The Toronto meeting is finally over, with warring factions and stakeholders agreeing on key issues and the way forward.

The meeting, which brought together representatives of various groups in the Diaspora and on Ground Zero, has ended its deliberations and below is the official statement from THE COALITION FOR DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATIONS (CDN)

TORONTO STATEMENT

Leaders and stakeholders of the Southern Cameroons met for a High-Level Leadership Retreat held from October twenty nine to November first, two thousand and twenty- one;

Reiterating their firm determination to ensure that the aspirations of the people of the Southern Cameroons are realized, through dialogue and internationally mediated negotiations that address the root causes, agreed as follows:

1. Improve Dialogue and Collaboration within the Leadership of the Struggle

The leaders and stakeholders recognizing the strength in diversity and collective engagement, oneness,

Agreed to:

-Work together to build trust, respect, tolerance, and courtesy as we work towards consensus.

-Commit to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Communications etiquette and the use of social media that would be elaborated.

2. Safeguarding education, access for humanitarian aid and human rights

Agreed to:

-Promote the right of children to education, including through community schools.

-Encourage parents to consider safety and security conditions in making educational choices for school children.

-Support provision of access for humanitarian workers and assistance to all victims of the armed conflict and call on aid workers to abide by international humanitarian law, especially in armed conflicts.

3. Guiding Principles for Negotiation

Agreed to:

-Recognize the importance of collective engagement in matters of negotiations founded on trust.

-Accept to explore and enhance avenues to build a team for internal and external negotiations.

-Create space to build from their different strategies to engage in external negotiations as one entity, representing the people of the Southern Cameroons and their ultimate interest.

4. Framework for International Mediation

The leaders and stakeholders discussed the ongoing Switzerland-led facilitation process and the lack of progress and commitment from the Government of Cameroon and agreed to:

-Work together to ensure international mediations are credible.

-Engage in an effort to improve the internationally mediated process facilitated by the Government of Switzerland, including adding like-minded partners. reconvene to reassess progress in alignment with the collective aspiration of the people of the Southern Cameroons.

While the leaders and stakeholders are working on the elaboration of the resolutions of the retreat, they collectively applauded the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations (CDN) for providing the space for these frank discussions and committed to work with the CDN to build synergy. They called on the CDN to facilitate another meeting within the shortest possible time to discuss more substantively on the relevant issues raised in this retreat.

DONE IN TORONTO, CANADA ON NOVEMBER 1, 2021

STAKEHOLDERS: GLOBAL TAKUMBENG, SCAWOL, SCEW, SNWOT, THE CONSORTIUM, SCNC, AGOVC/ADF, IG-CARE, AMF, 7 KATA, PSALMS 91, THE TERMINATORS OF AMBAZONIA, SCCOP,AIPC, IPOA, AYC, SCYC, SCAAF, WCA, DAC, CHRDA, CHRI, AYAH FOUNDATION REACH OUT, PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE REFUGEES, IDPS, BFU, BCA, INTER-RELIGIOUS FORUM, TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES

THE COALITION FOR DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATIONS (CDN), IS A UNITED STATES BASED INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION (NGO) WHOSE GOAL IS TO FACILITATE DIALOGUE AND SEEK A NEGOTIATED RESOLUTION AND AN END TO THE CONFLICT IN THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS

This past week, the President of SOBA UK laid out a forceful case for the importance of unity and strong moral character in SOBA UK, his ability to continue on the successful path of SOBA UK President Emeritus Ako Arrey, and the threat that a Midlands chapter would pose to the great SOBA UK family. Did President Egbe Franklin – and his fellow Sasse Old Boys at the 2021 Residential  Convention who echoed his points – do so successfully?  We of the Cameroon Concord News Group think the 2021 Convention at St. Georges Park was a huge success.

Both Egbe Franklin’s convention declaration and the convention as a whole clearly were pitched toward the entire SOBA UK family and even some other Cameroonian groups, particularly in English speaking Cameroon . From the perspective of all the guests including Cameroon’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Egbe Franklin and his Sasse Old Boys led by Joe Foncha performed brilliantly.

Compared to past conventions, SOBA UK’s AGM held via zoom and was comparatively short and provided SOBA UK members enough time to concentrate on the Convention proper. We gathered that Egbe Franklin’s delivery was fluid and heartfelt during the AGM.

The rest of the convention at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent went off without hitches or glitches. Other leading Sobans including Chief Dr. Daniel Asua, Dr Enow Humphery and the Chairman of the 2021 organising committee Obale Ebai also spoke effectively and with great rhetoric on the passing to eternity of senior SOBA Sessekou John Tabi.

Overall, the SOBA UK 2021 Residential  Convention sent a strong message that Sasse Old Boys are firmly grounded in their traditions and values and will not make any concessions to any dissident group. To be sure, SOBA UK can be trusted with the development of Sasse College, they can revive prosperity among its members and distribute its benefits more widely to students currently in the academic establishment back home. They intend to increase bereavement package and institute greater social unity.

Holding an AGM before the convention was a huge gamble for the president and his vice, but the success which can now be assessed following the outcome paints a picture of two young SOBA UK leaders with a vision.

SOBA UK has had a good run under Egbe Franklin. Many of SOBA UK best qualities were on display at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent and in Egbe Franklin’s speech. We of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are hoping we’ll have more conventions like that in the future.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Our dear sky daddy,aka Heavenly Father has given all of us life.That life is sacred.He has placed so much value in  life by commanding that “thou shall not kill”All we have to do is develop,harness,improve on this life so that we can present our bodies to him holy,acceptable as a living sacrifice.

God gives a chance to a little girl to live,grow and eventually contribute to society.A mature man,well equipped with arms handed to him by a rock state decides to prematurely terminate the life of our baby.

A Police officer 9 months ago had beaten to death a motorcycle rider at Bellow Foncha,Bamenda still on control palaver.If sanctions have to come from the delinquent state it will never.There’s complicity in the action of state and it agents in devaluing lives leaving the people to fight their battles.

All we now see is a huge machinery of defence and justification from some colleagues and Yaounde hierarchy, no sympathy,no excuses but provocative words blaming the lady,driver etc.What warranted  the release of bullets.

We know that the main issue in a control is not whether the driver has got all the papers but whether he has given money.We systematically arrived at an unfortunate level whereby money must be given, papers or not.We don’t eat documents they say.Officially carrying arms is now a license to kill.Let the state proof us wrong.

By Chief Charles A. Taku

Rejoinders to well researched write-ups provide helpful feedback on how the reading public appreciates an article from any credible publication. A rejoinder also offers an opportunity for any person who is the subject of a detailed investigative report to defend themselves or present contrary facts if they deem any part of a publication inaccurate or biased.  Under the title “Unmasking Barrister Emmanuel Agbor Ashu”, Cameroon Concord News Group made public a report on 25 September 2021 on all its media outlets.

The article was frank, candid and also provided a thoughtful key to understanding the dubious role currently being played by Barrister Agbor Ashu deep within the Southern Cameroons struggle and our readership has heaped praises for its meticulousness. However and by some strange happenstance, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu has taken issue with the report. But instead of presenting a rational rejoinder countering the arguments raised for the better understanding of the public, the French Cameroun based man of law has resorted to Facebook and TV studios in French Cameroun to present alternative truths and launched vicious and malicious attacks on the credibility of the Cameroon Concord News Group and its cream of well trained media experts.

Recently, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu said somewhat ridiculously, that the Cameroon Concord News Group‘s story on his exploits and treachery was akin to blackmail. This begs the question; does the barrister understand what blackmail is? His self-declared importance in a third-division enclave like Douala has given him the false impression that rational Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora would waste valuable time, money and energy on blackmailing a ruffian and unreliable loose cannon like him.

Barrister Emmanuel Ashu has spent the last few days reciting his overhyped and outdated pitiful so-called achievements to readers on Facebook and other social media platforms rather than address abundant and humiliating facts unpacked in our report.

The barrister has a reputation for making a mess out of every situation. And he has lived up to that standing again with flying colours. Demonstrating both his desperation and unfortunate inclination towards lies telling, over the last week, the barrister wrote amongst many incoherent statements that, “is it journalism to bundle a heap of lies and defamatory assertions spiced with hatred about a person you know nothing about?… I am a legal icon with a proven track record backed by 38 years of very legal practice….I am the best criminal lawyer in Cameroon…Politically, founding father of the SDF…etc.”.

Our flat write up stated that “Barrister Emmanuel Ashu requested that the Interim Government of Ambazonia(The IG) pay him CFA 2.5 billion, buy him a new car, and furnish an office in Douala for him; as compensation to lead a potential legal defense for the NERA10.” Barrister Ashu has still not challenged the correctness of this report. Instead, he has presented a lousy and farfetched excuse that he asked for CFA 2 billion from Sako and the IG to defend the NERA10 in Yaoundé. He revealed, somewhat misleadingly, that his primitive and cheap design for the NERA 10 was putting together a team of 10 lawyers to work for two years. How did he know that the lawsuit against the accused would last two years? We of this publication are calling on Barrister Agbonde to set the records straight by publishing his communications on this matter with the Ambazonia Interim Government.

The report inter alia stated that in the early days of the SDF, the barrister took Chairman John Fru Ndi to his village in Manyu for a visit. The SDF Chairman “did not spend an hour in Ewelle village because Barrister Ashu had nowhere to host the visiting SDF delegation.” The man of law has neither refuted this claim nor presented documents as evidence that he owns a dwelling in his village. As a man of law, Barrister Ashu is aware that one persuades a judge or an audience with hard evidence, not hot air on a TV studio or Facebook posts.

Cameroon Concord News Group’s reporter in Douala indicated that in 2015, she met Barrister Emmanuel Ashu in “unpardonably tattered shoes, a pair of trousers with countless patches in them, a dreadful body odour, and he looked desperately hungry”. Again, Maitre Ashu as he loves being referred to in French Cameroun has not refuted this claim. Last week, the ‘Senior Barrister’ was spotted wearing a coat of many colours on a French Cameroun TV appearing like Petit Pays where he put up a less-than-spirited defense of his record and integrity. To be accurate, Maitre Ashu on that stage simply needed a band like the Sans Visa to give him the full status of a pro Biya comedian.

It is common knowledge that under Paul Biya’s CPDM crime syndicate, standards and patriotism are in very short supply.  But the fact that Barrister Emmanuel Ashu now claims to be the best criminal lawyer in Cameroun is a considerable worry that cannot be dismissed as sheer flippancy. His record tells a completely different story and like our Douala City correspondent rightly puts it, “during his more than 30 years career, he has either been caught committing the same errors or falling into spectacular new ones.” This now explains why he is always around television and radio houses pontificating on political matters that bring him nothing in return.

Our report was unambiguous that Barrister Emmanuel Ashu belongs to an unenviable club of Manyu citizens in their sixties who have not contributed an iota of development to their villages. A close acquaintance of the barrister has confided in our Douala Bureau Chief over the last few days that the barrister is a symbol of ridicule within his clan due to his financial inadequacy and unreliable tendencies.

The barrister has also not rebutted our report that he “owns” a scam of a political party in French Cameroun while claiming to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Ambazonians. The barrister has now confirmed that he stands for a Confederation in the Cameroons, which is wholly inconsistent with the vision of the people of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. The $50,000 question is: why has it taken the man of law five years to make this position public?

Late Barrister Ben Muna, Barrister Halle Nico, Barrister Akere Muna, and many other Southern Cameroonian geniuses have distinguished themselves as legal giants on the national and global stage but never arrogated the title of Senior Barrister to themselves. For Barrister Emmanuel Ashu, a riff-raff and legal embarrassment to paint himself as such, betrays some ignorance and a lack of understanding of the Anglo-Saxon academic and professional traditions.

Agbonde Emmanuel Ashu has failed to present to both Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News a rejoinder that persuades the public and our readers, in his own words, that this publication had purposely or inadvertently published material that is inaccurate about his person.

Ever since our publication, the barrister has been lurching from one emotional crisis to another, and he is patently not in control of his mind. It is rather intriguing how the man of law has the time and energy to process puerile adventures on Facebook and TV studios but has not the discipline and composure to produce an intelligible response to our investigative report on his duplicity and games. In failing to collect himself and present a coherent and factual statement countering what was written about him, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu has lived up to his reputation of being a man who lacks composure, integrity and is emotionally too erratic. He should either sit up or shut up!

By Isong Asu in London and Dr Patrick Ayuk in Johannesburg

Dear Mathias Owona Nguini,

After many years on the sidelines, watching you pontificate on key issues affecting Cameroon, I have decided to break my silence with a view to drawing your attention to your approach to and statements on the Southern Cameroons crisis that is gradually tearing our country apart.

I have been duly informed that you are a university professor in one of Cameroon’s many universities and being a university don implies that we must demonstrate a very high degree of objectivity and selflessness required in the resolution of a serious issue like the Southern Cameroons crisis.

This crisis has been going on for five years and thousands of Cameroonians – soldiers and civilians – have been sent to an early grave and there is nothing that could be humbling and touching like death.

Throughout this meaningless, unjustifiable and destructive war, I have watched you, in your effort to engratiate yourself with the government, calling for more violent military action against those Southern Cameroonians who have taken up weapons against a government that has slammed the door on any possibility of dialogue.

If military violence could bring about peace in that country, Cameroon could have regained its lost peace. Unfortunately, our country is unsafe. It has become a place wherein killing is a sport.

Today, Cameroonians are killing each other with impunity and army soldiers have become soldiers of death, killing civilians to prove a point due to ill-conceived advice from pseudo-advisers like  you.

Many wish you had a brother or a child who could head to the warfront to have a taste of the medicine you are producing for others. Maybe when death hits close to home, you may take a long and hard look at your ineffective strategy that has resulted in thousands of deaths while making secession possible.

Over the last five years, the country has slowly and unfortunately continued its onward march towards the bottom of the abyss of violence, though the government has deployed its most feared forces and most sophisticated military weapons to the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Strangely, those efforts have come to naught, especially as the fighters  on the ground have acquired rare combat experience, procured very dangerous weapons and, in recent months, have changed the game by making the most of their dreaded IEDs which are sending many of the country’s army soldiers to an early and uncomfortable grave.

These dead Cameroonians are unfortunately not traveling to another part of the world. They are quitting the world  for good to the dismay of their parents and family. If this cannot compel us to be flexible, what then can cause us as a nation to take a long and hard look at our failing strategy.

I understand you have huge political ambitions, but those ambitions cannot only come true if you continue to beat the drums of war. As a native of Manyu Division, I was taught that honey like vinegar could be effective in catching flies,  and that honey could be a better alternative in a volatile situation.

This implies that the war in Cameroon which is ruining our economy and bringing new challenges to the population and the government can also be called off through frank and fruitful discussions and not necessarily through the barrel of the gun.

I have watched you on many TV networks and I have concluded that your personal ambitions are transforming you into warmonger and such a philosophy is not only prejudicial to our country, it is indeed dangerous to future generations as it makes their job of building a strong, united and prosperous Cameroon impossible.

Building a strong and united Cameroon does not imply building a hyper-centralized country that does not give the people the opportunity to manage their own affairs. The time for centralization and dictatorship is long gone.

 Cameroon can still be united through a federation that allows each region to develop at its own pace, depending on the resources it generates and those the federal government allocates. Federalism is not and has never been synonymous with secession.

It is oppression and failure to listen to the citizens of that country that have triggered the current unfortunate war of seccession that has become a hot potato in the government’s mouth.

I have heard you, more than a thousand times, proclaiming on rooftops that you are the best law and strategy professor in Cameroon. This does not imply that you are omniscient. As a university professor, you should be aware that you are supposed to be a role model to many young Cameroonians.

 Allowing your ego to take control of your intellect only works against you and our country. Nobody, no matter how learned, is a repository of wisdom. We must, no matter how knowledgeable we may be, be humble not only in our comportment but also in our pronouncements.

You are not the only Cameroonian with a doctorate degree and the title of a professor in Cameroon is simply not worth its weight in gold. Always brandishing your academic title only makes you sound like a broken record.

Academic titles do not really imply that we are more knowledgeable than others. They simply  underscore that we have done research in a particular area or that we are teaching in a tertiary institution. I guess you know that knowledge is self-bestowed and humility is a key hallmark of very knowledgeable people.

It is, indeed, preposterous of you to use your academic titles to intimidate others. Remember, knowledge is just a click away today and anybody who makes reading a way of life can be the next ‘Socrates’.

I have also been hearing you quoting Cameroon’s penal code as part of your obsolete strategy to intimidate those whose views on the war are at variance with yours.

Be advised that Cameroonians are wont to such a strategy and millions know that those laws in our penal code were designed to stifle debate and muzzle up those who are genuinely serving as the conscience of our country which has lost its way because of uninspiring and corrupt leadership. As a nation, we can do better if only we rid ourselves of ideologues and sycophants like you.

If you are, indeed, an adviser to the government, then that government is rudderless. Coming to you to seek advice on a crucial issue like the one that has reduced our country to the ridicule of the world is like heading to a brothel to look for genuine love.

That country has highly  intellectual and selfless human resources whose honest and professional advice can point the government in the right direction.

I think when knowledgeable intellectuals get invited  on national TV to share their perspectives on key issues facing the country, it is more because Cameroonians need ideas that can result in lasting peace and not those which are gradually making secession possible.

Remember, those who make peace impossible only make war inevitable and if we are where we are today in that country, it is because people like you think every issue can only be dealt with in a battlefield.

My letter has no intention of challenging your professoral knowledge. Its objective is clear – enable you see the folly and disaster in your poorly conceived and greed-driven advice.

Cameroon will certainly be a better country when our leaders listen to those they govern. Our networks will attract more viewers when people like you walk the path of humility, peace and reconciliation.  Your pomposity and intellectual dishonesty are casting you in negative light.

You can do better and your political ambitions can also come true if you see other Cameroonians as being intelligent like you and as deserving of Cameroon as you.

No child ever applies to be born in Cameroon. However, be advised that once born in that geopolitical entity known as Cameroon, that child has the same rights like anybody else regardless of the language that child ends up speaking.

It is therefore incumbent upon our leaders to listen to Cameroonians  in order to avoid conflicts. Conflicts do not only breed bitterness, they constrain a country’s development efforts.

 Conflicts consume significant development resources and pit tribes against tribes, making national unity an illusion. Conflicts are sometimes born of arrogance and such conflicts could be transgenerationally transmissible. A professor of your calibre should be aware of this.

Arrogance has never bred peace and the current conflict in Southern Cameroons is the outcome of a culture of arrogance and greed. The sooner we understand that, the better for our country.

Yours sincerely,

Joachim Arrey

About the author: The author of this letter is a Canada-based journalist, translator, technical writer and public relations expert. He studied in Nigeria, Cameroon, Canada and  the United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D. He provides language services to multiple international organizations.

Fellow Ambazonians,

I bring you revolutionary greetings from your leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and his team in detention. Their bravery is the anchor that givesour nation hope in moments of quiet despair in this journey we have embarked upon. Tomorrow marks the 4^th anniversary of the restoration of our independence. Since that historic day on 1^stOctober 2017, we have seen over 20,000 of our fellow citizens massacred, 521 of our villages burned down, and over one million people displaced from their homes.

The Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. This four-year-old war in Ambazonia was unleashed on us by Paul Biya in November 2017 after we affirmed our independence on 1^stOctober 2017.

To attain freedom, humans must willingly and vigorously challenge what despots, colonialists and neo-colonialists impose upon them. We must choose between the challenging but necessary task of fighting for our freedom and the temptation to ignore our duty and hope for the best. The choice to move this struggle forward is on all of us. The solution is well within our grasp, but if we stop midway, we will send a signal of decline to our enemy.

Fellow Comrades, as we engage in our independence day celebrations around the globe, your Interim Government recommends that all our people in Ground Zero and Ground One remain vigilant and sensible in the decisions they make. Over the last two weeks, there was a lockdown of Ambazonia, announced by some impostors in the Diaspora. The Interim Government wants to apologize to all who suffered needless pain due to this poorly conceived and dreadful initiative. Collectively, we must consider the wellbeing of our people on the ground in any decisions we make, and the Interim Government regrets this continuous attempt by foes from within to undermine our struggle. Regrettably, the workings of the United Nations are fundamental but foreign to many of our so-called leaders in the Diaspora.

Fellow Ambazonians, our forces are getting the training and material support they need, and your Interim Government is making available to them the tools they require for combat operations. There is a new attitude towards serving in the ranks of our restoration forces, and I salute the great ability and demonstrated bravery of our freedom fighters.

Fellow Ambazonians, last week, the terrorist enemy desecrated our city of Bamenda. He sneaked in under heavily armed cover, hiding in an armoured vehicle. He held a one-way traffic meeting during which he blew a lot of hot air. Then he got his pre-owned moving coffins to edge their way into the hinterland of our territory labouriously. Those coffins on wheels carry hapless non-Bulu-Ewondo conscripts sentenced to death by being sent to our territory. Our security services monitor every day and night the movement of the enemy in our territory. I want to repeat the counsel of wisdom that diplomats and many others have given since 2018 to the Yaounde old man and despot;the corrupt, rotten, tribal, oppressive, tyrannous and tired Yaounde ethnic regime in the throes of demise can never win this war in a hundred years. Yaounde and its tribal warlords must know that there is nothing as powerful as the human will and spirit. Not even armoured tanks! We have recently heard them say Federalism is not out of the question. I have news for you in Yaoundé: Federalism might not be out of the question for you, but Federalism is out of the question for Ambazonians.

To the people of French Cameroun, we seek not continuous war with you but intend to live in harmony as peaceful neighbours. Your country obtained its independence on 1^st January 1960, and the Southern Cameroons was not a part of that composition. Southern Cameroons has internationally recognized borders that must be recognized and respected. I urge you to liberate yourselves. I urge you to claim and exercise your inalienable right of self-determination. End your situation of being held captive by an illegitimate and cruel regime. Stand up for peace and justice. Champion the process of pacific settlement that tomorrow will enable our two nations to co-exist peacefully and in a spirit of good neighbourliness. There will be neither peace nor security in your nation for as long as your military continues to kill our people, rape our women, destroy our property and occupy our land illegally.

Fellow Ambazonians, we face a powerful and complex enemy backed by France, but we must not falter. They have powerful lobbying machinery, but we have truth on our side.  We find ourselves in this state as a result of failing to act over the last sixty years. Our independence is no longer a future hypothesis or a historical burden; it is on us here and now.

Fellow Ambazonians, when Justice Ebong, Chief Ayamba,Fon Gorji Dinka, Mola NjohLitumbe, stood against this tyranny and the monster in Yaoundé, they had not as many resources as we have today. So, we must live up to the standard of courage they demonstrated. Our quest for freedom holds the promise of changing our history as a people. There have been risks and challenges over the last four years, and results take time.

Blood, money and energy must be sacrificed for us to attain our freedom. If we stop now, we have chosen servitude and slavery instead of freedom and independence. And that we shall not do. Happy Independence Day 2021. God Bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Thank you,

God Bless you

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Insanity is when we do things using the same methods and equipment  which only deliver the same results which cause us to go around blaming external factors without seeking to know if new and innovative ways and tools can deliver better and more dependable results.

This is exactly what the Yaoundé government has been doing over the last five years. Despite expert advice that there will never be a military victory in the conflict that has pitted Cameroon’s English-speaking minority against the Yaoundé government which erroneously thinks that everything is a nail because it holds a hammer.

The Yaoundé government has an outdated mentality that does not provide for dialogue or negotiations. It strongly holds that only military violence can bring about peace in the country even when experts around the world have clearly demonstrated that going to the negotiating table can silence the guns and  hold the country together.

Its poorly planned war has already killed more than 15,000 Cameroonians with soldiers accounting for almost 30% of those who have been sent to an early grave by a war that could have been avoided through talks.

There is nothing wrong complaining and it usually behoves the leadership of a country to prove that the complainant is not necessarily right through   sound development actions and cogent, but humbling logic.

In Cameroon, you get persecuted for complaining. You get killed for pointing out that something is hurting you. You get vilified for underscoring that things can be done in a different way.

Five years after this grievous mistake was made by the Yaoundé government, it is still promoting a strategy and logic that will never stand the test of time.

Over the last two weeks, the military has taken a beaten from Southern Cameroonian fighters who have become more sophisticated and are determined to prove that they can achieve their independence through military means.

The country’s English-speaking minority has been marginalized for decades to the point where young men and women are no longer scared of death. They now hold that theirs is a spiritual and religious obligation to save their country and people through the barrel of the gun and when young men reach such levels of thinking, they are bound to hold that laying  down their lives is a national and religious duty.

With such a mentality, it is hard to beat them on the battlefield. Strangely, the government which is blinded by arrogance does not think that trying something new could be the relief and, even the cure, for this problem which is only festering as more people die.

This explains why yesterday, the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, declared in Bamenda that the military will change its strategy in order to minimize the casualties the military has taken over the years.

As soon as he made his pompous statement, military trucks started rolling into the Northwest region of the country where poorly trained Cameroon soldiers have been dropping down like flies. The pressure on these young soldiers is mounting and many of them are looking forward to the day the government and the various factions in the conflict can sink their pride and see the negotiating table as a lesser evil to the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the government has not yet realized that military tanks will not be the real game changers in this war that has already created  many rivers of blood in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Southern Cameroonian fighters have found a way to counter the military’s superior fire power. The war, which in the beginning looked like a conventional war, has morphed into a guerrilla warfare where Southern Cameroonian fighters are making the most of their mastery of the terrain to inflict a lot of pain on the country’s sex-starved and alcohol-inflamed soldiers.

The old and outdated military tanks that were grudgingly making their way to the Northwest region will surely not be a march to the sophisticated IEDs which Southern Cameroonian fighters have been using over the last year to make mincemeat of the military’s strategy.

The Yaoundé government wants to win the war to prove a point, but it is permanently resorting to old military strategies that have been retired by  countries with massive military experience.

It is hard to beat a determined minority, especially when such a minority develops a military of its own that is capable of striking fear in the minds of regular army soldiers.

The examples of Eritrea, South Sudan and Timor Leste should be great lessons to those who really want to look into the mirror of history. The latest example is that of Tigray which has clearly demonstrated to the Ethiopian army that being small is not necessarily a disadvantage.

In modern times, holding a country together, especially a country with multiple linguistic groups, implies talking all the time. Switzerland has had its fair share of trouble with the various linguistic groups and the battle was won at the negotiating table.

Canada too has walked down that dangerous path when Quebecers felt they could walk the path to independence. English Canada felt a heavy hand could address the issue, but to its greatest dismay, the harder Quebecers were treated, the more radicalized they became.

Mass demonstrations on the streets of Montreal were their weapons of choice and these crowds gave the country a very bad name and Canada’s economy took real tough blows to the liver as protesters blocked roads and made it hard for foreign investors to come in to help the country’s economy grow.

Examples of minority disgruntlement are legion and it is up to the Cameroon government to learn the lessons of history. Even France, which is supporting the Yaounde government in its genocidal mission in Cameroon, did not address its problems with its minorities by investing in arms.

France chose the negotiating table and its various minorities are comfortably at home in a united and indivisible France. Why can Cameroonian authorities not learn from those who are willing to bankroll  their irresponsible and genocidal mission?

Talking and negotiating are as old as man. Humans, who are supposed to be higher animals, are supposed to resort to arms only if and when all other means of conflict resolution have failed.

In the Southern Cameroons’ case, the government never employed any known conflict management and resolution tools to address the legitimate and genuine concerns of the English-speaking minority.

Right from the beginning, the government thought trickery could address the problems. Its pseudo-talks with teachers and lawyers when the conflict started five years ago only made things worse.  Union leaders – Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Niba – were hastily arrested in Buea and hauled to Yaounde, ending the pseudo-talks, something that resulted in the escalation of the conflict.

Despite the numerous deaths and the massive destruction to the two English-speaking regions of the country and the national economy, there is still room for talks. The government must come down its high horse to meet the various Southern Cameroonian factions in the war halfway so that some degree of calm can return to the country.

After five years, the government should realize that things will play out but not the way it wants. The time for change has come and it is time to consider other views. Insisting on killing the insurgency may only result in the balkanization of Cameroon.

Mistakes have already been made. Many young lives have been cut short. Does it make any sense to send more young men to an early grave just because the government finds it hard to come back on the statement the country’s president, Paul Biya, made in 2016 to the effect that the form of the state was non-negotiable?

Don’t wise people understand that only fools never have a change of heart? If the country’s president has to be classified as a wise man, he must, at this juncture, understand that Cameroon’s integrity and unity cannot be guaranteed under the current political dispensation.

A brighter  and more peaceful future for Cameroon will only be guaranteed if and only if a new way is charted and this will require a change of mind on the president’s part and a change of the democratic system which is spreading more pain and chaos in the country; a system that will be marked by a devolution of power and the empowerment of grassroots communities.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A Cameroon Catholic priest kidnapped on Aug. 29 by separatists was freed two days later in a rare piece of good news in a country suffering from increasing internal conflict that is tearing this nation apart.

Msgr. Julius Agbortoko Abbor, the vicar general of the Diocese of Mamfe, was released after being abducted from the residence of the bishop emeritus of the diocese by a group of young separatists who entered the major seminary compound and kidnapped him, according to ACI Africa.

Just days before the kidnapping, Catholic bishops in Cameroon’s Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province renewed an appeal to end the protracted five-year conflict in the country’s two Anglophone regions in the nation’s northwest and southwest.

“A lot of violence, insecurity, kidnappings, torture, and senseless killings, sometimes of innocent people and children” is continuing in Cameroon, the bishops said, and they appealed to all warring parties to stop the ongoing violence “with immediate effect.”

Cameroon’s internal conflict, which began in 2016 and has worsened since 2018, revolves around marginalization of the Anglophone minority in the country (20% of the population) and its grievances against the majority Francophone population and administration.

Anglophone lawyers had complained in the mid-2010s that the English legal system was being undermined and overwhelmed by the civil law system, dominated by Francophone jurists, lawyers and magistrates. Meanwhile, teachers in the Anglophone part of the country grew resentful that non-English-speaking educators were being sent to teach students in English.

These and other resentments, coupled with inadequate leadership from President Paul Biya, 88, led to a brutal military crackdown by the government in 2017 of peaceful demonstrations. Violence was also perpetrated against lawyers, there were incidents of torture and rape, including of students at the nation’s Anglophone university, along with the arbitrary arrests and detention of peaceful protesters, many of whom remain in prisons around the country.

These injustices led to the growth of of more than 30 Ambazonian militia groups, known locally as “The Boys,” in the historically English-speaking regions. Formed in 2016, they are pushing for a new autonomous region called Ambazonia, covering territory that had been the former British colony of Southern Cameroons, but which became part of unified Cameroon in 1961.

The Ambazonian separatists have since embarked on destroying everything that belongs to the Francophone government — houses, markets and goods, and have killed some of those who fail to respect them and their objectives.

Particularly damaging has been the closure of schools in the two regions since the beginning of the crisis. Only a few of the schools manage to operate, and they are vulnerable to attack at any time, with teachers and principals at risk of death and school buildings set on fire. One was gutted last week just before the start of the new academic year by unidentified persons.

An Ambazonian fighter told the Register he joined the separatist cause, “because of the torment Anglophone citizens have been suffering from La Republic [Francophone] government.”

“I therefore decided to join the fight for independence,” he said. “I have been fighting for over four years now.”

Others told the Register they joined because the army had destroyed their houses, killed family members and committed acts of torture, and so they joined to retaliate.

Humanitarian Crisis

More than 3,500 people have been killed since the current conflict began in 2016 with killings taking place on daily basis, according to humanitarian organizations.

Over 67,000 people have fled across the border and are now living in Nigeria or remain as refugees there. According to a U.N. report, 4.4 million people are threatened by the war, while 2.2 million are directly affected. Thousands have been internally displaced, living in unbearable conditions in other French-speaking regions.

Emmanuel Lampaert, operations coordinator for Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Central Africa, said that many of those in hospital are suffering from malnutrition.

“We cannot stay any longer in a region where we are not allowed to provide care to people here,’’ Lampaert said in reference to the government suspending MSF activities in the region last December after accusing it of supporting the armed groups.

“The suspension significantly reduces access to medical services in an area where communities are badly affected by armed violence,” he said. “Those who have fled the violence often take refuge in the bush, far from any health facilities, vulnerable to malaria, infections or snakebites, in locations often inaccessible for emergency vehicles such as ambulances, or even motorcycles.”

“When two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers” goes the old African saying and it is particularly apropos to this five-year old conflict that has brought great suffering to the local population, caught as it is between the military and secessionist fighters. It also shows no sign of ending, as the government continues to be reluctant to build a general consensus and truthful, inclusive national dialogue with all the protagonists to find a lasting solution.

The Catholic Church has been deeply concerned about the crisis. Christians represent the majority in the region and have been badly affected. The bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province wrote a memorandum in 2016 outlining the cause of the conflict and proposing solutions but it received no response from the Biya administration.

The late Cameroonian Cardinal Christian Tumi, who died in April aged 90, tried to convene an all-Anglophone conference but it required government and international support which were not forthcoming. Church leaders, meanwhile, have used their pulpits and give interviews to local TV channels to make their voices heard.

In an interview with a local TV channel on Feb. 24, 2020, Archbishop emeritus Cornelius Fontem Esua of Bamenda — who was once taken hostage by secessionists — said, “The position of the Church is that we are neutral, neither for the government nor the Amba boys. We tell them: no violence, no killings, that God’s law is ‘Thou shall not kill’ whether it’s the military or the Amba boys.” To resolve the conflict, he said there should be a total amnesty: “Let the military go back to their barracks and the Amba boys should put down their arms.”

Without mincing his words, Cardinal Tumi said in 2019 that most of the killings in the regions are by the military because they are the ones with sophisticated weapons. The separatists do kill, but their targets are the military and those whom they suspect are enemies of the Ambazonia, be they Anglophone or Francophone. For example, five police officers were given a state burial last month after being killed by a mine laid by separatists on Aug. 10 in Bafut, in the northwest region.

Last week, 15 soldiers were killed in an ambush by the separatists fighters led by a commander of the Bambalang Marine Forces who calls himself “General No Pity.” Separatists have also recently burned down a market, the office of a local mayor, and the residence of a senior law enforcement officer in Balikumbat, northwestern Cameroon. These acts of violence have even led to some Francophones calling on the army to step up their fight instead of calling for peace.

Many civilians continue to perish regularly. On Aug. 20, a 7-year-old girl, a pupil of St Therese Primary School in Kumbo, was shot and killed in crossfire. Two weeks earlier, seven civilians were killed by the military in Meluf, including local citizen Jude Thaddeus, a nephew of this correspondent.

In July 2018, Mill Hill Missionary Father Alexander Sob Nougi was accidentally killed by a stray bullet on Church premises. In May 2018, many people mistaken as separatists were fatally shot by the military in Pinyin, while what has become known as the Ngarbuh incident, which took place on Feb. 14, 2021, 21 civilians, including 13 children, were killed in their sleep by Cameroon soldiers and Fulani militia, a predominantly Muslim group better known in Cameroon as “Mbororos,” who claim to be victims of separatist groups.

According to a report from Human Rights Watch, 350 people have been kidnapped since October 2018, including 300 students and released after a ransom was paid in most cases. Cardinal Tumi was also kidnapped in 2020, as priests and religious seem to be targets. The report also condemned regular use of torture and secret detention from Cameroon authorities.

Cameroonian Voices

Father Gaston Yuven, a curate of St. Paul’s Parish, Kikaikom Kumbo Diocese, a stronghold of the armed secessionist group, told the Register, “It’s disastrous but this doesn’t stop people going about their daily activities. One just needs to enquire before taking any step. Then you’re safe.”

“There is an increase in faith; more people come to Church,” he added. “Those who want to come always make it but when it is not safe, the liturgies go ahead while the others keep themselves safe. More people turn to put God at the center, but a few seek protection elsewhere.”

“The present situation is getting worse because more casualties are being registered,” Deacon Doh Lawrence of the Diocese of Kumbo said. “Many innocent civilians are killed, and gun battles have intensified. Nearly everything is at a standstill because many roads are blocked, and battles continue. Poverty has increased, people are dying in houses because of no medical attention. Churches are empty because people have been displaced. Many schools remain closed because of threats from separatists, economic activities are experiencing a heavy downturn. Kumbo market is nearly empty since many people can’t sell their goods.”

A separatist fighter told the Register that “right now the situation here is not calm. We have been losing lives here about a week now. A child of 7 years was shot in Kumbo by the military and they’ve also been raping our women, burning down people’s houses, stealing from people’s houses, keeping military bases in villages. The situation is getting worse and worse.”

A military source who spoke on condition of anonymity said a lot of uniformed men have been lost since last month in the two regions, with daily reports of them being killed either during confrontations or setting off mines laid by the separatist. Some reports even mention 3,000 military deaths since the beginning of the crisis, and the number could be higher.

To make matters worse, the blockage of roads is forcing civilians to cover miles on foot to either get to the hospital, markets, etc., since no vehicle is allowed. Bishop George Nkuo of the Kumbo Diocese once had to trek many miles with his Mass kit for his pastoral mission to a neighboring village.

But despite all these difficulties, faith in the region remains robust: thousands of Christians hold firm to the belief that God is the one to bring an end to this war. Thus their unflinching trust in God persists through all the difficulties they are going through.

The unwavering faith of Christians is something to behold — they constantly pray for a return to peace. The pain is great, the damage irreparable. Enough blood has been shed, and human life has lost its value in the troubled regions. There is fear, insecurity looms all over the conflict-torn regions. The end of the war is not a matter of today nor tomorrow. The government vehemently refuses to adhere to numerous proposals, instead offering solutions that are far from bringing an end to the conflict.

A so-called “grand national dialogue” between the warring parties took place Sept. 30 -Oct. 4, 2019, but it seems to have been a place to squander billions rather than to discuss a path to peace, the result being that after the talks, atrocities increased, with the number of killings more than ever, and schools still closed in most areas.

As Archbishop Esua of Bamenda said during his interview, some topics like the form of the state were considered taboo during the national dialogue, which is the major concern of the Anglophones. This has led people to question the seriousness of the government in finding a lasting solution to this problem. The creation of a national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration committee (DDR), the special status of the two English regions, and a special fund for the reconstruction of the two destroyed regions are merely dormant measures that have yielded little fruit because the situation on the ground remains chaotic.

Epilogue: A Correspondent’s Analysis

Speaking as a Cameroonian who has witnessed this conflict first-hand, I can say that never in the history of this nation has it been on such a divided course. People are divided more than united, opinions are opposed, clergy are against clergy, politicians against politicians, Francophones against Anglophones, Anglophones against Anglophones.

Some who are radical want total independence while the majority want a complete federal system of government, separate from the current centralized system of government. But even with decentralization, it still doesn’t answer the wish of the Anglophones.  

As division continues while more blood is shed, the majority of government workers — teachers and other public workers — have fled the regions but continue to earn their monthly salary. Some have not taught for the past four years. They are targeted by separatists. The region has gone backwards by 20 years — economically, socially and spiritually. Those areas that have been the most resilient, such as Kumbo, which is one of the biggest and more active parts of the region, has become a shadow of itself.

As long as both sides are unwilling to discuss the issues fairly, a compromise will remain elusive. People are afraid to talk, even some bishops have forbidden their priests from speaking publicly on the issue. Because the truth is hidden by lies, the military and separatists are unable to accept responsibility for the atrocities they commit.

The international community needs to act so these atrocities will stop. Mere words of condemnation are not enough; they need to act. Young people are frustrated, some becoming armed robbers or prostitutes in other towns. Hundreds have joined the separatists because their future has been destroyed by the brutal government. Their homes, businesses, means of transport have been confiscated.

Only God knows the end and how long this will go on. One particularly regrettable fact is that since the beginning, this crisis has never even been considered an important issue in both houses of the parliament, serving to only increase the anger of the oppressed. But another thing is certain: If the damage that has been caused and is still being caused is never redressed, the conflict will only increase hatred between the oppressed and the oppressor.

Source: National Catholic Register

Four years ago, nobody thought the whole notion of Southern Cameroons independence could ever be taken seriously.

For many in government, those who called for the separation of Cameroon, a country touted as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, were adventurers who were playing with fire.

The Yaoundé government which is known for its penchant for repression declared the angry Southern Cameroonians terrorists and immediately proceeded to implement its strategy of repression in the pious hope that future adventurers would think twice before calling for any independence.

This wrong assessment of the situation pushed bureaucrats in Yaoundé  onto the airwaves to pontificate on things they had very little knowledge of, confidently telling the French-speaking majority that the military’s mission in the two restive regions of the country would be swift and short.

In less than two weeks after the country’s president, Paul Biya, declared war on two English-speaking regions of the country, the government dispatched hundreds of its outdated tanks to many remote parts of Southern Cameroons not knowing that the outcome could be the reverse of what many in the country’s bureaucracy were sure about.

Little did the government and its poorly trained soldiers know that they were treading on dangerous terrain. The government was confident that it was going to roll back the “adventurers” right back to where they came from, but it did not know that behind the ragtag military, there was massive financial and moral support which will help the fighters to give the government’s military, a run for its money.

For years after, the ragtag military has morphed into a very dangerous force that is wreaking havoc on the military and its expensive equipment.

The last couple of months have been particularly tough for the military. The various factions seem to be ganging up against the military and the northwest region in particular has become a graveyard for many soldiers and their military equipment.

Last week was indeed one of the bloodiest with Ndop fighters demonstrating that they can hit the military anywhere, anytime and where it hurts the most.

 Southern Cameroonian fighters are no longer interested in exchanging fire with the fear-filled soldiers. They are now employing a more sophisticated and effective method to hit the military in its soft underbelly.

Soldiers are now being blown up like dilapidated buildings with many bursting like rotten tomatoes. The use of IEDs by Southern Cameroonian fighters is one game changer that has left the Yaoundé regime in the grip of mobid fear and in a cul-de-sac.

The government seems to be frozen in its position. The country’s president, Paul Biya, had vowed that there would never be talks on the form of the state, but things are changing on the ground and if care is not taken, Southern Cameroons’ independence might come sooner rather than later.

The fighters on the ground are determined and the massive flow of cash from many parts of the world is giving the fighters a morale boost.

The government is confused. The Southern Cameroonian crisis has become a hot potato in the government’s mouth. The government must decide. It must change its position. Time is of the essence in this situation. Cameroon is falling apart.

The government must come back on its decision. It will never win this war. Its soldiers are deserting and this is rendering the military more vulnerable.

Despite numerous recruitment drives for more gendarme officers and soldiers in the country, the Yaoundé government is still concerned as its hope of winning this dirty war is diminishing by the day.

Most of the soldiers being killed are young men from the South and Center regions and the numerous body bags heading to those regions are gradually convincing the president’s supporters that he had engaged in a journey that might not be ending anytime soon.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has been talking to some soldiers in Yaoundé and many say they are permanently in fear. Many have lost their mental health and the mere thought of being sent to the warfront has transformed the stomachs of these soldiers into butterfly tanks.

More than three thousand soldiers have been killed and a similar number has been maimed. Most of those who get deployed to Southern Cameroons usually visit their doctors and they feign illnesses just to obtain either exemptions or 6- monthly sick-notes.

Young recruits are quitting the military daily. Many in the military are now handing themselves in to be imprisoned for 6 months (customary prison term for disobeying war orders) instead of going to Southern Cameroons.

The much-touted Cameroon military is gradually falling apart, especially as thousands are deserting and heading to neighboring countries.

To encourage the country’s military, the government recently issued a memo to the army and gendarmerie to the effect that should a soldier die in combat, his or her family would receive a paltry sum of CFAF 5 million.

 Unfortunately, this financial incentive is not helping and many young soldiers are plotting to quit the beleaguered and poorly-paid military.

Soldiers of the rank and file know they cannot win the war, but their bosses are insisting that they must fight to a finish, especially as the war has created a booming war economy that is transforming the military generals into instant millionaires.

Paul Biya seems to have handed the treasury to the military but Southern Cameroonian fighters are clearly demonstrating that this war is not a war of money but a war of courage and strategy.

They have proven that even if the Yaoundé government is given the Federal Reserve (the American Central Bank), it will never win this war.

The dynamics are changing on a daily basis and the power dynamics clearly favor Southern Cameroonians and their fighters who are looking forward to the day the government will swallow its pride and call for real negotiations which will lead to an independent and strong Southern Cameroons with Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his colleagues taking the reins of power in their fatherland.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai