Reports by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) indicate that over 500 Cameroonian women, men, and children have arrived in Nigeria as 0f April 2022.

The report revealed the refugees entered through Nigeria’s borders in Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River, and Taraba states.

Those in Taraba State, Northeast Nigeria, are mainly in Sardauna Local Government Area (LGA).

The UN Refugee Agency said nearly 80 per cent of the refugees are women and children, adding that the new addition brings the total number of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria to 77,000 as of April 2022, compared to 76,577 refugees registered in March 2022.

According to the agency, the refugees are those who fled their villages due to the ongoing conflict between armed groups and security forces in the English-speaking part of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.

Since 2017, conflict in Cameroon has been rooted in the colonisation of Cameroon by both the French and British governments and the two languages that came with it – French and English language.

Since then, the Anglophone Cameroonians have long complained about the almost total domination of public life by the francophone Cameroonians.

This historical marginalisation led to calls for a separatist movement. Currently, the conflict has also led to the death of 4,000 civilians and more than 712,000 internally displaced.

UNHCR steps in 

According to the agency, about 19,000 refugees received cash to purchase food of their choice in Nigeria’s Benue and Cross River states.

The agency added that Cameroonian refugees had been moved to new settlements, where they receive food as well as essential items, and also, women and girls are also being provided with sanitary kits, including other items like buckets, soap, and towels.

Humanitarian  concerns

According to UNHCR, refugees have reported arbitrary arrests and restrictions of movement by security officials due to expired ID cards.

“The ID card renewal is linked to their temporary protection status (TPS), and UNHCR continues to explore ways to reduce arbitrary arrests through sensitisation and training of security officials,” UNHCR said.

In Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, and Taraba state, UNHCR and a collision of humanitarian actors undertook over 25 visits on advocacy, border, and detention monitoring to the immigration posts, National Drug Law Development Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps, Security and Civil Defence Corps, correctional centres, and the police stations, to promote refugee’s access to justice, freedom of movement, and advocate against the arbitrary arrest and detention of refugees.

Source: Humanglemedia

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says the people of Southern Cameroons will not tie the progress of the liberation struggle to unity talks advocated by some frontline leaders for political reasons.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News after a short stay in Cambodia in Asia, Dabney Yerima said the blood of all Southern Cameroonians that have been killed ever since Biya and his Francophone political elites declared war against Ambazonia carries the message of resistance against the enemy, protecting Anglo-Saxon values, building the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, resolving problems confronting Amba restoration groups, forging unity, Amba cohesion, and adhering to the guidelines set by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe the leader of the Ambazonian nation.

Yerima further said that killing or humiliating our senior citizens such as Mama Regina Mundi is simply pushing the international community away from our struggle.

Vice President Dabney Yaerima concluded that French Cameroun strategy is to dishearten the Southern Cameroons population while President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is to hearten the people.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A Southern Cameroons academic Dr Patrick Ayuk says the oppressed people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia both at home and abroad must fight till the last man standing to overturn the existing French backed French Cameroun system which is rooted in marginalization and exploitation of Southern Cameroons.

Dr Patrick Ayuk who also moonlights as a senior adviser to Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remark during a phone conversation with Cameroon Concord News on Monday while commenting on the successful boycott of May 20^th in the entire Southern Cameroons.

“What we are seeing today in Yaoundé are concerted efforts to continue making the oppressed people of Southern Cameroons slaves of the Francophone system. The so-called Anglophone members of government in Yaoundé deserved condemnation for their continued support of the exploitative and discriminatory political culture which remains pervasive in La Republique du Cameroun,” Dr Patrick Ayuk said.

Dr Patrick Ayuk furthered that “The only solution to this quagmire is for the Ambazonia Interim Government in alliance with other Southern Cameroons restoration groups to overturn the existing system which is rooted in marginalization and exploitation. The Ambazonia resistance will eventually give birth to a new nation and designed a system that will eliminate marginalization, national oppression and economic exploitation forever.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At least four armed separatists were killed in Cameroon’s war-torn region of Southwest on Sunday when government troops fought off a rebel ambush, the army said.

Several separatist gunmen were also injured when government troops repelled the ambush targeting a military convoy in Otou, a locality near the border with Nigeria, the army said.

Two soldiers were wounded in the fighting, it said.

Last week, armed separatists announced on social media that they had decided to block the main road that links Nigeria and Cameroon in the region and threatened to attack soldiers and civilians that try to get through.

Since 2017, government forces have been fighting armed separatists in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima has strongly condemned the continued detention of thousands of Southern Cameroonians in French Cameroun jails saying those who celebrated the so-called Special Status and are marketing the one and indivisible Cameroun slogan should be ashamed after the massive 20^th May boycotts.

Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a conversation with Cameroon Concord News Group on Sunday in which he also stated that for over five years now, the people of Southern Cameroons have been witnesses to Biya French Cameroun crimes in their homeland.

Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News Group editors and correspondents that “The first to be ashamed by this massive 20^th May boycotts are all those Southern Cameroons CPDM officials who do not even have the courage to question Yaoundé on the whereabouts of their so-called Special Status. The first to feel shame and disgrace are the Southern Cameroons CPDM elites. Those who try to convince Ambazonians that the existence of the one and indivisible Cameroun is natural and Southern Cameroonians should live with it.”

Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero recently boycotted the French Cameroun teleguided national day celebration.

Media reports said Cameroon government forces staged military parades in regional and divisional headquarters avoiding the rural areas that are under the control of Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards.

By Isong Asu