The Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) has condemned recent killings of nine Southern Cameroonians on the main road linking Bamenda to Wum-the chief town in Menchum Division by Cameroon government forces.

In a statement issued by the IG, Vice President Dabney Yerima stressed that the blood of the Southern Cameroons martyrs will eventually lead to all-out confrontation with French Cameroun and full liberation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Yerima statement on Tuesday also stated that the continuation of La Republique du Cameroun crimes against Southern Cameroonians in their homeland will never provide Yaoundé with their so-called one and indivisible Cameroon.

The Ambazonia Interim Government also noted that Biya and his Francophone political elites have exposed their ugly faces and evil intentions by killing thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Comrade Dabney Yerima then paid homage to Ambazonia fighters, who have stood up against the French Cameroun military, stressing there is no option for dealing with the French backed Francophone occupiers and their crimes unless through a comprehensive confrontation and intensification of resistance.

Elsewhere in the statement, Vice President Dabney Yerima called on Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora from all walks of life to mobilize against Biya and La Republique du Cameroun, as tensions spike in Yaoundé over whom to succeed the 89-year dictator.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon’s military has deployed hundreds of troops to its eastern border with the Central African Republic after CAR rebels this month abducted at least 35 people. The military says the rebels are targeting merchants, farmers, and ranchers and stealing money and cattle.

Cameroon’s military says scores of troops on Monday raided villages and forests on its eastern border with the Central African Republic to free civilians held captive by CAR rebels.

Speaking via a messaging application, Colonel Dominique Njoka says he led troops on the rescue mission in Mbere, a border administrative unit, where rebels were holding hostages.

“When we arrived, unfortunately they [suspected rebels] saw us. So, they opened fire, but we reacted immediately, and, in the confrontation, they ran away. Before running away, they killed one hostage and one was seriously wounded, so he died. However, out of the seven we liberated, five arrived {home} safely. We keep on asking the population to cooperate, to give us information at the appropriate time so that we can react,” he said.

Njoka said some of the rebels escaped across the porous border while others are still hiding in forests in Cameroon.

He said they deployed hundreds of troops to the area to flush out the rebels, who have abducted at least 35 civilians in Cameroon in the past three weeks.

CAR authorities say since March fighting with rebels has increased.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission to the CAR, MINUSCA, last week said rebels pushed out of several towns were hiding on the border with Cameroon.

MINUSCA said the CAR rebels were fighting to control border towns, including Bambari and Alindao.

Authorities say the rebels are crossing the border to escape fighting with the CAR’s military and to steal and abduct for ransom.

Fifty-year-old Cameroonian cattle rancher Bouba Alami said his son was among the freed hostages.

He spoke on Cameroonian media Canal 2 TV and Equinox Radio.

Alami said a strange visitor informed him that his 20-year-old son was in captivity in the forest on the border with the Central African Republic. He said the stranger told him the captors wanted at least a $5,000 ransom for his release but did not tell him where and how the ransom should be paid. Alami said he spent two sleepless nights not knowing how to get in touch with either the abductors or his son.

Cameroon’s military says they were able to free the five hostages after villagers informed them where the rebels were hiding in the forest.

Cameroon shares a more than 900-kilometer-long border with the Central African Republic.

Cameroon this month sent its chief of defense to the border area to mobilize troops to stop the rebels from entering its territory.

The Central African Republic descended into violence in 2013 when then President Francois Bozize was ousted by the Séléka, a coalition from the Muslim minority that accused him of breaking peace deals.

The CAR government in 2020 accused Bozize of supporting rebel attacks, which he denied.

The ongoing fighting has forced close to a million Central Africans to flee neighboring countries, including Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.

Source: VOA

A senior front line Southern Cameroons figure Professor Carlson Anyangwe has lauded the recent achievements of self defense groups in Ground Zero, emphasizing diaspora support for the people of Ambazonia.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe made the comments in a Saturday phone conversation with Isong Asu who heads the Cameroon Concord News London Bureau.

“We in faraway lands are following the great victories and achievements of all Ambazonia self defense groups and what they do is a cause of honour for the struggle” Professor Anyangwe told Cameroon Concord News. Anyangwe added, “Amba fighters are a role model for the Southern Cameroons quest for independence.”

“Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero and self defense groups are in good shape and they will continue to defend the Ambazonia homeland” Professor Anyangwe opined.

Anyangwe’s phone call came amid escalation of French Cameroun violent attacks against Amba self defense forces. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Southern Cameroons has witnessed an escalation of French Cameroun violence, with over dozen Amba fighters having been killed and many more injured at the hands of Biya regime’s army soldiers.

The uptick in the killings and repression of English speaking Cameroonians has been green-lit by the 89-year-old President Paul Biya, who granted full freedom of action to Cameroon government troops five years ago to intensify their brutal raids against Southern Cameroonians.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Professor Carlson Anyangwe said the French Cameroun violence against the people of Southern Cameroons will continue to destabilize the two Cameroons and beyond.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Biden administration will grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to Cameroonians living in the United States due to the ongoing conflict between government forces and armed separatists in that country, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday.

The decision will apply to Cameroonians residing in the United States by April 14 and last a period of 18 months, DHS said. The status could aid about 39,000 Cameroonians, according to an estimate by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

President Joe Biden has championed the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, which grants immigrants who cannot return to their countries safely due to extraordinary circumstances such as violent conflict or natural disasters the ability to stay and work in the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cited the conflict and a rise in attacks in Cameroon by the Islamist group Boko Haram in a statement announcing the move.

Violence against the armed forces in the western regions of Cameroon has intensified over the past year as Anglophone separatists fighting the French-speaking government increase their use of explosive devices.

In late 2020 and early 2021, Reuters spoke to more than a half dozen Cameroonian asylum seekers when they had been deported back to their country after losing U.S. immigration court cases. While all declined to be named, they told similar stories of having their identity documents confiscated by the government after returning to Cameroon and several were in hiding, fearing retaliation from local authorities.

A February Human Rights Watch report documented dozens of cases of Cameroonian authorities subjecting asylum seekers deported by the United States to human rights violations such as arbitrary arrest and torture between 2019 and 2021.

Biden, a Democrat, has greatly expanded TPS enrollment, which his predecessor, former Republican President Donald Trump, largely sought to wind down.

Source: Reuters

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has praised Ambazonia fighters’ bravery in countering La Republique du Cameroun’s aggression in the entire Ambaland and advised the 89-year-old French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya to end a war he well knows he cannot win.

The exiled Ambazonia leader made the comments during a zoom meeting with some county heads on the state of the Southern Cameroons resistance on Monday.

Yerima stated that the deliberate silence of French Cameroun’s Minister Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial Administration and Joseph Beti Assomo of Defense is an indication that Yaoundé is losing the war in Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonian leader wondered aloud why Biya and his criminal gang in French Cameroun were still going ahead with the war in Southern Cameroons that they already know there is no possibility to win.

Elsewhere in his comments, Vice President Dabney Yerima said there was need for the two Cameroons to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Yerima also hailed the constructive discussions going on in Europe aimed at reuniting the Southern Cameroons diaspora as a very good development.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Four prison officers were killed on Tuesday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest after their convoy was attacked by gunmen, local and security sources said.

Gunmen ambushed the convoy of the prison officers in Bui, a division of the region Tuesday afternoon and killed all of them.

“They were returning from installing a new prison superintendent in another village of the region. Theodore Kiga, who is the chief prison superintendent of the region, and three other prison officers were killed in the attack,” a senior army official who asked not to be named told Xinhua by phone.

It is unclear who organized the ambush, but separatist fighters are known to be operating in the locality, the source said.

The army was in pursuit of the gunmen who escaped to the bush after the attack, according to officials in the region.

Separatist fighters have been clashing with government forces in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation in the regions they called “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

The Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu, Oum II Joseph has narrowly escaped death in the hands of Ambazonia fighters in Nchang village some few kilometers away from Mamfe town.

The pot belly SDO was lucky after Amba fighters’ raided Nchang village during the civil administrator’s so-called Meet- The- People’s Tour visit.

An eyewitness told Cameroon Concord News Mamfe correspondent that the incident happened late today and that two Ambazonia fighters were killed by Cameroon government forces. We gathered that the SDO escaped unhurt.

A Cameroon government security source in Mamfe confirmed the incident to Cameroon Concord News. He said soldiers succeeded in rescuing the SDO from the armed Amba fighters.

By Kinsley Betek

Soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion have arrested at least 12 Southern Cameroonians during overnight raids across Bamenda, the chief city in the North West region.

Our correspondent in Bamenda citing security and local sources reported on Monday that Cameroon government forces had rounded up the Southern Cameroonians mainly in Bamenda and nearby towns, including Bali and Batibo, overnight on Sunday.

The troops loyal to the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaoundé also detained a Southern Cameroonian at Tjunction and some others at Below Foncha Street in Bamenda.

The Francophone soldiers also searched and vandalized the family house of several of the Southern Cameroonians before detaining them.

According Ambazonia Interim Government sources, the French Cameroun army raids, which occur mostly in areas under the full control of Biya regime forces, are conducted arbitrarily and with no search warrant.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Cameroonian authorities said Friday that separatists had attacked a village on the Nigerian border earlier in the week, with local officials saying they torched at least 12 homes and killed six people. Authorities say the rebels appeared to be targeting members of the Mbororo ethnic group, who the separatists accuse of collaborating with government troops.

The Cameroonian military said separatists shot indiscriminately in the air and torched houses in Mbonhong, a western village in Ndu district on the border with Nigeria. The military did not say how many houses were burned nor how many people were killed or wounded.

Separatists have shared videos of the attack on Mbonhong village on social media including WhatsApp and Facebook.

About 15 separatists in the videos say that they are avenging abuses committed against them by Cameroon’s military and charge the government forces are using homes, farms and cattle ranches of ethnic Mbororo and Fulani as military bases. The fighters are seen torching about eight houses.

Nkwenti Simon Dooh, the highest-ranking government official in Donga Mantung, the division where Ndu is located, told Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV that a week hardly goes by without separatists attacking Mbororo.

“Armed groups benefit from the fact that the Mbororo populations are scattered over the hills to cause so many atrocities,” he said. “They [separatists] carried away many herds of their [Mbororo] cattle, looted, killed and burnt most of their structures.”

Dooh said that besides deploying the military to protect Mbororo, the government asked the ethnic group to create militias to collaborate with government troops in protecting goods and people.

Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics estimates that there are over a million Mbororo in the central African country. More than 70% of the Mbororo are cattle ranchers owning about 70% of the estimated 3 million cattle in the English-speaking regions.

Mohammed Umaru Abubakar, a Mbororo rights activist and member of the Human Rights Committee of the Mbororo Cultural and Development Association,

said Mbororo are victims of brutality because the ethnic group has refused to support separatists fighting to carve out an independent English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking Cameroon.

Abubakar said the Mbororo are one of the ethnic groups that has suffered most from separatist brutality within the past four years.

“Three thousand eight hundred forty-two cattle were killed or seized or killed by the separatists, and over 5,000 cows have left the Northwest to other [safer] regions, while others [cattle] left for Nigeria,” Abubakar said. “Over 195 million [have] been taken away from Mbororo people in the name of ransom. As of date, the statistics we have is about 325 Mbororo people that [have been] murdered by the separatists.”

Abubakar said Cameroon should compensate Mbororo who have lost their cattle and protect ethnic group members from separatist attacks, looting and killing.

Separatists say they do not specifically target Mbororo, but they target all individuals and groups who collaborate with the Cameroon military. The United Nations says the Cameroon separatist crisis that turned into an armed conflict in 2017 has killed at least 3,300 people, and internally displaced some 750,000.

Source: VOA

Security and local sources said on Saturday that a notorious separatist commander has been killed in Cameroon’s war-torn Anglophone region of Northwest in clashes between rival separatist groups.

The commander who was identified as ‘field marshal Insobu’ was killed in Bui division of the region late Friday after he attempted to attack another separatist group.

Separatist fighters released a video of him on social media saying they were celebrating the “death of a traitor”.

“The terrorist commander was responsible for countless killing and abductions of civilians and soldiers. He blocked a major highway in the region for over five years causing untold suffering. Civilians are actually celebrating his death,” a senior military official in the region who asked not to be named told Xinhua.

It is unclear whether other fighters were killed in the clashes.

Infighting among separatist fighters has caused the death of over 100 fighters since an armed separatist conflict erupted in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest in 2017, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet