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14, August 2019

When will President Biya die? ⁰

For 37 years, the Cameroonian dictator has transformed himself into a cult master so to speak expecting citizens and cabinet ministers to bow in homage. When Biya appeared before the Cameroonian people lately, it was evidently clear that Mr. Biya also known as the “monarch” is now a colony of diseases. Cameroon Intelligence Report senior correspondent in Yaoundé observed recently that Biya is suffering from a failing heart, a failed prostrate and loss of memory which makes it hard for him to carry out his duties as a head of state. So, when will Biya die?

Moving around in diapers over the last seven years, the 87 years old health is now a huge concern not only to his closest collaborators but to the international community. He has not been seen ever since he appeared on state television with the out gone French ambassador to Cameroon.

He loses his mind during conversations and for many months now, it is his wife, Chantal Biya and her relation, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who also moonlights as Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the republic that have been pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Ngoh Ngoh and Defense Minister Beti Assomo have ordered the army to make a final push in Southern Cameroons. In the days ahead the world will witness more killings in Ambazonia all in a bid to get children back to school and avoid sitting on the negotiating table with Southern Cameroonians.

Biya is definitely not aware of this direction that his government has taken but senior Cameroon political commentators have blamed it all in Biya’s own political misjudgments and his refusal to acknowledge his mistakes.

The young Beti Ewondo French Cameroun political elites around him and the ailing Justice Minister Laurent Esso will not allow Mr. Biya to accept political responsibility to end citizens’ fear and the war in Southern Cameroons.

No one in Yaoundé knows when Mr. Biya will be willing to step down! No one knows when he will tell Francophone soldiers to stop killing innocent Southern Cameroons civilians including women and children. To be sure, Biya continues to head a government that no one takes responsibility, no one apologizes, and no one resigns.

All over the country, citizens are afraid of him and his killer squad, the gendarmerie, the police and the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR). There are no more combative press conferences in Yaoundé due to rising tensions in the city between the Bamilekes of the Western region and the Betis of the South.

Under the “One the one and indivisible Cameroon” principle, all media houses in French Cameroun have ignored the sufferings of those they once referred to as our “Anglophone Brothers”.

However, French Cameroonians are beginning to see for themselves the failures of the monstrous liability of a head of state they help in creating. Everything in French Cameroun, their cities, their homes have all been pushed into an abyss.

But none in the Biya Francophone regime is heartbroken by the atrocities committed daily by Francophone army soldiers in Southern Cameroons. This explains why their leader, President Paul Biya till this day has offered no concessions to Southern Cameroonians.

Biya does not have a conscience!! Correspondingly, many citizens have been asking recently when Biya will die.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

14, August 2019

UEFA Super Cup:Frenchwoman referee, 3 Africans in Liverpool vs. Chelsea clash in Istanbul ⁰

It is an all-English final for the clash in Turkish capital Istanbul to decide who takes home the European Super Cup. In other words, which of the two sides will be crowned the best European club side.

The UEFA Super Cup is a tie between winners of the Champions League and Europa League, in this case; Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.

Liverpool defeated Tottenham by two unanswered goals in the Champions League final whiles Chelsea beat Arsenal by 4 goals to one. The then Chelsea manager Mauricio Sarri quit at the end of his first season in London following which Chelsea legend Frank Lampard was appointed.

It is a historic match given that for the first time a female referee Stephanie Frappart from France will handle a major UEFA competition final.

Liverpool go into the game with a big boost having won their first 2019/2020 Premier League game 4 – 1 against Norwich City. They, however approach this game without their first choice goalie, Allison Becker, who was injured in the game.

Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, will be hoping for a win to assuage the heavy Premier League loss to Manchester United. The Blues lost 4 – 0 at Old Trafford.

The game comes up at 7 pm GMT. It will feature three African players all on the side of Liverpool. Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Joel Matip of Cameroon.

Speaking of the female referee feat, Chelsea manager said: “In terms of how much respect the (women’s) game is getting, how many people are watching it, the interest in the game…

“I think we were very slow everywhere on this and now we are trying to make strides and there’s a long way to go but in terms of tomorrow I think it’s a huge moment and it should be very well addressed and we’re all very pleased and I’m pleased that it’s a historical moment that is one more step in the right direction I’d say.”

Source: Africa News

14, August 2019

S. Cameroons crimes is now an epidemic: Does VP Yerima care enough to look for a cure ⁰

Vice President Dabney Yerima’s deliberate silence over the poor conduct of some Ambazonia Restoration Forces in areas like Manyu, Bui, Menchum and Kupe Muanenguba is very disturbing! There are reports of horrible crimes being committed by Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Forces in Ground Zero which is slowly but sure pushing the local population away from the struggle.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group opined recently that Southern Cameroonian fighters are no saints and popes. The situation has been made all the more complicated by the criminal elements financed by the French Cameroun government and some rogues who have become a threat to the local population.

These rogues that have infiltrated the Ground Zero Defense Council and the Ambazonia Military Forces kidnapping and molesting even Roman Catholic priests such as the case in Kikaikom in Bui and Akwaya in Manyu must be rooted out of our midst. Vice President Yerima should and must make sure that they be made to pay for their crimes.

Cameroon Concord News Group believes and fervently too that they are giving the revolution a bad name and this must be addressed forthwith. The people of Southern Cameroons should at no time be associated with the crimes being committed in our territory.

If the French Cameroun government’s stock in trade is killing, Ambazonians should let it accomplish its mission, after all the more people it kills, the more likely is the independence of Southern Cameroons. Let us give the international community more evidence of the French Cameroun government’s irresponsibility and wickedness.

The so-called activists living in faraway lands should be told to stop calling on those rogue elements that have been marauding our villages and towns to commit crimes in our names; we must know that we will be losing the sympathy of the international community that is breathing down the government’s throat.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

14, August 2019

African Americans lack proper access to US banks ⁰

Many black people in the United States have difficulty saving money partly because they lack access to traditional banking services, contributing to the growing racial wealth gap in the US, a new study has found.

Many African Americans depend on more expensive alternative financial services like check-cashing counters since there are fewer banks in non-white neighborhoods, according to the study published on Tuesday by McKinsey & Co.

Increasing access to basic banking services, like checking and savings accounts, could save individual black Americans up to $40,000 over their lifetime, the report found.

“Black families are being underserved and overcharged by institutions that can provide the best channels for saving,” said the report authored by McKinsey partners Shelley Stewart and Jason Wright.

In majority-white communities, there are an average of 41 banks and financial institutions for every 100,000 people, compared with 27 in neighborhoods that are majority non-white, the study said.

However, more expensive alternative financial services like payday lending are more readily available in black neighborhoods, the report said.

Additionally, banks in black communities typically require higher account balances to avoid service fees, the study said.

The US racial wealth gap has expanded significantly over the last two decades, with the wealth of the average white family growing 10 times higher than the average wealth of a black family, according to government data.

The white household had a net worth of $171,000 while average black and Hispanic households had a median net worth of $17,600 and $20,700 respectively.

“When you bridge that gap, the money is not just going to black pockets, it’s going to everyone’s pockets,” Wright told Reuters.

America’s racial income inequality and corporate greed has become a focus of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

Critics say the tax policies of US President Donald Trump has funneled vast amounts of money to the wealthiest Americans while offering only modest benefits to lower income taxpayers.

Source: Presstv

14, August 2019

Cameroon Journalists Threatened by CPDM Government ⁰

Cameroon has threatened all journalists who it says are refusing to be patriotic, after TV reporter Samuel Wazizi was arrested for allegedly supporting separatist fighters in Cameroon’s English-speaking north, west, and southwest regions. The journalists say it is becoming impossible for them to practice their profession, as they face pressure from both separatist fighters and the government.

Paul Atanga Nji, territorial administration minister, says Cameroon’s journalists are becoming highly unpatriotic.

“They have one main objective, just to sabotage government action, to promote secessionist tendencies,” said Nji. “I urge them to be responsible. Those who do not want to respect the laws will be booked as being recalcitrant and will be treated as such.”

Atanga Nji also says most journalists support the opposition and believe that President Paul Biya was not the true winner of the October 2018 presidential election.

Macmillan Ambe, president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ, says the threat from the government is one of many that journalists have faced since the separatist crisis began in 2016.

He says journalists should be given the freedom they need to do their work.

“When you get the minister of territorial administration giving lessons to journalists on how to report, it just adds to some of the difficulties we are already facing,” said Ambe. “We are subjected to torture, be it physical or psychological. We have also had cases of several journalists who are being called up for questioning, so it becomes very difficult for us to operate.”

Ambe was abducted by separatist fighters in the city of Bamenda last February after he criticized their call for families not to send their children to school.

More recent threats came after Samuel Waziz, an announcer at Chillen Music Television who has hosted shows critical of the government, was arrested by the military. His lawyers said he was accused of hosting separatist fighters in his farm, an allegation he dismissed.

Journalist Promise Akanteh of Royal FM, a radio station in Yaounde who also hosts critical programs, says she has been threatened several times within the past two weeks.

“I have had several phone calls threatening me. Do you know that your daughter still needs you? I said, ‘yes, sir.'” So be careful with what you say on air. I do not know who was calling,” said Akanteh. “The person threatens me and says be careful with what you say on air. I am telling you this, another person will not be this nice to you.”

The separatists launched their fight in 2017, after English-speakers protested political and economic discrimination in the majority French-speaking country. The government reacted with a crackdown in November 2017 and since then, 2,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

14, August 2019

The Southern Cameroons Conflict is not the only crisis facing La Republique du Cameroun ⁰

After 37 years under President Paul Biya, Cameroon is arguably at its most divided yet. Various of its fault lines are deep, and they are getting even deeper.

The most immediate crisis facing the country is the ongoing Anglophone conflict in the two English-speaking regions, which has led to hundreds of deaths. But this situation is compounded by two other tensions in Cameroon, one ethnic, one religious.

President Biya, in power since 1982, stands defiant in the face of these pressures, but without clear action to address them, these challenges will only become more threatening to his rule and to the country.

1) The deadly Anglophone crisis

The Anglophone conflict began in 2016 when teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions went on strike. They were protesting against the deployment of French-speaking judges and teachers with no understanding of the common law and educational systems that operate in these areas. The government seemed prepared to negotiate until more demonstrators joined and the group’s demands escalated into calls for more autonomy for the two regions. Anglophone nationalists have long demanded greater self-rule to address perceived marginalisation and protect their Anglo-Saxon heritage in the predominantly French-speaking country.

At this point, the government – as it has done many times in the past – resorted to force and mass arrests. The situation quickly escalated. Armed groups emerged calling for the English-speaking regions to secede completely from Cameroon as the independent state of Ambazonia. Fighting ensued with both separatist forces and the Cameroonian army allegedly committing widespread atrocities.

Three years on, the government in Yaoundé remains adamant that Cameroon’s decentralised unitary form of state is non-negotiable. However, this position is becoming increasingly untenable.

To start with, some key western governments, who previously only called for dialogue, have begun to take some concrete and sustained steps in relation to the conflict. This February, for instance, the US scaled down its military assistance to Cameroon citing gross human rights violations. In May, it sponsored the first UN Security Council meeting on the Anglophone conflict. And then, in July, its House of Representatives adopted Resolution 358 in July calling on the Cameroon government to reconstitute the federal system as one measure to resolve the crisis. That same month, Switzerland, which has a federal system and is another key partner, announced that it is leading a mediation effort. It has reportedly been discretely pressing Biya to look at its own model of territorial state organisation .

At the same time, domestic opinion in Cameroon is also shifting. As the separatist conflict wears on, moderate Francophones are increasingly subscribing to the idea of a federal state, something, which moderate Anglophones have long called for.

2) Renewed ethnic rivalries

Along with the Anglophone crisis, ethnic divides have also become more prominent in Cameroon, especially since the 2018 presidential elections. At the heart of these tensions are two groups’ competing claims to power.

The first, the Bamilieke, wield significant economic authority in Cameroon. Elites from this group control much of the economy and dominate the manufacturing industry. People from this ethnicity mostly occupy the west of Cameroon and have strong cultural ties to one of the Anglophone regions despite their Francophone colonial heritage.

The second, the Bulu-Beti axis, wield significant political power. Since Biya came to power, handpicked by Cameroon’s first president Amadou Ahidjo, elites from this group have seen themselves as the country’s natural rulers. The Beti and Bulu mostly reside in the centre and south regions.

The rivalry between the Bamilieke and Bulu-Beti axis came to a head in the run-up to the October 2018 presidential election in which President Biya ran for a seventh term against his main challenger Maurice Kamto, a Bamieleke. In the campaign, supporters of both sides engaged in inflammatory ethnic rhetoric, with the most xenophobic attacks coming from the Bulu-owned Vision4 Television.

In the end, Biya was declared the victor with 71.28%, but Kamto disputed the results, alleging widespread fraud. Tensions escalated, leading to some violent attacks on Cameroonian embassies in Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. Kamto, believed by many to have been the real winner of the polls, was arrested and remains incarcerated.

The government’s suppression of Kamto and his supporters mirrors its previous treatment of English-speakers. For example, the 2018 election followed a very similar pattern to that of 1992. In those polls, Biya’s main competitor was the Anglophone John Fru Ndi. That process was also marred by allegations of fraud and hate speech. In their aftermath, Biya placed Ndi, who is believed to have won the polls, under house arrest after declaring a state of emergency in his Ndi’s native North West region. The resentment created at this time added to a growing sense of exclusion, contributing to sentiments led to today’s Anglophone crisis.

Given the shared experiences of the Bamieleke and Anglophones, as well as cultural similarities, one might expect these groups to form an alliance. In fact, a leaked US embassy cable from 2011 suggested some regime insiders were discussing, and dreading, the prospect of such an “Anglo-Bami alliance”. In reality, such an alliance could be struck but would probably be short-lived, focusing only on ending Bulu-Beti dominance. On more fundamental questions such as the organisation of the state, cleavages would likely to emerge. Consensus on these points would not be impossible, but four decades of respective rule under the British and French during colonialism instilled differences in perspective and politics between these groups that would hard to overcome.

3) A religious group in waiting

A final divide facing Biya’s Cameroon comes from predominantly Muslim northerners, who are reportedly vying for one of their own to take over the presidency after Biya. In a leaked cable from 2009, Amadou Ali, an influential northerner who previously served in senior ministerial positions, said as much to US diplomats. According to the cable, Ali predicted that Cameroon’s three northern regions “will support Biya for as long as he wants to be president…but would not accept a successor who was either another Beti/Bulu, or a member of the economically powerful Bamileke ethnic group”.

Like the Bulu-Beti axis, Muslim from the north also see themselves as the natural rulers of a country whose population is majority Christian. And, as Ali explained, they have no intention of sitting idly by and letting an individual from any other group succeed Biya.

Cameroon’s divides today are varied and complex, but have one thing in common: They want to see Biya go. This includes even the northerners, albeit with less urgency, who have been among the president’s closest collaborators and governed with him from day one.

So far, the common goal of removing Biya has not been sufficient to unite these various different groups or force change. But as Cameroon’s divides continue to deepen, the question remains of how much longer the 86-year-old president hold it all together.

Source: Africanarguments

14, August 2019

Southern Cameroons Vice President says French Cameroun regime will regret invading Ambazonia ⁰

The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dabney Yerima has issued a warning to the French Cameroun government, saying that the Biya regime will regret invading British Southern Cameroons.

Dabney Yerima who spoke to our correspondent in Germany during a recent visit to Thuringen said soon and very soon, there will be a response to every French Cameroun attack in Southern Cameroons.

Last week, French Cameroun security forces shot and killed several Southern Cameroons detainees who were protesting against the deplorable conditions in French Cameroun jails.

The Ambazonia Interim Government was formed following French Cameroun regime’s declaration of war against the people of Southern Cameroons. Since then, the Interim Government has helped to organize Ambazonia Self-Defense Forces to resist the French Cameroun genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonian Interim Government has also been playing a significant role in defending the thousands of Southern Cameroonians including its leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who are currently being held in French Cameroun prisons.

Ever since the war started three years ago following the declaration of Southern Cameroons independence by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé have regularly violated Ambazonia sovereignty killings more than 4000 people including women and children.

Two years ago, a senior French speaking Cameroon government official described Southern Cameroonians as two cubes of sugar representing nothing in La Republique du Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

13, August 2019

US: Trump cautiously defends theory tying Epstein’s death to Clintons ⁰

US President Donald Trump is cautiously defending that idea that the Clinton family is related to the alleged suicide of notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was in jail for paedophilia.

Before heading to the US state of Pennsylvania for a speech, the president insisted in an address to reporters that all he did was “retweet.”

“The retweet — which is what it was, it was a retweet — was from somebody that is a very respected conservative pundit. So I think it was fine,” Trump said.

PressTV-'Jeffrey Epstein was obviously working for Israel'

He later said he has “no idea” if the reported suicide of the registered sex offender was related to the Clintons.

Trump on Saturday shared a tweet from Terrence K. Williams that blamed Epstein’s death on Bill and Hillary Clinton without providing any evidence.

“I want a full investigation and that’s what I absolutely am demanding,” said Trump, who was close to Epstein like former President Clinton.

Trump in a 2002 interview called Epstein a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do.”

Apart from that Epstein was close to many other high-profile figures such as British royal Prince Andrew.

While awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, Esptein was found dead in his jail cell in the New York federal prison early Saturday.

Source: Presstv

13, August 2019

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t Updates After The Patriotic Prison Protests And Hunger Strike ⁰

There are more than four thousand Southern Cameroonians (Ambazonians) illegally detained in concentration camps around French Cameroun. Ambazonia President, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his leadership team currently being detained illegally in Kondengui Prison Principal, Cameroun, engaged on a hunger strike to highlight the plight of their fellow detainees from the 31st of July 2019. This eleven-day action brought pressure on the French Cameroun regime and they are taking some minimal provisional decisions to appease the international community.

Of the measures being implemented, on the 2nd of August 2019, five Southern Cameroonian (Ambazonian) detainees were released by the military court in Yaoundé. Their names are Abantelle Victor, Njufack Flavio, Otu Princely, Eban Felix, Akum Aloysius. As a nation, Ambazonia is happy for the release of the above mentioned comrades but we reiterate our position that they and all others still in Colonial French Cameroon’s concentration camps shouldn’t have been incarcerated in the first place.

The miscarriage of justice and disregard for life and international law by the Cameroun regime is stunning and shameless. Last week, in the so-called trial of the abducted Ambazonian leaders, a certain Barrister Julius Achu representing the French Cameroun regime was heard shouting in court that the Cameroun regime doesn’t care about international norms and conventions. He is correct. On the 22nd of July 2019, Ambazonian Prisoners of Conscience organised a peaceful protest in their detention center in Kondengui to highlight their awful living conditions, continuous detention without charge and the actions needed to be taken for school resumption in September 2019. They were met with a vicious clampdown by the French Cameroun regime. Many were brutally tortured and moved to SED which Human Rights Watch described in a May 6, 2019, report as a major site for torture, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances.

Forty-three Ambazonian detainees were identified on the 6th of August 2019 at the Yaoundé Kangaroo Court of First Instance in Ekounou. They are charged with Collective Resistance, Attempted Escape and Destruction. The forty-three comrades are:

Ambazonian Political Prisoners undergoing manufactured charges:

1.Wirdzienyuy Leonard

2.Yongo Colins

3. Yuven Cyril

4. Ziengeh Hilary Chia

5. Salah Edmond

6. Kum Nestor

7. Ntanji Isidore AKO

8. BUH Mbi Roger

9. Kanouo Gildas

10. Ambantele Victor

11. Ambah Rahul

12. Newu Isaac

13. Abanda Louis Enowntai

14. Achesit Hamlet

15. Achu Divine

16. Achu Joseph

17. Adonis Martin

18. Agbor Taku Joseph

19. Aghen Norbert

20. Akembom Divine NFOR

21. Akom Alloysius Akom

22. Akwo Platini Anga

23. Alobwede Van Kingsley

24. Amadou Assad

25. Ambesse Divine

26. Amei Benjamen

27. Amos Bitar

28. Anifata Kiven

29. Anyam Jin Austin

30. Aselatcha Martin

31. Bame Emmanuel

32. Benjamin Tembang TANTOH

33. Bundi Nsah Godgive

34. Chi Emmanuel

35. Tse Noel Wangang

36. Chu Ettia Frank

37. Eban Felix38. Edwin Dubela

39. Effia Gideon Nji

40. Elvis Fonyuy

41. Embason Newton

42. EWANE Olivier

43. Fonkam Pierre

From the list above, Akwo Platini, has lost two teeth after being attacked by a French Camerounian detainee. We have reliable intelligence that French Cameroun detainees have been instructed by the prison authorities to assault Ambazonians. Also, Chu Ettia Frank has a broken leg and passes urine with blood from the torture he endured at SED. Benjamin Tembang TANTOH currently has a blood clot on the left eye resulting from his beatings. Amei Benjamen has a spinal problem and can’t stand for long. This is sad, sickening and unacceptable. These comrades need immediate medical attention which we are currently liaising with our teams on the ground to provide them the assistance required.

From our perspective as government, our legal team has counselled that the Ambazonian political detainees were severely tortured and are threatened by the prison authorities and other French Cameroun inmates. Therefore, filing a cross penal action is a suitable option. We have instructed them to go ahead with this course of action.

It’s worrying that four comrades; Apang Ronny Donald, Che Gilbert, Effru Francis, Efut Armstrong didn’t appear in court last week as expected. Our legal teams are still working hard to trace their whereabouts and the reasons for non-attendance. All detainee mattresses have been confiscated by the prison officers in order to make life unbearable for our comrades. Ambazonian political detainees have gone through anguish and are subjected to the worst forms of cruelty. The big positive is their resolve and belief in the struggle is profound.

Two comrades, Harris Boseme and Engang Joel, appeared in court unclothed. This was somehow acceptable to a judge in the twenty-first century in a country which is signatory to multiple international conventions. Our legal team used this opportunity to draw the attention of the Judge to the cruelties they endured at SED and at the Kondengui Central Prison. Our legal team asked the Court to take a recess to enable lawyers to get them respectable clothes. The judge surprisingly granted the request. The matters are adjourned to today the 13th of August 2019.

In Buea, the legal process has been slow and challenging. Our team of lawyers continues to face harassment from the Cameroon regime. During the peaceful prison protests of 23rd July 2019, the doors of the prison were opened by the authorities for the military to enter and kill. Upon entering the prison, they shot at political prisoners killing four and wounding over seventy-five. Despite the challenging conditions, our lawyers will continue their fight to see that the wounded political detainees and the corpses of our three massacred comrades Njie Gerald, Amougou Franck Joel and Eny Effiong are identified as three of the four killed in the prison in Buea.The body of Njie Gerald, a man over sixty years of age, is lying at the Buea regional hospital mortuary while the corpses of three others have not been seen.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all our comrades going through inhumane and degrading treatment in dungeons in French Cameroun. We take strength from their courage and fortitude. The days of being intimidated are over. Despite all this brutality, we shall continue to fight with bravery and determination. We will never give up. The more savagery we face, the more determined we become. The freedom of homeland Ambazonia is non-negotiable. It is Total Independence or Resistance Forever.

Short Live The Revolution

Long Live the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Sincerely,

Milton Taka

Secretary of State

Department of Communication & Information Technology

Interim Government Spokesperson

13, August 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Shooting the revolution in the foot ⁰

Nobody could have thought that the Southern Cameroons crisis that started like a joke would last for many years. Even the Yaounde government known for its iron fist thought it would mob it up in a few weeks, but the unity displayed by Southern Cameroonians at home and abroad has given the Biya regime real food for thought.

Southern Cameroonians have not only proven that the size of a country’s military does not really matter when it comes to addressing the legitimate needs and demands of a population, they have also demonstrated that the will of the minority can bring about significant changes in a society.

Although the government is still reluctant to head to the negotiating table, there are promising signs that Cameroon will never be the same again. The Swiss government is working with the Canadian and American governments to get all stakeholders to the negotiating table.

The Swiss, who are adept at negotiations and who understand that most wars are not won in the battlefield, have been talking with all the parties involved, encouraging them to come to the negotiating table without pre-conditions.

Separation, restoration, federalism and decentralization will all be on the agenda. Though there are many shades of opinions, it is clear that no faction will be left out of the negotiation. For many months, the international community has been calling for the talks, but the Biya regime has been adamant in its refusal to sit and talk with the people who have successfully demystified the Yaounde dictatorship.

But that refusal will soon be in the past. The pressure on the fragile regime is simply overwhelming. The aging leader of the Yaounde crime syndicate is gradually giving in. Mr. Biya has refused meeting with eminent and prominent African leaders like Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo who have been mandated by the African Union to take up the issue of Southern Cameroons with the arrogant and disoriented Yaounde government.

Southern Cameroons has triggered something commendable in Cameroon. The courage displayed by its people has earned it lots of commendation. Its young fighters have demystified the country’s Special Forces (BIR). Their use of hunting rifles to kill thousands of BIR soldiers is one thing the Yaounde government will never forget.

The population’s resilience is one thing that also deserves to be commended. Despite the hardship that war brings to a people, the population of Southern Cameroons has stood firmly behinds its leaders and fighters. Hunger and frustration are yet to demoralize the people. While the days ahead look very bleak, the people of Southern Cameroons are still very prepared to make significant sacrifices if only those sacrifices will bring a better life to future generations.

While the people still have faith in the revolution, they want to be certain that the future is not entirely compromised. They want to take on the government and its troops, but they also want to prepare a brighter future for their children.

They know how to chew gum and walk. That is why they strongly hold that their kids must return to the classrooms to acquire the knowledge which will come in handy in the future. A good and promising future requires sound education.

Robbing a child of his education is like robbing a nation of its future. If Southern Cameroonians really want a state of theirs, a state that will stand the test of time, then they must lay a solid educational foundation for future generations.

While the fighters will continue to do what the know how to do best, the children should be allowed to be in class to learn those things that will give them the arms to face the future with confidence and certainty.

Some Southern Cameroonian activists have been arguing that the environment is not safe for education as soldiers have been using the population for target practice. This is not totally true. The government and its soldiers are to blame for most of the atrocities that have occurred in the two English-speaking regions of the country and those crimes have shocked the world.

But Southern Cameroonian fighters are no saints and popes. The situation has been made all the more complicated by the criminal elements financed by the government and some rogues who have become a threat to the local population.

These rogues must be rooted out of our midst. They must be made to pay for their crimes. They are giving the revolution a bad name and this must be addressed forthwith. The people of Southern Cameroons should at no time be associated with the crimes being committed in our territory.

If the government’s stock in trade is killing, we should let it accomplish its mission, after all the more people it kills, the more likely is the independence of Southern Cameroons. Let us give the international community more evidence of the government’s irresponsibility and wickedness.

If activists living in faraway Maryland are calling on those rogue elements who have been marauding our villages and towns to commit crimes in our names, we must know that will be losing the sympathy of the international community that is breathing down the government’s throat.

The government says it wants our kids to go to school. Let us test its seriousness by sending our children to school. Let us stop issuing threat that will discourage most parents from sending their children to school. Let us stop providing the government with the weapons it will use against us, Southern Cameroonians.

By issuing threats and discouraging parents from sending their children to school, we are shooting the revolution in the foot. We are killing the same revolution that was designed to bring happiness to all of us.

We are destroying the future out of blind anger. Children belong to the classroom and not in the bushes. Let the government prove to us that it can provide the security it has been promising. This is the time to prove it. Let us not rob ourselves of the opportunity to provide more evidence of the government’s failure to the international community.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde