Tuesday the 17^th of January 2017 marked day three of the civil disobedience campaign across Southern Cameroons. Although the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government had earlier dismissed the level of participation as insignificant, the success of the policy prompted Yaoundé to make a dramatic U-turn banning the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society and arresting its leaders. Local reporting in Bamenda and Buea shows that many Anglophone citizens are now joining the revolution and ghost town operations are expected to continue.

The Francophone regime in Yaoundé has disconnected internet and telephone services all over British Southern Cameroons and moved the leaders arrested to an unknown destination deep inside La Republique du Cameroun. The Common Law Lawyers and the teachers’ trade unions have urged Southern Cameroonians to keep their children at home and put their faith in the Consortium. The teachers and lawyers say, no schools will resume until the demands made by the Anglophone Consortium are met. We also gathered that the Anglophone Bar Association has taken over the responsibility of releasing information coming out of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Numerous shops will remain closed in the North West and South West regions of the country today and many parents have vowed to keep their children home from school. Although the government tried to portray the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society leaders as extremists, it is now evident that the Anglophone leaders had indeed refused bribes from agents of the Francophone regime. We are expecting to see a complete absence of automobile and pedestrian traffic in normally congested areas in West Cameroon this week.

This decidedly grassroots campaign is a response to the Francophone government’s gross mismanagement of Southern Cameroon’s resources and economy and its misplaced spending priorities that privilege the already bloated security and military sectors of Francophone Cameroun at the expense of Southern Cameroon’s underfunded health and education sectors. As several British Southern Cameroonians have noted, this campaign is driven by popular support and everyday Anglophone citizens that blame the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime for their increasingly difficult economic situation.

It is more dangerous now as many anonymous Anglophone actors have began taken control of the revolution following the arrest of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society. Opposition political parties have instructed their members to join the ghost town campaign. Concerns have been expressed over an escalation of violence in British Southern Cameroons. The specter of La Republique’s violence continues to hang over all public protests after the killing of many Southern Cameroonians in Kumba, Buea, Bamenda and Kumbo.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

Cameroon Concord News has been informed that internet and telephone services in British Southern Cameroons have all been disconnected. The decision is in line with the Yaounde regime’s attempt at stifling the Anglophone uprising.

The situation has become more intractable following the arrest and subsequent transfer of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium from Buea to Yaounde. The West Cameroon diaspora has been called upon to provide proxy servers to the freedom fighters back home.

By Sama Ernest in Buea

Some senior political commentators have accused the Paul Biya-led One Cameroon regime of toying with the nation’s unity and future.  Their comments were made public earlier today when state radio and television announced a ministerial order from the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization banning the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the Southern Cameroons National Council.

The decision by Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi came after a declaration by the chairman of the so-called Ad Hoc Committee; Ghogomu Mingo Paul that the new generation of Anglophone leaders have unanimously resolved to resist any further dialogue with the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government.

Ghogomu Paul ignored claims by the Anglophone Consortium that the Yaounde regime was gambling with Cameroon’s future by continuing to maliciously deploy the military in the Southern Cameroons region and implementing sinister divide and rule tactics against Anglophone’s key actors.

The Minister Rene Sadi’s order has shut the door to the advice that was given to President Biya to personally and visibly head a holistic solution-seeking strategy that will prove his commitment to a robustly sustainable peace with British Southern Cameroonians.

Our chief political correspondent in Yaoundé opined that for there to be true unity, stability and progress in the country, President Biya should engage the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium with new faces who are not going to be wasting time establishing so-called Ad Hoc Committees that will not resolve pertinent issues sustainable.

At the time of filing this report, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society had not reacted to the ministerial order published by the Yaounde regime.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last week, the Consortium called for a Ghost Town to protest against the continuous militarization of our towns, police provocation and brutality – shooting and arrest of citizens – even as the negotiations were going on. This call has been respected throughout the NW and SW Regions. West Cameroonians are a peaceful people and must remain so.

However, some pictures of people exacting violence on school children in Limbe have shocked the Consortium. These pictures remind us of what happened in Bamenda a month ago. Let it be clear that the Consortium unreservedly condemns violence in all its forms and aspires to a society where respect for human personality and property will reign supreme. We strongly urge all our people to remain decent, and to show greater self-discipline. We must undo violence from our cultural make up, and beware of infiltrations and people who are sent to incite violence so as to justify a crackdown. Nevertheless, we encourage parents to keep their children at home when there is a call to strike.

We call on Government to clear our streets of all armed uniform men. We also demand that all those arrested, abducted or kidnapped in Bamenda, Mutengene, Buea, Kumba and Mamfe, including teachers who expressed strong views about the current situation of the country should be released forthwith.

Fellow Citizens,

Concerning the work the Teachers’ Union did in the Teachers’ Ad hoc Committee, we expect them to present it to the public and educate the masses about its contents before an agreement is finalized. We are consulting with them and will ensure that the outcome is satisfactory to our people.

We therefore decry all attempts by the Chairperson of that Committee to manipulate the process and to exacerbate tensions at a time when everyone is looking forward to a sustainable solution. In the same vein, we urge the community – parents, students and other stakeholders – to be patient and wait for the Teachers’ Unions to suspend the strike when the process has come to a logical end. But this can only be after the community has been properly informed about the resolutions arrived at, and guarantees provided that past abuses will not be repeated.

Our hope for this beautiful country is that we and our brothers East of the Mungo can cohabit peacefully, and that every child will have equal opportunity to rise to greatness through hard work. We pray for a country where our origin will no longer limit us.

God is our strength.

For the CONSORTIUM

Barr. Nkongho Felix A. Dr. Fontem A. Neba