Editorial

20, February 2025

October Presidential Election: Will 92-year-old Biya be re-elected? ⁰

It actually seems like a done deal even though Cameroonians both French and English speaking will not vote for him.

Shortly after he took office from the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo, he pretended to be a man of rigour and moralization. And after 42 years in power, it is now certain that President Paul Biya will be running for an eighth term, and he is expected to win comfortably without campaigning.

He has not submitted the necessary documents to run on October 11, but the activities of his acolytes are quashing any uncertainty surrounding his decision. To justify his intention to run, senior Cameroon government officials from his Beti Bulu tribal extraction have been busy explaining that at 92, he is being urged to do so by other political parties and the civil society.

In fact, Cameroon’s numerous opposition parties have not put forth any credible candidate for the elections. Even the SDF of Joshua Osih and the MRC of Maurice Kamto have still not even formed a coalition.

No specific reason has been put forward to justify why a 92-year-old man still wants to remain in office. Biya’s only curt explanation is that he has experience that has failed to deliver anything positive to the Cameroonian people leaving observers perplexed.

His cabinet ministers and ELECAM officials, the body responsible for organizing elections in Cameroon are busy making things harder for opponents to mobilize their bases and to organize protests. Employees and civil servants who attempt to strike are ruthlessly crushed and severely dealt with!

Biya’s ministers have been campaigning for several months now but there is nothing for them to take advantage of in each outing to boast about his record.

Biya’s 42-years in office have been a prominent and successful failure in the fight against corruption. He has been unable to recover money held abroad by oligarchs close to him. All what his Special Criminal Court claims to do in the fight against corruption ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd. Cameroon as a nation is losing everything including its international presence.

In his forty-two year presidency, Cameroon became the first African country to introduce unemployment benefits for traditional rulers who have all abandoned their villages and are currently living in big cities such as Douala and Yaoundé.

Covid-19 funding disappeared amid rising inflation and Cameroonians have never benefited from increase in oil and gas prices under his leadership. Biya’s repression of civil liberties remains an indelible black mark on his administration. Yaoundé still has more than 5000 Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience, including journalists, activists and the leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

The disintegration of the Anglophone press over the last six years following the Ambazonia uprising has been frightening. The few independent media houses that exist in French speaking Cameroon face financial troubles due to the difficulty of accessing funding of any kind.

Anglophone journalists are subject to regular intimidation that has become formalized in recent years through the arrest and harassment of those who speak critically of the Francophone dominated regime. Journalists who will be allowed to cover the presidential elections will most likely be, as for previous elections, handpicked by the authorities. This will not be a new occurrence.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are of the opinion that the presidential elections will be a hoax. So, boycott or participate is the question that Cameroonian political parties and voters will face this coming October.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, February 2025

Why is Biya seeking re-election? ⁰

Many Cameroonians thought that after 42 years in power and following the crash of his reputation both at home and abroad, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, will no longer run for the presidency, and especially as his health has become a cause for concern.

Biya has reigned over his country for decades and during his time in power, a lot has gone wrong with a country once considered as an earthly paradise by many. The country’s economy has collapsed, the country’s youths are frustrated and depressed, and unemployment in the country has reached record levels.

Despite Mr. Biya’s dismal performance over the last four decades, militants of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement are still pushing for their chairman to seek re-election to extend President Biya’s term after forty long and frustrating years in power.

In today’s editorial meeting in London, the Cameroon Concord News Group Paris bureau chief jokingly said that Mr. Biya needed a 7-year extension because he was looking forward to addressing a few things before leaving power at the age of 100 years.

Biya’s candidacy in the upcoming October presidential election, he said, was justified, adding that the next 7-year term would make him president for life.

The October presidential election is already shrouded in uncertainty amid restrictions on free speech imposed by the country’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, to curb the spread of anti-Biya actions.

The 92-year-old Biya said in a recent address to Cameroonian youths that he wanted the election to go ahead to guarantee his continued stay in power, advising the country’s youths to shun propaganda and misinformation that might hurt them in the long run as if they are not already hurt.

The Francophone dominated Cameroon opposition has accused the out-of-touch regime of putting political gain ahead of national progress and development in its push for Biya to contest the election.

Biya and his ruling CPDM party control everything in Cameroon including the use of condoms but are short of declaring Cameroon a kingdom.

Two prominent CPDM officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Cameroon Concord News that Cameroon as a nation was on the brink and that if appropriate measures were not taken, the country would hit rock bottom in a few months.

“Biya is running because he is ashamed and his conscience is now judging him,” one of our sources in Yaoundé said, adding that “his 42-year reign has brought untold hardship to millions of Cameroonians who once saw Biya as a youthful and effective solution to the country’s problems.”

Biya, our source added, had disappointed many and that he completely out of touch with the country’s youths who are in the majority.

“There is a massive disconnect between Biya and the youths in Cameroon. We live in a world wherein technology is being leveraged to address socio-economic issues, but Biya and his people are stuck in the past. We hope if he gets the next seven years, he will be able to correct some of the mistakes he and his government have made over the last four decades,” the source concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

14, February 2025

Southern Cameroons: Ngarbuh massacre victims wait for justice five years on ⁰

Brutal violence has taken hold in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions since 2016 as armed separatist groups seek independence for the country’s minority Anglophone regions. Attacks on communities and acts of banditry have become the norm.

Government security forces were deployed to stop attacks and bring stability, but the conflict has only deepened. Security forces and separatist groups have both been responsible for serious abuses against civilians. One gruesome case, however, highlights the security forces’ role in cold-blooded attacks and the government’s attempts to delay any accountability.

On February 14, 2020, Cameroonian soldiers and armed ethnic Fulani raided Ngarbuh, in the North-West region, killing at least 21 civilians, including 13 children, and burning homes. Bodies of some victims were found charred inside their homes. The killings shattered the community and sent shockwaves throughout the country. The attack was a reprisal against residents whom government forces accused of collaborating with separatist fighters.

The government initially denied its troops were involved in the massacre and described allegations against them as fake. But following sustained national and international pressure, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya established a commission of inquiry in March 2020. The government eventually admitted the role of security forces in the attack and announced the arrest of two soldiers and a gendarme in June 2020.

A trial opened in December 2020 before a military court in the capital Yaoundé. However, the trial has faced numerous delays and has been marred by irregularities. Hearings have been postponed multiple times for various reasons, including the absence of judges and other court members. Victims’ families have had minimal participation in the proceedings and the court has refused to admit key evidence, including death certificates. Senior officers have not been arrested or charged, and 17 ethnic-Fulani vigilantes, who were also charged with murder, remain at large.

The last hearing took place on October 17, 2024, and the next is scheduled for February 20. The glacial pace of the proceedings has victims’ families wondering if justice will ever be rendered.

The Ngarbuh trial is an opportunity for the government to show its people and the world it can hold its senior officers responsible. The question is whether Cameroon’s judiciary will act.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

11, February 2025

11 February: Paul Biya’s empty speech ⁰

My dear young compatriots,

In my message to you last year, in similar circumstances, shortly after our country’s challenging campaign at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Côte d’Ivoire, I assured you that we would return to winning ways.

Our brilliant qualification for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations tournament to be hosted by Morocco, is testimony to the remarkable achievements of which, you, our talented and courageous youth are capable, by dint of hard work and discipline.

On behalf of you all, I would like to sincerely congratulate our brave Indomitable Lions and their managers. I urge them to forge ahead this path, to continue bringing joy and pride to the Cameroonian people and to set an example to our youth. The Government, under my leadership, will spare no effort to give them all the support they need.

However, I believe I should emphasize here, that the positive momentum we are celebrating together today will bear fruit only if harmony, solidarity and team spirit prevail within and around the team. In this regard, I appeal to the sense of responsibility of all stakeholders.

My dear young compatriots,

This year holds many challenges for our country, our people and our youth. In my recent address to the Nation, I reviewed the constraints awaiting us in our quest for progress.

Some of them stem from the international environment and others from our country’s internal circumstances. I will not come back on that.

On the same occasion, I also highlighted the commendable efforts made by the Government to address these constraints and to actively continue to improve the living conditions of our fellow-citizens, based on strong economic growth and the need to maintain peace and security.

While the vast majority appreciated the sincerity of my message, some pessimists chose to focus on the fact that one thing or another had not been done, or had not yet been done, disregarding the real and verifiable constraints I mentioned.

My dear young compatriots,

Let me assure you: Whatever the criticism, I will always speak the language of truth to you.

And the truth is that, despite the multiple and complex obstacles to our development efforts, we have achieved very much together. Tremendous strides have been made in recent years, thanks to our combined efforts and the unwavering support you have lent me.

My dear young compatriots,

I know that, as with all young people worldwide, your education and training mean everything to you. Understandably, you are particularly concerned about your entry into the labour market.

Let’s talk about your training for a moment.

It is clear that, with each passing year, the training opportunities are getting better and better in terms of quantity and quality.

The school and university landscape continues to expand and diversify with the establishment of new primary, secondary and higher education institutions.

New specialized courses are regularly introduced in government secondary schools and universities. The professionalization of training curricula is ongoing in all types of education systems to provide young graduates with the requisite technical skills likely to facilitate their access to the labour market.

Similarly, through operational training centres, young people without qualifications can learn a trade and find their place in society. In this regard, I am delighted with the opening of the Nanga-Eboko and Lembe-Yézoum vocational training centres. Other centres are being built in various localities around the country.

I have also instructed the Government to fast-track the setting-up of municipal employment offices, to provide optimum support for young jobseekers.

Furthermore, the number of learners in Vocational Training Centres of Excellence has increased significantly following the reduction in tuition fees in these institutions.

My dear young compatriots,

No country is spared by the youth unemployment phenomenon. Commendable efforts are ongoing to reduce it. To this end, I have instructed the Government to establish a regulatory framework to support the recruitment of first-time jobseekers.

This mechanism is intended to provide better support to young people who have never had a job and to help them find their first job.

The National Directory of Jobs, Trades and Professions has also been set up with this goal in mind. It will help to consolidate, analyse and disseminate information on available job opportunities in our country.

Furthermore, the Government will continue to ensure that training opportunities are as relevant as possible to actual labour market needs, to prevent many graduates ending up unemployed. Scholarships were awarded to hundreds of young Cameroonians in 2024.

I have also instructed the Government to involve as many young people as possible in preserving the environment and combating climate change.

Such is the objective of the ongoing Green Jobs Promotion Programme. It will ultimately help to create over ten thousand jobs through income-generating activities in areas such as sanitation, waste recycling and organic farming.

In the coming weeks, the contractualization of health workers that I announced at the end of last year will be launched. This initiative will spare thousands of young health sector graduates from social insecurity and improve their living conditions.

As you can see, Government is actively developing strategies and tools to reduce youth unemployment. Many government services are being mobilized for this purpose and substantial financial resources are allocated each year to achieve this goal.

Believe me, I will not relent in the fight I have been waging for years against unemployment, particularly youth unemployment.

My dear young compatriots,

I want to assure you that public service recruitments will continue. However, you know as well as I that, whatever the Government’s determination and our country’s available financial resources, these will never suffice to offer every young person a job in the public service or in the private sector.

I can understand the frustration of many of you. Unfortunately, this frustration leads some of you to wander off the beaten path, and to go astray.

Others, in desperation, choose the perilous and devious route of illegal immigration, with often tragic outcomes, as we are aware.

And yet, as you know, paid employment is not the only means to enter the labour market.

Other avenues exist. Once again, I urge you to explore opportunities in sectors such as agriculture and livestock farming. You should draw inspiration from the success stories of Samuel Tony OBAM BIKOUE, who has established an agro-industry, or the young TATA BAKARY, who now runs a large farming complex.

Let me remind you that you are definitely the most technology-savvy generation. So take advantage of digital technology to create self-employment opportunities and to address the challenges of your time.

I would also encourage you to participate in the moral, civic and entrepreneurial rearmament programme that the Government has designed to strengthen your civic engagement.

My dear young compatriots,

I understand your legitimate desire to realize your dreams and improve your living conditions. It is only natural that you expect the Government to provide appropriate solutions to the issues that are vital to your fulfilment.

This year, once again, our country will hold important elections. This will afford those of you who meet the legal requirements, the opportunity to freely exercise your civic duty. When the time comes, it will be up to you to make your choice responsibly, in peace and quiet.

Therefore, I urge you not to pay heed to the siren calls by some irresponsible individuals. Do not let them use you to achieve their evil plans of wreaking chaos in our beloved and beautiful country.

Also, do not be swayed by the false and often unachievable promises they try to lure you with.

For my part, I assure you that I will continue to stand by your side in addressing the challenges you face.

Happy Youth Day to you all.

Thank you.

28, January 2025

Clock ticking on Biya as pressure to quit Unity Palace increases ⁰

The Etoudi walls appear to be closing in on President Paul Biya in Yaoundé.

Barrister Akere Muna, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, Professor Maurice Kamto and Jean-Michel Nintcheu are about as influential as you can get within the Cameroon political structure and all of them have advised Mr Paul Biya that any attempt on his part to bid for re-election will be unrealistic and a costly mistake.

There are also reports that the late David Abouem à Tchoyi, the former Secretary General at the presidency and CPDM party grandee, had told government insiders that Paul Biya’s path to another term will be unwise, and that he needed to seriously consider the country and the future generation.

All of the names above have publicly called for President Biya to step down and Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that there are many more prominent members of government who are pushing for Biya to go but doesn’t want to be accused of disloyalty to the 92-year-old president.

Recently, the Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji and the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh were alarmed by anti Biya statements from top Roman Catholic clerics and some renowned Imams.

Many political commentators believe an extension of Biya’s rule will lead the country into civil war. There’s also some evidence that the Far North region that has always been Mr Biya’s stronghold is now slipping away.

Paul Biya himself has been revising his view on what it would take for him to bow to the growing pressure. These days Unity Palace has been making public presidential decrees reportedly signed by President Biya appointing junior officials to insignificant positions in the administrtion while ignoring more than six vacant ministerial portfolios. Majority of the cabinet ministers died before the COVID 19 pandemic.

His latest appearance on a wheelchair inside Etoudi has exacerbated the ongoing concerns about his age, health and fragility. This does not look great for a leader many Cameroonians already know has overstayed his time in the Unity Palace.

The 2025 presidential election is not just going to be about flying to Maroua and read a speech for five minutes and return to Yaoundé and wait for ELECAM and the constitutional court to declare you as winner. 2025 is also going to be about projecting physical strength as a leader which Biya does not have.

Ultimately, the decision to stand down has to come from Mr Paul Biya. He is dismissive of everything and only relies on the military and his powerful presidential guards.

There are also some CPDM militants still fully behind the 92-year-old president and consider him to still be sharp. They include his wife Chantal Biya, her blood relation Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who currently moonlights as Minister-Secretary General at the presidency, 90-year-old House Speaker Cavaye Djibril, 91-year-old Senate leader Niat Marcel and a sea of corrupt traditional rulers whose chieftaincy titles are still being contested all over the country.

But with the presidential election barely some few months away and with many deep within the Biya generation now dying like flies, it feels as if the clock has again reset and is ticking.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

23, January 2025

Yaoundé: Hope and Despair in the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison ⁰

Tsi Conrad, a Cameroonian journalist who has been unjustly imprisoned since December 2016, is hopeful that President Donald Trump will continue to call out the Biya regime’s abuses and push for democracy in Cameroon.

When the news that Donald Trump had been reelected reached my cell in Cameroon’s Yaoundé Central Prison, I was filled with both hope and despair. I felt despair because it was a reminder that I have been wrongfully imprisoned for eight years—I was arrested in December 2016, in the wake of his first electoral victory. But I also felt a glimmer of hope, because during his last administration, President Trump took important action to hold the government of Cameroon accountable, and I am hopeful that he will continue to call out the Biya regime’s abuses and push for democracy in Cameroon.

As an independent journalist in Cameroon, I always knew that my work could land me in trouble. Reporters Without Borders has called Cameroon “one of the continent’s most dangerous countries for journalists,” and with good reason—journalists have been harassed, arrested, kidnapped, and even killed. My reporting is particularly sensitive, as it relates to the Anglophone crisis—the civil unrest in the country’s English-speaking regions —and the abuses and atrocities that have occurred in these areas. This topic is not just a professional interest, but a personal one as well: I am from Bamenda, the epicenter of the Anglophone protests.

On December 8, 2016, I was arrested while filming a demonstration at which police shot and killed four people. The police seized and destroyed my camera and tortured me into signing a false confession. In May 2018, after an unfair trial in which I was not even allowed to call defense witnesses, I was convicted on a variety of baseless charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

It is widely recognized that my detention is nothing more than retaliation for my reporting. In fact, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention not only found that my detention is arbitrary and in violation of international law, but also concluded that it “resulted from the exercise of [my] right to freedom of expression.” Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch, have similarly called for my release.

December 8, 2024, marked the eight-year anniversary of my detention. If this is to be the last Christmas that I celebrated in prison, and if human rights in Cameroon are to stand a chance, then the Trump administration will once again need to step up.

First, the new administration should refuse to reinstate Cameroon’s benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In 2019, the Trump administration suspended Cameroon from trade preference benefits under AGOA due to “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” including “extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and unlawful detention, and torture.” However, Cameroon has recently been lobbying for reinstatement, and the outgoing US ambassador to Cameroon reportedly told Cameroonian officials that the United States is ready to support the country’s reinstatement. But this would send exactly the wrong message, as Cameroon has only become more repressive over the past few years. In 2017, for example, Cameroon received a score of 24 out of 100 in Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World report; by 2024, its score had declined to 15 out of 100. And as the US State Department has documented, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and torture remain serious concerns.

Second, the United States should impose targeted sanctions on the government officials responsible for serious human rights abuses. Despite Cameroon’s consistently deplorable human rights record, including the repression and detention of journalists, there are no government officials on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list (though the US State Department did announce a policy of imposing visa restrictions relating to the Anglophone crisis in 2021).

And third, with Cameroon’s October 2025 presidential election fast approaching, the Trump administration should emphasize in all its meetings with Cameroonian officials that a free and fair election cannot occur without a free and independent media. While there are many restrictions on the media that need to be addressed, perhaps the most important—and the easiest for the government to fix—is the detention of journalists who criticize its actions. The United States should therefore demand that I and the other detained journalists be released before the election so that we—and the many others who have been intimidated into silence—can do our jobs.

Culled from Freedom House.Org

20, January 2025

Brenda Biya competing with poor saloon girls as the country burns ⁰

Her dad President Paul Biya is fast exceeding his quota of killing. Roads in the country are so bad that potholes are swallowing cars, okadas and bicycles the way his ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Laurent Esso and Ngoh Ngoh are swallowing opponents of the regime.

The Delegate General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele observed recently that driving from the nation’s capital Yaoundé to Mutengene in the South West region, the only way to continue the journey is over the rooftop of the vehicle which the road has already eaten.

So, the best way to survive in Cameroon is by relocating to Bastos in Yaoundé with all your belongings including small shops, hair dressing saloons, beer parlours and cosmetic shops. This is what Brenda Biya, daughter of President Biya the so called Father of the Nation has just done.

Bastos is supposed to be a kind of Stamford Bridge hosting foreign diplomats, billionaires and those who matter deep within the Cameroonian society. But Brenda Biya and her dad President Paul Biya have made it a free for all with every Tom, Dick or Harry steaming up and down eating roast corn and plums like in Metta Quarter in Kumba.

Recently, a small shop Bree Cosmetics opened its doors in Bastos under the direct supervision of the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. Bastos is the place no one can be killed in Cameroon.

The decision by Brenda Biya to open her cosmetic shop in Bastos is essentially to keep her father’s failed and empty legacy alive. Brenda Biya is now competing with poor Cameroonian girls who are shuttling between Dubai and Douala to make ends meet!! And Cameroon is burning.

Brenda reportedly studied in one of the best universities in the USA when thousands of English speaking Cameroonians were being killed by the Francophone dominated military in a war that her dad declared against English speaking Cameroonians.

Today, the monstrous liability of a head of state and the all powerful Fon of Fons is watching his children either committing the same shameful errors or falling into spectacular new ones.

The fire burning up the Biya family is the result of him thinking that he is a god. His refusal to bow to demands for change in Cameroon and hand over power to the new generation and his corrupt policy in which the funds of Cameroon as a country are confused with his own, have led to a complete breakdown of law and order.

The Biya family is now opening a small cosmetic shop for Brenda Biya, after more than 42 years of watching the economic and political corruption that has reduced Cameroon to wretched and grinding poverty.

Roman Catholic Bishops have appealed to Mr Biya to step down, but he is not showing any sign of leaving. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that he is now struggling to pay his destitute army.

Although French speaking Roman Catholic Bishops are trying to chip away Mr Biya’s authority, the 92-year-old dictator is still firmly entrenched. The most powerful elements of the army, the gendarmerie, the police force and the media are all under his control.

Ultimately Biya’s survival depends on the loyalty of the secret service dominated by elements from his Beti-Bulu tribal extraction, the Francophone military including the National Gendarmerie and to this end, the privileged service men and women will be allocated funds to go and shop at the Bree Cosmetics Shop in Bastos. That will give them a special kind of divinity.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

18, January 2025

There are reasons why Anglophones believe Biya is a loud sounding nothing ⁰

A huge influx of French speaking Cameroonians coming back every December into the country from Germany, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, UK and the USA and a swelling desire for infrastructural development as seen in English speaking countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya is now spelling the end for the 42 year-old Biya regime.

While Mr Paul Biya may have no intention of stepping down before this year’s presidential election as demanded by prominent Roman Catholic Bishops or giving up the chairmanship of his ruling CPDM party, change in Cameroon is now inevitable.

It has long been a French Cameroun’s policy to make English speaking Cameroonians feel inferior and marginalized in a union they voted to join via a UN sponsored plebiscite in 1961 and the French government in Paris has been helping them! France is happy when Francophones control everything in Cameroon and they also do not want Anglophones to have authority over their own internal affairs.

English speaking Cameroon political leaders have all along pursued a strategy of cozying up to hostile French Cameroun leaders including the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, in the hope that a united and prosperous bilingual Cameroon will emerge in Africa.

But while Francophone Cameroun political elites have never taken any significant measures towards building a united, strong and democratic nation fully integrated in the African Union, Biya and his backers in Paris have actually strengthened his legitimacy and absolute rule over the Republic of Cameroon and for forty-two years, the President of Cameroon has virtually been living in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

There are a lot of signs that French Cameroun under Biya is continuing its failed policy of assimilation of English speaking Cameroonians and, even with the present armed conflict in Southern Cameroons, the regime in Yaoundé is only following directives from Paris.

During a televised conversation with business tycoon Mo Ibrahim in France, Biya made it public that the French policy of assimilation has failed woefully in Southern Cameroons. But the French puppet is still not interested in abandoning the cuvee-type policy. Consequently, Southern Cameroonians over the last seven years have taken very resolute actions by increasing additional economic pain on the French backed Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Biya and his Francophone political elites think that the only way to achieve victory over Southern Cameroonians is to buy time like what Nigerians did with Biafra. But this is not working!

Nigeria justified their continued acquisition of Biafra as a tribe within the federation. But British Southern Cameroons was already a nation before reunification with La Republique du Cameroun.

Recent developments in Yaoundé are very alarming. The reality is that no French Cameroun political leader is really serious about solving the Anglophone problem. And this denial is slowly but surely giving birth to a new state-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

If you follow the propaganda in Yaoundé, it seems that everything is working for the 92-year-old President Biya and his men and that Cameroon is prosperous. But looking at the reality, the Biya regime is indeed a Francophone crime syndicate. The bones have a French structure, but the flesh has already turned English.

The number of French speaking Cameroonians sending their children to Anglophone schools in Southern Cameroons and to English speaking countries such Ireland, Nigeria, the UK, South Africa, Canada and the United States is increasing every year. In the next decade, Cameroon will be an English speaking country. Biya and his men are all aware but are simply deceiving their French supporters in Paris.

Take a look at the French speaking millennial generation of the so-called CEMAC region grouping Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic and Chad, they are the only ones deep within the African continent who have grown up with computers and there is a boom of English learning. And they are no longer interested in watching Bel Mondo, Bernard Tapie content or even the French Ligue 1 football competition. They are only interested in Nigeria movies, music and comedies. To be sure, the eyes of the new generation of French speaking Africans whether in Burkina Faso, Mali or Niger are not on this nonsense French ideological machine, but on material things. And even though Macron wants to stop it with a pro Nigeria stance, the French can’t stop this future in black Africa.

Change is coming to Francophone Africa and their militaries or security forces cannot halt this process because the new young forces are demanding it. Biya is a finished man and the people around him except his wife Chantal Biya and the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh are all in their 80s! So power is no longer in the hands of the ruthless and merciless generation. Today, the young generation knows that if they stand up, there will be no crackdown! But they are waiting patiently for the demise of the butcher of Yaoundé which is coming soon and very soon and they will be brave enough to go to the streets and celebrate.

From every indication, Cameroon is Biya’s family business and there are some people in the military, the National gendarmerie and the police force who are thinking wrongfully that the Biya dynasty should go on and on. But Southern Cameroonians have come to the conclusion that the final change in the Republic of Cameroon will be the collapse of the Biya’s nonsense machine this 2025 presidential election.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

15, January 2025

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe leading the Ambazonia revolution from behind bars ⁰

Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe has already served seven years of his life sentence at the Yaoundé principal prison in Cameroon, but he is not ready to budge an inch in the political beliefs that landed him there. “The fight for homeland is existential and non-negotiable – being part of the struggle is a calling and not a vocation,” he tells the Guardian.

The 59-year-old computer engineer and former president of a breakaway state is still fighting his revolution from jail. As Cameroon’s civil conflict festers, his quest remains the freeing of his anglophone community from what he sees as the shackles of a francophone Cameroonian state.

Undated photo of Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, leader of the anglophone community in Cameroon. — Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, leader of the anglophone community in Cameroon

“We have an obligation – dead or alive – to bequeath to our children a nation that they can call theirs, something we have been deprived of for too long,” he says.

On 1 October 2017, Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of “Ambazonia” – Cameroon’s English-speaking north-west and south-west regions, known during the colonial era as the British Southern Cameroons – after a government crackdown on protesters.

In November 2016, lawyers from the regions had marched against the government’s decision to appoint francophone magistrates in anglophone courts, seeing it as a threat to common law. Educators followed with their own protests after French-speaking teachers were imposed on anglophone schools.

Ayuk Tabe’s de facto presidency ended in January 2018 when he was arrested in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, allegedly by Nigerian special forces.

Demonstrators protest against perceived discrimination in favour of the francophone majority on 22 September 2017 in Bamenda, the main town in north-west Cameroon and an anglophone hub. — A protest against perceived discrimination in favour of the francophone majority in September 2017 in Bamenda, north-west Cameroon, an anglophone hub. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

He was extradited with nine others to Cameroon, despite claims that many of them were refugees and asylum seekers. The move was later ruled illegal by the UN.

In August 2019, a military court in Cameroon sentenced Ayuk Tabe and his aides to life imprisonment on terrorism and secession charges. They were fined FCFA 273bn (about $428m).

The UN human rights council and three federal high court of Abuja judgments have ordered their release but none of these rulings have been respected, and the men remain in prison.

We will hoist the Ambazonian flag, we will sing the Ambazonian anthem – until that happens, the struggle won’t end

Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe

“How can civilians be charged and sentenced in military courts?” Ayuk Tabe asks. “Before any court in Cameroon, all Southern Cameroonians have a life sentence reserved for them just because of who they are. We are taking one for our nation and we pray it should be the last for all Southern Cameroonians.”

The declaration of Ambazonia’s independence triggered deadly clashes between anglophone armed separatists and the state security forces, which resulted in widespread atrocities against the civilian population.

Protesters march with signs saying ‘we need pens, not guns’ — Pupils, parents and teachers protest after gunmen opened fire at a school, killing at least six children, according to the authorities. Photograph: Josiane Kouagheu/Reuters

More than 6,000 people have since been killed, according to the International Crisis Group, although Ambazonia’s leadership claims the figure is far higher. More than a million people have been displaced within and outside the country. Thousands of people suspected of supporting the revolt have been detained and many are still awaiting trial.

When the Guardian arrives at Yaoundé prison it is teeming with visitors – mainly relatives, friends and acquaintances – who have come to see Ayuk Tabe and those detained with him.

With his customary charm, Ayuk Tabe speaks to everyone, telling them he has three key messages to send to his people back home: “Tell them that we will go to Buea whether [president] Mr Paul Biya likes it or not; come rain or shine. Tell them that we will hoist the Ambazonian flag in Buea and that once this is done, we will sing the Ambazonian anthem – until that happens, the struggle won’t end.

“Finally, tell them to take good care of the needy of the struggle – families who have lost loved ones, the internally displaced, refugees, those in detention, not forgetting the heroes of the struggle – the men and women who have opted to fight and die for the struggle,” he says.

Four men walk down a street outside a building, led by an armed guard — Men arrested in connection with Cameroon’s anglophone crisis at the military court in Yaoundé, 14 December 2018. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

After singing a few verses of the national anthem, Ayuk Tabe gets up to move around and hug a few of his visitors.

“We call them our guardian angels because they baby us,” he says, adding that these supporters have helped the Ambazonian inmates at the prison by bringing them food and bedding.

He says conditions at the prison are difficult: they’re given flimsy beds without mattresses and a single “terrible” meal a day.

“But Ambazonian detainees in this prison feed themselves twice a day, thanks to the generosity of our relatives and friends – they don’t consume anything offered by this prison except the water used for bathing,” he says.

An undated photo showing a group of men in camouflage clothes, with one pointing a rifle towards the sky from behind some bushes — Anglophone separatist fighters training at an undisclosed location. Photograph: Chris Anu

Cameroon was first colonised by Germany between 1884 and 1916, then divided between France and Britain after the first world war. French Cameroon gained independence in 1960, joined by English-speaking Cameroonians through a federation a year later.

The French-speaking area makes up about 80% of the country and the English-speaking part about 20%, both in territory and population. A referendum in 1972 repealed the country’s federal structure which had guaranteed rights and secured a distinct educational, judicial and political system for the minority anglophone section.

The group of officials stands in front of a large crowd of people. Behind them a banner reads: ‘Major national dialogue. Yaounde conference centre. — Cameroon’s prime minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, presides over the opening session of the national dialogue called in September 2019 by president Biya. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Close to the principal prison is the Yaoundé central prison, where nearly 300 anglophone detainees are being held. Abdul Karim Ali, 43, a Muslim scholar, IT engineer and business consultant, has been awaiting trial here since February 2023.

Ali was arrested in the north-west regional capital, Bamenda, on 11 August 2022, for criticising the injustices committed against his anglophone community. He was detained for three months in a windowless room with no toilet and denied access to his family and lawyers for three weeks, he says. Transferred to the dreaded State Defense Secretariat detention facility, he spent another three months there before being transferred to Yaoundé central prison.

I was abducted to be silenced. Not just because I believe in the right to self-determination for Southern Cameroons but because I defended those rights

Abdul Karim Ali

“I was abducted to be silenced. Not just because I believe in the right to self-determination of the people of Southern Cameroons, but because I defended those rights and called out the occupying regime of Yaoundé,” Ali says.

“Like other activists, I have been accused of terrorism and secession. I consider the military court incompetent to try a civilian like myself. I have made it known that I’m not going to court. I want to be tried in a civilian court and in my Bamenda home town where I was abducted.”

Abdul Karim Ali, Cameroonian activist — Abdul Karim Ali, who has been detained since August 2022

Ali says he has no issue with the Cameroon government, but that it has a problem with Southern Cameroons.

“I’m in their captivity just like every other freedom fighter. I don’t wish anybody to experience the prison conditions I have endured.”

He says the situation in Cameroon’s north-west and south-west regions is one of “torture, genocide, colonisation, incarceration and dehumanisation” – the consequence of the annexation that started in 1961.

He blames the current conflict on the “incomplete decolonisation” of Southern Cameroons by Britain and Cameroon’s annexation of the territory thereafter.

“The Cameroon government declared war on Southern Cameroons. They are the invading bully and illegitimate state actor. So, the burden to call for a ceasefire lies on them,” he says.

Peace, he says, would require the unconditional release of all Southern Cameroonians; the demilitarisation of the territory of Southern Cameroons; and dialogue between the two parties.

Ali eats once and prays five times a day. Otherwise, his daily schedule includes exercising in the prison courtyard and reading.

“History provides us with enough verdicts: every dictatorship collapses and every annexation comes to an end,” says Ali, whose political activism was inspired by Gandhi. “Today or tomorrow, the people of Southern Cameroons will be given the right to determine their political future,” he says.

Soldiers of Cameroonian rapid intervention battalion line up — Members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, an elite unit of the Cameroonian armed forces, on parade for Unity Day in Yaoundé, May 2023. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Sitting nearby in the prison hall is another detainee, Mancho Bibixy Tse, a 40-year-old journalist and activist.

In November 2016, Mancho mounted a coffin at a crowded roundabout in Bamenda to denounce the social and economic injustice of his anglophone community, which became known as the “coffin revolution”.

He was arrested, charged with terrorism, secession, rebellion, inciting civil war, and spreading false information through social media, and sentenced to 15 years.

A man weeps among the ruins of a building razed by gunmen in Mamfe, south-west Cameroon, 6 November 2023.

In July 2019, Mancho led a protest against conditions at the prison, which earned him an additional 18 months.

Mancho says frustrations about 60 years of Cameroon’s occupation of Southern Cameroons led to his activism. The idea of using a coffin came about “spontaneously”.

“I have always wanted positive change wherever I found myself – I have been a freedom fighter all my life,” he says, maintaining that he has never regretted – and will never regret his actions.

“I am the first person who declared the Ambazonian revolution,” he says. “And I will do it over and over again if the opportunity shows up. I am ready to die for freedom.”

A car allegedly destroyed by separatist fighters in Buea, Cameroon — A burnt-out car beside an abandoned market after unrest in 2018 in Buea, capital of the anglophone south-west region. Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Back at the Yaoundé principal prison, Ayuk Tabe is hopeful of ultimate victory.

“Rather than waning, our independence ideology is gaining more ground. Proof is that we are in the eighth year of the struggle and a Cameroon military victory is still very far-fetched,” he says.

“No matter how long this darkness has been, victory is assured and on the way. We all, eight million Ambazonians, share a common pain and plight. We cannot continue this life of servitude and pass it on as a legacy to our future generations.”

Culled from The Guardian

10, January 2025

Biya will die soon ⁰

The clock is ticking on whether President Biya will continue as head of state beyond the 2025 presidential elections.

The 91-year-old leader and his acolytes would not say if he is preparing to step down this year or face a forced eviction out of the Unity Palace by angry Cameroonians.

The failed leader has still not made a decision on whether he will run for the upcoming elections and go beyond 2025.

While senior Roman Catholic Bishops are demanding that he resigns, ambassadors from the US, UK and Canada have also been pushing his Minister of Territorial Administration; Paul Atanga Nji to convince Biya to accept that time has come for him to leave the political stage.

Our Yaoundé city reporter said late yesterday that the dictator after forty-two years in power is still not sure that Cameroon as a nation has options if he decides to step down.

With age now telling on him and his health failing at catastrophic rapidity, we of the Concord Group believe that sooner or later it will happen and Cameroonians have to prepare.

However, if Biya does decide to go on beyond 2025, he will end up in the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in Yaoundé with many of his most trusted allies.

Our informants in Etoudi watching him as he struggles to receive New Year wishes from his cronies have all admitted that the presidential part of Biya has left him and he will die soon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai