Two Cameroonian soldiers died and four were seriously injured on Friday after a mine exploded in an anglophone region hit by violence between separatists and the government. “A Cameroonian army vehicle went over a mine” in Eyumojock, a town in an English-speaking part of the southwest, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The source said the blast close to the Nigerian border caused “two deaths and four serious injuries”. Eyumojock lies between Mamfe, the main town of the Manyu, and Ekok “in an epicentre of violence in the southwestern Anglophone region,” the source added.

Since late 2017, anglophone separatists have killed 30 members of the security forces, according to an AFP count based on official statements and including the two deaths on Friday. Other observers in Yaounde believe the toll is higher. Northwest and southwest Cameroon are home to the English-speaking inhabitants of Cameroon, who make up 20% of the population.

Separatist ambitions have long simmered in the two minority anglophone regions in the west of the country, where people complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking elite. The deep socio-political crisis has gradually turned into a low-intensity armed conflict in recent months.

The separatists, who are fighting for independence, have asked Yaounde and military personnel to leave their territory, calling them “occupation forces”. For three months, armed separatist groups have ramped up violence against the police, kidnapped civil servants and clashed with the army.

As the crisis grows, new separatist groups have appeared, posing on social networks with weapons and a flag of “Ambazonia”, the name of the state they want to create. Cameroonians swept up in the conflict are facing a humanitarian crisis, according to aid groups, as they struggle to reach people in remote areas that have become virtually off-limits.

Source: AFP

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today expressing its alarm at continuing forced returns to Nigeria of refugees and asylum-seekers from Cameroon’s Far North Region.

Despite UNHCR’s advocacy efforts and engagement with the authorities, 385 Nigerians have been forcibly returned from Cameroon since the beginning of 2018. The majority of them were returned during the last month.

More specifically, on 10 April, 160 Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers were forcibly returned to Nigeria’s Borno state – an area whose residents continue to face risks. They had been seeking refuge in Cameroon’s Waza district since 2014.

On 17 April, an additional 118 asylum-seekers were forcibly returned to Borno state. They had arrived in Cameroon only two days earlier, having fled violence by Boko Haram.

The forced returns are in violation of the principle of no forced returns or non-refoulement. They are also a significant setback to progress previously achieved by Cameroon in granting asylum to Nigerian civilians fleeing Boko Haram violence in Borno State.

UNHCR appeals once again to the authorities in Cameroon to refrain from further forced returns and to ensure protection to those fleeing insecurity and persecution in Nigeria, in accordance with Cameroon’s national and international obligations. In total, UNHCR has registered some 87,600 Nigerian refugees in the country.

While recognizing the legitimate national security concerns of States affected by the Boko Haram crisis, it is important that refugee protection and national security are not seen as being incompatible. Properly functioning screening, registration and asylum systems help safeguard host country security.

UNHCR reiterates its support to the government of Cameroon to ensure that all those seeking international protection have access to efficient screening and registration procedures, as well as appropriate reception arrangements.

Source: UNHCR.org

The Communication Secretary of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Hon. Chris Anu, today used his first appearance before Southern Cameroonians in the UK to condemn every act of terror against Ambazonian civilians by French Cameroun army soldiers.

Addressing 100s of Southern Cameroonians gathered in London for a protest march during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Chris Anu said the world expected from the Commonwealth a clear stance and firm answers regarding the atrocities of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime as well as with regard to respect for human rights.

Addressing the Southern Cameroons public, Mr Anu called for generous donations to the struggle saying if Ambazonians get tired of giving; French Cameroun troops will eventually exterminate everyone in the territory.

Chris Anu said French Cameroun orchestrated presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections will not hold in Southern Cameroons. Earlier before the protest march, Chris Anu told the BBC that there will be no negotiations until the Interim Head of State, Sisisku Ayuk Tabe and all those arrested due to the Southern Cameroons uprising gain their freedom.

“We are still suffering from the unjust curfew, siege and killings against our people,” said Chris Anu. He also addressed the members of the Southern Cameroons UK governing body who were present in London.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the US and the European Union have been seeking to delay presidential elections in Cameroon due to the crisis in Southern Cameroons, in the hope of winning Ambazonian agreement to accept President Biya’s Greek Gift of a Minister of Territorial Administration and Secondary Education.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sesekou Ashu Isong in London

Syria has handed over to Russia two unexploded cruise missiles it discovered in the aftermath of the recent attack by the United States, Britain and France, Syrian sources say.

“Two cruise missiles that did not detonate during the US missile strike on Syria overnight on April 14 were found by the Syrian military. Both are in rather good condition. These missiles were handed over to Russian officer the day before yesterday (April 17),” a source in the Syrian Defense Ministry told Russia’s TASS news agency on Thursday.

The Syrian military sent the missiles over on board a plane on Wednesday, the source added. The Russian Defense Ministry had yet to confirm the report.

On April 14, US President Donald Trump along with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Theresa May authorized a joint missile attack against alleged chemical weapons manufacturing sites inside Syria.

The attack, carried out in response to what the US and its allies insisted was a chemical attack by the Syrian government, saw 105 cruise missiles being fired at targets in Damascus and Homs.

It was not clear whether the discovered missiles were American Tomahawks or Scalp/Storm Shadow, codenames for a cruise missile jointly developed by France and the UK.

However, there is a good chance that the missiles were fired by the US military as the UK and France only fired 20 missiles collectively.

Days before the attack, Trump had warned Russia, a key supporter of Damascus in the war against foreign-backed militants, that it should get ready to shoot down “nice and new and smart” US missiles over Syria.

Despite claims by the US military that all missiles hit their targets, the Russian defense ministry said after the attack that 71 missiles were intercepted by Syria’s air defense, which relies on Russian equipment.

This is while none of the missiles landed in Tartus and Hmeymim, where Russian missile defense systems, namely the advanced S-400 system, were deployed to protect Russian bases. Russia did not use its own systems to intercept the missiles.

Trump pressed ahead with his plans to attack despite a decision by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a fact-finding mission to the alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Douma upon requests from Moscow and Damascus.

The Russian center for the reconciliation of conflicting parties examined Douma on April 9, two days before the purported gas attack, to find no traces of chemical weapons.

Source: Presstv

Forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé and the Rapid Intervention Battalion including a special security outfit fighting the Ambazonian self-defense groups have reportedly killed several civilians in the Manyu County. Our correspondent in the Upper Bayang Sub constituency in Manyu on Thursday confirmed that many civilians lost their lives when they were fired at by Cameroon government forces in Kendem village.

We gathered that during the Kendem attack, the soldiers were able to call for reinforcement from Bamenda which led to the exchange of gunfire between the military and the militants.  The regime in Yaoundé has developed a diabolic harsh ploy claiming that there exists an exaggerated speculation on military operations in Manyu involving government troops and suspected Southern Cameroons militants.

A highly placed military official in Mamfe who spoke to our undercover reporter hinted that many soldiers are paying the supreme price for a senseless war declared by the 85 year old President Biya. A rescue team supported by a detachment from the Bamenda mechanized division was dispatched to Eyumojock yesterday to locate and support government troops battling Ambazonian militants.

The onetime beautiful village of Kendem has been deserted. Government forces have mounted a gendarmerie check point near Chief Ako Stanley’s palace. Cameroon Concord News has also gotten information that the Eyumojock attack casualties were heavy.

This item is still developing

By Judith Fon

Cameroon Concord News Group

Hundreds of Southern Cameroons protesters from all over Europe and the UK are heading to London for a massive demonstration on Friday against a possible President Biya presence in the Commonwealth heads of government meeting and to show solidarity with the Ambazonian freedom fighters back home. In a global outpouring of anti-Biya sentiment, London and the East Midlands including Belgium and France are expected to record the biggest turnout.

In UK, at least a thousand people will join London city’s biggest Southern Cameroons demonstration ever, Metropolitan Police have said. Organizers are anticipating a sellout crowd with banners exposing the genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

Anti-French Cameroun demonstrators are also expected to pack the streets north of the United Nations headquarters in New York as the situation in Southern Cameroons continues to deteriorate.  Echoing the words of Martin Luther King III, the Communications Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Chris Anu told Cameroon Concord News that “Just because you have the biggest guns does not mean you must use it on innocent Southern Cameroonians.”

Hon. Chris Anu also noted that the time has come for the world to listen to Southern Cameroonians – and Southern Cameroonians are saying, `We want to stay as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.’ Ambazonians have strongly endorsed the policy of their Interim Government and the widely acclaimed statements of Hon Chris Anu, that the preservation of the sanctity of human life must be a sacred commitment of all. In the light of this demonstrable policy which accords with the principles of international law and practices of civilized nations, Cameroon Concord News deems it necessary to once more highlight the history of international criminality on which French Cameroun was founded.

This distinguishing criminal policy clearly defines French Cameroun’s identity and markedly distinguishes it from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The perpetual distinction between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and French Cameroun lies in the premium placed by Ambazonia on the protection of civilians not participating in French Cameroun’s genocide war against Ambazonia and French Cameroun’s policy of cowardly criminal annihilation of armless civilians.  For example, while Ambazonia liberation forces arrested, interrogated and released, Professor Leke Tambo, Justice Martin Mbeng and other civilians, French Cameroun and its criminal collaborators like George Tabetando, kidnapped and executed in cold blood seven Ambazonia civilians in Kendem, Manyu County.

In another cowardly act, a very desperate French Cameroun regime faked the abduction of foreign citizens who were controlled, protected and given safe passage by well-disciplined Ambazonia forces hoping to use the blackmail to obtain an adverse European Union resolution against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its revolutionary war of liberation. This criminal government network of kidnappers for ransom in French Cameroun and the immediate ethnic inner cycle of the Buhari government in Nigeria masked in the fight against Boko Haram superintended by this network are well documented. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has expressly outlawed the abduction of foreign nationals and has consistently condemned the abduction of its President and members of its Interim Government by the criminal network in Nigeria and French Cameroun.  The plethora defining and distinctive irreconcilables between French Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, make life together in any form impossible.

One of the virtues of having a functional Interim Government is to enable the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to have a structured government to define, determine and direct our collective and individual actions in a manner that would clearly distinguish us from the brutal criminal enemy from which we have moved away. French Cameroun was built on the blood of its nationalists and citizens who sought true independence from the criminal French colonial empire of despair and death.  For fifty-six years, the economy of the Southern Cameroons has been raped, looted, pillaged and devastated to sustain the economy of the French colonial vampire.

By Chi Prudence Asong and Soter Agbaw-Ebai in London

Former US first lady Barbara Bush, the only woman to see her husband and son both sworn in as president, has died at the age of 92.

“A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92,” the Bush family said in a statement.

She was the wife of the 41st US president, George H.W. Bush, and mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush.

The former first lady was also the mother of Jeb Bush, who served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007 and unsuccessfully ran for the White House in 2016.

The Bush family had announced earlier in the week that the former US first lady was in failing health and had decided not to seek further medical treatment, focusing instead on “comfort care.”

She had been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart problems in recent years, according to some media reports.

The US first lady, from 1989 to 1993, was a fierce advocate of civil rights and went against many of her husband’s Republican Party supporters with her liberal views.

In a statement from the White House, US President Donald Trump said, “She will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family, both of which she served unfailingly well.”

Source: Presstv

For almost two years, Southern Cameroons has been reduced into a slaughter house with government troops killing innocent citizens as if they were not human beings. In many parts of Southern Cameroons, many young men, many of whom are innocent and have nothing to do with the ugly fighting that is playing out over there, have been arrested and taking to unknown destinations. Many have been buried alive, while others have been used by the country’s trigger-happy soldiers as shooting targets.

A recent video that has gone viral online speaks to the accusation that the Yaounde government is committing gross human rights violations in the country’s English-speaking regions. The video, which has shocked many across the globe, is being documented as evidence of human rights abuse by many rights groups which have been seeking to draw the world’s attention to the genocide that is unfolding in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

A crisis that started as protests by lawyers, teachers and students in Buea and Bamenda was allowed to spiral out of control due to the government’s firm belief in tough and violent means to address issues. The government’s decision to slaughter hundreds of Southern Cameroonians on October 1, 2017, has turned out to be a very bad mistake. Many Southern Cameroonians who have been victims of the government’s marginalization program simply wanted to express their grievances and frustration. But wont to violence and dictatorial ways of doing things, the government resorted to its legendary violence which has transformed an entire region into a huge killing field.

After October 1, 2017, a date many Southern Cameroonians consider as their independence day, the country has been pushed into a spiral of violence. Southern Cameroonians hold that it behooves them to protect themselves as their protector- the government – has decided to mow them down. Many Southern Cameroonians have unfortunately been sent to an early grave and this is what is making any dialogue or reconciliation impossible.

Today, there are many armed groups in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Over the last four 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 “scotch-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.

In all fairness, what caused the government to adopt the obnoxious “Code 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, but the international community has remained mute in the face of such flagrant injustice and mass killing of a people who simply want to defend themselves against an obnoxious marginalization that has sent many Southern Cameroonians to an early grave.

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, Mbiim, a small village some 20 kilometers 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.

The fighting is ongoing, and it is getting nastier by the day, as government soldiers erase whole villages from the country’s map, a tactic it used to intimidate French-speaking freedom fighters popularly known as “Marquisards” in the 60s. These acts of violence do not seem to be producing the desired impact. Far from dissuading the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters, they are instead breeding revenge which is feeding the circle of violence that the government has triggered in the country.

Today, Cameroon government officials are gradually coming to terms with the fact that the two “cubes of sugar” will not easily melt. Instead of intimidating the fighters, the violence has now become a reason why the people of Southern Cameroons have to fight to the finish. They know the government is not willing to solve the problem and yielding to government pressure will only imply that they will have to go back to the status quo ante where they were regarded as second-class citizens.

The human cost of the conflict is staggering. Soldiers and civilians have been killed in a conflict that could have been prevented. The government has simply stopped reporting the killing of army soldiers, as this may have a huge impact on those who are being sent to the restive English-speaking regions.

The government has continued to put a brave face on a very bad situation. But behind the scenes, there is an atmosphere of regrets. The government knows that fighting a war on multiple fronts is a dangerous thing to do. A source close to the Unity Palace has indicated that the government is slowly admitting that it had underestimated so many things, especially the role the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora that holds that it is time for it to play a key role in the country’s economic and political life.

After more than five decades of unnecessary marginalization, the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora believes that it can right the wrongs of the past by financing the various armed groups that are wreaking havoc in Southern Cameroons. Today, the region has become a no-go area for many people. The country’s administrative officers have become targets for the armed groups. Some government officials have been kidnapped, though none has been killed. But this act by the fighters is sending a very strong message to the government that has been giving the impression that it is in control of its entire territory.

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.

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. What could be the meaning of such silence?

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 regime 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.

If the numerous killings and roasting of ordinary civilians in Southern Cameroons are not yet enough for the international community to come out of its silence, at least yesterday’s video should let the world know that a genocide is gradually playing out in Southern Cameroons. Southern Cameroonians are disappointed with the international community. The world seems to have left Southern Cameroonians to their own devices. The world needs to wake to put an end to the mass killings taking place in Southern Cameroons. Southern Cameroonians will not accept any apologies from the international community when it has been standing on the sidelines and cheering up the Yaounde government in its efforts to cleanse Southern Cameroons of its indigenous population.

By Kingsley Betek and Etchi Ebot in YAOUNDE

A hired plane will touch down at Heathrow Airport with the 85 year old French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya on board for his last and controversial participation in the Commonwealth heads of government meeting to the UK.

Biya’s jet will land at Heathrow Airport where a member of the British government will be waiting to welcome Mr Biya and his wife Chantal.

President Biya and his wife will be greeted warmly by some pro CPDM comedians brought in from France at the VIP reception centre at London’s Heathrow.  President and Mrs Biya will be ferried to Buckingham Palace for the Commonwealth forum.

More than 2,000 Southern Cameroonians led by the Ambazonian Communication Secretary, Chris Anu will be on duty in London during Friday’s anti-French Cameroun protest against Mr Biya, Cameroon Concord News has learned.

Demonstrations organized by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have been planned for each day of the trip, but the focus of the protest is expected on Friday at Buckingham Palace. Hundreds of Southern Cameroonians supporting the Southern Cameroons liberation struggle are expected to troop in from mainland Europe to take to the streets, marching past the historic palace.

They will culminate at Holland Park in front of the embassy of La Republique du Cameroun to voice their anger at UK foreign policy towards the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and make speeches.  British Prime Minister Theresa May has reportedly ordered the deployment of hundreds of police officers on security operations on Friday.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group