The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has raised concern over influx of Cameroonian refugees into Nigeria which has surpassed the benchmark of 70,000 people.

The refugee situation is exacerbated by continuing conflict between secessionist groups and Cameroonian government troops.

Raising the alarm on Monday in Abuja, UNHCR spokesperson Gabriel Adeyemo said the refugees have settled in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River and Taraba states are now more than 78,000 and they need urgent international additional support.

Mr Adeyemo said that $97.7 million is needed to respond to the needs of the 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities and Internally Displayed Persons (IDPs) from Cameroon.

According to UNHCR, the refugees need protection, camps and shelter, and non-food items such as blankets and jerry cans.

“This is not just a number, these are people, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, people just like you and I that have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety and save their lives,” Adeyemo quoted UNHCR Country Representative in Nigeria, Chansa Kapaya.

Source: The East African

Death toll in clashes between herders and fishers in Cameroon’s Far North region has increased to 19, many hacked to death with machetes, the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari said on Tuesday.

The clashes in the Logone and Chari division of the region began on Sunday between Mousgoum fishermen and Arabchoas cattle ranchers. Bakari said they are fighting over water resources and grazing land to maintain control over their natural habitats.

“This has to stop. (We have come here) to extend our condolences to those who lost their beloved ones and also to those who are injured and who are right now in different hospitals. We are calling each and every one to avoid violence in order to permit development and embrace peace,” Bakari said during a visit to Logone and Chari to diffuse tension.

Villagers have sought refuge in military camps in the region while others have fled across the border into neighboring Chad after the clashes left farms and villages destroyed, authorities said.

On Monday, Bakari told Xinhua by phone that troops have been deployed to the troubled area to maintain peace and order. Cameroon’s Far North has a history of ethnic tensions, but recent clashes are the deadliest, according to local traditional leaders.

In August, 12 people were killed when the two tribes clashed over land and water sources.

 Source: Xinhuanet

Faced with discrimination around the world with their different appearances, albinos livening in Cameroon live under the fear of being killed for ritual purposes.

In some local traditions, it is believed that the limbs of albinos are magical and brings luck and good health to anyone who possesses them.

President of the Association for the Promotion of Albinos in Cameroon, Kakmeni Wembou Raphaël lamented his mother faced a lot of societal pressure to put her at the granary.

“My mother was told to put me in the granary, because when the corn is dried in the granary and she put me there, I will become black afterwards.

“My own family does not visit me. So everything I do, they don’t take into consideration. They have no respect for me … Njoko Kom Sandra added.

Out of 17 000 people worldwide, there is at least one albino, and one in 5,000 in sub-Saharan Africa.

A primary school pupil, Douangni Sandrine, is now an outcast in her own family. According to her, no member of the family cares about her wellbeing due to her skin colour. “Everyone thinks I am cursed. used the expression.

According to her history teacher, although there are no longer abductions and killings as before, the rituals continue.

In addition to the social problems they face, albinos with sensitive skin easily contract skin cancer if they do not protect themselves from the sun.

Statics shows 80 per cent of albinos in sub-Saharan Africa died from cancer.

In Cameroon, many albinos in the country do not have access to sunscreen because of the high prices.

Regular check-ups, access to sunglasses and sunscreen are important for albinos to continue living healthy lives.

Source: Africa News

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has said that the people of Ambazonia have managed to wear down the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army and deprive it of the so-called military victory as was anticipated by Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

Vice President Dabney Yerima, during his Sunday presentation to the Ambazonia war cabinet, said the war option against British Southern Cameroonians was made by Mr.Paul Biya thinking that French Cameroun was still dealing with the Muna-Egbe Tabi and Foncha generation in Ambazonia and added that the people of Southern Cameroons with the support of their diaspora citizens have become too powerful to fall victim to French Cameroun aggression.

Yerima stressed that the French Cameroun enemy has instead resorted to using some Southern Cameroonians both in the homeland and in the West against the Ambazonia resistance.

Dabney Yerima further opined that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia today is powerful without even a well organized military and La Republique du Cameroun is now aware that the Ambazonia homeland is no longer occupiable.

His remarks came after a Southern Cameroons Interim Government statement last week blamed the kidnappings in Bamenda on the so-called AGovC/ADF militia.

By Asu Vera Eyere

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde arrested some 145 Southern Cameroonians, including women and children, in October, a report released recently by the Ambazonia Interim Government says.

In its monthly coverage of the war in Southern Cameroons, the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed today that La Republique du Cameroun violations against the people of British Southern Cameroons had soared considerably.   

According to Professor Carlson Anyangwe, Francophone army soldiers arrested 145 Southern Cameroonians, including women in October.

The Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs added that a young cab driver arrested in Mamfe in Manyu Division was rounded up on lame and ridiculous reason that he was financing Amba fighters.  Also Cameroon government forces detained 12 bike riders in Kumba in Meme Division.

Cameroon government army soldiers often carry out detention raids against Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero, claiming that they seek to arrest wanted separatists.

More than 3,000 Southern Cameroonians are reportedly held in jails in Buea, Douala, Dschang and Yaounde.  Several Southern Cameroonians have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding English speaking Cameroonians inmates without trial or charge. Some Southern Cameroons prisoners of concience have been held in administrative detention for up to five years.

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi

At least three soldiers were killed and others were wounded when a military outpost was attacked in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local and military sources.

Separatist leaders said on social media that their fighters carried out the attack on Friday at 7.25 a.m. local time in Jakiri, a locality in the region.

There was no information on casualties recorded by the separatist militias, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The separatist terrorists ambushed and killed the soldiers who were at the main security outpost inside the Jakiri market. We have launched a hunt to capture the terrorists and criminals,” a military official with knowledge about the attack told Xinhua but asked not to be named.

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest have been experiencing an armed separatist conflict since 2017. The separatists want to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in the regions.

Source: Xinhua new agency

A senior Southern Cameroons academic, Dr Patrick Ayuk, has called on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his gang to release Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem, who was kidnapped 29 November 2021 while working for CamWater in Bamenda the chief city in the North West.

Ayaba Cho Lucas, leader of the notorious AGovC/ADF crime syndicate operating in the Southern Cameroons, has blatantly refused to order the release of Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem despite collecting over USD 5000 as an initial ransom payment.

Addressing a group of Southern Cameroonians in Luxembourg via zoom, Dr Patrick Ayuk said, “To conceive that a criminal gang would kidnap a man and a breastfeeding wife is appalling and unacceptable. This crime has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons struggle, and the leader of this criminal entity, Cho Ayaba, should order the release of this man immediately. Kidnap for ransom has no place in Ambazonia”

The Ndopping Roger incident has rightfully invited immense pressure on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his Ambazonia crime syndicate.  Our chief correspondent in Bamenda who contributed to this report opined that 97.4% of Southern Cameroonians are against kidnapping for ransom even if the proceeds are for the liberation struggle.

Dr Ayuk furthered, “even if the AGovC/ADF claims that the proceeds of their criminality will be used to buy tools that will eventually liberate Ambazonia, that doesn’t make their actions acceptable. We cannot intentionally punish the people we want to liberate. Cho Ayaba must know that his actions are tantamount to highway robbery and against international law. These actions diminish our struggle in the eyes of our international partners.”

The AGovC/ADF has been one of the many militias operating in Southern Cameroons ever since President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on October 2017. The group says its Defense/Kidnapping Unit is led by a certain Mr Capo Daniel an untrained motor mechanic, who regularly announces kidnappings and ransom demands on social media.

Many Southern Cameroonians have wondered aloud why SDOs and Governors representing the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé are braving the bad roads and the streets of Ambazonia, while private citizens are easy targets for AGovC/ADF.

Elsewhere, Ambazonian leaders at home and in the Diaspora have condemned Ayaba Cho Lucas over his disgraceful kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Ground Zero. They say his militia is taking advantage of the security vacuum and making life unbearable for ordinary citizens.

By Isong Asu in London with files

INTERIM GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON THE ADF/AGovC CRIMINAL KIDNAP OF MR NDOPING for RANSOM

Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

A video is circulating on social media posted by Capo Daniel and the ADF/AGOVC implicating the  Interim Government of Ambazonia on a sickening crime scheme. The video is of a kidnapped Mr Ndoping, a manager at CamWater. The criminal perpetrators are asking for a ransom for his release. The Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to put on record that it condemns this action strongly.

After consultations with defence teams on the ground, we were informed that they were under the custody of AGOVC/ADF fighters. The kidnapped family includes a breastfeeding mother! The IG calls for them to be released unharmed without delay!!

Earlier, I called Capo Daniel and asked for the immediate release of these Southern Cameroonians, but he requested to talk directly to the family. I know many people who have reached out to Dr Cho Ayaba to ask for their freedom to no avail.

Fellow Ambazonians, our fight is against the invading army of French Cameroun, not on our people fighting for their livelihoods when there is yet no alternative for them. I am a father, and I can imagine what the children of the kidnapped couple are going through right now.

The IG distances itself from any acts of kidnapping and informs Ambazonians that no agreement has ever been reached between the IG and ADF/ AGOVC regarding any Liberation Tax collection in Ambazonia. We know it’s our collective responsibility to liberate our nation and your IG has strong institutions to attain this objective.

Let me make this as clear as possible: any leader’s mandate in this revolution is to liberate our people, not rule over them. Let’s focus on liberation and stop putting the cart before the horse.

I take this opportunity again to call on the AGOVC/ADF and Capo Daniel to refrain from implicating the Interim Government of Ambazonia in criminal activity. I also call on Dr Cho Ayaba to show leadership by releasing Mr Ndoping immediately.

Thank You, and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Ambazonia Interim Government

Separatist fighters in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking region of Northwest said on Tuesday they have abducted an official of Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (Camwater), a public-private company that supplies water in the country.

The official who heads the company in the region was seen pleading for his safety and freedom in a video made public on Tuesday by separatist fighters.

The fighters are heard saying in the video that he will only be released when a ransom of 10 million XAF (about 17,299 dollars) is paid and the company ceases to collect money from people for the use of public taps.

Officials of Camwater contacted by Xinhua have confirmed the abduction and said security forces have launched operations for his safe release.

Abductions are common in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where an armed separatist conflict is underway. The December end-of-year festivities are also usually characterized by kidnapping and violence in the regions, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet