Things are falling apart for the Southern Cameroons revolution and the members of the Ambazonian Interim Government can no longer read from the same script. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group recently rejected the resignation of Secretary Chris Anu and we advised that cabinet issues be kept as a nuclear secret. To be sure, nothing seems to interest the Ambazonian cabinet ministers and they have blatantly refused to see how they can jointly strategize to forge ahead with the struggle while keeping their differences aside.

While free speech and democratic debate may justify some of the outings of the Ambazonian cabinet ministers, we of this publication are asking how they help Southern Cameroonians to terminate the cases brought by a vicious sanguinary regime against their leaders. Does a debate surrounding Ambazonian leaders organizing meetings with other leaders wanted by the enemy help or provide the enemy with evidence against the leaders and the Southern Cameroons cause? Who gains from this infighting deep within the Interim Government concerning meetings supposedly organized from the enemy’s dungeon?

Yesterday’s audio by Chris Anu questioning the integrity and honesty of the Secretary of State for Finance has reportedly made matters worse and more intractable. In the words of our London Bureau Chief, “The Southern Cameroons revolution is now facing a hydra-headed crisis.”

Reacting to Secretary Chris Anu’s audio message, a spokesman for the Secretary of State for Finance told Cameroon Concord News Group that “It is a smear campaign against Hon. Tabenyang Brado because of disagreement on the proposed conference.”

We understand the long standing differences between Chris Anu and Tabenyang Brado emerged ever since the creation of ABC TV. Why Communications Secretary Chris wanted $9500 a month for satellite cost and an additional extra $3500 a month for salaries, the Secretary of State for Finance has always maintained that the ABC remains a good idea but it’s also not sustainable.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group had opined late last year that $13000 a month for just 6 hours of broadcasting was not good value for Ambazonian money. We also had reliable information that ABC had no viable business plan to grow into financial independence at a time when there are more pressing financial challenges for the Southern Cameroons struggle.

The Secretary of State for Finance has hinted Cameroon Concord News Group of his decision to make public a full detailed financial statement of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government from November 2017 when the Ambazonian government was formed to December 2018. Our primary worry is that His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s involvement in these controversies is already creating a rift among Ambazonians in captivity in Kondengui. They are in their thousands.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe should have remained the mythical and emblematic leader that he is rather than a factional leader. Cameroon Concord News Group is of the opinion that if by any reason some Ground Zero commanders come up against his decisions and interventions then that may further weaken his authority. Acting President Sako, Communications Secretary Chris Anu and others even not as leaders may move back to their activist roles and continue the struggle but the loser will still be President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his ability to hold and influence the struggle together.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group support his leadership but disagree with his involvement in the current controversy. Dr Akwanga and Barrister Agbor Balla who were in the enemy’s dungeon can tell him how the enemy operates. Atanga Nji, Laurent Esso and Momo who are controlling that prison are very ruthless. Very soon the Pen’s, Mancho’s even Tassang who is an arch enemy of Milan may disagree with President Ayuk Tabe and the split will continue outside and cause more harm.

Cameroon Concord News Group is concerned that President Ayuk Tabe’s involvement may find its way into his case and provide the enemy with evidence to allege that he is directing military operations from inside his detention center. We wonder what his lawyers are doing.

For President Ayuk Tabe to be too trusting to summon and preside over these meetings from the enemy’s jail is a grave error and a costly mistake.  Even most sympathizers and supporters may be very disappointed in the short and long term. This meeting was unnecessary and counterproductive and even harmful. We wish Chris Anu did not address it in public at all. We wish the damage can be mitigated by nobody keeping the talk about the meeting and the fallout alive. To be complacent in the enemy dungeon is a grave costly error.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group has received persistent information about the alleged resignation of the Cameroon Concord Man of the Year, Hon Chris Anu as the Secretary of Communication of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  No official communication from the Interim Government or Secretary Chris Anu has come into our newsroom to officially announce this resignation.  The information that Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report received is therefore tentative.

Cameroon Concord News Group is mindful of the fact that for the resignation to become effective, it must be accepted by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. No such endorsement of the alleged resignation has come into our newsroom as well.  Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges Secretary Chris Anu if his alleged resignation is officialised to reconsider his decision. Cameroon Concord News Group also urges the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to reject the resignation on behalf and in the interest of the people of Ambazonia whom he served with stoic determination, honesty and patriotic zeal.

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report does not deem it necessary to analyse the circumstances that led to the alleged resignation because doing so will not serve the best interests of the revolution. It will not serve the self defence needs of the civilian population of Ambazonia undergoing a barbaric genocide. It will not serve the legal defence needs of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of his cabinet   who were abducted and are held in captivity in French Cameroun’s enemy dungeon facing an ethnic Beti-Bulu criminal court-martial.  Suffice to state unambiguously for this purpose, that Cameroon Concord News Group’s rejection of the alleged resignation and strong appeal for the Hon Secretary Chris Anu to reconsider his decision, is informed by the dictates of necessity and overwhelming Ambazonia public interest.

Hon Chris Anu was overwhelmingly voted Cameroon Concord News Group’s person of the year by near popular acclamation.  The rejection of his resignation and call for him to reconsider his decision with frenzied and impatient appeal by the same masses that voted him person of the year, is an attribute of confidence in his competence, effectiveness, efficiency and undisputed patriotism in his service to the people.  The same people who voted him and many more are currently undergoing yet another genocide on the watch of the international community.  He cannot abandon them in time of need.

Cameroon Concord News Group stands by the people to strongly urge Secretary Chris Anu, that he must place the interest of his people above his personal sentiments, sensitives, anger and recriminations.    If anything, whatever angered and pushed him to take this decision should instead challenge him to fight on for the overall interest of the Ambazonia. The interest of his people and their fight for survival, liberation and freedom has greatly contributed to successes recorded so far. Secretary Chris Anu did not resign, flee or hide in fright as many people did after the abduction of His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government of Ambazonia in Nera Hotel in Nigeria.  He took the bait and provocation by the enemy and like a lonely general, went to Nigeria and confronted the enemy on his own terms. The results of that effrontery saved the lives of our President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government. He cannot be heard to resign now when those who disappeared in time of need, come calling. Their intrusion should be considered an irritation and nothing more and ignored, rather than resign.

No one should be misled to speculate that the alleged resignation by Hon Chris Anu is a marked disagreement with the President His Excellency AyukTabe. Far from it.  Secretary Chris Anu has consistently supported in words and actions the leadership of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who is the emblematic symbol of the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia struggle. He has said so in international media and mobilized fellow Ambazonians and international public opinion to ward off attempts by power predators and opportunists to shift the focus and imperil the struggle.  It is therefore perfectly understandable that he like a majority of Ambazonians will take a hard stand against these power predators, profiteers and opportunists in any attempt no matter the circumstances to once more infiltrate and derail the focus of the struggle.

For the purpose of the struggle, Cameroon Concord News Group takes this opportunity to recall that the critical focus of all Ambazonians at this point in time must be: 1) The support of GZ operations through county by county and local government by local government operation structures for the self-defence of the people of Ambazonia under genocide, 2) The provision of emergency support to our internationally displaced civilian population and refugees in foreign countries, 3) The intensification of diplomatic action  to kick French Cameroun out of the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and to bring French Cameroun terrorist genocidal regime and its murderous terrorist forces to account for their crimes, 4) The defence of our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, members of the Interim Government who were abducted with him, hundreds of thousands of Ambazonians abducted and deported to concentration camps in French Cameroun or appearing before its court-martial execution arm of the genocide.

Cameroon Concord News Group recalls that the organization of conferences for what so ever purpose is not one of these priorities and so must neither shift the focus of the people on the above key issues begging our individual and collective attention nor divide the people.

Cameroon Concord News Group urges the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to strongly support the leadership of the Interim Government under His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the Acting President Dr Samuel Sako, Secretary of Communication Hon Chris Anu, County by County operational leadership and Ground Zero commanders in moving this struggle towards the total liberation of Ambazonia and holding French Cameroun and its criminal agents within and without to account.

Finally, Cameroon Concord News Group gives notice that it will strongly oppose any attempts to shift the focus of this struggle from the core issues listed in the editorial even if that shift is engineered by the Interim Government or its leadership.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

As the world looks the other way, Cameroonian soldiers are pressing forward with their plan to exterminate the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. As seen in the video below, many young men are being herded to an unknown destination by Cameroonian soldiers with instructions from the minister of defense for severe measures to be taken.

Over the last two days, the Yaounde government has intensified its violent military operations in the two English-speaking regions of the country as separatist leaders call for a one week total lockdown of the region.

It should be underscored that the government’s brutality against the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons has radicalized the people and created more than a million refugees, with over half a million living rough in neighboring Nigeria which does not have the proper infrastructure to receive such a large number of refugees.

Today in Cameroon, there are more than half a million internally displaced persons, with the majority living in Yaounde and Douala. They have to fend for themselves and in many cases, they spend the night in the open where they are harrassed and exploited by government soldiers.

It should be recalled that the government had burnt down more than 140 villages, leaving the local population which is caught between brutal government forces and armed Southern Cameroonians who claim they are fighting for the total liberation of their land helpless.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a protest by teachers and lawyers has spiralled out of control due to the government’s unnecessary violent crackdown that has brought the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora into the fray.

Today, the people of Southern Cameroons prefer to take their cue from the Diaspora instead of the government that has been shooting and killing many young men who have nothing to do with the high level insurgency that is playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Southern Cameroonians have been complaining of marginalization for more than five decades, but the Yaounde government has preferred to deliver to them death and destruction, insteading of seeking to address the issues that have caused the people to feel marginalized.

It should be underscored that Southern Cameroons holds about 60% of the country’s wealth and in the event of any separation, East Cameroon will be reduced to a very poor country.

The Southwest region alone accounts for more than 40% of Cameroon’s wealth. It has huge oil deposits, gold, timber and diamond, but the Southwesterner has been reduced to a sorry spectator of events in his own land. The region’s rich volcanic soil makes it the country’s bread basket.

Added to this is its seas that contain huge fish stocks that are being harvested by foreign companies. Royalties for this wealth is not paid into the councils and municipalities located in the region.

These huge sums of money have been paid to councils in the French-speaking regions for years, and Southern Cameroonians want to rupture such an exploitative relationship that has impoverished the indigenous people of this region.

Since the conflict started in 2016, more than 5,000 Cameroonians have lost their lives, including some 2,000 soldiers. More than three thousand have been injured. Despite this gloomy picture, the United Nations and the international community are indifferent to the genocide playing out in Southern Cameroons.

The country’s army soldiers are killing young men and women indiscriminately. Even children are not safe. The uniformed, sex-starved and drug-inflamed rapists are on a rampage and if the world remains on the sidelines, another Rwanda will play out in Cameroon.

The conflict has crippled the country’s economy, but it has created brand new and lucrative opportunities for the criminals wearing national uniforms.

These days, they round up young men and women for no reason and take them to the nearest police station or gendarmerie brigade where they are required to pay about USD 1,000 to the soldiers. They are sometimes threatened with death.

The soldiers, most of whom are of Beti extraction, always threaten their victims that they would be taken to Yaounde where they would be incarcerated for months without any charges laid.

Impoverished relatives are sometimes asked to pay the money before a certain deadline and this has raised the level of stress and fear in the regions by so many notches.

The world cannot continue to be blind to the rivers of blood that have been flowing in Southern Cameroons for almost three years. How much blood still has to flow for this nasty conflict to draw international attention and condemnation?

The genocide in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is real and the world must step in to check it. The world must learn its lessons. Rwanda had proven that a few people were capable of bringing death and destruction to a people.

The world had promised that such madness would be checked. But why is the international community indifferent to the sorry plight of the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons?

The world must not let the country’s president, Paul Biya, and his collaborators to mow down an entire people. They must not get away with genocide.

By God, it is great to speak English. So why are Southern Cameroonians being slaughtered while the French and the world keep on cheering Mr. Biya? This needs to end and the time is now.

When ailing President Buhari and his consortium of crime syndicates in the Federal Republic of Nigeria abducted and forcefully handed over His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé, Southern Cameroonians both at home and in the Diaspora struggled to make sense of it. First, Ambazonians were shocked when they got an insight into what transpired at Nera Hotel in Abuja which was never broadcasted on Nigerian television. The Southern Cameroons Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his cabinet were held in an undisclosed location in Nigeria by a regiment of the Nigerian secret service currently being controlled by President Buhari’s Fulani kinsmen before they were extradited to Yaoundé.

So far, a detail explanation for this bizarre sequence of events emerged from Cameroon Concord News Group reporters in Abuja and Yaounde and many in French Cameroun and beyond agrees on the reason behind President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s abduction: Biya regime at the Sisiku’s increasingly confident leadership in the quest for Southern Cameroons independence. Above all, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is under French pressure because it is the strongest British colonial force that can chase away the French and liberate the Francophone African countries whose central bank is the French treasury.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia began life some few years ago as an administration formed to defy French Cameroun’s 57 years occupation of Southern Cameroons. Since the election of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe as Interim President, the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has successfully rallied Ambazonians throughout the globe to join the resistance.

The Interim Government contended from the very inception of the Southern Cameroons resistance that its growing arsenal was solely for self- defense in the face of numerous French Cameroun army attacks and for three years running the Ambazonian Interim Government has not been defeated militarily by French Cameroun with support from France and CEMAC nations. The Biya Francophone regime with the support of the French government and diplomats from Francophone African countries such as Chad, Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville have marked the Ambazonia Interim Government as a potential threat to regional stability in the Gulf of Guinea and the CEMAC region, a status the Ambazonia Interim Government retains to this day deep within the UN, the EU and the African Union.

The Ambazonia Interim Government’s political and self-defense power grew throughout the beginning of the Southern Cameroons revolution, but it was soon put to the test immediately after the arrest and extradition of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.  As French Cameroun political elites celebrated the criminal action that was jointly taken by the Biya-Buhari gangs, the Ambazonia Interim Government worked with the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (ASC) to fend off French Cameroun sponsored groups such as the ADF of Cho Ayaba and Morisc of Boh Herbert trying to topple the Interim Government. Fighting alongside the Ambazonia Interim Government’s forces, the ASC came to play a critical role in the struggle and continues to do so.

In the closed to three years since the Southern Cameroons war began, the Ambazonia Interim Government’s self-defense power has grown disproportionately. Even though the Interim Government is yet to secure unhindered access to arms supplies due to stone walls erected by the President Buhari administration and valuable field experience. Politically, however, the Ambazonia Interim Government has given the Biya Francophone regime a run for their money.  Some unscrupulous Southern Cameroons political elites in the Diaspora have recently developed a greedy position towards the complex conflict. This has made the Ambazonia Interim Government too weak, both politically and militarily, to engage in a conflict with a neighbor supported by France and countries in the CEMAC region. Nonetheless, Acting President Samuel Sako Ikome and his powerful Communications Secretary Chris Anu are not sitting idle and watch Ground Zero fighters – fight alone to save the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

With Restoration Fighters on Ground Zero, the Ambazonian Interim Government has become something much more than a mere resistance body against French Cameroun occupation.  The Ambazonian Interim Government now possesses power that is typically reserved for African states with backing from the West: the power to help regimes rise or fall even in Mighty Nigeria.

If President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe wanted the Ambazonia Interim Government to stay in Nigeria and waged an armed struggle against French Cameroun, he would have done so immediately after he took over leadership of the struggle. That explains why Abuja invited him to the negotiation table but made a dramatic U turn and interfered so boldly and directly in the Southern Cameroons crisis. By arresting President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, the God father of political Islam, President Buhari sought to pull the political rug from underneath Ambazonia Interim Government’s feet.

The Southern Cameroons struggle is now in a critical position. If the Ambazonia Interim Government gives up its popular support, that will be the end of the show. But should it heed the ASC’s advice it will come out as a more powerful administration.  Whatever the Ambazonia Interim Government does with the ASC, its ’s next move puts hundreds of thousands of Southern Cameroonians in Ambzonia, French Cameroun and Nigeria at risk.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis started in 2016, the Yaounde government has been struggling to contain it to the two English-speaking regions of the country. Its initial attempts to pit Anglophones against Francophones fell flat on their face as Anglophones quickly checked any acts of violence against ordinary Francophones who have peacefully co-habited with their Anglophones compatriots for decades.

But the conflict which has been confined for two years and which has resulted in the death of some 5,000 Cameroonians, including more than 2,000 soldiers, is gradually rippling out into East Cameroon. The economic and political frustrations generated by the ailing and crumbling Yaounde government have finally pitted the French-speaking majority against the government.

The climax was reached in October 2018, when the Yaounde government which is popularly unpopular stole the people’s victory. Professor Maurice Kamto, the opposition candidate, was the clear winner, but since the country’s president, Paul Biya, has bought over the military, he used it to stay in power and ever since the Cameroon Diaspora has vowed to flush him out of power and even Cameroonians back home have begun to display a rare form of boldness that is gradually causing the country’s authorities to lose sleep.

On Saturday, January 26, 2019, the country was once more put in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Professor Maurice Kamto, the winner of last year’s presidential election had called for a peaceful march across the country and this time, many Cameroonians back home turned out. Faithful to its principle of intimidation and manipulation, the Biya government dispatched troops to confront demonstrators in many cities across the country.

Yaounde, Douala, Ebolowa, Bafoussam, Bafang and others witnessed huge crowds which passed on a clear message to the government. The demonstrators were clear. They called for an end to the slaughtering taking place in the two English-speaking regions of the country, an end to the electoral hold-up and an end to the corruption that has become the country’s hallmark.

To prove that it was still in control, government troops responded by firing live bullets at the demonstrators. A prominent Douala-based lawyer, Michelle Ndoki, and a popular opposition politician, Celestin Djamen, were among those who took bullets. This unfortunate situation has provoked a different situation in faraway France where Cameroon’s Diaspora is actively seeking to unseat Mr. Biya and his corrupt government.

The “Brigade Anti Sardinard” (BAS), a group born out of the need to counter the government’s corrupt practices which consist in giving bread and sardine to locals for them to vote the ruling party’s candidates in every election has swung into action. The group has vowed to disrupt all Cameroon government operations in Europe and North America and Saturday’s invasion of the country’s embassy in Paris was a demonstration of what they are capable of doing.

The BAS used the occasion to call for an end to the killing of Southern Cameroonians, adding that the shooting of an unarmed lawyer and others on Saturday was unacceptable. Members of the group brought down pictures of the head of state at the embassy and shattered the glasses. They also burnt pictures of the head of state and his wife, adding that each time a Southern Cameroonian is killed they would take over the embassy.

A BAS spokesperson declared that Biya was no longer the president of Cameroon and new embassy staff would be announced by Professor Maurice Kamto in the days ahead. He urged the military to stop taking orders from Mr. Biya, as the embassy takeover was Cameroon’s fall of the Bastille.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group during the embassy takeover in Paris, a member of the BAS stated clearly that “We are going to prove to Biya and his government that the country belongs to all Cameroonians. The government has killed 3,000 of our Anglophone brothers and we will no longer be mute while a brutal 86-year-old dictator continues to mow down our fellow citizens.”

He added that “more demonstrations have been scheduled and next time, all Cameroon embassies abroad will be taken over by the people. There will be a huge takeover in Washington and Berlin in the days ahead. The country belongs to us and not to the gerontocracy that has decided to take the country down with it.”

Meanwhile, the fighting in the two English regions of the country has intensified with army soldiers killing indiscriminately. On Friday, January 25, 2019, some sex-starved and alcohol inflamed soldiers opened fire on ten young men who had nothing to do with the conflict that is spreading pain and suffering among the population. The killings occurred in Mpondo Balong, a small settlement some 5km from Muyuka, a town not far from Buea, the southwest regional capital.

The killings have reignited tensions in the region as Southern Cameroonian fighters in the region have vowed to revenge. Early on Saturday, it was reported that soldiers and administrative officers were seen leaving the town for fear of being attacked by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

It was also reported that Southern Cameroonian fighters in Muyenge, a village on the foot of Mount Cameroon, had decided to join forces with those in Mpondo Balong and Muyuka to give army soldiers a run for their money. It is obvious that more lives will be lost and, from every indication, the southern Cameroons crisis still has many more scenes which will be playing out in a manner that will be far from being pleasant.

In the Northwest, the fighting is still going on, and many more lives have been lost. Over the last two weeks, government forces have been shooting down anything that crosses their path. Nurses, teachers and civil servants have all been targeted by the trigger-happy soldiers who want to let their masters in Yaounde know that they are doing a good job.  Nobody in the region is safe, even children are being targeted by soldiers and many of them are quick to brand even 3-year-old children as terrorists. The military’s killing of a baby last week in Kumbo has left many people wondering about the government’s real objective.

From every indication, the crisis in Southern Cameroon will not be over anytime soon, as the cycle of violence has finally taken root. With the Yaounde government ignoring all calls for an inclusive dialogue and given that it has a huge appetite for military action, it is obvious that the fighting will go on for a long time, especially as more armed groups are emerging on a daily basis in the two English-speaking regions.

According to an audio clip sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group chairman, a new armed group has been born in the Muyenge-Muyuka-Kumba area. The Southern Cameroons Liberation Organization (SCLO) has clearly indicated that it would use some of the worst methods to make its presence known in the region. Its objective is to fight for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons and it holds all is fair in war and love.

Also speaking over the phone with the Cameroon Concord New Group Chairman in the United Kingdom, the military commander of the SCLO said his group would use the most gruesome methods to send Yaounde army soldiers packing from the region.

“We are in the business of war to kill and we will stop at nothing to prove that Southern Cameroons belongs to us. Our method of choice will be the beheading of soldiers and traitors and these shows will be captured on video. The world should therefore be prepared to watch the newest show in town. Our brothers have been slaughtered by soldiers like animals. We are prepared to bring death and pain to them and their families. We have nothing to lose. We have been robbed of our happiness, our oil and our land. Our faith is worse than death. Dying will therefore be a better condition for many of us. Our fighters, who are God’s fighters, will be carrying bombs and other destructive explosives to cause maximum damage. We are ready to take death and destruction to East Cameroon so that those who have been indifferent to our plight can also have a taste of what we have been going through for two years,” he said.

The 31-year-old SCLO commander who elected anonymity, urged the Southern Cameroons Diaspora to stay united. He said “unity will take us closer to our goal and we will be able to defeat the enemy who has beaten our dust many times. The enemy may be well equipped, but its equipment alone will not give it the victory it needs. We are prepared to put our lives on the line and we hope that our brothers in the Diaspora will keep on encouraging us by providing bullets and guns. We need those dangerous weapons to teach Biya and his people that we are not scared. They might have killed some of our people, but we will never surrender. Their strategy will fail. They thought they could strike fear into us, but they are mistaken.”

“We know the French are supporting the enemy. We are therefore determined to ruin French business interest in Cameroon. The French are backing the wrong horse and we are prepared to kill that horse. The French have just lost Congo and it is clear that they will soon lose Southern Cameroons and La Republique as they continue to support a dying horse,” he pointed out.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started as a joke some two years ago has finally become a millstone around the government’s neck. For many decades, Southern Cameroonians have been complaining about marginalization with a view to seeking a peaceful resolution of the issues facing them. But the Yaounde government has been ignoring them, holding that the country’s minority could be easily brought under control.

Despite numerous letters to the country’s president, Paul Biya, for more than three decades, the situation has never been the subject of any discussion in Yaounde. Mr. Biya and his government have never considered the Southern Cameroons question as an issue that can threaten national security and integration.

Mr. Biya and his bunch of ministers are used to looking down on their citizens and they hold that paying attention to all the memos on Southern Cameroonian issues will be dignifying a bunch of people who are just second-class citizens.

They have simply not gotten it right. They have failed to understand that those who make peaceful change impossible only make violent change inevitable and this is what is happening today in Cameroon. The refusal to listen to the plea of the people of Southern Cameroons has finally exposed the government and made the country ungovernable.

Since the conflict started, the Yaounde government has made one mistake after another. In January 2017, it arrested and jailed Southern Cameroonian leaders who had called for a federal system that would guarantee that the people take ownership of their own development projects.

Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and Mr. Mancho Bibixy were captured and hastily taken to Yaounde in the belief that the population’s anger would be doused. This only inflamed Southern Cameroonians, and things took a turn for the worse following the arrest of Sisiku Julius Ayuk and Co. in Nigeria one year ago.

When the government kidnapped Julius Ayuk Tabe and others and dumped them in jail, it felt it had cut the “snake’s head.” But it was mistaken. The Southern Cameroons crisis is a hydra. It develops a new head each time the old one is cut off.  This makes it hard for the rebellion to be crushed, especially as most Southern Cameroonians are living abroad.

The crisis has ruined many businesses and the unemployment rate in the region has reached alarming rates. Silicon Mountain, a hub for many start-up firms in the South West regional headquarters of Buea, has been put out of business and even state corporations have been forced to close shop by the determined fighters who have been spreading fear in the region by amputating those who dare to go to work during ghost town days.   Rather than seek to appease a people who have been hurting for decades, the Yaounde government has proceeded to employing tricks and violence in the hope that it will come out of the conflict victorious.

The fighting is going on with both sides committing incredible atrocities. Cameroon, once an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, has finally become a massive killing field. The two English-speaking regions are awash with arms. The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is living up to its word. It had promised to destabilize Cameroon and the country has been caught up in a downward spiral.

The Diaspora is still pouring weapons into the country and this is giving the pool of willing fighters on the ground, a reason to fight to a bitter end. The Diaspora has the capacity to reduce Cameroon to a small unstable nation. Many Southern Cameroonians are living abroad because of the marginalization that the government had orchestrated against them and, today, the government is being hoist in its own petards. The pouring of weapons into the region has reduced the country’s army into a boys’ scout team. Pressure from the fighters is being felt even in Yaounde. The Diaspora is finally punishing the Yaounde government for its sins and crimes against Southern Cameroons.

From the look of things, Cameroon will never be the same again. That is the message the Yaounde government is yet to understand, but it must understand it if it wants peace to return to that region of the continent. Southern Cameroonians have crossed the Rubicon and they are not ready to make any giant steps backwards. The government must accept that only dialogue can bring back peace to the country. The reality on the ground clearly indicates that it will never win this war. The Diaspora is a huge factor and it will continue to play its role until the Yaounde government collapses.

By Kingsley Betek in Paris with contributions from Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report have seen an alleged complaint filed against Cameroon Concord Person of the Year Communication Secretary of the Ambazonian Interim Government (IG) Chris Anu by a front for the genocidal regime of French Cameroun so-called Nsalai Law Firm, of 3250 Wilshire Blvd Ste 1500 Los Angeles, CA 90010.  The so-called complaint is nothing but another attempt by French Cameroun to extend the frontiers of its genocidal Campaign against Ambazonia and persons of Ambazonia origin residing in foreign countries based on their Ambazonia nationality, or ethnicity.

The determination by French Cameroun to extend the frontiers of its preplanned genocidal campaign was obvious from the abduction of the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, members of the Interim Government followed by the abduction of 36 other Ambazonia refugees in Taraba state of Nigeria and 8 others in Calabar. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of others have died or massacred in cross-border attacks in their places of refuge in Nigeria. These cross-border massacres have been facilitated by a cartel of corrupt deal makers in the immediate intelligence and political entourage of President Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria.

Cameroon Concord News Group can authoritatively assert with proof that Hon Chris Anu is targeted because of his ferocious opposition to the genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and international conspiracies by criminal networks to launder these crimes across international borders. By this act of blackmail, the Nsalai Law Firm has emerged as one of the kingpins of this international conspiracy.   The action of the Nsalai Law Firm comes on the hills of repeated failed international warrants of arrests issued by Martin Mbarga Nguele, the Delegate General of National Security of French Cameroun for the arrest of Secretary Chris Anu and Southern Cameroons-Ambazonians who are standing between the criminal conduct of French Cameroun and the genocide of Ambazonians.  The successful campaign against these international crimes led by Secretary Chris Anu and the international reaction is eliciting and has alarmed and overwhelmed the genocidal regime. The crime syndicate has awoken to the reality that at long last, its many criminal tentacles notwithstanding, its days of accountability for the impunity and international criminality are near, hence the desperate resort to blackmail using infantile antics and tactics such as the so-called complaint brought Nsalai Law Firm to a US congressman.

The so-called Law Firm pompously style “International Law Firm” whatever that means, is nothing but a sham, a fey man’s scheme intended to blackmail and distract the attention of Secretary Chris Anu, the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and Ambazonians engaged in the struggle to defend the civilian population of Ambazonia, from defending and protecting the people of Ambazonia. Pursuing accountability by the criminal regime of French Cameroun for the impunity and criminality of its criminal conduct is a nightmare to the crime syndicate.  The resort to blackmail through smear campaigners such as the Nsalai Law Firm, abductions, assassination plots and even corruption are desperate attempts to subvert the efforts by campaigners for self-defense, accountability and international justice and an end to impunity.  Hon Chris Anu has distinguished himself as an advocate of true American values of fighting international criminality. Thanks to his efforts and that of many Southern Cameroons leaders and activists, the voices of the victims of genocide are being heard world-wide, in the parliaments of democratic countries such as the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany etc. For this purpose, only a demented lawyer can urge a Congressman to interfere with the constitutionally protected rights of a US victims’ rights advocate through blackmail that benefits the perpetrator of the crimes against which his campaign is targeting.   This desperate attempt by Paul Biya and his crime syndicate to attain their target in the US and other parts of the civilized world through these dire failed tactics must fail.

The Nsalai Law Firm is retained for this blackmail with money stolen from the rape of the natural and petroleum resources of the Southern Cameroons- Ambazonia.  Money obtained from the plunder of the resources of Ambazonia has been used to commit sordid crimes such as abductions and the blackmail and threats against Ambazonia activists residing in the USA and other countries.  A close reading of the so-called complaint establishes that it is not meant to succeed or be acted upon. It is a scheme to justify further criminal activities by French Cameroun which the lobbyists it retained could not accept to carryout for fear of violating US law.

The so-called Nsalai Law Firm, as its address portray, is based in Los Angeles, California. What mandate does this so-called firm have apart from blackmail in requesting a congressman in New Hampshire to investigate one of his constituents for alleged federal crimes when the congress man is not a law enforcement agent?  The complainant must have inherited the criminal mindset of his deceased father who as a member of the Biya crime syndicate spied on and betrayed Southern Cameroonians. Many were tracked down and detained or killed for agitating for their freedom from the grips of the genocidal regime.  His father like his son in this action did not require legitimate law enforcement to satisfy his pecuniary interests through criminal services to his master and god Paul Biya.  He used every means including blackmail, extra-judicial abductions, detentions and disappearances. Unfortunately for his adventurous son, he is in a different world where the rule of law is alive. The American Constitution stands as a shield against the actions of the crime syndicate through the Nsalai Law Firm and the lobbyists retained by Biya to propagate the blackmail hoping to shift the focus on the international crimes committed by Paul Biya which have been denounced by the USA and other Governments and International Organizations.

The quality of legal practice of this individual must be called to question even by laymen whom we are in law.  Some years back, he brought a frivolous case against SONEL for unidentified clients in a California Court.  That case was a scam on the public and some gullible people who believed that a US court in California could entertain such a frivolous litigation without jurisdiction. The case died off and no one has heard about it ever.  This did not deter this law firm from bringing a similar frivolous law suit against Tapang Ivo in California where he does not reside and for alleged acts which were neither committed within the jurisdiction of the said court, nor against identifiable US citizens residing within the jurisdiction of the said court.   The complaint against the Hon Chris Anu to a US congressman in New Hampshire by this law firm authorized to practice law in California warrants investigation of the law firm for competency to practice law at all.

It is an open secret known to the Hon US Congressman that the genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and multiple violations against Southern Cameroons have been subject of US Congressional hearings.  Politicians, activists, experts and officials of the US State Department have testified before the US Congress about the monstrous violations committed by the genocidal regime of French Cameroun in and out of the territory of Ambazonia.   The US Congressman to whom he filed his blackmailing complaint may have watched thousands of Ambazonians in the US take to the streets of Washington DC and New York to protest and appeal and ask for urgent US and UN intervention to halt the genocide and bring the perpetrators to account for their crimes.  The Congressman may have listened to the UN Security Council debate urging French Cameroun to abate the crimes and for full accountability for their crimes.  The UN Congressman may be aware of the towering and commendable effort made by the Hon Chris Anu, the Interim Government and multiple, individual and collective efforts by Ambazonians the world over and at home to defend the people against the genocide and to assist hundreds of thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries and internally displaced.  He may have seen reports of hundreds of civilian settlements torched by French Cameroun soldiers and the use of chemical weapons to exterminate Southern Cameroons-Ambazonian citizens.  He may have read reports of the rape of girls in the University of Buea, the use of rape as weapons of war to humiliate and dehumanize Southern Cameroons women and girls by Cameroun soldiers on the orders of their superiors.  He must have learnt of the abduction, detention and forceful deportation of Americans of Southern Cameroons origin who arrived Cameroun with valid visas on the sole basis of their Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia citizenship or affinity.

The government of French Cameroun has not denied any of these crimes and indeed one of its generals Brigadier Melingui confessed that soldiers under his command torched civilian settlements on a widespread and systematic basis and rather than punish the soldiers, he was relieved of his command.  Also, the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu, one UM II signed a deportation order forcing hundreds of thousands of Ambazonia citizens from their ancestral lands to Nigeria and then ordered a systematic looting and torching of the civilian settlements.   One George Tabetando boasted to an audience in Buea that he and Mafany Musonge approached Paul Biya to impose an internet ban in the territory of Ambazonia which lasted three months. Mafany Musonge denied his involvement in this criminal act.  The US Congressman may have read reports of this internet ban of three months, the longest in the world. This criminal conduct which was facilitated by  internet providers among them MTN which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange and thus subject to US law, was intended to conceal international media scrutiny of the elaborate crimes that are perpetrated by the genocidal regime of French Cameroun.   The US Congressman may be aware that thousands of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia citizens are abducted from their homes and carried to detention and concentration centres in French Cameroun and subjected to a  Beti-Bulu ethnic constituted  court-martial.

The efforts of Secretary Chris Anu in denouncing these crimes and mobilizing the civilized world to urgently intervene and to hold the criminals to account earned him the Cameroon Concord News Group Man of the Year Award. Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report stand by him against the smear campaign and blackmail by the crime syndicate this time using its front the Nsalai Law Firm.  This blackmail must be countered by advocates of the international rule of law and all international victims’ organizations out to confront the ongoing genocide in the Southern Cameroons- Amabazonia. Cameroon Concord News Group calls on the California bar association to urgently conduct an investigation on the potentially unprofessional, unethical and criminal activities of this law firm and mete out the appropriate sanctions provided by the ethical code of conduct of the bar.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urge victims’ rights association worldwide to stand with the Ambazonia people. They should harken to the call by Hon Chris Anu, the Interim Government of Ambazonia, Ambazonia Rights Activists and all Ambazonians for the immediate and unconditional freedom of the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, members of the IG and thousands of Ambazonians held in captivity.  They should support the call for the disbanding of the ethnically composed legal wing established to enforce the genocide so-called court-martial. The international community and victims’ rights organisations worldwide should strongly support the fight against genocide, impunity and international criminality committed by the government of French Cameroun against the territory and people of Ambazonia.  This struggle must be fought and won and the criminal bands committing the genocide must vacate the territory of an independent and free Ambazonia.  Cameroon Concord News Group once more congratulate Hon Secretary Chris Anu for winning the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year Award based on his distinguished efforts at alerting the conscience of the free world to the genocide in the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia and his crusade for accountability and an end to impunity of French Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

If indifference could address an issue, the Southern Cameroons crisis that has already lasted for more than two years and consumed close to 5,000 lives, would have been over a long time ago. But the more the government pretends to be busy with other things, the more the situation escalates.

The killing in the two English-speaking regions is still going on, with the government seeking to take the media’s focus off this ugly situation that has given the Yaounde government a very bad name.

More Southern Cameroonians are still dropping dead, as government troops pursue their “linguistic cleansing” in the region. In towns like Kumbo, Mamfe, Kumba and Muyuka, there have been running battles between government troops and Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Despite the government’s determination to mop up the region of the fighters, it is becoming obvious to many minds around the world that a military solution will be a distant tomorrow affair.

Though it is business as usual in French-speaking Cameroon, the fear of attacks by Southern Cameroonian fighters is ever present in many minds, especially in the regions bordering the English-speaking regions.

As the government pursues its scorch earth policy in the region, it is also creating more radicals and fighters. Despite the killing of young Southern Cameroonians in the months leading to the country’s presidential election, more young men and women have recently swollen up the ranks of the fighters, especially in places like Lebialem, where government military trucks were recently ambushed, resulting in the death of many army soldiers.

It is rare for government officials to talk about the number of army soldiers killed and even when they provide figures, they make sure the figures are too low in order not to shock the docile Francophone minority. But sources in the military hold that many army soldiers have met their death in Southern Cameroons and many cannot even be accounted for as they have been killed and their bodies dumped in shallow graves by Southern Cameroons fighters.

The Southern Cameroons crisis has been a millstone around the government’s neck and despite the economic and financial pressure that the conflict is generating, the government seems to be pretending that all is well.

All cannot be well with the country, given that the economy of the English-speaking region has collapsed. Southern Cameroons’ economy accounts for a huge percentage of the country’s GDP and, alone, it represents a huge source of foreign earnings for the country’s economy.

The disruption of major economic operations in the region has hit the country’s economy like a ton of bricks. Major state corporations like PAMOL and CDC have simply gone under and it will take tons of money for these companies to be revived. The government should be concerned about such disruptions and it should be doing all it can to ensure peace returns to this part of the country.

Rather than focus on the military component, it should be fostering peace through negotiations and dialogue and not through physical elimination and intimidation. It should even let the population understand that the fighting in that part of the country is seriously impacting the country and its economy.

But faithful to its philosophy of mystifying everything, the government has been working hard to disguise many things. The country’s president, Paul Biya, has been championing this unacceptable approach and it seems there is a code of silence that all government officials must comply with. It is hard for any government official to make mention of the crisis that is gradually killing the country.

While receiving diplomats on Wednesday in Yaounde, Mr. Biya surprised members of the diplomatic corps, as he spoke about other crises in the world without making mention of the huge crisis in his native Cameroon that has created a huge humanitarian disaster.

More than half a million Southern Cameroonians are currently internally displaced and a similar number is in neighbouring countries, especially in Nigeria, following the government’s brutal crack-down in the region which has not helped matters.

But members of the diplomatic corps did not hesitate to remind Mr. Biya that it is out of place for him to talk about other global crises that were half a world away from Cameroon while turning a blind eye to the Southern Cameroons crisis that has damaged the country’s economy and destabilized even Cameroon’s neighbours.

The dean of the diplomatic corps who hails from Gabon had to speak in English to remind the ageing Biya that his country was bilingual and that it is unfair for him to only speak in French. The Gabonese advised Mr. Biya that the world was prepared to help him  when and if he decided to take the necessary steps to put an end to the military violence in his country.

It was a nail-biting experience for many government officials who were very ill at ease with the message of the diplomatic corps. But instead of being uncomfortable when Southern Cameroons is mention, the government should be looking at ways of addressing this issue that has made the government unpopular, especially the president who is being accused of being ineffective and blind to the suffering of the population.

The international community has already urged the government to initiate a long and inclusive dialogue that will help the Yaounde government to address those thorny issues that are pitting it against the country’s English-speaking minority.

Many experts argue that war has never addressed any issues and the Cameroon situation will not be an exception. They also contend that with the killings that have taken place in the country, negotiations will be challenging.

However, they are quick to point out that both sides will have to learn how to forgive if they want peace to reign. Southern Cameroonian fighters must understand that a military solution is not in the cards. They must also figure out that pushing the Yaounde government out of their territory is a very remote possibility.

The world has very little appetite for secession and Southern Cameroons has not received a lot of assistance from the international communities. Even Cameroon’s neighbours are against a secession in Cameroon as this might open the flood gates in their own countries, especially in Nigeria where the Biafra movement is very strong and is posing a huge threat to the country.

The Yaounde government, for its part, will have to understand that it cannot continue insisting on state authority. State authority does not imply killing all the citizens just because a point has to be proven. The Yaounde authorities must also understand that Cameroon will never be the same again and regardless of the solution that works out, the system  must undergo many changes if Cameroon has to be one and indivisible.

By Kingsley Betek