Three soldiers were wounded Thursday as gunmen attacked a school in Kumba, a locality in Cameroon’s Southwest, one of the country’s two strife-torn English-speaking regions, Cameroon army said. The army immediately blamed armed separatists for the attack.

“A group of armed secessionists were breaking the Multimedia Center of Bilingual High School Kumba District 2, a joint intervention team of Police and Gendarmerie came down on the site. As a result of the exchange of gunfire three gendarmes were wounded and transported to the district hospital of Kumba. On the enemy side, several were neutralized and wounded,” a statement from the army said.

The Cameroonian security forces regularly use the word “neutralize” to refer to “kill.” Locals reported hearing “deafening sound” of gunshots in the localities of Kumba, Muyuka and Muea of the Southwest region as government forces clashed with armed separatists.

“Shooting started by midday and continued this evening. The streets are deserted. Everybody is indoors,” a resident of Kumba who preferred not to be named told Xinhua.

In his New Year message, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya warned that the armed separatists will be “neutralized” if they do not drop their weapons and “follow the right track.” On Wednesday, members of the diplomatic corps in Cameroon urged Biya to settle the conflict through “inclusive dialogue.”

Government forces and armed separatists have been clashing since November 2017 after separatists declared “independence” of the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in the largely French-speaking African country.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé has been trying to create chaos deep within the Ambazonia liberation struggle in order to keep its occupying forces in the territory and destroy the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

An Ambazonian commander in the Lebialem County said on Thursday that the time to take the battle to the enemy territory has arrived.  He also hinted that news of unnecessary confusion, conflict, distrust, animosity and discouragement within the resistance was troubling Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his aides.

In a message addressed to the people of Southern Cameroons late last year, the wives of the detained Ambazonian leaders revealed the enemy’s determination to decapitate the leadership of the revolution by inserting their agents within the revolution with the purpose of implementing counter revolutionary measures and to destabilise the revolution and sow seeds of discord amongst Southern Cameroonians.

Cameroon Concord News understands the general opinion on Ground Zero is that if the Interim Government falls, chaos, repression and resentment will follow.  The French Cameroun army has been waging war against Southern Cameroons civilians and businesses in a bid to bring about chaos and hardship and weaken the resistance.

We gathered from a senior security official in Buea that the appointment of Chief Dion Ngute as Prime Minister has instead angered Ambazonians from the Southern Zone. “Appointing Dion Ngute is a continuation of the French Cameroun policy of implementing  their divide and rule strategy on Southern Cameroonians so that Biya and his gang will be able to maintain French Cameroun occupying forces and have a reason that it uses to legitimate this occupation” our source noted.

By Rita Akana and Sama Ernest

Jails in French Cameroun have become incubators of extremist and radical behaviour in Southern Cameroons, Cameroon Concord News Group has learnt. The Biya Francophone regime has repeatedly ignored calls for inclusive dialogue and has continued with its policy of arbitrary arrest of Southern Cameroonians in a bid to stifle the Ambazonia revolution.

We can now reveal that hundreds of innocent Southern Cameroonian civilians arrested ever since the inception of the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon and convicted for terrorism-related activities were detained in overcrowded and squalid prison facilities in French Cameroun where thousands of anti President Biya inmates are held.

A Francophone baron of the ruling CPDM party noted that the politics behind the crisis in Southern Cameroons is playing into the hands of corrupt military leaders deep within the Biya Beti Ewondo regime.

He added that many Southern Cameroonians detained in Douala and Yaoundé become extremists because they mostly end up in circles of anti Biya regime officials in New Bell Prison and in the Kondengui High Security prison in Yaoundé.

Meanwhile the joint trial of 10 Ambazonian leaders continues today in Yaoundé. The Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his senior aides have been charged with secession and terror-related crimes. They made their first appearance before the military court on December 6, but the trial was adjourned until today because the state submitted their witness list unduly late.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that President Ayuk Julius Tabe appeared today in the Yaoundé Military Tribunal dressed in the official Ambazonia regalia- the grassland identity which has become a trademark in the international stage depicting the people of Southern Cameroons.

At the time of fling this report, information filtered that the Biya regime has ordered a change in the trial judges of the court after Cameroon Concord News Group denounced the tribunal as a Beti Bulu traditional council. We gathered that Colonel Mem Michel has now been appointed to replace Col. Abega Eko Eko for the Ambazonia affair to resume.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Members of the diplomatic corps in Cameroon on Wednesday urged President Paul Biya to settle the ongoing conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest of the country through “inclusive dialogue.”

“The diplomatic corps counts on your wisdom to offer a peaceful and lasting solution to the current crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country,” Paul Patrick Biffot, Gabonese ambassador to Cameroon and head of the diplomatic corps in Cameroon said.

Biffot made the remarks when talking with Biya during a traditional ceremony at the presidency to wish the president happy new year.

“Open and inclusive dialogue and dedicated role of the civil society and the implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multi-culturalism will be in our view an important element of such a process.” Biffot added.

He praised the president for liberating some 289 Anglophone detainees and expressing willingness to accelerate the decentralization process but insisted that “more needs to be done”.

“We take this opportunity to plead for the improved access of humanitarian actors to Northwest and Southwest regions. We stand ready to accompany your country to achieve lasting stability and peace and to support the reforms you may wish to implement,” Biffot said.

During his end-of-year speech to the nation, President Biya said he was ready to continue dialogue with “people of goodwill” in the troubled regions but warned that armed separatists unwilling to drop their arms will be “neutralized.”

Anglophone armed separatists fighting to secede from Francophone-majority Cameroon and create a new nation called “Ambazonia” have been clashing with government forces since November 2017.

Source: Xinhuanet

Southern Cameroonians while commemorating the abduction of 12 of their nationals on January 5, 2018 have called for the unconditional release of all their abducted citizens. They made the call in a peaceful protest and one million Twitter tweets in their various countries, stating that the activists were arrested over one year ago.

In a statement to LEADERSHIP signed by Nfor James Abinda in Anambra state, it stated that January 5 2018- January 5 2019 is a year already since the abduction of Southern Camerouns Pro independence activists. He said “those abducted by alleged Nigerian secret security and deported, in violation of the international law of non-refoulement include Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe,  Dr Cornelius Kwanga Barr. Shufai Blaise Berinyuy,  Tassang Wilfred, Dr Kimeng Henry, Dr Nfor Ngala Nfor,  Dr Fidelis Ndeh Che,Dr Ogork Ntui,  Professor Awasum Augustine,  Barr. Eyambe Elias and Dr Ojong Okongork.

He recalled that amidst world outcries, the deportees were held incommunicado for 9 months before making their first public appearance at the Yaounde military court in December 2018. “Some of their conditions include the unconditional release of all Southern Cameroonians held in prisons, withdrawal of French Cameroon military and civil administrators from Southern Cameroons, and a neutral ground for negotiations in the presence of a third party notably the UN, USA, UK among others”.

Their next court appearance in the military court is scheduled for January 10th 2019. Given insight to the crises in Cameroun since 2016, Abinda said “The silence of the United Nations(UN) the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West  African States (ECOWAS) and the powers that be, to ensure the rights of the people of the British Southern Cameroons is respected is what gradually degenerated into the crisis happening in Cameroon since 2016.”

He maintained that in the wake of all these experiences, Southern Cameroonians, have continued to pursue diplomacy and legal action for the UN resolution 1608 of 1961 that granted their independence be respected. Abinda added that since November 2017, there has been continuous influx of Southern Cameroons refugees into Nigeria, with the figure now standing at over 150,000 though the number registered under the UNHCR is still far below 50,000. “They are found in about 14 refugee settlements in Cross River, Benue and Taraba, Ogun, Lagos, Nassarawa, state and Abuja. More keep coming into Nigeria as the war that was declared by Paul Biya on November 30th 2017 continues with worsened Humanitarian situations’ He  further revealed  that the Interim Government of Southern Cameroons with the appellation “The Federal Republic of Ambazonia” had extended a hand for the negotiations to end the war.

Source: Leadership.ng

Cameroon army said on Sunday it had killed two armed separatist commanders in Southwest, one of the war-torn English-speaking regions of the country.

“The ‘general Obi’, whose group terrorized the populations of the localities of Mamfe, Okoyong, Bachuo Ntai, Bachuo Akaegbe, and Nchemba was neutralized early morning of January 6, 2019,” the army said in a statement.

The operation conducted by Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), also neutralized “general Eyong”, one of the separatist commanders, according to the army.

“Their camp was destroyed and some weapons recovered or destroyed,” the army said. Locals interviewed by Xinhua said “several” other separatist fighters and government forces were killed during the attack.

The army raids came about a week after Cameroon President Paul Biya warned during end-of-year address to the nation that the armed separatists would be “neutralized” if they did not drop their weapons and “follow the right track.”

Clashes between government forces and armed separatist groups has been going on since November 2017 after the separatists declared the independence of a nation called “Ambazonia” in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

According to the United Nations, more than 430,000 Cameroonians have been displaced internally and at least 30,000 others have fled to neighboring Nigeria since the conflict started.

Xinhuanet

Nigeria’s foremost human rights lawyer Femi Falana SAN has dragged the government of Cameroon to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, The Gambia over the impending trial of 47 asylum seekers and naturalised Nigerians.

The lawyer wants the commission’s urgent intervention to end “the ongoing human rights violations of the applicants who were forcibly returned to Cameroon by the Nigerian authorities.” Falana is asking “the Chairperson and the Bureau to urgently hold an extra-ordinary session of the African Commission to address the illegal and unfair return of 47 refugees and asylum seekers, and the continuing violations of the rights of the returnees by the government of Cameroon.

“We also urge the Chairperson of the Commission to speak out strongly and condemn the unfair treatment of the returnees by the government of Cameroon, and request the government to immediately release them from unlawful detention.”

The petition read in part: “Cameroon has ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. At the request of the Government of Cameroon the Nigerian authorities illegally and unfairly returned 47 refugees and asylum seekers to Cameroon on Friday, January 26, 2018. The returnees are mostly leaders of the people of Southern Cameroon and who have been living in Nigeria with their families for years.”

“Some of them have been granted political asylum while others were asylum seekers in Nigeria. On Saturday, 7th January 2018, the Applicants assembled to meet in Abuja to discuss the problems being encountered by several Cameroonian asylum seekers in Nigeria but before the commencement of the meeting security personnel from Nigeria arrested the Applicants and took them to an underground detention centre in a military barracks in Abuja.”

“While the Applicants were detained in Nigeria, they were denied access to their family members, friends, lawyers and doctors. However, the representative of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees was allowed to visit the Applicants.”

“When the Applicants’ lawyers received information of the plan to deport them to Cameroon, they rushed to the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the illegal plan. The Applicants also reached out to the Comptroller-General of Immigration, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria.”

“As soon as the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria confirmed the information it dispatched a letter to the government of Nigeria pointing out that Nigeria has a legal obligation under international law not to deport the detained Cameroonians.”

“But in a demonstration of reckless impunity, the government of Cameroon pressured the Nigerian authorities to hand over the refugees. They were handed over to the Cameroonian security forces who forcefully took them away from Nigeria on Friday, January 26, 2018.”

“On account of the illegality of the deportation, the government of Nigeria could not announce that the refugees had been expelled from Nigeria but the Government of Cameroon decided to celebrate the deportation and threatened to prosecute the deportees for terrorism. We submitted a letter to the Office of the High Commissioner of Cameroon to Nigeria in Abuja to request for access to the Applicants who are currently held incommunicado in Cameroon. The request has to date not been granted by Cameroon.”

“Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon. Hence, the deportation was carried out outside the ambit of the extradition laws of Nigeria and Cameroon and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”

“In removing the Applicants from Nigeria, the government of Cameroon breached the human rights of the Applicants to enter Nigeria, reside, seek and obtain asylum guaranteed by Article 12 (3) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The government of Cameroon also breached article 12 (4) of the African Charter, which provides that every individual shall have the right, when persecuted to seek and obtain asylum in other countries in accordance with the laws of those countries and international conventions.”

“Apart from the violation of the African Charter, the government of Cameroon breached its legal obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention on Refugees and which have guaranteed the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Nigeria to protection.”

“The Applicants are the leaders of the movement agitating for the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia from Cameroon. In 2002, the Applicants filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja to determine whether the people of Southern Cameroon were not entitled to self-determination within their clearly defined territory separate from the Republic of Cameroon. The government of Nigeria decided to settle the case out of court.”

“By a consent judgment delivered by the Court on March 5, 2002, the government of Nigeria agreed to file a suit at the International Court of Justice to have a judicial confirmation of the human right of the people of Southern Cameroon to self-determination. The government of Nigeria also undertook to take other measures as may be necessary to place the case of the people of Southern Cameroon for self-determination before the United Nations General Assembly and other international organizations.”

“The Applicants are not soldiers, but civilians. Even though they are not military men, the government of Cameroon has decided to try them before a military tribunal. The military tribunal to try the Applicants has since been constituted by the government of Cameroon.”

“Upon the arrival of the Applicants in Cameroon and without any investigation whatsoever, the government of Cameroon announced that they would be tried for terrorism. The Applicants have been detained illegally from January –November, 2018.”

“The Applicants have since been arraigned for terrorism before a military tribunal specially constituted for the purpose of persecuting them even though they have never engaged in terrorist activities in Cameroon.”

“The trial of the Applicants is scheduled to commence in Cameroon on January 10, 2019 whereas their lawyers who are based in Nigeria have been denied access to them and the opportunity to defend them.”

“It is the case of the Applicants that they had left Cameroon with their families and have been living in Nigeria where that had applied for asylum. Thus, by removing them from Nigeria the government of Cameroon has separated the Applicants from their family members who have been left behind in Nigeria.”

Source: NAN