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Cameroon civil war rages unabated

28, July 2021

Cameroon civil war rages unabated 0

NEW research has revealed the devastating scale of destruction caused by the ongoing conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Fighting between various armed groups and the Cameroonian armed forces has continued unabated in the regions for the past three years.

Civilians have borne the brunt of unlawful killings, kidnappings, and widespread destruction of houses and villages.

Government intervention has been limited, and there has been near-complete silence from the international community, according to Amnesty International.

Violence between government forces and the Anglophone armed separatist groups-who are themselves divided-erupted in 2017, when protests against alleged discrimination and marginalisation were repressed by the authorities.

Based on eyewitness testimonies and analysis of satellite images, Amnesty International documented how dozens of civilians have been killed and multiple villages destroyed since 2019.

“All parties to the conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have committed human rights violations and abuses, and civilians are caught in the middle,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty’s Central Africa Researcher.

Offner said in one case, armed separatists shot dead two elderly women with barrage rifles.

In another, Fulani vigilantes burned hundreds of houses and killed four people.

Amnesty has decried the difficulty of obtaining accurate information about the human rights crisis unfolding in affected regions, which are hard to reach by road and have poor telecommunications networks.

“But this is no excuse to look away – without strong action by the authorities and the international community, civilians will continue to bear the brunt of the crisis,” Offner said.

The Anglophone regions of Cameroon – the South-West and North-West – make up approximately 20 percent of the country’s population of 27 million.

Violence has recently intensified in parts of the North-West.

Source: CAJ News

Yerima says Amba fighters have many powerful cards to play against La Republique

10, July 2021

Yerima says Amba fighters have many powerful cards to play against La Republique 0

Vice President Dabney Yerima has said that Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups have many strong options they can use to chase away the Biya French Cameroun army soldiers from the Ambazonian homeland.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks on Thursday in South Africa, where he arrived from Namibia at the head of a powerful Southern Cameroons delegation, Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Cooperation (SCBC) news agency reported. The Southern Cameroons’ official has taken the trip to hold meetings with senior Ambazonian officials and activists in Southern Africa.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces have many powerful cards at their disposal that can create deterrence and send the occupying army packing out of Ambaland, Yerima said while meeting with the representatives of various Ambazonian groups in South Africa.

He addressed the issue of the Big Rubbergun Project launched for defensive campaign by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

Upwards of 70 explosive devices were denoted towards the occupied Cameroon government military convoys killing dozens and causing millions of FCFA in damage to the occupying French Cameroun regime’s various military vehicles.

Dabney Yerima said the Operation Big Rubbergun and “Kontry Sunday” have united the entire Ambazonian nation whether inside or outside Southern Cameroons territory.

He added that Southern Cameroons would eventually recover from the damage that the Francophone military has afflicted on it during this war of liberation.

The Southern Cameroons official, meanwhile, underlined, “The right of Southern Cameroons to exist as an independent state.

By Isong Asu

Amba Fighters are determining the magnitude, depth of the war in Southern Cameroons

8, July 2021

Amba Fighters are determining the magnitude, depth of the war in Southern Cameroons 0

The leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says it is Ambazonians that are presently determining the magnitude and quality of the war in Southern Cameroons.

“We have to do what we’ve got to do today; we will and we must as Ambazonians, so our children will be able to do tomorrow that which they want to do” President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said on twitter.

“Regarding the course for the Restoration of our Statehood which is rooted in its History and Geography, there are many amongst the people of LRC who don’t understand and don’t care, while others understand but disagree, and a few others who understand and support us. However, it is important that we understand the limits to which the people of LRC, however well-meaning, will empathise with our experience. If they truly listened to our calls for equality and development, we might have avoided this inevitable hurt, pain, destruction, breakage and ultimate separation.

The pain of the experience of the people of the former British Southern Cameroons now known as Ambazonia, through many decades of oppression and subjugation is real and very deep. The good in most people outweighs the evil in them. This is how we learn to trust, forgive and live with people. Many Ambazonians now accept that we will never have to live together with LRC in any form. Our people have endured enough, so our children can finally enjoy Opportunity and Promise” the Ambazonia leader added.

The mineral-rich but poverty-stricken Southern Cameroons has been unstable ever since the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaoundé declared war against the people of Ambazonia four years  ago.

Thousands of people have died since the war erupted and more than a quarter of the population have fled their homes. Of these, 75,000 are refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.

Even though bloodshed has receded in intensity over the few months, violence remains chronic.

By Chi Prudence Asong

South West Chiefs say Ambazonia Restoration Force is the guarantor of Southern Cameroons security

5, July 2021

South West Chiefs say Ambazonia Restoration Force is the guarantor of Southern Cameroons security 0

A group of prominent South West traditional rulers have thrown their weight behind the Ambazonia Restoration Force describing the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Group as the guarantor of true security, unity, and power in British Southern Cameroons.

In a secret memo reportedly addressed to the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government and leaked to Cameroon Concord News Group, the South West Chiefs noted that the Biya regime in Yaoundé and its troops deployed to Southern Cameroons have lost control and were no longer in charge of anything.

The South West Chiefs including some notables who endorsed the said document, also pointed out that Biya is not the one at the head of affairs in Yaoundé. Correspondingly, the traditional leaders expressed their support for constructive self defense and observed that there was an urgent need for leaders of the two Cameroons to meet again and examine the bill of health of the 1961 union including the way forward.

The chiefs whose names we are withholding stated in the document to Vice President Yerima that all South West and North West traditional rulers residing in Douala and Yaoundé can no longer speak for the suffering people of Southern Cameroons.

The strongly worded document revealed that the 88-year-old President Biya and his gang of corrupt French Cameroun political elites do not want stability and peace be established in British Southern Cameroons.

The South West Chiefs urged Vice President Dabney Yerima to make it an absolute necessity the withdrawal of all Francophone army soldiers from Southern Cameroons according to a long-overdue position taken by the jailed Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

In their July 2 2021 letter, the South West Chiefs praised the special role played by the Southern Cameroons Interim in the four years of fight against an evil marginalization.

The South West Chiefs further opined that to safeguard and protect the achievements of the Southern Cameroons revolution, every Southern Cameroonian should support the Ambazonia Restoration Forces and value their efforts, because the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Group is the hoisted flag and the only guarantor of security as well as the only protector of unity and power of British Southern Cameroons.

It is vital to include in this report that last week, General Nka Valere of the Cameroon government military said residents, elites, chiefs, and church leaders have embraced the separatist ideology in all areas, making it difficult for the Francophone army to fight.

The Ambazonia Restoration Force is a thorn in the side of La Republique du Cameroun’s military which is widely believed to be managing an array of militant groups, including Atanga Nji Boys to advance its French centric agenda in British Southern Cameroons. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ethiopia: A regional capital falls, and so does the stature of leader and its military

2, July 2021

Ethiopia: A regional capital falls, and so does the stature of leader and its military 0

The surprise fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, Mekelle, this week has put Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a tough spot, dealt a blow to the country’s military and placed the Tigrayan forces in a position of strength. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed may have won a Nobel Peace Prize, but on Monday, June 28, he seemed unable to grasp the difference between war and peace, ceasefire and defeat, and – more critically – the distinction between spin and the hard realities on the ground.

The disconnect has threatened not just Abiy’s credibility, but the security of his country, the wider Horn of Africa region, and exposed the challenges confronting the African Union – based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa – in its bid to deliver “African solutions to African problems”.

On Monday evening, reports started emerging from Mekelle, capital of war-ravaged northern Tigray province, that Ethiopian troops were suddenly withdrawing from the city. Before long, crowds gathered in Mekelle’s streets to celebrate the departure of Ethiopian government forces and welcome the arrival of Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) rebel fighters.

The Abiy administration, however, had an unusual spin on the latest development in the devastating eight-month-long Tigray conflict. The government had declared an “unconditional, unilateral ceasefire” in the province, according to a statement published by state media.

Tigrayan leaders offered a different narrative. 

In a statement released Monday night, Tigrayan leaders asserted that Mekelle’s fall was due to a “lightning operation” by the Tigray Defense Forces, a rebel army composed of members of the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as well as non-members. The TDF was formed shortly after Abiy ordered a military operation on Tigray in November 2020, and this was their “victory” against “the invading forces”, the statement proclaimed.

“It’s clearly, without a doubt, a military defeat. You can’t have a situation where one party declares a unilateral ceasefire while fleeing areas it once controlled. They could have at least said they retreated for tactical reasons,” said Awol Allo, senior lecturer at Keele University in England.

Days later, the official narrative was starting to unwind and the ceasefire was in doubt.

“If it is required, we can easily enter Mekelle and we can enter in less than three weeks,” Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Ethiopian government’s task force for Tigray, told reporters in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Abiy, meanwhile, acknowledged that government troops had left Mekelle, and that his army units had been ambushed and “massacred” while advancing through Tigrayan villages. But he attempted to downplay the fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, insisting it was not a defeat.

“It was the centre of a government. A centre for known and unknown resources. But by the time we exit, there is nothing special about it except that there are some 80,000 people, and those who loot people,” said Abiy in a videotaped address posted on his website, vastly underestimating the city’s population of around 500,000, according to demographers.

‘Monumental fall from grace’

From a globally fêted peacemaker to hawk overseeing a conflict that has seen mass killings, displacements and allegations of serious human rights violations by the UN, Abiy’s international stature has taken a sharp nosedive over the past eight months.

“For Abiy, it’s such a monumental fall from grace. This is somebody who came to power on the back of widespread popular protests. He was popular, his team was popular, and he received extensive international praise for establishing friendship with the Eritrean dictator,” said Awol, referring to the 2018 peace deal signed by Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Awol – who was among the experts who nominated the Ethiopian prime minister for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize – believes Abiy’s credibility began to slide with his attempts to “consolidate power and enact his childhood ambitions on 100 million inhabitants of Ethiopia”.

Abiy’s rise from rural poverty to the country’s highest office is by now the stuff of legend in Ethiopia, a rags-to-riches tale that acquires a messianic quality with every retelling. As recounted in a 2018 interview with the New York Times, the story goes that his impoverished mother once whispered into the ear of a 7-year-old Abiy that he would “end up in the palace” and “serve the nation”.

Critics, however, question whether Abiy, now 44, is best serving his country and its military, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).

“This is a military that has a reputation for being tough. Unfortunately, with this particular defeat of a big national force being repulsed by a tiny region, the Ethiopian military no longer has the same standing,” said Awol.

Rebel ‘mastermind’ rises from forced retirement

The Ethiopian military’s loss of stature has been the TDF’s gain.

On November 4, 2020, when the Ethiopian prime minister ordered a military operation in Tigray following escalating tensions with his former coalition partner, the TPLF, military experts immediately warned of a tough fight between “battle-hardened” troops.

With a combined force of around 140,000 active personnel, mostly in the army, the ENDF is considered a military heavyweight in the Horn of Africa region, one that has conducted cross-borders campaigns in neighbouring Eritrea and Somalia, and has been the backbone of the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

But the northern Tigray province – with its well-armed regional paramilitary force led by former national army generals – could also put up a fierce resistance, analysts warned.

That resistance strengthened as Abiy’s controversial use of Eritrean troops and militias from the rival ethnic Amhara group united Tigrayans, including those who had fallen out with the TPLF.

Formed in the 1970s, the TPLF emerged as the biggest and most powerful armed rebel group in Ethiopia following the 1991 ouster of brutal dictator Mengistu Hailemariam. The party then dominated Ethiopian politics for over two decades, overseeing economic development in the impoverished nation, but also maintaining power through repression.

The TPLF’s excesses sparked several splits within the ranks, including a particularly acrimonious one in 2001, following the end of the end of Eritrea-Ethiopia war.

One of the casualties of the internal TPLF splits was Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, considered one of Ethiopia’s finest military strategists, who was fired from his post as Ethiopia’s chief of general staff.

When Abiy launched a military offensive in Tigray, Gen. Tsadkan was among several former TPLF senior military officers who joined the freshly minted TDF.

“The TPLF is a party with a contested legacy because it brutalised the Ethiopian public for nearly a quarter of a century,” explained Awol. So when the TDF emerged out of the TPLF last year, it attracted “all the Tigrayans who disagreed with the TPLF in the past and who saw no reason to reject the TDF,” he explained.

Gen. Tsadkan immediately assumed joint responsibility for the TDF’s military affairs, and spent months training new recruits before the latest offensive was launched, wrote leading Africa analyst Alex de Waal in a BBC column. Following the spectacular fall of Mekelle, the retired army general is being hailed as the Tigrayan “mastermind” in a recruiting coup for the TDF.

No African solution for this African problem

Ethiopia’s decommissioning of senior Tigrayan military commanders raised eyebrows in November, when the AU fired its security chief a day after the bloc’s chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, received a letter from the Ethiopian defense ministry requesting the Tigrayan general’s dismissal, according to Reuters.

Gen. Gebreegziabher Mebratu Melese was on a list of military officials accused of treason for belonging to the TPLF “junta”.

Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the AU has faced criticisms over its inability to intervene in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced over a million and has plunged the area to the brink of a humanitarian disaster, according to the UN.

“I think the AU’s credibility is in tatters, its prestige has been undermined by its failure to tackle the issue or even table a resolution on the Tigrayan crisis. There is a widespread belief among Tigrayans that the AU simply followed the Ethiopian government’s talking points,” said Awol.

Following a call by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the AU to do more to address the crisis, the bloc launched a commission in June to investigate alleged human rights violations in Tigray.

But like the UN, the AU is limited by the interests and actions of its member states, a fact underscored by the Ethiopian government’s call on the bloc to “immediately cease” the human rights commission leading the inquiry.

Eritrean troops, Amhara militias ‘sandwich Tigray’

The most serious implications of Abiy’s use of military force in Tigray, however, concern the future security and stability of his own ethnically diverse nation.

The Ethiopian prime minister’s use of Eritrean troops – which was officially denied as “fake news” for months – in northern Tigray and of Amhara militias in the southern and western regions was part of a “sandwich Tigray” strategy to isolate the recalcitrant province, according to analysts.

But by turning one ethnic group against another and inviting the involvement of a neighbouring country that has long been an enemy of the Ethiopian state, Abiy has played with fire. Those flames could engulf the nation and the region.

Traditionally, ceasefire declarations are welcomed as opportunities to try to bring warring camps to the table. But the Ethiopian government’s so-called ceasefire could spark an intensification of the conflict, many analysts warn.

“It’s difficult to bring the two parties to the table,” Awol explained. “Abiy invited the enemy country, Eritrea, and that’s really hard to reconcile. Barbaric crimes were committed, there’s been a polarisation of the populace and hatred fueled by propaganda. I find it very hard to see how the country can move on.”

On the domestic front, the Amhara “elites” have long contested pieces of territory in what is now Tigray province, particularly the Benishangul-Gumuz region near the eastern border with Sudan, where the massive Grand Renaissance Dam is under construction.

Politically sidelined in recent years, the Amharas nevertheless consider themselves the country’s cultural elites. Critics say Abiy has stoked Amhara nationalism, including frequent references to Menelik I, the first Solomonic emperor of Ethiopia who is believed to be the ancestor of the last emperor, Haile Selassie.

The rise in the TDF’s military fortunes are a troubling development for the Amhara militias, noted Awol. “The biggest losers could be the Amharas because the Ethiopian National Defense Forces have left. Will Abiy now defend the areas the Amharas have taken and now control? There will be military, economic and ideological problems ahead,” he warned.

The only hope, according to Awol, is for the international community, specifically the Western powers, to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. But the seasoned Ethiopian analyst is not putting any bets on a peaceful outcome in the short term.

“This defeat puts the government, that until recently resisted any suggestion of peaceful negotiations, in a very weak position. If there are any negotiations, the TPLF will be negotiating from a position of strength,” Awol noted.

It’s a position Ethiopia’s Nobel laureate leader is unlikely to accept in the spirit of peace.

Source: France 24

Southern Cameroons situation deteriorating as fighting rages

20, June 2021

Southern Cameroons situation deteriorating as fighting rages 0

Explosions and heavy gunfire have rocked the entire Southern Cameroons as the humanitarian crisis worsens. More than 3,000 soldiers have also been killed and more than two thousands of them have been seriously injured.

The Biya regime has not been releasing the numbers and names of soldiers killed in battle for fear that such news could demoralize its military.

The humanitarian situation in Southern Cameroons is dire and deteriorating. Thousands of Southern Cameroonians continue to seek refuge in neighboring Nigeria and many more displaced in French speaking Cameroun as fighting between government and Ambazonia Restoration forces rages on.

The death toll is thought to be more than 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun government troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Southern Cameroons.

To be sure, over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Ghana and Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Every Monday streets in Southern Cameroons are deserted except for people fleeing the ongoing clashes.

The clashes pit troops nominally loyal to the 88-year-old dictator, Paul Biya, against Ambazonia Restoration Forces theoretically commanded by the Ambazonia Interim Government of Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe who is now serving a life sentence in Yaoundé.

The Biya Francophone government is hiding the numbers of soldiers killed and, in certain cases, it tells the families of the troops that their children have simply defected or escaped from the military. More than 1,000 army soldiers cannot be accounted for by the military and there are no efforts by the government to establish the truth about their whereabouts.

The situation in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia has deteriorated and there is random shooting and quite heavy mortar fire coming from both sides with locals not knowing who is responsible as both Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia fighters are now dressed in the same military camouflage.

The Fighting appears to be escalating rapidly in the rural areas of Southern Cameroons with the Yaoundé government now deploying armor vehicles. Recent clashes in both the South West and North West have exposed several weaknesses in the Cameroon government military.

The US has announced visa restrictions against some senior government officials blocking the implementation of a peace deal.  UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres has also been maintaining a kind of deliberate silence on the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons.

For the moment, the fighting appears to be spreading across the entire Southern Cameroons and it is threatening critical medical supplies for thousands of people in places such as Bui, Menchum, Ndian, Kupe Muanenguba, Akwaya, Meme and parts of Fako and Mezam.

About half of the population in Douala, the chief city in the Littoral region in French speaking Cameroun is threatened with famine; inflation is at 300% and Cameroon as a nation is effectively bankrupt.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes first female head of WTO

15, February 2021

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes first female head of WTO 0

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed Monday to head the leading international trade body as it seeks to to resolve disagreements over how it decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs.

Okonjo-Iweala, 66, was appointed director-general of the World Trade Organization by representatives of the 164 member countries, according to a statement from the body.

She said in a statement that her first priority would be quickly addressing the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and to “implement the policy responses we need to get the global economy going again.”

“Our organization faces a great many challenges but working together we can collectively make the WTO stronger, more agile and better adapted to the realities of today,” she said.

The appointment came after new U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy, which had been blocked by former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s move was a step toward his aim of supporting more cooperative approaches to international problems after Trump’s “America first” approach that launched multiple trade disputes.

But unblocking the appointment is only the start in dealing with trade disputes launched by Trump, and in resolving U.S. concerns about the WTO that date to the Obama administration. The U.S. had blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO’s appellate body, essentially freezing its ability to resolve extended and complex trade disputes.

The U.S. government has argued that the trade organization is slow-moving and bureaucratic, ill-equipped to handle the problems posed by China’s state-dominated economy and unduly restrictive on U.S. attempts to impose sanctions on countries that unfairly subsidize their companies or export at unusually low prices.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration reversed Trump’s opposition and expressed “strong support’’ for Okonjo-Iweala and saying she “brings a wealth of knowledge in economics and international diplomacy.” She is the first African official and the first woman to hold the job.

Okonjo-Iweala, formerly Nigeria’s finance minister, had a 25-year career at the World Bank, where she rose to the No. 2 position of managing director. She holds both U.S. and Nigerian citizenship.

South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee had withdrawn her candidacy, leaving Okonjo-Iweala as the only choice. Her predecessor, Roberto Azevedo, stepped down Aug. 31, a year before his term expired.

Trump repeatedly accused the WTO of unfair treatment of the U.S., started a trade war with China in defiance of the WTO system, and threatened to pull the United States out of the trade body altogether. Trump also imposed 25% steel tariffs that hit European allies on national security grounds, a justification that went beyond trade measures normally used within the WTO rules framework to address complaints about unfair trade.

So far, Biden has not said whether the U.S. will unblock the appellate appointments, and he has not withdrawn the steel tariffs either, which are backed by U.S. steel industry and union groups.

The World Trade Organization is an international body that deals with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated among the bulk of the world’s nations and ratified in their legislatures.

(AP)

US: Trump leaves White House, snubbing Biden inauguration

20, January 2021

US: Trump leaves White House, snubbing Biden inauguration 0


Donald Trump is leaving office hours before his opponent Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony. In his very last moments as United States’ 45th president, Trump said goodbye to the press and boarded Marine One with Melania Trump, who was also spending her very last moments as America’s First Lady. Both will not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony and have not taken part in any of the transition procedures.

Russia: President Putin says US assassination of Iranian General ‘aggravates’ situation in Middle East

4, January 2020

Russia: President Putin says US assassination of Iranian General ‘aggravates’ situation in Middle East 0

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told French President Emmanuel Macron that the United States’ assassination of Iranian Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani risks “seriously aggravating” regional tensions.

“This action can seriously aggravate the situation in the region,” the Kremlin quoted President Putin as saying during a telephone conversation with Macron on Friday.

A US drone carried out an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday, assassinating Lieutenant General Soleimani, who was the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), as well as eight other people.

Iran has pledged a “harsh revenge” on America for the assassination.

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Is Reconciliation Possible?

24, October 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Is Reconciliation Possible? 0

An unsettling calm is quietly prevailing in Cameroon after the much-totted Major National Dialogue called by Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, who has been in power for 37 years. Though the Major National Dialogue fell short of the expectations of many groups, especially the country’s Diaspora and Southern Cameroons separatists who have been locking horns with the Yaounde government for more than three years, many around the world thought that with a huge dose of objectivity and rare honesty on the government’s part, Cameroon, a country once considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, could make giant strides forward towards peace.

Cameroon, the Central African sub-region’s engine of growth, had been caught in a downward political and economic spiral following demonstrations and protests by the country’s English-speaking minority in October 2016 which met with a tough response from the Yaounde government that is wont to military violence and averse to negotiation or dialogue.

Since then, the two-English-speaking regions have become ungovernable. The country’s military has killed some 3,000 civilians and erased some 200 villages from the country’s map by torching homes and destroying property. Separatists, for their part, have also taken a page out of the government’s book of violence and since 2016 when the conflict erupted, more than a thousand soldiers have been sent to an early grave, with many killed in the most horrible manner.

Some of the armed groups have resorted to beheading soldiers and dismembering those they accuse of betraying the cause. However, observers have been arguing that some of the gruesome acts captured on video are the handiwork of armed groups created by the country’s Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, to commit some of those atrocious crimes with the objective of giving the rebellion a very bad name.

The violence playing out in the two English-speaking regions has resulted in the internal displacement of more than half a million people, while a similar number is currently living in neighboring countries such as Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Many Southern Cameroonians have escaped to unknown destinations and millions are targeting countries such as Canada, the United States and Great Britain where they can find a sanctuary after decades of marginalization and persecution by the Francophone government.  

The country has continued its onward march to the bottom of the abyss, as the violence escalates. The country’s economy has taken deadly blows to the liver following the destruction of the economy of the two English-speaking regions of the country and there are no indications that it will soon come off the life support equipment it has been hooked up to. Major state corporations such as the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) and PAMOL, all located in the country’s Southwest region, have been put out of business due to the conflict and this has cut the government off some of its major revenue streams.

The devastating impact of the conflict has been worrisome to the international community which, for  long, has been calling for an inclusive dialogue. With Mr. Biya’s announcement of the dialogue, many around the world thought that the penny had finally dropped and that all the issues plaguing the country would be discussed during the week-long Major National Dialogue, which some analysts say was hastily convened by the government to subvert the Swiss Initiative that has been welcomed by Southern Cameroonians and the armed factions.

But true to its nature and logic, the Yaounde government ensured that only those items it had included on the agenda could be discussed to the displeasure and chagrin of many Cameroonians living abroad. The international community was taken aback, but it welcomed the initiative, arguing that it was a first step towards the search for a peaceful and sustainable solution to the conflict that has put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The government did not only design the event’s agenda, it also chose the participants. It is generally held that you make peace with your enemies, but the Yaounde government decided to make peace with its friends. Only those who could play by its script were given an opportunity to share their perspectives.

Though a few opposition faces were brought in, government agents kept a close eye on them and their effort to change the event’s agenda met with stiff resistance from government representatives who had received firm instructions from the presidency not to yield to any pressure, if ever there was any. The government even invented its own Amba boys – a name for the ferocious Southern Cameroonian fighters who have given government troops a run for their money – to come and demonstrate in front of the cameras and international community that they had renounced violence and were seeking the country’s clemency and rehabilitation.

But the “comedians” who passed off as Amba Boys turned out to be prisoners and a few impostors. The impostors have melted into the crowd while the prisoners are back in their jails reflecting on their fate. For the impostors, they know they are not supposed to cross the Mungo – the boundary between East and West Cameroon – as their lives will never be the same again.

 Many of such “comedians” have already been beheaded, including one who was received by the Northwest region’s governor. He had claimed that he was a fighter and wanted to walk away from the fighting following the government’s launching of its demobilization programme. He also promised to talk his former colleagues into abandoning their weapons. Unfortunately, he never had the time to convince even a single fighter, as he was dismembered the following day and his body dumped in a public place.

The Major National Dialogue that had inspired a lot of hope is turning out to be a hullabaloo, a scheme designed by the government to hoodwink the international community into believing that it was finally prioritizing peace over military violence.  Some recommendations had been submitted to the country’s long-serving president, but many Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians, are not expecting much from a government that is both judge and jury in a devastating conflict. The Biya regime has a way of solving its problems. It simply sits out the issues, hoping that time will settle the matter.  

Some agents of the government have been working hard to sell the “Special Status” that has been recommended for Southern Cameroons, but this will not cut ice with the English-speaking minority that has complained about marginalization for decades. The separatists are still in action and they hold that they still have a huge stomach for a fight. Their war chest might have diminished over the last year, but their determination to roll back the Yaounde government from their land seems to be paying off.

On October 1, 2019, the separatists celebrated their independence in many parts of Southern Cameroons, and it was clear that the Yaounde government had run out of gasoline. There were no soldiers or gendarmes to stop Southern Cameroonians from celebrating their independence. Today, it is normal to see some government officials who had caused the conflict to escalate go on bended knees to call for peace. Some who thought it would be easy to silence Southern Cameroonians have now become apostles of peace and are crisscrossing the country to preach peace according to the corrupt ruling party.

Some are calling for a federal system as a middle ground that will calm minds and bring about peace in the country. But after more than three years of fighting and killing, will it be possible to reunite the country and reconcile? From every indication, the anger runs very deep and the separatists have gained a lot of ground that they might never want to yield.

The international community has recognized them and even the Americans and European Union now recognize them as forces that must be at the negotiating table if peace must be a reality in Cameroon. Last week, the United States ambassador in Cameroon said the world was still looking forward to the inclusive dialogue the international community has been calling for, a message that has been reiterated by the European Union. This really rattled the Yaounde government which finally forced its communication minister, Rene Sadi, to hold a press conference on the matter.

The U.S message simply implies that the Major National Dialogue has not been recognized abroad and will surely not deliver the goods. If the Yaounde government is looking forward to genuine reconciliation, it must walk away from its old ways. The Southern Cameroons crisis has shaken the country to its core and the country’s unity has been put through its paces. If proper actions are not taken to bring about genuine reconciliation in Cameroon, the country might continue to drift into more chaos that could linger for a long time, making reconciliation impossible.

By Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this message has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

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