After intense pressure from the international community and stakeholders, Paul Biya, the president of the Republic of Cameroun has grudgingly called for negotiations with undisclosed representatives of Ambazonia, or Cameroonian Anglophones as he prefers to call them.

OEAS has learned from reliable sources in Yaoundé and Europe that in addition to the above actions, the Biya regime has formulated a plan under which so called representatives of the Anglophones will negotiate a “peace plan” calling for the armed resistance in Ambazonia to stop in exchange for assurances of equal rights for the Anglophone community.

This  sort of “peace plan” which simply guarantees the Ambazonians their own existing rights is a position that will never be accepted by the armed resistance and its commanders who seek nothing short of total independence for Ambazonia.  Further, the international community which is responsible for bringing Biya to the bargaining table must be a third party to the negotiations. The deaths of up to 15,000 Ambazonians and many times more refugees and internally displaced persons has forever internationalized the peace process.

OEAS stands firm in its resolution to stand by the Ambazonian people.  As Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia was among the founding members of OEAS.

OEAS calls for the following comprehensive peace initiative:

The parties must negotiate in good faith with no preset conditions or limits.  The armed Ambazonian resistance must be a necessary party to the talks.   The international community must also be present at the negotiating table.

It is obvious Ambazonia freedom fighters and their supporters will not accept the status quo any more than Biya will accept total independence as a starting goal.  Biya must understand that the situation in Ambazonia has forever changed and there is no going back to the pre-2017 status quo.

Independence however can take many forms.  Both parties can learn from what has worked in South Sudan, Somaliland, Kurdistan and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.  An interim solution that allows for healing, nation building, and peace benefits everyone.  But to reach any solution, negotiations with no preconditions must first take place with an international peace broker.  OEAS points out that an incremental process eventually won out in South Sudan ending decades of violence and slaughter.

A sham peace process will only serve to strengthen the will of the freedom fighters and escalate the armed struggle.  If the Biya regime truly wants peace, it must look beyond the pre-2017 status quo and seek a new framework that benefits all parties.  Only then can the initiative become a comprehensive solution.

The Organization of Emerging African States OEAS is a United States 501(c)(3) public charity registered with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs NGO Branch and The European Commission Authentication System (ECAS) with member states throughout Africa.

The former Acting President of Ambazonia, Samuel Ikome Sako has reportedly displayed a well-developed criminal intent all in a bid to hang on to leadership. Earlier this week, on the 6^th of May 2019, Cameroon Concord News Group sounded a note of caution to Southern Cameroonians that Sako was planning to offer Elvis Kometa money in exchange for the Restoration Council’s approval of his dubious 75 member IG Cabinet. Two days after our publication, the Restoration Council issued a statement that it had completed the vetting process and Sako could proceed to announce his cabinet.

It has now been revealed in the USA that the document which accorded Sako Ikome the right to form a new government bearing Chairman Kometa’s signature was a Sako fabrication. Our correspondent in the US hinted that Chairman Kometa made calls yesterday disassociating himself from the Restoration Council’s decision and documents. We have not been able to establish the source of the document but fingers are all pointing at Otto Tiale, Sako, Irene Ngwa and Chris Anu.

“Kometa has to come out and publicly state on camera that he didn’t sign those documents. It’s not good enough for him to make calls to activists and media outlets stating his innocence” noted a senior Southern Cameroons citizen in Germany who spoke to us and sued for anonymity. “Until he does that the people of Ambazonia will continue to hold him jointly accountable in undermining the Interim President’s decision to dissolve the cabinet last week” he added.

While the situation in the exiled Southern Cameroons Interim Government remains confused, events on Ground Zero, the US and Europe demonstrate once again that the likeliest resolution to Ambazonia’s seemingly endless USA political crisis lies in the hands of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

The Sako Ikome failed dictatorship and the President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s decision dissolving the controversial Interim Government’s cabinet has been locked in a tense stand-off ever since a financial scandal rocked the Interim Government in the USA.

The United Nations now estimates that a quarter of Southern Cameroon’s population is in need of humanitarian assistance, with almost half a million suffering from undernourishment in the forest. It also calculates another 50,000 have already fled to Nigeria in desperation. But the continuing support of ill informed Ambazonians in the USA has so far given Sako Ikome the feeling that he has survived the fallout from his leadership failure.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in London

Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Thursday began a one week visit to the conflict-hit English speaking Northwest and Southwest regions hoping to find a political solution to the escalating violence and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

During the visit from May 9 -16 the first by the premier since his appointment last January, Dion Ngute will discuss with community leaders and other groups key to finding a lasting solution to the incessant violence.

The prime minister was received in Bamenda by a traditional ruler as he arrived holding a peace plant.

The visit is in line with the governments efforts to resolve the conflict in the face of international pressure from among others the United Nations and the European Union. In contrast the Africa Union has stood by the non-interference clause contained in its charter despite calls from civil society groups for it to act.

The visit comes less than a week after the UN Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet Jeria warned that the crisis was getting out of hand and the window for reconciliation closing.

Killings, torching of villages and kidnapping for ransoms and other human rights abuses perpetrated by both government troops and armed groups fighting for the secession of the two English speaking regions to establish a new state called Ambazonia continue to be reported almost on a daily basis.

Last week the International Crisis Group (ICG) reported that 1850 people have been killed and 530,000 displaced in clashes in the past 20 months as the government and the separatists refuse to cede ground for talks.

The May 2 report said lack of concessions could generate more violence and prolong the conflict.

“Both sides must explore compromise solutions aimed at a level of regional autonomy somewhere between the secession desired by the separatists and the fake decentralisation proposed by Yaoundé,” ICG advised.

It called on Cameroonian and international actors to encourage the two sides to make concessions including by rewarding the less intransigent and sanctioning those who stand in the way of dialogue.

Violence erupted in the Cameroon’s two English speaking regions when an industrial strike by aggrieved lawyers and teachers in 2016 over perceived marginalization turned into a clamour by armed separatists for outright independence of the region.

Ambazonia, as the separatists identify the region, was administered as part of Nigeria as a UN trust territory under British control prior to reunification.

“The separatists continue to dream that independence is just around the corner. In Yaoundé, the government still wrongly believes it can win a quick military victory,” the ICG report said.

In a separate report four days later, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Cameroon authorities have regularly tortured and held incommunicado detainees arrested in the government’s crackdown on the English-speaking armed separatist movement.

HRW said it had documented 26 cases of incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance between January 2018 and January 2019 at the State Defence Secretariat (SED) detention centre in the capital Yaounde.

Besides the armed separatist movement in the Anglophone regions, Cameroon faces multiple other challenges including persistent threat by Boko Haram jihadist group in the Far North, political tensions and a growing number of refugees fleeing violence in neighbouring Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

The divisions in the country have seen two major opposition political parties announce a boycott of the 47th National Day celebrations on May 20.

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) of Ni John Fru Ndi and the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) of Prof Maurice Kamto have separately announced they will not be part of the celebration whose rallying call is “Unity in diversity.”

The SDF said the boycott was in “strong protest of the decaying state of the nation” and in sympathy to the suffering of Cameroonians caught up in the civil war and other crisis across the country.

“As long as the civil war and this severe insecurity prevails, the SDF cannot participate in the National Day Celebrations on May 20. One side of the face cannot be smiling while the other side is crying,” the party’s 2018 presidential candidate Joshua Osih said. It said the government had turned a deaf ear to dialogue. The boycott was also in protest to the continued incarceration of its leader Maurice Kamto and other supporters.

Prof Kamto was arrested in January for organizing post-election protests and is standing trial before a military court in Yaounde on charges of rebellion, insurrection and “hostility to the homeland.”

The opposition leader was arrested alongside 116 of his supporters while taking part in the demonstrations dubbed “white marches” which were suppressed by security forces.

Prof Kamto maintains that he was the winner of the October 2018 presidential poll, but official results showed he emerged a distant second with 14.23 percent behind Paul Biya with 71.28 per cent.

Boycotts of state functions, however, are of little significance in Cameroon.

Two years ago SDF boycotted the ceremony to push for labour rights and an inclusive electoral code.” The party went on to participate in the 2018 presidential election under the same electoral code and political dispensation.

The opposition Cameroon People’s Party (CPP) has not taken part in any National Day parade since 2016 citing violation of freedoms.

Its leader and 2011 presidential candidate Kah Walla said the day has lost meaning as the government continues to ignore divisions and opportunities to unify the country.

Source: The East African

After twenty months of clashes, the government and the separatists are both refusing to give ground. Both sides must explore compromise solutions aimed at a level of regional autonomy somewhere between the secession the separatists yearn for and the fake decentralisation proposed by Yaoundé.

What’s new? The conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is deadlocked. There is no dialogue between Yaoundé and the separatists, who are both refusing to give ground: the government is counting on a military victory and refuses to discuss the form of the state; the separatists demand independence.

Why does it matter? In the last 20 months, the conflict has left 1,850 dead, 530,000 internally displaced and tens of thousands of refugees. The intransigence of the belligerents threatens to generate further violence and prolong the conflict, which neither can win in the short term.

What should be done? Cameroonian and international actors should encourage the two sides to make concessions by threatening to sanction those who stand in the way of dialogue and rewarding the less intransigent. Ending the conflict will eventually require changes in the legal framework for decentralisation to grant greater autonomy to communes and regions.

Executive Summary

Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis is deadlocked. Twenty months of clashes have killed 1,850, displaced 530,000 and led tens of thousands to seek refuge abroad, but the government and the separatists are sticking to their irreconcilable positions. The separatists continue to dream that independence is just around the corner. In Yaoundé, the government still wrongly believes it can win a quick military victory. Meanwhile, moderates and federalists, who enjoy majority support, are unable to organise. To break the deadlock, Cameroonian and international actors should put pressure on the government and the separatists. Both sides must explore compromise solutions aimed at a level of regional autonomy somewhere between the secession desired by the separatists and the fake decentralisation proposed by Yaoundé.

The socio-political crisis that began in October 2016 in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions mutated into armed conflict at the end of 2017. Seven armed militias are currently in positions of strength in most rural areas. The security forces reacted slowly, but since mid-2018 have inflicted casualties on the separatists. They have not been able, however, to regain full control over rural areas nor prevent repeated separatist attacks in the towns.

There is currently no dialogue between Yaoundé and the separatists. The latter are calling for talks to hammer out the practical details of independence in the presence of an international mediator. The government refuses to discuss the form of the state or reform of institutions. It proposes instead a decentralisation model that grants neither adequate funding nor sufficient powers to local authorities (communes and regions) and intends to organise the country’s first regional elections later this year. Far from resolving the conflict, this half-baked proposal risks provoking further violence.

Local initiatives to promote dialogue are emerging. In July 2018, Anglophone religious leaders (Catholic, Protestant and Muslim) announced a plan to hold an Anglophone General Conference as a first step toward an inclusive national dialogue. A majority of Anglophones are in favour of this initiative. Initially reluctant, some separatists now seem to be more open to the idea on condition that it prepares the way for a referendum on self-determination that would give the choice between federalism and independence. Faced with opposition from the government, the conference organisers have already had to postpone it twice: from August to November 2018 and then to March 2019. It still has not taken place.

Although some separatists will refuse to give ground, others might accept a dialogue with the Cameroonian authorities, in the presence of an international mediator, to discuss federalism or genuine decentralisation that would grant autonomy and adequate funding to the regions and that would guarantee respect for the specific features of the Anglophone judicial and education systems. Similarly, although the Cameroonian government seems to rule out federalism, it might consent to regionalism or genuine decentralisation, which would involve changes to the legislative framework.

To clear the path to talks, the belligerents must each make concessions in order to establish a minimum degree of trust and reverse the spiral of violence. The government should support an Anglophone General Conference in order for Anglophones to appoint representatives to a national dialogue while at the same time providing non-separatist Anglophones with the opportunity to express their point of view. Cameroon’s president should adopt a conciliatory stance and recognise the existence of the Anglophone problem and the legitimacy of the Anglophones’ demands; order investigations into abuses by the security forces; make provision for reparations to victims and the reconstruction of affected areas; and release the hundreds of Anglophone activists currently in detention, including important members of the separatist movement. The separatists should renounce their strategy of Monday “ghost towns” (general strikes) and their school boycott and expel combatants guilty of abuses against civilians.

A combination of internal and international pressures could lead both the government and the separatists to make such concessions. International actors could reward the parties who agree to moderate their positions and sanction those who remain intransigent. The Europeans and Americans, in particular, should consider targeted sanctions against government leaders and senior army officers who continue to obstruct dialogue (travel bans, asset freeze) and separatists who encourage or organise violence (judicial proceedings). The International Criminal Court prosecutor should open preliminary examinations into abuses committed by both sides, to underline that the pursuit of violence will have judicial consequences. International actors are divided, however, on what position to adopt and what measures to take and should first reach a common position, at least among Western countries.

Internally, Cameroonian Francophones and Anglophones who advocate compromise should mobilise to put pressure on the separatists and the government. In particular, federalists should work together to strengthen their position in the talks. They should continue to dialogue with the separatists and encourage them to moderate their positions, and increase the pressure on the authorities to open up to the less intransigent separatists. Finally, they should conduct an international campaign to promote peaceful solutions.

Once trust has been established, preliminary talks between government, federalist and separatist representatives will be necessary. These should take place outside the country. During this process, international actors, especially the U.S., Switzerland, the Vatican, the UN, the EU (especially France, Germany and the UK) and the African Union (AU) should continue to encourage the government to dialogue and offer funding and support for the talks.

In the event of a dialogue taking place, they could also help to fund compensation payments to victims of abuses, the reconstruction of Anglophone regions, the return of refugees and internally displaced persons and the disarmament and demobilisation of former combatants. Given the level of acrimony between the parties, the presence of an international mediator will be necessary during the preparatory discussions and then during the national dialogue. Several countries and international institutions and organisations have offered to mediate since the start of the conflict. The UN, the AU, the Catholic Church and Switzerland seem best placed to play this role, because the parties to the conflict perceive them as relatively neutral.

Substantive talks between the three parties should take place in Cameroon, which would require the government to guarantee safe passage for separatist representatives. During these talks, the government should indicate its readiness to amend the Constitution in order to grant greater autonomy to the regions and develop the legal framework for decentralisation. This could include direct elections for the regional councils and these councils’ presidents; the establishment of regional structures with substantial financial and administrative power; and an increase in the powers and resources allocated to communes. The government could also reform institutions and governance in order to take account of the specific features of the educational and judicial systems in the Anglophone regions.

More broadly, the conflict highlights the shortcomings of Cameroon’s centralised governance model and raises two crucial issues that the government must address: the need to improve the way the state handles minority rights, colonial heritages and cultural specificities; and the need for a fairer and more equitable redistribution of the country’s wealth. A lasting solution to the conflict requires dialogue and consensus, which are indispensable to undertake the institutional and governance reforms that Cameroon needs.

Source: International Crisis Group