The Southern Cameroons Secretary of the Economy, Hon. Tabenyang Brado has insisted that the Abuja abduction and subsequent arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides was totally wrong and that the Biya Francophone regime is now facing its last journey of many dangers in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Hon. Tabenyang told Cameroon Concord News US Bureau Chief that ever since the arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, political and economic relations with La Republique du Cameroun are no longer possible.

“It was not only wrong but it was also very dangerous for the security interests of the two Cameroons,” Hon. Tabenyang added.

The Southern Cameroons front line leader also thanked Vice President Dabney Yerima for stabilizing and uniting the Ambazonia Restoration Forces with the Big Rubbergun Project saying, “We need unity and great leaders like Yerima to get to Buea.”

The power dynamics are no longer in favor of Cameroon government forces. In Southern Cameroons, the massive jungles and wide savannas is providing coverage for the determined fighters and they are making the most of this natural advantage. Those who doubted the determination and courage of these fighters had to think twice before expressing their views, especially as the number of body bags heading to French Cameroun is increasing by the day.

Our chief political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai opined that “The tell-tale signs of a political and military miscalculation had begun appearing on the government’s dashboard.

The fighting that started with hunting rifles has now seen AK-47s thrown in the mix and their presence has been a long nightmare to the Cameroon government military. These dangerous Russian-made war machines have cut short the lives of many soldiers, sending their families into long periods of mourning. Many are already questioning the rationale behind the fighting.

But the fighters are not yet done. They still have unfinished business. The Federal Republic of Ambazonia is not yet independent.

By Isong Asu with files from Camcordnews US Bureau

Top leaders of the Southern Cameroons struggle have reportedly exchanged views on the latest Ambazonia gains against the Cameroon government military and ways to achieve ultimate victory against the Biya French Cameroun occupying regime.

En route to Brussels on Tuesday for a meeting on the latest developments related to the war in Southern Cameroons, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima had a telephone conversation with the Ambazonia Intelligence Chief in Ground Zero.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that during the conversation, the two front line leaders spoke frankly on the situation in Bui and Otu in Eyumojock and its repercussions on the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups based in Ground Zero launched a counter offensive following heavy deployment of Cameroon government troops to Bui and Otu in Eyumojock. Soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime turned a deaf ear an earlier ultimatum from the Ambazonia Interim Government and kept assaulting innocent Southern Cameroons civilians.

The Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress. British action resulted in the unconscionable imposition of an unnecessary and precipitated plebiscite with dead-end alternatives. Speaking through Lord Perth, Britain shamefully said the Southern Cameroons and its people were “expendable”.

The plebiscite was imposed in the teeth of opposition by the leadership of the trust territory. It offered a Hobson’s choice of ‘joining’ either Nigeria or French Cameroun. The internationally-prescribed political status option of sovereign independence was deliberately excluded. There was no good reason for doing so. On 11 February 1961, a skewed plebiscite was foisted on the people of the Southern Cameroons. Faced with the Hobson’s ‘choice’ that was forced down their throat, the people opted for independence in political association with Republique du Cameroun. It was agreed in writing between the two countries and to the knowledge of Britain and the UN, that the political association would take the form of an aggregative federation of two states, equal in status.

In 1972 Republique du Cameroun despotically ended the subterfuge of a federation and formerly annexed the territory of the Southern Cameroons as part of its territory. The Government of the Southern Cameroons was dismissed and its parliament dissolved along with the police and the public service of the federated state. All property, including artefacts, official documents and other archives, belonging to the Government of the Southern Cameroons was vandalized, destroyed in situ or carted to Yaoundé and simply burnt to ashes. The reason for this barbarianism was to erase any memory of the Southern Cameroons as a congener of statehood. Republique du Cameroun however continued to camouflage it’s predatory and expansionist politics under the cloak of what it instituted as so-called ‘United Republic of Cameroun’.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The propagation of fake news and hate speech on Cameroonian media remains a big challenge that needs to be checked, Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute said on Tuesday.

Speaking during a ceremony in the capital Yaounde to officially install newly appointed members of the country’s media watchdog, National Communication Council, Ngute said proliferation of fake news and hate speech in the Central African nation was “disturbing.”

He urged news media in the country to be constructive and responsible.

“We inform, educate, and entertain but we have to do that with the social responsibility,” Joe Chebonkeng Kalabubse, new president of the National Communication Council told reporters after the installation.

Source: Xinhuanet

Professor Carlson Anyangwe has called on all Ambazonian Restoration Groups to throw their weight behind the resistance to restore Southern Cameroons’s sovereignty.

The prominent Southern Cameroons academic and front line leader issued the call on Monday; one week after 300 Cameroon government army soldiers were deployed to Bui by the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

The so-called Operation Bui Clean has seen intense fighting between Cameroon government troops and Ambazonia Restoration Forces with some residents accused of conspiring with Ambazonia fighters. According to Cameroon government army’s claims, residents, elites, traditional rulers, and church leaders have embraced the independence ideology in all areas, making it difficult for the military to fight the Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe invited all the Self Defense Groups to support the resistance in restoring Southern Cameroons sovereignty and territorial integrity, and he promised the evil French Cameroun occupiers that armed resistance would have the final say on the battlefield and make Southern Cameroon-Ambazonia proud.

“Until the complete liberation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia from your evil (presence), Southern Cameroonians will not retreat, Southern Cameroonians will not give up and Ambazonia Restoration Forces will respond twofold to any attack,” Professor Anyangwe warned the Biya French Cameroun regime.

He also criticized the Atanga Nji Boys who slander about pro-resistance individuals and institutions, saying, “Their prosecution will be near and heavy, and sooner or later they will be tried for their great crimes and treachery in Amba courts.”

By Isong Asu

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima says the United Nations should include La Republique du Cameroun in its blacklist of parties violating minors’ rights during conflicts.

In a press briefing late on Monday, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader pointed out that there was an urgent need for the international community to start naming and shaming the Biya child-killer regime in Yaoundé.

Vice President Dabney Yerima was reacting to a recent report made public by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The report covers countries and organizations under the UN’s Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, which are listed as grave violators in the report’s annexes.

Dabney Yerima noted that all ingredients that could trigger inclusion in the annex and demand a UN Security Council sanction are evident in the war in Southern Cameroons. “Recruitment of child soldiers, attacks on schools and hospitals, killing and maiming, sexual assault and abduction of children are all in the Biya French Cameroun regime’s DNA” Yerima added.

For over four years into the conflict in Southern Cameroons, the occupying regime in Yaoundé has never been listed and has never been named and shamed for killing and injuring thousands of Southern Cameroons women and children.

French government support for the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé deep within UN structures is making the mechanism to list parties violating the rights of children in armed conflicts ineffective and discriminatory. “It is a source of grave concern that Cameroon government forces have never been blacklisted as violators of children’s rights in relevant reports of the secretary-general” Yerima furthered.

In its annual Children and Armed Conflict report, the UN said at least 19,379 children affected by war in 2020 were victims of grave violations, but it failed to take notice of La Republique du Cameroun crimes in Southern Cameroons.

The War in Southern Cameroons has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroon government army soldiers in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) says it has been astonishingly shocked with EU and UN inaction toward the French Cameroun genocidal campaign going on in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia which has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia.

Military leaders loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé have been deploying soldiers to all Southern Cameroons towns and villages and currently, several hundred Southern Cameroonians have again escaped to the forest and some from the Manyu, Ndian and Bui constituencies are heading to Nigeria.

Cameroon government army attacks in recent months have resulted in numerous human rights violations.

The Biya Francophone regime also plans to open military bases in several villages in Bui, Ndian and Kupe Muanenguba divisions.

The mass killing of Southern Cameroons civilians for over four years now is emblematic of French Cameroun’s colonial regime under which, the crimes similar to apartheid and persecutions are committed.

With unflinching support from the French government of Emmanuel Macron, French Cameroun’s impunity and criminality are now untenable, Vice President Dabney Yerima said in a statement on Monday.

By Isong Asu

Police in Cameroon fired tear gas on Saturday morning as they clashed with residents fighting eviction from a neighbourhood adjacent to Newton Airport in the country’s economic capital Douala.

An official said inhabitants of the informal settlement, known locally as Fret Aeroport, were illegally occupying government land and that they would not be compensated.

Some residents, many of whom have lived next to the airport for decades despite repeated attempts by the authorities to move them, said they were given less than two days to move out.

“This is airport land, the airport has its land title here, and these populations have settled anarchically,” said Hector Eto Fame, a local government representative.

“People who illegally occupy the private domain of the state do not deserve, according to the law, compensation.”

Riot police fought pitched battles with people throwing stones as they went from house to house, creeping through streets choked with furniture, mattresses and tear gas. A barricade of burning tables was seen blocking one road.

Elsewhere, women and children cried as they watched a large excavator tear down buildings amid a wasteland of concrete and crumpled metal roofing.

It’s the second time people have been evicted from the neighbourhood this year. In January almost 200 families were forced out of their homes, according to local rights groups.

The government has said previously more than 100,000 people were living within the airport perimeter, and it was necessary to move them to prevent people crossing the runway and to protect aircraft.

“We were given the formal notice less than a day before the destruction. I’m overwhelmed,” said Daïkolé Mama, a resident.

“We were not told anything about the motivation for the destruction. I have been living in this neighbourhood for 30 years.”

Source: wsau.com

At least 10 soldiers were killed and a police station was raided yesterday in different locations in southwest Cameroon, this comes at a time when the Cameroonian army has just completed the operation called ‘Bui Clean’.

The mission which begun on May 15, aimed at neutralizing the operations of separatists in the area.

The operation was led by the 5th Joint Military Region, consisting nearly 300 soldiers.

“I told them that the mission must continue with discipline, with respect for the principles of commitment and conduct, and with respect for human rights, because the population remains and will remain our center of gravity.” said Gen Nka Valère, 5th Military Region Commander.

Some residents are also accused of conspiring with the rebels. According to the army’s claims, residents, elites, chiefs, and church leaders have embraced the separatist ideology in all areas, making it difficult for them to fight.

However, there are different views on the conduct of these military operations among the people, who believe that the approach of the military has its limits and should be the last option. The military raids have forced the inhabitants to flee to the mountains to find refuge.

“Military operations in our towns and villages will not bring peace in my opinion, because the people are suffering now. And most of the time when people see the military, they think that their son is dead, their father is dead, their daughter is dead because of the military, and they are very afraid. So I don’t think the military option is the best one.” said a resident of Bamenda.

According to the inhabitants, there is a need for another means of resolution other than the use of weapons. In the large cities of the northwest, for example, kidnappings, abuses, extortion and assassinations are the norm. According to analysts, these are the consequences of military raids.

The operation, which is the third of its kind, lasted a whole month. Four soldiers were killed and several injured.

Source: Africa News

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called on the Cameroonian government to lift the ban on providing free, essential medical care in the restive Anglophone North-West region of the country after they were blocked more than six months ago. The government had accused MSF of being too close to separatists in the area.

“That is clearly ungrounded,” says Emmanuel Lampaert, MSF Operations Coordinator for Central Africa, talking about the government’s justification for pulling MSF’s authorization to work in the region.

“Whatever there may be in terms of perceptions or accusations or grievances, what rationale can justify this ongoing suspension and this blow for vital support? Access to care should not be denied,” he tells RFI.

The numbers of people treated in 2020 underlines the importance of their free services to the North-West Region: MSF teams provided more than 42,500 medical consultations, performed nearly 3,300 surgeries, and dealt with at least 4,400 patients who had been referred to MSF’s free, 24/7 ambulance service.

“Our ambulance call center continues to receive emergency requests, which they are forced to decline,” he says.

MSF is one of the few medical NGOs in the region, a conflict zone since late 2017. Described as the “Anglophone crisis”, fighting kicked off after peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in Bamenda, the capital of North-West Cameroon. Demonstrations were violently quashed by Cameroonian security forces.

Protests sparked over anger about the perceived marginalization by the Francophone ruling majority, especially over the use of French in the legal and education systems.

The violent quelling of demonstrations propelled some Anglophone separatists to take up arms against the security forces, later making a self-declaration of independence for so-called Ambazonia. Fighting continues between separatists and government security forces, with civilians caught in the crossfire and accusations of human rights abuses committed by both sides.

Healthcare and medical training impacted

In a conflict zone like North-West Cameroon, the lack of basic health services, such as treatment for diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, and malaria, has contributed to a major health crisis.

Additionally, MSF treated 180 survivors of sexual violence last year, and helped more than 1,000 women with obstetrical emergencies. Many residents are living in the bush, because they fear for their lives, forced to flee their homes. Unsanitary conditions in the bush have also exacerbated health issues.

Part of MSF’s remit in the region is the training and equipping of community health workers, which has also been halted by the government, says Lampaert.

Health workers, both local and foreign, have been subject to attacks, as both the government and separatists accuse people who are trying to provide healthcare of taking sides in the conflict.

“Where is the interest? What justifies all of this?” says Lampaert, exasperated, adding that people in the region describe ongoing harassment.

“It’s continuing, and at moments, it’s increasing with high insecurity, regular attacks and intimidation against medical staff… and meanwhile the humanitarian and health needs have surged during the past years due to this armed violence, so there is a difficult equation there,” he adds.

Lampaert says MSF has made an effort to respond to all accusations of bias and has presented this to the government in Cameroon.

“But in the end, there’s been no clear signal, and access is still denied. At six months, suspension [of MSF’s activities] is ongoing and we ask for it to be lifted,” he says.

Source: RFI

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have attacked a gendarmerie station in Kumba the chief city in Meme Division. According to witnesses, Amba gunmen surrounded the station threw homemade bombs into the station and fired guns into the building.

No Southern Cameroons group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed the pattern of others carried out by Ambazonian fighters, including the use of improvised explosives in Bui and Ndian.

Cameroon Concord News Meme Bureau Chief who contributed to this report said blood could be seen on the floor of the captain’s office. The Ambazonia Restoration Forces were heard chanting anti French Cameroun songs and saying that they would kill any gendarmerie or police officer in Meme.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory from 1843 to 1887. When Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

Cameroon’s weak central government has been unable to stop Ambazonia increasingly bloody attacks.

By Fon Lawrence in Kumba