The war in Southern Cameroons is not generating a drumbeat of daily headlines in French speaking Cameroon, even though the conflict has claimed thousands of Anglophone and Francophone lives and seen tens of thousands of Southern Cameroonians as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria. It is indeed a conflict that will go on for a long time and will eventually see children of veteran soldiers deployed in the same war.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has no pity for English speaking Cameroonians. Correspondingly, the death of children and pregnant women during this fighting does not arouse any pity in Yaoundé. The Biya criminal gang has one objective – proving that it can win a war – and the generals leading the troops clearly hold that the insurgency is an opportunity for them to enrich themselves.

But for over four years now, the initial purpose of the Francophone dominated military mission – to go after Ambazonia Restoration Forces and destroyed English speaking Cameroon– has not been met and the mission has now devolved into French Cameroun’s “forever war”.

As Biya and his Beti Ewondo military leaders continue to unleash its army soldiers on the Southern Cameroons population just to demonstrate its strength, Ambazonia Restoration Forces are fighting back and killing the Francophone soldiers in their numbers.

A total of 2067 Cameroon government soldiers have died and 9000 have been wounded since the war started four years ago. The number of Southern Cameroons civilian deaths range from 25,000 to 35,000, while the cost of military operations continues to rise.

More than 2,000 Francophone army soldiers have escaped to the Ivory Coast via Nigeria and many are defecting to seek safety in other French speaking African countries, according to Cameroon Ministry of Defense. Instead of seeking ways of ending the violence and engineering peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the Yaounde government is doing its best to prove a point that has no raison d’etre. 

This is a war that could have been clearly avoided if the government had used known instruments of conflict management and resolution. Genuine dialogue, a key thrust of conflict resolution, was clearly ignored and to deceive the people of Southern Cameroons and the international community, the despicable Yaoundé government organized a semblance of dialogue wherein it chose who had to participate in it, which issues had to be discussed and what resolutions and conclusions had to be reached by the participants; an idea which only caused the conflict to escalate by multiple notches.

The recent killing of two Southern Cameroons civilians and raping of a 53-year-old woman is no accident and let nobody be deceived by whatever the government would say.

The Yaounde government is in the business of winning an argument and it will stop at nothing to prove its point. As usual, it will order an investigation, the findings of which will remain a dead letter like most of the other investigations conducted over the last 39 years by a government that has been conducting itself like a crime syndicate made in the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia.

By Isong Asu in London

Police have arrested a male Cameroonian national who is suspected in the death of a missing woman whose corpse was found in Nara Prefecture earlier this month, reports Mainichi Broadcasting System (July 29).

On the night of July 27, police apprehended the unnamed suspect as he tried to board a flight at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

Thus far, police have accused the suspect of forging documents at his place of employment. However, police are building a case against him in the death of Junko Sasaoka, a 56-year-old nurse.

On July 23, police found the body of Sasaoka lying face-up in a grove of trees in the Nakamachi area of Nara City, Nara Prefecture.

Bloodstains and hair

Police said last week that her vehicle was found in a supermarket parking lot about 1.2 kilometers away from her home in Yamatokoriyama City, Nara three days before.

Bloodstains matching Sasaoka and strands of her hair attached to tape were found inside the vehicle, police said.

Police also said that security camera footage showed a man, believed to be a foreigner, leaving the vehicle in the parking lot. The same footage shows him then boarding another car driven by a second man, also believed to be a foreigner.

Police have also revealed about 30 million yen in cash disappeared from a bank account connected to Sasaoka before the incident.

Reported missing

Sasaoka was last seen when she commuted to a special home for the elderly in Osaka Prefecture on July 9.

Her sister reported her missing with the Koriyama Police Station on July 15. Police began searching for her the following day.

Police have not divulged how the Cameroonian is connected to the death of Sasaoka.

Source: Tokyo Reporter

The independent international organisation Human Rights Watch has urged authorities in Cameroon to protect civilians caught up in a conflict pitting the central African country’s army against separatists in the west, denouncing atrocities committed by both sides.

More than 3,500 people have been killed and over 700,000 have fled their homes to escape the conflict that erupted in 2017 in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

“Cameroonian security forces killed two civilians, raped a 53-year-old woman, destroyed and looted at least 33 homes, shops, as well as a traditional leader’s palace in the Northwest region on June 8 and 9,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

The organisation said it had interviewed several victims, their relatives and witnesses, as well as local journalists and civil society activists.

The alleged rape victim said her ordeal began when soldiers asked her and her husband where the separatist fighters were.

“We said we didn’t know,” she said, according to HRW. “They said my husband had a gun. We said we had no gun. They said they would kill us, and then one of them raped me.”

Her husband’s body was found three days later, shot in the mouth, HRW said.

Urgent need to protect civilian communities

“Cameroon’s security forces have an obligation to lawfully counter attacks by armed separatist groups, and protect people’s rights during periods of violence,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior researcher at HRW.

“But yet again, we learn that they have responded to the threat from separatist groups with attacks on civilians and serious human rights violations of their own.”

The defence ministry declined to comment on the report.

The statement also detailed killings — including of a 12-year-old boy — and kidnappings carried out by separatist fighters.

The abuses by both sides in the conflict “highlight the urgent need to protect communities at risk and to hold those responsible for abuses to account,” the statement said.

Other humanitarian groups including Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have also raised the alarm recently about the risks faced by civilians.

Members of the English-speaking minority in the western provinces of Cameroon have long complained of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority and 88-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for 38 years.

Their demonstrations escalated into conflict in 2017.

Source: RFI

The Red Dragons of Lebialem have reportedly launched an attack in Mveh, killing dozens of Cameroon government army soldiers. Sunday August 1, 2021 assault is another shocking indicator of the Southern Cameroons uprising considered the world’s most neglected conflict by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The Red Dragons have benefitted from sophisticated weaponry, which became readily available from several Amba harvests in the Lebialem constituency. The terrain in the entire Lebialem Division is also advantageous for the Red Dragons, as the Fontem hills and forest offer shelter and protection for Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the Red Dragons successfully hit a Cameroon government army vehicle with an IED in Mveh around the Mary Health Center in Fontem Sub Division.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces primary source of anger and alleged motivation for recruiting local youth is the persistent level of inequality caused by French Cameroun exploitation and marginalization of the rich Southern Cameroons territory. English speaking regions in Cameroon are the poorest and severely lacking in investment, infrastructure, and resources.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files

Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces operating in Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu raided the Biya Francophone government Ossing timber centre destroying the main building and wood brought into Ossing village through illegal routes by Francophone timber merchants.

The Ambazonian fighters, who attacked the centre, were led by a special team directed by the Manyu Liberation Council who hinted our correspondent in Mamfe that the Ossing timber centre was raided to enforce the Southern Cameroons Interim Government policy on zero logging of wood by corrupt Francophone operators.

Reacting to the Ossing raid, Vice President Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News that “Logging of wood is banned in the entire Southern Cameroons and there is a law to that effect which was made public by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe four years ago.”

Dabney Yerima pointed out that French Cameroun timber merchants stationed in Manyu were supposed to have consulted with the Manyu Chiefs Conference immediately after the declaration of Southern Cameroons independence by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and work in collaboration with Southern Cameroons anti-deforestation task force.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader said the Manyu Liberation Council has the responsibility to appoint a body within the Eyumojock Chief Conference and the council to run the Ossing timber centre in the best interest of the Ejagham people. Yerima also stressed that Amba fighters will follow the French Cameroun timber merchants to the jungle and the forests where they do the logging and if they escape Ambazonia dragnet, the fighters will confiscate the illegal wood.

By Agbor Julius

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has reacted to the retaliatory attack on a Cameroon government-managed timber exploitation centre in Ossing in Manyu Division, stressing that Ambazonia Restoration Forces will not allow the Biya Francophone regime in French Cameroun to commit crimes with impunity.

“Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces won’t permit Francophone army soldiers to commit any crimes without retaliation, whether in the Northern zone or in the Southern Zone. Since the 88-year old Biya of French Cameroun in still in a coma, his kinsmen running the political affairs in La Republique du Cameroun have to understand that Ambazonia Restoration Forces can reach their poorly trained and ill equipped soldiers anywhere in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said in an exclusive interview with Cameroon Concord News Group on Sunday.

Dabney Yerima underlined that French Cameroun and its corrupt political leadership were engaged in a campaign doomed to failure against the people of British Southern Cameroons, describing the Biya Francophone army attacks on Southern Cameroons homeland as well as the continued detention of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides as desperate attempts at stifling the Ambazonia uprising.

Yerima went on to say that the balance of power is tipped in favor of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Ground Zero.

“Atanga Nji, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Fame Ndongo must re-calculate their existence or hostilities against Southern Cameroons Restoration Groups, whether in Ground Zero, Ground One or in Western Europe and the USA. All these Ambazonian groups are really willing to counterattack or retaliate against French Cameroun acts of aggression,” Vice President Dabney Yerima noted.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces providing security in the Eyumojock Sub Constituency in Manyu reportedly killed a Cameroon government army soldier deployed to a timber exploitation centre in Ossing village in Manyu Division.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the soldier was killed early hours of Saturday at the military checkpoint in front of the timber centre habouring trucks. 

A reliable security source told our correspondent that the Amba fighters attacked the location in Ossing with heavy gun fire.

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group