Officials of the Ambazonia Interim Government have raised the alarm about a worsening humanitarian crisis as a result of the Biya French Cameroun war against the English speaking community in Southern Cameroons, saying that “Southern Cameroons children are dying in the bushes in Ambazonia.”

The Ambazonia Secretary for the Economy, Hon. Tabenyang Brado issued the warning on Wednesday during a zoom cabinet meeting summoned by Vice President Yerima in which the exiled leader explained the decision in favour of a tactical withdrawal of Ambazonia Restoration Forces from Ground Zero.

According to several local human rights groups both in Nigeria and in Southern Cameroons, acute malnutrition rates among Ambazonia children living in the bushes with their mothers are the highest ever recorded in West Africa.

Also on Wednesday, the top Ambazonia Interim Government officials also highlighted the need for an independent fact finding mission from the UN and warned that the Biya French Cameroun-led aggression had claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people over the last four years contrary to what is currently being reported by the world governing body.

Secretary Tabenyang Brado was quoted as saying that the large number of Southern Cameroons women and children dying in the bushes is unfortunate and unacceptable.

Four years ago, the 87 year old French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya launched the war on Southern Cameroons to suppress an uprising that led to the declaration of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The war has taken a heavy toll on Southern Cameroons’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals and health centers including schools. Women and children are among the most vulnerable victims of the Biya French Cameroun war, but the issue has barely drawn any international response.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Ambazonia Interim Government on Wednesday dismissed as false, reports made public by the Biya Francophone regime claiming French Cameroun security apparatus have arrested the Ambazonia general behind the Kumba massacre.

The Biya regime announced this week that the suspect, Ngwa Neba alias Commandant Zabbra, 24, was arrested on Tuesday during an incidence when he tried to rob an elderly man. Yaoundé also revealed that the success of the operation came to bear fruits after local police continued their hunt for the Kumba suspect since the incidence occurred on 24 October.

The Biya regime statement endorsed by the Senior Divisional Officer for Meme County also noted that after a thorough questioning by the police, Neba Ngwa confessed being a separatist fighter adding that he belongs to a gang of Ambazonia fighters based behind Government Bilingual High School Kossala, Kumba.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News earlier today, Vice President Dabney Yerima said, Biya and his criminal French Cameroun gangs were behind the massacre of innocent Southern Cameroons children in Kumba.

Yerima observed that highly placed officials in the French Cameroun regime benefiting from the war ordered and teleguided the killings in Kumba.  The Southern Cameroons Second-In-Command added that Yaoundé was attempting to avoid a discourse of the crisis in the ongoing UN Security Council meeting in New York.

“The French Cameroun regime earlier announced to the world that they arrested 122 persons linked to the massacre in Kumba and now they are moving the goal post claiming to have arrested an Ambazonia fighter still on the same issue!!These are meant to taint the image of the Southern Cameroons people, undermine the legitimacy of the Ambazonia Interim government and render our suffering people more helpless” Dabney Yerima furthered.

“The Ambazonia Interim government would like to debunk and dismiss these French Cameroun diabolic harsh ploy with the contempt it deserve,” said Vice President Yerima

Pressure is mounting on the Francophone dictator Biya who is reportedly suffering from a suspected cancer. Soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have taken control of main roads in Southern Cameroons harassing businessmen and women and extorting money from the local population.

International pressure is also mounting against Biya as Southern Cameroons detainees have reportedly been sexually assaulted in both the New Bell prison in Douala and the Kondengui High Security prison in Yaoundé.

The Biya regime with support from the French has blocked all UN Human Rights experts who demanded or expressed the need to visit the country and assess the situation in the Southern Cameroons.

The government also accused Southern Cameroons diaspora, civil society organizations and opposition aligned online media of promoting political activism.

By Isong Asu in London

A separatist commander suspected to have led an operation that murdered seven school children was captured on Tuesday in Kumba in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking region of Southwest, according to a government official.

The commander popularly known as commander Zebra was ambushed and arrested on Tuesday noon by the military in collaboration with the local population while he was strolling in the town, Meme division prefect Ndong Chamberlin Ntou’ou told reporters.

“We will take all measures to ensure all actors of the crime are arrested. He is the second one to have been arrested. We will capture the others one by one,” Ntou’ou said, adding that six others are on the run.

The seven children were killed in a classroom in October while they were studying in Kumba. Separatist leaders have since denied having taken part in the massacre that was widely condemned.

Separatists want to secede from the majority French-speaking Cameroon and create an independent nation in the Anglophone regions they call “Ambazonia.” They have been clashing with government forces since 2017.

Source: Xinhaunet

Lawyers in Cameroon abandoned their gowns and wigs Monday as they launched a five-day protest to express their dissatisfaction over the lack of respect shown to them by the country’s magistracy, military and executive branch.

The decision was made by the Cameroon Bar Association, which met on Nov. 21 following the arrest and detention of lawyers who were charged with “contempt of court and destruction.”

The incident occurred on Nov. 10 at a court in the city of Douala, where two lawyers were facing trial on charges of corruption.

They were said to have collected a large sum of money from a client who ended up receiving an 18-year sentence instead of 18 months. A relative of the client went to the judge to claim back the money paid, but he referred them to the lawyers, who admitted receiving the money.

The two lawyers were remanded in custody on Nov. 9 and sought bail the next day, but the judge adjourned the matter to Nov. 25. Other lawyers present did not welcome the decision and expressed themselves vocally.

Moments later, police officers and gendarmes entered the courtroom and dispersed the angry lawyers with tear gas. Some of the lawyers sustained injuries during the commotion.

While the Cameroonian press portrayed the event as “a strike,” for lawyer Djanda Maurice, this is not the case.

“The council of order has decided to suspend robe-wearing for a week. We did not talk about a strike. This means that we won’t do anything that we usually do when we wear our black dresses,” he told Anadolu Agency.

He considers this decision “much awaited” by his colleagues and him because the latest news on lawyers was the “last straw.” He said there are more and more obstacles to the exercise of their profession but also acts of bargaining around citizens’ freedoms.

“Faced with this, we lawyers are the last rampart. This is not the first time we have been mistreated. There are always incidents. My opinion is largely favorable to the measures we have taken,” said Djanda.

For lawyer Tchamo Mafetgo, it is “a peaceful and poignant way to express oneself and be heard.”

Above all, she said they are “fed up with the problems related to our profession. Among other things, [there is] the disregard of lawyers at the judicial level and by judicial police officers despite the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure.”

– Urgency to reform

The lawyers contacted by Anadolu Agency are convinced that things can change if the authorities make a complete diagnosis of the judicial system.

Because “justice in Cameroon is well underway in a very bad way. It is undermined by many evils at the level of lawyers and magistrates,” said Djanga.

According to him, difficult working conditions do not guarantee the impartiality of magistrates or judges.

“People prefer to go and pay judges instead of paying lawyers. Sometimes it is the judge who suggests using him instead of lawyers. It’s a real bargain,” he said.

Tchamo only considers that “this disorder” creates problems that should not take place between lawyers and magistrates. The situation is also against people who trust the state court for their defense.

“Magistrates should not settle scores against lawyers. There is only open language that could be used to diagnose conflicts and roles. The magistrate should also not allow himself to destroy a file whose right is on the lawyer’s side,” she said.

For this, Djanda believes there are many reforms to be made. In particular, many obsolete laws dating from before independence should be revised and systematically imprisoning lawyers should be avoided.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Amos Namanga Ngongi, Ph.D., says an urgent one-month ceasefire will ‘gauge the interest of the separatists to engage in a peace process’ to end the unrest in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.

The former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, in an op-ed last week, published by The Recorder, said the Government should, as a matter of urgency, declare a truce or a temporary ceasefire that could last for a month and call on the Ambazonian leadership to do same.

“This will be a preliminary move to gauge the interest of the separatists to engage in a peace process,” said Ngongi who served as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) from August 2001 to June 2003.

“If the truce is reasonably well respected it could be extended for a further period of two to three months. During this period the Government would identify and approach an individual or an institution, national or international, acceptable to the other party to serve as mediator,” said Ngongi.

He said, “The mediator’s first task would be to identify groups and/or persons who would take part in discussions to establish modalities for a more permanent ceasefire including a monitoring mechanism. With a ceasefire in place, the mediator would then proceed to the identification of groups that could participate in an inclusive peace conference or dialogue and secure guarantees for the free movement and security of all delegates.”

The mediator, Ngongi continued, in consultation with stakeholders, would prepare a draft agenda and propose a date and venue for the conference or dialogue.

He adds that Cameroonians and interested persons in the international community have provided in-depth analyses of the issues that have contributed to the crisis. The Mediator will thus have sufficient documentation to guide substantive discussions with a view to reaching a consensus peace agreement. 

Apparently responding to the naysayers who hold that a truce is unattainable, Ngongi said, “It may be that the truce or ceasefire will be violated many times and the mediator stumble from time to time but that should not derail the drive towards peace. There is still time for concrete actions to be taken that would lead to peace at sixty and save lives, property, livelihoods, and guarantee national sovereignty. There is no need for one more Cameroonian to lose his or her life in this conflict. It is now time to give peace a chance.”

‘Conflict that pits Cameroonian against Cameroonian’

Dr. Namanga Ngongi posits that the horrific murder of young students at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba on the 24th of October 2020 was a shocking reminder of the cruel situation in which the people of the North West and South West Regions of the country find themselves.

“The gruesome nature of this murderous act and the fact that the victims were young students in a classroom made their deaths even more painful,” said the erstwhile Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme.

“There have been vociferous protests throughout the country and voices from all shades of the political spectrum have decried this disdainful act of barbarity. It is difficult to find the right words to describe such an incident but suffice it to say that it is a great blight on the political image of Cameroon and an embarrassing source of shame for all of us.

“More so as it follows similar brutal killings in Ngarbuh, Muyuka, and other localities. No words or volumes of tears can soothe the pain of the mothers, fathers, other family members of the seven children who lost their lives, and the dozen who were injured. We do pray for the peaceful repose of the souls of the dead and for the full recovery of the injured children.

“October 31 was declared by the Head of State as a national day of mourning and that was largely respected by the population. It provided another opportunity for the nation as a whole to come together to mourn the dead and call for peace to be restored.

“The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr. Dion Ngute, led a delegation to Kumba for a public ceremony to honour the dead students and echoed the call for peace to return to Cameroon. The ceremony was moving and most Cameroonians joined in the call for peace.

“But for peace to be restored the issues that led to the breach of the peace need to be addressed. Had the ongoing military confrontation been one of Cameroonians fighting an invading foreign army we would have expected all those able to bear arms to do so. But this is a conflict that pits Cameroonian against Cameroonian.”

“Conflict result of governance issues, provocation’

“Yes, some Cameroonians having been frustrated by a seeming disregard to calls for corrections of some issues, mostly of governance, and in reaction to provocative statements made by some senior government officials, decided to take up arms in a bid to secede and create a country named Ambazonia,” said Ngongi.

He furthers: “For more than half a century there had been relative peace and security in the country and Cameroon was looked upon as an island of peace in Central Africa. However, voices were being raised by people of the North West and South West Regions against what was seen as over-centralization of administration and marginalization of Anglophones.

“Decentralization had been enshrined in the constitution of the country since January 1996 but little was done to implement even the limited measures that were envisaged. Besides the glaring marginalization and systematic witling down of the constitutional protocol positions held by Anglophones, the core of the Anglo-Saxon heritage: Common Law, the Education System, and community-based development were under attack.

“Largely peaceful demonstrations on September 22, 2016, were brutally suppressed. Judging from actions now being taken to respond to the crisis, the issues raised do not appear to have been of such magnitude as to have merited such a violent crackdown. In hindsight, a stitch in time would have saved nine.”

Form of state inconsequential

Hear Ngongi: “A thorny issue, however, is the nature of the state. Calls have been made to revert to a federal constitution. This appears anathema to the government. So too is the Unitary state to the secessionists. Should Cameroonians be killing one another over the nature of the state? Federal, United, Unitary, Kingdom or just plain Cameroon, the boundaries would remain the same and the constituent population would not change.

“There may be internal adjustments to create new Regions, Divisions, or Sub Divisions but that would not change the country. It is not in the Francophone tradition to have federations and it is not in the nature of Anglophones to have the degree of centralization as exists in the country. What needs to be discussed and agreed are the powers to be exercised at the center and those devolved to regions, Anglophone and Francophone regions alike.”

To each, their own

“What would Francophone regions lose if Anglophone regions used the common law system or had an Anglo-Saxon education system or carried out development activities through community-based systems?” asked Ngongi.

“The Civil Code will still be applicable in the eight Francophone regions and Anglophones living in those regions would be subject to it. And so would Francophones living in the Anglophone regions be subject to the Common Law. Anglophones wishing to follow the Francophone education system would be free to do so and Francophones would also be free to follow the Anglo-Saxon education system.

“The issue of marginalization of Anglophones in government and the administration cannot really be refuted. One only has to check the lists of members of the various national institutions and state enterprises. These issues can all be addressed and solutions found through dialogue. Where then is the problem? Are there other unarticulated issues?

“Now that a bloody war is raging with gruesome consequences, urgent action needs to be taken to silence the guns so as to create an environment conducive to discussions. There is an urgent need for a ceasefire. This is not a time for the blame game but a time to rise above party politics, tribalism, Anglophone, Francophone, and other prejudices. It is time to silence the guns and give peace a chance.”

60 years after unification, peace is key

“Next year, 2021, will be 60 years since the historic unification of Cameroon. Anniversaries are important in the affairs of man and sixty years in the history of a country that was born from a bold political decision to form a Union is a significant period. We can all resolve to work towards achieving peace by the 60th birthday of Cameroon as we know it today. It was a historic event that was driven by the vision of our founding fathers and mothers. It required courage and faith in ourselves and I was privileged, as a young student, to witness the public ceremony at the Buea Town Green. Peace at sixty (P@60) is achievable.

“The Government has repeatedly called on Ambazonian separatists to drop their guns and return to civilian life through the DDR process. This call has not received the response expected. The Government has also taken commendable measures to implement some of the recommendations of the Grand National Dialogue including preparations for the forthcoming Regional Council elections but Ambazonian separatists were not represented at the Dialogue. On the other hand, Ambazonian separatists have reportedly shown some interest in dialogue under Swiss mediation.

Biya should ‘rise above the fray’

“It is now time for the Government and the Ambazonian leadership to find a solution to this crisis that has cost the country so much in terms of: thousands of human lives lost, Civilian, Military and Ambazonian fighters; hardship imposed on hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees; four years of education lost for hundreds of thousands of children; millions of livelihoods destroyed with disastrous consequences on youth employment; and the desecration of cultural, traditional, and religious institutions. All of these with the attendant psychological pain and waste of scarce national financial resources spent on the purchase of weapons. Bold actions are now needed to move the country forward from declarations of intentions to concrete actions for peace.

“It is well understood that Governments all over the world are reluctant to sit down and discuss with secessionists. As a result, many internal sociopolitical conflicts tend to drag on for decades at horrendous human, social, and economic costs before solutions are found, mostly through dialogue.

“All efforts should thus be made to ensure that this will not be the case in Cameroon.  The conflict has already lasted too long. Governments are set up primarily for the protection of the lives, human rights, and property of the citizens and guarantee national sovereignty. Governments should thus take all necessary measures including discussions with dissident groups, if and when necessary, so as to ensure that peace reigns, lives, and property protected, human rights respected and so build the unity that ensures and sustains national sovereignty. This is not an act of weakness but a demonstration of a commitment to the discharge of the primary responsibility of governments.

“The President, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in the interest of the populations of the North West and South West Regions and the country as a whole, can rise above the fray and instruct the Government to take bold actions that could establish a conducive environment for the restoration of peace in Cameroon through an inclusive dialogue.”

Source: Cameroon Info.Net