A United States Congressional delegation visiting Cameroon has called for unconditional talks between the government and Ambazonian leaders on the country’s separatist conflict.  The two-year struggle, in which Southern Cameroons have fought to separate from La Republique du Cameroun, has killed close to 2,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.  But the Francophone dominated government says it will not engage in any talks with Southern Cameroons that includes the issue of separation from Cameroon.

California Congresswoman Karen Bass told journalists in Cameroon late Monday that the government and Ambazonia Restoration Forces should respect human rights, end all violence, and begin talks on the separatist conflict.

“We especially want to see a peaceful dialogue, a peaceful resolution without conditions.  We want to see all sides come to the table.  We recently passed a resolution in Congress saying this and we wanted to come and see first-hand what is happening in the country,” she said.

Bass made the comments after meeting with refugees and displaced people from the conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions as well as government ministers.

She is leading a seven-member Congressional delegation to Cameroon with a focus on health and human rights issues.

On Tuesday, the U.S. delegation is scheduled to meet with Cameroonian activists and rights groups.

The United States, United Nations, and rights groups have been calling for sincere dialogue between authorities and the rebels to try to resolve the deadly conflict.

Government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says they are not against talks in principle.  But, he stresses that President Paul Biya has made it clear that splitting the country is off the table.

“At a time when Cameroon is resolutely moving towards its emergence, everything must and will be done to preserve peace and stability.  Cameroon is and remains a rule of law,” he said.

International observers and rights groups say Cameroon’s separatist conflict is getting worse by the day.

The United Nations says at least 1,800 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in the two years since fighting began.

Cameroon’s aid workers in June said they feared travel to the region after suspected Amba fighters attacked and burned several truckloads of aid.

Congresswoman Bass says humanitarian needs are increasing in both the English-speaking western regions and in Cameroon’s north, due to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

“We are concerned about humanitarian aid in the far north as well as in the northwest and southwest, making sure that there is access to aid, that the people that provide humanitarian assistance are able to provide that freely and fully to the population,” she said.

The U.S. Congress in a May resolution condemned abuses by Cameroon’s security forces and armed groups.

The abuses included extrajudicial killings and detentions, the use of force against civilians and protestors, and violations of the freedoms of press, expression, and assembly.

The Congressional resolution called on Cameroon’s military and rebels to cease the abuse, use of child soldiers, torture and kidnapping, and attacks on schools and teachers.

Reported by the VOA with additional editing from Camcordnews Group

Cameroon’s minister of communications (Mincom), published a communique. According to the document, On June 25, 2019, individuals claiming to belong to an organisation named “Brigade Antisardinards” decided to ransack a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, to disturb the private visit of Paul and Chantal Biya. On June 29, the group protested in a street in the capital city.

“Due to the recurrence of these baffling and inappropriate acts perpetrated by a part of the Cameroonian diaspora, the government expressed the nation’s indignation and strongly condemned such unacceptable acts that damage Cameroon’s reputation,” M. Sadi wrote.

The ministry reveals that the protesters have been called to order by Switzerland’s public force and are being questioned on the motives that drive Cameroonians “to show the whole world their unpatriotic feelings and prejudice to the country.”

On January 26, 2019, the “Brigade Antisardinards” claimed responsibility for the attacks on Cameroon’s embassies in Paris, France and Berlin, Germany. During those violent acts in Paris, some of them removed Paul Biya’s picture from the wall, destroyed and replaced it with Maurice Kamto’s. The latter is the leader of an opposition party named Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC). MRC, on the other hand, rejected any links to the acts perpetrated by the so-called “Brigade Antisardinards.”

Maurice Kamto is currently being detained and prosecuted for organizing an unauthorized protest in Cameroon on January 26, 2019. He organized this protest to claim victory in the October 7, 2018, presidential election despite the results published by the constitutional council. This institution, last resort in such cases, declared Paul Biya the winner with 71.28% votes against 14.23% for the MRC’s leader.

Source: Business in Cameroon

It has now been revealed that the Swiss initiative in resolving the crisis in Southern Cameroons was a scam. However, the Ambazonia Interim Government and its Vice President Dabney Yerima are yet to establish if the Swiss government was involved in the dodgy process of getting some corrupt Ambazonian leaders in the US to travel to Switzerland for a so-called preparatory peace conference.

Switzerland reportedly appointed itself as a facilitator indicating that there are elements deep within the Swiss government having leverage over French Cameroun. As a facilitator, the Swiss were expected to build some kind of confidence with the people of Southern Cameroons.

Our chief political man observed that the first and obvious confidence measure the Swiss should have built would have been to procure the release of the Ambazonia leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe et al to lead whatever the Swiss say they have offered to facilitate.

It is important to mention here that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and what is now being referred to as the Nera 10 were abducted from a foreign country and are being illegally held in captivity in the French Cameroun capital, Yaoundé.

The shouting silence on the part of the Swiss including the European Union about their continued illegal imprisonment is tantamount to rewarding Biya and his criminal regime for their unlawful conduct.  Vice President Dabney Yerima who made the trip to Geneva but did not take part in the deliberations after very intensive and productive discussions with members of the Ambazonia Interim Government hinted Cameroon Concord News Group’s London Bureau Chief Asu Isong that calling off the unjust and illegal war and release of the Nera 10 must precede any engagement with whoever.

“These are not preconditions. They are a call for French Cameroun to respect international law. How does one engage with a country that has graduated from a police state to a terrorist state?”  Vice President Yerima was quoted as saying during a recent trip to London.

We now have intelligence that the Swiss peace initiative was a diabolic harsh ploy pushed by interest groups with strong ties to the consortium of CPDM criminal syndicates in Yaounde. Three Swiss Traders control 50% of the sale of Cameroonian oil.

The Glencore trader owns 70% of the Rio Del Rey oil in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, an area bordering the Bakassi peninsula, exploitable for 20 years. Contract signed in January 2019. This Glencore has just sold its shares, 75% he held in Matanda gas.

Furthermore, we gathered that Swiss chocolate which is one of the symbols of Switzerland which holds the first place in the world ranking for chocolate consumption ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom with an average annual consumption of 11.9 kilograms per capita in 2011 was also part of this failed Southern Cameroons peace process. French Cameroun President Paul Biya received the Swiss chocolate industry boss a few weeks ago in Yaounde.

By Sama Ernest and Rita Akana

London was decorated in the blue and white colours of Southern Cameroons. It was the Southern Cameroon National Council convention that held on Saturday the 29^th of June 2019. The SCNC Convention in London moved from a very successful Conference earlier in East London to a fundraiser in the Northof town. The sense of pride on the faces of the organisers and attendees was valiant. The chairman of SCNC UK, Mr Robert Tamanji, gave a strong welcome talk honouring Pah Njoh Litumbe, Fon Gorji Dinka and Nfor Ngala Nfor. These greats of the SCNC will never be forgotten he said. For his part, Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who is also moonlighting as the acting Secretary General of SCNC spoke of the SCNC’s role in Southern Cameroon’s quest for freedom and independence through peaceful nonviolence action.

Also at the London SCNC event, was the much respected Hon Wirba Joseph of the Social Democratic Front. Wirba recounted his first meeting with some great SCNC pioneers over thirty years ago. He called on Ambazonians to pay respect to the true and brave heroes of Africa’s newest nation who have shed and continue to shed their blood for the freedom of the homeland. Wirba tempered undue excitement and cautioned that for the Ambazonia struggle to succeed; its foundation has to be based on the truth. Wirba referred to La Republique du Cameroun as the Evil Republic and explained that the actions of La Republique in their brutality over the last three years has left Southern Cameroonians with no choice but to make sure that Ambazonia becomes a reality. He observed that, the statement from French Cameroun President Paul Biya and his gang that Cameroun is one and indivisible remains an inaccurate stereotype.

Joseph Wirba indicted the Southern Cameroons diaspora for the disconnect with Ground Zero. As his audience celebrated his words and energy, he moved another gear into re-counting a series of conversations he had with the disgraced chairman of the Imaginary Restoration Council, Elvis Kometa. “Elvis Kometa called me to say he was under pressure to impeach President Sissiku Ayuk Tabe” he revealed. “I counselled Kometa against the decision and I told him that if the pressure becomes unbearable, he should resign as chairman of this ‘Imaginary Restoration Council’.

Wirba castigated the diaspora for creating imaginary political offices and attaching importance to positions thereby disremembering the reasons for the struggle. He said, in a revolution ‘if the enemy takes a brother or a sister, that person becomes a Saint’. The SCNC delegates were unanimous in their decision that rallying behind the ‘Saints in Kondengui’ as the focal point of the revolution is the only way forward. Calls for Hon Wirba to play a more active role in piloting the revolution were loud and clear. His next move in this struggle is eagerly anticipated.

Asu Isong London

The leader of one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties was released by his captors on Saturday after being abducted by unidentified gunmen in the country’s restive Anglophone region a day earlier, his party said.

Separatist rebels have been battling government forces for nearly two years over perceived marginalization of English speakers by the central African country’s Francophone-dominated government.

John Fru Ndi, who heads the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and finished runner-up to President Paul Biya in the 2011 election, was taken from his home in the city of Bamenda on Friday, the second time in two months he had been kidnapped.

Jean Robert Wafo, an SDF official, said in a statement that Fru Ndi had been released on Saturday evening. He provided no details about who had taken him or where he had been held.

The SDF blamed his previous abduction in April, which lasted a few hours, on Anglophone secessionist rebels. The SDF has criticized Biya, who has served as president since 1982, for his handling of the crisis, but has not endorsed separatist demands for an independent English-speaking state.

The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed about 1,800 people and displaced over 500,000 since 2017.

Reuters

Unidentified gunmen in Cameroon’s Anglophone region kidnapped the leader of one of the country’s leading opposition parties on Friday for the second time in two months, his party said.

Separatist rebels are battling government forces in English-speaking areas of the bilingual central African country, where the Francophone majority has long dominated.

John Fru Ndi, who heads the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and finished runner-up to President Paul Biya in the 2011 election, was seized from his home in the city of Bamenda by gunmen who wounded his bodyguard, an SDF statement said.

Fru Ndi’s current whereabouts were unknown, it said. Fru Ndi, 77, was also abducted in April in the town of Kumbo during a funeral procession and held for a few hours before being released. The SDF said Anglophone secessionist militants took him and tried to convince him to support their cause, though no one claimed responsibility.

The SDF has called for Biya, who has served as president since 1982, to step down in favor of a transitional government than can resolve the conflict.

But the party has not endorsed secession, angering separatists who turned to violence in late 2017 after the government suppressed peaceful protests against the Francophone majority’s alleged marginalization of Anglophones.

The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed about 1,800 people and displaced over 500,000 in less than two years.

Switzerland said on Thursday it had agreed to mediate talks between the two sides, although some of the separatists said they would not speak to the government until it ceased hostilities.

Cameroon’s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between allied French and British victors.

By Haggai Fung Achuo

Switzerland said Friday it had summoned Cameroon’s ambassador over an “unacceptable” attack on a journalist in Geneva by men believed to be part of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s security detail.

“Diplomatic procedures have been launched… Cameroon’s ambassador was summoned in Bern and the foreign ministry informed him that such incidents are unacceptable,” foreign ministry spokesman Georg Farago told AFP in an email. “Freedom of the press is protected and must be respected,” he added.

The ambassador was summoned on Thursday, a day after a journalist with the RTS broadcaster, Adrien Krause, was reportedly assaulted by a group of men outside Geneva’s luxury Intercontinental hotel on Wednesday.

He had been filming a clash between around a dozen demonstrators against Cameroon’s 86-year-old president Paul Biya, who has reportedly been staying at the hotel since Sunday, and men believed to be the president’s security detail, RTS reported.

The likely Cameroonian security agents suddenly attacked Krause, immobilising him and grabbing the bag containing most of his professional equipment, and also took his phone and wallet, it said.

After Geneva’s diplomatic police got involved and Krause filed a complaint over the assault, his property was returned to him.

Neither the Swiss foreign ministry nor Geneva police would confirm the identity of the attackers.

Farago meanwhile rejected reports that Biya’s security staff might enjoy diplomatic immunity.

“The people accompanying the president do not have any particular status and must respect Swiss law,” he said.

“Switzerland recalls that it is very attached to freedom of expression and of the press, and to the respect of the rules in public spaces,” he added.

Wednesday event came a day after some 40 protestors entered the Intercontinental and reportedly scuffled with Biya’s security staff in the lobby.

A large demonstration against Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is also scheduled to take place in Geneva on Saturday.

The country’s embassy in Bern warned earlier this week that Cameroonian nationals living in various European countries were planning a “violent … protest against the presence of the Head of State, His Excellence Paul Biya, in Switzerland.”

“The embassy calls on the Cameroonian community in Switzerland and in neighbouring countries to turn their back on such demonstrations, which for some time have been an expression of hatred, violence and tribalism, which are all contrary to patriotism and love of Cameroon,” it said in a statement.

Source: AFP

Fellow Ambazonians,

I bring you revolutionary greetings.

Following the unfortunate abduction of the Arch Bishop of Bamenda, The Most Reverend Cornelius Fontem Esua, on Tuesday the 25th of June 2019 whilst on a journey from Esu to Bamenda, The Interim Government launched an immediate investigation into the incident. Our immediate findings revealed that a group of unidentified men acting in the area without any authority or connection to our self- defence forces were involved. Upon ascertaining these facts, our self-defence teams were immediately instructed to do everything in their power to get him released.

I’m pleased to announce that this very unfortunate incident has come to an end. The Most Reverend Cornelius Fontem Esua is now safe at home in Bamenda.

I want to bring to your attention a recent statement by the Chairman of the SDF, Ni John Fru Ndi. He pointed to the existence and activity of rogue elements sponsored by La Republique du Cameroun in Ambazonia. The fundamental purpose of this infiltration and illegal activity by our enemy is to illegitimise our struggle in the eyes of the world by carrying out illegal and unlawful activities.

We condemn these illegal and unlawful activities in our country strongly.

We reiterate that it’s our duty to defend ourselves against the brutality of La Republique du Cameroun but your Interim Government condemns all acts of abduction and kidnappings in Ambazonia. All groups and self-defence forces defending life and property in the territory of Ambazonia must guard against any actions that our enemy will exploit to paint us to the outside world in a negative light.

I want to thank our brave self-defence forces for their continuous sacrifices in difficult circumstances. With their determination and God’s Blessings, we shall overcome.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia
Short Live The Revolution
Long Live the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Sincerely,

Milton Taka
Secretary of State
Department of Communication & Information Technology
Interim Government Spokesperson