Ambazonia Restoration Forces have stormed the residence of the mayor of Wum and that of his dad and set both on fire, according to Cameroon Concord News sources in Menchum Division.

Cameroon government soldiers reportedly fired on some of the Amba fighters at the residence in Naikom Overside before fleeing.  The Francophone army soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have clashed repeatedly with Ambazonia fighters in recent days in Wum the chief town in Menchum Division.

Clashes erupted when a soldier serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion was killed in the unrest that has rocked Southern Cameroons since 2016.

Hours after several Aghem people gathered outside the residence of Chef Anang Zacharias, a renowned gendarmerie officer in Wum who transitioned into the eternal glory on 6 October 2022, eyewitnesses reported that the residence of Mayor Dighambong Anthony Mvo and that of his late father were on fire and that Amba fighters, some wielding firearms ordered people to leave Naikom Overside.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that Cameroon government army soldiers fled from the mayor’s residence after shooting at the Amba fighters, according to a report which was filed from Wum. Many of the Ambazonia fighters who raided mayor Dighambong’s residence were heavily armed.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

The talks on seeking possible solutions to the Southern Cameroons crisis which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Cameroons have come to an end in Canada; a country which has been seeking to help find peaceful solutions to the fighting that has ruined the economies of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

The talks, which are a continuation of previous talks, enabled the various factions to agree on the need to pursue a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis.

The factions were also made to understand that nobody ever wins a war and that the key objective should be winning the peace that many people are looking forward to both in Cameroon and abroad.

According to our source which elected anonymity, the meeting organizers urged all the factions to embrace peace and to understand that they have to walk away from their original positions if anything meaningful has to be achieved.

From every indication, most participants are leaning towards a Canadian-style federal system which will grant the regions extensive powers to run their own affairs while the federal government will focus on matters related to foreign policy, armed forces and natural resources.

This year’s talks have been held under tight security and participants have been sworn to secrecy to ensure that there are no leaks which may jeopardize efforts at finding peaceful resolutions to the crisis which has already run for six years.

Since starting in 2016, the crisis has resulted in the death of some ten thousand Cameroonians, including both soldiers and civilians and, from every indication, the end is not in sight as both parties continue to hold that a military solution is possible.

Unlike previous talks, last week’s talks received the blessing of the Yaounde government which has shown clear signs of fatigue and is looking forward to an end to the bleeding and a return to normalcy.

The crisis has robbed the government of vital development resources and the existence of many armed groups and criminals in the two English-speaking regions of the country makes it hard for real development projects to be implemented.

Over the last two years, armed groups and criminals have resorted to kidnapping for ransom, with government forces sometimes implicated in some of the criminality which is blighting the lives of innocent civilians who have nowhere to go to.

Recently, five priests and some civilians were kidnapped in Nchang, a locality some five kilometers from Mamfe town which is the chief town of Manyu Division in the South West Region and the kidnappers have requested USD 100,000; an amount the Catholic Church has said it does not have.

 It should also be underscored that for more than five years, schools in rural parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country have remained closed and separatist fighters have been threatening teachers and students with death if they are seen in any of the government-owned schools.

By Chi Prudence Asong in Toronto

Cameroon government troops have opened fire in Naikom Overside, a popular neighborhood in Wum, the chief town in Menchum Division killing several people, believed to be civilians, eyewitnesses say.

The shooting came after a soldier was killed by Ambazonia fighters late yesterday.

Wum has been under the control of Amba fighters seeking to restore the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Eyewitnesses in Wum said soldiers began to indiscriminately open fire on residents and set fire to homes and businesses.

Our correspondent in Wum said the Francophone soldiers that came after their colleague was killed harassed residents and whipped them. But later they went on a shooting spree and started setting homes and shops on fire.

A Naikom Overside resident said the soldiers shot everybody in sight.

The number of people killed or injured in the incident has not yet been verified independently.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Wum

A senior aide to the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dr Patrick Ayuk has condemned unlawful presence of Francophone army soldiers in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, calling for an immediate end to such presence.

According to the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Cooperation (SCBC), Dr Patrick Ayuk made the remark recently in South Africa, saying, “The unlawful presence of Francophone servicemen and women in Southern Cameroons must end immediately and unconditionally.”

“The 1961 plebiscite,” the Vice President Dabney Yerima aide added, “does not mean occupying British Southern Cameroons land and killing its people.”

The Francophone dominated Cameroon government military have been actively involved in Southern Cameroons under the guise of fighting separatists since 2017. Yaoundé extended its troops’ presence last month through a decree signed by the 89 year old President Biya.

Numerous reports and international human rights organizations have pointed to Yaoundé’s role in the genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

The Biya regime has stationed forces and equipment in almost every county in Southern Cameroons with Etoudi claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing Amba fighters from taken control of the entire Southern Cameroons territory. The Ambazonia Interim Government, however, asserts that the deployment is aimed at plundering Southern Cameroons rich resources.

By Toto Roland Motuba

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima has called on the Francophone dominated military to stop the war in Southern Cameroons by ousting the 89 year-old President Paul Biya as head of state and allowing the two Cameroons to hold genuine dialogue.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader said once Biya is removed from office, the army should get a moderate and decent French Cameroun political figure to lead a temporary administration on a strictly time-limited basis in Yaoundé with the aim of holding very intensive and productive discussions with the jailed Ambazonian leaders.

Dabney Yerima made it clear that Biya is now an X Factor and French Cameroonians were badly in need of a caretaker government in Yaoundé. Yerima furthered that Biya is not the person who is going to be able to build an even temporal structure that can accommodate the two Cameroons.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said he will offer talks with Yaoundé if Biya is kicked out.  “If French Cameroonians are serious about stopping the war in Southern Cameroons, then their military will have to get Biya out” Yerima concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At least six separatist fighters have been killed in clashes with government forces in Cameroon’s war-torn English-speaking region of Northwest, security sources said on Sunday.

They were killed after the army raided their camp in Djotin of the region on Saturday, a military official in the region who asked not to be named said.

Three fighters were captured alive and ammunition was seized during the operation, the official added.

Northwest is one of the two English-speaking regions of the Central African country where separatists have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in an attempt to establish an independent state they called “Federal Republic of Ambazonia”.

Source: Xinhuanet

 The Liberian Immigration Service has handed over 11 Nigerian stowaways, rescued on the high sea to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The 11 Nigerians and a Cameroonian, aged between 24-40 years, were flown into the country Thursday, aboard Asky airline at about 4 pm and handed over to Comptroller Immigration, MMIA, Mrs Adeola Adesokan, by the leader of the Liberian Immigration officers, Captain Mark Weaye.

The stowaways were said to have entered the basement of a cargo ship named Ophelia Panama, at Tin Can Island port in Apapa, Lagos, on the 7th of September, believing the ship was heading straight to Europe.

After some days, the stowaways said they ran out of food and to avoid starving to death, they presented themselves to the crew of the ship, who physically tortured and threw them into the sea after spraying them with chemicals.

Two of the 13 stowaways were reported to have died in the process, while the surviving 11 sustained various degrees of injuries and were rescued by Liberian fishermen and handed to their Immigration service.

Three of the stowaways narrated their ordeal:

“When the ship was moving after four days our food was finished and so we wanted help from the crew. Unfortunately, the crew started spraying us with chemicals which were burning our skins while demanding us to jump into the high seas.”

While receiving the stowaways, the Comptroller of Immigration Service, MMIA, Lagos, Mrs Adeola Adesokan, thanked the Liberian government and officers of the Liberian Immigration service for rescuing the stowaways, describing the act as a noble and diplomatic gesture.

After proper profiling, she said they would be released to the appropriate authority.

“Their story is very harrowing, very pitiable, there was hot water flushing, thrown into the high sea and left to destiny”.

“On behalf of the Controller General, Isah Jere Idris, we want to thank the Commander General of immigration for Liberia for their kind gesture”.

The names of the stowaways are Seyi Popoola, Precious Uwalogho, Ayetimiyi Kelvin, Stephen Junior, Emmanuel Benjamin, Balogun Gbenga, Temiotan Adewale, Igiebor Stephen, Hamza John, Alfred Ese and Ogechi Chika and one Cameroonian.

Source: The Will Nigeria

Four Cameroon government army soldiers were killed in an attack by Ambazonia fighters on Tuesday in Boyo constituency in the North West region, a resident and two officials hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report.

The office of the Francophone governor in Bamenda said today that Cameroon government troops had repelled an assault on the outskirts of Boyo.  It was the first major Amba attack staged in the North West region since Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero celebrated their independence day on October 1.

The civil administrator statement made no mention of casualties but our informant in Boyo said he saw four corpses.

“Amba fighters fought their way into Boyo and killed four soldiers,” he said.

The Biya administration has been marketing slogans claiming to fortify bilingualism and saying that Amba fighters have been defeated but the latest attack shows Ambazonia fighters continued ability to stage hit-and-run raids.

Yaoundé recently replaced its previous military commander of the fight against Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces and announced the deployment of the so-called Special Forces.  Military sources told Cameroon Intelligence Report that this followed a series of embarrassing attacks by Amba fighters.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In Cameroon, thousands of people are marching to call for peace in the country’s separatist conflict. The daily peace marches, which began on Friday and are slated to continue through Tuesday, come on the third anniversary of talks designed to end the fighting. Marchers say authorities need to do more to return peace to the restive western regions, where fighting has killed about 3,500 people since 2017.

The protesters, a majority of them women, say hardly a day goes by without cases of killings, abduction, rape and torching of public edifices in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Monday’s peace march was organized by a non-governmental organization called Cameroon, Peace and National Unity. Its president, Clementine Mvogo, said the peace march marks the third anniversary of government-organized peace talks called the Major National Dialogue.

“The culture of peace is still very much absent in Cameroon since the holding in Yaounde of a Major National Dialogue from September 30 to October 4 2019. The ongoing peace march in Yaounde is to make the quest for peace a daily struggle of all Cameroonians. All civilians and civil society movements should be concerned about the return of peace to Cameroon,” Mvogo said.

After that dialogue, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya implemented recommendations to give the Northwest and Southwest regions more power, including the creation of regional assemblies and elected regional presidents.

Zacchaeus Bakuma Elango, president of the Southwest regional assembly, said outreach efforts to the armed separatist groups continue.

“We’re doing everything we can to convince them to lay down their arms and come to the negotiation table. We have families who have been displaced, children who have not gone to schools for five years, so what becomes of them? Are we coming up with a generation of semi-illiterates?” said Elango.

Elango said some people have realized that war is not the answer.

“As the years go by, more and more people are beginning to understand that we are in the same country. There were problems and those problems progressively are being addressed and the situation is improving.”

As evidence of that, he notes that tens of thousands of people who fled the fighting have returned to Southwest towns and villages in Manyu, Lebialem, Meme, Ndian, Fako and Koupe Manengouba administrative units. Elango said several hundred schools sealed by fighters in the region have been reopened.

The government says after the dialogue, powers were given to a national commission for the promotion of bilingualism to give equal status to the English and French languages, in order to reduce domination by the French-speaking majority.

David Abouem a Tchoyi, a member of the commission, said the conflict still persists because many separatist leaders refused to take part in the dialogue.

“I regret bitterly that some of our brothers and sisters, especially those who are abroad, couldn’t be part of that jamboree. When I read the recommendations, I saw some of them which could be game changers and I think it is important to note that the head of state said that the recommendations should be implemented according to the means and the capabilities of the state.”

Three years on, the prospects for peace talks remain stalled. Some separatist groups say they are not ready for any dialogue, while others say the talks should be held outside Cameroon. Separatist leaders based in Europe and the United States have expressed concern they will be arrested on charges of terrorism if they come home for peace talks.

Cameroon maintains that the 2019 dialogue was successful and no talks will be organized outside the country.

The stalemate doesn’t bode well for peace in the western regions, and suggests that Yaounde will see more marches like the ones taking place this week.

Source: VOA