Today marks one week since prominent Cameroonian human rights lawyer, Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, was thrown behind bars on bogus charges of inciting terrorism. He should be released immediately.

Gendarmes arrested Amungwa on May 31 at the Groupement Territorial de la Gendarmerie in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, while he was assisting a client. According to Amungwa’s lawyers, after Amungwa complained that Cameroon’s criminal procedure had been breached in his client’s case, the gendarme in charge of the investigation seized Amungwa’s phone without a warrant, claiming Amungwa had taken photographs at the facility. While searching for the alleged photographs, the gendarme found other photographs that recorded alleged military abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and arrested Amungwa, his lawyers said.

Amungwa was transferred to the Service Central des Recherches Judiciaires (SCRJ), at the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’État à la défense, SED) – a detention facility where Human Rights Watch has previously documented repeated resort to incommunicado detention and torture – where he remains detained.

On June 1, Amungwa’s lawyers and the head of the Cameroon bar association visited him in detention and urged his release. Two days later, the Yaoundé military court prosecutor rejected Amungwa’s lawyers’ request for bail and returned the case to the SCRJ for “relevant checks.”

Amungwa, a member of the Cameroon bar association, is one of the lawyers representing Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the jailed leader of the Cameroonian separatist group, the Ambazonia Interim Government, and several other people arrested in connection with the Anglophone crisis.

“Amungwa’s arrest is a direct attack on the legal profession,” Ayukotang Ndep Nkongho, one of Amungwa’s lawyers, told me. “His arbitrary detention reveals a system geared towards stifling and undermining the role and activities of lawyers involved in key human rights cases.”

Amungwa’s detention takes place amidst a broader crackdown in Cameroon on opposition and dissent. He is one of dozens of government critics, human rights defenders, and journalists arrested in recent years.

Possessing photographs that provide evidence of abuses in the English-speaking regions is not a crime, far less an act to incite terrorism. Cameroonian authorities should immediately release Amungwa and ensure both his due process rights and his role and privileges as a lawyer are respected.

Source: Human Rights Watch

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Secretary Blinken’s announcement today that the United States will impose visa restrictions on individuals who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

“For nearly four years, the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon have experienced one of most neglected human tragedies on the African continent. Countless atrocities and grave human suffering continue without much notice or intervention from the rest of the world,” said Ranking Member Risch. “I’m glad the United States is taking more definitive action against those undermining a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, and is acting on the Senate’s call for targeted sanctions in a bipartisan resolution that I introduced. Today’s action is a good first step to increasing accountability for those undermining peace in Cameroon.”

On January 1, 2021, the Senate agreed, by unanimous consent, to a bipartisan resolution introduced by Ranking Member Risch regarding the Anglophone crisis (S.Res.684). A key provision in the resolution urged the United States government to consider imposing targeted sanctions on individual government and separatist leaders responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima says the people of Ambazonia are now stronger than ever as the resistance sails through its fourth year.

“Several French Cameroun cabinet ministers said that Biya and French Cameroun have won the war against our nation. I tell you my people, I do not know of any resistance that has been predicted as much as the Southern Cameroons to collapse,” Yerima said on Thursday during a cabinet meeting.

“Biya, Mukete, Achidi, Fru Ndi, Ngolle Ngolle, Mengot, Fame Ndongo, Issa Tchiroma, Philemon Yang from the very beginning of the struggle said that the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia uprising would not last for a month.”

“Recently, a certain Paul Atanga Nji said the same thing claiming that French Cameroun head of state Paul Biya has won the war against Ambazonia Restoration Forces. But by the Grace of the Almighty God our struggle and your Ambazonia Interim Government not only have not collapse but have become stronger” Yerima said.

Vice President Yerima told members of the war cabinet that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Ambazonia Interim Government will not surrender but rather continue the trip to Buea by overcoming all France and French Cameroun obstacles.

The War in Ambazonia has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria.Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

By Isong Asu in London

A leading Southern Cameroons academic has opined that Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the popular Interim Government are winning the French Cameroun war currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe in a conversation with Cameroon Concord News Group stressed that soon and very soon, La Republique du Cameroun and its ruling CPDM losers will be running to speak to the jailed leaders in Yaoundé.

The Southern Cameroons veteran and front line leader analyzed the situation in Ground Zero, where French Cameroun army soldiers have killed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian, children, men and women, murdered in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia.

Carlson Anyangwe noted that the Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. “Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress” Anyangwe added.

Professor Anyangwe pointed out that the corrupt French Cameroun leader launched the offensive against the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on the assumption that it would bring an easy victory to him and guarantee his continued stay in power in La Republique du Cameroun.

“I think the Southern Cameroons war has become a public relations debacle, as the French Cameroun ruling CPDM crime syndicate is not only publicly brutalizing a desperate and impoverished people but also demonstrating that with support, the French Cameroun military is still incapable of defeating an ill-equip Ambazonia Restoration Force despite millions of Euros and French military hardware.”

On a lighter note, the renowned academic furthered that “Building Churches in French Cameroun with blood money and covid-19 funds does not guarantee any true Southern Cameroonian a place in Heaven.”

By Asu Vera Eyere

THE UNLAWFUL ARREST OF BARRISTER AMUNGWA TANYI NICODEMUS

On Monday, 31 May 2021, Barrister Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, a lead lawyer for our Leaders in Detention, was arrested while supporting a client in Yaoundé. He is a devoted Human Rights Lawyer whose courage, professionalism and expertise have made life difficult for the regime in Yaoundé.

Barrister Amungwa’s detention on phoney charges is unlawful and violates basic norms expected of any legitimate government. He is being detained at the Service Central des RecherchesJudiciaires (SCRJ) in Yaoundé, despite a request from the head of French Cameroun’s Bar Association, Mrs Atangana Bikouna Claire, for his speedy release. Accordingly, the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia condemns his detention robustly and calls on the government of La Republique to Cameroun to release him without delay.

French Cameroun’s unacceptable harassment of members of the legal profession and media must stop. This week marks the first anniversary of the brutal murder of journalist Samuel Wazizi in French Cameroun military custody. We maintain that the regime in Yaoundé has a fierce desire to restrain journalists and lawyers. The detention of Barrister Amungwa validates that claim.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is today notifying international media organizations and the diplomatic community about the unlawful detention of Barrister Amungwa and the continuous harassment of legal practitioners by the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé. We appeal to all diplomatic missions in French Cameroun to denounce the detention of Barrister Amungwa and call for his immediate release.  

The life of every Ambazonian matters, and the safety and security of our people is our foremost concern. The people of Ambazonia face a brutal enemy with no respect for life, human rights, the rule of law and international norms. The Interim Government of Ambazonia will regularly make updates on this critical issue public.

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Southern Cameroons Interim Government

Prime Minister Dion Ngute’s chief of staff, Balungeli Confiance Ebune is expected to appear before the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé next week.

The Balungeli Confiance Ebune hearing comes after those of many other collaborators of Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, the so-called Anglophone Prime Minister and Head of Government.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Balungeli Confiance Ebune instructed the Minister of Public Health to award a juicy contract for the supply of three million rapid tests equipment to the company Mediline Medical Cameroon SA.

He will be interrogated along with Cameroon government ministers cited in a report on the fight against covid-19.

In an explosive revelation now known in Cameroon as Covidgate, the audit chamber of the Supreme Court recently identified 30 cases of fraud.

The report also exposed numerous dysfunctions and embezzlements in the management of anti-Covid 19 funds, involving cabinet ministers and other senior officials of the Biya regime.  

For instance, the Ministry of Research and Innovation announced that it had the capacity to produce 5 million chloroquine tablets and 5 million Azythromycin tablets locally. But the report from the Chamber of Accounts at the Supreme Court revealed that these drugs cost the state more than 4 billion CFA francs and their production was in fact carried out by an Indian manufacturer.

The Indian made drugs were simply packaged upon arrival in Cameroon. The CPDM crime manoeuvre is seen as a strategy that led to the embezzlement of more than 5 billion CFA francs from the state coffers.  

The audit chamber of the Supreme Court also reported that the acquisition of personal protective equipment was budgeted at nearly 3 billion CFA francs but the deal was done at more than 23 billion CFA francs-an overrun of 20 billion CFA francs.

The purchase of anti-Covid 19 tests at astronomical prices made the state lose some 15 billion FCFA.

The publication of the report has caused indignation and excitement in the country. In reaction, René Emmanuel Sadi, the Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, acknowledged that investigations are underway, but called for respect for the presumption of innocence.

By Fon Lawrence

A year ago, the disappearance of a Southern Cameroonian journalist Samuel Wazizi was revealed to the world. The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé promised to conduct an independent investigation and to get to the bottom of matter. The Cameroon government also told the world that severe sanctions will be dished out against the guilty. One year later, nothing is being said about Samuel Wazizi.

Journalist Wazizi was arrested in Buea, the chief city in the South West and according to Reporters Without Borders, he was held incommunicado by Cameroon’s defense and security forces and he died as a result of torture and ill-treatment. The case generated an international outcry and strong condemnation.

The Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé revealed that Wazizi was suspected of helping separatists fighters.  Samuel Ebuwe Ajiekia, alias “Samuel Wazizi” was then placed in custody at the 21st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (BRIM), on 7 August 2019.

The journalist was transferred to the Secretariat of State for Defense (Sed) which is the headquarters of the national gendarmerie in Yaoundé.

The then head of communications at the Ministry of Defense, Cyrille Serge Atonfack told a news conference in Yaoundé that “Having been subjected to atrocious torture, Wazizi appeared exhausted and was treated at the Yaoundé military hospital.”

Mr Cyrille Serge Atonfack added that the journalist died as a result of “Severe Sepsis.” But the government’s version was not convincing and consequently, pressure mounted from the civil society.

Human Rights Watch demanded an independent investigation and the 88-year-old President Biya granted that request. But one year has come, passed and gone and there are still no culprits and no open trial.

Cameroon Concord News understands Wazizi’s family is waiting to mourn the loss of their son. Biya and his criminal gang have also said that Wazizi’s body was kept in the morgue at the Ekounou military hospital in the 4th district of Yaoundé. But as we write, no family member has seen his remains.

By Rita Akana