Monthly Archives: September 2018

21, September 2018

Genocide in Southern Cameroons: Help me to understand! ⁰

The unending gory pictures from Southern Cameroons for the past two years for me is stretching my understanding to its limit. Yes, Southern Cameroonians had the “temerity”, as always, to rise up against long years of marginalisation and second-class citizenship. Yes, they went down on the streets to protest, an inalienable right of all citizens in any country that lays claim to civilised governance. Yes, they took up arms to defend themselves when the government response to their protests was excessive use of military force. But no, I do not understand the extent to which a government can come down so hard on its citizens.

Someone help me understand how for two years running, a government worth its name can be mercilessly mowing down its citizens in silence. Defenceless boys and girls are being quietly decimated on our streets and in our homes (the latest case of Njikwa is telling). How has it become normal to sit idly by and watch our kith and kin being killed in total indifference? How normal has it become for a whole part of the country to be bleeding while we look the other way? The economy of the region has ground to a screeching halt. Our children can no longer school, for want of security. I read with horror the various communiqués from schools in the Southern Zone requesting parents to come collect their children from school. How long shall this sacrifice continue while a so-called President is more absorbed by elections than by peace and security in a territory we “hired” him to protect? What government sits quiet for two years while the country is being torn apart? What government watches idly as the country slides irreversibly into chaos?

Our farms have been abandoned. Businesses have crumbled. Unemployment is now rising at an alarming rate. The people have lost their sources of livelihood. Starvation is staring this region straight in the face and before long, the region will be needing real humanitarian assistance, South Soudan-style, not the contrived humanitarian assistance which the same government has used to con people out of their meagre resources. Granted, the authorities in the country have never been known for their sense of forward thinking, either out of sheer incompetence or poor planning. But, it does not take a degree in economics to anticipate the impending doom. It will come and when it does, it will be ugly.

Please, help me to understand how the notion of dialogue became a foreign and strange notion in Cameroon. Help me to understand how it became difficult for the government to talk to its citizens. Someone please explain to me how empathy and sympathy exited from our national space.

Please, help to understand, as I am lost, perplexed and frankly frightened. I am frightened because the people we thought were human beings capable of reasoning and empathy have, sadly, turned out to be cold-blooded killers. I can bet my bottom franc that had it not been for social media, the scale of the genocide would have been more horrendous.

I am scared because within the country, we have sympathizers and enablers of this ongoing genocide, while the international community is deafeningly quiet in its complicity… We have heard the usual ineffectual noises from international organisations and other “brotherly” countries. Beyond these cliché statements, radio silence. While the killing machine turns and gathers more momentum. And, it is getting worse. We will get up one day and realise that our villages and towns have become veritable ghost towns…

I am still seeking answers…

Shey Kukih Mansah

20, September 2018

Religious leaders denounce atrocities in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Religious leaders of the Protestant Council, the Islamic Superior Council and the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon on Wednesday condemned acts of violence in the two war-torn Anglophone regions of the country, the Southwest and the Northwest.

“We denounce the arbitrary and indiscriminate killings of Cameroonians by armed forces and the Amba Boys,” the leaders said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cameroonians generally refer to armed separatist forces as “Amba Boys”, as they seek to form a new nation called “Ambazonia”.

“We denounce the rampant attacks on educational institutions and the deprivation of children of their right to education,” the statement said, criticizing the “sluggishness and inadequate methods” with which the government is acting to solve the problem.

The leaders who said they were speaking “in one voice and on behalf of all believers and people of good will” insist the conflict can only be resolved through reconciliation and peace.

“We call on the government to promptly initiate and announce a national plan for resolving this crisis, taking into account its real and profound causes in view of establishing veritable peace,” Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the National Episcopal Conference and one of the signatories of the statement told Xinhua.

An armed conflict is in progress in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon where armed separatist forces have declared “independence”.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has displaced over 180,000 people internally and at least 30,000 are seeking refuge in neigbouring Nigeria.

Xinhuanet

20, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Njikwa and Bafut transformed into slaughterhouses ⁰

As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

While the majority of the population is out, those who do not have relatives out of their main towns have opted to stay and this is costing them their lives. Government militias dressed in the country’s military fatigue are on a rampage. The government has trained a group of Beti killers and unleashed them on the Southern Cameroonian population. A massacre of a global scale is unfolding in many villages and towns in the English-speaking regions.

Pictures emerging from the region are too graphic to be shown. The story is hard to tell. Young men hiding in their homes have been reduced to a mass of flesh as army soldiers move from house to house to carry out a mission they have been handed by Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed, there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

“They have trained killers to kill young able-bodied Southern Cameroonians in the region. This is not the right time for any young man to be in the Southwest and northwest regions. The government has decided to cleanse the region and its militia and military are working hand in glove to implement a plan put in place by the defense minister and his collaborators,” the source said.

“The days ahead will be the bloodiest. The government has no respect for human life. I am really ashamed to be called a Cameroonian. I wish I could express myself in public, but the position I hold makes it hard for me to speak. I am dying in silence. Our country is going through the toughest moments in its history. How can a complaint by a peace-loving people be allowed to degenerate into a civil war,” he added.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many part of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

While the killings are going on, the Yaoundé government has decided to seal its leaps. The massacre speaks to a well-orchestrated genocide. The government of Cameroon has decided to wipe out all adult males from certain communities as a move to end any opposition it might face in the region.

With presidential elections on the horizon and October 1 which is considered by many Southern Cameroonians as their independence day, the government is hard at work to ensure that it faces no challenges in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch has not expressed any regret about what is happening in the country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaounde government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is finally migrating to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become beehives as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 16, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

More than half a million people, last week, left the English-speaking region as presidential elections scheduled for next month approach. The Southern Cameroons crisis has taking a turn for the worse. While there are some helpless people in the region, the government has intensified its attacks and it has, so far, not issued any statements to reassure the fear-stricken population that is still living there and local officials have been tight-lipped over the displacement of over half a million people in the region.

Over the last two weeks, more than 500 civilians have been killed in the region, while some army soldiers have been sent to an early grave by restoration forces. The government has been struggling to localize the Southern Cameroons crisis, but as the fighting intensifies, many people are seeking refuge in the French-speaking region of the country.

The mass movement of Southern Cameroonians into other parts of the country has resulted in escalating food and housing prices. The high living cost is keeping government officials in cities such as Yaoundé and Douala awake all night, as they fear that the increasing pressure might cause the cash-strapped Francophone population to rebel against the government.

Many analysts are wondering when the killing and madness will come to an end. They hold that a different approach could have produced different results and this issue could have been laid to rest a long time ago.

The little infrastructure the two regions possess is deteriorating on a daily basis as both parties do what they can to prove that they have an upper hand. Today, the road leading to Bamenda from East Cameroon has been destroyed by Southern Cameroonian fighters and this is going to cost the region a huge fortune.

Ever since the crisis started, many eminent people across the world have called on the government to change its strategy, but the president of the country, Paul Biya, and his collaborators still see military action as the only option and this is what is causing the escalation.

The devil seems to be at work in Cameroon. Power and money have caused the government to lose its decency. In normal environments, peace talks will be going on to avert the worst. In Cameroon, that is not happening. Even when the country’s economy is taking the heat, the Yaoundé regime still holds that it can only crush opposition by force.

When is the government going to figure out that dialogue can produce more results than military action? When will it know that innocent civilians are being killed for crimes they have not committed?

When will it understand that to live in peace with other people, it must not use brute force? Why has the government taken a position that is not tenable? The more it wants to destroy the fighters, the more the fighters want to prove that they can stand the test.

These extreme positions are not helping anybody. A shift in thinking and mentality could bring about peace and unity instead of military action. Cameroon is on the brink. The devil is at work in Cameroon. Many lives have been ruined. Many young men and soldiers have been rushed to an early grave.

The world cannot continue to play spectator to a situation that is resulting in thousands of deaths. Another Rwanda is silently playing out in Cameroon and the AU and EU are doing nothing to check this madness that is being encouraged by the government. The world seems to have abandoned Southern Cameroonians to their ugly fate.

Cameroon needs help. The world has to come in to stop the blood flow. The country is heading to the bottom of the abyss and if something is not done, the entire sub-region will be destabilized. Mr. Biya and government are mowing down the people of Southern Cameroons. Their only crime is that they have complained about a regime that is causing them a lot of pain.

For how long will the world continue to look the other way while the Yaoundé government reduces the size of its own population? Does one and indivisible imply that an entire region must be decimated?

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda

20, September 2018

Congo-Kinshasa: Kabila Candidate Faces Challenges in Election ⁰

Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will face a credible election challenge in December from two opposition leaders, the final list of candidates published Wednesday
showed.

Kabila has ruled since his father’s assassination in 2001. He agreed last month not to defy term limits and stand for re-election, opening the door to the Central African nation’s first democratic transfer of power.

His announcement calmed tensions that have seen dozens of anti-Kabila demonstrators killed by security forces since he refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December 2016.

Kabila is backing Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary in the long-delayed Dec. 23 election. His biggest challengers are likely to be Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo’s largest opposition party, and Vital Kamerhe, who placed third in the last election in 2011.

But in all, 21 candidates have been approved for the single-round contest, including several other prominent Kabila critics, which risks diluting the opposition vote and boosting Ramazani’s chances.

Fairness questions

The authorities’ exclusion from the race of other leading opposition figures, including former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and ex-provincial Governor Moise Katumbi, has also raised questions about the election’s fairness.

The opposition accuses Kabila’s camp of plotting to rig the elections with untested electronic voting machines, a charge the ruling coalition rejects.

In a rare opinion poll in July, Katumbi and Tshisekedi each received 19 percent support. Bemba received 17 percent and Kamerhe got 9 percent.

Ramazani did not receive enough votes to figure in the results but is expected to now benefit from the ruling coalition’s financial and institutional muscle.

Opposition leaders have repeatedly said they intend to coalesce behind a single candidate but have traditionally struggled to present a united front. In 2011, Kabila won with 49 percent of ballots cast as the opposition vote split.

The final candidate list also includes former Prime Minister Samy Badibanga and longtime Kabila ally Tryphon Kin-Kiey.

Bemba was disqualified by the constitutional court earlier this month over a witness-tampering conviction, while Katumbi was prevented from re-entering the country last month to register his candidacy after two years in exile.

The electoral commission also validated more than 15,000 candidacies for parliamentary elections due to take place the same day.

Reuters

20, September 2018

October Presidential Election: Candidates avoiding Southern Cameroons ⁰

Candidates for Cameroon’s October 7th presidential election have largely avoided traveling to the restive English-speaking regions where armed separatists have vowed the vote will not take place. But all of them are proposing solutions to the problems that have crippled the English-speaking regions for two years now, leaving at least 300 dead.

The only presidential candidate in Cameroon who has visited an English-speaking town is Frankline Ndifor Afanwi, the flag-bearer of the Cameroon National Citizenship Movement. Afanwi said he mustered the courage to visit Mutengene when his supporters assured him there was calm after the military chased armed separatists from the southwestern town last week.

Afanwi said he is pleading with fighters to drop their guns.

“Let all those who are fighting stop the fighting. The insecurity is coming up because many people are acting out of grievances. Let them not be filled with grievances anymore. We are going to bring in what will satisfy the hearts of Cameroonians,” he said.

Although the eight other candidates, including incumbent Paul Biya, have not been to the restive regions, they are proposing solutions to the crisis.

Main opposition candidate Joshua Osih, of the SDF, who is from the English-speaking southwest region, wants to adopt a federal republic granting each region greater autonomy.

“The problem is not the secession. The problem is the marginalization and injustices that led to that secession. Guess what, the secession will not necessarily solve that problem. When you have a president of the republic who understands these issue, the first thing that has to happen is to solve the problem of marginalization,” said Osih.

Candidate Garga Haman Adji of the ADD party is from the French speaking far north region. He also thinks it is worth considering a more decentralized government and wants to see more English speakers appointed to ministerial positions.

“What is remaining is a joint commission to discuss the anglophone problem. They are my brothers and sisters. I want this problem to be solved,” he said.

The candidates say their security is not assured in the English-speaking regions, where kidnappings, killings and burning of public property have occurred.

President Paul Biya is running to extend his 36 years in power. He said he is ready for dialogue, but opposes any discussion on changing the form of the state.

There are doubts the election will be held in Anglophone regions, where two years ago, residents began to press for more autonomy, complaining of the dominant use of the French language in the bilingual country.

Separatists took over the movement. Last year, they declared a new English-speaking state called Ambazonia had been born in Cameroon. The government responded by declaring war on them.

The separatists have vowed on social media that no election will take place and intensified attacks on towns and villages, provoking an exodus of people.

The country’s elections management body ELECAM says it has adopted security measures so the vote can take place.

The United Nations says 200,000 Cameroonians have been internally displaced and 40,000 have sought refuge in Nigeria.

Culled from the VOA

20, September 2018

Liberia $104m cash scandal: Former President’s son, officials banned from travelling ⁰

Liberia’s government has released a list of people that are barred from leaving the country including the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as investigations into the whereabouts of $104 million in missing cash intended for the central bank intensify.

A series of shipments of notes ordered by Liberia’s central bank from printers overseas have disappeared since last year after passing through the country’s main ports, Liberia’s information minister Eugene Nagbe told local radio on Tuesday.

The missing amount is the equivalent of nearly 5 percent of the West African country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications.

Officials under investigation

Charles Sirleaf, the son of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former central bank governor, Milton Weeks, are among those barred from travel as part of the investigation, said a Ministry of Information statement released late on Tuesday. “The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications,” it said.

Weeks told Reuters he had “no involvement in this matter” and was cooperating with investigators. Sirleaf was not immediately reachable for comment. Central Bank officials also did not respond to requests for comment.

Investigators are still trying to ascertain how much money was ordered, where it was printed, how much of it eventually arrived in the country, and where it is now. The money was ordered when Sirleaf was still in power, before President George Weah took over this year.

Sirleaf was lauded for cementing peace during her 12-year presidency but was criticised for failing to rein in high-level corruption.

Charles Sirleaf, one of three of her sons appointed to government posts, was suspended from his position as Deputy Central Bank Governor in 2012 during an anti-corruption investigation. But he was re-appointed interim central bank chief in February 2016, drawing accusations of nepotism.

Investigations

Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean said Sirleaf’s administration had not informed Liberia’s current government of the initial order and that an investigation had begun once Weah became aware of it in August.

Information minister Nagabe told Voice of America on Tuesday there were no records of the containers being collected from the ports, despite several bank staff employees having written a request for pick-up on March 31. The containers were recorded as having arrived in November 2017 and August 2018.

Liberia does not have its own mint, and the central bank is the only body with the power to order new currency. Liberia’s government last approved the printing of new notes in August 2016, as the country recovered from a devastating Ebola epidemic.

The missing cash comes as an unexpected blow to Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries that suffered two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. Ebola struck in 2013, killing thousands over the following three years.

REUTERS

20, September 2018

Nigeria: Davido campaigns for opposition PDP ⁰

Nigeria’s Afropop sensation, Davido is causing political shockwaves in home state of Osun where he is campaigning for the candidate of the opposition People’s Development Party (PDP) in the race to be governor.

The multi-millionaire singer-songwriter and record producer, has been posting pictures and videos on his social media, endorsing his uncle, Ademola Adeleke who is running on the PDP ticket.

Billboards in the state also show pictures of the singer in traditional dress, leaning on an empty black leather chair next to the Nigerian flag.

“I, Davido, support Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun State,” the roadside advertisements read.

Adeleke, dubbed “the dancing senator” because of his penchant for dancing in public, must be hoping his high-profile nephew can win him as many voters as he has music fans.

The 58-year-old politician is running for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Gboyega Oyetola of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Candidates from no fewer than 48 parties are vying to replace APC Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who is stepping down after a maximum of two four-year terms.

Saturday’s poll is the final major electoral test before Nigerians vote for a new president, parliament, governors and state legislatures in February and March next year.

Davido the politician?

Davido, real name David Adedeji Adeleke, recently signed up for the yearlong compulsory national service, and entertained his colleagues at the swearing-in event.

While Davido may be better known as one of Nigeria’s most successful musical exports, Davido also comes from a well-known political dynasty.

His grandfather, Raji Ayoola Adeleke,was a senator between 1979 and 1983 while another uncle, Isiaka Adeleke, was Osun’s first civilian governor from January 1992 to November 1993.

The performer’s father, Adedeji Adeleke, is a wealthy businessman with interests in banking, property, education, shipping, haulage and oil and gas.

Some people see a political future for Davido.

Source: Africa News

20, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Unknown Militants Behead Francophone Security Official ⁰

French Cameroun government officials say an estimated 400 civilians and 160 state security personnel have been killed in the protests in Southern Cameroons over the past two years. A figure highly contested by the Ambazonian Interim Government. The latest indication of worsening brutality is a video of separatists showing a security man’s decapitated head.

The activists in Southern Cameroons are demanding independence from Cameroon alleging marginalisation by the government of Paul Biya, which is largely French-speaking. English speakers constitute 20 percent of the 24 million-population.

“The situation in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is becoming increasingly desperate with no one spared from the violence which is spiralling out of control,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for West and Central Africa.

Daoud said perpetrators from both sides had attacked and killed people or destroyed their properties but continue walking free. Early this month, armed separatists kidnapped seven students and the head of the Presbyterian Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Bafut. They were released days later.

Last week, the militants attacked positions of soldiers stationed near the town of Buea, causing an intense exchange of fire between them and the security forces.

It is feared violence will worsen with the upcoming elections in Cameroon.

“We may well see an escalation in the number of security incidents and increased activity by armed separatists threatening to disrupt the electoral process at all costs,” Daoud said.

Polls are set for October 7.

20, September 2018

UK minister suggests second Brexit referendum is quite possible ⁰

A junior minister in the government of UK Prime Minister Theresa May has suggested that a second referendum on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union would be a possibility if May’s Brexit strategy is rejected by the UK Parliament.

Mel Stride, a junior minister in the British Treasury, said Wednesday that if May fails to go through with her plan for Brexit in the House of Commons, the ruling Conservative Party would be forced to accept a second Brexit referendum.

“There is a danger of that happening,” said Stride. “Those to the right of the party – the pro-Brexit wing – will be very concerned that if that deal doesn’t prevail, they’ll end up in the situation where we could have a second referendum and we could end up not leaving the EU altogether.”

Less than seven months before Britain is due to officially leave the EU, May has been struggling to win support for her Brexit strategy both in the country and in Brussels.

She has faced criticism from the Tories who believe her so-called Chequers plan, which was announced in July, would make the UK even more dependent on the EU after it leaves the bloc in March.

The opposition Labour Party has also announced that it will reject a deal that would come out of Chequers.

The comments make Stride the first government minister to admit that a new Brexit referendum is possible if the prime minister’s deal is thrown out. They appeared to be an attempt to put pressure on pro-Brexit Tories to accept the Chequers proposals, or risk seeing their dream of leaving the EU disappear completely.

Senior Labour politicians, including London mayor Sadiq Khan, have been advocating the idea of a second referendum. Khan said earlier this week that people should have a final say on Brexit as May’s negotiations with the EU will either end in no deal or a bad deal.

Most EU diplomats and officials are convinced that a no-deal Brexit would “be bad for everyone, but it would be so much worse for Britain.”

“The Brexit elite are desperate to deny the people a voice on Brexit, but there is no stopping an idea whose time has come,” said Labour Party MP Alison McGovern.

Source: Presstv

19, September 2018

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Frontline leaders? Ambazonians beware ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group has consistently warned Ambazonians to critically scrutinize the intention of individuals laying claims to leadership to the Ambazonia liberation struggle before investing their trust in such leaders. A critical test of leadership rests on the ability of a presumptive leader to selflessly champion the defense of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who are victims of the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Such a leader must make a public and unimpeachable commitment to Ambazonia’s individual and collective self-defense until the invading enemy is chased out of the territory and every death suffered in the hands of the enemy accounted for and avenged. The leader must not be a gullible power seeker, money-monger and a ruthless war lord. War lords do not lead wars of liberation. War lords lead internal revolutions for political change. The reason is obvious; war lords do not emerge by the will of the people, and do not seek the mandate of the people for the realization of their objectives. War lords concentrate power in their hands, administer ruthless justice without due process, do not respect the laws and customs of war and mercilessly execute their own people who dare challenge their personal power with sadistic arrogance.

Cameroon Concord News Group in its cautionary editorials in the past anticipated the possibility of some opportunists claiming leadership of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia struggle not for the public interest but for their selfish interest. Cameroon Concord News Group ventured to mention names of some of such opportunists. Ambazonians did not take the cautionary postings serious enough to take precautionary measures to abate the prejudice caused by these individuals. Among the persons mentioned by Cameroon Concord News Group, was Ayaba Cho Lucas.

Cameroon Concord News Group authoritatively cautioned Ambazonians about this individual because a cross section of our cream of intelligence reporters serving with Cameroon Intelligence Report observed him from proximity for over a decade. His acts and conduct, his war lord proclivities, his avaricious greed, his intermittent unstable miens, his unguarded flippancy and his reckless disregard for collective leadership, have a potential to imperil the self-defense war of liberation. Time has proved Cameroon Concord News Group right. His penchant for ordering the attack of self defense units fighting for the freedom of Ambazonia for refusing to submit to his command is treacherous.

Batibo was virtually freed by the self- defense forces of Ambazonia when he laid ambush and abducted not the enemy who are torching our towns and villages, raping our girls and women, executing the genocide of our people but the heroic Ambazonian liberation forces who had routed the enemy from that local government area of Ambazonia. The immediate fallout of this treacherous attack which deprived our fighting forces of their fighters and weapons was that the enemy returned to Batibo which was virtually liberated and continued to slaughter our armless civilian population virtually unchallenged.

Cameroon Concord News Group today saw a video on social media where some Ambazonians confronted Cho Ayaba in London where he went hoping to sign an oil deal over Ambazonian oil resources with a British Firm. This encounter exposes the gullibility, vulnerability and greed by Ayaba Cho Lucas who purports to be a commander-in-chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces. Because he is blinded by greed, self-interest, power-mongering, his sense of discernment and security are blighted. He is not a risk worth relying on for leadership. The cost of gratifying and worshipping a warlord can be costly unless promptly unchecked. Ambazonians beware!

Sacrifices made by Ambazonians at home and abroad must not be taken for granted by power and pecuniary interests of a single individual. This struggle is not about power. It is about the individual and collective survival of the people. It is about defending the total independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the charismatic President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia cautioned Ambazonians that the Ambazonia liberation struggle was more than any single Ambazonian. That must be the threshold on which we must judge our leaders.

Cameroon Concord News Group, at the threshold of a so-called “reboot conference” called in Washington DC shortly after the abduction of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the interim government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, made an urgent call for Ambazonians to reboot the reboot conference. The intention of that conference was evil. It was not for the good of the self-defense of the people of Ambazonia against the ongoing genocide by French Cameroon. It was intended to quickly kill the interim government which an overwhelming majority of the people of Ambazonia craved for and put in place under the leadership of His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

Cameroon Concord News Group pointed to the fact that the said conference was initiated by a consortium of strange bed-fellows, united only by their hatred for the interim government and their greed to exploit Ambazonians for money. The gravamen of their hatred was that the interim government had deprived them the legitimacy to raise money from the Ambazonia Diaspora using the liberation struggle as opposed to their self-interest. Prior to that and now, Boh Hebert has never ever given an account of the money raised using Morrisc, Cho Ayaba with a war lord mentality has never been accountable to anyone. Ebenezer Akwanga has suffered so much in the liberation quest and no one can doubt his commitment to the cause. However, he might have been railroaded to that conference because he wrongly believed the interim government might inhibit his ability to prosecute the self-defense war independently. But that was only part of the story. He might not have known the pecuniary motivation for the conference and the potential of Paul Atanga Nji infiltrating it through the gullible instincts of some of the participants.

The most serious affront to the people of Ambazonia is the fact that the so-called conference was called shortly after His Excellency the President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the interim government were abducted and French Cameroun with the support of Mohammadu Buhari intensified the abduction, slaughter and genocide of Ambazonia. In the conference resolutions, nothing was said about these critical issues that concerned the individual and collective survival of Ambazonians. The meeting was indeed a front for racketeering and scamming on the blood of Ambazonians. Neither Boh Herbert, Mbah Akuro nor Edwin Ngang endorsed the self-defense option taken by Ambazonians worldwide, home and abroad and the interim government for the collective survival and the liberation of the fatherland. Boh Herbert issued a press statement denouncing the self-defense option and tacitly placing the blame for the war on its Ambazonian victims.

The revolution was saved by Chris Anu, who despite the risks flew to Nigeria to confront the Buhari accomplices of the abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the genocide against Ambazonia in their own territory. Chris Anu provided Ambazonia and the interim government, a platform and a voice to denounce the abduction of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the interim government members of Ambazonia. He addressed press conferences, forced the UN to issue a public statement condemning the abductions and stating that there abductees were under the protection of international law when they were abducted. That statement from a UN department that claimed jurisdiction over the abducted Ambazonia leaders provided a strong legal backing to the Ambazonia cause, its interim government and the potential bases for accountability for the international crimes committed in and out of Ambazonia against Ambazonian citizens. The Rohingya decision at the ICC recently has critically put the perpetrators of these crimes on notice.

Thanks to Chris Anu, the interim government survived a coup mounted by French enemies of Ambazonia and from within by greedy power and money mongers. This is the main reason for their passionate hatred of the Secretary of Communication the Right Hon. Chris Anu.

The interim government of Ambazonia is the best thing that ever happened in this war of liberation and self-defense. When Ambazonians selected His Excellency Samuel Sako as the acting president of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, they were guided by the charisma, humility, dedication, patriotism and commitment to the collective good of the people that His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe embodied. They were looking for an Ayuk Tabe in our interim leader. The sense of collective leadership and humility are some of the strongest Ambazonia values that distinguishes Ambazonia from French Cameroun. Also, following on the footsteps of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, His Excellency Samuel Sako has buried for good the divide and rule tactics of the enemy, French Cameroun. He has kept faith with the trust placed on him by a majority of Ambazonians despite the tactics of greedy power and money-mongers to derail his focus. Remain focused sir! Ground zero needs your undivided attention now than ever.

Cameroon Concord News Group was dismayed about the so-called collaborative conference which took place in Washington DC among the so-called front-line leaders. Cameroon Concord News warned swiftly that the conference was a strategic mistake. Cameroon Concord News Group cautioned against calling persons who do not believe in self-defense, are not committed to assisting our refugees abroad and at home and have not fully committed to the defense of the Ambazonia homeland as front-line leaders. It came as no surprise that their participation was motivated by the possibility that money was going to be raised to support the ground forces engaged in the Ambazonia self-defense war of liberation which they hoped to blackmail the interim government to share among them. The refusal of the interim government to fall into this scam is a vote of confidence to the interim government for defending the public trust and standing by our fighting forces for which the contributions were intended. That is what leadership is about.

Cameroon Concord News Group once more calls on Ambazonians and the interim government to exercise caution when characterizing persons and organizations that are not in support of the self-defense of Ambazonia, are not assisting the refugees and are not strongly committed to supporting and assisting the fighting forces as frontline leaders. Inviting them to strategic meetings concerning the self-defense and refugees support efforts of Ambazonia is nothing short of placing a poisoned chalice on the lips of a determined Ambazonia liberation struggle and its interim government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group