Back-to-School: Southern Cameroons lockdown campaign is raging against Yaoundé ⁰

The entire Southern Cameroons territory has been shutdown ever since the government in Yaoundé announced its so-called back-to-school policy. Businesses and government offices remained close as Ambazonians continue to reject the current political status quo with French Cameroun.

An estimated three million Southern Cameroonians have stayed indoors in numerous towns and villages throughout Southern Cameroons and amid a brutal crackdown by Cameroon government army soldiers, the back-to-school lockdown has resulted in the deaths of several people.

“The Ambazonian Interim Government and the people of Southern Cameroons are proving that they have the will to resist and experience in developing networks and taking it upon themselves not to allow the French Cameroun regime to continue to dictate and dominate the political life in Southern Cameroons,” Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government told journalists recently in Den Hague, Holland.

Since top Cameroon army general Bouba Dobékréo  announced he will crush the Southern Cameroons uprising within months, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have carried out a series of deadly ambushes against the Cameroon government military which have been on a bigger scale than anything yet seen since the start of the conflict five years ago. And now, the resistance is being spiced with acts of civil disobedience to denounce French Cameroun’s military presence and atrocious activities in Southern Cameroons.

Five years into the conflict, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have again imposed a successful lockdown in both the South West and the North West regions. Southern Cameroonians have remained defiant and unified on one thing, which is the complete rejection of Biya, Yaoundé and French Cameroun.

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu thinks the unity among Southern Cameroonians today in Ground Zero is growing stronger again and that the complete implementation of the Big Rubbergun Project will be a turning point to mark the beginning of the end of Biya French Cameroun rule in Southern Cameroons.

Members of a ‘think-and-do-tank’ in the UK with strong ties to the Ambazonia Interim Government have urged Vice President Dabney Yerima to mobilize resources for all Amba fighters in Ground Zero.

Anger has been rising since the appointment of General Bouba Dobékréo and it is now further growing as the military creates more victims. Many Southern Cameroons families too have not recovered from atrocities committed by Amba fighters.

Despite violent repression from the Cameroon government military and the paramilitary Rapid Intervention Battalion Forces (BIR), the Southern Cameroons lockdown is raging on against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Francophone army soldiers have kept up their heavy-handed response and launched sweeping arrests of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia activists. There are reports of the Cameroon government military going house to house in Kumbo in Bui Division detaining Southern Cameroonians.

Ghost towns and lockdowns have been successful in Southern Cameroons in the past; but this time around they are the two most effective tools the Ambazonia Interim Government has!

The 2022 back-to-school lockdown has taken root in Southern Cameroons with a wide array of participating Ambazonia groups and restoration forces.

In the entire Southern Cameroons, the majority of government and educational institutions have stopped working, and several businesses and banks have remained closed as many people responded to the lockdown calls.

Demands include the complete release of all Southern Cameroons detainees including President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and an end to French Cameroun occupation of the Ambazonia homeland.

Lockdown is an extreme form of peaceful protest in Southern Cameroons to tell those in power in Yaoundé that, if they want to rule, Ambazonians won’t cooperate and they will squeeze French Cameroun economic and political interest in Southern Cameroons dry until their demands are met.

However, the campaign, besides hurting the political and military leadership in Yaoundé, affects Southern Cameroonians in their livelihoods, though many are willing to pay such a price for the greater good down the line.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai