Since the Southern Cameroons crisis moved from the streets to the trenches and bushes of Southern Cameroons, a lot has changed especially the region’s political landscape.

Political campaigns are no longer conducted in the open like it was before the crisis which put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, including the military brutality and the human suffering that could be seen all over the place.

Southern Cameroons has changed for good though the old CPDM crime syndicate’s hawks and crooks like Peter Mafany Musonge, Yang Philemon and Dion Ngute are still in denial.

Over the last week, Musonge and Yang Philemon have been testing the water to see if Southern Cameroonians can take their poisonous bait.

 They have been on the ground campaigning for their party which has been outlawed in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

They only know their people when elections are in the offing. For more than three years, thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been slaughtered by the Yaoundé government in plain sight, but to these “power hungry vultures” the mowing down of fellow Southern Cameroonians is not an issue to them.

Regional elections are on the horizon and these “fairweather elites” are back with old promises, thinking that an angry and a hungry people will buy into their lies and vain promises.

In a message sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom, the separatists still hold that all those who have collaborated with the enemy should be punished and the death sentence hanging over the heads of people like Yang Philemon, Atanga Nji, Peter Mafany Musonge, George Tabetando, etc still stands.

“It will be hard to pardon these people who have been eating, drinking and dancing with the enemy. Many of our people have been killed by the Yaoundé government which has been enabled by some of our own people,” the message said.

“I hope while Yang and Musonge are peddling heresy in the name of elections, they also know that a death sentence is hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles,” the message stressed.

“Many families are still mourning their loved ones and thousands of families have been left homeless. Our people are all over East Cameroon begging for food and accommodation because the government burnt their homes and chased them away from their towns. We will never forget this and we must make those enablers among us to pay for their crime,” the message underscored.

“These elections are a non-event and any councilors who participate in that charade will be viewed as enemies and will be dealt with accordingly,” the message said.

“We are keeping our eyes on everybody. Those who betray us will have themselves to blame. The government has not yielded an inch of its authority and it wants us to down our guns. This is not going to happen,” the message underscored.

“We had thought that the national dialogue held in 2018 was designed to change a lot of things but the government’s scam is continuing. The government had hastily granted the two English-speaking regions a special status but we have only seen more people killed by government troops after their so-called special status. We now know that the only thing special in that status is the total extermination of the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons,” the message continued.

“It is hard to trust this government. The ruling party is a crime syndicate that should never be trusted. Its diaper wearing, corrupt and old members are hell-bent on destroying the youths of this country before they die. If our French-speaking colleagues have accepted their slave status, we will not accept that. It is now easy to pick up guns and we will do that until the marginalization that has been our fate ends,” the message stressed.

“We cannot drop our guns when our leaders are still in the dungeons of East Cameroon. Some are abroad and are doing their best to provide much-needed support. Though there are some disagreements among our leaders, we hold that the gaps can be bridged. These leaders should understand that we still have much to deal with. The Yaoundé government is still killing our people. We cannot let it do as it wishes. We must keep on fighting until the government listens,” the message concluded.

From every indication, Cameroon is not yet out of the woods. The days ahead are bleak and if the government does not end its charade, many more people will still die and the death sentence on the so-called elites will continue to be a millstone on their necks.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/ Editor-In-Chief

Many Cameroon political commentators including the renowned Prof PLO Lumumba have described President Paul Biya as a prominent and successful failure. To be sure, Biya has spent all his adult life chasing monetary deals, young Cameroonian and Ghanaian women and hiding from the media both at home and abroad. Biya has never sat in any library in Buea nor in Yaoundé pondering the nuances of Cameroon’s geopolitical structure and constitutional order.

Correspondingly, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe that for the past 38 years, when it comes to governing the two Cameroons, Biya simply does not know the rules as laid down by the founding fathers. Take his declaration over the killing of four gendarmes in the Manyu County upon his arrival from the Ivory Coast which was complete and total and which eventually started the war in Southern Cameroons. Biya is like the child on the back of an adult crossing a river and each time the adult smashes a fish, the child arrogantly claims he is the one who has killed the fish.

This is not to say Biya is unfamiliar with the French teleguided legal system running the two Cameroons. To the contrary, he and his family have invested in companies in the two Cameroons that have been the subject of extensive litigation! They include among others CDC, Beauty Voyage, Sitabac, Fokou, Nextel, Groupe Fotso, Camair-Co that have all gone bankrupt numerous times.

One of his first acts as head of state was to organize a fake coup that was poorly staged; seeking to prevent the Grand Nord of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo to continue to dominate the politics of the two Cameroons. After widespread outrage and internal protest within the National Gendarmerie – Biya abruptly divided the Grand Nord into North and Far North and the Fulanis and their crowned prince Minister Amadou Ali  became the revised version of neo colonial forces.

The United Republic of Cameroon was downhill from there. The two Cameroons have since been mired in one crisis after another, including Lake Nyos, Stolen Victory, Ghost Town, Nsam Fire Disaster, Eseka Train, National Assembly Fire, numerous indictments of Biya cabinet officials, the convictions of Biya’s Prime Minister Chief Inoni, Minister Secretary General at the Presidency, Jean Atangana Mebara and longtime political acolyte Edzoa Titus, Defense Minister Mebo Ngo’o – to name a few.

The 87 year old President Biya has for 38 years cast aside basic norms governing the greatest bilingual nation in Africa about social, economic, religious and legal matters. For example, Biya now uses Twitter to address very sensitive issues in a country that millions cannot access the internet, makes baseless accusations on Ambazonia Restoration Forces fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons and prosecuting his political rivals.

This bellicosity has confirmed the narrative that Biya is not just a primitive and lawless frog, but a tactless and reckless leader who has destroyed the United Republic of Cameroon.  Biya is indeed a French Cameroun Monarch and only his will goes.  Biya has turned the two Cameroons into a concentration camp and there’s nothing left. And today, Biya’s Minister of the Interior is an ex-convict-Paul Atanga Nji.

All the judges from the divisional and regional level including the Supreme Court are Biya appointees and none can rule against him. Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime have destroyed the healthcare system, shattered the National Assembly, the police force and the army and the entire Cameroon public service machinery must bend to Biya’s will. By some strange happenstance, Biya’s claim of total authority over the nation is more evident regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. This is why Cameroon Radio and Television’s senior political man George Ewane regularly opines that Biya is the Living Christ and the Messiah!!

Yes Dr. Ewane, Biya is indeed the best and greatest dictator in the world backed by the French that has successfully consolidated power and effectively craft and exploited the rule of law to advance his family and tribal ambitions.

Yes, Paul Biya is a real dictator transforming the two Cameroons to his advantage and that of his young family and his kinsmen. He is a corrupt leader who – while Dr. George Ewane and the world watches – fails to understand what it means to lead a nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

When the Southern Cameroons crisis started very few people actually gave Southern Cameroons a chance.

The Yaoundé government always thought it had everything under control, especially as it had crushed the country’s political opposition which almost it out in 1991 political upheavals that rocked the country and in 1992 when the opposition leader, John Fru Ndi, beat the incumbent, Paul Biya, in an election that was marred by intimidation and corruption.

The ruling party robbed Mr. Fru Ndi of his success and since that election; the country has not been the same again.

But the Southern Cameroons crisis turned out to be a different crisis whose ramifications extended beyond the country’s borders.

While the fighters on the ground have been local boys with little or no military training and some mercenaries from neighboring Nigeria whose cardinal objective has been to strike fear in the military and to make some fast cash by exploiting the local population, the financing that has driven the insurgency for four years has come entirely from Southern Cameroonians leaving abroad.

The government did not know that the country’s English-speaking Diaspora was going to get involved in the crisis. An error of judgment on the government’s part dragged the Southern Cameroons Diaspora into the conflict, making it hard for the government to wrap its hands around the problem.

By arresting the leaders of the teachers and lawyers who started the protests in 2017, the government clearly demonstrated that it unwilling to engage the English-speaking minority in a detailed, meaningful and fruitful dialogue.

This costly mistake was really going to bite the government where it hurt the most. The conflict moved abroad and the government’s reputation – that is if it had any – took a beating with the Diaspora ensuring that Cameroon government officials did not feel at home anywhere except in their Yaoundé enclave.

As the country’s corrupt and incompetent president, Paul Biya, declared war on his fellow citizens in 2017 just because they were calling for an end to their marginalization, little did he know that he was pouring fuel into a burning house, a situation that has hurt the country’s economy in a big and bad way.

The Southern Cameroons economy which, prior to the conflict accounted for more than 40% of the country’s economy, has taken a nosedive, leaving many Cameroonians unemployed and many children out of school.

The country’s second largest employer, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) has been limping since the insurgents shut down some of its operations in the country’s Southwest region.

PAMOL, another agro-industrial giant, is the hardest hit with most of its facilities in Ekondo-titi, Mondoni, and other locations completely put out of operation following the burning of its infrastructure.

Thousands of its workers have simply fled and many are very reluctant to return to work as the limping government is unable to provide much-needed security.

Even the country’s lone oil refinery, SONARA, has been dealt a severe blow. Though the government, known for its lies, has been defending its unsubstantiated thesis that the burning down of part of the refinery is an electrical accident, many people are simply not buying the government’s version.

For years, many Cameroonian have seen Mr. Biya and his bunch of destructive collaborators as snake oil salesmen and no Cameroonian with a good head on his shoulders will put any stock to what the government says.

For almost 40 years, Mr. Biya has been lying through his teeth. You can never take his word to any bank. He has promised Cameroonians many projects, but not many have been implemented and this has reduced him to clown in the eyes of his people.

But the biggest impact of the crisis and the one that will linger for a long time is the drying up of multiple revenue streams, a situation that has dumped the government in real financial problems.

SONARA, CDC and PAMOL were the government’s ATMs and ever since the insurgents destroyed those companies, the government has been losing sleep, with many of its officials seeking to obtain loans from multilateral financial institutions which, in many cases, are not prepared to extend fresh new sovereign loans to a country that has the bad habit of defaulting on its loan payments.

With its coffers rapidly running low and the president becoming a colony of diseases, much is falling apart in Yaounde and this is causing huge confusion and fear among those in power.

Power is going abegging in Yaounde. The vacuum is obvious but Mr. Biya has already compromised the military, making hard for anybody within the army to think of throwing the final blow at a government that is clearly on its last leg.

Most decisions in Yaounde are being taken by the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who is simply implementing decisions taken by Chantal Biya, the president wife who has distinguished herself with her flaming red hair and penchant for colorful dressing.

Many Western countries know that Biya is a lame duck and they will support anybody who overthrows the regime through a people power revolution.

Most Western countries have been counting on Prof. Maurice Kamto, the winner of the 2018 presidential elections who is currently under house arrest because he has been calling for a popular uprising in Cameroon.

But Kamto seems to be riding a dead horse. He has been counting on the Francophone majority which is simply not willing and ready to create that environment that may result in Mr. Biya’s dishonorable exit.

The country’s English-speaking minority has weakened the government and it is now up to the Francophone majority to deliver the last blow that will rid the country of a government that has made corruption and incompetence its hallmarks.

The writing is on the wall, but the Francophone majority is incapable of decoding because it is written in English. Francophone Cameroonians are illiterate in English. Somebody may have to interpret things for them to know that the heavy lifting has already been done.

They surely have to take out pages from political books published by Sudanese, Egyptians, Tunisians and Malians if they have to rid themselves of the millstone the Biya regime has placed around their necks.

Nobody will do it for them. They must take the risk. They have nothing to lose. Power is already on the streets looking for someone to own it. It is time to come together to make the ruling CPDM also known as the crime syndicate a distant memory.

The ruling party clearly belongs to the ash heap of history. All it takes is a little courage. If Cameroonians need that change then they must listen to opposition leaders who want to reverse the damage the corrupt Biya regime has inflicted on the country.

By  Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

The people of Ambazonia today join the great people of Ghana and millions of Pan-Africanists around the globe in mourning the loss of former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The former president passed on to glory today, Thursday 12 November 2020 after a brief illness in Accra, Ghana. The thoughts and prayers of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are with his immediate family at this hour of pain and sadness.

Former President Rawlings was a great friend of Ambazonia and a Pan-Africanist who articulated the plight of the Southern Cameroons with truth, passion, imagination, and conviction. He was a great visionary who advocated for an Africa free of imperialism.

President Rawlings will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its sincere and passionate friends.

On this somber day, The Interim Government is calling on all Ambazonians to observe a minute of silence and engage in prayers for the soul of this great African.

Thank you,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

The Anglophone problem in Cameroon is often described as the evolution of the Anglophone’s awareness from the feeling of being marginalised, exploited and homogenised politically, economically and socially by the Francophone-dominated state and even the Francophone population.

The failure to promote the rule of law and democracy creates an environment for conflict, often exacerbated by marginalisation, discrimination, inequality and inequity.

The bitterness of citizens roused to violence is usually entrenched in lack of basic services and public infrastructure, corruption, lack of personal and economic security and lack of transparency and accountability of government to its citizens. Thus, the greatest problem of African countries is their failure to protect the economic, political, social and cultural concerns of their people. This year, 2020, has been marred by a series of human rights violations from Lagos to Kumba. Africa is bleeding.

On 24 October 2020, at least eight children were killed and dozens wounded by a group of armed men at the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Kumba, in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. There have been a lot of attacks in Cameroon since 2016. However, these attacks have intensified dramatically.

Since the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon began in 2016, hundreds of people have died, more than 70 villages have been destroyed, about 160,000 people are internally displaced while 35,000 people have sought refuge in Nigeria, Cameroon’s neighbouring country. This crisis has also led to months of general strikes, innumerable days of internet shutdown and the loss of academic years.

What began as a peaceful strike by teachers and lawyers in 2016 led to a conflict between the government and an armed separatist movement of the Anglophone region. This crisis is a serious threat to efforts to build national harmony and unification in Cameroon and has led to the re-establishment of strong contentions and conducts in support of secession and/or federalism by Anglophones. This is because at the centre of this conflict is the Anglophones’ wish to secede from Cameroon and form their own independent state called Ambazonia.

Many analysts contend that the conflict is a result of the unmanageable historical animosity between Cameroon’s Anglophones and Francophones in terms of varying language, culture and identity. Thus, if the differences in identity, language and culture are the primary drivers of the conflict as these analysts contend, it is quite surprising that Cameroon, one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Africa, has to a great extent avoided conflict until 2016.

This crisis goes way beyond language, culture or identity. It is a resurgence of an old problem known as the Anglophone problem. The Anglophone problem is often described as the evolution of the Anglophone’s awareness from the feeling of being marginalised, exploited and homogenised politically, economically and socially by the Francophone-dominated state and even the Francophone population in Cameroon.

The Anglophone problem is driven by the marginalisation and discrimination against the Anglophones in Cameroon in decision-making nationally; the dilapidation of the region’s infrastructure; the exploitation of the region’s rich economic resources by successive Francophone administrations without much beneficiation to the local communities; and marginalisation in human resource development and deployment by the inundation of Anglophone regions with Francophone employees and workers.

It is driven by the marginalisation of the Anglophones in the allocation of economic resources by the Francophones, especially by the mismanagement of the economic patrimony in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon; the common law system and the francophonisation of the English educational system; gradual erosion of Anglophone identity; the predominance of French and Francophones in official documents and public offices respectively; as well as the second-class citizenship of the Anglophones when compared with the Francophones.

The principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty may bar international actors from intervening. However, one can start from the low hanging fruit. For example, European media can call out President Biya for always spending his time and his country’s resources in Switzerland and other European countries without reasonable justification.

Atrocities and the killings of the innocents cannot continue and must stop. While President Paul Biya of Cameroon has made several commitments to end the conflict in Cameroon, there has to be a genuine commitment for the equal and equitable distribution of resources to the Anglophone regions as enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon 1996, which stipulates that all citizens “have equal rights and obligations” and “the state shall provide all its citizens with the conditions necessary for their development” and that the state has a positive obligation to ensure that it protects the rights of the minorities. This must be upheld by the government of Cameroon.

Even if there is a commitment on the part of the Anglophones and the government of Cameroon to end the conflict and there are resources to do so, there may be an issue with the authorising environment. This is because President Biya began his rule in Cameroon in 1982 and is serving his seventh term, making him one of the longest-serving presidents in Africa and the world.

This means that for an average Cameroonian, s/he has only known one president since birth. Since the early 1990s, it has been speculated that President Biya is aloof to the needs of his people and has made very few public appearances. He is termed an absentee president who regularly spends extended periods in Switzerland with the excuse from his government that he goes to Switzerland to work without being disturbed. This deficit in governance, as well as the economic apartheid of the Anglophones, are some of the reasons for the demand for a change in the system of government from autocratic to democratic rule.

The bilateral partners of Cameroon such as France, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and other national, regional and international organisations should put pressure on the Cameroonian government to put in place a course of action to assuage the situation, partake in a genuine national dialogue and transform the governance archetype. The government of Cameroon should allow for negotiation and mediation during the national dialogue between parties, where necessary.

The principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty may bar international actors from intervening. However, one can start from the low hanging fruit. For example, European media can call out President Biya for always spending his time and his country’s resources in Switzerland and other European countries without reasonable justification.

Last, the African Union has a huge role to play in this crisis. Just like the Confederation of African Football (CAF) deprived Cameroon the right to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, the African Union can strip Cameroon of the benefits that it enjoys from the continental body and may also place economic and political sanctions on Cameroon such as travel bans and restrictions on access to services in the international arena until it resolves the Anglophone crisis.

Thus, it is imperative to acknowledge that the Anglophone crisis may continue to simmer if the Anglophones still feel marginalised. Therefore, the government of Cameroon must make a conscious effort to address the concerns of the Anglophones, particularly in the allocation and management of economic resources and representation in state institutions.

Source: Daily Maverick

The panic that is within the ranks of the ruling crime syndicate is testament to the fact that the government is under enormous pressure.

When the political opposition called for a nation-wide demonstration on September 22, 2020, to root out the country’s sit-tight, ailing and incompetent president, Paul Biya, from power, surrogates of the old and bed-ridden president swang into action to ensure the opposition’s call was not heeded by a public which is really tired of the incompetence and corruption that have become the ruling cabal’s hallmarks.

The country’s entire Amada was deployed in Douala and Yaoundé to intimidate opposition supporters who are getting bolder by the day.

But this strategy did not deter Cameroonians who are gradually figuring out that real political change in their country will never come through the ballot boxes which are usually loaded  with fake ballots by the country’s ruling party that has been in power for more than half a century with nothing to show for.

New elections are coming up in December 2020 and these regional elections are only designed to prove to the international community that the Yaoundé government is decentralizing as per its 1996 constitution that has never been respected.

The outcome of the election is already known. The tactics will be the same. A few votes will be granted to hungry political leaders like Cabral Libii and others just to legitimize the election.

The ruling CPDM is going to win big, and of course, through the foul means it has always used to win every single election for 38 years.

Intimidation and all corrupt practices will be on hand to ensure Mr. Biya’s party stays in power against the will of the Cameroonian people.

The election will be a total waste of time as the results are already known. Even if all political parties make common cause, the ruling party will steal the victory like it did in the 2018 presidential election.

The leading opposition figure, Professor Maurice Kamto, was robbed of his victory and to silence him, the military was deployed and he was illegally incarcerated for over six months.

A tactic that seems to have been lifted from a Soviet script. In Cameroon, those who vote are indeed not those who count the votes. This clearly implies that the ruling CPDM will always resort to its old antics to perpetuate itself in power.

Cameroonians should, by now, know that elections do not count and that the ruling CPDM will never yield an inch of its power if those who run that party are not arrested and hauled to jail in a people power revolution.

Southern Cameroonians have clearly understood that the Yaounde regime can never be trusted and the economic and political catastrophes generated by the Southern Cameroons crisis have weakened the government and demonstrated that greater pressure on the kleptocrats and gerontocrats who have hijacked power is the best path to walk.

And this path is spreading pain and insomnia among government officials who are completely overwhelmed by the Southern Cameroons crisis.

Initially, the government and its parasitic surrogates had declared that there was no Southern Cameroons crisis.

Opportunists like the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, a notorious ex-convict, and CPDM ideologue, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, who is scared of imprisonment because of some dirt he left at the ministry of the environment, gave the impression that all was well and that the demonstrations by the Southern Cameroonian population against marginalization in 2017 were simply a figment of the imagination of those who wanted to sow chaos in the country.

But today, the same Atanga Nji is losing sleep over an issue he said never existed. The Francophone leadership seems to have outsourced the stress to him and this invisible enemy is gradually consuming him.

He has been aging prematurely and a source close to one of his numerous girlfriends in Yaounde has indicated that the barefaced territorial administration boss is suffering from chronic erectile dysfunction due to stress.

His recent hasty trip to Kumba to demonstrate the government’s sympathy towards families whose children had been killed in a macabre slaughtering of students by undercover military men was a clear demonstration of the enormous stress that the government was taking because of the Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Atanga Nji’s stress was all over him to the point where he was mixing up administrative units even as he is the territorial administration boss. Kumba is in Meme Division in the Southwest region, but Atanga Nji, a secondary school dropout, kept on saying that Kumba was in Fako Division despite the numerous corrections from his collaborators.

The confused territorial administration boss even wanted to use the Bible to bamboozle the crowd but was promptly stopped by a lady who claimed she was under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

The lady’s intervention was more proof that the population is no longer scared of government officials and that the people will continue to challenge the government to reveal the truth about the killings in Kumba.

The Yaounde government is used to mowing down its own people. It also has a track record in hiding the truth. A few months ago, army soldiers slaughtered some 23 people in Ngarbuh, a little town in the country’s Northwest region.

Initially, the government clearly denied having conducted any operations in that locality but when pressed by the international community that had evidence, the dishonest government reluctantly admitted to the massacres.

But Ngarbuh was not the first and everybody knew it would not be the last. Muyuka, Muyenge, Santa, Kwakwa and other Southern Cameroonian towns have been victims of the government’s diabolic and Marchiavellic schemes.

The pattern is the same. Denial first and acceptance second. The same strategy has also been used in the country’s Far North region where a woman and her baby were shot point blank by Cameroon army soldiers. Thanks to the BBC’s superior technology, the lying Yaoundé government was caught red-handed.

The truth about Kumba will soon be out. The government knows who is behind the killings. It is revealing less than it knows.

But if Cameroonians have to rob themselves of their irresponsible government, then they must step up the pressure. They must create multiple pressure points both at home and abroad to ensure the criminal syndicate really belongs to the past.

It is time to flush the corrupt and incompetent government out and this will only be achieved through pressure and unity of purpose.

Southern Cameroonians must make common cause with their counterparts in East Cameroon if they must achieve anything.

Going solo may not yield the right dividends. The Biya government has a way of reincarnating. If it must be flushed out, then the different factions involved in the Southern Cameroons crisis must make common cause with the objective of stepping up pressure on a crumbling corrupt and ineffective government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

On Saturday, October 24, 2020, unknown gunmen stormed the Mother Francisca Academy, Fiango, Kumba around midday. These men perpetrated murder on innocent children in their classrooms. The children died for wanting to acquire knowledge. This act has unsurprisingly been condemned in the strongest terms by nearly all national and international organizations including the United Nations and the European Union. Human Rights Watch and the Cameroonian government through its minister of communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, have joined their voices of those who have condemned the atrocity.

However, and curiously so, the Cameroon government in her condemnation statement, seem to have conducted a speedy investigation as it accused the Southern Cameroons separatists of being the perpetrators of the heinous crime. In the government communique, they apportioned all the blame to the “Amba Boys” and this with no evidence whatsoever to buttress their allegation. Many still remember vividly how the same government accused armed groups of committing the 14 February 2020 Massacre in Ngarburh before an investigation revealed otherwise weeks later.

If we agree with the regime that separatist committed this crime, is it not clear that the regime has also failed in its responsibility to protect its civilians? The Cameroon government is by this act of early accusations without evidence trying to evade once again the fact that it has failed to protect its citizens. It is worth recalling that government officials in the two Anglophone regions campaigned recently and reassured parents and teachers that school resumption was safe.

The Responsibility To Protect R2P is the political commitment to stop all forms of violence and persecutions. It seeks to bridge the gap between member states’ pre-existing obligations under International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights law, and the reality faced by populations at risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

Koffi Annan, in his September1999 annual report to the United Nations General Assembly said “member states must find a common ground in upholding the principles of the Charter and acting in defense of common humanity”. Mr. Annan repeated this challenge in his 2000 Millennium report when he insisted that “If Humanitarian Intervention is indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to Rwanda, to gross systemic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity”

Going by the above, the Cameroon government can therefore not invoke the notion of sovereignty to evade a possible and imminent International Humanitarian intervention in the country to stop the current war. This writer believes that if the Cameroon government is failing in its responsibility to protect, the United Nations should not fail in ordering a Humanitarian Intervention to stop the atrocities in the Southern Cameroons.

The Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols lay down the rules on how soldiers and civilians should be treated during armed conflicts like the case in hand. These conventions were adopted in 1949and still apply in today’s armed conflicts.

International Humanitarian Law(IHL) advocates the protection of victims of armed conflicts and this includes civilians and combatants who have been injured or captured. All parties concerned in such conflicts whether states or organised non-states actors are therefore bound by the IHL in matters of this nature.

If after a proper and credible investigation, it is established that the Southern Cameroons separatists committed the massacre in Kumba, this will deal a deadly blow to their reputation. The legitimacy of their struggle for independence would suffer a major setback. On the other hand, if the investigations come out with evidence to suggest that there has been a repeat of the 14 February 2020 Ngarburh massacre, the state of Cameroon in my opinion, would have again to violated its constitution, International Humanitarian Law, the Geneva Convention and the Responsibility to Protect. Sanctions must therefore be called on the country for such violations.

While we condemn these crimes, no matter who committed them, it is important to note that the time is now for the United Nations to order an International Humanitarian Intervention in Cameroon to stop further bloodshed.

By Nelson A.  Agbor

The author is a Research Student in Int. Human Rights Law @ The University of Plymouth, UK.

MASSACRE OF SIX CHILDREN AT MOTHER FRANCISCA BILLINGUAL ACADEMY, KUMBA

Yesterday, 24 October 2020, an act of despicable barbarism was perpetrated upon our people in Kumba, Meme County, Southern Cameroons. Eyewitnesses attest that at about 11:30am, armed men entered the Mother Francisca International Billingual Academy, Fiango Kumba and opened fire on students. Six students were killed, and many are being treated for life-threatening injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this time of sorrow.

After an initial moment of pause, reflection and information-gathering, Ambazonia Intelligence Services have now confirmed that this act was committed by French Cameroun forces. The shell-casings found at the crime scene and some recovered from the bodies of the deceased children are bullets from sophisticated weapons possessed by the French Cameroun military.

Ambazonia Intelligence Services briefed the Interim Government last night that yesterday’s atrocity was designed to spread fear within the civilian population. The regime is desperate to give our legitimate fight for freedom and independence a bad name. The car used for the operation is owned by the French Cameroun military. Yesterday’s massacre was executed with military precision.

The regime in Yaoundé has been creating armed militia disguised as Ambazonian Self-Defense Forces but the people of Ambazonia will not fall for these sloppy gimmicks. The Interim Government of Ambazonia is determined that the truth about these massacres be made public. All the perpetrators of these acts must be brought to justice.

Ngarbuh, Kwakwa, Muyenge, Ikata, Muyuka, and now Kumba are unresolved massacres. Yesterday’s act has triggered international outrage.  The world must understand that outrage alone will not address the root cause of the conflict in Ambazonia. The regime in Yaoundé possesses no shame and has issued a facts-vague statement accusing Ambazonian Self-Defense Forces for the atrocity.

Mindful of the continuous acts of violence perpetrated upon the people of Southern Cameroons, the Interim Government of Ambazonia is calling on the UN Security Council to press the regime in Yaoundé to commit to:

•             A UN humanitarian intervention in the Southern Cameroons.

•             An international fact-finding mission to investigate the crimes perpetrated in the Southern Cameroons.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia believes that only by engaging in the above actions would the facts of these massacres and atrocities be established and the perpetrators brought to justice.

Thank You,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Once upon a time, there was indeed an Ambazonia struggle! To be sure, the people of Southern Cameroons and the Ambazonia Interim Government read from the same script. The rushed succession plan following the Abuja incident changed the whole concept and pattern of the Southern Cameroons war of independence. One cannot but wish for a different narrative, a different kind of story.

Every well-meaning Southern Cameroons citizen that is not worried about where the Ambazonian revolution is now and where we are headed must be living in Maryland, USA or in French Cameroun. Southern Cameroonians including President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe believed, and rightly so, that the corrupt leadership of the disgraced Dr Sako Ikome and Chris Anu was clueless and didn’t have the capacity to take Southern Cameroonians to the next level, and, therefore, instituted change.

But ever since President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe made public the Southern Cameroons dream Interim Government administration headed by Vice President Dabney Yerima, Sako Ikome and Chris Anu have blatantly refused to allow the Southern Cameroons Interim Government to put its acts together.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that the Southern Cameroons resistance is in a free fall. The Federal Republic of Ambazonia seems to be on a standstill and, in recent times, the Biya French Cameroun regime that has slaughtered thousands of Southern Cameroons citizens including women and children is gaining an upper hand in the Ambazonia homeland.

Those who are complaining about the killing of prominent Amba fighters are no longer only President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Vice President Dabney Yerima but also the corrupt Southern Cameroons so-called front line leaders that are haunted by their sordid and avaricious past to whom the Sako-Chris Anu period had become the ultimate nemesis.

The real tragedy of the Southern Cameroons situation is that its diaspora and thousands in Ground Zero are not convinced that the struggle is making progress. We of the Concord Group are sad about what has become of the war to liberate the people of Southern Cameroons, and more so of what has become of Ambaland.

It is evidently clear that the silence maintained by men like Hon. Joseph Wirba is deliberate! If those still rallying behind the Maryland mafia group think that Southern Cameroons had made progress, the assassination of General Ayeke and the disappearance of the Field Marshal in the Lebialem County can now help them to see today how much the resistance had gone down the hill! Not only on the negative politics being played by the diaspora including members of the cabinet appointed to assist Vice President Yerima but things like armed robbery and kidnapping, robbery and thieving that were such a taboo in a typical Southern Cameroons society are now the hallmarks of the Ambazonia revolution. While fighters who are pro Sako and Chris Anu in Ground Zero are getting away with murder, the disgraced US based Ambazonia front liners are getting away with massive embezzlement of My Trip To Buea funds!! With these things, you just wonder where we are heading.”

It has been extremely difficult for this writer to understand why the few still passing for a Sako IG, with their overt religiosity, find it difficult to walk their religious talk. The Southern Cameroons thieves of Maryland are all virtually baptized Christians. And since most Southern Cameroonians are Christians, most of the thieves are Christians too!!

Is it that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Ambazonia Interim Government have not put in their best? If so, is their best so bad or so poor that Southern Cameroonians haven’t made any significant difference? The leader’s recent call for unity from his cell in the Kondengui High Security Prison and the Maryland reaction that followed with the endorsement of Deacon Tassang, gave we of this publication a dissenting sense of defeatism.

We believe and fervently too that the Southern Cameroons diaspora have failed their fellow citizens in Ground Zero and this failure is slowly but surely generating a kind of frustration among the jailed leaders which is gradually translating to regrets.

Of course, like many living in the bushes and in refugee camps in Ghana and Nigeria, Southern Cameroonians can always console themselves with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. But Let Vice President Yerima continue to do all that he can, while Prof Carlson Anyangwe remains steadfast in diplomacy, hoping that another generation may stand on their shoulder and stand higher and do better for the suffering and oppressed people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. But it goes without saying that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe has done his bit.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Culture is the individualities and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, shared habits, music, and arts. The challenges for various structures of cultural institutions in Africa over the last centuries have been abundant but with a solid foundation of truth and justice, the institution of Ekpe has made hundreds of Manyu generations in the Cameroons rightfully honoured. Not even the Christian missionaries of the last seven score years could penetrate and distort the foundation of this cultural giant.

Over the last centuries, Epke has come to define and distinguish Manyu culture. With solid societal norms which go beyond the realms of this editorial, this institution has become an envy of many the world over. But the falsification of cultural institutions from within and external elements has been one of the most under-reported cultural crimes within the Manyu and Cameroonian community.

Ekpe has heavily influenced community peace, truth, and justice since the Manyu man started living in communities over 5500 years ago. With the growing influence of money over the last five decades, hundreds of Manyu men have expressed interest in buying their way into membership and leadership of this sacred institution. This is a trend that the elders and custodians are thankfully putting a stop to.

The title of Sessekou was on the verge of becoming so commercialized that the proud traditions were in danger of becoming trivialized. A cultural title is something which one should inherit from his ancestors and not bargain after earning a few dollars in the West.

The 25 July 2020 video publication on the YouTube platform upon which the elders and Ekpe Chiefs of Ntenako village found Johnnes  Arreymbi of London guilty of the cultural wrongdoing and also for posing as a Sessekou for too long in the UK is a stark reminder of the valleys many would descend for phoney self-aggrandizement. The video from the great people of Ntenako in their most raw, explicit, and unrestrained was unequivocal. Johnnes  Arreymbi has been passing for a Sessekou in the diaspora for over ten years and has been treated within the Cameroonian community with the veneration that the title attracts.

With the embarrassment of having been uncovered as a cultural imposter, a predictable but baseless and feeble social media fight-back was launched. Arreymbi’s fight-back to safe face can be seen by even the blindest amongst the blind. His tactics risk causing deep and lasting damage to the reputation of his village, clan and Ekpe. Trust in cultural institutions is an essential foundation and a basic human trait. Any cultural institution that is partial in its deliberations and decisions is viewed as lacking in credibility and such a reputation will be difficult to shake off.

The notion that the Elders and Ekpe Chiefs of Ntenako village on three occasions could not remember when they performed a celebrated public event of Sessekou Enthronement is not plausible. Any attempt by anyone in Manyu or London to perpetuate this gigantic lie would be met with vociferous consequences by the custodians and sympathizers of the Manyu culture.

This brings us to London, 17 October 2020. Cameroon Concord News Group has been reliably informed that a certain Sampson Tanyi, who arrived in the United Kingdom when Kwame Nkrumah was the chairman of the OAU and still has no intention of retiring to Manyu has voluntarily ventured into uncharted territory. This publication understands that the said Sampson Tanyi who has been described by many within Manyu circles as a prominent and successful failure is attempting to do the unthinkable by challenging the due process that led to the uncovering of this serious cultural crime.

Manyu cultural barons and custodians at home and in the diaspora are watching the current comedy led by this Self-appointed Quarter-head with wonderment and interest. One thing must be made clear to the cultural clowns and impostors in London: anyone who attempts to challenge the decision of the Epke custodians in Ntenako and Manyu on this matter would be embarking on a journey of many dangers as the consequences would be unimaginable.

We of the Concord Group publication are watching the cultural humourists and charlatans in the United Kingdom closely. All collaborators of the Sampson Tanyi in this pseudo-cultural endeavour would face the full force of Ekpe and Manyu.

The impulse to cheat is evident in many humans and wherever there are influence and money; villains and charlatans are never far away. Africans love titles but most Manyu men are predominantly obsessed with being Sessekous for honour and veneration and this fixation is driving many to obtain it by hook or crook. Ekpe as a cultural institution should not be misused and phoneys should not be shielded.

Ekpe represents a critical piece of Manyu identity as it forms the foundation of its social order. It reminds us of our past, shapes who we are today and will make the future of our descendants richer. The variety and vastness of the Manyu semi Bantu kingdom can sometimes make communication and stability demanding but Ekpe has reigned supreme in breaking these barriers and ensuring consistency, justice, and continuity.

What started as an investigation into an Ekpe title impersonation has now uncovered unanswered and pressing questions about academic titles. But for this editorial, Cameroon Concord News Group will stick to culture and Ekpe.

If Ekpe and the custodians of the Manyu culture dream of a world where no mortal will scorn or impersonate the coveted title of Sessekou, the time to put a stop is now. Sampson Tanyi and the charlatans of his Ekpe-meeting-by-zoom should take special note. Ekpe must employ this opportunity to underpin the values and beliefs that the Manyu community cherishes. The alternative to putting a stop to cultural corruption and impersonation is taking these values for granted.  If any culture is diluted and taken for granted, our way of life will become foreign to us and our descendants. And Manyu intends to pursue that path not.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-chief