A former Southern Cameroons civil administrator and governor has been appointed to head the so-called National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Committee (NDDRC) for organizing, supervising and managing the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-fighters of Boko Haram and armed groups in Southern Cameroons willing to respond favourably to peace appeal by laying down their arms. Fai Yengo has been given the key role by President-dictator, Paul Biya even though the Ambazonia Defense Council, ASC warned that Southern Cameroonians serving the interest of the French Cameroun government would have to face devastating consequences.

The surprise move means that former Governor Fai Yengo will now have to work hand-in-gloves with the Delegate-General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele who had issued a police order on the 4^th of April 2018 preventing Mr. Fai Yengo from leaving the country.  Governor Fai Yengo is reportedly under police investigation for corruption but has also been told by the 85 year President Paul Biya that  he will have to help the Cameroon army develop solutions to forthcoming security challenges in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons where he was Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum County and Governor of the North West Province.

In the decree signed outlining Governor Fai Yengo’s new role, President Biya struck a markedly different tone to the one he adopted after declaring war against the people of Southern Cameroons. However, Fai Yengo Francis (to use his three names) will have to accept being regarded as a foreign citizen in La Republique du Cameroun.  The Fai Yengo Francis appointment seems to imply an expectation of Anglophones and Francophones sharing a united and clear purpose in a one and indivisible Cameroon for years to come.

But the retired civil administration that is alleged to have siphoned much of the international aid and funds that came to the people of Menchum immediately after the Lake Nyos Gas disaster is coming back to the CPDM limelight at a particularly challenging time for the Biya regime.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in London

The President of the South West Elites Association in Northern Ireland, Chief Martin Nchong Ayuk says international organizations have disappointed the Ambazonian people regarding the issue of Southern Cameroons independence, urging freedom-seeking people to support the Ambazonian struggles against French Cameroun regime’s occupation.

Chief Martin Nchong made the remarks in reaction to an anti United Nations declaration made by the Ambazonian Secretary of Communications, Chris Anu on Wednesday. Chief Nchong told Cameroon Concord News that he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Chris Anu and added that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government  have pushed for recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but international organizations such as the UN, AU and the EU have disappointed them.

The SWELA Northern Ireland president, however, stressed the determination of the Southern Cameroons people to stand by the Interim Government and said, “As long as the IG and Southern Cameroonians on Ground Zero continue to resist, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be a reality.”

He also vowed to encourage Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora to make financial donations to the Ambazonian Interim Government.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in London

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in October 2016, has entered a critical phase with the Yaounde government destroying anything in its path. Despite condemnation by the international community for the atrocities playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the government has been pushing ahead with its plan to depopulate Southern Cameroons.

Over the last weeks, government troops have been gunning down innocent people in the country’s North-West region. Many of those who have been brought down by the taxpayer’s bullets have nothing to do with the rebellion going on in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

In Bali, government troops used chemical and biological weapons to kill many young Southern Cameroonians who they claim are Ambazonian fighters and to hide their crime, the bodies were burnt. More than 30 bodies were involved in this macabre destruction of human life that does not even seem to catch the international community’s attention.

These soldiers seem to be on the prowl, looking for young men to kill. From every indication, the government’s plan is to depopulate the region by killing the young, hoping that the rebellion will be extinguished once and for all.

On Monday, a young businessman was gunned down by army soldiers in Bambui, North West region. To make matters worse, the same soldiers looted the man’s store and made away with goods estimated at more than CFAF 3 million.

The government’s killing spree has affected many people in the region and even foreigners have not been spared by the bullets of a government that professes peace, but practices violence.

Last week a Kenyan priest was killed in Kembong by army soldiers and the Bishop of Mamfe, Bishop Andrew Nkea, took the government task after the Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma, told his usual lies that the priest had been killed by Ambazonian fighters.

A few weeks ago, an American missionary was also killed by army soldiers in the Northwest region and this has strained relations between the Cameroon government and the Trump Administration that is asking for answers.

In many parts of the region, army soldiers have been burning homes and ruining people’s lives and not a single soldier has been arraigned for such inhuman and irresponsible behaviour. This has prompted many people in the region to actually ask if the government really wants to solve the issue.

To gain a better understanding of the situation, Cameroon Concord News Group sent its reporters to the Northwest region to investigate the killings.

Speaking to a senior official of the ruling party who elected anonymity, the reporters gathered that the Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, had set up a scheme to kill all the young men in the region. In their thinking, they will prove to their boss, Mr. Paul Biya, that they are winning the war.

The official who is so disappointed with the Biya regime also revealed that despite the killing of young innocent men in the region, the government is not winning the war. He added that those who are being killed are actually not the fighters, but young men who just want to live their lives.

He also stressed that the killing of young men in the region is not addressing the matter, as many more young people are simply being radicalized by the government’s irresponsible behaviour.

He pointed out that with just den guns, the determined fighters, who have been using hit-and-run tactics, have inflicted a lot of pain on the country’s military, adding that some 3,000 soldiers have been victims of the war.

He added that the government was hiding the number of casualties in order not to shock the Francophone population that is gradually asking questions about the fighting in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

“The fighting is consuming many of our soldiers. Thousands have already been buried and many have been maimed. This is a war that will be around for a long time and its impact will stalk those who ordered it for a long time. The blood of those who have been killed will be one reason why  many young fighters and our soldiers will not be having a good night’s sleep, even after the war would have been over,” he said.

“The government might be saying that Cameroon is one and indivisible, but it understands that Southern Cameroonians do no longer want to belong to the fake union that the United Nations concocted. They have been marginalized for 56 years and now the government is killing them with impunity and it still holds that the country is united? It has to face reality. It will be hard for this issue to be addressed, especially through the means the government is using. The government seems to be sending a message to Southern Cameroonians, but that message is clearly the wrong one” he said.

Southern Cameroonians will surely not be listening to those stories from a government that is mowing down their brothers and sisters as if they are animals just because of their resources. The South West region, in particular, is a receptacle of God’s blessings for the country.

The country’s oilfields are located in Ndian Division and there are huge gold deposits in Mbonge. Manyu Division has huge expanse of forest that is the envy of the world and it is alleged that this division, noted for its learned people, is sitting on huge oil deposits. There was some exploratory work in the region before the conflict broke out. This will surely continue when the guns stop spreading death.

The region’s waters are also home to large fish stocks. Its forest is home to unimaginable fauna and flora and it is not in error that the world also knows the country because of the Korup National Park which straddles Manyu and Indian Divisions. The South West region is also known for its fertile volcanic soil and this explains why agriculture is one of the many activities that have been yielding huge foreign earnings to the country. Many of the country’s neighbours have their food supply from the south west region.

Unfortunately, this region is one of the poorest in the country.  Its people are still living in abject poverty and what passes for medical, school and road infrastructure clearly belongs to another epoch. The South West deserves better, but years of marginalization have left the region in dehumanizing poverty.

While the country has been raking in millions of dollars from the region’s oil, the residents of the region have been tied up in degrading poverty. The country’s lone refinery (SONARA) is located in Southern Cameroon, precisely in the Southwest port city of Limbe formerly known as Victoria, but the natives of the region have been reduced to sorry spectators of events in their own region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis is also born of this injustice. More than 90% of the refinery staff are Francophones and to add insults to injury, staff of the refinery have their own neighbourhoods that are well designed and very clean. Besides, petroleum products are more expensive in the South West region than in any other region of the country.

This economic apartheid that has been around since 1977 when oil was discovered in Ndian Division is one of the many reasons why Southern Cameroonians hold that a clear break with East Cameroon will be the ideal solution and they are willing to sacrifice their lives so that future generations will not have to deal with the same issues.

They want to walk away from this ‘political marriage’ that has brought them more pain than gain. Though it will take time to achieve such an outcome, Southern Cameroonians back home, now known as Ground Zero, hold that it better to die trying than to sit and watch other people enjoy their God-given wealth.

If they succeed to walk away, then Cameroon will be losing about 60% of its wealth. Southern Cameroons is blessed with enormous wealth and the Yaounde government holds that it is by terrorizing the people that it will succeed to keep them in the dark of what is happening to their resources.

For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary in the South West region has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil. Since 2014, Cameroon has exported more than US$5.88 billion worth of products, of which more than US$2.65 billion, about CFAF 1,650 billion, has been from crude oil alone. This is a significant amount of money and the Yaounde government cannot afford to lose such revenues.

The government is not only frustrated, it is scared, as the possibility of a secession is there. All its efforts to lay the matter to rest have been futile. Its divide-and-rule strategy has simply fallen apart as North westerners and South westerners clearly understand that they are united for a cause that will bring them happiness and prosperity. Not even the government’s military violence has succeeded to take the wind out the fighters’ sail. The more the government kills, the more determined the fighters become.

The government had underestimated the will of the people of Southern Cameroons to right the wrongs of the past. For many of them, their fate is worse than death and they have very little time to be around this planet. They want to establish their own country and even ensure that future generations do not deal with such time-consuming and energy-sapping challenges.

And they are receiving huge support from the Diaspora that has transformed this issue into an opportunity for its strength and influence to be felt. With some 4 million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is likely that more money will be flowing to Cameroon to feed the war that has rushed many young men and soldiers to an early grave.

While many parts of the world are working hard to avoid wars, Cameroon seems to be working in the opposite direction. Many people across the world are still surprised at the turn the conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country has taken.

They had thought that with age, Mr. Biya who is clearly on his way out of this world, would opt for peace. They argue that wisdom comes with age and that age should be one reason why Mr. Biya should leave the country on calm shores.

The greatest disappointment comes from the international community, especially the United Nations and the African Union which have entered into a conspiracy of silence. The African Union is supposed to be working towards conflict prevention, but it has proven in the case of Cameroon that it does not care and that the genocide is permitted on the continent even after the world had sworn in the 1990s that it would no longer allow another group to commit the type of killings that had been witnessed in Rwanda and strangely, the African Union Chairperson is Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President. What an irony of sorts.

However, the world must understand one thing. The genocide in Southern Cameroons will not address the issues raised by Southern Cameroonians. On the contrary, it will only continue to galvanize other young men and women who want to take their revenge. Cameroon is on slippery slope and if the world does not wake up from its slumber, it will only discover that another Rwanda has happened in Cameroon. Regardless of the excuses it will provide, Southern Cameroons will be a scar on its conscience for a long time.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

1. Ambazonia is not yet a democracy.
2. Ambazonia Government does not yet have the mechanism or ability to enforce any law.
3. The Ambazonia Government can not run as a pure democracy because her current situation does not support all the elements of democracy which includes free and fair Elections.
4. The Ambazonia Government is not yet capable of providing the basics to her citizens: security, public health, water, electricity and jobs.
5. The Ambazonia Government has no guarantee source of revenue to run it’s programs.
6. The Ambazonia Government is an interim Government.
7. The leaders of Ambazonia are on exile or in jail with the inability to freely travel and do what they want to do for their country.
8 The Ambazonia Government does not have any diplomatic allies yet who can protect or assist her.
9. The Ambazonia Government is a transitional one going through a process.
10. The Ambazonia Government has no economy or Intelligence system to depend on.
11. The Ambazonia Government is run by volunteers. Its very challenging to expect from volunteers what you can expect from employees.
12. Not every Ambazonian can serve as a volunteer because of many reasons: some could be fear of consequences to them or their families, they have jobs that gives them no extra time to sacrifice, some can not handle the extra workload with their work and family demands

If so what type of Government is Ambazonia?

The Answer is simple:

The Ambazonia Government is a Revolutionary Government.

What are some of the characteristics of a Revolutionary Government.

Decision can not be made by pure democracy. Not everyone will have the ability to participate. Even if everyone does participate in decision making, they do not have the power or mechanism to enforce what they agree.

THE ONLY TYPE OF GOVERNMENT THAT WILL SUIT AMBAZONIA IS DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP

This type of Government is the only one that is suitable and good for a revolution if it has to succeed. It means few people will be chosen to make decisions that everyone can follow until it becomes a Nation that can provide the basics necessities to it’s citizens.

Cameroon’s military says it has freed nine students and a teacher who were kidnapped this week from a school in one of the country’s restive English-speaking regions. It is the third time this month that students have been abducted from schools in the Anglophone regions.

Senior divisional officer Nto’ou Ndong Chamberlin says several gunmen were killed Wednesday in the military operation, and other armed men responsible for the abduction are on the run. The teacher was wounded in the rescue.

“Nine guns have been seized, four neutralized — among them the head of the team, called ‘Man of Lucks,’ and three bikes destroyed and even the camp has also been burned down by the forces of law and order [military],” Chamberlin said.

Gunmen kidnapped the students and their teacher Tuesday evening from Lords Bilingual School in Kumba, a city in Cameroon’s southwest region.

The kidnapping comes three weeks after gunmen kidnapped and then released 79 students and three staff from a school in the neighboring northwest region.

Eleven students were later kidnapped from the same Presbyterian Secondary School. Church moderator Fonki Samuel said a $4,000 ransom was paid to the abductors for their release.

Pierre Marie Abbe, a political analyst at the Catholic University of Central Africa, says the government’s war against the separatists has been a failure.

The government should drop the idea of war and organize dialogue with English-speaking Cameroonians, Abbe said. But for such a dialogue to be successful, he added, the government should meet Anglophone Cameroonians to find out from them who they see as their true leaders.

The government says separatists in the two English-speaking regions have torched at least a hundred schools and abducted or killed dozens of teachers. More than 90 percent of the regions’ schools remain closed.

The international community and rights groups have condemned violence from both sides and called on the government to negotiate an end to the crisis.

“The U.N. has, along with most of the international community, asked for dialogue,” said Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi, the U.N. resident coordinator for Cameroon. “We need to hear the voices of the people saying we have had enough and we want solutions. It should not only be the U.N. saying it or the ambassadors. We need confidence-building measures and I think we need peace.”

Unrest broke out in Cameroon’s western regions in 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers protested the dominance of French-speakers.

Cameroon’s military reacted with a crackdown, and armed separatists soon launched a campaign for independence.

Clashes since have killed more than 1,200 people.

Culled from the VOA