On June 28, armed separatists beat and kidnapped John Fru Ndi, a well-known Cameroonian politician considered by some as one of the country’s old guard of political activism, from his home in Bamenda, North-West region. The attack was only the latest in a litany of abuses implicating armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Fru Ndi, chairman of the opposition party Social Democratic Front (SDF), has been a prominent advocate for the rights of Cameroon’s Anglophone minority. This was his second kidnapping in two months. Three days before his most recent abduction, armed separatists abducted and released another high-profile figure, Cornelius Fontem Esua, the archbishop of Bamenda.

Since 2017, armed separatists in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions have kidnapped hundreds of people, including students and clergy, amid growing calls for the Anglophone regions to secede.

Fru Ndi told Human Rights Watch that the separatists beat him repeatedly. “I heard shooting and I ran out of my house,” he said. “Three separatists put me down on the rough cement ground of my courtyard. They hit me in the head and in the stomach. I was grabbed like an animal to be slaughtered.” They shot his bodyguard in the leg.

Fru Ndi said he was brought to an abandoned house in the nearby forest where he was told to withdraw his party’s representatives from parliament. “I was taken to what the separatists called their ‘prison.’ I saw at least 15 separatists there, armed with assault rifles. They were smoking marijuana and were under the effects of other drugs. They took off my shirt, raised the Ambazonian flag and sang their anthem. They took pictures of me,” he said. “The separatists pretend to be protecting the Anglophone people, but they are just abusing them.” They released Fru Ndi on June 29.

Since late 2016, violence has gripped the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, claiming the lives of about 2000 people and forcing half a million to flee their homes.

The grievances expressed by Anglophone groups over political marginalization and lack of recognition of their cultural identity are real. But kidnapping and abusing civilians will do little to address these grievances.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

The government of Cameroon this week began rolling out an unlikely weapon in the fight against Boko Haram militants.

Authorities are distributing thousands of goats and sheep to young Cameroonians in villages along with border with Nigeria.

The program aims to providing livestock for a basic income in order to stop the Islamist militant group’s recruiting tactics. The hope is that the livestock will empower thousands of vulnerable families and stop them from joining the extremists, who promise jobs.

In the village of Salak, 17-year-old Oumar Nafisatu received four sheep.

Nafisatu says she is looking forward to having baby sheep so she can sell them to pay for her school fees. She is the only one to take care of herself, she says, after her father and mother passed away.

Boko Haram fighters killed Nafisatu’s parents, along with 21 others, when they attacked her village in 2017, forcing her to flee.

Just a week later, Nafisatu’s only sister was killed in a suicide bomb attack in a mosque at Kolofata. Boko Haram had recruited her with promises of a job as a house cleaner, then forced her to carry out the attack.

Cameroon’s government plans to distribute 60,000 goats and sheep by the end of the year.  The minister of livestock, known only as Dr. Taiga, said the animals will go to those who have suffered in the fight against Boko Haram.

He said the initiative is to help families who are vulnerable by providing animals that are fruitful and enable them to have money. They will provide for their basic needs, said Taiga, take care of their families, and help to avoid temptations that can jeopardize peace and bring chaos.

The Lake Chad Basin Commission, with eight member nations in the region including Cameroon, says some areas attacked by Boko Haram have unemployment rates as high as 90 percent.

Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, notes there have been no major Boko Haram attacks in the past year but says the militants are still recruiting, and the military remains on alert.

He said people should be vigilant because Boko Haram is recruiting jobless youths with promises to improve their living conditions.  Village militias, known as self-defense groups, should be reactivated to work in collaboration with the military, officials, traditional rulers and the clergy, said Bakary. He said they can share information on any suspected activities that may upset the peace that has been returning to villages and towns.

Source: VOA

At least seven armed separatists were killed in fresh clashes with French Cameroun government forces early Thursday in Cameroon’s locality of Esu located in troubled English-speaking region of Northwest, according to military sources.

“We know them well. There were 11 of them generally. We only handled those that were actively involved in the fighting and the others were released,” a military officer who asked not to be named observed.

Armed separatists seeking to secede from largely French-speaking Cameroon have been clashing with government forces in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017.

At least 430,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations. The crisis also cost the lives of more than 300 soldiers, according to the Cameroon army. There are no official figures of the number of separatists killed.

Source: Xinhuanet with additional editing from Camcordnews

The General Assembly of Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (“ASC”) has announced one key appointment in line with the succession planning and strategic growth of its activities across the Ambazonia territory.

▪ Mr Nso Obi Foncha has been appointed as the ASC National Spokesperson, effective 11 July 2019.

Mr Foncha, as our new national spokesperson, brings a wealth of experience and in depth specialist knowledge in security and defence issues. His impressive reputation and professionalism will further enhance the global standing and profile of ASC.

He succeeds Mr Jude Mbindzenyuy, who served as ASC Spokesperson from September 2018 to June 2019. We are deeply appreciative to Mr Mbindzenyuy for his demonstrated excellence in being the voice and face of thousands of our brilliant battlefield fighters during his term as ASC Spokesperson. Mr Mbindzenyuy has taken up other duties within the ASC command. Concurrently, he will continue to support activities of the ASC Communication Unit.

Canada officially has offered to mediate between Southern Cameroons & La Republique du Cameroun.

In a Press Release dated July 4th,2019 issued in Ottawa, the Canadian MPs sub-Committee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foriegn Affairs and International Development has said “Canada is Well Placed to engage in the complex task of Establishing a mediation process leading to a political Solution acceptable to both Cameroon’s central government and its Anglophone community “
Anita Vandenbeld, MP, is quoted in the Press Release.

The Canadian government has, via its MPs, called for a negotiated peaceful settlement between the Separatists Southern Cameroons Independence Movements and La Republique du Cameroun to end the 3- year armed conflict in Anglophone regions of the North West and South West regions.

The Canadian government believes its model for Quebec can be replicated in Southern Cameroons. However 95% of Southern Cameroonians want complete independence from the majority French Cameroun and will thus not accept a Federal status with autonomous political structures if it’s short of full independence.

The disgraced former Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Dr Samuel Ikome Sako will be heading to Los Angeles to launch a book, come July 20, 2019. Cameroon Concord News Group understands the event will be staged in a church hall.

Ever since his ouster from the office of Acting President, Sako has been working tirelessly to destabilize the Ambazonia Interim Government. A senior Southern Cameroons academic in the US who spoke to our Washington Bureau Chief wondered aloud that “Who’s that leader who’ll be writing and launching books in the middle of a revolution?”

Another prominent Ambazonian who confirmed the Sako book launch news to us noted that “People are dying in Ground Zero, and all Sako can do is to launch books for money.”   A family friend of the Sakos revealed that part of the money received from the launch will be made available to fund the struggle.

However, for a man who could not account for My Trip To Buea funds that’s supposed to be the people’s money, some political commentators have already opined that Sako intends to deceive Ambazonia public opinion and rally Southern Cameroonians to participate massively during the event.

Sako and the former Communications Secretary, Chris Anu are taking advantage of the spilled blood of Southern Cameroonians to make money for themselves.

The duties attributed to Dr Samuel Ikome Sako and Chris Anu from when they were sourced from their serious religious criminal gang underground world where they were crime kingpins to join the Ambazonian Interim Government were that of a junior Secretary and Secretary for Communications.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe strategically placed the men of God in the Interim Government from where both men had a meteoric rise in the Southern Cameroons exiled political system and were provided the resources to zealously advance the Southern Cameroons quest for independence.

The appointment of these crime kingpins as Acting President of the Ambazonia Interim Government and Communications Secretary respectively was intended to put some public faces to the struggle immediately after the arrest and illegal extradition of the Ambazonia leader and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria to French Cameroun.

The Sako appointment from the shadows of the religious crime syndicate from where he operated, to the more visible role of Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was not intended to fundamentally change the nature of the duties he has been performing within the Pentecostal Church crime syndicate. It was intended to enable him to play a commanding public role within the Interim Government’s command structure to counter the French Cameroun’s genocidal machine which he failed woefully.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and the other 9 detainees were yesterday the 10th July 2019 notified with a decision of the President of the Court of Appeals Centre Region dated 02nd May 2019 in their petition recusing Magistrates MEM Michel, EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Arman and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine.

Our senior political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai observed that the court pursuant to their petition, received the  Statement of Defense of the Respondents as well as the Submissions of the Legal Department and proceeded straight to judgment which they kept in their drawers until Counsel for the Petitioners raised the issue of non determination of the said application yesterday and they now rushed to notify them with certified copies of the said Judgment known in French as “Expedition” signed only by the Registrar of the court.

It should be noted that unlike the case of the matter against Lt Col MISSE NJONE JACQUES wherein the Petitioners were fined to pay a symbolic franc, in this case they’ve been fined to pay each of only two Respondents, to wit, Magistrates EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Armand and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine the sum of Five Hundred Thousands francs CFA as damages for moral prejudice.

What is most disturbing which is peculiar to the Civil Law jurisdiction of French Cameroun is the fact that for a serious application of this nature and wherein by law the court sits as first and last resort with no possibility of appeal against its decision, the Petitioner is never served with the documents filed by both the Respondents and the Legal Department in response to their application …so they’re only served the judgment. This is an application which by nature is necessarily adversarial or contradictory in nature. This is purely a gross violation of the right to Fair Hearing.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde