Life sentences for Ambazonia leaders fuels tension in Southern Cameroons ⁰

A series of deadly attacks and shootings all over the major towns and cities of Southern Cameroons has claimed at least 12 civilians in the two days since the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides were sentenced to life in prison by the Yaoundé Military Tribunal, raising insecurity to a new intensity.

Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces have issued very serious warnings that have prompted hundreds of Ambazonian civilians to be heading out of Bamenda the chief city in the Northern Zone. The separatist fighters have declared tough days ahead following the life sentence slammed on the Southern Cameroons leadership.

Cameroon Concord News understands Nigeria army soldiers have closed the borders with Cameroon at Ekok in the Manyu County.  The grisly spectacle by the Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict has generated fresh anxiety and an upsurge in violence.

Ambazonia Self Defense Forces have also announced that attacks on French Cameroun army positions and administrative officers who work with the Biya regime will dramatically increased. The Francophone army commanders have also said they are expecting a rise in indiscriminate attacks throughout Southern Cameroons.

The politically motivated life sentences slammed on Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine Ambazonian leaders by a Court-martial in Cameroun with the complicity of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is one more unfortunate example of the militarisation of justice, civil and political rights in African through inter-state terror.

The ten victims, who were in Nigeria under the protection of international law, were abducted from a hotel in Abuja Nigeria in a coordinated operation carried out by Nigeria and Cameroun intelligence and paramilitary operatives. A Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria has since decided that the abduction and rendition of these victims was illegal and violated the Nigerian constitution and international law and ordered the return to Nigeria of the abductees; a decision, the Nigerian government has so far ignored.

Some witnesses reported seeing French Cameroun soldiers invading the Eyumojock sub constituency in Manyu in an attempt to secure the area for the late General James Tataw’s funeral rites.  The Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent Ndumu has fled into French Cameroun due to ongoing security concerns.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest, Rita Akana and Chief Charles A. Taku