7, December 2021
Southern Cameroons: What the Maryland cabal and AGovC/ADF were and what they have become 0
The revolution in British Southern Cameroons that broke out five years ago was part of a wider wave of anti French Cameroun sentiments that spread across the whole of English speaking Cameroon territory. The Cameroon Anglophone diaspora supported the revolution without reservations in spite of its shortcomings and ever since the arrest of the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria, revolutionary leadership became a very scarce commodity and what was a genuine expression of the Southern Cameroons masses in both Ground Zero and in the West, was now hijacked by reactionary elements that had a very different agenda.
Although clearly prompted by the actions of the failed CPDM leadership in Yaoundé, the seeds of the Ambazonia uprising were to be found in the social and economic conditions that existed in Southern Cameroons itself. What allowed the Biya French Cameroun regime to maintain its presence in Anglophone Cameroon in spite of the rampant political marginalization and growing economic difficulties was the fact that it had a sizeable military presence in the territory. The atrocities committed on a regular basis by Francophone gendarmes, army soldiers and the police led to a growing social polarization, which is at the very heart of the revolutionary upheavals.
Initially there was a genuine revolution that was evident in the early days of the uprising against La Republique du Cameroun. And it was the duty of all Southern Cameroonians to support that movement. However, once the revolutionary content of that movement ebbed and Yaoundé and Abuja helped passed the Ambazonia initiative to various reactionary elements in the USA, there was an impasse in the situation and the patriotic Ambazonia revolutionary elements were overwhelmed by all kinds of opportunist and counter-revolutionary elements that came to the fore seeking to promote their own reactionary interests. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group think that this is a tragedy which has come about because of the lack of a revolutionary leadership with roots among the masses in either Ground Zero or Ground 1.
Faced with the initial revolutionary upsurge before the Abuja incident, attempts were made by the Biya Francophone regime to divide the Southern Cameroons population along the North West and South West lines. The ill-prepared Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba Lucas, Boh Herbert and one John Mbah Akuro also fomented such divisions when they realized that they could not mobilize the Ambazonian diaspora in the way Sisiku Ayuk Tabe had done. The actions of these so-called Southern Cameroons front line leaders successfully cut across the genuine revolution that had begun and provoke conflict between the different groups that make up Southern Cameroons.
This was done in the classic manner of pinpointing particular persons and tribes and carrying out brutal indiscriminate social media attacks against them. On the other side of the Ambazonia divide, reactionary fundamentalist groups such as the AGovC/ADF saw the divisions as a means of promoting their own agenda. And that is what has led to the present impasse. In this process the voice of the genuine revolutionaries in the Southern Cameroons Interim Government led by Dabney Yerima has been drowned out by the forces of reaction.
This factor explains also why the French Cameroun regime under Biya abandoned the peace talks it initiated with the Southern Cameroons jailed leaders in Yaoundé. Had the Maryland cabal read from the same script with the NERA 10 in Kondengui, the story would have been completely different. Unfortunately, Elvis Kumeta, Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and Irene Ngwa failed to look at the bigger picture and it opened up more space for Biya and his Southern Cameroons CPDM political elites. The main message expressed by the Maryland cabal via its spokesman Chris Anu was for the downfall of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and more financial donations to keep ABC TV on air. But their message has not been sufficient to mobilize the people of Southern Cameroons. It must be combined with an answer to why Ambazonia university dons had to be arrested in Nigeria and handed over to Yaoundé.
Apart from the Maryland cabal, very dubious and reactionary fundamentalist elements such as Cho Ayaba Lucas entered the struggle and are working tirelessly to divert it down a different road, giving the Biya French Cameroun regime precisely the resources it required for the purchase of international sympathy. The idea Yaoundé has built up among pro federalism Southern Cameroonians is that the Ambazonia revolution is merely made up of separatists who want to drag the Southern Cameroons society backwards and not forward. This has undoubtedly had an effect in at least neutralizing some layers of the Southern Cameroons population, who cling on to the Yaoundé regime, not because they support Biya or love the union with La Republique du Cameroun, but for fear that something worse could take its place like in South Sudan.
There is another factor that explains the stalling and derailing of the Ambazonia struggle. The reading culture! Southern Cameroonians do not read and many rely on social media postings that only tells them what they want to hear—we are winning!! There too, although the revolution saw the mass participation of teachers and lawyers, once the NERA 10 were arrested, unfortunately, Southern Cameroonians were pushed away from the Interim Government to rally behind smaller groups. A vacuum appeared and it was filled with what was available name them: AGovC/ADF, Sako-IG, Morisc,Ikata, SCNC, Restoration Council and an untrained motor mechanic, Capo Daniel became one of the most important spokesperson of the revolution.
The recent situation deep within the so-called Sako IG and the kidnappings being staged by the AGovC/ADF militiamen in Ground Zero have further added to the confusion. Sako Ikome’s IG has eventually collapsed and he and Chris Anu are no longer an item. But what has replaced the Maryland cabal cannot be very attractive to many ordinary Ambazonians who earlier bought the false notion that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was trying to govern from prison. The departure of Mr. Chris Anu, the breaking up of the ABC TV, the constant attacks on Sisiku Ayuk Tabe coming from AGovC/ADF is not a very attractive happening. But this again explains why La Republique du Cameroun, in spite of its brutality, has been able to hold on in the Ambazonia homeland.
Having said all this, it is clear that every Southern Cameroonian will sooner or later stand behind the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, Dabney Yerima. For over five years now, the sea of front line leaders have left Southern Cameroonians with nothing than empty slogans. Sako, Chris Anu, Irene Ngwa, Elvis Kumeta, Cho Ayaba have no revolutionary tendencies, rooted within the Southern Cameroons masses and therefore, they cannot win the ear of the masses and lead them in a class struggle.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
7, December 2021
US announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics but will send athletes 0
The United States Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a calibrated rebuke of China’s human rights record that stops short of preventing US athletes from competing.
The decision comes after Washington spent months wrangling with what position to take on the Games, hosted in February next year by a country it accuses of perpetrating “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
There was no immediate reaction from Beijing, but the Chinese foreign ministry had earlier threatened “resolute countermeasures” to any such boycott.
The decision was broadly welcomed by rights groups and politicians in the US, where President Joe Biden has been under pressure to speak out against Chinese rights abuses.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration would send no diplomatic or official representation to the Games given China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”
Sending official representation would signal that the Games were “business as usual,” Psaki said.
“And we simply can’t do that.”
“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home,” she added.
The International Olympic Committee said the sending or not of officials was a “purely political decision for each government, which the IOC in its political neutrality fully respects.”
The announcement “also makes it clear that the Olympic Games and the participation of the athletes are beyond politics and we welcome this,” an IOC spokesperson said.
Diplomatic high-wire act
US-China relations hit a low point under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, with a massive trade war and incendiary debate over how the Covid-19 virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Biden has sought to re-engage with Beijing, while at the same time focusing on strengthening traditional US alliances to counter China’s ever-growing economic clout and military presence across the Indo-Pacific region.
The Olympics boycott is part of a complex diplomatic balancing act.
Biden’s administration has left Trump-era trade tariffs on China in place and continues to order naval patrols through sensitive international sea lanes that China is accused of trying to bring under its control.
However, with Biden also emphasising the need for dialogue, critics on the right say he is being too soft.
This makes the looming Olympic Games a political flashpoint.
Members of Team USA, their coaches, trainers and other staff will still receive consular and diplomatic security assistance, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
When asked about calls for private businesses to end any Winter Games sponsorships, he stressed that the decision was up to them.
“It is not in this country — unlike other countries — the role of the government to dictate the practices that the private sector should adopt,” Price said.
‘Powerful rebuke’
Campaigners say that at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
Bob Menendez, the chair of the powerful US Senate foreign relations committee, welcomed the diplomatic boycott as “a powerful rebuke” of the “genocide in Xinjiang.”
He and top House foreign affairs Democrat Gregory Meeks called for other countries to follow the US lead.
Meeks warned the international community should not be helping China “whitewash its atrocities against Uyghurs and other minorities.”
But Republican Senator Tom Cotton called it a “half measure, when bold leadership was required.”
“The United States should fully boycott the Genocide Games in Beijing,” he said in a statement.
The last full boycott of the Olympics by the US was in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter withdrew in protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch called the Biden administration’s decision “crucial” but urged more accountability “for those responsible for these crimes and justice for the survivors.”
Earlier Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned the Games were “not a stage for political posturing and manipulation” — in response to reports a boycott could be imminent.
“If the US is bent on having its own way, China will take resolute countermeasures,” he vowed.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the United States, said that politicians calling to boycott the Games “are doing so for their own political interests and posturing.”
“In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the #Beijing2022 to be successfully held,” he tweeted.
Coming just six months after the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Games, the Winter Olympics will be held from February 4 to 20 in a “closed loop” bubble because of Covid-19 restrictions.
“To be honest, Chinese are relieved to hear the news, because the fewer US officials come, the fewer viruses will be brought in,” tweeted the Chinese state-owned tabloid newspaper, Global Times.
Source: AFP