Monthly Archives: October 2019

French Cameroun: Violent Conflicts, Looting Reported in Sangmelima

14, October 2019

French Cameroun: Violent Conflicts, Looting Reported in Sangmelima 0

Several hundred people from Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have escaped a French Cameroun commercial town of Sangmelima following violent conflicts and looting between communities there, where townspeople claim outsiders are causing mounting insecurity. The Biya regime has deployed at least 300 troops to Sangmelima.

Hundreds of people, especially youths armed with machetes, hammers, spades and spears, defied antiriot police Thursday and Friday, invading shops in Sangmelima, looting and torching some over resentment of outsiders. Among their victims is 46-year-old motor spare parts dealer Romouald Mefirou, who said he fled for his life.

 “Within 24 hours I have lost everything I took 23 years to invest in this town. I do not want to lose my life so I have to leave with my family. It is a deplorable situation,” he said,

Felix Nguele Nguele, governor of Sangmelima’s South region of Cameroon, said Mefirou, who is from Cameroon’s western town of Foumban, is just one of hundreds of people who have fled since the violence erupted October 9.

Nguele Nguele said the violence intensified when outsiders were suspected in the killing of a 27-year-old local motorcycle taxi driver. He says he requested and got more than 200 troops from Cameroon’s capital city, Yaoundé, to reinforce security and stop the bloody attacks and the looting of shops and houses that has paralyzed business.

The conflict started when the motorcycle taxi driver was found dead in the town. Locals blamed people from other Cameroon towns who live in Sangmelima of causing insecurity, pointing to increasing aggression stealing and rape.

The government said besides Cameroonians who are migrants, immigrants from neighboring Gabon and Equatorial Guinea had also escaped to safety after at least 20 people were severely wounded by rampaging youths, who attacked people they considered foreigners.

The youths have always complained that the influx of who they call foreign citizens to their town to work in cocoa, banana and cassava plantations and others as merchants deprive them of jobs.

Cameroon Higher Education Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, who was born near Sangmelima, attended a crisis meeting October 12 and condemned the attacks and looting. He said the government has taken note of the youths’ grievances but that Cameroonians from its over 260 tribes and foreign citizens with residence permits are free to live and do business wherever they want in the central African state.

He says no community should be stigmatized because all of them are Cameroonians and should feel free wherever they live. He says the government has taken note of all the grievances raised by the population and will attend to them according to the means available. He says he is insisting that the youths relinquish their weapons because peace should return.

The South region has been the country’s most peaceful. Cameroon has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency on its northern border with Nigeria, fighting rebels who cross over from the troubled Central African Republic to attack communities in the east for supplies, containing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea to the west and, recently, a separatist crisis that has killed at least 2,000 in the English-speaking North West and South West regions.

Reported by the VOA with additional editing from Camcordnews

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: A safer country without South West and North West CPDM elites

14, October 2019

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: A safer country without South West and North West CPDM elites 0

The so-called Major National Dialogue was convened to reactivate the North West/South West Divide all in a bid to stifle the Southern Cameroons revolution. It was a successful failure and the Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé political elites are now at daggers drawn positions.

Chief V.E. Mukete held a secret meeting with the delegates from the South West region at his residence in Yaoundé and handed to them money with standing instructions to vote against any union with the North West people. Nfon Mukete told the delegates that it was he and some other South West elites who asked the late Ahmadou Ahidjo to dissolve the two state federation that existed in the 60s and 70s.

The paramount leader of the Bafaws further observed that Jua and Foncha treated South Westerners with contempt and that prompted some concerned elites to draw Ahidjo’s attention to the happenings in Buea.

For their part, the North West CPDM elites have launched a scathing attack on French Cameroun Prime Minister Dion Ngute blaming him for the failures recorded during the Yaoundé peace talks. French Cameroun newspapers sponsored by the Biya regime are feeding fat on the chaotic situation among the Anglophone senior CPDM militants.

However, judging from the fact that after 58 years, none of these so-called CPDM elites have been able to bring an iota of development to their various constituencies, the reawakening of the North West/South West Divide is indeed a bitter confession of back-to-back political failures ever since La Republique du Cameroun annexed Southern Cameroons.

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is publicizing a current fight between South West and North West CPDM elites and spending millions of FCFA on newspaper coverage to divert attention from the Ambazonia quest for independence. The long and short of this French Cameroun CPDM diabolic harsh ploy is simply that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a safer place without the so-called South West and North West CPDM elites.

First and foremost, Washington has clearly snubbed the Major National Dialogue and some reports have suggested that the US State Department has gone a step further by requesting President Biya to organize a proper peace talk without any preconditions.  

None of these pro Biya Anglophone citizens touched on Biya’s French Cameroun military involvement in Southern Cameroons during the Major National Dialogue and none of them could muster the courage to say it remains the worst decision ever made in La Republique du Cameroun’s history.

From the delay in making public the resolutions, it seems that Biya and his Beti Ewondo gang have come to the conclusion through objective experience that the equation of power and political geometry of the one and indivisible Cameroon has changed and that Yaoundé can no longer claim absolute authority over the affairs of Southern Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe Mr. Biya has realized that he has only two options; either to be just content with an empty mask of being the head of state of the one and indivisible Cameroon despite heavy costs, or to adopt a realistic approach and acknowledge the present reality of sitting down with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and talk.

Biya has failed woefully in all his strategic projects such as the One and Indivisible Cameroon, the Major National Dialogue, the arrest and recent release of Prof Maurice Kamto, life sentences on the Ambazonia leaders, maintaining peace in the Central African Republic, combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram and hosting of the African Nations Cup.

The poverty and deteriorating infrastructure deep inside French Cameroun has led many ruling CPDM barons, even those who have been facilitating and guaranteeing Biya’s continued stay in power like Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, to acknowledge the urgent need to limit the presidential term.

To the people of Southern Cameroons, their beloved nation the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be a safer country without the North West/ South West CPDM elites.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

New Cameroon coach starts with draw

14, October 2019

New Cameroon coach starts with draw 0

Toni Conceicao began his reign as Cameroon coach with a goalless draw against Tunisia on Saturday evening at Stade Olympique de Rades.

The Carthage Eagles were preparing for the African Nations Championship qualifier against Libya and new coach Mondher Kebaier did not include experienced midfielders, Wabhi Khazri and Anice Badri.

Unlike Conceicao, Kebaier had already presided over two games since replacing French coach Alain Giresse, who led Tunisia to fourth place in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – edging Mauritania 1-0 in his first game in charge but lost 2-1 to Ivory Coast in back-to-back friendlies in September.

A little unknown Portuguese coach Conceicao succeeded Dutch legend Clarence Seerdof after a lackluster campaign at the 2019 Afcon finals, where they were booted out in the last 16 stage by Nigeria as defending champions of the tournament.

Conceicao made wholesale changes in his team, only keeping notable strikers Karl Toko Ekambi and Bassogog from the 2019 Afcon campaign.

The first stanza did not have much of the action in the last third for both sides but Tunisia were forced to make a substitution towards the end of the first half, as Ghilane Chaalali could not continue and he was replaced by Aymen Mohamed.

The Indomitable Lions were fired up after the break and they were awarded a penalty on the hour-mark, however Bassagog could not break the deadlock as he fired his spot-kick high and wide.

The sides made numerous substitutions in the latter phase of the game, which contributed to the lack of momentum and in the end the encounter ended all square.

Tunisia will take on Libya next week Friday in the CHAN first round, before opening their 2021 Afcon qualifiers campaign in Group J against the same opponent in November.

Source: Kickoff.com

Britain, EU enter make-or-break Brexit week

14, October 2019

Britain, EU enter make-or-break Brexit week 0

Britain and the European Union on Monday enter a pivotal week that determines if they are still on course to reach amicable divorce terms — and when Brexit might finally occur.

Queen Elizabeth II is due to step into the fray by performing her ceremonial duty of informing parliament about the government’s agenda for the coming year.

But the odds of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tenure lasting that long will depend largely on the outcome of hurried discussions held behind closed doors in Brussels around the same time.

EU leaders will then meet on Thursday and Friday for a summit held under the pressures of the October 31 Brexit deadline just two weeks away.

Diplomats see little hope that the sides can achieve in a few days what they had failed to in the more than three years since Britons first voted to leave the bloc after nearly 50 years.

“A lot of work remains to be done,” EU negotiator Michel Barnier told ambassador Sunday.

Technical talks are continuing — variously described as “intense” or “constructive” — but few familiar with the process can point to progress on the decisive issue of British Northern Ireland’s place in the EU customs zone.

Johnson warned his ministers Sunday to brace for a cliff-hanger finish.

The British leader said “a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there is still a significant amount of work to get there and we must remain prepared to leave on October 31.”

– ‘Clock is ticking’

Johnson rose to power in July on a promise not to extend Brexit for a third time this year — even if only a few more weeks are needed to get a deal done.

Breaking that pledge could come back to haunt him in an early general election that most predict for the coming months.

Johnson is under parliamentary orders to seek an extension until January 31 of next year if no deal emerges by Saturday.

He has insisted that he will both follow the law and get Britain out by October 31 — a contradiction that might end up being settled in court.

Outgoing EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker said British politics were getting more difficult to decipher than the riddle of an “Egyptian sphinx”.

“If the British ask for more time, which they probably will not, it would in my view be a historical nonsense to refuse them,” Juncker told Austria’s Kurier newspaper.

Something will have to give when the British parliament holds its first emergency Saturday meeting since the 1982 Falklands War.

Johnson could theoretically then try to put up a fight and refuse to sign off on a Brexit extension request.

His refusal would immediately be contested in court.

The EU leaders could complicate matters further still by deciding to offer Britain extension terms that parliament cannot accept.

But Brussels might want to push Brexit back further into next year so that it stops interfering with all the other European issues piling up.

A long delay would be untenable for many eurosceptics ahead of an early election that some expect as early as December.

But a short one of a few months might only come on the condition that it is the last.

The last and seemingly least likely outcome would see parliament vote on an actual agreement reached in Brussels against all odds this week.

Brussels insists that the ball is now in Johnson’s court.

“If the British government wants a solution, it must move quickly now,” a European diplomat told AFP.

“The clocking is ticking,”

Source: AFP

Tunisia’s Kais Saied wins presidential election runoff

14, October 2019

Tunisia’s Kais Saied wins presidential election runoff 0

Tunisia’s Kais Saied won the presidential election with 76.9% of votes, according to state television.

Kais Saied, 61, got more than 50 percent ahead of Nabil Karoui, a media mogul who was prosecuted for tax evasion. He had 23.11% of votes.

The announcement elicited tears of joy from supporters of Saied in the streets of Tunis. But official results will only be available from Monday.

The independent candidate thanked “the young people who opened a new page of history”, in front of his supporters in a hotel in central Tunis shortly after the announcement of his victory on Sunday.

AFP

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Vice President Dabney Yerima’s National Defense Speech

13, October 2019

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Vice President Dabney Yerima’s National Defense Speech 0

Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

On behalf of HE President Julius Ayuk Tabe and the leadership of the Interim Government, accept revolutionary greetings and we want to thank each and every one of you for the enormous sacrifices you are making to bring the struggle for the Decolonization and Restoration of the Independence of our country, the former British Southern Cameroons Trust Territory herein referred to as Ambazonia. Without your commitment and sacrifices, it would have been impossible for us to be where we are today.

My fellow countrymen,November 22, 2017-a date which will live in infamy- war was declared by La Republique du Cameroun on the people of Southern Cameroons.

Our whole nation will always remember and will never forget the character of the onslaught and carnage against us. The Interim Government wants to assure you that no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated genocide, the people of Southern Cameroons in their righteous might will win and restore their independence.

I believe that President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and I interpret the will of the Interim Government and of the people when we assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but we will make it very certain that this form of genocide and scotched earth ethnic cleansing shall never defeat us.

Death and the stench of decomposing bodies of our people have engulfed our land. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in existential danger, but with the determination of our people and infinite sacrifices of our Restoration Forces-we will gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God.

I say to you our people as our leadership said to the International Community, I have nothing to offer but, “Independence or Resistance Forever.” We have before us many, many months of struggle, of pain and suffering, but I can assure you that we shall overcome.

Southern Cameroonians are asking, what is our policy and plan? I say it is to defend our people either peacefully or by war throughout our national territory. Defend and fight with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to continue our economic divestment campaign against a monstrous genocide never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. Today I come before you to outline that defense specific policy of the Interim Government. I was appointed to serve in this capacity in May 2019 and amidst the very vexing difficulties we are presently facing, most of which have been self-inflicted, I have tried hard to navigate through these insurmountable difficulties by consulting and listening to our people and other leaders within the Ambazonian revolution for possible solutions to alleviate our present predicament.

I have unfortunately concluded that we took our eyes off the enemy and instead directed our 58 years rage against our enemy towards our own brothers and sisters. We have neglected equipping GZ and rather embarked on empty grandstanding in the social media platforms. We can only win this fight through our collective efforts to equip and defend our defenseless people. I am laying down today a defense policy to you Ambazonians to choose what course of action we must pursuit together. This policy is going to be defined by an answer to this fundamental question. What do we intend to achieve within the next 12 months in this struggle, Continue with our present strategy of self-defense agitation by our untrained Restoration Forces, with occasional feel good moments like boycotting LRC National days or We are going to move aggressively and proactively to sufficiently equip our Restoration Forces to not only defend our people and territory, but to also begin to recapture our territory and drive the enemy out of our land?

I don’t know about you, but I can tell you with all certainty that this Interim Government and myself have chosen the latter. We cannot continue with this policy of defensive agitation while the enemy is ruthlessly bludgeoning our people to oblivion. By this the government is demonstrating that we have clearly determined that we must go on the offensive to win and liberate our people. That is our policy, but what will it take to carry through this policy? I will attempt the answer subsequently.

Some may ask, what is the aim of this policy? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs – Victory in spite of all difficulties and the apathy of the international community – Victory, however long and hard and winding the road may be, for without victory there is no survival and our people and posterity will forever remain in servitude.

OUR RESTORATION FORCES

I want to extend my valiant salute to all our Restoration Forces on GZ and G1 and all the Counties security operations for amazing, meticulous and audacious show of allegiance to our flag and nation on October 1st, 2019. The communal spirit between you and our people rekindled the hope and determination of thousands of our people across the globe and send a ruthless message to the colonizer that you will determine your own destiny and will never wink no matter the number of monologues that will be held across the globe to determine our destiny.

You are our pride from Otu, Bali, Malende, Matoh, Ekona, Ekondo, Bafut, Kumbo and across Southern Cameroons. You are the young men/women who are taking the risk in the jungles and crocodile infested rivers. You are the champions who are helping free a people from bondage. You are the heroes who will help us to victory. Fellow warriors in this struggle, when I look at you, I see men/women who are fighting for life and most of you have left the vivid air signed with your blood and honor. You were young the day you took Dane guns and farm tools to defend our families, some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked and are risking everything in this genocidal war against our people. Why? Why are you doing it? What obliged you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to defend our communities? The Interim Government look at you, and somehow, we know the answer. It is faith and belief; it is loyalty and love for mother Southern Cameroons, the land of our ancestors.

Continue to keep the faith that what you are fighting for is right, faith that you are fighting for all Southern Cameroonians; faith that a just God would grant you mercy at the foot of Mt Fako and the jungles of Manyu through the plains of Bafut. It is this deep knowledge — and I pray God you will not lose it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force through genocide for subjugation and colonization. You are in this existential fight to liberate, not to conquer or colonize like the enemy, and so you and those of your comrades who have been martyred did not doubt our cause. And you are right not to doubt.You are the umbilical cord which binds together the entire fabric of our national structure of defense. From your ranks have come the great generals even without training who hold the destiny of our nation in their hands.You are no war mongers like the junta in Yaounde, but always remember the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

It is very hard not to understand your pain and disappointment on us your Interim Government and the general Southern Cameroons diaspora for failing to supply you with the necessary tools to defend our communities, but I am today extending this covenant with you that this is going to be my utmost priority. As long as I will be in this position, I will not tolerate the continuous humiliation we see every day that you continue to defend yourselves with your bare hands, Dane guns and farm tools. It is a national embarrassment and an affront to the soul of the nation. It is time to consider sufficiently providing equipment, training, uniforms, medical kits and how about a stipend to assist your young families left behind? This is what a government should do if you are going to call yourself a representative of the people and this is what this Interim Government is going to embark on in the next 12 months. Remain Steadfast!

SOUTHERN CAMEROONS DIASPORA

Fellow Southern Cameroonians, it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the leadership in charge could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the midst of it, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the work and what is right; who knows the great devotions; who spends himself/herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he/she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his/her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all of us do our duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made now, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our ancestral land, to ride out the storm of this war, and to outlive the menace of perpetual servitude in the Republique du Cameroun, if necessary for years and if necessary doing it alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of HE Julius Ayuk Tabe and this Interim Government. That is the will of the Interim Government and the people. The 13 Counties, linked together in this cause and in their need for liberation, will defend to the death their ancestral lands, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of our land are under the grip of the odious security apparatus of the Yaounde junta, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Buea, we shall fight in the jungles and valleys, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in equipment, we shall defend our land, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. For surrender amounts to perpetual slavery and an affront to the souls of our martyrs

Fellow Diasporas, many and the international community are crying “Peace! Peace!” __but there is no peace and our people are being slaughtered. The war is actually here in our backyards! I do not know what course you may take; but as for me, give me independence, or resistance forever!

We do not wish to make the war against us seem smaller, nor make its solution seem easy or make light of the fears of our people. But whether we are fearful or not, we shall never, because we are a Christian people, be able to avoid the moral issue of our conscience.

AMBA BOND HOLDERS

Today, our communities are gripped with the devastating impact of the war with mounting casualties and devastation.Rising insecurity from the savages of the Yaounde junta, kidnappings, ransom takings, blackmail and intimidation are now the norm even from some of our rogue elements and fake Amba boys from Atanga Nji and cohorts. This is no time to talk of division or question the commitment of any groups or individuals.

What the Interim government did when this struggle started was permissible. It was permissible to be indifferent to minor insecurity in our communities. But it is no longer permissible to be indifferent to the plight of our people. In the light of what we know now, the rapes, abductions, arrests, killing and the ransom takings. It is no longer permissible for us to be indifferent to the destruction of family life and the plight of our refugees in foreign lands, some in the forests, some drowning in crocodiles infested waters, when we know that our in actions are helping to destroy it. This is a call to your conscience and as you stand in front of the mirror please ask yourself what I can do to stop or end this situation.

Our President feels your pain. These pains do not discriminate whether you stood for Federation in the past or have been a steadfast advocate for the complete Decolonisation and Restoration of our Independence. These inhumanities should grieve us enough to rise as ONE MAN and respond to the President’s call to become an AMBA BOND HOLDER.

The Interim government will be issuing ten (10) million AMBAZONIA FREEDOM BONDS to the public to raise money to prosecute this revolution with top priorities on Ground Zero Defense and Reconstitution of our famous Mobile Police (law and order). AMBA BOND HOLDERS will be owning a piece of Ambazonia. Basically, Ambazonians will be loaning money to the Interim Government when they purchase the government Amba Freedom Bonds at competitive interest rates.

The Interim government cannot continue to sit and do nothing while the Republique du Cameroun is procuring loans worth millions of dollars to prosecute this war against our people. These debts that they are incurring now will be part of their liabilities in any negotiation on the terms of separation. We must also incur debts to prosecute this revolution and this will also be part of any negotiations. The huge difference between what they are doing and what we are trying to do is that we are raising this money from our people who will own a piece of our National heritage while they are selling that heritage to the Chinese and the French.

The entire proceeds will be used to subsidize and support all our Restoration Forces, Counties operations and others. As directed by the Interim Government, The AMBAZONIA FREEDOM BONDS will be issued and managed by an all-inclusive independent BANK OF AMBAZONIA (The people’s Financial House). Details will be provided by a select committee and the department of Economy and Finance on the composition and functions of the People’s Bank.

Through you, the valiant people of Ambazonia, I am today announcing the official launch of the Ambazonia Freedom Bonds. Please make this project your own for the sake of our suffering people. Be on the lookout for this project in the coming days with all the necessary details.

Long Live the People of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Vice President Dabney Yerima

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe speaks to Jeune Afrique, Says it’s either total independence for Ambazonia or resistance for ever (Full Interview)

13, October 2019

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe speaks to Jeune Afrique, Says it’s either total independence for Ambazonia or resistance for ever (Full Interview) 0

Jeune Afrique: For two days, only the liberation of Maurice Kamto and his supporters has occupied the debates. First, how did you feel about the announcement of their release?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are very happy that Prof Maurice Kamto and his MRC compatriots have been released. Jailing political opponents and suppressing political expression are repressive measures that are incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. With their release, we hope, they will fight to make La Republique du Cameroun a more just, humane and equitable society where international laws and treaties are respected, torture is prohibited and the rights of all individuals are respected including those of refugees and asylum seekers.

Jeune Afrique: Some argue that negotiations are under way for your release. What do you have to say?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are in prison in Yaoundé. We have neither been contacted nor informed. We know nothing about the negotiations going on for our release, if any. As a matter of fact, we are more concerned with the freedom of millions of Southern Cameroonians than our individual freedoms. We are not free if our citizens continue to be killed, our girls and women continue to be raped, our villages continue to be burnt down, and a force of occupation continues to occupy and terrorizes our country.

Jeune Afrique: The Major National Dialogue (MND) as prescribed by President Paul Biya ended with the announcement of a special status for the North West and South West regions. What does it inspire you, how do you see it?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was a gathering of CPDM party members and a few other French Cameroonians to discuss among themselves and probably come up with their own position. We have our position which is rooted in international law, in history and in culture.

La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are two former trust territories under UN administration! One does not grant independence or ‘special status’ to the other. As such, it is evident that Mr Biya does not have the powers to decide the future of the People of the former UN Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons also known as Ambazonia. That decision belongs only to the people of that territory.

Jeune Afrique: Was the Major National Dialogue a Big Bluff? Despite the fact that 333 Ambazonians are supposed to be released?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was for  French Cameroun citizens to solve their national problems. To us the MND was a non-event. Our problem with La Republique du Cameroun is an international problem and cannot be solved by a national dialogue. That Mr Biya announced the release of 333 (half of 666) of our compatriots is nothing to write home about. This number is insignicant and also as there is no justification for detaining self determination activists. There are over 3,000 Ambazonians illegally detained by La Republique du Cameroun. Releasing all of them and accounting for the missing ones is the right thing Mr Biya should do.

Jeune Afrique: Representatives of Ambazonia took part in this dialogue. It sounds a bit like your disavowal, doesn’t it? Could this be the beginning of the end of Ambazonia? Ambazonians who agree to participate in this MND; are they traitors to the cause?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Let it be made very clear that no Ambazonian or a representative of Ambazonia attended Mr Biya’s MND. In the MND, Mr Biya was talking to himself.

Jeune Afrique: What leeway do you still have, you are now in prison? It will be interesting to know where you are with your political convictions, after receiving and serving a life sentence. What makes you persevere despite this major setback?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Our conviction for Ambazonia lies in the fact that truth always prevails. We are not part of La Republique du Cameroun and will not be coerced to be part of it. Success stories of legitimate claims to nationhood abound. The determination and success of Namibia, Eritrea, East Timor, Djibouti, and South Sudan inspire us.

Jeune Afrique: As many people are being killed, victims of atrocities, villages being destroyed and burned, people displaced in the North and South West regions, what is your proposed solution to stop this human disaster? When you observe these so-called English-speaking regions you see nothing but destructions, do you say to yourself: we should not have gone so far to decide to secede?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Permit me start by correcting the fact that we are not seceding. We are restoring our nationhood. I refer you to UN Resolution 1608 that granted us independence. Also we are not English speaking Regions, we are the former British Southern Cameroons now known as Ambazonia.

A genocide being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military is going on in Ambazonia right now. To stop it, Mr Biya should declare a cease fire to the genocidal war he declared on the 30th November 2017 and pull his troops out of the Southern Cameroons. We regret that Mr Biya’s government could be that insensitive and irresponsive, but as a People we are bent on upholding the truth and defending our fatherland to the best of our abilities, at all times despite the odds, to the last man standing.

Jeune Afrique: What is your opinion in view of the barbarity, atrocities, tortures and serious human rights violations committed by the government forces as well as the separatist groups, of which you are the leader? Abuses are probably not the sole fact of Cameroonian law enforcement. Do you recognize that there are among you some uncontrolled elements?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming. So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are  internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities. It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. One thing we know for sure is that Mr Biya and his military and private militia will be held accountable for these crimes. While not exonerating Ambazonian self-defense forces, we also know that Mr Biya’s government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy. Only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons and establish the facts.

Jeune Afrique: Would you agree to meet and negotiate with the Government of Cameroon to find a compromised solution to this calamity?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We have always been open to negotiations to end this political conflict between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun. The resistance has been from Mr Biya’s side. However, the negotiations we are looking forward to should be mediated by an independent, impartial and credible entity in a neutral territory. The negotiations must address the root causes of the conflict. Finally, there must be a mechanism to ensure that the outcomes of the negotiations are implemented. This is Conflict Resolution 101 and I wonder why the Yaoundé regime finds it so hard to understand.

Jeune Afrique:  With the presence of credible political leaders, would you agree to work with them on changes to the Cameroonian constitution, the penal and electoral code that will lead to the return of federalism as a compromised for the secession? Or do you maintain the only way out is secession?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is not part of La Republique du Cameroun. The UN resolutions that granted independence by joining at no point took away the international personality or international boundaries of Southern Cameroons. Changes in the Constitution or other legal instruments of  French Cameroun do not therefore relate to Ambazonia in anyway. We are ready and willing to work with credible international mediators, to address the root causes of the conflict, for a lasting solution.

Jeune Afrique: How bad can it get, what is according to you the worst-case scenario if things don’t get resolved in the Northwest and the Southwest regions very soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Nothing worst can happen than the genocide that is already taking place in Ambazonia.  We pray the UN and international community to step in now to resolve the conflict in Ambazonia. As a people, with a right to self-determination, Ambazonians have taken the destiny of their nation into their hands and will stop at nothing till they completely restore their independence. It is either total independence of Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Jeune Afrique: What do you think about the state of democracy in Cameroon? About the political opposition parties? What are your relations with the SDF, or the party of Edith Kah Walla? Are there still great English-speaking political leaders in Cameroon like Muna, Foncha, Endeley?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Going by the history of former British Southern Cameroons, which witnessed the first democratic elections in Africa in 1958, our assessment of the political space in Cameroun is that there is a long way to walk on the path to democracy in La Republique du Cameroun. However, we are really not interested in party politics in La Republique du Cameroun. We are interested in what is happening to us as Ambazonians as we prepare to build our nation, on the foundation laid by Dr E. M. L. Endeley and John Ngu Foncha in the 1950s.

Jeune Afrique: Let’s talk about the attitude of English-speaking dignitaries such as Cardinal Tumi. Did they give up too soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Christian Cardinal Tumi is a respected religious leader with an independent mind and a right to his opinion. As a man of God, he is expected to use his power and God-given position to stand for the truth and the oppressed. If he, like anyone else, opts not to write his name in the sands of time, such a burden will be his to bear. African leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and others in Nigeria and Central Africa are living examples of religious leaders who championed socio-political change in their countries. Cardinal Tumi like other dignitaries is entitled to his opinion. But only the truth will prevail.

Jeune Afrique: Albert Dzongang spoke today about a form of rapprochement between the CRM and you. Can you tell us more?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Mr Albert Dzongang was another victim of French Cameroun government’s barbarism.  He was locked up in the same prison with us – Prison Principale Kondengui, Yaounde. We interacted as inmates and we share no political fraternity, for our goal is the restoration of the statehood of our nation. We do not mingle into French Cameroun politics.

Jeune Afrique: In your own words, could you please tell who Sisiku Julius AyukTabe is? When did you become interested in politics? How did you become the leader/president of the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia? Was there an electoral process at the end of which you were brought to the head of the separatist group?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is the peoples’ chosen leader. He has never been interested in partisan politics. In 2017, he was brought out from his quiet life by the people to continue to lead the quest for the restoration of the independence of the Southern Cameroons, taking over from Deacon Tasang Wilfred, as Chairman of the Governing Council of SCACUF. He was nominated President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by acclamation at SCACUF’s 4th conclave at the close of 2017, by the People’s representatives. As a humble servant of his people, he enjoys the support of his peoples as was aptly demonstrated on the 1st of October 2019.

Jeune Afrique: For some people, the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia was a joke. For others, Ambazonians were merely terrorist. How would you describe the fighters of Ambazonia? Who are they?  Live skinned?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Anyone one who still thinks that the restoration of the statehood of the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons now called Ambazonia was a joke lives in a world of his own. History, International law and Culture justify our resolve for Ambazonia. UN Resolutions 1514 and 1608; Article 102 of the UN Charter vindicates our restoration quest for the independence of the Southern Cameroons.  Some have called us terrorists, some secessionists, some separatists and some rats and dogs. Remember you could always give a good dog a bad name in order to hang it. We are Restorationists, fighting against the annexation and colonization of our homeland – the former British Southern Cameroons.

With regards to the self defense groups called Ambaboys, they are our heroes. Without arms, they are defending our population from being exterminated by Mr Biya’s genocidal war and scorch-earth policy in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia).

Jeune Afrique: Could you tell us how you got arrested and taken to Yaoundé?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: For the record, we were not arrested; we were abducted by armed men. As Refugees and Asylum Seekers based in Nigeria, our abduction and subsequent transfer to La Republique du Cameroun without due judicial process was a flagrant violation of international refugee laws. It is also indicative of the lawlessness which the governments of these nations operated.

On the 5th of January 2018, 12 of us met at the gardens of Nera Hotel in Abuja, discussing the pathetic state of our sisters and brothers streaming into Nigeria as refugees. We were abducted by heavily armed men, without any warrants of arrest. We were detained at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of Nigeria for 20 days without access to family, friends or lawyers and without charge. On the 25th of January, we were handcuffed, blindfolded and bundled into a military cargo plane and taken to Yaounde, where we were held incommunicado for close to nine months. Later, we were confronted with trumped-up charges of terrorism, terrorism related activities, secession and revolution, among others.

Jeune Afrique: What is your day like in prison? Can you describe your conditions of detention?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: A typical day in prison starts from 7am when our cell-doors are opened to 6.30pm when they are closed. Within this time as a community, we study the bible and meditate together, eat together, play together. On visiting days, we receive families and friends together.  In terms of conditions of detention, this prison now is a squalid over-populated environment, infested with rodents and cockroaches. However, we are making the best of a bad situation.

Jeune Afrique: The current secession movement in Cameroon is reminiscent of another one, but much older the Biafra. It is remembered that the French were the ones pulling strings. And some are suspecting foreign powers behind the Ambazonians?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe;  As you said, foreign backing is a suspicion and of course unfounded. We Ambazonians own our revolution and our destiny. It is not a secessionist movement, but a restoration movement, aimed at restoring what is genuinely ours.

Jeune Afrique: If you had to ask forgiveness from Cameroonians, what will that be and why?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: In life, it is the robber that asks for forgiveness from the robbed; the colonizer from the colonized; the annexationist from the annexed; the cheat from the cheated. Should there be a time for forgiveness, it will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the UN, UK and France for masterminding its colonization by La Republique du Cameroon, after UN granted it independence on 1st October 1961. It will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the international Community for shelving the Never Again Campaign against genocide, for staying silent while thousands of Southern Cameroonians are murdered and for complicity in genocide perpetuated in the Southern Cameroons by Mr Biya’s military and militias.

Jeune Afrique: It appears from the MND that the acceleration of decentralization remains the only way out. Federalism does not seem possible either. When did you say that you, secessionists, had reached a point of no return, a rupture from the government?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: As I said before, we are not secessionists but restorationists. With regards to the choice between Federalism and Decentralization in Cameroun, French Cameroonians are free to choose whatever form of government they think is good for their country. On October 1 2017, the Statehood of the Former British Southern Cameroons was restored as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Jeune Afrique: Your current situation that is keeping you from your love ones reflects in a way that of many English-speaking families who have been torn apart, displaced in forests, other part of Cameroon and even in neighboring countries because of the war. You who have been separated from your family since your incarceration, what message do you have for all these families?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe:Thank you for this question and the opportunity to leave a message to our families in pain. My fellow Ambazonians, it is indeed a painful experience to be separated from loved ones on account of our noble course. I consider them enormous sacrifices and these shows the love we have for Ambazonia. I share the pain of every Ambazonian wherever they may be, including IDPs, Refugees, prisons, torture centers, or in the wildernesses. Remember that some our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children have paid the ultimate price, with their lives. The blood of these our fallen heroes shall not be in vain. Wherever you are, defend Ambazonia with courage, determination till the last man standing. It is either total independence for Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Translated by our chief political man Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ambazonia European Council says French government is hindering peace efforts in Southern Cameroons

13, October 2019

Ambazonia European Council says French government is hindering peace efforts in Southern Cameroons 0

The Ambazonia European Council, a Southern Cameroons movement which recently declared allegiance to the Interim Government says the French administration under President Emmanuel Macron is hindering peace efforts in Southern Cameroons due to its unending support for the 86 year old Paul Biya. The German-based Southern Cameroons think tank also described Paris as an accomplice in the French Cameroun-led military campaign against the people of Southern Cameroons.

Comrade Ndasi Victor Babila, the chairman of the Ambazonia European Council, made the comments on Saturday during a meeting that held in Bochum to seek support for the Amba Bonds Project announced by the Ambazonia Treasury Department.  

He stated that French Cameroun genocidal campaign against Ambazonians will not end until President Macron and the Trump administration take a tougher line and impose some form of travel restriction on President Biya.

Ndasi Victor added that Ambazonia young men and women are fighting in line with right to self-defense, and stressed that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Vice President Dabney Yerima have both welcomed any dialogue aimed at achieving peace while respecting the territorial integrity of both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun.

He described as a war crime French Cameroun military’s destruction of more than 200 Ambazonia villages that has eventually created the worst humanitarian crisis ever in the Gulf of Guinea.

Comrade Ndasi also blasted Barrister Agbor Balla observing that the former leader of the Consortium is now acting like an “intellectual gate crasher.”

By Fon Judith in Bochum, Germany

US: Trump defends decision to pull forces out of northern Syria

13, October 2019

US: Trump defends decision to pull forces out of northern Syria 0

US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to pull American forces out of northern Syria in the face of mounting criticism.

Days after the US had withdrawn its forces and abandoned its Kurdish allies in the area, Turkey launched its military campaign there, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, which Ankara says is meant to purge the Syrian region of YPG militants. Turkey views YPG militants as terrorists linked to local autonomy-seeking militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The offensive is Turkey’s third such military operation inside Syria against the Kurds since 2016. It has sparked widespread condemnations as well as concerns about the humanitarian situation of the civilian population and a possible resurgence of the Daesh terrorist group.

Turkish warplanes and artillery hit northeast Syria on the third day of an incursion that has forced tens of thousands to flee.

Speaking before a crowd of evangelicals on Saturday, Trump did acknowledge that his choice was unpopular, but asserted that it was time to stop US soldiers’ participation in an “endless war.”

“I don’t think our soldiers should be there for the next 50 years guarding a border between Turkey and Syria when we can’t guard our own borders at home,” Trump said.

Trump, however, garnered muted applause from the audience as many in the religious community have condemned the president’s move. The US has “paid a lot of money to the Kurds over the years”, said the president, adding, but “don’t forget, they are fighting for their land, they haven’t helped us fight for our land.”

Meanwhile, Pat Robertson, a longtime Trump supporter and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, had said Trump was “in danger of losing the mandate of heaven” for betraying the Kurds.

On Friday, the Pentagon said Washington was “greatly disappointed” by the Turkish incursion, noting the US had not abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies to a Turkish military onslaught.

“We are not abandoning our Kurdish partner forces, and US troops remain with them in other parts of Syria. The impulsive action of President Erdogan to invade northern Syria has put the United States in a tough situation.”

The Pentagon says that it had not abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies to a Turkish military onslaught.

The Pentagon later that day threatened to take an “immediate defensive action” after a contingent of its forces was caught up in Turkish shelling in the area.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Brook DeWalt said, “The United States remains opposed to the Turkish military move into Syria and especially objects to Turkish operations outside the Security Mechanism zone and in areas where the Turks know US forces are present.”

Source: Presstv

Barrister Helen Ebai: An Embodiment of justice and star of hope goes home to rest

13, October 2019

Barrister Helen Ebai: An Embodiment of justice and star of hope goes home to rest 0

The passing into eternal glory of the Lord of the great legal luminary Barrister Helen Ebai has deprived us of a commanding voice at the service of justice and the truth.

I did my first case as a lawyer before her at the Victoria Magistrate Court with the distinguished legal luminary Fon Gorgi Dinka in the case of C. J Woleta v Imoh. Several years later, she briefed me as a counsel in the Besongabang Chieftaincy cases against Barrister Enonchong. 

She was a passionate, tireless and fearless crusader for justice, and a ferocious outspoken defender of the oppressed, the poor and the weak. For many, she was a gadfly in her passionate pursuit of social justice. For others, she was a star of hope in a grossly unjust and corrupt society that at the time of her departure was still at war with its soul.

The Mayanarong was a commander who slayed the beast of impunity and arrogant abuse of power with diction, tact, zeal and the bravery of a Spartan. She was greatly admired, loved and respected by the majority poor and passionate seekers of justice. With these attributes too many to recount, permit me in all humility, to submit that Mrs Helen Ebai qualified for a respectable place on our collective book of life.

I am impelled to make this bold statement about the departed inspirational symbol of hope, because I was a privileged witness of her great contributions to the collective good of humanity.  One quality that was embedded in her towering human qualities was compassion.  I witnessed this in her judgments when she was a magistrate. She was an outstanding lawyer and as a community leader. In her professional law career, on the bench or in the bar, in her private or public life, she commanded attention with dignity, self-respect and exemplary strength of character.

As a Christian in the Catholic Church, I witnessed Mrs. Ebai working tirelessly to reconcile broken relationships within and out of the church. She also dedicated herself in combating the prurient propensity that has unfortunately snowballed into the Church of God. Her mere presence at the site of every conflict inspired the hope that peace would reign as indeed, it did, most of the time.

As we mourn the passing into eternal glory of this great daughter of the Lord, let us give thanks to the Lord for inspiring her as He did ever so often, to eternalize her legacy through her powerful defence of the truth and the rebuke of deception at the expense of  precious human life.

She represented the voice of our enduring genuine human values when she summoned the courage and detachment to remind her audience during a recent meeting summoned by the Prime Minister of Cameroon, that justice and the truth not deception are enduring attributes at the service of peace which is a higher value than political power for the sake power.  She has left behind a monumental record of service to the law, justice and advocacy for the poor, the weak to inspire and guide us on.

May her soul rest in peace

By Chief Charles A. Taku

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