A senior Southern Cameroons elite based in South Africa, Dr Patrick Ayuk has criticized the French Cameroun regime of President Paul Biya for sponsoring the arrest and forced extradition of the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides from the Nigerian capital Abuja to Yaoundé saying it is in Paul Biya’s best interest to talk to the Southern Cameroons chief executive.

During a Cameroon Concord News Group event on Tuesday, Dr Patrick Ayuk opined on how the UN should intervene in the Ambazonia crisis and assist the two Cameroons move forward with several domestic and international issues, among them the terms of separation.

Dr Patrick Ayuk said the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé could have tried to fix what it viewed as the Anglophone problem with  the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a mediator instead of wasting millions of US dollars in staging an action now described by international actors as state terrorism.

One consequence of the Biya-Buhari Abuja blunder was the internationalization of the Southern Cameroons crisis, Dr Patrick Ayuk noted.

The Southern Cameroons academic who holds a PhD in Management and leadership from the North West University highlighted the devastating effect of the 4 year old war that is showing no signs of ending blaming it on failed and irresponsible leadership in French Cameroun and pointed out that only a UN Security Council resolution will be able to bring to a very important conclusion the crisis in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

The researcher at North West University and Founder and CEO of Global Leadership and Development Nexus also said the United Nations should thus return to the Milner-Simon Agreement as a means of restricting the casualties and preventing further conflict between the two Cameroons.

“I think it would be in Mr. Paul Biya’s best interest and his legacy to start talking to President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and to stop the senseless war that has radicalized thousands of Southern Cameroonians” Dr Patrick Ayuk added.

He, however, cast doubt on whether the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and its leadership would be receptive to that saying, “I think after Yaounde ignored the recommendations of the so-called Grand National Dialogue, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Ambazonia Interim Government may have moved on and adopted a tough position.”

Vice President Dabney Yerima of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has increasingly signaled that he wants the United Nations to send a fact finding mission to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ewumbue Monono Churchill has been appointed ambassador to Ethiopia by the 87-year-old French Cameroon dictator. The decree was published on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 by state radio and television.

The new boss of Cameroon’s diplomatic mission in Addis Ababa replaces Jacques Alfred Ndoume Eboule who died in August 2019 due to an undisclosed illness.

The 59-year-old long standing Cameroonian diplomat was before this appointment a Technical Adviser to the butcher of Yaoundé.

Churchill Ewumbue Monono previously served at the Cameroon Embassy in Russia and Ethiopia. He was the brain behind the Orthodox South West Elites Association that successfully put an end to the SDF dominance in South West politics.

Nicknamed by the late Chief E.T.Egbe as SWELA’s obasinjom warrior, the renowned Bakweri elite reportedly suffered political victimization from the Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge gang over claims that he attempted to sabotage the appointment of Musonge via an article that was published by the Cameroon Post Group.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Peace talks involving the government of Cameroon and Anglophone separatists are at a standstill due to a power struggle playing out between prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute and secretary general of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

On 2 July, the jailed secessionist leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe announced on social media that he had taken part in discussions with Cameroon’s government regarding a ceasefire agreement under the auspices of the United Nations.

Subsequently, on the orders of secretary general of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, communications minister René Emmanuel Sadi said in a statement that this information was not “accurate”. Since then, the two parties have not been in further contact with one another.

Church provides neutral grounds

However, according to sources, a delegation made up of about 10 secessionist leaders led by Ayuk Tabe did in fact meet on 2 July with Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, head of the Direction Générale de la Recherche Extérieure, Cameroon’s counter-intelligence agency.

Given that the conditions set forth by the Ambazonians included that the meeting take place in a “neutral” setting, the government asked the Catholic Church to allow it to hold the talks at the Episcopal Centre of Mvolyé. Located in Cameroon’s capital, the church was ultimately selected as the site of the negotiations, which were attended by six other government representatives.

At the third such meeting arranged by the government, the duo formed by Dion Ngute and Eko Eko led the administration’s negotiation. A traditional dignitary in the South-West region, the prime minister has a network of local monarchy connections who provides him with a way to engage with separatist rebels.

Eko Eko, a police superintendent and speaker of French and English, was the negotiator who successfully secured the 2008 release of oil workers taken hostage aboard the French vessel Bourbon Sagitta by the Bakassi Freedom Fighters, a rebel group from the Bakassi Peninsula, which Nigeria and Cameroon had disputed.

Secret negotiations

Prior to that, the first meeting with Anglophone leaders had taken place in Ghana, where Eko Eko met with secessionist figures from the diaspora community such as Ebenezer Akwanga and Herbert Boh. The second meeting was held on 13 April in Mvolyé (Yaoundé) and brought together Ayuk Tabe and his allies.

At the end of these talks, some progress was made, as the separatists said they were prepared to abandon their most radical demand, i.e., the departure of Cameroon’s army from the North-West and South-West regions. However, their acceptance of the continued presence of these troops came with the condition that they remain in their barracks since, in their view, the police and gendarmerie forces should be the sole personnel permitted to be deployed on the ground.

Dion Nguté and Eko Eko excluded the rest of the administration from secret negotiations which nevertheless had the blessing of President Paul Biya. Even Ngoh Ngoh was not involved in the discussions, despite the fact that he had been the Swiss government’s primary contact since June 2019.

Yaoundé officially mandated the Swiss government to facilitate talks between the warring sides. Working with the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), the Swiss mediators invited several secessionist leaders to participate in a discreet preparatory meeting from 25 to 27 June in Saint-Luc, a small village in the canton of Valais. However, at the end of 2019, the HD-led mediation process ended in failure due to distrust from certain factions of the secessionist movement.

New round of Swiss mediation

After Ngoh Ngoh released a statement by way of Sadi denying that talks had taken place, the Swiss negotiators initiated a new mediation process. On 2 August, a delegation led by Günther Bächler arrived in Yaoundé. The 67-year-old diplomat and former Swiss ambassador to Georgia served as a mediator in conflicts in Darfur, Nepal and in the South Caucasus on behalf of the Swiss Foreign Ministry.

As soon as he arrived in Cameroon, Bächler got in touch with a number of people, not just separatists but also supporters of federalism and proponents of decentralisation. On 4 August, he met with Cardinal Christian Tumi. On 6 August in Buea, the capital of the South-West region, the delegation planned to meet with the lawyer Felix Agbor Balla as well as with other local Anglophone figures.

Culled from Africa Intelligence

Many Cameroonians have been leaving their country over the last three decades due to bad governance, but most of those who have left have been young unemployed graduates who are seeking better economic and social life for themselves and their families.

But over the last four years, some middle-aged Cameroonians, especially from Southern Cameroons, have left their country due to the civil war that has already killed over 5,000 Cameroonians.

Among those who have left are medical doctors, lawyers and engineers who believe that Cameroon does not hold out any hope for their children. These groups of professionals have been heading mainly to the United States and Canada where they believed it is possible to make dreams come true.

But there is another group that is also checking out of the country and this group is not large. Among them is one Barrister Fru John Nsoh who, in his late 70s, still holds that he can make things better for himself. But America could be a slippery ground, especially for those who do not have the right skills set. Things do not seem to be working for Barrister Fru John Nsoh and the strain is becoming very visible. 

He skipped into the U.S.A where he sought asylum before the coronavirus emerged, but the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trunp Administration is affecting his asylum claim. As the virus lingers, his asylum claim is also suffering. The wait time is getting longer and there is no work for him. This is a major concern to him.

Prior to escaping to the United States, Barrister Fru John Nsoh had the nasty habit of taking the Yaoundé government to task for its role in the Southern Cameroons crisis. His criticism of the government made him a TV star in Cameroon, and this might have made him to think that he could repeat the same feat in the U.S.A. But America always has unpleasant surprises for those who migrate there, especially those who do not have a lot of financial resources.  

Indeed, he was among the lawyers who said their services to Southern Cameroonians who are being held in prisons across the country were “pro bono”. Southern Cameroonians have been sincerely grateful to these lawyers although they sometimes contribute to enable the lawyers to go and see their clients and defend them in court. Some of that money sometimes transited through Barrister Fru John Nsoh who unfortunately shared it to his fellow lawyers as if he was distributing candy to children. 

This outdated method of doing things did not really go down well with many of his colleagues and the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, had to look for innovative ways to ensure that the money was properly managed. This rubbed the learned lawyer up the wrong way. Like his friend Chris Anu, Barrister Fru John Nsoh is an honest man, especially when money is not involved, and that was why his colleagues had to complain.

He has been very bitter about that decision and ever since he came to the United States, he has accused President Julius Ayuk Tabe of all the crimes and sins in the world. He is even blaming his erectile dysfunction problems on him even when he is at the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison. There are rumors that he might sue Mr. Ayuk Tabe for all the stress he is going through in the U.S.A. 

In the United States, Barrister Nsoh cannot practice law. If has any dream of practicing law in the United States, then he must go back to law school and this will require him spending hundreds of thousands of dollars which he does not even have. He is currently facing tough financial challenges just to pay lawyer fees for his asylum case, and this explains why he is in cahoots with Mr. Boh Herbert who is using the crisis in Southern Cameroons to enrich himself.

Barrister Fru John Nsoh is cash-strapped and the pressure is showing on his face. The Barrister who looked younger and happier while in Cameroon has become grumpy and stressed out in the United States. He seems to be caught between a rock and hard place.

If he leaves the United States for Cameroon, then he might be joining President Julius Ayuk Tabe in Kondengui for all the insults he has heaped on the Yaounde government. If he stays in the United States, then his high blood pressure and diabetes will only get worse as his resources dry up. He is contemplating going home. Kondengui is appearing to be a more attractive and better option for him, as it is less expensive. 

If he insists on staying in the United States, then he might end up in a nursing home where he will be required to take care of people who are as old as he is. But that is not the biggest problem. Nursing homes are not popular destinations for many job-seekers in the United States. 

The coronavirus is on the prowl in those facilities. A weakened Barrister Fru John Nsoh will certainly not last long if he ventures into those coronavirus-infested nursing homes. The virus has no respect for old people and its special dislike for people with pre-existing conditions is known. Barrister Fru John Nsoh should rather err on the side of caution than to venture into a lion’s den without the appropriate protection.

The learned Barrister is in a fix. He cannot afford rents, and this is taking up his blood pressure. Without money and an insurance policy, the barrister is in the throes of a major health crisis. Having a health insurance policy in the U.S.A is costly, and it is the least of his concerns for now. He has other concerns that are keeping him up all night. A health insurance policy can wait. In his view, there is no rush and even if there was an urgent need for that, where will he get the money from?

The legal tender in the U.S.A is the green back and not the CFAF and the green back is hard to get in that country. That is a currency that keeps many young men running all day. Will the barrister be capable of running around just to raise money for housing and food? 

For now, he is still enjoying the largesse of some people, but the months ahead will be very testing to him. The financial pinch is already being felt as his host is already looking for creative ways to send him out of the house. The times are getting tougher out there for the barrister and without divine intervention; he might end up bouncing from one house to the other.

To avoid this, he must go back home. He is already losing sleep, and this is not a good sign. America is a not a place for people in their 70s to come and seek a better life. Fru John Nsoh must go back home where he will have the opportunity to enjoy his Achu and fufu corn.  There is time for everything and for now, his best bet is to accept a long jail term in Cameroon that will not come with the type of stress that America is pouring on him.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Biya regime’s hard liners are using the Southern Cameroons crisis to deflect French speaking Cameroonian’s attention away from the conflict that has rocked La Republique du Cameroun.

For almost four years now, Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons are conducting a genocidal campaign that has claimed the lives of some more than seven thousand people.

“The war in Southern Cameroons is more of President Paul Biya’s attempt at distracting French speaking Cameroonians from the failures of the CPDM Beti Ewondo regime” Vice President Dabney Yerima told a cream of Southern Cameroons citizens late on Saturday.

Pointing to widespread confusion deep within French Cameroun and Southern Cameroons political circles both in Ground Zero and in La Republique du Cameroun, the Ambazonian Vice President said “The war in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a misdirected effort to take away from the problems the 87 year old Paul Biya has created in French Cameroun.”

Ever since President Biya came to power, the wealth and riches of the two Cameroons are in the hands of a few people who are either members of Mr. Biya’s ethnic group or members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate which is holding the country’s treasury under its armpit.

Both French and Southern Cameroonians have been reduced to beggars by a bunch of people who have placed their interest above national interest.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Many in the Lebialem County were surprised when information filtered publicly that French Cameroun Minister Paul Tasong and the former Ambazonia Communications Secretary Chris Anu have agreed to work together for Lebialem to get the post of prime minister and head of government. This is not the first time Southern Cameroonian rival elites had concluded a political pact to work together. Achidi Achu and Ni John Fru Ndi had concluded pacts before.

The Chris Anu-Minister Paul Tasong deal however is surprising because both men judging from events of the past three years showed they were bitter with each other and the two men had continued to hold stubbornly to their positions with Chris Anu fighting for the restoration of Southern Cameroons independence while Minister Paul Tasong remains faithful to the one and indivisible Cameroon philosophy.

Chris Anu and his blood relation Field Marshal have been behind armed resistance to reject French Cameroun’s administrative and military presence in the Lebialem County. However, a simple change at the head of the Ambazonia Interim Government has now seen Mr. Chris Anu endorsing a Yaoundé framework hatched to address the governance challenges that had contributed to Cameroon’s divisive politics and ethnic antagonism and above all, that will eventually see Minister Paul Tasong appointed Prime Minister and Head of Government.

Chris Anu has become relevant helping Minister Tasong in resolving issues related to kidnappings in the Lebialem County and Chris Anu has also been involved in top level negotiations to free detained French Cameroun civil servants held by Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Lebialem.

Why did the arch-rivals easily come together and agree to see themselves as one person?

Minister Paul Tasong

The cooperation between Minister Paul Tasong and Chris Anu can best be understood by recognising that Lebialem politics is fundamentally shaped by competition between and among political elites of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and its auxiliary party, the Social Democratic Front.

The Southern Cameroons crisis has simply provided an opportunity for men like Mr. Chris Anu to advance their economic and political interests in Lebialem as well as to negotiate distribution of power. The practice of winner takes all politics by Peter Mafany Musonge, Chief Inoni Ephraim and now Chief Dr Dion Ngute has always resulted in the exclusion of Lebialem elites from power arrangements. Minister Paul Tasong as the new Wilfred Mbelem wants to remove Lebialem from the loser position to being a winner.

Many deep within the Southern Cameroons Interim Government including Vice President Dabney Yerima have quietly interpreted the Chris Anu-Minister Paul Tasong deal as undermining President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s control and authority over the Lebialem County.

Moreover, Yaoundé has handed billions of Franc CFA to Minister Paul Tasong for the so-called reconstruction of Southern Cameroons and with increasing levels of corruption in the Biya regime, there are indications that Mr. Chris Anu might join the CPDM billionaire club of accumulating wealth.

Minister Paul Tasong reportedly turned to Chris Anu for the pact to cut off the Ambazonia Interim Government’s influence in Lebialem and end the armed resistance that is challenging President Biya’s legacy.

Although Chris Anu is still posing as the Communications Secretary of the Ambazonia Interim Government, he lacks legitimacy and authority to speak on behalf of the people of Southern Cameroons. Without access to My Trip To Buea funds and without control of the SCBC TV, Chris Anu cannot give any benefits to his followers both in the US and in Ground Zero, many of who thought the revolution would be short live and were hoping to benefit if they get to Buea.

By Isong Asu in London

With the Southern Cameroons crisis showing no signs of ending, the burning question now for many Cameroon political commentators is: Who will succeed Biya? Biya, 87, has ruled the oil-exporting nation for 38 years, making him among Africa’s longest rulers.

There are a lot of under-the-table talks about the issue of succession in Yaoundé. This is another major threat to stability in the already divided nation.

Stability in the two Cameroons matters to the wider region. Its $22 billion-a-year economy is by far the largest in CEMAC region.  Reuters reported that aside from Cameroon’s oil sector, the country hosts miners such as Canada-listed Geovic GMC.TO and Australia’s Sundance Resources (SDL.AX) and the port in Douala is vital to traffic in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.

Over the years, Biya has achieved “stability” while astutely outmaneuvering opposition both within his ruling CPDM crime syndicate and outside it. With Mr.Paul Biya all-powerful, there is no clear successor or plan to manage a post-Biya era.

Consequently, several close relatives of President Biya are vying for the leadership of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and some of the party barons have already been silenced, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a reliable source in Yaoundé.

The war raging within the Francophone dominated political structure is to succeed the 87 year old President Paul Biya as head of state.

We understand that some of the Biya acolytes have been very careful not to display their ambitions for fear of suffering a similar fate like the former Secretary General at the Presidency Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara and the former Finance Minister Polycarp Abah Abah. Out of the woods before the 2011 presidential election, both men were immediately targeted by the anti-corruption Operation Sparrow hawk.

Among the contenders to take over from Mr. Paul Biya is the current Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze who is a Bulu from Dja-et-Lobo Division. To be accurate, Motaze is from President Paul Biya’s home constituency and he is also a nephew to late Jeanne-Irène Biya, Cameroon’s former First Lady. Minister Louis Paul Motaze presently moonlights as the CPDM’s regional coordinator for the South Region.

Motaze is being challenged by Justice Minister Laurent Esso, the all-powerful Sawa political boss from the Littoral fiefdom and also by the current Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

The political heat generated by the infighting within the ruling CPDM party is making the job of the Secretary General of the CPDM Central Committee Jean Nkuété very difficult. Jean Nkuété is President Paul Biya’s long-time friend and the Beti Ewondo gang considers him a lesser evil in the struggle for power.

By Isong Asu

Replaced by André-Magnus Ekoumou, Cameroon’s ambassador to France Alfred Nguini only lasted 17 months in the job before falling foul of in-house politics.

WCA welcomes the move from the Government of Cameroon to engage with separatist leaders for preliminary talks to find peace in the English speaking regions of Cameroon

With more than 3 years of a devastating war in the English Speaking regions of Cameroon showing little signs of easing, The West Cameroon Association, (WCA) is encouraged by the Press Release of Communications Minister of Government of Cameroon (GoC), Mr Rene Emmanuel Sadi, on July 06 2020 which indicates that representatives of the GoC has been engaged in preliminary talks with some of the captured separatist leaders in the search for a return to peace in the English speaking regions. WCA hopes that these exploratory meetings are a genuine beginning to seeking a lasting and durable settlement to the conflict.

It is apparent that discussions with these individuals cannot be conducted under their own free will as they are serving lengthy prison sentences for activities related to the crisis. WCA therefore proposes to the GoC to consider taking the following actions to demonstrate its seriousness and commitment to the process:

1.       Release all those who have been arrested and imprisoned as a result of the crisis, so that they can engage with the process as free people.

2.       Seek the inclusion of other parties whom majority of the English Speaking Cameroonians will find acceptable, including those who are connected with the fighters in the bushes and forests.

Accordingly, WCA would urge the GoC to continue with these confidence building measures and to seriously consider putting in place the enabling conditions for credible negotiations such as proposed by Mr. Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe following the reported meeting.

Sign

Richard Nfor

The Ambazonia Interim Government has called for resumption of unity talks with other front line groups as a sign of respect and honour to the late Southern Cameroons veteran leader Mola Njoh Litumbe, Cameroon Concord News has gathered from sources close to the communications department of the Dabney Yerima administration.

We understand that in a recent outing in Holland, the Southern Cameroons Vice President emphasized the importance of reopening communications with other respectable Ambazonia front line leaders and groups to put an end to the unhealthy rivalry and division that has rocked the resistance ever since the abduction and forced extradition of the Ambazonia leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides from Abuja to Yaoundé.

Yerima, who was en route to US for the Southern Cameroons International Conference before COVID-19 struck has been holding telephone conversations with Ambazonia front line leaders including the controversial Cho Ayaba of the ADF.

Several Southern Cameroons think tanks have expressed their intention to help bring about unity in the Ambazonia revolutionary structures.

By Rita Akana