They take a bullet for us. They go to the grave for you and I. They give up everything for us to have everything. We may write volumes about Ambazonia and videos and audios but if we and the world talk about Ambazonia today with our chins high, it is because of them. Yes them, those brave ones who rose to defend our land and people when the genocidal vampire terrorists thugs in the name of a military came raping, maiming, killing, burning and using our unarmed innocent citizens for target practice. Because of our brave boys and girls of Ambaland we can hope and sing.

We will never be able to thank them enough. We will never be able to appreciate them enough. So this Christmas for this 2019, Santa has no other assignment but to take our message of thanks and grantitude to our brave patriots our brave boys and girls.

Please join me in making my personal contribution to this initiative to our brave patriots, our great boys and girls grow.

I will be putting into Santa’s sleigh and bag to our brave patriots a message of gratitude wiith $1000.

Pleass add your name to show appreciation to our brave patriots as we send Santa to them this Christmas. Please send your support and contributions through any of the following:

WhatsApp account: $nkaprisu

Paypal account: christmasebini@gmail.com

Zelle account: 3017580263

The so-called Major National Dialogue was convened to reactivate the North West/South West Divide all in a bid to stifle the Southern Cameroons revolution. It was a successful failure and the Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé political elites are now at daggers drawn positions.

Chief V.E. Mukete held a secret meeting with the delegates from the South West region at his residence in Yaoundé and handed to them money with standing instructions to vote against any union with the North West people. Nfon Mukete told the delegates that it was he and some other South West elites who asked the late Ahmadou Ahidjo to dissolve the two state federation that existed in the 60s and 70s.

The paramount leader of the Bafaws further observed that Jua and Foncha treated South Westerners with contempt and that prompted some concerned elites to draw Ahidjo’s attention to the happenings in Buea.

For their part, the North West CPDM elites have launched a scathing attack on French Cameroun Prime Minister Dion Ngute blaming him for the failures recorded during the Yaoundé peace talks. French Cameroun newspapers sponsored by the Biya regime are feeding fat on the chaotic situation among the Anglophone senior CPDM militants.

However, judging from the fact that after 58 years, none of these so-called CPDM elites have been able to bring an iota of development to their various constituencies, the reawakening of the North West/South West Divide is indeed a bitter confession of back-to-back political failures ever since La Republique du Cameroun annexed Southern Cameroons.

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is publicizing a current fight between South West and North West CPDM elites and spending millions of FCFA on newspaper coverage to divert attention from the Ambazonia quest for independence. The long and short of this French Cameroun CPDM diabolic harsh ploy is simply that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a safer place without the so-called South West and North West CPDM elites.

First and foremost, Washington has clearly snubbed the Major National Dialogue and some reports have suggested that the US State Department has gone a step further by requesting President Biya to organize a proper peace talk without any preconditions.  

None of these pro Biya Anglophone citizens touched on Biya’s French Cameroun military involvement in Southern Cameroons during the Major National Dialogue and none of them could muster the courage to say it remains the worst decision ever made in La Republique du Cameroun’s history.

From the delay in making public the resolutions, it seems that Biya and his Beti Ewondo gang have come to the conclusion through objective experience that the equation of power and political geometry of the one and indivisible Cameroon has changed and that Yaoundé can no longer claim absolute authority over the affairs of Southern Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe Mr. Biya has realized that he has only two options; either to be just content with an empty mask of being the head of state of the one and indivisible Cameroon despite heavy costs, or to adopt a realistic approach and acknowledge the present reality of sitting down with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and talk.

Biya has failed woefully in all his strategic projects such as the One and Indivisible Cameroon, the Major National Dialogue, the arrest and recent release of Prof Maurice Kamto, life sentences on the Ambazonia leaders, maintaining peace in the Central African Republic, combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram and hosting of the African Nations Cup.

The poverty and deteriorating infrastructure deep inside French Cameroun has led many ruling CPDM barons, even those who have been facilitating and guaranteeing Biya’s continued stay in power like Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, to acknowledge the urgent need to limit the presidential term.

To the people of Southern Cameroons, their beloved nation the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be a safer country without the North West/ South West CPDM elites.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Jeune Afrique: For two days, only the liberation of Maurice Kamto and his supporters has occupied the debates. First, how did you feel about the announcement of their release?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are very happy that Prof Maurice Kamto and his MRC compatriots have been released. Jailing political opponents and suppressing political expression are repressive measures that are incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. With their release, we hope, they will fight to make La Republique du Cameroun a more just, humane and equitable society where international laws and treaties are respected, torture is prohibited and the rights of all individuals are respected including those of refugees and asylum seekers.

Jeune Afrique: Some argue that negotiations are under way for your release. What do you have to say?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are in prison in Yaoundé. We have neither been contacted nor informed. We know nothing about the negotiations going on for our release, if any. As a matter of fact, we are more concerned with the freedom of millions of Southern Cameroonians than our individual freedoms. We are not free if our citizens continue to be killed, our girls and women continue to be raped, our villages continue to be burnt down, and a force of occupation continues to occupy and terrorizes our country.

Jeune Afrique: The Major National Dialogue (MND) as prescribed by President Paul Biya ended with the announcement of a special status for the North West and South West regions. What does it inspire you, how do you see it?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was a gathering of CPDM party members and a few other French Cameroonians to discuss among themselves and probably come up with their own position. We have our position which is rooted in international law, in history and in culture.

La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are two former trust territories under UN administration! One does not grant independence or ‘special status’ to the other. As such, it is evident that Mr Biya does not have the powers to decide the future of the People of the former UN Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons also known as Ambazonia. That decision belongs only to the people of that territory.

Jeune Afrique: Was the Major National Dialogue a Big Bluff? Despite the fact that 333 Ambazonians are supposed to be released?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was for  French Cameroun citizens to solve their national problems. To us the MND was a non-event. Our problem with La Republique du Cameroun is an international problem and cannot be solved by a national dialogue. That Mr Biya announced the release of 333 (half of 666) of our compatriots is nothing to write home about. This number is insignicant and also as there is no justification for detaining self determination activists. There are over 3,000 Ambazonians illegally detained by La Republique du Cameroun. Releasing all of them and accounting for the missing ones is the right thing Mr Biya should do.

Jeune Afrique: Representatives of Ambazonia took part in this dialogue. It sounds a bit like your disavowal, doesn’t it? Could this be the beginning of the end of Ambazonia? Ambazonians who agree to participate in this MND; are they traitors to the cause?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Let it be made very clear that no Ambazonian or a representative of Ambazonia attended Mr Biya’s MND. In the MND, Mr Biya was talking to himself.

Jeune Afrique: What leeway do you still have, you are now in prison? It will be interesting to know where you are with your political convictions, after receiving and serving a life sentence. What makes you persevere despite this major setback?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Our conviction for Ambazonia lies in the fact that truth always prevails. We are not part of La Republique du Cameroun and will not be coerced to be part of it. Success stories of legitimate claims to nationhood abound. The determination and success of Namibia, Eritrea, East Timor, Djibouti, and South Sudan inspire us.

Jeune Afrique: As many people are being killed, victims of atrocities, villages being destroyed and burned, people displaced in the North and South West regions, what is your proposed solution to stop this human disaster? When you observe these so-called English-speaking regions you see nothing but destructions, do you say to yourself: we should not have gone so far to decide to secede?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Permit me start by correcting the fact that we are not seceding. We are restoring our nationhood. I refer you to UN Resolution 1608 that granted us independence. Also we are not English speaking Regions, we are the former British Southern Cameroons now known as Ambazonia.

A genocide being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military is going on in Ambazonia right now. To stop it, Mr Biya should declare a cease fire to the genocidal war he declared on the 30th November 2017 and pull his troops out of the Southern Cameroons. We regret that Mr Biya’s government could be that insensitive and irresponsive, but as a People we are bent on upholding the truth and defending our fatherland to the best of our abilities, at all times despite the odds, to the last man standing.

Jeune Afrique: What is your opinion in view of the barbarity, atrocities, tortures and serious human rights violations committed by the government forces as well as the separatist groups, of which you are the leader? Abuses are probably not the sole fact of Cameroonian law enforcement. Do you recognize that there are among you some uncontrolled elements?

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

Jeune Afrique: Would you agree to meet and negotiate with the Government of Cameroon to find a compromised solution to this calamity?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We have always been open to negotiations to end this political conflict between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun. The resistance has been from Mr Biya’s side. However, the negotiations we are looking forward to should be mediated by an independent, impartial and credible entity in a neutral territory. The negotiations must address the root causes of the conflict. Finally, there must be a mechanism to ensure that the outcomes of the negotiations are implemented. This is Conflict Resolution 101 and I wonder why the Yaoundé regime finds it so hard to understand.

Jeune Afrique:  With the presence of credible political leaders, would you agree to work with them on changes to the Cameroonian constitution, the penal and electoral code that will lead to the return of federalism as a compromised for the secession? Or do you maintain the only way out is secession?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is not part of La Republique du Cameroun. The UN resolutions that granted independence by joining at no point took away the international personality or international boundaries of Southern Cameroons. Changes in the Constitution or other legal instruments of  French Cameroun do not therefore relate to Ambazonia in anyway. We are ready and willing to work with credible international mediators, to address the root causes of the conflict, for a lasting solution.

Jeune Afrique: How bad can it get, what is according to you the worst-case scenario if things don’t get resolved in the Northwest and the Southwest regions very soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Nothing worst can happen than the genocide that is already taking place in Ambazonia.  We pray the UN and international community to step in now to resolve the conflict in Ambazonia. As a people, with a right to self-determination, Ambazonians have taken the destiny of their nation into their hands and will stop at nothing till they completely restore their independence. It is either total independence of Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Jeune Afrique: What do you think about the state of democracy in Cameroon? About the political opposition parties? What are your relations with the SDF, or the party of Edith Kah Walla? Are there still great English-speaking political leaders in Cameroon like Muna, Foncha, Endeley?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Going by the history of former British Southern Cameroons, which witnessed the first democratic elections in Africa in 1958, our assessment of the political space in Cameroun is that there is a long way to walk on the path to democracy in La Republique du Cameroun. However, we are really not interested in party politics in La Republique du Cameroun. We are interested in what is happening to us as Ambazonians as we prepare to build our nation, on the foundation laid by Dr E. M. L. Endeley and John Ngu Foncha in the 1950s.

Jeune Afrique: Let’s talk about the attitude of English-speaking dignitaries such as Cardinal Tumi. Did they give up too soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Christian Cardinal Tumi is a respected religious leader with an independent mind and a right to his opinion. As a man of God, he is expected to use his power and God-given position to stand for the truth and the oppressed. If he, like anyone else, opts not to write his name in the sands of time, such a burden will be his to bear. African leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and others in Nigeria and Central Africa are living examples of religious leaders who championed socio-political change in their countries. Cardinal Tumi like other dignitaries is entitled to his opinion. But only the truth will prevail.

Jeune Afrique: Albert Dzongang spoke today about a form of rapprochement between the CRM and you. Can you tell us more?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Mr Albert Dzongang was another victim of French Cameroun government’s barbarism.  He was locked up in the same prison with us – Prison Principale Kondengui, Yaounde. We interacted as inmates and we share no political fraternity, for our goal is the restoration of the statehood of our nation. We do not mingle into French Cameroun politics.

Jeune Afrique: In your own words, could you please tell who Sisiku Julius AyukTabe is? When did you become interested in politics? How did you become the leader/president of the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia? Was there an electoral process at the end of which you were brought to the head of the separatist group?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is the peoples’ chosen leader. He has never been interested in partisan politics. In 2017, he was brought out from his quiet life by the people to continue to lead the quest for the restoration of the independence of the Southern Cameroons, taking over from Deacon Tasang Wilfred, as Chairman of the Governing Council of SCACUF. He was nominated President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by acclamation at SCACUF’s 4th conclave at the close of 2017, by the People’s representatives. As a humble servant of his people, he enjoys the support of his peoples as was aptly demonstrated on the 1st of October 2019.

Jeune Afrique: For some people, the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia was a joke. For others, Ambazonians were merely terrorist. How would you describe the fighters of Ambazonia? Who are they?  Live skinned?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Anyone one who still thinks that the restoration of the statehood of the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons now called Ambazonia was a joke lives in a world of his own. History, International law and Culture justify our resolve for Ambazonia. UN Resolutions 1514 and 1608; Article 102 of the UN Charter vindicates our restoration quest for the independence of the Southern Cameroons.  Some have called us terrorists, some secessionists, some separatists and some rats and dogs. Remember you could always give a good dog a bad name in order to hang it. We are Restorationists, fighting against the annexation and colonization of our homeland – the former British Southern Cameroons.

With regards to the self defense groups called Ambaboys, they are our heroes. Without arms, they are defending our population from being exterminated by Mr Biya’s genocidal war and scorch-earth policy in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia).

Jeune Afrique: Could you tell us how you got arrested and taken to Yaoundé?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: For the record, we were not arrested; we were abducted by armed men. As Refugees and Asylum Seekers based in Nigeria, our abduction and subsequent transfer to La Republique du Cameroun without due judicial process was a flagrant violation of international refugee laws. It is also indicative of the lawlessness which the governments of these nations operated.

On the 5th of January 2018, 12 of us met at the gardens of Nera Hotel in Abuja, discussing the pathetic state of our sisters and brothers streaming into Nigeria as refugees. We were abducted by heavily armed men, without any warrants of arrest. We were detained at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of Nigeria for 20 days without access to family, friends or lawyers and without charge. On the 25th of January, we were handcuffed, blindfolded and bundled into a military cargo plane and taken to Yaounde, where we were held incommunicado for close to nine months. Later, we were confronted with trumped-up charges of terrorism, terrorism related activities, secession and revolution, among others.

Jeune Afrique: What is your day like in prison? Can you describe your conditions of detention?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: A typical day in prison starts from 7am when our cell-doors are opened to 6.30pm when they are closed. Within this time as a community, we study the bible and meditate together, eat together, play together. On visiting days, we receive families and friends together.  In terms of conditions of detention, this prison now is a squalid over-populated environment, infested with rodents and cockroaches. However, we are making the best of a bad situation.

Jeune Afrique: The current secession movement in Cameroon is reminiscent of another one, but much older the Biafra. It is remembered that the French were the ones pulling strings. And some are suspecting foreign powers behind the Ambazonians?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe;  As you said, foreign backing is a suspicion and of course unfounded. We Ambazonians own our revolution and our destiny. It is not a secessionist movement, but a restoration movement, aimed at restoring what is genuinely ours.

Jeune Afrique: If you had to ask forgiveness from Cameroonians, what will that be and why?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: In life, it is the robber that asks for forgiveness from the robbed; the colonizer from the colonized; the annexationist from the annexed; the cheat from the cheated. Should there be a time for forgiveness, it will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the UN, UK and France for masterminding its colonization by La Republique du Cameroon, after UN granted it independence on 1st October 1961. It will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the international Community for shelving the Never Again Campaign against genocide, for staying silent while thousands of Southern Cameroonians are murdered and for complicity in genocide perpetuated in the Southern Cameroons by Mr Biya’s military and militias.

Jeune Afrique: It appears from the MND that the acceleration of decentralization remains the only way out. Federalism does not seem possible either. When did you say that you, secessionists, had reached a point of no return, a rupture from the government?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: As I said before, we are not secessionists but restorationists. With regards to the choice between Federalism and Decentralization in Cameroun, French Cameroonians are free to choose whatever form of government they think is good for their country. On October 1 2017, the Statehood of the Former British Southern Cameroons was restored as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Jeune Afrique: Your current situation that is keeping you from your love ones reflects in a way that of many English-speaking families who have been torn apart, displaced in forests, other part of Cameroon and even in neighboring countries because of the war. You who have been separated from your family since your incarceration, what message do you have for all these families?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe:Thank you for this question and the opportunity to leave a message to our families in pain. My fellow Ambazonians, it is indeed a painful experience to be separated from loved ones on account of our noble course. I consider them enormous sacrifices and these shows the love we have for Ambazonia. I share the pain of every Ambazonian wherever they may be, including IDPs, Refugees, prisons, torture centers, or in the wildernesses. Remember that some our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children have paid the ultimate price, with their lives. The blood of these our fallen heroes shall not be in vain. Wherever you are, defend Ambazonia with courage, determination till the last man standing. It is either total independence for Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Translated by our chief political man Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The French Cameroun dictator is extremely lacking in political finesse and has no real ability to move forward on the resolution reached by the so-called Grand National Dialogue which is to resolve the conflict in Southern Cameroons and stop the genocidal campaign he launched using the Cameroon government army.

The Ambazonia Interim Government under the stewardship of Vice President Dabney Yerima has announced a plan to raise money to purchase military equipments in a move that is likely to prolong the war and Dabney Yerima has already warned Yaoundé against the massive deployment of Francophone troops in Ambazonia.

Paul Biya’s acolytes have been quoted as saying that Yaoundé will begin implementing the resolutions soonest. However, the arrest and continues detention of prominent Muslim scholar Abdul Karim has put Prime Minister Dion Ngute in his own last journey of many dangers.

The Ambazonia Interim Government observed recently that a huge part of the money that will come in through the sale of Amba bonds will go into defense and humanitarian issues in Ground Zero. The Ambazonia Self-Defense Forces have also vowed to continue with the resistance until President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides including the more than one thousand Southern Cameroonians held in French Cameroun jails are released.

A senior militant of the ruling CPDM party told Cameroon Intelligence Report on Friday that Mr. Biya’s trip to Lyon in France was unnecessary and just another instance where he wants to buy time and get things back to business as usual in Southern Cameroons. He further pointed out that there was no talks between Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun and this means there shall be further confrontation and further escalation.

Many of the Yaoundé appointed delegates from the South West region who were all ordered to vote against any union with the North West have also been saying that they don’t know what can be done to get things back on track in Southern Cameroons as It now seems that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime is totally paralyzed now with the economic war with the Bamilekes.

Paul Biya really has no ability to implement what the United States and the European Union believe is the way forward to resolve the Southern Cameroons conflict and to get French Cameroun army soldiers out of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Biya also has no real ability to follow through any political program that will guarantee a peaceful transfer of power to the new generation in Yaoundé.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are hoping that the 86 year old butcher of Yaoundé will find some way to do what is right! But judging from the present situation and with complete and total support from France, it just seems that Ambazonians and French Camerounians are going back to escalation and confrontation, and that’s very unfortunate and very dangerous.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The ICJ today welcomed the release from detention and the dropping of charges against, of Maurice Kamto and other opposition figures. 

The ICJ has called on Cameroonian authorities to ensure that they and others are able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without harassment or fear of arrest and prosecution.

The ICJ also called for the authorities to embark on wider legal and institutional reforms to facilitate respect for human rights and the rule of law in order to build genuine constitutional democracy in that country.

‘’Neither the arrest, nor detention nor prosecution of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms, including political dissent and peaceful opposition nor the trial of civilians before a military court was in compliance with Cameroon’s international legal obligations,” said Arnold Tsunga, ICJ’s Africa Regional Director in reaction to news of the release.

Maurice Kamto, a leading international jurist, former ICJ Commissioner, and presidential candidate of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), was arrested on 28 January 2019 along with dozens of other opposition figures for protesting and challenging the results of the last Presidential elections held in October 2018.

They were facing trials before military courts, in contravention of their rights to a fair trial trial, on charges of ‘’insurrection, hostility to the motherland and rebellion’’ – charges which potentially carry the death penalty.

The detainees were released last weekend after Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s tweet on 4 October 2019, that he had ordered the discontinuance of proceedings against them. The bringing and dropping charges should be in the remit of independent prosecutorial authorities, not the President.

Nonetheless, the ICJ stressed that the release of Maurice Kamto and the other leaders provides a welcome window of opportunity for Cameroonian authorities to begin an inclusive process of revamping the legal and constitutional framework to meet international standards.

The ICJ called on the Cameroonian authorities to desist further from applying the law and legal process to persecute or otherwise harass any person for the exercise of fundamental freedoms and from administering justice through military courts, which should be reserved for prosecution military personnel for military offences only.

The ICJ stressed that the release of Maurice Kamto and other opposition figures presents a unique opportunity for Cameroonian authorities to restore public confidence in the country’s democratic institutions by including all Cameroonians in the building of a society based on the rule of law.

Culled from International Commission of Jurists

Abdul Karim Ali, The Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) Justice for Peace crusader and Islamic scholar of international repute who was abducted by a mixed contingent of the uniformed and non-uniformed gendarmes on the 25th September 2019 is being starved to death! Abdul Karim was abducted in front of the Swiss Embassy in Yaounde as he stepped out after a conversation with the Swiss Ambassador, about the recently held mediation conference in Geneva at the behest of Humanitarian Centre for Dialogue (HD).

Abdulkarim was whisked off to the Gendarmerie Headquarters better known by it’s French acronym SED where he is being incarcerated without food or water. The commander on duty at the Service Central Des Recherches Judiciaire (SCRJ), where he is confined, denied him access to family and lawyers until Monday the 30th September. When they eventually allowed only the lawyer to see him! He denied drinking any water and eating any food offered by the gendarmes and insisted that he would only drink water and eat food brought by his lawyers or family members. The Gendarmerie as of today Tuesday 8th October 2019 denied him all food and water brought by family on the frivolous excuse that hierarchy has not authorized it. Even the palette of water brought by his lawyers since Friday has not been given to him. He is reportedly very frail and worn out as of today 08/10/2019. He has now stayed without food and water for almost two full weeks!!!

Abdulkarim has neither been interrogated nor charged to court for any known offence. His lawyers Barr AYUKOTANG Ndep Nkongho and Barr FONKA TOMNYUY have filed an Application of Habeas Corpus praying the court to order his immediate production before the High Court of Mfoundi Yaounde for the court to assess the validity of his abduction and continuous incarceration and order his release and compensation.

Berinyuy Bihkong

The phone call from my dear sister and friend Bibiana Taku once more announced the sad news of the death of Ben Muna. This phone call announcing the death of Ben Muna, replicated in some regards, that which announced the death of my friend Bate Besong which is a painful loss from which I have never recovered.

Some months ago, Ben Muna and our distinguished colleague Paul Chiy flew in from London to the Hague to discuss important professional matters with Karim Khan QC and me.  The contributions of Ben Muna in that profound professional discussion will remain indelible in my memory.

I have known Ben Muna for so many years. Barely four years in my professional career, I contested and was elected a member of the council of the Cameroon Bar Association. Ben Muna was the President of the Bar Council then. Shortly on being elected, I became his close partner in several battles for the enthronement of the rule of law and a just social order.

We fought against the politicization of justice and the militarization of constitutional rights that was imposed on the citizenry by a power cartel of power mongers. Ben was a passionate advocate of justice with a human conscience and mobilized lawyers and the citizenry to join him in this crusade.

Ben led a delegation of lawyers to the biannual conference of the African Bar Association in Abuja Nigeria in 1991, where Chief MKO Abiola presented the keynote address. My distinguished learned colleagues Chief Eta Besong Jr, Mrs M.N Weledji, Peter Monthe Tumnde, Mrs Helen Ebai, Charles Eno, and many others were in the delegation. 

There, African lawyers gathered in that conference witnessed the leadership skills of Ben Muna. In a potentially tense election battle that was about to erupt, Ben took the microphone and urged the attendees, “learned colleagues, why this pushyfooting?  Why not give Mr Charles Idehen the President of the NBA a mandate to move this great continental association to higher heights?”.  There was an acclamation and Roger Chamba the Hon Attorney General of Zambia who was the outgoing President, after consultation, reconvened and the choice of Ben was endorsed by a near majority as the President of the NBA. My late friend Kamni Ishola Isobu remarked to me the end of the day’s proceedings that Ben Muna was, indeed, a great lawyer capable of providing the type of continental leadership that Chief Abiola had advocated in his keynote address.

 When we last met in Stockholm last year, the first time since the African Bar Association Conference in 1991, Hon. Roger Chamba and I recalled the memorable intervention of Ben Muna in that conference.  It is regrettable that several attempts to reunite Ben and Charles Idehen  did not materialize because of the bad telephone network communication.

Ben led us to valiantly defend the erstwhile President of the Cameroon Bar Council Yondo Black and the venerable Albert Mukong and others before a court-martial in Yaoundé Cameroun, for asserting a constitutional right to pluralist democratic governance.   From thence, I forged an enduring alliance with Albert Mukong for the struggle for freedom and human dignity leading to the creation of the Human Rights Defence Group.

Ben mobilized lawyers and human rights defenders to defend my friend Puis Njawe and Celestin Monga whose only crime was the publication of articles exposing and condemning the endemic corruption that has destroyed the economic and moral foundation of Cameroun.  Through this and other cases, Ben provided the platform for the establishment of civil society advocacy in the fight to liberate the people from the bondage and abuses of dictatorial political brigandage.  In this regard, the fearless legal luminary provided unprecedented leadership in the fight for justice and civil liberties that permeated his national and international law career.

By the verdict of fate and destiny, we met again at the International Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha where he was the Deputy Prosecutor and I was a Lead Counsel for one of the accused persons.  I found myself alone on the defence bench while Ben, Carla Deponte and five other Prosecutors were on the prosecution bench to argue an interlocutory appeal, I filed before the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR.  I stood my ground and responded to the alternate submissions by all the members of the prosecution team. At the close of the session, Ben moved across to me and we briefly laughed at the fact that Ben was back where he began his law career as a Prosecutor. Persons present watched as we discussed courteously and pleasantly only a few minutes after we were subjected to intense legal combat with ammunitions provided on both side by the very erudite judge Shahabuddin now of blessed memory and his four colleagues in the panel.  Little did they know that although a prosecutor, Ben was indeed, a champion of fair trial rights for accused persons before the courts. 

Ben ended his time on earth, defending largely abducted victims of atrocity crimes and the arrogance of power before a court-martial.  His memorable prophetic submissions will inform the conscience of a nation at battle with its soul about the consequences of trivializing human rights, human dignity and politicization of justice.  The enduring consequences of these violations may never be reversed. But no one will ever say that Ben Muna the prophetic voice of reason and the conscience of true justice did not caution and provide an opportunity for the abatement of the madness that has led to the collapse of an imposed house of cards.

May the justice of the Lord, the Guarantor of true justice and all life, grant him a place of choice in God’s heavenly kingdom

May his soul rest in peace.

By Chief Charles A. Taku

Ever since the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe reorganized the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and appointed Comrade Dabney Yerima as Vice President, the top political priority to some Southern Cameroonians in the USA has been to deny the legitimacy of the Interim Government. These individuals including the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako and the former Communications Secretary, Chris Anu are simply being short-sighted, myopic and petty.

Southern Cameroonians now know that all those refusing to join forces with the Interim Government and rally behind Vice President Dabney Yerima do not have a vision for Ambaland, or a policy position, or even a personal agenda. They simply are for Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s demise.

Clearly, the tables have turned and we now have a French Cameroun leadership that has successfully infiltrated a cream of Southern Cameroons front liners with a very different agenda and potentially dangerous ideas for the people of Ambazonia.

The all-out French Cameroun military onslaught and the deliberate silence observed by the international community has left Southern Cameroonians reeling, scrambling to protect their Interim Government, its policies and the leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe whom they hold dearly.

Progressive forces in the USA have joined Southern Cameroonians in Europe and South Africa in resisting the actions of failed leaders such as Ikome Sako and Chris Anu. These two men have been using unprecedented levels of energy against the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Their nasty actions against the Interim Government that brought them to the lime light of Southern Cameroons politics have not been working shockingly well so far. But we of the Cameroon Concord News Group fear that their activities which is not going to last, because it’s not enough to just be against a leader, will continue to delay our trip to Buea.

Sako and Chris are only fighting whatever President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government put on the table and this has greatly helped Vice President Yerima to settle down on the job and has allowed him to set the revolution agenda that badly needed a change.

Comrade Dabney Yerima is not playing games and he is not a man to mess around with! He has taken Southern Cameroonians back to the revolutionary principles and is slowly but surely crafting Ambazonia’s own new vision for what the Federal Republic of Ambazonia should be.

Frankly speaking, politics is a battle of ideas but NOT during a war of liberation. In spite of Paul Biya’s incoherent speeches, his disregard for historic facts on the Anglophone problem and his obvious personal flaws, Southern Cameroonians are miles away from Buea because some are still listening to empty talk from the disgruntled Sako and his Chris Anu gang.

It was very hard to pin Chris Anu to the job description assigned to him by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. As we write, Southern Cameroonians are still to comprehend whether Chris Anu was Communications Secretary or an ABC TV anchor man or better still a social media activist. He has never been clear about his ideas for Ambazonia, beyond attacking Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and picking up a regular cheap quarrel with the Secretary of Finance over unpaid ABC TV bills. Chris Anu’s slogans helped him recruit Barrister Fru into the anti Sisiku Ayuk Tabe wagon. But with the dust now settled, Barrister Fru has come to understand that slogans are not the same as a cohesive idea.

Sako, Boh Herbert, Chris Anu and Akwanga have never been more unified on any one topic than their dislike for the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.  However, powerful men are almost always defined by what they are for, not what they are against.

Southern Cameroonians should know that the modus operandi of Sako, Boh, Chris and Akwanga has many perils and it is allowing the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to set the agenda for the Ambazonia war of independence. As long as they are only holding meetings waiting for what President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe or Vice President Dabney Yerima would say to launch an attack. Not only will Ambazonians be always on the defensive, it is also limiting our imaginations to a reality within the boundaries of Biya’s French Cameroun world.

Southern Cameroons will lose. The chips are stacked in favour of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government under the stewardship of Vice President Dabney Yerima. Even with unprecedented levels of attacks, it’s unlikely those fighting the Interim Government will be able to effectively resist every move by Comrade Dabney Yerima. Consequently,  Ambazonia will remain a deeply divided country.

Correspondingly, if we are to take steps to mend the deep tears in the leadership of the struggle and the Southern Cameroons political fabric, Southern Cameroonians should not be defined by what they are opposed to.

Winning this war against La Republqiue du Cameroun does not require attacks on the Interim Government or an impeachment against Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. That has created its own problems. Winning this war against La Republique du Cameroun is not about seeing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides bleed in Kondengui. Winning is far grander: channeling unprecedented levels of activism and financial resources into an idea for our beloved Ambazonia that not only combats the corrosive policies we’ve seen, but can lead to a permanently better future. That idea will create lasting good for future generations of Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun colonial occupation and brutal oppression of Ambazonia is now close to sixty long years. That country is daily plundering and looting the resources of Ambazonia, violently imposing on the people, humiliating them, and terrorizing them.

The die was cast three years ago. We took one giant step to end our shameful status of a colonised people. Like all slaves, we revolted. The colonial oppressor then demonstrated its determination to exterminate us and steal our Homeland. It unleashed an unjust war on us. Since then we have been in the throes of an existential armed threat.

We are fighting for survival as a people. We are literally fighting with bear hands, apparently with no expertise in the art of war. But against all odds, we continue to resist the mighty onslaught of a well-resourced French Cameroun army backed by mercenaries and well-known foreign governments.

But we remain defiant and undaunted. We shall fight on for 100 years, if need be. We shall fight on until our Homeland is totally liberated. We shall fight on until we are free. We shall fight on until we unfetter the shameful shackles around our necks and feet, like those of slaves of old. We shall fight on until we defeat the enemy. We do not doubt success and final victory.

Let the world know and bear witness that we are fighting for the decolonisation of Ambazonia. That territory is historically and legally our Homeland. It has been oursfrom time immemorial. It belongs to us and to none other. Sovereignty over it lies with us, the people of Ambazonia. No other people can possibly assert a superior title to that land.

It is our right and duty to institute a government on that territory, laying itsfoundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to us seems most likely to secure our national interest, our safety, our welfare, and our happiness.No one, no country and no organisation should presume to do so for us or to deflect us from doing so.

In the past:

• We allowed the UN to impose on us an unwarranted and choice-less plebiscite that took place on 11 February 1961;
• We attended a purposeless and agenda-less charade in Fumban in July 1961;
• We submitted to an annexationist document framed and adopted by French Cameroun on 1 September 1961 and dressed up as a so-called federal constitution whereas it was a mere framework for the cannibalisation of Ambazonia;
• We submitted on 30^th September 1961 to the British transfer of powers not to the Government of the Southern Cameroons as ought to have been the case but to a foreign country, namely, French Cameroun, resulting in the re-colonisation, rather than the decolonisation, of the Southern Cameroons;
• We submitted on 1 October 1961 to occupation by French Cameroun forces and to rule by a French Cameroun pro-consul deceptively known as  ‘federal inspector of administration’;
• We allowed in 1962 French Cameroun to extend to Ambazonia its torture outfits and its draconian Subversion Ordinance that sanctioned the trial of our people by military tribunals for a number of ill-defined crimes and, in effect, made every Ambazonian a prisoner in the closed society imposed on us by French Cameroun, practically converting our space of existence into an open prison system;
• We submitted in 1962 to French Cameroun imposition of its French colonial currency, its metric system, its system of driving on the right hand side of the road, and of the French language as the language of governance;
• We allowed in 1966 French Cameroun to impose on us its one-party despotic rule;
• We failed in 1972 to oppose the odious plot and historical swindle of a so-called referendum which purported to have given a veneer of suspect legality to the continuing cannibalisation of Ambazonia;
• We failed in February 1984 to confront Biya when he purported to have completed the cannibalisation of Ambazonia by resurrecting extinct la République du Cameroun as a legal, territorial and political expression, while at the same time asserting an unsubstantiated territorial aggrandisement claim to the territory of Ambazonia;
• We failed in 1990 and 1992 to reject the poisonous and conditioning fake ‘peace’ discourse of French Cameroun;
• We failed in 1994 at the tripartite to reject and denounce French Cameroun’s continuing perfidy and efforts to get us to accept its brutal colonial rule and oppression;
• We allowed ourselves in 2010 to be manipulated by French Cameroun’s deceptive and aggressive use of the term ‘reunification’ to think that the independence of French Cameroun involved us and that our Homeland is part of the territory of French Cameroun;
• We allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked in 2016 to agree to ‘dialogue’ with the devil, a ‘dialogue’ which ended with the kidnapping and incarceration of our then leadership.

All this nonsense is now over. Never again shall we give ear to and act on anything other than what we, as a sovereign people, have decided. French Cameroun, like an invalid, has used Ambazonia as footstool for decades. It hasgot free lunch fromAmbazonia for over five decades. It must now grow up, get rid of its mentality of an invalid, start living on its own, and begin to cater for itself.The era of Santa Claus is over.

On this auspicious occasion I pay tribute to the memory of our valorous soldiers who have gained honourable death in battle. I pay tribute to all those, including babies and the elderly, who have been cowardly murdered by enemy forces.  I commiserate with all those who have been raped or maimed.I salute all our valiant people, our brave refugees and internally displaced persons. I salute our gallant and resourceful freedom fighters. We stand together until the end.

I salute our friends who continue to stand by us in various ways in this our hour of great tribulation, the darkest hour of our history as a people. Our life of sorrow will not last long. May our enemy be put to eternal shame! May our merciful Lord hasten the advent of our redemption!

Darkness tarries only for a while before dawn. The dawn of national liberation, the dawn of a free people, is about to break.

Long live the invincible people of Ambazonia!  Long live Ambazonia!

By Prof Carlson Anyangwe

The recent sentencing of separatists is likely to fuel more anger and resentment among the Anglophone population and alienate them from the Francophone-dominated government, but the dialogue can reverse hard feelings.

It was a long court session. 

A military tribunal in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, had convened some hours after noon on August 19 to pass verdicts on a case involving a group of ‘Ambazonia’ separatist leaders. But the sitting did not end until around 5:30am local time the next day.

The charges against them were, like the proceedings, long: secession, complicity in acts of terrorism, insurrection, hostility against the state, financing acts of terrorism, and spreading fake news, among others.

In its final verdict, the tribunal sentenced the 10 separatist leaders to life in prison and asked them to pay a civil award of 250 billion CFA francs ($419 million USD) to the government and civil claimants. If they fail to pay the fine as and when due, they will have to pay an additional cost of 12 billion francs ($20 million USD).

Among the leaders convicted was Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the self-declared president of the breakaway ‘Federal Republic of Ambazonia’. The state was declared in October 2017 to spite the government’s heavy-handedness in response to peaceful demonstrations across the English-speaking South-West and North-West regions.

Cameroon, a central African country, is made up of 10, semi-autonomous regions. Eight are Francophone and two Anglophone. 

The French-dominated government in Yaoundé is led by 86-year-old Paul Biya, the current head of state who has been in office since 1982.

Frustrations over lack of equal representation have roiled the Anglophones since the 1990s, sometimes culminating in demands for a referendum or a return to a federation.

Similar worries forced lawyers and teachers to organise strikes over the use of French in their courts and the dominance of French language in their schools in late 2016.

The government’s response, including transferring French-speaking teachers, establishing Common Law Sections at the Supreme Court and the National  School of Administration and Magistracy, as well as creating a national Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and  Multiculturalism did little to address the grievances.

Gradually the anger spread across the South-West and North-West regions. Residents organised peaceful demonstrations over the perceived marginalisation of the Anglophone minority, which makes up 20 percent of Cameroon’s 24 million people. 

But the government responded with extreme force, arresting demonstrators, firing live rounds at protestors and jailing a few people. In response, an alphabet soup of separatist groups sprang up to fight for the independence of Ambazonia.

“We feel like second-class citizens because Biya’s government has never for once accepted that there is a problem in the Anglophone regions,” a Cameroonian refugee in Nigeria told TRT World.

“Our complaints about a failed system have only brought us imprisonment, destruction, death, displacement and difficulties.” 

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused government forces of indiscriminate killings, arrests, torture and destruction of villages during operations. 

Armed groups, the watchdogs say, have also burnt down schools, attacked students and teachers and killed security officers.

The simmering conflict has displaced some 530,806 Cameroonians within the country and forced about 42,887 to cross the border to Nigeria, according to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Some 1,850 have been killed so far.

In January 2018, some 47 Anglophone separatists, including Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, were arrested in Nigeria by security agents. They were detained and later deported to Cameroon that same month. Most of them had filed asylum claims. A Nigerian court sitting in the capital Abuja in March ruled that the extradition of 12 asylum claimants was “illegal” and awarded them compensation. 

Upon his extradition, Ayuk Tabe was, alongside his fellow comrades, incarcerated in a well-secured facility in Yaoundé and later charged with “terrorism” in December last year at a military court.

It was this same court that would, after an all-night sitting on August 20, give him a life sentence.

In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, angry separatist fighters announced a three-week lockdown in the Anglophone regions, forcing thousands of residents to leave their homes to avoid the curfew and any follow-on confrontations. 

Local media reported that shops, offices, markets, and bus stations closed following the order.

This is a usual tactic for the fighters who have periodically enforced curfews — or “ghost towns”.  This often happens on a Monday.

Ayuk Tabe and some of his fellow leaders are seen to be more open to dialogue. The recent sentencing, analysts argue, would only exacerbate the ongoing conflict.

“Some of the approaches adopted by the Cameroonian government has more or less tended towards inflaming tensions,” Dr Emeka Okereke, an expert in African affairs, remarked.

In May, local newspaper Journal du Cameroun reported that 54-year-old Ayuk Tabe had written a five-page letter presenting conditions for dialogue, including releasing prisoners arrested during the crisis, removing government security forces from the Anglophone regions, holding peace talks outside the country and involving foreign observers in the process. 

“The arrests and sentencing indicate an attempt on the part of the Biya government to take a harder line and apply the principle of striking the shepherd in order to disperse the sheep,” said Cheta Nwanze, Head of Research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based political and economic consultancy.

With this approach, Nwanze argued: “[The government is] probably making the fundamental mistake of removing those who have something to lose and are, as a result, more open to negotiations.

“They may thus be left with more hardliners who will make things more difficult for them.”

Amid tensions resulting from the lockdown imposed by separatists, the presidency announced that Biya would address the nation on September 10. This is a shift from the traditional times the head of state addresses the nation: on New Year and the National Youth Day on February 11.

In the rare national address broadcast on TV and radio at 8pm local time, Biya admitted that there was, indeed, a “crisis” with “far-reaching consequences” for the entire country. 

He recalled that he had ordered the release of 289 persons arrested in connection with the crisis and outlined other measures taken to address grievances. 

To address the conflict, the government would convene a national dialogue, he announced. Parties would include government officials, opinion leaders, leaders of government security forces, armed groups and victims, he added. 

A delegation would be sent to the diaspora to allow Cameroonians there to make their input.

“How can there be dialogue when some of the key actors you are supposed to dialogue with have just been sentenced to life in prison?” asked Okereke, who argues that granting amnesty to all political prisoners should be part of the solution. 

Nwanze, of SMB Intelligence, also thinks the proposed national dialogue is not a solution.

“Biya was offering more of a stick than carrot, and like many autocrats before him, seemed not to understand, nor care, about the complaints of those who have stood against him,” he explained.

As the impasse drags on, students continue to be kept out of their classrooms.

Around 80 percent of schools in the North-West and South-West region have been closed due to the crisis, UN Children’s Fund, Unicef, reported in June. This has affected more than 600,000 children and left at least 74 schools in ruins, Unicef said.

When schools tried to re-open on September 2 this year, suspected separatist fighters opened gunfire to scare students and teachers away, local media reported.

Businesses and livelihoods, too, have been jeopardised due to the ongoing crisis.

For instance, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDD), the state-owned agro-industrial company in the South-West region, had to shut down most of its factories, estates and oil mills.

The country’s second largest employer after the government, the CDD, has a workforce of about 22,000 employees and has operations in banana, palm oil, semi-finished rubber, and palm kernel oil. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs, as the company’s financial struggles linger.

Nwaze calls for better representation.

“Give the Anglophones a sense of belonging by ensuring that their communities are run in English, and creating a path to top positions within the government for people from the area,” he said.

Okereke believes the government alone cannot singlehandedly address the problem.

“There needs to be a frank, all-inclusive dialogue that requires granting amnesty to political prisoners, active international participation, and the parties to the conflict putting aside their political interests to find a common ground.”

Source: TRT World