87 year-old President Paul Biya is reportedly pursuing his dangerous plans to get rid of ministers who show themselves too ready to join the race to succeed him. Biya and his consortium of ruling CPDM crime syndicates have adopted a governing policy described by Cameroon Concord News Group as “photocracy”, a system of governance where a dying man’s picture keeps on representing him in events.

Biya and his gang are sending strong messages to his would-be-successors as he uses the Special Criminal Court to end their political careers. The list is long including ex-prime minister Chief Inoni Ephraim and former defense minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o.

Rivals manoeuvre to succeed Biya recently intensified in Yaoundé and several allies of the Cameroonian president are now vying for the leadership of the state and the ruling CPDM party. We understand that many of these so-called French Cameroun political elites are trying to steal a march on their rivals. But they are wary of being too open about their intentions, as the president has been quick in the past to sideline any man or woman within his criminal structure seen as too ambitious.

President Paul Biya’s succession is presently on life support! Not only is the president’s own health failing but so too that of his constitutionally designated replacements namely- Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril and leader of the House of Senate Marcel Niat.

Relatives of the powerful are being targeted by the Special Criminal Court. Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

Recently investigators at the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé have been taking an interest in close relatives of political figures. Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Biya’s war against the people of Southern Cameroon-Ambazonia is now unwinnable! At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict, that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

From time immemorial, elections are designed to bring about change in a country or to pacify a population or an opposition that has been calling for change, but in Cameroon, elections have remained a tool of dominance by the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) also known as the crime syndicate made in the same mold as the Sicilian Mafia.

For many decades, the CPDM has won every election in Cameroon not through the ballot boxes but through massive fraud orchestrated well before the polling day.

The party writes the election rules, it is a participant in the game and it serves as the jury and judge after the exercise. The country’s election commission is replete with ruling party officials and the constitutional council that is supposed to mediate in the event of any foul play has been a tool in the hands of the ruling party designed to ensure that members of the ruling party emerge victorious.

In the event of any post-electoral contests or demonstrations, the government releases the military like bees on the protesters which sometimes results in the killing of hundreds and maiming of thousands of Cameroonians.

After the 2018 presidential election, the opposition party leader who clearly won the election, Professor Maurice Kamto, has been the subject of government harassment. He has either been hauled to jail, threatened with death or put on house arrest for long periods of time.

The country’s hastily written anti-terrorism law of 2014, is the legal instrument the dictatorial Yaounde regime has been using to frustrate or jail its opponents.

Since the last presidential election, the country has been in the grip of an unrelenting political crisis that is threatening to strangulate the economy and bring down a regime that is clearly on its last leg.

Many analysts have been hoping that the imbecile, corrupt, decaying and inefficient government in the country’s capital will see the writing on the wall and on the basis of that, will make some concessions and rewrite a constitution that clearly belongs to the ash heap of history.

Strangely, the ruling party has continued with its unpalatable comedy of errors and arrogance that has already resulted in many preventable deaths, especially in the country’s two English-speaking regions where an active insurgency has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The regional elections held in the country on Sunday, December 7, 2020, have simply underscored that the government is unrepentant and unwilling to mend its ways so that peace, stability and economic prosperity can return to a country that was once touted as an oasis of peace in a desert of political chaos due to the many civil wars that have dogged its neighbors over the last four decades.

Sunday’s elections, falsely dubbed as regional elections, were won even before they took place. The elections do not require the participation of the entire population. Only municipal councilors are required to vote and 95% of the councils are held by the ruling party because opposition parties had boycotted municipal elections on the grounds that the rules were flawed and designed to favor the ruling crime syndicate that has been in power for four decades with no real results to show for its existence.

In the country’s two English-speaking regions, the elections were viewed as a non-event. The country’s English-speaking Diaspora, in collaboration with the USA-based Interim Government, had called for ghost towns in a bit to foil the government’s outlandish and diabolic plan.

The entire Southern Cameroons has been like a real ghost town over the last three days with the population staying at home.

 In many towns, even the ruling party councilors were scared of stepping out to vote as separatist fighters are still making the laws in that part of the country.

Separatists, who have been battling the Yaoundé government for almost four years, had issued a stern warning to any councilors who would dare to vote against the will of the people. In their view, no such elections should take place in the region.

In Southern Cameroons, the ruling CPDM has been outlawed and anybody seen militating for the ruling party is considered an enabler and must be dealt with according to the rules of the USA- based Interim Government headed by interim president Dabney Yerima who is sitting in for President Julius Ayuk Tabe who has been in the dirty dungeons of East Cameroon for almost three years following an illegal kidnapping jointly organized by Cameroon and Nigeria.

In the weeks leading to the elections, separatists had clearly informed the population and government officials that the death penalty decreed three years ago in Washington DC was still standing and this was rapidly followed by the killing of three army soldiers in Ndian Division, whence hails the country’s ineffective and emasculated Prime Minister, Dion Ngute.

Similarly, the separatists also informed the Cameroon Concord News Group via a voice note that more killings had been scheduled, adding that they were keeping their eyes on traditional rulers and municipal councilors who are having political intercourse with the corrupt CPDM.

According to the separatists, it has been alleged that some hungry Southern Cameroonians are in cahoots with the corrupt regime to bring down the revolution. The separatists have vowed to take out any person or persons who have been identified as promoting the government’s campaign of corruption and marginalization.

Top on the list provided to the Cameroon Concord News Group are: former Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge; Senate Vice-President, George Tabetando; Prime Minister Dion Ngute; former Prime Minister Yang Philemon; the ever rambling and hungry former minister of the environment, Elvis Ngole Ngole; the inefficient and corrupt primary education minister, Nalova Lyonga Egbe; and all the senators and members of parliament from Southern Cameroons, most of whom are currently in exile in Yaoundé.

The separatists have vowed that theirs will be the kingdom of death and they will stop at nothing to enforce the law.

The separatists have also urged all the chiefs and fons who have fled the two English-speaking regions of the country not to return, as they are wanted dead or alive.

They are charged with enabling the enemy and the punishment in Southern Cameroons for such an offense is the death penalty. There is no commutation of such penalties in the newly minted “country.”

Sunday’s elections have only made things worse for Southern Cameroonian politicians in particular and the country in general. As the government doubles down on its approach to governance, so too are the separatists who have vowed to cleanse the region of any blacklegs who have sold their souls to the devil.

The separatists are more angered by the new ruling party’s approach where Paul Biya, the corrupt head of state’s pictures is being posted all over the place.

The 87-year-old and ailing Biya is bedridden and with the Coronavirus spreading like wildfire in Western countries, the government cannot fly him out of the country.

The separatists say that they will not tolerate the government’s “photocracy”, a system of governance where is a dying man’s picture keeps on representing him in events.

While Sunday’s elections have ended, Cameroonians are very sure that the political crisis will continue to hurt the economy and blight their lives.

Biya’s greed and inefficiency have brought untold hardship and death to Cameroonians.

His politics and policies are hurting the country and with his departure imminent, it is obvious that the country is heading to a post-Biya disaster which can only be preempted by the international community. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Mulheim an der Ruhr

For some weeks now, many chiefs and Fons in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions have been losing sleep because of the regional elections that have been slated for this month.

The CPDM corrupt squad has been in Bamenda and Buea to demonstrate that they are campaigning for their party.

Yang Philemon, a former Prime Minister, even said that the city of Bamenda had not been taken care of just to win hearts and minds. He simply did not tell us who had neglected the city.

Of course, we all know the answer and nobody in Bamenda will be fooled by the likes of Yang Philemon who have sold their souls to the devil for a few pieces of gold and power.

The devil incarnate was trying to download his mistakes on others. For more than three decades, all Bamenda City Government Delegates have been members of the ruling party also known as the crime syndicate that has ruled the country for 38 years. Any acts of negligence must be imputed to the CPDM and its chairman, Paul Biya.

 Is it not preposterous to think that Southern Cameroonians are foolish and can be easily deceived? Are the likes of Yang Philemon forgetting that the Southern Cameroons crisis that put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons was triggered by his party’s greed, corruption and incompetence? Is he forgetting that he cannot sell his story in the Southern Cameroons heartland as many bullets will reduce him to a mass of flesh?

If he wants to test his popularity, he should drive to his native Oku to sell his story of eternal corruption. The death penalty still stands and venturing into Oku will be synonymous with committing suicide.

 Besides more deaths have been scheduled and he might just be on the list of those who might not see the New Year. Southern Cameroonian fighters are determined to shock the world.

Because of the upcoming elections, the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, the con man in the corridors of power, seems to be setting up chiefs and fons in the country’s two English-speaking regions for death.

Ever since news leaked that the territorial administration minister had been bribing chiefs and fons in the two English-speaking regions of the country, many of those traditional authorities have been losing sleep.

Many of them are rushing out of the two English-speaking regions to seek accommodation in Yaoundé or Douala, far away from the threats of brave Southern Cameroonian fighters who have reiterated their willingness to enforce the death penalty.

In Mamfe, the Mamfe rural council is witnessing a decline in the number of people who come to work. The presence of Victor Mengot Arrey Nkongho, the minister in charge of special duties at the Presidency, in Mamfe  this week to drum up support for corrupt CPDM candidates has brought more trouble to the town.

Southern Cameroonian fighters who have been observing a unilateral truce have decided to clean up their weapons so as to remind any corrupt officials that they are ready and willing to implement the death penalty issued by the USA-based Interim Government in 2017.

But it is in Kumba that the fear of the death penalty is greater. The CPDM delegation led by the corrupt Nalova Lyonga and puffy jaws Peter Mafany Musonge could only end in Buea as they were all scared of going to Kumba where the death penalty could be easily enforced. 

For the chiefs and fons who have taken money from the Yaoundé government, theirs is the kingdom of death. Southern Cameroonian fighters are on their trail and if they don’t drop off that money bag, then they may only have to explain to their ancestors why the left this planet in a haste.

Many families are still crying their loved ones and nobody in their right mind in Southern Cameroons will welcome any corrupt chiefs or fons. A corrupt traditional leader is as bad as a bad tooth that needs to be yanked very fast if the mouth must know some peace.

The oppressor cannot succeed if he does not have traitors and accomplices among the oppressed. In Southern Cameroons’ case, some chiefs, fons, ministers, mayors, senators, councils and others are the accomplices who have opted to bring pain and suffering to their people.

According to a Southern Cameroonian fighter who elected anonymity, these government accessories do not deserve to be in Southern Cameroons. They have lost their places and they clearly belong to the past.

“We cannot continue to live with these enablers. They are infidels who have decided to pollute our people’s lives. We should be taking them out one after the other to ensure that the Yaoundé government does not have accomplices among us,” he said.

“We have lost many of our people because these scums have betrayed us. We should be implementing this phase of our strategy before the years runs out. The time is now and we must make December a memorable month for the families of these people who think that they can always manipulate our people,” he stressed.

“These wretches will never walk freely on our land until our leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe, and others are set free. Our people in Manyu have succeeded to make the place ungovernable for chiefs like George TabeTando of Bachou Ntai, Edward Ako of Ossing and Ayuk Hope who fled his village over night because he could not pay an Amba levy of CFAF 1,000,000. He has been duly advised not to return and will be buried wherever he dies,” he stressed.

“This Christmas period will surely not be a good one for some families of those traitors who are hiding in Yaoundé. We have succeeded to send them into exile and they will never return to our land with their stolen wealth to tell lies to our people in the name of election campaigns,” he said.

“We are prepared to send a strong message to the enemy. We have acquired new weapons and these weapons are designed to bring death and destruction to those who have betrayed us. We are keeping an eye on those who will participate in the scam the Yaoundé government calls regional election. Blood will flow and many tears will fill our rivers and streams that are drying up,” he concluded.

While the international community might be assuming that the current lull may be the beginning of the end of the war, it must understand that things are deteriorating and many people in the country’s two English-speaking regions are still living rough.

The killing is going on and many people are still fleeing the English-speaking regions because of the intermittent and bloody violence.

The world must stop being a spectator in a game that has left many dead and displaced. More than half a million Southern Cameroonians are internally displaced, with over 300,000 thousand seeking refuge in Nigeria.

With the fighters threatening brimstone, it is clear that the days ahead will be bloody.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom and Rita Akana in Yaoundé

Frankly speaking the candidates recruited by the CPDM crime syndicate to participate in the so-called regional elections in both La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia seem to be very different certainly in terms of personality. However, the candidates are aware that President Biya and his CPDM gang are boorish, unrefined, loud, and they are not the kind of people any right thinking citizen from both nations would want to do political business with. They are too full of themselves and they rely only on the army for their political survival and existence.

Biya and his acolytes are smoother. Biya is the father of the nation, he cares for everyone!! At least these are the personality traits that the Francophone Beti Ewondo consortium of crime syndicates tries to project. But that in itself shows the barrenness of the whole regional election process. To be accurate, these CPDM tugs in both La Republique and Southern Cameroons have built themselves up into something and are touting the regional elections as the greatest election, the most important election in the history of the two Cameroons and political commentators are watching and saying, are these people really serious?

Everybody including the international community is aware that Biya-CPDM policies don’t change. That’s how the people of Southern Cameroons including the Ambazonia Restoration Forces see what’s going on. The notion that a new Cameroon will emerge after the regional elections with a sense of dignity, a sense of purpose and respectability with Biya as head of state only demonstrates that it is a lot of pretending.

Philemon Yang and Peter Mafany Musonge are the most perfect distillation of what French Cameroun represents-a nation where no one takes responsibility, no one apologizes, and no one resigns!! These two shameless former Southern Cameroons prime ministers are caricature of Biya’s Cameroon, the ugly Cameroon so to speak!

Everywhere in the two Cameroons, there is much deeper anger. Anger at what the 87 year old Biya and his criminal gangs pretend to represent. In the two Cameroons, there is deep-seated fear and anxiety about the future, about the disappearance of agro industrial plants, the crushing of local financial institutions, the fraudulent privatization agenda, political elites lying to the population and government not listening! And for a variety of reasons Biya has manipulated this into a personality mind storm that is quite impressive. Consequently, the ruling CPDM party will pull out a stunning victory and chaos will continue to reign in the two Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are of the opinion that there is not going to be any difference after the regional elections. No matter what CPDM militants and the Cameroon government military which has eventually become a political constituency in the two Cameroons choose they’re deluding themselves. This has happened in Biya’s 38 years in office. So, the regional election is not a special election and it will make no difference.

La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons under Biya is an oligarchy, not a democracy!! Both French and English speaking Cameroonians have very, very little power to change the rules that govern them and that power is given mostly or asserted mostly by Biya and his appointees. Correspondingly, voting in the regional election will not get rid of Biya and his Atanga Nji gangs and it is also not going to solve the big issues confronting the two Cameroons. It’s not.

Prime Minister Dion Ngute, Philemon Yang and Peter Mafany Musonge want every Southern Cameroonian to forget all the things that have happened following the war Biya declared against the people of Ambazonia including all the killings of our women and children that the Biya regime has initiated under Defense Minister Beti Assomo. Then what? You wake up and drive on a good road from Bamenda to Wum or from Mamfe to Akwaya? Or you wake up and see jobs being created all over the counties?

It will be the army destroying Southern Cameroons villages, BIR raping and killings Southern Cameroons teenage girls and police beating our teachers and lawyers in the street and doing it with impunity on and on and on.

The French Cameroun system is resilient and resistant to intensive and productive change. And it’s not going to be fixed by this so-called regional election, no matter how they scream and shout about how important it is.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

As the Yaoundé government presses on with its diabolic plan to perpetuate dictatorship, corruption and marginalization, Southern Cameroonian fighters are also gradually putting in place a mechanism to ensure that Southern Cameroons gains its independence.

Anything short of independence might not bring peace to the two English-speaking regions of the country, except the international community gets involved in a negotiated settlement that will be satisfactory to all the factions involved in the fighting.

True to its provocative approach to life, the country’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) also known as the crime syndicate, has launched its regional election campaign in Bamenda and Buea in the belief that the regime’s corrupt surrogates will win the election, after all, only municipal councilors are expected to vote and many of them are members of the crime syndicate that has ruled the country for 38 years.

But the campaign launch in Buea has been overshadowed by the killing of three army soldiers in Ekondo-titi in the Southwest region where the country’s Prime Minister hails.

The fighters had duly informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that the death penalty that had been decreed three years ago by the then interim government was still standing.

Any Southern Cameroonian who is enabling the Yaoundé regime has a death penalty on him and the Yaoundé regime enablers such as Peter Mafany Musonge, Nalova Lyonga, Paul Atanga Nji, Yang Philemon, George Tabetando, and all CPDM mayors and senators from the two English-speaking regions of the country are all staring down the barrel of death as they are in the cross hairs of the brave Southern Cameroonian fighters who are giving the government and its soldiers a run for their money.

While CPDM criminals are currently celebrating the launch of their campaign in Buea, they know that beyond Buea, they are not safe. The fighters have vowed to reduce each one of them into a mass of flesh if they make the mistake of taking their campaign of corruption and indiscipline beyond Buea.

For some time now, there seems to be a lull in the nasty fighting that has sent some six thousand Cameroonians to an early grave.

While the population is still struggling with the impact of the carnage orchestrated by the Yaounde regime, the crime syndicate’s key actors have shown up in Bamenda and Buea to campaign in an election that has been duly proscribed by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

A fighter who spoke to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s London correspondent on condition of anonymity said that all the factions were quietly working together, adding that they were gradually putting their differences behind them; an action that is enabling them to put in place a tough mechanism that will enable them to monitor all those who will be voting in a proscribed election.

The fighter added that there was a silver lining emerging on the dark cloud of division that has given army soldiers the feeling that they are winning the war.

He advised that the slaughtering of three army soldiers on Thursday in Ekondo-titi was just a clear statement of intent, adding that more killings of Yaounde government officials were in the offing.

He stressed that the Yaoundé government had used all its resources to divide Southern Cameroonians but its efforts were not yielding the fruits the government was looking forward to.

He added that though the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, was using rogues and criminals who do pose as Southern Cameroonian fighters, their actions had not reduced the population’s faith in the real fighters whose objective is to bring about the total independence of Southern Cameroons.

The fighter, who has been traveling in and out of Cameroon, said that it would be hard for the government to win the war because the country’s borders were porous and most of the army soldiers were corrupt.

“We move sophisticated weapons into Cameroon with relative easy. We have struck fear in the minds of the officials and soldiers and most of them are looking forward to the day this nightmare will be over,” he said.

“Thanks to our comrades in Manyu Division who have sound knowledge of the Manyu jungle, we have been able to take arms to our fellow brothers in the Northwest region. Our comrades in Ekondo-titi are active and they are ready to enforce the death penalty. The killing of those three soldiers is only a statement of intent and more things have been scheduled,” he stressed.

He used the occasion to call on the Southern Cameroons Diaspora to continue supporting the struggle, adding that the divisions within the Diaspora only help the corrupt regime in Yaoundé.

“Our people in America, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa must stop fighting each other. On the ground, we don’t really care about who is leading the interim. We just need the support and we are happy that despite the differences of opinion, the Diaspora is still providing much-needed assistance. We are really very grateful and we are using this opportunity to call for unity,” he said.

“If the Diaspora keeps on wrangling, then our independence will be jeopardized. We can achieve our goal and the government is aware of our determination. We have resisted for four years and this is a huge surprise to the government. We will be springing a few surprises in the days ahead and the world will be hearing from us very soon. There is no yielding. Forward ever, backward never. The Yaoundé government can never be trusted. It speaks from both sides of its mouth and this makes it hard to work with it,” he said.

“We would also like to use this opportunity to underscore that the death penalty still stands and anybody who violates the laws of our land will feel the wrath of our laws,” he stressed.

“I am also using this opportunity to reassure the people of Southern Cameroons that we are fighting to bring peace, prosperity and independence to our land. The population should continue to  support us. It must not yield to the pressure being mounted on it by the corrupt regime in Yaounde,” he said.

“Some of the atrocities being attributed to our fighters are clearly false. Some rogue elements are taking advantage of the situation to intimidate our people with the objective lining their pockets. We are working diligently to eliminate such rogues and we urge the population to promptly inform us of any situation if it suspects any boys in any neighbourhood. I would like to conclude that the government is also making the situation murkier by releasing its fake agents in our towns. These criminals are committing horrendous crimes just to give our struggle a very bad name. We are aware of this and we are working hard to counter this propaganda,” he concluded.

The days ahead are really bleak for a population that has already gone through a lot. Instead of seeking real solutions, the government is still pushing ahead with its devilish agenda that will only breed death and destruction.

The international community must step in if the bloodshed in Southern Cameroons must stop. The Yaoundé government has no plan and intention to bring about peace in the country. It only has one tool in its huge toolbox – brutality- that has not delivered any real results in four years.

There is no hope and with more blood scheduled to flow over the next days, the ordinary civilian is sure to pay a huge price. The world must stop being a spectator in this gruesome fight that has already sent many to an early grave.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis moved from the streets to the trenches and bushes of Southern Cameroons, a lot has changed especially the region’s political landscape.

Political campaigns are no longer conducted in the open like it was before the crisis which put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, including the military brutality and the human suffering that could be seen all over the place.

Southern Cameroons has changed for good though the old CPDM crime syndicate’s hawks and crooks like Peter Mafany Musonge, Yang Philemon and Dion Ngute are still in denial.

Over the last week, Musonge and Yang Philemon have been testing the water to see if Southern Cameroonians can take their poisonous bait.

 They have been on the ground campaigning for their party which has been outlawed in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

They only know their people when elections are in the offing. For more than three years, thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been slaughtered by the Yaoundé government in plain sight, but to these “power hungry vultures” the mowing down of fellow Southern Cameroonians is not an issue to them.

Regional elections are on the horizon and these “fairweather elites” are back with old promises, thinking that an angry and a hungry people will buy into their lies and vain promises.

In a message sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom, the separatists still hold that all those who have collaborated with the enemy should be punished and the death sentence hanging over the heads of people like Yang Philemon, Atanga Nji, Peter Mafany Musonge, George Tabetando, etc still stands.

“It will be hard to pardon these people who have been eating, drinking and dancing with the enemy. Many of our people have been killed by the Yaoundé government which has been enabled by some of our own people,” the message said.

“I hope while Yang and Musonge are peddling heresy in the name of elections, they also know that a death sentence is hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles,” the message stressed.

“Many families are still mourning their loved ones and thousands of families have been left homeless. Our people are all over East Cameroon begging for food and accommodation because the government burnt their homes and chased them away from their towns. We will never forget this and we must make those enablers among us to pay for their crime,” the message underscored.

“These elections are a non-event and any councilors who participate in that charade will be viewed as enemies and will be dealt with accordingly,” the message said.

“We are keeping our eyes on everybody. Those who betray us will have themselves to blame. The government has not yielded an inch of its authority and it wants us to down our guns. This is not going to happen,” the message underscored.

“We had thought that the national dialogue held in 2018 was designed to change a lot of things but the government’s scam is continuing. The government had hastily granted the two English-speaking regions a special status but we have only seen more people killed by government troops after their so-called special status. We now know that the only thing special in that status is the total extermination of the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons,” the message continued.

“It is hard to trust this government. The ruling party is a crime syndicate that should never be trusted. Its diaper wearing, corrupt and old members are hell-bent on destroying the youths of this country before they die. If our French-speaking colleagues have accepted their slave status, we will not accept that. It is now easy to pick up guns and we will do that until the marginalization that has been our fate ends,” the message stressed.

“We cannot drop our guns when our leaders are still in the dungeons of East Cameroon. Some are abroad and are doing their best to provide much-needed support. Though there are some disagreements among our leaders, we hold that the gaps can be bridged. These leaders should understand that we still have much to deal with. The Yaoundé government is still killing our people. We cannot let it do as it wishes. We must keep on fighting until the government listens,” the message concluded.

From every indication, Cameroon is not yet out of the woods. The days ahead are bleak and if the government does not end its charade, many more people will still die and the death sentence on the so-called elites will continue to be a millstone on their necks.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/ Editor-In-Chief

Many Cameroon political commentators including the renowned Prof PLO Lumumba have described President Paul Biya as a prominent and successful failure. To be sure, Biya has spent all his adult life chasing monetary deals, young Cameroonian and Ghanaian women and hiding from the media both at home and abroad. Biya has never sat in any library in Buea nor in Yaoundé pondering the nuances of Cameroon’s geopolitical structure and constitutional order.

Correspondingly, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe that for the past 38 years, when it comes to governing the two Cameroons, Biya simply does not know the rules as laid down by the founding fathers. Take his declaration over the killing of four gendarmes in the Manyu County upon his arrival from the Ivory Coast which was complete and total and which eventually started the war in Southern Cameroons. Biya is like the child on the back of an adult crossing a river and each time the adult smashes a fish, the child arrogantly claims he is the one who has killed the fish.

This is not to say Biya is unfamiliar with the French teleguided legal system running the two Cameroons. To the contrary, he and his family have invested in companies in the two Cameroons that have been the subject of extensive litigation! They include among others CDC, Beauty Voyage, Sitabac, Fokou, Nextel, Groupe Fotso, Camair-Co that have all gone bankrupt numerous times.

One of his first acts as head of state was to organize a fake coup that was poorly staged; seeking to prevent the Grand Nord of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo to continue to dominate the politics of the two Cameroons. After widespread outrage and internal protest within the National Gendarmerie – Biya abruptly divided the Grand Nord into North and Far North and the Fulanis and their crowned prince Minister Amadou Ali  became the revised version of neo colonial forces.

The United Republic of Cameroon was downhill from there. The two Cameroons have since been mired in one crisis after another, including Lake Nyos, Stolen Victory, Ghost Town, Nsam Fire Disaster, Eseka Train, National Assembly Fire, numerous indictments of Biya cabinet officials, the convictions of Biya’s Prime Minister Chief Inoni, Minister Secretary General at the Presidency, Jean Atangana Mebara and longtime political acolyte Edzoa Titus, Defense Minister Mebo Ngo’o – to name a few.

The 87 year old President Biya has for 38 years cast aside basic norms governing the greatest bilingual nation in Africa about social, economic, religious and legal matters. For example, Biya now uses Twitter to address very sensitive issues in a country that millions cannot access the internet, makes baseless accusations on Ambazonia Restoration Forces fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons and prosecuting his political rivals.

This bellicosity has confirmed the narrative that Biya is not just a primitive and lawless frog, but a tactless and reckless leader who has destroyed the United Republic of Cameroon.  Biya is indeed a French Cameroun Monarch and only his will goes.  Biya has turned the two Cameroons into a concentration camp and there’s nothing left. And today, Biya’s Minister of the Interior is an ex-convict-Paul Atanga Nji.

All the judges from the divisional and regional level including the Supreme Court are Biya appointees and none can rule against him. Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime have destroyed the healthcare system, shattered the National Assembly, the police force and the army and the entire Cameroon public service machinery must bend to Biya’s will. By some strange happenstance, Biya’s claim of total authority over the nation is more evident regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. This is why Cameroon Radio and Television’s senior political man George Ewane regularly opines that Biya is the Living Christ and the Messiah!!

Yes Dr. Ewane, Biya is indeed the best and greatest dictator in the world backed by the French that has successfully consolidated power and effectively craft and exploited the rule of law to advance his family and tribal ambitions.

Yes, Paul Biya is a real dictator transforming the two Cameroons to his advantage and that of his young family and his kinsmen. He is a corrupt leader who – while Dr. George Ewane and the world watches – fails to understand what it means to lead a nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

When the Southern Cameroons crisis started very few people actually gave Southern Cameroons a chance.

The Yaoundé government always thought it had everything under control, especially as it had crushed the country’s political opposition which almost it out in 1991 political upheavals that rocked the country and in 1992 when the opposition leader, John Fru Ndi, beat the incumbent, Paul Biya, in an election that was marred by intimidation and corruption.

The ruling party robbed Mr. Fru Ndi of his success and since that election; the country has not been the same again.

But the Southern Cameroons crisis turned out to be a different crisis whose ramifications extended beyond the country’s borders.

While the fighters on the ground have been local boys with little or no military training and some mercenaries from neighboring Nigeria whose cardinal objective has been to strike fear in the military and to make some fast cash by exploiting the local population, the financing that has driven the insurgency for four years has come entirely from Southern Cameroonians leaving abroad.

The government did not know that the country’s English-speaking Diaspora was going to get involved in the crisis. An error of judgment on the government’s part dragged the Southern Cameroons Diaspora into the conflict, making it hard for the government to wrap its hands around the problem.

By arresting the leaders of the teachers and lawyers who started the protests in 2017, the government clearly demonstrated that it unwilling to engage the English-speaking minority in a detailed, meaningful and fruitful dialogue.

This costly mistake was really going to bite the government where it hurt the most. The conflict moved abroad and the government’s reputation – that is if it had any – took a beating with the Diaspora ensuring that Cameroon government officials did not feel at home anywhere except in their Yaoundé enclave.

As the country’s corrupt and incompetent president, Paul Biya, declared war on his fellow citizens in 2017 just because they were calling for an end to their marginalization, little did he know that he was pouring fuel into a burning house, a situation that has hurt the country’s economy in a big and bad way.

The Southern Cameroons economy which, prior to the conflict accounted for more than 40% of the country’s economy, has taken a nosedive, leaving many Cameroonians unemployed and many children out of school.

The country’s second largest employer, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) has been limping since the insurgents shut down some of its operations in the country’s Southwest region.

PAMOL, another agro-industrial giant, is the hardest hit with most of its facilities in Ekondo-titi, Mondoni, and other locations completely put out of operation following the burning of its infrastructure.

Thousands of its workers have simply fled and many are very reluctant to return to work as the limping government is unable to provide much-needed security.

Even the country’s lone oil refinery, SONARA, has been dealt a severe blow. Though the government, known for its lies, has been defending its unsubstantiated thesis that the burning down of part of the refinery is an electrical accident, many people are simply not buying the government’s version.

For years, many Cameroonian have seen Mr. Biya and his bunch of destructive collaborators as snake oil salesmen and no Cameroonian with a good head on his shoulders will put any stock to what the government says.

For almost 40 years, Mr. Biya has been lying through his teeth. You can never take his word to any bank. He has promised Cameroonians many projects, but not many have been implemented and this has reduced him to clown in the eyes of his people.

But the biggest impact of the crisis and the one that will linger for a long time is the drying up of multiple revenue streams, a situation that has dumped the government in real financial problems.

SONARA, CDC and PAMOL were the government’s ATMs and ever since the insurgents destroyed those companies, the government has been losing sleep, with many of its officials seeking to obtain loans from multilateral financial institutions which, in many cases, are not prepared to extend fresh new sovereign loans to a country that has the bad habit of defaulting on its loan payments.

With its coffers rapidly running low and the president becoming a colony of diseases, much is falling apart in Yaounde and this is causing huge confusion and fear among those in power.

Power is going abegging in Yaounde. The vacuum is obvious but Mr. Biya has already compromised the military, making hard for anybody within the army to think of throwing the final blow at a government that is clearly on its last leg.

Most decisions in Yaounde are being taken by the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who is simply implementing decisions taken by Chantal Biya, the president wife who has distinguished herself with her flaming red hair and penchant for colorful dressing.

Many Western countries know that Biya is a lame duck and they will support anybody who overthrows the regime through a people power revolution.

Most Western countries have been counting on Prof. Maurice Kamto, the winner of the 2018 presidential elections who is currently under house arrest because he has been calling for a popular uprising in Cameroon.

But Kamto seems to be riding a dead horse. He has been counting on the Francophone majority which is simply not willing and ready to create that environment that may result in Mr. Biya’s dishonorable exit.

The country’s English-speaking minority has weakened the government and it is now up to the Francophone majority to deliver the last blow that will rid the country of a government that has made corruption and incompetence its hallmarks.

The writing is on the wall, but the Francophone majority is incapable of decoding because it is written in English. Francophone Cameroonians are illiterate in English. Somebody may have to interpret things for them to know that the heavy lifting has already been done.

They surely have to take out pages from political books published by Sudanese, Egyptians, Tunisians and Malians if they have to rid themselves of the millstone the Biya regime has placed around their necks.

Nobody will do it for them. They must take the risk. They have nothing to lose. Power is already on the streets looking for someone to own it. It is time to come together to make the ruling CPDM also known as the crime syndicate a distant memory.

The ruling party clearly belongs to the ash heap of history. All it takes is a little courage. If Cameroonians need that change then they must listen to opposition leaders who want to reverse the damage the corrupt Biya regime has inflicted on the country.

By  Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

The people of Ambazonia today join the great people of Ghana and millions of Pan-Africanists around the globe in mourning the loss of former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The former president passed on to glory today, Thursday 12 November 2020 after a brief illness in Accra, Ghana. The thoughts and prayers of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are with his immediate family at this hour of pain and sadness.

Former President Rawlings was a great friend of Ambazonia and a Pan-Africanist who articulated the plight of the Southern Cameroons with truth, passion, imagination, and conviction. He was a great visionary who advocated for an Africa free of imperialism.

President Rawlings will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its sincere and passionate friends.

On this somber day, The Interim Government is calling on all Ambazonians to observe a minute of silence and engage in prayers for the soul of this great African.

Thank you,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

The Anglophone problem in Cameroon is often described as the evolution of the Anglophone’s awareness from the feeling of being marginalised, exploited and homogenised politically, economically and socially by the Francophone-dominated state and even the Francophone population.

The failure to promote the rule of law and democracy creates an environment for conflict, often exacerbated by marginalisation, discrimination, inequality and inequity.

The bitterness of citizens roused to violence is usually entrenched in lack of basic services and public infrastructure, corruption, lack of personal and economic security and lack of transparency and accountability of government to its citizens. Thus, the greatest problem of African countries is their failure to protect the economic, political, social and cultural concerns of their people. This year, 2020, has been marred by a series of human rights violations from Lagos to Kumba. Africa is bleeding.

On 24 October 2020, at least eight children were killed and dozens wounded by a group of armed men at the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Kumba, in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. There have been a lot of attacks in Cameroon since 2016. However, these attacks have intensified dramatically.

Since the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon began in 2016, hundreds of people have died, more than 70 villages have been destroyed, about 160,000 people are internally displaced while 35,000 people have sought refuge in Nigeria, Cameroon’s neighbouring country. This crisis has also led to months of general strikes, innumerable days of internet shutdown and the loss of academic years.

What began as a peaceful strike by teachers and lawyers in 2016 led to a conflict between the government and an armed separatist movement of the Anglophone region. This crisis is a serious threat to efforts to build national harmony and unification in Cameroon and has led to the re-establishment of strong contentions and conducts in support of secession and/or federalism by Anglophones. This is because at the centre of this conflict is the Anglophones’ wish to secede from Cameroon and form their own independent state called Ambazonia.

Many analysts contend that the conflict is a result of the unmanageable historical animosity between Cameroon’s Anglophones and Francophones in terms of varying language, culture and identity. Thus, if the differences in identity, language and culture are the primary drivers of the conflict as these analysts contend, it is quite surprising that Cameroon, one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Africa, has to a great extent avoided conflict until 2016.

This crisis goes way beyond language, culture or identity. It is a resurgence of an old problem known as the Anglophone problem. The Anglophone problem is often described as the evolution of the Anglophone’s awareness from the feeling of being marginalised, exploited and homogenised politically, economically and socially by the Francophone-dominated state and even the Francophone population in Cameroon.

The Anglophone problem is driven by the marginalisation and discrimination against the Anglophones in Cameroon in decision-making nationally; the dilapidation of the region’s infrastructure; the exploitation of the region’s rich economic resources by successive Francophone administrations without much beneficiation to the local communities; and marginalisation in human resource development and deployment by the inundation of Anglophone regions with Francophone employees and workers.

It is driven by the marginalisation of the Anglophones in the allocation of economic resources by the Francophones, especially by the mismanagement of the economic patrimony in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon; the common law system and the francophonisation of the English educational system; gradual erosion of Anglophone identity; the predominance of French and Francophones in official documents and public offices respectively; as well as the second-class citizenship of the Anglophones when compared with the Francophones.

The principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty may bar international actors from intervening. However, one can start from the low hanging fruit. For example, European media can call out President Biya for always spending his time and his country’s resources in Switzerland and other European countries without reasonable justification.

Atrocities and the killings of the innocents cannot continue and must stop. While President Paul Biya of Cameroon has made several commitments to end the conflict in Cameroon, there has to be a genuine commitment for the equal and equitable distribution of resources to the Anglophone regions as enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon 1996, which stipulates that all citizens “have equal rights and obligations” and “the state shall provide all its citizens with the conditions necessary for their development” and that the state has a positive obligation to ensure that it protects the rights of the minorities. This must be upheld by the government of Cameroon.

Even if there is a commitment on the part of the Anglophones and the government of Cameroon to end the conflict and there are resources to do so, there may be an issue with the authorising environment. This is because President Biya began his rule in Cameroon in 1982 and is serving his seventh term, making him one of the longest-serving presidents in Africa and the world.

This means that for an average Cameroonian, s/he has only known one president since birth. Since the early 1990s, it has been speculated that President Biya is aloof to the needs of his people and has made very few public appearances. He is termed an absentee president who regularly spends extended periods in Switzerland with the excuse from his government that he goes to Switzerland to work without being disturbed. This deficit in governance, as well as the economic apartheid of the Anglophones, are some of the reasons for the demand for a change in the system of government from autocratic to democratic rule.

The bilateral partners of Cameroon such as France, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and other national, regional and international organisations should put pressure on the Cameroonian government to put in place a course of action to assuage the situation, partake in a genuine national dialogue and transform the governance archetype. The government of Cameroon should allow for negotiation and mediation during the national dialogue between parties, where necessary.

The principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty may bar international actors from intervening. However, one can start from the low hanging fruit. For example, European media can call out President Biya for always spending his time and his country’s resources in Switzerland and other European countries without reasonable justification.

Last, the African Union has a huge role to play in this crisis. Just like the Confederation of African Football (CAF) deprived Cameroon the right to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, the African Union can strip Cameroon of the benefits that it enjoys from the continental body and may also place economic and political sanctions on Cameroon such as travel bans and restrictions on access to services in the international arena until it resolves the Anglophone crisis.

Thus, it is imperative to acknowledge that the Anglophone crisis may continue to simmer if the Anglophones still feel marginalised. Therefore, the government of Cameroon must make a conscious effort to address the concerns of the Anglophones, particularly in the allocation and management of economic resources and representation in state institutions.

Source: Daily Maverick