Message from President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe

1st May 2019

Dear Compatriots Southern Cameroonian/Ambazonians,

After sufficient review, reflections and consultations upon developments since January 5th 2018, and placing the paramount interest of Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia’s quest for securitization of our restored national identity and independence, and in full discharge of the moral and legal obligations of our servant-leadership, I want to extend my condolences to our bereaved families and reassure our people to remain focused. I hereby announce as follows:

1. Cognizance has been taken of the fact that despite the material and, particularly, the lives of Southern Cameroonians lost to an unrelenting genocide campaign against our people, the Caretaker Cabinet of the Interim Government (IG) has clearly lost its focus and footing in actualizing our restored independent Statehood and the march to end the illegal occupation of our homeland and our capital city, Buea;
2. Considering that despite all efforts by well-meaning Ambazonians responding to my appeals to keep the Interim Government afloat by accommodating the Caretaker Cabinet while these issues of infighting in the struggle involving grave improprieties both in management of material and human resources are sorted out, the Caretaker Cabinet has lost the ability to reconcile our people and, in doing so, has imperiled the identity and mission of the Interim Government to complete the decolonization of Southern Cameroons through advancing our collective national interests. It is incumbent on me as Servant leadership Fiduciary to bring redress to the Southern Cameroonians-Ambazonians, to their struggle, and their nation, from their slow descent into a footnote of our own history.

Consequent upon the above:

1. I hereby declare and direct that the Caretaker Cabinet is forthwith dissolved and that the Cabinet as was in office on January 5th 2018, when myself and parts of the leadership were abducted, be reconstituted, restored and reactivated.
2. All changes that were made post our abduction are hereby placed on moratorium as of the date of signature of this order.

III. Southern Cameroonians-Ambazonians and the entire world are hereby notified that any individual or group thereof, dealing with whomever other than the Cabinet  as constituted and restored by this order, shall do so at their own risk.

1. The Country & Regional Coordinators, Members of the Restoration Council, Representatives of the Local Government Areas of Ambazonia (LGA Reps), County Structures, the Ambazonia Security Council (ASC), the Ambazonia Department of SelfDefense (DoD) and all Nationalist Movements are enjoined to individually and collectively give full effect to this order.
2. Special thanks to the Acting President and to all Ambazonians who have served in previous Cabinets and who currently serve on any other revolutionary platform for your continued dedication to the struggle.
3. Call on all our activists to direct their focus on continuing to bring awareness to the plight of our suffering people and the atrocities of the enemy.

VII. And we urge our people at home to remain grounded and vigilant in the aspirations of our independence

VIII. Further directives shall be issued in the days ahead.

ISSUED THIS MAY 2nd 2019, AT THE PRINCIPAL PRISON OF YAOUNDE, CAMEROUN

With gratitude

H.E. Sisiku Julius AyukTabe President, Interim Government, Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia)

The Cameroon government denied a Human Rights Watch researcher entry to the country on April 12, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s action is an attempt to curb reports of abuse by security forces, but Human Rights Watch will continue to document and publicize human rights violations in Cameroon.

“Denying entry to our researcher is a clear step back for Cameroon,” said Philippe Bolopion, deputy global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The government is doing everything it can to keep the world in the dark about its ongoing abuses, but it won’t succeed.”

Officials at Douala international airport refused to allow Ilaria Allegrozzi, a Human Rights Watch senior researcher on Central Africa, to enter the country on April 12. Allegrozzi had received a three-month visa on March 25. Allegrozzi explained in her visa application that she planned to travel to the Anglophone regions of the country to conduct research for Human Rights Watch on abuses committed by both government and armed separatist forces, as well as the impact of the crisis on people with disabilities.

In Douala, Allegrozzi was given no explanation for denying her entry. Despite several attempts to obtain explanations, Human Rights Watch has received no clarification from the government on the basis for its decision to block access.

Human Rights Watch started working on human rights in Cameroon in 1998. Since 2018, Human Rights Watch has issued a number of reports on human rights violations by government security forces as well as armed separatists, including a comprehensive report in July 2018 and several others in 2019.

Two days before Allegrozzi was denied entry, on April 10, Human Rights Watch published a short report on a deadly attack by soldiers, gendarmes, and members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) on the North-West region village of Meluf on April 4, killing five civilian men, including one with a mental disability, and wounding one woman.

Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are in the grip of a crisis that began in late 2016 when Anglophone activists, who have long complained of their regions’ perceived marginalization by the Francophone majority, mobilized significant segments of the Anglophone population to demand more political autonomy or secession. Government forces violently suppressed large demonstrations in mid-2017, killing more than 20 protesters.

Since then, the emergence of armed separatist groups has been accompanied by attacks on civilians by both government and separatist forces, and a growing militarization of the Anglophone regions. The unrest has displaced nearly half a million people.

The Anglophone crisis has unfolded as the country deals with the humanitarian consequences of attacks in the Far North region by the armed group Boko Haram. Both Boko Haram and security forces have committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

This violence comes as the government has increased its crackdown on the political opposition. In January, police arrested Maurice Kamto, the leader of the opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), as well as about 200 of its members and supporters. This occurred against a backdrop of increasing intolerance against dissent and the right to assemble. MRC demonstrations were banned across the country in April.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – which has a base in Yaoundé, the capital, but no mandate to monitor human rights violations – was not granted permission to investigate abuse in the Anglophone regions.

National and international human rights organizations have an important role to play in monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation, not only in Cameroon but in other countries around the world. By enabling human rights organizations to operate without hindrance, Cameroon would demonstrate its willingness to allow rigorous, independent scrutiny of its efforts to adhere to international human rights law. Cameroon’s international partners should make the urgent human rights issues plaguing the country a priority and insist on unimpeded access to Cameroon for international human rights monitors.

“Cameroon’s downward spiral on human rights is of special concern for a country that recently joined the UN Human Rights Council,” Bolopion said. “The strategy of intimidation and roadblocks will not succeed. We urge the government to engage, allow Human Rights Watch to do its job, and strive to end abuse by both state and non-state actors.”

Source: Human Rights Watch

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says a coup attempt by a small faction of the military has been defeated, thanking the armed forces for continued loyalty to him.

Sitting alongside senior military and political leaders, Maduro said in a televised speech late on Tuesday that the group of military personnel supporting opposition figures Leopoldo Lopez and Juan Guaido had been defeated.

“The empire seeks to attack and overthrow a legitimate government to enslave Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I want to congratulate the Military High Command for its courage in defending peace.”

He said Guaido and Lopez were seeking to spark an armed confrontation that might be used as a pretext for foreign military intervention, but “loyal and obedient” members of the country’s armed forces had put down the mutiny within hours after it started early on Tuesday morning.

“I want to congratulate you for the firm, loyal and courageous attitude with which you have led the defeat of the small group that tried to fill Venezuela with violence,” Maduro added.

He said that there only remained a small group of plotters who had chosen “the path of betrayal … [and] handed their souls over to the coup-mongering far right.”

During the coup, Guaido, who has declared himself “interim president” of the country, claimed in a video message recorded at an unknown location that Maduro no longer enjoyed the backing of Venezuela’s armed forces.

‘Because the people of Venezuela want peace’

He also claimed that “a peaceful rebellion,” not an attempted military coup, was underway and called on people to take to the streets on Wednesday to continue what he called the final stage of “Operation Freedom.”

But Maduro said the opposition had “failed in their plan. They failed in their call, because the people of Venezuela want peace.”

Early on Tuesday, a group of Venezuelan armed troops accompanying Guaido clashed with soldiers at an anti-government rally in the capital, Caracas. Gunfire was heard, and more than 100 people were reported wounded.

The administration of US President Donald Trump, which has recognized Guaido as the “president” of Venezuela,” quickly backed the putsch bid.

‘Dear God, how far will the US go?’

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that Maduro had been prepared to fly into exile in Cuba but was talked down by Russia.

“He had an airplane on the tarmac. He was ready to leave this morning as we understand it, and the Russians indicated that he should stay,” Pompeo told CNN, without offering any evidence.

Maduro dismissed the allegation, saying, “Mike Pompeo said… Maduro had a plane ready to escape to Cuba and that the Russians prohibited me from leaving.”

“Mr. Pompeo, please! Such a lack of seriousness! Mr. [John] Bolton (the US national security adviser) gave orders to high-ranking officers to join the coup that was overcome in Venezuela… Dear God, how far will the US go?” Maduro said.

Bolton also appeared in the grounds of the White House on Tuesday, naming three senior Venezuelan officials who he said had been negotiating with the opposition and accepted that the president had to be replaced. He alleged that Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino was one of them.

Padrino, however, appeared on television surrounded by soldiers on Tuesday, asserting continued loyalty to Maduro.

Lopez flees to Spain’s embassy

Meanwhile, reports said opposition figure Lopez — who was reportedly set free from house arrest during the coup — took refuge at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas with his family.

Lopez said earlier that he had been freed by soldiers guarding his home.

Trump threatens Cuba with sanctions

Trump on Tuesday accused Cuban “Troops and Militia” of conducting military operations in Venezuela to cause “death and destruction to the Constitution of Venezuela.” In a Twitter message, Trump threatened Havana with a “full and complete embargo, together with the highest-level sanctions” if it did not pull those forces out of Venezuela.

Culled from Presstv

The Takfiri terror group of Daesh has released a propaganda video purporting to show its ringleader Ibrahim al-Samarrai, aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for the first time in five years.

The group released the 18-minute footage via one of its media networks on Monday allegedly showing him addressing a gathering of three. The authenticity of the footage could not be independently verified.

If authentic, however, the video would be the first one to be released of the terror mastermind since 2014. That year, he was filmed delivering a speech at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and claiming that the outfit had formed a so-called territory in the Arab country and neighboring Syria.

Al-Samarrai appeared in the first video only months after the group took on the countries and overran swathes of territory before enacting a rule, characterized with summary executions and other instances of brutal intolerance.

The new footage could not be dated either, but the person appearing to be al-Samarrai makes reference to bombings that left hundreds of people dead in Sri Lanka last week.

The speaker claims the coordinated attacks were Daesh’s revenge for the defeat it suffered recently in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz.

“The battle for Baghouz is over,” he says, adding that the group is engaged in a “battle of attrition” and would seek revenge for its jailed and killed terrorists. He also urges its elements based in East Africa to ratchet up their acts of terror.

Although, taking Baghdad and Damascus by surprise at first, the group began to suffer one defeat after another after the countries enlisted the assistance of their allies.

Russia began lending aerial support to Syria’s ground operations against the group in 2015. Iran has also been providing the Syrian and Iraqi militaries with advisory support.

The combined push led to Daesh’s defeat in late 2017.

Around the same time, the US and the militants backed by it waged a massive onslaught against the northern Syrian city of Raqqah, which the outfit had called its capital, in a push suspected of being aimed at claiming victory for Daesh’s defeat, and heavily criticized for its indiscrimination.

Source: Presstv

An unknown gunman has opened fire onto a crowd in the city of Baltimore, Maryland in northeastern United States, killing one person and injuring seven more.

The assailant took on the targets on Edmondson and Whitmore avenues in West Baltimore at around 05:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, the Associated Press reported, citing Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Michael Harrison.

The fatality was identified as a male, who collapsed behind a Baptist church. The wounded have been transferred to hospitals.

Two cookouts were in progress on opposite ends of the street and shell casings were found in two different locations, Harrison noted. He called the incident “a very tragic, very cowardly shooting.”

The incident appeared to be “extremely targeted,” he said without elaborating.

Acting Mayor Jack Young emphasized that the shooting did not involve the church.

He, however, insisted that those with knowledge about the incident share their information.

“Someone knows something,” Young said, and added, “These things … they don’t happen by happenstance. People know who’s doing these shootings.”

The agency said the city, which has chronically been inflicted with high crime rates, witnessed more than 300 homicides last year and the same number in the previous one.

Also on Sunday, a shooting at a synagogue near the southern California city of San Diego left one person dead and three others wounded, local reports said, adding that a 19-year-old male suspect was caught by police. Describing the attacker, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore said, “This individual was with an AR-type assault weapon and opened fire on the people inside the synagogue.”

The US’s gun laws have staunch supporters among the country’s far-right politicians and activists, most of whom are either members of or associated with the Republican Party.

Resistance to change in the governing legislation has either nipped in the bud or subverted efforts at enforcement of stricter gun control across the country.

Source: Presstv

The Norwegian Refugee Council humanitarian organization expressed worries on Thursday about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon caused by violent conflict between the government and non-state armed groups and called upon international community to pay attention to the situation.

“We need to scale up the humanitarian response, and there is a need for independent reporting from the international media. But most of all, we urgently need stronger international diplomatic engagement to help solve the conflict,” Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland said.

He pointed out that hundreds of villages in the English-speaking regions had been burnt during the conflict. Moreover, almost a million children did not attend school with tens of thousands of them “hiding in the bushes without any support.” According to Egeland, the locals felt abandoned by the UN and international organizations. In addition, they expected support from their former colonial leadership such as Britain and France.

Egeland urged the international community to help the warring parties to come to terms and to agree on such vital issues as reopening of schools.

Cameroon has been facing separatism in southern regions for decades. The German territory of Cameroon was partitioned between France and Britain under the 1919 League of Nations mandates. The French authorities administered the largest part of the country, while the British mandate comprised two geographically separate territories, Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons, which are currently part of Cameroon, called the Southern region.

The separatist crisis in the English-speaking parts of Cameroon sharply deteriorated in late 2016 with an appointment of Francophone judges in the areas. Later, it escalated to a violent conflict between the government and the militants. More than half a million people have fled their homes, according to UN figures. On October 1, 2017, activists from Cameroon’s English-speaking regions proclaimed their independence from country’s French-speaking areas. The declaration came on the anniversary of South Cameroon’s independence from Britain in 1961.

Source: Urdupoint

A separatist conflict in Cameroon that has forced half a million people from their homes is in danger of worsening, the head of a major aid agency has warned, condemning what he called the “international silence” over the crisis.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said the world had underestimated the impact on civilians of the violence that has gripped Cameroon, where entire villages had been burned to the ground.

“I’ve been all over the world, dealing with humanitarian work for many years and I was really shocked by the unbelievable extent of this emergency that is underestimated, underreported and neglected by the international community,” said Egeland.

“There are atrocities every single day against civilians … and the world doesn’t seem to know or want to know about it,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone during a visit to Cameroon.

Long-running tensions in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon erupted into conflict in late 2016, prompting crackdowns by security forces and leaving 1.3 million people in need of aid, according to the United Nations.

Egeland said the violence had pushed tens of thousands into hiding in the bush without access to food or medical help, and meant nearly a million children could no longer go to school.

But he said there was a danger the situation could worsen. “I really, really hope there will be mediation efforts, that there will be an outreach and an interest in dialogue on both sides that will lead to talks which can end this before it is too late,” he said on Thursday.

“I’ve seen too many places which started with a smaller conflict … and ended up in a war that no one could stop.”

Cameroon’s English speakers have felt increasingly marginalized by the French-speaking government in the capital Yaounde and in 2017 thousands took to the streets to demand a breakaway state.

The military stepped in and thousands of Anglophones fled the ensuing crackdown, which Cameroon authorities described as an anti-terrorist operation.

In a statement Egeland, whose organization is distributing survival kits to victims including food, tools and materials for temporary shelters, said there had been little pressure on the parties to stop attacking civilians.

“The international silence surrounding atrocities is as shocking as the untold stories are heart-breaking,” he said.

A U.N. human rights committee in February criticized the “heavy-handed approach” of the security forces to the crisis, which saw medical facilities, schools and entire villages destroyed. Allegra Baiocchi, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator in Cameroon, said the violence was hampering relief efforts, and also blamed a lack of funding from other countries.

“The violence has been characterized by massive human rights violations. Attacks against schools and health providers have reached an alarming scale,” she said.

“Negotiating safe humanitarian access is extremely complicated and it is slowing us down.”

Source: Reuters

Civilians in the African nation of Cameroon continue to be killed in the crosshairs of ongoing violent clashes between French-speaking government soldiers and English-speaking separatist forces seeking to form their own country.

The violence has been unceasing for the past three years in the midst of grievances that boil down to the alleged underrepresentation and squelching of those who speak English and follow British common law.

As France and Britain were allies against Germany in World War I and were granted rule of the colonies by the League of Nations, Cameroon has been a mix of both French and English-speaking inhabitants. Areas were known as French Cameroon and British Cameroon. However, following the formation of a united Republic in the 1960’s that merged both into one nation, Anglophones — those who spoke English — began sensing that although the country was considered bilingual, they were in the minority. Out of the 10 regions, eight are French and base their legal system on French law, while the other two, in western Cameroon, follow British common law.

The government also speaks French, the country’s currency is in French, and most television and radio programs are in French.

Because of this, Anglophones have felt marginalized, and the last straw seemed to be in 2016 when a business transaction law was circulated in French but not also translated into English. Lawyers in the English-speaking regions had enough of the installment of local judges who didn’t speak English well and weren’t familiar with common law.

Teachers were likewise upset about Francophones increasingly being hired in Anglophone schools. According to reports, lawyers and teachers alike took to the streets to protest the encroachment, which resulted in both arrests and violence. During one protest, government forces used live bullets and tear gas to try to break up the gathering.

Anglophones have since called for the formation of their own country, called Ambazonia, but the Cameroonian government does not wish for the nation to be divided and has sought to put down any rebellion.

Over the past three years, as clashes between English separatists and the French security forces have raged, thousands of residents have fled for their lives into other regions or to the neighboring nation of Nigeria. Reports of innocent civilians being killed have regularly been in the headlines, and both sides have been blamed for the violence.

“People are dying everywhere,” Pamela Njoke told the New York Times. “In short, it’s horrible.”

“Armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have stabbed to death and shot military personnel, burned down schools and attacked teachers, while security forces have tortured people, fired on crowds and destroyed villages, in a spiral of violence that keeps getting more deadly,” wrote Amnesty International in June.

It explained that video footage obtained by the organization showed military forces burning down the village of Kwakwa, while residents in other areas have allegedly been detained and tortured in an effort to get them to confess that they supported the separatists.

However, those who do not cooperate with the efforts of the Ambazonia Liberation Forces, or who are even suspected of supporting the government, are reportedly also vulnerable to violence and unmerited attack by the separatists. A number of schools have been set on fire or principals abducted, and some students or teachers have even been shot.

“The assailant … told me that I was still coming to school in defiance of calls for a schools boycott. … He then asked me to raise my hands, but before I could do so, he shot me,” one teacher told Amnesty International.

A report published by AFP earlier this month says that five civilians were shot and killed by security forces in an English-speaking village, with one beheaded.

“Three of the bodies were later discovered mutilated, including two found with their hands tied and their genitals cut off,” the outlet states.

One woman was also killed at a local hospital and another wounded while government soldiers searched for separatists.

“[S]ecurity forces allegedly shot and killed over a dozen civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older women died, burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire,” Human Rights Watch similarly wrote in its 2019 report.

In September, The Guardian published an article stating that “[a] self-declared member of the Ambazonia Liberation Forces appeared in a … video alongside images of a soldier’s decapitated head …”

President Paul Biya urged separatists last year to cease the fighting or they will be “neutralized.”

“If my appeal to warmongers to lay down their weapons remains unheeded, the Defense and Security Forces will be instructed to neutralize them,” he said, according to Journal Du Cameroun. “I am well aware of the distress these rebels are causing the populations of these regions. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.”

However, some have stated that the government’s equally violent response has not helped to bring peace.

“People in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are in the grip of a deadly cycle of violence. Security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people during military operations which have also displaced thousands of civilians. Their heavy-handed response will do nothing to calm the violence. In fact, it is likely to further alienate Anglophone communities and fuel further unrest,” Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Director for West and Central Africa, said in statement.

More than 500 civilians have been killed as a result of the three-year clash, as well as over 200 government soldiers, and an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 residents displaced. The European Union has spoken out against the violence and has called for dialogue between the two sides.

“Regrettably, unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly in the regions, allegedly involving both the security and defense forces and separatist groups,” one representative recently lamented before the EU parliament.

Source: Christian News

The UK is determined to help Cameroon overcome the challenges it has been facing,” in terms of terrorism and troubles in the northwest and southwest regions. This is, according to the Presidency of the Republic, an outcome of an audience granted April 24 by President Paul Biya to the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Cameroon, Rowan James Laxton.

According to the related statement, the African country has already benefited from UK support to fight against Boko haram and handle refugees. Cameroon welcomed the British government’s peace keeping actions in the face of separatist violence in the southwest and northwest.

According to the British diplomat, his country is also willing to contribute in big development projects in Cameroon. Focus is on key sectors that impact people’s lives energy, trade, social housing.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Tens of thousands of people are living in the bush without humanitarian aid in Cameroon after two years of fighting between separatists and government forces that has failed to attract widespread international support, an international aid agency said Thursday.

More than half a million people have fled their homes but the crisis has yet to generate the humanitarian response that is needed, according to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who visited the restive Southwest region this week.

“They are not able to return to their torched villages nor do they have confidence that they can go to the towns,” he said.

The English-speaking separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions allege years of marginalization by the government of largely French-speaking Cameroon. President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Hundreds have been killed as fighters from a number of armed groups battle government forces and attempt to economically paralyze the regions.

Egeland met with women who had sought refuge in the capital of Southwest region, Buea. “They told harrowing stories of how villages have been attacked at night. Often they wouldn’t know whether it was one side or the other,” he said. “Some said they thought it was government. Others said they thought it was rebels. What they have in common is that they fled with nothing.”

Civilians also have been targeted by the separatists, who have kidnapped students from schools. They also have amputated the hands of those still working on rubber plantations after a boycott was called to halt the local economy.

Egeland called on all sides to allow humanitarian organizations access to the volatile regions, and on other aid groups and European governments to step up assistance.

The Central African nation is divided along lines created during colonialism by European powers. The country now known as Cameroon was first ruled by the Germans then divided among the French and British. As a result, there are English- and French-speaking regions. English speakers are estimated at about 20% of the population.

Culled from The Washington Post