Ashu M. just clocked 20 years this November, the legal age for voting in the central African nation of Cameroon. The enthusiastic young man is looking forward to enlisting his name on the biometric voter roll in preparation for the next general elections coming up in 2025. However, this will only be possible if Ashu is able to obtain his biometric national ID card, which he applied for back when he was 18.

In Cameroon, obtaining the national identity card has become more difficult for many than the biblical camel passing through the eye of a needle. And by law, citizens cannot exercise their voting, and other civil rights, if they do not possess a valid national ID card.

Like Ashu, there are thousands of young Cameroonians willing to take part in the country’s electoral process but facing one major challenge: that of lack of a national ID card, which is an indispensable ID credential. Voter registration requires presentation of the national ID card.

Not only that. The national ID card is also required during voting as it is the document used to verify the identity of the voter. This is because Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) – the agency responsible for organizing and managing elections in the country – does not yet employ a biometric system for voter accreditation as is the case in neighboring Nigeria, and elsewhere around the continent.

“I applied for a national ID card in November 2020 when I turned 18, — the age required for the establishment of a national ID card in Cameroon. You can’t believe that since then, my ID card has not been delivered. I have gone uncountable times to the police station where I applied for it, but I am told the card has not been produced. I have gone through all sorts of difficulties,” Ashu tells Biometric Update.

In July 2021, Cameroon launched a new generation passport which was delivered by German firm Augentic. This has dramatically revolutionized the passport production experience in the country, with the travel document now issued only within a time span of 48 hours maximum, as opposed to at least one month in the past.

Conversely, there has been an avalanche of complaints over the innumerable problems rocking the ID card production system, and the frustrations seem to be on an upward spiral with many Cameroonian now urging the government to bring the passport experience to the ID card sector.

Lack of ID cards and voter exclusion

Cameroon has seen low voter registration figures over the years, and less than 60 percent of nearly seven million registered voters showing up in the country’s last presidential election in 2018. Although there is no evidence to demonstrate that the low figures are attributable to lack of ID cards by potential voters, there is no gainsaying that the problem is part of it.

“I chased my national ID card in vain during the last presidential election in October 2018. I had a choice to make at the ballot box but I was unable to do so because I had no ID card to prove who I am. The inertia with the ID card system is part of the reason we need to vote for change,” says Anna T., a fruits seller down a street market in Yaounde.

ELECAM believes that the slow issuance of ID cards may not be the entire problem, but is part of it, and therefore solutions have to be sought as soon as possible.

In October, the body’s chairman Enow Abrams Egbe had a meeting with the delegate general for national security – the issuing authority of the national ID card. According to Enow Egbe, the kernel of the talks was to discuss ways through which the huge backlog of ID cards can be cleared ahead of the general elections.

“The main focus of our discussion was on the obtention of the national identity card. Many Cameroonians are complaining that they are unable to obtain their cards. We got clear and precise information from the delegate general who assured us that all will be done for citizens to get the national ID card,” said the ELECAM chairman.

Later, speaking in an interview with Biometric Update on the issue, Enow Egbe claimed that the problem is also more with citizens who abandon their cards at production centers: “The ID card is a major document required for voter registration. As such, I urge all Cameroonians of voting age to try as much as possible to go and collect their ID cards and register their names on the voters list. The problem of ID cards, from my discussion with the police boss, arises from the laxity of citizens to go and collect their cards, because we realize from the various reports, that there are piles of abandoned ID cards in many police stations, and some have even expired still in their keeping.”

“This has a negative impact on the voter registration process, because it reduces the number of potential voters. We also have the problem of some people in remote areas who are reluctant to go get a birth certificate, a prerequisite of obtaining an ID card needed for registration on the electoral list,” Egbe adds.

Ordeals of delays, extortion

While Cameroonians like Ashu harbor fears that they may not be able to vote for change in the next general elections because they do not have a national ID card, other citizens like Isaac Genna Forchie and Jonathan A. have other sad tales to narrate.

Genna Forchie, a journalist working for state-run newspaper Cameroon Insider in Yaounde, tells Biometric Update he has gone for more than two years without an ID card, after duly applying for the document. This, he explains, has made life quite hellish for him as there are certain public services he cannot have access to without the original copy his ID card.

“I established my ID card way back on June 5, 2020. They issued a receipt and asked me to come for the document six months later. I have been there at least 10 times since then, and each time I get there, I am told to be patient. This has caused me a lot of inconveniences,” he explains.

“There was a period I traveled to the town of Kribi (a town in the south of Cameroon) and the receipt expired while I was there. I got terribly embarrassed on my way back. At another instance, I got frustrated when I wanted to do a financial transaction in the bank. Now, my passport expires this 2023. An ID card is a requirement for the establishment of a passport. I am yet to figure out how to renew my passport.”

Jonathan A., for his part, will not soon forget how about five years ago, he spent around XAF 500,000 (about US$810) to procure an ID card on an emergency note after he failed to obtain the credential following the normal procedure.

“My first ID expired after using it for ten years, so I had to procure a new one. I compiled all the necessary documents and followed the procedure that was required of me. I was issued an application receipt. When the original card was supposed to be out, I was told that there was a problem of double identity. I was surprised because all the information that was on my expired ID card is the same information I provided. It was the same information on my birth certificate. That is where my trouble started,” Jonathan A. narrated to Biometric Update.

He confessed that in order to circumvent the problem, he had to contact a staff of the police station who promised to facilitate the delivery of the ID card for a fee. “I went for roughly two years without an ID card. Within this period, the validity of the applicant receipt was extended many times. At some point, I needed a passport because I was supposed to travel. I was forced to get in contact with a police commissioner who asked me to give him XAF 250,000 (US$405) so that he can help me out. I gave him the money, but unfortunately, the process didn’t go well. So I lost the money, and didn’t have the ID.”

He says he was forced to spend another XAF250, 000 (US$405) with another agent, who eventually succeeded in getting the ID card for him within a period of one month, after another thorny procedure.

Unlike Jonathan A., who was able to cough out such a huge sum of money just to get an ID card, there are millions of Cameroonians who cannot afford such funds for the same purpose.

Many Cameroonians live on less than US$1 a day, and things appear worse off now as the country has been facing inflationary pressures which government has largely blamed on the war in Ukraine and the lingering global economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I find it difficult to have money for my daily bread. I have a wife and five children, and I don’t work for any government office or big enterprise. I was told I can pay XAF 25,000 (US$40) and get my ID card within days, but where can I find that kind of money with the hardship we are currently facing in this country?” says Abesolo M., a motor mechanic. He adds that “I have not been able to get my ID card for the past one year.”

Cases of extortion for ID cards have been so rife that some Cameroonians say they have called the toll-free number (1517) of the Cameroon national anti-corruption agency (CONAC) the state anti-graft body, to report their frustrations.

A matter of jail and death?

With reports of delays and extortions notwithstanding, not being in possession of the national ID card, especially when you come face-to-face with law enforcement officers in certain circumstances, can either land you in jail or at worse into your grave.

Section 1(2) of law No. 19-42 of 19 December 1990 instituting a national ID card in Cameroon states that “possession of a national identity card shall be compulsory throughout the country for all citizens aged 18 or more.”

Section 5, sub section five, of the same legislation states: “Whoever does not possess a national identity card shall be punished with imprisonment for from three months to one year or with fine of from XFA 50,000 (US$80) to XAF 100,000 (US$160) or with both such imprisonment and fine.”

Indeed, stories exist of many Cameroonians who are currently languishing in jail after being convicted of criminal charges including “failure to hold a national ID card.”

Such is the case with popular Anglophone activist ‘Mancho Bibixy’ who was jailed alongside six other activists in May 2018 for acts of terrorism and hostility against the state of Cameroon. Bibixy was arrested in January 2017 in the Anglophone North West city of Bamenda after staging a peaceful protest against bad governance by the regime in Yaounde. He was not in possession of his ID card at the time he was arrested on 19 January 2017, which is considered a crime.

The Mancho Bibixy example is in no way an isolated one. On 10 October this year, a man whose name was reported by the Cameroonian media as Foundikou Daouda was arrested and thrown into a police cell after storming a police station in Foumbot, a town in the West region of the country, to protest why his ID card had not been issued many months after he applied for it.

Considering his protest as disturbance of public order, Daouda was reportedly beaten by officers and put behind bars where he spent many weeks. He was released only in November after pressure from family members and rights activists, according to local media reports.

Activists kick, want urgent action

The arrest of Daouda for simply asking questions about delays in issuing his ID card sparked anger in the country, with many activists and rights lawyers chiming in to speak about an issue which is now considered by some critics as a national embarrassment.

In the wake of the incident, a Cameroonian human rights lawyer Christian Ntimbane Bomo, in an open letter to President Paul Biya, as published by a local news portal Cameroun Actuel, wondered why issuing a “simple” national ID card should be such a big problem for a country in the 21st century.

The lawyer alleges that going by his sources, the delay in rolling out the new national ID card scheme announced by the government a long time ago, is the result of a “battle” at the level of the presidency over who should be awarded the “juicy” contract. He urges the President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya, to take all necessary measures in order to save Cameroonians from the current quagmire, so that they can be able to prove their identities.

Also reacting to the Foumbot incident, Anne Féconde Noah, political activist and one of the proponents of an online campaign dubbed #JeveuxmaCNI (loosely translated as ‘I want my ID card’), expressed regrets, saying the authorities must take the requisite measures in order to avoid a repeat of such a scenario in the future.

“Not having an ID card in one’s own country is absolutely not an option. Citizens do not have to beg to have this document which is very essential in their daily lives,” said the activist on his Facebook page. Noah is also member of a popular opposition party in Cameroon known as the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), which is known for sharply criticizing the actions of the Paul Biya administration.

In all of this, one thing is sure. Cameroonian authorities are very much aware of the agony citizens face in obtaining their ID cards, and the ordeal those who do not have the credential go through on a daily basis. What remains unsure, however, is when exactly they intend to undertake concrete action so as to bring the lingering problem to an end.

Culled from Biometricsupdate

For many years now, many Cameroonians, especially those in the Diaspora, are being considered as those who are hurting the country’s reputation because of their call for a regime change in Cameroon.

The Yaoundé government, which has been struggling to project itself as being progressive and responsible, has been facing tough challenges from its Diaspora.

In North America, the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is doing its best to give the beleaguered Yaoundé government a really big and bad name.

There are more than two million Southern Cameroonians in North America and they are not sparing any opportunity when it comes to demonstrating that the Yaoundé government led by the 90-year-old president, Paul Biya, is the worst thing that has ever happened to the country.

Recently in Washington DC, demonstrators bearing the Southern Cameroonian flag and public address systems brought the world’s attention to the bloody massacres being committed in the country’s two English-speaking regions during the US-AFRICA Leaders Summit held in the US capital.

Though uninvited, the demonstrators made sure their opinion was heard. They chanted songs depicting Mr. Biya as the architect of the bloody political and economic mess in Cameroon.

But it was Mr. Biya himself who actually stole the show in Washington DC. His mental confusion made many African leaders to ask if he was actually capable of running the country.

In a video which has really gone viral, Mr. Biya’s dementia was put on display for all to see. Mr. Biya confused questions in a high-level meeting were testimonies to his senility.

In another video, despite the tons of steroids he took in Geneva before heading to the US, Mr. Biya could not even get out of his own car and was bundled out of the car like a baby in diapers.

No Cameroonian is hurting the country’s reputation like the country’s senile president who has made up his mind to die in power though he is no longer effective as a leader.

His behavior has made many in Cameroon to view him as the country’s “embarasser-in-chief.”

Many Cameroonians are very disappointed with Mr. Biya who was supposed to have transformed the country into an earthly El-Dorado.

The country’s economy has taken a nose-dive, leaving millions in a dire situation. The rate of unemployment is unprecedented, causing many young Cameroonians to look outward in search of opportunities.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Though not officially invited to the US-African Leaders Summit, Ambazonians made sure they too were heard during the summit and the message went far and wide.

They came in thousands and their noise was indeed deafening. They made sure the Biya regime was really embarrassed and embarrassed it was as Ambazonian demonstrators came with their public address systems to tell the world that Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, was a devil with a human face.

For more than six years, Cameroon has been battling an insurgency in the country’s two English-speaking regions which is hard to overcome though the Yaoundé government has thrown everything it has at the insurgents.

More than ten thousand Cameroonians, including four thousand soldiers, have died because of the conflict in the country’s two English-speaking regions and the country’s economy is still reeling from the government generated chaos.

While preparing for the Summit in Washington DC, proponents of the anemic government in Yaoundé had spread propaganda that the country’s president was going to bring home some Southern Cameroonians arrested in the US for exporting weapons and death to Cameroon.

But America is not Nigeria. The law works in America and American presidents never interfere in legal matters.

Besides, America is not in the business of shipping its citizens abroad. Most Southern Cameroonians living in the US have American citizenship which makes it impossible for them to be repatriated to Cameroon.

If Mr. Biya achieved anything, it was his usual embarrassment of the country as he demonstrated during the Summit that he had overstayed his welcome at the helm of affairs.

In a video which has gone viral, Mr. Biya who had received a massive dose of steroid in Geneva, did not even know where he was and where he had to deliver his long and rambling speech.

He could be heard arguing in total confusion with the aide who informed him that he had already been introduced, adding that he could deliver his speech sitting but the confused Biya walked like a drunk to the podium where he delivered his long and boring speech.

Mr. Biya and his entourage did not even have the opportunity to talk to American officials about the three Southern Cameroonians arrested in America as they found out that talking about it was like flogging a dead horse.

Mr. Biya and his crowd of kleptocrats are expected to be back in Yaoundé before Monday to continue misleading a country which was once the envy of the continent.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s senile and aging president, Paul Biya, is expected in Washington DC in the weeks ahead where he will be meeting with the American President, Joe Biden, where both men will discuss a broad range of issues, including the insurgency in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

Over the last six years, the country’s two English-speaking regions have been open air killing fields where more than ten thousand Cameroonians have lost their lives, including some four thousand soldiers, many of whom were brought down by home-made explosive devices laid by insurgents seeking the total independence of Southern Cameroons.

While the situation on the ground might be improving, there are still fears that a recrudescence of violence is still possible as the key issues which led to the conflict remain unaddressed.

The government has not been receptive to numerous calls from Western powers and international organizations, calling for genuine and fruitful dialogue which should result in a sustainable solution.

The killings in the two regions have reduced to trickles, more so because the country’s army has stopped conducting unnecessarily violent raids in the two English-speaking regions.

The military is to blame for the murder of more than six thousand civilians as it operated based on the government’s Machiavellian and tough principle that negotiations cannot take place with non-state actors, but the insurgents picked up weapons because of the government’s indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians.

The government was clearly caught in the act when its soldiers killed many people in Ngarbuh, Muyengue, Santa, Kumbo, Kwa Kwa and other towns in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

There is ample evidence that the government is to blame for those deaths and several reports by the International Crisis Group have clearly indicted the Yaoundé government, citing the government’s inhuman approach to conflict resolution.

There are videos where religious authorities clearly state that they have evidence of the government’s deliberate killing of its own people just to prove a point.

While Mr. Biya will urge the Biden Administration to arrest many Southern Cameroonians living in the USA and send them to Cameroon, he will be facing very tough challenges as the US government never repatriates its citizens to any country for trial.

Besides, Mr. Biya and his entourage will have to produce incontrovertible evidence that those being suspected were directly involved in the commission of the atrocities the Yaoundé government is alleging.

America is no banana republic nor is it Nigeria which can be bribed and browbeaten for it to ship its citizens to a country where the rule of law is still a foreign concept.

The Yaoundé government is known abroad for its corruption and it will have to convince Americans that whatever evidence it will be providing is not doctored.

 Americans would like to conduct their own investigations, if necessary, and if there is no probable cause, then the Yaoundé government’s plea would end up as a dead letter.

The Yaoundé government is desperate. The current calm may be the calm before the storm. The Biya government has never addressed any real issues for forty years. It has always counted on time to address its issues and the likelihood of old demons rearing their ugly heads is very high.

Cameroonians living in the United States have already lawyered up and the battle, if any, will be a tough one. Even the three Southern Cameroonians indicted in the United States have vowed that they would not go down without a fight.

In the American justice system, an indictment is nothing. Lawyers, who are out looking for lucrative lawyering opportunities can end up messing up the FBI’s case and sometimes those cases could go on for years and some of those cases, could go on even after the 90-year-old Biya joins his ancestors. It will never be a walk in the park in America when it comes to legal justice.

Moreover, not all those being considered as suspects by the Yaoundé government live in the United States. Canada is also hosting thousands of Southern Cameroonians and most, if not all of them, bear Canadian passports and Canada too is not in the business of shipping its citizens to foreign countries where one man’s rule has replaced the rule of law.

Canada wants to mediate and its stance on the Southern Cameroons issue is clear. It wants a federal system in Cameroon. Canada has huge experience in dealing with linguistic minorities and the government clearly holds that a Canadian-style federal system will bring peace to Cameroon.

North American countries never disown their citizens and even when arrested in those rogue countries, Canada and the United States will find a way to bring their citizens home.

Diplomacy is always Canada’s first weapon, but when it does not yield dividends; Ottawa will use economic power to achieve its goal.

The Yaoundé government has a tough task ahead of it. It must come to terms with the fact that times have changed and peaceful resolutions can deliver better results than expensive wars against its own citizens.

If the Yaoundé government is really longing for peace, it must bend over backwards to work with the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora which is estimated at more than four million.

Fighting is not the best way forward and hoping that the United States will do its dirty work is being naive. Sending an American citizen abroad for trial has always been a bridge too far and there are always political consequences for any American administration which engages in such irrational act.

Cameroon needs peace and the Yaoundé government should use its allies to engineer that peace. Instead of wasting time and other resources to seek revenge for the humiliation it has suffered in Southern Cameroons, the Yaoundé government should grant a general amnesty to all those who have been directly or indirectly involved in the conflict.

It should also grant dual nationality to appease the Diaspora which has vast financial resources which could be used to destabilize the country. Cameroon is not yet out of the woods.

Pardoning everybody including the military is the best way forward and not revenge. The military bears greater responsibility for the massacres which have put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The constant bickering between the various US-based factions involved in the war in Southern Cameroons has hurt efforts by the country’s English-speaking minority to gain its independence from the francophone majority which has ruled the country for decades.

The tension between the country’s English-speaking minority and the various governments which have ruled the country has always been there, but things finally came to a head in 2016 when the government’s crackdown on demonstrating English-speaking Cameroons led to calls for the total independence of the once British mandated territory.

The fighting has resulted in the economies of the two English-speaking regions being reduced to nothing, with more than a million English-speaking Cameroonians either fleeing to Nigeria or East Cameroon.

The last two years have really discredited the separatists who have being fighting over control. This uncalled for power struggle had gone a long way in destroying a struggle which had actually left the Cameroonian government in a quandary.

All efforts by the beleaguered government to wipe out the insurgents have all failed, but the separatists’ change of their objective from protecting the people to kidnapping the population for ransom has caused the population to turn against those the people once considered as liberators.

The fighting is now not against the government but against separatist fighters who have transformed themselves into violent kidnappers and rapists.

The population has decided to help the government to track down these unscrupulous elements who are notorious for their atrocities against their own people.

While the local population is living through a nightmare that has lasted some six years, the separatist leaders are enjoying life in many Western countries, with some of them purchasing masions at a time when the people on ground zero  are really struggling with life.

To destroy the insurgency forever, the Yaoundé government has called on the French government to take its plea to the Biden Administration and this strategy is delivering some appreciable results.

On the eve of Macron’s visit to Washington DC, the FBI visited some separatist leaders and their homes were thoroughly searched.

Chris Anu and Eric Tataw are in the cross hairs of the Biden Administration and the raids on their homes are just the beginning of a long process which has been designed to send them to jail for a long time.

The FBI does not always visit people, but when its agents show up on your property, then you must know that they have probable cause to lead you down the path of a long and tricky legal battle.

This week, three separatists living in the United States were sentenced to long jail terms for exporting arms to Cameroon and this is clearly against US laws.

They are also accused of sponsoring terrorism through illegal financial flows.

According to a State Department source, more Southern Cameroonians are being closely monitored and names like Ebini Christmas and Cho Ayaba are on the FBI long list of people wiring money to questionable beneficiaries in Southern Cameroons.

Macron is currently meeting with Biden in the American capital and he is very likely to raise the issue of Cameroonian separatists terrorizing their own people.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the US has said that there is panic among Cameroonians living in the US as they do not know if they are on the FBI radar.

No matter the outcome of the raids on the homes of Southern Cameroonians living in the United States, the fact is that the nasty rebellion in Southern Cameroons which has kept many children away from school for six years and robbed the population of its freedom, is gradually coming to an end.

As its leaders are being hunted abroad, some of their surrogates are already fleeing to Nigeria as they know their days are numbered.

The Cameroon government is now working with the population and anybody caught trying to kidnap or extort money from the population is immediately executed.

 The young men taking advantage of the situation in Southern Cameroons to make money should understand that things have changed and the end is near, a source at the Unity Palace said.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In only one year, Chief Ewume John, member of the Cameroon military, has been identified as a perpetrator of at least seven different acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment on 11 men in different areas of the English-speaking Southwest Region of Cameroon. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) have documented these acts and intend to refer them to the United Nations Committee against Torture if these cases are not investigated and prosecuted.

Chief Ewume John, also commonly known as Chief Moja Moja, is both a soldier of the Cameroon army and the traditional authority of Bwasa Village in Buea, Southwest Region. The region has been marred by continuous human rights violations in an ongoing conflict between the security forces and a separatist group. Chief Ewume John has used his position to systematically arrest and torture civilians suspected of separatist activities.

On 6 November 2022, Chief Ewume John arbitrarily arrested two men, Kenah Pascal Kum and Zang Emmanuel Buh, members of the Christ Embassy Church, at Bongo Square, Buea, and severely beat them with machetes before handing them over to the National Gendarmerie (Legion) in Buea, capital of the Southwest Region.

Chief Ewume John has a reputation for filming his acts of torture and posting them on social media. He intentionally causes mental suffering and intimidates his victims without fear of prosecution. Despite a complaint filed against him in July 2022 for torture before the military tribunal of Yaoundé, no investigation has been initiated, thus encouraging perpetrators to terrify civilians already exposed to continuous human rights violations.

The OMCT and the CHRDA call on the Cameroonian government to uphold its international obligations and hold the authors of torture accountable for their acts. The two organisations have been mandated by the victims to seize the United Nations Committee against Torture, currently in its 75th session, if they are not provided with reparation and rehabilitation following an independent investigation and prompt prosecution.

Culled from omct.org

Southern Cameroonians both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora deeply distrust a majority of the frontline leaders particularly those based in the USA, and this can be linked to why today, most anti Yaoundé actions are demonstrated through what is termed as individual acts of bravery from the likes of General No Pity.

With Biya regime’s continued use of live ammunition against innocent Southern Cameroons citizens and with Amba fire power very silent all over the various counties; many are now asking the question if the Southern Cameroons resistance is approaching its end!

When Southern Cameroons youth rose up against Cameroon government aggression in 2016, many political commentators and analysts eagerly explained the phenomenon as a reflection of profound desperation fuelled by anger and disgruntlement toward Francophone army soldier brutality and the complacency of its leadership in Yaoundé. It was evidently clear that the main impetus driving Southern Cameroonians to seek an independent state of Ambazonia was one of despair and the understanding that they have nothing to lose.

The arrest of the Ambazonian leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and the subsequent extradition to Cameroon by the corrupt Buhari administration brought a group of dubious religious pastors who jointly and severally ushered in a program and discourse that has been destructive for the Southern Cameroons struggle. The Southern Cameroons resistance today appears stagnant largely due to the continued failure of leadership, unhealthy rivalry among Southern Cameroons groups and corruption among the US based frontline leaders.

Who has legitimate authority in Ground Zero?

The hydra-headed situation as it stands requires a deeper understanding of the Amba fighters in Ground Zero whose efforts continue to be monopolised on as a source of power by groups such as the so-called ADF of Cho Ayaba Lucas and the Sako-Chris Anu-Kumeta comedians in the USA to further their own agenda of enriching themselves through financial donations for the struggle.

It is important to note that 85% of the Southern Cameroons population is in Ground Zero. Essentially, there has never been any direct representation of people in Ground Zero in the Ambazonia Interim Government now headed by Vice President Dabney Yerima.

In concurrence to the lack of leadership both in the diaspora and Ground Zero, there has been a diabolic harsh ploy by men like Chris Anu and Kumeta in the USA to attract all attention to themselves while ignoring the daily survival of the Amba fighters inevitably perpetuating the disenchantment of the fighters. There is a plethora of factors which have played an explicit and implicit role in the current culmination of events in Ground Zero.

These factors range from the compartmentalizing of the Ambazonia struggle into isolated tribal strategies and factionalism within Southern Cameroonians.

For instance, Chris Anu was always on social media concocting and propagating self defense actions that were supposedly carried out by the late Field Marshal of Lebialem all in vain efforts to inform the Southern Cameroons public opinion that his county was at the forefront of the resistance while Cho Ayaba was busy doing same in the North West.

We have seen brave Amba fighters begging for 500 frs CFA to feed while Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are using money meant for the struggle to purchase designer suits and shoes for themselves and renting houses in posh areas in Maryland for their families.

“This scenario exemplifies the internal struggle and our fighters are now considering and reconsidering their choice to resist actively. This is an overt consequence of failure to listen to the leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that God in his infinite image gave the people of Southern Cameroons” the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima reportedly observed during a radio interview in South Africa.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe cannot govern from Kondengui

This was the first slogan exploited by the criminal pastors in the USA as a source of power for Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and their supporters. Consequently, the sense of revolution became muddled and was stripped from Southern Cameroons dynamics by absorbing it into a kind of Ambazonia politics and quest for power and money, while Yaoundé continues its human rights violations.

Apart from the structure run by Dabney Yerima in Europe and with the support of some fertile minds in South Africa, nobody knows the real position of the so-called front line leaders in the USA!  Fighting Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and black mailing him with the support of people like Deacon Tassang has served the colonial project rather than benefit Ambazonians and what we see today is an increased rivalry between Southern Cameroons factions in the USA that have failed Ground Zero.

Those who wish to help Dabney Yerima mobilize Southern Cameroonians again, must not only consider Cameroon government army atrocities but also account for Amba fighter’s brutality which has hindered resistance efforts from donors both at home and in the diaspora.

Judging from anti Dabney Yerima propaganda coming from Maryland USA and Norway from Cho Ayaba, the Ambazonia Interim Government is deemed as an obstacle to be fought rather than a part of the population to join hands with.

Chris Anu, Cho Ayaba, Ikome Sako and Kumeta Elvis are all part of a Southern Cameroons despotic regime, serving their personal interests even if it means ruling on Face Book or Whatsapp chat groups. Frankly speaking, it is not the knife in the chest that is killing the Southern Cameroons struggle; it is the knife in the back.

While Southern Cameroons political factions represented by Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta continue to capitalize on their revolutionary history in combating French Cameroun occupying forces, the reality on Ground Zero today forces every Southern Cameroonian to reconsider the authenticity and sincerity of those that claim to fight in the name of the Ambazonia struggle.

The Way Forward

As the Biya Francophone regime increases its violent suppression of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia politicians such as Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta forsake the resistance for their own personal gains, it is time for Southern Cameroonians to rally behind Vice President Dabney Yerima to get the struggle back on track!

What is happening now is Southern Cameroonians are heartily trying to blame their docility on the Maryland cabal while still allowing them to continue to drown the entire Ambazonia nation in defeat.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai