The dilapidated delivery room at a small health centre in northern Cameroon is without power and adjoins an abandoned toilet.

The beds, meant to receive young mothers, are stained and unusable.

“We lack everything: staff, drugs, beds,” explains Paul Korke, the supervisor at the centre in this ramshackle border village.

The clinic has just two state-sponsored medics to care for the 30 to 50 women and children who use the centre each day, some residents and other refugees who have fled violence in the neighbouring Central African Republic.

Poverty and underdevelopment in this poor corner of Cameroon affects refugees and residents alike.

For this reason, the World Bank, supported by UNHCR, is providing targeted support for these underdeveloped regions hosting refugees to improve basic social services and infrastructure, and by extending social safety nets to the most vulnerable refugees and local residents.

The bank’s International Development Association (IDA) last month approved US$274 million in targeted funding to help the most vulnerable have access to health care, education and “social safety nets”.

The package includes a $130 million grant. The country is the first to benefit from $2 billion in dedicated funding provided by the IDA to support low-income countries hosting large numbers of refugees.

“The only thing I can do is to write a new page every day on the blackboard.”

“These resources are critical to supporting the government in bringing adequate services to refugees and their host communities,” said Elisabeth Huybens, World Bank country director for Cameroon.

“Most refugees live side-by-side with Cameroonians in the regions that are already the poorest and most fragile of Cameroon, including the area subject to Boko Haram attacks.”

The funding will go to four projects, with the first disbursements due by the end of the year.  It will go towards improving health centres, providing new equipment, and funding and training for staff, as well as money for schools to improve the quality and quantity of teachers, among other things, desperately needed in mixed communities such as Mbiti in the Kette municipality in which refugees represent half of the overall population.

A few steps from the border village’s strained medical centre is the overcrowded primary school. There are 872 pupils, mostly refugee children, studying a total of four classes.

One of the teachers, Florian, leads a mixed class of 172 pupils, with few teaching materials: “We have no books for the kids,” he says. “So, the only thing I can do is to write a new page every day on the blackboard.”

Development funds are particularly needed in the Central African country, which has played a key role in welcoming refugees from various crises and conflicts in the volatile region in recent years which have slipped from the headlines.

Paradoxically, at the height of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria and the CAR displacement, the arrival of humanitarian workers in Cameroon offered these poor regions, including communities like Mbiti, a second wind. As they have dropped from public attention, donors gradually pulled out and funding to assist refugees grew scarce.

“The needs are enormous, especially in terms of education and health.”

In 2017, UNHCR received only seven per cent of the money needed to assist the most vulnerable, a shortfall that has affected essential programmes such as the clinic and primary school in Mbiti.

“Before, we received 40,000 CFA francs per month (60 euros). But since 2018, this has reduced to 35,000 (53 euros) and we just learnt that it will be further cut to 22,000 CFA francs (33 euros)”, says Florian, highlighting their dwindling resources.

The needs of the mixed communities of refugees and residents persist, but there is no hope that the humanitarian funds will return to the regions in greatest need, says Kouassi Etien, UNHCR’s representative in Cameroon.

“It is unlikely that we will succeed in obtaining the kind of funding we had at the height of the emergency. Yet these populations, refugees and Cameroonians alike, need support,” Etien says, stressing the important role of projects like that announced by the World Bank. “Emergency must make way for development for all.”

The programme has yet to disburse funds to the areas most in need in the north and east of the country. At the local level, authorities have high expectations, among them Michel Nada, the mayor of Ngoura, a village a few miles from the border with CAR, which has received large numbers of refugees in the past four years.

“Many of them have settled in camps, but the majority has been welcomed into local communities” he says. “Today, the needs are enormous, especially in terms of education and health.”

“We are expecting a lot of this dedicated support which should help improve the living conditions of all our fellow citizens, refugees and Cameroonians.”

Source: The UN Refugee Agency

Source: RFI

The PM on June 20, 2018 gave details on the strategy and how the money will be raised to restore a conducive environment for the socio-economic development of the affected areas.

People and structures affected in one way or the other by the close to two-year socio-political crisis raging on in the North West and South West Regions will receive multifaceted assistance from an Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan put in place by government with instructions from the Head of State, Paul Biya. Prime Minister Head of Government, Philemon Yang, launched the Contingency Plan in Yaounde yesterday June 20, 2018 in a ceremony at the Cabinet Meeting Hall of the Star Building hugely attended by Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and some elite of the restive regions.

Setting The Base

The Head of Government used the launching ceremony to remind the attendees of the atrocities committed thus far by terrorists since the second quarter of 2016 when legitimate concerns on the functioning of the Common Law System and the English System of Education were hijacked by lawbreakers to wreak havoc on the population and government structures. Prime Minister Yang notably highlighted the attacks on security forces, administrative and traditional authorities as well as acts of arson that have left far-reaching consequences on the population. For instance, he said as at June 11, 2018, some 123 attacks had been perpetuated on security officers causing 84 deaths, cases of arson on some 120 schools in the North West and South West Regions as well as some 15 attacks on traditional rulers. Cases of children being forced into the terrorists forces, racketeering, looting, rape and gruesome killing of citizens by the terrorists, the PM said, were regrettable and could not leave the Head of State indifferent.  This as it created a serious humanitarian crisis that today requires substantial resources to guarantee a promising future for the affected population.

Telling Statistics

The Prime Minister disclosed that so far, the two regions have registered over 74,966 internally displaced persons from the crisis. 8,554 for the North West and 66,412 for the South West. He said children who could not brave the odds in the regions took refuge in others to pursue education thanks to which they successfully sat end-of-course and year examinations.

Priority Areas of the Emergency Plan

QIt emerged from the Head of Government’s presentation that priority will be given to the protection of displaced persons, healthcare, education, the resumption of economic and agricultural activities and housing among others. Restoring a conducive environment favourable to the return to normalcy of the socio-economic development of the affected areas, promotion of social cohesion and living together, he added, will be given due consideration. Mr Yang disclosed that emphasis will be given to the rehabilitation of health structures either destroyed or abandoned likewise school edifices that equally suffered the same fate before the resumption of the next academic year. Meanwhile, farm inputs will be dished out to the affected population to boost agro-pastoral activities which have been the mainstay of the affected population.

The Funds And Sources

The Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan, the Head of Government said, needs FCFA 12,716,500,000 to attain set objectives. The money, he added, will come from the State budget, call for national and international solidarity as well as assistance from development partners. An Ad Hoc Committee placed under the Minister of Territorial Administration will pilot the plan to fruition. The Prime Minister will flag off the fundraising in Yaounde this June 21, 2018.

Talking points on the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan for the North West and South West regions

1. The socio-political crisis in the North West and South West Regions started with some concerns raised by some lawyers and teachers of English expression in the two Regions.

2. The Government has been taking measures to dialogue with representatives of the two socioprofessional groups. Two Ad Hoc Committees were created to this effect in November 2016, on the instruction of the Head of State.

3. The Head of State took important measures to respond to the concerns raised by the teachers and lawyers of English expression. The Head of State has provided more than what was requested.

4. Representatives of the teachers’ trade unions have continued to dialogue with the Government.

5. The President of the Republic went further and created the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism (NCPBM) which is currently at work.

6. Terrorists have transformed such legitimate concerns into an opportunity to create terror in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

7. Acts of terrorism are directed on schools, economic activities, security forces, and administrative and traditional authorities.

8. These acts of terror have resulted in the death of many security officials: 84 deaths have been recorded.

9. The Head of State is working to restore peace and security in the two Regions in line with the laws and regulations in force.

10. Terrorist activities have led to internal displacement of some people, while others have sought refuge in foreign neigbouring and friendly country.

11. Under the authority of the President of the Republic, the Government is responding to the problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and wishes to increase support measures in collaboration with its partners and people of good will.

12. In the face of these challenges, the Head of State has instructed the putting in place of the Emmergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan for the North West and South West Regions, placed under the supervision of the Minister of Territorial Administration, with a budget of 12.7 billion CFAF.

13. The call for solidarity and generosity to finance this humanitarian plan is not new to Cameroonians. A similar show of solidarity and generosity was recorded in the case of the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram

14. The following areas have been identified as priority: protection of displaced persons, food and basic needs, healthcare, education, the resumption of the economic and agricultural activities, housing, and the reconstitution of individual administrative documents.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

Hundreds of Cameroonians have been stranded in Kumba since Saturday (June 16) because of road blocks erected by secessionists, on the main road to the troubled Southwest region’s capital city, Buea.

The Kumba – Buea axis is a major trading route for cocoa from Kumba to the Buea hub. It is also a route frequented by many travellers.

What began in late 2016 as a peaceful movement calling for greater representation of the mostly French-speaking country’s Anglophone minority, morphed into conflict after a heavy-handed government response, in which troops shot at civilians from helicopter gunships and burned villages.

The army denies such accusations but authorities say a crackdown is necessary to restore peace and curb banditry, describing it as an anti-terrorist operation.

The unrest in the oil- and cocoa-producing southwest and northwest regions often involves hit-and-run attacks by insurgents targeting the army.

Residents of the region say their lives have been disrupted, while travellers are now stranded due to road blocks and repeated attacks.

“I am totally living in fear, because most of their machines (military tanks) that are passing (by the road) I have never seen them, I have never. This is my first time for seeing the types of guns they are moving with it so am in fear.

So when they are passing with those guns like that to me I just know that death is by the corner, and it’s difficult for me even to move and to look for something to eat. So where I stay I just like a prison yard. I cannot move. Am here just because, because of the transport issue without that I could have sat at home,” said Peter Agbor, a traveller.

“I have been here for 5 days. All this has really hindered my journey because am going to spend like some few days with my aunt in Buea before going back to where am from, like to help to raise income for my studies next year.

So it has really hindered me because I have not been able to reach Buea till today. We came here on Saturday and we are still here. We were told the roads were to be open yesterday but since there is still a barrier on the road we can’t go,” said Juliette Musongo, another traveller.

Clashes between insurgents fighting for a breakaway republic in Cameroon’s Anglophone region and security forces, have killed scores of people and displaced tens of thousands more since the conflict intensified late last year.

Insurgents have abducted and killed soldiers and policemen in hit-and-run guerrilla raids.
The government issued a report on Wednesday (June 20) saying Armed separatists in English-speaking regions of Cameroon have killed over 80 soldiers and police since their insurgency began in September last year.

Source: Africa News

This was part of the resolutions adopted at the meeting held last Saturday, June 16 in Yaoundé grouping all the Chiefs and elites of the region who have all taken up residence in French Cameroun. The meeting was also an opportunity for the leaders to denounce what they describe as “the manipulation of young people through social networks.”

Hate-inducing publications, especially made by the diaspora, push young people towards radicalization, abuse and, above all, endanger their lives by provoking armed confrontations with security forces. ”

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of His Excellency Victor Arrey-Nkongho Mengot, Minister of Special Duties responsible for the Presidency of the Republic and Patron of the Elements of Manyu Cultural and Development Association, MECDA.

In the Communique of the Chiefs and Elites of Manyu the pro Biya comedians stated there was need for:

Reminder of past initiatives undertaken to encourage peace and a return to normalcy in the Manyu locality:

-Make a campaign to educate and raise awareness about the benefits of education and economic activities in the community;

-Create political exchange forums that can attract a large number of participation.

-To establish direct contacts and exchanges with local professional socio-economic groups and cultural groups

-Municipal meetings with the population of 4 localities,

-Missions of appeasement in the region.

-Regret deep delocalisation of economic activities and disruption of associative life in Manyu

-Condemn killings, kidnap for ransom and destruction of public and private properties in the region

– Firmly denounce the manipulation of young people by hateful publications on social networks urging radicalization, drug abuse and arousing armed confrontations with security forces

-Fight against the nascent culture of hate speech that puts young people in total discord.

-Encourage our refugee brothers to return home.

Notes with satisfaction that eventhough school operations continued to be disrupted in some parts of the region, the effective attendance of GCE 2018 exam candidates has reached the laudable rate of 94%

Therefore

-Send an olive branch to our youth who took up arms and urged them to drop the weapons and return to their respective communities.

-Invite our youth to contribute to the creation of a favorable environment for the construction of Mamfe-Akwaya and Bakebe-Menji-Dschang Roads.

– Call to the Head of State, President Paul Biya, to consider convening a major dialogue to discuss urgent issues of national interest.

– Appeal to the Head of State, President Paul Biya, in promoting the spirit of national reconciliation, show clemency towards the prisoners arrested during this Anglophone Crisis.

– Call to the Head of State, President Paul Biya, to plan the implementation of an urgent plan for rebuilding the villages and other infrastructures destroyed during the Anglophone Crisis.

Appeals to the Head of State, President Paul Biya, to consider the urgent creation of a special rehabilitation and a reintegration fund to assist the return of displaced persons from their respective communities and to facilitate the resumption of their normal lives through agricultural and economic activities.

And finally

To reaffirm our unwavering support to the Head of State President Paul Biya and the Republican Institutions he embodies.

This report was sent to us from Yaounde by an anonymous source and was published unedited

The Cameroon government has put its security forces on alert as violence intensifies in the Southern Zone with Ambazonian fighters blocking the main highway linking Fako to Meme County. Over the week end, Southern Cameroons militants were in battles with the Cameroon army. The Cameroon government claimed the armed separatists were staging attacks against government positions in Ekona and Muea.

We gathered that several government troops were killed and another 16 were injured during gun battles at Mbalangi.  Cameroon government troops created a security cordon around the city of Buea on Sunday and moved in on Monday in an apparent attempt to trap Ambazonian Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces operating in the capital city.

Unconfirmed reports from the Akwaya and Ndian areas say Southern Cameroons fighters have seized official buildings and many fear violence will escalate as the government continues its military crackdown. The Ambazonian conflict has been spreading from the rural areas into the urban centers as the Biya Francophone government put its troops in Buea and in Douala on high alert on Monday, citing concerns about the escalating violence and deteriorating security situation in Southern Cameroons.

The move came after Ambazonian militants staged attacks in Muea some few meters away from Buea. There are concerns that Fako could be the next county to fall to Ambazonia Self-Defense forces after Manyu, Lebialem and Ndian.

By Sama Ernest in Muea

Cameroon has accused Amnesty International of disseminating “crude lies” after it said security forces had committed summary killings, arrests and property destruction to try to crush a separatist insurgency.

The report “is stuffed with crude lies, hasty deductions (and) slanderous, unacceptable manoeuvering, which are part of a strategy of harassment and destabilisation of our country in its fight against the terrorist threat,” Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said.

The government “rejects this supposed report with the greatest firmness,” he said in a statement received on Friday.

In a 37-page report, Amnesty said it had catalogued “unlawful killings, destruction of private property, arbitrary arrests and torture” by the security forces in two restive regions of the West African country.

The unrest is unfolding in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, home to most of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, which account for about a fifth of a population of 22 million.

Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the country’s French-speaking majority culminated in protests in October and November 2016, which escalated in the face of a government refusal to make concessions.

In late 2017, violence surged after radicals declared an independent state — an entity named Ambazonia that has not been recognised internationally — and launched an armed campaign, which met with a crackdown.

Amnesty said it had conducted interviews with more than 150 victims of, or eyewitnesses to, violence committed either by the security forces or by separatists.

While accusing government forces of abuses, it also said separatists had killed “at least” 44 members of the security forces, and also targeted ordinary people, including traditional chiefs, whom they suspected to be informants.

Source: Timeslive

What started as a joke some eighteen months ago has finally become a hot potato on the government’s hands. For many decades, Southern Cameroonians have been complaining about marginalization with a view to seeking a peaceful resolution of the issues facing them. But the Yaounde government has been ignoring them, holding that the country’s minority could be easily brought under control.

Despite numerous letters to the country’s president, Paul Biya, for more than three decades, the situation has never been the subject of any discussion in Yaounde. Mr. Biya and his government have never considered the Southern Cameroons question as an issue that can threaten national security and integration.

Mr. Biya and his bunch of ministers are used to looking down on their citizens and they hold that paying attention to all the memos on Southern Cameroonians issues will be dignifying a bunch of people who are just second-class citizens.

They simply did not get it right. They failed to understand that those who make peaceful change impossible, only make violent change inevitable and this is what is happening today in Cameroon. The refusal to listen to the plea of the people of Southern Cameroons has finally exposed the government and made the country ungovernable.

The issue that started way back in the late 70s finally got to a head in October 2016 when Southern Cameroonian lawyers and teachers who had thought that they had explored all peaceful means to address the issues raised decide to call for strikes across the region. They thought it was time to use strikes as weapons to bring the government to the negotiating table.

But the Yaounde government was not in the mood to talk peace. Despite the peaceful means used by lawyers and teachers, the Yaounde government resorted to its legendary brutality as a way of striking fear into the minds of a people who were already sick and tired of their situation. Things were compounded by reckless statements by irresponsible government officials such Laurent Esso, Issa Tchiroma and Fame Ndongo.

Statements by these officials only served as fuel for an already burning house. The anger of the people of Southern Cameroons had flared up and it reached its apex when videos of Buea University students being tortured by soldiers and dragged through raw sewage went viral on social media.

Since the conflict started, the Yaounde government has made one mistake after another. In January 2017, it arrested and jailed Southern Cameroonian leaders who had called for a federal system that would guarantee that the people take ownership of their own development projects.

Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and Mr. Mancho Bibixy were captured and hastily taken to Yaounde in the belief that the population’s anger would be doused. This only inflamed Southern Cameroonians, and things actually took a turn for the worse.

To ensure that its atrocities in the region were not captured on video, the government cut off Internet and other communication systems. In the process, many businesses were killed and the unemployment rate in the region reached alarming rates. Silicon Mountain, a hub for many start-ups in the South West regional headquarters of Buea, was put out of business. The disconnection of the Internet created many Internet refugees and ever since, Silicon Mountain has become a thing of the past.

Rather than seek to appease a people who have been hurting for decades, the Yaounde government proceeded to employing tricks in the hope that it will come out of the conflict victorious. After more than six months in jail for no crime committed, Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and others were released, while Mr. Mancho Bibixy was left in jail. He was later convicted of many flimsy crimes, including terrorism.

Once the leaders were released in 2017, the ruling party’s propaganda immediately kicked in. It portrayed the releases as an act of magnanimity on the president’s part. But the tricks of the past could no longer work the miracles they had produced in the past. The people were sick and tired of the government’s manipulation and trickery. Southern Cameroonians no longer want to have anything to do with their unfortunate past. The calls for federalism had developed into independence and secession.

On September 22, 2017, Southern Cameroonians surprised the entire world by staging a show of force. Thousands of Southern Cameroonians took to the streets with peace plants, calling for the total liberation of their land. The world was taken aback and the Southern Cameroonian crisis finally made its way into the global arena.

On October 1, 2017, Southern Cameroonians came out en masse to declare their independence and this met stiff resistance from the Yaounde government. Many innocent Southern Cameroonians were sent to an early grave and this changed the dynamics. Southern Cameroonians were full of rage and revenge was in the air. That was how the killing of soldiers started. Arms were purchased and shipped to Southern Cameroons without the Yaounde government noticing anything, as its ministers were busy embezzling whatever little money was still in the state’s coffers.

Instead of seeking to address the issues, the government hastily brought out its 1996 constitution and brandished it to the international community, advising that the decentralization policy would be rushed so as to address many of the issues raised by Southern Cameroonians.

But for many, the government was once more trying to close the barn when the horse had already bolted. The country’s decentralization policy was supposed to have been operational since 1996, but the government decided to shelve it for decades. To many people, the 1996 constitution clearly belongs to the past.

Southern Cameroonians have moved on. To them, an independent Southern Cameroons wherein the people must play a critical role in the management of state affairs is their focus. But the Yaounde government felt such a scheme would not work out in its territory.

In January 2018, Mr. Biya declared war on Southern Cameroonians, calling them terrorists. He followed this up by arresting Southern Cameroonian leaders in Nigeria and shipping them to Yaounde where they have been held incommunicado for months in total defiance of international law.

With the Southern Cameroonian president, Julius Ayuk Tabe, in jail, the government felt it had cut the “snake’s head.” But it was mistaken. The Southern Cameroons crisis is a hydra. It develops a new head each time the old one is cut off.  With this new mentality, the floodgates for the killings on both sides had been thrown wide open.  

From January 2018 to June 2018, more than one thousand civilians have been killed, 75 villages burnt, and more than four hundred soldiers killed by Southern Cameroonian fighters who claim they are defending themselves against a government that is incapable of protecting its own people.

The fighting is currently going on and the killing is still ongoing. Cameroon, once an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, has finally become a massive killing field. The two English-speaking regions are awash with arms. The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is living up to its word. It had promised to destabilize Cameroon and the country has been caught up in a downward spiral.

The Diaspora is still pouring weapons into the country and this is giving the pool of willing fighters on the ground, a reason to fight to a bitter end. The Diaspora has the capacity to reduce Cameroon to a small unstable nation. Many Southern Cameroonians are living abroad because of the marginalization that the government had orchestrated against them and, today, the government is being hoist in its own petards. The pouring of weapons in the region has reduced the country’s army into a boys scout team. The pressure of the fighters is being felt even in Yaounde. The Diaspora is finally punishing the Yaounde government.  

Their decision to ridicule the Yaounde government is a sort of punishment to the irresponsible Yaounde government for having put Southern Cameroonians through tough emotional, economic and financial times. And the punishment is actually producing the desired results. The Yaounde regime is losing sleep. Its language is gradually changing.

The once banned federalism is now being considered by government insiders such as Fame Ndongo as a way out of the crisis that has put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Fame Ndongo has discovered that the “two cubes of sugar” will not be melting anytime soon. He is already eating his own words. But he seems to be talking to a wall. Southern Cameroonians are not listening. Their minds are somewhere else.

Southern Cameroonians are no longer looking at federalism. They have already crossed the threshold of independence and they will not be staging any possible return to their former demands. A lot of blood has flowed. Beti soldiers have killed innocent Southern Cameroonians. Since they are a no-match for the tough and determined Southern Cameroonian fighters, they always vent their frustration on a population that is already facing tough economic times.

Lot of homes have been destroyed and there is revenge in the air. This is going to make any dialogue challenging. Southern Cameroonians want dialogue too. But they want dialogue that will only enable them to discuss divorce issues.

To step up the pressure on the government, the kidnappings have been stepped up. Many Yaounde government collaborators are being kidnapped on a daily basis by Southern Cameroonian fighters and this is spreading fear among the country’s French-speaking population. Southern Cameroonians have invented green jails. Senior police and administrative officers have been taken to these jails.

The police commissioner of Muea, a small town located some three kilometers from Buea, is currently trying out the effectiveness of the new green jails. He has been critical of the freedom fighters and this will surely complicate matters for him. The government is permanently on edge.

Gun fire is a constant presence in many towns in the English-speaking regions and many residents of the area have migrated to the bushes to avoid government brutality that comes each time a soldier is killed. Despite government actions, the population is with the fighters and it is not yet tired of running.

The people of Southern Cameroons have become real athletes. Running now comes very easily to many Southern Cameroonians. Even the old and sick have learned how to run and live in the tough conditions that the forests are offering.

But despite the protection the forests do offer, many vulnerable people have lost their lives in the bushes due to illnesses and lack of proper medication. This is only fuelling the anger in the region and this will work against any efforts to bring peace to the region. Federalism is an idea whose time has passed. Southern Cameroonians are no longer looking in the same direction like their East Cameroonian counterparts.

But the rebellion is also consuming its own people. There have been some summary executions by the Southern Cameroonian fighters which are gradually becoming a cause for concern. Last week, Ayuk Marshall, a Mamfe Council Worker, was gunned down point blank in front of his home in Ndekwai, a small village located some two kilometers from the city of Ossing.

It was alleged that he was collaborating with Yaounde government agents. But many people at home and abroad are questioning the wisdom behind the killing of fellow Southern Cameroonians when East Cameroonians are being kidnapped and released on a daily basis.  

Many argue that the fighters may start losing support if they do not exercise restraint in their punishment of perceived traitors. Many Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora are calling on the fighters to provide evidence that makes some of those killed guilty as charged. Southern Cameroons is not and will never be a territory where the power of the gun will prevail.

Some of those killed could have simply been taken to the green jails where they should be given a fair trial. That is how justice should work. Killing fellow Southern Cameroonians may ruin the unity of purpose that has kept Southern Cameroonians together ever since the revolution started.

In the city of Ossing, a few citizens were promptly rounded up and given a public flogging for helping the Yaounde government. Ossing has been quiet ever since the struggle started and this has been thanks to the city’s chief, General James Tataw Tabe-Orock, who is a retired military general.

The flogging of Ossing citizens is creating a lot of controversy and even city officials disapprove of such acts. They have decided to take this up with the interim government and they are calling on Dr. Samuel Sako and his cabinet to provide a formal explanation for such acts which might ruin the people’s collective effort.

The victims of the public flogging are already making up their bags to quit the city as they consider the flogging a foretaste of what might soon happen to them if care is not taken. Their family members are already accusing the fighters of running an Islamic state where public floggings are an essential part of such a state.

The southern Cameroons crisis is gradually taking a turn for the worst. The Yaounde government needs to come out boldly to acknowledge its mistakes in this drama that has already consumed thousands of people. No trick will solve the crisis. An apology to Southern Cameroonians and amnesty to all Southern Cameroonians living abroad might de-escalate the situation and create the right climate for any inclusive dialogue.

Without dialogue, there will never be elections in that part of the country. Southern Cameroonians have clearly manifested their anger. No bullying or trickery will distract them from their objective. They know what they want and they will stop at nothing when it comes to achieving that goal.

Today, Southern Cameroons is ruled by the Interim Government from the United States and not the incompetent Yaounde government that has proven that brutality is the only language it understands. It is never too late. The government must step up to the plate to provide the right leadership that this situation requires. Its confusing responses will never address the matter.

Cameroon will never be the same again. That is a message the Yaounde government is yet to understand, but it must understand it if it wants peace to return to that region of the continent. Southern Cameroonians have crossed the Rubicon and they are not ready to make any giant steps backwards. The government must shake off its confusion and accept the reality on the ground. It will never win this war. The Diaspora is a huge factor and it will continue to play its role until the Yaounde government collapses.

By Kingsley Betek in Manyu

This item is still developing and Kingsley Betek is en route to Ossing and Ndekwai to investigate

A soldier was killed in an attack in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking Northwest Region on Saturday, local sources said.

The soldier was “ambushed” while on patrol with another service member, who was not harmed, near the town of Furu-Awa in the Menchum department, a regional source told AFP.

Violence occurs almost daily in the Northwest and Southwest Regions between government forces and English-speaking separatists, who are fighting for greater autonomy.

For years, resentment built among anglophones, who make up about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 22 million, fostered by perceived marginalisation at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

The crisis escalated last October after the declaration of the self-described “Republic of Ambazonia” in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, causing scores of deaths and prompting tens of thousands to flee their homes.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, at least 120 civilians and 43 security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN says 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.

Source: AFP