Madam Chantal Biya

The First Lady of the Republic of Cameroon

The Unity Palace

Yaounde, Cameroon

Central Africa

November 13, 2018

It is with greatest concern and respect for the future of women, children and people of Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) that I greet you in this unusual correspondence. It is my hope and certainly my trust that this letter finds you in the best of health.

I still recall the excitement and joyous day on April 23^rd, 1994, when as a young woman you got married and became the First Lady of the Republic of Cameroon. I celebrated that day for two reasons; that the country had as First Lady a younger woman and with the establishment of the Chantal Biya Foundation that same year, you demonstrated your desire to attend to the sufferings of the vulnerable,underprivileged, the sick and weak in Cameroon. I knew that as a woman and a mother, the sanctity of life and the burning desire to protect it was very close to your heart and this has been demonstrated through your philanthropic and humanitarian efforts through the years.With your humanitarian credentials, there was no doubt in my mind that you would protect the best interest of the people of Cameroon as their First Lady.

However, I write to you today, forced into exile and no longer in Cameroon, nearly twenty-four years later with a heavy heart. I hold a heavy heart because of the desperate and horrific situation in Southern Cameroons

The conflict in the Southern Cameroons has taken a terrible toll on the vulnerable community and the stench of death and desolation has engulfed the villages,towns and cities. The depravity and senseless disregard of human life by the security forces of the government of Cameroon is alarming. We are seeing scenes reminiscent of the Ethiopian civil war in the 80s with dead bodies abandoned on the side of our roads, charred bodies of our elderly and vulnerable, burnt alive in their homes and entire villages incinerated from the face of the earth.

The security forces are carrying out extra-judicial killings of the population, the lives of our active young men are no longer assured today than it is tomorrow, and our young women are raped with reckless brutality by the security forces of the government of Cameroon. The trauma and scars of death on the desolate eyes of our children seeing their parents savagely bludgeoned by the security forces is leaving a painful impact characterized by nightmares in these young minds. Most of the indigenous population has been forced into the open forest and exposed to the elements. Nursing mothers and women under their period are left with no options, but to use dead vegetation for their basic hygienic needs. It is a terrible sight to behold.

Cash crops like cocoa, coffee, palm kernels have been abandoned to waste in the farms because the farmers have either been forced to flee or are too afraid to even hold their artisanal tools like cutlasses to go to the farms because that is in itself a death sentence from the security forces. Almost 300,000 IDP and about 100,000 refugees living in squalid conditions in neighboring Nigeria, thousands killed, and some buried in mass graves and thousands arrested, abducted and whisked to dangerous dungeons in Cameroon. The economy of Southern Cameroons that have been systematically abandoned for the last 57 years has been completely eviscerated and devastated by the conflict, punitive curfews and road closures that make movement and commerce between villages and towns perniciously impossible and frustrating.

My hearts bleeds for the children and women rendered orphans and widows, my heart bleeds upon the dark clouds circling above Southern Cameroons, My heart bleeds for the painful and horrific burning of elderly men and women in their homes, the pain, the anger, the complete obliteration of entire communities and cultures. I weep for the mothers and wives of the young soldiers whose lives are also being wasted in this senseless war.

It was permissible in the beginning of this crisis that you stayed silent, it was permissible that you remained indifferent, but it is no longer permissible in light of what we know now. It is no longer permissible as a mother of the nation who understands the pain of childbirth to remain indifferent to the plight of the people of Southern Cameroons. It is a travesty that the pain and suffering of mothers and young women who looked up to you, who sang, praised and celebrated you have been abandoned and treated with this level of disdain. How do you sleep at night as a mother knowing that young children have been deprived of education because of the security situation for the past two years, how do you wake up each morning not knowing what may happened to your loved ones in Southern Cameroons and how can you stay mute for this long with the unravelling refugee crisis in Southern Cameroons. What has happened to the humanity in you? Cry My Beloved Country!

As the wife of Sissiku Julius Ayuk-Tabe (leader of Southern Cameroons), I understand the political implication of this crisis. However, there are times when humanity and government come together for a common goal. In this case, the goal is the protection of humanity; the innocent and helpless men, women and children in Southern Cameroons. They are unable to speak or defend themselves. They live in terror because they never know when they hear the sound of guns in their village, if it is their turn to be killed or taken away in the darkness of the early morning. Imagine the terror that overcomes them when they hear the deafening screams of a sister, aunt, cousin, a playmate or a mother being brutally raped. They know then that they are next. It is compared to an execution queue where men are waiting to be taken away for execution, and they hear the deadly sound of the firing squad as they queue in and wait their turn. The torture, taunts and torments are unimaginable, and you could hear grown men crying.

I realize that I may come under criticisms and accusations for writing this letter to you. I have no other motive to write this letter, other than for you to rally the mothers of Cameroon and bring pressure to bear on your husband and the government of Cameroon for an inclusive dialogue and a negotiated solution to this crisis and the immediate release of our leaders including my husband. The deafening silence from you is no longer acceptable. The lives of 8 million Southern Cameroonians and the fate of their leaders in jail is in your hands. Madam First Lady set the example for other women to follow.

It is not too late for you to send the message; that the mothers of Cameroon will no longer tolerate this war. The Southern Cameroons women will applaud you and women around the world will celebrate you.

The Lives of Southern Cameroons children, mothers and fathers also Matter and the continuing silence in the face of these killings is collusion.

I look forward to collaborating with you to look for an inclusive and negotiated solutions to this crisis.

Respectfully,

Lilian Ayuk-Tabe

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

On October 22, the Cameroun Constitutional Council announced that incumbent President Paul Biya won the presidential election with 71.3 percent of the vote. Opposition parties petitioned the ruling of the Constitutional Council, citing eighteen cases of voter fraud, ballot stuffing and intimidation. The Council dismissed each case. After claiming victory for himself earlier in the month, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) leader and presidential candidate Professor Maurice Kamto rejected the results. In his refutation, Kamto called on all Cameroonians to be prepared to fight for their freedom and vowed that his party would use all legal means available to restore truth to the ballot box.

In another unusual turn, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, the Archbishop of Douala and president of the bishops’ conference in Cameroon, stated that it was virtually impossible that Biya had won in the Far North and in the two Anglophone regions, the North West and South West, by the landslide margins he claimed. The northern region is the most underdeveloped part of the country, and a majority of residents there still harbor the scars of their parents and loved ones, who were brutally executed by Paul Biya’s government on the heels of an attempted coup d’Etat in 1984. In the Anglophone North West and South West regions of the country, representing roughly 20 percent of Cameroon’s 25 million citizens, Cameroun government forces and Ambazonia Restoration Forces have been fighting since 2017.The conflict has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and fighters, and Cameroonian soldiers have burnt close to 1000 homes in at least 100 villages in the Anglophone region, following the Biya regime’s “scorched earth” policy. More than 50,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria; over 500,000 people have been internally displaced, and upwards of 300,000 people are estimated to be hiding in the forest.

This presidential election was a watershed moment for Cameroonians to salvage a collapsing nation by listening to the people’s voice at the ballot box. It offered an opportunity to peacefully transition to new and fresh leadership that would reform democratic institutions and apportion political and economic opportunities based on character and merit, instead of deferring, time and again, to corrupt party and tribal lines.

Despite glaring cases of fraud, incredibly low turnout (just 5% of the electorate voted in the Anglophone regions), and popular resentment against Biya’sregime, both domestically and internationally, it appears that the election results will stand. However, these flaws in the election process could hamper Biya’s attempts to attract foreign investment in the future and could further strain relations between Yaoundé and western capitals like Paris, London and Washington.

Biya—86 years old, President since 1982, and suffering from terminal prostate cancer—is no longer considered a force of stability in the fragile central African region. In international circles, he is perceived as a fatigued despot whose failure to adequately manage contemporary political challenges could worsen the already formidable financial, political and social crises confronting the nation. These crises could in turn incur further humanitarian consequences and could exacerbate security threats and stability challenges for neighboring countries, especially Nigeria. To that end, as a measure to contain the challenges presented by French Cameroun, western powers are likely to shift their focus and begin to support the Ambazonia Liberation War in international diplomatic forums.

In the face of mounting domestic strife and piqued international attention, Biya will have to make a number of difficult decisions in the coming months and years. Will he attempt to contain domestic resistance at the possible price of alienating international powers? Ultimately, the Biya regime may opt for peaceful separation with Ambazonia and aim to establish friendly relations with their neighbors by negotiating new trade and security agreements. Otherwise, the Biya regime will face the uphill task of sustaining an asymmetric fight with highly determined guerilla splinter groups, which number over 20,000 fighters and are supported by more than 90 percent of the population. The Ambazonia decolonization process hangs over the head of Cameroon like Damocles’s sword.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon will never be the same again. The whole world was anticipating that 85 year-old President Biya will step down in the best interest of the Cameroonian nation that is badly in search for greater peace, justice, development, unity and joy.  It is abundantly clear that things have taking an excellent backward trend with condoms, bread and sardine now featuring prominent in Cameroonian politics.

To be sure, Cameroonians deserve to enjoy good living conditions, democratic governance, equity and freedom for their unbelievable tolerance and long – drawn hope which the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo (military and civilian) regime have always promised, at each election year.

Recently and particularly in French Cameroun innocent Francophone voters, youths and non-partisan technocrats have been regaled with flowery campaign promises, unimaginable project deliveries from French Cameroun’s old and new public office seekers.

This seventh mandate stolen from Prof Maurice Kamto and given to President Biya did not witness the furnace of chop – I – chop political tomfoolery. It however saw the rise of bread and sardine and the presidential distribution of condoms. The French Cameroun monarch did not even campaign but reportedly dispatched his desperate merchants who masqueraded as saviours of the Cameroonian nation and assailed the Francophone population with worn-out and empty promises.

The October 7 counterfeit presidential polls in French Cameroun revealed one small thing-small but great and it is that even the Bamileke and Hausa business communities including the clergy all live on politics. So, after 35 years as Head of State, all what a University of Sorbonne graduate is offering his people is sardine and bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The 2018 presidential elections were also quite apt for those French Cameroun CPDM professionals who make their fortunes when politics, especially campaigns, hot up.

This begs the question: Who were the immediate beneficiaries of the October 7 presidential poll? They included  Chinese printers,  French Cameroun textile merchants, carpenters, drivers, transporters, Makossa and Bikutsi musicians, news reporters, print and electronic media, food vendors, the Francophone dominated army, body guards, soothsayers, prayer warriors, native doctors, godfathers etc.

Partaking in the bread-sardine and condom party were respectable clergies such as the Arch Bishop of Yaounde and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon. Food is indeed ready!! Enjoy your meal.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya pledged to give more powers to the central African nation’s regions, starting his seventh term in office with a call to separatist groups in the country’s English-speaking areas to end a bloody insurgency.

The speech to lawmakers marked only the second time that Biya, 85, publicly addressed the conflict that has left at least 400 people dead since it began two years ago. “I understand your problems, I know them and will do well to solve them,” Biya said Tuesday in the capital, Yaounde. “Government will accelerate the decentralization process in response to the desire of the population to manage their own affairs.”

Africa’s second-longest serving head of state easily won presidential elections last month that were overshadowed by the insurgency and a security clampdown that hindered voting in the two Anglophone regions. Cameroon is divided into 10 semi-autonomous regions, which are headed by governors appointed by Biya.

Opposition Arrests

Maurice Kamto, one of Biya’s opponents in the October polls, and some of his supporters were arrested Tuesday when they protested in the capital against the outcome of vote, according to a party official.

“Our president was also arrested but quickly released,” Ndong Christopher, secretary general of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, said by phone.

Source: Bloomberg

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon’s president on Tuesday warned Anglophone separatists to lay down their arms or face the full force of the law, a day after dozens of schoolchildren were abducted in the rebel region.

Clashes between a secessionist movement and the army began more than a year ago in west Cameroon, killing over 400 civilians and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

On Monday, unidentified assailants kidnapped 79 children, their principal and a driver from the PSS Nkwen school in Bamenda in Northwest region and took them into the bush outside town, military and government sources said.

An army spokesman blamed separatists for Monday’s kidnapping. A separatist spokesman denied involvement and said government soldiers had carried it out, as a ploy to discredit the insurgents.

President Paul Biya, making an inauguration speech after re-election last month that extends his 36-year-old rule, did not mention the kidnapping but attacked the separatists.

‘Rigor of the law’

“They need to know that they will face the rigor of the law and the determination of our defense and security forces,” Biya said in the national assembly. “I appeal to them to lay down their arms.”

Last week, an American Baptist missionary was shot dead amid fighting between the army and separatists in Bamenda.

The secessionists have imposed curfews and closed schools as part of their rebellion against the French-speaking government, which they say has marginalized the Anglophone minority.

Samuel Fonki, a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, said he had been mediating with the kidnappers for the children’s release. He said separatists were responsible.

The search for the children continued Tuesday. About 200 parents gathered outside the school, waiting to hear if their children were among those who had been abducted or had remained unharmed at the school.

Authorities denied parents access to the school, according to six parents and a security guard who spoke to Reuters.

The kidnapping was a chilling echo of the 2014 abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. There are no known links between the Cameroon separatists and the Nigerian Islamist militant group.

Culled from The VOA

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

After his swearing-in on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, ordered the arrest of prominent members of the MRC, the party led by Professor Kamto who actually won last month’s presidential election.

Among those arrested are Prof. Maurice Kamto, Barrister Simh, Christian Penda Ekoka, Alain Fogue Tedom, Okala Ebode and 20 others who were attending an impromptu meeting with some of their party members.

Addressing his party members at the meeting, Prof. Maurice Kamto, a legal expert, stated clearly that he had been elected by Cameroonians based on merit and not based on his ethnic background, adding that he had been elected to represent all Cameroonians.

He stressed that he had been elected based on his political program that focused on the poor, the humble and the suffering masses who have been working hard to enable the country stay afloat.

He added that today was a very bad day for democracy in Cameroon. He deplored that fact that many Southern Cameroonians were living in the bushes in the North West and South West regions of the country, with thousands seeking a safe sanctuary in Nigeria.

He said the people could count on him as he and the winning coalition that enabled him to win the election would continue to fight on the people’s behalf. He stressed that Cameroon belonged to all Cameroonians and that no Cameroonian should be judged based on their tribe.

He pointed out that Biya had been sworn-in as the country’s president because of the system is corrupt; adding that for the past 36 years, Mr. Biya and his collaborators had fostered tribalism. Shortly after addressing the crowd, Prof. Kamto and his collaborators were whisked away to the Elig- Essono Judicial Police where they are being questioned.

Mr. Biya’s iron feast has started striking his opponents even as he promised during the swearing-in ceremony that he would work hard to reunite the country; something he has failed to do in 36 years.

He promised to restore peace in the North West and South West regions, but did not provide details on how he was going to achieve that given that for more than 24 months, the English speaking regions of the country have been under the control of separatists who have made them ungovernable despite the government’s violent military adventure.

He urged the youths in the two regions who have given government troops a run for their money to return to the path of peace by dropping down their weapons. “I want to call on the youths engaged in hostilities to drop their arms and follow the right path…especially the younger ones who have indulged in a fruitless cause,” he said. He added that “I am convinced the majority of Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions want peace and I am determined to address the root causes of their frustrations.”

He pointed out that negative forces had taken advantage of the genuine demands of the people to foster a secessionist agenda which he stressed was against the country’s constitution and the notion of living together.

Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, the Cameroon Concord News Group reporter in Yaounde spoke with a senior member of the ruling CPDM from the North West region who has been pushing for dialogue and reconciliation. From the discussion, it was clear that there were lots of frustrations within the ruling party as the conflict in the English-speaking regions continues to escalate.

The CPDM member who elected anonymity said that Mr. Biya might have been sworn in as the country’s president, but he knows that he did not win the election and should use this opportunity to undertake actions that will enable the country heal.

“He knows he did not win the election. He knows that a lot of fraudulent things have been done to keep him in power. I think he should now starts thinking of bringing the country together by calling for inclusive dialogue that will enable the country heal,” he said.

“He should be thinking of the type of Cameroon he would be leaving behind. He has been robbing other people of their victory for more than two decades. In 1992, he robbed Mr. Fru Ndi of his victory and today, he has been sworn in as the president of the country, robbing Professor Maurice Kamto who is very much admired by the people and the international community. He cannot continue to usurp power. He has pushed the country to the brink. He has transformed himself into a monarch and this makes it hard for those around him to tell him the truth,” the CPDM senior member regretted.

“I know Cameroonians are always expecting Mr. Biya to die as they believe his death could herald the beginning of a new era and the end of hostilities in the two English-speaking regions, but I strongly believe that he has been sentenced to life by God. He will not be dying anytime soon and he might live long to see the country change. People like him spend more time regretting in the later part of their lives. I hope he will use this term in office to reverse some of the damage his inefficient management has brought to the country,” he stressed.

“Mr. Biya has had a long time to bring peace and security to the country, but he seems to be happy seeing others bleed to death. I am a member of the ruling party and I can tell you that many in the party want the issues that have weakened our country to be addressed very fast. But the hawks in the regime like Prof. Fame Ndongo are insisting that only an all-out war can resolve the Anglophone crisis. We have already lost more than 1,500 soldiers and some 3,000 civilians in the English-speaking regions of the country. How many more Cameroonians have to die before Mr. Biya realizes that he has failed the people?” he quipped.

Though Mr. Biya has been sown in today, it is clear that not much will change. The next seven years will not witness any fundamental political changes and this will make many people to continue to think that the country is a ticking time bomb.

Cameroon is replete with many problems and many of them are off-shoots of the mismanagement, tribalism and corruption that have become the country’s hallmark. Corruption has robbed the country of the financial resources it needs to undertake major development work.

The country lacks good medical infrastructure. Most of its hospitals have become consultation clinics. The road infrastructure also leaves much to be desired. The roads are today death traps that are consuming the population at a rate never seen before.

The country’s economy too has taken a nosedive. Over the last 20 years, Cameroon’s economy has been caught in a tailspin. Unemployment has continued to rise, with university graduates not being able to find jobs. Many corporations have gone under, leaving many of their workers unemployed.

But the most difficult challenge is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is very likely to tear the country apart. For more than two years, Southern Cameroonians have engaged the government in a tough battle that has resulted in the killing of some 4,500 Cameroonians, including over 1,500 soldiers.

Following a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in 2016, the two English-speaking regions have become ungovernable. The government’s military actions have caused thousands to flee to Nigeria while millions are hiding in the bushes to avoid the government’s brutality.

Many children are today seeking refuge in those bushes and many babies have been delivered in the process. The number of teenage mothers has increased and this spells another serious problem in the future. The government has not made any convincing efforts to bring the people for their bushes.

On the contrary, soldiers have been torching many homes and killing any young Southern Cameroonians found in the territory in the hope that they could eliminate any threat Southern Cameroonians pose to the government.

Schools have been closed now for two years in the region and many of the students have simply been co-opted into the armed groups that have emerged. As the government turns down any appeals for inclusive dialogue, so too does the situation deteriorate. Even after solutions to the conflict would have been sought, security issues will linger for a long time. Many young men, who have lost hope in life, will continue to use their weapons as a means of eking out a living.

While Southern Cameroonians are struggling to break away from the Yaounde government, Boko Haram is bombing many northerners out of existence. The government’s repressive approach has only caused the people to run to Boko Haram whose methods are more appreciated by the population. The government is yet to understand that its repressive approach is not yielding the right results and this is exactly what caused the Southern Cameroons crisis to escalate.

Mr. Biya might have been handed victory by the fake institutions he has created, but with that victory comes a crown of thorns that might keep him uncomfortable for seven years. The people of Cameroon have lost confidence in him. After 36 years in power, Cameroon has been put in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It will take a miracle for most of the problems currently facing the country to be addressed by the same man who is responsible for these issues.

The world is watching Cameroon and many people will be keeping an eye on Mr. Biya. Many want to see how comfortable he will be in his new crown of thorns. The country is out of cash. It has very few friends around the world and its finances are fast dwindling. With oil prices diminishing on a daily basis and separatists threatening to disrupt oil production in the South-west region, it is clear that before long the government will be taking its begging bowl to other parts of the world for assistance.

Many of its corporations are bleeding money and those in the English-speaking regions of the country that used to haul in millions of dollars are unfortunately out of business due to the armed conflict that is unfolding in the region. The English-speaking regions are in a stand-still and this implies businesses are dying and the government is losing lots of revenue.

Mr. Biya might wear the crown today, but it is clear that the hidden thorns in it will keep him permanently ill at ease. Most of country’s allies have called on the government to find sustainable solutions to the Southern Cameroons crisis and America has simply ended its military partnership with the country due to serious human abuses in the northern part of the country.

Mr. Biya will have to burn the mid-night candle on both ends if he has to post any results. His dwindling financial resources imply that he has a crisis on his hands and with the country awash with weapons, it is clear that the government’s military actions in the English-speaking regions will not deliver the military solutions it has been hankering after for two years.

Cameroonians may have avoided the streets for the sake of peace, but that does not imply Mr. Biya and his men will have to continue to sleep at the switch. They must have their noses to the grindstone if they want Cameroonians to see them differently. After 36 years in power, without anything to show for, Mr. Biya has to change his ways. He must stop using the country’s treasury like his personal ATM. He has to be transparent in the way he runs the affairs of the country and he must embrace genuine democracy. He must see dialogue as an effective tool for conflict resolution and prevention. Arresting his opponents only makes things worse.

By Kingsley Betek and Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

When he entered the Bakassi affair, he did not demand a contract or fees, he was a CAMEROONIAN

When he risked his life 3 times as part of the trip for the Cameroonian border studies in the context of this case, he was CANEROONIAN

When he brilliantly led the technical delegation to The Hague, which led to a favourable verdict on October 10, 2002, he was a CAMEROONIAN

When he was appointed Minister Delegate to have the same official rank as the Nigerian Chief Negotiator, he was a CAMEROONIAN

When he refuses to be in the government car service and fly in first class, he was seriously Cameroonian.

When he brilliantly managed the negotiations that led to the GREEN TREE agreements, he was a CAMEROONIAN

When he decides to run for the supreme office, to be the Head Of State, one suddenly remembers that he is BAMILÉKÉ, and that despite his competence, his is impeccable and the project of our society and his almost perfect political program, can’t come fruiting because he is BAMILEKE.

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Who still needs proof that the Biya regime corrupts virtually everything it touches?  In Cameroon, if you are looking for Justice and truth, by now you know better than to go to court or even to church. Sheer bribery in cash or privileges has rendered the justice apparatus rustier than Tinman in the  Wizard of Oz.

Even the mainstream churches who have hitherto claimed to be the conscience of the nation, and who should wield massive influence by the sheer numbers of their following, have been reduced to speaking with forked tongues.

Is it brown envelopes or the fear of reprisals for non-compliance that have made our men of God abandon the side of the truth? Or do they no longer believe their own sermons about the truth that sets us free? What has turned Christ’s dauntless transformers into gutless conformists?

But all is seemingly not lost, what with the existence of remnants like Monsignor Samuel Kleda of the Catholic Episcopal Council, who refuse to be cowed or bought. For his refusal to endorse what he saw as glaring falsehoods in the October 7 poll, one would have renamed him Daniel, if Samuel were not already so strongly anointed.

Like Cardinal Tumi as we once knew him (he is now wrestling with a certain gullibility over the way forward for Southern Cameroon), Kleda appears to be a lone bold voice of integrity in Cameroon’s moral wilderness. The logic of his doubt about the proclaimed results of the October election in Southern Cameroon is not just sound; it is as compelling as the media reports of his statement are shameless. After watching the video of his press pronouncement your heart bled for Cameroon as you followed the disgraceful disparities between private and public media reports of the same incident. And lest you conclude that the dissonance in the voices of the churches is a matter of denomination, Kleda’s own Roman Catholic Church was quick to hatch a new posture on the issue – one that is less critical of the conduct of the election, and hence less likely to step on the regime’s toes. So it seems that instead of uniting the politicians with truth, the Church is letting politicians dismember it, not least along tribal lines.

But Kleda was to be vindicated over the weekend by reports of the military shooting unarmed civilians and burning homes in Nyassoso, a small town in Kupe Muanenguba where It is claimed Biya won 90% of the vote. Maybe people like Minister Elvis Ngole Ngole, local elite by default, can volunteer a plausible reason why his boss would be killing people who had just voted so massively for him.

Under normal circumstances, the Church could justifiably claim the last word in Cameroon, not only by dint of its status as the nation’s divine compass, but also because Cameroon’s population is dominantly Christian, and its key institutions are manned by Christians. But because of its obsequious quibbling it has lost that last word to an individual who moral compass no longer knows the north, that’s if it ever did.

What makes the church’s abdication truly calamitous is that it has created a surrender syndrome. When Cameroonians talk about the way their country is run, they always end up shrugging their shoulders and saying in French, “on va faire comment?” (what shall one do?)

This is the hopelessness that explains the willingness of many young people to undertake the perilous journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean – in the belief that life could not possibly be worse anywhere else.

It is this same desperation and the murderous disposition of the regime that have driven Anglophone separatism to a point of no return, with the vast majority taking a psychological one-way ticket to Ambazonia.

It is the rejection of this “on-va-faire-comment” syndrome that has fired up the droves of young Southern Cameroon restorationist fighters who, with nothing but dane guns and machetes, are standing up to the regime’s armoured cars, AK47s and Zastavas.

It is that same rejection that fuels the mammoth marches in Cameroon’s embassies abroad and the President’s embarrassing encounters with his compatriots protesting against him in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

He may have the force of experience but the people’s experience of inescapable brute force has done to them what it had to do. It has transformed them from hopeless to dauntless.

Seseskou Shey Ebini Christmas

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon’s speaker of the National Assembly Cavaye Yeguie Djibril on Friday criticized post-electoral “disorder and division” in the country.

“I strongly oppose to any call for civil disobedience and division. I therefore appeal to your collective sense of responsibility.” Djibril said at the opening of the November ordinary session of the National Assembly.

Djibril stressed that the Oct. 7 presidential election which saw incumbent Paul Biya re-elected unfolded in “calm and serenity” .

The condemnation came following frequent protests by supporters of Maurice Kamto of Cameroon Renaissance Movement who claimed to have won the election.

Djibril also expressed concerns over comments by the president of the National Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, questioning the authenticity of the results in favour of Paul Biya in war-torn English-speaking regions of Southwest and Northwest.

“Moral authorities, men of God in general in my opinion, have the sacred duty to preach peace, unity and co-existence and not to sow the seeds of discord. They have the sacred mission to convey a message of togetherness and appeasement, not to incite violence and confrontation.” Djibril said.

The National Assembly was meeting after nearly four months of recess. The president-elect Paul Biya is expected to be sworn-in by the National Assembly early next week.

Xinhua

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com