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

The Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was right to appoint a vice president in the person of Comrade Dabney Yerima to take over the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government. Cameroon Concord News Group had made an honest observation about how the Ambazonia Interim Government had to contend with nasty characters within its ranks immediately after the Berlin forum.

Frankly speaking, no profound and popular governing body in all history has function without its share of filth, adventurers and rogues including boastful and noisy elements such as Samuel Ikome Sako, Chris Anu and Mr Kometa passing for front line leaders of the Southern Cameroons struggle and quest for independence.

Many senior Southern Cameroons political elites both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora have suggested that given the inevitability of corrosive elements in the likes of Sako, Anu and Kometa claiming to own the Ambazonia Interim Government, there was an urgent need for the leadership of Vice President Dabney Yerima to simply ignore the failed and disgraced leaders and work towards ensuring that the noble values and norms of the founding fathers remained the defining features of the Interim Government.

We of the Concord Group agree and are moving a step further to say continuous revolutionary and political education of Southern Cameroonians is the solution.

Ambazonians following the resistance are now too anxious both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora. Sadly, not because we are actually heading to Buea but awaiting outcomes were Biya and French Cameroun would triumph with their Special Status. In the United States and the Scandinavia countries, it is whether or not one of the chief rogues namely Sako, Anu, Kometa or Ayaba would emerge victorious.  

Not much has been done by these so-called front liners to show that they are serious in rooting the French Cameroun military and its civil administrators out of Southern Cameroons territory. Watching some of these former Interim Government comedians recently on social media, it was evident that these adventurers, rogues, boastful elements are presently making a mockery of the Southern Cameroons struggle. These fraudsters haven’t just claimed a share of the Ambazonia Interim Government. They are increasingly pushing the international community away from the suffering people of Southern Cameroons.

It will not be too long from now that the Southern Cameroons diaspora will abandon the struggle as these corrupt individuals continue to promote themselves as being in the heart of the governing Interim Government structure.

In fact, not only did the Interim Government under Sako and Chris Anu attracted nasty elements; it was also breeding and transforming them into heartless individuals who enjoyed looting from the poor donations while concocting fake armed resistance photos and coining slogans allegedly to address the problems faced by our people in Ground Zero.

Today in the US, even Southern Cameroonians who escaped from Cameroon under life threatening conditions, lost a number of their family members in the struggle for freedom and emerged with terrible scars, have somehow metamorphosed into corrupt tax-in-transit kingpins. They have dealt a heavy blow to the Dabney Yerima administration, rendering it woefully incapable of mounting a response to the numerous French Cameroun government attacks on the people of Southern Cameroons.

The situation is very disturbing and like one of our desk editors recently observed Cameroon Concord News Group was  either too optimistic or naïve in thinking that education is the solution to the Southern Cameroons leadership problem. How would you teach cash strapped fake men of God like Sako and Chris Anu to respect public donations? The solution really is rallying behind the jailed leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and by extrapolation, Vice President Dabney Yerima who are putting in place a credible Amba Bonds Project system via the Bank of Ambazonia that flushes out from the Interim Government’s body politic the malignant cancer of corruption.

Southern Cameroons is not short of elites. We have a very vibrant diaspora with the power of the purse. We have competent men and women with military experience in the UK and the United States. But we are expecting Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Dabney Yerima to do it for us while pretending to be responding to distractions coming from Sako and his comedians.

While our Ambazonia politics has served to disable the revolution, the corrupt have been able to create an ecosystem of interdependence with other equally filthy elements selling a controversial and non productive Swiss Peace Initiative.  

At a time when you expect Southern Cameroonians to use their strength in the West to achieve complete and total independence from French Cameroun, they are busy thinking that moving away from rogues could cause a domino whose ultimate direction is unknown.

How else can we explain the failure to shame people who have evidently stolen Ambazonian money? Ikome Sako, the disgraced former Acting President and his associates are still walking free, enjoying their loot despite countless revelations of corruption that should be in every Southern Cameroonian home both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora.   

Our failure or delay in naming and shaming Sako, Anu and Kometa for obvious crimes is a threat to our Southern Cameroons struggle and quest for an independent state.  It will continue to make it impossible in the future for Southern Cameroonians to donate to the resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

For more than three years, Cameroon has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The country, which was once considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, finally stole the show from its chaotic neighbors in 2016 following protests by English-speaking lawyers and teachers against years of marginalization and discrimination.  

The government’s response to the protests was at best barbaric. Indeed, it made things worse as it caused the population of the two English-speaking regions to join the protests which really turned ugly in 2017. Students, mechanics, nurses, doctors and other socio-professional bodies joined the protests without invitation. A sign that the frustration really ran deep.

As the government sought to restore order, it unleashed its forces of law (lessness) and (dis) order on the people of Southern Cameroons and in the process, these unprofessional “dogs of war” committed despicable atrocities. They killed thousands of innocent civilians, burnt down more than 250 villages and roasted some old and disabled people who could run away for their dear lives.

The military really ran amok in the region and it has continued to do even after the much-touted Major National Dialogue that has not earned the recognition of major countries like the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The sex-starved and alcohol-inflamed soldiers demonstrated how evil humans could be if given the opportunity.  The evil they unleashed on innocent civilians only made it possible for them to incur the wrath of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora which quickly took over things and manufactured a nightmare for a government whose barks are more dangerous than its bites.

The old tactics, which were used on East Cameroonians in the 1960s, failed to produce the desired effects in Southern Cameroons. The world has walked away from many outdated ways, but the Yaounde gerontocracy is still stuck in the past. It felt old methods would deliver fast results. Its failure to see the writing on the wall turned out be its greatest undoing.

The 4-million-strong Southern Cameroonian Diaspora’s entry into the situation was a clear game-changer. The Diaspora has the financial resources to make a huge difference and it has successfully made that difference. It has been holding the government by its balls and this is really hurting. Cameroon will never be the same.

 The government has woken up to the realization that it cannot control its Diaspora. If it needs the Diaspora to support its development efforts, it must prioritize dialogue over brutality. It must also rethink its 1968 law on dual nationality.

The fighting in the two English-speaking regions of the country has caused the country’s economy to take a nosedive. Major state corporations such the CDC, PAMOL and SONARA have been pushed into bankruptcy. Rebuilding these companies will require a lot of money and even the American Federal Reserve many not be big enough to solve Cameroon’s economic and financial problems.  

 The Diaspora’s successful professionals living in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States have organized themselves and they are doing a great job to draw the world’s attention to a case of legendary incompetence, devilishness and corruption. And countries such as America and Canada have noticed them and are prepared to mount pressure on the Yaounde government that is already cracking.

The Diaspora has huge and genuine grudges against a government that is averse to dialogue. Its ideal conflict management tools have remained intimidation and corruption which have, unfortunately, left it with a huge crisis on its hands. The Diaspora wants change in Cameroon, and it knows that will not come through the ballot boxes. It is therefore using its financial and political leverage abroad to keep the Yaounde government awake all night.

 The Yaounde government is not popular among Southern Cameroonians, especially those in the Diaspora who blame their long exile on a regime that has failed to work in the interest of the people and the country, and this has caused a lot of distrust in the country. Any statement from the government is taken with a pinch of salt.

The international community is also aware of the confidence deficit in Cameroon. After 37 years of dismal economic and political performance, it is but normal to be suspicious of a government that has been manufacturing figures at every election.

Despite the government’s inability to inspire confidence both at home and abroad, the international community still wants to work with it to resolve the Southern Cameroons crisis which is in its fourth year and has resulted in more than 3,000 deaths and the displacement of more than a million people.

The international community has been calling for an inclusive dialogue for years as a sure means of peacefully addressing a conflict that has the potential of spilling into neighboring countries. But the manipulative government has instead come up with a major national dialogue which has not delivered any meaningful results.

The national dialogue, a product of the ruling CPDM, was chaired and micro-managed by the president’s henchmen who did all they could to control everything. Government allies were invited to the dialogue while the real people who should have attended the event were tactfully kept out. Separatists, the enterprising Diaspora and top-notch professionals never got invited and this simply voided whatever recommendations and resolutions that were taken during the dialogue.

The government, noted for its manipulation, produced its own Diaspora and manufactured separatist fighters from among its prisoners. These prisoners were made to spew out whatever the government wanted to hear. But those who took the risk of openly aligning with the government knew they were running a huge risk.

Ambazonians and their fighters are not people who should be taken lightly. They had disapproved of the sham called national dialogue. Everybody knew that those who had attended the dialogue were doing so at their own.

The Yaounde government is not noted for protecting those who help it to stage its drama. And a few days later, some of those who passed off as Ambazonian fighters were targeted and killed. The government has once more proven that it does not care about the lives of those who come to help it achieve its unrealistic goals. It simply dumped them like used Kleenex tissues after the so-called national dialogue.  

Today, it has come up with something new to distract the population. In Yaounde, the noise is about “Special Status” for Southern Cameroonians. Some government officials now sell it as a mark of the president’s magnanimity and determination to solve a problem he never acknowledged that it existed.

But the 1996 constitution clearly speaks about special status for some regions if the need arises. This article of the country’s constitution should simply be applied without any CPDM comedy. Today, there are delegations being rushed to Southern Cameroons to sensitize the population on the so-called special status.

But will that address any issue? Southern Cameroonians do not want anything short of federalism. Though many would opt for a complete separation from East Cameroon if given the opportunity, they will however settle for a full-blown federation that will enable them to take ownership of their own systems and institutions like they did before reunification in 1972.

The special status may instead infuriate many in the two regions and all those sent to sensitize the population are people who have already been rejected by the angry population. The government believes that it is doing the people a favor, but it fails to understand that its so-called special status might only trigger a new cycle of violence in the region. Those heading to the region to sell a product whose contents have already been rejected know that they will not be able to convince anybody. The project is clearly dead on arrival.

While seeking to sell this “poisoned gift”, the government is also preparing for parliamentary and municipal elections. How can such elections take place in a region that is awash with guns and soldiers are still killing innocent people?

Why can the government not wait to see if its poisoned gift would be accepted by the population before calling for elections? Has it forgotten that Ambazonian fighters would not tolerate any elections in their regions? Has it forgotten that the ruling CPDM has been outlawed in Southern Cameroons and its supporters such as Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Prime Minister Yang Philemon, Prime Minister Dion Ngute, Senator Tabetando and many others have been sent into exile by their people for their questionable behavior?

The government should engineer new ways of communicating with the people if it really wants to sell its poisoned gift. Those taking that message to the people may not return to Yaounde in one piece as the population has rejected them and the Ambazonian fighters are seeking to make an example of them if caught.

The government should instead focus on the Canada-sponsored Swiss initiative that has been endorsed by many of the warring factions in Southern Cameroons. The preliminary meetings held in the Swiss capital went on well and many groups accepted the terms and conditions. Even human rights groups that attended the meetings hold that the Swiss initiative holds out more hope than the hastily assembled major national dialogue that leaves much to be desired. If the fire must be doused, the government must embrace news ways. Old ways will not deliver the right results. They clearly belong to the past.

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

French Cameroun is a sinking ship that will never submerge unless some very young and intelligent military officers decide to take some bold actions.  With Southern Cameroons already gone out of the one and indivisible unitary state, French Cameroun appears now like a ship that is sinking faster than many political commentators had envisaged.

There is evidence that French Cameroun is sinking entirely. Mr. Biya was caught shuffling along in France like a stalling car clearly showing signs of senile decay. For many decades, the country has been caught up in a downward political and economic spiral.

The country’s unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high and crippling taxes have taken the wind out of the sails of many small businesses. The situation in French Cameroun has been likened to that of passengers on the Titanic, the cruise ship that sank in 1912 and corruption and mismanagement is escalating ever since Prime Minister Dion Ngute took over office as the so-called head of government.

French Camerounians have been scared of pouring into the streets to confront a government that has made corruption and nepotism its hallmarks. Investors in the world have very low appetite for country’s debt. The corruption for which the Biya CPDM regime is known is making it hard for foreign money to make its way into the country’s economy.

Many EU countries are insisting on Yaoundé calling for an inclusive dialogue with the Ambazonia Interim Government that will help normalize things in both Cameroons. But Yaoundé has been indifferent to those calls. President Donald Trump’s determination and his ability to mobilize other countries, including some of Cameroons neighbors have rattled the Biya Francophone regime and its supporters.

French Cameroun regime supporters, including the Speaker of the House and the Senate President have been shouting from rooftops that there is a global conspiracy to destabilize the country. They blame this on Southern Cameroonians.

To be sure, no political understandings will ever take place under the current leadership involving French Cameroun political parties and even the Ambazonia Interim Government. Biya and his gang have no agenda to help to calm down the streets.

Since the last counterfeit presidential election, pro Maurice Kamto supporters have held nationwide rallies, expressing discontent with what they view as the government’s failure to find solutions for the country’s economic and political woes.

The Ministry of Finance is hiding figures related to French Cameroun’s national debt with more than 85% of the French Camerounians living in poverty.

In the meantime, the United States government has ended Cameroon’s preferential trade benefits citing what the Trump administration called the country’s “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

Three years ago, Cardinal Christian Tumi revealed how a French diplomat unknowingly hinted him in Rome Italy that France was championing the process of assimilation of British Southern Cameroonians by the French speaking majority in Cameroon.

The French diplomat thought wrongfully that the only Cameroonian Roman Catholic cardinal hailed from French Cameroun. The Cardinal was addressing a small forum summoned by the French embassy in Rome using the French language when the French diplomat added that the skillful change of name from the Federal Republic of Cameroon to Republic of Cameroon is one of the hallmarks of the process of assimilation teleguided from Paris.

Many Southern Cameroons media organizations published their first bombshell story based on Cardinal Tumi’s leaked top-secret showing that the French government was directly behind the evil perpetuated on Southern Cameroonians by French Cameroun political elites including the current genocidal campaign against the Ambazonia people.

Many pro French Cameroun and CPDM Southern Cameroons comedians such as Ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Victor Mengot, Paul Tasong and Paul Elung Che dismissed the Cardinal Tumi’s revelation as fake news.  Then recently in Paris, the truth surprisingly came out from a celebrated French surrogate: His name Paul Biya.

In one of the most outrageous and dangerous statements ever from a leader sitting in a peace conference that held from the 11-13 November 2019 in Paris, French Cameroun head of state Paul Biya claimed that German Kamerun was his country that was divided into the British and French trusteeships. The 86 year old leader noted that he has tried to assimilate and dissolve the English 20% into the French 80% but failed and wants to give a special status to the English 20%, but keep them within one country. It is based on this claim to German Kamerun being his country, which the French government of President Emmanuel Macron think, that Paul Biya and French Cameroun have the duty to kill Ambazonians to force them to belong.

When asked if more revelations were in the pipeline, the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima said on Sunday that “Even the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo will be telling these truths, with shame and regrets in his grave. Many more were coming including from the double player and tribal thug Fru Ndi and his SDF party, who not long ago dissociated from and smeared Hon Wirba for telling those truths in their terrorist chamber called national assembly.”

So the greatest story in the British Southern Cameroons political story from Cardinal Tumi revealed that France had been providing French Cameroun with virtually all political, financial and military apparatus and engineering to assimilate and marginalize the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Cardinal Tumi revelation remains the most insightful, frank and thoughtful key to understanding why France has kept the AU, EU and the UN away from the killings going on in Southern Cameroons.

The uproar caused by the Tumi story led President Biya of French Cameroun to embark on his first international journey of many dangers which saw him humiliated by business tycoon Mo Ibrahim. Nobody in Paris or Yaounde has attempted to deny any knowledge of what Cardinal Tumi said after Biya’s poor outing in Paris.

By Asu Isong in London

The report documents gross human rights abuses that have been committed during the conflict in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon since 2016. These regions are predominantly English-speaking, in a country that has a majority French-speaking population. The North West and South West regions, known as the anglophone regions, were formerly the colonial territory of Britain from the end of the First World War to the attainment of independence by Cameroon in 1960/61. The conflict involves tensions between the minority anglophone populations of Cameroon and the majority francophone populations, and has thus been termed the ‘Anglophone Crisis’. Crucially, the Report situates the recent crimes in the sociolegal and historical context of the longstanding ‘Anglophone Problem’ in Cameroon.

The recent violence in anglophone Cameroon began with strikes by anglophone lawyers and teachers in protest to perceived government-backed attempts to marginalise traditional practices within anglophone courts and schools. In response to the unrest, the Cameroonian Government was recorded to use coercion and force, which led to an escalation of tensions and demands. Since the 2016 protests, the conflict has become increasingly violent, and crimes have been committed by multiple parties. The Report provides a comprehensive analysis of alleged human rights abuses committed to date and recommends actions.

The current violence in Cameroon cannot be properly comprehended outside of the historical context in which it has arisen. The report accordingly begins with a historical overview of the Anglophone Problem, which is rooted in a land boundary implemented by British and French colonial forces. The analysis then moves on to show how the border complexities have carried over into independence from colonial rule, which is examined through the anglophone independence plebiscite. Various issues of contention have arisen in relation to this vote because the option of secession, for which many anglophone stakeholders campaigned, was denied to the people. Consequently, the reunification of the anglophone regions to Cameroon has never been fully accepted by all. Despite vociferous frustrations expressed by anglophone stakeholders since this time, these grievances have yet to be addressed by the Cameroon State and the international community.

The Report then moves on to consider evidence of human rights abuses that have been committed by the Cameroonian State forces and by separatist groups in the anglophone regions. Suspected human rights violations include extra-judicial killings, torture, destruction of property, fair trial violations, and inhumane and degrading conditions of detention. These violations breach both Cameroonian national laws and international human rights laws that bind Cameroon.

The Report also documents and analyses photographic and video-graphic media material received via the messaging service WhatsApp between August 2018 and up to October 2019, material which is logged in Appendix A. The Report further reviews reporting on the human rights abuses by international organisations, non-governmental organisations and reports by mainstream news media.

Analysis of primary and secondary human rights data leads to the research team to identify a range of pressing concerns, which include: the continued escalation of the conflict; the complexity of issues fueling the conflict, which stretch beyond a simple francophone/anglophone divide; the inadequacy of the Cameroonian government organised dialogue of September 2019; the lack of accountability for human rights abuses; the absence of remedies of human rights violations; and the wider implications of the conflict on peace in the broader Sahel Region.

The Report draws attention to the distinctive moral responsibility of the British government to respond to these concerns, which arises on at least three grounds: 1) Cameroon as a former colony of the British state; 2) The role of the British government in the creation of the Anglophone Problem; and 3) The prolonged and substantial presence of the British state in Cameroon through its developmental organisation, Voluntary Services Overseas, from pre-independence in 1958 until withdrawal in 2014.

In light of the evidence considered, the Report makes the following specific recommendations to the British government:

Support efforts to stop the violence

Support conflict resolution

Support the initiatives of peacebuilders

Ensure a return to the rule of law

Monitor detention conditions.

Precise ways that these recommendations might be achieved are suggested.

Culled from Oxford Human Rights Hub

A majority of Southern Cameroonians living abroad including those in Ground Zero are of the opinion that the Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) post the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako and Chris Anu era still has a lot of work to do in the territory now occupied by French Cameroun troops and Biya-backed armed militia. They are right.

From London to Atlanta, from Berlin to Oslo and from Pretoria to Paris, the story is the same! Ambazonians are disappointed with the management of the funds that was raised for My Trip To Buea and French Cameroun is reportedly gaining from the fabricated divisions in the Interim Government and the failure of other sub groups to join the majority following of the IG.

With the dust now settled, Southern Cameroonians can see clearly and of course the Southern Cameroons elites have themselves to blame for shying away from leadership and allowing cash strapped men and women to take over control of leadership.

Vice President Dabney Yerima and his war cabinet still have a lot of work to do if the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is to become a reality, as there is a large number of Southern Cameroons successful elites in the West, who are willing to donate money for the struggle but need to start seeing some properly coordinated actions in Ground Zero.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are hoping that the Vice President’s announced tour for the struggle would be successful. We understand that many objectives have been reached and the French Cameroun leader Paul Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate are crumbling at catastrophic rapidity.  But not every objective!

We expect right thinking Southern Cameroonians to ignore the negative distractions coming from the disgraced Sako Ikome and Chris Anu and help Vice President Dabney Yerima and his team to manage to mitigate the situation in Ground Zero, establish good ties between the Ambazonia Interim Government and other sub groups, and reach decisive general solutions which would appease donors in Europe, the US and South Africa for Southern Cameroonians to completely regain their territorial integrity.

Our chief intelligence officers in Ground Zero are reporting that things are moving back to normal and French Cameroun agents are planning to stage elections next year in the territory. This is happening because it has been extremely difficult for Southern Cameroonians to switch off tribal loyalty and pursue the bigger picture.

Day-by-day, Sako Ikome and his acolyte Chris Anu are sending conflicting signals to the international community and Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero all in a bid to give the impression that it is either them at the head or no one else. This is now their trade mark.

However, many successful Ambazonian elites in the diaspora are aware that Sako and Chris Anu can no longer be one entity with the Southern Cameroons quest and struggle for independence and are running away from them.

French Cameroun head of state, Paul Biya has now made it crystal clear that there was a policy put in place to assimilate the people of Southern Cameroons which have failed. Not donating to the Ambazonian struggle, not investing in the Amba Bonds Project is tantamount to accepting the so-called Special Status that will continue to keep Southern Cameroonians as slaves and second class citizens of the One and Indivisible Cameroon.

The world needs to see Ambazonians waging a war of liberation void of any distraction from failed and corrupt leaders.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

For 37 years, the French Cameroun head of state Paul Biya has demonstrated that his CPDM regime has a long-term plan for the ethnic cleansing of the people of Southern Cameroonians.

A Southern Cameroonian commenting on Mr Biya’s recent outing in France opined that during the Conference, Biya said German Kamerun was his country that was divided into the British and French trusteeships.

The 86 year old dictator furthered that he has tried to assimilate and dissolve the English 20% into the French 80% but failed and wants to give a special status to the English 20%, but keep them within one country.

It is based on this claim to German Kamerun being Biya’s country, that Southern Cameroonians think, the French Cameroun leader believes he has a duty to kill Ambazonians to force them to belong to his vision of a one and indivisible Cameroun.

Southern Cameroons political analyst Denis Atemnkeng observed that Biya’s take on the crisis in Ambazonia is the most outrageous and dangerous statement from a man sitting in a peace conference.

A cream of Ambazonia political elites in the United Kingdom observed on Wednesday in London that the French Cameroun regime backed by France is moving toward a greater plan which is a kind of scorch-the-earth policy.

Troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé have burnt down more than 280 Southern Cameroons villages with Biya claiming that the soldiers were fighting Ambazonia separatists operating in those areas.

An estimated 20,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed, over 120,000 are seeking refuge in Nigeria and, 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. This is indeed a recipe for endless war and the ethnic cleansing of Southern Cameroons.

Biya’s special status plan for Ambazonians is pushing the two Cameroons towards endless crisis; and if true, the least the international community can do is to respond to this by saying no and support the Ambazonia nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai