Southern Cameroons leader, 9 others charged with terrorism!! Trial to begin Dec.6 ⁰

A pro Biya Francophone Attorney General on Thursday November the 22nd charged the leader of the Ambazonian republic and nine others with terrorism.  The Yaoundé Military Tribunal held a secret hearing with what is now known as the Nera 10 in the absence of the abductees’ lawyers and the Southern Cameroons leaders were transferred afterwards to the Yaoundé Principal Prison, in Kondengui.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government’s spokesman, Hon. Chris Anu reported that eyewitnesses saw nine of them as they went through protocol at the Kondengui high security prison. Chris Anu added that “If anything, the event is a clear indication that Yaoundé has no intentions to release the leaders of our revolution in spite of the calls for their immediate and unconditional release.”

The French Cameroun judge who earlier met with the 85 year old Biya privately at the Unity Palace leveled the charge against President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe the interim head of state of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia including nine of his top aides. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that several detained Ambazonian activists are facing the same charge. A well-placed source in Yaoundé hinted this reporter that President Biya has ordered another Francophone judge to begin the trial on December the 6^th.

No human rights activist or legal representations were allowed outside or inside the Yaoundé Military Tribunal where the so-called preliminary hearing took place. The International Crisis Group including many humanitarian organizations has criticized the abduction and illegal extradition of the Southern Cameroons leaders from Abuja, Nigeria.

The Southern Cameroons Acting President Dr Samuel Ikome Sako has also been quoted as saying that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is not a terrorist but a great leader who has fought for years against French Cameroun colonial rule in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Elsewhere, Cameroon military said on Friday that it has killed at least 43 armed Ambazonia separatists’ fighters. The Biya regime army spokesperson also observed that troops destroyed at least three camps in several operations since Thursday in Bali village in the Mezam administrative area and Abu village in the Fundong administrative area in the North West region. The military reportedly seized a huge consignment of guns, ammunition, machetes, motorcycles and drugs.

The military added that they found the separatist hideouts after tracking one of the gunmen suspected of kidnapping 79 students and three staff members from a school on Nov. 4. La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are both experiencing deadliest-ever socio-political crisis and the worst since the war to crush the UPC uprising, when the two territories were governed by the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. More than 4000 Southern Cameroonian civilians have died in the ongoing violence including some 1600 Cameroon government army soldiers. The Southern Cameroons war has also claimed the lives of a sea of foreign and local missionaries.

The protests against French Cameroun dominance were triggered by a proposed system overhaul by Anglophone teachers and lawyers. Recently, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Herman Jay Cohen again noted that the ongoing war for territorial control between French Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is unwinnable by either side, and therefore recommended that the protagonists should approach the current Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, to begin a mediation process to end the imbroglio. The former diplomat and scholar who brokered a peace deal to end the Eritrean versus Ethiopia war in 1991, among others, made the statement in a recent tweet on his official Twitter handle @CohenOnAfrica.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files