The media in French Cameroun in craven deference to the criminal Paul Biya regime in Yaoundé is not reporting news of Cameroon government military casualties in Southern Cameroons. In actuality, Cameroon government army soldiers are dying like flies- at least 3000 so far and many more are being wounded and crippled.

Having learned nothing from Sudan and South Sudan and from the current situation now in Ethiopia, the ethno fascist Biya cabal is proceeding pell-mell in its homicidal and doomed campaign to achieve mastery over English speaking Cameroonians.

We of the Cameroon Concord Group are of the opinion that Biya and his gang will not succeed. Southern Cameroonians will no longer accept to be ruled by a French Cameroun tribal, amoral, selfish and corrupt cesspool that is today’s La Republique du Cameroun.

Since all French Cameroonians understand and respond only to force, every Southern Cameroonian must encourage and support Ambazonia Revolutionary Fighters in their campaign to rid the Federal Republic of Ambazonia of the so-called French Cameroun colonial army soldiers. The Igbos and the Calabars of Nigeria including the Efiks that value their independence must be urged to maintain and step up their support for Southern Cameroons Self Defense forces.

It’s only when thousands of coffins arriving Yaoundé and Ebolowa reaches critical mass, when thousands more Francophone families must bury their sons and daughters — killed by Paul Biya — that the message will sink in.

The war in Southern Cameroons is the laboratory for French speaking Cameroonian’s ambition to keep Southern Cameroonians as second citizens forever, which is why Ambazonian fighters must not stop until every Francophone army soldier has fled the Ambazonia homeland or died there.

Beginning January 2022, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group would love to have the following headlines from our Amba fighters:

-Cameroon government soldier killed in roadside bomb attack

-A roadside bomb blast today killed one Francophone soldier and wounded another near Buea

-At least 500 BIR have died since the beginning of 2022

-40 Francophone soldiers were killed on the Bali-Batibo road when a driver swerved to avoid a roadside bomb explosion! The soldier’s death brings the number of Cameroon government military deaths in the Southern Cameroons war to 6000.

-A roadside bomb on the Ekok-Eyumojock highway destroys a Cameroonian military truck

-Attack on a Cameroon military convoy injures a sea of Cameroon government troops on a highway linking Kumba to Ekondo Titi.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Intended to be an honorary award since 1999, the people chosen to be the most significant in Cameroon and deep within the African continent have predominantly been men and women of English expression, indicative of either Commonwealth political and cultural clout, or simply English speaking parochialism. By routine Anglophone Prime Ministers in Cameroon get selected immediately after their appointments, regardless if they ever did any significant thing beyond sitting in the so-called Star Building and pretending to be running government business.

Just as prime movers and shakers like the late Cardinal Tumi, Simon Achidi Achu, John Fru Ndi, Tataw Eta Stephen, V.E. Mukete  missed being winners of the award, the title of Cameroon Concord Person of the Year has however been awarded to people the world remembers.

In December every year Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report decide on persons who generate the most news in the past 12 months and our readers vote to get the winner.

Cameroonian football legend Samuel Eto’o, Bishop Emeritus Francis Teke Lisinge, the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and former Nigerian Head of State, Goodluck Jonathan including  Cameroonian dictator Paul Biya have all won the award.

Last year Judith Nwana a strong advocate for human rights and a Steering Committee member of CHRI (Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative) emerged winner.

Our editorial team recently shortlisted 5 persons for this year’s award and the winner shall be made public on Decemeber 1, 2021 at midnight.

The list include Barrister Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, one of the lawyers representing President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the jailed leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government, and several other people arrested in connection with the Southern Cameroons crisis, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, Enow Ngashu, Director General of the National Football Academy, Prof Maurice Kamto of the MRC party and Archbishop Andrew Nkea of the Bamenda Eclessiastical Province.

SO, who will be Cameroon Concord Person Of The Year 2021?

Voting is only by email via: Cameroonconcordnews@gmail.com

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

The Guardian post of Nigeria lost credibility for attempting to cover the evils of Macron,Biya and Buhari on the people of Southern Cameroons and Taraba.

The ongoing armed conflict in the territory of the Southern Cameroons has finally redefined itself. It has redefined itself from a war simply of self-defense against the predatory onslaught of France through its vassal state of French Cameroun, to a decolonization war. It is a decolonization war against France, French Cameroun and its hawkish Bulu-Beti minority tribe. That tribe dominates and controls the government, the legislature, the judiciary, and the military in French Cameroun. It believes the people of the Southern Cameroons and their territory must remain imprisoned under French Cameroun colonization, spoliation, and occupation.

Macron and Biya unleashed the war on the Southern Cameroons under the subterfuge of maintaining a so-called “one and indivisible Republique du Cameroun.” But the territory of the Southern Cameroons, separate and distinct from the territory of French Cameroun, is firmly secured by international boundary treaties and is well delimited and demarcated. It is not, and has never at any time been, part of the territory of French Cameroun.

Nigeria a friendly neighbor is being used by France to serve their interest in the Cameroons. On the 10th of November 2020, Buhari was in Paris with Macron shortly after French Cameroun soldiers illegally entered into Taraba State (Nigeria) for unknown reasons and caused havoc on the people living in that community. This shameful heinouscrime perpetuated by Paul Biya’s military Junta on part of another sovereign country was reported by the Daily post of Nigeria on the 22nd of October 2021. It is believed Paris invited Buhari to cool down the tension and influence him to come up with a whitewash story through another news tabloid in Nigeria so as to continue to manipulate the people of Taraba and the world.

Following dubious reports received, as published in the  Guardian Post of Nigeria that Ambazonian fighters invaded Taraba and caused havoc, killing 11 people, your Interim government wants to make the following remarks.

1.)           We have not taken this war to La Republique du Cameroun, there is no reason whatsoever for our Liberation fighters to take it to a friendly neighboring country. Our liberation fighters have no motive or interest to invade another friendly Anglo-Saxon country.

2.)           If such invasion took place, indeed the Daily Post of Nigeria has earlier reported the invasion of Taraba by LRC military (Nigerian activists on social media have also accused Cameroun of invading Taraba),it  is clearly a well thought out plan from France with a supporting role formBuhari’s regime, and firmly executed by the French Cameroun military so asto get the Nigerian government directly involved in the ongoing genocidal war in Ambazonia.

As of October 2021, about forty thousand civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than a million persons have fled to Nigeria and other countries as refugees, and millions have been made IDPs. More that 600 towns and villages and countless homes have been burnt down by French Cameroun troops. Hundreds of females have been raped (a good number deliberately infected with HIV and other STDs), scores of children killed in targeted killings, food and food crops and livestock destroyed to impose conditions of famine, water sources defiled and polluted to provoke a pestilence, and mass graves punctuate the landscape. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun military which systematically continues to kill women, teenagers, and even babies, the elderly, the infirm. Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Paul Biya and Buhari bears direct responsibility for these heinous crimes.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to assume its responsibility under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to deal with French Cameroun’s colonial war in the Southern Cameroons. In the circumstances, it is not inconceivable that the Southern Cameroons abandons the self-defence posture to which it has so far restrained itself, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. It may eventually go on the offensive and broaden its offensive posture by targeting economic and social infrastructure in French Cameroun that support that country’s war effort, in the same way social and economic infrastructure in the Southern Cameroons continues to be targeted by the French Cameroun army. The objective of this new offensive would be to bring it home to Macron and Biya that their fanciful claim that “l’Ambazonieestcamerounaise” (Ambazonia belongs to Cameroun) is a pipe dream and that pursuing it will be very painful for French Cameroun in 2022 in the same way as the French claim that “l’Algerieestfranaise” (Algeria belongs to France) was for France in 1962.  The people of the Southern Cameroons strongly reject any idea or suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the Southern Cameroons is an area under French influence given that the Southern Cameroons does not have and has never had any ties, colonial or otherwise, with France.  

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Southern Cameroons Interim Government Statement on the Assassination of Tataw Brandy in Bamenda

Yesterday, Friday 12 November 2021, an armed rogue, Fagha Alain, employed by the crime syndicate in Yaoundé, opened fire on a vehicle at New Road Nkwen Bamenda, Northern Zone of Ambazonia, killing a seven-year-old toddler, Tataw Brandy. Brandy was on her way from school at about 1 pm local time, and she had a long and abundant life ahead of her. At this challenging time, the thoughts, and prayers of the Ambazonian people are with young Brandy’s family.

French Cameroun has a well-attested history, returning to the 1970s of assassinating children in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia). Yesterday’s shocking murder follows a long line of other cowardly assassinations by Biya’s hired assassins going around in army fatigues. This latest execution comes barely one month after a Gendarme shot dead 5-year-old Caro Ndialle in Buea.

Yesterday’s shooting has brought to light the truth about last year’s assassination of school children in Kumba and several other cases of the slaying of children in our Homeland by Mr Biya’s terrorist colonial troops. Biya and his tribal regime lack the courage to take responsibility for their cruel crimes in each case, and deception is their stock in trade.

The Interim Government of Ambazonian condemns these war crimes in the strongest terms possible. We extend profound gratitude to the people of Bamenda who came out in their numbers and protested forcefully in the face of this barbarism and intimidation. When writing this statement, three other Southern Cameroonians were attacked by trigger-happy La Republique du Cameroun forces as they marched to the colonial governor’s office with the lifeless body of Tataw Brandy. The Interim Government of Ambazonia is calling on the people of the Northern Zone of Ambazonia to continue with demonstrations and protests over the coming days.

As a government, our position on schools has not changed. We have publicly observed that only parents can determine if the conditions are conducive for Southern Cameroons children to go to school. The Interim Government wants children to study in a safe and peaceful environment, not where Biya’s marauding assassins put children in harm’s way.

French Cameroun is a nation that has no respect for human lives and international norms. But we must continue our fight for freedom and justice with the belief that we shall overcome. We must remain bold and not succumb to intimidation or fear.

Thank you, God bless the little soul of Brandy Tataw. God Bless You All.

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Millions of both French and Southern Cameroonians have known no other president than Mr. Paul Biya. More than half of Cameroon’s population were born or raised under Biya’s nearly 40-year authoritarian rule, and they have been hit hardest by the nation’s ever growing poverty and corruption and faltering education system.

Today, millions of Cameroonians are deeply worried about what could happen if Biya passes from the scene. That possibility was on every dinner table in Cameroon when the 88-year-old Biya underwent a major surgery in Geneva, Switzerland and was gone for a month and he has now spent several months in Yaoundé out of the public eye after returning home.

Interestingly, even with Biya in Yaoundé, Cameroonians still feel that they are a hair’s breadth away from complete and total chaos as many embittered by what they say is the Biya regime’s constant denial of democracy.

Now, many fear the unknown could be worse.  The senseless war in Southern Cameroons that has claimed the lives of some 10,000 Cameroonians, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths, a divided nation, numerous Boko Haram incursions, high rates of poverty and criminality in all major towns and cities, but with Biya gone there will be looting and killing on the streets.

Fear of the unknown is a safeguard that the Biya regime and his ruling CPDM party have intentionally cultivated. Biya has long prevented any political figure in the country (even from within his own party) from gaining enough prominence to stand as an alternative and he has rejected calls to name a vice president who could be seen as a successor.

Correspondingly, his ruling CPDM crime syndicate regularly dishes out warnings that without Biya, the way is open to power for political adventurism.

Biya reportedly told one of his top aides recently that only Jesus Christ knows who will be his successor confirming claims at home and abroad that democracy would never determine who comes after him.

Since his return from Geneva and with age greatly telling on him, Biya has not said whether he will run for a new term in presidential elections due in 2025 — but top CPDM officials said recently that they want him to and they will be appealing for a national consensus for Biya to seek a new term in 2025.

But Cameroonians’ uncertainty over the future only underscores how deeply Biya and his ruling CPDM party are entrenched in their lives.

The former prime minister, who became president when his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned in 1982, has significantly destroyed every developmental structure that he inherited and he has auctioned the country to corrupt French investors. The result in recent years has been high rates of poverty, criminality and homosexuality.

To be sure, wealth in Cameroon has gone only to a small group of Francophone political elite from Biya’s Beti Ewondo tribe, while the Cameroonian middle class has been crushed under high inflation and other woes.

Frankly speaking, the generation raised under Mr. Biya has had a tough time even entering the economy. Unemployment has hovered for more than three decades pushing many young people to migrate to Europe and North America.  Democratic practices and freedoms have regressed and opposition parties are little more than figureheads set up by the Biya regime.

In Biya’s 39 years as head of state, elections are routinely rigged or fraught with irregularities and gendarmerie brutality is common. Security agencies hold wide powers and top military officials in the police, gendarmerie and the army also have considerable political influence. The result is a generation that is deeply frustrated, and while millions of Cameroonian young men and women will grumble about Biya, at the same time Biya is the only one they can turn to.

Over the last decade, the politically docile French speaking Cameroonians have been protesting in Douala and Yaoundé camping out to press demands for jobs and to air personal grievances. However, many of these protests don’t criticize Biya, but rather appeal to him for help. Some of the suffering Francophone protesters shout slogans accusing Biya’s close aides within the regime and the ruling CPDM party of stripping authority from Biya amid his illness and old age.

Indeed, Biya is the only one who can save the Cameroonian youth from their predicaments. But he’s own family is crumbling right in front of him! He has all along been isolated from the Cameroonian people and at 88, he can no longer make a difference.

Isolation from their leaders is something French speaking Cameroonians have never complained about but have always blamed Southern Cameroonians for raising the issue about Biya’s prolonged absence in the country.  Today, the growing sense of an administration out of touch with people’s problems is eroding Biya’s image. If economic and social reforms don’t reach the people, then those policies have not succeeded. The Beti media gurus on Vision 4 are very much unaware of this assertion.

In Biya’s Cameroon, you can bang your head against the door for years seeking a government job, and still lose out to an ill-equipped rival who has better CPDM connections.  We of the Concord Group understand that this is the widespread feeling among the young in Cameroon that a job depends on who you know, not what you know.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Cameroon Concord News Group has just learned of the explosion in one of the University of Buea’s Amphitheater. 

According to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s permanent correspondent in Buea, the explosion has injured some students and there is total panic in the University.

University of Buea authorities have not yet issued a release regarding this act of terrorism which targets young, ambitious, and determined Cameroonians who simply want to acquire knowledge in order to have the tools that will enable them to serve their country in the future.

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board of Directors has met in an extraordinary session and has roundly condemned such unprovoked acts of violence and intimidation which are intended to “roll back our youths and children into the dark ages.”

“We have been duly informed that a bomb has gone off in the University of Buea, Cameroon, wounding some students. This is an act of violence and intimidation that is unnecessary. We cannot be working very hard to roll back our own children and people into the dark ages,” the Board Chairman said

“We are headed in the wrong direction. Schools are places where students acquire knowledge to serve their nation and a place where terrorists should not be using to express their political views. While the Cameroon Concord News Group agrees that Southern Cameroonians have faced marginalization over the last 60 years in Cameroon, it cannot allow people who act under the cover of darkness to intimidate children and students. Without knowledge, no country will develop. We cannot bring this terror into our schools. The Cameroon Concord News Group will use its news platforms to bring those who are hurting students and children in any part of Southern Cameroons to shame. Our schools are not battlefields, they are sacred locations for the acquisition of knowledge,” the Board Chairman said.

 “Those who are behind this senseless and shameful act must put an end to any other plans they may have. The University of Buea is the hope of millions of Southern Cameroonians and destroying its property or hurting its students borders on the absurd. The University authorities and government officials should take appropriate measures to ensure that such acts of barbarism do not get imported into our universities,” a visibly annoyed Board Chairman stressed.

“This act of barbarism in our university is uncalled for. There are talks currently under way to bring together all the factions involved in the Southern Cameroons crisis and the Toronto retreat was very much welcome by millions of Cameroonians who strongly believe that such forums should be organized to ensure that the different factions talk to each other with a view to finding a long-lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis,” the Board Chairman said.

“Now that talks are underway, it is preposterous to continue with the killing of innocent civilians. It is wrong to kill our own people and it is even stupid to intimidate and hurt students who are the future of our country. Southern Cameroonians are hurting themselves by bringing bombs to schools and universities. The talks that are underway should serve as an opportunity for all and sundry to express their views so that the final documents will bear the opinions of all the factions. We should be encouraging our children to go to school at this time after more than four years of education black-out. No nation ever develops when its people are not properly educated,”  the Board Chairman said. 

Meanwhile, another explosive hit a taxi in Buea in the morning, killing the driver. For some time now, bombs have been going off in many parts of Buea, but nobody ever thought such an act could be committed in Cameroon’s citadel of knowledge.

By Isong Asu in London

It was supposed to be a very good week for Cameroon’s first family as the 88-year-old President Paul Biya celebrated his 39 years in office on November 6. Biya, who has been Cameroon’s president since 1982, is rarely seen in public these days. However, it has turned out to be a terrible week for the Cameroonian president. Brenda Biya, the first daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Biya is at war with her parents, presidential aides and has reportedly disowned her parents in a video she posted on social media.

By some strange happenstance, both the Biya family and the communications department at the presidency of the republic are not denying any of the details made public by Brenda Biya and they are also not saying whether the president and Brenda’s mum Chantal Biya are now directly threatened.

The president’s daughter has in the past made disturbing revelations about her parents but this time around she invoked some nasty aspects of her upbringing by parents who are only interested in political power and how to enhance their political image and concluded her story with the crisis in Southern Cameroons blaming all the atrocities on her dad.

Ordinarily, this was supposed to be a family affair but it is now connected to president Biya under whom the ruling CPDM crime syndicate keeping him in power is also in disarray. In her recent outing, Brenda Biya presented herself to the public as a young Cameroonian woman more sinned against than sinning. But her involvement in drugs and alcohol has now escaped the boundaries of personal or family affair to the public domain.

There is no way the Brenda Biya factor would not be used as evidence against President Biya as someone who has always had problems managing every other spaces of leadership. Frankly speaking, the Brenda Biya tragedy demonstrates how Biya’s leadership is leading to the breaking-up of the country. The party level is worse and Biya is the chairman. Today, they tell you the ruling party wants his eldest son Franck Biya to succeed the father and by morning of the following day, they same party tells you the CPDM is appealing for a national consensus for Biya to seek a new term in 2025.

The Francophone Beti Ewondo patriarch is now contending with disarray at both the domestic and international fronts. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group feel sorry for Mr. Paul Biya and we are aware that even the most sympathetic Biya followers know that this is no ordinary crisis.

It is shocking and difficult to understand how all these might be happening to the president’s daughter until she is now being moved to a psychiatric home and the president is totally unable to address the situation.

Very early in the life of the Biya regime, the late First Lady Jeanne Irene Biya made pronouncements that struck the chord with the Cameroonian people. The idea of her husband hijacked by a vicious cabal has since become the staple of the public sphere in Cameroon. Ever since her untimely death, nothing has been done to demonstrate anything to the contrary. The Biya family is crumbling at catastrophic rapidity at a time of grave, generalized insecurity across the Cameroonian nation.

For a leader who spends all his time abroad precisely at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva to end up like this, is indeed shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. This begs the question:  what is that other thing that takes the little time President Biya has left for governance that disable him from keeping these sorts of creases from spilling over beyond his control to the public square?

To answer this question, you must first of all get an understanding of the mindset of the man on top. Biya enjoys conflict particularly those escalating to the proportion they do under him.

However, mindful of the fact that president Biya has nearly unlimited resources for managing fissures at whatever level, this whole Brenda Biya saga paints a picture of a man who has led himself down. Maybe he thinks history is too distant for him to worry about.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

English speaking journalists in Cameroon are reportedly confronting a growing spate of military violence and in many cases arrest over the last five years ever since the 88-year-old President Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. The fraternity hangs in balance with many questioning if truth is meaningful in Cameroon under Biya.

Soon after the Francophone dictator declared war against the English speaking minority in Southern Cameroons, his political acolytes including Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo realized that the war in Southern Cameroons can only be sustain by restricting freedom of speech and expression deep within the English speaking media community. And five years after the war in Southern Cameroons started, English speaking journalists are caught in a limbo not just about how to report but also what to report.

Many English speaking journalists have been killed, many detained and many now fear for personal safety including right to report the facts, while others are intimidated, harassed and even charged under draconian and sedition laws. The Francophone dominated army and memers of the Cameroonian Secret Service are threatening some aggressively-the list is long, Samuel Wazizi, Mimi Mefo, Tah Jarvis Mai, Asu Vera Eyere and Kingsley Fomonyuy Njoka.

According to the exiled leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Vice President Dabney Yerima, several cases of violence against Southern Cameroons journalists were recorded from January 2019 till July 2021. Human Rights Watch experts say press freedom has further diminished after the emergence of the all powerful Minister-Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

The last five years have seen a dramatic rise in violence against English speaking Cameroonian journalists, while they were covering stories on different aspects of the Southern Cameroons war. The state owned Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) media house has also become a tool for trolling or threatening not just English speaking journalists, but anyone, be it someone criticizing the poor preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations, someone talking about the need for a new leadership in Yaounde, or anyone critical of the government policies.

Many renowned Southern Cameroonian journalists and media personalities have now shifted their platforms from the pursuit of truth to praise singing (See our report on Ashu Theodore Nyenty).  Many more are now using pen names and are writing for independent media houses abroad while some have resorted to social media as an easy tool to put forth their side of the stories.

Experts say after the rise of Paul Atanga Nji as Minister of Territorial Administration, there is a sense of polarized environment where English speaking journalists find themselves more divided. While many like Ayukogem Steven Ojong, Sone Bayern, Charles Ebune and Ashu Nyenty are still confused if it’s all about patronizing the popular rather than speaking about the unpopular. The question remains how long someone can remain ignorant in a country like Cameroon where more people have access to international TV channels and social media than access to welfare schemes, healthcare and housing. But the never ending or perhaps unwanted ruling CPDM party debates find more space in Cameroon media platforms rather than the ones that make difference.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Interim Government Statement on the Leadership Retreat in Toronto, Canada

Fellow Southern Cameroonians/ Ambazonians,

A Retreat of leaders and other stakeholders of the Southern Cameroons liberation quest, facilitated by the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations (CDN), took place from October 30th to November 1st, 2021, in Toronto, Canada, and your interim government was present. The closed sessions were focused on defining the problem, building bridges, teamwork, internal dialogue, trust-building and principles for negotiations and consensus-building. The debates were frank, heated but focused solely on the dignity of our people and the future of Ambazonia.

It is regrettable to note that while we were working hard for the Ambazonian people during the retreat, some of us were busy misinforming our people through social media platforms. The Interim Government of Ambazonia is by this statement putting on record that;

1.            La Republique du Cameroun had nothing to do with the Retreat.

2.            The IG has never been against the Swiss Government’s initiative to facilitate a mediation process to end the war in our country. However, no one endorsed the Swiss initiative in Toronto. The Interim Government made it clear to the British, Canadian, and Swiss diplomats present at the retreat that the people of Ambazonia will not go into an initiative that lacks clarity and objectivity.

3.            We made it clear to the Swiss and other partners that we shall ONLY ENDORSE the Swiss mediation when it opens to other partners for a MULTI-MEDIATION PROCESS where the parties will operate internationally recognized best practices in matters of arbitration.

4.            We made it clear to the Swiss government and the international community that as a people, we prefer to be addressed as Southern Cameroons or Ambazonia, not North-West and South-West regions of Cameroun. We also clarified that we are NOT the political opposition to the government of Mr Paul Biya.

We know what Ambazonians want–Absolute Independence. We shall only make decisions and take actions that guarantee the attainment of this objective. We are pleased to report that doors for consultation and collaboration were opened in Toronto. In the coming weeks, the IG will issue a final detailed report on the Retreat.

Thank You and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

As the dust from the Toronto Meeting settles, the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Editor-in-Chief, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, decided to interview a key observer of the Cameroon political landscape, Dr. Joachim Arrey, the Executive Director of the Global Think Thank for Africa, a not-for-profit public relations firm, who was in Toronto at the time of the meeting and kept a special eye on the deliberations.

Cameroon Concord News: It is always a pleasure talking with you. You were in Toronto when the meeting went underway. How was the atmosphere out there? 

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Thank you for granting me this opportunity to share my thoughts on the Toronto meeting which brought together key factions of the Southern Cameroons crisis that is in its fifth year and has been spreading death and destruction among the people of Southern Cameroons. Regarding the atmosphere in Toronto with regards to the meeting, thousands of Southern Cameroonians in Toronto have been looking forward to this meeting given that it will forever serve as the groundwork for further talks. I did speak with many Cameroonians and those with whom I met in affluent neighborhoods like Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon, Etobicoke, and others had one clear message – It is time to start talking if the Yaounde government is ready for frank and fruitful negotiations. Toronto has a huge rich Southern Cameroonian population which really wants the war to come to an end, but they want the war to come to an end not because they want to continue with the current  political dispensation in the country which is predicated upon hyper-centralization and control, but because they want genuine political transformation in the country which will enable Cameroonians  around the world to return home with their money with a view to giving the country’s ailing economy a shot in the arm. Cameroonians in Toronto may not belong to the same shade of political opinion, but they do agree that there will never be a military victory in Southern Cameroons. Some stand for secession and they are very vocal about it, while others hold that a federally united and indivisible Cameroon is possible and will very likely bring peace, stability, and prosperity to millions of Cameroonians if the government displays good faith and trust. However, despite the divergencies, there is a common thread that runs through these shades of opinion – war is not good for the country and peace through genuine talks is a huge possibility. 

Cameroon Concord News: Once news of the meeting became public, many people, especially extremists who think that secession is the only answer, said it was being sponsored by the Yaounde government and that those who were attending the forum had been compromised. What is your view?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: I also read a lot on this on social media, but because I had details about the meeting which many of those contesting the holding of such a meeting did not have, I was indeed unfazed. I would like to let you know that whatever you want to do in life, go ahead and do it, especially if it will help humanity. Don’t forget that some people’s stock in trade is sabotage. Such people will even sabotage their own progress. Why would the Yaounde government which is facing mounting financial problems send people on a retreat to Toronto, one of the most expensive cities in the world? The quality of the countries and organizations involved in the preparation and implementation of the Toronto meeting speaks to the world’s determination to end this dirty war which is consuming youthful lives in a region of the continent which needs human and financial resources to give its development efforts a real boost. Some of the factions opted to boycott the event while others were deemed unfit to attend because of their uncompromising stance against the holding of any conference that might result in peace and security in Cameroon. It should be recalled that no war ends without talks and negotiations. The First World War ended with the Treaty of Versailles. The Second World War ended with the Yalta and Potsdam Agreements. Those who are against talks are clearly against peace and the people should consider them as enemies of peace. The meeting organizers included the U.S. State Department, the Vatican, Canada, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Norway, the United Nations, and Greenclee which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. The quality of those who attended the meeting also inspires hope and I am confident that more of such conferences will be held and through such talks Cameroon will be pulled back from the brink of collapse. Let us not forget that for years Cameroonians across the globe have been scanning the horizon in search of hope and, based on what I know, the Toronto meeting is that bright spot which is telling Cameroonians that a solution to this senseless war is in the offing. There were informative and educative presentations by experienced Canadian conflict prevention and conflict management experts and discussions on the Irish experience regarding the liberation war involving the IRA and Sein Fein against the British were really edifying.

Cameroon Concord News: So, what was the objective of the Toronto meeting?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The objective of the meeting was to help all the factions in the destructive war in Southern Cameroons to gain a better understanding of the situation and to ensure that the message of peace being promoted by internal and external stakeholders is clearly and fully understood by all the participants, including the Cameroon government which is using diplomatic channels to call for peace. All those who attended the meeting agreed that a military victory would be impossible in Southern Cameroons. If Southern Cameroonians need peace, they must be open to the idea of talks. No matter how hard the government and separatist fighters kill each other, they must know that they will at some point talk to each other to end the madness. As humans, we must rise above our egos if peace must return to the people of Southern Cameroons who have been suffering for five years because of a disagreement that could have been easily dealt with. There is nothing wrong in complaining. It was incumbent upon the government to listen to teachers and lawyers so as to better understand their needs. If the government had acted wisely, we would have avoided this situation which has unfortunately sent thousands of Cameroonians to an early grave. However, this is not the time to apportion blame. We should be forward-looking. The Toronto meeting has succeeded in its overall objective which was to bring together significant Southern Cameroonian groups in the Diaspora and on Ground Zero. I therefore think that there is hope on the horizon. 

Cameroon Concord News: So, what next?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The Toronto meeting is just the beginning of a long and bumpy journey which will surely lead to a peaceful resolution. It will take time, but like other countries, Cameroon will emerge from its own ruins. The mistakes of the past have been understood and the lessons of this war are staring us all in the eyes. There is no point pretending that it does not hurt. When we see the number of people who have died, we all should be ashamed of ourselves that we lacked the courage and political will to do the right thing. Disagreement is as old as man and the only and surest way to address any disagreement is for the parties to come together to work out a few things. In this regard, the government must show leadership. Over the last five years, the Yaounde government has failed in its duties. It should be the one urging Cameroonians to work together, but in the Southern Cameroonian case, it had to bring out weapons to kill its own people. I see many estimates of those killed because of this war and whether the estimates are small or big, one life is very important. Nobody should die because politicians think they can perpetuate themselves in power. We have lost thousands of our soldiers in a very short time, and many have been maimed and scarred for life. Is this war necessary? Similarly, all the other factions which did not participate in the Toronto meeting should join the train of peace. They must stop the grandstanding. Life hasn’t a duplicate and those who are dying in the killing fields of Southern Cameroons will not be returning anytime soon. We all must work towards the resolution of this problem which has become a millstone around the government’s neck.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Joachim Arrey, for your insight.

Dr. Joachim Arrey: It is always a pleasure for me to share my thoughts with you.