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15, May 2019

Boko Haram burn homes, church in French Cameroun village ⁰

Armed men thought to be members of jihadist group Boko Haram burnt dozens of homes, shops and a church in an attack on the north Cameroon town of Goshi over the weekend, security sources and witnesses said Monday.

One assailant was killed, they said. A group of about 100 men arrived in the town Saturday night, when most people were asleep, an inhabitant of Goshi told AFP. The gang set alight 60 houses and 11 shops, as well as a church, according to local authorities. Boko Haram’s decade-long uprising to establish a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria’s northeast, which has killed more than 27,000 people and left 1.8 million homeless, has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

On April 19, Boko Haram fighters torched a village elsewhere in Cameroon’s Far North Region, killing 11 civilians in their sleep.

Source: AFP

15, May 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Kuwait urges parties concerned to abide by int’l humanitarian law ⁰

Kuwait has urged all parties in Cameroon to abide by international humanitarian law and international human rights law, to deal with any obstacles through dialogue, to exercise a sense of responsibility and constructive cooperation and to show goodwill in order to avoid any future repercussions affecting the security and stability of the region.

This came in a speech by Kuwait’s second secretary, Abdullah Ahmad Al-Sharah, at the Security Council session in the Arria formula on the humanitarian situation in Cameroon.

“The convening of this meeting in light of the escalating challenges facing the international arena, which threatens international peace and security, has become more complex than in the past, which requires the United Nations to use all its instruments to deal with crisis especially in its initial stages through dialogue and peaceful process,” he added.

He regretted emergence of humanitarian situation in the Central African region as a result of the high numbers of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, the increase in the number of refugees and the spread of epidemics such as cholera, Ebola and other diseases.

“The humanitarian situation in Cameroon is extremely difficult as nearly 4.3 million people are in need for humanitarian assistance, which represents an increase of 30 percent compared to last year, as well as the displacement of nearly 800,000 displaced people,” he said.

He pointed to the presence of many refugees from neighboring countries, which amounted to 380,000 refugees according to the UN reports, an increase of 82% compared to last year, given the challenges facing the region in general and Cameroon in particular, especially from the security challenge that warns of a humanitarian disaster unless it is dealt with urgently and develop solutions to address them.

Al-Sharah expressed Kuwait’s belief in preventive diplomacy, dialogue and mediation as important tools to avoid conflicts and to reduce human suffering and to avoid many losses, material and human damages.

“We share the Secretary-General’s deep concern over the deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the north-western and south-western regions of Cameroon and call on the Cameroonian government, in cooperation with regional and international organizations, to do more to address and improve the humanitarian situation in the interests of the Cameroonian people,” he said.

Source: menafn.com

15, May 2019

Southern Cameroons crisis risks spiralling out of control ⁰

The crisis in Cameroon is worsening and threatens to spiral out of control, the UN aid chief warned Monday during a first informal meeting of the Security Council on the conflict.

At least 4.3 million people are in need of aid — a 30 percent increase from last year in what Mark Lowcock described as an “under-reported” crisis in the central African country.

Cameroon is wracked by a conflict between separatists and government forces in its English-speaking west, combined with an influx of refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria.

“Both the humanitarian and the security situation continue to deteriorate and run the risk of spiraling out of control,” Lowcock, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the council.

“The level of the crisis today is more alarming than ever.”

More than 560,000 people have been driven from their homes since 2017 including 32,000 who have fled to Nigeria. The violence from the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has spilled over to Cameroon.

The United States, joined by Germany, Britain and the Dominican Republic, organized the meeting on Cameroon, but African countries made clear they were skeptical of the new focus.

Equatorial Guinea’s Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba, speaking on behalf of the three African countries on the council, warned that the humanitarian crisis should not be “politicized”.

The crisis is not a threat to international peace and “the situation should therefore be tackled by the government of Cameroon with genuine support from the international community,” said Mba.

China and Russia also warned against UN meddling in Cameroon’s affairs.

– Neglected crisis –

Rights groups have accused the United Nations of ignoring the conflict in Cameroon, where separatists in English-speaking regions are pushing for independence from the majority French-speaking country.

The government has responded with a crackdown, deploying thousands of soldiers.

More than 200 members of the security forces and at least 500 civilians have been killed, according to figures from the International Crisis Group, a think-tank.

Cameroon’s Ambassador Michel Tommo Monthe defended his government’s handling of the conflict, saying Yaounde was “facing secessionism, facing terrorism” but was “on its feet, standing tall.”

Cameroon’s Prime Minster Joseph Dion Ngute traveled to the anglophone region last week, offering dialogue but making clear that independence was not an option.

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former UN aid chief, said the crisis in the English-speaking part of Cameroon was “one of the world’s most neglected”.

“The lack of information and international political attention has allowed the situation to deteriorate from peaceful demonstrations to the atrocities committed by both sides,” he told the council.

Egeland called for scaling up diplomatic efforts to prevent the violence from worsening and a “massive injection” of funds to support relief work.

Source: AFP

15, May 2019

4.3 million in Southern Cameroons need aid ⁰

The U.N. humanitarian chief says Cameroon is facing worsening violence and conflict and the number of people needing humanitarian assistance has increased 30 percent from last year to 4.3 million people.

Mark Lowcock told an informal Security Council meeting Monday that this means one in six Cameroonians need aid — more than half of them children. He said the biggest challenge is lack of funding. English-speaking separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions allege years of marginalization by the government of largely French-speaking Cameroon.

Hundreds have been killed as fighters from a number of armed groups battle government forces and attempt to economically paralyze the regions. The United States organized the informal meeting over objections from the council’s three African members and strong opposition from the Cameroonian government.

Source: AP

15, May 2019

Ambazonia Vice President addresses nation and pledges support for Ground Zero ⁰

Fellow Ambazonians, Comrades, and soldiers of the Revolution,

I stand before you today humbled and honored for the privilege to serve the Ambazonian People in my capacity as the Vice President. This privilege is not the property of a select elitist few. It is open to every Ambazonian willing to make the ultimate sacrifice that would lead to the Restoration of our Independence. So long as we stand for the truth, and have the firm conviction that God is on our side in our pursuit of this noble venture, no force under the heavens shall be strong enough to stop our collective efforts and joint sacrifices to get to Buea, and from the mountaintops echo the song :WE ARE FREE AT LAST!. WE ARE FREE ATLAST!

Fellow Ambazonians and esteemed comrades, this is not a time for long sweet-sounding speeches. BUT,…….

When we see the gory images and the lifeless bodies of our young men dumped on the streets and bushes,

When we hear the heartbreaking testimonies from our mothers and sisters who have been the victims of rape,

When we see hungry innocent children sleeping alongside their parents in forests and deprived from the joys of growing up naturally as we did, and deprived of an education,

When we hear about the reckless burning of villages and the destruction of our communities,

When we learn about the increasing number of our people who have fled their homes, and forced to live as Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees in foreign lands,

When we hear about these and other acts of barbaric inhumanity visited upon our people by the soldiers of La Republique du Cameroun,

We can’t just sit in the comfort of our homes, far away from all these sufferings and do nothing about it.

We must rally our human and material resources together as one great community toaddress this emergency. If we do not set aside our differences and take urgent measures to counter the evil that has befallen us, then we are doomed. This is not a time for speeches. This is a time for action.The future of our children and that of generations to come depends on the actions we must take moving forward. Today more than ever our very existence is under serious threats.

Despite our differences, we all agree that the urgency for us to act now grows bigger with each passing day.And we must take advantage of the opportunities now available to counter the one big problem facing us as a people. This is the time for each one of us to prove by our actions that we are Putting Ambazonia First.

Let me take this moment to address our young brothers and sisters and children of school going age. From the bottom of my heart, I want you to know that I am personally saddened by the acts of terrorism and all the horrors that you have been subjected to and are witnesses of on a daily basis. You have watched helplessly as the licensed thugs from the French Cameroun Military set fire on your homes, killed your loved ones, maimed others and looted your communities. You live in constant fear because of the insecurity now reigning in your neighborhoods. The mere presence of these men and women in uniform scares you to the extent that you no longer feel safe to go to your churches and to the hospitals. Even your Education, which is the key necessary to prepare you for a place in the society has been negatively affected by this senseless war that Mr. Biya imposed upon us.

Let me make this very clear to you and the international community: We are not fighting for a Free but uneducated Ambazonia. We want our children to go to school. We want our displaced citizens to return home to their communities. We want our future leaders to get the tools today that they will use to build a Prosperous, Egalitarian Ambazonia where there is Justice and the Rule of Law. We want to build a society where hard work is rewarded and where there is transparency in the managing of public offices. We want to provide you with schools and the resources that will orient every student towards a specific career path and produce the best results for the future of our nation. We want you to go to school, there is no doubt about that.

I understand the frustrations you feel because your parents have chosen to keep you home and alive instead of sending you to into the deathtraps called classrooms.

Trust me, this has been a very difficult decision for your parents to make. We want our children back in the Classrooms where they belong. We understand the great feelings of loss you experience everyday you spend out of school, seeking safety in the forests with your parents.

Yes, we want you back in school. But it is sad to note that the same schools which used to be safe havens for you to study at eight hours a day have now been transformed into military barracks by the Cameroun Military. It is the same classrooms that the Cameroun Military is using as its staging grounds to train and unleash terror into our communities.

I want to pay a special tribute to our Restoration Forces and Patriots who have continued to resist the destructive French Cameroun Military and defend our neighborhoods from their rapacious activities. Because of your valiant actions we have come this far in our Restoration quest, and you have renewed our hope that with just a little support, you shall soon push out the enemy and liberate our homeland. To our fallen heroes, I want to assure your families that you shall be well remembered for your sacrifices. May you rest in glory in our memories. We shall continue the fight from where you stopped and free the land for which you sacrificed your lives for.

I salute you all for your selfless service especially as none of us can ever measure or repay the sacrifices you are making for the homeland. No one is paying you for the job you have volunteered to do at the risk of your lives. I want to assure you that with effect from today, my number one commitment shall be to enable you get access to the best resources available to defend our communities responsibly. You must always remember that the communities you protect are your first line of defense against the enemy. Therefore, you have a great responsibility and the honorable duty to protect them. The Ambazonian Restoration Forces shall not descend into the same gutters of thuggery like the Cameroun military has done. I enjoin you to treat every civilian with honor and respect. Remember that you and the Civilian populations are all victims of the French Cameroun Military Genocide Machinery.

Till date, over there are over 4.5 million of our people who have been severely affected as a result of this crisis. Your homes and entire villages in over 250 locations have been razed to the ground by the French Cameroun Army. Evidence of your sufferings can be seen in places like Lipenja-Barombi, KwaKwa, Bafut, Mbot, Muyenge, Azih, Ashong, Meluf, Njikwa, Tombel, Djottin, Tadu, Wum. This military has only one mission: Kill our people and chase away the survivors from our ancestral lands.

My dear brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and all of those in the bushes. It pains our hearts to accept the reality that just yesterday you were all Free to go about your business and families in total peace. But today you have abandoned everything and become refugees not by your own choice but as a result of this terror that Mr. Biya and his government have unleashed across our towns and villages.

My thoughts go out to all of you in the different refugee camps in refugee camps inAkwa-Ibom, Cross River, Benue and Taraba state, the Ogoga Refugee Campand other locations all over in Nigeria. I want to assure you that we shall do everything to coordinate with our partners to resolve the food crisis you are facing. We shall not relent our efforts to get you the help you need.

I want to commend the courage of our leaders in jail for your true demonstration of patriotism and love for Ambazonia. I extend warmest greetings of encouragement to the thousands of Prisoners of Conscience who are being illegally detained in unknown jails. Stay strong. We shall not abandon.

My Fellow Southern Cameroons,

In the backdrop of the scenario painted above, I want us to remember that I am stepping up to my new responsibility at a very critical juncture of our Revolution. I am taking up leadershipat a time when our boat is sailing through rocky waters, very high tides and unfriendly waves. With the indiscriminate killings of our people, the divisions amongst us, the scandals and dishonesty plaguing the Revolution, we must agree we are going through very tough times indeed.

While I do not intend to make any excuses of these previous shortcomings, I summon the courage in all of us. Together we shall weather this storm by eradicating that virus of dishonesty from our midst.

Dishonesty has no respect for the sacrifices our people have made to ensure that we have a place called home. At this critical time of our separation from our captors, we part ways with habits picked up from Colonial Cameroun. We promised our people a change for the better, not change of dishonest players. Dishonesty threatens the very foundational idea of the vision of Ambazonia where hard work is rewarded, merit is appreciated, and transparency is embraced. Dishonesty from leadership threatens trust from the people and reduces productivity.

If leadership is not honest and accountable, we shall never have a flourishing Ambazonia when we get to Buea. In fulfilling this promise to our people, we must demonstrate honesty in all our actions.

Following the events of the last 12 months, you have made requests and demands of things you want to see a change in. From the hundreds of messages and phone calls we have listened to all your requests, keep them coming. Here are some of the things we will start working on right away.

We will ensure we create stronger institutions that are independent, with checks and balances putting the people and Ambazonia first:

We will ensure that accountability is a watchword starting with leadership. To get the best out of your leaders they must report regularly to our institutions of government and must be held accountable to get the very best revolutionary service out of them at all times:

You requested a process in leadership, we shall start by putting the constitution for review in the public domain so that the final constitution becomes a product of your dreams and aspirations:

It is our hope that together we will build strong democratic institutions that no one man is above it. President Sisiku often says, no one man is bigger than this revolution. Some of you may say “We are in a revolution and who cares about stronger institutions?”, to me, that is a false narrative we must not entertain. We must put Ambazonia first.

One other major task before us is the case involving the alleged mismanagement of your meagre resources: My team and I shall follow up on what went wrong and how can we correct it. We shall getback what we can into the Revolutionary mill. However, we shall try not to be distracted by this from our main goals.

The finance department is a key pillar stone in our struggle, and we cannot stay aloof while our people suffer in want.We must be honest with the struggle and then with ourselves. It is a new dawn and its Ambazonia first.

I understand the enormity of the task and understand that we cannot achieve all of this in a day, a week or a month. This is all work in progress, and we must begin from somewhere. At this stage, it is collective work and we all must play our part in getting it right this time for our people.

Dear people, we must plan and have goals. Failing to plan is planning to fail, it does not matter the circumstances we face.

To this effect, I will be consulting with various comrades in the next few days to fine-tune the strategy that would lead us into the next phase of the revolution. I believe that collectively we can win this fight and achieve the one common goal that we all share. I cannot promise you a timeline by which we would arrive Buea but I can tell you this with 100 percent certainty : If we put our differences aside and set our eyes on the prize we would get there sooner than you can imagine.

We must set our differences aside and focus our strengths because together we are stronger. It does not matter the group you belong to. What matters is if you believe in our creed, the creed that “We the Ambazonians pledge our loyalty, the belief that one day we shall all live in plenty meeting our needs and our children shall be like the stars above”.

Fellow, Ambalanders, the time has come to cut the umbilical cord of disunity and work as countrymen and women whose ONLY allegiance is to the white and blue stripes enshrined by the 13 golden stars. That time is now, and I want you all to join me and make it real.

If there is one area, we need to make more efforts in that should be DIPLOMACY. Diplomacy is a tool in our toolbox that has not been used to our advantage. It works hand in hand self-defense. A major part of our diplomacy has ended on social media. This sort of ignorance sets us thousands of steps back. Henceforth, we shall no longer neglect the place of Diplomacy in our Revolution. We shall engage our diplomatic machinery and ensure that it is on a need to know basis.

We are always ready to dialogue and negotiations as we have always done. The other party French Cameroun isn’t ready for dialogue. French Cameroun thinks they have engaged dialogue by sending their Prime Minister with Peace Plants into our towns and cities. Brandishing a peace plant is not a condition for dialogue, it is sheer demonstration of their hypocrisy and an insult to our suffering people.

We saw PM Dion Ngute walking through our streets with the same peace plants that our people held on the 22nd of September 2017 and were massacred from helicopter gunships.

How can MrNgute be talking of peace in Bamenda while his soldiers are burning homes in the village of Mah and killing civilians in surrounding towns.?

This is my message to PM Dion Ngute: If you want us to take you seriously, thenlet your Government withdraw its troops from our towns and villages, Let your government apologizing for the crimes it has committed against our citizens and let your government release our Leaders and every prisoners of conscience now in your jails.

Moving forward, I call upon our communications team and online activists to go out there, get to work and challenge the dangers of a single story.

A single story about who we are and what we are has been erroneously sold to the international community by the enemy. We must take advantage of the technology at our disposal and start telling the world our TRUE STORY. The online activist must not measure their results by Facebook likes or views but by the response they get from the international community as a result of their proactive and informative activism.

On matters of self-defense, there is no one who doubts the urgency to step up the game. I want to commend the efforts of those who have been engaged in this area. Your efforts are well noted and commendable, but there is an urgent need to step it up.

To get something you never had one must be prepared do something they have never done. We must cross new frontiers and face the storm because our very existence depends on it. That is why in the coming days, I would be reaching out to all the different actors in the domain of self-defense, so that we can sit down and talk about putting Ambazonia first as one people, with one vision.

We must put an end to the second-class citizenship they stamped upon our faces like the mark of the wild beat:

Within 6 decades of subjugation, and relentless oppression,

They called us Biafrans:

They called us Anglo fools:

They called us enemies in the house:

They call us dogs:

They called us cockroaches:

They call us the 2 cubes of sugar in a basin of water:

These insults also have got to STOP. And only we can put an end to them.

Yesterday the United Nations Security Council had its first meeting on the Humanitarian Crisis connected to our struggle for the restoration of our independence.

My team and I followed the whole meeting and we noticed that none of the other countries there present called us any derogatory names.

However, I was dismayedthat the La Republique ambassador to the UN continued to address us as terrorists and all sorts of names forgetting that we are now fighting a war which the French neo-colonial regime in la Republique du Cameroun declared on us.

The lessons learnt are not new: We need to do more to bring to light the seriousness of our problems. We need to speak for ourselves at the center stage. It would be disastrous to let others speak for us. It must not be me; it could be someone from the SCNC, AGC, or SCYL. No matter who does the speaking, We must put Ambazonia First.

We are where we are today becausea new generation of activists led by Teachers, lawyers, Farmers and bike riders have taken our problem to a new level.

They were joint by Students, apprentices young and old at home who came together as one man and said: enough is enough. They went out with peace plants and chants of peaceful protest.

We owe deep gratitude to those who laid the foundation for all of this to happen the way we see it today. I am thinking of our veteran movements of the AAC 1, AAC 2, CAM, SCARM, SCNC, SCYL, SCAPO, and most recently the Consortium.

I equally acknowledge the work done by individuals and the newly formed pressure groups. Your work is as equally as important, and it is time for us all to help tie the same bundle together for our people. This is about the people in our communities and we must make sure it remains about them and their aspirations to express their rights to self-determination as enshrined in international law.

And while we have lost thousands of innocent souls at the mercy of the occupying forces of the Cameroon republic, we know that those innocent souls are looking up to us to vindicate their memories. We owe it to them, to their families hiding in the forests, living in the streets in different communities as IDPs, our sisters and brothers who are refugees and our diaspora community on exile.

My fellow comrades,

There is no one who is ignorant about what is before us. The international community now understands that we are determined to reach the mountain top. We know those amongst us who have fabricated their own truth to believe, in but do not despair, we shall overcome someday.

Some still hope that we shall be part of French Cameroun one day. The time shall come for us to negotiate our terms of separation. But those negotiations shall only happen in the presence of international third-party mediators and in the presence of all our leaders from jail and on neutral territory.

We shall never sit down to negotiate when we still have our comrades in the jail cells of la Republique du Cameroun or with their military roaming our communities making it impossible for our people’s lives to return to normalcy.

Dear comrades, my team and I, submit ourselves to be your servants and ask you to uphold your revolutionary responsibilities that require you to help us reach our destination.

Above all you have demanded results and we shall do our best to deliver. The struggle is all about you and less about me, we are all in this together. We are putting Ambazonia First. It is total Independence or Resistance forever.

Short Live the Struggle,

God bless you,

God bless Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia

14, May 2019

Ambazonia: Vice President Dabney Speaks of his Vision, his Health and the way Forward ⁰

Following his appointment as the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Cameroon Concord News Group congratulated Dabney Yerima and judged it wise for our readers to get first-hand information about this new C0-driver of the Southern Cameroons revolution train. Vice President Dabeny cautioned our correspondent not to address him as VP but simply as Comrade. Below is the full conversation with the Southern Cameroons new strongman

Cameroon Concord News Thank you very much Mister Vice President for accepting to talk to us. A new page in the struggle and a new challenge for you and your family

Dabney Yerima: My dear journalist, titles aren’t essential or important now. The central people in this struggle are the families in the forests, the refugees in Nigeria, the IDPs, the Restoration Forces and Ground Zero not titles. These title cancers in the diaspora have made us lost our focus! We need to refocus. It is my belief that every struggle goes through phases and we have gone through a difficult one recently.

Regarding the second part of your question, I wish and must say here that this is not my family struggle; this is the people’s revolution. It’s not about me or President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe!! It’s about the people of Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News Many Ambazonians agree with you that the Southern Cameroons Diaspora has been consistently inconsistent! What should be expected in the coming days?

Dabney Yerima My vision is to get all the focus on Ground Zero. You and I are very much aware that diplomacy is a slow process but we must never give up whilst doing all we can to help our people defend themselves. My goal is to use this trust conferred upon me by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe to build bridges and to get us to refocus and direct our dynamism where it matters most. Accountability and trust are earned and not dished out like kola nuts. I also will work extremely hard to build an IG that respects Ambazonian state institutions and the constitution of the State.

Cameroon Concord News A lot of tongues have been wagging ever since President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe made public the decision appointing you as Vice President! Who is Comrade Dabney Yerima?

Dabney Yerima I was born into a traditional Northern Zone family that till this day exhumes hard-work and enthusiasm. I attended Sacred Heart College Mankon and Cameroon Protestant College Bali both in Southern Cameroons before travelling to Holland over twenty years ago. I am a family man with two beautiful kids.

Cameroon Concord News Southern Cameroonians in Europe are saying that you are not a stranger to the complexity and direction of the Ambazonia debate and struggle. Is this true?

Dabney Yerima President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe pointed out to me some time ago that whenever a man is over praised, there is the danger of him becoming arrogant, so I will always check myself when dealing or reacting to what the public is saying about me. Formerly I worked as the Acting Secretary General of the SCNC and also held positions in SCACUF. In the Ambazonian Interim Government, I served as the Under Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Resource Mobilization and before that at the DOD in the logistics Command Unit.

Cameroon Concord News We gathered from our intelligence department that you were struck down by a serious illness and was never expected to walk again or stay alive but you recovered. Talk us through that experience

Dabney Yerima As you rightly mentioned, I recovered and that’s an experience which I attribute to the grace of God. God in his infinite image has provided another opportunity for me to lead his people. I am strong and doing well and ready!! But I need the support of every Southern Cameroonian and most importantly you of the press.

Cameroon Concord New When do you intend to address the people of Ambazonia?

Dabney Yerima That decision has to come from the Communications Department of the Ambazonian presidency. I believe and fervently too that it will come soonest.

Cameroon Concord News Thank you very much for your time! Hope to have more of these conversations with you

Dabney Yerima It’s my pleasure Comrade

Interviewed by our London Bureau Chief Sesekou Asu Isong and published by Chi Prudence Asong

14, May 2019

Inside Cameroon’s civil war ⁰

In Cameroon, civil war is brewing along linguistic lines. Its origins lie in the botched decolonization of the country’s anglophone territory, but President Paul Biya’s repressive regime has poured fuel on the fire. Lorraine Mallinder reports.

Lucy speaks of her last day in her village of Mbonge with arresting clarity. The 64-year-old was cooking plantains to sell by the roadside when soldiers came sweeping in to root out separatist rebels known as Amba Boys. She remembers the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns and the screams of villagers scattering ‘helter-skelter’ – many fleeing to the bush, shot in the back as they ran. ‘Whosoever the bullets met, the people died,’ she says.

Mbonge is in Cameroon’s anglophone southwest. The soldiers were with the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), an elite Israeli- and US-trained corps deployed by the francophone regime to crush an anglophone uprising in the northwest and southwest regions. In Douala, a port city just over the border from anglophone Cameroon, countless people who have fled the conflict tell similar stories: of security forces shooting indiscriminately, torching homes and sometimes entire villages in their determination to snuff out the separatist threat.

Some call it the ‘anglophone problem’, others ‘the war’. Semantics can be blurring, but the numbers don’t lie. At least 1,600 people have lost their lives, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). Caught between government forces and the Amba Boys, nearly half a million have fled their homes, many trapped in the bush, terrified of returning to their villages but unable to seek refuge in the towns, often because they don’t have ID cards. Wary of being seen to take sides in a conflict that is becoming deadlier by the day, NGOs struggle to get food and medical assistance to those in need.

Colonel Didier Badjeck, chief of army communications, terms the regime’s actions as ‘legitimate defence’. The military, he claims, is targeting the Amba Boys – the nickname a reference to the separatists’ self-declared independent state of Ambazonia – in their rural camps, minimizing the risk of civilian deaths. He accuses groups like Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has reported on military abuses, of supporting the separatists. These groups, he says, are ‘compromising the country’s honour’.

One NGO source says otherwise. The BIR, he says, has a ‘licence to kill’. And it wields it liberally, with utter impunity.

At first sight, the musket-bearing Ambas would appear to be no match for the mighty BIR and its high-tech Israeli rifles. But the BIR and its lowlier army counterparts are unaccustomed to cat-and-mouse games of guerrilla warfare. And the mice are proving especially nimble, a rag-tag of around seven separatist militias and an unknown number of smaller cells, according to ICG, who know the dense forests like the backs of their hands. More importantly, the separatists have the support of the people, for even if they themselves have been guilty of killings and torture, anger at military excesses is reaching boiling point.

In recent speeches, President Paul Biya has paid lip service to bilingualism and decentralization, but he fails to convince. Lion Man, as his supporters call him, has not survived 36 years in power by making compromises. So confident is he of his cast-iron grip on the country, maintained through paralysing bureaucracy, entrenched patronage networks and legal witch-hunts against political opponents, that he can afford to chillax at length in Geneva every year. Meanwhile, in the sealed-off anglophone regions, the conflict rages on, far from the world’s view.

‘The way things are going now, the situation will be endless,’ says the NGO source.

The devil comes in

In Buea, capital of the southwest, we meet human rights lawyer Agbor Nkongho. In 2016, Nkongho led lawyers and teachers in protests against the government’s efforts to enforce the use of French in anglophone courts and classrooms. The regime responded with shooting from the air and on the ground, locking up protesters it labelled as ‘terrorists’. Today, an estimated 800 to 1,000 people are in prison, many of them moderates. What had started out as a civil rights protest soon spiralled into a full-blown conflict. The government’s brutal response mainstreamed separatist sentiment that had been simmering for decades.

The conflict has its roots in the botched decolonization of Cameroon in the 1960s. Formerly a German colony, it was carved up between the British and the French after the First World War. While French Cameroon gained independence in 1960, the smaller British Cameroons were denied a shot at self-determination. Instead, they had to choose between joining Nigeria or French Cameroon. The northern zone went with the former, the south opting to be folded into French Cameroon. The fledgling federal state started with two stars on its flag, symbolizing the union. But in the early 1970s, two stars became one. Francophones, who make up around 80 per cent of the population, now called the shots. The anglophone regions, rich in oil and other natural resources, were sidelined into near-insignificance.

A federalist at heart, Nkongho is caught in the middle. Jailed by the regime for eight months, he has also received death threats from separatists. Nkongho is critical of the Amba Boys, who chop off the fingers of workers ignoring strikes, torture teachers defying their boycott on schools and kill anyone suspected of collaborating with the state. As the territory descends into chaos, rival diaspora leaders in the West who are funding the two main militias – the Ambazonia Defence Forces and the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council – continue to maintain a hard line. In their battle for supremacy, their fighters occasionally clash in the bush. ‘If they’d pulled together, they could have obtained territory and controlled it,’ says Nkongho. ‘If they were really organized, they would open schools and teach the kids their history.’

There have also been kidnappings, notably November’s Boko Haram-style seizure of 78 schoolchildren and three staff members from a school in Bamenda, capital of the northwest. It took place during a strictly enforced dusk-to-dawn curfew, causing many to question how the group cleared checkpoints on their 19-kilometre journey to the town of Bafut, where the hostages were later released. Separatists and the government blamed each other, the former claiming the abduction was staged to damage their reputation. On the ground, the jury is still out. Courage, a teacher from Bamenda, says the children themselves are still giving conflicting stories.

In the anglophone regions, people now speak of ‘real Ambas’ and ‘fake Ambas’ – the latter covering anything from alleged state-sponsored mercenaries to the gangs of bandits now roaming the land. ‘When you have a house that is always quarrelling, the devil outside realizes and comes in,’ says Brenda, a civil rights activist from Mamfe, in the southwest.

In February, the conflict spiked during a 10-day lockdown. In the northwestern town of Kumbo, 176 people – mostly schoolchildren – were kidnapped and released the next day amid rumours of ransoms. Kumbo was especially volatile, security forces burning houses and shops, and threatening hospital staff, according to HRW. In the southwest, a hospital in the town of Kumba was burned, killing four people. Nobody knows who did it, but military attacks on hospitals are not uncommon. Wounded locals often resist being admitted for treatment for fear of being hauled out by soldiers.

Nkongho estimates that around 30 people lost their lives during February’s violence.

Gerontocracy

The first casualty of war is truth, they say. Especially in a country where journalists risk being hauled before a military court for doing their job, increasingly on charges of ‘fake news’. Currently there are four journalists from anglophone Cameroon in jail, three of whom are known to be in Yaoundé’s notorious Kondengui Prison. One, Thomas Awah Junior, of Afrik 2 Radio, is critically ill.

Journalist Mimi Mefo attracted worldwide support when she was arrested in November 2018. Released on the orders of President Biya, she was warned that the military would eventually get her. Living in permanent fear, she continued to work, threatened by online trolls whom she suspected of being government agents. Now in London, she believes she will be arrested again if she returns.

‘Many journalists are now doing self-censorship,’ she says. ‘The government doesn’t want the story of Cameroon to be told.’

The story of Cameroon right now is one of a gerontocracy holding ever-tighter on to power, crushing the country in its death grip. Anglophones are not alone in their opposition to a government that has over-stayed its welcome – possibly by 26 years. Many Cameroonians believe Biya stole victory in the 1992 elections from John Fru Ndi – an anglophone, as it happens.

History repeats itself endlessly here. Biya, now 86, was re-elected for a seventh mandate last year, amid allegations of fraud. Though, as one diplomat in Yaoundé notes wryly, the outcome was already baked into the system. The opposition organized protests, which ended in mass arrests, including the jailing of opposition leader Maurice Kamto in January. Potential rivals for power are regularly locked up. Cameroonians like to joke that an entire parallel government resides in prison, given the numbers of former high-ranking officials incarcerated.

Observers wonder whether the anglophone conflict will prove to be the regime’s unravelling. Aside from being a drain on state finances, it is now hitting export crops like bananas, rubber, cocoa and coffee hard. And it’s not as if the regime doesn’t have other problems to contend with. Up in the far north, the war on Boko Haram jihadists drags on into its fifth year. And in the east, troops are battling armed gangs from the war-torn Central African Republic.

Diplomatically, the country is under strain. Traditionally a stable foothold in Central Africa, it has long escaped international criticism. But last year, it was stripped of hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, partly owing to security concerns. And, this year, the US scaled back military aid, citing concerns over human rights violations. It’s unclear whether the move was in response to abuses in the anglophone regions or in the far north, where soldiers have also wielded their ‘licence to kill’ with reckless abandon. Either way, it came as a blow to the regime.

The President is fighting back, employing the services of Glover Park Group, a Washington DC-based lobbying and communications firm. In the anglophone regions, people despair that the narrative is going Biya’s way, the state asserting its right to crush ‘terrorists’ and ‘criminals’, who often turn out to be innocents. NGOs at the mercy of capricious bureaucrats who can withhold passes dare not speak of the abuses they witness lest they lose access to the conflict zone.

One international aid worker, who is assisting people in the bush, agrees that Biya may be winning the PR war. ‘But that’s the only war he’s winning,’ he says. ‘The military know that brute force is not going to win the conflict. You can’t catch so many people hidden in the population.’

‘On the ground people are blaming the government,’ says one journalist in Buea. ‘The people are fed up. The government has failed.’

Culled from New Internationalist

14, May 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Belated UNSC Session Attempts To Cover Up Collusion By Guterres and SC Members ⁰

As the UN Security Council holds a belated session about Cameroon, albeit an informal one with no expected outcome and notably not co-sponsored by veto holding colonial power France, hypocrisy and cover up of the UN’s failure are evident.

The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, took a golden statue from Paul Biya in his last interaction, and cut a deal of silence for Biya’s support in the UN Budget Committee which Biya’s Ambassador Tommo Monthe chaired.

The UK’s Liam Fox bragged about UK-based New Age’s hydro carbons deal with Biya, just as another example. Sycophant media which ignored than dismissed the killings now mechanically mis-report this “Arria formula” meeting, essentially to rehabilitate the remaining credibility of the UN and themselves, like Human Rights Watch which told Inner City Press Cameroon was not a top 90 problem to be included in HRW’s 2018 World Report.

Don’t believe the hype. In 2009, for example, after the UNSC belatedly held such sessions on Sri Lanka, the lack of outcome emboldened the Rajapaksas to go ahead and “finish off” the Tamils in what’s called the Bloodbath on the Beach. The UN system has not held anyone accountable; Guterres representative Singer was smiling with Mahinda Rajapaka this year. The only thing missing was a golden statute.

Will what Guterres accepted from Biya be seen, or even mentioned, in the May 13 meeting that Inner City Press for reporting on it cannot even enter to cover in person, banned from entering the UN for the 313th day by Guterres, with similar inaction by the UNSC members?

After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press again asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. This came after Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on 3 July 2018 after it interviewed Biya’s Ambassador about the two men’s Budget Committee deals and banned from the UN since – Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press banned from the Park East Synagogue, here, which was denied / dodged by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who put up then took down a podcast in which he brags about his “mutually assured destruction” relationship with journalists, here.

Nor has Inner City Press’ September 2018 Freedom of Information Act request, here, been responded to. From the request: “On behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity as its United Nations bureau chief, Matthew Russell Lee, this is a request pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 for the following information: 1) most pressingly, for the report on human rights abuse by the Cameroon military and of the US’ knowledge thereof, on information and belief headed by Brig. Gen. Timothy McAteer and concluded in November 2017; 2) any and all other records in your possession concerning abuses by the Cameroon security forces, including but not limited to in the North-West and South-West regions, from January 1, 2017 to the date of your response to this request. This request, particularly (1) above which can and should be treated separately, should be afforded expedited treatment. Inner City Press is reporting on abuses in Cameroon, including with the knowledge of the US – and why there has been no UN Security Council meeting on Cameroon. The US is for this month the president of the US Security Council and this request should be fully responded to in that time frame, including any necessary appeal.” Not a single document yet.We will have more on this.

Culled from Inner Press

14, May 2019

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Cameroon ⁰

His Excellency
Dr. Dion Ngute
Prime Minister, Republic of Cameroon

Dear Prime Minister Dion Ngute,

Allow me to congratulate you on your appointment as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Cameroon. I would also like to express my admiration of your efforts aimed at seeking a long-lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis that has resulted in the unnecessary death of some 2,000 Southern Cameroonians.

Your trip to the North West regional headquarters of Bamenda, despite the violence that is playing out there, is testimony to your firm commitment to seek a just and fair solution to the conflict that has put our country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

However, before focusing on your mission to the North West region, I would like to point out that l would have loved to send this letter to you through the official channel, but given that our civil service is ineffective and corrupt, I have opted to send it via this medium as I do not want it to end up as a dead letter.

Regarding your peace-seeking mission, I would like to highlight that many Southern Cameroonians, especially those who have been directly affected by this “man-made catastrophe”, are watching you very carefully as their future depends on the resolution of this conflict that could have been nipped in the bud if the government you serve had not made arrogance and repression its hallmarks.

I have personally been listening to you on your “roadshow” and I will continue to do so as you take your message of peace to our beloved South West Region next week. Like you, I am a bona fide son of the South West Region and I want peace to prevail so that our people can return to their land and live a normal life.

However, as a Southern Cameroonian, I am concerned by some of the messages you have been delivering while on your roadshow. While I welcome the message that your president, the one you serve and adore, is now open to discussions on the form of the state, I am however concerned that your mission seems to be doomed to failure, especially as your government is determined to exclude an important segment of the Southern Cameroonian population which you and your government have tagged as separatists.

For any dialogue to be meaningful, all shades of opinions must be welcomed and discussed at the negotiating table. I am an unapologetic federalist, but I hold that it is incumbent upon me to dialogue with and understand those who hold that secession is the ultimate solution.

I think those who have been calling for a separate Southern Cameroonian state have been pushed to the wall by your government and it is incumbent upon you and your government to convince them that separation is not a good option for the country. That is one job you should be prepared to handle in the days ahead.

These people have been pushed to the wall by your government’s refusal to listen to the people’s grievances for decades. Eliminating them from any dialogue might only radicalize them and make it impossible for our country to achieve the peace it needs.

These “separatists” are Southern Cameroonians too and they deserve to be heard. They must be given a chance for them to express their views so that, together, we can find a lasting solution to this unfortunate situation.

Their leaders are in jail in Yaounde and your government has been putting them through a pseudo trial that does not speak well of the country. Those in jail must be involved in the dialogue for it to be meaningful.

Allow me to point out that a first serious step towards seeking peace will be publicly acknowledging that mistakes have been made, apologizing for the lives lost and property intentionally damaged by government forces.

Mr. Prime Minister, unconditionally releasing all those who are being held in your dungeons in Yaounde will send a clear message that your government is serious about restoring peace in the country. A blanket amnesty should be granted to all Southern Cameroonians at home and abroad as a confidence building measure.

Southern Cameroonian leaders at home and abroad should be allowed to prepare for any inclusive dialogue that may be organized by your government in the presence of the United Nations and other stakeholders like Canada and the United States.

It should be underscored that there is a confidence deficit in Cameroon. Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians do not trust the Yaounde government, as it is noted for speaking from both sides of its mouth. These issues require Cameroonians to look at each other in the eyes and say those home truths that will enable us make giant steps towards peace.

I am also pleased to know that you met with lawyers in Bamenda and you listened to them religiously in order to gain a better understanding of their own issues. I would like to advise that the conflict that has torn our country apart is not a socio-professional issue.

It is a constitutional and political issue that needs to be addressed in an inclusive dialogue like the one the United Nations and the International Community have been calling for over the last two years. If your government is still insisting on its own approach, then it is not yet ready to see this matter settled definitively.

It has also been reported that you advised lawyers in Bamenda not to focus on the root cause of the conflict, but rather on the way forward. I understand that you and your government want to walk away from the mess you have created but walking away from it without seeking to know what triggered it will be like striking the branches of a problem instead of its roots.

Like most Cameroonians, I would not like this ugly history to repeat itself in Cameroon. If thunder strikes twice in the same place, then we have not taken all the measures necessary to keep it at bay. It is incumbent upon us to come up with solutions that will never put future generations at risk.

To achieve this, we must carefully examine the root cause of the issue. We should not just flip the page without reading it. It is an ugly page, but we must read it to understand how it all unraveled. We should be driven by the need to spare future generations such a disaster and not by the political expediency that your government is noted for.

I know you will be heading to the South West Region next week and you will be delivering the same messages over there. I would like to remind you that you have to meet with people who will tell you the truth and not only with those who will flatter you.

While seeking opinions at home, do not forget that the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is a formidable force and its opinion must count. There is no way there can be peace in Cameroon if the opinion of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is not taken into consideration.

The Diaspora has the resources and men to destabilize the country for a long time. Its vast financial resources can be used for development purposes if the Yaounde government partners with it in a win-win partnership. Rather than alienate this group of hard-working Cameroonians, it will be in the government’s interest to work with this Diaspora that has played a significant role in the conflict.

This situation is critical and only the truth will bail our country out of this political quagmire. This situation does not require long speeches. Many have died and many are still dying. Your soldiers are still kidnapping and slaughtering innocent civilians. Their license to kill is not yet expired. I would suggest we make these consultations as short as possible in order to commence with the inclusive dialogue Cameroonians are waiting for.

Mr. Prime Minister, I would not like to take your time. I know you are a busy person and you are honest and peace-loving. I sincerely wish you the best in your undertaking and I stand by for any input you may need in this regard.

Sincerely,

By Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication and public relations at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing at George Brown College, Toronto, Canada. He also studied translation at the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI) of the University of Buea, as well as Languages and Linguistics at the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He holds a Ph.D. He can be reached at: arreyjoachim@hotmail.com

14, May 2019

UN Security Council Calls for Inclusive Dialogue in its Session on Cameroon ⁰

The United Nations Security Council has called for an inclusive dialogue as a means of ending the conflict that has been raging in Cameroon for three years.

Speaker after speaker at the UN headquarters in New York called for a regional and international response that will help end the hostilities that have been playing out in the two English speaking regions of the country.

Security council members hold that sub-regional and regional organizations should be empowered to help Cameroon overcome this challenge that is really threatening the continent and creating refugees that are mounting pressure on neighboring countries. Even Equatorial Guinea urged Cameroon to look at the root cause of the conflict, adding that the issue could be properly addressed through inclusive dialogue and negotiations.

While all the other countries that got represented on the Security Council said the situation in Cameroon was worrisome and could pose a real threat to the sub-region and continent, the Cameroon ambassador to the UN argued that the government was in control of things and was capable of addressing the issues with the support of its partners . He added that the country was dealing with terrorists and secessionists, adding that the government understood the country more than anybody else. He produced a litany of complaints, adding that some Security Council members had come to the session with a hidden agenda of destabilizing the country.

He added that some countries also had plans to obtain contracts for their NGOs, stressing that the government had delivered assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons in various parts of the two English-speaking regions. The ambassador’s body language and argument spoke to the desperation of the Yaounde government that is under enormous international pressure.

He argued that dialogue was going on in the country, pointing to the Prime Minister’s visit to the North West region and his planned visit to the South West region as evidence of government efforts at fostering dialogue. He also said that the Prime Minister had visited the leader of the opposition in Cameroon, John Fru Ndi, who shared a meal with the Prime Minister during the latter’s visit to the North West region. From every indication, the Prime Minister’s visit was planned to coincide with the Security Council’s session on Cameroon for the world to see that the government was bending over backwards to seeking a lasting solution to the conflict.