The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has announced plans to boost Ambazonia intelligence services and also to improve cooperation among all self defense groups defending the homeland against French Cameroun aggression and occupation.

“The Interim Government has decided to invest in the newly created Intelligence Department within the framework of strengthening communication among all self defense groups in Ground Zero” the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dabney Yerima said on Thursday during a presentation to members of the Ambazonia Southern Cameroons Pillars in the United Kingdom (ASCAP UK).

Yerima informed the Southern Cameroons UK think tank that there was an urgent need for Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora to support the Interim Government’s efforts geared at intelligence gathering and sharing among Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Ground Zero. He also praised ASCAP for their generous donations to Ambazonian refugees and detainees both in Nigeria and in French Cameroun.   

Vice President Yerima pointed out that the creation of an intelligence department by the Interim Government increases the will of Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces to work together in the face of French Cameroun army onslaught.

“The leader of the Ambazonian nation, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe made it very clear to the French Cameroun government recently that the people of Southern Cameroons do not want French Cameroun soldiers on their soil, and our response as an exiled government is the creation of an intelligence department” Dabney Yerima added.

Yerima also said the intelligence department envisages boosting communication among all Ambazonia Restoration Forces and he furthered that soon and very soon French Cameroun leaders will realize that the solution to Yaounde’s security and economic problems is through negotiation with the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, and not through military deployment.

By Isong Asu in London

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government says Ambazonia Restoration Forces in the Manyu County have hinted the Manyu Liberation Council that it is still early to make public the French Cameroun connection behind the killing Mayor Ashu Ojong Prisley of the Mamfe Rural Council. The Interim Government statement also noted that there will be consequences if it is proven that the French Cameroun civil administrator and the commander of the French Cameroun army in Manyu have been involved.

“The Manyu Liberation Council has been working behind the scenes on this matter and it is too early to make any conclusion regarding the assassination of Mayor Ashu” Secretary Tabenyang Brado informed the Ambazonia war cabinet late yesterday.

The Southern Cameroons Secretary of the Economy noted that “If the Manyu Liberation Council concludes that French Cameroun security apparatus have been involved, they will announce it to the people of Southern Cameroons, and there will be of course unimaginable consequences.”

A fortnight ago, Secretary Tabenyang Brado gave all Manyu French Cameroun surrogates including Chief Tabetando and Minister Victor Mengot a deadline to state their case as regards to the Eshobi incident that led to the killing of the mayor of Mamfe.

On Thursday, Southern Cameroons Vice President assured the cabinet that the Manyu Liberation Council will soon complete its work and will determine and announce at an appropriate time, the French Cameroun agents behind the action that killed Mayor Ashu Prisley.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has told a cream of Ambazonian elites in Germany and Holland that professional scamming and unhealthy politics in the war of liberation in Southern Cameroons has reached extraordinary levels.

“The war in Southern Cameroons has entered a crucial phase! 32,500 Southern Cameroonians killed, 550 Southern Cameroons villages burnt, 125,000 refugees, 1.4million IDPs and 3,000 still detained, yet some so-called front line leaders are feeding Ambazonians with fake draft reports that has reached unprecedented levels, bearing my name and that of Samuel Atem who died four years ago and Mami Epale in Kake-Kumba” Dabney Yerima said in an address to a high-level zoom meeting grouping prominent Southern Cameroonians in Western Europe.

The draft for war sent out by the disgraced former leader who misappropriated funds donated by the people of Southern Cameroons via the scheme My Trip To Buea revealed that Pastor Ikome Sako has now banked the following amount into his IG account:

1. Manyu County                                65,000

2. Bui County                                      45,500

3. Ngoh Kentunjia County                82,975

4. Kupe Muanenguba                         87,195

5. Fako County                                  120,860

6. Mezam County                              420,437

7. Lebialem County                          267,810

8. Momo County                               645,774

9. Donga Mantung County             150,000

10. Ndian County                              114,555

Total                                           $2,000,106

                                           (XAF 1,000,053,000)

Vice President Yerima noted that this shameful and disgusting action is a cheap and primitive design to give Ambazonians the impression that there are two rival seats of power in Southern Cameroons, namely the internationally-recognized Ambazonia Interim Government headed by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and another group based in Maryland USA known as the Sako-IG.

In the past couple of days, frustrated Southern Cameroonians passing for Sako supporters and  con-men noted for their hunger and poverty in the US and French Cameroun have pushed for the draft for war agenda on social media while ignoring the sufferings of the Ambazonian people.

All attempts to bring about unity among smaller Southern Cameroons groups by the Ambazonia Interim Government have so far failed.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In western Cameroon, hundreds of single mothers protested this week against the cultural practice of forced marriage. The women, who say their parents forced them into early marriage, called on authorities to help end the practice, saying it too often ends in broken families.

Twenty-year-old single mother Metombemb Aicha has been leading protests against the forced marriage of teenage girls in western Cameroon. 

Around the towns of Foumbot and Foumban, parents often force their girls to marry early, believing that tying the knot after the age of 14 brings the family bad luck.  

Aicha says their protests at local palaces and in public urged Cameroonian authorities to put a stop to the cultural practice.   

Aicha says most of the 300 people protesting were 14 years old when they were forced to marry men they did not know. She says some single mothers among the protesters decided to leave their homes with their babies after their husbands brought home other wives. Parents should allow young girls to choose their husbands, says Aicha, to stop the pain that forced marriages are inflicting.  

Aicha formed the group Noun Sisters to support single mothers who leave these marriages and to push for an end to the tradition, practiced among Cameroon’s Muslims and in villages. The group says the girls should be allowed to go to school. 

The protests were sparked when a widowed, 17-year-old mother was last week being forced to marry her dead husband’s brother.  

The marriage was called off after the demonstrations.  

But local officials say they should protect cultural practices of their forefathers, including forced, early marriage.

Foumbat palace official Ousmanou Mefirou says early marriage ensures that girls are married with their dignity as virgins. According to cultural norms, if a girl is a virgin, the groom’s family gives her family more gifts as a so-called bride price. Her parents are also praised as model members of the community.

Mefirou says their tradition holds firm that a girl has no say on whom her husband should be. He says when a girl is 14, her father contacts the parents of a potential husband and they discuss the possibility and date for the marriage. Tradition also holds that a man who sees a girl he wants to marry should inform his parents, says Mefirou, not the girl.

But Cameroon’s district-level officials say they oppose forced, early marriage. 

Foumban district official Julien Gael Kono says the government is bent on eradicating such harmful traditions.

He says forced marriages are rampant all over Cameroon but, more concerning in the west of the country. He says in these mainly Muslim communities, there are misconceptions that boys should make their choices while girls stay at home to prepare for early marriage. Since they are finding it difficult to convince people that boys and girls should be treated equally, says Kono, they will start punishing those who abuse their rights.

Cameroonian authorities say six out of 10 girls in these communities are forced to marry before the age of 16. Last year, Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics, citing the U.N., said nearly one-third of girls were married before their 18th birthday.

But in eight out of 10 of the forced marriages, the wives end up leaving their husbands before turning 18.  

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima has defended a statement made public yesterday by his office on the lockdown reportedly announced on Ground Zero saying French Cameroun and their Southern Cameroons surrogates will not succeed in undermining the majority following of the Ambazonia Interim Government by spreading lies.

In this week’s Amba cabinet briefing, the exiled leader rejected the lies and rumors concocted in Yaoundé and recently spread about the Ambazonia policy of lockdown unveiled by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe after the declaration of independence.

Yerima observed that by announcing a Lockdown which was to start this Friday 10 July 2020, French Cameroun agents knew they were walking on broken bottles. The VP also pointed out that the Ambazonia Interim Government has established a transparent roadmap for getting Southern Cameroonians to Buea via the Amba Bonds scheme and a principled guideline for Ambazonia Restoration Forces which will go operational throughout the homeland.

Comrade Dabney Yerima said the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is expected to emerge as Africa’s leading democracy and economic power after the war of liberation with French Cameroun.

Yerima dismissed as lies the information that spoke of a lockdown in Ambazonia beginning today circulating in pro French Cameroun media houses which was announced by a fake group sponsored by French Cameroun’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji.

By Chi Prudence Asong

An unknown Southern Cameroons group says its homemade bombs have hit targets in Yaoundé, following warnings that retaliatory attacks would hit deep in French Cameroun territory if the Biya Francophone regime did not stop its aggression against Ambazonians.

A spokesman for Southern Cameroons’s Restoration Forces said in a statement that Ambazonian Self Defense groups have not conducted any operation inside French Cameroun. But an audio aired in pidgin said that Ambazonian fighters used locally made bombs in the Yaoundé operation.

The audio also emphasized that legitimate retaliatory attacks would continue as long as the Biya Francophone regime pressed ahead with their war in Southern Cameroons and that Ambazonia fighters will continue to target French Cameroun military installations that are spearheading the aggression against the people of Southern Cameroons.

On July 1, 2020, French Cameroun’s Lieutenant Colonel Anaba was shot by unknown gunmen in Besongabang, a village some 3 km from Mamfe the chief town in Manyu County where there is a military barracks while he was celebrating his promotion.  Lieutenant Colonel Anaba is currently in Douala where he is fighting for life in a military hospital.

French Cameroun and its leader Paul Biya launched a devastating war on Southern Cameroons four years ago in an attempt to subdue an uprising that is clamouring for an independent state known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The UN estimates that the war has claimed more than 3,000 lives over the past four years.

By Isong Asu in London

INTERIM GOVERNMENT OF AMBAZONIA STATEMENT:  THERE IS NO LOCKDOWN FROM 10 JULY 2020

Fellow Ambazonians,

Today, Wednesday, 8 July 2020, the Interim Government of Ambazonia was inundated with calls and enquiries from Ground Zero and the diaspora regarding a Lockdown starting Friday 10 July 2020.

After consulting with other frontline movements of our struggle, your Interim Government is hereby stating that these rumours are inaccurate and unfounded.

As a government, the safety and security of our people in Ground Zero is our utmost priority and your Interim Government would consult with our self-defence heroes before making public notices of national significance.

These rumours are speculative and must be disregarded. Daily business and community activities within the territory of Ambazonia should proceed with vigilance and without interruption.

Our self-defence forces are called upon to perform their duty of protecting our people and their properties dutifully.

We have committed to getting our freedom and independence. At the core of our current challenges, let us remember that solidarity and integrity must be our companions in this journey.

May God bless you all.

Thank You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia