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Revealed: Cameroonian returnee says Nigerians run Libyan slave camps

2, December 2017

Revealed: Cameroonian returnee says Nigerians run Libyan slave camps 0

The new slave trade-human trafficking in Libya is being carried out by many nationalities, including Nigerians and Ghanaians, according to a Cameroonian returnee, who was abducted in the country. Foka Fotsi, who was trafficked twice, told Reuters that those in charge of one of the places where he was held included Ghanaians and Nigerians. Fotsi story corroborated another testimony by a Nigerian in the southern state of Edo, who identified one Charles, a Nigerian as the trafficking kingpin. Foka Fotsi- battered in a camp run by Nigerians and Ghanaians Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring before reaching Europe. “There was torture like I’ve never seen. They hit you with wooden bats, with iron bars,” he said, removing the hood of his sweatshirt and showing the still raw red wounds on his skull. “They hang you from the ceiling by (your) arms and legs and then throw you down to the floor. They swing you and throw you against the wall, over and over again, ten times. “They are not human beings. They are the devil personified.”

Christelle Timdi, another Cameroonian recounted her  horrendous experience in the north African country. When uniformed men boarded the overloaded rubber dingy carrying her and her boyfriend to a new life in Europe, she thought the Italian coastguard had come to rescue them. But the men took out guns and began to shoot. “Many people fell in the sea,” the 32-year-old Cameroonian said as she described seeing her boyfriend, Douglas, falling in the water and disappearing into the darkness. The gunmen took Timdi and her fellow passengers back to Libya where they were locked up, raped, beaten and forced to make calls to their families back home for ransom payments to secure their freedom. Timdi, who flew back to Cameroon last week, told her story as international outcry escalated over a video which appeared to show African migrants being traded as slaves in Libya. Libya’s U.N.-backed government has said it is investigating and has promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Timdi said she had not seen the footage broadcast by CNN, but had witnessed the trade in humans while in Libya. “I saw it with my own eyes,” she said, describing how she had seen a Senegalese man buying an African migrant. Libya is the main jumping off point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat. Timdi said many traffickers posed as marine guards, police officers and taxi drivers to ensnare victims. There were around 130 other migrants on her boat when the gunmen opened fire in the middle of the night, Timdi said. After being taken back to Libya they were locked in an abandoned factory building where men would grab and rape the girls and women – and sometimes even the men. “We tried to hide the younger girls among us,” Timdi said, describing the terrifying moments when the guards would scour the room with torches, searching for their next victims. “I was heavily pregnant – that’s why I wasn’t raped. And it’s all done in front of others – they say it’s so that you know what will happen to you if you don’t pay up.” Timdi said the facilities used by traffickers appeared to be well organised and guarded, adding that most people inside wore fake police or military uniforms. “The place was surrounded by army-style vehicles with guns ready to fire, so we didn’t dare try and escape.”

Timdi’s family paid 1 million CFA francs ($1,800), frantically collected from relatives and friends, to free her. But she said ransoms were no guarantee of safety. The traffickers work with a network of taxi drivers who are supposed to transfer released migrants to migrant camps – but who often re-traffick them, Timdi said. “If they send you a good taxi, you’ll arrive at your destination, but if it’s a bad taxi the driver will sell you on to someone else,” she said. “There are people who have been resold twice, three times. And when you call your family to tell them that you’ve been resold once again, no one will believe you, they won’t send more money to free you.” Timdi was released by her captors in October and gave birth to a baby girl, Brittanie, in a Libyan hospital just days later. Timdi and Fotsi were among 250 Cameroonians who were flown home this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of a voluntary return scheme for migrants stranded in Libya. The programme, funded by the European Union, provided returnees with clothing and medical checks. The most vulnerable, including pregnant women, also received around 400 euros ($475). IOM Cameroon head Boubacar Saybou said it was launching a programme to help migrants set up businesses, and will also provide start-up funding. “We need to create opportunities for them here. That’s what’s important,” he said. Fotsi said he hoped to follow up on the scheme. But for now his most pressing problem was finding a place to sleep. “I pray that God gives me work that I can do here,” he said. “If we don’t get work you’ll find many of us walking the streets again.”

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation report


French Cameroun Military Operation: Biya has by this misadventure put a pistol on his own head

2, December 2017

French Cameroun Military Operation: Biya has by this misadventure put a pistol on his own head 0

The military operation ordered by Paul Biya is an escalation of the genocide campaign that has been ongoing since French Cameroun invaded Southern Cameroon fifty six years ago and commenced a military campaign of terror and genocide that has claimed millions of Southern Cameroon lives and devastated the economy and way of life of the people.

With the public declaration of the escalation of the genocide campaign, targeting all Southern Cameroonians, Ambazonians must now declare the right to self defense and declare that any French Cameroon soldier, administrator or whosoever aids in its war effort or administration to vacate the Southern Cameroon.  The Federal Republic of Amabazonia will protect all civilians and civilian targets and abide by the laws and customs of war in prosecuting this war of self defense.

French Cameroun soldiers who lay down their arms and refuse to kill Southern Cameroonians will not be hurt so also their families.  Those who kill Southern Cameroonians or obey the criminal orders of Paul Biya will be hit even in their own territory and homes. They will have nowhere to hide. Ambazonia will win this last limp of the fifty six years war against its people.

No soldier of fortune of French Cameroun deployed to commit genocide, rape, maim and loot will return alive. With international law and justice on the side of Ambazonia, the enemy will soon learn the hard reality of history which the reckless ambitions of Adolf Hitler Paul Biya have brought unto the free world.

Like his mentors Hitler, Biya has by this misadventure put a pistol on his own head and that of his country French Cameroun.  Ambazonia by the end of this campaign will prevail by totally liberating itself while helping Biya to terminate his satanic misadventure.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Biya wants to change definition of ‘terrorist’ to include the Ambazonia Interim Government

2, December 2017

Biya wants to change definition of ‘terrorist’ to include the Ambazonia Interim Government 0

Intelligence reaching Cameroon Concord News from Yaounde indicates that the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya has ordered the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu to ask Ambazonians to vacate 16 villages.

Our Yaounde city reporter who is very experience in intelligence gathering noted that the Biya intention is to take ammunition and explosives into those villages, then turn around and claim to have discovered arms brought in by the interim government headed by His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

A senior aide to President Ayuk Tabe has also hinted that the Ambazonian chief executive will be commenting on this developing situation and the happenings in Ambazonia later today.

Stay with us for the latest in Southern Cameroons

 



The Choice: Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year goes to the People of Southern Cameroons

1, December 2017

The Choice: Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year goes to the People of Southern Cameroons 0

The Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year award goes to the Southern Cameroons and all its citizens individually and collectively. The collective nature of this choice is justified.

Fifty-six years ago, the Southern Cameroons a United Nations Trust territory under British administration, was betrayed and sold off to France through its vassal state of French Cameroun. In terms of analogy, the enslavement and selling off black Africans by criminal gangs to whom NATO/EU nations handed Libya, revolting as it is, pales in terms of the collective genocidal intent evident in the slave deal over the Southern Cameroons with the complicity of the United Nations, Great Britain and France.

Great Britain and France were among the key actors on whom humanity relied to create the United Nations on the 26 of June 1945 in San Francisco. This underscored a firm determination of the civilized world “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small’. In consequence therefore, the United Nations Organization went operational on 24 October 1945 with among other goals to fulfill a critical determination to meet its charter obligation under article 76 (b) “to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement”.

Pursuant to this multilateral treaty obligation, the United Nations oversaw the grant of independence to French Cameroun on 1 January 1960 although, it remains a vassal state of France. When the time came for the realization of the UN multilateral treaty obligation towards the Southern Cameroons on 1 October 1961, Great Britain handed the articles of sovereignty over the territory to French vassal state of French Cameroun and France’s proxy army of occupation in the night of 30 September 1961.  Ever since, the genocidal onslaught and ferocious intensity with which it is executed qualifies the Southern Cameroons as a cancer on the conscience of the international community.  The genocide that was carefully weaved into the slave deal apart, the racism that underpinned the callousness of the impunity with which Southern Cameroons was sacrificed to satisfy or fulfil the imperial economic interests of Britain and France, more than anything establishes that these superpowers perceived the United Nations as an institution they may rely on to legitimize imperial domination over supposed independent African nations.  The selling off the Southern Cameroons into slavery at its threshold to independence explains this eloquently.

This is further explained by the complicit silence or inaction of the UN to the consequences in terms of Southern Cameroonian lives lost, legal and cultural identity destroyed, economy raped and culture of terror, and international criminality imposed on the Southern Cameroons on the watch of the UN and its ancillary institutions.  Judging from the timid and complicit statements of the France-Afrique neocolonial UN Secretary-General Representative for Central Africa, François Louncény Fall of Guinea an avowed paid agent of French Cameroun aimed at whitewashing the genocide of Southern Cameroons by attempting to make victims out of French Cameroun criminal genocide executioners, it is safe under these circumstances to conclude that  the infiltration of the international system over the years rather than dissuade, encouraged impunity and

Despite these obstacles and the seemingly unsurmountable odds against the Southern Cameroons, after fifty-six years of excruciating life under genocide, terror, economic terrorism, and all forms of international criminality imaginable, the people rose as one on the 22 September 2017, and ultimately on 1 October 2017 to reclaim their freedom and independence.  The deployment by French Cameroun of helicopter gunships and other ordnance supplied by France and other international actors to fight Boko Haram to kill and maim in large and systematic scale hundreds of thousands of armless Southern Cameroonians failed to abate the resolve of a determined independence seeking people of the Southern Cameroons.

The genocidal intent of French Cameroun leaders in the prosecution of the genocide and crimes against humanity against the Southern Cameroons has consistently been expressed during their official functions and through news networks under their control. Unlike genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that were committed in some parts of the world by carefully sophisticated institutional frameworks and death squads, the planners, commanders and executioners of the genocide of the Southern Cameroons have publicly taken credit for their brazen acts of criminality.

They deployed and commanded the criminal death squads and praised them for the cruelty with which they have been executing the genocide and sundry international crimes against Southern Cameroonians :  The unexhaustive list of  criminals and persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the international crimes committed against the Southern Cameroons are,  Paul Biya,  President of French Cameroun,  President of the National Assembly of French Cameroun, Cavaye Yegui Djibril, President of the Senate of French Cameroun,Marcel Niat, French Cameroun’s government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, Minister of Defence,  Joseph Beti Assomo,  Minister in charge of Missions at the Presidency, Paul Atanga Nji,  Minister of Post and Telecommunications,Minette Libom Li Likeng Governor of the South West,Bernard Okalia Bilai, Governor of the North West, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, Minister of State in charge of the Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bonkam, Delegate General in charge of National Security, Mbarga Nguele Martin, Army Chiefs of French Cameroun and all their proconsuls so-called senior SDO.s , Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge, CRTV, Vision 4 television, Cameroon Tribune, French Cameroun Military Court, and the CPDM party etc. The ferocity and cruelty of these crimes did not deter Southern Cameroonians from reaching Buea the capital of the Southern Cameroons to symbolically reassert the independence of the Southern Cameroons which they hence proclaimed as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The revolutionary spirit of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the unparalleled   mobilization of Southern Cameroonians around the world to condemn and urge intervention to abate the ongoing crimes and for the perpetrators to be brought to book, sent a loud and clear message to French Cameroun and the world at large, that the independence of the Ambazonia fatherland which is non-negotiable and sacrosanct will be defended at all costs. Southern Cameroons has demonstrated to the world that anything short of this will be a betrayal of the martyrs who died,  peace plants leaves in hand, singing the songs of liberation, freedom and independence.

Today, Cameroon Concord News Group recognizes for honour all Southern Cameroonians and all its citizens, dead or alive, home or abroad, free or in detention for their determination in securing and defending the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia even at the supreme price. You have evinced an irrevocable determination to defend the goals of this revolution. Armless and with peace plants as symbols of peace, you demonstrated to the international community that you understand the universal tenets of peace, justice and freedom.

In slaughtering many of you in cold blood, the cowardly soldiers of French Cameroon set up themselves and their commanders as legitimate targets of attacks in defense of the Southern Cameroons homeland and its people. The President of the Interim Government of Ambazonia H.E Sisiku Ayuk Tabe conveyed this option to French Cameroun in a televised interview on a French television channel recently. When that option will be deemed to be the only alternative left, in pushing the enemy from the territory of Ambazonia, the enemy will feel the full wait of Ambazonia’s collective resolve. When the moment comes, and there is growing grassroots support for the option, French Cameroon and its crime syndicate in power, will know and pay the price for its unprovoked aggression and consequential costs in Ambazonian lives, economy and cultural heritage. For your resolve and sacrifice in the defence of the universal tenets of our humanity at risk, you deserve Cameroon Concord News Person Of The Year Award.

Congratulation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

 

 


Southern Cameroons Crisis: ADF and Boko Haram Inch Closer to Agreement

1, December 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: ADF and Boko Haram Inch Closer to Agreement 0

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started in October 2016 with demands by Southern Cameroonian lawyers and teachers has taken a turn for the worse, as Dr. Cho Ayaba’s Ambazonia Defense Forces and Boko Haram are exploring ways of cooperating with a view to making things terribly messy for the government of Cameroon which still holds that the Anglophone problem which is a typical political issue can only be addressed militarily.

Speaking to an ADFmilitary official who elected anonymity, it is clear that the days ahead would be very unsettling for Cameroonians. The general advised that they were capable of striking fear into the minds of Cameroonians as a means of dragging the aging government to the negotiating table. He pointed to the killing of more than 20 government troops over the last month, especially in Manyu Division, advising that their hit-and-run tactics were paying off.

He stressed that they would continue to act like the Vietcong until the government of Cameroon found the need to call for inclusive dialogue as requested by the Vatican and the international community. He said the placing of bombs in markets, churches, mosques and social gatherings was not excluded, adding that all was fair in love and war.

He pointed out that the killing of many government army troops was proof that ADF was capable of inflicting significant damage to Cameroon’s forces that are neither well trained nor motivated to fight a war that is unconventional. He stressed that his troops would continue to hit the government where it hurt the most, adding that what will soon befall the country will reduce what has so far happenedto a dress rehearsal.

He urged government troops to resist killing ordinary Cameroonians as that would only lead to the killing of soldiers, adding that many more families would soon be without their loved ones as the conflict would be taking a different turn. He urged Cameroonians, especially Francophones, to join the struggle in order to rid themselves of a man who had robbed them of their dignity.

Asked about rumors of an impending alliance with Boko Haram, the ADF officer laughed off the rumor, adding that the most important issue facing Cameroon for now was the Biya government that was without a vision and no sense of direction. He stressed that while the main objective as stated by Dr. Lucas Cho Ayabawas to liberate Southern Cameroons from the exploitative relation with East Cameroon, it would be good if the minority in Cameroon could bid the Biya regime goodbye and restore real democracy in Cameroon.

In this regard, he said an alliance with other enemies of the system would be welcome and that there were efforts underway to establish strategic alliances with whoever wants to see the Biya government out of power. “We are ready and prepared for any alliance that will help us achieve our goal,” he said. He pointed out that Boko Haram that was very active in the North was the outcome of poor governance, adding that it would be hard to eradicate the insurgency in the North due to deep-rooted systemic corruption.

Asked about Mr. Biya’s statement upon arrival in Yaounde on Thursday, November 30, 2017, about the killing of soldiers in Agborkem and Otu in Manyu Division, the general laughed and said those were empty threats that would not help to bring about peace in the region. He said they had heard that before and would not yield to such noise.

He said if Mr. Biya was coming out to make such a statement, it meant their tactics were having the right impact. He said for more than one year, the Cameroon leader had been acting as if all was fine in the country. He stressed that the country should be ready for the worse, as ADF was prepared to shock the world to prove that Mr. Biya and his troops cannot really govern the country.

He said they were looking forward to the actions Mr. Biya had promised, adding that more troops in Southern Cameroons meant more body bags heading back to French Cameroon as his men would know how to handle the ill-trained troops who are not even motivated to fight a war they know nothing about.

He revealed that ADF was looking to recruit Liberians who are seasoned fighters. He said their experience in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire would surely come in handy in Cameroon. He also said that since most of them would be mercenaries and had no emotional attachment to Cameroonian troops, they would really achieve the goals that would be set for them.

He however called on the government to avert bloodshed by calling for genuine and inclusive dialogue. He said though both parties were still frozen in their positions, there was still an opportunity for things to be discussed at the negotiating.

He said time was fast running out, adding that it would be in everybody’s interest if a peaceful solution was sought, instead of using brute force that is sending many young men to an early grave. Cameroon could be an oasis of peace if its leaders could ensure that all grievances were dealt with in a democratic manner, he said.

Asked about their troops, he said they were doing fine, adding that Dr. Ayaba had just finished visiting their troops in Nigeria and other parts of the continent. He said their morale was high and that they were ready for action. He said for those who had a sense of history, they would remember that it was young men and women who had run into exile when Mobutu was slaughtering his own people who came back to chase him out of power.

“Our fighters may look like a ragtag military, but they are effective and reliable. We are not concerned about the government’s display of force. All of that is just grandstanding. We will continue to erode their confidence until they understand that we are a dangerous group that must liberate Southern Cameroons,” he stressed. He called on the government to look into the mirror of history so as to learn the lessons of life. He said Congolese (Zairean) rebels were once refugees and when they had learned the tricks, they had to come back to send Mr. Mobutu to an early grave.

He said those refugees in Nigeria would one day come back to bite the government of Cameroon as they are really bitter. He promised that before long, the world would be ridding itself of another African dictator who has brought death and destruction to his people. He said the attacks on the soldiers would be stepped up in the coming days, especially in Manyu Division, where there are no roads. He said those dirt roads would be booby traps that would consume army soldiers in the days ahead. He added that the vast border between Manyu Division and Nigeria provided them the perfect cover they needed to reduce the government to a laughing stock.

A Cameroon Concord News Production


‘Merkel’s party, SPD agree to enter coalition talks’

1, December 2017

‘Merkel’s party, SPD agree to enter coalition talks’ 0

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer, and SPD Party leader Martin Schulz agreed during a meeting late on Thursday to enter into talks to find a way out of the recent political impasse in forming a coalition, a party official said on Friday.

The leaders of the three parties discussed various options for forming a coalition government, including a Merkel-led minority government, but they voiced skepticism about the latter option, said the party official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and on the condition the party not be named.

Merkel has been looking for a coalition partner after her center-right bloc lost support to the far right in Sept. 24 elections and her attempts to form a three-way tie-up with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens failed.

Public opinion also appeared to be behind the new sides opening talks, with a poll commissioned by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung showing 61 percent of Germans wanted the SPD to enter coalition negotiations with Merkel’s conservatives.

Spiegel weekly noted that Thursday’s meeting was crucial for the chancellor.

“For Merkel, it’s a fight for political survival that’s starting,” said Spiegel.

“Merkel must do everything to forge this alliance — the only one that would ensure stable power,” it added.

(Source: Agencies)


Anglophone Text Book Affair: Ambazonians no strangers to French Cameroun dismissals, but Biya era is different

1, December 2017

Anglophone Text Book Affair: Ambazonians no strangers to French Cameroun dismissals, but Biya era is different 0

The Francophone regime in Yaounde has expelled eight Southern Cameroons pedagogic inspectors from their positions.  The French Cameroun government say the 8 are accused of having participated in the propagation of a book conveying secessionist ideas.

The book in question, “Moving on student’s Book 2”, was removed from the official list of textbooks recommended for the 2017-2018 academic year. The book carries on page 56 a lesson on rights and freedoms, a concept through which the author praised the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by inserting the Ambaland flag, instead of the theme on living together contained in the original book.

The Biya Francophone regime noted that the authors of this far-reaching falsification have been formally identified.  Cameroon Concord News gathered that the eight  are teachers serving with the Ministry of Secondary Education as pedagogical inspectors, an employee of the British Embassy in Yaounde and two employees of the publishing House, Cosmos Educational Press Ltd.

We understand the Ministry of Secondary Education has decided that all books published by Cosmos Educational Press Ltd will be gradually removed from the official list of textbooks in La Republique du Cameroun.

Names of people involved

Nduge Alfred Enang

Emme Mojoko Evele

Mballe Samuel Eseh

Obenson Gregory Ayuk

Fudelis Atabong Tatuh

Ekwoge Joseph Elongo

Tabi Ayuk Suzana Ngwa

Asaba Morfaw Prudencia Emeteh

Arrey Elvis N., employee at the British Embassy

Bong Moses P., employee at Cosmos Publishing House

Ntungwe Ebane N., employee at Cosmos Publishing House

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN


Zimbabwe: The Crocodile names military figures to cabinet posts

1, December 2017

Zimbabwe: The Crocodile names military figures to cabinet posts 0

Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, appointed senior military officials to top posts in his new cabinet and chose a veteran cabinet minister to head the finance ministry.

Mnangagwa was sworn in as president last Friday after 93-year-old Robert Mugabe quit under pressure from the army.

He named Patrick Chinamasa as finance minister, Air Marshal Perrance Shiri land minister, and Major General Sibusiso Moyo foreign minister, among other appointments.

He also brought back many faces from the Robert Mugabe-era, which could disappoint Zimbabweans who had been expecting a broad-based government and a break with the past.

Chinamasa, a former finance minister in Mugabe’s government, moved to a newly-created ministry of cyber security in a reshuffle last month. The cyber portfolio has been folded into the information ministry headed by a former deputy minister in Mugabe’s government, Supa Mandiwanzira.

Mnangagwa is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give customers cash.

He told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a “leaner” government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency.

(Source: Reuters)


One, United and Indivisible Cameroon – French Cameroun Lies & Bad Faith (2)

1, December 2017

One, United and Indivisible Cameroon – French Cameroun Lies & Bad Faith (2) 0

Anglophones never voted to become the footstool of French Cameroun exploitation and plunder. (Part 1 of this soul-searching write-up is found on Cameroon Intelligence Report)

Despite claims to the contrary, French Cameroun never wanted any union with Southern Cameroons. In the countdown to the 1961 plebiscite, the standing view was that Southern Cameroons was not economically viable and would be a drainpipe on Her Majesty’s government who was passing the buck to French Cameroun taxpayers. But if Britain had consulted the geological survey maps left by the Germans after their defeat in WWI, they would have granted Southern Cameroons full independence because the Germans had documented huge potential oil reserves in the Rio del Rey basin. Thanks to British indolence, the 3rd option of independence agreed by the 43 delegates at the August 1959 all party conference in Mamfe, chaired by Sir Sidney Phillipson, Acting Southern Cameroons Commissioner, was rejected by Andrew Cohen, Britain’s representative to the UN Trusteeship Council; and not presented as an option during the 1961 plebiscite.

Even after the UN Plebiscite, in which Southern Cameroons voted for independence by joining French Cameroun, French Cameroun acted in bad faith by challenging the plebiscite results and proceeded to vote against UNGA Resolution 1608 (XV) of April 21, 1961 to prevent unification with Southern Cameroons. There were 64 votes for; 23 against and 10 abstentions. Amongst the countries that joined French Cameroun to vote against unification with Southern Cameroons were France, Ivory Coast, Congo-Brazzaville, Zaire, Senegal, Dahome (Benin), Niger, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Chad, Central Africa Republic and Gabon (the last three being former German Kamerun territories). President Ahidjo even went ahead to declare Feb 11 a day of national mourning for British Northern Cameroon, which had voted to join Nigeria. This begs the question: if Cameroon was one, united and indivisible as Francophones are now claiming, why did French Cameroun vote against unification at the UN?

This act of bad faith remains a sore point in Cameroon’s history and speaks directly to the hypocrisy and contradiction of French Cameroun’s assertion that Cameroon is one, united and indivisible. By rejecting political association with Southern Cameroons, French Cameroun maintained its international boundaries duly recorded when it was admitted to membership of the UN after obtaining independence from France on January 1, 1960. Southern Cameroons was then a self-governing British UN-mandated territory with all the trappings of a nation-state, including internationally recognized borders. French Cameroun started asserting territorial claims over Southern Cameroons only after Yves Bie’ville; the French jurist who drafted the French Cameroun constitution learned about the existence of huge oil deposits in Southern Cameroons from a German intelligence source and informed officials at the Quai d’Orsay, who ordered Ahidjo to drop his opposition to unification.

The French then dispatched a team of advisers to help Ahidjo navigate the Foumban conference of July 17-21, 1961. The Foumban conference was to be followed by a four party conference to work out modalities of the federation ahead of the planned October 1st unification date. But the conference never held. Rather, on August 6, 1961, Ahidjo announced an amendment of the French Cameroun constitution to “accommodate Southern Cameroons as the western part of German Kamerun.” On October 1, 1961 shortly after the Union Jack was lowered, Ahidjo sent French Cameroun troops into Southern Cameroons; where they have remained till this day. The hidden agenda of the deconstruction of Southern Cameroons had begun in earnest. In 1962, the pound sterling was abolished and the East Cameroun CFA franc imposed on the whole country. In 1964, the measurement system of feet, pounds and miles was abandoned in favor of the metric system of kilometers and kilograms.

In 1966, an unsuccessful attempt was made to harmonize the legal systems of the federated states, but this precipitated a crisis and was shelved. In the same year, all the political parties were dissolved to form the Cameroon National Union (CNU). Three years later, all trade unions in the country merged into a federation attached to the CNU, forswearing its allegiance to the international labor movement. French Cameroun’s sickening interest in Southern Cameroons is driven only by the desire to continue exploiting Southern Cameroon’s natural resources to finance their corrupt system of abusive patronage and ethnic-inspired clientelism, while Southern Cameroonians wallow in abject poverty and misery in the midst of plenty. Proof: in the 2017 Public Investment Budget, the South region (the President’s region of origin) with a population of 800,000 was allocated FCFA 126.2 billion; while the two English speaking regions (which account for over 60% of national GDP) with an estimated population of eight million people was allocated FCFA 85.7 billion. This is insulting and unacceptable!

Before Francophones continue peddling the hoax of a one, united and indivisible Cameroon, they need to answer these questions. When they reaffirm their commitment to a united Cameroon, are they referring to the territory or the people? When government spokespersons cite former German Kamerun to justify why Cameroon must remain one, united and indivisible; why then did French Cameroun oppose unification and voted against UN Resolution 1608 in April 1961? Can anyone not blinded by prejudice and self-interest justify this act of bad faith? From 1961-1972 when the country was a federal republic, was Cameroon one, united and indivisible? Even as Francophones continue to remonstrate about one, united and indivisible Cameroon, they must apologize for the 1961 vote against unification and stop pussyfooting and paying lip service over addressing the needs of the exploited Anglophone region which produces the bulk of the nation’s wealth. Anglophones are no longer fooled.

While French Cameroun argues that Southern Cameroons is an integral part of its territory because they have been administered jointly for 56 years, it is worth noting that Ukraine and Russia parted ways despite sharing over 1,000 years of common history. Southern Cameroons broke away from Nigeria in 1953 despite sharing 44 years of common history as well. Even if French Cameroun claims Southern Cameroons is only two of its ten regions, it cannot forget that Eritrea used to be the only former Red Sea Province of Ethiopia. That did not stop Eritrea from gaining independence. The decentralization offer for regional autonomy sold as tangible reform under the 1996 Constitution is unacceptable notably because it makes the assumption that Southern Cameroons is part of French Cameroun, and not an illegally occupied and recolonized territory.

Besides, the past 56 years are littered with evidence that French Cameroun violated the terms of unification. It has broken every promise beginning with the promise to the UN to create a federation of two equal states. In addition, autocratic regimes do not honor such pledges. It was the case when in 1961, the emperor of Ethiopia revoked the autonomous status granted Eritrea by Britain in 1952, annexing it as Ethiopia’s 14th province; leading to the 30-year war of independence. In 1989, Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, revoked the autonomous status of Kosovo leading to a decade of repression, culminating in the NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999.

With Anglophones expressing disgust about the union, many are seeking a redefinition of the association in such a way that the imbalance and injustice in the system could be addressed for the emergence of a stronger and virile union.Within the circumstance, no amount of threat or intimidation will make Cameroon united. The government should stop reveling in self-delusion; we are no longer in the 1970s. The government can say what it wants, but nobody is fooled anymore. This generation of Anglophones are well-educated and know that the issue at stake here is their natural resources. And they have demonstrated their resolve to fight and die for their future and that of posterity!

The ostrich evasion of the President who pretended to dismiss the escalating crisis as the handiwork of terrorists masking as secessionists is a self-defeating strategy, which only aggravates the self-inflicted tragedy of a nation not prepared to engage in hard thinking; unwilling to introspect dispassionately and speak hard truths to itself; to muster courage to re-direct itself and do what is germane to peaceful co-existence.The only thing that will bring unity in Cameroon is for the government to eschew this conquest mentality and dialogue with Anglophones in a sovereign national conference where both sides will renegotiate the unity and the future of Cameroon as equal partners. This will enable French Cameroun to reconcile with the truth about unification – the subject of the next article in this series.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, USA. Talk back at ekinneh@yahoo.com

 


Biya announces start of Southern Cameroons war

1, December 2017

Biya announces start of Southern Cameroons war 0

Cameroon Concord News sources have hinted of a massive deployment of French Cameroun Special Forces in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia considered as two regions in La Republique du Cameroun. Yaoundé has come to the conclusion that  its men in uniform are now more at risk than civilians in Southern  Cameroons. Between the 6th  and 30th  of November 2017, Ambazonian militants have reportedly killed ten elements of the defense and security forces which includes (gendarmes, military and the  police).

The 84-year-old French Cameroun dictator who returned to Yaoundé yesterday Thursday, November 30, 2017 after a 72 hours trip to Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire declared war on the people of the Federal Republic of Amabzonia.

“I think things are now perfectly clear for everyone. Cameroon is the victim of repeated attacks. A band of terrorists claiming a secessionist movement. In the face of these acts of aggression, I wish to reassure the Cameroonian people that all steps are being taken to put the criminals out of harm’s way and to ensure that peace and security are safeguarded throughout the country.”

The French Cameroun Minister of Defense has convened  this Friday, December 1, 2017 in Yaounde, “a special meeting of security assessment of the entire national territory.” According to our Yaoundé city reporter, the Biya Francophone regime will deploy a large number of Special Forces in Ambaland.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde


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