We are completely at a loss for words. We have been trying to wrap our minds around what is happening in Cameroon, but we are yet to achieve that goal. Success in this area seems to be a distant tomorrow affair. Things are gradually spiraling out of control from both ends.

In Yaoundé, the government is losing its grip on power. Scandals are destroying the crime syndicate that has ruled the country for 36 years. CAF’s withdrawal of the right to host the 2019 African Nations Cup has opened a can of worms that might sweep an entire government out of power.

The country’s ministers are accusing each other for the collapse of the plan put in place to hoodwink the world into believing that things are working out well in Cameroon.  The population is devastated while the government is trying to put on a brave face.

It never rains, but it pours. After CAF, there was more embarrassment for the criminal enterprise made in the mold of the Sicilian Mafia.  The World Bank recently released a report indicting the country’s government of corruption, overspending and misappropriation of funds.

This has left many government officials scrambling for solutions, as the country’s president, Paul Biya, also known as the “monarch” keeps an ominous silence which is destroying many of his ministers who fear they could be arrested anytime or kicked out of government.

The regime has never been this weak. Those who have been propping the government are gradually showing signs of fatigue. Years of lying and defrauding the state are clearly taking a toll on the health of these key actors.

The economy is crumbling; the population has lost hope in the country. The government’s mismanagement of the country and its determination to hang on to power despite losing many elections has pushed the population into the worst form of despair.

This situation has been made all the more desperate by tribalism and nepotism which have become the government’s tools of administration par excellence. Tribalism that had very little space in Cameroon’s politics under the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo has become a key component of the country’s politics.

In Cameroon, power belongs to a few, most of whom are from a particular ethnic group. For those who belong to the criminal enterprise known as the CPDM government and are not from the ethnic group that is calling the shots in Cameroon, there is the belief that if they hang on to what they have, they could change the destiny of their children.

To most of them, they just want to feather their nests and they know things could fall apart anytime soon. They are therefore doing everything they can to pick up any dimes and pennies they meet in their path. The impunity that has characterized the current regime is driving many government officials to ridiculous extents.

It is rumored that the Secretary-General at the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who was in charge of the 2019 AfCON development projects is gradually coming to terms with the fact that he could be arrested anytime. His crime is known by all in Cameroon.

He established many fictitious companies to which he granted many major projects for the 2019 AfCON on mutual agreement and many of those projects have not taken off the ground and the “monarch” is now aware of the pranks his collaborators have been playing on him.

The World Bank report which clearly states that projects in Cameroon cost six times more than similar projects in Cote d’Ivoire and other countries comes at a time when the government is struggling for answers to the many questions Cameroonians have been asking about the government’s ability to build proper infrastructure for the country.

The truth is out and this has significantly diminished the government and many people around the world have been thinking that with such a huge setback, the government could be easily led to the negotiating table where it would cut a deal with Southern Cameroonian separatists.

But for many weeks now, Southern Cameroonian separatists have become their own enemies. They have decided to poison themselves. The devil has moved into their midst and has taken control of everything. Common sense has taken French leave and things are falling apart. The fighters have been shooting themselves in the foot for some time now and this is weakening their resolve to deliver good punches to the government and where it hurts the most.

Over the last two weeks, most of the rebel groups have focused on eliminating each other, giving the enemy the respite and time to plan on how to put the rebellion out of business. This is bad news for the ordinary people who have been living in the jungles Southern Cameroons for more than a year where they are expecting to hear victory songs for an independent Southern Cameroons.

Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian fighters have had to bite the dust in recent days because of the chaos and disunity that have gradually replaced the unity and discipline that have been their hallmarks for a long time.

Some Southern Cameroonians have already been bought over by the government and they are working with government troops to betray the cause. Things are really going down the hill for the rebellion, especially as key leaders in the Diaspora cannot even come together to establish a common ground.

They seem to be drunk with the little influence they have and this is causing them to lose sight of the overall objective of the struggle. Even members of the international community who had thought Southern Cameroonians were making some inroads are gradually throwing up their hands in despair as government troops continue to slaughter Southern Cameroonian fighters in many parts of the two English-speaking regions.

The knife has finally decided to turn inwards. Instead of facing their common enemy, Southern Cameroonian fighters have decided to play into the enemy’s hands, and this is costing so many youthful lives. Many donors are already withdrawing their support and this could herald the demise of a rebellion that had every chance of succeeding. Losing the unity of purpose that has characterized the struggle is really bad news for many Southern Cameroonians.

What is more disturbing is the apple of discord. Southern Cameroonian fighters and their leaders are still very far from Buea, but they seem to have lost their focus. They are failing to keep their eye on the ball. They must know that the enemy is clearly somewhere else. The enemy is not their fellow fighter. They must simply agree that there will be differences of opinion, especially regarding strategy, but that should not be reason enough to start a new war and split the group.

They need to remind themselves of the original objective. The people on Ground Zero have taken the brunt of the government’s massive and merciless attack for two years and this will not be a good way to reward them for their bravery and loyalty.

The people could not have been exposed to this disaster just for the leaders to start squabbling over little issues that can easily be addressed through negotiations. Disagreement is as old as man, but leaders must always recognize such cracks on the wall early enough and take actions that will keep the team together.

These leaders should have looked into the mirror of history to find examples that could guide them to success. The African National Congress (ANC) has a template that deserves some attention.

While fighting Apartheid, the ANC had to work with other groups in order to achieve the cardinal objective. Southern Cameroonian leaders must cast off their egos if they really think about the people on Ground Zero who have religiously listened to them and continue to look up to them for salvation.

Why are these leaders fighting? Are they fighting for popularity? Are they already seeing positions when many of us are still seeing hardship and desperate days ahead? Why are they going after reputation when from the onset it was the sorry plight of the people that constituted the basis for this struggle? These leaders should understand that reputation comes without merit and goes without deserving. They should read their history books in order not to lose their focus.

They should remember that Oliver Tambo, the man who engineered the victory against Apartheid, never lived to see an independent South Africa. But Mandela, the man who incarnated the struggle, made sure his name was etched on the stones of history.

While accepting the presidency in 1994 in South Africa, Mandela openly acknowledged that the presidency was clearly that of Oliver Thambo, the small but smart man, who went into exile just to ensure his people were free from the grip of Apartheid.

It was on the basis of his selflessness that Mandela renamed the Johannesburg International Airport as the Oliver Thambo International Airport. Oliver never lived to see his people free, but his name is permanently on their lips and they are genuinely grateful for his role in the unseating of Apartheid.

Southern Cameroonian leaders need to know that the enemy is strong and he is rejoicing when he hears that the knife has turned inwards. They must stop playing into the hands of the enemy. Killing each other is no good news to the people on Ground Zero who have nowhere to turn to.

Yielding to the temptations of popularity and recognition is like herding Southern Cameroonians to an abattoir. They will never be forgiven if they betray their people. Only a globally recognized inclusive dialogue should herald the end of this rebellion on which a lot rides. Stop playing into the hands of the enemy!

A Cameroon Concord News Group Production

Cameroon Concord News Group holds the strong opinion that the government of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia will not be determined by ego/power-seeking profiteers, opportunists, activists and clueless self-seekers but by the sovereign people of Ambazonia. Cameroon Concord News Group on the outstanding trust and fact-based record of the IG urges Ambazonians from all walks of life to redouble their support for the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The unfolding results of the discreet and matured diplomatic efforts deployed by the Interim Government and Ambazonians of goodwill towards finding an international solution to our cause merits unmitigated support.  Finally, the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia problem has found its way to the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Commission. It has pricked the conscience of the world, which is responding through the US Congress, the US State Department, the UN, the UK House of Commons and the House of Lords, several organizations and countries that are alarmed at having to deal with the consequences of another genocide on their watch.

It is not long since the Secretary for Communication; the Hon Chris Anu strongly condemned the inaction of the UN, the AU and the International Community towards the genocide of our people. No reasonable people facing a genocide would have acted no less.   He was right. There are obvious indicators from the recent UNSC debate that our voices might have been heard at long last. What is required of all Ambazonians is not to squander these opportunities.  Ambazonians need to support the IG and ground zero operations.   Power seeking individuals and social media activists will not fulfill our diplomatic or self-defense needs.  Their egos have been standing between them and the peoples’ liberation agenda for long. That needs to be deconstructed now.

Cameroon Concord News Group calls on Ambazonians of all walks of life to support the IG which is the collective voice of the people to call for a strong response to the genocide and international crimes committed against the people.  It is the collective resolve of the people of Ambazonia speaking through the matured, professional and well tested voice of the IG that will move the world to hold the perpetrators of these crimes to account. This is the time to slay the beast of impunity and international criminality in Ambazonia, now that the world diplomatic community has been trickled and is fully alert.   It is also a time to strongly support the Ambazonia self-defense ground zero operations. The exigences of a sustained strong diplomatic and self-defense actions warrants strong support because more positive outcomes depend of this support.

Cameroon Concord News Group recalls that on September 22, 2017, the people of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia of all walks of life, overwhelmingly endorsed the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia under the leadership of His Excellency President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe with an urgent mandate to proclaim and defend the restoration of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  His Excellency Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe fulfilled the peoples’ will fully to the peoples’ satisfaction. This is one reason, why a great majority of Ambazonians are united and committed to defend the restored independence of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and the Interim Government they endorsed and mandated to proclaim the restoration on their behalf and with their full participation. This is not the time for Ambazonians to squander this opportunity through the distractive adventures of power seekers to distract the Interim Government from pursuing the peoples’ mandate.

All households,local government areas or counties in Ambazonia are enduring the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by terrorist forces of French Cameroun deployed by the arch-terrorist Paul Biya.  This is an impetus for Ambazonians of goodwill should support the ongoing diplomatic and operational efforts by the stable, respectable, humble, reassuring, focused and level-headed IG of Ambazonia.  The IG has demonstrated an ability to recognize the fact that there are many Ambazonians world-wide with the required professional, academic, diplomatic, expert, discrete skills and attributes who are eager to contribute in the defense of the Ambazonia homeland.  Based on this attribute, Cameroon Concord News Group is pleased that the IG has demonstrated its trustworthy ability and the humility in working with many Ambazonia professionals and experts in different fields of life in seeking accountability for the crimes of the terrorist government of French Cameroun.

The humility, simplicity, level-headedness of Acting Interim President Samuel Sako and members of the IG are attributes of strength and not of weakness as some self-opiniated activists have openly stated.  These are the qualities that endeared the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia His Excellency Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe to an overwhelming majority of Ambazonians of all walks of life.   Ever since his abduction with members of the Interim Government, his leadership continues to inspire the Acting Interim President His Excellency Samuel Sako and members of the Interim Government. Acting President Ikome Sako and His Excellency Ayuk Tabe are united by their humility, their loyalty to the homeland, their level-headedness, their ability to garner the trust and support of Ambazonians of all walks of life with ease and with utmost trust and confidence.

Many Ambazonians working in sensitive positions that Cameroon Concord News Group spoke to for this editorial, expressed the respect for the confidentiality of their contributions and pledged more support for the Interim Government. Many expressed the view that some of the persons incessantly seeking power and the activists supporting them if given an opportunity, would not shy destroying the professional careers of many Ambazonians with the same zeal with which they are attacking the Interim Government; something that French Cameroun has tried over several years and failed.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly cautions Ambazonians against the intentions of persons or groups that are doing everything to distract their attention from supporting ground zero local government by local government or county by county intensified self-defense operations, the struggle to free the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and all Ambazonians under captivity, the ongoing diplomatic efforts and bringing French Cameroun terrorists to account for their crimes.  The disruptive activities of these individuals and groups if allowed to continue will benefit French Cameroun and its accomplices in Nigeria and other places.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai  

After two years of violent confrontations between government forces and Southern Cameroonian separatists, which have resulted in the death of more than 4,000 Cameroonians, the Yaoundé government has begun taking baby and doubtful steps towards peace.

Last month, the Yaoundé government had announced in a press release that it had set up Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) Commission whose objective, according to the government, was to help young Southern Cameroonians who had lost their way to return to the fold.

The creation of the DDR Commission had come under massive criticism as many observers and analysts considered the government’s action as putting the cart before the horses.  According to many experts, the creation of such a commission should imply that the parties at war have been discussing and have agreed on the way forward, with a ceasefire announcing the end of the bloody confrontations.

But none of that had taken place prior to the announcement of the DDR Commission. The government has resorted to unilateral actions which are stirring more controversies than appease the Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Despite the creation of the DDR Commission, the government has not relented in its violent killing of Southern Cameroonians and the burning of their homes.

More than 15 villages in the two English-speaking regions of the country have, over the last two weeks following the creation of the DDR Commission, been deleted from the country’s map. Kumbo, Meluf, Wei, and Bambui are among the villages that have faced the government’s wrath and residents of these villages are today seeking refuge in the jungle. Some 50 unarmed civilians, including pregnant women and children were among those mowed down by the government’s trigger-happy soldiers in recent weeks.

Two weeks after the DDR Commission controversy, the Yaoundé government has once more engaged in its usual diversionary tactics by announcing that some 289 Southern Cameroonians charged with misdemeanor would be released from jails across the country.

This announcement leaves many people in doubt as the Yaoundé government is known for speaking from both sides of its mouth. The announcement is more confusing as no names have been provided and many people wonder if Southern Cameroonian leaders such as Julius Ayuk Tabe and those kidnapped, taken to Yaoundé and held in communicado for more than seven months will be among those to be released.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group legal expert, Cameroon’s penal code categorizes offenses into three groups: simple offenses, misdemeanors and felonies.

“Simple offenses are punishable by a prison term of less than 10 days and a fine, while misdemeanors are punishable by a prison term not exceeding 10 years and a fine. Felonies, for their part, are punishable by death or a prison term above 10 years and a fine,” the expert who elected anonymity said.

He added that Julius Ayuk  Tabe and Co. had been charged with acts of terrorism which are offenses defined and punishable under the antiterrorism law No 2014/028 of 23 December 2014 (Section 2 et seq).  He stressed that “If found guilty of these offenses, Section 2, Paragraph (d) would kick in and they would face the   death penalty.

From every indication, the offenses for which they have been charged with are felonies and not misdemeanors. The presidential decree therefore appears   to have limited its scope to those who have only been charged with misdemeanors and from the analysis, Julius Ayuk Tabe and Co. are therefore not affected by the president’s decree.

The experts however advised that we should not lose sight of the fact that this is a purely political issue and the solutions are more in the hands of politicians than in the hands of the lawyers.

“We should therefore not be surprised if we the President uses his constitutional powers to extend the scope of beneficiaries to include those that are not targeted by the law. This option is even more likely considering the fact the government might be thinking of appeasing than implementing the law,” the legal expert concluded.

Despite this supposed act of magnanimity on the part of the government, many Southern Cameroonians are still very skeptical about the government’s intention, especially as its alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers are still mowing down young and unarmed youths in Kumbo and the neighboring towns.

Southern Cameroonians are surely not going to let down their guard. The fighters will not be downing their weapons anytime, soon, as the decision to disarm and demobilize any fighters is a unilateral move by the government which might have been informed by the changing global politics.

The Yaoundé government is gradually losing support around the globe and its main backer, France, is in the throes of a complex and delicate internal strife that might alter alot.

Besides, the international community is getting more vocal regarding the crisis in the two English-speaking regions and the cash-strapped Yaoundé government wants to prove that it is listening, especially to calls for an inclusive dialogue that would lead to a negotiated settlement.

This week, the World Bank came down heavily on the Yaounde government, accusing it of corruption and unjustifiable spending. The Washington-based organization also pointed to the government’s lavish lifestyle, arguing that if the government did not take appropriate measures, it could face the prospect of a bankruptcy as its coffers are gradually drying up.

It should be recalled that last month, the African football governing body, CAF, stripped the country of the right to host the 2019 games due to lack of infrastructure and growing insecurity in the two English-speaking regions and in the northern part of the country .

Corruption and mismanagement are to blame for the country’s inability to build state-of-the-art infrastructure, and following that decision, government ministers have been accusing each other for the fiasco.

Also in New York, the tides are turning against the government. Remarks by the U.S. representative at the UN Security Council briefing on the Central African Region have clearly proven that the Yaoundé government is under enormous pressure.

The U.S. representative said during the briefing that “Mr. President, the United States calls for an immediate and broad-based reconciliatory dialogue, without pre-conditions, between the Government of Cameroon and separatists in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. We urge all sides to forswear violence, to restore peace, and to resolve their grievances through political dialogue.”

With such statements, the Biya regime understands that it is time to change course. It has understood that Southern Cameroonian fighters will not be yielding anytime soon and the prospects of achieving any victory via military action are unfortunately low.

Southern Cameroonian fighters are more determined, and as they acquire more sophisticated weapons, they also hold that they can easily attain their objective through war.  The government might be willing to prove that it wants peace, but its killing of thousands of Southern Cameroonians might make its efforts look like another ploy to deceive the international community.

While many objective observers hold that this might be the first step in the right direction, many Southern Cameroonians are still skeptical and they hold that the moves by the government are too small and are coming too late.

They argue that the war was not necessary, adding that the government’s legendary arrogance is to blame for the blood that has been spilled and that blood will be one reason that will make it hard for peace to return to the Central African country.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

From when the genocide mastermind and President of French Cameroun declared war against the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia on 30 November 2017, Cameroon Concord News Group began exposing the details of the preplanned genocide against Ambazonia. Key actors in the preplanning and execution of the genocide closely supervised by Paul Biya himself made public statements which left no one in doubt about their involvement and their significant contribution to the criminal enterprise. Among a plethora of individual and institutional masterminds are Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Biti Assoumou, Okada Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, George Tabetando, Atanga Nji, Philemon Yang, Patrick Ekema, Isa Tchiroma Bakary, Eno Meyomesse, Owona Nguini, television 4, Ernest Obama, CTRV. Added to this inexhaustible list are several military commanders deployed to execute the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in and out the territory of Ambazonia.

George Tabetando, a Southern Cameroonian participant in the planning of the genocide publicly stated during a French Cameroun sanctioned meeting in Buea and in live interviews over CRTV that it was he and Mafany Musonge who advised Paul Biya to impose an internet ban that lasted over three months on the territory of Ambazonia. Mafany Musonge promptly denied his involvement in the criminal conduct.

It is green in our individual and collective memories that the internet ban facilitated the elaborate extermination of armless Ambazonians, the rape of Ambazonia girls and women; paralyzed the economy of Ambazonia, its educational institutions, hospitals, the pillaging of its natural resources and launched the ongoing genocide. The internet ban also facilitated the abduction of thousands of the citizens of Ambazonia to concentration camps and underground dungeons in French Cameroun.  Many of them were tortured to death in detention and many others have since been brought before a court-martial and promptly convicted in sham trials conducted in furtherance of the genocidal policies of French Cameroun.

The abduction and rendition to French Cameroun from Nigeria of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government escalated and internationalized the conflict and the crimes committed in and out of Ambazonia against citizens of Ambazonia.  The President and members of the Interim Government were legally in Nigeria under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The inter-state use of terror, abduction and rendition of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government, to French Cameroun outlawed in international law, places French Cameroun and Nigeria as state party apologists and sponsors of international terrorism which threatens world peace and security.   Nigeria through the national security adviser to President Mohammedu Buhari Baba Gana Mugano and French Cameroun through government spokesman Isa Bakary publicly made official statements on behalf of their respective governments admitting the shameful acts of international criminality.  Cameroun Concord News Group warned then, that left unsanctioned by the United Nations, the inter-state use of terror and abduction, by these countries might, provide a fig leaf of legitimacy and embolden Boko Haram and armed groups worldwide in their modus operandi of using terror and abduction to victimize and destabilize significant parts of the world.

The inter-state terrorism by French Cameroun and Nigeria on whom the international community is relying on to combat that form of outlawed international criminality, validates the claims by keen observers that the two states are indeed the sponsors of Boko Haram. This explains why the war against Boko Haram cannot succeed because Boko Haram masterminds cannot meaningfully lead the war against themselves.  The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of poor, jobless and uneducated youth in both countries is a mere subterfuge to conceal the Boko Haram criminal activities of the political, military and economic official structures within both countries.  The real enemies are the crime syndicates in power in Nigeria and French Cameroun and Daesh/Isis political Islamic conglomerate operating in the Sahel and the sub-region of which the ethnic political cabal in and out of the Buhari presidency and the Paul Biya crime syndicate are key participants.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia may be said to be lucky survivals of the ruthless hit squad that had a mandate to abduct and kill them immediately.  The inter-state cooperation in this crime was not an isolated event. The government of Buhari and Paul Biya are united in economic and commercial terrorism arising from the imperial and neo-colonial exploitation of the oil and natural resources from the Niger Delta, and the Southern Cameroons.

The strong opposition by the exploited communities over many years threatens the pecuniary interests of these masterminds of economic and commercial terrorism.  Boko Haram provides a basis for them to eternalize power and provides an alibi for the channeling of funds to sustain economic and commercial terrorism against Ambazonia, the Niger Delta and South Eastern Nigeria.

Once the occasion to promptly assassinate Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and others failed, the problem about how to dispose of him and others has preoccupied the inter-state coconspirators.   French Cameroun decided to empanel a court-martial that was already very active in the execution of the genocide against Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia to put them on trial.

The court-martial is presided over by Colonel Abega Mbezoa epouse Eko Eko. The other members are Edou Mewoutou and Ngouongue.  The commissioners of government are Engono Eric and Tanjmou Dang Assabe.   The entire court-martial is made up of Beti-Bulu ethnic power elite, members of Essingan and like Clement Atangana, the President of the constitutional court of French Cameroun, members of the CPDM crime syndicate.  In addition to its ethnic composition and royalty, the court-martial is under the direct command responsibility of Paul Biya, the Commander-in- Chief of the French Cameroun genocidal armed forces that are executing the genocide of Ambazonians.

Apart from the multilayered conflict of interests, ethnic, political and military command and control of the court-martialand concerns over this court-martial, the Presiding Judge of the court-martial is the wife of one of the key actors in the prosecution of the war and genocide of Ambazonia Leopold Maxime Eko Eko. He actively participated in the abduction and rendition of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and others to French Cameroun.  It is therefore a case of the husband overseeing the genocide, the massacres and the abductions of Ambazonians in and outside their country and the wife sitting in judgment to complement the crimes of her husband by providing a legal cover to them.

Leopold Maxime Eko Eko since 2010, is the director general of DGRE (Direction Générale de Recherche Exterieure) formerly known as SEDOC, DIRDOC and CENER. He operates in collaboration with the National Security Council whose Secretary-General is the criminal kingpin, Atanga Nji.

It is a matter of grave concern to Cameroon Concord News Group that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and others over whom the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has asserted jurisdiction should be allowed by the civilized world to stand trial in a court-martial that itself is actively involved in the genocide and the wider economic and commercial terrorism in Ambazonia.  Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges the United Nations and the International Community to step forth and stop this creative use of this court-martial tool of genocide from legitimizing this mother of all crimes that the free world promised to banish.   French Cameroun’s empaneled Beti-Bulu ethnic genocidal-martial is a judicial weapon of genocide and must be stopped by the international community.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Biya Francophone regime is targeting Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora and individuals and groups supporting the Anglophone uprising and quest for an independent state. For over a year now, Southern Cameroons businessmen and women owed money by the government of La Republique du Cameroun have not been paid.

Biya and his consortium of CPDM crime syndicates are imposing even more hard-hitting policies against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia to further starve them. Yaoundé has accused the Anglophone Diaspora of being behind the crisis in Southern Cameroons in which some 4000 Ambazonians have been killed including some 1400 Cameroon government army soldiers.

Biya is trying to distract from his numerous political problems in French Cameroun following the rigged October 7 presidential polls by blaming the Ambazonian Interim Government and by extrapolation, the Ambazonia Self-Defense and Restoration Forces Council.

The 85 year old president-dictator including his gang of French Cameroun political elites are claiming that the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council is a terrorist group which is a lie. The Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against La Republique du Cameroun, does not go out of its way to target civilians.

As an expert in Terrorism, International Crime and Global Security, I understand that terrorism is a military tactic and it is a tactic which consists of intentionally targeting civilians.  The Ambazonia Self-Defense and Restoration Forces does not do that.  On the contrary, the ASC/RF is a Southern Cameroons resistance group which is fighting to prevent French Cameroun terrorists army soldiers from continuing to overrun the Ambazonian territory that does not belong to them.

Nothing in Southern Cameroons or its surroundings belong to French speaking Cameroonians and their Francophone government in Yaoundé.  Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun were two separate nations that came together and created a federation. Then French Cameroun invaded, used terrorism as their main tactic for more than 56 years. Today, Southern Cameroons resistance groups are focusing on stopping this invasion and stopping the terrorism. So, Ambazonia Restoration Force actually is an anti-terror group. That is why the international community should and must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ambazonia Interim Government to put an end to French Cameroun terrorism and genocide in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Since December 2016, the French Cameroon military has responded to peaceful protests with force, killing over 4000 defenseless civilians from then to date, according to activists on the ground.

Thousands more have been disappeared and are feared dead.

Over 90 villages have been burnt down by French Cameroon military forces, resulting in 60,000 people who have fled to neighbouring Nigeria as refugees, according to activists on the ground. The UN has officially registered 31,000 refugees in Nigeria, and it estimates that more 500,000 people are displaced within Cameroon.

Over 2,500 activist and peaceful protesters have been imprisoned, some are being tried in military courts which is a violation of international law, and some have been sentenced for terrorism and other unjustifiable charges.

These prisoners include the prominent nonviolence advocate Julius Ayuk Tabe and 11 of his senior aides, who were arrested on January 5, 2018, at the Nera Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria, where they had gathered to plan a meeting with the UNHCR to discuss the refugee crisis. 10 of them were then forcibly and unlawfully repatriated to Cameroon in violation of non-refoulement, a fundamental principle of international law which forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of execution.

The #JUSTICE4NERA10 Campaign seeks to actively campaign by advocating for the Nera 10 Abducted leaders who are now being tried in the Cameroon military courts in violation of even their own and international laws of not trying civilians in military courts.

THIS CAMPAIGN DEMANDS:

*1) THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THESE 10 NOBLE GENTELEMEN AND ALL HELD BY THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON UNDER SAME CIRCUMSTANCES*

*2) RETURN THESE NOBLE GENTLEMEN TO NIGERIA; IF #NIGERIA ACUSES THEM OF ANY CRIME,AS #INTERNATIONAL_LAW REQUIRES*

La Republique du Cameroun until the recent secession of its Anglophone part was CEMAC region’s biggest country. It is mostly known and in particular portrayed as such in the world media, for its peace, football and ethnic, religious and tribal tolerance. But the Southern Cameroons revolution has made all of the positives a thing of the past fostered by a sitting ruthless dictator, old colonialist power and new imperialist forces. This is exactly what is happening today in La Republique du Cameroun since the beginning of the Ambazonia uprising.

From its very inception, Anglophone lawyers and teachers rose up en masse and challenged the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé over what they described as endemic marginalization and economic discrimination. The revolt was directed against the heinous Francophone dictatorship of President Paul Biya and the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement party that has held power since November 6^th 1982.  This is the first revolt of this magnitude against a French surrogate regime.

Ghost town operations of a scale not witnessed for decades has continued for two years now in all major Southern Cameroons cities, towns and villages. Anti-government protests, initially led by students from the University of Buea and Bamenda, have inspired similar demonstrations among traders union, okada riders and transporters. In French Cameroun, years of subjugation at the hands of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) has yielded both political apathy and a weak opposition.

The killing of several hundred of Southern Cameroonians and sweeping arrests on the part of the French Cameroun State Security and Intelligence Services reportedly pushed the protests to expand to include all the people of the former British Southern Cameroons.  The regime started to take it very seriously following the escalation of repression and this also is an indication of the loss of social control by President Biya. Buea, Bamenda and all the major cities in Southern Cameroons are now besieged by the Francophone police and the French Cameroun army. Bullets and teargas were the first reaction, and then the Biya regime started to crackdown massively on Ambazonians, arresting more than 1000 activists. 4000 Southern Cameroonians have so far been killed. Hundreds have been carried to “phantom houses” or undisclosed locations, where they are tortured and the women and young girls raped by members of the infamous French Cameroun secret service. Approximately 50,000 have fled the onslaught into neighbouring Nigeria and thousands are living in the bushes. The UN says some 461,000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced.

On October 7, the president-dictator, Paul Biya rigged the presidential election in French Cameroun  and got a seventh term and is now imposing a new round of even more draconian measures against the people of Southern Cameroons which have subsequently created a club of military billionaires as  85% of the government’s budget is swallowed by military expenses.  Meanwhile the ongoing wars in the Far North region against Boko Haram and in the East with rebels from the Central African Republic cost the French Cameroun government millions a day!

Things are beginning to fall apart as Cameroon was recently stripped of the right to stage the 2019 African Nations Cup finals. CAF confirmed the unanimous decision after a meeting of its executive committee in Accra. Cameroon’s ability to host the finals was first questioned when CAF announced in July last year that the tournament would have eight additional teams and only countries capable of putting on world-class tournament, with complete facilities and extensive infrastructure would be allowed to stage the event. CAF sent several inspection teams to Cameroon to check on the progress of the construction of five stadiums proposed for the tournament.

When CAF president Ahmad went to Cameroon in October he told the country’s President Paul Biya in front of assembled reporters: “CAF has no Plan B, nor have we ever considered taking the Nations Cup away from Cameroon.” But last week he criticised Cameroon’s inability to regularise the affairs of its football federation, which has been under the control of a normalisation committee for more than a year while it struggles to adopt a new constitution and elect a new executive.

On 30 November 2018, President Paul Biya signed a decree creating the “National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Committee (NDDRC) for organizing, supervising and managing the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-fighters of Boko Haram and armed groups in Southern Cameroons willing to respond favourably to the Head of State’s peace appeal by laying down their arms.” In response, Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against French Cameroun rejected the so-called Biya presidential decree. The situation in both Cameroons is growing from bad to worse and even Francophone Cameroonians are fed up. The President-dictator lives in a five star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva and his regime is slowly but surely taking the last kicks of a dying horse. To be accurate Cameroonians die three times over: they die of poverty, die of illness and die of war.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Liam Fox, the trade secretary, boasts that a British company, New Age, has signed a £1.5 billion deal for Cameroon’s natural gas?

Conservative Peer Baroness Goldie, responding for the UK government in a recent debate on the deteriorating situation in that country, told the House of Lords, “We do not see that there has to be a choice between securing growth and investment for the UK, and raising human rights…by having a strong relationship with Cameroon we are able to have open discussions on a range of admittedly difficult issues, including human rights.”

Yet, despite that “strong relationship” and “discussions,” President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, refuses to meet any representatives of Cameroon’s marginalised English-speaking minority. Human rights groups say Biya responded to 2016’s peaceful protests with disproportionate violence, prompting a militant and violent Anglophone reaction, and pushing the country further into conflict.

Disregarding a wealth of evidence from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Crisis Group, Goldie insists Cameroon’s violence had “complex causes, and as with many conflicts, it is not always easy to establish what is happening on the ground.”

Cameroon Concord News calls on Interpol, The Serious Crimes Unit of the British Police, The FBI, The Criminal Investigations Department of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and all Police and Intelligence Agencies worldwide to urgently step in and investigate the oil and gas contract between New Age Global Energy Company and French Cameroun that was signed recently in Britain. There are many reasons for an urgent criminal investigation of this international crime masked as a business contract.

The contract is a front for money laundering conceived for criminal purposes. The oil and gas fields which are subject of the contract are in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia over which a war and genocide declared by Paul Biya the head of the crime syndicate in French Cameroun are ongoing. The contract is directly linked to the subject of this in who the perpetration of international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by one of the contracting parties, French Cameroun is ongoing.  These crimes have led to a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. The contract will directly contribute to the war efforts of French Cameroun in which international crimes are being perpetrated by French Cameroun.  Control over the mineral resources of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is among the reasons for the declaration of war by French Cameroun against Ambazonia.  This contract therefore will substantially contribute to the crimes and the humanitarian calamity.

The contract is a front for the laundering of money and resources for criminal purposes. These criminal purposes include the bankrolling of the elections of Paul Biya and members of his criminal gang in power. These elections have all elements of fraud and criminality.

The contract is illegal, null and void in every respect.   This will be the first contract where French Cameroun will be signing with a company which has no incorporation within the territory in which the oil and gas fields are located. Pursuant to the foreign imposed laws of the colonial annexationist criminal government of French Cameroun in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, the foreign firm needed to comply with several OHADA treaty requirements. It has neither complied with Southern Cameroons laws nor that of the occupier.

The choice of a British firm in a French occupied economic annexed territory is intended to buy through this corrupt slave economic deal, the continuing support of Britain of the colonial occupation and criminal war and genocide.  The fact that the Secretary-General in the Presidency of French Cameroun’s crime syndicate went to England to sign the contract far away from the battlefields of Ambazonia where the intended loot is located, and far away from its own centre of French Cameroun’s criminal operations, Yaoundé, evinces an intention to shield the fine elements of criminality contained in the criminal deal from the scrutiny of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia victims.  French Cameroun has a record of signing bilateral agreements in Yaoundé and at the official locations of its partners.  This criminal contract is not a bilateral agreement but a business contract.

Cameroun Concord News is not aware of any time in recent memory when French Cameroun dispatched a Secretary-General in its Presidency to move to the head quarter of a foreign firm to sign a contract of this nature or any at all. The signatory on behalf of French Cameroun is neither its Prime Minister, Minister in Charge of Mineral Resources, Investments, or its plenipotentiary in Britain.  The Secretary-General in the Crime Syndicate of French Cameroun is a gate-keeper of corrupt deals; proceeds of national and international criminality and the vampire Paul Biya’s executioner of record.   The poster boys of criminality such as Paul Atanga Nji, George Tabetando, Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Okalia Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, Joseph Beti Assomo, Louis Paul Motaze, General Elokobi Daniel Njock, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and all CPDM apologists and conspirators are supervised by him on behalf of the crime master Paul Biya.

This contract is in a class of its own considering French Cameroun’s rather unorthodox approach to it.  French Cameroun is a well-known haven for criminal deals, corruption and international criminality. The colonization and criminal vandalization of the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun acting as a proxy for France for the past fifty-seven years is a result of a criminal slave deal between France and Great Britain on the watch of the United Nations.  That slave deal encouraged the impunity with which French Cameroun entered criminal contractual deals to loot, vandalize and pillage the resources of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. This contract follows this criminal pattern with the aggravating factor being that its immediate effect will be the funding of a war in which international crimes shocking the conscience of humanity are being committed.

This contract if not investigated and halted, will stain the conscience of the civilized world; Great Britain in particular, with more blood of innocent Ambazonians.  Cameroon Concord News strongly calls for an urgent investigation of this criminal deal to avert the escalation of the genocide and international criminality going on in the Gulf of Guinea and its contagious territories.

Written by Open democracy UK and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Voting on Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year 2018 is now officially open. Since 1999, Cameroon Concord News Group has provided our readers the opportunity of chosen a “Man of the Year.” It is simply a choice of a person who has had the most influence over the news in the last 12 months.

Samuel Eto’o, Bishop Emeritus Francis Teke Lisinge and former Nigerian Head of State, Goodluck Jonathan have all won the award. In 2017, the Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year award was accorded to the Southern Cameroons and all its citizens individually and collectively. The collective nature of this choice was justified.

Fifty-six years ago, the Southern Cameroons a United Nations Trust territory under British administration, was betrayed and sold off to France through its vassal state of French Cameroun. Great Britain and France were among the key actors on whom humanity relied to create the United Nations on the 26 of June 1945 in San Francisco. This underscored a firm determination of the civilized world “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small’. In consequence therefore, the United Nations Organization went operational on 24 October 1945 with among other goals to fulfill a critical determination to meet its charter obligation under article 76 (b) “to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement”.

Pursuant to this multilateral treaty obligation, the United Nations oversaw the grant of independence to French Cameroun on 1 January 1960 although; it remains a vassal state of France. When the time came for the realization of the UN multilateral treaty obligation towards the Southern Cameroons on 1 October 1961, Great Britain handed the articles of sovereignty over the territory to French vassal state of French Cameroun and France’s proxy army of occupation in the night of 30 September 1961.  Ever since, the genocidal onslaught and ferocious intensity with which it is executed qualifies the Southern Cameroons as a cancer on the conscience of the international community.  The genocide that was carefully weaved into the slave deal apart, the racism that underpinned the callousness of the impunity with which Southern Cameroons was sacrificed to satisfy or fulfill the imperial economic interests of Britain and France, more than anything establishes that these superpowers perceived the United Nations as an institution they may rely on to legitimize imperial domination over supposed independent African nations.  The selling off the Southern Cameroons into slavery at its threshold to independence explains this eloquently.

This is further explained by the complicit silence or inaction of the UN to the consequences in terms of Southern Cameroonian lives lost, legal and cultural identity destroyed, economy raped and culture of terror, and international criminality imposed on the Southern Cameroons on the watch of the UN and its ancillary institutions.  Judging from the timid and complicit statements of the France-Afrique neocolonial UN Secretary-General Representative for Central Africa, François Louncény Fall of Guinea an avowed paid agent of French Cameroun aimed at whitewashing the genocide of Southern Cameroons by attempting to make victims out of French Cameroun criminal genocide executioners, it is safe under these circumstances to conclude that  the infiltration of the international system over the years rather than dissuade, encouraged impunity and

Despite these obstacles and the seemingly insurmountable odds against the Southern Cameroons, after fifty-six years of excruciating life under genocide, terror, economic terrorism, and all forms of international criminality imaginable, the people rose as one on the 22 September 2017, and ultimately on 1 October 2017 to reclaim their freedom and independence.  Many of 2017’s biggest headlines were a reflection of the year that preceded it.

In 2018, a warning from the Cameroon Intelligence Report to the leadership of the Ambazonian Interim Government that Nigeria was planning to betray them was not taken seriously but it however escalated into a major crisis. Another major news item of 2018 is the emergence of Barrister Agbor Balla into the Cameroon political story and an election in French Cameroun that placed President Biya and Prof. Maurice Kamto at daggers-drawn positions. Outside the two Cameroons, France’s Emmanuel Macron was in Nigeria, Ali Bongo of Gabon suffered a massive stroke and the political factions in Kenya reconciled.

The Ambazonian Communications Secretary, Chris Anu, the 85 year old President Paul Biya, Prof Maurice Kamto and Barrister Agbor Balla have indeed had the most influence over the news in the last 12 months. It is now our duty as Cameroon Concord News People to decide who should be the person of the year.

Voting can be done using the comment link or via email

cameroonconcordnews@gmail.com

By Seseskou Asu Isong