On January 12, an appeals court in Cameroon rejected legal efforts to secure the release of Olivier Bibou Nissack and Alain Fogue Tedom, two prominent members of the country’s main opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), as well as twenty other MRC members. They were arrested in September 2020 while exercising their right to freedom of assembly and have been in custody since.

The court’s decision came after a lower court rejected a habeas corpus request filed by the defendants on November 5, 2020.

Nissack and Fogue face politically motivated charges including attempted revolution, rebellion, and unlawful assembly. They were first held in police custody for over a month at the Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense (SED), in Yaoundé, before being transferred to Yaoundé central prison on November 3 for a six-month pretrial detention period. At SED, they were kept in total isolation, deprived of any reading materials, and frequently denied access to their lawyers.

Nissack and Fogue were arrested as part of a massive government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations organized by the MRC on September 22 across Cameroon, which included the arrest of over 500 people, mainly MRC members and supporters.

Many peaceful protesters were beaten while being arrested and in detention. “The police beat me with truncheons,” a 39-year-old MRC member arrested in Douala told Human Rights Watch. “I spent nine days at the judicial police jail, sleeping on the floor and without access to my lawyers.”

Of the over 500 arrested, at least 136 remain in detention, 20 of whom have been convicted and sentenced to prison by civilian courts, according to the MRC’s lawyers.

“In Cameroon’s criminal justice system, habeas corpus requests appear to have lost their value as individuals who are presumed innocent are systematically deprived of their liberty,” Menkem Sother, a lawyer for Nissack said.

MRC leader Maurice Kamto continues to dispute the 2018 presidential election results which confirmed the victory of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 38 years.

Cameroonian authorities should respect people’s right to demonstrate peacefully, immediately release those wrongfully held, and investigate law enforcement’s conduct in the 2020 crackdown and treatment of detainees.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Several vehicles were photographed in flames in an assault that has been reportedly claimed by a group called The Fako Action Forces

Explosions were reported outside the Limbe Omnisport Stadium on Thursday, just two days before the highly anticipated African Nations Championship starts in Cameroon, in an attack apparently linked to a local separatist group.

Heading into the Chan tournament, Cameroon have faced criticism for using a host stadium in the South-West region against a backdrop of local instability.

Zambia, Tanzania, Guinea and Namibia, who are in Group D, are expected to play at the Omnisport Stadium during the tournament, which is reserved for home-based African players. The first game at the stadium is scheduled to be between Tanzania and Zambia next Tuesday.

Although the attack did not have any fatalities, several cars were destroyed, amidst ongoing concerns about the safety of the region due to separatist tensions.

The reported terrorist act was claimed by ‘Fako Action Forces’, according to local source Journal du Cameroon. The explosion reportedly took place on the ‘perimeter’ of the Limbe Stadium, just one of the venues designated to host Chan matches.

Referencing Radio Equinox, Camer Press Agency reported the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb, with the shadow government from the Ambazonia State in Cameroon having released the following reminder and warning in the days preceding the attack.

Images circulating on social media have also appeared to show evidence of the explosion.

Apart from the Group D games, the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the tournament are expected to be held in the volatile region.

Cameroon’s security department has been battling reported insurgents in the region since 2016. Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger organised a mini-tournament in the host country between January 1 and 7 ahead of the actual competition.

The three visiting nations set up camps since then and are waiting to start their respective Chan campaigns. Cameroon will start the event by playing Zimbabwe at the capital on January 16.

Apart from the Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, other stadiums that will be used are the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde which will host Group A games. Group B fixtures will be played at Japoma Stadium in Douala, while Group C participants will be playing at the Douala Reunification Stadium.

Source: Goal.com

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima says the Biya French Cameroun regime is doing all it can to implement disunity among Ambazonian front line groups and prevent dialog between the two Cameroons.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government is interested in holding a frank, candid and confidence-building dialog with the people of La Republique du Cameroun and their government in Yaoundé powered by the United Nations Security Council,” Dabney Yerima was cited by Cameroon Intelligence Report Holland Bureau Chief as telling a war cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Yerima, however, noted that “Unfortunately, the corrupt  regime in La Republique du Cameroun have been doing their utmost to keep Southern Cameroons restoration groups at daggers-drawn positions while thwarting dialog between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.”

The United States Congress on 8 September 2020 introduced Resolution 684 on the crisis in Southern Cameroons which was adopted on 1 January 2021.

The US Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) called on “the government of Cameroon and the separatist armed groups in the English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West to put an end to all violence, to respect the human rights of all Cameroonians, and to pursue a truly inclusive dialogue with a view to resolving the ongoing civil conflict in English-speaking Cameroon”.

Resolution 684 “condemns the abuses committed by state security forces and armed groups in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, and affirms that the United States continues to hold the Government of Cameroon accountable for safeguarding the security and constitutional rights of all its citizens, regardless of region, religion, or political opinion. In addition, it urges all parties to the conflict in Cameroon, the Government of Cameroon, U.S. foreign relations entities, and members of the international community to take specific steps to resolve the ongoing civil conflict in Cameroon.

The U.S. Congress was also critical of France’s action in the conflict.  “…France maintains considerable interests in Cameroon, including significant economic and security cooperation, but has not sufficiently used its influence to stem atrocities committed in English-speaking regions or to support stronger international action to seek a resolution to the conflict,” it said.

For the record, the crisis in the English-speaking region, which is now in its fifth year, has already resulted, according to NGOs, in more than 5,000 deaths and around 700,000 displaced persons. As a result of this conflict, some 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 855,000 children are out of school.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dabney Yerima stated that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government had announced a proposal for the UN to send a fact-finding mission to Southern Cameroons which would be particularly aimed at developing dialog between Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.

By Isong Asu in London

The slaughtering in Southern Cameroons has continued as both camps struggle to prove that they are in control of the region.

After Tuesday’s slaughtering of women and children in Mautu in the country Southwest region, the fighting continued on Wednesday in Muyuka where a BIR officer was killed in an ambush that has left many speechless.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group’s source in Muyuka, the BIR officers who are protecting the Brasseries depot located towards the main road leading to Yoke ran into a water crisis and went to one of the streams to fetch water where insurgents fighting for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons ambushed them, killing one BIR officer and wounding others.

Our correspondent on the ground is gathering more details and we will be publishing them as they become available.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The IG Statement: Massacre in Mautu but we must Resist

Yesterday, 10 January 2021, despicable barbarism was unleashed by the occupying forces upon our people in the village of Mautu, Fako County. The village of Mautu was invaded and ten men, women, and children were slaughtered as they went about their daily activities. Just two days ago, a young man called Clovis in the village of Njinikom was murdered by the French Cameroun forces.  Our hearts bleed and our nation mourns the victims of these heinous crimes. They will never be forgotten.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia (The IG) has ordered an immediate investigation to ascertain the facts surrounding these massacres. As the facts are made available, The IG will be communicating these details to its international partners and human rights groups.

Unfortunately, these savage and unprovoked attacks perpetrated by French Cameroun’s BIR, in collaboration with other militias, on our innocent and defenceless civilian population has become endemic. We have irrefutable evidence that these crimes against humanity are premeditated and directed by leaders of the regime in Yaoundé. Make no mistake, these are not random attacks. These attacks are carried out with military precision. These attacks are designed to terrorize the civilian population and to deter prospective enlistment of self-defence forces.  These attacks are also designed to evoke retaliation, but we shall not succumb to provocation or fear.  We shall respond to these attacks at the appropriate time.

As a nation, the courage and resilience of our restoration forces to fight for our sovereignty is commendable. The time just before dawn is habitually the darkest moment. Throughout history, many involved in restoration movements have despaired and almost given up when times are challenging. But history teaches us that with persistence, many nations have won their liberation battles and, I believe that if we persist, we shall overcome. I believe that with perseverance, the actualization of the restoration of Ambazonia shall come to pass.

To the population of Buea, we are proud that many businesses remain closed during Ghost-towns. For the few shops that are now opening on these days, we are appealing that you observe this great initiative that has given our struggle great momentum. This war was declared on us and it is our responsibility to protect ourselves and our territory from the invading and lawless military of French Cameroun. No violent conflict ever ends in the battlefield. Wars always end on the negotiation table as the only place where sustainable peace and justice can be attained. French Cameroun shall come to this realisation soon.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia is hereby making an urgent call for Ambazonians to take the following dispositions

1.            We all need to be strategic in our actions, pronouncement and must speak about our struggle as one to the world.

2.            We must all work as intelligence-gathering officers for our restoration forces so that those within our communities who collaborate with these thugs from French Cameroun to discredit our revolution are brought to justice.

3.            We must disregard mentors of internal division and stand together in our innovative and dynamic plan to ruthlessly adhere to our Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Ambazonia.

4.            We need to be bold and resolute in taking our territory through OPERATION CAPHOT aka THE BIG RUBBERGUN.

Fellow Comrades, be neither discouraged nor distracted. Our time shall come. Our policy position is that the following confidence-building measures would create a conducive atmosphere for productive engagement with French Cameroun. We believe that the entire process would have to be underwritten by the UN and certain muscular States (America, Britain, Germany, and Russia). The key confidence-building measures that must be taken are:

(i)            A UN humanitarian intervention in the Southern Cameroons. This necessary action will secure the safety of the people of the Southern Cameroons. French Cameroun forces must withdraw from the territory of the Southern Cameroons. Our IDPs, refugees and diaspora community must be able to return safely to the Southern Cameroons without fear of being killed by the regime in Yaoundé.

(ii)           The release of all Southern Cameroons political prisoners being held by French Cameroun in various prisons and torture facilities.

(iii)          An international fact-finding mission to investigate various crimes perpetrated in the Southern Cameroons.

For us, the adoption of these measures is critical for obvious reasons. French Cameroun has proven to be dishonest. It is a nation that has no respect for human lives and international norms. But we must continue our fight for freedom and justice with the believe that we shall overcome. We must remain bold and not succumb to intimidation or fear. We must keep resisting. We shall overcome.

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Thank You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

In 2017, the US-based Interim Government of Ambazonia (The IG) announced that the death penalty still stands in the Southern Cameroons and the sentence would be used for those who commit high crimes and misdemeanor against the state. Amongst the crimes that The IG deemed publishable by the death penalty were treason, murder, large scale drug trafficking, espionage and being a senior member of French Cameroun’s CPDM crime-syndicate.

Over the last few months, Ambazonia Intelligence Service and Southern Cameroons law enforcement officers have zeroed in on Peter Mafany Musonge, Yang Philemon, Atanga Nji,and other high-value targets to implement the death penalty for their voluminous crimes against the state.

Concentration on high-value targets however does not mean that smaller targets are being ignored. Saturday, 9 January 2021 execution of the Martin Ayuk, Principal of Government High School Ossing, Manyu County came as no surprise to many familiar with the matter.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News Group’s Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom, an Ambazonian commander with knowledge of the matter said “Martin has been attracting death to himself for a long time. He has been in consistent and persistent communication with the French Cameroun terrorist forces in Mamfe. We warned him countless times, but he was stupidly arrogant. He did not want to learn from what happened to Mathias Ako, the former Regent Chief of Ossing”

The Ambazonian Commander furthered that “Martin committed crimes of treason and espionage against the people of Ambazonia on many occasions and his actions led to the unlawful arrests and murder of many in Ossing village by the terrorist French Cameroon military. He called the terrorists military of French Cameroun to Ossing in December 2020 to confiscate many of Southern Cameroons self defense weapons that were safely stored in a farm in the forest in Takpa. He had to face the death penalty for calling the military to collect our weapons that cost us more than USD  10,000. Again, he was openly telling us that he had no respect for us as a self-defence force in an area we control. His action was unacceptable”.

The Ambazonian Self-defence commandant went on to add “we do use the death penalty in Manyu County in moderation and only in occasions that the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and where there is no room for doubt.”

Over 6 000 people have died and close to half a million have been displaced. Multiple separatists groups have formed in Southern Cameroons.

At least six soldiers died and five more were wounded on Wednesday after a roadside bomb exploded in Momo County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

By Bisong Ayuk with files from Ossing

A riot took place near Cameroon’s Douala International Airport on Saturday. The Police charged at a group of young people protesting the demolition of their homes and a mosque. They succeed finally in dispersing them with tear gas.

Yassu Anne, an inhabitant of the airport area has lived here for 37 years. She admits to losing everything.

“We came today to protest this because the airport was said to be dirty. They told us they’re going to fix the airport, hence the operation. But they come to demolish without warning. They come one morning to surprise us. I mean, surprise us and our children. My things are buried there…. you can’t die for your possessions, my things are over there, the pots all buried” Anne lamented.

The “cleareance operation” residents say, started at around 5 am. The authorities say it is to ensure the rights of way for Douala International Airport.

Koulanya Doko is another resident of the airport area affected by the demolitions.

“It’s not a hundred people that you see, they are thousands. And the people have been there for more than 30 years. Like me, I have lived here for 32 years. I have big children. Where will they go? But for me this way is not right. They should first come and mark the houses”.

The violence has been followed by arrests, but it hasn’t undermined the ongoing process. But the operation is not over yet. The authorities have warned that the operations of breaking up and freeing the airport will continue in the coming days.

Africanews correspondent Joel Kouam reports that in light of the affected persons reality, some families have left the area while others continue to stay on, in an effort to save what they can, while they can.

Source: Africa News

Cameroon said Saturday that at least 22 people, including four soldiers, were killed in two Friday morning attacks – one by Boko Haram fighters on its northern border with Nigeria and the other by separatists fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in the country’s western regions. Officials warn of a new wave of violence and killing they say is being prepared by the separatists and Boko Haram terrorists.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, says there was general confusion in the town of Mozogo when militiamen warned civilians about Boko Haram suicide bombers from neighboring Nigeria in their midst.

He said some scared people fled into the bush, where they always go for safety, but many Nigerian suicide bombers were already hiding there. He said 11 civilians were killed on the spot when bombers detonated explosives. He said three were shot by the terrorist group in Mozogo, a town in Cameroon’s Mayo Sava administrative unit.

“Yesterday (Friday) we got an attack of Boko Haram in Mayo Tsanaga Division. Fourteen people died,” said Bakari. “We have been instructed by the hierarchy to extend a message of condolence and we condemn this act of Boko Haram and all measures will be taken with our vigilant committees [militias], who are working day and night alongside our forces to secure our populations.”

No one has yet claimed responsibility for attack in secessionist English-speaking North West region

Bakari said the wounded were rushed to hospitals in Mozogo and the neighboring town of Mokolo. He said the military had been deployed in Mozogo to secure Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria’s Borno state, an epicenter of Boko Haram activity.

Cameroon government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi in a release said heavily armed Boko Haram fighters have infiltrated villages around Mozogo and called for vigilance.

The release also says separatist fighters attacked a military post at Matazen at the western entrance to the English-speaking North-West, region killing four soldiers and two civilians. Two civilians died while being rushed to hospitals.

Among the survivors of the attack is 43-year-old trader Clarence Tatah, who was driving from the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda to the coastal city of Douala. He says God saved his life from more than half an hour of crossfire.

“I opened that door behind there and jumped out of the car,” said Tatah. “Then I rolled and came under the car. After the shooting lasted for about 30 to 40 minutes, I discovered that a bullet went through my chair [seat] and came out behind. God protected me. The Lord preserved me.”

General Valere Nka, commander of the Cameroon military forces fighting the separatists, says his troops transported several wounded people to hospitals. He says physical damage was enormous. Nka says civilians should help the military find the fighters by reporting suspects in their communities.

He says the task ahead is still enormous because there are many rebel camps his troops must destroy. He says it is imperative for everyone to know that the military is there primarily to protect civilians. He says he is urging the population to collaborate with the military, which is doing everything possible to protect civilians and their goods and restore peace.

Cameroon has been fighting to secure its northern border with Nigeria from Boko Haram incursions and combating separatist fighters in its English-peaking western regions.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the northern town of Mozogo and the western locality of Matazen.

The government, however, blames Boko Haram and separatist fighters for the separate attacks.

The separatist crisis that is in its fourth year has killed over 3,000 people and displaced more than 500,000 others according to the United Nations.

Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin. 

The United Nations says Boko Haram violence has cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced about 2 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Source: VOA

At least a dozen civilians, including eight children, were killed in a village in northern Cameroon on Friday when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in an armed attack blamed on Boko Haram.

Mahamat Chetima Abba, the traditional chief in the village of Mozogo, told the AFP news agency the attackers arrived in the middle of the night brandishing machetes.

The panicked villagers tried to run off into the nearby forest when, during a stampede, the suicide bomber detonated her device.

The account was confirmed by a member of the local defence committee, who said his group had tried to repel the attack.

Cameroon’s Far North Region is grappling with deadly incursions from neighbouring Nigeria, where an armed uprising launched by Boko Haram in 2009 has killed tens of thousands of people.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North Region, told Anadolu Agency that “12 farmers from Mozogo were killed in an attack by Boko Haram at about 1am [00:00 GMT]”.

“Boko Haram terrorists stormed the village, firing shots in the air. Villagers fled to a park, where Boko Haram fighters brought a girl strapped with explosives,” he said. “Twelve villagers, the young suicide bomber, and a Boko Haram terrorist were killed in the explosion, while two more people were seriously injured.”

Abba, the village chief, and a regional police officer also blamed Boko Haram for carrying out the attack.

“They infiltrated the population. Boko Haram is inflicting more and more damage here,” Abba said. “However, it seems that they no longer have the means to carry out mass attacks using guns,” he said, noting that the assailants had carried machetes.

More than 36,000 people have been killed – most of them in Nigeria – and three million people have fled their homes since Boko Haram launched its uprising in northeast Nigeria in 2009.

Boko Haram and a splinter group called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have stepped up attacks in recent years in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Source: Aljazeera