Radicalized by the government’s use of death squads and arsonists to intimidate Southern Cameroonian fighters, a senior government official on Monday, January 20, 2020, clearly expressed his frustration with the government’s strategy to end the rebellion in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, over the phone, the senior official who elected anonymity said he was really frustrated with the manner in which the Yaounde government had mismanaged the Southern Cameroons crisis which started as simple protests by teachers, lawyers and students.

He said his anger boiled over because of the speech delivered by the country’s president, Paul Biya, on December 31, 2019, wherein he promised more violence to Southern Cameroonians if the fighters did not down their weapons.

“I am still at a loss for words. After three good years, we still believe that only military violence and atrocities can help restore peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country,” he said.

“We cannot continue treading the same path and be hoping for different results. Let the government understand that it was its violence that caused things to spiral out of control,” he said, adding that “won’t it be wise for the president and his tribesmen who are committing these atrocities to embrace a different approach? Why are they destroying homes and killing the innocent when the fighters live in the jungles?”

“It is too disheartening to see a man many thought he wanted to become a priest conduct such a nasty war against his own people. What type of country is he bequeathing to the next generation? Today, the country is much divided and there are many Anglophones who hold that they are being killed by a Beti death squad set up by Joseph Beti Assomo, the country’s defense minister. Does this create room for national reconciliation and unity, or does it pit Anglophones against Betis?,” he questioned.

“Many Anglophones in Yaoundé are really upset with the war strategy adopted by the government and the bitterness generated by government atrocities will linger for a long time,” he pointed out.

“Only very few Anglophones in Yaoundé are in favour of what is happening in our two English-speaking regions. Many are angry, but cannot talk. Some like the puffy jaw former Prime Minister, Mafany Musonge, are indifferent to the people’s plight because they are enriching themselves as things deteriorate in the two regions of the country. The world is really surprised at such display of greed. How are these people living with themselves?” he quipped.

He also took aim at Anglophones, stressing that the unity that characterized the revolution in the early days could have brought the government to its knees if the Diaspora had not resorted to shooting itself in the foot.

“Those of us who really feel for our people, but cannot talk, were counting on the Diaspora for salvation. We saw the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora as a silent liberating force. The huge amounts that were being raised in the United States and Canada to finance the war effort gave us hope. But our hope was dashed when the leaders started fighting each other and vital resources were allegedly  embezzled by some Interim Government officials,” the disappointed official said.

“Many of us were quietly happy when arms started getting to our fighters who before that could only lay their hands on machetes and hunting rifles,” he said.

“If Anglophones have to make more progress, the different factions must stop fighting each other. In moments like this, everybody should be your ally regardless of the individual goal.  We know some factions are for independence, others for federalism, while others are gradually settling for autonomy within Cameroon, but regardless of the philosophy of each group, our goal should be to mount pressure on the French-supported government so that it should embrace the Canadian-supported Swiss initiative that is popular with many Western countries,” he stressed.

Once the government buckles under the pressure and decides to embrace the Swiss initiative, then each faction can use the opportunity to present its case. Fighting and killing other fighters only weakens the struggle and the government is watching gleefully as we shoot ourselves in the foot,” the official said.

“We cannot keep on slinging mud at each other. We are splitting our ranks and this is diminishing our capacity to achieve anything meaningful,” he pointed out.

“Mistakes will be made along the way, but instead of focusing on those mistakes, we should be focusing on the solutions and methods that can enable all the factions to work together,” he stressed.

“From every indication, the government is desperate. The crisis has robbed the government of vital revenue streams and this is hurting so badly. The current burning of homes is designed to force the fighters to down their weapons, but from every indication, things will not work the way the government has planned,” he said.

He added that “the burning of homes in villages is not playing in the government’s favor. The Diaspora should use this reckless approach by the government to close ranks. A strong diplomatic initiative should be launched by all the factions and a huge delegation sent to the UN and other organizations to ensure that the Southern Cameroons crisis is not pushed to the back burner,” he stressed.

“Suppress your egos and let unity prevail. As Anglophones, we can achieve a lot if we close ranks, rob ourselves of our egos and consider that the real enemy is the Yaoundé government that is killing our people just for complaining,” he underscored.

“The government is hurting. It is running out of cash. Its coffers are drying up. Those of us within are aware of the state of the country’s finances. If this crisis continues for two more years, the government will shut down many operations. Things are not looking up for this government that thought it could restore order in one week, but it has failed woefully” he said.

He urged Anglophones to contribute money to any faction of their choice, adding that the ultimate goal should the improvement our fate. We have gone through a lot as a minority and if the Diaspora does not bail us out, then we are stuck with a government whose secret agenda is to assimilate us at all cost.

He concluded that he could have loved to express his views openly, but said it would be like committing suicide.

“This government is devilish. It never hesitates to kill those who challenge it. If Wirba had stayed in Cameroon, he would have been history today. He was smart to have left,” he pointed out.

The burning of homes cannot be part of the special status the fake major national dialogue came up with, he said.

“This government cannot be trusted. We must fight to attain our goals. There is no turning back. This government says one thing and does the opposite. Does special status mean burning homes and killing innocent people?” he questioned.

Since the conflict started in 2016, some 5,000 civilians have lost their lives, while sources close to the ministry of defense say some 2,018 soldiers have died and this figure does not include police officers and prison guards who have also been attacked by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United kingdom

A head of state is only as good as the counsel he seeks and the counselors who provide it. This is true as many celebrated leaders around the globe surrounded themselves with men and women with solid personal achievements. French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya rejected every top aide that state institutions provided for him when he took office in 1982 and systematically burned through so many top Francophone and Anglophone advisers and so much good will that he now operates with a hollowed-out tribal staff of half-baked academic and political experience.

This explains why, 4 gendarmerie officers killed by Nigerian smugglers in Agborkem German in the Manyu County was misinterpreted as a crime committed by Southern Cameroons separatists and a war was declared against the English speaking communities that has eventually laid to rest the doctrine of the United Republic of Cameroon or better still, the one and indivisible Cameroon.

Everyone deep within the consortium of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is now exhausted by Biya’s moods, offended by his shabby treatment of them and astonishingly shocked by his ignorance and low sense of judgment. The silence currently being maintained by men like Joseph Owona, Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, Peter Mafany Musonge and Philemon Yang is indeed a conclusion that if Biya is an institution, CPDM is no longer trustworthy.

The numerous lies regularly told by Biya and his gang of French Cameroun political elites show that his so-called “Special Status” for the people of Southern Cameroons cannot be accepted. In declaring war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, Biya embraced a French government course that his predecessor, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo rejected as too extreme in the days of Ndeh Ntumazah’s One Kamerun.

Following several incremental breaches of all accords signed in Foumban in 1961 with Southern Cameroons political leadership, Biya is now running away from the Etoudi palace in Yaoundé. Age is telling on him and his ancestors are calling!!  The average length of his numerous stay in his Mvomeka’a palace has gradually lengthened: whereas he spent only a few days each time a few years ago, he now stays there for several weeks in a row, or even more than a month.

The people of Southern Cameroons have made it crystal clear that they are no longer an item with La Republique du Cameroun.  The recent massive deployment of troops to Southern Cameroons and the upcoming February polls have escalated tensions to perilous heights between the Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Government.

A spokesperson for the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima was quoted lately as saying the Southern Cameroons Interim Government was responding to French Cameroun’s massive military deployments with massive resistance. There are no signs of de-escalation, Buea and Yaoundé could be heading for a divorce absolute.

Third-party mediation is not on sight which many have opined is the best mechanism for finding a solution to the crisis.

To understand why President Biya who will be 87 this February is still holding on to power, start with a simple fact. Ever since the attempted coup on April 6^th  1984, President Biya’s regime has killed too many Cameroonians both at home and abroad including his first wife Jeanne-Irène Biya that he was married for 32 years (until 1992) and embezzled and wasted too many billions of Cameroonian money, to make it plausible that he would ever voluntarily give up power.

Under the current La Republique du Cameroun constitution, President Biya can run again and again for president when his term expires in six years time. To be sure, the constitution and elections do not much matter in Cameroon. La Repubique du Cameroun is a crime syndicate and dictatorship masquerading as a democracy. You simply need French government support and some lobby firms deep within the European Union and in the USA with little or no economic growth and corruption to remain as head of state.

Biya and his gang control the state radio and television, he bars popular opposition candidates from participating in elections, his regime regularly co-opt tame French Cameroun opposition figures and arrests and intimidation are dished out to the less tame ones. He has support from Nigeria’s President Buhari who as a soldier makes little secret of his admiration for strongmen. With Southern Cameroons gone, French Cameroun only comfort is that even rulers-for-life such as the Monarchs don’t live forever.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon, a country previously known for its stability, faced violence and serious human rights abuses in 2018. The country endured abusive military operations against a secessionist insurgency in two Anglophone regions, attacks by the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, in the Far North, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. President Paul Biya, 85, won a seventh seven-year term on October 7. 

In the South West and North West, government security forces have committed extrajudicial executions, burned property, carried out arbitrary arrests, and tortured detainees. A Human Rights Watch report documented a range of abuses by both sides in the Anglophone regions, including arson attacks on homes and schools. According to the International Crisis Group, government forces and armed separatists killed over 420 civilians in the regions since the crisis escalated in 2017.

The humanitarian consequences of the Boko Haram attacks and separatist insurgency are of growing concern. As of November, the United Nations estimated that more than 244,000 civilians were displaced in the Far North and  437,500 in the Anglophone North West and South West regions. About 32,600 Cameroonians found refuge in Nigeria. Also, Cameroon has continued to forcibly return Nigerian asylum seekers, fleeing Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria.

While the government maintained it did not tolerate serious crimes committed by security forces, it failed to demonstrate progress in investigating and punishing them.

On October 22, Cameroon’s Constitutional Council validated Paul Biya’s reelection, with 71.28 percent of the votes. The council’s decision was immediately contested by one of Biya’s rivals, Maurice Kamto, who claimed the results had been altered. In early November, dozens of pro-Kamto protesters were arrested in Bafoussam, Western region. Biya was sworn-in for a seventh term as president on November 6.

The Anglophone Crisis: Abuses on Both Sides

In the Anglophone North West and South West regions, the absence of a genuine political process to address decades-old grievances against the Biya government contributed to the radicalization of the discourse and tactics of Anglophone activists. Since mid-2017, Anglophone separatists have attacked government institutions and threatened, kidnapped, and killed civilians perceived to side with the government.

In 2016 and 2017, government security forces used excessive force against largely peaceful demonstrations organized by members of the country’s Anglophone minority who were calling for increased autonomy for their region. During demonstrations in late 2017, government forces used live ammunition, including from helicopters, against demonstrators and bystanders, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores. Some individuals detained in the context of the demonstrations were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

In October 2017, separatist leaders unilaterally declared independence of the North West and South West regions, and the formation of a new nation, Ambazonia. The following month, President Biya announced that Cameroon was under attack from terrorists and vowed to “eradicate these criminals.” The pace and scale of separatists’ attacks against security forces, government workers, and state institutions increased, especially following the arrest and deportation of 47 suspected secessionist activists from Nigeria in January 2018.

Violations by Government Forces

Human Rights Watch found that government forces responded to the growing separatist insurgency by carrying out abusive security operations against communities suspected of supporting secessionist groups. Security forces committed extrajudicial executions, used excessive force against civilians, tortured and abused suspected separatists and other detainees, and burned homes and other property in scores of villages.

During attacks documented by Human Rights Watch, security forces allegedly shot and killed over a dozen civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older women died, burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire.

Human Rights Watch also documented three cases where security forces detained people suspected of supporting the secessionist cause, and then tortured and killed them in detention. In a fourth case, Human Rights Watch analyzed evidence of torture filmed by perpetrators, who appear to be gendarmes. On September 24 and 27, a total of nine men were allegedly executed by security forces in the town of Buea, according to videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch and a report by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Abuses by Armed Separatists: Attacks on Students, Teachers and Schools  

To enforce boycotts of schools following protests by Anglophone teachers against perceived discrimination by the Francophone-dominated national government, separatist groups attacked and burned dozens of schools, threatened teachers, students and parents, kidnapped principals and violently attacked teachers and students. In March, people believed to be armed separatists attacked a high school dormitory in Widikum, North West region, and shot dead Emmanuel Galega, a student.

The pressure tactics forced the majority of schools to close during the 2016-2017 academic year, and as of May 2018 an estimated 42,500 children were still out of school, according to UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most schools did not re-open in 2018. 

On April 30, Father William Neba, principal of St. Bede’s College, in Ashing near Belo, North West region, was reported abducted while celebrating mass with students. He was released two days later. The school suspended classes on the day of the abduction.  In September, unidentified gunmen attacked a girl’s school in Bafut, North West region, kidnapping five pupils and severely wounding the principal.

In September, the government endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political agreement to protect education during armed conflict.

On November 5, up to 78 schoolchildren were reportedly kidnapped in Bamenda, North West region, by unknown gunmen. They were released two days later.

Refugee Rights

Cameroon hosts more than 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including 260,000 from the Central African Republic and at least 90,000 from Nigeria. Despite its long history of hosting refugees, Cameroon has forcibly returned tens of thousands of Nigerian asylum seekers since 2015. A 2017 Human Rights Watch report documented how soldiers used violence and abuse, including torture, against asylum seekers in remote border regions. Authorities also imposed unlawful restrictions on movement in Cameroon’s only official camp for Nigerian refugees. In August 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that between January and July, Cameroon unlawfully returned at least 800 refugees and asylum seekers to Nigeria.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Cameroon’s penal code punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex” with up to five years in prison. Police and gendarmes continued to carry out arrests and harassment of people they believe to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). In April, police arrested four activists and a security guard at the office of AJO, an organization that works on HIV education with men who have sex with men (MSM), and other vulnerable groups. They spent a week in jail on spurious homosexuality charges before a lawyer secured their release. Cameroonian human rights organizations documented the arrest of at least 25 other men and at least two women on homosexuality charges in the first half of 2018. They also reported numerous cases of physical violence by private citizens targeting LGBT people.

Justice and Accountability

While the government has repeatedly promised to investigate crimes committed by security forces, it has not done so transparently or systematically.

Government officials told Human Rights Watch in June that while they conducted investigations, they did not want to make them public to avoid undermining the morale of government troops. However, the visible lack of accountability appears to have fueled abuses, like arson and torture, rather than ending them.

In July, the government finally granted access to ten Anglophone leaders who had been detained and deported from Nigeria to Cameroon in January. The individuals, held incommunicado for over six months, were permitted to meet their lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The government dismissed video footage that emerged in July showing two women and two children being executed by men in uniform in Cameroon’s Far North as “fake news.” Only after an investigation conducted by Amnesty International demonstrated the killings took place in Cameroon did the government announce it had arrested six soldiers suspected of executing the civilians in the video. 

Key International Actors

France, the United States, and the United Kingdom are Cameroon’s principal partners, primarily in the context of the counter Boko Haram operations in the country’s Far North region. Both France and the US provide Cameroon with military and security assistance and training.

The US and the UK are the only close allies of Cameroon to have voiced public concern regarding the ongoing situation in the Anglophone regions. The US has continued to provide military aid to Cameroon.

In February, the European Union called for proportionate use of force and accountability for abuses in the Anglophone region.

In September 2018, as the pace and scope of abuses continued to escalate in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, the UN and African Union issued a joint communiqué calling on the government to facilitate access to humanitarian and human rights organizations and engage in an inclusive dialogue to address the root causes of the crisis.

The UN Security Council in August expressed concern about the situation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

In both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun, criminal gangs and politicians have been quietly trading money and favours for mutual gains. For 37 years, thugs like Paul Atanga Nji, YCPDM National President Prince John Akwo Mukete, the late Nelson Fomenky, Battey Johnson and the late Mayor Ekema Patrick flourished while elected officials thrived. However, the citizens have always been on the losing side.

Today, the mobile phone of Minister Paul Atanja Nji who is wanted by the French Cameroun Special Criminal Court is ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers are candidates for the February 2020 municipal and parliamentary elections, seeking the kind of help that the gangster Paul Atanga Nji is uniquely qualified to provide.

Paul Atanga Nji isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a French Cameroun gang leader who hails from Southern Cameroons and, for two decades, a CPDM grass root baron who now operates as Minister of Territorial Administration and has deep contacts inside Etoudi and the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo’s complex network of politicians and French Cameroun military gangs. The calls coming to Minister Paul Atanga Nji are all inquiring candidates wanting to know: “How much they need to pay and who do they need to pay the money to so they can get elected?

Minister Paul Atanga Nji, the renowned Samuel Eto’o and I were in a recent flight to French Cameroun!! Majority in the plane shared a conversation with Eto’o but ignored Atanga Nji who was a candidate in the Mezam CPDM race sometime ago and brought in a decent man Cletus Matoya to be his protégé.

Paul Atanga Nji has helped broker meetings between the Biya Francophone regime and at least two Southern Cameroons gang representatives in Nigeria, Dr Success Nkongho and General Nambere.  The gang representatives from Nigeria were former front line Ambazonia activists who had walked away from day-to-day thug life, but are still respected on the streets in Yaoundé but can no longer wield enough influence to the Southern Cameroons revolution.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ever since the abduction and extradition of the Southern Cameroons leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and the emergence of Pastors Samuel Ikome, Chris Anu and Success Nkongho as front liners of the Ambazonia struggle and quest for independence, many in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have come to the conclusion that one must first be a crook to be a pastor.

Southern Cameroonians are tired of the confusions they see on social media coming from these three so-called pastors. To be sure, it needed the intervention of the jailed leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who gave Southern Cameroonians a vice president in the person of Dabney Yerima who has successfully redressed and is now speaking-out and directing the Southern Cameroons war of independence.

Prior to the appointment of Vice President Dabney Yerima, there were three pastors running the Ambazonia Interim Government. The disgraced Ikome Sako was Acting President, Bishop John Egyawan was passing for a Defense Secretary and Chris Anu moonlighted as Communications Secretary.  Judging from their time deep within the Ambazonia Interim Government and after they were replaced by the people of Southern Cameroons, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that these so-called men of God have all along been professing Christ and serving the devil.

It’s so unfortunate that Sako, Chris and now Pastor Success Nkongho have fallen this much. Correspondingly, it will also not be wrong to say all of the pastors are now directly or indirectly serving the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. To be sure, they lack revolutionary message, a huge sign that they were long disconnected from God and the Ambazonia struggle.

These men of God are holding Southern Cameroons children as slaves in their Churches in Nigeria and the US and via social media. Interestingly, they expect Southern Cameroonians not to say anything. We of the Concord Group will continue to sacrifice our time to free the slaves from their Sako IG camps so that they begin to serve the living God and once again be a part of the Ambazonia revolution.

It remains a mystery how the rapid emergence of counterfeit Southern Cameroons pastors such as Samuel Ikome Sako, Chris Anu, “His Lordship Bishop John Egyawan” and Success Nkongho among the Ambazonia leadership ranks went unchecked. This trend has undermined and brought shame to the people of Southern Cameroon, the Ambazonia Interim Government and God the Almighty Father. It has hurt Southern Cameroons citizens genuinely seeking secession from French Cameroun and it is slowly but surely stifling the Ambazonia independence struggle.

Loosely defined, counterfeits are goods and services of inferior quality, packaged in another’s brand name without the brand owner’s authorization, infringing on the trademark, patent or copyright of the genuine product. The Southern Cameroons revolution is under attack in the same way with fake pastors.

The situation has left a trail of destruction in the Southern Cameroons communities both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora where unsuspecting, gullible and impressionable Ambazonians have been robbed of their hard-earned money, their dignity and are dying every day like flies.

The creation of the Bank of Ambazonia and the launching of the Amba Bonds Project as a means of rebuilding confidence among Southern Cameroons donors have given Southern Cameroonians all over the world something to reflect on. While Southern Cameroonians are investing in the bonds, Vice President Dabney Yerima and his cabinet cannot remain unmoved. Comrade Yerima should usher in a tough approach towards the mushrooming of false information and as Martin Luther King Jr said: “To ignore evil is to become an accomplice of it.”

At this point one of the responsible things to do is to educate Southern Cameroonians on the things to watch out for before painting someone as an Ambazonia frontline leader.

Here are a few signs to counter Sako and Chris Anu IG’s deception.

Inability to lead

Sako, Anu, Kometa and Success Nkongho who now constitute the counterfeit Southern Cameroons front liners have made a concerted effort to lead Ambazonians away from Ground Zero and their jailed leaders leaving them revolutionary malnourished with many dropping down their weapons.

‘Fake pastors must go find other jobs’

The Ambazonia Interim Government must enact laws that restrict fake pastors to hold senior cabinet positions. This will of course enable them to follow different careers and get jobs outside the struggle.

Lack of integrity

If more often than not, there are reports questioning the integrity and ways of a revolutionary leader, one has to be concerned. A leader cannot always be in the news or on social media for the wrong reasons. This is typical of Sako, Chris, Kometa and Success.

Insatiable appetite for money

If during a revolution that has claimed the lives of thousands of Southern Cameroonians the leaders who are all Men of God are the only ones living a luxurious life with financial donations from the citizens, there is a reason to be doubtful.

Southern Cameroonians cannot be living in the bushes, open fields, tents or abandoned buildings in Nigeria while the leader is living a lavish life in the USA.

Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and Kometa including Success Nkongho were leaders who presented super-hero personalities in public but are private successful failures.

When electing an Ambazonia leader in your host country in Europe, the US and Canada be sure that the individual has a corporate job, is able to lead himself and his own family well before leading you.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

THE PUBLIC INVESTMENT BUDGET (PIB) AS A TOOL OF SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION.

See the unequitable distribution of the 2020 PIB with gross discrimination in favour of “le pays organisateur”. Year in, year out the same trend.

PIB Budget in 2020 Finance law voted by parliament.

1). Adamawa Region =CFAF 59,417,374

2). Centre Region = CFAF 292,190,870

3). East Region = CFAF 33,433,851

4). Far North = CFAF 73,537,549

5). Littoral Region = CFAF 60,713,801

6). North Region = CFAF 40,240,132

7). North-west Region = CFAF 47,334,675

8). West Region = CFAF 88,620,734

9). South-west Region = CFAF 20,693,320

10). South Region = CFAF 139,643,792
(With Dja & Lobo division alone having CFAF 40.458.679)

Analysis and facts.

▪Dja & Lobe Division alone with CFAF 40 458, 679 doubles the PIB of the South-west Region (CFAF 20,693,320 (with 6 Divisions .
▪South Region (650.000 inhabitants) has almost 7 times the PIB budget of the SW Region. (1.3 million inhabitants)

▪PIB budget for the South Region doubles that of the North-west /South-west put together.

▪PIB South region is 4 times more than that of East Region.

▪PIB budget of Dja et Lobo is CFAF 40,458,679 for a population of 200,000 inhabitants is 26 times more than that of Donga and Mantung Division – CFAF 1,553,820 with a population of 400.000 inhabitants.

▪PIB of Dja & Lobo is almost 8 times that of Fako Division.

A clear demonstration of lack of equity and open promotion of social discrimination.

We would like to start year 2020 by congratulating the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for successfully launching the “Ambazonian war of Independence“. Needless to say, the government of La Republique du Cameroun is shaking. This, without any doubt, is proof that the sound of the gun is the only language that the oppressor hears. A position, Vice President Dabney Yerima is currently selling to the Southern Cameroons diaspora.

It is also refreshing and inspiring to note that the international community is now seeing black to black oppression for what it is as the United States of America, Belgium and other Western countries have reportedly told the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya to negotiate with the Ambazonia Interim Government and its jailed leadership.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are stating here, and unambiguously so, that  soon, and very soon French Cameroun will take a bitter sip from the same cup of violence as the Ambazonia Interim Government begins plans to take the war deep inside French Cameroun territory. That is if the arrogant Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo supremacist government continues to bury its head in the sand in ignorance of the British Southern Cameroons statehood restoration cause.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the leader of the Ambazonian nation and his Vice President Dabney Yerima have both reminded the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates running French Cameroun that the Ambazonia revolution wheel will never turn backwards. To a majority of the people of Southern Cameroons, war is a necessary evil. Southern Cameroonians will never forgive nor forget the painful history of the Biya French Cameroun genocide and continuous marginalization, hatred and oppression.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government made some genuine efforts to engage the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo supremacist government in French Cameroun in the most rational, respectful and peaceful manner. But Ambazonians have now learnt a bitter lesson that human rights abusers and oppressors do not deserve any kind of respect.

Instead of doing the right thing, ie to respond to the Notice and arrange a neutral venue where the political elites of the two Cameroons we can sit around the table and discuss peaceful separation of Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun, they Yaoundé regime spent millions of US dollars in Nigeria to arrest and orchestrated the extradition of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides to French Cameroun. The French Cameroun leader and his gang did not stop there!! They have ever since been sending heavily armed French Cameroun state agents to raid and destroy French Cameroun towns and villages killing thousands of innocent women and children.

Independence struggles have many formulas. No one issues the oppressed with a permit to start an armed struggle. It is upon the oppressed who are suffering under the heavy weight of oppression to take matters into their own hands and liberate themselves. There is time for reasoning and talking. The Ambazonian Interim Government and its Vice President have done enough of this in many cities in the West. There is time for action and this is the time.

Look up in the sky and around you and read the writing on the wall. The political climate in Southern Cameroons is changing very fast. If you are a politician or individual earning your salary, wage or commission through selling out the people of Southern Cameroons to the government of French Cameroun one way or another, you are nothing but a traitor!

That means you are a danger to yourself, your children, your family and the Ambazonian nation at large. The principle of the revolution demands that you must be taken out of the community as soon as possible because of the danger you pose. The only sentence for a traitor is death by necklace.

“Wata na wata” and even men like Ekema Patrick who attempted a counter slogan that “wata pass wata” now knows that truly “wata na wata”.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap with files from MLO Secretary for Information and Public Affairs

  The Matabeles in Zimbabwe

Ever since the so-called Swiss Peace Initiative was made public to the international community, several Southern Cameroons civilians have been killed by the French Cameroun army deployed to Ambazonia. Recently, three French Cameroun soldiers were killed in the Northern zone of Ambazonia. The three were reportedly killed in a firefight with the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces. The three represented the 23^rd and 24^th French Cameroun deaths in Southern Cameroons since the attack on the late Retired General Tataw James convoy en route to Mamfe.

Correspondingly, that’s a modest count compared to the old days when the Manyu Odeshi Warriors and the Red Dragons of Lebialem were actively around in the towns of Mamfe and Fontem and the Great Nso Warriors ran the resistance in Jakiri and French Cameroun army deaths were three times higher. Nonetheless, French Cameroun military deployments have been limited to the urban towns with very little or no involvement in fighting in rural areas.  Still, there’s reason for concern. Through just some few months into the Swiss Peace Initiative, more Southern Cameroonian civilians have been killed than in any year since the revolution started— a peace initiative which was supposed to mark the end of the French Cameroun combat mission in Southern Cameroons.

The latest Southern Cameroons deaths occurred in the midst of ongoing and reportedly intensive and productive discussions between the Swiss government, a Southern Cameroons group known as Sako’s IG, and, to a lesser extent, the Ambazonia Interim Government. To his credit, and based especially on his public statements, the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima appears serious in his desire to end the more than three year old indecisive French Cameroun war in Southern Cameroons. The complete absence of any French Cameroun delegation appointed by President Biya, the early withdrawal from the talks by Vice President Dabney Yerima and the continues attacks on Southern Cameroons civilians, demonstrate that while Vice President Dabney Yerima and the Ambazonia Interim Government are working from a position of strength as they pursue a “talk-and-resistance” strategy eerily reminiscent of that of the ANC in South Africa, the 11 Grand Masters of the so-called Sako IG are simply seeking for relevance and cheap Ambazonia money.

It’s highly unlikely, if not impossible, for Southern Cameroons to win in any meaningful sense this war of liberation if something is not done and done in a hurry to put an end to this international childishness being demonstrated by the disgraced Samuel Ikome Sako and his gang using a group of half-baked Southern Cameroons intellectuals in the USA. This is obvious as all the empirical evidence, from statements from US lawmakers, members of the UK House of Commons, the African Union, and deliberate neglect by major Southern Cameroons donors’ points to impending Yaoundé victory or perpetual stalemate.

Two recurring problems best explain the poor international image of the Southern Cameroons war of liberation: Sako, Chris Anu and their acolytes serving as anti-anything-President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Vice President Yerima and the fear that Southern Cameroons may just be another South Sudan.  This is why the 11 Grand Masters in Maryland are still trading the Swiss Peace Initiative to many ill-informed Southern Cameroonians while the Ambazonia Interim Government including Vice President Dabney Yerima long found the Swiss peace talks both insulting and intellectually bereft.

Leaving aside all the high-level, macro analysis and wealth of available information being put out there by the renowned Boh Herbert, the one million dollar question is: Southern Cameroonians and the Swiss are talking in Geneva, but is anyone in Yaoundé listening?

Day-by-day, the French Cameroun army is flooding in more troops and stationing them in key Southern Cameroons locations and the Ambazonia Restoration Forces are essentially under siege and facing daily attacks often within sight of their camps.  It is shameful that young Southern Cameroons boys and girls are in Ground Zero desperate to break the French Cameroun army siege, protect women and children including the old and the sick, and resist just a bit more for help to come from the Amba Bonds Project and others in the diaspora passing for front line leaders are instead playing dangerous political games with some like Cho Ayaba creating local militia, arming and paying them, and positioning them (with Francophone advisers) in Southern Cameroons villages.

Like Dr Cho Ayaba of the ADF, Minister Paul Atanga Nji of French Cameroun is also empowering local warlords, favoring some Southern Cameroons tribal fighters over others and Southern Cameroonians who are putting themselves first before the resistance are indirectly helping the French Cameroun surrogate.

Most of the Ambazonia semi illiterates that were  incorporated into the defunct Restoration Council headed by Mr. Kometa have transformed into warlord-led militias in Europe and the US and are using social media to send out wrong signals about the Ambazonia Vice President and the Interim Government in Ground Zero now littered with locally controlled armed bands.  And slowly but surely, Ground Zero is beginning to view as illegitimate anything coming from the diaspora with whom they had far more in common under President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

The whole charade of people seeking attention and staging swearing-in ceremonies and issuing medals of honour to cronies and publicizing them on social media has left many both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora frustrated, angry, and, finally, deeply disoriented which is why we of the Cameroon Concord News Group find the whole conversation over the Swiss peace talks a little ridiculous, and very absurd. To be accurate, shameful, disgusting and disgraceful!

The only reason why the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is still in this war since the arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Nigeria is the character and determination of this new generation of Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero who understand that the French Cameroun military cannot win, cannot even marginally alter the outcome in troubled Southern Cameroons and to a greater extend the poor handling of the crisis by French Cameroun’s 86 year old President Biya and his Beti Ewondo kinsmen.

Maybe President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe will actually be the one to end Southern Cameroons’s longest war; maybe he won’t. But what is actually passing for a Swiss Peace Initiative in Geneva will not change anything in Southern Cameroons. The civil war will wage on, the Ambazonia Interim Government under Comrade Dabney Yerima’s stewardship will generally emerge triumphant. Thus, when Southern Cameroonians finally get to Buea, whether soon or years from now, expect most Ambazonians to target men and women like Sako Ikome, Chris Anu, Elvis Kometa and Irene Ngwa.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai