The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been playing out for close to two years has gradually spiralled out of control following the existence of many armed groups in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Over the last two months, many innocent civilians have met their death as the government pursues its policy of collective punishment. Many civilians have seen their homes burnt down by government forces which have opted for a “scorch-earth” policy that is hurting many vulnerable people who have nothing to do with the conflict.

A few weeks ago, villages such as Kembong and Kwakwa in the South West region were visited by a brigade of alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers whose actions defied all modern law enforcement logic. Houses were burnt down, with the old and vulnerable consumed by the flames in a campaign that will never bring peace to the region. What is more disturbing is that, for more than a month now, the government has not ordered any investigation into these barbaric atrocities. It has not even expressed any remorse for such acts of inhumanity committed by people who are supposed to serve and protect the population.

Of course, what caused the government to adopt the obnoxious “law of Hammurabi” was the killing of army soldiers by some unidentified gun men. This act should never be extolled, but the government’s decision to come down to the level of a ragtag army clearly calls for a global condemnation.

The government is an organized structure with institutions whose capacity to investigate crimes has been built over the years. Its actions in retaliation to acts committed by unknown gunmen serve as  a testament to its failure to rein in the tough Ambazonian fighters who are determined to take the war to the enemy.

The government clearly understands that in seeking out those who commit such odious crimes against government forces, it must partner with the local population. It knows it must use the local population to gather intelligence that will help it in its efforts to restore peace and security in the region. The government’s violent reaction to crimes committed by a few gunmen speaks volumes to its inability to keep the country safe through meaningful dialogue. For long, it has been giving the impression that it cherishes dialogue, but its actions over the last six months have proven that it has been paying lip service to the whole notion of dialogue.

Kwakwa had been considered as a flash in the pan by many government apologists and many people hoped that this unfortunate drama would not repeat itself. But three weeks ago, Mbim, a small village some 20 kilometres from Kumbo, was the target of these alcohol-inflamed soldiers. During the military onslaught, many houses were razed, food was destroyed, and many civilians were wounded, an act that has been condemned by many Southern Cameroonian activists and opinion leaders.

From every indication, this seems to be the government’s modus operandi and it is determined to use it, as long as Southern Cameroonians stick to their guns. The government seems to have sworn that theirs will be the kingdom of tears and homelessness for as long as they continue to challenge its authority. The same destruction has been spreading to other parts of Southern Cameroons.

The government that is supposed to protect civilians has resorted to killing them just because some of them do sympathize with Ambazonian Defense Forces. The civilians have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They have no control over the Ambazonian fighters who consider themselves as freedom fighters and the beleaguered government seems to be at its wit’s end as it faces tough challenges from the determined freedom fighters.

On Tuesday, April 3, 2018, the Cameroonian military attacked and burned several homes in Mungo Ndor, a small village located some 40 km from Nguti in the Koupé-Manengouba Division in the South West region. The senseless arson campaign by government troops has left many people in tears. Ms. Egbe Maria Ndonge, popularly known as “Mami Maria”, was burned to death in her house, while asleep. Many people question the rationale behind such government brutality that will make it hard for both parties to sit and talk.

Speaking to a Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent on the ground, residents of the village confirmed that local churches had been burnt and 6 civilians shot. The sources also added that some civilians had been killed in the senseless government attacks. It should be recalled that killing civilians on purpose and destroying civilian property constitute war crimes. The government has an obligation under international law to investigate all the atrocities being committed by its military. So far, the Yaoundé regime seems to be enjoying as Southern Cameroonians run into the jungle for accommodation.

According to the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent, the village has been besieged by the army, and the villagers are not allowed to move in or out. Hundreds of residents are currently seeking refuge in the forest. Many rights groups, including the one led by Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla, are calling on the government to grant journalists and human rights organizations access to these regions.

Since the conflict in Southern Cameroons started in October 2016, more than 1,000 people have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for more than 300 of the deaths. The civilian population has borne the brunt of the government’s attacks on villages and towns in Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons crisis has resulted in the fleeing of more than 60,000 Southern Cameroonians from their homeland to Nigeria due to the government’s military violence. Many of these people are innocent civilians who have been caught between government army soldiers and Ambazonian Defense forces who are battling for the control of territory in South Cameroons; a region rich in minerals, especially oil, gold and diamond.

The tension in the region has been flaring following the arrest of Ambazonian leaders in Nigeria in early January and their illegal extradition to Cameroon where they are being held incommunicado at the Gendarmerie headquarters in Yaounde.

Following the arrest of the Ambazonian president and 46 others, violent clashes erupted in several towns in Southern Cameroons. In Batibo, three army soldiers were killed by unknown gunmen, while the Batibo Senior Divisional Officer was taken by the gunmen to an unknown destination. His whereabouts are still unknown. The Batibo Assistant Mayor, Esther Tebo, for her part, escaped capture by the skin of her teeth, after gunmen showed up at her church and opened fire, wounding several people.

Kembong, a town in Manyu Division which was a hotspot during the violent confrontations in December 2017, was back in the spotlight following an attack by heavily armed gunmen on the temporary military barracks in the town. The attack resulted in the killing of three gendarmes, with many other uniformed officers wounded. The wounded were flown to the Mamfe military hospital for treatment, a measure that helped to stabilize them.

The incident, which is a response to the government’s military action in many parts of Southern Cameroons, came less than 24 hours after the country’s president, Paul Biya, said the North West and South West regions were stabilizing during a speech delivered to the country’s youth on Saturday, February 10, 2018, on the occasion of the country’s youth day.

There have been many cases of violence in the English-speaking regions following Mr. Ayuk Tabe’s arrest. Cameroonian authorities themselves have become more concerned about the political and military conflict in the country as it continues to spill out of the control. Rumors making the rounds for some time now hold that young Francophone fighters are swelling the ranks of Southern Cameroonian fighters in Ndian Division.

This is making things a lot more dangerous, as an issue that started with socio-professional demands by lawyers and teachers may end up becoming a major civil war in a region that has had more than its fair share of civil wars and political chaos.

But the most challenging thing is the silence of the international community. Despite the daily killings taking place in many towns in Southern Cameroons, the international community has sunk into a deafening silence that is worrying to many people across the globe.

Some analysts argue that the international community has entered into a pact with the Cameroon government. The international community has been looking the other way while the Cameroon government is mowing down its own people. Despite calls to the global body by rights groups such as the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International for a direct intervention, the UN has continued to display a form of indifference that is more unsettling than reassuring.

Even the illegal arrest and extradition of Southern Cameroonian leaders did not shock the international community. The United Nations, in particular, seems to be playing ball with the Cameroon government and this is causing many people to hold that most of the military violence taking place in the English-speaking regions of the country has received the blessing of a United Nations that is more interested in keeping the country together than in the methods that are being used to keep the country one and indivisible.

So far, the international community has been turning a blind eye to the death and destruction that army soldiers have been spreading in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Is the international community under the influence of France that has been the greatest beneficiary of the Southern Cameroonian wealth or is it just sick and tired of dealing with conflicts on the continent?

From the behavior so far displayed by the international community, it is clear that Southern Cameroonian lives do not really matter. Many Southern Cameroonians have been sent to an early grave as a result of the government’s ill-advised decision to pursue military instead of a political approach to the conflict. Could the Biya regime have been successful in corrupting the entire international community? Why would a people who simply want the world to know that they are hurting become a target of a government that is supposed to protect them?

The international community might have called for inclusive dialogue at different stages of the conflict, but its passivity and lack of interest in the whole situation speaks to the connivance between it and the Biya region to decimate the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. If the international community does not come out of the “Omerta” it has imposed on itself, Southern Cameroonians will continue to consider it as an accomplice in the genocide that is currently playing out in their country.

It is time for the international community to get tough on a government that is considered by its own citizens as a crime syndicate. Its corruption has robbed its own people of happiness and prosperity.  Today, it is fiercely promoting the principle of political tribalism as a means of sustaining itself in power.  The market-dominant minority that has enriched itself through unorthodox means has brought untold hardship to Cameroonians. It has to go and Cameroonians in general hold that the intervention of the international community will be a welcome relief. Turning a blind eye to the problem will not make it go away. The international community must step in to restore peace in a country that is anything but democratic.

By Kingsley Betek with contributions from the editorial team at the Cameroon Concord News Group Global Headquarters in the UK.

Cameroon Concord News Group has documented and published unimpeachable evidence of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and several international crimes committed against the peace-loving people of the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun.  These crimes are ongoing for the past fifty-six years. Cameroon Concord News Group has established that the motivation for these crimes are of an economic nature for which France is the primary beneficiary. It is France’s economic interests over the abundant mineral and natural resources in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia that has corruptly sustained colonial rule over the Southern Cameroons.  Over the past fifty-six years, French Cameroun unleashed a reign of terror over the Southern Cameroons.  Through collective punishment, systematic rape and humiliation of our girls and women, torching of civilian settlements, pillage and looting of our natural and petroleum resources, massacre of civilians, enforced disappearances, systematic torture, large scale abductions and imprisonment, indignities on women and children and several egregious violations, French Cameroun with impunity put the collective existence of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in jeopardy.

These crimes escalated from September 22, 2017 to October 1, 2017 when the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia reclaimed their independence and sovereignty over their territory. The people and government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia under the leadership of the President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe deserved the protection of international law but the international community betrayed the “never again” sacred trust it made to humanity after the holocaust by allowing French Cameroun deploy weapons of mass destruction to kill and maim armless civilians on its watch.  Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report have consistently denounced the use by French Cameroon of   the stolen wealth and resources of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to corrupt Senior UN officials and some members of the government of Nigeria to facilitate the commission of crimes against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia among which the abduction of His Excellency the President and members of the Interim Government was.

The decision by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to resort to self defence to protect its people and territory has recorded successes so far. The resilience of the people and the successes recorded with so little has alarmed the enemy and its co-conspirators in Nigeria and France. Before his abduction by a joint criminal gang comprising Nigerian intelligence personnel and a French Cameroun special operations death squad, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in an address enjoined the citizens of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to protect the lives of civilians of all nationalities found in the territory of Ambazonia. Endorsing self defense after the abduction of our leaders, the Acting President Dr Samuel Sako and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia reiterated this policy which was established by His Excellency the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Cameroon Concord News Group fully endorsed the policy.

French Cameroun’s military operations within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has as its primary focus the massacre of civilians, the looting, pillaging, and torching of civilian settlements, the rape of our girls and women, and several other crimes. These crimes for which Paul Biya by himself, or through his subordinate criminal agents, like Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji, George Tabetando, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Owona Nguini, Okalia Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, Joseph Beti Assomo ( minister of armed forces) French Cameroun services commanders deployed to prosecute the genocide, have taken responsibility are well documented.  The sheer magnitude of the crimes and its potential to spill over to the territories of neighbouring countries and the sub-region has forced the international community to begin to pressurize French Cameroun to halt its criminal campaign and to engage in an all-inclusive dialogue with the legitimate representatives of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

To ease this pressure, French Cameroun has developed criminal tactics aimed at de-legitimizing the Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s self-defense efforts, its defense of its sovereignty and its people. This strategy of French Cameroun is developing right before our very eyes. Unfortunately, some gullible Ambazonia leaders in search of power and relevance are falling into these traps. French Cameroun is courting an unstructured group of gullible individuals loosely called Federalists to preposition themselves as persons it can rely on to organize a dialogue aimed at resolving the current crisis. These gullible individuals will be used to validate the one and indivisible Cameroun policy of French Cameroun and then dumped to face the consequences of their treachery of their people’s aspirations. The so-called dialogue will be a French Cameroun internal initiative with some foreign envoys accredited to French Cameroun deployed acting as facilitators. Atanga Nji on behalf of French Cameroun presented the nature of the dialogue that French Cameroun will organize and own as well as the condition it intend to impose for participation. Chris Anu was right and quick to reject the so-called dialogue outright, opting rather for negotiations organized by an external international actor that will provide a facilitator for the occasion. A party to a negotiation cannot impose an agenda, the nature and composition of the representation by another party. The negotiations will surely be on the terms of separation, accountability for the crimes committed within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the payment of reparations for the crimes committed.

French Cameroun is conscious that crimes of an international character committed against civilians will never go unpunished.  Not in our time. For this purpose, it is attempting to pin responsibility for its crimes on Southern Cameroons legitimate self-defense fighters.  Unfortunately, some of our leaders are falling into these traps and deliberate policy of criminalization.  Cameroon Concord News Group has seen a video in the social media posted by French Cameroun through its surrogates with child soldiers holding and manipulating arms. French Cameroon did this knowing that the crime of conscription and deployment of children below the age of 15 years as child soldiers is one of the most serious international crimes.  This mischief was easily identified by several Ambazonians who rightly denounced it as an enemy scheme aimed at attempting to blackmail our self-defense efforts. The self-defense forces of Ambazonia do not put their identity out in the social media in order not to invite harm to the families of the fighters and their communities.  This sensible self-defense strategy deprives traitors and spies on the payroll of the enemy the ability to subvert the strategic and tactical operational command decisions taken by Ambazonia fighting forces at ground zero.  Cameroon Concord News deplores in very strong terms the conduct of persons aligned with a social media frenzied Ambazonia for alleging armed adult and child soldiers were members of the ADF. This plays into the ego of a leaders known for taking responsibility for actions helpful or harmful without thinking about the consequences for the entire cause. Endorsing this French Cameroun mounted video posted to social media carefully laying out a case of conscription and use of child soldiers is troubling. 

Cameroon Concord News strongly condemns the execution of civilians who are not taking part in the armed conflict. Cameroon Concord News and the National Telegraph published news reports about the summary execution in cold blood of some seven civilians who were in the custody of French Cameroun forces who were brought to Kendem Upper Banyang by Tabatando to force the people to vote in senatorial elections organized by French Cameroun. These elections were banned by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  There exists a deliberate pre-planned criminal military strategy by French Cameroun to summarily execute Ambazonian civilians.  Cameroon Concord News is please that based on the operational orders of the interim government, Ambazonia self-defense forces have so far not targeted civilians. The burning to painful death of old and vulnerable people in civilian settlements, cowardly execution of civilians in Kendem and other locations in Ambazonia are criminal acts which will never be forgotten or forgiven. Ambazonia can never again belong to the same nation with an enemy republic that preys on the blood of its civilians.  The alleged execution of a high French Cameroun government functionary of Ambazonia origin by the ADF on the orders of Dr Cho Ayaba must also be vehemently condemned. Cameroon Concord News holds the opinion that this reckless conduct provides French Cameroun the opportunity to abduct and execute people of Ambazonia origin and place the responsibility on our self-defense fighting forces. There is no greater way of demoralizing and de-legitimizing the cause for which our people have greatly sacrificed than painting and presenting this irresponsible image to the international community. This conduct if not abated may send the wrong signals to our different communities within our territory from which these individuals hail. For this reason, summary executions of civilians must be discouraged and condemned.

Cameroon Concord News Group has published news reports about the existence of an organized elaborate trans-border criminal network operating in French Cameroun and Nigeria which abducts foreign nationals for ransom.  Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cavaye Djribril, Amadou Ali, Atanga Nji and members of the political Islam crime syndicate associated with Boko Haram within the immediate political circle of Mohammadu Buhari are members.  The announced military operation that allegedly liberated foreign tourists of European origin at a moment when no known tourist could venture into the territory of Ambazonia under French Cameroun’s scourge earth criminal military operations is a hoax. It is a desperate attempt to criminalize the Ambazonia revolutionary war of survival and obtain by fraud a European Union resolution branding our fighting self-defense forces as terrorist organizations.  The Interim Government must come out strongly to deny and denounce this desperate criminal ploy. It must ask for an international investigation into the alleged abduction as well as other crimes committed by French Cameroun in our territory. In the light of this spurious, desperate and shameful fabricated allegation, French Cameroun should allow human rights organizations it had hitherto denied access to conduct investigations on this allegation and that of other crimes perpetrated by French Cameroun soldiers.  Investigators from the countries of origin of the alleged abductees should come to conduct independent investigations as well. The Interim Government should allow access into the territory of Ambazonia for the purpose of these investigations, but such access must be denied to French Cameroun forces whose presence on our territory is and must never ever be condoned.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

As Christians the world over commemorate the death of Jesus Christ, on this day that has come to be known ironically as Good Friday, on account of the salvation won for mankind by this otherwise tragic event, the central message that should not be lost on Ambazonia leaders is that sacrifice makes leadership. Jesus Christ spoke truth to power and paid the supreme price. He died a vicarious death to take away the sins of humanity and open the way to eternal life for all who believe in Him and in His message.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are a lesson on the power of humility, service, self-sacrifice and true love. Jesus taught a lot of lessons through his parables and miracles but perhaps the greatest lessons he taught are the practical lessons of his own life. Jesus taught his followers that there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends, and that is exactly what he did. He taught his followers that those who seek to be first must make themselves last and servant of all; and that is what he did when he washed the feet of his disciples and accepted a humiliating death in order that they may live. Though as son of God He was rich beyond measure, He made a preferential option for the poor, whose circumstances He graciously shared. His life was consistent with His message. The present generation of Ambazonia leaders can learn a lot from the life and supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Like the abducted Ambazonia leaders, the conflicts that led to the crucifixion of Christ centered on the social paradigm that Christ preached to the world. Like Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe and his co-travelers, the truth Jesus spoke was, of course, too bitter for his opponents to swallow and so they had to silence him. Yet, silenced in detention, like Jesus who was nailed to the cross, the power of their message was already immortal. Ambazonia is a spirit that will never die.

Jesus of Nazareth profoundly and manifestly changed the course of history. His message of love, mercy and compassion, truth, justice, and freedom, has inspired some of the most progressive individuals and movements in human history. Yet His coming was inauspicious. There were no earth-shattering sirens and convoys to welcome Him; life in Bethlehem went on normally as poor Mary and Joseph went around looking for a room in an inn to stay. And finding none, they settled for a lowly manger, and there Christ was born. But from the child born in this manger was to flow the knowledge of the Supreme Creator, the grace of healing and the compelling message of salvation for mankind. This is why Christians see the birth of Christ in the flesh as the miracle of all miracles. Those who believe in His word and abide by His teachings have the assurance of everlasting life after death. But not all who saw Him even in His own time recognized Him and not all who recognized Him believed in Him.

In the course of passionately preaching and living out the truth as he knew it, condemning the injustices of the day, Jesus came in regular conflict with the status quo and those who benefited from it. He was betrayed by his own disciple, Judas Iscariot, denied by his closest associate, Simon Peter; handed over to the Roman authorities by the chief priests of his religion and condemned to death by Pontius Pilate the Governor. He was politically murdered without due process by civil authorities who made the cause of religious bigotry their own. Ambazonians must capitalize on the best ideals of their various faiths to transform their struggle for independence by keeping their eyes on the big picture, instead of fighting each other for positions.

The victory of good over evil, which Jesus represents, questions the widespread corruption, greed and selfishness that define the present power struggles amongst Ambazonia leaders. The instant gratification mentality that pervades the Ambazonia leadership contrasts sharply with the sacrifice and selflessness which Christ’s death and resurrection symbolizes. The propensity for seeking to lead; the disposition towards crass materialism and blind pursuit of pleasure is clearly at variance with the lesson of Good Friday. On the whole, the teachings of Christ, anchored on humility and service in leadership seem to be lost, especially amongst the Ambazonia leadership, where the forces of greed and corruption continue to thrive. Those who aspire to lead the struggle must embrace those higher values of leadership exemplified in Jesus Christ. When Anglophones abandon hypocrisy and live out the higher ideals of self-less service, redemption is possible and victory is all but assured. We know who the enemy is; so whose side are you on?

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

Yesterday, Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report both published a news item in which the Nigeria Information Minister Lai Mohammed admitted that the Government of President Buhari was negotiating a cessation of hostilities and ceasefire with Boko Haram. This admission came in the heels of the report by Cameroon Concord News Group that the Buhari Government had paid colossal amounts of money in ransom to Boko Haram for the release of some Chibok School Girls and very recently that of the Dapchi School Girls. We of this group had in the past alleged that the links between Buhari and Boko Haram are deep rooted in their shared membership of Political Islam and that the former was indeed the god father of the later.

Following from the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government  on the orders of President Buhari in one of the most scandalous corruption deals in sub-regional history,  Cameroon Concord News Group wondered where the moral compass placed President Buhari in his presumptuous lamentation over the abduction of the Dapchi School Girls which by every indication was arranged to occur by him to fulfill carefully calculated political goals.  Cameroon Concord News alerted its readers that payments to Boko Haram whose leaders President Buhari and his entourage and fellow members of Political Islam knew so well were imminent, relying on the arranged abduction and payment to fulfill a commercial and political objective. The announcement by Information Minister Lai Mohammed about the negotiations between Buhari and Boko Haram has come to confirm the stories published in this media since Buhari came to power establishing a relationship between Mr. Buhari and Boko Haram.  The connections between Political Islam, Boko Haram and the Government of French Cameroun have been widely affirmed by the Speaker of the National Assembly of French Cameroun Cavaye Djibril and by the extensive contact between the criminal organization with Ahmadou Ali the Vice Prime Minister of French Cameroun and Issa Tchiroma the Minister of Communication of the said government.

The abduction  and ransom for the freedom of some 110 Dapchi School Girls North East Nigeria and that of the Chibok School girls before,  shades  more light on the operational dynamics of Political Islam in Nigeria and some countries in the sub-region, particularly French Cameroun. Cameroon Concord News shed the spotlight on this critical international security issue when then presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari came out in support of Boko Haram and accused then President Good Luck Jonathan of deploying soldiers led by General Iherijiaka an international acclaimed General of Ibo origin in Eastern Nigeria to massacre innocent Northern Youth under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Shortly thereafter the Chibok School Girls were abducted and a political movement routing for candidate Buhari so-called “Bring back our Girls” mobilized nationally and worldwide to pressure and highlight the weaknesses of the Good Luck Jonathan Government in searching and rescuing the girls.

Jonathan was pressured to fire General Iherijiaka who was replaced by a pliable, gullible and malleable Air Force General with an alarming corruption baggage from his tenue as the Chief of Air Force Staff. The security situation degraded and the military advantages obtained under Iherijiaka were reversed.  The United States and European Union countries who disdained the audacity of Good Luck Jonathan’s politics of economic sovereignty that made Nigeria one of the fastest growing economies in the Africa and the world, took concerted action to obstruct the purchase of arms by Nigeria to fight the Boko Haram terrorist organization.  This move aimed at providing tacit support for Mohammadu Buhari whose visionless economic and political platforms were illusory making it possible for these countries to manipulate their way back to controlling Nigeria’s oil and maritime economy.  Buhari hoped to compensate his visionless and unrealistic economic agenda that favoured the rolling back the gains attained under Good luck Jonathan by floating more than one hundred unattainable objectives and declaring a corruption witch hunt aimed and destroying his political opponents. It is ironic that the political campaign of Mohammadu Buhari was bankrolled by some of the most corrupt politicians in Nigeria, among them Asiwaju Tinibu an erstwhile Governor of Lagos State and a politics for profit political godfather. Meanwhile Buhari is the undisputed leader of the Northern political platform founded on a Political Islam agenda. Boko Haram was founded or coopted as a violent extremist militant group to enforce the Political Islam political agenda of Buhari and his cohorts.  Pursuing a complex war with sophisticated weaponry by Boko Haram required a sophisticated network and enormous amount of resources. These elaborate resources were laundered through Political Islam political structures in Northern Nigeria, Northern French Cameroun and some countries of the African Sahel.

Opposition candidate Buhari came to power promising to end the Boko Haram insurgency within his first one hundred days in power. On attaining power, he opted for a negotiated solution to the release of the Chibok girls and indeed allegedly negotiated and paid a ransom for the release of some of the girls. For Buhari to have negotiated and paid a ransom, he must have known in intimate detail the leaders of Boko Haram. Hoping to protect his presidential image, Buhari opted to maintain an ambiguous relationship with Boko Haram. Not only did Buhari not tackle the war against Boko Haram as vigorously as he promised, he has through his silence and non-action encouraged the slaughter of hundreds and even thousands of Nigerians in the Middle Belt and other parts of the country by his cattlemen of his Hausa/Fulani ethnicity.

Since coming to power, President Buhari has not realized a cognizable major development or economic project. Nepotism is the hallmark of his administration. He has surrounded himself with dubious corrupt persons of his ethnicity. These are the people whose mandate appears to include the cutting of clandestine corrupt deals like the abduction of Ambazonia’s leaders in Abuja on January 5 2018.

To embellish his national security credentials, he turned to his Political Islam base to arrange the abduction and release of the Dapchi School girls through an alleged negotiation and the payment of a ransom. Information Minister went further to announce the ongoing negotiations of cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire with Boko Haram.  Cameroon Concord News Group cannot independently confirm if Nigeria briefed or associated the Multilateral Force about its negotiations and deals with Boko Haram whom they are jointly fighting. With the admitted collaboration of French Cameroun with Boko Haram to which it has paid ransom several times on engineering the abduction of foreign nationals, Nigeria, a close ally in this game, needed not formally informed French Cameroun.  Through abductions, key political leaders in Nigeria and French Cameroun make huge amounts of money to manipulate the political institutions within these countries to their political advantage. Let no one be duped, the ongoing negotiations between the Buhari Government with Boko Haram and the collaborative  actions of French Cameroun towards Boko Haram highlights the dilemma facing the international community which is cooperating with Boko Haram sponsors to search for Boko Haram in the wrong places.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News has read the press release issued by the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government Chris Anu on the recent self-defense operations by the Ambazonia self-defense forces in Lebialem and Meme Counties of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Cameroon Concord News Group agrees with key parts of his press release but disagrees with the characterization of the recovery of a meagre part of the stolen wealth of the Southern Cameroons from some recently arrested slave agents and collaborators of the colonial regime of French Cameroun as “ransom”. That characterization must be contextualized and corrected.  The principled position taken by Cameroon Concord News on this matter must not be misconstrued by visionless agitators who have taken upon themselves the license to attack all the laudable efforts that the Interim Government is putting in place to unite our self-defense forces and harmonize our self-defense strategies for operational efficiency and coordinated effectiveness.  Cameroon Concord News disagrees and makes recommendations that aimed at attaining the harmonization of our self-defense operations in ground zero as well as other critical areas of our self-defense efforts.

The arrest of Professor Leke Tambo in Lebialem, the civil/military administrator of Batibo, that of the regional social work administrator and others in Meme and elsewhere where arrests of alien enemy collaborators that occurred within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  These individuals were active participants in the war and genocide against the people and territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Professor Leke Tambo for example was never abducted or kidnapped while on a visit to his Bangwa native land. He has undertaken many such trips but was not arrested. He was not arrested because he did not then violate the security laws imposed by our self-defense forces aimed at protecting the people and the Ambazonia territorial integrity.  He was arrested in a combat operation mounted by ground zero self -defense forces in Lebialem County aimed at protecting the population and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia from a foreign enemy colonial administration.

The alien enemy colonial government organized an occasion in Menji-Lebialem in the heart of the Bangwa heartland to congratulate Paul Biya who has presided over and supervised the genocide of Southern Cameroonians. That occasion was an act of aggression against the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  It was an act of provocation intended to demonstrate that the alien enemy had effective control of Lebialem and that the population of Lebialem was happy with the continuing genocide that has claimed the lives of Ambazonian civilians including persons of Lebialem origin.

One Amin, an engineer graduate from India who was gunned down in cold blood in Kumba came from Lewoh, the home town of Professor Tambo. It will come as no surprise to Cameroon Concord News if he was related to Professor Tambo. The assassination of this armless innocent man based on his citizenship of Ambazonia did not alarm the Professor. He did not publicly condemn it. Maybe it was out of fear for his own life from a regime he served and from which he has benefited. However he had a moral choice, call it agency, not to join in dancing on the grave of this innocent man and that of thousands of Lebialem victims of the genocide in Kombone, Kwakwa, Marumba, Mutengene, Ekona, Munyenge, Ikata and elsewhere in Ambazonia by joining the bandwagon to celebrate and thank Paul Biya for rewarding Paul Tasong, a noted collaborator in Bangwaland with a controlled Ministerial appointment. The Lebialam population boycotted the occasion and the crime syndicate had to ferry in students from the University of Dschang in neighbouring French Cameroun to fake support for the sanguinary despot with the blood of the innocent on his hands. This was unacceptable.

The appointment of Professor Leke Tambo as the Chairman of the embattled GCE Board required that he shreds his uniform and membership of the outlawed CPDM crime syndicate with immediate effect. The burden is on him to demonstrate that he is no longer a member of that criminal gang and that he is truly independent. The occasion and place of his arrest are strong signals that his appointment as chairman of the GCE Board may be intended to solidify the cultural genocide that together with the destruction of the legal system triggered Ambazonia revolution. He was indeed at the wrong place fulfilling a wrong mandate. If that is how his tenure at the GCE Board will be, then he is setting himself up for further surprises. The next time around, either in his native Lebialem or elsewhere, he may not be so lucky.

Professor Leke Tambo knew that the event he was attending was banned by the Ambazonia self-defense forces in Lebialem.  He knew that a violation of the ban was not going to be tolerated. He knew that the banned occasion was to take place within the territory of the legendary Fontem Asonganyi who held the German aggressors at bay in ferocious resistance for nine years.  French Cameroun has acted with caution in Bangwaland since the escalation of the war of aggression. To test the history of Ambazonia, French Cameroun commenced their war of genocide from many locations in Manyu, among them Nsanankang, where the Germans met their defeat.   As a noted historian, Professor Tambo Leke was in a better position to advise his French Cameroun masters that these historical realities are not myths and that the same provocations will produce the same results.  The Professor knows that the Bangwa self-defenders can fight another nine years war to ensure that genocide does not happen in their land and with their peers in other areas of Ambazonia, halt the ongoing genocide and punish the colonial vandals appropriately.

Cameroon Concord News was not opposed to the release of Professor Leke Tambo contrary to the sentiments expressed by some uninformed individuals. Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report while calling for unity among the self-defense groups, nevertheless calls on deference to local self-defense forces on several decisions which only them have a firsthand opportunity to assess and take. It is only ground zero self-defense forces who can assess the local realities in the prosecution of this war that French Cameroun imposed on us. We of this publication advise all ground zero self-defenses forces to emulate the operational strategy of Lebialem self-defense forces. They did not hit and run but held the territory they occupied. Although five trucks of colonial forces were deployed from Mamfe and three from Bafoussam to attack them, they held their territory and imposed a combat red line which the enemy did not dare to cross. Had they hit and ran, the enemy would have been provided an opportunity to loot, rape, pillage and torch civilian settlements in Lebialem without an opposing self-defense force opposing these acts of criminality.

Cameroon Concord News investigations confirmed that although Professor Leke Tambo flirted with the banned CPDM crime syndicate potential as a survival tactic in the administration of the alien enemy, French Cameroun, Leke Tambo possessed strong positive human qualities that were recognized by those who know him in his native Bangwa. He used his personal resources and human qualities to improve the lives of the very poor in some abandoned communities in his Bangwa Lebialem homeland. He is a humble man with a good heart. The self-defense operation, in which Leke Tambo was arrested, did not indeed target him. He was not a known member of a dangerous group of traitors comprising Paul Tasong, Benard Foju and George Tabetando of Bachuo Ntai along with slave servants of Lebialem origin whom the self-defense forces had unimpeachable evidence of plotting to infiltrate collaborators, bribe some Fons and elite of Lebialem at home and out of Lebialem to invite BIR to commit genocide in Lebialem county.  Cameroon Concord News obtained information from its correspondence in Lebialem that the population widely condemned Leke Tambo’s participation in the criminal organization to thank Paul Biya but had sympathy on him because of his personal services to the poor in his native land without the banned CPDM or colonial government involvement. The non-political nature of his social and humanitarian actions more than an alleged ransom determined his release.

His decision to violate the ban imposed to protect the people and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was the most offensive action he took in time of war. His release with or without the refund of some of the stolen wealth of Ambazonia must be understood within the context of his personal human qualities. His participation in the banned criminal ceremony threatened to jeopardize years of his selfless contributions to the wellbeing of his own people and his native community.

Cameroon Concord News places the arrests of collaborators of French Cameroun in Kumba, Batibo and elsewhere within the framework of reasonable self-defense. An alien enemy administrator performs administrative as well as services of a military nature. He or she deploys gendarmes and soldiers to torch civilian settlements, kill and maim innocent Ambazonians, abduct and disappear hundreds of thousands Ambazonian civilians. Ambazonia collaborators of the alien enemy are as culpable as the enemy combatants or soldiers. Their detention, interrogation for getting intelligence of a security and war nature is appropriate.  Their detention must comply with the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions although French Cameroun and Nigeria have proved through the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the members of the Interim Government, the summary executions of armless civilians, the torching of civilian settlements and motorcycles, the looting and pillage of civilian food and means of subsistence, that they do not respect the laws and customs of war and the Geneva Conventions.

 On the question of the alleged payment of alleged ransom, Cameroon Concord News has in the past made detailed publications about the payment of ransom and bribes by French Cameroun as a legitimate arm of war. French Cameroun’s well-known Boko-Haram collaborators/intermediaries Ahmadou, Ali, Cavaye Djribril and Isa Tchiroma Bakary have made enormous wealth organizing the abduction of foreign nations in Northern French Cameroun and obtaining the payment of ransom with the blessing of Paul Biya. Paul Biya benefits from the Boko Haram war economy through the diversion of resources deployed by international organizations and supporting foreign governments.  Atanga Nji, the criminal kingpin of Ambazonia origin and a slave executioner of French Cameroun’s genocide policy in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, was co-opted into this network to facilitate the movement of laundered funds from French Cameroun to criminal sanctuaries in the Africa Sahel, Nigeria, and other classified foreign locations.  This elaborate network links criminal kingpins within the crime syndicate in French Cameroun and their political Islam crime networks within the Buhari administration in Nigeria. Prominent among this criminal network is Mohammed Babagana Mungano, the Buhari national security adviser. Buhari late last year appointed a senior officer of the Nigerian Army involved in serious corruption scams who was serving in the multinational forces fighting Boko Haram as the director of the National Intelligence organization.  This came in the wake of the abduction and disappearance of the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia H.E Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government after Buhari received millions of Euros of bribe money from French Cameroun laundered through this network.  The Buhari Administration has also paid ransom of hundreds of millions of dollars to Boko Haram for the release of Chibok School girls whom Buhari’s political Islam network organized to discredit the Good Luck Jonathan administration. The criminal network adjudged that the “bring back our girls” political scam that was created and paid to politicize the abductions to undermine Good luck Jonathan was out of its mandate and decided to indemnify its Boko Haram foot soldiers through the payment of ransom.  Despite the payment of ransom, some of the girls are still being held to ensure the relevance, influence and survival of the armed wing of the political Islam outfit so-called Boko Haram.  

Contrary to the above situation, Ambazonia did not declare war against French Cameroun or Nigeria.  Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia is an internationally recognized territory under international law.  Southern/ Cameroons Ambazonia is a victim of aggression and genocide by its neighbours.  The crimes committed against the Federal Republic of   Ambazonia for fifty-six years which intensified in the last two years are of an economic, cultural and human nature. The economic war has led to the looting and pillaging of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia economy, natural resources, land grab, and destruction of the means of sustenance and starving our people to death. The cultural genocide targets our identity and our very existence. The human component targeted our sanity and our lives. Gendarmes, secret police and soldiers are deployed to our communities to rape our girls and women, humiliate our chiefs, desecrate our religious and core spiritual belief system, impose perpetual fear in our lives and render our so-called elites, Fons and Chiefs beggars and subservient collaborators in the annexation, systematic massacre, abduction and disappearance of their own people. Our traditional rulers have been turned into auxiliaries of an alien enemy administration and informants of the brutal colonial secret police in the land which our ancestors passed over to us and posterity. These are the crimes our Ambazonia self defense groups have taken up arms to free all of us from. If they arrest enemy collaborators or request banned enemy economic operators to pay back some of our own money which they stole or facilitated the theft through their conscious collaboration or facilitation, that, cannot be characterized as ransom. Our self-defense forces need to acquire weapons to prosecute the liberation war of self-defense. They need to feed themselves. They need to acquire intelligence from the enemy camp. They need to secure our borders and our communities. They live the daily realities of the brutal acts of genocide and must take self-survival tactics to fight this war which is escalating every day.

Cameroon Concord News Group adopts this strategy with serious caution and precautionary measures to prevent enemies and criminals paid by Atanga Nji and French Cameroun from infiltrating and extorting money inappropriately.  If any individuals or group of individuals without the authority of the Interim Government or the self-defense command in ground zero extort money from Ambazonia civilian population needing protection, or any individual or groups not involved in the self-defense war effort are caught extorting money, that individual or group should be declared alien enemy collaborators or agents and dealt with accordingly.  The recovery of the stolen wealth of Ambazonia most be done in an organized manner and proper records kept for accountability purposes.  The Federal Republic of Ambazonia is engaged in a war of self-defense and the recovery of our sovereignty over our territory and resources must be paramount.

Cameroon Concord News takes this opportunity to underscore once more the need for the Interim Government to ban all celebrations aimed at supporting Paul Biya and the genocidal war in our land. Any ceremony that undermines our sovereignty must be banned.  The circulation of all French Cameroons military, police, administrative and gendarme vehicles must be banned.  A system of passes for circulation of vehicles in targeted security zones must be instituted.  Finally, our self-defense forces must regulate and use secured communication channels to render the technical intelligence network deployed by French Cameroun, France and Nigeria against us ineffective.   Our technical intelligence warfare capability must be re-enforced. This area of operation on our part has routed enemy operations in key battle zones at home and abroad. It is a critical area of operations over which we have great potential of relying on to contribute to our victory over the enemies no matter the size and no matter from which part of the world in which we may find ourselves.  This again requires critical unity, collaboration and coordination.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The measures taken by the so-called new Minister of Territorial Administration to stifle the Southern Cameroons uprising and quest for an independent state is shocking even to the Francophone political elites.

Indeed, Paul Atanga Nji, appointed Minister of Territorial Administration, on March 2, prescribed rapid intelligence gathering to all French Cameroun administrative authorities.

The MINAT boss, who also moonlights as the permanent secretary of the National Security Council, instructed the sub-prefects, prefects and governors to make several summaries per day, on the socio-political and security situation in their respective administrative districts.

We of Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News understand the sub-prefects, will now make their daily security report, twice a day, the first in the morning, at 9:30 (8:30 GMT), the second at 14:30 (13:30 GMT).

The SDOs will make their first intelligence report at 10:30 (9:30 GMT) and the second at 15:30 (14HGMT). For their part, the governors of the regions have been told to make their reports, first at 11 am (10HGMT) and at 16h (15HGMT), for the second.

Putting pressure on the various administrative authorities, Paul Atanga Nji, wants the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to understand that he is the right man for the top job and that he is capable after his experience in the underworld to respond to multiple security challenges in Cameroon, deeply shaken by the Southern Cameroons crisis since November 2016.

Among other challenges facing Minister Atanga Nji are the security threats on the borders of Cameroon in the Far North with Boko Haram and the East, with the incursions of Central African armed bands. Internally, the regime is facing a rise in serious crimes, kidnappings, rape of children and trafficking of all kinds.

In this edition of The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers if Paul Atanga Nji and his CPDM gang will succeed to put an end to the on-going revolution in Southern Cameroons.  Let your voice he heard.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The duties attributed to Minister Atanga Nji from when he was sourced from his serious criminal gang underground world where he was a crime kingpin to join the French Cameroun crime syndicate was that of the Secretary-General of its National Security Council, Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency and a Section President of the CPDM in Mezam County of the Southern Cameroons.  He was strategically placed and provided the resources to zealously advance French Cameroun’s fifty-six-year-old genocide of the Southern Cameroons.  Cameroun Concord News can now state that the appointment of this crime kingpin as Minister of Territorial Administration a position he cumulates with that of Secretary-General of French Cameroun’s Security Council and Section President of the CPDM for Mezam is intended to put a public face to this robot in French Cameroun’s genocide reboot command structure. It is intended also to insulate and prevent Paul Biya and members of his French Cameroun’s crime syndicate from being held criminally responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and multiple international violations within the territory of the Southern Cameroons and Nigeria.

The appointment of Atanga Nji from the shadows of the crime syndicate from where he operated, to the more visible role of Minister of Territorial Administration was not intended to fundamentally change the nature of the duties he has been performing within the crime syndicate. It is intended to enable him to play a commanding public role within the reboot command structure of French Cameroun’s genocide crime syndicate. 

French Cameroun is a French neo-colonial state that was built on a foundation of criminality and genocide. Paul Atanga Nji (to use his three names) has played a behind the scene role within French Cameroun’s colonial policy of the asphyxiation of the Southern Cameroons and the rape of its economy.  Lest we forget, the war against the Southern Cameroons is both territorial and economic.  The Interim Government’s Communication Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu is right to call for a strategic realignment of our fighting forces on all fronts to confront the enemy in these and other fronts.

French Cameroun’s reboot policy in which Paul Atanga Nji was appointed, is a tested old policy which the neo-colonial state used effectively and relied on with reasonable success to subdue its own masses and the Southern Cameroons under the mirage of the so-called “one and indivisibility”. The so-called “one and indivisibility” clause was in the French colonial imposed constitution of French Cameroun prior to the annexation and colonization of the territory of the Southern Cameroons with the complicity of Great Britain and France.  The “one and indivisible Cameroun” did not include Ambazonia and cannot and will never apply to the Southern Cameroons which has never been part of French Cameroun and will never be.

The appointment and duties attributed to Paul Atanga Nji are routed in French Cameroun’s France genocide policy.  A careful review of France genocide policy in French Cameroun and its extension to the Southern Cameroon/Ambazonia places the fifty-six-year genocide of the Southern Cameroons in its reboot form on the hands of France. This genocide policy was carefully written in the France/French Cameroun 1959 Cooperation Agreement. The implementation of this genocide cooperation agreement in the territory the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia led to the ongoing genocide. Paul Atanga Nji was recruited and provided the resources and command to oversee this genocide. He has been enforcing this policy from the shadows and his recent appointment merely lifted him from his shadow operating status to a public one.

The precedent in history was the appointment of Enoch Nkwayeb a Bamileke as Minister of Territorial Administration and Samuel Kame as the Secretary of the National Security Council by Babatoura Ahmadou Ahidjo to oversee the genocide of their own people in French Cameroun. French Camerounese of Douala and Bassa origins, Jean Claude Ngoh and Guilliume Nseke were appointed to enforce the genocide in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

These slave servants rendered commendable services to their masters with over five hundred thousand of their own citizens slaughtered, civilian settlements torched, napalm bombs used to exterminate hundreds of thousands and many of their leaders pursued abroad, abducted or poisoned to death. The reboot of this policy sourced Paul Atanga Nji from his underworld crime world to play the role these Iscariots of the French Cameroun genocide in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.  Atanga Nji is not alone in this category, only his roles differs from those attributed to other Iscariots of the Southern Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group warn Atanga Nji and the Southern Cameroons Iscariots who by their participation in French Cameroun’s civil, administrative, political and military participation are helping the enemy in its war efforts against Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia. They will not be as lucky as the French Cameroun’s Bamileke and Bassa elite who were recruited to oversee the genocide of their own people.

Majority of Ambazonians, from Fon Gorgi Dinka to the Interim Government have called on all Southern Cameroonian/ Ambazoniain in the French Cameroun’s Parliament to resign and come back to support the liberation struggle in their homeland. Rather than comply with the popular request, these individuals are instead supporting the enemy’s war efforts and crimes against their own people.

On October 1, 2017, when French Cameroun deployed helicopter gun boats to slaughter armless Ambazonia civilians, Iscariots like Chiefs V.E. Mukete, George Tabetando and a hand full of Senators led a demonstration in Yaounde supporting the massacre. The genocide masterminds like Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Isa Tchiroma, Cavaye Jibril, Okalia Bilai, Lele l’Afrique and other French Cameroun’s administrative and military personnel deployed to exterminate Ambazonian civilians were encouraged and energized in committing the pogrom.  Lately John Fru Ndi, with open support from a constituent member of the so-called All Ambazonia Collaborative Council defied a ban imposed by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia AACC  and held the Convention of his party in Bamenda and in the CPDM Congress hall attended by the deputy Secretary-General of the CPDM. Ni John Fru Ndi has been widely denounced as an Iscariot and there was a reported attempt to torch his property in Bamenda. Only one constituent member of the so-called AACC joined in denouncing Ni John Fru Ndi. He was in the minority in doing so since the rest said nothing. Cameroon Concord News is concerned about the hypocrisy of the so-called AACC in giving tacit support to Fru Ndi through the open support provided by its constituent member whom it failed to even rebut.  The silent endorsement of the support by its core member for the Fru Ndi’s Convention over the ban by the IG confirms the fear by many people that the reboot conference and its offspring the AACC are the amorphous Trojan horses of treachery in the Ambazonia revolution. The danger that this amorphous Trojan horse may be in league with Atanga Nji to derail this struggle appears real.

There are disturbing indicators pointing to this direction. France’s record of criminality in French Cameroun and in the territory of Ambazonia is not in dispute. It is their policy to pay or appoint people to claim responsibility for certain crimes deflecting attention away from them. The admission of responsibility of some crimes committed on our people by some supposed Southern Cameroons defense commanders or surrogates on their behalf is troubling. This conduct assists the enemy. Atanga Nji who is fast replacing Isa Tchiroma as the genocide war propaganda chief of French Cameroun accused Southern Cameroons fighters for attempting to abduct school children and killing one of the soldiers who was deployed to protect the students.

Paul Atanga Nji intended to whitewash the conduct of French Cameroun’s soldiers and portray their deployment as necessitated to provide protection to school children from abduction by Ambazonia combatants. Paul Atanga Nji accused Ambazonia combatants of raping and impregnating school girls. Paul Atanga Nji the dangerous criminal by making these false allegations is preparing the ground to abduct our children from schools and lay the accusation on our fighters. He knows about the international outcry and outrage that the abduction of school girls in Nigeria has caused.  Under serious pressure from Ambazonia fighters, French Cameroun is resorting to blackmail to discredit our revolution. Its strategy policy is to commit these crimes and get some corrupt Ambazonians to claim responsibility. This will undermine the ongoing efforts by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to unite, modernize and operationalize our fighting forces and our self-defense fighting strategy

The Atanga strategy is based on patently false serious allegations which so-called commanders have failed to counter. Failing to counter these false allegations does harm to the revolutionary war of liberation and the image of our valent combatants in the international community and at home. The internet and social media surrogates for these commanders spend time attacking concerned Ambazonians who are craving for a reformed strategic and tactical self-defense strategy aimed at defeating the enemy. There are indeed several enemy targets within our territory which can be taken out.If properly identified, they will deter the enemy from its onslaught against our people.

The allegations made by Atanga Nji and the failure to counter them are alarming. The militarization of our territory, the brutalizing of our students, the torching of schools and extensive civilian settlements within our territory are well documented.  As Secretary-General of French Cameroun’s National Security Council, Atanga Nji has always been one of the master minds of this criminal policy and strategy. On the request of Nalova Lyonga and Okalia Bilai, armed soldiers who were deployed to the University of Buea and civilian settlements in Buea brutalized, humiliated, abducted, raped and maimed several students who were shouting, “no violence, no violence, no violence” in efforts to deter the crimes.   Prior to this, the heavily militarized University Buea became the laboratory and guinea pig for culture genocide of the Southern Cameroons. Protesting students were massacred, maimed, raped, abducted and jailed.

This policy was extended to all the institutions of learning in the territory of Ambazonia and rape, maiming, theft of property, and torching of schools and public buildings became the hallmark of soldiers deployed to commit these crimes to humiliate and subdue Ambazonians.  The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia took the decision to close schools in part to protect our children from these perverts and predators and to halt the corruption of our educational system and its core value system. Atanga Nji allegation that the soldiers who were deployed by French Cameroun were to protect the students and that it is Ambazonia forces who are committing the crimes lacks merit. Ambazonians are taking the responsibility for some of the crimes that are aiding the enemy by deflecting attention from their crimes and blackmailing our fighting forces who have made the French Cameroun criminal occupying forces the object of their attacks. Cameroon Concord News cautions that the destruction of civilian settlements is the method used by French Cameroun in its prosecution of the war. It used it against its own people from the 1950s.

Communication Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Hon.Chris Anu, made a very wise call for all our self-defense fighting forces to come together to  review the hit and run tactic which although necessary and effective in some regards may be relied on by the enemy to delegitimize our revolution in other respects. Lest we forget, Atanga Nji in his capacity as a CPDM Section President and so-called North West elite prior to his reboot appointment as Minister of Territorial Administration called for the formation and arming of pro-CPDM militias in Ambazonia to kill and maim our people. He has been appointed to implement tested policies and to rely on elaborate structures French Cameroun had established within the territory of Ambazonia under the supervision of administrative officers and Iscariot elites to exterminate our people. Prior to his ministerial order and instructions to governors and DOs, banning motor cycles and timely reports on the enforcement of the crimes soldiers were deployed to execute, some people thought that torching of motorcycles all over our territory and the shoot to kill conduct by soldiers were the work of ill-trained over zealous soldiers. In a few egregious cases, French Cameroun government pretentiously promised to investigate the crimes but never ever.  God being a God of justice, Paul Atanga Nji has emerged on the scene and provided documentary evidence of the deliberate genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes ordered and committed against Ambazonians by the crime syndicate in power in French Cameroun.

The banning of motor cycles, the most popular means of transportation in Ambazonia is intended to enforce an effective ban of transportation generally, trading, agriculture, education, hospitalization, and indeed the economic life of Ambazonia.  This is tantamount to using starvation as a weapon of war criminalized by the Malabo Protocol on the African Court. The razing of civilian settlements, the elaborate rapes, mass extermination, torching of schools and markets, deportation of the civilian population from their ancestral homes, subjecting civilians to  unbearable conditions of life, indignities on women and children, sexual violence, torture, militarization of civilian settlements and schools, looting and pillage and terrorizing the civilian population through abductions in Ambazonia and in Nigeria are international crimes punishable by the Rome Statute and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

The abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government in Abuja Nigeria by a combined force of Nigeria and French Cameroun’s special agents with French Cameroun’s agents wearing uniforms provided by Nigeria special agents to conceal their illegal operations in the territory of Nigeria aggravated the criminal responsibility of Nigerian and French Cameroun’s leaders in the acts of terrorism that are threatening peace and security in the Gulf of Guinea.  Cameroon Concord News can conclusively state that Paul Atanga Nji was always present and played a significant role of the realization of these crimes.

We of this publication can also authoritatively state that the outing of the identity and role of Paul Atanga Nji through his recent appointment has at long last exposed the limits and vulnerability of the French Cameroun’s crime syndicate and its criminal policies in Ambazonia. As a crime robot, Paul Atanga Nji will be remote-controlled to inflict more mass crimes against our people. He may also use hit and run tactics to kill to justify mass murder and torching of civilian settlements by French Cameroun forces.

A united Ambazonia defense strategy advocated by the Acting President Dr Samuel Sako Ikome and efficiently communicated and explained by Secretary of Communication, Chris Anu has not ruled out hit and run but rightly states that it must be accompanied by support measures aimed at protecting Ambazonia civilian population and property.  Cameroon Concord News has stated that France through French Cameroun colonized Ambazonia for its natural resources and economic potentials.  The hitting of these economic targets as strongly advocated by the Interim Government and explained by the Secretary for Communication Chris Anu, will remove the pressure from our civilian population.  By targeting these economic targets, we will deprive the enemy of the revenue from the resources it is exploiting to fund the war of genocide against us. The agents of the war economy as well as the gendarmes, the soldiers, the police, the administrators, and collaborators reside in our territory; they operate in or from our territory and their women and children reside among us.  There is a clear distinction between the civilian population of French Cameroun who must be protected and agents of the enemy operating the war economy and their military operations. Over the years, due to an elaborate policy of corruption and land grab, French Cameroun’s administrators, politicians and military officers-built mansions in our territory and continue to operate businesses in our territory.

These are the elaborate structures that the enemy has used to enslave us for over half a century. This war is intended to protect the economic interests of France and the crime syndicate within our territory.  A strategic realignment our self-defense strategy will deprive the enemy of the resources used to perpetrate the genocide of our people. It will deprive them of the resources relied on to destroy our civilian settlements, torch the motor cycles of our people and rape our women and girls. If Paul Atanga Nji places a ban on motor cycles, we too can place a ban on all administrative vehicles, military vehicles and vehicles used to conduct the business operations of French Cameroun’s colonial interests within our territory. 

There are many strategic decisions that a united, well-coordinated self-defense force can take which Cameroon Concord News Group Strategic Editorial Team has withheld from publication.

However, the self-defense policy towards collaborators and enemies of the revolution cannot wait.  The people of Lebialem torched the house of their MP one Benard Foju who in complicity with the crime syndicate betrayed them. The self-defense forces in the Northern Zone must borrow from Lebialem and send these traitors parking to French Cameroun.  Cameroon Concord News has observed a recent trend in the Northern Zone where CPDM criminal zealots have been emboldened to organize under military supervision depopulated televised addresses supporting Paul Biya. Participants in these crimes have returned to the communities with no consequences and this may embolden others to join them in their treachery. It is from the pool of these traitors that Atanga Nji will recruit hitmen to terrorize our civilian populations.

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report therefore call on the citizens and self-defense forces within our territory to quickly answer the appeal by the Interim Government to unite to develop a common strategy to defeat the enemy.  Atanga Nji may be a priceless criminal treasure to the French Cameroun crime syndicate. Cameroon Concord News and a majority of Ambazonians know him as a tug and a hardened criminal who has crossed the blood of his people for material gain. He and others supporting him or willing to join him or who have joined him, and the crime syndicate must be stopped. There must be serious consequences for his unpardonable treachery. As a robot of French Cameroun’s crime syndicate, he and his master cannot stop our train of victory to reclaim Buea the Capital of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

When the international community ignores ethnic cleansing, it often ends up with a massive bill. If history teaches us anything about averting our eyes from repressive regimes it is that, sooner or later, we must fund refugee camps, send peacekeepers, host negotiations, accommodate thousands of migrants seeking asylum, and then help rebuild shattered nations. Never mind the stain on our collective conscience for standing by as civilians are slaughtered and displaced.

Cameroon, a central African country best known for soccer, is sliding toward ethnic cleansing. Yet, our politicians offer the usual clichés (‘we urge all sides to exercise restraint’). Gregory Stanton, the genocide scholar, has identified the stages through which a society goes before genocide begins Unfortunately, Cameroon is on the way to meeting Stanton’s criteria.

The government of Cameroon’s leader, Paul Biya, has responded to peaceful protests with a disproportionate military crackdown, a curfew, the arrest of journalists and opposition figures and the reported torture of dozens of activists. According to the International Crisis Group, dozens have been killed. There are credible reports of soldiers shooting civilians from helicopters and spraying tear gas at people emerging from Sunday mass. There are also verifiable reports that the security forces have carried out beheadings.

Consequently, since the crackdown on dissent began two years ago, more than 40,000 civilians have fled across the border to Nigeria, leaving behind empty villages. In January, 80 Cameroonian troops followed the refugees, trying to forcibly return them, breaking numerous international and regional laws while they were at it. Yet, Nigeria facilitates the violation of its own sovereignty, keen to supress activities that might inspire its domestic secessionists.

Cameroon’s crisis is rooted in the marginalisation of the Anglophone minority (20 per cent of the population). The government denies English-speaking regions in the south west and north west any degree of autonomy. The Francophone-dominated regime labels anyone calling for devolution of power a terrorist. Yet, the more the government cracks down, the more popular are calls for a new Anglophone nation called Ambazonia. In response to the regime’s tactics, some English-speaking activists have begun kidnapping or murdering officials and security forces.

In January, 47 Anglophone leaders were abducted from a meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with the apparent assistance of local security forces. The leaders were deported to Cameroon where they remain in jail, without access to legal representation. Their treatment fuels rumours, intensifies distrust of the authorities, deepens the sense of grievance, radicalises civil society and polarises the population.

Meanwhile, in French-speaking Cameroon there is little media coverage or debate about the increasing violence in the English-speaking areas. One local observer comments (in an email exchange in March) that Francophone public disengagement resembles the attitude of the rest of the British Isles toward Northern Ireland during the Troubles: they don’t want to know about it and hope it will fade away.

President Biya, in power since 1982, denies there are grounds for Anglophone grievance. However, until there is a unified and coherent Anglophone position, he will likely divide and rule. Biya also survives because of his usefulness to the international community: Cameroon is fighting Nigeria’s Islamist Boko Haram rebels in its Far North. In addition, the country hosts 350,000 refugees fleeing the violence in the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Biya is supported by France which has units of its Foreign Legion stationed around the region. Whereas the British left Africa at independence, the French never did. They remain closely involved in the economic and military life of their former colonies. Cameroon’s oil may be off the coast of the English-speaking region, but it is French companies running the rigs.

Representing moderate Anglophone voices are the Roman Catholic bishops of Bamenda, who have called on the government to begin genuine dialogue and to investigate attacks on civilians. The bishops warn that a volatile situation may deteriorate further. Observers believe the church is well-placed to host negotiations. However, the bishops’ opposite numbers in Francophone Cameroon failed to see the unrest in the same manner. A cleric interviewed for this article (who is anonymous for his own safety) suggests that the church’s French-speaking hierarchy prefers to maintain close ties with the regime, much as the church did in Rwanda before and during the 1994 genocide.

The background to Cameroon’s unrest

In 1961, a referendum asked the inhabitants of British Cameroon if they wanted to join next door Nigeria or French-speaking Cameroon. A third choice – independence – was not on offer. By default, the English-speaking Cameroonians found they were a minority in the new nation. A constitution guaranteeing equal rights was soon disregarded, and the Francophone majority took positions of power in the military and in government. Currently, only one of 36 cabinet members is Anglophone. And Cameroon long since ceased being a democracy: Amnesty condemns President Biya’s jails (‘deplorable’), and his track record of having journalists arrested and tortured. The World Justice Project ranks Cameroon as 109<sup>th out of 113 countries surveyed, worse than Afghanistan and Venezuela.

The UN Secretary General has called for inclusive talks, but as is often the case, the African Union takes no position on the violence. In May 2017, the UK government said it was standing by the disputed referendum at the heart of Anglophone grievances. In October, the UK called on all sides to reject violence. Such moral equivalence ignores the disproportionate force used by the Cameroon government, and it assumes both sides (armed forces against unarmed civilians) are equally to blame.

Cameroon could choose the Quebec model, with its own unique system within a federal Canada. Or the regime could cling to its centralised power structure, refusing to discuss a federal solution for fear of provoking wider unrest. If so, the calls for secession may become increasingly violent. The Ambazonia independence leaders have vowed to lay down their lives to achieve their goal. In the worst scenario, the Biya regime may use propaganda to manipulate the majority into rising up against the minority, as happened in Rwanda. Preventing this bloody eventuality depends on pressure from the international community, but most obviously from the French and British. The Catholic Church could also play a vital role, if it chose to. The time for it to assert its moral leadership is now.

Source: www.christiantoday.com

The conflict in Southern Cameroun following the declaration of the Republic of Ambazonia has created a humanitarian crisis with thousands of Southern Cameroonians fleeing into Nigeria. In this interview published by The New Telegraph, a lawyer and human rights activist, Abdul Oroh, examines the plight of the members of the Interim Government and other deportees including other issues. Excerpts…

What is your take on the influx of Cameroonian refugees into Nigeria?
The crisis in Cameroon has been there for a long time and many Cameroonians, especially the Anglophone Cameroonian in the South-West and North West provinces have been fleeing their country as a result of many years of oppression. In fact during our struggle for democracy in Nigeria, when we travelled abroad for conferences, seminars and other activities organised by the United Nations, we were always meeting people from Southern Cameroon. They were always at those fora to let people know about their situation. The problem dates back to the 1960s. The Southern Cameroonians constitute 20 per cent of the population of Cameroon as at the time they had independence in 1961.

After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Cameroon was divided into two and a part of it was given to Britain under United Nations Trusteeship. The other part was given to France under the same UN Trusteeship. At that time, even what is now Adamawa and Taraba states in Nigeria were also part of the U.N. Trusteeship under the British and was governed together with Nigeria. So that was why in those days, we had a party called the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC). Later, South-Western Cameroon became part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria while the North Western Cameroon became part of Northern Region of Nigeria.

When Nigeria became independent in 1960, Francophone Cameroon also became independent. So what happened was that the Anglophone Cameroonians felt somewhat uncomfortable with Nigeria and the UN gave them the option to either remain in Nigeria or go with Cameroon.There was a plebiscite and the northern part opted to stay with Nigeria.

That is why we have the people of the then Adamawa Province in present day Adamawa and Taraba states.Those in Southern Cameroon voted to go with Cameroon. But before even the British packed and left completely, the Southern Cameroon had been self governing at the same time the Northern Region and Eastern Region of Nigeria were self governing.

Later, the Southern Cameroon which was part of Eastern Nigeria walked out of the Eastern House of Assembly to join their Kith and kin on the other side. But before they could do what they called the Act of the Union, which would have defined the terms of their relationship, the Francophone Cameroon had already taken over their territory. The Republique du Cameroon had already moved in troops and gendarmes with the encouragement of France.

If France, a democratic nation colonised Cameroon, why has Cameroon remained virtually under a dictatorship?
Initially, Ahmadou Ahidjo who was their first President was a benevolent dictator and he tried to make the people including those in Southern Cameroon feel at home. The first two Vice Presidents were elected from Southern Cameroon while he was President.

But in 1965, he introduced a single party system which was in vogue in many parts of Africa. Of course, during this period there were agitations for an Act of the Union because it was supposed to be a federal republic . Before independence, the Cameroonian flag had one star but after that plebiscite, it became two stars and the whole idea was to show that it was a federation of two groups. However, this federal system was not defined either in their constitution or as a law.

The Republique du Cameroon was driven by the French colonial policy of assimilation which meant that the language, culture, food and way of life would be French. Up till today, you can see that many of these Francophone countries in West and Central Africa are still using the CFA Franc which is tied now to the Euro.

Today all their foreign exchange are domiciled in the Central Bank of France. So there had been a tendency towards restoration and retaining the system they have found themselves. Some of the people want the restoration of the status quo ante, others say, let us see whether we can struggle through the system and get recognition and equal treatment. These two tendencies had been coexisting in Cameroon but none of them had ever accepted the situation in the country. When Ahidjo introduced the single party rule, he had to enforce it using military fiat but the people have been agitating against it for many years.

Why has the matter lingered till the present day?
Around the early 1970s, President Ahmadou Ahidjo had what he called a referendum. This referendum was designed to eliminate the whole possibility of having any opposition or desenting voice and he got over 90 percent endorsement. At that time, it was still the United Republic of Cameroon with the two stars on their national flag. He however eliminated the idea of having a Vice President, created the position of a Prime Minister and appointed Paul Biya to handle the portfolio. Before this appointment, Paul Biya had been the Chef du Cabinet which is the equivalent of our Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Ahmadou Ahidjo was a loyal servant of France but after ruling Cameroon for 23 years, France forced him to step down though he was just 55 years old. They then appointed Paul Biya as the President. Immediately Biya came in, he enacted a decree changing the name of the country from United Republic of Cameroon to La Republique du Cameroon which was the original name of the country at independence in 1960 before its union with Southern Cameroon. He also removed one star on their national flag by fiat, leaving only one star on the important national symbol.

So as you can see, in Cameroon, a President can also govern by decrees without recourse to their National Assembly. The Southern Cameroonians are saying that by that act alone, Paul Biya had seceeded because he had broken the bond that united them. He has ruled for about 32 years; he has never tolerated opposition and he is not making any plans to step down. In fact they have elections this year, he’s 85 and he’s still running again to retain his seat. Right now, there are Cameroonian refugees not only in Nigeria but in Ghana, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, United States, South Africa etc. These are people who fled their country because of oppression

Does it mean there are no other political parties apart from the ruling party in Cameroon?
There are other political parties but they don’t have any significant impact on the politics of the country During the election in 1992, a Southerner and other progressives in Cameroon, formed a party called Social Democratic Front (SDF). The party won the election but the results were allegedly rigged by the French and Biya was returned.

They didn’t have any qualms about it; they simply changed the results just to keep him in power. As a result of these interferences from France you can see that almost all the Francophone countries in West and Central Africa, with the exception of Senegal, had been having political instability. Look at Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso and even Togo. It is only Senegal and even there was crisis in Benin Republic at some time.

What other factors could have been responsible for the instability?
You know that in the Anglophone countries, you have the common law system like the one we have here in Nigeria. It upholds the principle of presumption of innocence until you are proven guilty, you are entitled to representation by a lawyer and the due process is followed in prosecution.

These are all part of the common law tradition but it is not obtainable in Anglophone Cameroon. Their students were supposed to be taught in English Language. In fact they had always been taught in English but suddenly the Government of Cameroon had been discouraging that and they are now even bringing only Francophone lawyers to the courts in Southern Cameroon.

These are lawyers who speak only French and the Anglophone lawyers are now expected to speak French or cease to appear in courts in other parts of Cameroon.

Isn’t Cameroon a bi-lingual country?
The issue is not even bi-lingualism, the issue, according to them is discrimination. Those who speak English are considered inferior to others who speak French, in fact some ministers have referred to them as dogs. It is the oppression of a linguistic minority in Cameroon. Some of those people agitating for freedom can speak French because they were forced to learn the language but it is wrong to force people to speak a language. As a Yoruba, you must not be forced to learn Hausa or Igbo. As a Nigerian, you cannot be forced to speak French; that is the issue now.
Since October last year, all the schools in Southern Cameroon have been closed because the teachers were protesting. They arrested all their leaders. Instead of negotiating with these people, the government is using force; shooting on sight, burning villages, arresting people and assassinating some of them. Even members of the Bar were not spared and some members of the parliament from the region decided to leave the parliament They walked out of their parliament.
In the course of all these agitations and violence, some Southern Cameroonians met and declared the Republic of Ambazonia for their people.

Have they seceeded from Cameroon?
If you ask them, they will tell you that it is not a secession because they’ve always been two different countries and what bound them together have been removed. They will also argue that the Act of the Union which ought to had defined their relationship was never enacted by the parliament of the Republique du Cameroon. They will tell you that they have been in bondage all these years.

How come many Cameroonians are now refugees in Nigeria?
As a result of this latest crisis, about 40,000 Cameroonian refugees are in Nigeria and have been duly registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Now, some of their leaders who engineered this breakaway are also in Nigeria. They are here because the closest land border to them is Nigeria through Cross River, Taraba and Adamawa states. Don’t forget that there is ethnic affinity between these people and the people of the three aforementioned states in Nigeria. So, they have been fleeing in droves into Nigeria. You need to visit the website of many Cameroonian newspapers to see what is happening.

At a stage, their government cut off services in that region. Since last year, there has been no internet access in Southern Cameroon.There is even a joke around it as some people now describe the situation as a conflict between the Internet and non-Internet Cameroon.

It is rather unfortunate that even though these are our neighbours, many Nigerians including our leaders do not know the problems they have been facing in that country.
In Niger too, we have the Hausa and Fulani tribes; in Chad we also have these tribes who share language and cultural affinities with their kinsmen in Nigeria.

We have the people in Cameroon who share cultural affinity with the Efik, Ibibio, Ekoi and other tribes in Cross River State. There are also thousands of Nigerians living and working in Cameroon and most of them are in Southern Cameroon.

So, Nigeria ought to show greater understanding of what is happening in Cameroon and possibly intervene in such a way that there could be a peaceful resolution of some of these conflicts. Apart from the military cooperation at the level of tbe Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) in the fight against Boko Haram, there seems to be no real contact between Nigeria and Cameroon. However, some people have alleged that there seem to be a secret pact or an unholy alliance between the two countries to oppress or suppress the agitation of the Southern Cameroonians.

They said that even under the policy of “hot pursuit,” they cannot pursue their enemies from Cameroon all the way to Abuja. Maybe along the border something can happen without the knowledge of the Nigerian authorities but even that one is closely monitored and very rare.

We later found out that they were detained by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the directive of the National Security Adviser (NSA). So, we wrote to the NSA to grant us access to these people. Although he acknowledged receipt of the letter, he did not respond to our request. We then wrote to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice; the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as the Minister of Defence on the same issue but response was not forthcoming
Later, another batch of Cameroonians were arrested in Gembu, Taraba State. These were refugees fleeing their country. They were fleeing because of the violence and oppression there. They are not part of the leadership of the movement in Southern Cameroon but were arrested by the police and handed over to the military.

They were subsequently flown to Abuja and detained in a secret location. The next day, both the refugees from Gembu and the leaders of the Southern Cameroon agitation were put in an aircraft and flown to Cameroon.
Before their deportation, we had filed an action in court to grant us access to them and for them to be released but they didn’t even allow us access to them. But on the 18th of January 2018, based on our petitions, the UNHCR at the intervention of Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, was granted access to those people.

Officials of the UNHCR saw them, profiled them while they were still in detention . By that time they had spent about two weeks in detention. Many of them who were not really refugees or who had not asked for asylum used the opportunity and asked to be granted asylum.

Were they granted asylum?
No! Once a refugee requests for asylum in Nigeria, what our government should do is to set up a committee between the Nigeria Commission for Refugees, Nigeria Immigration Service and the UNHCR to review the case of the refugee(s). If Nigeria feels that they cannot grant them refugee status to stay in Nigeria, the law says they should hand them over to the UNHCR which will now transfer them to a third party. Nigeria is not supposed to send them to a country where they don’t feel safe.

They are supposed to be treated with respect and dignity but these people were detained by the DIA in an underground cell which was a dehumanising and a cruel form of punishment.
Many of them are intellectuals; their President, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is a lecturer with the America University of Nigeria, Yola.

The other one, Dr. Fidelis Nde Che is the Director of Academic Planning at the same university; Elias Eyambe is a lawyer; Blaise Berinyu is also a lawyer. These are members of their Bar association that fled the country. Dr. Nfor Ngala Nfor who is the oldest among them is 66-year-old has been a refugee in Nigeria for a long time. He is a recognised refugee. Some others like him had requested for asylum; some are already recognised and carry refugee documents.

The other man, Dr Cornelius Kwanga is a senior lecturer at the Umar Musa Yar Adua University, Katsina, while Dr Ogork Ntui is also a lecturer at the same university. One of those arrested is an Associate Professor at Bayero University Kano (BUK) and has been resident in Nigeria since 1993. He is even married to a Nigerian. Dr Henry Kimeng is an Associate Professor at the Ahmafu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and has been here since 1987, thirty one years ago. There is also Mrs Nalowa Bih, a single mother of two kids living in Abuja here. She is a lawyer and of dual citizenship, holding Nigerian and Cameroonian passports Dr Ojong Okonghu Enoh is a naturalised Nigerian. He has a Nigerian passport and is a businessman based in Calabar.

Do you also have the identities of those arrested in Gembu?
Of course, the ones from Gembu, the first three names, Wilfred Augustine, Thank God Genesis and Nasiru Uba are all Nigerians. One of them is 21 years, the oldest, Augustine is 52. They have Nigerian citizenship and hold Nigerian passports but were living in Cameroon before the crisis.

What do you want the Nigerian government to do about these people now that they’ve already deported them?
We want a open investigation to be conducted on the treatment these people got in the hands of government and security forces in Nigeria. We need to know how they were arrested, who gave the order for their arrest, why they were arrested and why they were deported to Cameroon to meet certain death. What happened to them violates both the UN Convention, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and even our own law on refugees.

I am also demanding that those who are Nigerians among them should be returned to Nigeria; those who are not Nigerians but have been deported, the Cameroonian authorities should be asked to hand them over to the UNHCR if Nigeria doesn’t want them back in this country. It is the UNHCR that can help find a third party country for them because they are not likely to get justice in Cameroon.

The Cameroonian Minister of Communications, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, has already declared that they were terrorists and that “they will face Cameroonian justice for their crimes.” These people have not even been interrogated and they’ve not been tried by any court of law.

Are you not hopeful they can get justice in Cameroon?
You remember that I told you earlier that the Cameroonian legal system which is operational in La Republique du Cameroon ( the Francophone part) is adversarial. But these people are not from La Republique du Cameroon, they are from Anglophone Cameroon and they are only exposed to the common law system which recognises presumption of innocence, the fact that you can be defended by a lawyer and you are not supposed to say anything to incriminate yourself.

Our grouse remains that they have not even granted us access to meet them and they have not granted access to their families to see them. Some of them have medical challenges such as high blood pressure, one has kidney problem and one of the women is pregnant .

So, right now, nobody knows the fate of all these people. We don’t also know the fate of even those who are Nigerians The Federal Government has not said a word about them. Even though some media reports quoted the Minister of Defence as saying something, he did not mention their names.

Is the deportation not justifiable?
It cannot be justified. Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon and even if there is a treaty secretly signed, unless it is ratified by the National Assembly of both countries, it cannot take effect. They must go through the due process of law. The committee which the Minister of Defence said had been set up must meet to review the status of these people before you take any action.

You may recall the Abdulrahman Shugaba case who was deported to Cameroon way back in the 1980s, he was deported based on the allegation that he was not a Nigerian and of course you know what the Supreme Court said about it. The law is clear on this matter because the courts had ruled on it in the past; there is already a precedence.

You are not supposed to deport, you are supposed to protect a refugee. Even if he is involved in armed combat, that is granted but not conceding that any of them was involved in acts of insurrection in their country, they are still entitled to be treated with dignity and should be made to face justice according to the due process of law.

Culled from The New Telegraph

The Communication Secretary of the Interim Government, the Right Honorable Chris Anu delivered a very important message to Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians a few days ago, which require a critical examination in some respects.  After critically examining the Chris Anu pronouncements, Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the cautionary statements made by the Hon Communication Secretary. Time has come for remedial action to be taken to put breaks to chaos and reckless conduct that is compromising strategic organization of our self-defense efforts. Some individuals had gone too far to attempt to personify the self-defense efforts in and out of our homeland. These reckless and unsubstantiated claims stifled efforts at strategic co-ordination of the self-defense efforts on the ground and the support for our self-defense war efforts. Prior to the well- conceived message delivered by the Interim Government Communication Secretary on this matter, Cameroon Intelligence Report conducted investigations and came out with the result that the conduct complained of, had effectively jeopardized self-defense combat operations in some combat zones putting the lives of our combatants and civilian population in harm’s way.  Cameroon Concord News Group investigations among our self-defense fighting forces, critical supporters of our war efforts in and out of our territory, veterans of liberations wars in other countries, and tactical war experts revealed that they all were alarmed by the frequency of the statements put out claiming responsibility for attacks in ongoing combats largely on guerrilla tactics.

Pinned against a conventional army that has over the past 56 years of its war of genocide defined the enemy as Southern Cameroons civilians, that method of communication is perilous and reckless.  The experts and combatants that Cameroon Concord News talked to in its enquiry, were alarmed that a supposed commander of a liberation self-defense troops visited them in Dadi with a strange lady in his command vehicle and soon thereafter, the video of that visit was published in the social media. Soon after the publication of that video on the social media, the criminal assault against the civilian population of Akwaya and Dadi was launched with devastating consequences and territory that was hitherto held by our liberation forces was lost. That reckless conduct led to the arrest of thirty-six Ambazonians refugees in Kogi state and then the abduction of our leaders in Abuja Nigeria and now that of 4 Ambazonians and then 8 others in Calabar, Nigeria. Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal based on information posted by persons close to the same leader, that the Kogi and Calabar arrests are linked to his actions and the mysterious woman who was with him in Dadi in that misadventure.  Cameroon Concord News lauds the spotlight brought by the Communication Secretary of the IG on the activities of this strange woman who remains a mystery even to the troops the Ambazonian commander went to inspect in Dadi and to a majority of Southern Cameroonians/ Ambazonia.  Even if she was a commander in the liberation struggle, the tactical question that begs for answers, is why was she placed on tactical communication and coordination of the war efforts in a critical strategic territory required for the prosecution of a war of survival? Why send her to contact our refugee population and other Ambazonians within the proximity of our refugees’ population and to organize a meeting which could affect the protections afforded these vulnerable victims of a genocide and war of aggression in our homeland?

Cameroon Concord News Group came out of its investigations with the conclusion that the most effective tool in successful military campaigns is an effective military communication strategy. The social media and other communication tools used by the said commander is amateurish, and indeed helps the enemy more than our ground forces staking their lives for the freedom of our homeland and the protection of our civilian population undergoing a genocide.  This lack of an effective modern military communication strategy has done so much harm to the tactical and strategic planning of self-defense operations and the ability of our fighting forces to attack, defeat or even to effectively hold territory in areas where the enemy is not present. Some of our bloggers have even done so much harm by constantly publishing information that has led the enemy forces to deploy and commit crimes against our civilian population.

The lack of an effective modern military communication equipment and strategy both for the supposed commanders living abroad, his combat forces have make it possible for French Cameroun, France and Nigeria who are supporting its genocide war operations to use technical intelligence to intercept their communications and to take pre-emptive moves through abductions to frustrate all attempts to plan military operations.  The exposure of the Dadi strange woman in the Dadi amateurish video disaster, and  the social media outings by the Ambazonia commanders and his constant field communications with ground combatants about operations of a military nature, must have provided a wonder opportunity for the cooperating and coordinating countries in the genocide in Ambazonia like French Cameroun, France and Nigeria to deploy technical intelligence, including communications intercepts to monitor and derail our effective military efforts.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the decision taken by the Interim Government to unite all the self-defense forces in our territory and to unite our self-defense efforts for better co-ordination, tactical and strategic planning.   The nature of the war and genocide against us warrants a strong, well-coordinated and sophisticated planning regarding, tactics, strategy, recruitment, training, deployments, logistics, communication, technical and human intelligence; policy and diplomatic strategies, civilian and refugee protections.  We need tactical and strategic alliances far and near worldwide from state and none actors to win this war. A strong assessment of our available resources and capacity to defend our homeland in the short term based on the public image of our Ambazonia commander and his actions and those supporting his methods have left potential state and non -state supporters to hold back.  The personification of the peoples’ struggle around an individual rather than a strong all-embracing support base may be casting doubts on the minds of our potential supports base.

It was incumbent and timely for the Interim Government to make a strong statement to reassure our state and non-state actors international support base. The statement was also warranting to bring all our fighting unites in the ground together to provide them with means of subsistence, logistics, effective save communication network, ordnance for effective operations.  Cameroon Concord News agrees with the Interim Government policy statement that war without diplomacy will not be effective and diplomacy without war will not be effective either. Both must go together. Lest we forget, the forces allied against us are an alliance built by French Cameroun with France and Nigeria. We too need through diplomacy to build our strategic alliances with state and non-state actions in the sub-region and other parts of the world. These can only be attained through diplomacy. We need a strong military response to the genocide and the colonial war of aggression to force the enemy to release our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government and thousands of our abductees.  We need a strong military response to take effective control of our territory, and protect our people, our resources and our hard-won independence on the precious blood of the martyrs of our revolution.  These imperatives warranted a strong call for discipline and a stop to actions that portray us and our revolution in bad light and an end to the chaotic infantile personification of the peoples’ revolution.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls on Ambazonians and friends of Ambazonia to cooperate and contribute massively to the Interim Government to move this revolution in a structured manner towards our stated objective of freeing and protecting our homeland Ambazonia from genocide, external colonial aggression and conspiratorial economic exploitation on our blood and sweat.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group