The SOBA UK 2021 Annual Residential Convention started on Friday with a star-studded lineup and heavy emphasis on unity aimed at presenting a new picture of the association as the best hope for all Sasse ex-students in the UK and even beyond.

SOBA UK’s three-day Annual Residential Convention has been entirely reshaped by the Franklin Egbe administration and named “Appreciating Community Spirit.”

The event has once again drawn hundreds of guests including members of the Sasse Old Boys family to The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent for days of celebrating, intellectual discourse and development politicking.

Sobans are scheduled to formally accept all decisions reached at the last convention in Colchester.

“There’s no doubt about it – it is indeed different,” a senior Soban from the USA, hinted Cameroon Concord News.

The programming has been arranged to reflect the depth of SOBA UK’s way forward beginning 2022.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A gendarme officer is reported to have died from a mob action after he allegedly fired his gun killing a little schoolgirl.

The incident occurred on Thursday morning at a security checkpoint around the Divine Mercy Co-Cathedral in the city of Buea in South-West.

Although state authorities are yet to issue an official statement, open sources say the gendarmerie officer, lynched by a mob, had in an attempt to immobilize a car at a security checkpoint, shot and killed a three-year-old schoolgirl who was being accompanied to school by her parent.

Onlookers and passersby are said to have taken the laws into their hands. They were later joined by a thick crowd to administer mob justice on the suspect gendarme.

A video of the mob action that has gone viral shows policemen watching helplessly as the gendarme is stoned.

Before long, the situation degenerated into a popular protest as the irate crowd marched with the corpse of the little girl from Molyko to the Governor’s Office and back.

At the Governor’s Office, the crowd chanted songs demanding an end to security checkpoints that have been transformed into extortion posts.

“FCFA 500! FCFA 500,” they chanted, urging authorities to sanitize the security corps in the country plagued by corruption.

Some of the protesters claim the gendarme shot at the car, killing the schoolgirl, because the driver of the car failed to stop and offer a FCFA 500 (less than a dollar) bribe.

The Governor of the South-West Region, Okalia Bilai Bernard was on hand to receive the irate population.

The Governor called for calm, describing the situation as unfortunate.

“It is indeed a shocking incident. An innocent child has been killed. All of us are in shock. I want to assure you that those who did it, some are already in the hands of the law,” the Governor said.

Meanwhile, the remains of the little girl were displayed at Bongo’s Square in Clerks’ Quarters. A woman in an advanced age stripped naked to protest against brutality by security forces.

The headless corpse was paraded down to the esplanade of the Molyko Stadium, paralyzing traffic.

At press time, the road leading to the Molyko Stadium and the entire vicinity had been overtaken by a huge crowd. The stadium had been opened for the irate population and the Bishop of the Diocese of Buea, His Lordship Michael Bibi was about addressing the population.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Former U.S. Undersecretary of State for African Affairs has confirmed in a tweet that it was for a matter of 500 CFA francs that the young Southern Cameroons schoolgirl was coldly murdered by a Francophone  gendarme officer of Beti-Ewondo extraction.

The horrific murder of young Louise Ndialle in the morning of Thursday, October 14, 2021 in Buea the chief city in the South West is now causing a stir beyond Cameroon’s borders. Several  senior world citizeens and personalities were moved, including the American Tibor Nagy, the former U.S. Under Secretary of State for African Affairs.

The American diplomat reacted in a tweet on Thursday, October 14, and deplored the disappearance of the young schoolgirl, who was killed, according to him, by a gendarme, for a matter of 500 FCFA. For Tibor Nagy, the horror occurred because the girl (her mother) refused to pay the gendarme this amount.

“Does anyone doubt that the poor child killed in Cameroon by a gendarme was shot because they refused to pay a bribe of 500 CFA francs? Anyone on the roads of Cameroon encounters “electric gate” stops with great frequency. Shame on a government where corruption flows from all levels and kills!” tweeted Tibor Nagy.

Tibor Nagy, who has always focused on the armed conflict in Southern Cameroons, and who knows Cameroon inside out, also accuses the government of having maintained a reign of corruption, to the point where this scourge is now killing literally and figuratively.

By Rita Akana

A primary school pupil  was killed by a trigger-happy Francophone army soldier in the Molyko neighborhood today Thursday  14 October 2021.

Per a witness account, the little girl and her mates were in a car transporting them to school as Francophone army soldiers were ransacking the Molyko neighborhood. But as her mother drove across the check point mounted by elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, the soldier shot into the car. His bullet fell the unfortunate girl.

She was pronounced dead after bleeding profusely from the bullet wound. Before the Francophone soldier cut short her life, the victim was a happy Southern Cameroons kid having scored an impressive marks in her recent examination.

The high military command deployed by the regime in Yaounde confirmed that she was hit by a stray bullet by one of its elements  on assignment to Muea.

Reacting to the news, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroon Interim Government Dabney Yerima said such acts of provocation by the French Cameroun military will not go unanswered. Yerima blamed the killing on Dion Ngute and his pro Yaounde criminal gang who are representing French Cameroun interest in Ambazonia.

Vice President Yerima added that the Interim Government has directed Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards to respond immediately.

By Rita Akana in Buea

Southern Cameroons fighters have made significant gains in the Northern Zone, seizing control over large swaths of territory from the Cameroon government army.

A spokesman for Vice President Dabney Yerima, at a presser on Monday in Berlin revealed details of the Southern Cameroons Self Defense operation dubbed ‘Operation Big Rubbergun” which came in the wake of a series of attacks by Francophone soldiers.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government official said that the latest self defense operation in all the administrative units in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was launched after the success of the previous operations to liberate the strategic border crossings in Bui and Manyu to Nigeria.

“We are currently implementing a plan that calls for attacks on the enemy from several sides” the Yerima spokesman who refused to be identified at the Potsdamer Platz venue in Berlin added .

“Every Francophone army soldier, CPDM agent, traitor can save his life and leave his position as our Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards advance, our Amba fighters will allow him to escape and leave even if he is carrying his personal weapon,” he added.

By Isong Asu in London with files

The leader of the Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards popularly known as General No Pity  has vowed to continue the fight against Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons until the international community delivers on promises of self-determination for the Ambazonian people.

The Ambazonian commander made the remarks in an audio message to all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups on Monday, calling for unity.

“Go tell it to those French Cameroun leaders that there will be neither peace, nor stability, nor a just and lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons conflict unless the UN Security Council assumes its responsibilities in responding frankly and firmly to the aggressive and expansionist practices of the French Cameroun occupying forces,” General No Pity said.

He further called on the UN to pay attention to resolving the long-running dispute between the two Cameroons, warning that the conflict could escalate and destabilize parts of French Cameroun.

“The war is already raging on in Ground Zero. And its dangers and repercussions cannot be avoided if the United Nations continues to ignore the crisis instead of solving it,” the top Amba fighter added.

This came after Ambazonia Interim Government officials told Cameroon Intelligence Report that at least 12 Cameroon government soldiers had died from attacks launched on Cameroon government army convoy along the Bamenda-Wum road.

General No Pity also accused Southern Cameroonians doing business with French Cameroun companies such as Brasseries du Cameroun of supporting an illegal, aggressive and expansionist operation, and the theft and looting of the wealth of an oppressed and defenseless people.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, has stressed that all British Southern Cameroonians are united to defend their homeland.

Yerima held a phone call with one of the commanders of Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards (ARG) in Manyu Sunday to condemn the kidnapping of two women who were later released.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said kidnapping is not part of the Anglo-Saxon tradition expressing his solidarity with the Manyu Liberation Council and Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups in Akwaya sub constituency.

“The people of Southern Cameroons as a whole stand behind our Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards in defending the homeland and its Anglo-Saxon identity” Yerima said.

The Southern Cameroons exiled leader added that the Interim Government had asked other Ambazonia restoration groups to make Francophone army soldiers their target and not Ambazonian citizens.

By Chi Prudence Asong

There have been fresh calls for the Vatican to mediate the increasingly violent conflict between Cameroon’s Anglophone minority and the central government. Recent events have prompted civil society to appeal for the Church to offer its services as an impartial and respected intermediary.

Past weeks have seen an upsurge in violence between armed separatist groups and the Cameroon military. Anglophone forces fighting for an independent country are using improvised explosive devices against the Cameroon armed forces to devastating effect. Human rights groups have warned that the military is targeting villages in response, with unarmed civilians bearing the brunt of the suffering. International observers, such as the Global Campaign for Peace & Justice in Cameroon, urge that military force will not address grievances and a mediation table is necessary.

In 2019, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Switzerland offered to hold peace talks between the armed sides. Although some pro-independence groups have signed on, the Cameroon government has not attended. More than two years later, Cameroonians and the world are waiting.

Cameroon-watchers suggest the time is now right for another credible institution to bolster efforts to bring all sides, including civil society, to the negotiating table.

Lord Alton commented: “I have followed events in the troubled Anglophone regions of Cameroon since violence broke out, and local contacts believe that circumstances are now changing. This is the moment for the Vatican to once more offer itself as an impartial mediator, trying to get all parties to the conflict to participate in peace talks. There is a military stalemate between separatist forces and the Cameroon government, with unarmed civilians suffering intolerable conditions, caught in the middle. The Church’s renewed participation could be a game changer – bringing about a ceasefire and offering much needed hope to Cameroon’s Anglophone citizens.”

The calls from civil society have been endorsed by Dr Chris Fomunyoh from the National Democratic Institute in Washington DC. “The Vatican has moral authority worldwide, including with government leaders in Cameroon. How can it afford not to leverage those relationships to bring peace and social justice to a bleeding nation where 20 percent of its population constituted of the minority Anglophones face an existential threat now and for future generations?”

Dr Fomunyoh continued, “I think of the very instrumental role played by the Rome-based and Vatican-connected Community of Saint Edigio in bringing peace to then war-torn Mozambique in the early 1990s, and wonder why such an effort cannot be undertaken for Cameroon where thousands have been killed, close to 400 villages burnt, and over one million dislocated either as internally displaced persons of refugees.”

Background to the Anglophone Crisis

What began in 2016 as peaceful protests against the imposition of the French language and institutions on the minority Anglophone population, degenerated into a violent struggle between separatist fighters calling for an independent country called ‘Ambazonia’ and the Cameroon government and military of President Paul Biya, in power since 1982. Thousands of civilians have been killed, hundreds of villages have been burned, the majority of schools have been closed for four years, and nearly one million people (out of a population of six million) are or were internally displaced, with seventy thousand more thought to be in exile in neighbouring Nigeria while others are scattered as refugees elsewhere.

In January 2021, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, visited Cameroon, urging President Biya to enter peace talks to no avail. However, with changing circumstances on the ground, the moment is ripe for the Vatican’s reengagement. Catholic priests and other religious figures have been targeted during the conflict. As a key moral authority, the Church should be central to efforts to find a peaceful way forward using the negotiating table.

Source: Independent Catholic News

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde and Ambazonia Restoration Forces exchanged gunfire on Sunday in the Manyu Divisional capital Mamfe, a spokesman for the Francophone Divisional Officer said.

The situation remained confused later Sunday with sporadic gunfire heard and Ambazonia Restoration Forces blocking all major roads from the Mamfe Cathedral  Roundabout to  the junction around the late George Leke Fonge’s residence toward government primary school Egbekaw.

Several army soldiers deployed to Mamfe rushed back into their barracks justifying claims that President Biya’s legal authority is in doubt in Southern Cameroons.

Later Sunday, gunfire was also heard in the Satom area although the source was unclear. A source at the SDO’s office contacted by Cameroon Concord News said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy that has disrupted security in Mamfe.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

At least two militants of the terror group Boko Haram and a civilian have been killed in raids in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to local and security sources.

Government forces ambushed and killed two militants of the group on Saturday in Mozogo, a locality of the region, a military official who opted for anonymity told Xinhua.

The militants had earlier raided the locality Friday night killing a civilian and destroying property, according to witnesses.

The raids came barely three days after the militants attacked Assighassia village of the region killing seven civilians.

Local media reported that the militants launched the attacks after troops targeted their strategic positions in a coordinated offensive killing several terrorists.

Source: Xinhuanet