The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations conducted a survey of Southern Cameroonians from October 16 – 24 to gauge their aspirations on key aspects of their homeland. This survey that drew three thousand seven hundred and forty-nine (3,749) respondents is probably the largest survey of its kind of Southern Cameroonians.  1A similar survey conducted by Cardinal Tumi last year had over 1,000 respondents. Despite the ongoing war, the largest share of survey respondents (38%) was from Cameroon.  The remaining respondents were from the United States (23%), United Kingdom (7%), Nigeria (6%), Germany (4%), Canada (3%), South Africa (3%), United Arab Emirates (3%) and other countries.

The results suggest a strong preference for greater autonomy among Southern Cameroonians.  Eighty six percent (86%) of respondents chose full independence as the best form of state to address root cause of conflict.  Seven percent (7%) chose federation and four percent (4%) selected confederation.  Only one percent (1%) chose Government-sponsored “Special status”.

Eighty percent (80%) of respondents preferred a UN-mandated body as best mediator of the armed conflict. Nine percent (9%) chose the Swiss-led process. Only one percent (1%) of respondents thinks the Government of Cameroon should mediate.

On the legal system, the vast majority (87%) of respondents prefer an independent judicial system based on common law. Another ten percent (10%) chose common law system controlled by central government.

While Anglo-Saxon Educational system was favorable (57%), many Southern Cameroonians would like to see a newly developed educational system (38%). It is worth noting that the latest wave of the Anglophone crisis was sparked by protests by Lawyers and Teachers in 2016.  Lawyers protested against the erosion of the common law in the two English-speaking regions, while Teachers protested against the dilution of the Anglo-Saxon educational system in the same regions.

Most Southern Cameroonians would like to see their Elder Statesmen and women play a more active advisory role to end the armed conflict. Most respondents also prefer their traditional leaders to serve only as custodians of culture and traditions. A sizeable minority are happy for their traditional leaders (chiefs and fons) to play a more active role in local administration, so long as they are exempted from political parties.

On the economy, an overwhelming majority of Southern Cameroonians (95%) rejected the CFA franc as their currency.  On matter of security most respondents (96%) do not approve of Gendarmes as their law enforcement officers. Eighty percent (80%) of them preferred locally instead of centrally controlled police forces.

It is worth noting that these trends are steady across different segments of the population including gender, age groups, and level of education. There was no major difference in results even after adjusting for gender imbalance.

Deeper statistical analysis also showed that the choice of form of state was highly correlated with citizen’s preferences for their ideal system of law and order, economy, and education.  Those who prefer an independent judiciary system, reject the Franc CFA, prefer an Anglo-Saxon educational system, or reject the Gendarmes, also tend to prefer full independence.

These compelling results confirm three things about the ongoing armed conflict: First, negotiations are inevitable to end the war. Second, independence must be part of any negotiations.  It cannot be excluded given its strong appeal among Southern Cameroonians. Finally, to resolve this conflict there must be a truly inclusive dialogue involving the full spectrum of Southern Cameroonian opinion. Cosmetic policies that do not address the root cause(s) and true aspirations of Southern Cameroonians will inevitably fail as we have seen with the recent Grand National Dialogue and evidently the special status proposed as a solution to the armed conflict.

We thank 4Most, a Credit Risk and Analytics Consultancy Firm in London, United Kingdom, for analyzing the data and for presenting their findings.

About the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations

The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations (CDN) is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with the specific goal of facilitating dialogue and negotiations towards ending the war in Southern Cameroons. CDN is made of professionals from all works of life and over 20 partner organizations worldwide advocating for an end to the war. CDN members work with its partners to strengthen international involvement in resolving the conflict and building durable peace in the conflict affected territories.

They fled political imprisonment, torture, rape and the threat of death in Cameroon, made their way to South America then up to the U.S. border to make what they thought would be a clear case for asylum. Now they are awaiting imminent deportation on what their lawyers refer to as “death planes” because of the high likelihood they will be killed by their government upon return.

NBC News reviewed documents submitted in the cases of three Cameroonians who are now facing deportation after their asylum cases proved unsuccessful. They are among more than 1,500 Cameroonians who applied for asylum in the U.S. this year, nearly double the number who applied in fiscal year 2019, despite COVID-19’s downward impact on overall immigration.

The pleas for asylum are growing because conflict between Cameroon’s government and the African nation’s English-speaking minority, known as the Anglophones, has grown in recent years, as has the risk of violence against the Anglophone population. But during the Trump administration the percentage of cases in which Cameroonians win asylum has dropped from 80 to 54. The decline is in large part due to tough immigration judges appointed by the Trump administration and new policies that raise the bar on what it takes to prove and qualify for asylum, according to immigration attorneys and Democratic members of Congress.

“These people are fleeing political persecution. It’s the very reason we have an asylum system in the first place,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who, along with three other Senate Democrats and 81 nonprofit organizations, has asked the Trump administration to halt the deportations of Cameroonians.

“The United States has a moral obligation not to turn our backs on civilians fleeing from conflict. These individuals are targets for both government forces and armed separatist groups. Allowing their deportation under these circumstances would place their lives at risk,” the senators said in a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a 35-year-old Cameroonian named Justice Bantar in ICE detention is figthing to get his case heard by an immigration judge, according to his lawyers. Despite presenting evidence, including photos of scars from being hit on the bottom of his feet, Bantar was not able to make his case in immigration court that returning home was a risk, because an asylum officer did not find he had a “credible fear of persecution” if he were returned, the first bar in establishing asylum.

In a phone interview from ICE detention with NBC News on Oct. 16, Bantar said he was scared for his life and worries he will be detained and killed on his return. His lawyer, Joseph Giardina, submitted photos and sworn affidavits from his friends and family, laying out the story of how Bantar was taken prisoner after he rescued his sister from kidnapping by separatists.

The Trump admin sent him ‘home’ to a land where slavery lives on

The military questioned Bantar about the location of the separatists, beat him and detained him for four days with no food, according to the statements of friends and family. During those four days he was tortured with electric cables and wounded under his feet. He escaped prison with the help of an English-speaking guard, but his family soon decided he should flee the country to save his own life, according to testimony submitted by Giardina on Bantar’s behalf.

But it was not enough to get Bantar in front of an immigration judge. David Leopold, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Bantar’s “statements and supporting affidavits articulate a protected group, e.g. persecution on account of political opinion or membership in a particular social group,” which is needed to establish a case for asylum.

In rejecting asylum for another Cameroonian Anglophone man awaiting deportation from the U.S., the Bureau of Immigration Appeals said he “was apparently not chased” when he escaped the prison where he had been held and tortured for 28 days. The man, who asked for his identity to be withheld from publication, had been arrested by Cameroon’s military on suspicion of hanging anti-government posters. When he escaped, the military went to his house, mistook his cousin for him, and shot and killed his cousin, according to documents he submitted in U.S. immigration court.

“This is stunning,” Leopold said, upon reviewing the case. “He detailed the manner in which he was beaten, indeed tortured; forced to lay on the floor as soldiers hit him with batons and leather ropes.”

“Here it looks like the immigration courts cherrypicked facts to get to a denial,” Leopold added.

The man told NBC News he traveled more than eight months to reach the United States.

“I heard the U.S. is one of the best countries for human rights protection. I was so happy when I arrived that I could be protected. My government said they were going to kill me. I knew if I could come here, I would be protected and my life would be saved.”

Now, facing deportation, he said, “I’m afraid my life will be taken away. It hasn’t been long since they harassed my family because of me. Others who have been deported or gone through the same situation, many of their families don’t even know where they are. I am likely to be killed.”

The man’s lawyer, Ruth Hargrove, said her client would be deported on a “death plane” because of the almost certain execution he would face upon return to Cameroonian authorities. She said there is a warrant out for his arrest in Cameroon.

In a third case reviewed by NBC News, a Cameroonian woman was denied asylum after an immigration judge said her testimony was “very vague.”

“With respect to her injuries after the … incident, the respondent stated that she was hospitalized for eight days. However, she was not able to give the court any specific information about the reason for such a long stay in the hospital, other than she was admitted because she was raped,” said Judge Meredith Tyrakoski.

NBC News previously reported on Cameroonian asylum seekers being pulled off a deportation flight as the Department of Homeland Security investigates allegations that they were forced to sign their deportation papers through intimidation and physical brutality.

The Trump administration recently announced its refugee limit for the upcoming fiscal year will be 15,000, a historic low.

The Departure of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, which oversees immigration courts, did not respond to requests for comment.

Source: NBC News

On October 24, masked armed men killed at least 7 innocent school children and left many wounded in their classrooms in Kumba, in the Anglophone region of Cameroon.

This astonishing crime is not the first in a region where there are concrete risks of a genocide, as the international community is apparently unwilling to take concrete measures. In February 2019, about 12 children and a pregnant woman were massacred in cold blood in Ngarbur.

The Cameroon government initially put the blame on the ‘separatists’ groups; only after pressure from the international community, it acknowledged that the killing had been done by government forces.

Regarding this recent case (the Kumba Massacre), the Cameroon government is accusing the leadership of the Ambazonian self-determination forces for the atrocities, notwithstanding the fact

that the Cameroon government has not provided any proofs and similar accusations in the recent past have always been proved to be fake.

The Ambazonian leadership claims the Kumba Massacre was done by Cameroon government militias. In this situation, trustable international investigations are necessary. We believe that actions should have been taken earlier by the international community to avoid such a heinous crime. As many innocent lives have already been lost, we should aim to putting a permanent end to the conflict.

It is certain that with the ruthlessness of the Cameroon government, the resolve of Southern Cameroons self-determination forces and the nonchalant behavior of the international community, the war will continue, and more massacres and atrocities will take place.

If we really don’t want this to happen again, we should consistently act to favor a peaceful solution. The Cameroon government had and has the primary responsibility to end this war it started. The so-called separatists would have no one to fight if Cameroon calls a ceasefire and accepts negotiations as the separatists have done.

The crisis in the Cameroons has been ongoing since 2016, when lawyers from Anglophone Cameroon were brutalized by government military and security operatives during a peaceful protest in Bamenda, Buea and other cities.

Southern Cameroons leaders in exile in Nigeria were abducted and illegally transferred to Cameroon and subjected to trial in military courts in a foreign language, against international law.

They are today serving life sentences, despite a Nigerian High Court judgement asking for their release. The ongoing conflict in Cameroon may amount to acts of genocide. Some experts already call it as genocide.

This claim should not be underestimated by the international community.

Mr Paul Biya, who has been in power as President of Cameroon since 1982, thanks to wide-scale fraud in elections, violent repression and imposed changes in the Constitution, declared war on the 30th of November 2017 on the people of former British Southern Cameroons.

While the government of Cameroon claims that the conflict in Cameroon is an internal matter, the leadership of Southern Cameroons is of the opinion that it is an international dispute.

We believe that a conflict between two countries that came together in 1961 under the auspices of the United Nations cannot be the internal affair of one of the countries.

We therefore believe that it is the responsibility of the international community to create a framework for both sides to be heard in order to put an end to the conflict between them.

Bringing the two sides to the negotiating table is necessary, but till now the efforts have all failed because Cameroon was and is still unwilling to commit to any genuine, internationally mediated dialogue.

We are suggesting that the international community should use any possible leverage to intervene in this conflict. The lives of people, including children, in the English-speaking part of Cameroon matter. Children have not been protected and have missed out of school for four years.

It is clear to us that Cameroon, which is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, has violated all Commonwealth principles and disrespected Commonwealth of Nations values. The people of Southern Cameroons should be given a platform by the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations to put forth their claims.

We would like to suggest some key points for an urgent commitment by the international community:

An investigation on all the atrocities that have taken place in Southern Cameroons since 2016 should be carried out by independent observers, which should include the African Bar Association and the African Forum for Restorative Justice;

Cameroon should immediately call a ceasefire and an end to the war it declared;

Economic, financial and other sanctions should be placed on Cameroon to force it to accept peaceful negotiations;

Travel restrictions should be imposed on certain Cameroonian state officials whose names are attached to this document;

The UN should send peacekeepers into the Southern Cameroons;

The people of the Southern Cameroons should be given the opportunity at the UN to present their claims;

The rights to self-determination of the people of Southern Cameroons should be respected and their will ascertained through a fair, UN-organized referendum. First signatories

First signatories

Prof. Antonio Stango, President of Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU)

Prof. DJ Omale, President of African Forum for Restorative Justice

Sergio D’Elia, Secretary-General of Hands Off Cain (International League of Parliamentarians and Citizens for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide)

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, inaugurated in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé today (Thursday) the building of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Republic of Cameroon, with the participation of the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cameroon Mbella Mbella.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cameroon was received by the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Abdul Ilah Al-Shuaibi.

In the context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, met at the Presidential Palace, Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

During the meeting, they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two friendly countries and discussed means of developing them in various fields, in addition to discussing issues of common interest.

The meeting was attended by Assistant Minister of State for African Countries Affairs, Ambassador Dr. Sami Al-Saleh, Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the Republic of Cameroon Abdul-Ilah Al-Shuaibi, and Director General of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdul Rahman bin Arkan Al-Daoud.

Source: Alkhaleej

Southern Cameroons Vice President says Ambazonian children detained by the French Cameroun army soldiers are exposed to unbearable torture and various forms of abuse and the practices have apparently been legitimized by the Biya Francophone regime’s judiciary.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said in a conversation with Cameroon Intelligence Report that there are currently 1500 Southern Cameroons children behind bars at Buea, Kumba, New Bell and Kondengui detention centers, and the detainees include Ambazonian children who have nothing to do with the crisis with La Republique du Cameroun.

Comrade Dabney Yerima observed that the Kondengui and New Bell prisons are heavily congested, and Southern Cameroons child prisoners are kept there in close proximity to each other in squalid and unsanitary conditions.

The exiled Ambazonian leader pointed out that if children in other parts of the world were treated like this, it would have attracted wide and strong condemnation from the European Union and the United Nations.

The French Cameroun military court in Yaoundé continues to sentence many Southern Cameroons minors in secret hearings and without any legal representation.

Yerima noted that female detainees are also subjected to horrifying treatment. Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that most of the Southern Cameroonians reportedly being detained were arrested at checkpoints and at their homes in Ground Zero.

According to testimonies collected by some clergies of the Roman Catholic Church, the Ambazonian children were often blindfolded and handcuffed, and were subjected to physical and verbal abuse during their arrest and transportation to Douala and Yaounde. A majority of the kids were arrested at night and deprived of sleep before being interrogated.

By Besong Eunice Nchong

The asylum-seeker from Cameroon said he resisted when guards insisted he sign what he was told were deportation papers. They wanted his fingerprints.

His thumb and index finger were broken in the struggle in September at the Mississippi lockup.

Within days, he and other Cameroonians were transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, a rural town southwest of Dallas. There, he and another Cameroonian are waiting to hear about a complaint filed this month by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom for Immigrants, and others that alleges their civil rights were violated by physical abuse that amounted to torture in Mississippi.

“I’m just trying to hold onto another day,” the man said in a phone interview with The Dallas Morning News. He’s known as C.A. in a civil rights complaint to the Department of Homeland Security. He asked that his name be withheld because he fears more persecution if he’s deported to his birth country.

His story raises questions about what happens to people in the sprawling and secretive civil justice system that governs immigrants.

C.A. and another immigrant detained at Prairieland are among the eight Cameroonians who are part of the complaint.

Source: The Dallas Morning

The international community has come under criticism for its handling of the crisis in Cameroon, where radicals killed eight children last weekend.

Twelve other children were injured when a group of unidentified armed men attacked the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba, in the south-west.

While no group has claimed responsibility of the attack, the region is mired in conflict between the army and militants advocating for self-rule of the English-speaking region.

According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, more than 1 000 students and teachers have been threatened, abducted, injured or killed by armed groups or state security forces in affected regions between 2017 and 2019.

More than 770 000 civilians have been displaced.

Another organisation, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P), said despite escalating violence during 2020, the African Union (AU) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had failed to treat the deadly conflict in Cameroon with the seriousness that it deserved.

GCR2P believes the two organisations should help facilitate a ceasefire and an inclusive dialogue between the government and separatist groups, mediated by a neutral player on neutral territory.

Separatists claim marginalization of English speaking regions by the government, which is dominated by French speakers.

Matthias Naab, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Cameroon, this week denounced the attack is the worst atrocity since the resumption of the school year.

Schools reopened on October 5, seven months after closure because of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Source:  CAJ News

The International Conference on the Armed Conflict in the Southern Cameroons will start today October 30th in the USA.

Though initially planned for March 2020, the COVID pandemic forced the organizers to re-schedule and convert to a virtual event. Cameroon Concord News Group understands that the planning team has been working very hard over the past few months to put together a virtual event that would allow significant deliberation and opportunities to interact with other conference delegates and observers.

The virtual Southern Cameroons Auditorium has also been designed to enable participants engage with others throughout the conference.

Amongst those scheduled to speak during this 3-day Conference are H.E. Dr Amos Sawyer, Ambassador Herman Cohen, Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, Pa Augustine Ndangam, Frontline leaders, Civil Society, German Parliamentarians and French Parliamentarians. International observers will be present including the United States Congress, diplomats, international non-governmental organizations and many more.

Some 700 delegates have so far been approved to participate in Working Groups and through the various Working Groups, delegates will assess, analyze and propose a path out of the conflict that addresses the root causes in a sustainable manner.

There has been a very strong grassroots involvement with ordinary citizens, those internally displaced and refugees participating in the process.

The conference continues to accept 2-minute video statements from Southern Cameroonians with proposals on the way forward. The people of Southern Cameroons are encourage to kindly record a 2-minute video using your cell phone and send to this WhatsApp number: +13126177280