Biya has lost the war in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The recent change of tactics by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military in Southern Cameroons is not an honorable decision – it’s a capitulation. Biya and his Francophone political elites have already lost the war in Southern Cameroons.

The best Yaoundé can hope for is exit talks with the Ambazonia Interim Government and this will be after Biya with a promise that the two Cameroons will remain together under a federated structure.

After more than 6 years of conflict, with at least 8,000 civilians including some 4000 army soldiers killed and hundreds more injured or exiled in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, none of the objectives set out by the 90-year-old dictator following his declaration of war against the English speaking peoples of Southern Cameroons has been met. In short, Biya has lost the war in Southern Cameroons, and lost badly.

The Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces have stepped up their campaign against Cameroon government institutions and are now staging attacks deep inside French speaking Cameroun.  The Ambazonian leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides are still being held at the Maximum Security Prison in Kondengui but the Southern Cameroons resistance is on-going.  It is evidently clear that the Cameroon government army under Biya’s command can no longer provide security for anyone in Southern Cameroons.

The so-called North West/South West Reconstruction idea, promoted in Yaoundé and Paris has been exposed as a fantasy and does not even have the backing of top Francophone politicians running state affairs in Yaoundé.

Attacks in Manyu, Bui, Mezam and Menchum including Ndian heralds the point that the Cameroon government military cannot contain Ambazonia fighters and control the Southern Cameroons territory. Despite the Cameroon government army’s best efforts, soldiers and innocent civilians are being killed each day.

Biya’s government is taking the last kicks of a dying horse and it is now only being felt in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital which is home to his Beti-Bulu Ewondo ethnic extractions. Once Biya dies hopefully this December or early January next year, there will be a rapid descent into civil war, involving soldiers from his ruling clan, Fulanis and Hausa groups and rival Francophone army generals. The worst can never be avoided in Yaoundé.

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu noted during this week’s editorial meeting that Cameroon after Biya could become a free-for-all involving Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic and Gabon – and maybe Nigeria, too. To be more accurate, Biya will be leaving an unholy mess that he and his tribe men helped create.

Billions of FCFA meant for developmental projects have been wasted on a war that should have never been fought in the first place and hundreds of millions more is being lost to corruption.

In a significant shift, Vision 4 television which like all major Francophone media houses, supported the war in Southern Cameroons, aired a report last week saying Yaoundé as the capital city has collapsed.

The war in Southern Cameroons remains a political disaster and a catastrophic mistake based on a false premise, aggravated by self-righteous Francophone arrogance and an unforgivable Francophone ignorance on the part of a fool passing for a head of state. For 41 years, a lunatic and his gang of ideologues and know-nothings have destroyed a once-prosperous nation.

Instead of pushing the old and frail Biya to begin a new conflict with Gabon over lame and ridiculous excuse that the new leadership in Libreville is molesting her sister, Mrs Ali Bongo, Chantal Biya should be trying much harder to end the seven-year- old war in Southern Cameroons.

Yaoundé cannot maintain this war in Southern Cameroons, so the military leadership should get rid of this monstrous liability of a head of state in Etoudi and restore the dignity of the Cameroonian nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai