The Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Swiss government are trying to relaunch their stalled mediation efforts for the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, as fighting intensifies there.

The Swiss were part of the Southern Cameroons Retreat that recently held in Toronto, Canada to examine the possiblity of bringing to an end the Southern Cameroons crisis that is in its fifth year and has been spreading death and destruction among the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Toronto meeting organizers included the U.S. State Department, the Vatican, Canada, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Norway, the United Nations, and Greenclee which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the quality of those who attended the meeting inspired hope to Southern Cameroonians all over the globe including those in Ground Zero and Ground 1.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either  internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Isong Asu in London

Supporters of Africa’s second-longest serving leader, Cameroon’s 88-year-old President Paul Biya, are celebrating his 39 years in office November 6. Biya, who has been Cameroon’s president since 1982, is rarely seen in public these days. Meanwhile Biya’s opponents are saying renewed calls for the octogenarian to run for president in 2025 cannot be taken seriously.

Supporters of Cameroon’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, sang that Biya can still rule the central African state for another seven-year term, starting in 2025.

Biya was declared the winner of the country’s 2018 election garnering over 80% of the votes.

The song was sung in towns and villages across Cameroon during celebrations of Biya’s 39 years in office.

One event was held in Monatele, capital of Lekie, a department near Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. Henri Eyebe Ayissi, Cameroon’s state property, survey and land tenure minister, and Biya’s close ally led the CPDM party delegation to Lekie and delivered what he called a special message for Biya supporters.

Ayissi said the CPDM is appealing for a national consensus for Biya to seek a new term in 2025. He said the Lekie Division is making an appeal to Biya to accept the call to run for president in 2025 and continue the good works he is doing for Cameroon.

Ayissi said Biya has maintained unity despite Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria and the separatist crisis that has killed at least 3,000 people in the English-speaking western regions.

Ayissi said several million Cameroonian children have access to education because Biya has built schools and universities in many towns and villages of the central African state.

The call for Biya to run for president again when his current seven-year term ends in 2025 was echoed in several towns and villages, sparking criticism from Biya’s opponents.

Christopher Ndong, secretary general of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement — a party that claims its candidate, Maurice Kamto, won the 2018 election and that Biya stole his victory — Ndong says an invitation for Biya to be a candidate in 2025 means the CPDM wants the octogenarian to die in office.

“It is a slap in the face of Cameroonians and democracy in this country. Given his age, what will he do with power? Right now, he is not active. Honestly, this is a provocation of the first order. Look at the chaos all over the place. The country is in debts. In fact, it shows you that there is nobody at the head. That 2025 call should not be taken seriously because we know the state and health of the head of state cannot permit him to rule this country in 2025,” Ndong said.

Ngole Ngole Elvis, head of the CPDM party academy and Biya’s close aide, says calls for Biya to run are democratic. He says instead of complaining that Biya has been in power for long, the opposition should prepare to democratically vote for who they think should be their president in 2025.

“Wait for the next election and make sure that you prepare for it in such a way that with your freedom, you should have put in place the right campaign strategies, the right campaign messages, the right manifestos, the right candidates,” Elvis said.

Biya served as prime minister for seven years before becoming president. In 2008, he removed term limits from the constitution, allowing him to serve indefinitely.

He is now the second-longest serving leader in sub-Saharan Africa after his neighbor, Thedoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, who has been in power since 1979.

Source: VOA

The turmoil engulfing the so-called Sako-IG has turned to near chaos as its spokesman Chris Anu is now fighting for his survival and relevance after being sidelined in a move teleguided by Irene Ngwa. Many within the Maryland based Southern Cameroons group are considering a mass exodus back to the main Southern Cameroons Interim Government headed by Vice President Dabney Yerima.

Key players in the power struggle at the ABC TV and the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako gang exchanged increasingly harsh words in dueling statements recently, culminating in a bizarre stalemate between Mr Chris Anu and Dr Sako.

The weeks-long Maryland IG battle has split Dr Ikome Sako from his acolyte, Chris Anu. And Mrs Irene Ngwa is now being referred to as a prostitute by senior members of her own group.  In the words of Mr. Chris Anu, Irene Ngwa’s legs are constantly open and all over the place and she is not prepared to give ABC TV a good bill of health.

Ikome Sako is yet to comment on the matter even though he remains the chair of the Maryland cabal that has contributed immensely to weaken the Southern Cameroons resistance.

It is all about money and keeping the ABC TV alive as an anti President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe tool where the likes of Fru John Nsoh go on air to make a mockery of the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders.  Behind Sako’s blue-chip image, there’s a pattern of breakups. But Chris Anu may not survive anymore within that camp.

Sako and his men learned of Mr. Chris Anu’s intentions through an audio message and the disgraced Southern Cameroons frontline leader was quoted as saying that Chris Anu is no longer committed to the Sako IG, its donors, and its stakeholders, he should resign.

Hours after ABC TV went off air for unpaid satellite bills; Mr. Chris Anu blamed it all on Irene Ngwa and Sako. However the two Southern Cameroonians reportedly in a luvie duvie relation have maintained a kind of silence of the lamb.

The conflict at the ABC erupted after the executive wing of the Sako IG blocked a drafting process that was supposed to raise money. It is hard to explain if Sako or Irene Ngwa were aware of the drafting plan as stated by Mr. Chris Anu in his audio message.

From every indication, Southern Cameroonians in the US and Canada are no longer interested in financing the Chris Anu propaganda which has been counterproductive to the Ambazonian struggle.  Chris Anu’s latest audio message and his actions demonstrate a disregard for good governance within the Maryland Ambazonian group and create a grave amount of risk for the Sako IG at an especially sensitive time.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The month of October will forever be remembered in Cameroon not just because it is the month in which the trust territory of Southern Cameroons achieved its independence, but the month in which Cameroon as a nation was plunged into chaos that might never end.

But before the Cameroon Concord News Group delves into the analysis of the chaos playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country, it would like to extend its congratulations to the people of former West Cameroon on the attainment of their independence which was captured by the Yaounde government and transformed into a nightmare that will not be ending anytime soon.

In remembrance of October 1, 1961, the recognized Interim Government’s Vice President, Dabney Yerima, wished the people of Southern Cameroons happy celebrations. He used the occasion to remind the population of the importance of the day, urging the people to protect their territory.

He also used the occasion to congratulate the fighters on the ground on their spectacular victories which have left the country’s military and government with bloodshot eyes.

Over the  last two months, Southern Cameroonian fighters have demonstrated that they are a force to reckon with and their back to back victories over the poorly trained Yaounde government’s military is gradually triggering a tectonic shift in the thinking of the country’s French-speaking majority.

Vice president Yerima also expressed his sympathy with the Southern Cameroonian population regarding the irresponsible and reckless lockdown declared by some members of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora who simply want to remain relevant in a conflict that has exposed their greed and ulterior motives.

Since the commencement of this avoidable conflict, close to 4,000 army soldiers and special forces have been killed in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, with some 3,000 maimed and disabled due to the senseless fighting.

Also speaking to the people of Southern Cameroons on the occasion of their independence was Dr. Ikome Sako of the erstwhile interim government which has lost its popularity and the people’s confidence.

Dressed in a police uniform of the Yaounde crime syndicate, Dr. Ikome Sako, who looked more as a police officer and whose speech problems have been carefully documented, succeeded to thank the fighters on the ground for their brilliant success, urging them to keep the pressure on the beleaguered Yaounde government.

His Yaounde government police uniform has left many in doubt about his loyalty to the people of Southern Cameroons. Many Southern Cameroonians think he is in cahoots with the Yaounde government which has already killed more than 15,000 Southern Cameroonians in a war that lacks a raison d’etre.

Meanwhile, in East Cameroon, the population and government are in fear as Southern Cameroonians peacefully celebrate their much-cherished independence.

The Yaounde government has deployed soldiers in all major cities of the country in fear of what might happen. For over one week now, the country’s uniformed officers have not been having a good night’s sleep as it has been decreed that on October 1 or days preceding the independence day celebrations, Southern Cameroonian fighters might cross the Mungo to wreak havoc in cities in East Cameroon.

The fighters’ ability to manufacture bombs and IEDs has struck fear in the government’s mind. Six months ago, a delegation from China and the United States had trained the fighters to put together IEDs and this is a huge threat to the Yaounde government.

Rumor and fear are spreading in East Cameroon to the effect that large markets and shopping malls will soon come under attack as Southern Cameroons agents have been trained to deliver these deadly weapons to such soft targets in order to mount pressure on the government.

According to a fighter who elected anonymity, a rain of explosions will soon be falling on towns such as Douala, Dschang, Baffoussam and others.

“We will be changing the dynamics in the days ahead. We want to take the war and misery to East Cameroon where the people have been indifferent to the sorry plight of Southern Cameroonians. In Southern Cameroons, we have succeeded to sow fear in the police, soldiers and gendarmes and we want to replicate this in East Cameroon,” the fighter said.

The humiliating defeat of the military in many parts of Southern Cameroons has created mobid fear in the minds of the corrupt government officials who are clearly seeing the writing on the wall.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Paris correspondent on September 30, 2021, at midnight Cameroon time, a senior gendarmarie officer said that for days he had not been sleeping in his house because he, like many officers of his corps, has been deployed in many parts of Douala, especially at the seaport which is heavily guarded because it is believed that Southern Cameroonian fighters might attack the seaport  considered as a den of corruption by many Cameroonians.

“We have not been sleeping for days as the government holds that Southern Cameroonian fighters have a plan to storm the seaport. There is total panic within the military and within government circles. Southern Cameroonian fighters have changed the game. Their use of IEDs to kill soldiers has changed the way Francophones see the conflict,” the senior officier who elected anonymity said.

“Southern Cameroonian fighters have succeeded to instill fear in the government. In the military, many of my colleagues are trembling. The deaths of many colleagues has demoralized the young soldiers and thousands are contemplating quitting the military for good,” he added.

“He highlighted that if the government did not hold out an olive branch sooner rather than later, it might lose everything in Southern Cameroons. The odds are stacked up against the government. The fighting has left the towns and cities of Southern Cameroons for the forest and the roads leading to the towns and the fighters who started out with machetes and hunting rifles are now clearly having an upper hand.”

To make their independence day celebrations more interesting, Southern Cameroonians fighters on September 30  killed some soldiers in kumbo in a humiliating manner, taking with them, the soldiers’ weapons and uniforms.

It should be recalled that  October is not only the month of independence for Southern Cameroons,  but a month wherein the conflict with the Yaounde government started. October 16, 2016, is a day that Southern Cameroonians will always remember as it changed their lives.

Years of marginalization by the government finally resulted in huge demonstrations across the country’s two English-speaking regions, resulting in the killing of many innocent civilians and citizens.

The events of October 2016 shattered Cameroon’s image as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos. Many lives have been lost and ruined and confidence in the Yaounde government has evaporated.

The government has been humiliated and reduced. Its tough approach to the Southern Cameroons crisis has not only hurt the country’s image, it has resulted in a loss of life that is in many minds unpardonable.

The government like the separatists has remained frozen in its position and this is making it a lot more challenging to put an end to this conflict that has clearly hurt the country’s economy.

As Southern Cameroonians celebrate their independence today, they should always remember that the enemy is still strong, very manipulative and dangerous, though it has taken many punches to the liver.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said, “know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.” Although there is a huge appetite among Ambazonians for a muscular approach on French Cameroun airwaves when talking about the atrocities committed in the Southern Cameroons, many have the impression that some who claim to be with them and speak for them in their quest for freedom are dishonest and are enemies within. Historic and current trajectories have inspired this Cameroon Concord News review of Barrister Agbor Ashu, the so-called Ambazonia spokesman in Ground Zero, as a person of interest in relation to Sun’s philosophy and dogma of war.

Over three months ago, Cameroon Concord News Group was dependably informed that prominent Southern Cameroons leaders invited Barrister Agbor Ashu to assume the leadership of the Southern Cameroons struggle in Ground Zero. However, he responded saying, “I am the National President of a legalized political party and will never get myself mixed up in your Ambazonian issues”.

Emmanuel Agbor Ashu (to use his three names) is implicitly a typical “bite and blow” and a serial killer that is deadlier than his onetime acolyte Ni John Fru Ndi the CPDM historical mistake who in utmost naivety, greed and disregard for inalienable rights of a people, openly rejected the Ambazonian ideology and legitimate right to self-determination.

Following the barrister’s refusal to take over leadership of Ground Zero affairs, Cameroon Concord News developed interest in the man of law including his genuine position on the Ambazonia struggle. Our investigation has uncovered a worrying trail of duplicity in the man seen by many as liberator.

Back in September 2018, when Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides who were abducted in Abuja, Nigeria in January 2018, surfaced in SED Yaoundé, the Interim Government of Ambazonia (IG) was eager to commission team of lawyers to defend them in any potential legal proceedings. When contacted to head the legal team of the NERA10, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu requested that the IG pay him FCFA 2.5 billion, buy him a new car, and furnish an office in Douala for him. Sako Ikome was stunned, Chris Anu was speechless, and Elvis Kumeta was astonishingly shocked by the Manyu Barrister’s low sense of judgment.

When the Interim Government informed him that his financial demands were bizarre and outlandishly unaffordable, the man of law replied, “then they can take them to the gallows”. Consequently, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu is one of the few high profile lawyers who elected not to defend the NERA10 in their court appearances in Yaoundé. Genuine revolutionaries and agents of justice and freedom do not abandon their own to the “gallows”. They often graciously embrace any opportunity to rescue those they claim are their comrades from the claws of a brutal oppressor. 

Correspondingly, when the SDF was the only political show in town in the early 90s, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu, Larry Eyong Echaw, and TT Tabenyang reportedly took Chairman John Fru Ndi to Manyu on a political tour. Fru Ndi could not spend an hour in Ewelle village because Barrister Ashu had nowhere to host the visiting SDF delegation.

People are genuinely suspicious of a man who has prostituted from the CPDM to SDF and to his comical Reform Political Party. He has now appointed himself spokesman for the Ambazonia resistance on French Cameroun television networks.  Barrister Emmanuel Ashu is now appearing on national television claiming to have a bright insight and deep understanding of the Ambazonia crisis when his true motive is being a surrogate for the disgraced Sako Ikome, who stole USD 2 million of Ambazonian money.

The Man of Law has pseudo academic intelligence, lacks composure, integrity and is emotionally too erratic. He has a relentless appetite for attention and is only a decent man where money is not involved. Those who happen to know him personally have increasingly defined him as a loose cannon devoid of trustworthiness. His recent defense of the failed two weeks lockdown of Ambazonia with a concealed agenda to increase the pain and sufferings of the people and subsequently spur them to revolt against the movement for the restoration of statehood by alluding to the UN General assembly proceedings in America also reveals Barrister Agbonde (to use his pet name) is out of touch with reality or not intellectually grounded with UN processes and public actions that exert positive influence on UN activities. A lockdown of a street in Maryland led by Ikome Sako would have been more impactful and would have saved Barrister Ashu from embarrassing himself with tantrums on TV just to defend a lie.

Our investigation uncovered that the Barrister has a propensity for asking the right questions and then precisely giving dishonest answers. To put it charitably, the gap between what he says and the truth is alarmingly wide, and this is a trait that has plagued him all his life. His last appearance on a French Cameroun TV claiming that the disgraced Sako Ikome, had control over Ambazonia self-defense forces was an inaccurate stereotype and the Barrister knows that. His numerous appearances on TV have given the barrister the false impression that he speaks for genuine Ambazonians.

Barrister Emmanuel Ashu “owns” a political party in French Cameroun called Reforme Party. The head office of this contraption of a political party is on his poorly conceived social media page. On the party’s Facebook page, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu published that “candidates who wish to be sponsored by the Reforme Party in the municipal and parliamentary elections 2020 in Cameroon, can contact the National President through the following numbers: 699989279, 675005043, 678511482,695969343”

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that over the last twenty years, Barrister Ashu has campaigned during every election in French Cameroun but never ended up on the ballot paper as he constantly sells out to the CPDM. He stood for elections in French Cameroun as recently as 2020 and the same man wants Southern Cameroonians to think that he is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

For Barrister Ashu Agbonde, the Ambazonia struggle represents an opportunity to line his pockets, especially, as, in his view, there’s an irreconcilable mismatch between the money that the Ambazonia Diaspora has and what is being sent to people like him in Ground Zero. The barrister draws comfort from the fact that the disgraced Sako Ikome and other members of the Maryland cabal have taken radically different paths to reality and integrity. The Southern Cameroons uprising has also presented an opportunity for the Barrister to escape poverty even if it means chasing winds and shadows.

 In 2015 our Douala city reporter met Barrister Ashu dressed with an unpardonably tattered shoe, a pair of trousers with countless patches, a dreadful body odour, and looked desperately hungry.  The barrister is undoubtedly another product of the unending poverty culture in the Cameroons, which is a result of Paul Biya’s dreadful pattern of governance. Being a product of this poverty culture, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu belongs to an unenviable club of Manyu citizens in their 60s who have not contributed an iota of development to the villages.

As a man who courts popularity at every turn, the Ambazonia struggle offers him a platform to present his outdated law credentials. With Fru John Nsoh now full of sorrow, harboring multiple illnesses and extremely lacking in financial finesse in Maryland, USA, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu has now replaced him in the French Cameroun city of Douala as Southern Cameroons leading legal embarrassment.

The barrister possesses neither character nor direction, and in terms of personality, he is deemed inadequate by his peers. Barrister Emmanuel Ashu’s pretence of hammering the Yaoundé regime on French Cameroun airwaves has been exposed as a scam. He is skilled at joining any bandwagon with evil plans. His legacy is one of political and personal failure, intellectual recklessness, and dismal poverty.

Ambazonians should be wary of this man, given his history and penchant for political prostitution and deception. He is attracted to political games, dirty and cheap money.  To be sure, Barrister Emmanuel Ashu is a Southern Cameroons political disaster and a successful failure.

By Isong Asu in London and Dr Patrick Ayuk in Johannesburg

After more than four years of lockdown, one would think that those who pass up as leaders of this revolution would understand that the economic sabotage is hurting the ordinary man more than the Yaounde government that is still drinking tons of champagne and looking the other way as Ambazonian fighters intimidate and rob the people they claim to protect of their economic life and happiness.

The devastating impact of the crisis is all over the place and residents of the country’s two speaking countries are already showing some signs of fatigue and frustration with the unplanned and disorganized mess that has created massive uncertain in that part of the country.

One would think that the various factions involved in this conflict would coordinate their activities so as to agree on certain things with a view to allay the fears of the population and to diminish the impact of the economic crisis on the struggling businesses.

But all indicators point to well-organized chaos that is sowing more doubts in the mind of the weary and desperate population.

While the Yerima-led Interim Government does not see any wisdom behind the zealous announcement by the defunct Sako-led Interim Government, the lockdowm seems to be effective in many parts of Southern Cameroons, more out of morbid fear than out of a sound economic or well-thought-out political strategy.

Sako and his religious followers are rejoicing that things have gone according to their plan, but the euphoria is very likely to be ephemeral as the current situation has only brought the chronic differences between the factions on the ground to the surface.

Dr. Cho Ayaba, for his part, had thrown his weight behind the Yerima-led Interim government’s decision to question the rationale behind the lockdowm which will only make the people’s economic pain worse and will fragilize the organization of the upcoming Ambazonian Independence Day which many on ground zero are looking forward to with enthusiasm and joy.

Ayaba may not be agreeing with Yerima on many issues, but he seems to be reading from the same script as Yerima on this occasion.

The lockdown will not only further stifle the economy that is in the doldrums, it will also strike fear in the minds of those rural  kids who thought they could go back to school this year.

Already, there are pictures of intimidated school kids emerging, with some seriously wounded by trigger-happy young men who have been shouting their support for their demi-god, Sako Ikome from rooftops.

While Sako might be enjoying some popularity on ground zero, he should also understand that international organizations and the global community have begun seeing him as a terrorist who is intent on robbing children of their right to education.

If the global community has to change its view on him, he has to start cutting a different image and that image should demonstrate that he really wants the children on ground zero to receive the education he received in Tiko, South West Region, many years ago.

There is no rationale behind denying generations of children their right to a sound education.

Suffocating the economy and intimidating the kids out of school only cast those who have ordered this latest lockdown in very bad light.

Of course, the enemy will be affected. Yes, cities like Douala, Nkongsamba, Melong, Manjo, Bafoussam and others which are on the border with Southern Cameroons will be hurt in a way, but the primary victims will, for sure, be the very people who have been taking the brunt of the government’s frustration.   These people have shown great resistance and resilience over the last four years, but they are clearly showing signs of fatigue. They need some respite. They deserve some rest and peace!

Sako and his people might have wanted to flex their muscles and show their teeth to the government to prove that they are still a force to reckon with but this recent victory, if it can be seen as such, is pyrrhic and will not go down well with other groups operating in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

This is, indeed, a recipe for more violent clashes and this could spell death and destruction to the local population.

The Sako Group should reach out to other groups to assure them that his latest order was not designed to hurt them. Such an assurance can reduce animosity and bring the other factions to the table where they can find a common ground.

The people on the ground need a consensus. They need agreements. They want unified actions so as to rid their minds of any doubts or fear. Going it alone on this occasion is at best reckless. Sako must stop acting as a lone wolf.

By Dr Joachim Arrey in Paris Charles de Gaulle

A senior adviser to the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has slammed the AU and EU for following double standards in dealing with the Biya regime over the war in Southern Cameroons, noting that both African and European diplomats disregard for the Ambazonia issue has turned the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé into an international consortium of crime syndicates.

Dr Patrick Ayuk made the comments in a Sunday telephone conversation when he was asked by Cameroon Concord News why the African Union and the European Union show no sensitivity toward the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons.

“It is sad and unfortunate that the AU and the EU are following a very shameful path vis-à-vis the war in Southern Cameroons and as a result they not only refrain from putting pressure on French Cameroun but are also providing Yaoundé with everything at its disposal to encourage Biya and his gang to continue to kill innocent Southern Cameroons women and children” Yerima’s top aide said.

Dr Ayuk Patrick emphasized that nobody in French Cameroun is in any position to speak about the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory. When La Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons.

The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

By Isong Asu in London

The Taliban has a saying: “you have the watch; we have the time. We were born here. We will die here. We are not going anywhere.” As the Taliban has demonstrated, if a fighting force, weak on paper, is willing and able to wait its enemy out, it can defeat a much superior force. If the guerrilla can withstand suffering and live to fight another day, many battles can be lost while still achieving ultimate victory.  The Vietnam conflict was no different, and the Taliban outlasted the might of US and Western forces for 20 years.

In Afghanistan, the West fought an enemy that will not die. America fought a nemesis that had nowhere else to go. In the Southern Cameroons, French Cameroun army soldiers are also fighting an enemy they cannot see and won’t go away. What are the similarities in both wars? Corruption and Determination! Corruption within the Afghan government and French Cameroun establishment, and Determination from the Taliban and Ambazonia Self-defence forces.

Corruption

The Taliban’s lightning advance was based on dysfunction in the government and armed forces. The same can be said of the successes of Ambazonia self-defence forces in their pursuit of independence. Corruption at the top of the Cameroon government military is doing as much damage to its adventure in Southern Cameroons. A former Afghan diplomat recently said, “From your birth certificate to your death certificate and whatever comes in between, somehow you have to bribe.” Anyone with some knowledge of Cameroon under Biya would think the diplomat was talking about the CPDM crime syndicate.

As the Taliban seized territory after territory, government soldiers dropped their uniforms, firearms and ran. On paper, the Afghan army had hundreds of thousands of US-trained fighters. But the fact is that soldiers in Afghanistan went unpaid as senior military and government officials simply siphoned military finances. Afghanistan fell easily than many expected to the Taliban because corruption was endemic in the government and military. The disease of corruption is so badly embedded in the Francophone dominated political and military establishments and this evil is a blessing to the Southern Cameroons quest for independence.

Just as the Taliban exploited the weaknesses in the Afghan army, Ambazonian self-defence forces have exploited a fragile, fraudulent, and hopeless army that has no belly for the fight. The parading of captured weapons by the Taliban on international media is evocative of the videos on social media posted by Ambazonian self-defence forces.

Procurement fraud was rife in the Afghan government, and the same crime is at a more sophisticated stage in Yaoundé. By the time of the Taliban’s final onslaught, Aghan state officials were so corrupt that most of them cut deals with the Taliban. The Afghan army was in a miserable shape to fight as its numbers were inflated by ghost soldiers. The presence of ghost soldiers deep within the Cameroon government military is very well established as the senior commanders pocket the salaries of these ghost army soldiers. The similarities between Afghanistan and Cameroon are striking, and the results, however long it takes, will be parallel.

Determination:

After the Taliban was toppled in 2001, it maintained a strong presence in parts of Afghanistan and played the long game of prolonged combat. When the Southern Cameroons leadership was abducted in Abuja, Nigeria, in January 2018, it appeared as if the Southern Cameroons liberation struggle was a pipedream that would never be realized, but the Southern Cameroons Diaspora community and self-defence forces have reorganised themselves and are deadlier now than before.

For twenty years, the Taliban maintained its structure and survived the deaths of senior leadership figures. It maintained a base in Pakistan and at home in many provinces. They also received considerable moral and financial support from states in the Middle East. Similarly, despite the leadership of the Southern Cameroons movement being incarcerated in Yaoundé, the Interim Government of Ambazonia has continued to function satisfactorily in exile.

The Taliban did not accept the legitimacy of the US-supported government, and the people of Southern Cameroons do not accept the legitimacy of French Cameroon’s rule over the territory of Southern Cameroons. Since Mr Biya and his regime have ruled out genuine negotiation with the Southern Cameroons leadership in their detention centres, the jungles of Southern Cameroons will be their unending nightmare over the next decades as the mountains, hills and valleys of Afghanistan was to the Americans. 

Just as many US right-wing policymakers believed for twenty years that the US would win militarily in Afghanistan, the hawks in Yaoundé are defiantly lying to themselves and anyone who would listen that they will emerge from the jungles of Southern Cameroons victorious and politically stronger. France will soon realise the folly of sustaining a corrupt army in a war that they will not win. Whether the political elite in Yaoundé accepts it or not, the Southern Cameroons struggle would still linger long after Mr Biya exits the scene, and the solution like the one in Afghanistan is not on the battlefield.

Paul Biya will not be the only Francophone Cameroonian president to fight the war in Ambazonia. Like Afghanistan, there is an exit strategy. The Americans talked to the Taliban and exited. Are the French Cameroun elite humble enough to do the sensible thing?

The speed and success of the Taliban shocked both Afghans and the US that had backed the Afghan government with money and military support. The US spent over $88bn on training and equipping Afghan security forces over the years. Conservative estimates say France has spent over $11 billion in equipping the Francophone dominated Cameroon army over the last four years, and the figure is growing as the enemy in the jungles in Southern Cameroons is just not going away.

La Republique du Cameroun has not a fighting chance against a liberating force that has time and nowhere to go. If the success of the Taliban is anything to go by, Southern Cameroonians are unlikely to let this great opportunity to attain freedom pass them by. Having a watch and money doesn’t guarantee that one has time. La Republique du Cameroun and France have the watch and money; Southern Cameroonians must know that, like the Taliban, they have the time.

IsongAsu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The Anglophone regions’ relatively quiet start to 2021 was shattered in March by an intense series of IED attacks. Marking a new development in the Cameroonian conflict that has simmered for four years, at least one harrowing new video emerged every day. Each showcased the same pattern: the lumbering roll of a military convoy down a muddy forested road; the explosion underneath a lightly armoured Toyota; the immediate covering fire laid down in anticipation of an ambush; and, eventually, a silence punctuated by the cries of the wounded.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been used by separatists in the Anglophone conflict since at least late-2018, but the tactic has now reached maturity. Extensive video evidence reveals increasingly sophisticated use of the explosives, including the deliberate targeting of the army’s least protected vehicles, remote detonations, and the use of multiple IEDs. These attacks have been more frequent, more deadly and, most importantly, have not stopped.

This is potentially devastating for the military. Cameroon has only a limited number of mine-protected armoured vehicles and so soldiers are largely left to patrol in Toyota pickup trucks with improvised armour that is entirely ineffective against IEDs. Western forces learned similarly painful lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq, with ‘Snatch’ Land Rovers referred to as “mobile coffins” by troops.

These attacks must weigh heavily on the morale of Cameroonian forces, and recent reports suggest that some units have resorted to extreme measures to counteract the threat. It has been alleged that the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) has forced civilians to act as human minesweepers near Kumbo, Northwest region, in what would clearly be an egregious abuse of human rights.

The military is known to have defused dozens of IEDs, but the threat remains. It is therefore likely the government will look to acquire new armoured vehicles this year, with Cameroon’s contingent in the UN mission in the Central African Republic receiving several Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in May.

Separatists growing stronger

This increase in IED attacks fits into a broader pattern of some separatist groups’ growing combat strength. Larger forces such as the Ambazonian Defence Forces (ADF) and Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF) have managed to replace their locally produced hunting rifles with more effective firepower. Over time, they have acquired weaponry from multiple sources such as corrupt or sympathetic local officials and military personnel, dealers and allied groups in neighbouring Nigeria, following attacks and ambushes, and even from the diaspora in the US. Most recently, secessionists have acquired several light machine guns and, for the first time, rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs).

This has marked a step-change in rebels’ offensive capability and has led to deadlier attacks. In early-May, it was reported that 24 soldiers and civilians had been killed by IEDs in the previous two weeks. In late-June, ten soldiers were killed and a gendarmerie post was attacked in South West region in one day. Two recent raids by ‘General No Pity’, a feared commander of the Bambalang Marine Forces, at Galim in the West region and Bamali in the North-West left several soldiers dead. In July, grisly footage showing members of a separatist group celebrating around beheaded military personnel was released. And an attack in Bali on 19 July left five senior policemen dead.

Since March, it seems that around 60 to 80 service personnel have been killed, with many more wounded. This would likely make it the deadliest period for government soldiers since the crisis began. Separatist attacks have been particularly effective in the North West region, where large armed factions are believed, at times, to be working with some degree of cooperation, though not quite in harmony. In the South-West, by contrast, fighting between separatist factions remains common. In late-June, for instance, the Fako Mountain Lions killed ‘General Opopo’, a commander of the rival SOCADEF group. Disunity and distrust among secessionists in most areas, which is exacerbated through online attacks among separatist leaders in the diaspora, remains a yoke around the neck of the campaign for Ambazonian independence.

Biya’s legacy

The government’s line that the Anglophone crisis is an internal matter that is under control or has even been resolved is miles away from the current reality. There have been widespread losses of personnel and equipment recently, and the military even briefly deployed the Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion (BBR) to the region. This move neither projects strength nor suggests a military nearing victory.

That said, the separatists’ recent successes are unlikely to alter the long-term trajectory of the conflict. The kind of turnaround witnessed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region or Afghanistan is not going to be repeated; Cameroon’s separatist groups are not on the verge of capturing Bamenda or Buea. Instead, the conflict risks leaving the Anglophone regions frozen in time for a generation amid a desperate quagmire in which neither side can prevail, and as the international community looks on. Meanwhile, the military continues to recruit heavily, limiting the strategic impact of the increasing losses. As the conflict becomes ever more entrenched and intractable, resolution becomes harder to imagine. The North-West and South -West regions risk becoming to Cameroon what Kivu is to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A common phrase heard about the Cameroonian government is that it feels “time is on its side”. From the perspective of the insular, highly centralised regime, this may seem logical. Yet to other actors, it reads as a potentially fatal miscalculation. Time is not on the side of the 1.1 million children out of school or the 3 million residents of the Anglophone regions caught in the crossfire. Nor is it on the side of the 88-year-old President Paul Biya, whose 38 years in charge make him the longest-ruling non-royal leader in the world. His rule is likely to come to an end in the next election cycle, and a transition of power for such a long-standing regime is fraught with the highest risks imaginable.

Cameroon already faces immense challenges with the fight against Boko Haram in the Far North, a tense security situation on the Central African border and thousands of associated refugees, and the immense humanitarian pressures created by all of these separate crises. The strain on the Cameroonian state is enormous, and without a change in strategy, Biya’s forthcoming transition will rightly set alarm bells ringing across the world.

After nearly four decades in power, the greatest legacy the president could leave behind would be to bring the full weight of the state to the table in pursuit of a negotiated, sustainable end to the Anglophone crisis. The alternative is more smouldering armoured vehicles, soaring humanitarian need, and an increasing flow of coffins draped in the Cameroonian flag. As always, the power is with President Biya and his government, yet it is those in Anglophone Cameroon that are paying the heaviest price.

Culled from African Arguments.org

Cameroon’s controversial Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, is these days walking on egg shells ever since he visited the Special Criminal Tribunal in Yaoundé.

The Territorial Administration Ministry boss, who is currently in Abuja to attend a security meeting, seems to have lost his voice after a tense meeting with members of the Special Criminal Tribunal who are analyzing his case in order to come up with a conclusion which is expected in the president’s office.

Atanga Nji, the conman who said there was no Anglophone problem, was questioned on his role in the mismanagement of COVID funds given to the country by the International Monetary Fund.

It is being alleged that he meddled with the distribution of the funds and even the services and goods that were supposed to be provided by his ministry were never provided. 

The conman has been under scrutiny ever since he granted a contract to his brother who lives in Florida, USA, for him to declare that Biya was supported by Americans in his bid to win another term in 2018.

He is also being suspected of misusing other funds, especially those related to the war in the English-speaking regions of the country.

Noted for his bad English and legendary stupidity, the conman is gradually being elbowed out of government as he cannot fulfill his promise.

He had conned his Beti masters into believing that he would put an end to the Southern Cameroons crisis, but since becoming the territorial administration boss, the situation has only gotten worse.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Nigeria who spotted the conman on the conference grounds in Nigeria said he looked tired, old and even haggard; a sign that he was going through some psychological torture.

It should be mentioned that the territorial administration boss left the country without the usual fanfare because of the suspicion hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles.

It is being rumored in power circles in Yaoundé that he could be arrested at anytime and this could also happen upon his landing in Yaoundé in a few days time.

“He understands how the system works and he is really scared. He could even be arrested at the airport. He has been involved in many nasty deals and the suspicion hanging over him is robbing him of his peace,” a source in Yaoundé said.

Paul Atanga Nji has brought shame to the government and defeat to the military which has lost more than 3,000 of its soldiers in a war that could have been avoided through negotiations and peace deals.

It is becoming clearer that he will not be part of the next government which will be announced before the country’s president, Paul Biya, returns to Switzerland to continue with his long and costly treatment for multiple illnesses.

Atanga Nji is aware of the bad news and this is keeping him awake all night. Many Cameroonians hold that he lacks the stuff that makes ministers and many wish that he could be cut out of the government just to spare the country the numerous embarrassments he has been putting the country through.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai