Authorities in Cameroon say anglophone separatists have attacked a francophone village that was hosting people displaced by the five-year separatist conflict. Officials in the town of Bongourain say the rebels torched homes and markets and abducted at least five youths. Hundreds of English-speaking displaced fled into the bush for fear they would be blamed by the host community, underscoring tensions with Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.

Scores of people talk among themselves as they shop at the Bangourain market square. Bangourain is located in Cameroon’s French-speaking West region, which shares a border with the English-speaking Northwest region.

Local officials say that usually, more than 500 merchants and buyers visit the market each day.

But attendance has drastically dropped for fear the English-speaking rebels may strike at any time, according to Bangourain residents.

Aboubakar Hamagabdo is coordinator of militia groups created by local officials to prevent separatists from infiltrating the town.

Hamagabdo said civilians in Bangourain are in pain and serious difficulties after a series of hit and run rebel attacks in their town within the past three days. He said dozens of houses have been torched, money and goods stolen, scores of civilians wounded, and five youths abducted by English speaking separatists. Hamagabdo said the separatists cross over using the porous border that separates English and French speaking regions.

Hamagabdo has appealed to Cameroon’s central government to deploy more troops to protect Bangourain. He also asked the government to compensate people whose houses and goods were torched by the fighters and pleaded with separatists to spare the lives of abducted civilians.

Separatists have claimed responsibility over the attack on social media but have not said if they will release the abducted youths.

Cameroon government officials say Bangourain hosts at least 800 people who fled fighting between separatists and government troops in the Northwest and Southwest regions. A majority of the displaced people are school goers in search of education.

Eighteen-year-old high school student Agnes Ngoran fled from the northwest town of Kumbo.

Ngoran said on Monday, rebels chased students out of schools.

“We escaped from our towns and villages in the Northwest and in the Southwest and came here for our education. Fighters should allow us to go to school. Children need an education; it is a fundamental human right. These fighters should spare schools from their attacks,” said Ngoran.

The government on Wednesday dispatched a delegation to Bangourain to assure civilians that measures are being taken to safeguard people and their goods.

The group of government and military officials was led by West region governor Awah Fonka. Fonka said separatists are infiltrating the region from Bui, an administrative unit in the Northwest region.

He said troops stationed along the porous border need cooperation from local residents.

“We came to make the population know that we will continue to take measures to ensure their security, but of course for this to happen, at all times we need their participation. We need them to give information to the security services,” he said.

Fonka warned host communities against accusing English-speakers of hiding separatists who infiltrate Bangourain. He said all displaced English-speakers in Bangourain are also escaping from separatist atrocities.

Fonka pleaded with English and French speaking civilians in Bangouran to live in peace and help fight separatists whom he described as Cameroon’s common enemy.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons’ senior figure of the Foreign Affairs Department, Professor Carlson Anyangwe, has described 89-year-old President Paul Biya as the root cause of insecurity and instability in both Southern Cameroons and in French Cameroun, stating that the leader of the Yaoundé regime adamantly insists on his hostile policies in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Cameroon Concord News on Tuesday and stated that Southern Cameroons suffers from French Cameroun military incursions and acts of aggression against its sovereignty almost on a daily basis. For more than 57 years the Francophone regime in Yaounde has been pressing ahead with its aggressive and hostile policies against the people of Southern Cameroons.

Anyangwe pointed out that the international community’s silence and inaction have emboldened the Biya French Cameroun regime to further commit more atrocities in Southern Cameroons in 2022. “This clearly shows that Biya is the root cause of insecurity and instability in both Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun” the Ambazonia front line leader added.

Professor Anyangwe underscored the importance of unity among all Southern Cameroons groups and factions, and noted that Vice President Dabney Yerima is very committed to initiatives that push for a common front against French Cameroun.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Southern Cameroons as Christmas approaches.

Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News that thousands of Southern Cameroonians are trying to survive with the most basic resources as Christmas approaches. Nearly five years of a Biya French Cameroun war have left much of Southern Cameroons infrastructure and agricultural lands destroyed.

“Our Southern Cameroons diaspora groups have gone back to their Makossa celebrations while the humanitarian situation in Ground Zero is catastrophic and deteriorating day by day. Our people are facing a bitter Christmas ahead and they have little or nothing. The Interim Government needs financial support to push with the Big Rubbergun Project so that Ambazonia fighters will be able to protect our towns and villages including the most vulnerable. The situation is nothing short of critical for many Southern Cameroonians,” said Vice President Dabney Yerima.

More than a million Southern Cameroonians living in rural areas, including women and children, are in need of food and medicine. More than half a million Southern Cameroonians have fled into neighbouring Nigeria, Ghana and around three hundred thousands are displaced within French Cameroun.

“Many of our fellow Southern Cameroonian citizens in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea are living in terrible conditions and are struggling to put food on the table.  The truth is, our refugee population are living with the uncertainty of not knowing what tomorrow will bring or even if they will ever make it back home one day,” Yerima added.

The exiled Ambazonian leader re-echoed an earlier position saying supplying weapons to Amba fighters in Ground Zero is morally legitimate and that there is a right to armed defense in the case of aggression.

By Isong Asu in London

Three civilians were killed on Tuesday when Ambazonia fighters attacked a passenger vehicle on the Kumba-Buea highway, while a Cameroon government soldier of the Rapid Intervention Battalion was shot dead at a check post in Ekona.

According to Cameroon Concord News sources in Fako Division, Amba fighters riding motor bikes opened fire when the driver of the bus refused to stop at a check post erected by the fighters.

“The Southern Cameroons separatists’ fighters opened fire, killing three civilians and injuring two passers-by,” a police officer in Ekona who asked not to be named told Cameroon Concord News.

The police officer added that the Amba fighters left the scene, while the bodies were taken to a hospital in Ekona for autopsies.

Another pedestrian who narrowly escaped the Amba attack said Cameroon government troops deployed to a check point in the outskirts of Ekona were busy with their cell phones when the Amba fighters approached the passenger vehicle and opened fire.

Security official shot dead

An official of the so-called Rapid Intervention Battalion was killed when an unidentified Amba fighter shot at him inside a check post in Ekona. Our reporter in Fako is yet to confirm this incident.  However, a security official who spoke to Cameroon Concord News but sued for anonymity said the incident occurred late on Tuesday and he added that other Cameroon government soldiers opened retaliatory fire in the general direction of the Ambazonia fighter.

By Rita Akana in Ekona