A bloody conflict pitting Cameroun government forces and restorationist forces of Ambazonia is in its eighth month. Cameroun government has come up with a humanitarian assistance package to placate the suffering internally displaced populations and refugees from the Northwest and Southwest regions of the Cameroons.

The conflict begun in November 2016 with lawyers and teachers putting forward demands, which if addressed in timely manner and appropriately would have prevented the present bloody conflict. Instead, Cameroun government chose strong arm methods to quell the civilian demands of the populations. There were kidnappings, imprisonment without trial, mass rape, killings and scorched earth policy with the burning down of whole villages.

Restorationists retaliated fistfully, inflicting fatal blows and the fabric of government security groups. Scores of military and paramilitary have been killed.

Government forces, radicalized their actions. Unarmed civilians were slaughtered by Cameroun troops, with such savagery that should be the handiwork of a terrorist movement.

While restorationists take on government troops and administrators, perceived as architects of mismanagement and brutality, Cameroun government attacks everyone in targeted Anglophone villages as terrorists to be wiped out.

All Anglophones are presented to the world as terrorists, as such, restorationists claim they have only been defending their kindred targeted for genocide by Cameroon.

Government still believes they would be able to crush the restorationists, yet they dangle unsavoury baits to the suffering masses of the Northwest and Southwest regions of the Cameroons. The leadership of Ambazonia is warning people not to accept such GIFTS and has gone ahead to threaten to attack bearers of such GIFTS.

Violence has been equalized in the Cameroons with both sides of the conflict excelling in savagery. The restorationists are feeling embolden with their early gains on the warfront. They have succeeded the violent State military unleashing untold brutality on unarmed civilians.

Balance of power has been established, with government coming down from its high horse to entertain the possibility of dialogue on a peaceful resolution. Hawks among government, who were earlier opposed to any discussion on the form of the State are now ready to talk about federalism.

Restorationists say a lot of water has passed under the bridge, and they would stop at nothing short of independence.

In this conundrum, government came us with a plan to raise 12.7 billions Francs CFA for reconstruction, medical care and food supply to the displaced Ambazonians.

Yet The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Nai Atanga is calling the fired up Ambazonian Defence Forces to lay down their arms and surrender. As he touts the restorationists, they intensify their attacks against soldiers and administrators on the field.

Government’s narrative must change if they are seriously seeking an honourable way out of the conflict. The war is unwinnable, and if government does not change its approach the troops would be doomed to meet the Waterloo restorationists have prepared for them.

While government troops are afraid of dying, the restorationists are ready to die for independence of Ambazonia. In this dilemma, government should withdraw its troops from the conflict zone and act as if they are conceding. They should help the restorationists to organize themselves to secure the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Failure would only attract the restorationists to cross their perceived borders to wreck havoc in the other eight regions of the Cameroons.

Source: Modern Ghana

Frankly speaking it is fair to say and painfully accurate that the Biya Francophone regime, alongside their Francophone dominated army, the French Cameroun media gurus and the French Cameroun Diaspora have waged horrific war on Southern Cameroons, through the deployment of army soldiers, support and supply of French Cameroun’s Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and plenty of other anti Southern Cameroons groups all part and parcel of the same package.

All attempts to destroy Ambazonia have been very much in full flow for many as 57 years now. Regime change was initiated by the French Cameroun government following the ouster of A.N.Jua as premier of West Cameroon. The anti Southern Cameroons policy has recently been curtailed by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to save Africa’s new nation. However, the Yaoundé regime is still moving forward with directives from Paris in terms of sewing carnage, mass slaughter and carving Southern Cameroons into various enclaves/segments.

We have seen the Biya regime selling oil and gas to Southern Cameroons fine allies the British. CDC sold to French interest groups.  We have seen the Francophone army killing hundreds on lame and ridiculous reason that they are clearing the supply route in and out of the Southern Zone.  We have seen French Cameroun soldiers’ burn down Southern Cameroons towns and villages.  We have seen Biya led effort against the Ambazonia Liberation Army lead to a multiplicity of armed groups deep within Southern Cameroons.

Not killing Biya will not finish the war; it would more likely lead to ever worsening blood-shed. Despite the propaganda of the Beti Ewondo political elites, it is clear to even the half brained, half blind, half deaf, that Biya has no support from the French Cameroun people. The vast majority of the French Cameroun army are young men who joined the military to gain access to free money and women.

Let your opinion be heard on the war in Southern Cameroons

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Cameroon government announcement on Wednesday, June 20, 2018, to bring some relief to Southern Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria and those internally displaced across the country has instead provoked anger among Southern Cameroonians who hold that there can never be anything good from the Yaoundé government that has been maiming and killing its own people.

Many people across the country, especially Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora hold that this may be a ploy by the struggling government to deceive the international community into believing that it is caring and it wants to help resettle those displaced by a conflict that has been complicated by the government’s military action.

The announcement was made all the more ridiculous by the fact that the aging and ailing government does not have the resources and it is calling on members of the ‘crime syndicate’ to generously donate to a cause many knew was doomed to failure.

Since the announcement of this phoney aid, Cameroonians have been reacting in different ways. While some hold that it is an initiative that will help the refugees many of whom have been living in the jungle for months, critics of the government see it as an opportunity for the corrupt Yaoundé government to prove that it is still capable of doing things.

According to some of the fighters on the ground, the package comes too late. “We have made up our minds to quit our French speaking colleagues. We have been complaining for 56 years and nobody has ever taken us serious. At best, they have ignored us, and at worst they have killed our brothers and burned down our homes. We are never going to forgive this folks and we have warned our people not to receive such blood-tainted assistance. We will kill anybody who goes to get that money or anybody who comes here from Yaoundé to tell the people those cock and bull tales,” a member of the Lebialem-based Red Dragon, who elected anonymity, said.

He advised Southern Cameroonians to continue fighting the Yaoundé government that had thought that by killing a few people the rebellion would be over.

“I am calling on southern Cameroonians to keep on resisting the corrupt Yaoundé regime. Our collective efforts and our unity of purpose have sent a strong message to Mr. Biya and government who thought by using military force they would silence us forever. That will never happen. We are walking away from the mistakes made by Foncha and Muna and there is no better time to dump our French speaking colleagues who have displayed unparalleled indifference to our fate for 56 years. In trying to silence us, the government has ended up with a sticky situation. Pressure from abroad is mounting on the frail regime and our successes on the ground have left the government really embarrassed, he said.

“For those who are having intercourse with the Yaoundé regime, let them know theirs is the kingdom of death. We will behead any government officials, especially those Southern Cameroonians in Yaoundé if they dare show up here with their dirty money in the name of refugee assistance. They cannot kill us, chase our brothers from their homes and turn around to bribe us. We have thrown them up and woe betides anybody who makes the mistake of coming to our territory with such money. I would like to send this message to Chief Tabetando. Minister Mengot Arrey, Mr. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle and Prof. Nalova Lyunga that we are ready and willing to send them to their graves for all the hardship they have brought on us. They have abetted and aided the enemy who has killed our people. We will never forget, he stressed.

“For Yang Philimon and  Paul Atanga Nji, they know they are already dead. They have been the architects of the cataclysm that has befallen people in Belo, Mamfe, Kwakwa, Pinyin and Mbonge. We will never forgive. Let them keep their dirty money. Our focus is on securing our land anybody who does not play by our rules will be promptly taken to our green jails for professional interrogation,” he warned.

In Mamfe, Kumba, Limbe, Buea,  Mbengui, Kumbo, etc, the feeling is the same. Southern Cameroonians do not trust the government and they hold that the relief assistance maybe a way of killing more of them, after all, it had used a press release once to tell the people of Mamfe to quit their homes and used the governor to deceive the people to stay home where they later were butchered.

For the Diaspora that has been the brain behind this revolution, the refugee relief assistance is nothing more than a publicity stunt by the government. The internet is awash with criticism of the government’s action which many consider as a poisoned gift.

“This government seems to be out of touch with reality. The people of Southern Cameroons have been transformed into refugees by the government and it now wants to show to the world that it is magnanimous,” one activist wrote, adding that “Southern Cameroonians across the globe should kill the government’s bluff by contributing massively to fundraising efforts that are underway in many cities across the globe so that the refugees will not be tempted to accept the government’s poisoned gift.”

He added that “As southern Cameroonians, we have the capacity to bankroll the return of our displaced people once our independence has been secured. We cannot trust anything from the Yaoundé government that has overstayed its welcome.”

“We might have lost some of our brothers due to this war. We might be going through tough times, but that does not make us beggars. We have the numbers and we can use those numbers to change our fate. We are about four million living abroad and that is good enough for us to underwrite the military efforts some of our fellow brothers in ground zero are making.”

“Besides, we cannot let this fake refugee fund distract us. We must continue to resist these infidels until they pack their stuff and leave our land. The kidnapping and killing of soldiers have left the government in a quandary. It wants to negotiate, but it does not know who to talk to. The people’s revolution is working and it will work until we quit these infidels who have brought death and destruction to our land.”

Meanwhile the fighting in many parts of the English-speaking region has intensified. In Buea and Mutengene, some uniformed soldiers were killed yesterday, Thursday, June 21, 2018 while two others were kidnapped. The situation has remained tense, especially as many army soldiers are refusing to go to the war front.

On Tuesday, a soldier killed his boss before turning his weapon onto himself after learning that his boss was insisting on sending him to the restive English-speaking region.  Such situations are on the rise and many army soldiers are even shooting themselves in the foot just to avoid going to the war front which they have nick-named the cemetery.

The situation on the ground is really dicey and the days ahead look really gloomy as Russian-made AK-47s have finally made their way into Southern Cameroons. The killing machines clearly spell death to army soldiers who are viewed in the region as enemies.

The government really has a crisis on its hands. A crisis that started as protests by lawyers and teachers has finally developed into a civil war and this is putting the country in the spotlight for the wrong reason.

With many deaths registered on both sides, it will hard for both sides to sit and talk about a common future.  Southern Cameroonians have totally migrated from federalism to secession and they hold that independence is within reach.

Today, the government seems to be warming up to the idea of federalism, but this seems to be too late. Many people have died and the pain will make it hard for the two parties to meet and talk. However, all hopes are not lost.  With the international community already getting involved, it is likely that dialogue will soon replace the sound of guns that have been part of life in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

By Kingsley Betek

The services industry is no longer booming in Southern Cameroons. However in many neighbourhoods in the old city of Buea, a dozen bars with strong ties to the Cameroon government army still open. Every day they are packed with secret servicemen and women including informants enjoying a few drinks with their food interrupted sometimes by gun fire between Ambazonian freedom fighters and soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaoundé. Less than a kilometer away precisely in Muea, Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces are fighting Cameroon government troops in a war that will determine the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

On first glance the Ambazonian capital city of Buea appears isolated from the conflict currently engulfing much of Southern Cameroons but it is that very conflict that enables this illusion of normalcy. Southern Cameroons is enduring its second year of crisis, and most people living in the Francophone government-controlled areas like Buea and Limbe continue to suffer from a crippling economic crisis likely to linger long after the guns fall silent.  By the end of this year, the economy of the two Cameroons will have shrunk 10-fold. President Biya is aware.

Senior economic reporters have opined that there simply isn’t much coming into or going out of Southern Cameroons. The destruction of some 97 Southern Cameroons farming communities centered in the Southern Zone have led to an almost 90 percent decrease in food production. The regime in Yaoundé in indeed confused. To adapt to this new reality, many Southern Cameroonians are implementing desperate measures: selling their property, taking on mean jobs or even stealing.

A group of persons have however created opportunity amid the chaos and like experienced war profiteers they have carved out a thriving black market. They are the top officials of the Cameroon government military headed by Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo. To be sure, the same Cameroon army illicit trade that was introduced in the Central African Republic under the late General Tumenta has been established in Ambazonia by the oligarchs and by amassing huge profit and power, they’ve come to exact an immense degree of control over the lives of Southern Cameroonians living in the Francophone government-controlled areas.

The rise of these French Cameroun oligarchs began soon after President Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons. Joseph Beti Assomo, launched the military campaign with the aim of suffocating the Southern Cameroons economy, sundering its access to essential goods like medications and blocking internet services and bank transfers. Beti Assomo and Ousmanou Mey who headed the ministry of finance successfully set off a destructive ripple throughout Southern Cameroons that further distorted an economy that had been ravaged by ghost town operations and the escalating conflict.

These Cameroon government oligarchs’ distortions have hit everything in Southern Cameroons from the farming sector to the salaries of ordinary people. Southern Cameroonians only means of survival now is remittances from relatives abroad. Many now travel to Douala or Dschang to pick up their money for fear of being libeled a separatist. Senior officers in the army have registered taxis under the controversial Mayor Ekema Patrick and have deployed their relatives as cab drivers in Buea and Limbe with state protection. The French Cameroun army has identified its own hotels in Buea and Limbe and that’s where those with the cash are accommodated. Southern Cameroons has become the cave of gold, and every Cameroon military official wants to be Ali Baba. All French Cameroun military checkpoints are now generating huge profits for those officers in charge. Some officers demand petty bribes in exchange for use of the military vehicles usually reserved for deployments, to bypass the long queues on the Buea-Kumba highway. Bamileke businessmen pay bribes to allow their trucks, heavy with goods, to pass through quicker.

Many of the army colonels have established some kind of private security companies using heavily armed soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons, which provide armed escorts. Banks and other businesses end up having to hire them as escorts through the rural areas. According to a Cameroon government source familiar with these oligarchs, the armed escorts does not engage with the Ambazonian fighters but they prevent them from extorting money from those convoys or even looting them.

Another popular method of profiting off the war in Southern Cameroons is looting and selling back to the people of Southern Cameroons. Four months ago, the army confiscated motor bikes in Mamfe town and stole a sea of TV and radio sets that were later sold back to the owners. When government soldiers stormed Menji and Azi in Lebialem, entire window and door frames were removed, and all the furniture and appliances inside people’s houses were taken.  Several commanders and highly placed Cameroon government officials with links to the army have developed reputations for accumulating enormous fortunes. As I write, General Elokobi Daniel Njock is equipping and at the same time building an expensive fence on his home in the Manyu County. Joseph Beti Assomo is now a billionaire par excellence. The story is same for General Melingui Nouma and his acolytes.

Frankly speaking the profits made from the underground wartime economy in Southern Cameroons by defense bosses are likely to provide more of an incentive to allow the war to continue than encourage it to stop, which will only further widen the divide between French Cameroun and Southern Cameroons.  It is precisely this war economy that is driving the war.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai 

June 19, 2018

Subject: Reaction to Communique of Manyu Chiefs and Elite, Yaounde, June 16, 2018

To: Manyu Citizens Worldwide

Great citizens of Manyu:

The MAC, through its various organs including Manyu Health, Manyu Intelligence, Manyu Safety Committee and Manyu Strategic Ventures wishes to give notice to ALL Manyu people and SOUTHERN CAMEROONS/AMBAZONIANS, that the small group of Manyu people meeting in Yaounde under LRC Minister Victor Arrey Mengot and banana-rated General Elokobe, firstly, no longer belong to Manyu and secondly will never again represent Manyu in ANYTHING legitimate, cultural, socio-economic or political. This so-called socio-economic group and meeting is organized to probably bring another few bags of rice or cartons of fish while our people are being slaughtered and driven into bushes, pregnant women shot at point blank range. Any such meetings organized in Yaounde by LRC agents is therefore dismissed and banned by the Manyu Advisory Committee as Supreme Authority (while our land is under occupation), from ever happening on behalf of or for Manyu anywhere in La Republic Apartheid du Cameroun.

You are all aware of the reckless killings, rapes,political machination,untold economic hardship, social unrest, outright decimation of our much-cherished culture, all orchestrated by Biya’s beti junta, with the complicity and conspiracy of some of our own so-called chiefs and political elite from Manyu. To this group of greedy and vindictive political thugs cum bandits, it doesn’t matter if all our young men were rounded up, inhumanely humiliated and summarily executed, girls and young women savagely and serially raped by Biya’s marauding terrorist soldiers, our culture mindlessly trampled upon, and our natural resources exploited and carted away to develop Biya’s beti land while Manyu remains underdeveloped.

You have seen whole villages razed down, young men killed and buried in shallow mass graves, ocadas burnt down, some of our chiefs tortured and shot point blanc by Biya’s blood thirsty soldiers. You have also seen legitimate Manyu elite picked up, tortured and bungled in underground cells in Yaounde and elsewhere? You have seen Manyu people such as Justice Paul Aya, Barrister Agbor NkonghoBalla, Dr. Fontem and others illegally picked up and jailed for months.You have seen how these wolves in sheep’s clothing said or done nothing since Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius and others were kidnapped from Nigeria and being incarcerated incommunicado in Yaounde.You have seen how tens of thousands of our people, including the young, the pregnant, the sick/frail and old living as refugees in Nigeria, without any attention given to them.  The list is endless!

To the few of you in LRC Parliament and Senate, the few questions you MUST answer are:

• Who are you representing?
• Where were you when Manyu citizens were asked to leave their ancestral land by the Colonial SDO?
• Where were you when Manyu Division was invaded and citizens killed and some brutalized?
• Where were you when the SDF opposition requested for our SC problems to be addressed on the floor of the LRC National Assembly to avoid blood spilling?
• What did you do besides simply siding with Biya?

The MAC condemns your group in Yaounde especially for giving Biya the go ahead to slaughter your own people like chicken and bury them in unidentified mass graves. You had the opportunity to stand up for your people to prevent all the blood-letting and genocide unleashed on us by Biya. Yet you did nothing! You said nothing too because you have simply sold your souls and conscience for money.

Given these crimes against humanity, you have all jointly and severally therefore lost the trust our people bestowed in you. You are now pretending to open your dirty mouths because the fire of the SC Revolution is gradually zeroing in on you. Reality is now dawning on you that you can only run, but can’t hide.

To avoid any doubt there is no longer a place for you in today’s Manyu. Simply put, your time is over!

Feel free to remain in Yaounde and continue to be slaves to Biya and his kinsmen. Good luck!

God Bless Manyu.

Sincerely,

The Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee

Cameroon’s governance and security problems for many years have attracted little outside attention. But the country now faces violence in three regions: the Far North, where Boko Haram continues to mount small-scale attacks, as well as the Northwest and Southwest, where an incipient Anglophone insurgency emerged in 2017. Added to this ambient insecurity is a refugee crisis in the East and Adamaoua, to which 236,000 people from the Central African Republic have fled militia battles. Elections scheduled for October 2018 will be a major test, as will the eventual transfer of power away from President Paul Biya, now 85. 2018 is a crucial moment for the international community, and in particular the EU and its member states, to engage in early action and prevent further escalation.

Boko Haram: still a threat to a neglected region

Boko Haram, active in Cameroon’s Far North since 2014, has killed about 1,800 civilians and 175 soldiers, kidnapped around 1,000 people and burned and looted many villages, while the conflict has displaced some 242,000 and badly disrupted the local economy. Some 91,000 Nigerians have fled Boko Haram-related violence in Nigeria to Cameroon. Though battered by security forces and riven by internal divisions, Boko Haram remains a threat in the Far North: in 2017 the group has killed at least 27 soldiers and gendarmes, as well as 210 civilians. It could regain strength if Cameroonian authorities neglect the crisis.

Boko Haram fighters and associates have surrendered in increasing numbers. Dozens of former militants have been sent home, after swearing on the Quran they would not rejoin the group. About 80 others are being held at a military camp in Mayo Sava. To encourage more such surrenders, authorities should avoid blanket stigmatisation and differentiate between hard-core fighters and others. The government also needs to develop a clear plan to counter the appeal of the jihadist ideas that some of the Boko Haram fighters that have given themselves up or been captured continue to espouse. Effective justice and reintegration mechanisms are lacking. Hundreds of supposed Boko Haram members are currently in pre-trial detention, a situation that risks fuelling their further radicalisation; their status should be resolved as swiftly as possible. Authorities also should seek to implement flexible, locally-informed mechanisms to facilitate the social reintegration of former Boko Haram fighters and encourage new surrenders. Leaving this to the whims of ad-hoc local efforts is inadvisable: given the destruction wreaked by the insurgency, communities are highly resentful, and poorly conceived reintegration schemes could sow the seeds of future problems. This is in contrast to neighbouring Chad, where local communities seem to be integrating former militants somewhat successfully on an informal basis. The EU should encourage national authorities, both in Yaounde and in regional capitals, to elaborate and implement their own plans to manage the demobilisation of former Boko Haram members.

The war against Boko Haram has strained local communities, given rise to humanitarian crises and highlighted the need for longer-term development. In 2018, Cameroon’s international partners, including the EU, should provide further humanitarian assistance in the Far North, focused on strengthening support to displaced persons and host families as well as supporting the voluntary return of Nigerian refugees. Where required, emergency operations should continue, but humanitarian efforts should also evolve into a more sustainable development approach.

The challenge is to stimulate the local economy without filling the coffers of Boko Haram, which taxes local trade and whose recruitment efforts in the past have been facilitated in part by offering small business loans and other financial incentives. Achieving the right balance will be difficult. But European support for small businesses within the formal and informal economies could help undercut local backing for Boko Haram. Separately, while Yaounde has long controlled the Far North by co-opting local notables, Boko Haram’s spread into Cameroon was partly facilitated by tapping into anger at local elites, thereby demonstrating the limits of that approach. Instead, Cameroon’s partners should encourage the state to reassert its presence in the north in a participatory and inclusive manner rather than through proxies, including via development projects that boost local earning potential.

The Anglophone crisis: an insurgency in the making

The crisis in the Anglophone regions (the Northwest and Southwest), which started as a sectoral protest, is rapidly developing into an armed insurgency, following the Cameroonian security forces’ violent repression on 22 September and 1 October. While there are hardliners among the militants, the government bears a large share of the responsibility for the conflict. It failed to recognise the legitimacy of Anglophone grievances; its security forces committed widespread abuses; and it imprisoned many peaceful activists in early 2017.

Several small “self-defence” groups (the Tigers, Ambaland forces and Vipers, to name a few) now operate alongside two armed militias: the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) and the Southern Cameroons Defence Forces. Since November 2017, these groups have launched low-intensity attacks that have killed at least 22 and injured 25 among soldiers and gendarmes. An unknown number of separatist fighters have died in these clashes. The military crackdown also exacted a large humanitarian toll and involved significant human rights violations. The violence has left at least 90 civilians since October 2016. Around a thousand have been arrested, with 400 still in jail. More than 30,000 Anglophones are refugees in Nigeria and tens of thousands have been internally displaced.

Given that the crisis is rooted in historically grounded identity-based grievances, notably the strong sentiment among Anglophones that they have been politically and economically marginalised, there will be no easy resolution. The government will need to change course and negotiate in good faith. The government’s refusal to launch a dialogue with peaceful Anglophone leaders has corroded the community’s trust in state institutions and provoked escalating violence. The crisis also illustrates the limits of the country’s centralised governance model, which show signs of atrophy. Discontent is still mounting in Anglophone areas. Reports suggest that some members of the security forces are joining the insurgency.

A direct dialogue between the government and Anglophone community leaders is critical to de-escalate the crisis, particularly ahead of the October elections. A wider conversation, which should include discussion of different models of decentralisation and federalism, is also important, given the failings of the current model. The EU and its member states should take advantage of the government’s concern about its international image and desire to preserve cooperation with them to nudge it toward direct talks and a national dialogue.

Uncertainties ahead

Most of the country’s security threats stem, at least in part, from bad governance and an over-centralised political system. While the 2018 elections are likely to see the ruling party retain power, a vote perceived as manipulated or unfair could further diminish its legitimacy, making it even more remote from citizens and feeding greater levels of violence. Election season will be an especially risky time if, as appears likely, Anglophone militants attempt to disrupt the balloting in the Northwest and Southwest regions, and possibly elsewhere.

More broadly, while many local activists and international actors see an eventual transition from President Biya, whose party dominates the government, as a prerequisite for improvements in governance, they also fear that his departure could trigger instability. European and other foreign powers should start laying the groundwork for a peaceful transfer of power; the longer the situation deteriorates, the harder it will be to pick up the pieces. They have two opportunities to do so in 2018: first, by supporting dialogue between the Biya government and Anglophone leaders, as described above; and, second, by working with Cameroon’s electoral body (ELECAM) and pressing the government to permit, and then deploy, election observers to protect the integrity of the vote, as best possible, and thus build confidence in the electoral system. Even small gains in these areas would help mend the frayed contract between the Cameroonian state and its citizens.

Culled from the International Crisis Group

Akere Muna, who recently made public his decision to run for the upcoming presidential election to be held between September 14 and October 14, 2018, has accused Justice Minister Laurent Esso of attempting to disqualify his candidacy.

Akere has been quoted as saying that the Yaoundé regime is using a Muna family succession issue involving his younger sister former minister Ama Tutu Muna for political gains. Akere told a group of press men and women on Thursday in Yaoundé that “The only capital I have is my honor. My sister believes that I am a forger and the state supports it, with the Minister of Justice in mind. I will face it here and elsewhere.”

The former president of the Cameroon branch of Transparency International and founding father in the fight against corruption in Cameroon is being accused by Ama Muna of having falsified her signature on a document bearing minutes of a family meeting, in the framework of their late dad Solomon Tandeng Muna’s estate in 2002.

The former minister has sued her brother, whose candidacy is supported by the NOW movement and the Platform for a New Republic.

By Rita Akana

Rather than castigate the US Ambassador for advising Biya to step down after 36 years in power, Cameroonians should hail Ambassador Barlerin for speaking truth to power. It’s time for Biya to go.

If there ever was any doubt about the abysmal level to which governance or leadership in Cameroon has fallen and how small the minds are in very high places, the utterly reckless and bizarre response to the US Ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin, for advising President Biya to think about his legacy; a move interpreted by Yaoundé as a call for Biya to step down, is a melodrama which speaks to the intemperate desperation of Cameroon’s vampire elite in their quest for Biya to remain in power, and provide cannon fodder for their bare-face corruption and pillage of the nation’s wealth. In a readout after an audience with President Biya at Unity Palace last May 17, the US envoy said: “…the President and I discussed upcoming elections. ‎I suggested to the President that he should be thinking about his legacy and how he wants to be remembered in the history books to be read by generations to come, and proposed that George Washington and Nelson Mandela‎ were excellent models.” While lamenting the absence of dialogue which has escalated the Anglophone crisis, Ambassador Barlerin indicted security forces for “targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages.” Jolted by self-righteous indignation and a mundane craving to ingratiate themselves to the corridors of power, gaffing, goofing, dilatory goons, masquerading as intellectuals and opinion leaders; including fifth columnists and sundry regime apologists, took to the airwaves to castigate the Ambassador; casting banal, vituperative aspersions on his person and declaring him, persona non-grata. The bile and vitriol, including the obnoxious threat by one Banda Kani; who on live TV, said Ambassador Barlerin will return to America in a coffin, is a diplomatic sacrilege that does not edify Cameroon as a nation. Cameroon deserves better.

The impropriety of inflaming primordial sentiments against a resident ambassador is simply mind-boggling and inexcusable. And never again should it happen! The attacks, like the sycophants behind them, are not only pathetic; they are cheap and only reinforce Cameroon’s image as a banana republic with highly dysfunctional institutions where bizarre things can happen. In the event, the civic callousness by self-seeking morons who plumbed the abyss of diplomatic rascality and drag the nation to a hitherto unprecedented low; did a great disservice to the nation. This is a shame and Cameroonians deserve full explanation for this embarrassment.

On the face of it, there is nothing the Ambassador said that has not been in the domain of public discourse. Images of arrests, torture, executions and burning of Anglophone villages have gone viral on social media. It also does not require a rocket scientist to figure out that Biya is tired. At 85, Biya is far on the left side of the average age of African Presidents which is 63; that’s pension time, or nearing it, in most countries. Put in context, the European equivalent is 55; which is also the average age of American presidents at their inauguration. Since taking office in 1982, Biya has seen five French presidents – Francois Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande and Emmanuel Macron. In the same period, Americans have elected six different presidents – Ronald Reagan, George H Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Biya is also Africa’s oldest president and the second longest- serving ruler; behind Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang Nguema, in power for 38 years.

The president’s frequent trips abroad for medical tourism continue to fuel speculations about his failing health. Keen observers can determine Biya is showing more wear and tear mostly in the wrinkles on his face; the deterioration in his husky voice; the alleged diapers, uncontrollable flatulence, protracted anal blasts and the declining swagger of his gait as witnessed during official outings when he can barely walk. Biya now cuts the picture of an isolated man, frail, distraught, distracted and completely out of touch. Honestly speaking, to vilify the US Ambassador for advising an 85-year-old president to step down, after 36 years, is a travesty that insults and diminishes even Biya’s own person.

Beyond the specifics of avuncular admonition and verbal castigation, the assault on Barlerin is nothing more than self-seeking, ignominious, whimsical and disdainful diplomatic brigandage; more so as it transcends the fine line between free speech and hate speech. Those sycophants, who saw Barlerin’s statement as an attack on their power and unearned privileges, must be told in whatever language they understand that Biya, like every mortal, will eventually die but Cameroon will continue to exist! They should therefore critically examine the issue of presidential succession raised rather than waste time venting needless ad hominems in the public space.

Of course, the reckless behavior of Cameroon’s ruling elite which caused the US envoy to speak truth to power as he did, are well known. A gang of tired old kleptocrats tottering on the borders of senile decay have captured and taken the nation hostage and are stealing the people blind. Cameroon is about the only country in the world where noble minds are ruled by ignoble characters; where thieves get national honors, public servants get paid to steal, and law enforcement officials are venerated for breaking the law. Despite its potential for greatness, Cameroon has aimlessly drifted to become a nation of unimaginable depravity: a forsaken nation ridden with corruption and institutionalized banditry, a people dehumanized by widespread poverty and decrepit infrastructure; and one bedeviled by tribalism, thriving opportunism and heightened insecurity. At the head of the crime syndicate called CPDM, is Paul Biya who cares not one whit about the future of the country; he only wants to be president. Biya has denigrated the presidency, transforming it into a clannish swindle and so far as one can tell, his only visible strategy is just power without a purpose. It will take a man and half to end the nation’s drift and Biya’s inability to lead illustrates a poor dimension of presidential stature and the amplification of the absence of leadership example, from a president who has nothing more to offer Cameroonians.

The point must however be made with emphasis that every nation that respects international law has a duty as well, in its very own interest, to seek the socio-economic and political stability of its host nation. Unlike Franco-Cameroon relations with a parasitic reverse umbilical cord, in which the mother (France) feeds fat on the fetus (Cameroon), US assistance to Cameroon is a one-way traffic. The US is Cameroon’s leading investor, through the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project. US food assistance since 2016 stands at over $80 million. From 2015 to present, US military aid to Cameroon is $192,417,258; (FCFA 110 bn), according to data from Security Assistance Monitor. Presently, there are over 300 American military personnel and civilian contractors in the Salak military base near Garoua helping the government fight Boko Haram. Through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the US provides millions of dollars for free anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients. American Peace Corps volunteers leave the comfort of their home country to work in the most remote hinterlands, where even Cameroonians refuse to go and work. Cameroon also enjoys preferential trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA); exporting goods, tariffs free to the US market. Certainly, antagonizing the USA is a strategic mistake that cannot be in the national interest.

While some will dismiss the odious, desultory and even comical hubris from the president’s men, the deafening silence of the presidency in the face of the brazen callousness, audacity and debauchment of the US diplomat is an affront to the nation and all Cameroonians must hide their heads in shame, even as they wonder how their government can be so imprudent. If Yaoundé saw anything wrong with the threats to kill the US ambassador, it has taken them too long to make this known! The animus and intemperate verbiage reeking of self-righteous indignation, directed at Ambassador Barlerin, who spoke the minds of a majority of Cameroonians is not the most ideal way to promote friendly relations, which is one of the functions of adroit diplomacy. It has also been reasonably argued that Barlerin should not have made public his private discussions with Biya, for doing so suggests bad faith and risked inciting the public against the regime. But even if Barlerin’s statement amounted to interference, contrary to Article 41(1) of the Vienna Convention, a more dignified and mature response would be to resolve the issues diplomatically through the Ministry of External Relations. That is statesmanship.

If Biya had any sense of patriotism and respect for democracy; if Biya was not so bereft of integrity as to change the constitution to engender his life presidency; if Biya had not gone cap in hand begging for handouts from America and other nations; if Cameroon wasn’t embroiled in governance anomie, surely there would be no reason for foreigners to define terms on which Cameroon should be governed. The fact that Biya has reduced the Anglophone regions to killing fields challenges our common humanity and it would have been a dereliction of duty if Ambassador Barlerin had not called out the Biya regime for the genocide and crimes against humanity. Therefore, rather than waste time hurling insults at the US diplomat for speaking truth to power, all patriotic Cameroonians should hail Ambassador Barlerin for acting as a self-imposed moral ombudsman and conscience of a drifting nation. However ill-conceived the Ambassador’s statement might be in content and delivery, it is once again another reminder that history is beckoning on Paul Biya and giving him a chance at winning the battle for both self-redemption and national rebirth. The choice is patently Biya’s to make.

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

The Bamilekes, the Hausas, Fulanis, Sawa, Bassas, Fang, Beti and Ewondos are all feeling the pains deeply  seeing the beautiful dream of a strong and proud United Republic of Cameroon-a country that was expected to stand tall in Sub Saharan Africa now losing its reason for being—an enlightened democracy and secure African state living in harmony with its neighbors.

Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates have destroyed the so-called One and Indivisible Cameroon. To be sure, Cameroon’s social fabric has been torn apart by political divisiveness and massive economic injustice against the people of Southern Cameroons now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Today, what is left of the United Republic of Cameroon is a nation that is increasingly being isolated, degenerating into a garrison state with highly placed civil servants, politicians and businessmen moving around in gun proof cars, armoured vehicles and bullet proof helmets.

Cameroon is virtually crumbling under Paul Biya’s watch-a man who as head of state has served longest in this position. The one million dollar question is, where is Biya leading the people of Cameroon and what will be in store for Cameroonians tomorrow as the one and indivisible is now at a fateful cross-road and facing an uncertain future?

Pro-Biya comedians and Biya himself will disagree with Cameroon Concord News Group, but we of this publication are urging Biya to reflect on what the US ambassador Peter Barlerin told him lately and begin with a fast transition.

An American ambassador in any nation in the world is a very important figure. He represents a nation that has generously provided support to poorer countries including Cameroon all around the globe. It is the world’s most powerful nation.  The Americans and even the French are now aware that Biya conveniently surrounded himself with a corrupt Francophone Beti Ewondo political elite— cabinet ministers with no morals, no compunction, and nothing but an insatiable lust for power and women. All of them are in their second or third marriages and they have all been consumed by their personal political agendas and absorbed in domestic corruption and intrigues.

Mr. Biya has several such ministers—among them Justice Minister, Laurent Esso, who had his first kids with a Southern Cameroonian woman but who endorsed the idea that Ambazonians were the enemy and made the call for indiscriminate killing that includes Southern Cameroons elderly people and its women and children and the destruction of its cities and its villages, its properties and its infrastructure.

Mr. Biya indeed has several such ministers- among them again is a National Education Minister,Nalova Lyonga, who during her time as Rector of the Buea University ordered soldiers to rape and kill innocent Southern Cameroons students and a Higher Education Minister, Fame Ndongo, who is out to stifle anything that is Anglo-Saxon in Cameroon—who  even makes a mockery of the presence of English speaking Cameroonians in their one and indivisible Cameroon.

Biya has successfully enveloped himself in an ideological siege with a ghetto mentality and selective native juju precepts, supported by a blind chorus of CPDM MPs and Senators that only echoes his distorted tune. Biya and his gang have constantly manipulated Cameroonian public opinion with national security concerns and falsely connect security to genuine Southern Cameroons demands.

The 85 year-old French Cameroun dictator delights in facing an inept political opposition headed by the Social Democratic Front.  With these lame Cameroonian opposition parties sitting on the fringes of political despair, they have now become easy to co-opt in support of Biya’s misguided domestic policies against Southern Cameroonians all in the name of national unity and patriotism.

Biya still boast about Cameroon’s economic prowess and he is still dreaming of his emergence 2030 initiative when in fact Cameroon’s economy as a whole is in a state of stagnation and a handful of CPDM billionaires such as Baba Danpullo control the financial heart of the nation while tens of thousands of families are scrambling to survive.

95 per cent of citizens in the One and Indivisible Cameroon are living in poverty—three quarters  of whom are children—while millions of dollars was paid to President Buhari and the Nigerian DSS to abduct and extradite the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia including top aides of his government.  Tourism is diving, foreign investments are plunging, and the Southern Cameroons quest for independence is gaining momentum.

The corruption and criminality among top officials is staggering; more than 40 ministers, a prime minister, secretaries and CEO of state-owned companies have been convicted of crimes by the Special Criminal Court. Dozens more have been indicted, with some escaping to Europe and North America.

Biya has spent 37 years as head of state discriminating against Southern Cameroonians with his tribal government’s policy of unequal treatment, and then is now questioning Anglophone loyalty to the state of Cameroon.

Southern Cameroonian freedom fighters challenging Cameroon government troops in the Northern and Southern zones have revealed an open and bloody wound in the heart of the One and Indivisible Cameroonian society. This is a wound of a people sounding the alarm at what they feel is discrimination, marginalization and disregard of their needs. The United States and the European Union must take a good hard look at this Southern Cameroons wound.

Demographically, the country is facing a grave danger. Both Southern Cameroonians and French Cameroun citizens are leaving the country mainly for economic reasons and the lack of a prospect of ending the debilitating conflict in Southern Cameroons.

In particular, support for the war in Southern Cameroons is consistently trending downward in La Republique du Cameroun.  Many French speaking Cameroonians now understand that Mr. Biya got it all wrong by declaring war against the Anglophone community.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites have treated Southern Cameroonians like objects, to be used and abused.  The Biya regime has violated Southern Cameroons human rights with brazen impunity and it will take decades for the wound to heal.

French speaking Cameroonians do not understand the meaning of being utterly overpowered by someone you have called “brother”,  of having one’s house burnt down in the night, terrifying women and children, more than 77 villages destroyed and of losing the sense of having any control over one’s life. One would think that those who suffered during French government imposed policies such as La Prestation and La Cuvee (Force Labour) would treat others with care and sensitivity.

Cameroon Concord News Group does not intend to exempt Ambazonian militants of their role, but the actions of Biya and his Francophone ministers’ are inciting hostility and ultimately fostering violent extremism in Southern Cameroons. Biya’s errand boy Peter Mafany Musonge keeps using old and tired talking points about the situation in Southern Cameroons which have long been dismissed as empty, self-convincing gospel.

Biya has been speaking in support of decentralization, but he has never lifted a finger to advance it; Biya’s actions only point to the opposite direction.  The children of Southern Cameroons both at home and abroad must determine their own destiny and not leave it to anybody not even the UN.

Time is not on Biya’s side, and even though Southern Cameroonians are suffering, violent extremism targeting French Cameroun will only increase. Without a carefully thought-out plan to gradually engage the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Africa’s next civil war will indeed by Cameroon.

Ending the war in Southern Cameroons and accepting that two states came together in 1961 to form a Federal Republic of Cameroon is not a charitable gift to Ambazonians. Only by accepting Southern Cameroonians rights to a state of their own will French Cameroun starts enjoying peace and security again.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

As it’s often said *’Politics is local’*. It is indeed local.

*Cameroons Electoral Political History*

At the Reunification of Cameroon in 1961, The Southern Cameroons (later West Cameroon) was an electoral Constituency (within which contested the various Southern Cameroons Political Parties).

While LRC (East Cameroon) had three Constituencies that voted along these lines (The Grand North – Fulanis, The Centre South – Betis and the West- Bamileke & Bassa).

*Case Precedent – 1992 Presidential Elections*

The results of the 1992 Presidential Elections displayed the following patterns;

*SDF* – won in the North West, South West, Littoral & West Regions.

*CPDM* – won in the Centre, South, East & Far North Regions.

*UNDP* – won in the Adamawa & North Regions.

Ever since the 1992 Presidential Elections till present, all electoral results have reflected the above patterns.

While the CPDM made inroads into the SDFs & UNDPs Constituencies, both the SDF and UNDP were reduced to Regional Political Parties as seen in the recent Senatorial Elections with the SDF winning only 7 seats of 70 contested seats. While the CPDM won 63 on 70 seats and the UNDP failed to win a single seat.

*Electoral Data*

*SDF*

Looking at the recent Electoral historical data Joshua Osih the SDFs candidate is destined to win less than 15% of the vote. And with Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia his constituency not taking part in the elections, Joshua Osih and the SDF may retain less than 10% of the vote.

*NOW MOVEMENT*

With the *NOW MOVEMENT* taking part in the elections for the first time, not representing any political party and with Ambazonia, Akere Muna’s constituency not taking part in the elections, Akere Muna is destined to win less than 5% of the vote.

*The CPDM*

This leaves the CPDM party and its candidate to win the remainder of the vote with at least 75% and the other 5% being won by other smaller parties like Maurice Kamto’s MRC.

This is based on recent Electoral data in which the CPDM won 56 seats in all 8 Regions of LRC and 7 seats in one of the two Regions in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. The above analysis is based on recent empirical data.

*The Wild Card – A Presidential Coalition of Opposition Political Parties/Movements*

Recent electoral data doesn’t prevent the Opposition parties from forming a coalition if they stand a chance of defeating the ruling party CPDM.

Based on recent Coalition Electoral data this coalition will have as members the SDF (Joshua Osih), MRC (Maurice Kamto), NOW Movement (Akere Muna), CDU (Adamou Ndam Njoya), CPP (Kah Walla) and any other smaller political parties.

Of all the above candidates only Maurice Kamto is from LRC and the rest of the candidates are from Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia whose constituency will not be taking part in the elections and whose constituency represent about 20 – 25% of the electorate.

Based on recent Electoral data any coalition will need to win the Grand North constituency (Adamawa, North and Far North Regions) which is currently in the grasp of the CPDM.

It should be noted that the Grand North constituency is the most populated constituency from recent population census data.

The possible best results for any such coalition of Opposition parties will be 20 – 30% of the vote which still leaves the CPDM with an outright victory of 70% of the vote considering Cameroon only conducts a Single round of votes at the Presidential Elections.

*The Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia Question*

With Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia having declared her independence on 1st October 2017 and currently engage in a guerilla warfare with the LRC Military it is difficult to see how up to 20% of the electorate in this part of the country will vote.

Also the Ambazonia Interim Government has prohibited the conducting of any LRC Elections within Ambazonia. The continous displacement of the population of Ambazonia and the reign of terror being executed on these populations by Military Forces from LRC indicates the majority of the populations of Ambazonia are in no mode to take part in elections being organised by a Government who has inflicted so much pain and terror on them.

*Reasons for Outright Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia Restoration of Independence*

The SDF was formed in 1990 with sole mission to restore the former State of West Cameroon. However with citizens from LRC taking much interest in the SDF party, the SDF NEC decided to take a shot at capturing the Presidency of LRC. The SDF candidate at the 1992 Presidential Elections John Fru Ndi came a close second with 36% of the vote, while Paul Biya of the CPDM won with 39% of the votes.

Ever since then the SDF has seen its electoral fortunes reduced and confined to the North West Region giving it a Regional party rather than National party status. This has convinced the majority of Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians that the only option left to them is to support the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia  Interim Government to enable it restore the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia’s Autonomy as was the case In 1961.

*Summary*

Based on the above analysis and recent electoral data, it is difficult to assume or predict how either Joshua Osih (SDF) or Akere Muna (NOW Movement) could win the 2018 LRC Presidential Elections.

However in politics nothing is permanent or predictable. I will conclude by stating in October 2018 (that is if the LRC Presidential Elections are held) the results will vindicate the above analysis.

By Oswald Tebit

The opinions expressed here are NOT that of the Cameroon Concord News Group