The constant bickering between the various US-based factions involved in the war in Southern Cameroons has hurt efforts by the country’s English-speaking minority to gain its independence from the francophone majority which has ruled the country for decades.

The tension between the country’s English-speaking minority and the various governments which have ruled the country has always been there, but things finally came to a head in 2016 when the government’s crackdown on demonstrating English-speaking Cameroons led to calls for the total independence of the once British mandated territory.

The fighting has resulted in the economies of the two English-speaking regions being reduced to nothing, with more than a million English-speaking Cameroonians either fleeing to Nigeria or East Cameroon.

The last two years have really discredited the separatists who have being fighting over control. This uncalled for power struggle had gone a long way in destroying a struggle which had actually left the Cameroonian government in a quandary.

All efforts by the beleaguered government to wipe out the insurgents have all failed, but the separatists’ change of their objective from protecting the people to kidnapping the population for ransom has caused the population to turn against those the people once considered as liberators.

The fighting is now not against the government but against separatist fighters who have transformed themselves into violent kidnappers and rapists.

The population has decided to help the government to track down these unscrupulous elements who are notorious for their atrocities against their own people.

While the local population is living through a nightmare that has lasted some six years, the separatist leaders are enjoying life in many Western countries, with some of them purchasing masions at a time when the people on ground zero  are really struggling with life.

To destroy the insurgency forever, the Yaoundé government has called on the French government to take its plea to the Biden Administration and this strategy is delivering some appreciable results.

On the eve of Macron’s visit to Washington DC, the FBI visited some separatist leaders and their homes were thoroughly searched.

Chris Anu and Eric Tataw are in the cross hairs of the Biden Administration and the raids on their homes are just the beginning of a long process which has been designed to send them to jail for a long time.

The FBI does not always visit people, but when its agents show up on your property, then you must know that they have probable cause to lead you down the path of a long and tricky legal battle.

This week, three separatists living in the United States were sentenced to long jail terms for exporting arms to Cameroon and this is clearly against US laws.

They are also accused of sponsoring terrorism through illegal financial flows.

According to a State Department source, more Southern Cameroonians are being closely monitored and names like Ebini Christmas and Cho Ayaba are on the FBI long list of people wiring money to questionable beneficiaries in Southern Cameroons.

Macron is currently meeting with Biden in the American capital and he is very likely to raise the issue of Cameroonian separatists terrorizing their own people.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the US has said that there is panic among Cameroonians living in the US as they do not know if they are on the FBI radar.

No matter the outcome of the raids on the homes of Southern Cameroonians living in the United States, the fact is that the nasty rebellion in Southern Cameroons which has kept many children away from school for six years and robbed the population of its freedom, is gradually coming to an end.

As its leaders are being hunted abroad, some of their surrogates are already fleeing to Nigeria as they know their days are numbered.

The Cameroon government is now working with the population and anybody caught trying to kidnap or extort money from the population is immediately executed.

 The young men taking advantage of the situation in Southern Cameroons to make money should understand that things have changed and the end is near, a source at the Unity Palace said.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In only one year, Chief Ewume John, member of the Cameroon military, has been identified as a perpetrator of at least seven different acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment on 11 men in different areas of the English-speaking Southwest Region of Cameroon. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) have documented these acts and intend to refer them to the United Nations Committee against Torture if these cases are not investigated and prosecuted.

Chief Ewume John, also commonly known as Chief Moja Moja, is both a soldier of the Cameroon army and the traditional authority of Bwasa Village in Buea, Southwest Region. The region has been marred by continuous human rights violations in an ongoing conflict between the security forces and a separatist group. Chief Ewume John has used his position to systematically arrest and torture civilians suspected of separatist activities.

On 6 November 2022, Chief Ewume John arbitrarily arrested two men, Kenah Pascal Kum and Zang Emmanuel Buh, members of the Christ Embassy Church, at Bongo Square, Buea, and severely beat them with machetes before handing them over to the National Gendarmerie (Legion) in Buea, capital of the Southwest Region.

Chief Ewume John has a reputation for filming his acts of torture and posting them on social media. He intentionally causes mental suffering and intimidates his victims without fear of prosecution. Despite a complaint filed against him in July 2022 for torture before the military tribunal of Yaoundé, no investigation has been initiated, thus encouraging perpetrators to terrify civilians already exposed to continuous human rights violations.

The OMCT and the CHRDA call on the Cameroonian government to uphold its international obligations and hold the authors of torture accountable for their acts. The two organisations have been mandated by the victims to seize the United Nations Committee against Torture, currently in its 75th session, if they are not provided with reparation and rehabilitation following an independent investigation and prompt prosecution.

Culled from omct.org

Southern Cameroonians both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora deeply distrust a majority of the frontline leaders particularly those based in the USA, and this can be linked to why today, most anti Yaoundé actions are demonstrated through what is termed as individual acts of bravery from the likes of General No Pity.

With Biya regime’s continued use of live ammunition against innocent Southern Cameroons citizens and with Amba fire power very silent all over the various counties; many are now asking the question if the Southern Cameroons resistance is approaching its end!

When Southern Cameroons youth rose up against Cameroon government aggression in 2016, many political commentators and analysts eagerly explained the phenomenon as a reflection of profound desperation fuelled by anger and disgruntlement toward Francophone army soldier brutality and the complacency of its leadership in Yaoundé. It was evidently clear that the main impetus driving Southern Cameroonians to seek an independent state of Ambazonia was one of despair and the understanding that they have nothing to lose.

The arrest of the Ambazonian leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and the subsequent extradition to Cameroon by the corrupt Buhari administration brought a group of dubious religious pastors who jointly and severally ushered in a program and discourse that has been destructive for the Southern Cameroons struggle. The Southern Cameroons resistance today appears stagnant largely due to the continued failure of leadership, unhealthy rivalry among Southern Cameroons groups and corruption among the US based frontline leaders.

Who has legitimate authority in Ground Zero?

The hydra-headed situation as it stands requires a deeper understanding of the Amba fighters in Ground Zero whose efforts continue to be monopolised on as a source of power by groups such as the so-called ADF of Cho Ayaba Lucas and the Sako-Chris Anu-Kumeta comedians in the USA to further their own agenda of enriching themselves through financial donations for the struggle.

It is important to note that 85% of the Southern Cameroons population is in Ground Zero. Essentially, there has never been any direct representation of people in Ground Zero in the Ambazonia Interim Government now headed by Vice President Dabney Yerima.

In concurrence to the lack of leadership both in the diaspora and Ground Zero, there has been a diabolic harsh ploy by men like Chris Anu and Kumeta in the USA to attract all attention to themselves while ignoring the daily survival of the Amba fighters inevitably perpetuating the disenchantment of the fighters. There is a plethora of factors which have played an explicit and implicit role in the current culmination of events in Ground Zero.

These factors range from the compartmentalizing of the Ambazonia struggle into isolated tribal strategies and factionalism within Southern Cameroonians.

For instance, Chris Anu was always on social media concocting and propagating self defense actions that were supposedly carried out by the late Field Marshal of Lebialem all in vain efforts to inform the Southern Cameroons public opinion that his county was at the forefront of the resistance while Cho Ayaba was busy doing same in the North West.

We have seen brave Amba fighters begging for 500 frs CFA to feed while Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are using money meant for the struggle to purchase designer suits and shoes for themselves and renting houses in posh areas in Maryland for their families.

“This scenario exemplifies the internal struggle and our fighters are now considering and reconsidering their choice to resist actively. This is an overt consequence of failure to listen to the leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that God in his infinite image gave the people of Southern Cameroons” the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima reportedly observed during a radio interview in South Africa.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe cannot govern from Kondengui

This was the first slogan exploited by the criminal pastors in the USA as a source of power for Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and their supporters. Consequently, the sense of revolution became muddled and was stripped from Southern Cameroons dynamics by absorbing it into a kind of Ambazonia politics and quest for power and money, while Yaoundé continues its human rights violations.

Apart from the structure run by Dabney Yerima in Europe and with the support of some fertile minds in South Africa, nobody knows the real position of the so-called front line leaders in the USA!  Fighting Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and black mailing him with the support of people like Deacon Tassang has served the colonial project rather than benefit Ambazonians and what we see today is an increased rivalry between Southern Cameroons factions in the USA that have failed Ground Zero.

Those who wish to help Dabney Yerima mobilize Southern Cameroonians again, must not only consider Cameroon government army atrocities but also account for Amba fighter’s brutality which has hindered resistance efforts from donors both at home and in the diaspora.

Judging from anti Dabney Yerima propaganda coming from Maryland USA and Norway from Cho Ayaba, the Ambazonia Interim Government is deemed as an obstacle to be fought rather than a part of the population to join hands with.

Chris Anu, Cho Ayaba, Ikome Sako and Kumeta Elvis are all part of a Southern Cameroons despotic regime, serving their personal interests even if it means ruling on Face Book or Whatsapp chat groups. Frankly speaking, it is not the knife in the chest that is killing the Southern Cameroons struggle; it is the knife in the back.

While Southern Cameroons political factions represented by Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta continue to capitalize on their revolutionary history in combating French Cameroun occupying forces, the reality on Ground Zero today forces every Southern Cameroonian to reconsider the authenticity and sincerity of those that claim to fight in the name of the Ambazonia struggle.

The Way Forward

As the Biya Francophone regime increases its violent suppression of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia politicians such as Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta forsake the resistance for their own personal gains, it is time for Southern Cameroonians to rally behind Vice President Dabney Yerima to get the struggle back on track!

What is happening now is Southern Cameroonians are heartily trying to blame their docility on the Maryland cabal while still allowing them to continue to drown the entire Ambazonia nation in defeat.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The arson attack on St. Mary parish in Nchang Village some few kilometers from Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu Division still shrouded in mystery, has fueled angry reactions among Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora.

The people of Cameroon are entitled to know what happened in Nchang, and the circumstances in which the Roman Catholic clerics were abducted and then released in far away Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The authorities in Yaoundé are legally and morally obliged to probe the matter without fear or favour and douse the raging flames of anger with justice and accountability.

However, it now seems Yaoundé is maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb as fingers are pointing at senior Cameroon government officials for being responsible for the attacks on Roman Catholic clerics in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report will make public our findings this weekend in an investigative report: The Kidnapping of priests of the Mamfe Diocese and matters arising!!

Be the first to know!! Stay with the Cameroon Concord News Group

In October 2022, Cameroon marked a poignant anniversary: six years of an avoidable crisis that escalated to civil war, one which has killed thousands and displaced or severely impacted millions. I wrote an early overview of the crisis for CGAI in September 2018, at which point I had no idea the war would get worse and still be raging four years later. Yet, in the litany of armed conflicts afflicting the world today, Cameroon still barely rates a mention. President Paul Biya’s government has worked hard to play down what evolved into a civil war by early 2018 while it plays up cosmetic attempts to address longstanding political grievances that led to this crisis. That diplomatic effort continued September 26 when Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly. He emphasized implementing outcomes from the Major National Dialogue (October 2019), including belated decentralization efforts and special status for two anglophone regions, expanding a premature and chaotic disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) initiative and seeking reconstruction funds from international donors. However, the war is not over. The suffering continues and there is no political or peace process underway to address grievances that go far beyond 2016 to 1961.

In September 2022, the Cameroon government ungraciously terminated a struggling, often disparaged, Swiss-facilitated mediation process launched in 2019. The government never seriously engaged and even those opposition stakeholder groups involved were never convinced of its authenticity. Instead, it has become clear that the government is doubling down on its hammer-and-lies strategy: keep up the military pressure even if that means more civilians killed or displaced, discredit the “separatists and terrorists” at every opportunity within an opaque information environment and try to convince the international community that cosmetic political fixes have real substance. This is a strategy for regime maintenance alongside continued violence, misery and long-term instability in the region, not a pathway to either victory or peace.

Despite six years of escalating conflict, finding a viable pathway to peace in Cameroon might be easier than ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stopping violence across the Sahel or eastern Congo or reversing the Taliban’s predictable impoverishment of Afghanistan. Anyone – and it will take mostly brave Cameroonians with the help of outsiders who can mobilize international pressure – willing to take on this task needs to understand the complex lay of the land in 2022 after six years of evolving conflict dynamics. As the United States (in August) and even Canada (in the near future) launch new foreign policy strategies for Africa, Cameroon offers a painful but typical case study of the close connection between bad governance, civil war and international apathy. After a brief overview of the anglophone crisis, I present 10 critical observations designed to alert external stakeholders to contemporary realities and dynamics that, if ignored, limit the possibilities for achieving either peace or justice.

Understanding the Anglophone Crisis

The trigger to the current anglophone crisis – a useful shorthand that some stakeholders legitimately reject for making the conflict sound like it is just about language – occurred in October-November 2016. English-speaking lawyers, teachers and students peacefully protested the appointment of French-speaking judges, teachers and administrators in the two English-majority regions of the country, as well as the lack of translation of key laws and regulations into English. Cameroon is roughly the reverse of Canada, with approximately 70-75 per cent who use French as their common language compared to 25-30 per cent who use English or a Pidgin form (of course, many Cameroonians speak both French and English/Pidgin). The French-English divide is rooted in a colonial past that saw the British Southern Cameroons “achieve independence by joining” ex-French Cameroun in 1961 through a problematic, and some argue incomplete, UN process. The French-English divide glosses over a tremendous diversity of ethnic groups, languages, dialects, traditional authority structures and religious practices, but it remains politically and economically salient in the 21st century. Common-law lawyers worried about judges trained only in civil law and teachers watching non-English-speaking teachers appointed in English-language schools took to the streets and went on strike but were beaten, humiliated and arrested by mainly French-speaking security forces. Some remained in prison for weeks or months.   

October-November 2016 exemplified for many that those longstanding grievances about the English-speaking minority’s political and economic exclusion – and the country’s failed attempt to either democratize or decentralize since promised political reforms in the 1990s – would never be solved without concerted action. The ballot box had long been forsaken as a route to political change. Despite a fast-growing population, the number of those actually voting has declined for every election since 2011. Lack of political avenues led to various civil society groups mobilizing both within and outside the country, including some who eventually took up the banner of outright independence as the only permanent solution. While the independence (or “restoration”) option is not new in Southern Cameroonian political discourse, it gained currency in direct reaction to the violence and intimidation brought to bear by government security forces during 2016-2017 as they attempted to suppress civil society groups agitating for real change.

After mass demonstrations began on September 22, 2017 across the two anglophone regions, suggesting broad support for independence or at least significant political reforms, security forces responded with deadly force, including shooting peaceful protesters from helicopters. On October 1, 2017, one leading group declared independence for Ambazonia, following the borders of the old British Southern Cameroons trusteeship. The first small attacks on security forces followed in November 2017. Subsequently, state radio reported that Biya “declared war on these terrorists who seek secession.” A group of 10 distinguished Southern Cameroonian independence leaders, most of whom were in senior positions at Nigerian universities, including President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria in January 2018, extradited to Cameroon, imprisoned and eventually tried and convicted under an anti-terrorism law designed to target Boko Haram militants.

In February 2018, the government set up a new regional military command at Bamenda and began to expand military and police facilities near the airport. Thus, from late 2017 through 2021, the low-level insurgency evolved into a civil war, with thousands of combatants and civilians killed, hundreds of villages and public buildings razed, millions of civilians displaced either temporarily or permanently and thousands more kidnapped for ransom or bribes. Where once local Ambazonian defence militias were armed only with homemade shotguns (Dane guns) and heavily outgunned by security forces, by 2019-2021 they were mostly equipped with captured assault rifles and machine guns. They regularly employed IEDs against military convoys, occasionally used small drones and RPGs and periodically carried out raids beyond the borders of the anglophone southwest (SW) and northwest (NW) regions against military and police outposts.

The Cameroon government, suffering an economic crisis of its own making during the latter half of the 2010s, still preferred to use scarce financial resources to expand military recruitment and import additional weapons, armoured vehicles and helicopters. It then announced a DDR program in late 2018 to try to convince the outside world that the war was effectively over before it began. Ongoing international loans from the International Monetary Fund, China and from European commercial banks (for soccer stadiums) directly or indirectly enabled the government to finance its military solution to a fundamentally political problem. The Swiss-led peace process, funded in part by Canada and others, ramped up in 2019 but unfortunately only added to the division and mistrust among anglophone groups as it failed to deliver any meaningful process to engage a recalcitrant regime. Its demise opens the door for others to develop new pathways to peace.

Ripe for Resolution?

Thus, after six years, the anglophone crisis should be ripe for resolution. People on the ground are tired of war, of interrupted schooling for their children, of constant economic stresses, of incessant harassment by soldiers and police who seem more like occupation forces and by certain “Amba boys” who act as bandits rather than freedom fighters. Some security personnel suffer low morale and others try to avoid postings in the anglophone regions altogether. Anglophone groups in the diaspora are constantly at odds, with various leaders claiming others are “black legs” (traitors), while those doing the actual fighting often complain they haven’t received promised financial contributions from overseas supporters. The Cameroon government and many of its state-owned enterprises are verging on debt distress that higher oil and natural gas prices cannot fix. And in Yaoundé, political factions are preparing for the day when Biya, in power since 1982 and now 89 years old and rarely seen in public, can no longer rule.

Ultimately, this crisis will not be settled by force of arms, even as the security forces claim tactical victories when they eliminate some of the Ambazonian generals and field marshals who lead small units. Those small units are sometimes closely or loosely affiliated under banners such as the Ambazonia Defence Forces and Ambazonia Restoration Forces. After six years of acute crisis, but decades of marginalization and autocracy, there is still enough anger and momentum for Ambazonian armed groups to persist and often grow despite setbacks. Social media on October 1, 2022 displayed multiple independence celebrations across the NW and SW regions, including parades by well-armed and well-trained Ambazonian units. The appeal of independence is much broader today than six years ago precisely given the government’s ham-fisted approach to the crisis. Although the “road to Buea” (a euphemism for independence, as Buea was the capital of British Southern Cameroons until 1961) is still pitched by some Ambazonian leaders as a more straightforward process than domestic, African Union and global politics will allow, a series of non-scientific surveys have shown a growing preference for, or at least resignation to, the idea that outright independence is the last, best solution to the crisis.

Where once the idea of a properly resurrected federalism offered many anglophones (and francophones) hope for a better future, now, for many, federalism’s prospects have crumbled with the realization that institutional constraints on executive power via the rule of law are necessary for its success. The ruling party (CPDM in English or RDPC en français) and entrenched elites around the presidency would not survive in any system where the rule of law replaced the currently operative, rapacious law of rule by decree and the patronage system it underpins. That limits the efficacy of federal options even if they were offered, which they decidedly have never been since the last remnants of federalism were ended in 1972 by Cameroon’s first and only other president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.

The gulf between a historic assumption that a return to federalism offered a path for reconciliation and shared prosperity, and the regime’s commitment to a unitary state with begrudging elements of decentralization and special status, has narrowed room for compromise and negotiations. The radical “one and indivisible Cameroon” regime proponents have doubled down this year on their hammer-and-lies strategy, while the most radical separatists condemn and threaten any anglophone individual or group who suggest any alternative solutions or pathways to peace other than a direct road to Buea. But that is where creative and committed compromisers from all sides need to find realistic and workable processes to marginalize those two extremes. While Cameroonians must lead any process for it to be legitimate, no progress can be made without external carrots and sticks, given an intransigent regime that clings to the militarized hammer option over peace and compromise. So far, the regime has faced zero consequences even as millions suffer the immediate and long-term effects of war, displacement and continued bad governance.

With the firm understanding that internal stakeholders will be doing the heavy lifting, what follows are 10 critical observations designed to bring outsiders up to date if there is to be any hope for peace, justice and prosperity for those living incredibly difficult lives in the two anglophone regions.

1. The best, permanent solution to the anglophone crisis would be a transparent, inclusive negotiated peace process leading to a free and fair, internationally supervised referendum that included a clear question on institutional arrangements, including independence. That would solve a historical wrong committed first in 1961 under British and UN auspices, and again in 1972. It would signal an end to the political and economic marginalization perpetuated from Yaoundé. It is not a stretch to see parallels between Russia’s quick annexation “referendums” in occupied areas of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, and Ahidjo’s hastily conducted, unjust May 1972 constitutional referendum, which allowed the entire population to vote (with reported 99 per cent approval) to dismantle a federal system expressly designed to accommodate the anglophone minority. But it is also true that some of the local armed leaders on ground zero and some of the loudest, self-proclaimed leaders in the diaspora spend more time calling each other traitors than co-ordinating a united diplomatic and military front that might provide encouraging glimpses of future self-determination. Many of the most thoughtful and capable Southern Cameroonians who would ultimately prefer independence, if asked directly, worry that there are insufficient institutions in place now to constrain the power-hungry, the co-opted or the well-armed during a transition process. However, many are working hard behind the scenes to bridge divisions and propose confidence-building measures. They want to find creative ways to inch forward and educate the international community on the realities of how hard life has become, not only in the NW and SW regions, but also across Cameroon, given this government’s regime-maintenance priorities.

The main reason the government fights so hard against outright independence, federalism or even direct negotiations is that an independent or more autonomous Ambazonia, given the human and natural resources available, could potentially outshine the rest of Cameroon in either democracy or economic growth. That would weaken the CPDM’s vise grip on political and economic power, particularly the ruling family that is positioning a new generation to take over.

2. In 2022, any immediate independence option is moot. Neither African Union nor UN members, let alone the regime in Yaoundé, have any appetite to consider a process that might lead to an immediate vote for an independent Ambazonia. Even as some Amba units co-ordinate more closely and exert authority over some territory, there is no indication yet that these forces have the combat power to liberate and hold large parts of either the NW or SW and start to build an independent, empirical state modelled on Somaliland. The latter is still waiting for recognition after 30 years of offering better governance than Mogadishu’s tenuous grasp over the rest of Somalia. The reality is that independence is the best option to remove a tired, kleptocratic gerontocracy from the lives of five million or more anglophones. But diaspora leaders have spread the myth for years now that independence was just around the corner. This has weakened their legitimacy and prevented alternative, more realistic pathways to peace and justice that might ultimately include an independence option but would also provide incentives and pressures for reform across Cameroon, possibly reducing the need for complete independence. Many anglophones call cities and towns outside Ambazonia home, and a case can be made for the economic and even security benefits of keeping Cameroon whole within a federal structure. But those discussions never occur when the regime hardliners demand a one and indivisible country. Meanwhile, decades of marginalization and mistrust make it difficult for many Southern Cameroonians to contemplate any reforms that could effectively institutionalize the autonomy they desire.

3. The international community needs to accept there is a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) in Cameroon and change their approach. For years, the Cameroon government and international organizations have purposely refrained from referring to the conflict as a NIAC or civil war. Current interpretations of what constitutes a NIAC fail to capture the dynamics of the war in Cameroon and other places where the old model of one or two centralized military-political organizations fighting against a national government (think Biafra in 1967-70, or UNITA against the MPLA in Angola until 2002) offers a clear-cut definition of organized opposition. Since at least the 1990s, across Africa (and elsewhere, see Syria) the characteristics of civil war and armed rebellion only rarely follow that old model. Lack of a single hierarchy of command, which among Ambazonians is true, does not negate that there are multiple armed units fighting for the same end and which, operationally and politically, sometimes co-ordinate with other military and political groups.

This seems like a pedantic discussion for experts in the law of armed conflict, but it materially matters in terms of raising the stakes for all armed combatants to follow the basic rules of war and to allow humanitarian actors to ameliorate suffering. It also raises the stakes for international diplomacy: this civil war needs international mediation, and arms exports need to be curtailed. Importantly, the diversity of anglophone actors – semi-autonomous armed units of platoon or company size plus a multitude of domestic and international civil society groups – illustrates an instinctive pluralism that differentiates Southern Cameroonians who have always chafed against the centralized, hierarchical approach of rulers in Yaoundé. That pluralism is a feature, not a bug, and the international community needs to appreciate and accommodate it rather than condemn it.

4. Confirming basic facts in this under-reported and misrepresented conflict remains difficult, and this plays directly into the hands of the government’s strategy and narrative. There have long been calls for an independent fact-finding mission to visit the affected regions. That will have to be part of any peace process. Official government statements are often found to be incorrect. Few international journalists get into the region except when embedded with security forces, and domestic journalists face threats, arrests and physical attacks if their reports challenge the narrative of either the government or the armed groups. The same goes for local human rights activists and investigators who regularly face death threats if they report the details of an atrocity and who likely committed it. The space for international NGOs has shrunk as well. Médecins Sans Frontières has been forced to temporarily suspend operations in the SW due to insecurity as well as pressure from the government. Medical workers can be arrested if they treat wounded Ambazonian fighters, but they can be abducted by Ambazonian fighters if rumours surface they made any reports to government officials. As humanitarian needs have increased due to war and displacement, UN agencies delicately negotiate access to different areas, given the regime’s reticence to indirectly support those not completely under their control, while Amba forces suspect that international officials may be spying for the government. While there are estimates of those killed or displaced, the numbers vary widely. Exaggerations for partisan purposes undercut efforts to determine the realities on the ground. Thus, there are few authoritative sources of information that can be trusted to provide hard facts: propaganda and narrative spin overwhelm appeals to veracity. Without hard facts – including a broad assessment of the attitudes and desires of those who live on ground zero – local and international peacemakers are attempting to paddle upstream in a boat without a paddle. And they might not even have a boat.

5. Following models used throughout history, from Cameroon’s Hidden War in the 1950s-60s to South Africa as late as the early 1990s, the Cameroon government uses third-force tactics and other divide-and-rule manipulations to discredit Ambazonian opposition. This reality seems to be ignored by diplomats and international organization representatives who should know better, but the government and its security forces directly employ third-force strategies to sow confusion among Amba fighters, local civilian populations and the international community. Those strategies include covert operations as well as an extensive disinformation campaign. Given the decentralized nature of the armed struggle across the two regions, it is not always clear who is giving the orders for this attack or that kidnapping. Over the last few years, coincidentally, at those brief moments when there seems to be growing international community attention to the crisis, an apparent Amba attack on a school, church or other civilian target weakens any nascent political will among external stakeholders. The government also arms, funds, incites and then protects from prosecution a few local leaders, including chiefs. In addition, it inflames pre-existing, local conflicts between communities such as Muslim Mbororo pastoralists and Christian farmers in the NW region. The more the government can do to support its narrative of divided, squabbling “terrorists and separatists,” the easier it is for the government to ensure no substantial external pressure ever develops to incentivize a negotiated solution.

As in all armed conflicts, especially those that drag out without an endpoint in sight, some with access to weapons become less interested in political objectives and turn to more immediate, material gratifications (one has only to look at the number of washing machines that Russian occupiers have pillaged from Ukraine). Government soldiers and police set up roadblocks to generate fees and fines, while Amba groups do the same to generate taxes to support the revolution. Again, from the government’s perspective, the longer they can hold out without engaging in meaningful negotiations, the more they hope armed groups lose focus and lose civilian support. Not surprisingly, social media has provided an additional, effective conduit of weaponized disinformation. Accounts for different leaders or groups are duplicated and then filled with disinformation, including vitriolic attacks on other Ambazonian groups. WhatsApp and other communication platforms are filled with rumours and targeted disinformation designed to create information chaos and mistrust. And like apartheid South Africa after 1963, Cameroon implemented an anti-terrorism law in 2014 which allows the arrest and imprisonment of civilians who can then be tried by military tribunals. This has been used against opposition politicians, journalists and even family members and friends of suspected Ambazonian fighters. Outsiders seem to ignore history lessons about the lengths that repressive regimes will go to weaken opposition and overlook that NIAC dynamics change as they stretch out without resolution. But it cannot be forgotten that the government created the conditions for armed conflict and must be held primarily responsible for the initiation of armed repression and its continuance.

6. Even considering third-force manipulations, some Amba forces or loose-cannon individuals have committed atrocities, stolen, kidnapped, destroyed buildings and killed civilians and each other. These activities weaken local support and cause international observers to shy away from direct engagement, to the regime’s benefit. There have been efforts to educate Amba boys in the law of armed conflict and most of the better organized and effective units do not put up with their fighters engaging in these activities. Sometimes, bandits are caught impersonating fighters. But there is also a culture of never admitting mistakes or serious incidents where Amba forces are implicated, which reduces trust in the information coming from all Ambazonian sources. (Amilcar Cabral would not approve.) There have also been deep divisions in policy and strategy among Ambazonian groups around such things as school resumption or extending lockdowns (called “ghost towns” or “ghost days” locally). On Mondays in many anglophone-majority cities and towns, all businesses and other street activity close down as a silent protest against the regime, but some groups try to extend those periods around certain events. This then creates significant hardship for those trying to run a business, work or even buy food or attend to crops. Civilians are then caught between different Amba groups demanding adherence to different ghost days, and regime officials and security personnel who may punish those who don’t open their businesses.

Thus, with banditry, third-force manipulations, tactical mistakes, lack of discipline or the Amba units’ own bad policy direction, residents in the two regions have sometimes turned against local Amba boys but without concurrently moving back towards regime support. Five years of admonishments from regional governors, district officers and military commanders for local people to work more closely with officials and security forces to root out Amba “terrorists and separatists” mostly fall on deaf ears, an important signal somehow ignored by those regime officials and the international community.

7. The Cameroon government has been able to pursue its hammer-and-lies strategy largely due to uninterrupted international financial bailouts since 2017 and continued military support. In the mid-2010s, Cameroon started building or refurbishing stadiums to host the African Nations Cup in 2019, largely using borrowed money (the stadiums were, unsurprisingly, not completed in time and Egypt stepped in to host). This occurred during a slump in oil and gas prices, leading to macroeconomic distress. In mid-2017, the IMF provided a three-year emergency credit package. After COVID-19 hit, Cameroon received additional financial packages from the IMF and development banks and even floated some sovereign bonds. During that period, military spending – imports including weapons and ammunition, armoured vehicles, helicopters, plus significant recruitment and base expansions – rose dramatically, in addition to the DDR program launched in late 2018 but still struggling in 2022. While some countries have rolled back their military support and exports to the Biya regime due to human rights abuses, that has been limited and selective. Cameroon continues to promote the idea that military training and exports provided by its international partners help the fight against terrorists, including Boko Haram in the far north. But since early 2018, Cameroon’s security forces have shifted significant personnel and capabilities south against Ambazonian groups and left most of the fight against Boko Haram to the Nigerians and Chadians. Sadly, the regime can count on apathy and ignorance in the international community as they paint all armed opposition with the same brush.

8. Fundamentally, the core of the hammer-and-lies strategy rests on a bigger lie: the selective privileging of some constitutional principles over others despite an absence of constitutionalism. Government hard-liners and some constitutional scholars and media pundits regularly repeat the “one and indivisible Cameroon” mantra as justification for armed suppression of those who demand any significant change to the “decentralized unitary state” (phrases both included in Article 1.2 of the Cameroon Constitution). But Cameroon from 1961 was a federal system, at least in name, until 1972. The irony here is that constitutionalism in the country is historically weak and selective – which accounts for Biya’s 40 years in power – and yet certain elements of the constitution are held up as inviolable. For example, Article 64 states that “No procedure for the amendment of the Constitution affecting the republican form, unity and territorial integrity of the State and the democratic principles which govern the Republic shall be accepted,” which keeps secession and probably federalism off the table. But both Art. 64 and Art. 1.2, among other clauses, also refer to democratic principles and equality before the law. For the regime, “one and indivisible Cameroon” represents the hammer in speech form, a stance from which compromise is impossible. Concurrently, however, most (Southern) Cameroonians just want democratic principles and equality before the law in practice, and thus can be seen to be demanding, and in some cases fighting for, a different set of already existing constitutional principles.

9. Regime change is coming in Yaoundé regardless of what happens in the anglophone regions. Biya is 89 and rarely seen in public. He and others are grooming his son, Franck, to replace him, but other elite factions have alternative plans for a post-Biya Cameroon. Cameroonians and external stakeholders need to be prepared to leverage a transition period to build a foundation for peace and democracy. Some say a non-military solution to the anglophone crisis is possible only when Biya is gone, but a regime change hardly guarantees a non-military path is taken (or that new security partners are not brought in to escalate military efforts). The more preparation is done now before any transition process begins, the better the chances that a rare, critical juncture moment can work for peace.

10. Last, if the Western international community – including the U.S., Canada, Norway and the European Union – have learned anything from Mali and Burkina Faso, they cannot let France take the Western lead on Cameroon. There is broad belief across Cameroon that France pulls the Biya government’s strings, or at least has outsized influence on the government’s decisions and actions. In anglophone regions, distrust of the French is even greater. There is, of course, significant French influence in the country, but Cameroon’s government has become deft in the art of insulating itself from too much dependence on any single foreign benefactor. Large-scale Chinese, British, American and Russian investments in ports, mining, oil and natural gas provide a cushion against the French, while Cameroon’s enduring commitment as a logistics hub for UN peacekeeping missions makes it an invaluable regional security partner.

It is true, then, that it is easier for the international community to downplay the civil war in Cameroon for all sorts of short-term economic and security interests. But as is becoming clear across Africa and Europe, short-termism can create bigger problems eventually. And France’s unique interests in Africa do not align easily with other Western countries: France’s African diplomacy under President Emmanuel Macron appears increasingly tone deaf and designed to generate animosity among the masses while it attempts to ingratiate itself with a narrow stratum of African elites. Macron visited Cameroon in July 2022 and offered his support to the Potemkin decentralization being implemented by Yaoundé. Then, in September 2022, Macron appointed Gen. Thierry Marchand, head of the Directorate of Security and Defence Cooperation, who happens to have extensive experience in military training and operations across Africa, the new French ambassador to Cameroon. France is not signalling it wants to be part of solving the anglophone crisis. Letting France or any single country take the Western lead on Cameroon contributes to a worsening longer term outcome.

The Time for Peace Was Yesterday

There needs to be concerted, co-ordinated Western action on Cameroon if peace is ever going to have a chance. With the Swiss process set aside, Western governments can no longer sit back and say, “let the existing process work.” Diplomats and other external stakeholders should just listen to the voices of those most affected in terms of whom they might trust and the mechanisms that might work to generate a constructive process. Fighting would stop almost overnight if a serious, transparent process were in place which also kept security forces in their barracks.

Helping Cameroonians end the senseless violence, suffering, displacement, schooling disruption and endless destruction of homes, schools, businesses and churches will not be easy. But the reality is, after five years, there has never been any international political or economic pressure on the regime to adjust its hammer-and-lies approach to the anglophone crisis. No African government, African or non-African elder statesperson has stepped up to offer their services to mediate the civil war. But there are countless activists inside and outside the country who have worked tirelessly to raise the conflict’s profile, to engage in peacebuilding activities, to build mechanisms to facilitate bridge-building across factions and to try to work within a political system that is designed not to work. Their clarion call is always “why has the international community forsaken us?” and that was years before Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, Western governments either admit support for the hammer-and-lies strategy of a tired, kleptocratic regime, or they will finally recognize their culpability and stop enabling that strategy. They can then find and work with those who truly desire peace via a political settlement, and then cultivate an environment for peace, democracy and prosperity to sprout.

Culled from Canadian Global Affairs Institute

It is now seven years since the conflict pitting Cameroon’s English-speaking minority and the country’s Francophone-dominated government hit the global stage and despite some behind-the-scenes efforts to reach a negotiated settlement, things have continued to deteriorate though the government continues to give the impression that things are gradually returning to normal.

In some towns like Bamenda, Kumba, Limbe, Buea, Kumbo, etc, there is a semblance of peace as soldiers and separatist fighters are no longer clashing as much as they used to when the conflict just started. However, this does not imply that peace has returned to the towns and life is going on as it was before the fighting which has already claimed more than seven thousand lives.

Most of the fighting has simply migrated to rural areas where separatist fighters are hiding in the bushes and are practicing hit-and-run tactics which are really delivering some unexpected, but spectacular results. 

Many of the country’s army soldiers are still being killed and this unfortunate news does not get reported. The pseudo-calm gives the soldiers the impression that things are returning to normal, and this is causing them to let down their guard, making it easy for separatist fighters to score some victories, albeit unnecessary as there is no joy in taking somebody else’s life.

Cameroonians do not need to kill each other to find solutions to their problems. If the government had adopted a different approach to the crisis, the peace Cameroon was noted for, would not have been tampered with. The government still holds that old ways can produce spectacular results, but times have changed, and the dynamics are totally different. 

The Internet has reshaped the way people think and the myth that government forces cannot be attacked has been broken. Successes by separatist fighters only go a long way in underscoring this unfortunate fact. Besides, with the Internet, Cameroonians can get jobs in other parts of the world without seeking to join the country’s civil service which the government thought was a “holy grail” to many of its citizens. Globalization, driven by the Internet, has changed the Cameroonian mindset and the civil service with its derisory salaries is no longer attractive.

Also, the country’s English-speaking minority which has known marginalization and injustice for more than half a century now has a massive Diaspora which is a key ingredient in the country’s socio-economic and political development. This Diaspora has the resources to help move forward the country’s development agenda if the government decides to carry out reforms and turn to new ways which have enabled other countries on the continent to make giant strides forwards towards economic development. 

However, if the government decides to keep its laws and its questionable methods of governance which are indeed outdated, the Diaspora will continue to drag its feet when it comes to helping development efforts in the country. It is the government’s unrealistic approach to the crisis which pushed the Diaspora into supporting the armed struggle. Nobody in his right mind will stand by watching how his family being murdered.

 Every human being has survival instincts and the Diaspora simply felt it necessary to jump into the struggle and provide much-needed support to those who felt they could roll back a threatening military. 

The Yaoundé government has always thought that bullying will work in any case and that was why it rolled out its arsenal of deadly military equipment against a people who just wanted justice and peace in a country which is rightfully theirs. 

Today, even if the separatists fail in their bid to split the country, their message has been heard far and wide. They have proven that killing is no man’s preserve and that being in military fatigue is no license to kill other people. 

Besides, a military uniform is no vaccine against death. Thousands of Cameroon’s army soldiers have died due to the unnecessary war, and thousands have been maimed and scarred for life. These are unfortunate situations which could have been avoided if the government had prioritized peace over war.

Though there is a semblance of peace in the country’s two English-speaking regions, it should not be assumed that a peace conference is not necessary. Sweeping the issue under the carpet does not imply that it has been addressed. The Southern Cameroons crisis is like an inactive volcano. It is, indeed, like Mount Etna in Italy which erupts from time to time, claiming innocent lives due to bad politics, corruption and greed. 

While people in the towns and cities of Southern Cameroons are enjoying some relative calm which should not be misconstrued for peace, those in villages are still in the grip of fear where separatist fighters call the shots. 

Many children in rural parts of the two regions are still not in school. Their collective and individual futures are being compromised and these children will be the next warriors and criminals who will vent their anger on the government and the separatist fighters who are robbing them of their future.

For school closures in rural parts of Southern Cameroons, separatist fighters are totally to blame. Their reckless and irresponsible behavior is jeopardizing the lives and destinies of their own children and brothers. They need a rethink of their strategy if they must remain relevant. No country has ever developed when its citizens lack the brainpower to face the challenges of their time.

The recklessness demonstrated by separatist fighters over the last two years has transformed them into millstones around the necks of the same civilian population they claim to protect. They kidnap innocent people and ask for a king’s ransom. To them, they are in the business of fighting to make money and not to liberate their land. 

The last time Cameroon Concord News Group checked, the five priests kidnapped about a month in Nchang, a small town some five kilometers from Mamfe town, are still in captivity. 

The church, in which the priests were delivering solace to their desperate faithful, was set ablaze as the fighters took their captives into a jungle which provides them some safety from military attacks. 

These ‘freedom fighters’ are still insisting on having a ransom from the Catholic Church even when Archbishop Nkea has told them, loud and clear, that the Church is not in the business of paying ransoms. 

Crimes committed by these separatist fighters are getting more shocking every day. Some have even turned to armed robbery. They have morphed from freedom fighters to bank robbers, and it is held by many that that their masters, some of whom are living in the United States, are supplying them with the latest bank robbery tactics which are netting them huge amounts of money.

 A few days ago, some separatist fighters stormed a bank in Mamfe, killing two soldiers and making away with a huge wad of cash. Freedom fighters have become armed robbers. Instead of fighting army soldiers, they are now fighting banks which are creating jobs for their own people. 

They have the weapon of power, but they have decided to use it to feather their own nests if the money from the Diaspora is no longer flowing. It is obvious that they will be staging more attacks on those financial institutions as they become more brazen.  

If collecting ransoms was the only blemish on their character, one would cut them some slack, but separatist fighters have distinguished themselves through their summary and arbitrary execution of people they suspect of foul-play or misconduct. Their judgment is always expedited, and they have made death sentences to sound like a joke. Freedom fighters are now those who are robbing their people of their freedom. The madness in the struggle is now on display for all to see. These are the same people who accused the Biya regime of human rights abuses and corruption. The world is full of ironies, but this one is unfathomable. 

Many people have been summarily executed by separatist fighters on mere suspicion that they are collaborating with the Yaoundé government. They hardly produce any evidence, and, in many cases, their victims get tortured during questioning. 

Their victims are sometimes compelled to acknowledge crimes they have not committed in the hope that they would be freed. Unfortunately, their acknowledgement only sends them to an early grave, causing many people to question the idea of even challenging the Yaoundé government. The alternative, indeed, the solution is proving to be more painful than the initial problem. These deaths are going unnoticed. 

Due to their ruthlessness, some people in the international community have even tagged separatist fighters as “fighters without a cause”. Some of the fighters hold that it is their right to knock up any young girl and they are doing a good job at that as many teenage girls are not struggling with unwanted pregnancies or children they cannot care for. Fighting for freedom comes with huge perks, at least in Southern Cameroons and, in Southern Cameroons, free sex is one of those glorified perks. 

While there is a lull in the fighting, the government and the international community must not continue to be silent. Soldiers like separatist fighters are killing many people in rural areas. Most of the fighting has been exported to the rural areas and without any means to report actual numbers or who is to blame after such atrocities, many lives will be cut short, and the blood will continue to flow unnoticed and unreported. 

By Dr. Joachim Arrey in Toronto, Canada

For many years, many Southern Cameroonians knew that Amba fighters were their protectors as the country’s military pounded the two English-speaking regions of the country in a bid to quell an insurgency which has rattled the Yaoundé government.

The country’s English-speaking Diaspora stood firmly behind the poorly trained, undisciplined and under-resourced ragtag group of fighters which has succeeded to give the country’s military a run for its money.

At the beginning of the conflict which pitted the Yaoundé government against its English-speaking minority, Southern Cameroonians abroad thought it was an obligation for them to support the fighters on the ground to enable them stand up to the military considered by Southern Cameroonians as an army of occupation and a bully which needed to be taught a few hard lessons.

And those lessons were actually delivered to many soldiers in a manner that was far from being fair.

Thousands of soldiers were killed, with some being subjected to the worst inhumane treatment. Their heads were chopped off and sometimes their private parts were cut off in a drama designed by the separatists to strike fear in the minds of young French-speaking Cameroonian soldiers who joined the military just to earn a salary.

Thousands of army soldiers have been maimed due to the senseless war in the country’s two English-speaking regions and thousands are also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the atrocities they have committed and the death of a comrade in arms or that of an innocent civilian who had nothing to do with the war.

But the damage triggered by Amba fighters is not only human. Many pieces of military equipment have been destroyed by Amba fighters, especially over the last two years when the ragtag military tactics morphed from directly challenging the military into planting unidentified explosive devices on major roads and highways.

Ever since this tactic got thrown into the mix, the military has stopped dispatching many trucks to the region, though it still has a heavy military presence in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Amba fighters received praises from Southern Cameroonians, especially the Diaspora which has been the source of financing for the fighters.

But the once-upon-a-time heroes have morphed into villains who are doing a great job at kidnapping and killing the people they are supposed to be protecting.

Power, especially gun-enforced power, has gotten into the heads of the young fighters who are permanently alcohol-inflamed and under the influence of banned substances.

The guns, bought with money wired by the Diaspora, have become millstones around the civilian population’s neck, causing the locals to call on the Yaoundé government to protect them against their once admired ‘protectors’.

Instead of fighting army soldiers, Amba fighters are now either fighting against each other or killing Southern Cameroonians on ‘ground zero’ for reasons which cannot be explained by the various interim governments which have worked so hard to weaken the very insurgency they helped to manufacture.

It is almost every month that a new interim government comes to life, with a new president whose unexpressed ambition is to lay hands on money put together by the Diaspora, and the last president installed is called Chris Anu whose faction or interim government has lost its credibility because the president cum Man of God has tainted his own character and reputation. Poverty hardly breeds virtue and even men of God could be vulnerable if they did not have enough resources to have a decent life.

Chris Anu, who has been a member of almost every interim government since the beginning of the insurgency, remains a lightning rod for controversy, making it hard for Southern Cameroonians to sympathize with him when their ‘first lady’, his wife, lost her battle against cancer last week.

But it is on ‘ground zero’ that the disaster manufactured by Amba fighters is taking shape. Summary executions have been stepped up and kidnappings have become the order of the day, causing many Southern Cameroonians to flee the very region they had vowed to protect. What an irony!

Last Saturday, an old man whose name the Cameroon Concord News got as Mr. Ebage, 73, was gunned down in cold blood and in the presence of his children in Muyuka, a town some 10 km from Buea, the capital of the Southwest region.

The young Amba fighters who carried out the execution of this retired hospital nurse did not charge the victim with any crime nor did they give him a chance for him to defend himself against any allegations which might have been made against him.

He had been judged without his knowledge and his execution remains a tough challenge to his family members, many of whom have made up their minds to leave their beloved Southwest for good. The land of promise has become the land of summary executions for many Southern Cameroons.

Southern Cameroons is the only ‘country’ in the world wherein family members of a dead person have to pay thousands of dollars just to bury their dead.

 Strangely, these family members never receive a receipt for the payments they make and they cannot even protest when things go wrong. This has made many people to view the insurgency as a scam engineered to rob the people of their scarce resources.

Those who manufactured the insurgency had pompously told the world that Southern Cameroons would be the land of the free, but from every indication, freedom does not exist in that part of the world.

There is no freedom of speech as anybody who criticizes Amba fighters is rapidly deleted from the face of the earth and those who believe in federalism have been branded as blacklegs and death penalties are hanging over their heads like the Swords of Damocles.

The Southern Cameroonian population is really caught between the deep blue sea and devil. Amba fighters have issued a code of silence in the supposedly “the land of the free” and army soldiers are also implementing their own law.

The military enforced brutality is usually reduced once you get accused and hauled to the nearest jail where you are required to acknowledge a crime you never committed which, of course, would end up with you paying at least USD 500 for you to be released.

But Amba fighters have gone beyond peanuts. Once you get kidnapped by Amba fighters, know that your family will have to cough up thousands of dollars for you to come out alive from their “green jails”.

The insurgency has become a business and Amba fighters are outdoing the military when it comes to ransoms. The insurgency has created a new economy and the people are paying dearly for the pseudo-protection they are enjoying from people they do not know.

Those who bought weapons for the fighters are now paying ransoms and many now dread that phone call which might remind them of their mistakes.

Currently, some five priests are reflecting on their fate in unknown Amba jails for no crimes committed. They were whisked off some two weeks ago and Amba fighters, who have become experts at kidnapping, are asking for USD 100,000 which the Catholic church has clearly stated that it would not pay due to lack of funds.

The priests have now been left to their own devices and they do not know any fate Amba fighters have reserved for them.

The insurgency, designed to make things better for Southern Cameroonians, has become a massive nightmare to the population and there is no end in sight, as the region is awash with weapons.

Amba fighters have become the new masters, especially in rural areas. They are magistrates, lawyers, engineers, teachers, Men of God, local chiefs and councilors. One would think it takes time to train to become a lawyer or engineer, but the Amba training schools have reduced the London-based Rapid Results College to a child’s play as they are producing engineers and lawyers in weeks.

They may soon be producing medical doctors as the population’s health situation deteriorates and as the military bars government hospitals from treating wounded Amba fighters.

If Southern Cameroons must be that real land of promise, then those in control of Amba fighters must come up with new and innovative ways of controlling those fighters who are discrediting the insurgency. The protector has clearly become the villain and this is hurting.

Dr. Joachim Arrey in Canada