The Cameroonian President-Dictator has signed another decree ordering the “discontinuation” of proceedings before the Yaoundé Military Tribunal against hundreds of Southern Cameroons activists. Biya has kept to his outdated pattern of governance and his acolytes, his critics, and the media alike have portrayed them as dramatic u-turn on the war in Southern Cameroons.

The Biya decision has reportedly affected some 289 Ambazonian detainees and we understand the decree will be implemented by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo. Biya’s high-profile orders have merely allowed him to announce his intentions to the international community but have not stopped the killings going on in Southern Cameroons. So far, they’ve been more like text messaging than governing, proclaiming his goodwill without really advancing it.

A close look at the language of today’s decree shows that nothing has changed in Yaoundé but basically new releases with presidential signatures, plus instructions to his cabinet ministers to look into the issues at hand. In hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, Biya simply directed his Secretary General at the presidency to devise a plan. His decree on the Anglophone crisis set up a Paul Ghogomu commission. His war decree on Southern Cameroons and Boko Haram instructed cabinet ministers and the military leadership to devise plans to achieve those goals.

Some pro CPDM comedians have however opined that today’s decree comes as a follow-up to the setting of the so-called disarmament, demobilization and reintegration committee for ex fighters of armed groups in Southern Cameroons. It is indeed an empty decree.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration has been set up in Cameroon. A statement from the Cameroonian government said that the program aims to provide “a framework for the reception and social reintegration of ex Boko Haram militants and members of armed groups operating in the North and South West regions of the country.”

According to the statement, the Committee will be headed by former Governor Fai Yengo Francis under the supervision of the Prime Minister, while centres will be opened in Mora (in the Far North), Bamenda (in the North West) and Buea (in the South West). These centres will provide a framework for disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration.

This is undoubtedly one of the best places to start, as most young men join the likes of Boko Haram purely for financial benefit. Although there are issues with these types of reintegration programs it’s a good foundation to build on. Nonetheless, to curb the ever-growing ranks of Boko Haram and show that there is indeed a life for those who joined such groups after they leave is a positive campaign in the region.

You cannot win an ideological war based on pure military intervention, offering those people who have made mistakes in the past a new life may be able to deter the young men in the region from joining the likes of Boko Haram.

With all that said, reintegration programs can backfire if they are implemented too early. So if you are a young man who joins the likes of Boko Haram and you have an easy option of getting back out and back into civilian life, there is no real danger of joining such organisations. One of the issues that the Cameroonian government should be worried about is offering an easy way out and into the likes of Boko Haram. Those that join must face the music and pay for the crimes that they have committed before a reintegration programme can be offered to these individuals.

Some critics in Cameroon have suggested that the government has implemented this program too early. Let’s not forget that much of this year there has been an uprising in the southwest of the country, where the English-speaking individuals known as the separatists have been rebelling against the government. One of the concerns should be that you are allowing such separatist organisations to re-arm and regroup in a peaceful manner, so that in the future they may launch a fresh wave of attacks on government forces.

I am a fan of reintegration programs, particularly within these poor regions, purely because I know that many young men will wrongfully join these terrible organisations to feed their families. I am wise enough to know military intervention — and solely military intervention — does not work, as we have experienced in the past time and time again. I wish the Cameroonian government all the best in their endeavours, and will keep a close eye on this programme.

Source: The newsrep.com

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started as a protest by lawyers and teachers has finally morphed into a civil war with more than 4,000 Cameroonians killed in the course of the war and the region’s economy begging for a huge cash infusion. Many experts around the world are surprised that a little internal problem has been allowed to escalate to the point where it has become a nasty civil war.

After more than two years, the government should have figured out that military violence cannot do the job. If the objective is to hold the country together, then dialogue could have produced better results than the burning of houses and people in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Some people hold that the killings only make it hard for both communities to love together and this endangers the government’s philosophy which holds that Cameroon is one and indivisible. It also calls into question the whole notion of living together.

Over the last six months, especially after the fake presidential election that was cooked and handed over to the country’s president, Paul Biya, the government has stepped up its attacks in the two English-speaking regions and the greatest victims have been innocent civilians who do not know where to go to for protection and solace, as government troops have been killing them while the armed groups have been kidnapping them if they are suspected of collaborating with the Yaounde government.

In Bui Division, especially in Kumbo, government troops have torched almost all the homes and shops in the town. Some 30 elderly people have also been roasted to death in the process and survivors are at a shock for words to describe the government’s evil plan.

The government’s strategy is to ensure that the people are robbed of their sources of income so that they can be desperate. This also implies that the people will then turn to the government for survival and they will have to denounce the fighters whom they claim have been protecting them against government brutality.

This is reminiscent of what happened in Kembong and Kwakwa in the South West region in early 2018 where these towns were visited by a brigade of alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers whose actions defied all modern law enforcement logic. Houses were burnt down, with the old and vulnerable consumed by the flames in a campaign that will never bring peace to the region.

What is usually more disturbing is the fact that the government never orders any investigation into these barbaric atrocities. It usually does not express any remorse for such acts of inhumanity committed by its forces.

It should be recalled that the government is an organized structure with institutions whose capacity to investigate crimes has been built over the years. Its actions in retaliation to acts committed by unknown gunmen only serve as a testament to its failure to rein in the tough Southern Cameroonian fighters who are determined to take the war to the enemy.

The government clearly understands that in seeking out those who commit such odious crimes against government forces, it must partner with the local population but it has refused to walk such a noble and logical path because it wants to prove that it is tough. It knows it must use the local population to gather intelligence that will help it in its efforts to restore peace and security in the region.

The government’s violent reaction to crimes committed by a few gunmen speaks volumes to its inability to keep the country safe and together through meaningful dialogue. For long, it has been giving the impression that it cherishes dialogue, but its actions over the last two years have proven that it has been paying lip service to the whole notion of dialogue.

Kwakwa had been considered as a flash in the pan by many government apologists and many people hoped that this unfortunate drama would not repeat itself. But the government seemed to have chosen the burning of homes as its strategy of choice. Since the Kwakwa incident, many other towns have been visited by reckless army soldiers who seem to be enjoying the burning game.

From every indication, this seems to be the government’s modus operandi and it is determined to use it, as long as Southern Cameroonians stick to their guns. The government seems to have sworn that theirs will be the kingdom of tears and homelessness for as long as they continue to challenge its authority. The same destruction has been spreading to other parts of Southern Cameroons.

The government that is supposed to protect civilians has resorted to killing them just because some of them do sympathize with Ambazonian Restoration Forces. The civilians are clearly caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They have no control over the fighters who consider themselves as freedom fighters and the beleaguered government seems to be at its wit’s end as it faces tough challenges from the determined freedom fighters.

This week’s burning of homes in Kumbo which started after some three army soldiers were killed on Monday at a water tank speaks to the fact that a ceasefire is not in the offing and that the government’s hastily created and poorly conceived Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Commission is just another project designed to fool the international community.

In many countries in the world where destructive wars have taken place, the trend is usually that both parties in the war have to meet, discuss the details of their ceasefire and once there is an agreement, then a DDR commission is established to ensure all the guns on the streets are yielded to the government. And such an effort is usually marked by honesty and trust from both sides with the objective of ensuring that the demons that have produced such hard and wicked feelings in a country should never rear their ugly heads again.

But in Cameroon, everything seems to be done through presidential decrees.  It was a verbal presidential decree that announced the war in Cameroon. The country’s president, Paul Biya, seems to be above the law and his word is always the law. He single-handedly pushed the country into a nasty civil war and he has warned both the country’s legislative body not to discuss an issue that is today affecting the entire country.

Efforts by opposition parliamentarians to table this issue in 2017 were thwarted by the ruling party and this has proven to the world that the country belongs to one person – Mr. Biya who has rigged all elections in Cameroon just to be in power.

For now, Cameroonians have lost hope. They know the creation of a DDR commission will surely not end the war. They have figured out that wars do not get laid to rest through presidential decrees and they know that Southern Cameroonian fighters will not down their weapons as that will be tantamount to committing suicide.

As the war protracts, so too is the country’s economy declining and many things are already falling apart in the country. Just last week, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the continent’s football governing body, stopped Cameroon from hosting the 2019 tournament following an inspection of the sites where the events were supposed to be held.

Though the government’s inability to deliver the required infrastructure for the tournament was cited by the CAF inspection team as its main reason, the fear of the military brutality and slaughtering taking place in the two English-speaking regions were considered as key factors for the abortion of Cameroon’s efforts to organize the tournament.

The country’s economy is almost bottoming out. The government is starring down the barrel of frustration as the fighting in Southern Cameroons takes a turn for the worse. It had thought it would wrap up things in a matter of months, but the conflict is already in its second year and huge amounts of resources have been poured into this war that is threatening to tear the country apart and there is no end in sight. Scarce resources are being diverted to the war, while key economic development projects are being systematically put on hold.

The country’s cities are an eyesore. Most of them are vast slumps. The country is bereft of modern hospitals and its railway system is suffering from chronic ageing. CAF could not be blind to all of this. The country’s treasury is almost empty and civil servants are permanently in fear that they will soon not be receiving their salaries.

Despite these issues, the government has chosen the war path and its measures to tackle Southern Cameroonian fighters are crude and ineffective. They are indeed counterproductive and many experts hold that the government’s response to the insurgency is only fetching it many enemies around the world. The war has seen the killing of foreigners and the most prominent of these slaughtering is the killing of an American missionary.

A situation that has strained relations between Cameroon and the United States. It should be recalled that the United States and some of its allies consider Cameroon as unsafe and they have warned their citizens not to go to the country. The issue of insecurity was also raised recently by an American senator who urged CAF not to let Cameroon organize the 2019 edition of the continental tournament.

So far, the international community has turned a blind eye to the death and destruction that army soldiers are wreaking in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Some Cameroon observers hold that the international community is under the influence of France that has been the greatest beneficiary of Southern Cameroons’ wealth. It should be recalled that the French government is solidly behind the Cameroon government that is slaughtering its own people and many people around the world are shocked at French behaviour, especially as it is a country that prides itself on its human rights record.

From the behaviour so far displayed by the international community, it is clear that Southern Cameroonian lives do not really matter. Many Southern Cameroonians have been sent to an early grave as a result of the government’s ill-advised decision to pursue a military option instead of a political approach to the conflict. Could the Biya regime have been successful in corrupting the entire international community? Why would a people who simply want the world to know that they are hurting become a target of a government that is supposed to protect them?

The international community might have called for inclusive dialogue at different stages of the conflict, but its passivity and lack of interest in the whole situation speaks to the connivance between it and the Biya regime to decimate the indigenous people of Southern Cameroons. If the international community does not come out of the “Omerta” it has imposed on itself, Southern Cameroonians will continue to consider it as an accomplice in the genocide that is currently playing out in their country.

It is time for the international community to get tough on a government that is considered by its own citizens as a crime syndicate. Its corruption has robbed its own people of happiness and prosperity.  Today, it is fiercely promoting the principle of political tribalism as a means of sustaining itself in power.  The market-dominant minority that has enriched itself through unorthodox means has brought untold hardship to Cameroonians.

This government has to go and Cameroonians in general hold that the intervention of the international community will be a welcome relief. Turning a blind eye to the problem will not make it go away. The international community must step in to restore peace in a country that is anything but democratic. The government’s approach is counterproductive and it causing many death in the English-speaking regions of the country. The international community must come in to play its role, it not, it will soon be seeing another Rwanda in Cameroon.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde.

A former Southern Cameroons civil administrator and governor has been appointed to head the so-called National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Committee (NDDRC) for organizing, supervising and managing the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-fighters of Boko Haram and armed groups in Southern Cameroons willing to respond favourably to peace appeal by laying down their arms. Fai Yengo has been given the key role by President-dictator, Paul Biya even though the Ambazonia Defense Council, ASC warned that Southern Cameroonians serving the interest of the French Cameroun government would have to face devastating consequences.

The surprise move means that former Governor Fai Yengo will now have to work hand-in-gloves with the Delegate-General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele who had issued a police order on the 4^th of April 2018 preventing Mr. Fai Yengo from leaving the country.  Governor Fai Yengo is reportedly under police investigation for corruption but has also been told by the 85 year President Paul Biya that  he will have to help the Cameroon army develop solutions to forthcoming security challenges in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons where he was Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum County and Governor of the North West Province.

In the decree signed outlining Governor Fai Yengo’s new role, President Biya struck a markedly different tone to the one he adopted after declaring war against the people of Southern Cameroons. However, Fai Yengo Francis (to use his three names) will have to accept being regarded as a foreign citizen in La Republique du Cameroun.  The Fai Yengo Francis appointment seems to imply an expectation of Anglophones and Francophones sharing a united and clear purpose in a one and indivisible Cameroon for years to come.

But the retired civil administration that is alleged to have siphoned much of the international aid and funds that came to the people of Menchum immediately after the Lake Nyos Gas disaster is coming back to the CPDM limelight at a particularly challenging time for the Biya regime.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in London

The President of the South West Elites Association in Northern Ireland, Chief Martin Nchong Ayuk says international organizations have disappointed the Ambazonian people regarding the issue of Southern Cameroons independence, urging freedom-seeking people to support the Ambazonian struggles against French Cameroun regime’s occupation.

Chief Martin Nchong made the remarks in reaction to an anti United Nations declaration made by the Ambazonian Secretary of Communications, Chris Anu on Wednesday. Chief Nchong told Cameroon Concord News that he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Chris Anu and added that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government  have pushed for recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but international organizations such as the UN, AU and the EU have disappointed them.

The SWELA Northern Ireland president, however, stressed the determination of the Southern Cameroons people to stand by the Interim Government and said, “As long as the IG and Southern Cameroonians on Ground Zero continue to resist, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be a reality.”

He also vowed to encourage Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora to make financial donations to the Ambazonian Interim Government.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in London

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in October 2016, has entered a critical phase with the Yaounde government destroying anything in its path. Despite condemnation by the international community for the atrocities playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the government has been pushing ahead with its plan to depopulate Southern Cameroons.

Over the last weeks, government troops have been gunning down innocent people in the country’s North-West region. Many of those who have been brought down by the taxpayer’s bullets have nothing to do with the rebellion going on in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

In Bali, government troops used chemical and biological weapons to kill many young Southern Cameroonians who they claim are Ambazonian fighters and to hide their crime, the bodies were burnt. More than 30 bodies were involved in this macabre destruction of human life that does not even seem to catch the international community’s attention.

These soldiers seem to be on the prowl, looking for young men to kill. From every indication, the government’s plan is to depopulate the region by killing the young, hoping that the rebellion will be extinguished once and for all.

On Monday, a young businessman was gunned down by army soldiers in Bambui, North West region. To make matters worse, the same soldiers looted the man’s store and made away with goods estimated at more than CFAF 3 million.

The government’s killing spree has affected many people in the region and even foreigners have not been spared by the bullets of a government that professes peace, but practices violence.

Last week a Kenyan priest was killed in Kembong by army soldiers and the Bishop of Mamfe, Bishop Andrew Nkea, took the government task after the Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma, told his usual lies that the priest had been killed by Ambazonian fighters.

A few weeks ago, an American missionary was also killed by army soldiers in the Northwest region and this has strained relations between the Cameroon government and the Trump Administration that is asking for answers.

In many parts of the region, army soldiers have been burning homes and ruining people’s lives and not a single soldier has been arraigned for such inhuman and irresponsible behaviour. This has prompted many people in the region to actually ask if the government really wants to solve the issue.

To gain a better understanding of the situation, Cameroon Concord News Group sent its reporters to the Northwest region to investigate the killings.

Speaking to a senior official of the ruling party who elected anonymity, the reporters gathered that the Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, had set up a scheme to kill all the young men in the region. In their thinking, they will prove to their boss, Mr. Paul Biya, that they are winning the war.

The official who is so disappointed with the Biya regime also revealed that despite the killing of young innocent men in the region, the government is not winning the war. He added that those who are being killed are actually not the fighters, but young men who just want to live their lives.

He also stressed that the killing of young men in the region is not addressing the matter, as many more young people are simply being radicalized by the government’s irresponsible behaviour.

He pointed out that with just den guns, the determined fighters, who have been using hit-and-run tactics, have inflicted a lot of pain on the country’s military, adding that some 3,000 soldiers have been victims of the war.

He added that the government was hiding the number of casualties in order not to shock the Francophone population that is gradually asking questions about the fighting in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

“The fighting is consuming many of our soldiers. Thousands have already been buried and many have been maimed. This is a war that will be around for a long time and its impact will stalk those who ordered it for a long time. The blood of those who have been killed will be one reason why  many young fighters and our soldiers will not be having a good night’s sleep, even after the war would have been over,” he said.

“The government might be saying that Cameroon is one and indivisible, but it understands that Southern Cameroonians do no longer want to belong to the fake union that the United Nations concocted. They have been marginalized for 56 years and now the government is killing them with impunity and it still holds that the country is united? It has to face reality. It will be hard for this issue to be addressed, especially through the means the government is using. The government seems to be sending a message to Southern Cameroonians, but that message is clearly the wrong one” he said.

Southern Cameroonians will surely not be listening to those stories from a government that is mowing down their brothers and sisters as if they are animals just because of their resources. The South West region, in particular, is a receptacle of God’s blessings for the country.

The country’s oilfields are located in Ndian Division and there are huge gold deposits in Mbonge. Manyu Division has huge expanse of forest that is the envy of the world and it is alleged that this division, noted for its learned people, is sitting on huge oil deposits. There was some exploratory work in the region before the conflict broke out. This will surely continue when the guns stop spreading death.

The region’s waters are also home to large fish stocks. Its forest is home to unimaginable fauna and flora and it is not in error that the world also knows the country because of the Korup National Park which straddles Manyu and Indian Divisions. The South West region is also known for its fertile volcanic soil and this explains why agriculture is one of the many activities that have been yielding huge foreign earnings to the country. Many of the country’s neighbours have their food supply from the south west region.

Unfortunately, this region is one of the poorest in the country.  Its people are still living in abject poverty and what passes for medical, school and road infrastructure clearly belongs to another epoch. The South West deserves better, but years of marginalization have left the region in dehumanizing poverty.

While the country has been raking in millions of dollars from the region’s oil, the residents of the region have been tied up in degrading poverty. The country’s lone refinery (SONARA) is located in Southern Cameroon, precisely in the Southwest port city of Limbe formerly known as Victoria, but the natives of the region have been reduced to sorry spectators of events in their own region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis is also born of this injustice. More than 90% of the refinery staff are Francophones and to add insults to injury, staff of the refinery have their own neighbourhoods that are well designed and very clean. Besides, petroleum products are more expensive in the South West region than in any other region of the country.

This economic apartheid that has been around since 1977 when oil was discovered in Ndian Division is one of the many reasons why Southern Cameroonians hold that a clear break with East Cameroon will be the ideal solution and they are willing to sacrifice their lives so that future generations will not have to deal with the same issues.

They want to walk away from this ‘political marriage’ that has brought them more pain than gain. Though it will take time to achieve such an outcome, Southern Cameroonians back home, now known as Ground Zero, hold that it better to die trying than to sit and watch other people enjoy their God-given wealth.

If they succeed to walk away, then Cameroon will be losing about 60% of its wealth. Southern Cameroons is blessed with enormous wealth and the Yaounde government holds that it is by terrorizing the people that it will succeed to keep them in the dark of what is happening to their resources.

For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary in the South West region has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil. Since 2014, Cameroon has exported more than US$5.88 billion worth of products, of which more than US$2.65 billion, about CFAF 1,650 billion, has been from crude oil alone. This is a significant amount of money and the Yaounde government cannot afford to lose such revenues.

The government is not only frustrated, it is scared, as the possibility of a secession is there. All its efforts to lay the matter to rest have been futile. Its divide-and-rule strategy has simply fallen apart as North westerners and South westerners clearly understand that they are united for a cause that will bring them happiness and prosperity. Not even the government’s military violence has succeeded to take the wind out the fighters’ sail. The more the government kills, the more determined the fighters become.

The government had underestimated the will of the people of Southern Cameroons to right the wrongs of the past. For many of them, their fate is worse than death and they have very little time to be around this planet. They want to establish their own country and even ensure that future generations do not deal with such time-consuming and energy-sapping challenges.

And they are receiving huge support from the Diaspora that has transformed this issue into an opportunity for its strength and influence to be felt. With some 4 million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is likely that more money will be flowing to Cameroon to feed the war that has rushed many young men and soldiers to an early grave.

While many parts of the world are working hard to avoid wars, Cameroon seems to be working in the opposite direction. Many people across the world are still surprised at the turn the conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country has taken.

They had thought that with age, Mr. Biya who is clearly on his way out of this world, would opt for peace. They argue that wisdom comes with age and that age should be one reason why Mr. Biya should leave the country on calm shores.

The greatest disappointment comes from the international community, especially the United Nations and the African Union which have entered into a conspiracy of silence. The African Union is supposed to be working towards conflict prevention, but it has proven in the case of Cameroon that it does not care and that the genocide is permitted on the continent even after the world had sworn in the 1990s that it would no longer allow another group to commit the type of killings that had been witnessed in Rwanda and strangely, the African Union Chairperson is Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President. What an irony of sorts.

However, the world must understand one thing. The genocide in Southern Cameroons will not address the issues raised by Southern Cameroonians. On the contrary, it will only continue to galvanize other young men and women who want to take their revenge. Cameroon is on slippery slope and if the world does not wake up from its slumber, it will only discover that another Rwanda has happened in Cameroon. Regardless of the excuses it will provide, Southern Cameroons will be a scar on its conscience for a long time.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

1. Ambazonia is not yet a democracy.
2. Ambazonia Government does not yet have the mechanism or ability to enforce any law.
3. The Ambazonia Government can not run as a pure democracy because her current situation does not support all the elements of democracy which includes free and fair Elections.
4. The Ambazonia Government is not yet capable of providing the basics to her citizens: security, public health, water, electricity and jobs.
5. The Ambazonia Government has no guarantee source of revenue to run it’s programs.
6. The Ambazonia Government is an interim Government.
7. The leaders of Ambazonia are on exile or in jail with the inability to freely travel and do what they want to do for their country.
8 The Ambazonia Government does not have any diplomatic allies yet who can protect or assist her.
9. The Ambazonia Government is a transitional one going through a process.
10. The Ambazonia Government has no economy or Intelligence system to depend on.
11. The Ambazonia Government is run by volunteers. Its very challenging to expect from volunteers what you can expect from employees.
12. Not every Ambazonian can serve as a volunteer because of many reasons: some could be fear of consequences to them or their families, they have jobs that gives them no extra time to sacrifice, some can not handle the extra workload with their work and family demands

If so what type of Government is Ambazonia?

The Answer is simple:

The Ambazonia Government is a Revolutionary Government.

What are some of the characteristics of a Revolutionary Government.

Decision can not be made by pure democracy. Not everyone will have the ability to participate. Even if everyone does participate in decision making, they do not have the power or mechanism to enforce what they agree.

THE ONLY TYPE OF GOVERNMENT THAT WILL SUIT AMBAZONIA IS DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP

This type of Government is the only one that is suitable and good for a revolution if it has to succeed. It means few people will be chosen to make decisions that everyone can follow until it becomes a Nation that can provide the basics necessities to it’s citizens.

Cameroon’s military says it has freed nine students and a teacher who were kidnapped this week from a school in one of the country’s restive English-speaking regions. It is the third time this month that students have been abducted from schools in the Anglophone regions.

Senior divisional officer Nto’ou Ndong Chamberlin says several gunmen were killed Wednesday in the military operation, and other armed men responsible for the abduction are on the run. The teacher was wounded in the rescue.

“Nine guns have been seized, four neutralized — among them the head of the team, called ‘Man of Lucks,’ and three bikes destroyed and even the camp has also been burned down by the forces of law and order [military],” Chamberlin said.

Gunmen kidnapped the students and their teacher Tuesday evening from Lords Bilingual School in Kumba, a city in Cameroon’s southwest region.

The kidnapping comes three weeks after gunmen kidnapped and then released 79 students and three staff from a school in the neighboring northwest region.

Eleven students were later kidnapped from the same Presbyterian Secondary School. Church moderator Fonki Samuel said a $4,000 ransom was paid to the abductors for their release.

Pierre Marie Abbe, a political analyst at the Catholic University of Central Africa, says the government’s war against the separatists has been a failure.

The government should drop the idea of war and organize dialogue with English-speaking Cameroonians, Abbe said. But for such a dialogue to be successful, he added, the government should meet Anglophone Cameroonians to find out from them who they see as their true leaders.

The government says separatists in the two English-speaking regions have torched at least a hundred schools and abducted or killed dozens of teachers. More than 90 percent of the regions’ schools remain closed.

The international community and rights groups have condemned violence from both sides and called on the government to negotiate an end to the crisis.

“The U.N. has, along with most of the international community, asked for dialogue,” said Allegra Maria Del Pilar Baiocchi, the U.N. resident coordinator for Cameroon. “We need to hear the voices of the people saying we have had enough and we want solutions. It should not only be the U.N. saying it or the ambassadors. We need confidence-building measures and I think we need peace.”

Unrest broke out in Cameroon’s western regions in 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers protested the dominance of French-speakers.

Cameroon’s military reacted with a crackdown, and armed separatists soon launched a campaign for independence.

Clashes since have killed more than 1,200 people.

Culled from the VOA

The international community cannot expect the CPDM crime syndicate in Yaounde to pursue and implement democratic principles in a country they have misruled for 35 years. Over the last 35 years, Biya has become very dictatorial and he has successfully deleted any lines that existed between the executive, judiciary and legislative branches of the government. It should be recalled that Mr. Biya appoints all magistrates and judges in the country and has a huge influence on members of parliament and senators, 30% of whom are directly appointed by him, while 70% are elected in a counterfeit election whose results are usually known many months ahead of time. And this same influence could be seen during the just-ended presidential elections.

The AU, EU and the UN should understand now that beating the incumbent through the ballot box in Cameroon is a Herculean task. The electoral code is beautifully written to ensure that the 85 year old Paul Biya is maintained in power. Even the election organizing body, ELECAM, is replete with members of the ruling party and this makes it hard for real impartial elections to be held in a country like Cameroon that lacks basic, transparent and fair election rules.

The ruling CPDM (Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement) party is considered by many Cameroonians are a crime syndicate due to the type of people who are its members. This party’s membership comprises ex-convicts, hardened criminals, murderers, business-people evading taxes and embezzlers. It has been banned in the Southern Cameroons by the Ambazonian Interim Government and designated as a terrorist organization.

The recent presidential elections in Cameroun that was state-managed on October the 7^th took place in a repressive political environment and the ruling cabal failed to provide conditions for fair and free voting. Both the Europeans and the current US administration are really awakened by the fact that the butcher in Yaounde cannot be trusted to run a democracy.

No right thinking democrat will be in power for 35 years and seek and gotten a 7^th term. Biya cannot be a democrat when more than 4000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed by troops under his command and when hundreds and thousands of both Ambazonians and French Cameroun political elites and activists’ are languishing behind bars.

The so-called presidential elections in French Cameroun following a massive boycott in Southern Cameroons was to recruit new criminals into the CPDM crime syndicate who will only implement what the dictator says and continue to misrule the impoverished nation.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London