For almost four decades, members of Cameroon’s ruling CPDM party also known as the crime syndicate, have always used November 6, the day the country’s president, Paul Biya, also known as the monarch, came to power to celebrate.  This was the day many Cameroonians thought their destiny would change for the better.

As the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, announced that he was leaving power, many Cameroonians thought that the young, handsome and self-effacing Biya would steer the country to the land of promise. He had studied in France on taxpayers’ money and having worked with Mr. Ahidjo for a long time, Cameroonians thought he would blend his Western education, experience with the huge financial reserves the country had at the time he came to power to launch Cameroon into a new political and economic era.

The goodwill towards Mr. Biya was unimaginable. Cameroonians could only swear to him. Ahidjo had not had a good education, but he had laid down a solid foundation for Cameroon’s economic and social prosperity. Under Ahidjo, the country was known for its five-year development plans which brought about fast and harmonized development in the country.

Cameroon was, indeed, a development model for many French-speaking African countries and Biya’s accession to power in 1982 triggered a wave of optimism in the country. Young Cameroonians were hopeful, especially as the country and the economy bequeathed to Mr. Biya were enjoying a boom. Unemployment was low, university graduates could easily find work and the private sector was delivering on its promise. It was, indeed, the pillar of the country’s rapidly-evolving economy.

But it did not take long for the country’s economic and political fortunes to start changing, unfortunately for the worse. Biya had taken over power promising to collaborate with his predecessor, but a few months from the day he took over, he started backpedaling from his promise. Amadou Ahidjo, the country’s pioneer president and the man who whole-heartedly delivered a beautiful gift to Mr. Biya on November 6, 1982, was slowly being transformed into a devil incarnate by Mr. Biya’s closest collaborators. The county’s first president quickly realized that he had manufactured his own “Frankenstein monster” who will later send him into exile to Senegal where he lived for the rest of his life.

The disagreement between the two men resulted in several coup attempts, and this led to the killing of many of the first president’s collaborators. The unity for which Cameroon was known got shattered when the two men started drifting apart. Cameroon, the once beacon of peace, had just started its journey to the world of tribal politics.

From 1984, when Biya survived the April 6 coup, he clearly demonstrated that he would transform governance in Cameroon from a regional representative system into a tribe-based system wherein only people from his ethnic group would be appointed to key positions.

The implementation of that decision started when key positions such as the ministries of finance, armed forces, territorial administration and gendarmerie were given to key Biya allies and proteges, most of whom were from his ethic group. Most Cameroonians who had sympathized with Mr. Biya thought the decision was only a temporary measure to clean up the mess left behind by the failed coup. Little did they know they would have to put up with such a corrupt system for decades.

Even the military had to undergo a rapid transformation. Key positions in the military were granted to the Betis, people from Biya’s ethnic group that constitutes less than 10% of Cameroon’s population. Today, the Center and South regions which are predominantly Beti, account for more than 70% of the generals in the country’s military.

Regarding, state-owned corporations, there are more Betis as head of corporations. Of the 34 state-owned corporations in Cameroon, 18 are headed by Betis. Some of these corporations are headed by people who are either related to the president or his wife and many of them do not have the right experience to run such corporations. Many state-owned corporations have been run aground due to corruption and incompetence, leaving thousands of Cameroonians jobless and homeless. Many have died as a result of the hardship that follows the collapse of those corporations.

Many years after having run the country as a single party state, Mr. Biya in 1991 finally yielded to pressure from the population for multiparty politics in Cameroon. However, this did not come without bloodshed. Thousands of Cameroonians clamoring for multiparty politics in the early 1990s were slaughtered by Mr. Biya’s forces. University students in the country’s lone university at the time were killed and others arrested and sent to the Yaounde maximum security prison.

Despite the brutality, the people stood their ground and in 1992, the country’s first presidential elections were held with the opposition leader, John Fru Ndi, defeating Mr. Biya. However, Mr. Biya refused to leave office. He ordered a state of emergency in the entire northwest region, Mr. Fru Ndi’s stronghold. The impact of the crimes of this period are still lingering, as many young Cameroonians still bear the scars. Their amputated arms speak to the brutality with which Mr. Biya’s forces dealt with those they suspected of challenging his authority and victory.

Since 1992, Mr. Biya has won every election, using the same tactic. In 2018, he used the same tactic on Professor Maurice Kamto who was the clear winner of the presidential election. On October 22, 2018, Cameroon’s Constitutional Council validated Paul Biya’s re-election, with 71.28 percent of the votes. The Council’s decision was immediately contested by one of Mr. Biya’s rivals, Professor Maurice Kamto, who claimed the results had been altered.

In early November, dozens of pro-Kamto protesters were arrested in Bafoussam, Western region. Biya was sworn-in for a seventh term as president on November 6. He immediately imprisoned Professor Kamto and his aides for eight months, a strategy Biya’s government has used over the decades to break down his opponents mentally and psychologically.

 Today, in Cameroon, it is normal for people to disappear, especially those who are very critical of the government’s high-handedness. The country’s maximum-security prison is full of opponents of the regime and this is giving the country a very bad name. These violations have been condemned by Human Rights Watch in its latest report on the country.  The report points to massive and brutal human rights abuses by the country’s security forces.

 “Cameroon, a country previously known for its stability, faced violence and serious human rights abuses in 2018. The country endured abusive military operations against a secessionist insurgency in two Anglophone regions, attacks by the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, in the Far North, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. President Paul Biya, 85, won a seventh seven-year term on October 7,” the report says.

‘In the South West and North West, government security forces have committed extrajudicial executions, burned property, carried out arbitrary arrests, and tortured detainees. A Human Rights Watch report documented a range of abuses by both sides in the Anglophone regions, including arson attacks on homes and schools. According to the International Crisis Group, government forces and armed separatists killed over 420 civilians in the regions since the crisis escalated in 2017,” report underscores.

“The humanitarian consequences of the Boko Haram attacks and separatist insurgency are of growing concern. As of November, the United Nations estimated that more than 244,000 civilians were displaced in the Far North and 437,500 in the Anglophone North West and South West regions. About 32,600 Cameroonians found refuge in Nigeria. Also, Cameroon has continued to forcibly return Nigerian asylum seekers, fleeing Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria,” the reports adds.   

But Mr. Biya’s worst legacy is the war in the two English-speaking regions of the country. The war which started as a protest by teachers and lawyers against marginalization quickly developed into a full-blown conflict when government forces acted in their usual and traditional manner by cracking down on lawyers, teachers and students of the University of Buea.

For three years now, Cameroon has been the theater of a huge armed conflict that has resulted in the death of some 3,000 civilians, with more than a million Cameroonians escaping to neighboring countries, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom while some 450,000 have been internally displaced. More than 200 villages have been torched by government troops and the fighting is still playing out in a manner that is far from being fair.   

Government forces have always responded to the growing separatist insurgency in the English-speaking regions by carrying out abusive security operations against communities suspected of supporting secessionist groups. Security forces have committed extra-judicial executions, used excessive force against civilians, tortured and abused suspected separatists and other detainees, and burned homes and other property in scores of villages.

Government atrocities have been documented by many human rights groups. Some will never be reported as the dead are quickly buried in locations that will be hard to find. Attacks documented by Human Rights Watch indicate that security forces have shot and killed many civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older have been burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire.

Human Rights Watch also documented three cases where security forces detained people suspected of supporting the secessionist cause, and then tortured and killed them in detention. In a fourth case, Human Rights Watch analyzed evidence of torture filmed by perpetrators, who appear to be gendarmes. On September 24 and 27, a total of nine men were allegedly executed by security forces in the town of Buea, according to videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch and a report by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, a local non-governmental organization (NGO).

As Biya celebrates his 37^th year in power today, millions of Cameroonians are mourning and cursing the hour to which they were born to such a destiny. Unemployment, diseases and corruption have blighted many lives in Cameroon. The country’s hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics and the total lack of infrastructure in the country has made life very challenging for Cameroonians. Death and destruction seem to be constants in Cameroon.

While Cameroonians languish in poverty, Mr. Biya and his children have simply transformed the state treasury into their personal ATM. Mr. Biya has the nasty habit of spending more time in Switzerland where he always seeks quality healthcare, a service he cannot provide to all Cameroonians and these services are costing the poor country a pretty penny.

While he is wasting taxpayers’ money in Switzerland, his daughter, Brenda Biya Eyenga, is squandering what little money her father leaves in state coffers when he is heading to Switzerland. Last week she was spotted in an expensive hotel in Dubai where she was spending her holidays. Experts put her vacation expenses at USD 75,000 for less than two weeks.

Mr. Biya’s scorecard for the 37 years he has been in power speaks to a dismal economic and political performance. A country that was designed to serve as a model to others has today become a symbol of mockery because of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and tribalism. It is common for Mr. Biya to use ex-convicts as ministers just to prove that he can do and undo. Any opposition to his rule always meets with an iron fist and this has caused many talented Cameroonians to leave the country.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

The Trump Administration, which has made its stance on the Southern Cameroons situation known, has once more delivered a dazing blow to the beleaguered government that is not yet ready to dialogue with Southern Cameroonians who are fighting for an independent country.

Last week, the Trump Administration threw another dangerous blow at the cash-strapped and dying Yaounde government. The U.S has decided to cut off Cameroon from a trade pact that granted the Central African country access to the huge and lucrative market that has brought significant economic and financial gains to Cameroon over the last ten years.

The world’s only super power is accusing Cameroon of persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed by the country’s reckless and unprofessional security forces.

The decision to wean Cameroon off AGOA was contained in a letter to the United States Congress on Thursday, October 31, 2019, citing accusations of torture and extrajudicial killings of citizens by the country’s military as the reason for removing the Central African country from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

AGOA  is a piece of legislation approved by the U.S. Congress in May 2000. The objective of the legislation is to assist Sub-Saharan African economies and to improve economic relations between the United States and the region. After completing its initial 15-year period of validity, the AGOA legislation was extended on 29 June 2015 by a further 10 years, to 2025.

AGOA provides trade preferences for quota and duty-free entry into the United States for certain goods, expanding the benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. AGOA expanded market access for textile and apparel goods into the United States for eligible countries, though many other goods are also included. This resulted in the growth of an apparel industry in southern Africa, which created hundreds of thousands of jobs.

However, the dismantling of the Multi Fibre Agreement’s world quota regime for textile and apparel trade in January 2005 reversed some of the gains made in the African textile industry due to increased competition from developing nations outside of Africa, particularly China. Some factories shut down in Lesotho, where most of the growth occurred. Orders from African manufacturers stabilized somewhat after the imposition of certain safeguard measures by U.S. authorities, but Africa’s share of the U.S. market was still reduced after the phaseout.

AGOA has resulted in a huge success in some well-organized African countries. In addition to growth in the textile and apparel industry, some AGOA countries have begun to export new products to the United States, such as cut flowers, horticultural products, automotive components and steel.

While Nigeria and Angola are the largest exporters under AGOA, other countries, particularly South Africa have been more diverse and unlike the former are not mainly concentrated in the energy sector.

To some countries, including Cameroon, AGOA is still of critical importance. Agricultural products constitute a promising area for AGOA trade. However much work needs to be done to assist African countries like Cameroon to  meet U.S. sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards.

The U.S. government is providing technical assistance to AGOA eligible countries to help them benefit from the legislation, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other agencies. The U.S. government has established three regional trade hubs in Africa for this purpose –  Accra, Ghana; Gaborone, Botswana; and Nairobi, Kenya.

AGOA therefore has significant opportunities for Cameroonian businesses and the Cameroon government, but if Cameroon has to continue trading with the U.S., it must meet certain criteria including a good human rights record; a test it has failed woefully, prompting Washington to develop huge doubts about its ability to be in compliance with its international obligations.

Besides concerns by President Donald Trump, other U.S official have also been expressing concerns about the Yaounde government’s persistence on the path to self-destruction. Ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis started, the country’s military has killed more than 3,000 innocent civilians, with some roasted to death in their homes.

Also, some 200 Southern Cameroonian villages have been deleted from the country’s map and more than one million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced, with half of this number fleeing to neighboring Nigeria where they are living in precarious conditions.

Similarly, in a bid to give the separatists a very bad name, the Yaounde government has been burning down hospitals and schools. For more than three years, many children in rural areas in the restive regions have not gone to school as the government cannot guarantee their safety.

The Yaounde government has continued to murder its own citizens and its indifference to international calls for an inclusive dialogue that could bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict is clearly having a negative impact, not just on the country’s economy, but on the country’s international image and reputation. U.S officials are clearly upset with Mr. Biya and his ineffective and counter-productive measures aimed at resolving the crisis.

“The US government remains deeply concerned about persistent gross violations of human rights being committed by the Cameroonian government against its own citizens,” Deputy US Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney said in a statement.

This is not the first time the U.S. Administration is calling the Yaounde government to order. In February 2019, it cut more than USD 17 million in security aid and support to Cameroon over concerns about its human rights record.

It has been frowning upon the Yaounde government’s use of U.S. military equipment granted to the country to fight Boko Haram for the killing of innocent civilians in other parts of the country, especially in Southern Cameroons. After the BBC released a documentary detailing gruesome atrocities committed by Cameroon army soldiers in the northern part of the country against a mother and her children, the United States promptly ended its military cooperation with Cameroon.

Over the last few years, the Yaounde government has become so dictatorial, arresting and imprisoning its opponents without trial. The arrest and detention of Cameroon’s opposition leader, Professor Maurice Kamto, for eight moths speaks to the violations it is being accused of.

Though the AGOA decision is causing the Yaounde government many sleepless nights, it has been quick to prove that it can do without the benefits it has reaped over the years from this partnership with the United States.

Cameroon’s Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations, Felix Mbayu, last week claimed that the sanctions were not biting and were not related to its human rights record.

“The simple truth is that the US is unhappy with a certain stance we take with China,” he said.

“The government has no move to make; we have other partners like China, Russia and Singapore who are ready to do business with us… We have no reaction to the US,” Mbayu told CNN during an interview.

“The least of our worry now is about the AGOA issue. By the way, it is a very small part of Cameroon’s relationship with the United States,” he added.

He estimated Cameroon’s exports to the U.S. under the trade legislation at USD 5 million, mostly consisting of agricultural and petroleum products which he said the U.S. “cannot do without.”

But the United States has been prompt to demonstrate that Cameroon will be losing a lot following the United States decision to cut if off AGOA.

In a statement aimed at reassuring Cameroonians despite the biting sanctions, the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon valued the country’s export to the U.S. at USD 220 million in 2018. It added that more than a quarter of the exports came off the AGOA legislation with 90 percent from petroleum exports.

Cameroon therefore stands to gain, and actions by the country’s authorities to down play the impact of the AGOA decision are being considered by many Cameroonians as a bluff that will not help the country and the government that is gradually being pushed to the wall by economic challenges and financial mismanagement.

 By Joachim Arrey in Canada

The demise of the controversial mayor of the Buea City Council, Patrick Ekema is one major thing that is giving pro French Cameroun CPDM barons more cause to worry about their chances of survival. To be sure, their situation is far worse than the jailed Ambazonia leaders.

As the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe made history by stating that Biya was merely talking to himself during the so-called Major National Dialogue, prominent Southern Cameroons CPDM heavyweights denounced their own fighter and publicly debated whether the late Ekema Patrick was fit to even be a chief of bureau.

Patrick Ekema Esunge( to use his three names)  previously had shown a masterly ability to create controversies that would sink any candidate running in the Fako County. He also struggled to move beyond condemnations of his dodgy academic achievements.

Top Anglophone CPDM militants including his kinsmen, former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, Senator Mbella Moki and Arthur Lysinge openly challenged his political remarks.  Southern Cameroons citizens, pro Yaounde Southern Cameroonians, Christians and Muslims alike backed away from him. But supported by President Biya of French Cameroun and Minister Paul Atanga Nji, the “Nyamoto Kpwatolo” continued to display negative combativeness against his own people when reconciliation and contrition might have been wiser choices.

The emptiness of CPDM political power

The spectacle swirling around Mayor Ekema Patrick’s tragic end on Sunday and deep within many Anglophone CPDM barons is continuing just as the more disciplined and organized Ambazonia Interim Government appeared to be finally consolidating strength for the final phase of the liberation war.

Anglophone Senators, MPs, Mayors are operating from French Cameroun and facing questions about their respective roles in the French Cameroun genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons.

In a maneuver that symbolized how the regime in French Cameroun is trying to accommodate its CPDM Southern Cameroonians, Biya has been publicly flirting with the Swiss government and a dissident Ambazonia group calling itself, Sako’s IG.  

However, most European nations including the United States of America have repeatedly advised Yaoundé to start talking about the issues that the Ambazonia people care about — and to start doing it now with the jailed leadership.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Since the struggle for equality and justice by the people of Southern Cameroon against the Francophone north began, leading to an almost endless conflict between separatists from the Anglophone south and government forces, over 500, 000 Cameroonians fleeing from the crisis have been displaced.

While some of the displaced have taken refuge in rural areas and the forests, majority have spilled into border communities along the West African coast, with Cross River and Taraba States in Nigeria becoming the big hosts.

For those who fled their cozy abodes and structured lives in the wake of the crisis and found shelter in different parts of Nigeria, life has been everything but sweet. In a case of being displaced from home yet being unsettled abroad, life, indeed, has been a parody. Aside living in totally poor and inhuman conditions in camps hurriedly put up without consideration for basic amenities required for living, survival has been by the day and for the fittest.

Before the influx of the displaced Cameroonians, Adagom and Okende villages in Ogoja Local Council of Cross River State were quiet and agrarian. But the arrival of thousands of registered refugees eroded that serenity, as the two host villages with a population of less than 3, 000 have now become busy, with a cluster of 72 new communities (41 in Adagom and 31 in Okende) built up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and their partners. The development took vehicular and human traffic to a level never experienced before.

The population of refugees, according to the Director General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Princewill Ayim, keeps increasing daily, making it a challenge to put an accurate figure to the displaced persons being harboured. While a UNHCR report, stated that, “in Cross River alone, the 26, 000 figure as of March 2019, has grown to about 28,713,” Ayim confirmed that the number of unregistered refugees doubles the UNHCR figure.

In Taraba State, the displaced Cameroonians have taken refuge in five out of the 16 local government areas, namely; Takum, Ussa, Donga, Sardauna and Wukari.

Trauma, Hardship In Camps
As the refugee population continues to grow at the camps, the living condition and well being of the settlers are said to be everything but pleasant. Aside from the dehumanising conditions that they live in, majority of them have resorted to taking up menial jobs in the environs as a means of survival.

The Adagom settlement is just by the Ogoja-Katsina-Ala Highway. It has 41 small one-room structures, each mostly accommodating a household of five. It has no bath, toilet or kitchen facility. The cooking is done outside, while bath and toilets are provided outside by the UNHCR. The environment is moderately clean, with solar streetlights, and general pump boreholes provided in strategic corners across the massive settlement.

Asu Javis Owan, a 24-year-old, who runs a barbing salon outside the settlement, in company of his friends, was full of praise for the UNHCR and the Nigerian people for accommodating them, but he bemoaned the conditions at the camp.

He said: “The problems here are many. We do not have water and food. Occasionally, food would be there in the warehouse, but it would not be distributed. They will end up burning it when it goes bad and it pains us.

“They pay us monthly; each person gets N7, 200. But for three months now, they have not paid. The money is good, but before they pay us, we may have run into so much debt. They paid last in July. We survive with this money; we are just struggling.”

Owan arrived at the Adagom settlement with his parents last December after the army in Cameroon drove them away from Okwaya in Southern Cameroon over alleged claims by the Paul Biya-led government that they were terrorists.

Issues of poor access to education, feeding, health, prostitution, joblessness, discrimination and others were also raised when The Guardian sought other opinions in the camp. For instance, about 80 persons are said to have lost their lives in the past one year due to poor health facilities, hunger and trauma.

In the settlements in Taraba, some respondents told The Guardian that life has been pretty difficult as assistance expected from the authorities, especially from the Federal Government of Nigeria are not rendered when due.

The development, they added, has now resulted in the regular occurrence of avoidable vices in the camps as helpless parents, left with no alternative, succumb to trading their children for money.

The dire situation could, perhaps, have been the trigger for 20-year-old Claudia, a refugee at the Adagom camp, who recently sold her baby for N70, 000.

Claudia had arrived Nigeria from Cameroon in October 2018, pregnant, alongside over 40, 000 other refugees.

Charles Ojon, leader of the refugees in Adagom camp, recalled that Claudia was delivered of a baby shortly after she arrived at the camp, but had been struggling to survive the hellish conditions at the camp.

But for a dispute, which arose from the sharing formula of the proceeds from the baby sale, the act may have gone unnoticed.

According to Elvis Manget, one of the refugees on the security team of the camp, the deal was discovered when an argument ensued over the money. Some of the refugees who witnessed the incident said Claudia had been suffering since she arrived at the camp.

Claudia blamed her action on hunger and hardship.

Ojon said: “When the police came, she said she sold the child because of hardship; that there is no food or anything to feed the child with. That was just before they paid our July allowance. Then, everywhere was dry. A lot of us have been selling our things and using them to settle debts.”

Another refugee, who said he first met the woman when she had a case with a resident of Ogoja, whom she had an affair with, corroborated Ojon’s claim.

The refugee said: “A Nigerian had earlier been here to take her to his house; they slept together but he did not pay her after their business. So she came to report the matter to us; that was when I first saw her and the kid. We were sent to go and bring the man and the matter was later settled.”

In Taraba, some parents have also been compelled to give their children away as domestic helps. And some have lost contact with the children, who have since been taken to far-flung locations across the country.

Bubs Ali, a 13-year-old boy, who escaped from Cameroon along with his parents and came to Ussa, now goes round the villages helping people on their farms and often times washing plates in restaurants.

Worried that his dreams of getting educated may have been shattered, he called on the international community to urgently wade into the upheaval in his country.

Unlike Ali, many unlucky children in camps in Taraba State are currently miles away from their siblings and parents, as they have followed agents acting as middlemen for households in need of house helps.

A 46-year-old woman, who preferred to be anonymous, said many of those in the camps have fallen victims to agents, who, according to her, “always come here promising to help us train our children.”

The Guardian gathered that while some of the agents put on the garments of faith-based organisations to exploit the parents, some went as far as donning the emblems of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to be able wean the children off their parents or guardians.

Most of the camps visited were populated by women and children, and were in dire need of health facilities and sanitary systems. Outbreak of diseases seem imminent, as The Guardian observed in one instance that the refugees drank water from the same ponds with animals, just as they defecated indiscriminately around their surroundings due to lack of latrines.

The ugly situation of the refugees is made worse by the prevailing security situation in the Southern part of Taraba State, which has continually led to killings between the Tiv and Jukun, kidnappings and banditry.

According to some of the displaced persons, the ongoing killings in the zone have made life more difficult for them, in that they are always afraid to go out in search of work, or food and get mistaken as Tiv or Jukun in the process.

Refugees As Strain On Host Communities
Since their arrival and continuous inflow into their host communities in both Cross River and Taraba states, there have been muffled complaints by locals and their representatives that the massive presence of the Cameroonians was hitting hard on health facilities.

In a chat with The Guardian, a local council chairman, currently playing host to some of the refugees in Taraba, narrated how the massive influx of the refugees into his council in Ussa was fast crippling facilities.

The council boss, Rimansikwe Tanko Musa, stressed the need for governments at both the state and federal levels to establish a hospital in Ussa, stating that, “what we have here is a clinic. So, we need a hospital to address these challenges.”

The chairman said that the medical facility available, including drugs, have been over-stretched by the displaced persons. He lamented that the council was now in dire need of a well-equipped hospital.

The chairman, who spoke through his supervisory counselor on Primary Health Care, Sechap Giwa Rikuye, said: “While two of the wards in the council are presently being occupied by the refugees, one of the wards in the neighbouring Special Development Area of Yangtu, which also depends solely on the health clinic located in Ussa, have also been overtaken by the refugees.”

Apart from the state governments and the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency (TSPHCDA) that have been giving some helping hand to the refugees, Musa added that the government at the centre has not deemed it fit to give any form of assistance to the camps.

Just as Ussa seeks the immediate establishment of an equipped hospital, it is the same story across other affected councils as their chairmen also called on the federal government to complement the state government’s effort in order to make life comfortable for the refuges as well as their host communities.

The agency that claimed to be aware of the presence of displaced persons from Cameroon in the state, said a lot of plans are in the pipelines to ensure that their health situations is adequately addressed

The Executive Secretary of the agency, Alhaji Aminu Hassan Jauro, who made this known through the State Health Education, Mrs. Mercy Maigoge, said the agency would not go to bed pending when 100 percent routine immunity coverage is actualised, stressing that the state government” is fully in support of what the agency is doing.”

The agency in collaboration with “our development partners” he said “are going to work collectively round the clock to ensure quality service delivery in the health facilities scattered across the affected councils.

Urging the health workers not to discriminate against the refugees and the people of the communities, the collaborating partners and the agency, as stated by him, have designed out plans to bring succour to persons assessing the health facilities and to put an end to child killer diseases in those camps “

Also, aware of the massive presence of Cameroon refugees in the state, governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, who recently played host to the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office, Mr. Bhanu Parhak said, “we are host to Cameroon refugees;  we will continue to try our best to assist them.”

The governor who said he has directed all council chairmen playing host to the refugees “to take adequate care of them” said the state will continue to do that until the situations in Cameroon is addressed.”

Source: The Guardian

La Republique du Cameroun has never had such an incompetent and corrupt president as they have today in the person of Paul Biya. A former aide to the 86 year old leader recently told Cameroon Concord News Group that “Biya should be arrested, brought into the streets of Yaoundé, openly disgraced and shot.”

The French Cameroun dictator faces an unending political crisis in Southern Cameroons including the re-emergence of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.  However, he continues to run every aspect of the nation without due process or fairness or any legal rights.

Whatever Biya wants, Biya gets! And of course he and the chartered members of his ruling CPDM crime syndicate have never been held to account for their crimes in Southern Cameroons which includes killing of thousands of innocent Ambazonia citizens and raping and harassment of women. Now he uses the word terrorist to describe genuine opposition directed at him.

Biya has constantly been modifying the constitution of the nation and we of this publication believe that he no longer has a clue what the Constitution requires of the president of the republic. Biya has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His kinsmen and women including some of his supporters see his being in power as God-sent and the most magnificent win any tribe could have experienced.

This is of course incredibly offensive to Southern Cameroonians who are people with a conscience and who believe in the rule of law. The Ambazonia resistance and quest for an independent nation is a very serious moment in La Republique du Cameroun’s history.

La Republique du Cameroun has never had such an incompetent, oafish, intellectually challenged leader as Yaounde have today. Soon and very soon, even his Beti Ewondo supporters will be forced to see how dangerous he is to the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon.

Not all of Biya beneficiary- supporters will abandoned this sinking CPDM ship, but eventually more and more members of the French Cameroun army will be looking out for their own best interests, and hopefully the interests of La Republique du Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The 86 year old French Cameroun dictator is reportedly destroying basic human rights and putting the long standing democratic culture in Southern Cameroons at risk. Biya gave the green light to Cameroon government army soldiers to use excessive force without proper justification against innocent Ambazonia civilians in a conflict that has entered its fourth year.

Ever since the proclamation of the independence of Southern Cameroons by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Southern Cameroonians have seen the French Cameroun leader frontally attacking with his military and his policies all of British Southern Cameroons political, economic and social institutions.

With unflinching support from the French government and the deliberate silence on the part of the United Nations, Mr. Biya has blatantly refused any face-to-face talks with the leadership of the Ambazonia Interim Government or with representatives from the International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch.

French Cameroun political elites such as Justice Minister Laurent Esso, the Minister Secretary General at the presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and the Minister for Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo who basically run the ruling CPDM crime syndicate are not allowed to speak to the media.

The Yaoundé regime has adopted a hard-line security strategy that has fueled a surge in army killings in Southern Cameroons in the last three years. Biya himself has frequently lambasted the leadership of the Ambazonia Interim Government and the Southern Cameroons diaspora including French Cameroun political leaders, activists and media outlets – accusing everyone but his gang of attempting to destabilize the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon. 

For 37 years, Mr. Biya has been the target of massive nationwide demonstrations over his policy that ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd.  Biya’s supporters often take to the streets in a show of support, but generally in smaller numbers in Southern Cameroons.

For more than three decades as head of state, Biya has successfully narrowed down the democratic space in both La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons. The former Roman Catholic Archbishop of  Yaoundé who enjoyed political flirtation with the Biya Francophone regime was heard murmuring privately that his kinsman Biya has slowly but surely transformed La Republique du Cameroun into an elected dictatorship were the head of state is above the law.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

They take a bullet for us. They go to the grave for you and I. They give up everything for us to have everything. We may write volumes about Ambazonia and videos and audios but if we and the world talk about Ambazonia today with our chins high, it is because of them. Yes them, those brave ones who rose to defend our land and people when the genocidal vampire terrorists thugs in the name of a military came raping, maiming, killing, burning and using our unarmed innocent citizens for target practice. Because of our brave boys and girls of Ambaland we can hope and sing.

We will never be able to thank them enough. We will never be able to appreciate them enough. So this Christmas for this 2019, Santa has no other assignment but to take our message of thanks and grantitude to our brave patriots our brave boys and girls.

Please join me in making my personal contribution to this initiative to our brave patriots, our great boys and girls grow.

I will be putting into Santa’s sleigh and bag to our brave patriots a message of gratitude wiith $1000.

Pleass add your name to show appreciation to our brave patriots as we send Santa to them this Christmas. Please send your support and contributions through any of the following:

WhatsApp account: $nkaprisu

Paypal account: christmasebini@gmail.com

Zelle account: 3017580263

The so-called Major National Dialogue was convened to reactivate the North West/South West Divide all in a bid to stifle the Southern Cameroons revolution. It was a successful failure and the Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé political elites are now at daggers drawn positions.

Chief V.E. Mukete held a secret meeting with the delegates from the South West region at his residence in Yaoundé and handed to them money with standing instructions to vote against any union with the North West people. Nfon Mukete told the delegates that it was he and some other South West elites who asked the late Ahmadou Ahidjo to dissolve the two state federation that existed in the 60s and 70s.

The paramount leader of the Bafaws further observed that Jua and Foncha treated South Westerners with contempt and that prompted some concerned elites to draw Ahidjo’s attention to the happenings in Buea.

For their part, the North West CPDM elites have launched a scathing attack on French Cameroun Prime Minister Dion Ngute blaming him for the failures recorded during the Yaoundé peace talks. French Cameroun newspapers sponsored by the Biya regime are feeding fat on the chaotic situation among the Anglophone senior CPDM militants.

However, judging from the fact that after 58 years, none of these so-called CPDM elites have been able to bring an iota of development to their various constituencies, the reawakening of the North West/South West Divide is indeed a bitter confession of back-to-back political failures ever since La Republique du Cameroun annexed Southern Cameroons.

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is publicizing a current fight between South West and North West CPDM elites and spending millions of FCFA on newspaper coverage to divert attention from the Ambazonia quest for independence. The long and short of this French Cameroun CPDM diabolic harsh ploy is simply that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a safer place without the so-called South West and North West CPDM elites.

First and foremost, Washington has clearly snubbed the Major National Dialogue and some reports have suggested that the US State Department has gone a step further by requesting President Biya to organize a proper peace talk without any preconditions.  

None of these pro Biya Anglophone citizens touched on Biya’s French Cameroun military involvement in Southern Cameroons during the Major National Dialogue and none of them could muster the courage to say it remains the worst decision ever made in La Republique du Cameroun’s history.

From the delay in making public the resolutions, it seems that Biya and his Beti Ewondo gang have come to the conclusion through objective experience that the equation of power and political geometry of the one and indivisible Cameroon has changed and that Yaoundé can no longer claim absolute authority over the affairs of Southern Cameroons.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe Mr. Biya has realized that he has only two options; either to be just content with an empty mask of being the head of state of the one and indivisible Cameroon despite heavy costs, or to adopt a realistic approach and acknowledge the present reality of sitting down with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and talk.

Biya has failed woefully in all his strategic projects such as the One and Indivisible Cameroon, the Major National Dialogue, the arrest and recent release of Prof Maurice Kamto, life sentences on the Ambazonia leaders, maintaining peace in the Central African Republic, combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram and hosting of the African Nations Cup.

The poverty and deteriorating infrastructure deep inside French Cameroun has led many ruling CPDM barons, even those who have been facilitating and guaranteeing Biya’s continued stay in power like Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, to acknowledge the urgent need to limit the presidential term.

To the people of Southern Cameroons, their beloved nation the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be a safer country without the North West/ South West CPDM elites.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Jeune Afrique: For two days, only the liberation of Maurice Kamto and his supporters has occupied the debates. First, how did you feel about the announcement of their release?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are very happy that Prof Maurice Kamto and his MRC compatriots have been released. Jailing political opponents and suppressing political expression are repressive measures that are incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. With their release, we hope, they will fight to make La Republique du Cameroun a more just, humane and equitable society where international laws and treaties are respected, torture is prohibited and the rights of all individuals are respected including those of refugees and asylum seekers.

Jeune Afrique: Some argue that negotiations are under way for your release. What do you have to say?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We are in prison in Yaoundé. We have neither been contacted nor informed. We know nothing about the negotiations going on for our release, if any. As a matter of fact, we are more concerned with the freedom of millions of Southern Cameroonians than our individual freedoms. We are not free if our citizens continue to be killed, our girls and women continue to be raped, our villages continue to be burnt down, and a force of occupation continues to occupy and terrorizes our country.

Jeune Afrique: The Major National Dialogue (MND) as prescribed by President Paul Biya ended with the announcement of a special status for the North West and South West regions. What does it inspire you, how do you see it?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was a gathering of CPDM party members and a few other French Cameroonians to discuss among themselves and probably come up with their own position. We have our position which is rooted in international law, in history and in culture.

La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons are two former trust territories under UN administration! One does not grant independence or ‘special status’ to the other. As such, it is evident that Mr Biya does not have the powers to decide the future of the People of the former UN Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons also known as Ambazonia. That decision belongs only to the people of that territory.

Jeune Afrique: Was the Major National Dialogue a Big Bluff? Despite the fact that 333 Ambazonians are supposed to be released?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The Major National Dialogue was for  French Cameroun citizens to solve their national problems. To us the MND was a non-event. Our problem with La Republique du Cameroun is an international problem and cannot be solved by a national dialogue. That Mr Biya announced the release of 333 (half of 666) of our compatriots is nothing to write home about. This number is insignicant and also as there is no justification for detaining self determination activists. There are over 3,000 Ambazonians illegally detained by La Republique du Cameroun. Releasing all of them and accounting for the missing ones is the right thing Mr Biya should do.

Jeune Afrique: Representatives of Ambazonia took part in this dialogue. It sounds a bit like your disavowal, doesn’t it? Could this be the beginning of the end of Ambazonia? Ambazonians who agree to participate in this MND; are they traitors to the cause?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Let it be made very clear that no Ambazonian or a representative of Ambazonia attended Mr Biya’s MND. In the MND, Mr Biya was talking to himself.

Jeune Afrique: What leeway do you still have, you are now in prison? It will be interesting to know where you are with your political convictions, after receiving and serving a life sentence. What makes you persevere despite this major setback?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Our conviction for Ambazonia lies in the fact that truth always prevails. We are not part of La Republique du Cameroun and will not be coerced to be part of it. Success stories of legitimate claims to nationhood abound. The determination and success of Namibia, Eritrea, East Timor, Djibouti, and South Sudan inspire us.

Jeune Afrique: As many people are being killed, victims of atrocities, villages being destroyed and burned, people displaced in the North and South West regions, what is your proposed solution to stop this human disaster? When you observe these so-called English-speaking regions you see nothing but destructions, do you say to yourself: we should not have gone so far to decide to secede?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Permit me start by correcting the fact that we are not seceding. We are restoring our nationhood. I refer you to UN Resolution 1608 that granted us independence. Also we are not English speaking Regions, we are the former British Southern Cameroons now known as Ambazonia.

A genocide being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military is going on in Ambazonia right now. To stop it, Mr Biya should declare a cease fire to the genocidal war he declared on the 30th November 2017 and pull his troops out of the Southern Cameroons. We regret that Mr Biya’s government could be that insensitive and irresponsive, but as a People we are bent on upholding the truth and defending our fatherland to the best of our abilities, at all times despite the odds, to the last man standing.

Jeune Afrique: What is your opinion in view of the barbarity, atrocities, tortures and serious human rights violations committed by the government forces as well as the separatist groups, of which you are the leader? Abuses are probably not the sole fact of Cameroonian law enforcement. Do you recognize that there are among you some uncontrolled elements?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming. So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are  internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities. It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. One thing we know for sure is that Mr Biya and his military and private militia will be held accountable for these crimes. While not exonerating Ambazonian self-defense forces, we also know that Mr Biya’s government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy. Only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons and establish the facts.

Jeune Afrique: Would you agree to meet and negotiate with the Government of Cameroon to find a compromised solution to this calamity?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: We have always been open to negotiations to end this political conflict between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun. The resistance has been from Mr Biya’s side. However, the negotiations we are looking forward to should be mediated by an independent, impartial and credible entity in a neutral territory. The negotiations must address the root causes of the conflict. Finally, there must be a mechanism to ensure that the outcomes of the negotiations are implemented. This is Conflict Resolution 101 and I wonder why the Yaoundé regime finds it so hard to understand.

Jeune Afrique:  With the presence of credible political leaders, would you agree to work with them on changes to the Cameroonian constitution, the penal and electoral code that will lead to the return of federalism as a compromised for the secession? Or do you maintain the only way out is secession?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is not part of La Republique du Cameroun. The UN resolutions that granted independence by joining at no point took away the international personality or international boundaries of Southern Cameroons. Changes in the Constitution or other legal instruments of  French Cameroun do not therefore relate to Ambazonia in anyway. We are ready and willing to work with credible international mediators, to address the root causes of the conflict, for a lasting solution.

Jeune Afrique: How bad can it get, what is according to you the worst-case scenario if things don’t get resolved in the Northwest and the Southwest regions very soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Nothing worst can happen than the genocide that is already taking place in Ambazonia.  We pray the UN and international community to step in now to resolve the conflict in Ambazonia. As a people, with a right to self-determination, Ambazonians have taken the destiny of their nation into their hands and will stop at nothing till they completely restore their independence. It is either total independence of Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Jeune Afrique: What do you think about the state of democracy in Cameroon? About the political opposition parties? What are your relations with the SDF, or the party of Edith Kah Walla? Are there still great English-speaking political leaders in Cameroon like Muna, Foncha, Endeley?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Going by the history of former British Southern Cameroons, which witnessed the first democratic elections in Africa in 1958, our assessment of the political space in Cameroun is that there is a long way to walk on the path to democracy in La Republique du Cameroun. However, we are really not interested in party politics in La Republique du Cameroun. We are interested in what is happening to us as Ambazonians as we prepare to build our nation, on the foundation laid by Dr E. M. L. Endeley and John Ngu Foncha in the 1950s.

Jeune Afrique: Let’s talk about the attitude of English-speaking dignitaries such as Cardinal Tumi. Did they give up too soon?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Christian Cardinal Tumi is a respected religious leader with an independent mind and a right to his opinion. As a man of God, he is expected to use his power and God-given position to stand for the truth and the oppressed. If he, like anyone else, opts not to write his name in the sands of time, such a burden will be his to bear. African leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and others in Nigeria and Central Africa are living examples of religious leaders who championed socio-political change in their countries. Cardinal Tumi like other dignitaries is entitled to his opinion. But only the truth will prevail.

Jeune Afrique: Albert Dzongang spoke today about a form of rapprochement between the CRM and you. Can you tell us more?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Mr Albert Dzongang was another victim of French Cameroun government’s barbarism.  He was locked up in the same prison with us – Prison Principale Kondengui, Yaounde. We interacted as inmates and we share no political fraternity, for our goal is the restoration of the statehood of our nation. We do not mingle into French Cameroun politics.

Jeune Afrique: In your own words, could you please tell who Sisiku Julius AyukTabe is? When did you become interested in politics? How did you become the leader/president of the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia? Was there an electoral process at the end of which you were brought to the head of the separatist group?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is the peoples’ chosen leader. He has never been interested in partisan politics. In 2017, he was brought out from his quiet life by the people to continue to lead the quest for the restoration of the independence of the Southern Cameroons, taking over from Deacon Tasang Wilfred, as Chairman of the Governing Council of SCACUF. He was nominated President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by acclamation at SCACUF’s 4th conclave at the close of 2017, by the People’s representatives. As a humble servant of his people, he enjoys the support of his peoples as was aptly demonstrated on the 1st of October 2019.

Jeune Afrique: For some people, the self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia was a joke. For others, Ambazonians were merely terrorist. How would you describe the fighters of Ambazonia? Who are they?  Live skinned?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Anyone one who still thinks that the restoration of the statehood of the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons now called Ambazonia was a joke lives in a world of his own. History, International law and Culture justify our resolve for Ambazonia. UN Resolutions 1514 and 1608; Article 102 of the UN Charter vindicates our restoration quest for the independence of the Southern Cameroons.  Some have called us terrorists, some secessionists, some separatists and some rats and dogs. Remember you could always give a good dog a bad name in order to hang it. We are Restorationists, fighting against the annexation and colonization of our homeland – the former British Southern Cameroons.

With regards to the self defense groups called Ambaboys, they are our heroes. Without arms, they are defending our population from being exterminated by Mr Biya’s genocidal war and scorch-earth policy in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia).

Jeune Afrique: Could you tell us how you got arrested and taken to Yaoundé?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: For the record, we were not arrested; we were abducted by armed men. As Refugees and Asylum Seekers based in Nigeria, our abduction and subsequent transfer to La Republique du Cameroun without due judicial process was a flagrant violation of international refugee laws. It is also indicative of the lawlessness which the governments of these nations operated.

On the 5th of January 2018, 12 of us met at the gardens of Nera Hotel in Abuja, discussing the pathetic state of our sisters and brothers streaming into Nigeria as refugees. We were abducted by heavily armed men, without any warrants of arrest. We were detained at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of Nigeria for 20 days without access to family, friends or lawyers and without charge. On the 25th of January, we were handcuffed, blindfolded and bundled into a military cargo plane and taken to Yaounde, where we were held incommunicado for close to nine months. Later, we were confronted with trumped-up charges of terrorism, terrorism related activities, secession and revolution, among others.

Jeune Afrique: What is your day like in prison? Can you describe your conditions of detention?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: A typical day in prison starts from 7am when our cell-doors are opened to 6.30pm when they are closed. Within this time as a community, we study the bible and meditate together, eat together, play together. On visiting days, we receive families and friends together.  In terms of conditions of detention, this prison now is a squalid over-populated environment, infested with rodents and cockroaches. However, we are making the best of a bad situation.

Jeune Afrique: The current secession movement in Cameroon is reminiscent of another one, but much older the Biafra. It is remembered that the French were the ones pulling strings. And some are suspecting foreign powers behind the Ambazonians?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe;  As you said, foreign backing is a suspicion and of course unfounded. We Ambazonians own our revolution and our destiny. It is not a secessionist movement, but a restoration movement, aimed at restoring what is genuinely ours.

Jeune Afrique: If you had to ask forgiveness from Cameroonians, what will that be and why?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: In life, it is the robber that asks for forgiveness from the robbed; the colonizer from the colonized; the annexationist from the annexed; the cheat from the cheated. Should there be a time for forgiveness, it will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the UN, UK and France for masterminding its colonization by La Republique du Cameroon, after UN granted it independence on 1st October 1961. It will be the People of the Southern Cameroons to forgive the international Community for shelving the Never Again Campaign against genocide, for staying silent while thousands of Southern Cameroonians are murdered and for complicity in genocide perpetuated in the Southern Cameroons by Mr Biya’s military and militias.

Jeune Afrique: It appears from the MND that the acceleration of decentralization remains the only way out. Federalism does not seem possible either. When did you say that you, secessionists, had reached a point of no return, a rupture from the government?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: As I said before, we are not secessionists but restorationists. With regards to the choice between Federalism and Decentralization in Cameroun, French Cameroonians are free to choose whatever form of government they think is good for their country. On October 1 2017, the Statehood of the Former British Southern Cameroons was restored as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Jeune Afrique: Your current situation that is keeping you from your love ones reflects in a way that of many English-speaking families who have been torn apart, displaced in forests, other part of Cameroon and even in neighboring countries because of the war. You who have been separated from your family since your incarceration, what message do you have for all these families?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe:Thank you for this question and the opportunity to leave a message to our families in pain. My fellow Ambazonians, it is indeed a painful experience to be separated from loved ones on account of our noble course. I consider them enormous sacrifices and these shows the love we have for Ambazonia. I share the pain of every Ambazonian wherever they may be, including IDPs, Refugees, prisons, torture centers, or in the wildernesses. Remember that some our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children have paid the ultimate price, with their lives. The blood of these our fallen heroes shall not be in vain. Wherever you are, defend Ambazonia with courage, determination till the last man standing. It is either total independence for Ambazonia or resistance for ever.

Translated by our chief political man Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai