honour the military dead for the reliable count. Would the military honour some and not others? That too would be worth investigating. However, there are dependable hints of more military deaths than are revealed by the military and the government. Neighbours say military helicopters overflying on the night of December 7-8 might have whisked off several military casualties and their dead. Also, two military ambulances accompanied by other military vehicles that stopped over briefly in Manyemen heading towards Kumba at about 5.30pm on Friday, December 8, the day after the first attack, gave curious onlookers a rare chance to look through the ambulance windows and see military casualties. Concordant accounts spoke of several wounded and possibly dead. Only minutes after, a truckload of troops speeded towards Mamfe, followed by two pickups, also with troops. “See, they are going to replace those that have been killed,” said a stopover traveller, watching the military vehicles go back and forth.

Further suggesting military efforts to conceal their casualties, the entire vicinity of the Gendarmerie was locked out after the December 14 attack. Seeing that movement was allowed around there after the first attack with non-military bodies left littered about, a guess that the military were this time hiding their casualties could be plausible. Plus, the Government spokesman reported no casualties on the side of separatist fighters after the December 14 attack. The Government would waste no opportunity to boast if its forces had “neutralized” any “terrorists” (their usual choice of words).

News of more military deaths, an unspecified number, from among the wounded of the December 7 shootout evacuated for treatment, brings sorrow to the Mamfe Gendarmerie. Some of the young pupil gendarmes at the base were seen shedding tears after word came that one of their fellow trainees, who did not immediately succumb to bullet wounds from the December 7 battle, had died. On December 12, an old woman attempting to cross a barricade outside the Gendarmerie Brigade without her ID card pleaded that she rushed out of home without it because she was bereaved. One of the young female pupil gendarmes manning the barricade retorted thus: “You are not the only bereaved person in the world. I’ve also lost my sister here.”

Detainees Executed?

At dawn on December 8, the day after the separatists’ first attack, five bodies were found around the Gendarmerie. The bodies were only taken away Friday evening. Most of the bodies had read armbands, suggesting their appurtenance to the Odey Chi cult. In Yaounde, the Government spokesman said those were bodies of “neutralized assailants”, but locals say they were detainees held in Gendarmerie cells. One version claims they were shot after breaking jail with the help of the assailants, but others say they were dragged out of the detention rooms by gendarmes and executed to display their bodies as fruits of their successful riposte against the assailants. They say the red bands were a ruse by the troops to fool public opinion that the boys were Ambazonia Odeshi fighters. Locals believe that is why their bodies were left exposed for long for public viewing.

For several days, clothes, slippers and plastic sandals (“Dschang” shoes) continued to litter where some of the bodies were removed. Eyewitnesses say they were torn off some dead bodies before they were taken away. Sandals and slippers leave me wondering: would detainees dragged out to be executed be given the time to wear shoes or even slippers? Likewise, would fighters go to battle in slippers? Could the dead really be Ambazonia fighters? Those familiar with the Mamfe Gendarmerie attempt to clear my doubts, though. They say the regular detention rooms are overflowing with inmates because of the rampant arrests in Manyu, so some are kept in an adjourning white building. Those ones could have been the unfortunate pick that night.

A neighbor says most of those detained now are held in relation to the crisis. “Since most of them are believed to be Odey Chi boys, it is possible the soldiers had no qualms killing them to compensate for their own dead,” he said. But if the victims also had Odey Chi invincibility, how come they were felled by bullets? Or is it that they cannot be shot dead in battle but can succumb otherwise? There are claims that the troops resort to other methods of killing them once they succeed to catch them after gun battles.

Shallow Mass Grave Behind Mamfe Grandstand

The non-military dead of that battle were buried Tuesday, December 12, in a shallow common grave behind the Mamfe Grandstand, on a spot between the Mamfe Municipal Museum (the former Town Hall) and the divisional delegation of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, a rather secluded part of town with limited human movement. In my conversations earlier with the Mamfe Municipal Council man in charge of the grave, he remains adamant that the bodies are those of the Ambazonia fighters. He gives no ear to the claim that they were detainees executed in cold blood. Evidently, most of the boys digging the grave wear red headbands, now believed to protect or empower the user against Odey Chi. I have been wondering whether that is also a way to neutralize their ghosts.

There are tales that some of the mystical fighting is done by ghosts – the ghosts of locals killed during peaceful demonstrations prior to the debut of the armed struggle. Such stories appear plausible in Manyu where ghost apparitions are believed to be commonplace.

Just when the grave-diggers are done and are serving their Fufu and Eru meal on a table at a nearby carpentry workshop, I approach them for explanation of their headbands. One of them sounding like their coordinator, scolds them, “I’ve told you people to remove those headbands. Now, it is attracting attention.” Visibly shaken, the boys quickly tear off the headbands. The group “leader” turns to me and says the headbands are just a fancy. Even faced with his tongue-in-cheek smokescreen, I feel I have had sufficient confirmation from their body language, even if not from his words.

The grave is hardly beyond knee-deep. They say the soil is too hard for them to dig deeper. I am told by the Council man that three other persons who had died in prison earlier would raise the number of bodies to be buried in that shallow grave to eight.

Just after 1pm, heading again to the site to check from the main entrance to the grandstand, I come within metres of a gendarme and BIR officer, all armed to the teeth and wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets. The gendarme points his gun at me menacingly, warning me to step no further. He won’t take any explanation. From an experience the previous day, I can tell I am a finger slide away from death. Looking around, I notice more gendarmes and BIR at several positions towards the gravesite and beyond. I can guess the burial would be soon.

At 1.08pm, a rickety pickup LT 0642 U, so old each piece of its chassis is a different colour, drives up to the back of the grandstand. As it approaches us, the gendarme orders me to walk away towards the opposite direction. Out of good sense, I obey and go farther than he has demanded, trying not to look back despite my curiosity. Once the pickup has passed us, the gendarme orders me to immediately quit the vicinity. Turning to leave, I manage to steal a quick look as I half walk and half run. Behind the pickup still approaching the gravesite, sheets and other cloths covering objects in its carriage without a tailboard, do not completely disguise its cargo. At least one pair of stiff legs protrude beyond the tip of the carriage. They are dead bodies.

I am frightened enough by the gun threat to want to disappear to the farthest safe place, but the urge to see the end of the burial push me to sit briefly at a joint opposite the Total filling station and the Manyu Cultural Hall, near the outlet from behind the grandstand. Less than 15 minutes later, the ‘hearse” pickup drives out, followed shortly by a BIR pickup with troops. I can tell the burial is done. I wait a while for the coast to be clear before returning to view the shallow grave that has just swallowed eight unknown human beings.

As I leave, I am asking myself whether the intimidating military presence during the burial implies it is meant to be secret and therefore something the military is ashamed of. Should I consider this an abusive mass grave hiding a massacre of some sort? I am also asking myself, Why didn’t they bury under the cover of night and why not in some secret location in some forest if they meant to hide it? Or could it be a way of pretending they are not hiding the common or mass grave, else they would not do it in town and in broad daylight?

An Odeshi Confesses After Ritual

At about noon on Tuesday, December 12, someone walking out of the Gendarmerie after running an errand for a gendarme officer tells me and a companion what he witnessed, standing outside, unnoticed by the officers. He narrated how a ritual with chicken egg appeared to have neutralized the spell of silence of a detainee believed to be an Ambazonia fighter and caused him to make confessions considered revealing.

“The gendarmes were with an Odeshi detainee,” said the source. “When they broke chicken egg on his head, he went into something like a trance and began making a confession. He told the gendarmes that where they caught him in the forest, seven of his fellow fighters were nearby and others were at different locations.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear more because I heard footsteps coming out, so I hid behind the wall and tiptoed away.” The source said as he walked to meet us, troops hopped on to pickups and headed off, possibly to the location revealed by the captured Odeshi. We witnessed the troops leaving and thus easily believe his story. But though we expect reports of a swoop or ambush of the separatist fighters by government troops on the supposed search, the silence that follows suggests a futile move from a false alert.

December 14 Attack

The second attack was not in the dark of night like the first. It happened in broad daylight on Thursday December 14. Some of the separatist fighters were stack naked. An eyewitness tells me, “Those boys are so young. The oldest among them could be at most 25 years old. Most of them are teenagers.” Most of them wear red headbands or armbands, obviously linked to their Odey Chi cult.

While the troops were watching and practically scanning every square metre of the riverside through frequent foot and boat patrols and surveillance cameras, believing the separatist fighters would always come from across the river, neighbours said they saw the Ambazonia Boys coming on foot from inside town at about 8am. They came through the Small Mamfe neighbourhood, passing between houses towards the Gendarmerie at Egbekaw. Following this description and knowing the location of the couple of bars where some of the troops often drink in numbers opposite the depot of Les Brasseries du Cameroun, they would have burst out from behind the bars. It would therefore not be surprising that some troops were taken unawares, bottles of beer in hand, even if their guns too.  All those bars have now been shut down. Likewise a snack bar so close to the brigade that it functioned like the Gendarmerie canteen. The Brasseries depot across the road from the bars continues to serve wholesale customers, though.

Locals said after about two hours of shootout on December 14, the separatist gunmen all left. Another round of shooting was heard later that night but it cannot be said whether it was a shootout or routine dissuasive firing by the troops, an occasional practice. Eyewitnesses said the non-military dead were not Ambazonia fighters but civilians caught in crossfire. Further testimonies say several troops were seen fleeing across town. The story of fleeing soldiers sounded to locals like they were cowardly soldiers, though battle of any kind involves taking cover to gain advantage over the enemy, not being foolhardy to expose oneself to the enemy. It is possible, though, that government troops are in fright, especially faced with their fears of a one-sided war with Odey Chi Boys who kill but apparently cannot be killed. Some of the fleeing troops took refuge at the Mamfe bishop’s house.

Red Cloth: How Potent?

A warder at the Mamfe prison, a native of Mamfe, told me he also has the red cloth on the barrel of his gun. Yet, he said, he believes the potency of Odey Chi could no longer be neutralized by the impact of the red cloth. “Odey Chi power has surpassed the capacity of our red cloths,” he said. Yet, he did not explain why they all – armed forces – still hold on to the red cloth “charms” and why they continued to carry them, though they may have realized its limitations.

Double Agents

My source told me he found himself in the posture of a double agent, though he has not been complying and betrayed has no one. Innocent and trusted, he has acquaintances among the troops as well as among the separatist fighters. A resident of Mamfe, he has been running social errands for some officers. On visits to outskirts villages where he does technical jobs, he has made friends with village boys who have recently told him they were fighters for the Ambazonia cause. He has often been in the know when government troops plan operations, as well as the fighters often warned him to get away when they planned attacks on Mamfe. But lately, he said, they told him they would not forewarn him anymore because they have realized their hints got leaked before they executed them. Seeing the war coming and fearful of potential repercussions for those viewed as traitors and especially under his “double agent” posture, my source told me he would flee Mamfe. These past days, he has not been reachable by phone. I hope he is safe.

Street Eyes

Sitting at a backstreet bar in Small Mamfe to observe, I notice one of the men cooling off at the same bar walk up to an armed BIR soldier approaching them. The civilian man whispered something into the soldier’s ear before returning to his bottle. I immediately left the place.

Everyone Suspect

Confronted with faceless fighters who appear from nowhere and disappear to nowhere, government forces are now suspicious of everyone and every questionable move and outlook. A young man was chased and arrested inside a brothel where he fled for refuge, simply because he had tattoo on his body. A well known man in Mamfe, Ako Giant was arrested on December 10 because he wears dreadlocks and because of his imposing and intimidating looks, reason for his nickname “Giant”. He was released a couple of days later. Another man released with Ako Giant had been arrested on his way to his farm without his identity card. Upon his release, he was rather taken to Mamfe in the opposite direction from his village. Returning to his village on December 12, he was arrested again and held in custody at the Mamfe Gendarmerie for non-possession of his ID card. “Brother, ID card is just like oxygen now in Mamfe,” a commercial bike rider told me. “When you forget it at home, it is like you are walking without your lungs. You feel terribly insecure because you can be arrested any time and they will take you for an Odey Chi Boy.”

Where Do They Storm From, Where Do They Disappear To?

The Ambazonia fighters have been said to enter Mamfe through the River Manyu but the last three attacks point to a new reality. After the December 7 night attack, the Gendarmerie pickup seized by the separatist gunmen for their getaway was found at dawn, abandoned around the Mamfe Court premises, near Yaounde Quarters, in the heart of town, not anywhere towards the river which would have suggested they fled in that direction.

In the December 14 onslaught, the gunmen who assailed the Gendarmerie were seen coming from Small Mamfe, not from across the river. In other words, while government troops had their guns pointed at the river, the Ambazonia Boys stormed from behind them. Furthermore, Kembong, also in Manyu, where four government defence and security forces were shot dead on December 18, is an inland location, neither a border village nor a Manyu River bank village. Also, fatal gun attacks on defence and security forces in Bamenda, Kumba, Toko, near Mundemba, strongly suggest the separatist gunmen are already installed at different locations within the country.

Twice At Gunpoint

On December 11, walking towards the Gendarmerie from the native part of Egbekaw village, one of the villages cited for evacuation in a disclaimed warning attributed to the local administrative officer, I came within metres of a menacing gun barrel. On a climb about 100 metres before the Gendarmerie, I saw a barricade and guessed it was for vehicles and motorbikes. Seeing a soldier standing sentry under a plantain stem some 50 metres away, I asked him, motioning with my hand, whether I could scale or circumvent the barricade. He returned a similar signal, which I thought meant I could go round the barricade and continue towards the Gendarmerie. It turned out he might have meant I should go round through sidewalks in the village. Misunderstanding him and making to step forward, a fellow soldier emerged from behind the plantain farm and handed him something I later understood was a cartridge magazine when the sentry officer charged his rifle and pointed it at me. I stood frozen for a moment. It must have been only a split second, but it seemed like quite a while. He motioned to me to walk away. I did, winding my way through village houses to find myself at some street away from danger. Knowing their experiences with innocent-looking suicide bombers in the north, I imagine the officer found my persistence to walk towards him suspicious. My other gunpoint experience was at the mass burial narrated earlier.

Next day, a local worker for CDE (the water supply company) had a similar experience. He and a colleague were assigned to check installations at Avato, a settlement near the Satom Bridge over the River Manyu. His colleague, fearful of coming anywhere close to the troops, advised that they take a bush track to arrive at the bridge. My source said he preferred that they go through regular procedure by obtaining clearance from the troops. When he approached a sentry alone hoping to be joined later by his colleague, the officer warned him from afar not to come close. Though the CDE man tried to explain, and though he wore his duty uniform with CDE logo, the sentinel officer began charging his gun, placed his finger on the trigger and ordered the CDE man to back off a safe distance. Finding the posture of the officer armed to the teeth curious, the CDE man attempted to steal a photo shot with his mobile phone. Though he pretended he was making a call, the officer was not deceived. He ordered him to hand over the phone, but the officer found nothing compromising in his photo gallery. My source was lucky. In panic and haste, he had missed the shot and instead snapped the ground.

Gov’t Troops’ Fatal Friendly Fire

I have no notes on reported mortal exchange of “friendly fire” among government troops, so I cannot comment on it yet. I am not in doubt that vengeful “friendly fire” might have spilled blood or even taken lives among them. But I am not rushing to validate just any version from an unreliable source” on the circumstances surrounding the said incident.

This Investigative Report…

This is not yet my investigative story per se. These are only notes on my reconnaissance effort which I hope will be my template when I fully engage the story. Yet, it is a kind of situation report and could serve as a travel guide. As a citizen, I hope we all will have the good sense to silence this nascent war before it silences us. If we let it drag on, as wars ought to be covered, I want my colleagues to know that Mamfe can be covered.

This reporter can be reached at: frankbayen@gmail.com or (00237 677-897-167 / 693-693-881)

(Random Notes From The Diary of An Investigative Reporter)

 Franklin Sone Bayen exclusive for Cameroon Intelligence Report. All rights reserved