Key leaders of Southern Cameroon, who are fighting to become a sovereign country to be known as Ambazonia Republic, have rejected the olive branch extended by President Paul Biya of Cameroun. Biya is asking them to put an end to the ongoing insurrection. President Biya made the call few days ago in Cameroon following the resumption of hostilities as a result of the life jail slammed on Mr Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the leader of the Ambazonian struggle, alongside nine others by government.

 The 10 men were reported to have been forcibly taken last year from Abuja in Nigeria after they won a High Court case supposedly against the Biya government for detention in Cameroon.  A number of people spoken to in Calabar, where a good number of Southern Cameroonians are living as refugees said, they were not going to dialogue with Biya and called on him to release the movement’s leaders as they would be the ones to dialogue with him, if there was need.

 Two of the leaders, including the coordinator of the Cameroonian refugees in Cross River State, Pastor Tabichou Afangha and a renowned medical doctor, George Geh, insisted on their independence, which they claimed they got in October 1961. Afangha said, “The call for dialogue by Biya is a big joke; it is madness. The essence of the dialogue has been grossly abused. Who is he calling to dialogue with? We are Ambazonians? “We only gained the status of Cameroun when we united with the other parts of the country after the fake union put together at the Fouban conference in East Cameroun.

 Biya later dissolved that union when he enacted law number 84/01 of February 4, 1984.  What we are asking Mr Biya is to implement his own law, the restoration law, which dissolved the illegal merger between La Republique du Cameroon and Southern Cameroon, now Ambazonia. “Could there have been eruption of violence, killings and destructions if Biya had respected his own law?  When he has given life jail to our leaders he wants to dialogue with foes? In Ambazonia we have always been a peaceful people, but he unleashed wanton violence on us,’’ Afangha added.

 Also speaking on Saturday, Dr Geh, who has worked as a medical consultant for different state governments in Nigeria said, “We will not dialogue with Biya. He is extremely dangerous and untrustworthy. We want our independence, which we won in 1961.’’ He said the system in Cameroon was repulsive, repressive and brutish, maintaining that they had suffered suppression and intimidation under the French-controlled region for too long. “All the schools in Southern Cameroon, an English-speaking territory, are taught in French language or pidgin English and administered by Frenchmen.  In the judiciary, they apply French/Napoleon aw instead of the Common Law. The French law states that one is guilty before he is proven otherwise. If you don’t speak French you cannot win any case in Southern Cameroon.’’ Geh disclosed that when they had a plebiscite on whether to join Cameroon or Nigeria, they would have preferred to remain in Nigeria but they feared that the Igbo, who were already domineering, would continue to enslave them; hence they opted for Cameroon. He further explained that it was the United Nations resolution 1608 that granted them independence in 1961. He added that Britain tricked them. “We were a trusteeship territory managed by Britons, who were supposed to sit with East Cameroun and ensure that our independence was guaranteed. There were three options, but Britain rather said we should decide whether to join other parts. They left out the third option, which was to choose to become an independent country. Britain did not want to lose its investments. France gave them £20million and took over our territory and Britain vamoosed without any preparation for our independence,’’ he alleged.

 A female leader who refused to give her name said President Biya should account for her children and siblings who were allegedly slaughtered by forces loyal to him before any form of dialogue. She said the international community should prevail on the Biya government to stop the killing of her people, adding that Ambazonia should be actualised in her lifetime. But Bishop Nicholas Nyemeck Biten expressed a contrary opinion, saying, “It is a welcome approach to bring back all the people together. It is a long time both national and international press waited for this moment. Now, it is left to know the blueprint of the programme as he said he had given a mandate to the prime minister to meet with all those concerned for a large debate.’’

www.dailytrust.com.ng

The announcement by President Biya to convene a national dialogue constitutes a positive development in the search for a solution to the crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.” This was said by Maja Kocijancic, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations at the European Union commission, according to a press release published on September 11, 2019.

Indeed, days ago, president Paul Biya announced that national dialogue will be organized to find solutions to the socio-political crisis in South-west and North-west Cameroon.

“All actors, including armed groups and the diaspora, should be able to take this opportunity and contribute to an inclusive process that would take full account of the expectations of the population. The European Union continues to support all efforts to this end, in coordination with its international and regional partners,” Maja Kocijancic added.

Let’s note that in preparation for this dialogue and as indicated by the president, prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute started a series of meetings with various political and social actors since September 11, 2019.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon’s opposition and leaders of the Anglophone separatist movement have reacted to president Paul Biya’s call for national dialogue to resolve the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Biya on Tuesday announced that he intends to open a major “national dialogue” later this month in a bid to solve the conflict between security forces and armed separatists from the anglophone minority in the west.

Separatist leader dismisses dialogue call

The leader of the separatist movement, Ayuk Tabe dismissed Biya’s call as a ‘non-starter’.

“The speech was a non-event and a non-starter,” separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said in a message relayed by his lawyers.

In August Ayuk Tabe was sentenced to life in prison along with nine of his supporters, a move that made the prospect of peace seem even more remote.

Ayuk Tabe is the first self-proclaimed president of “Ambazonia”, a breakaway state declared in October 2017 in two English-speaking regions of the central African country.

He described Biya’s dialogue initiative as “an awkward and grudging attempt timed to avoid UN sanctions, considering that the UN will be deliberating on the anglophone crisis this September and Mr Biya and his regime has been amply put on notice.”

He added that “President Biya unilaterally declared the ongoing war in the Northwest and Southwest regions. He must unilaterally declare an end to the war that he declared.”

Opposition calls for ‘amnesty before dialogue’

The opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), on Friday called for a “general amnesty” for detainees linked to the separatist crisis and a “ceasefire” before participating in the “grand national dialogue” proposed by Biya.

During a meeting with the prime minister who is leading the dialogue, the party transmitted “preliminary conditions for (its) participation in this long-awaited inclusive national dialogue”.

“We have unequivocally noted that the announced inclusive national dialogue cannot effectively prosper without a calm environment: the declaration of a ceasefire and the guarantee of a general amnesty for all those involved at any level in the English-speaking crisis,” the statement states.

At midday, however, SDF Vice-President Joshua Osih qualified this text in an interview with AFP: “These are proposals, we should not try to qualify them, but it seems obvious to us that this is justified”, he explained, adding: “we have talked about our vision of dialogue, it is up to them to react unless they want a monologue”.

The Anglophone crisis

Since November 2016, when the government violently cracked down on peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in the Anglophone regions, the francophone-majority country has been mired in the unrest.

More than 2,000 people have been killed while over 500,000 have been displaced as the English-speaking separatists demand independence in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The UN has said that its Secretary General Antonio Guterres “welcomes the announcement” by Biya and “reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to support the dialogue process.”

But many commentators said that if Biya’s overture is genuine, it will have little chance of headway as long as separatist leaders remain behind bars or in exile.

Agencies

Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Thursday held consultative talks with the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), on national dialogue to end conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

SDF First Deputy President Joshua Osih welcomed the initiative but regretted that it took “so many years” for the dialogue to be announced. “Now that the dialogue has been called, we are waiting to see what it looks like, see what is on the table, see what is to offer,” Osih said. “We are ready to give all our good assistance to make sure that this situation in the Northwest and Southwest is brought back to normal.”

Ngute said the talks are to lay the ground work for the national dialogue, which is expected by the end of September. On Tuesday, President Paul Biya, in a rare address to the nation, said the national dialogue will focus on “ways and means of meeting the high aspirations of the people of the Northwest and Southwest regions.”

Crisis has rocked the two Anglophone regions for over two years after armed separatists declared the “independence” of the regions that constitute a minority in the largely French-speaking Cameroon. Over 530,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Source: Xinhuanet