A senior Southern Cameroons elite based in South Africa, Dr Patrick Ayuk has criticized the French Cameroun regime of President Paul Biya for sponsoring the arrest and forced extradition of the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides from the Nigerian capital Abuja to Yaoundé saying it is in Paul Biya’s best interest to talk to the Southern Cameroons chief executive.

During a Cameroon Concord News Group event on Tuesday, Dr Patrick Ayuk opined on how the UN should intervene in the Ambazonia crisis and assist the two Cameroons move forward with several domestic and international issues, among them the terms of separation.

Dr Patrick Ayuk said the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé could have tried to fix what it viewed as the Anglophone problem with  the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a mediator instead of wasting millions of US dollars in staging an action now described by international actors as state terrorism.

One consequence of the Biya-Buhari Abuja blunder was the internationalization of the Southern Cameroons crisis, Dr Patrick Ayuk noted.

The Southern Cameroons academic who holds a PhD in Management and leadership from the North West University highlighted the devastating effect of the 4 year old war that is showing no signs of ending blaming it on failed and irresponsible leadership in French Cameroun and pointed out that only a UN Security Council resolution will be able to bring to a very important conclusion the crisis in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

The researcher at North West University and Founder and CEO of Global Leadership and Development Nexus also said the United Nations should thus return to the Milner-Simon Agreement as a means of restricting the casualties and preventing further conflict between the two Cameroons.

“I think it would be in Mr. Paul Biya’s best interest and his legacy to start talking to President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and to stop the senseless war that has radicalized thousands of Southern Cameroonians” Dr Patrick Ayuk added.

He, however, cast doubt on whether the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and its leadership would be receptive to that saying, “I think after Yaounde ignored the recommendations of the so-called Grand National Dialogue, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Ambazonia Interim Government may have moved on and adopted a tough position.”

Vice President Dabney Yerima of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has increasingly signaled that he wants the United Nations to send a fact finding mission to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ewumbue Monono Churchill has been appointed ambassador to Ethiopia by the 87-year-old French Cameroon dictator. The decree was published on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 by state radio and television.

The new boss of Cameroon’s diplomatic mission in Addis Ababa replaces Jacques Alfred Ndoume Eboule who died in August 2019 due to an undisclosed illness.

The 59-year-old long standing Cameroonian diplomat was before this appointment a Technical Adviser to the butcher of Yaoundé.

Churchill Ewumbue Monono previously served at the Cameroon Embassy in Russia and Ethiopia. He was the brain behind the Orthodox South West Elites Association that successfully put an end to the SDF dominance in South West politics.

Nicknamed by the late Chief E.T.Egbe as SWELA’s obasinjom warrior, the renowned Bakweri elite reportedly suffered political victimization from the Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge gang over claims that he attempted to sabotage the appointment of Musonge via an article that was published by the Cameroon Post Group.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Peace talks involving the government of Cameroon and Anglophone separatists are at a standstill due to a power struggle playing out between prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute and secretary general of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

On 2 July, the jailed secessionist leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe announced on social media that he had taken part in discussions with Cameroon’s government regarding a ceasefire agreement under the auspices of the United Nations.

Subsequently, on the orders of secretary general of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, communications minister René Emmanuel Sadi said in a statement that this information was not “accurate”. Since then, the two parties have not been in further contact with one another.

Church provides neutral grounds

However, according to sources, a delegation made up of about 10 secessionist leaders led by Ayuk Tabe did in fact meet on 2 July with Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, head of the Direction Générale de la Recherche Extérieure, Cameroon’s counter-intelligence agency.

Given that the conditions set forth by the Ambazonians included that the meeting take place in a “neutral” setting, the government asked the Catholic Church to allow it to hold the talks at the Episcopal Centre of Mvolyé. Located in Cameroon’s capital, the church was ultimately selected as the site of the negotiations, which were attended by six other government representatives.

At the third such meeting arranged by the government, the duo formed by Dion Ngute and Eko Eko led the administration’s negotiation. A traditional dignitary in the South-West region, the prime minister has a network of local monarchy connections who provides him with a way to engage with separatist rebels.

Eko Eko, a police superintendent and speaker of French and English, was the negotiator who successfully secured the 2008 release of oil workers taken hostage aboard the French vessel Bourbon Sagitta by the Bakassi Freedom Fighters, a rebel group from the Bakassi Peninsula, which Nigeria and Cameroon had disputed.

Secret negotiations

Prior to that, the first meeting with Anglophone leaders had taken place in Ghana, where Eko Eko met with secessionist figures from the diaspora community such as Ebenezer Akwanga and Herbert Boh. The second meeting was held on 13 April in Mvolyé (Yaoundé) and brought together Ayuk Tabe and his allies.

At the end of these talks, some progress was made, as the separatists said they were prepared to abandon their most radical demand, i.e., the departure of Cameroon’s army from the North-West and South-West regions. However, their acceptance of the continued presence of these troops came with the condition that they remain in their barracks since, in their view, the police and gendarmerie forces should be the sole personnel permitted to be deployed on the ground.

Dion Nguté and Eko Eko excluded the rest of the administration from secret negotiations which nevertheless had the blessing of President Paul Biya. Even Ngoh Ngoh was not involved in the discussions, despite the fact that he had been the Swiss government’s primary contact since June 2019.

Yaoundé officially mandated the Swiss government to facilitate talks between the warring sides. Working with the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), the Swiss mediators invited several secessionist leaders to participate in a discreet preparatory meeting from 25 to 27 June in Saint-Luc, a small village in the canton of Valais. However, at the end of 2019, the HD-led mediation process ended in failure due to distrust from certain factions of the secessionist movement.

New round of Swiss mediation

After Ngoh Ngoh released a statement by way of Sadi denying that talks had taken place, the Swiss negotiators initiated a new mediation process. On 2 August, a delegation led by Günther Bächler arrived in Yaoundé. The 67-year-old diplomat and former Swiss ambassador to Georgia served as a mediator in conflicts in Darfur, Nepal and in the South Caucasus on behalf of the Swiss Foreign Ministry.

As soon as he arrived in Cameroon, Bächler got in touch with a number of people, not just separatists but also supporters of federalism and proponents of decentralisation. On 4 August, he met with Cardinal Christian Tumi. On 6 August in Buea, the capital of the South-West region, the delegation planned to meet with the lawyer Felix Agbor Balla as well as with other local Anglophone figures.

Culled from Africa Intelligence

Many Cameroonians have been leaving their country over the last three decades due to bad governance, but most of those who have left have been young unemployed graduates who are seeking better economic and social life for themselves and their families.

But over the last four years, some middle-aged Cameroonians, especially from Southern Cameroons, have left their country due to the civil war that has already killed over 5,000 Cameroonians.

Among those who have left are medical doctors, lawyers and engineers who believe that Cameroon does not hold out any hope for their children. These groups of professionals have been heading mainly to the United States and Canada where they believed it is possible to make dreams come true.

But there is another group that is also checking out of the country and this group is not large. Among them is one Barrister Fru John Nsoh who, in his late 70s, still holds that he can make things better for himself. But America could be a slippery ground, especially for those who do not have the right skills set. Things do not seem to be working for Barrister Fru John Nsoh and the strain is becoming very visible. 

He skipped into the U.S.A where he sought asylum before the coronavirus emerged, but the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trunp Administration is affecting his asylum claim. As the virus lingers, his asylum claim is also suffering. The wait time is getting longer and there is no work for him. This is a major concern to him.

Prior to escaping to the United States, Barrister Fru John Nsoh had the nasty habit of taking the Yaoundé government to task for its role in the Southern Cameroons crisis. His criticism of the government made him a TV star in Cameroon, and this might have made him to think that he could repeat the same feat in the U.S.A. But America always has unpleasant surprises for those who migrate there, especially those who do not have a lot of financial resources.  

Indeed, he was among the lawyers who said their services to Southern Cameroonians who are being held in prisons across the country were “pro bono”. Southern Cameroonians have been sincerely grateful to these lawyers although they sometimes contribute to enable the lawyers to go and see their clients and defend them in court. Some of that money sometimes transited through Barrister Fru John Nsoh who unfortunately shared it to his fellow lawyers as if he was distributing candy to children. 

This outdated method of doing things did not really go down well with many of his colleagues and the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, had to look for innovative ways to ensure that the money was properly managed. This rubbed the learned lawyer up the wrong way. Like his friend Chris Anu, Barrister Fru John Nsoh is an honest man, especially when money is not involved, and that was why his colleagues had to complain.

He has been very bitter about that decision and ever since he came to the United States, he has accused President Julius Ayuk Tabe of all the crimes and sins in the world. He is even blaming his erectile dysfunction problems on him even when he is at the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison. There are rumors that he might sue Mr. Ayuk Tabe for all the stress he is going through in the U.S.A. 

In the United States, Barrister Nsoh cannot practice law. If has any dream of practicing law in the United States, then he must go back to law school and this will require him spending hundreds of thousands of dollars which he does not even have. He is currently facing tough financial challenges just to pay lawyer fees for his asylum case, and this explains why he is in cahoots with Mr. Boh Herbert who is using the crisis in Southern Cameroons to enrich himself.

Barrister Fru John Nsoh is cash-strapped and the pressure is showing on his face. The Barrister who looked younger and happier while in Cameroon has become grumpy and stressed out in the United States. He seems to be caught between a rock and hard place.

If he leaves the United States for Cameroon, then he might be joining President Julius Ayuk Tabe in Kondengui for all the insults he has heaped on the Yaounde government. If he stays in the United States, then his high blood pressure and diabetes will only get worse as his resources dry up. He is contemplating going home. Kondengui is appearing to be a more attractive and better option for him, as it is less expensive. 

If he insists on staying in the United States, then he might end up in a nursing home where he will be required to take care of people who are as old as he is. But that is not the biggest problem. Nursing homes are not popular destinations for many job-seekers in the United States. 

The coronavirus is on the prowl in those facilities. A weakened Barrister Fru John Nsoh will certainly not last long if he ventures into those coronavirus-infested nursing homes. The virus has no respect for old people and its special dislike for people with pre-existing conditions is known. Barrister Fru John Nsoh should rather err on the side of caution than to venture into a lion’s den without the appropriate protection.

The learned Barrister is in a fix. He cannot afford rents, and this is taking up his blood pressure. Without money and an insurance policy, the barrister is in the throes of a major health crisis. Having a health insurance policy in the U.S.A is costly, and it is the least of his concerns for now. He has other concerns that are keeping him up all night. A health insurance policy can wait. In his view, there is no rush and even if there was an urgent need for that, where will he get the money from?

The legal tender in the U.S.A is the green back and not the CFAF and the green back is hard to get in that country. That is a currency that keeps many young men running all day. Will the barrister be capable of running around just to raise money for housing and food? 

For now, he is still enjoying the largesse of some people, but the months ahead will be very testing to him. The financial pinch is already being felt as his host is already looking for creative ways to send him out of the house. The times are getting tougher out there for the barrister and without divine intervention; he might end up bouncing from one house to the other.

To avoid this, he must go back home. He is already losing sleep, and this is not a good sign. America is a not a place for people in their 70s to come and seek a better life. Fru John Nsoh must go back home where he will have the opportunity to enjoy his Achu and fufu corn.  There is time for everything and for now, his best bet is to accept a long jail term in Cameroon that will not come with the type of stress that America is pouring on him.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief