The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is directly responsible for crimes against humanity in English speaking Cameroon now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  The Francophone dominated government; its military and the French Cameroun elite force also known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) including the National Gendarmerie Service and Amba Boys the Yaoundé regime arms and supports have committed numerous atrocities on the civilian populations in the entire Southern Cameroons.

The Francophone soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons are overseeing and directly participating in massacres, summary executions of civilians-including women and children – burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land long inhabited by the people of Akwaya in Manyu, Aghem in Menchum and Nso in Bui. The Cameroon government army has killed several Roman Catholic priests, An American Missionary and a sea of Christian Pastors.

The Biya government and its Amba Boys have killed thousands of Southern Cameroonians – often in cold blood, raped women, and destroyed villages, food stocks and other supplies essential to the civilian population. They have driven close to a hundred thousand Southern Cameroons civilians, mostly farmers, into camps in neighboring Nigeria where they live on the very edge of survival.  More than half a million have fled into the bushes but the vast majority of war victims remain trapped inside French Cameroun cities such as Douala, Baffoussam and Yaoundé.

This conflict has international historical roots but escalated some three years ago when the Biya regime used excessive force on Anglophone teachers and lawyers who were demanding an abrupt halt to chronic economic marginalization, respect for the Anglo-Saxon system of education and the Common Law. They also sought government action to end Francophone dominance in Anglophone districts.

The Biya Francophone regime responded to the ‘lawyers-teachers’ demands by targeting the Southern Cameroons civilian populations.  The Yaoundé government brazenly engaged in its policy of manipulation by reintroducing the North West/South West Divide tactics which was designed to put the Anglophones of Bantu and semi Bantu extraction at daggers-drawn positions with the Anglophones of the Grass field known as the Tikars. The Francophone military was deployed in their thousands to Southern Cameroons and President Biya, backed by French Cameroun elites of his ruling CPDM crime syndicate has been providing effective impunity for all the crimes they are committing.

The Cameroon government army partnership with what is now known as the Atanga Nji Amba Boys is characterized by joint attacks on civilians rather than on the Ambazonia Restoration Forces. These attacks are staged to force the Southern Cameroons population to develop a kind of trust on the Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

All Cameroon government attacks in Southern Cameroons towns and villages have decimated farming communities, with death tolls estimated by the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe as more than 20,000 with most unrecorded.

The Roman Catholic and the Presbyterian Churches that were in a better position to document abuses in rural areas previously well-populated like Kembong in Manyu, Fontem in Lebialem, Wum in Menchum, Jakiri in Bui and Ndop have withdrawn several revered fathers and Pastors due to killings and kidnappings sponsored by the Francophone regime in Yaoundé. The leadership of these two strong Christian churches has been also consistently inconsistent with their positions ever since the beginning of the conflict.

With some few exceptions, the rural areas in Southern Cameroons are now empty. Everything that can sustain life – houses, livestock, food stores, TV and radio sets have been looted or destroyed by Francophone soldiers. Villages all over Southern Cameroons have been torched not randomly, but systematically – often not once, but twice.

The huge Francophone army presence sometimes with helicopters in the burned rural areas, and in burned and abandoned villages, has driven Southern Cameroons civilians into the bushes and the poorly paid and badly fed troops who speak only the French language kill, rape, and pillage – even stealing emergency relief items – with impunity.

Despite international calls for investigations into allegations of gross human rights abuses in Southern Cameroons, the regime in Yaoundé backed by Francophone African diplomats deep within the African Union headed by Chad’s Moussa Faki and the French government of President Emmanuel Macron has responded by denying any abuses while attempting to manipulate and stem information leaks.

Yaoundé has strategically been keeping an Anglophone as prime minister and head of government with no powers than to read from scripts provided by the Biya Francophone regime. The Prime Minister’s role is to limit reports from Southern Cameroons in the national press, restrict international media access to Southern Cameroons and host UN, Francophinie, Commonwealth and African Union leaders in five star hotels in the nation’s capital Yaoundé and both former prime minister Philemon Yang and now Dr Dion Ngute have tried to obstruct the flow of Southern Cameroons refugees into Nigeria and Francophone Cameroun.

For close to four years into the conflict, no high-level UN or European Union assessment team has been permitted to enter Southern Cameroons. The 86 year old President Paul Biya and his gang of French Cameroun political elites have promised unhindered humanitarian access, but have failed to deliver.

With counterfeit municipal and parliamentary elections coming up in February 2020, the Biya regime has reportedly intensified its genocidal campaign and continuing human rights abuses in Southern Cameroons.  The United States government has cut Cameroon from a trade pact over allegations of human rights violations.

President Donald Trump said the West African nation failed to address concerns over its “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” allegedly committed by Cameroon’s security forces.

The US also cut more than $17 million in security aid and support to Cameroon in February over concerns about its human rights record. And lately, 9 US lawmakers wrote to President Biya urging the dictator to seek a peaceful end to the conflict in Southern Cameroons.

Thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians could die in the bushes from lack of food and from disease within the next six months.

The international community, which so far has been very slow to exert all possible pressure on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to reverse the ethnic cleansing and end the associated crimes against humanity it has carried out, must act now.

President Donald Trump should take urgent measures to ensure the protection of Ambazonian civilians, decree the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian assistance and reverse ethnic cleansing in Southern Cameroons. It will soon be too late.

By Asu Isong and  Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Three weeks after reports that Cameroon had blocked the internet in English-speaking parts of the country, residents say services have yet to be restored. So what is going on?

Cameroonians have little doubt that pulling the plug on internet services for about 20% of the population is an intentional act by the government.

The two regions affected, South-West and North-West, have seen anti-government protests in recent months.

Just a day before services disappeared, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued in which it warned social media users of criminal penalties if they were to “issue or spread information, including by way of electronic communications or information technology systems, without any evidence”.

The statement also confirmed that the authorities had sent text messages direct to mobile phone subscribers, notifying them of penalties, including long jail terms, for “spreading false news” via social media.

A number of Cameroonians have posted screenshots on Twitter showing the various warnings they were sent.

There has been no official comment about the internet since then (or any credible reports of technical faults) leading many Cameroonians to conclude that the severing of services is part of government attempts to stifle dissent.

What do the mobile phone companies say?

In criticising their government, some Cameroonians have also taken aim at the mobile phone companies who provide the services through which many access the internet.

These firms may not have been able to prevent the outage, since they all rely on fibre-optic infrastructure provided by a state-owned company, but nor have they been objecting publicly about the interruption to their services.

The biggest provider, MTN Cameroon, denied it had violated customer privacy by forwarding the ministry‘s warning texts and added that all its services remained accessible. That was and since then it has not commented.

Some subscribers say they have since received messages referring to “circumstances beyond our control”.

There has been no comment by Orange Cameroun, Nexttel or Vodafone Cameroon.

What has been the effect of cutting internet services?

Much of Cameroon‘s digital economy is located around the South-West capital, Buea – an area known as Silicon Mountain.

Some entrepreneurs and their workforces are reported to have relocated temporarily to Douala or Yaounde where the internet is available.

Less mobile, digital-dependent businesses will be suffering.

The outage is also reported to have hit the banking system, causing cashflow problems for businesses and individuals.

A week ago campaign group that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 (£570,000).

That may not sound very much now, but the long-term cost of damaging the area‘s digital ecosystem could be very much higher.

And then there are the unquantifiable social costs entailed in cutting channels of communication and entertainment.

The United Nations has said internet access is now a basic human right. Cameroonians with access to Twitter have been tweeting their opposition to the outage using the hashtag #BringBackOurInternet.

Why is this an issue only in English-speaking areas?

It follows a period of rising tensions in which long-held grievances of English speakers against the government have erupted into protests and strikes.

The protesters say that Anglophones are discriminated against by Cameroon‘s French-speaking majority.

Last November, and at least one person was shot dead in demonstrations over the use of French in courts and schools.

In January, over the issue, turning the main city in Cameroon‘s North-West region into a ghost town.

The government responded by and warning against protests and “malicious use of social media”.

English speakers in Cameroon say they are often excluded from top civil service jobs and that many government documents are published only in French, even though English is an official language.

English-speaking lawyers object to the employment of French-trained court workers who do not understand the English common law system.

Residents also object to the posting of teachers who do not speak good English to the region‘s schools.

Why is the country divided along language lines?

The official language or languages of African nations are usually a legacy of their colonial past.

Cameroon was colonised by Germany in the 19th Century and then split into British and French areas after World War One.

Later, areas controlled by Britain and France joined to form Cameroon after the colonial powers withdrew in the 1960s.

In 1961, a referendum was held in the previously British areas – Southern Cameroons voted in favour of joining a unitary Cameroonian state, while Northern Cameroons decided instead to become part of neighbouring, English-speaking Nigeria.

A secessionist movement, the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), emerged in the 1990s and has been banned.

How widespread are internet shutdowns in Africa?

There have been many other in the past 12 months, including in Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Morocco and Uganda.

This is generally seen as an attempt to stop opposition activists from using social media to mobilise protests, although governments say it is to prevent violence, or to stop people circulating false election results.

Human rights groups have said such action probably violates international law and should “”.

Deji Olukotun, senior global advocacy manager at Access Now, : “As more people use the internet and social media, they are also increasingly enjoying the freedom and opportunity these provide to organise themselves and advocate for what they want.

“In response, it seems governments are shutting down the net more often to stop this practice.”

Culled from Wellston Journal

 If given the opportunity again by the United Nations, Southern Cameroonians will overwhelmingly vote for independence. They actually do not want anything more to do with the shambles of today’s La Republique du Cameroun, whose head of state goes on holiday and stays in a five star hotel in Geneva for nine months during worst political crises.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government and its leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is absolutely correct to reassure Ambazonians of their right to secede from La Republique du Cameroun. It is common knowledge that the supreme civil right is that to self-government, and the inferior tier of a federation is entitled to claim it, not the superior one to permit.

Southern Cameroons has now accepted the Ambazonia Interim Government unchallenged for 4 years. The exiled administration controls the entire rural areas of the territory, while support for independence is growing even among pro Yaoundé Southern Cameroonians.

The 86 year old French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya and his acolytes are still thinking that Yaoundé has the authority to choose who to speak to in Southern Cameroons and who they should respect. That is exactly what the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has been doing for 36 years.  They are choosing to ignore the Ambazonia Interim Government and its leadership and the consequences have been far reaching.

This crisis is a Restoration’s opportunity. Not much is certain in Yaoundé these days. No-dealers are fighting with no-confidencers. French Cameroun political elites are at daggers-drawn positions. The SDF, MRC and the ruling CPDM crime syndicate are fighting with national unity-all trying to get that taxi to the Etoudi palace. It is chaos.

Yaoundé now faces precisely the dilemma that confronted Sudan under Omar el Bashir: negotiate with the Ambazonia Interim Government, or face a break-up of La Republique du Cameroun.

Only one thing seems sure. In the coming 2020, either before or after the February counterfeit municipal and parliamentary elections, the economic side of the Southern Cameroons crisis ignored by the Francophone regime in Yaoundé will be able to hold French Cameroun to ransom mindful of the fact that investors in the world have very low appetite for Cameroon’s debt and corruption for which the government is known is making it hard for foreign money to make its way into the country’s economy.

Biya is a prominent member in a long line of French surrogate leaders determined to infuriate Africans and who do not think properly. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are simply saying that Yaoundé has ignored the progressive disintegration of the giant of the Sub Saharan Africa. While bilingual countries in the world have steadily prospered, French Cameroun and its political leadership have wasted 57 years trying to assimilate British Southern Cameroonians. Through persistent, bumbling misrule it has alienated the so-called Anglophone CPDM elites, and fuelled the fires of separatism.

The ensuing bloodshed is going to lead to total independence in the nearest future if Biya is not removed from power. Southern Cameroons separatism, previously unthinkable has surged overnight and spending millions of US dollars to get President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides abducted and forcefully repatriated to Yaoundé had not worked.

State radio and television may continue to tell Southern Cameroonians that they are better off under Yaoundé and its FCFA. But Ambazonians are now more concerned with national identity, pride, self-reliance and local accountability.

A majority of Southern Cameroonians now support independence after Biya’s poor outing in France

Southern Cameroons has more population than Equatorial Guinea, with much the same resources, better infrastructure and talent. Once it was richer than Chad and even Benin Republic. Today its GDP per person is below one dollar a month with millions living far below the UN poverty line.

History teaches us that people who have pulled out of some funny political fabrications, have enjoyed small-state autonomy, and clearly prospered from it and are rich and happy.

Sooner or later, the French government backing the genocidal campaign going on in Southern Cameroons will be forced to grow up and recognise that French Cameroun has sacrificed the right to rule the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Southern Cameroonians are gone already! So, Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate should take the initiative and prepare a fiscal and legislative independence package; one that withdraws Anglophone MPs from the French Cameroun National Assembly and sees the Federal Republic of Ambazonia join the African Union, but keeps travel and citizenship ties in place.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s military is currently on a rampage, killing anything in its path, as international pressure mounts.

Over 10 people were killed in Southern Cameroons yesterday, Friday, December 6, 2019 by the country’s military which seems to have received firm instructions to inflict pain on the population which is sympathetic to the secessionist movement.

In Mankon, North West region, two brothers were pulled out of their home and shot point blank by trigger-happy soldiers who had no explanation for the senseless killings.

In Mkpot, a small town some 20 miles from Mamfe town, Mr. Joseph Ayamba, a teacher in a local school, was pulled out of his home and killed by men in military fatigue.

Many corpses are being discovered in many towns in Southern Cameroons and the locals are putting the blame on soldiers loyal to the Yaounde government.

‘Red terror’ seems to be visiting many towns in the two English-speaking regions of the country and the government seems to be looking the other way while the military does its dirty job.

The latest killings seem to have been prompted by the increasing American pressure which is having a huge impact on the Yaounde government.

The Trump Administration has reduced its relationship with Yaounde over human rights abuses and last month, it excluded Cameroon from AGOA.

This exclusion has hit the cash-strapped Yaounde government like a ton of bricks.

Last month, the Biya government surreptitiously sent a high-level delegation to Washington D.C. to negotiate the country’s readmission into AGOA, but the Washington mission did not yield any results, as the Trump Administration is hellbent on bringing about change in Cameroon.

The Trump Administration that is regularly briefed by its Under-secretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, is insisting that all Southern Cameroonians arrested during the crisis must be released.

The Trump Administration is also calling for the holding of an inclusive dialogue which is not going down well with the Yaounde government which considers Southern Cameroonians as terrorists.

Mr. Tibor Nagy, who clearly understands the tricks of the Yaounde government, has been urging the Biya government to espouse the Swiss initiative that has received international support, but the American diplomat seems to be talking to a wall, despite threats of economic and targeted sanctions.

Sources in the U.S. State Department have hinted that the Trump Administration is mulling targeted sanctions against Cameroonian generals and political authorities who are playing a significant role in the human rights abuses that are playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Among the sanctions being dangled by the Trump Administration are travel bans, visa refusal for political authorities and their families, and possible charges that might pave the way for officials like the Country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, and defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, to be taken to the Hague.

Globally-recognized human rights watchdogs like the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International have accused government soldiers of committing some of the most atrocious violations in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The Southern Cameroons crisis, which started in 2016, has resulted in the death of some 5,000 Southern Cameroons and many innocent citizens have simply disappeared.

More than one million Southern Cameroonians are either internally displaced or have fled to countries like Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia where they are working hard to frustrate efforts by the government to break the neck of the rebellion.

Southern Cameroonians across the world are pooling their resources to supply sophisticated weapons to the fighters on the ground.

Though the Washington-based Interim Government led by Vice President Dabney Yerima has been facing some challenges, other armed groups have gained lots of popularity and are inflicting excruciating pain on the country’s military.

The government has a crisis on its hands. With many armed groups operating in the region, it is hard for the Yaounde government to either negotiate or corrupt any of the groups, as the groups are too many and most of the groups have traded their hunting rifles for sophisticated weapons which are, indeed, a nightmare to the government which is already showing signs of fatigue.

With economic decline staring the government in the face, and the United States breathing down the government’s neck, it is clear that Yaounde will soon yield to international pressure.

Its Major National Dialogue seems to be a woeful failure, as no recommendations will be acceptable to Southern Cameroonians who are determined to walk away from a union that has been more of slavery than a political collaboration for the English-speaking minority.

Even the Special Status announced by the country’s president, Paul Biya, during the Paris Peace Forum, seems to be falling apart, as it has not generated any enthusiasm among Southern Cameroonians.

The contents of the Special Status are still unknown and the government seems to be in no haste to implement its own recommendation.

Some analysts hold that Mr. Biya might unveil the contents of the Special Status in his end-of-year speech which will be delivered on December 31.

But many Southern Cameroonians are not expecting much from any political arrangement that will be proposed by the government.

The government is known for speaking from both sides of its mouth and it does not have any track record when it comes to implementing its own policies and recommendations.

The 1996 Constitution which provides for decentralization has remained a dead letter for 23 years.

The government has been implementing those components of the constitution which suit its agenda and avoiding anything that may result in a reduction of its powers.

But despite its expert manipulation skills, the Southern Cameroons crisis will not be going away anytime soon. Guns and bullets will not lay the issue to rest.

The government must embrace dialogue if it really wants to restore peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Over the last weeks, the country’s prime minister, Dion Ngute, has been hold meeting on how to rebuild the two English-speaking regions of the country, but rebuilding those regions is no rocket science. Justice and humility will bring long-lasting peace than all the manipulation and meetings.

It is injustice and arrogance that triggered the conflict and not a lack of long interminable meetings.

Southern Cameroonians have been hurt. They have been exploited and treated like second-class citizens. They are determined to put an end to the exploitation and injustice that have become the hallmarks of the Biya regime.

The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora, for its part, has transformed itself into a nightmare that will not go away anytime soon.

Its large war chest gives it the hope and courage to destabilize the Yaounde government.

Despite disagreements among Southern Cameroonians, the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora understands that the real enemy is the corrupt and aging Yaounde government which holds that it can outfox Southern Cameroonians.

But with 4 million Southern Cameroonians living out of the country, it is clear that the government will not address the issues through military violence.

If it wants to keep Cameroon one and indivisible, it must use federalism as that bait that could perform miracles.

The centralized system has shown its limits. It is predicated upon corruption and, over the last three decades, corruption has spread across the country like ragweed.

If peace has to return to Cameroon, the Yaounde government must change its ways. It must embrace dialogue and it must address the core issues that triggered the conflict.

It must stop holding that those who have picked up arms against the government are terrorists. The real terrorists in this conflict are army soldiers who have been gunning down innocent civilians for three years.

There is still time to rethink new ways which will enable Cameroon to come out of the mess its leaders have dumped it into.

The government cannot shoot its way to peace. The road to peace is tarred with humility, honesty and justice. Cameroonian leaders must demonstrate those virtues if they have the country’s interests at heart.

By Joachim Arrey, PhD

The 37 Southern Cameroons asylum seekers abducted in Taraba State in Nigeria on the 31st of December 2017 and illegally deported to French Cameroun will be appearing before the Yaoundé Military Court tomorrow the 5th December 2019.

The 37 innocent Southern Cameroons civilians are facing charges of terrorism acts of terrorism, secessionism, and lack of National Identification Cards.

The accused have spent a year incommunicado in the bunkers of the National Gendarmerie Headquarters ( SED) in Yaounde without access to sunlight, no medical attention and are undergoing torture.

Abducted and illegally deported to Yaoundé on the 26th of January 2018,They were later transferred to the Kondengui Central Prison on the 04th January 2019 where they have spent another year marking two years of unlawful detention without trial.

They will be appearing before the Military Court in Yaoundé for the 3rd time.

 A civilian aircraft, MA60 operated by the Cameroon Airlines Company (CAMAIRCO) was attacked at the Bamenda Airport on Sunday 1 December 2019. No passengers or crew were hurt and the plane landed safely. 

 It is unfortunate, that some media houses both within La République du Cameroun and elsewhere were misled into reporting that the attack was carried out by Southern Cameroons self-defense forces fending off the military invasion by La Republique du Cameroun since 2017.  Regrettably, these media outlets base their reports on propagandist messages, recklessly propagated by some armed groups in search of unnecessary notoriety. 

 The Interim Government has investigated the incident and can affirm with confidence that the attack was not carried out by Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.  A careful investigation points to an attempt by La Republique du Cameroun to sully the credibility of the Southern Cameroons restoration quest. In as much as self-defense forces in several parts of Southern Cameroons possess the capacity to attack aircrafts, those within Mezam County, where the incident occurred, are yet to acquire such weaponry. 

 The circumstances and location indicate that it is the handiwork of Mr. Biya’s Field Commanders who are ardently trying to insulate their genocidal invasion by depicting the restoration forces as terrorists. The Interim Government would like to draw the attention of the International community to the fact that the airport in question had long been transformed into a military/airbase and command centre for operations by the government of La Republique du Cameroun. It hosts a large detachment of Cameroun’s infantry and Special Forces trained to fight Boko Haram in the North, but relocated to the Southern Cameroons after Mr. Biya declared war on us in 2017. The area is sufficiently guarded and heavily fortified, thus making this kind of attack possible only from inside. 

 This is not the first attack by regime forces or its  proxy militias. In fact, they attack hospitals, scorch villages, kill babies, women and the elderly, and carry out beheadings. Recently in October 2019, regime forces hijacked a passenger bus in Ngo-Ketunjia to attack RFs on the Kumbo road, using the passengers as human shields. Confronted with this situation, the RFs tactically withdrew to avoid a bloodbath. The use of civilian vehicles, taxis and surveillance with trucks and planes painted in UN colours and insignia are all part of their modus operandi. In some areas in Donga Mantung and Menchum counties, the genocidal army uses hospitals and schools as military bases.

The attack on the aircraft is therefore a ploy by the government of La Republique du Cameroun to divert attention from its genocidal onslaught, draw sympathy from the international community and thus, declare a no-fly-zone to douse calls for a UN humanitarian intervention in the Southern Cameroons. 

 In the same vein, we condemn the killing of a humanitarian worker in Donga  Mantung county by unidentified armed men. While we have not been able to identify the perpetrators of this crime, we believe that it is not unconnected to the recent creation and spread of local militias in the area by the colonial governor, Mr. Adolphe Lele. Although this seems to be part of the invader’s strategy to fight the restoration forces, it is also an instrument of extortion and the fight against restorationist sympathies, and so will target non-combatants as has been seen before. 

 We deplore these uncouth tactics by La Republique du Cameroun and call on the International Community to stop the catastrophe unfolding in the Southern Cameroons or face another Rwanda.

 Yours faithfully,

 Dabney Yerima

Vice President

 The Federal Republic of Ambazonia

President Trump has announced his intention to declare Cameroon ineligible for a trade program that allows African countries to sell goods to the United States on a duty-free basis. The reason? The Oct. 31 White House statement cited “persistent human rights violations being committed by Cameroonian security forces” as justification.

Trump’s actions might be a win for human rights activists, who have called for increased international pressure to end abuses in Cameroon. However, other U.S. interests might be driving Trump’s decision. Here’s what you need to know.

This U.S. trade program has a human rights linkage

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a U.S. trade program created in 2000 for up to 49 potentially eligible countries in Africa. AGOA status allows eligible countries to export 1,800 types of products to the United States without the purchasers on the U.S. side having to pay import duties.

In exchange for duty-free access under AGOA, countries must have or be moving toward free-market economies, the rule of law and labor protections. AGOA also requires that countries not pursue “activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests” or commit “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

Robust human rights conditions are a critical feature of AGOA. The U.S. president may grant a country AGOA beneficiary status, subject to review and the possibility of termination for violations.

Does linking trade to human rights work?

Some scholars argue that linking trade to human rights performance could improve human rights. The threat of withdrawing trade benefits might deter governments from violating the human rights of their citizens. But this perspective does not take into account other U.S. interests that may influence decisions on AGOA eligibility and trade benefits.

New Afrobarometer data shows Africans want elections — especially if they bring change at the top

In our research on AGOA, Eric Reinhardt and I find that a country in which the United States has strong trade, investment and security interests is less likely to experience AGOA termination. If a country is highly nondemocratic or has experienced a successful coup d’etat, the United States is more likely to end its AGOA beneficiary status. However, the country’s human rights record has a less consistent and weaker effect on its AGOA status.

In fact, the decision to withdraw a country’s AGOA privileges appears to have little to do with even the most extreme human rights violations. Here’s what that means: Governments with a poor or worsening human rights record may be under-sanctioned. But countries with improving or good records may be over-sanctioned, depending on their relative importance to U.S. trade, investment and security interests.

Here’s how this played out in Kenya

Kenya’s experience in 2007 and 2008 illustrates this phenomenon. The U.S. government considered terminating Kenya’s status following a massive wave of post-election violence, which left about 1,200 dead and 600,000 displaced. U.S. officials knew that Kenya’s security forces had committed abuses, including extrajudicial killings and the torture and beatings of detainees.

But the United States decided not to terminate Kenya’s AGOA status. Why? Kenya was a leading participant in the global coalition against terrorism. In addition, business associations lobbied the U.S. trade representative’s office to retain Kenya’s AGOA eligibility to facilitate its members’ profitable AGOA apparel trade.

Another example occurred in 2018, when Trump suspended Rwanda’s duty-free access to the United States. He did so not because of Rwandan human rights violations but because the Rwandan government had banned the import of used clothing from U.S. firms.

Cameroon saw election violence — a year ago

Trump’s termination of Cameroon’s AGOA status comes one year after President Paul Biya won a seventh term in office. Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, won about 71 percent of the votes. But election violence and allegations of fraud and intimidation marred this election. Many Cameroonians were frightened to vote, because of insecurity that began in 2016, when security forces repressed largely peaceful demonstrations from the country’s Anglophone minority who demanded greater autonomy.

Cameroon has an election Sunday — and everyone already knows the winner

The violence was horrific. Government security forces used live ammunition against protesters and bystanders, killing at least a dozen people and injuring many others. The government detained and tortured others.

The conflict escalated as separatist leaders declared independence, establishing an aspirational country called Ambazonia in western Cameroon. According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict between government security forces and separatists has left 1,850 dead, displaced 530,000 and led tens of thousands to seek refuge abroad. Numerous schools closed, and more than 170 villages were destroyed. The local economy, accounting for one-fifth of Cameroon’s GDP, has been devastated.

The abuses haven’t stopped — but why is the Trump administration acting now? Cameroon recently released several political prisoners, including a key opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, and adopted a special status for Anglophone regions, a concession meant to reinforce the regions’ autonomy.

Despite the country’s overall human rights record, the United States previously considered Cameroon a key U.S. security partner in the fight against extremist groups such as Boko Haram, which is active in northern Cameroon. The government of Cameroon promoted U.S. national security interests, which insulated it from human rights sanctions.

That key security position changed nine months ago when the United States announced it would no longer provide military aid to Cameroon.

Human rights abuses by Cameroonian security forces certainly appear to violate the eligibility requirements of AGOA. However, terminating Cameroon’s status is more likely a reflection of a shift in U.S. interests in the region than it is a signal of Trump’s commitment to improving human rights.

Culled from The Washington Post

The Cameroon government’s comedy has entered a new scene following the dispatching of rejected government officials to Southern Cameroons for them to address a crowd that has declared them unreliable and corrupt.

It should be recalled that those delegation members have kept a tight lip for three years as the Yaounde government mowed down innocent citizens of Southern Cameroons.

The different delegations, which have sneaked into the different cities and towns of Southern Cameroons, have already begun implementing a script imposed on them by the ruling party.

In Mamfe, the vice president of the country’s Senate also known as “an old people’s home”, Senator George Tabetando, addressed a crowd of CPDM loyalists on bended knees, urging them to help bring back the sons and daughters of Manyu Division from the bushes where they have been hiding from the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed soldiers who have been raping women and gunning down young men for more three years.

He was accompanied in his drama by the mayor of Mamfe, Ayuk Takunchong, who has been feeding fat on the people’s wealth and resources.

Mr. Takunchong, who has been at City Hall for more than five years, has never condemned the irresponsible Yaounde government for the ferocious brutality it unleashed on his people.

Though Mr. Takunchong has been urging the boys and girls who have made the Manyu jungle their place of residence for three years, to come back to town, he has never castigated the corrupt government for unleashing a reign of terror on its own people.

Mr. Tabetando, the main actor of the CPDM unpalatable, low-quality and low-budget soap opera in Manyu Division, is himself wanted dead or alive for his role in the killing of many young men in his native Bachou Ntai where he is no longer regarded as a chief.

His effort to shed tears was considered by the locals as the height of hypocrisy. He is accused of provoking his own people when the government transformed Mamfe into a slaughter house in early 2017 following the killing of four gendarmerie officers in Agborkem German, a small river-side town on the border with Nigeria.

Following an unreasonable declaration of war on the people of Southern Cameroons by the country’s president, Paul Biya, Manyu Division quickly became the epicenter of the senseless fighting and killing of innocent civilians in Southern Cameroons.

Many towns and villages in the Division have been razed by a special killing squad set up by the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assoumo, who had declared in 2017 that he would implement the president’s decision without batting an eyelid.

Despite calls by the international community for the government to negotiate in order to avert a bloodbath, the Yaounde government that is wont to violence, opted for a ferocious military campaign that has resulted in the deaths of 3,000 Southern Cameroonians, the burning of more than 250 villages and the destruction of the region’s once buoyant economy.

Companies such as the CDC, SONARA, PAMOL and Silicon Mountain; a once thriving IT hub, have all gone under, leaving many families and towns in tears and hardship.

Ossing, Kembong, Agborkem German, Dadi, Kwakwa, Muyengue and other once prosperous towns were torched by marauding soldiers who had been sent by the government to teach Southern Cameroonians a bitter lesson.

But after three years, the Yaounde government is gradually figuring out that a military victory is not in the cards. A message underscored last week by the USA undersecretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, who has been calling on the Yaounde government to organize a genuinely inclusive dialogue that should and must include the separatists.

He has also been urging the government to embrace the Canadian-sponsored Swiss initiative that has been endorsed by the international community.

In his view, the hastily organized, government-sponsored Major National Dialogue in Yaounde last month is just a first step towards an inclusive dialogue that will silence the guns and bring about genuine and long-lasting peace that is a prerequisite for the reconstruction of Southern Cameroons’ destroyed infrastructure and economy.

It should be recalled that Ambazonian fighters, who started their self-defense campaign with hunting rifles, have now acquired sophisticated weapons which have enabled them to give the poorly trained and unprofessional soldiers a run for their money.

More than a thousand soldiers have been sent to an early grave in the most frightening way and this has not really shocked a government which sees dialogue as a weakness.

The Yaounde government had underestimated the anger and determination of the people and it failed to factor in the Diaspora in its analysis of the situation.

Years of marginalization have sent more than 4 million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, with many settling in Nigeria, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia.

These Southern Cameroonians have been bearing grudges against the government for decades and they had promised to make the government pay for its inhuman treatment of a people who voluntarily opted to join their brothers in East Cameroon.

With such a huge and professional Diaspora, the fragile and cash-strapped government does not really stand a chance, as Southern Cameroonians living abroad still have a stomach for a fight and determined to deliver a nightmare to the Yaounde government on a platter of gold.

Their financial contributions have enabled the fighters to acquire sophisticated weapons and their remittances are helping both the refugees and internally displaced persons to stay alive, albeit in very uncertain conditions.

The current scene of the government’s nauseating drama will surely not douse the fire. Southern Cameroonians are angry and justifiably so. They have lost friends and family in a war that was not necessary.

Rather than seek to address the issues that have triggered this strong overflow of powerful and devilish emotions in Southern Cameroons, the government has chosen to walk its usual path of trickery and manipulation that only leads to death and destruction.

Until the Yaounde government changes its strategy and embraces the truth, its numerous delegations to Southern Cameroons will continue to address the wrong audiences and the outcomes will be the same – no schools for many children, declining economy, unemployment, criminality and bitterness.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey