The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has underlined the urgent need to implement OPERATION CAPHOT aka THE BIG RUBBER GUN plan.

Yerima revealed that the plan is simply an operation that specifically provides equipment and prepares Ambazonia Restoration Forces for the next and decisive phase of the revolution.

The Southern Cameroons Vice President noted that the plan will end the presence of foreign forces from La Republique du Cameroun in Ambazonia and he reiterated again that all French Cameroun army soldiers must leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News, Yerima observed that “For four years now Southern Cameroonians have proved that their country will not be submissive to anyone. We want relations with everyone including La Republique du Cameroun but ties must be anchored in dignity, respect for sovereignty and mutual interests.”

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Honorary Consulate of Belarus has opened in Cameroon. BelTA learned from the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria.

“The official inauguration ceremony and the opening of the office of the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Belarus in the Republic of Cameroon Igor Kolesnikov took place in the city of Douala. During the ceremony Governor of Cameroon’s Littoral Region Samuel Ivaha Diboua handed over the exequatur to the Belarusian honorary consul,” the embassy informed.

The event was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon, the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria, executive and judicial authorities, the business community and the media.

In addition to that, the honorary consul and the representative of the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria met with the governor of Cameroon’s Littoral Region to discuss promising areas of cooperation between Belarus and Cameroon. The governor expressed interest in visiting Belarus to learn more about its economic potential.

Igor Kolesnikov is a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, a doctor by education. He has been living in Cameroon since 1995. He is executive director of GROUP FORM S.A.R.L, a Cameroonian company that sells and services medical equipment in Cameroon. Igor Kolesnikov also runs a private practice in Douala. He is widely known in business circles in Cameroon.

Source: Eng.Belta

On January 12, an appeals court in Cameroon rejected legal efforts to secure the release of Olivier Bibou Nissack and Alain Fogue Tedom, two prominent members of the country’s main opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), as well as twenty other MRC members. They were arrested in September 2020 while exercising their right to freedom of assembly and have been in custody since.

The court’s decision came after a lower court rejected a habeas corpus request filed by the defendants on November 5, 2020.

Nissack and Fogue face politically motivated charges including attempted revolution, rebellion, and unlawful assembly. They were first held in police custody for over a month at the Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense (SED), in Yaoundé, before being transferred to Yaoundé central prison on November 3 for a six-month pretrial detention period. At SED, they were kept in total isolation, deprived of any reading materials, and frequently denied access to their lawyers.

Nissack and Fogue were arrested as part of a massive government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations organized by the MRC on September 22 across Cameroon, which included the arrest of over 500 people, mainly MRC members and supporters.

Many peaceful protesters were beaten while being arrested and in detention. “The police beat me with truncheons,” a 39-year-old MRC member arrested in Douala told Human Rights Watch. “I spent nine days at the judicial police jail, sleeping on the floor and without access to my lawyers.”

Of the over 500 arrested, at least 136 remain in detention, 20 of whom have been convicted and sentenced to prison by civilian courts, according to the MRC’s lawyers.

“In Cameroon’s criminal justice system, habeas corpus requests appear to have lost their value as individuals who are presumed innocent are systematically deprived of their liberty,” Menkem Sother, a lawyer for Nissack said.

MRC leader Maurice Kamto continues to dispute the 2018 presidential election results which confirmed the victory of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 38 years.

Cameroonian authorities should respect people’s right to demonstrate peacefully, immediately release those wrongfully held, and investigate law enforcement’s conduct in the 2020 crackdown and treatment of detainees.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Several vehicles were photographed in flames in an assault that has been reportedly claimed by a group called The Fako Action Forces

Explosions were reported outside the Limbe Omnisport Stadium on Thursday, just two days before the highly anticipated African Nations Championship starts in Cameroon, in an attack apparently linked to a local separatist group.

Heading into the Chan tournament, Cameroon have faced criticism for using a host stadium in the South-West region against a backdrop of local instability.

Zambia, Tanzania, Guinea and Namibia, who are in Group D, are expected to play at the Omnisport Stadium during the tournament, which is reserved for home-based African players. The first game at the stadium is scheduled to be between Tanzania and Zambia next Tuesday.

Although the attack did not have any fatalities, several cars were destroyed, amidst ongoing concerns about the safety of the region due to separatist tensions.

The reported terrorist act was claimed by ‘Fako Action Forces’, according to local source Journal du Cameroon. The explosion reportedly took place on the ‘perimeter’ of the Limbe Stadium, just one of the venues designated to host Chan matches.

Referencing Radio Equinox, Camer Press Agency reported the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb, with the shadow government from the Ambazonia State in Cameroon having released the following reminder and warning in the days preceding the attack.

Images circulating on social media have also appeared to show evidence of the explosion.

Apart from the Group D games, the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the tournament are expected to be held in the volatile region.

Cameroon’s security department has been battling reported insurgents in the region since 2016. Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger organised a mini-tournament in the host country between January 1 and 7 ahead of the actual competition.

The three visiting nations set up camps since then and are waiting to start their respective Chan campaigns. Cameroon will start the event by playing Zimbabwe at the capital on January 16.

Apart from the Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, other stadiums that will be used are the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde which will host Group A games. Group B fixtures will be played at Japoma Stadium in Douala, while Group C participants will be playing at the Douala Reunification Stadium.

Source: Goal.com

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima says the Biya French Cameroun regime is doing all it can to implement disunity among Ambazonian front line groups and prevent dialog between the two Cameroons.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government is interested in holding a frank, candid and confidence-building dialog with the people of La Republique du Cameroun and their government in Yaoundé powered by the United Nations Security Council,” Dabney Yerima was cited by Cameroon Intelligence Report Holland Bureau Chief as telling a war cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Yerima, however, noted that “Unfortunately, the corrupt  regime in La Republique du Cameroun have been doing their utmost to keep Southern Cameroons restoration groups at daggers-drawn positions while thwarting dialog between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.”

The United States Congress on 8 September 2020 introduced Resolution 684 on the crisis in Southern Cameroons which was adopted on 1 January 2021.

The US Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) called on “the government of Cameroon and the separatist armed groups in the English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West to put an end to all violence, to respect the human rights of all Cameroonians, and to pursue a truly inclusive dialogue with a view to resolving the ongoing civil conflict in English-speaking Cameroon”.

Resolution 684 “condemns the abuses committed by state security forces and armed groups in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, and affirms that the United States continues to hold the Government of Cameroon accountable for safeguarding the security and constitutional rights of all its citizens, regardless of region, religion, or political opinion. In addition, it urges all parties to the conflict in Cameroon, the Government of Cameroon, U.S. foreign relations entities, and members of the international community to take specific steps to resolve the ongoing civil conflict in Cameroon.

The U.S. Congress was also critical of France’s action in the conflict.  “…France maintains considerable interests in Cameroon, including significant economic and security cooperation, but has not sufficiently used its influence to stem atrocities committed in English-speaking regions or to support stronger international action to seek a resolution to the conflict,” it said.

For the record, the crisis in the English-speaking region, which is now in its fifth year, has already resulted, according to NGOs, in more than 5,000 deaths and around 700,000 displaced persons. As a result of this conflict, some 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 855,000 children are out of school.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dabney Yerima stated that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government had announced a proposal for the UN to send a fact-finding mission to Southern Cameroons which would be particularly aimed at developing dialog between Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.

By Isong Asu in London

The slaughtering in Southern Cameroons has continued as both camps struggle to prove that they are in control of the region.

After Tuesday’s slaughtering of women and children in Mautu in the country Southwest region, the fighting continued on Wednesday in Muyuka where a BIR officer was killed in an ambush that has left many speechless.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group’s source in Muyuka, the BIR officers who are protecting the Brasseries depot located towards the main road leading to Yoke ran into a water crisis and went to one of the streams to fetch water where insurgents fighting for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons ambushed them, killing one BIR officer and wounding others.

Our correspondent on the ground is gathering more details and we will be publishing them as they become available.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) accused the Cameroon army on Monday of killing at least eight civilians in one of the country’s conflict-hit English-speaking regions, according to a statement.

CHRDA said it received reports Sunday about the killing of at least eight civilians in Maotu village in the country’s South West region. The victims killed included women and children, “who are classified under the group of vulnerable persons.”

The rights group said it “received and analyzed some videos and images from the scene, which all depict that the victims were shot dead. Sources revealed that there was a military invasion in the village that kept everyone running for safety.”

“So many people were killed, including a grandmother and her grandchild. We do not know what that old woman and the innocent child did to deserve death,” CHRDA quoted an eyewitness as saying.

“CHRDA calls on the state authorities to investigate this heinous act and let justice be served for the victims. We also call on all combatants to fully respect International Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” it said.

The Cameroon military did not immediately respond to CHRDA’s statement.

The attack brings back to the minds of Cameroonians the Ngarbuh incident which occurred in 2020.

Last year, Cameroon acknowledged the army’s role in the killings of civilians — including children and women — in the country’s North West Region.

The incident occurred in February in Ngarbuh village, where the military was accused of killing civilians and burning homes. The government had earlier denied responsibility for the killings.

The Central African country has been marred by protests and violence since 2016, with residents in English-speaking regions contending they have been marginalized for decades by the central government and the French-speaking majority.

They are calling for independence or a return to a federal state.

Violence in the Anglophone regions in the last three years has claimed an estimated 3,000 lives and caused the displacement of more than 730,000 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch.

In June 2020, the Norwegian Refugee Council declared the conflict in Cameroon as the most neglected crisis on the planet for a second year running.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The IG Statement: Massacre in Mautu but we must Resist

Yesterday, 10 January 2021, despicable barbarism was unleashed by the occupying forces upon our people in the village of Mautu, Fako County. The village of Mautu was invaded and ten men, women, and children were slaughtered as they went about their daily activities. Just two days ago, a young man called Clovis in the village of Njinikom was murdered by the French Cameroun forces.  Our hearts bleed and our nation mourns the victims of these heinous crimes. They will never be forgotten.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia (The IG) has ordered an immediate investigation to ascertain the facts surrounding these massacres. As the facts are made available, The IG will be communicating these details to its international partners and human rights groups.

Unfortunately, these savage and unprovoked attacks perpetrated by French Cameroun’s BIR, in collaboration with other militias, on our innocent and defenceless civilian population has become endemic. We have irrefutable evidence that these crimes against humanity are premeditated and directed by leaders of the regime in Yaoundé. Make no mistake, these are not random attacks. These attacks are carried out with military precision. These attacks are designed to terrorize the civilian population and to deter prospective enlistment of self-defence forces.  These attacks are also designed to evoke retaliation, but we shall not succumb to provocation or fear.  We shall respond to these attacks at the appropriate time.

As a nation, the courage and resilience of our restoration forces to fight for our sovereignty is commendable. The time just before dawn is habitually the darkest moment. Throughout history, many involved in restoration movements have despaired and almost given up when times are challenging. But history teaches us that with persistence, many nations have won their liberation battles and, I believe that if we persist, we shall overcome. I believe that with perseverance, the actualization of the restoration of Ambazonia shall come to pass.

To the population of Buea, we are proud that many businesses remain closed during Ghost-towns. For the few shops that are now opening on these days, we are appealing that you observe this great initiative that has given our struggle great momentum. This war was declared on us and it is our responsibility to protect ourselves and our territory from the invading and lawless military of French Cameroun. No violent conflict ever ends in the battlefield. Wars always end on the negotiation table as the only place where sustainable peace and justice can be attained. French Cameroun shall come to this realisation soon.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia is hereby making an urgent call for Ambazonians to take the following dispositions

1.            We all need to be strategic in our actions, pronouncement and must speak about our struggle as one to the world.

2.            We must all work as intelligence-gathering officers for our restoration forces so that those within our communities who collaborate with these thugs from French Cameroun to discredit our revolution are brought to justice.

3.            We must disregard mentors of internal division and stand together in our innovative and dynamic plan to ruthlessly adhere to our Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Ambazonia.

4.            We need to be bold and resolute in taking our territory through OPERATION CAPHOT aka THE BIG RUBBERGUN.

Fellow Comrades, be neither discouraged nor distracted. Our time shall come. Our policy position is that the following confidence-building measures would create a conducive atmosphere for productive engagement with French Cameroun. We believe that the entire process would have to be underwritten by the UN and certain muscular States (America, Britain, Germany, and Russia). The key confidence-building measures that must be taken are:

(i)            A UN humanitarian intervention in the Southern Cameroons. This necessary action will secure the safety of the people of the Southern Cameroons. French Cameroun forces must withdraw from the territory of the Southern Cameroons. Our IDPs, refugees and diaspora community must be able to return safely to the Southern Cameroons without fear of being killed by the regime in Yaoundé.

(ii)           The release of all Southern Cameroons political prisoners being held by French Cameroun in various prisons and torture facilities.

(iii)          An international fact-finding mission to investigate various crimes perpetrated in the Southern Cameroons.

For us, the adoption of these measures is critical for obvious reasons. French Cameroun has proven to be dishonest. It is a nation that has no respect for human lives and international norms. But we must continue our fight for freedom and justice with the believe that we shall overcome. We must remain bold and not succumb to intimidation or fear. We must keep resisting. We shall overcome.

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Thank You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

In 2017, the US-based Interim Government of Ambazonia (The IG) announced that the death penalty still stands in the Southern Cameroons and the sentence would be used for those who commit high crimes and misdemeanor against the state. Amongst the crimes that The IG deemed publishable by the death penalty were treason, murder, large scale drug trafficking, espionage and being a senior member of French Cameroun’s CPDM crime-syndicate.

Over the last few months, Ambazonia Intelligence Service and Southern Cameroons law enforcement officers have zeroed in on Peter Mafany Musonge, Yang Philemon, Atanga Nji,and other high-value targets to implement the death penalty for their voluminous crimes against the state.

Concentration on high-value targets however does not mean that smaller targets are being ignored. Saturday, 9 January 2021 execution of the Martin Ayuk, Principal of Government High School Ossing, Manyu County came as no surprise to many familiar with the matter.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News Group’s Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom, an Ambazonian commander with knowledge of the matter said “Martin has been attracting death to himself for a long time. He has been in consistent and persistent communication with the French Cameroun terrorist forces in Mamfe. We warned him countless times, but he was stupidly arrogant. He did not want to learn from what happened to Mathias Ako, the former Regent Chief of Ossing”

The Ambazonian Commander furthered that “Martin committed crimes of treason and espionage against the people of Ambazonia on many occasions and his actions led to the unlawful arrests and murder of many in Ossing village by the terrorist French Cameroon military. He called the terrorists military of French Cameroun to Ossing in December 2020 to confiscate many of Southern Cameroons self defense weapons that were safely stored in a farm in the forest in Takpa. He had to face the death penalty for calling the military to collect our weapons that cost us more than USD  10,000. Again, he was openly telling us that he had no respect for us as a self-defence force in an area we control. His action was unacceptable”.

The Ambazonian Self-defence commandant went on to add “we do use the death penalty in Manyu County in moderation and only in occasions that the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and where there is no room for doubt.”

Over 6 000 people have died and close to half a million have been displaced. Multiple separatists groups have formed in Southern Cameroons.

At least six soldiers died and five more were wounded on Wednesday after a roadside bomb exploded in Momo County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

By Bisong Ayuk with files from Ossing