A huge fight erupted on Monday in Cameroon’s border town of Otu, resulting in the deaths of at   least four Cameroon government forces while four others could not be accounted for.

The fight started when seasoned Southern Cameroonian revenue collectors who also double as fighters ambushed Yaoundé government forces, wounding four and creating panic.

Otu is a Cameroon town on the border with Nigeria and together with Ekok, another border town in Manyu Division, account for about 60% of customs duty collected in the country.

Southern Cameroonian fighters hold that they now control the border and they will not give up their positions, especially as they are now aware of the huge amounts of money that have been heading to Yaoundé from those two Manyu border towns.

The fighters who sent a voice note to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s office in Mamfe argue that the Yaoundé government has been collecting customs duty for over 50 years and that makes the French-speaking government of Yaoundé to be indebted to Southern Cameroons to the tune of USD 70 billion.

The speaker in the voice note said the fighters were in control of that part of their territory, adding that the Yaoundé government would pay off that debt either in cash or “in life,” which explains why Yaoundé government soldiers are being chopped down or exploded by Southern Cameroonian fighters who have now resorted to using explosives. 

The fighting started when Yaoundé government forces in Otu were on a patrol, claiming that they were in control of things, triggering the deadly ambush which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and two gendarme officers. 

By Ojong Peter in Otu with additional editing by Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap

The Ambazonia Interim Government has warned all pro French Cameroun political elites in Ground Zero against fanning the flames of division after the disgraced 88-year-old President Biya appointed the so-called pioneer independent conciliators to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

“The French Cameroun Biya criminal appointments underscores the need for unity among all strata of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its Restoration forces to confront the enemy, which is showing no mercy to young men, women and the elderly in our homeland,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The atrocities committed against our people in Ground Zero obliges all Southern Cameroonians to engage with the occupiers by any means, especially at all police and gendarmerie checkpoints scattered all over our homeland” Vice President Yerima added.

In a press briefing late on Monday, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader said the occupying French Cameroun army soldiers continue to commit the most heinous crimes against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia and they are executing young people, women, children and the elderly in cold blood.

“Silence on these crimes is indeed a disgrace to world powers and international bodies that claim to be advocates of human rights, freedom and justice” Yerima opined.

“The blood of all Southern Cameroons martyrs is making Ambazonians more determined to continue the path of resistance until an independent state is gotten” Yerima furthered.

The Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress. British action resulted in the unconscionable imposition of an unnecessary and precipitated plebiscite with dead-end alternatives. Speaking through Lord Perth, Britain shamefully said the Southern Cameroons and its people were “expendable”.

The plebiscite was imposed in the teeth of opposition by the leadership of the trust territory. It offered a Hobson’s choice of ‘joining’ either Nigeria or French Cameroun. The internationally-prescribed political status option of sovereign independence was deliberately excluded. There was no good reason for doing so. On 11 February 1961, a skewed plebiscite was foisted on the people of the Southern Cameroons. Faced with the Hobson’s ‘choice’ that was forced down their throat, the people opted for independence in political association with Republique du Cameroun. It was agreed in writing between the two countries and to the knowledge of Britain and the UN, that the political association would take the form of an aggregative federation of two states, equal in status.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon has initiated tough road safety measures including the deployment of additional traffic officers across the country in a bid to curb rising road accidents in the central African nation, authorities said on Tuesday.

A road safety campaign to run for four months will focus on the fight against overspeeding, overloading, bad vehicle condition, and disrespect of anti-coronavirus measures, said Divine Mbamome Nkendong, Director of Road Transport of the Ministry of Transport.

“According to our studies, lots of people travel in Cameroon between the months of June to September. That’s why this campaign is taking place during this period which is also notorious for the occurrence of accidents,” Nkendong told reporters in the capital Yaounde at the start of the campaign.

“We are sending our best teams to the field and up-to-date equipment on road safety during this period. All offenders will be severely punished in compliance with the regulations in force,” he added.

Cameroon has seen rising fatalities for the last few years, with about 1,500 deaths reported annually on the highways, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Source: Xinhuanet

A senior military commander and member of the so-called National Security Council says hardliners in the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé are deeply concerned about the big rubbergun project recently launched by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and are now pushing for a political discourse on federalism.

The colonel who spoke to our Yaoundé city reporter but sued for anonymity made the remarks on Monday after an emergency security meeting summoned by the military hierarchy to examine the situation in Southern Cameroons.

“We now know that the numerous explosive devices used by Ambazonian fighters are part of their big rubbergun project and this is very troubling to the political leaders” he said.

The Cameroon government military official observed that President Biya and his Francophone aides have been preoccupied over recent weeks with the many explosions that have claimed the lives of several Cameroon government army soldiers.

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima said on Friday last week that the big rubbergun project will ease the Southern Cameroons trip to Buea.

The War in Ambazonia

Since the 1970s, Southern Cameroons’civil society organizations and individuals periodically organized non-violent protests and sent deputations and petitions to the Yaoundé authorities calling for the redress of legitimate grievances, including the ending of its colonization and annexation of the Southern Cameroons. These actions were always met with characteristic violent repression, imprisonment, torture, and killings. In 2016, Southern Cameroons’ lawyers, all in their wigs and gowns, staged a peaceful public demonstration calling for an end to the organized systematic destruction of the Southern Cameroon’s common-law-based legal and judicial system. The reaction of Yaoundé was swift and ferocious. Gendarmes encircled the lawyers as they marched, battered them and ripped off their wigs and tore their gowns, arbitrarily arresting and imprisoning, and torturing many of them. Teachers and a consortium of civil society organizations soon joined the action by the protesting lawyers. They called for an immediate end to the bastardization of the English-derived system of education obtaining in the Southern Cameroons. They also called for an end to the policy of pauperization of the Southern Cameroons and its people. Again, these actions were met with the most brutal response, including the deployment of armed soldiers who did not hesitate to shoot and kill.

When the population came out en masse with peace plants to protest these wanton killings, the soldiers fanned out all over the Southern Cameroons and visited the people – women, men, boys, girls, children, the old, the sick and the infirm – with despicable mayhem. But still the people came out in protest. Mr Biya, Cameroun’s 88-year-old President for 40 years, then publicly declared that his troops would do what he has ordered them to do in the Southern Cameroons. And so, the four-year old war in Ambazonia was unleashed on the people of the territory by Republique du Cameroun in November 2017. Taken by surprise and never being prepared for war, the people found themselves having to defend themselves, their families, their communities and their territory literally with bare hands. They used pebbles, sticks, machetes and a few old rusty hunting Dane guns and gunpowder retrieved here and there.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Fighting between Francophone Beti Ewondo troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé and Ambazonia Restoration Forces has continued today in Fako County with heavy artillery fire focusing on the strategically important towns of Muyuka, Muea and Ikata. Muyuka which sits on the only major road that links Buea the historic capital of Southern Cameroons to Meme, Ndian, Lebialem, Kupe Muanenguba and Manyu has seen fierce exchange in recent days as the Francophone Cameroon government forces attempt to gain control of the road.

The developments come as the conflict now in its fourth year is showing no signs of ending. The War in Southern Cameroons has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroon government troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.  The Biya French Cameroun regime is yet to release casualty statistics for its armed forces, although military officials have reported that some 3000 Cameroon government army soldiers have died and hundreds more have been injured.

Further clashes in and around Buea are highly likely over the near term. Fighting along the main road linking Mamfe to Ekok and Bamenda to Wum cannot be ruled out in the coming days. A heightened Cameroon government security presence and disruptions to transportation have rocked the entire Southern Cameroons territory.

The latest round of hostilities erupted today when Ambazonia Restoration Forces reportedly carried out strikes on settlements in Muyuka and Muea including Ikata following attacks by Cameroon government troops. Ambazonia Restoration Forces launched what it claimed to be a ‘counter-offensive’ in response. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that both Amba fighters and Cameroon government forces made extensive use of heavy weapons during the clashes, including artillery and loitering munitions.

The Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress. British action resulted in the unconscionable imposition of an unnecessary and precipitated plebiscite with dead-end alternatives. Speaking through Lord Perth, Britain shamefully said the Southern Cameroons and its people were “expendable”.

The plebiscite was imposed in the teeth of opposition by the leadership of the trust territory. It offered a Hobson’s choice of ‘joining’ either Nigeria or French Cameroun. The internationally-prescribed political status option of sovereign independence was deliberately excluded. There was no good reason for doing so. On 11 February 1961, a skewed plebiscite was foisted on the people of the Southern Cameroons. Faced with the Hobson’s ‘choice’ that was forced down their throat, the people opted for independence in political association with Republique du Cameroun. It was agreed in writing between the two countries and to the knowledge of Britain and the UN, that the political association would take the form of an aggregative federation of two states, equal in status.

Western governments generally advise their citizens against all travel to areas of conflict but have maintained a kind of deliberate silence ever since the crisis in Southern Cameroons started four years ago.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Isong Asu

International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13 has been observed in Cameroon, with albinos asking for more government and community care and protection. Those living with this hereditary genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment in skin, hair and eyes, say stigma, violence, superstition and killing have greatly lessened, but abuses have not been eliminated.

One hundred and sixty albinos and their family members assembled at the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos office in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, to mark International Albinism Awareness Day.

Among them is 16-year-old albino Ronald Essi, who said he was abandoned because of his condition.

Essi said he wants to become a police officer to defend his country Cameroon and punish civilians who abuse albinos’ rights. He said his mother abandoned him when he was two years old. He said his grandmother resisted family pressure to kill him. He said he has been living in the streets since 2015, when his grandmother died.

Essi said a Catholic priest rescued him from the street and sent him to a school in Yaoundé.

Essi is one of the about 2,200 albinos the government says live in Cameroon. 

This year Cameroon reported that prejudice and discrimination against albinos in employment and social life had lowered drastically. The government said hunting down albinos for their body parts has been eliminated from many communities.

Witch doctors who claim that albinos bring wealth and good luck to people who have access to their body parts are disappearing. In many communities, albino babies are no longer considered signs of misfortune and buried alive or starved until they die.

Jean-Jacques Ndoudoumou, the founding president of the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos, says albinos are gradually being accepted by communities.

He said the association he leads is happy, as people are increasingly accepting albinos as normal human beings. He said many albinos have graduated from universities and are using the knowledge they acquire to contribute to developing Cameroon. He said complaints of stigma and violence on albinos have greatly declined and there are now marriages between albinos and people without the condition.

Ndoudoumou said his association has instructed all its members to continue teaching people albinos are normal human beings who need special assistance.

Gregoire Amindeh is member of The Association for the Promotion of the Rights of Albinos.

Amindeh said that although Cameroon’s government has done a lot, albinos still urgently need special reading glasses and handheld magnifiers to stop their high school dropout rate from low vision. He said they need subsidies to be treated in hospitals since their skin is extremely sensitive to the sun and can develop cancer. He said skin cancers remain a major cause of death in African albinos.

Pauline Irene Nguene, Cameroon’s minister of social affairs, says albinos are placed in the group of people with special protection needs. She said Cameroon ensures the socio-economic integration and protection of albinos, and immediately intervenes to protect albinos whenever cases of abuse are reported.

She said in 2020, staff of her ministry visited more than a hundred villages where abuses of the rights of albinos were reported. She said civilians in the villages were taught in their local languages to respect the health, education and social rights of albinos. She said the government has continued to lobby for private enterprises, schools and outside organizations not to reject albinos looking for positions in their institutions.

Nguene said 60 government offices created in Cameroon’s administrative units receive complaints and immediately help albinos in need.

International Albinism Awareness Day is observed by the United Nations on June 13 every year. This year’s theme, “Strength Beyond All Odds,” according to the U.N. highlights the achievements of people with albinism all over the world.

Source: VOA

A senior aide to the Southern Cameroons Vice President says Chief Dr Dion Ngute as a prominent Ambazonian is shedding “crocodile tears” over the so-called Cameroon government plans to rebuild Southern Cameroons while he continues to chair cabinet meetings that are fostering murderous crimes on the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Dr Patrick Ayuk made the remarks on Saturday, two day after Cameroon Concord News released names of Cameroon government officials targeted by the US visa restriction program.

“Ngute is talking about reconstruction but his French Cameroun army is still carrying out unlawful & murderous crimes in Southern Cameroons.  No need for Ngute’s crocodile tears when his French Cameroun military is busy killing innocent women and children in Southern Cameroons” Dr Patrick Ayuk told Camcordnews.

The Dabney Yerima senior adviser also called on the President Biden administration to place additional sanctions on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaounde.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory from 1843 to 1887. When Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known.

By Isong Asu in London

The latest Atanga Nji Boys onslaught on the main road linking Bamenda to Wum, the chief town in Menchum is creating a tragic humanitarian aspect as the fighting in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia continue to unfold further day by day.

Most people in Wum predominantly from the Aghem extraction are in need of medicine. Pattern medicine shops in Wum are all empty and several people are dying. The heavy deployment of Francophone troops around the main market and in Naikom Overside is making matters worse.

Several innocent Southern Cameroonians including women and children have been killed in Cameroon government military attacks in Wum, Esu and Weh ever since the conflict began four years ago. Cameroon government army soldiers have also brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished Menchum County.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces defending the Menchum constituency say the French Cameroun aggression has not undermined their will to stand against the occupation crime syndicate in Yaoundé. They say, despite their suffering, they will remain steadfast and fight for until Southern Cameroons is free.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files