Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the ultimatum issued by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia giving French Cameroun and Nigeria until Monday 5th February 2018 to prove that our interim president Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 11 other members of the Interim Government who were abducted in Abuja, Nigeria on January 5, 2018 are alive. Cameroon Concord News Group supports the statement made by the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government, Hon. Chris Anu that past that dateline, if prove that they are alive is not provided, then the reaction that proceeded the genocide in Rwanda will look like a child’s play. For Cameroon Concord News Group, there could hardly be a better way of painting the picture of the potential reaction to the provocation and the international conspiratorial genocide against Ambazonia that has culminated in the abduction of our leaders in a supposed democratic Nigeria.   This abduction in Abuja, the seat of power in Nigeria clarifies at long last, the dubious role played by some members of the Nigerian Government as the God fathers of the international crime cartels that have brought the countries of the African Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea on their knees. This international crime is a stain on the conscience of the supposed democratic Federation of Nigeria. The French slave territory of French Cameroun is the well-known Al Capone crime paradise in the Gulf of Guinea that preys on the blood and sweat of the Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News Group has read with dismay some timid attempt at condemning this strong statement made by the Interim Government, alleging that it amounted to an apology of genocide. This accusation which the criminal regimes to which the ultimatum has been shying to make is regrettable and unfortunate. Cameroon Concord News Group is tempted to suspect that such a timid statement is intended to benefit the genocidal regime and the abductors of our interim leaders. The statement of the Interim Government delivered by Hon. Chris Anu was not responsible for the genocide in Manyu, Kwakwa and other parts of Ambazonia. The statement was not responsible for the genocide perpetrated on November 22 and October 1, 2017 which was widely celebrated by the government of French Cameroun, members of the CPDM and Members of the Senate and National Assembly of French Cameroun. It was not responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that have decimated hundreds of thousands of Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonian citizens for the past fifty-seven years. That statement was not responsible for the widespread and systematic rape of our girls in schools and universities, torching of civilian settlements and deportation of our people from our ancestral lands. It was not responsible for the hundreds of thousands of our refugees in foreign lands.  It is regrettably the absence of statements of this nature and action to implement that provided cattle fodder to the impunity with which these crimes have been committed so far. It is the preplanned genocide of our people and the abduction of our leaders that the ultimatum promises a strong response worse than that occurred under similar genocidal circumstances in Rwanda.

For these reasons we strongly endorse the statement and urges the Interim Government to extend the ultimatum to include the immediate and unconditional release of our leaders if they are alive, the immediate and unconditional halt to the genocide and withdrawal of all French Cameroun’s terrorist forces from our territory, the divestment of French Cameroun’s colonial administrators and all symbols of colonial governance from our territory. That a person laying claims to leadership in the Southern Cameroons struggle should come out in times like these to condemn this strong statement calls for legitimate suspicion. It is regrettable that this individual and others have so far not come out strongly to condemn the genocide in the Southern Cameroons like the Roman Catholic Bishops, the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International and the African Bar Association have boldly done. Rather they have turned their weapons inward to attack and delegitimize every effort to confront the enemy comprehensively and decisively.   We in the Cameroon Concord News Group hold that this strong statement is appropriate in the circumstances. French Cameroun and its corrupt co-conspirators in the Nigerian Government will bear the consequences of the escalation of the genocidal war of choice they have declared against Ambazonia and its consequences in the entire Gulf of Guinea.

We strongly condemn any betrayal of the revolution and its leadership and support the self-defense efforts of Ambazonians at home and abroad. Those who cannot provide a strong response to the ongoing crimes against our people or bold enough to strongly condemn the crimes should spare the people the pains and provocations of timid statements that benefit our adversaries.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Three policemen and a civilian were killed on Thursday in separate incidents in a region of Cameroon roiled by separatist violence, three days after dozens of activists were extradited from neighbouring Nigeria, sources said.

Source: The Citizen

The Cameroonian government has refused to respond to communication from a lawyer representing detained separatist leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe. According to lawyer Abdul Oroh, he has been unable to communicate with his client who he says is being illegally held by the government.

Yaounde confirmed early this week that Ayuk Tabe and 46 others had been extradited from Nigeria and that they had been handed over to the judiciary for the necessary processes. Nigeria and Cameroon have no extradition treaty, they do not have that relationship, and these people are not terrorists.

Speaking to the BBC Focus on Africa Radio the lawyer said he has written to several authorities including the national security chief and defense ministers but has yet to get a response.

He also expressed worry that the Nigerian authorities who arrested Tabe and others had also been tight lipped on the matter.

He slammed Cameroon’s Information Minister, Issa Tchiroma-Bakary for referring to the arrested nationals as terrorists in his statement announcing their deportation earlier this week. He has also demanded that his client and the others be released.

Ayuk Tabe is widely referred to as the leader of the Republic of Ambazonia – a group in Cameroon’s Angolphone region, pushing for a breakaway from French-dominant Cameroon. Its defense wing has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on security officials deployed to the region.

The group said it classified all security personnel – be they soldiers, gendarmes or police as occupiers of their land. Over a dozen officers have been killed in guerilla style attacks especially at checkpoints. Tabe and six others were arrested in a hotel in the Nigerian capital Abuja in early January. Reports differed over whether they were arrested by Cameroonian operatives or Nigerian security.

Nigeria’s Department of State Security is believed to have been behind the raid leading to their arrest. He was one of fifteen others who Cameroon issued an international arrest warrant for in November 2017.

Ayuk, a former businessman who had lived in Nigeria, is seen as a moderate voice in the separatist movement and has in the past promoted dialogue over violence. Nevertheless, he has been the target of Cameroonian authorities as a leading member of a resurgent movement to break away from French-speaking Cameroon.

Source: Africa News

The UN refugee agency on Thursday criticised Nigeria for breaching international agreements after the leader of a Cameroonian anglophone separatist movement and his supporters were extradited at Yaounde’s request.  The UNHCR said it learned “with great concern” about the case of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, who was sent back to Cameroon this week with 46 others. They were arrested in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on January 5.

Cameroon has called the 47 “terrorists” and said they would “answer for their crimes”, as tensions mount in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, home to most of the country’s English-speakers. They have complained about decades of economic inequality and social injustice at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

Ayuk Tabe wants the two regions to separate from the French-speaking part of the country. On October 1 last year, his movement made a symbolic declaration of independence. The UNHCR said most of the 47 sent back to Cameroon had submitted asylum claims in Nigeria. “Their forcible return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law,” it said in a statement. Non-refoulement, a French term, is the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum-seekers to go back to a country where they could be persecuted.

“The returns were carried out despite UNHCR’s efforts and engagement with the authorities,” the agency said. “UNHCR reminds Nigeria of its obligations under international and Nigerian law, and urges the Nigerian Government to refrain from forcible returns of Cameroonian asylum-seekers back to their country of origin.” Human rights groups have called on Cameroon to ensure those detained get a fair trial and are well-treated. Cameroonian President Paul Biya strongly opposes secession and has flooded both regions with troops, imposed curfews, conducted raids and slapped restrictions on travel. An estimated 30,000 English-speakers have fled Cameroon to Nigeria.

www.vanguardngr.com

About 950 gold miners were stuck underground in South Africa on Thursday after a power cut, the mine’s owner said, though the workers were not reported to be in immediate danger.

The Sibanye-Stillwater mining company said a massive power outage had prevented lifts from bringing the night shift to the surface at the Beatrix gold mine, near the city of Welkom.

“We sent rescue teams down, accounted for all the people and we obviously are trying to get them out of there as soon as possible,” James Wellsted, spokesman for Sibanye-Stillwater, told ENCA television.

“All employees appear to be fine. We are supplying food and water,” Wellsted added in a telephone message to AFP.

He said the depth where the miners were trapped was uncertain, but the mine has 23 levels, going down to about 1,000 meters (3280 feet) below ground.

About 65 people were rescued during the day, with 950 remaining trapped by early evening, the company said.

Wellsted said that engineers were struggling to get emergency generators to operate and re-start the lifts.

“We are having some issues — probably related to the power surge linked to the storm — in getting the winders working, so we are busy working on that issue at the moment,” he added.

“Last night there was a severe storm in the Free State that affected two different power cables… and cut off all electricity supply to the mine, so we were unable to bring the night shift up.”

One cable was restored during the day.

‘Serious concern’

The Beatrix mine is in Free State province, 290 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

AMCU, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, said that the workers stuck underground were facing major health and safety risks.

“AMCU views this incident as extreme due to the sheer number of workers involved,” it said in a statement.

“The incident raises serious concern regarding the lacking emergency contingency plans at the mine for alternative and back-up power generation.”

It said workers’ lives could be in danger from dehydration and lack of nutrition, especially if they were on medication.

Last August five mineworkers died after sections of a gold mine collapsed outside Johannesburg.

The country possesses rich mineral reserves and has some of the world’s deepest gold mines.

Gold was for many decades the backbone of South Africa’s economy, but production has declined sharply due to depletion of reserves.

(Story by AFP)

The fighting in Southern Cameroons has intensified since the extradition of the Ambazonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, on Monday, January 26, 2018, to Yaounde. Many young Southern Cameroonians have stepped up attacks on soldiers and gendarmes in a bid to express their frustration and anger.

Early today, two gendarmes – a man and a woman – were attacked in the North Western town of Mbingo by masked men, who shot the uniformed officers point blank, killing the male officer on the spot. The female officer is struggling for her life in the town’s main hospital.

In Bangem, a town in the Southwest region of the country, Amba Tigers have been fighting running battles with Cameroon’s military in the city’s downtown core. Unconfirmed reports indicate that more than four people have been killed in Bangem since the Tigers showed up to carry revenge attacks against army soldiers following the extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe who has become the incontestable poster child of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

It has also been reported that civilians in the town of Bangem are heading out of the town in large numbers to surrounding villages in a bid to seek refuge from army soldiers who have been attacking and killing unarmed and innocent civilians.

There have also been reports of violent clashes in Pinyin and Batibo which are small towns in the Northwestern region ever since Mr. Ayuk Tabe was taken to Yaounde where he and 46 others will soon be taken to court for their role in the escalating conflict in Southern Cameroons.

The increasing attacks had been predicted by many analysts and politicians who had posited that the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe would only exacerbate things as more people would be radicalized. Most analysts based their thesis on the fact that the arrest of Mr. Mancho Bibixy, Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla and Dr. Neba Fontem in January 2017 only made matters worse.

Many international observers are calling on the government of Cameroon to use this moment to smoke the pipe of peace as military violence and intimidation have not produced the results the government had expected. They contend that the government must change its strategy as the current one is gradually pulling the country towards a bloody civil war that is unnecessary.

It should be recalled that the government of Cameroon which is stuck in the past is using old tactics that had been employed in the 60s against French Cameroon freedom fighters popularly known as Maquisards in the pious hope that the Southern Cameroons population will submit to its will.

Critics point out that it has unfortunately failed to understand that times have changed. People are more educated today and the existence of the Internet have made it hard for such tactics to produce the desired results. Besides, with a huge and prosperous Southern Cameroons Diaspora, it will be hard for the government of Cameroon to obtain an outright victory.

The Diaspora is propping up efforts of the young and determined fighters who sincerely hold that with a little luck they can successfully bring the government of Cameroon to the negotiating table or get Southern Cameroons out of the mess in which short-sighted politicians like Muna and Foncha had dumped the region.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora will continue to destabilize Cameroon for a long time if the government does not make permanent dialogue a way of life in a country that was hastily stitched together by the United Nations. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is rich and it has successfully transformed marginalization into a huge opportunity.

The government therefore stands to gain if it changes its policies to recognize the Diaspora as a strategic partner in the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.

Mr. Biya and his government must now embrace dialogue as the ideal way to pull the country from the brink. From reactions obtained following the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe, it is obvious that more blood will continue to flow, as Southern Cameroonians are determined to follow through with their threat of splitting the country.

Despite the disappointment their struggle has suffered, many Southern Cameroonians argue that the battle must continue as the revolution is bigger than any single individual. Speaking to a dejected Southern Cameroonian in WashingtonD.C. over the phone, our West African Bureau chief was advised that the revolution was an idea that would not be crushed through intimidation and military violence. The Southern Cameroonian, who elected anonymity, added that things only escalated when Felix Nkongh Agbor Balla, Fontem Neba and Macho Bibixy were arrested and that the current situation would only escalate attacks on the military.

He argued that Nelson Mandela was in jail for over three decades, but South Africans did not relent in their effort to unseat the racist bastion that had reduced them to second-class citizens in their own country. He said Southern Cameroonians would, over the coming days, designate their new leaders and would be informing the boys on ground on what steps to follow.

Also speaking from London, Sesekou Asu Isong, said that Southern Cameroonians should not believe that they could attain their objective without loss of life and imprisonment. He stressed that “freedom has never been attained through courteousness and gentlemanliness, adding that loss of life is and has always been part of such a struggle.”

He called on Southern Cameroonians to pour money and energy into the struggle. “As it is apparent that we are now in an armed struggle, we have a duty to pour money and energy into this cause. We have a duty to arm and train young determined fighters on the ground. If we don’t, the lives of the departed and those in incarceration would have been a waste,” he stressed.

Mr. Isong’s point of view ties in well with what is currently happening in many Southern Cameroons community across the globe. It is worth stressing that huge fundraising efforts are currently underway in most Western capitals. Southern Cameroonians across the globe are making significant financial contributions to support the tough Southern Cameroonian fighters who have become a nightmare to government forces in Southern Cameroons. In California alone, more than half a million dollars was raised last week to secure more aid and arms for the boys who are determined to roll back government forces that have been deployed across Southern Cameroons.

Also writing from Boston in the United States, Mr. EkinnehAgbaw-ebai, a graduate of the prestigious Harvard University, pointed out that “Irrespective of whatever anyone thinks, let it be said again with emphasis that Ambazonia will never die. Ambazonia is a spirit which animates our yearning for freedom and even if Biya kills all eight million Anglophones and raze all our villages, our ghosts shall rise from our graves to seek freedom and demand justice. Mandela was jailed, but the ANC continued until Apartheid was defeated. Bin Laden is dead, but that has not stopped Al Qaeda; rather ISIS was born. If Biya sincerely believes, as he claims, that a majority of Anglophones want to remain in bondage and servitude in a united Cameroon, let him organize a referendum. Voting should take place only in Anglophone regions under international supervision as was the case in 1961,” he pointed out angrily.

It should be noted that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe had said that the struggle was his life and that he was prepared and willing to lay down his life for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons, though he has always advocated non-violence. Many Southern Cameroonians are of that opinion and there are many meetings currently taking place across the globe to step up the pressure on the government.

By Sama Ernest with files from Kingsley Betek and Rita Akana

A train carrying dozens of GOP lawmakers to a Republican retreat has struck a truck in West Virginia, leaving one person dead.

The accident happened at about 11:15 am local time on Wednesday in the city of Crozet, according to Amtrak, the passenger railroad service carrying the lawmakers from both chambers of Congress.

The lawmakers were en route to the state of West Virginia for a three-day retreat featuring appearances by US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

“There is one confirmed fatality and one serious injury. There are no serious injuries among members of Congress or their staff,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The front half of the truck was crushed in the accident.

“We’re fine, but our train hit a garbage truck. Members with medical training are assisting the drivers of the truck,” Greg Walden, a member of the US House of Representatives, wrote on Twitter.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a group of specialists to the scene of the accident.

Source: Presstv

Cameroonian authorities 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 that young Francophone fighters are swelling the ranks of Anglophone fighters in Ndian Division are being confirmed by some senior political authorities in Cameroon.

Last week a Cameroon Concord News reporter was reliably informed that foreign fighters and trainers had joined the fray and this was making matters worse. This was corroborated by our source at the Secretariat of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the country’s leading opposition party.

It is now emerging that the issue is getting more complicated as thought. According to our source, Mr. Joshua Osih, the SDF presidential candidate in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections, has revealed that the ranks of the Southern Cameroonian fighters are being swelled by Francophones, many of whom are sick and tired of the way the country has been mismanaged over the last thirty-five years.

Our reporter on the ground in Ndian Division in the country’s southwest region reports that the Francophone fighters believe that the Southern Cameroons cause is a national cause and it is designed to stop the French-supported Yaounde government from taking the country hostage.

The fighters hold that elections alone will not be able to return the country to the path to decency as the Biya government is working tooth and nail to ensure the current system stays in place for a long time. They argue that the Biya regime has pauperized the people and transformed the entire nation into an Augean Stable where corruption has become the norm. They point to admissions into the National School of Administration and Magistracy where two of Mr. Biya’s children have been granted an undeserved admission into the school.

The fighters argue that after more than ten elections in the country, not much has change and change is not in the offing as the electoral code makes it hard to unseat the ruling CPDM widely known in Cameroon as a crime syndicate. The Francophone fighters have openly shown their admiration for Anglophones who have displayed great courage and determination for over a year and they believe that if Francophones joined the fray, the Biya regime would be dumped on the ash heap of history.

It should be recalled that for many months, there have been speculations that foreign fighters have been guiding and training young Southern Cameroonians, but the first serious confirmations only came when Mr.  Joshua Osih had to meet with them while taking his father’s remains to his native Ndian Division.

Mr. Osih, a respected SDF parliamentarian had to walk miles into the jungle where the Ambazonian fighters were lurking to seek permission and passage rights to his native village so as to give his late father a decent burial. He almost came under attack when he finally reached where the Southern Cameroons fighters were lying in wait for any government troops that might be heading to Ndian Division. Luckily for him, he was recognized by some of the zealous fighters who considered him a responsible and respected son of the South West region of the country. He was subjected to serious questioning and was asked if government officials would be attending the event.

He said none had been scheduled to be present at event. He was let go when he handed a huge wad of cash to the fighters who informed him that they would be keeping an eye on the event to ensure government agents did not infiltrate the location. The fighters later accosted my Osih at his residence in his village when they noticed that some government officials had made their way to the event. Mr. Osih had to explain himself and expressed his sincere apology, adding that he had not invited them, but they had shown up on their own.

Our source adds that Mr. Osih had promptly informed the Senior Divisional Officer of his encounter with the fighters to preempt any controversy that might emerge later as to whether he was financing a rebellion in Southern Cameroons.

Our reporter in Ndian Division has also confirmed that some white South African mercenaries are already on the ground to help structure the Amba Tigers and other groups and to provide short intensive training on hit-and-run tactics so as to enable the Francophone fighters to carry the war to the Francophone region.

Meanwhile, Southern Cameroonians are still reeling from the blow their struggle took to the head. The news that Mr. Ayuk Tabe and his collaborators had been extradited to Cameroon had hit them like a ton of bricks. They are now being consoled by the fact that the matter will play out in court and the fact that Mr. Ayuk Tabe will not be killed like a little stray dog. Many now argue that the world has evolved and the days when people could disappear without a trace have past. The international community is aware of the drama playing out in Cameroon and it will surely keep an eye on how things unfold, many argue, adding that the international community may not have a huge appetite for secession, but it will surely not countenance the government of Cameroon in its efforts to transform the country into a slaughter house.

In Manyu Division where Mr. Ayuk Tabe hails, it is openly said that he might have been arrested, but the Southern Cameroonian struggle might not be stopped. From the perspective, this struggle is bigger than an individual. Many Southern Cameroonian leaders have been arrested before, but instead of dousing the fire, the fire has been burning out of control.

“The struggle is like a hydra. When you cut its head, it develops another one. We are sure more leaders will soon be announced and we are looking forward to taking our cue from them,” one zealous supporter of the Ambazonian struggle who elected anonymity said in Mamfe. He added that “let them not forget that when they arrested Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla and co. they thought the neck of the struggle had been broken, but things moved from bad to worse.”

“The struggle is an idea and it is the people’s struggle. It has little or nothing to do with an individual. We are no longer scared of jails. I am sure their jails should be bursting at the seams, as many Southern Cameroonians are now occupying the few jails they have. The government must learn how to negotiate. It must learn how to dialogue sincerely. Let it look into the mirror of history and it will find out in countries such as Colombia that the rebels only downed the weapons after thirty years of fighting and this only happened through the negotiating table,” he added.

Southern Cameroonians are already regrouping. A new leadership is being put in place and this new leaders will soon be announced in the coming days. Why the extradition offers an opportunity for the “presumed terrorists” to be tried, it also offers an opportunity for negotiations that can help spare the country the disaster that is staring it in the face.  The country’s leaders must therefore have to tamper their ways and look at how other countries have had to deal with similar situations in order to spare Cameroonians the agony and death that armed struggles bring to a people.

By Haggai Fung Achuo

To understand the corruptive influence of France in Nigerian politics that is central to the rendition of Southern Cameroons leaders who were legally on the territory of Nigeria under the protection of international law, one needs to go back to the overthrow of President Shehu Shagari December 31, 1983 by a military junta led by then Major General Mu­hammadu. The civilian government of Shehu Shagari was overthrown for alleged widespread corruption with one outstanding case being the corruption surrounding the award and execution of the contract relating to the Ajaokuta Textile Mills. That corruption deal bore the fore-mark of a French construction firm with significant French neo-colonial political interest; Fourgerolle. In its fall out, the alleged war against indiscipline and corruption became the mantra on which Buhari installed a regime of terror, lawlessness and the northernisation of Nigerian political life.  While he installed discipline and curbed corruption, he ran the economy aground and significantly installed a political culture of reckless disregard for the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Nostalgic for a curb to corruption and discipline in governance, a sizeable majority of Nigerians elected him to power through an unpredictable alliance of strange political bed fellows forgetting that the political instincts that propelled him to power through unconstitutional means would hurt the diplomatic credentials of Nigeria obtained on the blood and sweat of millions of Nigerians. True to his old self and unconstitutional instincts, once firmly in power, he used the war against corruption to settle political scores against political opponents real or apparent. The nepotism evident in his political appointment, and its attendant corruptive influence shocked and alarmed the Federation. His disdain for constitutional governance led him to send in DIA  operatives on the orders of the national security adviser (NSA) Maj-Gen Babagana Mongunoto abduct judges at night, disappeared political opponents, ignored court orders, and squandered state resources on his family and personal endeavours. With a possible challenge to his candidacy within his own party, and an opposition firestorm rallying competing political forces within the Federation disenchanted with his dictatorial proclivities, he saw and impending need to source for money without which he intends to ward off internal challenge in his party and an energised opposition. This dire need for campaign resources and the insatiable appetite of his immediate family and his coterie of advisers and policy makers surrounding him led him to cut a deal authorising the rendition of Southern Cameroons leaders who were abducted a fail operation to execute them to French Cameroun in one of the most egregious corruption deals in the annals of Nigerian history.

The spectacular change in French policy towards Nigeria for economic and strategic realignment made this possible. France’s early recognition and support for Biafra in its war against Nigeria was never for the interest of the Biafrans. It was to secure French economic access to the oil wells and the natural resources in the Gulf of Guinea. The Niger Delta, Bakassi and the Southern Cameroons oil wells and other strategic natural resources fall within the Gulf of Guinea.  When the Biafra war ended unsuccessfully, France made a strategic realignment by negotiating a strategic economic alliance with the gullible and corrupt Nigerian political elite, most of them in the Northern political/military establishment of which Muhammadu Buhari was and is a key member.

France has a magnetic control of the soul of its France-Afrique vassal states like French Cameroun. A military/economic/cultural cooperation agreement retained France’s sovereignty over the supposed independent French Cameroun. But a significant portion of the economic interests of France in the Gulf of Guinea lies outside the sovereign control of France-Afrique.  France therefore negotiated and established an impressive predatory formal and informal economic and strategic cooperation agreements with the corrupt Northern Nigeria controlled power military and civilian political and economic elite.  Abuja the Nigerian capital became the powerhouse of French intelligenceservices overseeing and superintending France’s economic and strategic interests in the Gulf of Guinea.

The visit to Nigeria by His Excellency Obiang Nguema after a French inspired attempted coup d’etat against him in which mercenaries from some CEMAC countries, including French Cameroun participated, underscores the troublesome influence of French intelligence services operating from Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea. In a statement after his meeting with President Buhari, Obiang Nguema strongly counselled that the Southern Cameroons- Ambazonia crisis can only find a solution in a meaningful all-inclusive dialogue. That statement coming from a neighbouring country to Southern Cameroons with which Equatorial Guinea shares a maritime border and French Cameroun with which it shares a maritime and land border carried symbolic weight worth recognizing.  France, an enemy state to the government of Equatorial did not take the option of peace and dialogue proposed by Equatorial Guinea kindly. If anything, France conceived the position taken by Equatorial Guinea as a tacit recognition of the legitimate grievances of the Southern Cameroons which it considers a threat to its economic and strategic interests within the territory of the Southern Cameroons, the Niger Delta and the entire Gulf of Guinea.

From the very inception of the ongoing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Southern Cameroons, the French diplomatic mission in Abuja Nigeria has been very militant in its support for the international crimes committed against the Southern Cameroons in contrast to the French Ambassador in Yaoundé French Cameroun who has insistently called for the resolution of the conflict through dialogue.  The French ambassador in Nigeria has been resolute in his overt support for the ongoing crimes in the Southern Cameroons. In one occasion, he told representatives of the African Bar Association in Abuja that he was prepared to ask Paul Biya to release Ambazonian leaders and citizens abducted and interned in concentration camps in French Cameroun, if they called off ghost towns and asked children to go back to school. He called the President of the African Bar to protest the widely applauded statements he made during the African Bar Association Conference that took place in Port Harcourt Nigeria from the 7 to 10 August 2017 regarding the crimes committed against Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun.  In that speech the President of the African Bar Association stated that the right of the people of the Southern Cameroons to self-determination was a right protected by International law and must be respected. This is in stark contrast to his counterpart in Yaoundé who made no such requests or passed value judgments apart for a call for dialogue and the respect of the historic specificity of the Southern Cameroons.

The double speak of France on this matter may conceal the fact that France has a consistent predatory economic policy which considers Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia as its exclusive territory.  Over a period of 56 years France has raped the economy of the Southern Cameroons and encouraged and sponsored state terrorism and suppression of Southern Cameroonians. This is the reason why France encouraged and provided logistical, diplomatic support in bankrolling the abduction and rendition of Southern Cameroons leaders in Nigeria to French Cameroun.

Cameroon Intelligence Report, published an article about the dilemma that Nigeria faced due to the botched attempt to execute the Southern Cameroons abductees the same day of their abduction. We republish the said article that gave details of the plan to abduct and execute the Southern Cameroons leaders.  However, the operation as originally conceived failed for the reasons stated in the Cameroon Concord News Group publication.

Although touted as a non-tolerant anti-corruption crusader, Buhari has been forced by circumstances and dire need for political survival in the unpredictable turbulent seas of Nigerian politics to become mired in the systemic corruption that is a fixture of Nigerian politics.  His administration is driven by the cruel instincts of nepotism. This vice goes hand in grove with corruption.  He is facing the prospects of a challenge within his party in the February 2019 elections.  He is unsure of the support of the ever unpredictable Yuroba political mavericks led by Asiwaju Tinubu the enigmatic former governor of Lagos state and corrupt economic interests that bankrolled his election.  He has serious health challenges and his economic policies are pedestrian, rudimentary and prone to corruptive exploitation by countries like France and many national and international corruption cartels.

A God father of political Islam that mid-wifed Boko Haram on the back of which he rose to power, he like Paul Biya and other war economy profiteers, have made a fortune on the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram.  He opposed the war against Boko Haram when he was in the opposition and indeed, was compelling in the invitation of the ICC to commence a preliminary examination against the Nigerian Army then led by a General Iherijaka an Ibo in South East Nigeria. A Chadian Minister of communication revealed then that about 47% of the arms in the hands of Boko Haram came from France.

France through Paul Biya and his crime syndicate which includes Northern French Cameroun’s trans-border members of the political Islam cartel and economic profiteers paid heavy sums of money as ransom for the release of French men who were abducted by Boko Haram.  There can be no gainsaying the negotiations would not have been possible if interlocutors and the institutions they represented did not know the leaders of Boko Haram holding the captives. In Nigeria, Buhari has consistently been promoting dialogue with Boko Haram and has even granted amnesty to many of them. Meanwhile he has silently encouraged Fulani armed marauding cattle herdsmen to pursue the same agenda which they devolved on Boko Haram against non-Fulani communities in the Middle Belt, South East, South-South and the West. Additionally, he has sought to sabotage an amnesty deal which Godluck Jonathan signed with the Delta Niger militants fighting for economic survival and sovereignty over the mineral and natural resources on their ancestral land. France has sustained its economic interests in the Niger Delta and in the Southern Cameroons through the support of the Nigerian political economic and power elite.  This has largely been successful through large scale corruption masked in diplomatic, economic and intelligence cooperation.

France negotiated the politically and economically beneficial partnership that led to French Cameroun and Nigeria cooperating in the war against Boko Haram. That deal provides the largely Northern power cartels in Nigeria, their trans-border political Islam brotherhood in Northern French Cameroun and the Beti-Bulu crime syndicate in French Cameroun with the spoils of the war economy which includes enormous resources provided by the international coalition engaged in the war against terrorism. These funds, as well as those stolen from the territory of Ambazonia, the Niger Delta and neo-colonial multinational corrupt economic deals, provide enormous resources to sustain Mohammadu Buhari in power come 2019 and Paul Biya in French Cameroun come the elections a few months from now.  These guarantors of French imperial interests in the Gulf of Guinea had to maintained power at the cost of the sovereignty the of Southern Cameroon and the blood of its people. As the gateway to the Gulf of Guinea, France perceives the independence of the Southern Cameroons as a serious threat to its strategic economic interest and an affront to its France-Afrique slave policies.

The growing influence and international recognition of the interim government of Ambazonialed by the charismatic President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe worried the French.  It is alleged that the abduction of Ambazonian leaders was a joint operation conducted by Nigeria and French Cameroons intelligence hit men with technical intelligence provided by the operatives of the French intelligence and external research directorate present in Abuja Nigeria.  Their mission was to abduct, disappear and execute the abductees.  They did not seek the support of the Nigerian National Intelligence Agency whose director was under suspension. They did not deem it necessary because they were so sure of the success of the operation.  Its failure is partly blamed on the national intelligence agency whose operatives followed the planned abduction and execution with so much anger.  They however gathered intelligence about the operation and shared with other intelligence unit. When Buhari and his very corrupt tribal cabal surrounding him became aware, they became alarmed and confused on how to proceed. Meantime the details of the operation found their way into the hands of the intelligence services of some significant powers who have since kept the evolving criminal operation under observation and scrutiny. Meantime some key constituencies within the very polarized Nigerian political landscape began showing interest in this multimillion euro criminal operation.

Amid this corruption operation and its consequences which are unfolding, Buhari replaced the director of the national intelligence agency with his point man from his own state in the multinational forces against Boko Haram. He is a disgraced senior officer who had come under investigation in the past for corruption. He has a degree in French and was his point person in the corruption cartel thatmanages and shares the spoils of the war economy in the war against Boko Haram.  With the assistance of France, French Cameroun corrupted the Buhari administration through his immediate tribal administration in the DSS and his immediate entourage with an alleged sum of about five hundred million Euros. Buhari had little choice but to give his blessings to the corrupt deal because his political survival in an uncertain political gamble come 2019 depends largely on the spoils of the betrayal and blood of the Southern Cameroonians.

But he had a problem, what explanation would he provide for the abduction and execution of Southern Cameroons leaders since his own national intelligence agency had shared the details of the operation with their peers from some countries?  He ordered his attorney-general and inspector-general of police to look for a legal justification for the abductions and hand over to French Cameroun. That way, he hoped to justify the corrupt deal by shifting the responsibility for the execution of these leaders to French Cameroun.  Due to there being no extradition treaty between Nigeria and French Cameroun they hoped to rely on the Commonwealth protocol in judicial cooperation to send the abductees to French Cameroun to die in the gallows of a predetermined political court-martial. That option failed because political offenses are not extraditable under those principles and protocol. They explored a longstanding judicial cooperation agreement with French Cameroon but that too, like in the case of extradition required an order of the court which they were not prepared to obtain.  They explored the cooperation under the Lake Chand Basin Commission but again that did not work because French Cameroun and Nigeria considered it as an insufficient basis for military cooperation in the war against Boko Haram. President Holland of France  had to summon President Goodluck Jonathan and Paul Biya to France and imposed a military cooperation agreement on them. Besides, the legal basis of relying on that treaty would still have necessitated a court order.  Finally, French Cameroun upped the amount of the corruption deal and the Nigerian leader and the corrupt cartel around him agreed to sacrifice the principles that make Nigeria great and respected in Africa and the world to their personal appetite for money and personal power. They accepted the money and sent the hostages to the potential gallows of French Cameroun political court-martial.

The corrupt cartel in this shameful operation succeeded to sell our leaders hoping to abate the threats posed to their economic interests by the Ambazonia revolution.  That is a pipe dream. The Ambazonia revolution will never fail. If anything, it will grow in intensity until victory is attained.  Also, our leaders like Joseph in the Biblical Egyptian dungeon will survive the ordeal when most members of the corruption cartel are gone to defend their actions before the Lord. Since time belongs to God, that time will come sooner than they may speculate.   Paul Biya, Laurent Esso, Atang aNji, Joseph Beti Assoumou, Isa Tchiroma Bakary, Fame Ndongo, Owona Nguini, Enoh Meyomesse, Tabe Tando, Victor Mengot, Patrick Ekema, TV 4 and its genocide apologists, General Nouma, Oum II Joseph the SDO for Manyu, the Francophone Governors of South and North West and every individual who participated in the ongoing campaign of genocide or who partook in the international operation to abduct our leaders will never know peace to their fourth generations on earth or in the life beyond. Meantime, the intensity of the liberation struggle in self defence will grow from strengthen to strength. As the ordeal of the abduction and rendition of Southern Cameroons leaders, the fate of Mancho Bibixy and thousands in French Cameroun’s dungeons and the blood of the martyrs of the revolution will inspire the soul of the revolution. The Southern Cameroons is on its own since it has become obvious that key members of the international community and international institutions that pledged to eradicate the scourge of war, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide so that never again humanity is faces extermination, it has no choice than to fight on. It must fight on, knowing that its opposing forces in this genocidal war are French Cameroun, France, Nigeria and corrupt officials in the UN, AU and international bureaucratic organizations charged with safeguard world peace and security. With God on its side and its determination to fight and survive, it shall prevail.

Cameroon Concord News Group is pursuing further investigations into this international criminal operation and its  unfolding fallout.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Human rights groups including the leadership of the Roman Catholic have sounded a note of caution and warned about the significant deterioration of human rights in La Republique du Cameroun, stating that no international pressure on the Sub Saharan country has emboldened the ruling CPDM regime of President Biya not to shy away from its heavy-handed crackdown on Southern Cameroons citizens.

Biya’s Cameroon is now clearly sliding in a new and very dangerous direction with 47 people including the Southern Cameroons Ambazonian political leaders arrested in Nigeria now in Yaoundé. “The fairly weak level of restraint that was there last year with the existence of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has all but gone,” noted our chief correspondent in the Bamenda County. There is an urgent need for the US administration and France to wield their influence on the Yaoundé regime and step up their criticism.

Activists who fled to neighbouring Nigeria said at a meeting in Ikom on Monday that the human rights situation has deteriorated in Southern Cameroons as 100s of people were killed in Kwa Kwa village and more than five thousand have abandoned their homes in Kembong, Dadi and Ekok in the Manyu State. There are renewed reports of torture in detention and military courts in Yaoundé, Bafoussam and Douala and many including radio host Bibixy Mancho and the extradited leaders are now sitting on death row.

A senior pro Yaoundé Southern Cameroons political elite who spoke to us late last night said many within the regime are seriously worried about the health of imprisoned Anglophone activists. Last week alarming signals multiplied regarding the heavy deployment of Francophone soldiers in Manyu, Meme and Bui constituencies.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Biya regime Issa Tchiroma Bakary who also moonlights as minister of communication announced that the Ambazonian leadership handed over to Yaounde by the Buhari administration will face the death penalty.

The Interim Head of State of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides were arrested in Abuja Nigeria by the country’s Secret Service and with no due legal process were handed over to the authorities of La Republique du Cameroun.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have already censured the Abuja arrest and called for the release of the Southern Cameroons leaders. The Biya Francophone regime has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of Anglophone dissent. Recently we got intelligence that troops from the Republic of Chad were deployed to assist the Francophone dominated Cameroon armed forces in its crackdown in Southern Cameroons.

Hundreds of British Southern Cameroonians including women and children have lost their lives and thousands of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Biya regime’s crackdown.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai