The Commonwealth Secretary-General has issued the following statement in response to an attack on a village in north-west Cameroon on 14 February which reportedly left 23 people dead, the majority of them children.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said:

“I strongly condemn the recent killings of civilians, including women and children in the North-West of Cameroon on 14 February 2020.

“We noted the Government announcement that there would be a full investigation into the incident. We encourage the Government to conduct an impartial investigation, for perpetrators to be held accountable and for results to be made public.

“The Commonwealth strongly condemns all forms of violence, and in particular, the loss of lives of innocent civilians including women and children.

“Cameroon is a noted member of the Human Rights Council and as such we are minded of General Comment 13 to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to freedom from all forms of violence which is underscored by the understanding that no violence against children is justifiable, all violence against children is preventable. 

“I continue to convey these concerns to the Government of Cameroon, and the Commonwealth stands ready to support solutions that will address the root causes of this conflict.”

Secretary-General The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC

On Friday the 14^th of February 2020, our nation, witnessed one of the darkest days in its short history. French Cameroun military invaded the village of Ngarbuh in Donga Mantung County and massacred 24 people. The United Nations has confirmed that of the 24 killed; fifteen were children, nine under the age of five and two pregnant women.

At moments like this, we find inward peace in the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Quran. The Holy Scriptures say “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”And the Holy Quran 3:101 states “and whoever holds firmly to Allah has indeed been guided to a straight path.”As a nation, let us hold firm to our faith, the truth and justice.

As a nation, let us not lose focus on our goal at this challenging phase. Our prize is Buea. Our sacrifice in sweat, tears and blood will be worth this prize. Our country has lost 24 extraordinary citizens, including fifteen children who had their lives ahead of them. No words could heal the depth of sorrow felt by their family at this moment but our hearts and prayers go out to them.

Following this massacre, the Catholic Diocese of Kumbo under the leadership of His Lordship Bishop George Nkuo has called for a day of prayer and mourning on Friday the 21^st of Feb. 2020.We support him on this great initiative. All Ambazoniansand people of goodwill the world over are called upon to observe Friday the 21^st of Feb. 2020 as a day of Prayers and Mourning in memory of the victims of Ngarbuh.

Over the next few days, let these massacred children inspire us as a nation with love, determination and courage. Let them inspire us with charity towards our cause. In the midst of unspeakable and horrifying violence and evil from French Cameroun, let us have hope and cultivate determination that we shall overcome. Let us cultivate the belief that these children and fellow citizens did not die in vain.

As a nation, we shall be judged by our responses to evil of this enormity. Let us channel our collective energy and consciousness towards this journey of self-determination and justice. If we all do this, our dreams of building a nation based on international law and the respect of human lives and rights shall come to pass.

Thank You,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

The news of the massacres in the Donga Mantung Division of the Northwest region has been spreading across the world like wildfire and many people are surprised that the government is not seeking to provide explanations for this ugly situation that is giving the country a very bad name.

Close to 40 persons were killed by the country’s military and the United Nations and many human rights groups are calling on the government to investigate the matter with the objective of punishing those responsible for the carnage.

Despite these calls, the government has remained suspiciously quiet. Could the killings be part of a government plan to decimate the population of the English-speaking regions that account for 20% of the country’s population?

Many political analysts hold that the government’s decision to kill English-speaking Cameroonians and burn their homes is part of a carefully crafted policy to subjugate the population once and for all. This, in its view, will ensure that the vocal minority is hemmed in forever.

If this is really part of a government policy, then it is clear that the government has not really done its homework properly. Times have changed and the world is a different place from what it used to be in the 1960s when rogue governments could get away with crimes against humanity.

Unlike in the past, crimes could be reported in real time today due to the advent of social media and android phones that are enabling citizens to capture some of those crimes as they play out.

Besides, it will be hard, if not impossible, to take down an entire community, especially as half of the community is out of the country. Cameroon’s English-speaking minority is about 8 million people strong and most of the young educated men are professionals living abroad.

The government should understand that most of the opposition it faces comes from abroad and instead of killing children and pregnant women, it should seek to make peace with its English-speaking Diaspora that has made up its mind to change the order of things in Cameroon.

The government might has just issued a press release indicating that the death of 32 women and children is an unfortunate event and that those killed are collateral damage, but its initial silence cannot be deemed golden. 

The government is guilty of manslaughter. It has developed a policy of mass murder that will never lead to peace. The government of a well-run country is never in the business of proving a point. A true and honest government listens to its citizens and seeks to come up with solutions that can address the issues raised.

The government’s initial silence is proof of guilt and its belated press release simply speaks to its inability to admit guilt and seek corrective measures. There is dignity in accepting guilty and promising that it would no longer happen is usually a first step towards addressing the issues. Flexing one’s muscles all the time turns off even moderates. The government of Cameroon must start thinking of walking the path to dialogue to save its reputation or whatever is left of it.

By Dr Joachim Arrey in Canada

A few days ago, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet and for days, it seemed like nothing would filter out. As usual, it does not take long for some people to start spilling the beans, and this is what is happening.

Even members of the president’s inner circle are frustrated. They want change, but the president seems to be unable to engineer the change they are looking forward to. The president seems to be stuck to the past, as he is always rehashing policies that have outlived their usefulness and politicians who lack the vision and courage to embrace new and innovative ways. 

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons was at the top of the agenda. The African Union, like the United Nations, has finally decided to break its silence, and this has ruffled the Yaounde government.

Last week’s elections did not meet African Union standards and they were held against the backdrop of military violence, with some 8,000 Southern Cameroonians escaping to Nigeria, according to the United Nations. The mass movement was prompted by government violence and lack of security in the two English-speaking regions.

According to the African Union, last week’s twin elections which took place on 9 February were held in a context marked by political and security tension. They were also marked by the absence of a consensus among the political actors. This, the African Union believes, affected the inclusive character of the elections and the mobilization of voters.

The African Union has therefore called upon the government of Cameroon and political actors to pursue efforts that will help to ease the tension.

The African Union also recommended that the government should take necessary measures that will ensure citizen participation and inclusion in all decisions in order to ensure that peace and security return to the country.

The continental body urged the government to establish a dialogue framework that will bring together all political actors, adding that such measures would restore confidence and foster peace in the country.

With the bad news from the African Union and the United Nations, the country’s president felt that his credibility as a leader had been called into question. He had to act, though he is not known for taking swift actions, especially against members of the crime syndicate he runs.

He had been informed by his collaborators that the elections had taken place normally, but with the United Nations and the African Union challenging the drama that government officials and the ruling party (CPDM) had staged; Mr. Biya felt it was time to bring in his closest collaborators for an honest discussion.

He used the occasion to advise his collaborators to tone down their rhetoric, adding that though Cameroon was a sovereign country, the impressions and opinions of the international community still mattered.

Meanwhile, the fighting in the two English-speaking regions has continued with government forces going on a home-burning spree in many parts of the Northwest region.

On Thursday, February 13, 2020, soldiers loyal to Mr. Biya burnt a lady to death in Ntigi, a neighborhood in Bambili in the Northwest region, leaving many innocent civilians worried about their lives and future.

The burning of homes in the Northwest region is a daily affair. In a bid to render Southern Cameroonians desperate, the Yaounde government has been burning their homes and farms.  The government seems to be engaged in a scorch earth policy as a means of turning the population against Southern Cameroonian fighters who have given government forces a run for their money over the last three years.

In the Southwest region, many cities seem to be enjoying some peace, although from time to time, there are outbursts of tension in cities like Buea, Mamfe, Mutengene and Kumba. The situation in the region is very uncertain and can only be compared to Mount Etna whose eruptions have become normal.

Though this unsettling calm is prevailing in major cities in the Southwest region, the small towns are still taking a beating from the reckless military. In Ossing, a town some 6 miles from Mamfe, sex-starved and alcohol-inflamed soldiers killed two innocent civilians on Wednesday.

The trigger-happy soldiers are used to heading to small towns to conduct unnecessary raids as a means to enrich themselves and they do sometimes meet some resistance. Their modus operandi is known. They fire in the air to scare off any Southern Cameroonian fighters who might be around during the time of their ill-intentioned raids.

Many civilians have been victims of these irresponsible actions and the Yaounde government that seems to have given the military a carte blanche has never investigated any reckless killing of civilians.

Since the beginning of the crisis, over 5,000 civilians have been killed while sources in the country’s defense ministry put military deaths at slightly over 2,500 soldiers, excluding police officers and prison guards.

The conflict has resulted in the internal displacement of more than a million Southern Cameroonians while more than half a million Southern Cameroonians are in Nigeria as refugees where they are living rough.

The country’s economy has also been hurt by the conflict that might not be addressed anytime soon due to the government’s arrogance and intransigence. Many state-owned corporations such as the CDC and PAMOL have gone under while SONARA, the country’s lone refinery located in Southern Cameroon, is tittering on the brink of collapse following a massive fire a few months ago.

Southern Cameroonian fighters had vowed to bring the country’s economy to its knees, and they seem to be as good as their word. The country’s economy has taken a nosedive, with the government losing many of its income streams.

For more than 40 years, the Yaounde government has been running these state-owned corporations located in Southern Cameroons as its Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and the collapse of those corporations has left the government with a bloodshot eye.

Cameroon is heading to the bottom of the abyss and only a well-crafted government policy can stop this spectacular collapse that has been orchestrated by Mr. Biya and his government.

The future is bleak. Things are falling apart. The Yaounde government is desperate. It has been sending delegations to development finance institutions such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank for financial assistance, but the outcome of those discussions has been anything but favorable.

Global investors do not trust the regime that has proven that it is not good at managing resources. Private investors prefer to head somewhere else. The Yaounde government has even been defaulting on its sovereign debts on many occasions and this does not speak well of it.

All these issues were given some attention during the emergency meeting wherein the president painted a very bleak image of things. He might have declared on February 10, 2020, that his government had created 500,000 jobs, but he knew that he was simply inventing things.

The country’s unemployment rate is in double digits and this is a huge concern to the government. With the Francophone majority already jumping into the fray, it is clear that the government is losing sleep.

Francophones who had been intimidated into silence are today speaking out, especially about the killings in the Northwest and Southwest regions, as well as the hardship that is triggering premature aging and death in the country.

The government is aware that if it does not act fast to allay fears and alleviate the poverty that is spreading very fast like wildfire, a popular uprising might show up and this will send the country into a downward political spiral.

The world is watching in total disbelief as Mr. Biya and his inefficient government drag a once-upon-a-time wealthy country to the bottom of a dark abyss. Cameroon is spiraling out of control and if something is not done; its chaos might cross its borders.

All the world is hoping for is the prevalence of wisdom, especially as the president celebrates his 87th birthday. Some analysts hold that somewhere, he might have an attack of conscience and will start taking the right decisions that might save a country that is on life support.

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

Ever since the Biya Francophone regime stepped up its military campaign in Southern Cameroons as the Ambazonia diaspora withdrew support for the Interim Government headed then by Dr Ikome Sako, the Southern Cameroons territory fell into the hands of three authorities: Cameroon government security apparatus, pro-French Cameroun militias aka Atanga Nji Boys and the Ambazonia Restoration Forces. Two among the three have been working to stifle the Southern Cameroons struggle for freedom and quest for statehood.

The situation has become so complex with the Biya regime’s security agencies imposing their grip on both the Southern and Northern zones and is giving a free hand to French Cameroun loyalist militias that are now threatening and blackmailing Southern Cameroons residents. The Cameroon government military has also given militants of the ruling CPDM party and their own armed militias’ wide-ranging powers.

Elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), the elite force that was created with the support of the Israeli regime are now exploiting Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero for military and economic reasons. In Manyu, Bui and Menchum Counties, residents returning to their homes from the bushes have been subjected to security raids and the regime has arrested many for failing to present valid identification papers.

Since late 2019, many returning young Southern Cameroonians have also been killed and hundreds detained in military barracks in French Cameroun. In Muyuka and in Mamfe in the Southern zone, Ambazonian citizens have become a source of income for Cameroon government security agencies. Cameroon government’s gendarmerie, its Francophone dominated police force, the army and elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion have used forced arrest and detention campaigns to extort poor Southern Cameroons families, who pay them money to leave their sons and daughters alone, or to facilitate getting them out to safe places in French Cameroun.   

All the top militias in Southern Cameroons including members of the Cho Ayaba’s ADF gang are backed by the Cameroon government army. There are also CPDM militias such as the Minister Atanga Nji Boys that have been using Cameroon government military bases in Buea and Bamenda to carry out pro Yaounde regime operations in Southern Cameroons.

Members of these Cameroon government militias have killed hundreds of Southern Cameroonians and spread fear among the population in Ground Zero, which is currently seeing repeated murders and hit and run killings in places like Bamenda, Kumba, Kumbo, Wum, Batibo and Tombel. One of the most tragic was the killing of a child in Muyuka last year.

Cameroon government militias and Southern Cameroons gangs that recently emerged following the collapse of the Sako Ikome-Chris Anu administration have also been responsible for a rising wave of kidnappings of civilians in order to extort ransoms to cover their own financial needs. To be sure, senior Cameroon government army officers are strengthening themselves financially by setting up groups headed by well trained soldiers specialized in theft and hired killings.  There is increasing harassment of business owners and traders by both Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia criminal gangs and taxes on transportation are imposed by Cameroon government militias that control military checkpoints on various roads in Southern Cameroons.  Many attempts by the business communities to go about their activities have been met with a stone wall by the three forces that control Southern Cameroons namely: Cameroon government security apparatus, pro-French Cameroun militias aka Atanga Nji Boys and the Ambazonia Restoration Forces. This has forced several business men and women to pay monetary royalties and bribes to get their businesses running again.

The consortium of the ruling CPDM crime syndicates is the third arm of the triumvirate running Southern Cameroons. The government party was the only political entity that campaigned in Southern Cameroons in the February twin poll with armored vehicles and military helicopters. The ruling CPDM party has knowingly or unknowingly created a new constituency in Cameroon politics—the army.

The Cameroon government army is working hard reviving CPDM party branches in both French and Southern Cameroons and instituting a spying and monitoring network made up of CPDM party staffers, sending them into various parts of Southern Cameroons in heavily guarded military convoy. The military is now present in every ruling CPDM party celebrations and activities in Southern Cameroons and they are overseeing several conferences and party events aimed at increasing Biya and French Cameroun’s dominance and the influence in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo authorities have over the last four years imposed a policy of discrimination in Southern Cameroons and above all, fanning the flames of the North West/South West Divide. The Southern Cameroons territory, where the French Cameroun regime has been in charge for 58 years, still has no iota of development despite pleas by its poor citizens.

For 58 years, Southern Cameroonians have suffered from almost continuous power and mains water cuts. For 58 years, Southern Cameroonians have lived under the constant shadow of accusations that they had previously embraced the option of joining the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and threats that they will pay the price for this. Many who joined the Francophone dominated public service never had a rise in the system and were deprived of their rights.

The level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming. So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities. It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. One thing we know for sure is that Mr Biya and his military and private militia will be held accountable for these crimes. While not exonerating Ambazonian self-defense forces, we also know that Mr Biya’s government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy. Only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons and establish the facts.

By Asu Isong in London

Cameroonians head for the polls this weekend against the backdrop of the armed conflict that broke out in October 2017 in the country’s Anglophone North West and South West regions. Elections to the legislature and to local municipalities have been postponed twice. The last ones were held in September 2013.

In 2018 presidential elections were held which saw President Paul Biya win another seven-year term. But the poll was heavily contested, and resulted in an escalation of the violence which persists. More than 3 000 people have died, half a million have been displaced within Cameroon and 40 000 were forced to seek refuge in Nigeria. An estimated 700 000 children are out of school and one third of the population in the Anglophone regions are in need of humanitarian aid.

What impact will the elections have on the resolution of the conflict?

In our view the answer is simple: none. This is because the ruling Cameroon People Democratic Movement’s dominates state institutions such as the executive and legislature. If anything, preparation for the elections has already heightened violence.

The North West and South West regions also experienced increased rates of violence during the presidential election of October 2018. Voter turnout was low – only 5% in the North and 15% in the South. The opposition asked for a re-run but the constitutional court said the elections were credible.

Political landscape

Cameroon has three major political parties. The ruling Cameroon People Democratic Movement which currently has 148 of the 180 National Assembly seats. The Social Democratic Front follows with a distant 18 seats. It has been the leading opposition party since its creation in 1990. The Social Democratic Front has a challenger in the form of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement which is led by Maurice Kamto. Kamto came second in the 2018 presidential election, the Social Democratic Front’s candidate 4th.

Kamto challenged the outcome of the presidential elections. He was subsequently jailed but then released after 9 months. Having become the de facto leader of the opposition in the country, Kamto has announced that the Cameroon Renaissance Movement will boycott the twin elections, citing the ongoing conflict and a bad electoral code.

If Kamto’s party does indeed boycott the elections, the ruling party will not face any major challenge.

Kamto believes that on its own, the special status granted to the English-speaking region of Cameroon will not resolve the crisis. Like his counterparts in the Social Democratic Front, he has proposed federalism.

Wrestling control of territory

The spike in violence before and during elections in 2018 was due to the belligerents fighting for control of the former British Southern Cameroons territory.

The Anglophone conflict is separatist in character. The pro-independence fighters want the “restoration of the statehood of the Southern Cameroons”, which they have renamed “Ambazonia”.

The separatists have asked members of parliament representing constituencies in the Anglophone regions to stage a walk-out or resign from the parliament in Yaounde, the country’s capital. They hope that such a step will achieve the same results as the 1953 walk out.

That year, the Southern Cameroons’ representatives walked out of the Eastern House of Assembly of Nigeria to assert the right to self-determination and the separate status of the Southern Cameroons as a United Nations (UN) Trust Territory. It was a successful gambit as the administering authority – Britain – complied and allowed the territory its autonomy.

But the members of parliament have not complied. The result has been an increase in violence.

Parliamentary discipline

The latest efforts of the state to resolve the Anglophone conflict includes a a national dialogue. The key resolution was the adoption of a “special status” for the Anglophone North West and South West regions.

The legislation mentioned schools and the judiciary system as part of the special status – a delayed response to protests in 2016 by teachers and lawyers.

Members of the ruling party hailed the law as a major breakthrough but the opposition received it with a pinch of salt. Their argument is that Anglophones, even the moderate ones, want a federal state.

For their part, separatists said no law enacted in Cameroon can be enforced in Ambazonia. They firmly stand by their demand for independence.

The stalemate suggests that more still needs to be done to resolve the conflict.

Parliament has the prerogative to make laws. It can leverage this privilege to improve the special status or enact a more adequate law. But the domination of parliament by the ruling party allows the president to define its agenda.

For example, the only time the Anglophone conflict was examined by parliament was when Biya ordered it to adopt the decentralisation bill which included the special status in December last year.

The elections are unlikely to change the power dynamics in the country. The ruling party is set to maintain control of parliament and municipalities. This means that the special status law will be implemented, which in turn will mean that nothing will change. The opposition’s inability to challenge this law means the conflict will persist.

United opposition is needed

If opposition parties are to make any contribution to building a more resilient society, they will have to unite to face the ruling party.

Cameroon’s ruling party has been able to dominate the political space in the country because of fractious disagreements among  opposition and civil society. Major opposition parties must settle their differences and find ways of forging solid alliances that can allow them to effectively wrest control of the parliament, municipalities, and even the presidency from the ruling party.

If a united opposition came to power it would mean that voices for change could field the type of strategies and legislation that could provide longer term solutions to the conflict. Many in Cameroon’s opposition and in civil society believe that a return to a two-state federation – that Anglophones have repeatedly called for – following all-inclusive dialogue, is the best way out the country’s impasse.

Culled from The Conversation

Cameroonian government forces and rival anglophone separatists have stepped up arrests, abductions, and deadly attacks in the two months leading up to Sunday’s parliamentary and municipal elections, causing a devastating fallout for civilians that looks set to worsen.

Perceived marginalisation by the francophone majority of the minority English-speaking community – some 20 percent of the population, concentrated in the Northwest and Southwest regions – saw a separatist insurgency erupt in Cameroon in October 2016.

But what has until recently been a low-intensity conflict – albeit one that has left an estimated 3,000 civilians dead, and nearly 730,000 people displaced at home and abroad – now risks entering a new and more dangerous phase, according to aid workers, residents, and experts.

Why has violence spiked?

In November 2019, President Paul Biya set a date for the elections, sparking unprecedented violence, destruction, and human rights abuses across the two western regions – referred to collectively by the separatists as the Southern Cameroons or the Republic of Ambazonia.

“This is the first time since the anglophone crisis began that I have seen this level of violence,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The New Humanitarian. “I have never seen so many incidences, attacks, and reports [of violence] as I am seeing now.”

Previously, the conflict had been marked by periodic peaks in violence coinciding with public holidays and court proceedings for arrested separatist leaders. “This has now been taken to another level,” Allegrozzi said.

Shortly after Biya’s election announcement, on 1 December, separatists attempted to shoot down a commercial plane landing in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region. A separatist leader, Cho Ayaba, claimed it was a legitimate target as commercial planes were used to transport soldiers and weapons.

“We are bent on doing anything, anything that it takes for this election, this sham election, this colonial election, not [to be held] in Ambazonia.”

The separatists have declared Sunday’s polls illegal and stepped up operations, reportedly abducting 40 candidates in December and burning down a government election office in January.

“In Ambazonia, we do not have elections, because we do not have a government,” Fombat Forbah Dieudonné, a spokesperson for the Ambazonia Restoration Forces – the defence arm of the self-declared interim government of Ambazonia – told TNH.

“Our government is still an interim government that operates from the diaspora,” Dieudonné said. “We are still fighting to restore our independence.”

Separatists have called for a “lockdown” between 7 and 12 February in the two western regions, with restrictions on movement, and closures of schools, markets, and businesses.

They have issued threats of violence and death to those who do not observe the lockdown via social media, WhatsApp, and separatist-run television and radio stations. Separatists have also called for humanitarian organisations to suspend activities during the lockdown.

“We are bent on doing anything, anything that it takes for this election, this sham election, this colonial election, not [to be held] in Ambazonia,” Dieudonné said. “Our restoration forces have openly declared that there are going to be no elections taking place in their territory.”

The UN has recorded “a significant increase in incidents against civilians since December, including killings and burning of houses and villages with consequent displacement of civilians”, James Nunan, head of the UN’s aid coordination body, OCHA, in the two regions, told TNH.

How are humanitarian needs growing?

As the crisis escalates, civilians are increasingly caught in the crossfire, and assistance is harder for them to attain.

“The closure of over 40 percent of the health centres and the escalation of the crisis because of the elections is likely to intensify the deteriorating health conditions for the over four million people living in the English-speaking regions,” noted independent humanitarian analysts ACAPS on 21 January.

The International Crisis Group estimates that at least 3,000 civilians have been killed since 2016. Across the Northwest and Southwest regions, an estimated 600,000-700,000 children have been out of school since 2016, as 80 percent of schools there remain closed.

As of 31 December, OCHA estimated that 679,393 people had been internally displaced by the conflict, and another 51,000 people have crossed the border into neighbouring Nigeria.

Between 9 and 15 December, 5,475 people were displaced in the Northwest region alone, fleeing military raids and clashes between separatist groups and government security forces. As of 20 December, no humanitarian assistance had been delivered to those newly displaced, OCHA said.

“The humanitarian situation is increasingly worrying.”

Most of the internally displaced people are sheltering in the bush with little access to shelter, food, or healthcare. Providing humanitarian assistance has proved challenging.

The national government has “tough procedures that must be cleared, and passages need to be negotiated with non-state armed groups”, explained Fon Nsoh, a coordinator for the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development (COMINSUD), a local aid NGO based in Bamenda.

“The humanitarian situation is increasingly worrying,” OCHA’s Nunan said. And it is likely to get worse, especially as displacement figures for the recent uptick of violence in January and early February are yet to be properly recorded and needs assessed.

Are civilian abuses being committed?

Whereas during the conflict’s first two years, violence against civilians and human rights abuses were perpetrated largely by government security forces, HRW’s Allegrozzi said such actions have more recently been “coming from both sides”.

“Abuses are being committed, I would say now, in an almost equal manner both by the separatists and the security forces,” she explained. “If, at the beginning, we observed more abuses from the government side, I would say that now, especially with these elections upcoming, that the frequency, the scale, and depravity of abuses committed by the separatists is really serious.”

According to Allegrozzi, armed separatist groups have targeted and assaulted civilians willing to participate in the elections. They have assaulted, threatened and tortured members and supporters of political parties, including the ruling party and Social Democratic Front, the main opposition party.

Human Rights Watch documented at least 25 cases of kidnapping of candidates to the elections since mid-November 2019, and heard reliable reports of over 100 people kidnapped by the separatists over the same period. Separatist groups have also used intimidation and violence to keep children and teachers out of schools.

Most recently, on 1 February, separatists attacked a military convoy in the Northwest region carrying a minister travelling to Mbengwi – the main town in Momo district – for election campaign activities.

“People are afraid. Not so much because they don’t want to vote, but for fear of being abused.”

Civilians have condemned the separatists’ increasingly brutal tactics.

“We all agree that the governance system is not the best,” said Magdaline Agbor Tarkang, Southwest regional president of the Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement, a local NGO. “But again, I can attest to the fact that more than 90 percent of our population don’t agree with that violence, [the] maiming of the same people you are trying to protect, killing them, abducting.”

In this climate of violence and intimidation, “people are afraid”, Tarkang told TNH. “Not so much because they don’t want to vote, but for fear of being abused. The situation is not very convenient for very free and fair elections to take place.”

Government security forces – including military personnel, gendarmes, and police – have also killed civilians, burned hundreds of houses and dozens of villages, and arbitrarily arrested and tortured hundreds of people suspected of having links to the various separatist groups.

They have “failed to adequately address the threats posed by the armed separatists”, and “conducted abusive security operations resulting in an excessive use of force, unlawful killings and destruction of property,” said Allegrozzi.

Are aid workers being targeted?

On the morning of 30 January, separatists kidnapped four staff from COMINSUD.

According to an incident report provided by the local aid NGO, abductors accused the organisation of “working with the government in registering people for elections” and “harbouring a staff of French expression serving as a spy under the pretext of doing humanitarian assistance”.

Three of the four staff members who were abducted were beaten and “subjected to different forms of psychological torture and threats”, the report said. The organisation, working alongside other humanitarian actors, negotiated the successful release of the staff the following day.

Also on 30 January, three staff from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation were abducted in Bambili, a town east of Bamenda, after separatists mistook their suggestion box for a government election box. All were later released without ransom.

What are the latest conflict dynamics?

Armed separatist groups are becoming more organised, mobilising resources from abroad, and carrying out more sophisticated attacks against government security forces.

It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 government security forces have been killed since the conflict began in 2016. Some 300 separatist fighters have been killed, according to Dieudonné, the separatist spokesperson.

“Our life is no longer safe.”

Since early January, the military has reinforced the Northwest and Southwest regions, deploying some 700 additional gendarmes, carrying out deadly military raids and clashing with separatist groups, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group.

According to several witnesses, government security forces carried out military raids on Sunday in Owe and Ikata villages, both in Fako district in the Southwest region, killing three civilians in Ikata. Military raids carried out since the new year have resulted in at least 28 deaths, including six in Donga Mantung, three in Babessi-Ndop, and nine in Mbiame Kumbo.

On 3 and 4 February, government security forces descended on the town of Muyuka, killing three civilians, burning down at least 45 houses, detaining some 300 people, and displacing an estimated 3,000, many of whom fled into the bush, according to eyewitness accounts.

“Our life is no longer safe,” one Muyuka resident displaced by the recent raid told TNH.

What caused the conflict?

Anglophone discord with the majority francophones has roots in the colonial era when once German Kamerun was handed over to Britain and France after World War I. The territories were granted independence in the 1960s, and anglophone Southern Cameroons voted to join francophone Cameroon to form one united country. Since then, anglophone Cameroonians have felt economically, politically, and socially marginalised.

The crisis escalated in October 2016 when peaceful protests, led by anglophone teachers and lawyers, were met with deadly force. Separatist groups took up arms, initially demanding for a return to the pre-1971 federal system that would give the anglophone regions more autonomy from an increasingly centralised government.

Through 2017, government security forces arrested and detained separatist leaders and continued a deadly crackdown on protesters and civilians.

Calls for autonomy increasingly turned to calls for outright secession and the formation of a country called Ambazonia. Separatist groups proliferated and retaliated. Tensions heightened. President Biya labelled the Ambazonia Defense Forces and other separatist groups “terrorists” and declared war against them in late 2017.

No serious attempt at mediation or exploration of greater autonomy for the western regions has yet been undertaken. Biya announced a “major national dialogue” last year, but it sidelined the separatist leaders and lacked any participation from the international players seen as key to resolving the crisis, namely the African Union and former colonial powers Britain and France.

Culled from The New Humanitarian.org

As China fights a vast threat that has already killed some 300 people, Cameroonians are also engaged in a struggle that has consumed millions.

China’s virus is natural and the authorities are making a conscious effort to limit its spread, though the stubborn virus has gone global and it is likely to reach many parts of the world with relative ease due to globalization.

In Cameroon, the CPDM, the country’s state party which is more dangerous than the Chinese version of the Coronavirus, has ruined the state.

In 38 years, the party has morphed into a consortium of crime syndicates made of the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia.

The crime syndicate has wasted huge financial resources on programs that have never delivered any results.

Corruption is its hallmark, while intimidation is its motto.

Over the last three years, the ruining and ruling CPDM has killed more than 5,000 people in Southern Cameroons, making it a more dangerous strain of the Coronavirus.

In East Cameroon, more than half a million people have died due to hardship and corruption. Thousands of women have died while in labor and an unknown number of children have disappeared because of neglect.

State resources are owned by the party and it conducts itself like a belligerent monarch who only gives you something when you praise it.

The party is designed to humiliate and dehumanize even its own members.

You must be corrupt and prepared to take humiliation for you to rise in the party. There must be huge skeletons in your cupboard for you to be a recognized as a good member of the party.

The party has impoverished its own people to the point where millions have to bow to the party leadership as Angels do to God to have something to eat.

It is a party without a genuine development plan. As far as this party is concerned, it is normal for a mechanic to be appointed as a health minister.

Recent appointments have seen teachers being appointed as delegates of agriculture, drivers have been appointed as translation service heads and stark illiterates have become regional planning experts. It is not a surprise that the country is making giant strides backwards.

Well, many Cameroonians are now running away from this Coronavirus that mostly attacks the state treasury.

With fake elections announced for February 9, 2020, it is clear that the few coins in the country’s coffers will vanish.

The CPDM is the only party on earth whose members don’t pay their dues. The entire country pays into state coffers, and the virus consumes everything.

As China seeks solutions to its own virus, so too are Cameroonians of goodwill struggling to eradicate the CPDM, this virus that has dehumanized Cameroonians and underdeveloped the country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The leaders of the Ambazonia nation, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government have opined that the people of British Southern Cameroons have no reason to be optimistic about the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in La Republique du Cameroun.

From the vicious marginalisation and political victimisation to the  systemic disenfranchisement of Southern Cameroons citizens inside the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon including the constant French Cameroun military atrocities in the Northern and Southern Zones of Southern Cameroons, from the daily killings and oppression of those living in Ground Zero to the routine humiliation of those living under its French Cameroun apartheid laws — not to mention the hundreds in French Cameroun detention centers and prisons in Mbouda, Buea, Douala and Yaounde— President Biya and his French Cameroun political elites continue to brazenly deny the people of Southern Cameroons their basic rights.

From February the 7^th to the 12^th, Southern Cameroonians with slavish minds including Ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Che Elung, Paul Tasong, Victor Mengot and a certain Lady Nalova will go to the polls in a French Cameroun teleguided elections,  we of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report will be joining Vice President Dabney Yerima, the Ambazonia Interim Government and millions of Southern Cameroons citizens both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora in boycotting the French Cameroun contest — refusing to participate in our own marginalisation and declining to serve as a pawn for a state that exists for and of the French Cameroun people only.

In the French capital Paris last year, the French Cameroun head of state, Paul Biya told an audience during a Mo Ibrahim Show that La Republique du Cameroun is not a state for all its citizens: According to the ailing leader who will be 87 this February, La Republique du Cameroun is the nation-state of the Francophone people, and French speaking people only. Biya reiterated his message, telling the world that the French government and the UN gave French speaking Cameroonians a mission to assimilate British Southern Cameroonians.

Biya wasn’t wrong as notorious French Cameroun political elites such the current Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, Minister Issa Tchiroma, television host Ernest Obama, Dr. Owona Nguini and Justice Minister Laurent Esso have officially designated Southern Cameroonians — more than 20 percent of the country’s population — second-class citizens. So, La Republique du Cameroun is a nation only for its French speaking citizens.

Biya and his political allies have had no worries blasting anti Anglophone and anti Southern Cameroons messages from the rooftops of the state owned radio and television. Biya’s inflammatory rhetoric and a sea of other anti Southern Cameroons declarations have been constant on air ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis took a dramatic u-turn.

The recent massive deployment of Francophone soldiers and elements of the French Cameroun gendarmerie force was pushed by Beti Ewondo political elites advocating that the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé should be forcibly moving Southern Cameroonians to neighbouring Nigeria. In a final bid to gin up support, the Biya Francophone government over the weekend dished out huge sums of money to all political parties taking part in the elections.

Biya detest the very idea of universal suffrage and has governed for over 37 years as a Monarch. But how can this be surprising? For more than two decades, Biya and his French Cameroun acolytes have supported the settlement of thousands of French Cameroun citizens on towns and cities populated by Ambazonians — who, unlike the native Southern Cameroonians, enjoy government protection from French Cameroun civil administrators, French Cameroun police commissioners, French Cameroun gendarmerie bosses, French Cameroun judges and of course French Cameroun army soldiers.

Southern Cameroonians living in French Cameroun have hardly fared any better. Since the so-called reunification, senior French Cameroun politicians have portrayed Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia citizens as enemies from within, a demographic time bomb, and a fifth-column population.

The late mayor and government delegate to the Yaoundé City Council, Ema Basile even developed a diabolic harsh ploy that prevented Southern Cameroonians from acquiring land in the Center Region and in the nation’s capital. Those who succeeded in the purchase of land in Yaoundé passed the CPDM imposed loyalty test of speaking the French language fluently.

Senior French Cameroun political elites have in many occasions challenged Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé leaders to go and live under Nigerian rule, citing their lack of loyalty to Biya and the French Cameroun discriminatory state institutions.

Let it be told that for 58 years, Southern Cameroonians in La Republique du Cameroun have been living under what can best be described as Ahidjo-Biya Military Government which with the backing of successive French governments has slowly but surely suspended most of Southern Cameroons’ civil rights and legal protections.

Is it any wonder that many Southern Cameroonians continue to view their La Republique du Cameroun citizenship as a mere political fiction?

Unfortunately, it hardly matters which political party prevails in the February 7-12 elections. None of the parties and their candidates including those of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has a program for peace in Southern Cameroons. None seeks to end the marginalisation and military occupation and atrocities, let alone the killings and burning of Southern Cameroons towns and villages. All the political parties have received money from Biya and his gang and all have committed to the silly idea of a military solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. And all see Southern Cameroonians including Prime Minister Dion Ngute as second class citizens. Why should Southern Cameroonians lend their imprimatur to a twin poll that will only elevate those who would exclude them from political power?

Whether or not Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates win in February, French Cameroun’s trajectory is clear: continue with the extermination campaign in Southern Cameroons, force Southern Cameroonians to flee to Nigeria, recruit fewer Southern Cameroonians as civil servants in the one and indivisible Cameroon and continued demonization of Southern Cameroonians everywhere.

Biya and French Cameroun political elites have publicly proclaimed La Republique du Cameroun as the only functional democracy in the Central African Sub region. But in the end, elections in a country  where candidates go for campaigns in armored vehicles surrendered by heavily armed French Cameroun soldiers and that only one group of people (French speaking Camerounians) enjoy full rights as citizens are nothing but a fig leaf for apartheid.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai