The rather combative government riposte to the Amnesty report was an unnecessary own goal that sullies and casts aspersion on Cameroon’s image before the international community.

The alarm bell sounded by Amnesty International on the vicious cycle of violence currently taking place in the Anglophone regions is hardly surprising, coming as it were amidst the grotesque campaign of human savagery and barbarism by murderous nihilistic soldiers, responsible for the brutal killing of hundreds of innocent Anglophones and burning down over 100 villages till date. In its latest report, the London-based human rights group said “security forces have tortured people, fired on crowds and destroyed villages, in a spiral of violence that keeps getting more deadly.” Amnesty said security forces have tortured at least 23 people, including minors to extract confessions, while Ambazonia fighters have killed at least 44 security forces and targeted suspected Anglophone sympathizers of the Biya regime. The report is bound to cause consternation within and outside Cameroon with adverse consequences for the army chain of command, including President Biya as commander-in-chief, who risks potential criminal liability for individual or command responsibility for war crimes of murder, torture, extra-judicial executions and enforced disappearances. It is certainly impossible to live down the damning report, but the combative government riposte of dismissing the report as biased;accusing AI of hostility is an unacceptable impudent display of statecraft. Any effort to discredit AI will instead attract global opprobrium against Cameroon, which might inevitably lead to the nation’s military and political leaders being dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for prosecution.

Titled: “A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon,” the report which is based on in-depth interviews with victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images, documents how Anglophones are paying the highest price as violence escalates in the North West and South West regions. The report details a range of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed by security forces deployed to counter the Anglophone insurgency. Amnesty particularly noted that: “People in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are in the grip of a deadly cycle of violence. Security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people during military operations which have also displaced thousands of civilians.”

According to the report, victims described being blindfolded and severely beaten with sticks, ropes, wires and guns, as well as being electrocuted and burnt with hot water. Some were beaten until they lost consciousness, and Amnesty documented that at least one person died in custody. One man who was arrested on December 13, 2017 in Dadi gave a harrowing account of the torture he suffered: “… They tied our hands behind our backs, gagged us and tied our faces with our towels and shorts, which they tore. They then made us lie in the water, face down for about 45 minutes… During three days, they beat us with shovels, hammers, planks, and cables, kicked us with their boots and poured hot water on us… when I tried to move and shouted, one of them used the cigarette he was smoking to burn me.”

AI said satellite images and photographic evidence show the complete destruction of Anglophone villages, burned to the ground by soldiers in response to the killing of security officers by Ambazonia forces. “In some cases, following these security operations, people were arbitrarily arrested and tortured while detained in illegal detention facilities and in secret. For instance, at least 23 people, including minors, arrested in Dadi village in Akwaya by security forces, spent three days incommunicado during which, they were tortured to extract confessions of supporting the separatists. “In another instance, the bodies of four men, arrested in Belo by the security forces the day before, were found bloodied; with signs of torture at the Bamenda regional hospital mortuary,” AI noted.

The Amnesty report epitomizes, in a dramatic fashion, the rampaging culture of impunity in the army. It is indeed a tragedy that the nation’s military would be accused of such egregious human rights violations that cast the country negatively in terms of moral accountability and respect for the rule of law. That the army could be accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, hints of an imprudent display of lawlessness.That security forces, whose prime responsibility is the protection of lives and property should be accused of having the blood of many civilians on their hands, is neither edifying to the military, nor the nation. It is one more embarrassment that Cameroon can do without.

The report also reflected the heightened state of impunity and indecorous professional conduct in military circles.The images of torture and systemic abuse of Anglophones in secret detention centers, which have gone viral on social media, advertised a certain violation of even the basic rules of war, which exposed a breakdown in the leadership command chain. Notwithstanding the situation, as the ethos of modern democracies demand, the military cannot operate outside the law. This is what makes the excesses documented in the report, all the more puzzling!

Be that as it may, the Amnesty report was also an unwholesome expression of the helplessness of the commander-in-chief. All in all, the impression created is that President Biya, as commander-in-chief has been taken hostage by the army chiefs and their cohorts who are profiteering from the crisis. This being the case, the import of the report is for Biya now to take effective action to protect the Anglophone population against the army’s campaign of terror within the boundaries of the rule of law; to change the scorched-earth strategy for handling the Anglophone crisis by discarding the indiscriminate use of brutal force that inevitably creates a vicious cycle of violence.

Rather than dismiss the Amnesty report as a grossly impaired document that is baseless and not grounded in facts, President Biya should take the opportunity to restore the rule of law and engage in genuine dialogue with the Ambazonia leadership. Peace will not be achieved unless the culture of impunity among the security forces is broken and Cameroon outlaws torture. The military high command must be investigated for sanctioning or failing to prevent the torture and deaths of people in their custody, arrested in the counter-insurgency operations. The soldiers certainly have no reason to raze villages and kill innocent civilians, including a 96-year-old bed-ridden woman, burnt to death by soldiers in Kwa kwa. If things went wrong in the past, this is the time to correct them.

Mr. President may find it necessary, as an image boosting measure, to commit his government’s willingness to conduct a thorough investigation into all the allegations with a view to determining the truth, sanctioning those culpable, and preventing a recurrence. The government must, as a matter of urgency, set the record straight with verifiable data of the number of detainees in various detention cells, the charges preferred against them, the status of their prosecution and the number of those that have died in custody. The government can continue to wallow in self-delusion, but the obstinate refusal to dialogue with the Ambazonia leadership, and the misguided demonization of Ambazonia forces as terrorists will neither end the insurgency nor repair Cameroon’s battered international image.Despite all the rampage, the army has been struggling to counter the Ambazonia fighters. The soldiers remain on the defensive.

Amnesty is however unequivocal that these breaches including torture, extrajudicial executions and detention without trial, including the trail of blood and death wherever the army appears, can only make an already desperate situation worse. In AI’s view, “the government’s heavy-handed response will do nothing to calm the violence – in fact it is likely to further alienate Anglophone communities and fuel further unrest,” noted Samira Daoud, Amnesty Deputy Director for West and Central Africa. Amnesty concluded by saying: “Authorities must ensure accountability for crimes committed by the security forces as well as by the armed separatists. They must immediately end the use of unlawful, unnecessary and excessive force and ensure that people are protected.” Mr. President should create a commission of inquiry with parliamentary oversight to undertake an independent investigation not just of the Amnesty report; but the entire anti-Anglophone counter-insurgency operation to ensure security forces operate within the rule of law and with respect for the rights of citizens. The report of such an enquiry should be made public and those found to have compromised service integrity made to face the full wrath of the law. That is what is expected of any responsible government confronted with such grievous allegations.Trying to kill the messenger because the government hates the message is a self-defeating strategy.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

For years, the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) of President Biya has been described as a one man show with the 85 year old as the Right Royal Chairman. In the words of some senior Cameroon political commentators, the ruling CPDM party has always been fractious. Yes, the CPDM party has always had internal divisions but Yaoundé has never seen it like this. Ahead of the 2018 presidential elections, the ruling party is divided at all levels with local officials calling on Mr. Biya not run for the presidency. The split between those who want to keep Biya at the head and those who want Biya to step aside is tearing up not just the governing party as a whole, but each of its barons individually including the nation.

The rift has a geo-political angle, too, with many militants and elite organizations blaming the political elites of the Centre and South regions for poor handling of the crisis in Southern Cameroons. Infighting had long been a hobby for the ruling CPDM crime syndicate that led to the arrest of many including former Prime Minister Chief Inoni, Jean Atangana Mebara, Marafa Hamidou Yaya and Mendo Ze.

The general feeling in the nation’s capital Yaoundé is that it’s horrifying and many Francophone political elites are now wondering aloud how the CPDM get to this point. As we see it, it is fair to say that Biya’s management style played in. To see how things are falling apart deep within the CPDM, you have to rewind to its very beginning, when the government started toying with the idea of democracy and multiparty politics.

Early —very early— in that 1990 process, President Biya commenced with the organization of counterfeit parliamentary and presidential elections and money became the vital tool in Cameroon politics. Correspondingly, citizens bothered less about the electoral conditions that were on offer and as a consequence, the task of splitting Cameroonians became straightforward.

The main opposition parties were drawn into some form of political negotiations and the more radical leaders like John Fru Ndi issued guarantees to the regime and vowed to play the role of a collaborator. As expected, the SDF and Fru Ndi painted themselves into a corner and were forced to choose between splitting the already fragmented opposition in two by calling for a boycott of the 1992 parliamentary elections.

The end result was predictable and dispiriting as well. By all accounts, Biya’s candidacy for the 2018 presidential elections hasn’t exactly caught fire with the CPDM electorate and the Cameroonian people, meaning Biya now faces a very real prospect of ending up without the goat and without the rope. The 85 year old Biya has cancelled the 2018 electoral calendar. Municipal and parliamentary elections have all been postponed indefinitely and no one knows if the presidential elections will hold.

The Yaoundé regime has cited security concerns and lack of financial resources to stage these elections. Biya has now won a contested vote without having to falsify the final tally but that could put the final nail on his coffin.  It could still be his wildest dream come true.

Read and Succeed with the Cameroon Concord News Group

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group is concerned that a warlord mentality by Cho Ayaba may derail the struggle to liberate the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Ambazonians must reject it while there is time.

Cameroon Concord News Group has warned in the past that the actions of Cho Ayaba will hurt the liberation struggle; indeed, it might have already done so.  When this individual went to Dadi with a dubious entourage and took a video of our liberation fighters which he later released in the social media, the rationale was not to popularize the cause. That action and video was not intended indeed to support or advance the liberation struggle in any manner whatsoever. It was intended to massage his ego and to raise funds which were never ever accounted for. It was not to procure weapons to defend the territory of Dadi which was prior to his visit firmly under the control of our forces. It was about Cho Ayaba and Cho Ayaba’s ego alone, and his unquenchable zeal to raise funds for which he has never ever given account to anyone. The consequences of that selfish conduct are known to everyone. The enemy attacked and has occupied the territory ever since.

Cho Ayaba’s social media video provided him a code-name for his financial campaign “Dschang Shoe” funding and a target for French Cameroun genocide marauding vampires.  The results we know are that Cho Ayaba raised funds for himself through that mischievous social media video campaign but failed to provide the logistics and arms for our Amba self defence fighters to defend themselves, our women, men and children who were slaughtered, raped or disappeared.  A few weeks after Cho Ayaba’s selfish mischievous act, French Cameroun genocide squads conducted a media campaign of their own displaying their soldiers firmly in control of the territory which had hitherto been firmly in control of Ambazonia freedom fighters with fanfare and glee. Cho Ayaba did not respond to the assault by French Cameroun soldiers in Dadi and has never spoken about it ever since. He has never acted to secure Dadi from the enemy. Indeed, he abandoned Dadi and our liberation fighters to fend for themselves, after using them to popularize himself and to solicit funds for himself. Rather, Cameroon Concord News Group and the public received information of Cho Ayaba scheming to get some of the commanders of the revolution arrested and to infiltrate and disorient self-defense operations which were carefully organized and executed by other liberation forces in other parts of the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  No General or Commander of a liberation army acts that way. Only warlords do. And this is very bad for a self-defense war of liberation like ours.

The recent extensive media outing organized and executed by Cho Ayaba with a foreign journalist of the military camps of Ambazonia liberation fighters was strategically, tactically and operationally reasons ill-conceived, mischievous and hurtful for many reasons. Cho Ayaba supporters argue that the purpose of that action was to popularize our cause.  This justification falls flat on the face and at least infantile and pedestrian.  The human calamity that the unprovoked war and genocide against the people of Ambazonia has been well-documented and made public to the international public opinion have popularized our cause and provided justification for our self-defense operations.  The enormity of the crimes committed against the civilian population of Ambazonia continues to taunt the conscience of humanity and a silent or complicit international community.  Ambazonia is a victim of international criminality by a consortium of mineral resources and oil and gas profiteers fronted by French Cameroun and led by France; now rejoined by Great Britain. French Cameroun in daylight armed robbery and corruption, once more sold the gas and oil reserves of Ambazonia to a British Oil Firm known for its extensive corrupt and criminal oil deals in African murderous criminal armed campaigns. This company is a well-known front for the funding of genocide, crimes against humanity and wars crimes in African conflicts.   There needed to be a substantial British economic interest justification for Britain to renew its support for France and French Cameroun in their genocide of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.  This criminal oil and gas deal meets that requirement.

Prior to allowing a British firm to enter that deal, the British military intelligence and the French military intelligence used satellite and technical intelligence to conduct reconnaissance of the war environment and territory.  The journalist allowed into the self-defense forces camps by Cho Ayaba and his supporters, merely provided physical field and war environmental information to fit the pieces of the puzzle of their critical assessment of our self-defense sustainability, viability and capability.  For this reason, Cho Ayaba and his supporters provided our adversaries once more, the human and tactical intelligence to analyze and deploy appropriate resources to destabilize our self-defense capability.  French Cameroun is a well-known manipulator of technical and technological evidence.  When next they will come out with the very information provided by Cho Ayaba in his misadventure with the French journalist, we may not have the means and resources to counter the perversion of this interview.  This interview will surely come up at a moment and purpose which Cho Ayaba did not contemplate; just as that of Dadi.  And once more, he will be incapable or unwilling to come out forcefully as good commanders do to caution the effect of his misjudgment and misadventure. Some of Cho Ayaba’s internet supporters argued that the journalist was screened prior to being granted access. What about the media houses and interests he represented?  How about them? Cameroon Concord News Group begs to ask. What is their proximity to our adversaries in this struggle?

A war environment is not a movie. This documentary misrepresents the Ambazonia liberation struggle in many regards which Cameroon Concord News Group does will not elucidate her and does a disservice to Ambazonia self-defence operations.  This misrepresentation is not healthy for the cause for which Ambazonians have sacrificed so much already. In liberation war where there are a multiplicity of self-defense forces operating in the occupied territory, there must be sound, credible and reliable intelligence sharing by the different units in and out of the theatre of operations.  Bringing in foreign journalists without briefing other fighting forces may not be healthy for the cause.

Cameroon Concord News Group has on many occasions emphatically advised that every army defines the enemy it embarked in a war to confront. The definition of the enemy is the most closely guarded secret by the High Command of armies the world over. French Cameroun’s definition of the enemy as all Ambazonians did not respect this military tradition. Paul Biya in his declaration of war against the Federal Republic of Ambaznia identified the enemy as all Ambazonians.  The scourge earth military campaign conducted by his army under his command and supervision attests to this. That is the reason why it has targeted Ambazonia civilian settlements and civilians for slaughter and genocide.

The interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was wise in seeking for a united command of the Ambazonia Self-Defense forces to put in place a coherent, professional, safe intelligence, logistical, tactical and operational strategies to enable our self-defense forces carryout successful self-defense campaigns. That intention is to allow our forces to launch military campaigns that enable our forces to capture and keep our territory from French Cameroun military.  The individualization of self-defense military “attack and withdraw” tactics favoured by Cho Ayaba will hardly take us to Buea.  It is the concerted effort of all self-defense forces, no matter under whose command where the sharing critical intelligence with high mobility, well-motivated and supported actions that bring victory, inflict the maximum casualties on the enemy and force them to surrender or to withdraw to their territory of French Cameroun.  The collaborative efforts of all the fighting forces will lead to a coherent and secured definition of the enemy in a manner to help Ambazonians to know and take the enemy and all the structures contributing to its war efforts out of our way to Buea.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly opines that the definition of the enemy must include all the structures that are helping the enemy in its war effort against the people and territory of Ambazonia. This includes the economic life-line of the enemy, its operations aimed at rapping the economy of Ambazonia, Ambazonian collaborators and infiltrators recruited by French Cameroun to obtain human intelligence against Ambazonia self-defense forces.  An Ambazonia citizen like George Tabatando who publicly confessed that he and Musonge appealed to Paul Biya to place an internet ban on the territory of Ambazonia with the grave consequences that are well-known to the world, is an enemy and must be defined as such.  Cameroon Concord News Group notes that Peter Mafany Musonge denied his complicity in that crime.

Cameroon Concord News Group cautions that in a defining moment of genocide of Ambazonia, self-massaging actions may indeed blur the focus of the revolution.  Dr Ebenezar Akwanga for example has self-defense forces in ground zero but there is never a time he has substituted focus on ground zero actions with his image. This is because through his own victimization, he knows the enemy well. Like the Interim Government, he knows that self-defense operations in a military environment where the enemy is constantly assisted by technical intelligence from France and its oil and natural resources operators within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the Gulf Guinea requires a considerable level of tactical and strategic planning and intelligence gathering. You do not expose your military operational units for the enemy to analyze.  No reasonable commander exposes his operational and logistical base for strategic analysis. No reasonable commander exposes the logistics available to his operational forces, the training tactics, and command structure and instructions to the enemy under the pretext of internationalizing the struggle. The field operations and results internationalize the campaign than journalistic shows. The gun and gun alone, responding to the enemy sends world media frenzy and nothing else.  There must be significant elements of surprise and mystery in the capacity and operational capacity of fighting forces. The Cho Ayaba strategy hurts the cause in this and other regards.

Luckily, his strategy does not indeed represent the tactical, strategic and operational capability of the Ambazonia Self-Defense Forces who in their majority are now operating in all parts of the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in urban and rural areas.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly advised Cho Ayaba and some of his social media supporters to desist from these hurtful self-seeking strategies which have impacted the self-defense combat operations negatively.   Cho Ayaba should seek counsel from military strategists on how to conduct himself in a war situation like ours where there is a multiplicity of forces with distinct commands fighting for the same cause.  If his outing did not hurt his fighting units, it potentially hurt some others who were conducting their operations without knowledge of his media activity. Intelligence sharing, and some form of command co-ordination sought by the interim government will harmonize ground zero operations in a manner that fortify and not weaken out self-defense operations. Let this mistake be averted. Reason and the circumstances of this war require concerted action and not individualized self-seeking actions.

To This I Put My Name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

No one in both French Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Ambazonia expected the Southern Cameroons struggle to last this long or be this deadly, but after approximately 2,000 dead, 40,000 refugees in neighboring Nigeria and two years of unrest including 160,000 internally displaced persons, there is still no end in sight. While President Paul Biya’s brutal response is mostly to blame, the Southern Cameroon’s chronic failure to form a viable front against the French Cameroun regime has also allowed the conflict to drag on. And there are two anti-French Cameroun groups that are largely responsible for this dismal state of affairs: the ADF of Cho Ayaba and MoRISC of Boh Herbert.

Throughout our coverage of the Southern Cameroons revolution, our cream of reporters and intelligence officers both in the West and on Ground Zero have held discussions with Southern Cameroons figures, activists including foreign diplomats about how the ADF and MoRISC were influencing the struggle negatively and hampering the work of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Both the ADF and MoRISC had been massacred out of existence and were only on paper and helping migrants to acquire refugee status in Europe and North America. ADF and MoRISC saw their presence in Europe and North America including on Ground Zero wither to almost nothing. But since the Southern Cameroons uprising erupted on October 2016, ADF and MoRISC have both moved adroitly to seize the reins of power of the Southern Cameroons resistance and self-defense factions.

The ADF and MoRISC have all along been hesitant to join the Interim Government under the leadership of the His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe. The two obscure groups have nonetheless participated in conferences summoned by the Interim Government and have taken steps to form funny  fighting groups inside Southern Cameroons, attempting to recruit potential Ambazonian freedom fighters to destabilize the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces.

As the idea of a unified Southern Cameroons liberation movement to lead the popular revolt gained momentum, Ayaba Cho of the ADF and Boh Herbert of MoRISC became more involved and for the wrong reason. A month after the election of Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe to head the revolution and the resistance, the ADF and MoRISC organized scantily attended conferences denouncing the Interim Government. Ever since, the ADF and MoRISC have subsequently organized several forums that created opposition sentiments within the struggle and helping French Cameroun troops to exterminate hundreds of Southern Cameroons communities. All what the reckless and tactless Cho Ayaba and Boh Herbert are interested in, is to beef up their presence in political bodies of the Southern Cameroons resistance.

The Great Prof. Carlson Anyangwe remains the silent force that pushed for the creation of an exiled government to support the Southern Cameroons struggle.  His contributions continued to hatch, and a few months after, a conference in Nigeria formed the core of the Interim Government (IG), an umbrella group that ostensibly represented all Southern Cameroonians both in the Diaspora and on Ground Zero. The Interim Government set aside seats for both the ADF and MoRISC that were rejected and Boh and Ayaba declared that the IG was illegal. That position appears to be their common pattern till date.

Additionally, these two figures that have strong ties with the Biya regime via Minister Paul Atanga Nji have been airing out conflicting stance on the Southern Cameroons resistance. Recently, Boh Herbert launched a repeat of the radio program Cameroon Calling using the same pattern and style in French Cameroun’s CRTV leaving many in Europe to wonder if his intention is really genuine.

Cho Ayaba and his quest for leadership of the struggle became more pronounced when his ADF claimed every self-defense action that took place on ground zero. As we write, the remnants of the Cho Ayaba gang on ground zero are now terrorizing the people of Southern Cameroons they are suppose to be protecting and the big man himself who is extremely lacking in political and organizational finesse has lost control due to lack of funds. The Boh and Ayaba strategy is only helping Biya and French Cameroun army soldiers. The ADF arrest French Cameroonians collect money let them go scot-free but abduct Southern Cameroonians and kill them. This is pushing the local population away from the resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with intelligence files from Sama Ernest and Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News Group calls on Interpol, The Serious Crimes Unit of the British Police, The FBI, The Criminal Investigations Department of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and all Police and Intelligence Agencies worldwide to urgently step in and investigate the oil and gas contract between New Age Global Energy Company and French Cameroun that was signed recently in Britain. There are many reasons for an urgent criminal investigation of this international crime masked as a business contract.

The contract is a front for money laundering conceived for criminal purposes. The oil and gas fields which are subject of the contract are in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia over which a war and genocide declared by Paul Biya the head of the crime syndicate in French Cameroun are ongoing. The contract is directly linked to the subject of this in who the perpetration of international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by one of the contracting parties, French Cameroun is ongoing.  These crimes have led to a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. The contract will directly contribute to the war efforts of French Cameroun in which international crimes are being perpetrated by French Cameroun.  Control over the mineral resources of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is among the reasons for the declaration of war by French Cameroun against Ambazonia.  This contract therefore will substantially contribute to the crimes and the humanitarian calamity.

The contract is a front for the laundering of money and resources for criminal purposes. These criminal purposes include the bankrolling of the elections of Paul Biya and members of his criminal gang in power. These elections have all elements of fraud and criminality.

The contract is illegal, null and void in every respect.   This will be the first contract where French Cameroun will be signing with a company which has no incorporation within the territory in which the oil and gas fields are located. Pursuant to the foreign imposed laws of the colonial annexationist criminal government of French Cameroun in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, the foreign firm needed to comply with several OHADA treaty requirements. It has neither complied with Southern Cameroons laws nor that of the occupier.

The choice of a British firm in a French occupied economic annexed territory is intended to buy through this corrupt slave economic deal, the continuing support of Britain of the colonial occupation and criminal war and genocide.  The fact that the Secretary-General in the Presidency of French Cameroun’s crime syndicate went to England to sign the contract far away from the battlefields of Ambazonia where the intended loot is located, and far away from its own centre of French Cameroun’s criminal operations, Yaoundé, evinces an intention to shield the fine elements of criminality contained in the criminal deal from the scrutiny of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia victims.  French Cameroun has a record of signing bilateral agreements in Yaoundé and at the official locations of its partners.  This criminal contract is not a bilateral agreement but a business contract.

Cameroun Concord News Groups is not aware of any time in recent memory when French Cameroun dispatched a Secretary-General in its Presidency to move to the head quarter of a foreign firm to sign a contract of this nature or any at all. The signatory on behalf of French Cameroun is neither its Prime Minister, Minister in Charge of Mineral Resources, Investments, or its plenipotentiary in Britain.  The Secretary-General in the Crime Syndicate of French Cameroun is a gate-keeper of corrupt deals; proceeds of national and international criminality and the vampire Paul Biya’s executioner of record.   The poster boys of criminality such as Paul Atanga Nji, George Tabetando, Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Okalia Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, Joseph Beti Assomo, Louis Paul Motaze, General Elokobi Daniel Njock, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and all CPDM apologists and conspirators are supervised by him on behalf of the crime master Paul Biya.

This contract is in a class of its own considering French Cameroun’s rather unorthodox approach to it.  French Cameroun is a well-known haven for criminal deals, corruption and international criminality. The colonization and criminal vandalization of the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun acting as a proxy for France for the past fifty-seven years is a result of a criminal slave deal between France and Great Britain on the watch of the United Nations.  That slave deal encouraged the impunity with which French Cameroun entered criminal contractual deals to loot, vandalize and pillage the resources of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. This contract follows this criminal pattern with the aggravating factor being that its immediate effect will be the funding of a war in which international crimes shocking the conscience of humanity are being committed.

This contract if not investigated and halted, will stain the conscience of the civilized world; Great Britain in particular, with more blood of innocent Ambazonians.  Cameroon Concord News Group strongly calls for an urgent investigation of this criminal deal to avert the escalation of the genocide and international criminality going on in the Gulf of Guinea and its contagious territories.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

From the nation’s capital in Yaoundé, the political situation appear to be going well for the Biya Francophone regime that has deployed approximately 35,000 army soldiers in Southern Cameroons and has destroyed more than 72 Southern Cameroons towns and villages.

But the view deep inside the Federal Republic of Ambazonia tells a different story as some officials and Southern Cameroons opinion leaders recently told Senator Peter Mafany Musonge who is moonlighting as Chairman of the so-called Bilingualism and Multiculturalism Committee. The complete absence of a genuine political process to accompany the military onslaught going on in Southern Cameroons is instead driving all Ambazonian communities including Anglophone CPDM militants to consider allying with the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Hon. Jua Pualinus has repeatedly sounded a note of caution that the arrogance being demonstrated by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo political elites who dominate Cameroon’s power base remains a grave mistake that could mean the end of the one and indivisible Cameroon.

To be sure, the military deployment and killings will end up achieving nothing. Consequently, the whole strategy put in place to counter the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia uprising needs to be revisited and readdressed and the European Union and the United States should be part of the process.

The Biya French Cameroun military campaign currently going on makes it extremely difficult for both Cameroons to engage in any form of reconciliation after the war. Most of the key Southern Cameroons towns and cities such as Kumba, Bamenda, Mamfe, Mundemba, Tiko, Muyuka, Ndop, Nguti and Limbe are now increasingly unstable and vulnerable even to french speaking Cameroonians living in Southern Cameroons.

The killings in Dadi, Menka-Pinyin, Bekora in Ekondo Titi, Nguti, Belo, Mbalangi, Menji and Lewoh demonstrates the lack of strategy and reconciliation on the part of the 85 year old President Biya and his acolytes.  There are widespread killings in every Southern Cameroon County; militias are emerging day-by-day roaming the Southern Cameroons territory. More than 200,000 Southern Cameroonians have been expelled from their ancestral home and they can’t go back because of the atrocities of the Cameroon government forces.

Minister Paul Atanga Nji has made the security situation in Southern Cameroons even worse by creating armed militia groups in the Northern Zone that are presently encouraging a lot of sectarian violence and every Ambazonia tribe have started to reflect on the idea of rallying behind the Interim Government. Cameroon government security forces relative control in places such as Mamfe, Kumba, Ekok, Wum, Batibo, Widikum, Muyuka, Bali is fast melting away as restoration forces are now targeting traitors within the struggle. Traditional leaders themselves are echoing these fears.

Southern Cameroonians and their Interim Government don’t have faith in the crime syndicate in Yaoundé. The reason is simple: The Biya regime didn’t make a mistake once or twice. They keep repeating the same mistake over and over and the government after 57 years is yet to deliver any of its promises to Southern Cameroonians till now.

The political situation too in French Cameroun is fragile. A majority of Francophones are simply waiting for a liberator to get rid of Biya and his gangsters.  The demands of the Francophone army are no longer sustainable. Biya and his Francophone regime have used all its French tactics and have started adapting the Anglo-Saxon strategy to reduce the damage. Frankly speaking, French Cameroun is losing.

All attempts at trying to prevent Southern Cameroons from a further slide away from Cameroon government control have failed.  The revolution has indeed restore Ambazonian control over Southern Cameroons mindful of the fact that the toll in blood and treasure has been high.

People in the know and some insiders say the Ambazonian Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces have retained strategic control over Manyu, Lebialem, Ndian, Meme, Mezam, Menchum, Kupe Muanenguba and Boyo. Cameroon Intelligence Report sources in these areas say many of the weapons seized from Cameroon government forces ever since the war started are stored in the forest.

Across the border in Nigeria’s Cross River State, the Buhari administration is already feeling the pain of its poor reading of the crisis in Southern Cameroons.  Ekok, however, remains contested between the Manyu Warriors and Cameroon government army soldiers.

The horror which will come up after Biya finally falls from power in the October presidential elections will justify Washington Post claim that Africa’s next civil war may be Cameroon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The United Nations and some renowned media houses in the West have started reporting on the deteriorating situation in Southern Cameroons barely two years into the conflict. Prof Patrice Nganang in a recent televised interview described the war in Southern Cameroons as an eroding stalemate in which the Ambazonian Interim Government and its Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces have not only been able to expand, but also consolidate, the territory they hold.

However, recent developments, including the barbaric attack by Cameroon government forces on a Hotel killing more than 30 unarmed Ambazonians in Menka-Pinyin are reminders of the need to assess the Southern Cameroons crisis in more than binary terms.  Frankly speaking, the picture painted by French Cameroun’s US-based Prof Patrice Nganang as eroding stalemate is morphing into an uglier, more complicated conflict, that may soon resemble the Rwandan civil war or even the present, intractable war in Libya, due to the absence of a holistic strategy by the French backed Biya regime and military escalation by Francophone army commanders.

Ever since the crisis started, the Trump administration has been consistently inconsistent with its dealing with the malicious regime in Yaoundé. First, it supplied the Biya Francophone regime with war equipment including two fighter jets mindful of a CIA report to the White House stating that Cameroon government troops combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram have all been moved from the Far North region and redeployed to Southern Cameroons. Secondly, Ambassador Peter Barlerin attacked the Interim Government of the people of Southern Cameroons saying that they were “…a very tiny minority of Cameroonian-born individuals living in the United States” responsible for the crisis in Cameroon. And then recently the US ambassador made a dramatic u turn and accused the Biya regime of “targeted killings” in Southern Cameroons. Peter Barlerin during an audience with Mr. Biya advised the 85 year old tyrant to step aside.

Judging from this regular change of the United States position, it is evidently clear that the West does not have a solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis. The US and their European allies have notionally embraced the modest aims of the French government and the Biya regime: the elimination of transnational terrorism threats and weakening of Boko Haram that it feels compelled to ignore the numerous Biya excesses. Toward this, the Trump administration and the European Union have allowed Biya to expand Yaounde’s use of blunt military force against Southern Cameroonians, a targeted increase in troop’s presence in Southern Cameroons, and various forms of diplomatic pressure on Nigeria hosting more than 40,000 Southern Cameroons refugees.

The presence of US forces in the North of Cameroon and the numerous military donations from the US government to the Cameroon army may be view as less charitably. For some time now, the US has been seeking to know what the Russians and President Putin are doing in the Central African Republic, CAR. Russia is currently supplying the Bangui government with arms under UN approval and Russia has several military advisers stationed in the war torn country. CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has been to Moscow twice recently and this is disturbing to the French and the US.

Let us, however, assume that US’s aims in Cameroon are indeed limited to destroying Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State of West Africa. Even with these modest goals in mind, the grim reality may be that the Trump administration is giving Biya another chance as head of state in Cameroon that he actually doesn’t really have. And as a result of its military-first strategy, the United States will end up making things worse in both French and Southern Cameroons.

The US has erroneously joined the self-perpetuating ecosystem of violence in Cameroon. It rejects the 85 year old leader, Paul Biya but empowers his war machinery that is helping to breathe life into the CPDM crime syndicate. The Cameroon government army is a Francophone Fulani- Beti- Ewondo army and these warlords have abused the local populace in Southern Cameroons, kidnapped young boys and girls, making them into sex slaves and killed hundreds.

The supposed gains made by Cameroon government forces in Buea and Bamenda in recent months are easily reversible once the Interim Government starts attracting international partners. Correspondingly, the Cameroon government military would collapse if the Southern Cameroons crisis drags for another year.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The French Cameroun despot sent army soldiers to burn down villages and towns in Southern Cameroons and to kill hundreds of Ambazonian civilians as his hated regime looked increasingly likely to fall.  Biya is resorting to sorties by his still ill-equipped ground forces to resist what appears to be the final gambit of a senseless war he orchestrated against the people of Southern Cameroons.

After two years of fighting to crush the Southern Cameroons resistance and a death toll of nearly 2000, a combination of political errors, international isolation from the Trump administration and a well-organized Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Force, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now say Biya’s days look numbered. Only reticence in France about the prospect of an Anglophone taking over in Yaoundé appears to be holding back a CIA-French intervention as witnessed in places such as Libya and Zaire.

The genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons has enabled the opponents of the Biya regime in Yaoundé to secure US support for regime change.  Earlier last week, it was rumored that the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has recorded a major diplomatic breakthrough deep within the US Congress for the restoration of the state of Ambazonia.

There are fears in some capitals within the Sub Saharan and CEMAC region that without a regime change in Yaoundé thousands more will die. Yet the Biya Francophone Minister of Communication and so-called Cameroon government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary continues to blame the killings and sufferings of Southern Cameroonians on the Interim Government and the Southern Cameroons Diaspora.

Signs of a stranglehold being tightened on the Biya regime could be seen recently with the US ambassador Peter Barlerin stating that the two US warplanes handed over to the Francophone dominated army should be used only to counter Boko Haram insurgency.

A number of Nigerians have been killed on Southern Cameroons soil since the revolution started and Abuja is slowly but surely moving away from Biya, but Nigerian ailing President Buhari maintains the strategy is not a step towards intervention in Cameroon’s domestic affairs.  Cameroon government forces have continued to kill innocent Southern Cameroonian citizens in both the Northern and Southern Zones. The army also fired bullets at several villagers in nearby Bamenda suburb of Santa.

As well as the growing Southern Cameroons challenge, Biya faces an alliance of young Western-backed militants of his ruling CPDM crime syndicate who have openly stated that he should step aside.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Again, again and again unfortunate Southern Cameroons civilians are trapped in the hell on earth that the Ambazonia liberation war has become. A latest report puts civilian deaths at 1600 and thousands wounded under the heavy assault launched by President Biya’s Rapid Intervention Battalion Forces.

Recently it was the turn of residents of Menka in the Santa Sub constituency some few km west of Bamenda the capital of the Northern Zone.  From every indication, conditions in Southern Cameroons are getting worse, and there is no end to the Ambazonia conflict.

The end to any violent conflict comes when either the warring sides realise the devastation they cause and make peace; outside intervention sways the warring parties to end the conflict; or there are clear winners delivering a crushing defeat to their enemies.

The 85 year old French Cameroon dictator does not seem to care about the devastation of the two-year war. Almost 97 rural communities in Southern Cameroons is rubble — more than 1600 Ambazonians have died, there are 40,000 Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria and some 160,000 internally displaced. Unfortunately, the dialogue option seems highly unlikely with Biya still in power. There has not been any international intervention through peace initiatives and France’s unconditional and active support of the Biya regime is hampering any attempt at negotiating a truce.

Since the conflict began, many Southern Cameroons resistance groups have sporadically emerged. Although most of them later merged into the larger entity-the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, there are still some small groups. Their inclusion in the Interim Government has been problematic causing the West to think that it is unclear who actually represents Southern Cameroons.

All along, Mr Biya’s regime has been claiming it is fighting separatists and terrorists groups in Southern Cameroons.  French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing Mr Biya and Nigeria’s Buhari to wipe out these groups, spurred by the deep fear they could mobilise radical Biafra groups within Nigeria’s borders.

The European Union doesn’t want Mr Biya, but they love his argument of protecting a one and indivisible Cameroon. So, the lack of an international intervention and the impossibility of Biya sitting down to negotiate with the Interim Government, leaves only the option of fighting it out until clear victors emerge. This leaves the Biya regime with a free run to assert itself by killing as many Southern Cameroonians as possible.

This is the strategic line the Biya regime has drawn thick on the ground and it explains why Biya and his political gang have ignored calls for a ceasefire. Biya and the French government had hope for a quick and absolute victory, even if it is a bloodbath. But the pattern of the war will eventually see the collapse of the Cameroon army.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The situation in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions has continued to deteriorate following the slaughtering of some 20 young men and women in Menka-Pinyin last Thursday following a violent attack by government forces that have been seeking to prove that they are actually rolling back the Southern Cameroonian fighters who have won hearts and minds in the entire Southern Cameroons.

Government action over the last 18 months has come under intense criticism both at home and abroad, as Yaounde authorities continue to behave like gangsters instead of disciplined officials who should, at any moment, seek to work out things through dialogue.

The Yaounde government, led by Paul Biya, has never taken time to investigate any killings. All it has always done is to resort to collective punishment wherein the houses of innocent civilians are razed, and innocent youths are gunned down point blank. The actions of the country’s armed forces have created more fighters over the last six months, as ordinary civilians – both boys and girls – now believe they have to defend themselves against a military that is using their tax money to murder the people they are supposed to protect.

Southern Cameroonians have been calling for international assistance. They now want the world to protect them against their supposed protectors. The government’s mass murdering tactics and collective punishment have drawn a lot of flak in recent times and even the Trump Administration has been disappointed by the methods the dictatorial government in Yaounde is using to restore order in the two restive English-speaking regions of the country.

Thursday’s murders came on the heels of a scathing criticism of the reckless Yaounde regime by the U.S. Ambassador, Peter Barlerin, who used his audience with the country’s president, Paul Biya, to call for an end to the senseless and targeted killings in the two English-speaking regions.

Mr. Barlerin also used the occasion to call on Mr. Biya to think of his legacy, a coded way of telling the Yaounde dictator not to run in the upcoming presidential election. It should be recalled that the Americans have a way of advising their erstwhile friends to quit power. Mr. Barlerin is simply walking in the steps of other American ambassadors who hold that governments must be accountable to their people.

In the early 90s, the American Ambassador to Zaire, Bill Richardson, had advised Mubutu to quit power and that if he did not act accordingly, he would be humiliated and this actually came to pass. A few months after that friendly advice, Zaire unravelled and the “Leopard of Zaire”, another name for Mr. Mubutu, was chased out of power by a ragtag military that had the support and blessing of Western countries.

The American ambassador’s advice has not been taken lightly and kindly by supporters of the beleaguered government. Government surrogates have been all over the country and on TV channels to belittle the ambassador whose advice should be taken seriously. Americans are not only friends when they give Cameroon their money and arms for them to fight Boko Haram. Good friends should also call their friends to reason and that is what Ambassador Barlerin is doing.

The pressure on the government and its supporters is mounting and it is clear that the Biya regime is running out of time and patience, especially as the deadline given by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government will be expiring in four days. The tough guy appearance that government official had at the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis seems to be melting. Government officials who caused the crisis to escalate are today staying away from the spotlight. Fame Ndongo, Laurent Esso and Issa Tchiroma are all keeping a very low profile as they know they are to blame for the gory genocide that is playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group have also been very vocal against the Yaounde government’s irresponsible actions. For the past six months, the government of Cameroon has been working hard to wipe off villages from its own map through a scorch-earth policy that many in the international community have frowned upon. Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group have all called the government’s action against Southern Cameroonians into questions. The world has been taken aback by the government’s commitment of such human rights abuses.

Kwakwa, Mbonge, Etoko and Kembong in the South West region have been rolled back into the 10^th Century by the government. Its plan was to intimidate the people into submission, but the strategy has so far been counter-productive. In Kwakwa, many old people were burnt alive by government forces as a move to punish the entire population for the killing of an army soldier by some unknown and unidentified gunmen.

Other villages have also experienced the government’s wrath and frustration with a rebellion it felt it could put out in one single military action. Mbonge, Bali and Batibo have all been victims of the Yaounde government’s malicious policy designed to stamp out any opposition.

Terrorism has become the buzzword in Cameroon and anybody who holds a view that is contrary to the government’s is considered a terrorist. This is a new tool it is using to stamp out opposition, but times have changed, and the people of Southern Cameroons are clearly resisting a government they believe is corrupt to the marrow and inefficient.

Last week, in trying to sway national and international opinion, the military on Friday rushed its spokesperson to deliver an unconvincing explanation for such acts of brutality by a military that has reduced itself to the level of a ragtag army. A flimsy explanation by the country’s military spokesperson, Colonel Didier Badjeck, has left many in the international community with the feeling that Mr. Biya and his government do not want a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Colonel Didier Badjeck has, on many occasions, been caught lying and his explanation has been ripped apart by experts who have demonstrated that the government has run out of options to check the revolution. Many pointed to the lack of evidence and the inconsistencies in Colonel Didier Badjeck’s explanations.  The government is yet to show any arms the suspects had used or any evidence that they were plotting anything sinister. Killing innocent young men has been its modus operandi and this is eroding its credibility in the eyes of some members of the international community who are already questioning why the UN is not intervening to end the bloodbath.

As the blood continues to flow, it is alleged that recent massacres are being masterminded by the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, himself a Southern Cameroonian, who wants to prove to his Yaounde masters that he is up to the task. This week has actually been a bloody one. It is like the hunting season has been opened and the blood has been flowing like a stream.

Both parties have been mourning. On Sunday, May 27, 2018, the government shipped 67 military corpses to many towns in the country. The 67 corpses are those of servicemen brought down by tough Southern Cameroonian fighters. The government has been reluctant to publicly acknowledge that its servicemen have been killed by the bullets of Southern Cameroonian fighters.

The government is gradually recognizing that keeping those deaths under wraps will not tell its story and pain in the most succinct manner. The intense global condemnation of the last week is gradually becoming a call for a change in strategy. In a bit to play the victim, the government is admitting that some servicemen had been killed in combat in the jungles and mountains of Southern Cameroons. But this new strategy could be counter-productive. The Francophone majority might start asking questions which could bring more trouble to the already beleaguered country.  

Southern Cameroonian fighters seem to be making very bold statements that are making the government to be ill at ease. This may be why the government had to make a statement of intent on Thursday to tell the fighters that the government will match fire for fire. Many Southern Cameroonians hold that the Menka-Pinyin massacre is Mr. Atanga Nji’s handiwork. It is alleged that he planned and ordered government forces to use conventional explosives on innocent civilians. This has been decried by a  senior Roman Catholic clergy who is concerned about the road the country has taken over the last two years. It should be mentioned that the Catholic church on Thursday, May 24, organized a protest march against the killing of innocent people in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Some members of the international community have also started talking albeit in private. According to a United Nations official who spoke to Cameroon Concord News Group on condition of anonymity, the Biya era is quietly coming to an end and actions by the government are simply making it hard for any reasonable person to have any respect for the 85-year-old Biya who erroneously thinks the country belongs to him.

“A country cannot belong to anybody. Mr. Biya is making the same mistakes Mr. Mubutu of Zaire made; mistakes that let to his destruction. Mr. Biya should be looking into the mirror of history in order to avoid such dumb mistakes. At 85, he should know that his days are numbered and it is in his interest to think about living Cameroon a better place than he met it,” he said.

“Mr. Biya should be listening to his conscience. He has lost credibility. Within international circles, many people have nothing but disrespect for him. He has failed and he is a disgrace to a country like Cameroon that has lots of intellectuals. He should understand that he has had more than his fair share of power even when he has never won any election. There is no way he is going to win this war. The actions of his military are simply fueling violence. Southern Cameroonians will surely resort to more kidnappings as a way of venting their anger. They will also be killing innocent soldiers and policemen who are even against the war. It is really unfortunate that many young soldiers are losing their lives for a man who is just a few meters away from his grave,” the international civil servant said.

But it is the order of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government that is keep many people awake, including the government which has no plan to protect French-speaking Cameroonians living in Southern Cameroons. The situation is critical and many people are living in fear. Some families have already moved leaving behind all their personal belongings and assets. So far, the government has not made any statement to reassure the population.

While Cameroon government officials are still trying to embezzle what ever little money is still in the government’s coffers, Southern Cameroonian fighters, for their part, are busy fine-tuning their strategies to root out all illegal aliens from the new republic. The fighters know that their actions will finally attract the attention of the international community that has been less enthusiastic about what is happening in the Central African country.

In a reaction to the Interim Government’s order, a young Red Dragon fighter who has been in the jungles of Lebialem for more than six months said that “Francophones have an interest to comply with what the Interim Government has said. We are running out of patience and will surely be staging a show that will shock the world once the deadline expires.”

He added that “Let nobody think this is an empty threat. We have seen our brothers and sisters being killed by government forces and we are ready to revenge. There will be a bloodbath after the expiry of the Interim Government’s order. We have faith in our Interim Government and we will do all what it takes to ensure that the laws of the land are respected. If the Yaounde government thinks this is a joke, then it has not yet understood that it has a huge crisis on its hands. We are prepared to die. We have been enslaved for decades and now is the time to liberate our land. We have never thought that independence will come easy. We know it is never delivered on a platter of gold. We are aware of what happened to Eritrea, South Sudan and even in faraway Timor Leste. We are well read. We are also university graduates, but the government’s decision to declare a war on us will turn out to be its greatest undoing. If the world is still on the sidelines, then it really wants to play spectator to a Rwanda-style genocide at the end of the month. We will be staging a massive show that will shock everybody. We never asked for this war. It was imposed on us and we will do all in our power to end the oppression that has been ours for decades.”

The situation is concerning. It is just a quarter of a century since the world witnessed a huge genocide in Rwanda and it had vowed not to let that happen again. But its indifference to what is playing out in Cameroon could lead to a repeat of what happened in Rwanda in the early 90s.

The government knows it has a huge crisis on its hands. It has seen many soldiers who have been killed by Southern Cameroonian fighters and it knows that even with the less sophisticated weapons used by Southern Cameroonians fighters, they are still capable of wreaking havoc.

While senior government officials are still trying to put on a brave face, many in the corridors of power are already very concerned. Southern Cameroonians have put up a good show beyond everybody’s wildest imagination and their determination is being admired by many French-speaking Cameroonians. But their recent move to chase French-speaking Cameroonians out of their land spells a huge disaster for the government.

For months, the government has been indifferent to calls for an inclusive dialogue. Ever since the crisis started, the country’s president, Paul Biya, also known as the owner of the country, has refused to listen to many respectable voices across the world. The Pope has had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Biya. Leaders of Western Countries have advised him to pursue dialogue as a sure means out of the impasse. The African Union has once offered to mediate.

But he has remained tone deaf to these calls and his refusal is costing many lives. He too is putting a brave face, but American pressure seems to be paying off. Behind the scenes, the pennies seem to be dropping. The government wants to talk, but it has not got an interlocutor. It had arrested and delegitimized federalists in 2017. In 2018, Southern Cameroonian leaders were kidnapped in Nigeria and brought to Yaounde where they are being held incommunicado. Those are the people the government should be talking to if it has developed the right mind that can bring peace to the country.

Time is running out. The situation is spiraling out of control. Mr. Biya is losing support even within his own party. The Southern Cameroons crisis is surely that explosive that will expose the fragile unity in the ruling party. The dissenting voices are increasing and the pressure on Mr. Biya is mounting. Some ruling party members hold that if Mr. Biya steps down, there could be a possibility for a negotiated settlement. Many ruling party members do not like the country to be split, but the manner in which Mr. Biya and his cohorts have handled the Southern Cameroons crisis leaves many of his supporters with no other option but to ask him to leave power.

There is still time for all the parties to head to the negotiating table. The government cannot continue to behave as if it is not affected by the crisis. Its economy has been hurt. Its credibility has been eroded. Many soldiers have been killed and many young and innocent Southern Cameroonians are losing their lives due to a crisis that could have been averted.

The government must play its role. It must work hard to foster dialogue and promote transparency in the management of state affairs. The current crisis is the outcome of many years of frustration on the part of Southern Cameroonians who have been marginalized for 56 years.

The issues may be challenging and thorny, but they could be addressed if the good will is there. Mr. Biya still has a little time to salvage whatever little credibility he has if he comes out boldly to announce an inclusive dialogue that will lead to a peaceful resolution of all the grievances that Southern Cameroonians have expressed. The ball is in the government’s court!

By Kingsley Betek