After 37 years under President Paul Biya, Cameroon is arguably at its most divided yet. Various of its fault lines are deep, and they are getting even deeper.

The most immediate crisis facing the country is the ongoing Anglophone conflict in the two English-speaking regions, which has led to hundreds of deaths. But this situation is compounded by two other tensions in Cameroon, one ethnic, one religious.

President Biya, in power since 1982, stands defiant in the face of these pressures, but without clear action to address them, these challenges will only become more threatening to his rule and to the country.

1) The deadly Anglophone crisis

The Anglophone conflict began in 2016 when teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions went on strike. They were protesting against the deployment of French-speaking judges and teachers with no understanding of the common law and educational systems that operate in these areas. The government seemed prepared to negotiate until more demonstrators joined and the group’s demands escalated into calls for more autonomy for the two regions. Anglophone nationalists have long demanded greater self-rule to address perceived marginalisation and protect their Anglo-Saxon heritage in the predominantly French-speaking country.

At this point, the government – as it has done many times in the past – resorted to force and mass arrests.  The situation quickly escalated. Armed groups emerged calling for the English-speaking regions to secede completely from Cameroon as the independent state of Ambazonia. Fighting ensued with both separatist forces and the Cameroonian army allegedly committing widespread atrocities.

Three years on, the government in Yaoundé remains adamant that Cameroon’s decentralised unitary form of state is non-negotiable. However, this position is becoming increasingly untenable.

To start with, some key western governments, who previously only called for dialogue, have begun to take some concrete and sustained steps in relation to the conflict. This February, for instance, the US scaled down its military assistance to Cameroon citing gross human rights violations. In May, it sponsored the first UN Security Council meeting on the Anglophone conflict. And then, in July, its House of Representatives adopted Resolution 358 in July calling on the Cameroon government to reconstitute the federal system as one measure to resolve the crisis. That same month, Switzerland, which has a federal system and is another key partner, announced that it is leading a mediation effort. It has reportedly been discretely pressing Biya to look at its own model of territorial state organisation .

At the same time, domestic opinion in Cameroon is also shifting. As the separatist conflict wears on, moderate Francophones are increasingly subscribing to the idea of a federal state, something, which moderate Anglophones have long called for.

2) Renewed ethnic rivalries

Along with the Anglophone crisis, ethnic divides have also become more prominent in Cameroon, especially since the 2018 presidential elections. At the heart of these tensions are two groups’ competing claims to power.

The first, the Bamilieke, wield significant economic authority in Cameroon. Elites from this group control much of the economy and dominate the manufacturing industry. People from this ethnicity mostly occupy the west of Cameroon and have strong cultural ties to one of the Anglophone regions despite their Francophone colonial heritage.

The second, the Bulu-Beti axis, wield significant political power. Since Biya came to power, handpicked by Cameroon’s first president Amadou Ahidjo, elites from this group have seen themselves as the country’s natural rulers. The Beti and Bulu mostly reside in the centre and south regions.

The rivalry between the Bamilieke and Bulu-Beti axis came to a head in the run-up to the October 2018 presidential election in which President Biya ran for a seventh term against his main challenger Maurice Kamto, a Bamieleke. In the campaign, supporters of both sides engaged in inflammatory ethnic rhetoric, with the most xenophobic attacks coming from the Bulu-owned Vision4 Television.

In the end, Biya was declared the victor with 71.28%, but Kamto disputed the results, alleging widespread fraud. Tensions escalated, leading to some violent attacks on Cameroonian embassies in Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. Kamto, believed by many to have been the real winner of the polls, was arrested and remains incarcerated.

The government’s suppression of Kamto and his supporters mirrors its previous treatment of English-speakers. For example, the 2018 election followed a very similar pattern to that of 1992. In those polls, Biya’s main competitor was the Anglophone John Fru Ndi. That process was also marred by allegations of fraud and hate speech. In their aftermath, Biya placed Ndi, who is  believed to have won the polls, under house arrest after declaring a state of emergency in his Ndi’s native North West region. The resentment created at this time added to a growing sense of exclusion, contributing to sentiments led to today’s Anglophone crisis.

Given the shared experiences of the Bamieleke and Anglophones, as well as cultural similarities, one might expect these groups to form an alliance. In fact, a leaked US embassy cable from 2011 suggested some regime insiders were discussing, and dreading, the prospect of such an “Anglo-Bami alliance”. In reality, such an alliance could be struck but would probably be short-lived, focusing only on ending Bulu-Beti dominance. On more fundamental questions such as the organisation of the state, cleavages would likely to emerge. Consensus on these points would not be impossible, but four decades of respective rule under the British and French during colonialism instilled differences in perspective and politics between these groups that would hard to overcome.

3) A religious group in waiting

A final divide facing Biya’s Cameroon comes from predominantly Muslim northerners, who are reportedly vying for one of their own to take over the presidency after Biya. In a leaked cable from 2009, Amadou Ali, an influential northerner who previously served in senior ministerial positions, said as much to US diplomats. According to the cable, Ali predicted that Cameroon’s three northern regions “will support Biya for as long as he wants to be president…but would not accept a successor who was either another Beti/Bulu, or a member of the economically powerful Bamileke ethnic group”.

Like the Bulu-Beti axis, Muslim from the north also see themselves as the natural rulers of a country whose population is majority Christian. And, as Ali explained, they have no intention of sitting idly by and letting an individual from any other group succeed Biya.

Cameroon’s divides today are varied and complex, but have one thing in common: They want to see Biya go. This includes even the northerners, albeit with less urgency, who have been among the president’s closest collaborators and governed with him from day one.

So far, the common goal of removing Biya has not been sufficient to unite these various different groups or force change. But as Cameroon’s divides continue to deepen, the question remains of how much longer the 86-year-old president hold it all together.

Source: Africanarguments

There are more than four thousand Southern Cameroonians (Ambazonians) illegally detained in concentration camps around French Cameroun. Ambazonia President, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his leadership team currently being detained illegally in Kondengui Prison Principal, Cameroun, engaged on a hunger strike to highlight the plight of their fellow detainees from the 31st of July 2019. This eleven-day action brought pressure on the French Cameroun regime and they are taking some minimal provisional decisions to appease the international community.

Of the measures being implemented, on the 2nd of August 2019, five Southern Cameroonian (Ambazonian) detainees were released by the military court in Yaoundé. Their names are Abantelle Victor, Njufack Flavio, Otu Princely, Eban Felix, Akum Aloysius. As a nation, Ambazonia is happy for the release of the above mentioned comrades but we reiterate our position that they and all others still in Colonial French Cameroon’s concentration camps shouldn’t have been incarcerated in the first place.

The miscarriage of justice and disregard for life and international law by the Cameroun regime is stunning and shameless. Last week, in the so-called trial of the abducted Ambazonian leaders, a certain Barrister Julius Achu representing the French Cameroun regime was heard shouting in court that the Cameroun regime doesn’t care about international norms and conventions. He is correct. On the 22nd of July 2019, Ambazonian Prisoners of Conscience organised a peaceful protest in their detention center in Kondengui to highlight their awful living conditions, continuous detention without charge and the actions needed to be taken for school resumption in September 2019. They were met with a vicious clampdown by the French Cameroun regime. Many were brutally tortured and moved to SED which Human Rights Watch described in a May 6, 2019, report as a major site for torture, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances.

Forty-three Ambazonian detainees were identified on the 6th of August 2019 at the Yaoundé Kangaroo Court of First Instance in Ekounou. They are charged with Collective Resistance, Attempted Escape and Destruction. The forty-three comrades are:

Ambazonian Political Prisoners undergoing manufactured charges:

1.Wirdzienyuy Leonard

2.Yongo Colins

3. Yuven Cyril

4. Ziengeh Hilary Chia

5. Salah Edmond

6. Kum Nestor

7. Ntanji Isidore AKO

8. BUH Mbi Roger

9. Kanouo Gildas

10. Ambantele Victor

11. Ambah Rahul

12. Newu Isaac

13. Abanda Louis Enowntai

14. Achesit Hamlet

15. Achu Divine

16. Achu Joseph

17. Adonis Martin

18. Agbor Taku Joseph

19. Aghen Norbert

20. Akembom Divine NFOR

21. Akom Alloysius Akom

22. Akwo Platini Anga

23. Alobwede Van Kingsley        

24. Amadou Assad

25. Ambesse Divine

26. Amei  Benjamen

27. Amos Bitar

28. Anifata Kiven

29. Anyam Jin Austin

30. Aselatcha Martin

31. Bame Emmanuel

32. Benjamin Tembang TANTOH

33. Bundi Nsah Godgive

34. Chi Emmanuel

35. Tse Noel Wangang

36. Chu Ettia Frank

37. Eban Felix38. Edwin Dubela

39. Effia Gideon Nji

40. Elvis Fonyuy

41. Embason Newton

42. EWANE Olivier

43. Fonkam Pierre

From the list above, Akwo Platini, has lost two teeth after being attacked by a French Camerounian detainee. We have reliable intelligence that French Cameroun detainees have been instructed by the prison authorities to assault Ambazonians. Also, Chu Ettia Frank has a broken leg and passes urine with blood from the torture he endured at SED. Benjamin Tembang TANTOH currently has a blood clot on the left eye resulting from his beatings. Amei Benjamen has a spinal problem and can’t stand for long. This is sad, sickening and unacceptable. These comrades need immediate medical attention which we are currently liaising with our teams on the ground to provide them the assistance required.

From our perspective as government, our legal team has counselled that the Ambazonian political detainees were severely tortured and are threatened by the prison authorities and other French Cameroun inmates. Therefore, filing a cross penal action is a suitable option. We have instructed them to go ahead with this course of action.

It’s worrying that four comrades; Apang Ronny Donald, Che Gilbert, Effru Francis, Efut Armstrong didn’t appear in court last week as expected. Our legal teams are still working hard to trace their whereabouts and the reasons for non-attendance. All detainee mattresses have been confiscated by the prison officers in order to make life unbearable for our comrades. Ambazonian political detainees have gone through anguish and are subjected to the worst forms of cruelty. The big positive is their resolve and belief in the struggle is profound.

Two comrades, Harris Boseme and Engang Joel, appeared in court unclothed. This was somehow acceptable to a judge in the twenty-first century in a country which is signatory to multiple international conventions. Our legal team used this opportunity to draw the attention of the Judge to the cruelties they endured at SED and at the Kondengui Central Prison. Our legal team asked the Court to take a recess to enable lawyers to get them respectable clothes. The judge surprisingly granted the request. The matters are adjourned to today the 13th of August 2019.

In Buea, the legal process has been slow and challenging. Our team of lawyers continues to face harassment from the Cameroon regime. During the peaceful prison protests of 23rd July 2019, the doors of the prison were opened by the authorities for the military to enter and kill. Upon entering the prison, they shot at political prisoners killing four and wounding over seventy-five. Despite the challenging conditions, our lawyers will continue their fight to see that the wounded political detainees and the corpses of our three massacred comrades Njie Gerald, Amougou Franck Joel and Eny Effiong are identified as three of the four killed in the prison in Buea.The body of Njie Gerald, a man over sixty years of age, is lying at the Buea regional hospital mortuary while the corpses of three others have not been seen.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all our comrades going through inhumane and degrading treatment in dungeons in French Cameroun. We take strength from their courage and fortitude. The days of being intimidated are over. Despite all this brutality, we shall continue to fight with bravery and determination. We will never give up. The more savagery we face, the more determined we become. The freedom of homeland Ambazonia is non-negotiable. It is Total Independence or Resistance Forever.

Short Live The Revolution

Long Live the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Sincerely,

Milton Taka

Secretary of State

Department of Communication & Information Technology

Interim Government Spokesperson

Fellow Ambazonians,

I come to you with revolutionary greetings from your President, Sisiku AyukTabe and his leadership team as they enter the tenth day of their hunger strike. Our prayers and thoughts are with them and all our heroes in illegal detention in French Cameroun at this challenging time.

There is a short video in circulation of our heroes crammed like sardines in a truck. They are on their way to a ‘court’ in La Republique du Cameroun. In the video, our heroes were defying their incarceration by singing liberation songs. From their audaciousness, tears of joy rolled down my eyes. There is a spirit in the young men of this revolution that gives me hope. They remind me of the statement; unjust practices must be broken and challenged before a just society is established.

Since 2017, our young men and young women have defied all odds. The government of French Cameroon declared war on us. We had nothing but primitive weapons to defend ourselves. In their minds, in a few months, we would be cowed and destroyed through their reign of terror. But we have and continue to prove them wrong. The cruelty our heroes endured after the peaceful prison protest of 22nd and 23rd of July 2019 was despicable. But that hasn’t discouraged them. They have returned full of focus, drive and determination to get to the promise land-Buea. They have returned with sharpness in their mind and a direction in their vision.

Day in, day out, by their actions, our heroes in captivity in La Republique du Cameroun continue to defy the enemy. By their actions, they keep letting the oppressor know that one can cage the person but cannot cage the revolutionary. By their actions, they are letting the oppressor know that beatings, tyranny and detention are temporary measures to postpone an inevitable outcome. By their actions, they are letting the oppressor know that the Ambazonian of the twenty-first century fears nothing but fear itself.

My people, as a nation, we have faced inexcusable inhumanness’ but we are still standing. We have faced concentration camps, burned villages, cold blood massacre but we are still standing. We have hope. Hope which cannot be shattered by illegal detention!  Hope which cannot be destroyed by the killing of four months old baby Martha! Hope which cannot be shattered by the burning of two hundred and fifty villages! The French Cameroun government knows only one currency- violence. We have many- hope, fortitude, courage, decency, belief. With these and God willing, we shall prevail against this tyranny.

The despicable brutalities of La Republique du Cameroun will not stop us. The opposition we now face will definitely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of The Almighty are embodied in our just pursuit. In their defiance of the enemy, these heroes of ours give us HOPE. The great Desmond Tutu said ‘Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness’. Let’s keep our hope as our caged heroes are doing with their singing and hunger strike and our dream will be a reality.

God Bless You,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

The Director of Kenya School of Law and the former Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba has promised to help the people of Southern Cameroons. The renowned academic while making a keynote address during a conference in Thuringen in the Federal Republic of Germany, said he will use his contacts to help the people of Ambazonia join Pan African Organizations.

Prof PLO Lumumba praised the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government for the resistance against the Biya Francophone government in Yaounde pointing out that Africa remained poor despite having the potential for generating enough revenue for sustainable development.

Lumumba reportedly told Vice President Dabney Yerima that Africa’s problems was being worsened by the persistent brain drain of professional trained people travelling to work in the developed world and a total lack of visionary leadership.

The Ambazonian Vice President and Prof Lumumba agreed that many intelligent migrants in the West want to return home but the leaders do not project home for their people. Lumumba said the phenomenon was largely due to the continent’s poor labour policies, low pay and high unemployment levels.

Prof Lumumba advised the Ambazonian leadership to desist from relying on divine intervention to solve the problems in Southern Cameroons.

By Asu Isong