In the concept of how states came into being, there is a theory of roving and stationary bandits. Whilst roving bandits stole and left, stationary bandits, stayed on by establishing a system to collect taxes which funded their criminal activities and lifestyle.  In today’s world, the curse of stationary bandits is still a sad reality. These stationary bandits have designated territories with internationally recognized borders. They have an established defense force, police force, and a system to collect taxes from their victims/citizens. From the outside, it is easy to erroneously assume that it is a functioning nation-state where all citizens are ripping the benefits that come with living beyond the state of nature. One of the most notorious of these 21st century stationary bandits is the world’s oldest dictator, Paul Biya of Cameroon.  

Cameroon is a nation in the Gulf of Guinea with a population of over 25 million according to the country’s 2018 census. It has been ruled with an iron fist by 87-year-old Paul Biya since 1982. The country is blessed with enormous natural resources but has been plagued by “Dutch disease” for over four decades. “Dutch disease” is when good news for one sector of the economy, such as the discovery of natural resources, results in a negative impact on the country’s overall economy. La Republique du Cameroun (to use the country’s real name) is notorious in international circles for constantly extending deep begging bowls to international organizations like the World Bank and IMF. Internationally, the country has been noted for being one of the most mismanaged and its annual budget is hugely dependent on foreign aid.

The country is bedevilled with extreme poverty, high child mortality, a non-existent health care system, extremely poor infrastructure, an appallingly inefficient public sector, a pathetic tax system, a fantastically corrupt police force, a brutal and repressive military, a war in the north against Boko Haram and a war in the south against Ambazonian separatists. Political commentators would not be far off the mark if they referred to La Republique du Cameroun as another basket case in a continent of many basket cases. La Republique du Cameroun is indeed the most corrupt nation in the world (See Transparency International).

Paul Biya took over in 1982 in a peaceful transfer of power. He has never won an election. He has never had a mandate from the people despite clinging on to power for four decades. His legacy is one of repression, economic mismanagement, and incompetence. A common assertion from those who know him is that he tends to agree with the last person who spoke to him. Over the last few years, as age is taking its toll on him, the person who spends more time with him now is his wife. As the “last person” to always speak to him these days, she is wielding considerable power in Yaoundé. This is a huge worry as she is ill-equipped to run a grocery shop.

The coronavirus pandemic has been a fantastic time for Mr.Biya and his acolytes. The IMF and World Bank have released emergency funds to facilitate his criminal pursuits against his people. On 21 October 2020, the IMF Country Report No. 20/294 on Cameroon read “The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a disbursement of about US$ 156 million, 40 percent of quota) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). This is the second emergency disbursement to the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing total IMF emergency support since the outbreak of the pandemic to about US$ 382 million, 100 percent of quota). The new emergency disbursement will help Cameroon meet its urgent balance of payments and fiscal needs.”

The IMF statement went on to state that “the authorities have been proactive in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and are stepping up their efforts to contain the spread of the disease, boost health and social protection spending, and provide temporary support to affected businesses and households.” The local population has benefited from less than 1% of these funds from the IMF and other international organisations. Defense spending has been shamelessly bolstered to crush political opposition and millions of dollars have been directed to private bank accounts in Europe and other tax havens. Many dreadfully impoverished villages received single 20 litre plastic buckets, a few hand-sanitizers, and half a dozen bars of soaps as contributions from the head of state to help fight the pandemic.

The gulf between the poor and Paul Biya’s loyalists is appallingly immoral. Poverty and inflation are rife and the country’s leaders are clueless about what to do. With regards to creating an effective tax system, a manufacturing economy to wind Cameroon off IMF and World Bank loans, Mr. Biya has done zilch. He has no incentive to reform his country if the IMF and the World Bank are available to offer long term loans.  When it comes to human rights, he knows that France will shield him from international condemnation, so he has been prolific at perpetrating abuse against political opponents. 

Power without responsibility has been Paul Biya’s motto. A common excuse from his aids and apologists is that he is a good man but the people around him failed him. The principal prison in Kondengui, Yaoundé is packed with ex-ministers, amongst them ex-defense minister, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, former secretary-general at the presidency, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, and former Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni. The list is extensive and shocking. He has shamelessly concentrated power around himself and political opponents are eliminated or imprisoned under dubious charges. A former senior member of the CPDM, his ruling party, opined recently to Cameroon Concord News Group that “the curse of our generation is that he was president during our lives.”

According to Amnesty International in a statement published on 9 December 2020, “The arrests, arbitrary detentions, and prosecutions in military courts of opposition members who were peacefully gathering are the latest example of Cameroonian authorities’ crackdown on dissenting voices since late September, Amnesty International said today.” These arrests are the tip of the iceberg. Cameroon probably has more political prisoners than North Korea. The prisons in all the regions of the country are packed with political prisoners while the corridors of power are littered with looters.

Mr.Biya somehow forgot that the gods always punish arrogance. The Ambazonian war was commissioned by the gods to expose all his flaws. Few of his strengths have been demonstrated over the last 38 years but all his weaknesses have been exposed over the last three. A man who spent his life ducking from making decisions to advance his nation has suddenly been confronted with a war against determined Ambazonians. Over the last three years, his monopoly of violence over the territory he claims to rule has been challenged by Ambazonian separatists who are giving him sleepless nights.

Anyone familiar with him knows that he is sneaky, lazy, and vindictive. It is worth asking how a man so patently unqualified for leadership managed to capture a nation for almost four decades. How can it be that in the twenty-first century, one man could be allowed to wreck so many dreams and lives? Today is 24 December 2020 and as Cameroon Concord pen these words, the thought keeps coming to us that he has contributed nothing to Cameroon except misery and embarrassment. His legacy is certain. A prominent and successful FAILURE!!!

Paul Biya, a 21st-century stationary bandit has a choice to make in 2021, he can continue to heap misery on his people with state brutality, embezzlement, and poverty or he can summon the courage and exit the stage so his country can start the long and painful recovery.

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

As many in government circles in Yaoundé have been busy praying that the Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons fizzles out on its own, some Southern Cameroonians have been working very hard and under the radar to establish a solid connection with Vladimir Putin’s Russia which is seeking to have a foothold in the Central African sub-region.

France has had a strangle hold on the  sub-region for a long time and this is about to change, especially as Russia is currently  in the Central African Republic (CAR) where it is creating a nightmare for the French and its lackeys in the sub-region.

The French had planned to bring back the country’s erstwhile president, François Bozize, in an election that had already been decided by the French.

The country’s current president, Faustin-Archange Touadera, is not prepared to go along with French roguery that is robbing French-speaking African countries of their wealth and independence.

President Vladimir Putin has also found an ally in Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president and a true African who believes in the total decolonization of Francophone Africa.

Like Putin, Paul Kagame has already sent Rwandan troops to the CAR to provide much-needed military support to the country’s struggling military.

Russia has gone beyond troops. It has dispatched sophisticated equipment and military advisers to the country and Russian troops are conducting aerial bombardment of areas held by French-supported rebels.

Former President François Bozize has already lost two of his sons in the bloody fighting which might bring French influence in the country to a humiliating end.

The CAR situation has created brand new opportunities for Southern Cameroonian separatists and some of them have already established strong and reliable connections with Russians who are also eying Cameroon.

Russia wants to expand its influence beyond Eastern Europe and the current geopolitical situation in the Central African sub-region clearly excludes the Czars who are also in search of oil, gold and diamond; resources that abound in Cameroon.

A source close to the Southern Cameroonian delegation has hinted the Cameroon Concord News Group that discussions with their Russian counterparts are going on smoothly and if things go on as planned in the CAR, then Cameroon will be the next.

Currently, rumor is swirling that there are armed groups in Cameroon’s border with the CAR, preparing to strike the country where it hurts the most.

A Yaoundé military Brigadier General said on Tuesday that the country’s military had investigated those claims, adding that the military would remain vigilant with the objective of nipping any such actions in the bud.

But it is hard to trust a word from the Yaoundé government that is wont to speaking from both sides of its mouth. The government seems to be made up of career liars whose specialization is to hide the truth.

A source close to the country’s presidency has intimated that there is panic in Yaoundé as Russia seeks to roll out France from the sub-region.

The corrupt and dying government understands that Russia’s geopolitical ambitions in the sub-region will change a lot in the sub-region and many of the sub-region’s dictators like Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president, will be in Russia’s cross hairs.

Southern Cameroonians have finally figured out that the West will not help them overcome their challenges and given that Southern Cameroons has a rich sub-soil, they will be offering huge benefits to Russians who, from indication, need those resources.

According to a source that is aware of the Russian deal, oil in the Bakassi peninsula is the bargaining chip Southern Cameroonians are using to lure the oil-thirsty Russians.

“Russians need oil, geopolitical influence and a market in the sub-region and Cameroon is a key element in the sub-region. Southern Cameroonians who have not had any solid assurances from Western democracies are prepared to help the Russians have a foothold in the sub-region,” the source said.

The source added that “many of the actions undertaken by the Yaoundé government in recent days are determined by the changing geopolitical landscape. Yaoundé has hastily organized fake elections in the regions in the hope that the outcome will help it stave off any opposition or tensions in Southern Cameroons, but last week’s elections have not changed anything. It is simply a shuffling of cards. The main issues and grievances remain,” the source said.

“2021 will be a tough year in Cameroon in particular and the Central African sub-region in general. With Southern Cameroonians having established a strong relationship with Russia, it is obvious that sophisticated weapons will soon be heading to Southern Cameroons and the fighting will take a turn for the worse,” the source stressed.

Cameroon is really caught between a hard rock, deep blue sea and a dangerous snake. In the North, Boko Haram is gaining more ground on a daily basis. The country’s soldiers quake in their pants once they are assigned to the North.

In the East, a new rebel group has emerged and with a lot of confusion in the Central African Republic, there is a reason to fear that the fighting might spread into Cameroon and given the level of unemployment and frustration in East Cameroon, things might spiral out of Cameroon.

Meanwhile, Southern Cameroonians remain determined to obtain their independence. A recent video released by the separatists clearly shows that there is huge sympathy for the separatists who are seeking the total independence of Southern Cameroons.

The video shows how many young Southern Cameroonians have been recruited to fight for their fatherland.

While the Yaoundé government is seeking to show its false soft side by trying to offer worthless gifts to internally displaced persons during this festive period, separatists, for their part, are recruiting and establishing relations with the geopolitically ambitious Russia.

It is obvious that if the international community does not jump in to address those issues that have transformed the Central African sub-region into a ticking time bomb, more blood will be flowing in the days ahead in Cameroon where a mix of corruption and arrogance have made it impossible to address even the most basic issues deriving from bad governance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

There is indeed an urgent need for a change of leadership in Yaoundé! Every political commentator including the diplomatic community are wishing for the people of French Cameroun and their military to rid themselves of the burden of President Biya and his ruling CPDM gangs who console them with lies and have successfully trapped them into poverty.

The failed regime in Yaoundé started a war against the people of Southern Cameroons in 2016 on a pack of lies and the war has become unwinnable!  It was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the then English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories.

However, by 2017, Biya and the French Cameroun army leadership had pushed the situation to spiral out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both French Cameroun forces and Ambazonia Self Defense groups are now bogged down in a conflict, which observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

The conflict is slowly but surely becoming the worst fighting in the Gulf of Guinea in decades and it has claimed the lives of thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians including Cameroon government army soldiers.

Nearly four years into the deadly fighting in Southern Cameroons, the 87-year-old Biya and his corrupt Francophone political leaders have blatantly refused to end hostilities.

The global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International recently slammed the Yaoundé government, accusing the Biya regime of arbitrary detentions and military courts which clearly highlight the latest crackdown on opposition members.

The arrests, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions in military courts of opposition members who were peacefully gathering are the latest example of Cameroonian authorities’ crackdown on dissenting voices since late September, the rights watchdog said in its recent report on Cameroon.

According to the report, at least 500 people were arrested on 22 September, the majority of them members of the French Cameroun opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC). Of those, 160 remain in detention, 13 have been sentenced to prison by civilian courts, and 14 appeared before a military court.

“The harsh repression of opposition and dissenting voices shows no sign of relenting in recent months. People simply exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration have paid a high price with prison terms based on trumped-up charges,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty International West and Central Africa researcher,” the report says.

Biya regime’s ability to attract investors to the country has been diminished by the senseless killings and human rights violations taking place in both French and Southern Cameroons. Rebuilding SONARA is still an uphill climb, as investors have very low appetite for Cameroon’s debt.

The burden of rebuilding the country’s lone refinery is now another heavy load on the fragile and aging shoulders of Mr. Biya, who is currently suffering from a suspected cancer.

Biya and his men are no longer at ease. They have a lot on their plates and with their resources dwindling, it is clear that they might soon be down too!  Former regime barons are all jumping ship. International human rights organizations have become very vocal about the regime’s authoritarian nature.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites have transformed La Republique Du Cameroun into a rogue state and have refused to embrace the idea of an inclusive dialogue, release all political prisoners, including all Southern Cameroonians arrested within the framework of the armed conflict that has left thousands of Cameroonians dead, and grant general amnesty to all Cameroonians living abroad as a means of reducing the pressured that is gradually destroying it.

Because the Biya regime continues to conduct itself as it has done over the last 38 years, we of this group of publication now believe and fervently too that French Cameroun needs new political elites! French speaking Cameroonians should please stand up and be counted!!The ball is in your court!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The arrests, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions in military courts of opposition members who were peacefully gathering are the latest example of Cameroonian authorities’ crackdown on dissenting voices since late September, Amnesty International said today.

At least 500 people were arrested on 22 September, the majority of them members of the opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC). Of those, 160 remain in detention, 13 have been sentenced to prison by civilian courts, and 14 appeared before a military court.

“The harsh repression of opposition and dissenting voices shows no sign of relenting in recent months. People simply exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration have paid a high price with prison terms based on trumped-up charges,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty International West and Central Africa researcher.

 “The authorities must immediately put an end to the mass arbitrary arrests and detentions and immediately release prisoners of conscience.”

 Protests were scheduled on 22 September by the MRC in several towns, but they were banned by the authorities which waged a campaign of arrests and arbitrary detentions of MRC supporters.

According to the lawyers, at least 160 arrested people remain in detention as of 25 November, in the towns of Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussam and Nkongsamba. The lawyers have filed applications for their release 45 times but were rejected each time.

Eight people have been sentenced to two years in prison on 17 November by the court of first instance of the town of Mfou (Center) which found them guilty for « gathering, assembly and public demonstrations, and rebellion in group”.

Five other people have been sentenced on 6 November to four months in prison in the town of Nkongsamba (West) for attempt of public demonstration. 

Use of military courts

Fourteen people arrested on 22 September were prosecuted by the military court in Bafoussam (West) between 24 and 25 November, for “attempted insurgency and unauthorized public demonstration and gathering “.

One of the defendants was also prosecuted for “contempt to the President of the Republic” and for holding “two signs calling for the departure of President Biya’’.

At least 45 other MRC members also arrested on 22 September were convicted of “attempted revolt”, “rebellion”, “aggravated assembly” and “lack of national identity card’’ by the Yaoundé military court, which placed them in pre-trial detention. Those imprisoned include Olivier Bibou Nissack, Maurice Kamto’s spokesman, and Alain Fogue Tedom, national treasurer of the MRC.

In Yaoundé, Awasum Mispa Fri, president of MRC women’s group was arrested on 21 November and charged by a military court with “complicity in revolution and rebellion” after demanding the end of Maurice Kamto’s house arrest along with dozens of other women. She was put in pre-trial detention. Kamto’s house arrest took effect on 22 September and was lifted on 8 December.

In a separate incident, four members of the movement, Stand Up for Cameroon, very active in the anglophone regions, were arrested on 18 September by the gendarmerie in Douala after attending a meeting at the headquarters of the opposition Cameroon People’s Party. They are still in pre-trial detention after being brought before the Douala Bonanjo military court, which charged them with “attempted conspiracy, revolution and insurrection”.

“Military courts should in no way be competent to try civilians as reminded in the guidelines and principles on the right to a fair trial of the African Commission on Human and People’s’ rights,” said Fabien Offner.

MRC member arrested in September in Douala

Amnesty International spoke to a MRC member arrested in September in Douala, who said he was subjected to torture or other ill-treatment  during his interrogation, which took place without the presence of a lawyer at the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) located at the port of the town. He was then detained incommunicado for two months and five days in another site, without being brought before a judge.

 Released earlier this month, he told the organisation he had gone to the DST after receiving a police summons. After he refused their demand to unlock his phone, a police officer handcuffed him and tied his arms to his feet:

“He asked me if I am a MRC member (… ) if I voted in the last election… if I took part to the protests… Then told me I was stirring up rebellion. Again, he told me to unlock my phone, I refused, and he slapped and punched me at the face….,” he said.

“Later policemen handcuffed my hands behind my back. I got into the back of a pickup, and was taken to another area, still handcuffed like a bandit. I was searched, they took down all my identification documents, and put me in a windowless room, with mosquitoes, and no drinkable water. This is where I spent over two months…. “

“Acts of torture or other suffering inflicted by DST agents on those arrested should be impartially and independently investigated and those responsible prosecuted and punished,” said Fabien Offner.

Culled from Amnesty International

87 year-old President Paul Biya is reportedly pursuing his dangerous plans to get rid of ministers who show themselves too ready to join the race to succeed him. Biya and his consortium of ruling CPDM crime syndicates have adopted a governing policy described by Cameroon Concord News Group as “photocracy”, a system of governance where a dying man’s picture keeps on representing him in events.

Biya and his gang are sending strong messages to his would-be-successors as he uses the Special Criminal Court to end their political careers. The list is long including ex-prime minister Chief Inoni Ephraim and former defense minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o.

Rivals manoeuvre to succeed Biya recently intensified in Yaoundé and several allies of the Cameroonian president are now vying for the leadership of the state and the ruling CPDM party. We understand that many of these so-called French Cameroun political elites are trying to steal a march on their rivals. But they are wary of being too open about their intentions, as the president has been quick in the past to sideline any man or woman within his criminal structure seen as too ambitious.

President Paul Biya’s succession is presently on life support! Not only is the president’s own health failing but so too that of his constitutionally designated replacements namely- Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril and leader of the House of Senate Marcel Niat.

Relatives of the powerful are being targeted by the Special Criminal Court. Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

Recently investigators at the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé have been taking an interest in close relatives of political figures. Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Biya’s war against the people of Southern Cameroon-Ambazonia is now unwinnable! At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict, that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

From time immemorial, elections are designed to bring about change in a country or to pacify a population or an opposition that has been calling for change, but in Cameroon, elections have remained a tool of dominance by the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) also known as the crime syndicate made in the same mold as the Sicilian Mafia.

For many decades, the CPDM has won every election in Cameroon not through the ballot boxes but through massive fraud orchestrated well before the polling day.

The party writes the election rules, it is a participant in the game and it serves as the jury and judge after the exercise. The country’s election commission is replete with ruling party officials and the constitutional council that is supposed to mediate in the event of any foul play has been a tool in the hands of the ruling party designed to ensure that members of the ruling party emerge victorious.

In the event of any post-electoral contests or demonstrations, the government releases the military like bees on the protesters which sometimes results in the killing of hundreds and maiming of thousands of Cameroonians.

After the 2018 presidential election, the opposition party leader who clearly won the election, Professor Maurice Kamto, has been the subject of government harassment. He has either been hauled to jail, threatened with death or put on house arrest for long periods of time.

The country’s hastily written anti-terrorism law of 2014, is the legal instrument the dictatorial Yaounde regime has been using to frustrate or jail its opponents.

Since the last presidential election, the country has been in the grip of an unrelenting political crisis that is threatening to strangulate the economy and bring down a regime that is clearly on its last leg.

Many analysts have been hoping that the imbecile, corrupt, decaying and inefficient government in the country’s capital will see the writing on the wall and on the basis of that, will make some concessions and rewrite a constitution that clearly belongs to the ash heap of history.

Strangely, the ruling party has continued with its unpalatable comedy of errors and arrogance that has already resulted in many preventable deaths, especially in the country’s two English-speaking regions where an active insurgency has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The regional elections held in the country on Sunday, December 7, 2020, have simply underscored that the government is unrepentant and unwilling to mend its ways so that peace, stability and economic prosperity can return to a country that was once touted as an oasis of peace in a desert of political chaos due to the many civil wars that have dogged its neighbors over the last four decades.

Sunday’s elections, falsely dubbed as regional elections, were won even before they took place. The elections do not require the participation of the entire population. Only municipal councilors are required to vote and 95% of the councils are held by the ruling party because opposition parties had boycotted municipal elections on the grounds that the rules were flawed and designed to favor the ruling crime syndicate that has been in power for four decades with no real results to show for its existence.

In the country’s two English-speaking regions, the elections were viewed as a non-event. The country’s English-speaking Diaspora, in collaboration with the USA-based Interim Government, had called for ghost towns in a bit to foil the government’s outlandish and diabolic plan.

The entire Southern Cameroons has been like a real ghost town over the last three days with the population staying at home.

 In many towns, even the ruling party councilors were scared of stepping out to vote as separatist fighters are still making the laws in that part of the country.

Separatists, who have been battling the Yaoundé government for almost four years, had issued a stern warning to any councilors who would dare to vote against the will of the people. In their view, no such elections should take place in the region.

In Southern Cameroons, the ruling CPDM has been outlawed and anybody seen militating for the ruling party is considered an enabler and must be dealt with according to the rules of the USA- based Interim Government headed by interim president Dabney Yerima who is sitting in for President Julius Ayuk Tabe who has been in the dirty dungeons of East Cameroon for almost three years following an illegal kidnapping jointly organized by Cameroon and Nigeria.

In the weeks leading to the elections, separatists had clearly informed the population and government officials that the death penalty decreed three years ago in Washington DC was still standing and this was rapidly followed by the killing of three army soldiers in Ndian Division, whence hails the country’s ineffective and emasculated Prime Minister, Dion Ngute.

Similarly, the separatists also informed the Cameroon Concord News Group via a voice note that more killings had been scheduled, adding that they were keeping their eyes on traditional rulers and municipal councilors who are having political intercourse with the corrupt CPDM.

According to the separatists, it has been alleged that some hungry Southern Cameroonians are in cahoots with the corrupt regime to bring down the revolution. The separatists have vowed to take out any person or persons who have been identified as promoting the government’s campaign of corruption and marginalization.

Top on the list provided to the Cameroon Concord News Group are: former Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge; Senate Vice-President, George Tabetando; Prime Minister Dion Ngute; former Prime Minister Yang Philemon; the ever rambling and hungry former minister of the environment, Elvis Ngole Ngole; the inefficient and corrupt primary education minister, Nalova Lyonga Egbe; and all the senators and members of parliament from Southern Cameroons, most of whom are currently in exile in Yaoundé.

The separatists have vowed that theirs will be the kingdom of death and they will stop at nothing to enforce the law.

The separatists have also urged all the chiefs and fons who have fled the two English-speaking regions of the country not to return, as they are wanted dead or alive.

They are charged with enabling the enemy and the punishment in Southern Cameroons for such an offense is the death penalty. There is no commutation of such penalties in the newly minted “country.”

Sunday’s elections have only made things worse for Southern Cameroonian politicians in particular and the country in general. As the government doubles down on its approach to governance, so too are the separatists who have vowed to cleanse the region of any blacklegs who have sold their souls to the devil.

The separatists are more angered by the new ruling party’s approach where Paul Biya, the corrupt head of state’s pictures is being posted all over the place.

The 87-year-old and ailing Biya is bedridden and with the Coronavirus spreading like wildfire in Western countries, the government cannot fly him out of the country.

The separatists say that they will not tolerate the government’s “photocracy”, a system of governance where is a dying man’s picture keeps on representing him in events.

While Sunday’s elections have ended, Cameroonians are very sure that the political crisis will continue to hurt the economy and blight their lives.

Biya’s greed and inefficiency have brought untold hardship and death to Cameroonians.

His politics and policies are hurting the country and with his departure imminent, it is obvious that the country is heading to a post-Biya disaster which can only be preempted by the international community. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Mulheim an der Ruhr

For some weeks now, many chiefs and Fons in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions have been losing sleep because of the regional elections that have been slated for this month.

The CPDM corrupt squad has been in Bamenda and Buea to demonstrate that they are campaigning for their party.

Yang Philemon, a former Prime Minister, even said that the city of Bamenda had not been taken care of just to win hearts and minds. He simply did not tell us who had neglected the city.

Of course, we all know the answer and nobody in Bamenda will be fooled by the likes of Yang Philemon who have sold their souls to the devil for a few pieces of gold and power.

The devil incarnate was trying to download his mistakes on others. For more than three decades, all Bamenda City Government Delegates have been members of the ruling party also known as the crime syndicate that has ruled the country for 38 years. Any acts of negligence must be imputed to the CPDM and its chairman, Paul Biya.

 Is it not preposterous to think that Southern Cameroonians are foolish and can be easily deceived? Are the likes of Yang Philemon forgetting that the Southern Cameroons crisis that put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons was triggered by his party’s greed, corruption and incompetence? Is he forgetting that he cannot sell his story in the Southern Cameroons heartland as many bullets will reduce him to a mass of flesh?

If he wants to test his popularity, he should drive to his native Oku to sell his story of eternal corruption. The death penalty still stands and venturing into Oku will be synonymous with committing suicide.

 Besides more deaths have been scheduled and he might just be on the list of those who might not see the New Year. Southern Cameroonian fighters are determined to shock the world.

Because of the upcoming elections, the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, the con man in the corridors of power, seems to be setting up chiefs and fons in the country’s two English-speaking regions for death.

Ever since news leaked that the territorial administration minister had been bribing chiefs and fons in the two English-speaking regions of the country, many of those traditional authorities have been losing sleep.

Many of them are rushing out of the two English-speaking regions to seek accommodation in Yaoundé or Douala, far away from the threats of brave Southern Cameroonian fighters who have reiterated their willingness to enforce the death penalty.

In Mamfe, the Mamfe rural council is witnessing a decline in the number of people who come to work. The presence of Victor Mengot Arrey Nkongho, the minister in charge of special duties at the Presidency, in Mamfe  this week to drum up support for corrupt CPDM candidates has brought more trouble to the town.

Southern Cameroonian fighters who have been observing a unilateral truce have decided to clean up their weapons so as to remind any corrupt officials that they are ready and willing to implement the death penalty issued by the USA-based Interim Government in 2017.

But it is in Kumba that the fear of the death penalty is greater. The CPDM delegation led by the corrupt Nalova Lyonga and puffy jaws Peter Mafany Musonge could only end in Buea as they were all scared of going to Kumba where the death penalty could be easily enforced. 

For the chiefs and fons who have taken money from the Yaoundé government, theirs is the kingdom of death. Southern Cameroonian fighters are on their trail and if they don’t drop off that money bag, then they may only have to explain to their ancestors why the left this planet in a haste.

Many families are still crying their loved ones and nobody in their right mind in Southern Cameroons will welcome any corrupt chiefs or fons. A corrupt traditional leader is as bad as a bad tooth that needs to be yanked very fast if the mouth must know some peace.

The oppressor cannot succeed if he does not have traitors and accomplices among the oppressed. In Southern Cameroons’ case, some chiefs, fons, ministers, mayors, senators, councils and others are the accomplices who have opted to bring pain and suffering to their people.

According to a Southern Cameroonian fighter who elected anonymity, these government accessories do not deserve to be in Southern Cameroons. They have lost their places and they clearly belong to the past.

“We cannot continue to live with these enablers. They are infidels who have decided to pollute our people’s lives. We should be taking them out one after the other to ensure that the Yaoundé government does not have accomplices among us,” he said.

“We have lost many of our people because these scums have betrayed us. We should be implementing this phase of our strategy before the years runs out. The time is now and we must make December a memorable month for the families of these people who think that they can always manipulate our people,” he stressed.

“These wretches will never walk freely on our land until our leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe, and others are set free. Our people in Manyu have succeeded to make the place ungovernable for chiefs like George TabeTando of Bachou Ntai, Edward Ako of Ossing and Ayuk Hope who fled his village over night because he could not pay an Amba levy of CFAF 1,000,000. He has been duly advised not to return and will be buried wherever he dies,” he stressed.

“This Christmas period will surely not be a good one for some families of those traitors who are hiding in Yaoundé. We have succeeded to send them into exile and they will never return to our land with their stolen wealth to tell lies to our people in the name of election campaigns,” he said.

“We are prepared to send a strong message to the enemy. We have acquired new weapons and these weapons are designed to bring death and destruction to those who have betrayed us. We are keeping an eye on those who will participate in the scam the Yaoundé government calls regional election. Blood will flow and many tears will fill our rivers and streams that are drying up,” he concluded.

While the international community might be assuming that the current lull may be the beginning of the end of the war, it must understand that things are deteriorating and many people in the country’s two English-speaking regions are still living rough.

The killing is going on and many people are still fleeing the English-speaking regions because of the intermittent and bloody violence.

The world must stop being a spectator in a game that has left many dead and displaced. More than half a million Southern Cameroonians are internally displaced, with over 300,000 thousand seeking refuge in Nigeria.

With the fighters threatening brimstone, it is clear that the days ahead will be bloody.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom and Rita Akana in Yaoundé

Frankly speaking the candidates recruited by the CPDM crime syndicate to participate in the so-called regional elections in both La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia seem to be very different certainly in terms of personality. However, the candidates are aware that President Biya and his CPDM gang are boorish, unrefined, loud, and they are not the kind of people any right thinking citizen from both nations would want to do political business with. They are too full of themselves and they rely only on the army for their political survival and existence.

Biya and his acolytes are smoother. Biya is the father of the nation, he cares for everyone!! At least these are the personality traits that the Francophone Beti Ewondo consortium of crime syndicates tries to project. But that in itself shows the barrenness of the whole regional election process. To be accurate, these CPDM tugs in both La Republique and Southern Cameroons have built themselves up into something and are touting the regional elections as the greatest election, the most important election in the history of the two Cameroons and political commentators are watching and saying, are these people really serious?

Everybody including the international community is aware that Biya-CPDM policies don’t change. That’s how the people of Southern Cameroons including the Ambazonia Restoration Forces see what’s going on. The notion that a new Cameroon will emerge after the regional elections with a sense of dignity, a sense of purpose and respectability with Biya as head of state only demonstrates that it is a lot of pretending.

Philemon Yang and Peter Mafany Musonge are the most perfect distillation of what French Cameroun represents-a nation where no one takes responsibility, no one apologizes, and no one resigns!! These two shameless former Southern Cameroons prime ministers are caricature of Biya’s Cameroon, the ugly Cameroon so to speak!

Everywhere in the two Cameroons, there is much deeper anger. Anger at what the 87 year old Biya and his criminal gangs pretend to represent. In the two Cameroons, there is deep-seated fear and anxiety about the future, about the disappearance of agro industrial plants, the crushing of local financial institutions, the fraudulent privatization agenda, political elites lying to the population and government not listening! And for a variety of reasons Biya has manipulated this into a personality mind storm that is quite impressive. Consequently, the ruling CPDM party will pull out a stunning victory and chaos will continue to reign in the two Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are of the opinion that there is not going to be any difference after the regional elections. No matter what CPDM militants and the Cameroon government military which has eventually become a political constituency in the two Cameroons choose they’re deluding themselves. This has happened in Biya’s 38 years in office. So, the regional election is not a special election and it will make no difference.

La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons under Biya is an oligarchy, not a democracy!! Both French and English speaking Cameroonians have very, very little power to change the rules that govern them and that power is given mostly or asserted mostly by Biya and his appointees. Correspondingly, voting in the regional election will not get rid of Biya and his Atanga Nji gangs and it is also not going to solve the big issues confronting the two Cameroons. It’s not.

Prime Minister Dion Ngute, Philemon Yang and Peter Mafany Musonge want every Southern Cameroonian to forget all the things that have happened following the war Biya declared against the people of Ambazonia including all the killings of our women and children that the Biya regime has initiated under Defense Minister Beti Assomo. Then what? You wake up and drive on a good road from Bamenda to Wum or from Mamfe to Akwaya? Or you wake up and see jobs being created all over the counties?

It will be the army destroying Southern Cameroons villages, BIR raping and killings Southern Cameroons teenage girls and police beating our teachers and lawyers in the street and doing it with impunity on and on and on.

The French Cameroun system is resilient and resistant to intensive and productive change. And it’s not going to be fixed by this so-called regional election, no matter how they scream and shout about how important it is.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

As the Yaoundé government presses on with its diabolic plan to perpetuate dictatorship, corruption and marginalization, Southern Cameroonian fighters are also gradually putting in place a mechanism to ensure that Southern Cameroons gains its independence.

Anything short of independence might not bring peace to the two English-speaking regions of the country, except the international community gets involved in a negotiated settlement that will be satisfactory to all the factions involved in the fighting.

True to its provocative approach to life, the country’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) also known as the crime syndicate, has launched its regional election campaign in Bamenda and Buea in the belief that the regime’s corrupt surrogates will win the election, after all, only municipal councilors are expected to vote and many of them are members of the crime syndicate that has ruled the country for 38 years.

But the campaign launch in Buea has been overshadowed by the killing of three army soldiers in Ekondo-titi in the Southwest region where the country’s Prime Minister hails.

The fighters had duly informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that the death penalty that had been decreed three years ago by the then interim government was still standing.

Any Southern Cameroonian who is enabling the Yaoundé regime has a death penalty on him and the Yaoundé regime enablers such as Peter Mafany Musonge, Nalova Lyonga, Paul Atanga Nji, Yang Philemon, George Tabetando, and all CPDM mayors and senators from the two English-speaking regions of the country are all staring down the barrel of death as they are in the cross hairs of the brave Southern Cameroonian fighters who are giving the government and its soldiers a run for their money.

While CPDM criminals are currently celebrating the launch of their campaign in Buea, they know that beyond Buea, they are not safe. The fighters have vowed to reduce each one of them into a mass of flesh if they make the mistake of taking their campaign of corruption and indiscipline beyond Buea.

For some time now, there seems to be a lull in the nasty fighting that has sent some six thousand Cameroonians to an early grave.

While the population is still struggling with the impact of the carnage orchestrated by the Yaounde regime, the crime syndicate’s key actors have shown up in Bamenda and Buea to campaign in an election that has been duly proscribed by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

A fighter who spoke to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s London correspondent on condition of anonymity said that all the factions were quietly working together, adding that they were gradually putting their differences behind them; an action that is enabling them to put in place a tough mechanism that will enable them to monitor all those who will be voting in a proscribed election.

The fighter added that there was a silver lining emerging on the dark cloud of division that has given army soldiers the feeling that they are winning the war.

He advised that the slaughtering of three army soldiers on Thursday in Ekondo-titi was just a clear statement of intent, adding that more killings of Yaounde government officials were in the offing.

He stressed that the Yaoundé government had used all its resources to divide Southern Cameroonians but its efforts were not yielding the fruits the government was looking forward to.

He added that though the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, was using rogues and criminals who do pose as Southern Cameroonian fighters, their actions had not reduced the population’s faith in the real fighters whose objective is to bring about the total independence of Southern Cameroons.

The fighter, who has been traveling in and out of Cameroon, said that it would be hard for the government to win the war because the country’s borders were porous and most of the army soldiers were corrupt.

“We move sophisticated weapons into Cameroon with relative easy. We have struck fear in the minds of the officials and soldiers and most of them are looking forward to the day this nightmare will be over,” he said.

“Thanks to our comrades in Manyu Division who have sound knowledge of the Manyu jungle, we have been able to take arms to our fellow brothers in the Northwest region. Our comrades in Ekondo-titi are active and they are ready to enforce the death penalty. The killing of those three soldiers is only a statement of intent and more things have been scheduled,” he stressed.

He used the occasion to call on the Southern Cameroons Diaspora to continue supporting the struggle, adding that the divisions within the Diaspora only help the corrupt regime in Yaoundé.

“Our people in America, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa must stop fighting each other. On the ground, we don’t really care about who is leading the interim. We just need the support and we are happy that despite the differences of opinion, the Diaspora is still providing much-needed assistance. We are really very grateful and we are using this opportunity to call for unity,” he said.

“If the Diaspora keeps on wrangling, then our independence will be jeopardized. We can achieve our goal and the government is aware of our determination. We have resisted for four years and this is a huge surprise to the government. We will be springing a few surprises in the days ahead and the world will be hearing from us very soon. There is no yielding. Forward ever, backward never. The Yaoundé government can never be trusted. It speaks from both sides of its mouth and this makes it hard to work with it,” he said.

“We would also like to use this opportunity to underscore that the death penalty still stands and anybody who violates the laws of our land will feel the wrath of our laws,” he stressed.

“I am also using this opportunity to reassure the people of Southern Cameroons that we are fighting to bring peace, prosperity and independence to our land. The population should continue to  support us. It must not yield to the pressure being mounted on it by the corrupt regime in Yaounde,” he said.

“Some of the atrocities being attributed to our fighters are clearly false. Some rogue elements are taking advantage of the situation to intimidate our people with the objective lining their pockets. We are working diligently to eliminate such rogues and we urge the population to promptly inform us of any situation if it suspects any boys in any neighbourhood. I would like to conclude that the government is also making the situation murkier by releasing its fake agents in our towns. These criminals are committing horrendous crimes just to give our struggle a very bad name. We are aware of this and we are working hard to counter this propaganda,” he concluded.

The days ahead are really bleak for a population that has already gone through a lot. Instead of seeking real solutions, the government is still pushing ahead with its devilish agenda that will only breed death and destruction.

The international community must step in if the bloodshed in Southern Cameroons must stop. The Yaoundé government has no plan and intention to bring about peace in the country. It only has one tool in its huge toolbox – brutality- that has not delivered any real results in four years.

There is no hope and with more blood scheduled to flow over the next days, the ordinary civilian is sure to pay a huge price. The world must stop being a spectator in this gruesome fight that has already sent many to an early grave.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai