Prof Carlson Anyangwe, a senior Southern Cameroons academic and frontline leader has catalogued the harms caused by the French Cameroun military attacks against the people of Southern Cameroons, saying the war has, directly and indirectly, inflicted hundreds of millions of US dollars in damage to the Southern Cameroons farming sector.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News, Prof Carlson Anyangwe said French Cameroun government army soldiers have looted agricultural buildings and facilities that were serving the CDC and PAMOL agro-industrial plants in Ndian, Fako and Menchum.

The Southern Cameroons figure added that agricultural warehouses, markets in the rural areas, farmers’ credit unions, and cocoa and coffee storage facilities have been demolished by troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Elsewhere in his conversation with our London Bureau Chief, Prof Carlson Anyangwe said that the regular destruction of farming equipment and tools belonging to Southern Cameroons farmers is a justification for the Ambazonia Interim Government to intensify the ghost town operations throughout the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Carlson Anyangwe also pointed out that the damage done to the Southern Cameroons agrarian population was very large and that more than 96 percent of Ambazonians relying on the farming sector for their survival have been negatively impacted.

Prof Anyangwe revealed that indirect damage in the Southern Cameroons farming sector includes loss of production capacity and alternative opportunities.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

The Biden Administration has begun hitting Biya administration officials where it hurts the most.

The Biden Administration has already indicated that Cameroon is a country which needs to be watched very carefully because of the gross human rights abuses taking place in the country, especially within the context of the Southern Cameroons crisis.

Washington clearly holds that the Yaoundé government is persecuting Southern Cameroonians for purely linguistic purposes.

The new U.S. Administration has sent Laurent Esso’s niece, Michelle Esso, out of the United States and she has been declared persona non grata.

Michelle Esso is paying a huge price for some of the errors and sins of her uncle, Laurent Esso, who is a key member of the Yaoundé crime syndicate that has usurped power and has opted to make things terribly hard for Cameroonians.

But it is the violence and disaster playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions of the country that is paining the Biden Administration that is very high on human rights.

More Cameroonians supporting the corrupt and violent Yaoundé government will be knowing their fate vis a vis the Biden Administration in the coming weeks.

The Biden Administration has begun showing its teeth and it is determined to bring the aging, ailing and corrupt Yaoundé government to the negotiating table where a peaceful resolution to the four-year-old conflict will be found.

More will be yours as Cameroon Concord News Group gathers more details.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Security sources in Maroua said on Sunday that three civilians and one soldier were confirmed killed after Boko Haram fighters targeted a village in the Far North region with an assault over Saturday night.

Various sources revealed that the heavily fortified insurgents came aboard many vehicles and motorcycles and set blaze two shops, hangars, and started firing extensively during the attack in Dabanga village of the region.

Local officers stated that more than three civilians and one soldier were killed during the attack. Three Boko Haram insurgents were also killed in the army’s response.

A military official who asked not to be identified said that “Had the military not arrived in time and repulsed the terrorists, the death toll would have been frightening.”

In what has been described as Southern Cameroons day of shame, Cameroon government troops deployed to Mbonge-a sub constituency in Meme Division have shot and killed at least 20 civilians including women and children.

Witnesses said the Francophone soldiers raided the area and spoke to the population in the French language making sure that those who responded were allowed to move out of Mbonge and those who could only reply in pidgin English were summarily executed.

Mbonge, the chief town in the Sub Division has been a hotbed of the Southern Cameroons resistance.

The Francophone army soldiers reportedly opened fire on the English speaking civilians who had returned from their daily routine including a child playing football.

There were also deaths reported around the Palace of the local traditional leader.

The government of Cameroon has no pity for anybody. The death of children and pregnant women during this fighting does not arouse any pity in government officials. The Biya Francophone regime has one objective – proving that it can win a war – and the generals leading the troops clearly hold that the insurgency is an opportunity for them to enrich themselves.

In an audio message aired by a Francophone soldier, a commander is heard instructing Cameroon government troops to shot in the head or back during the Mbonge raids.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima said it was “a Southern Cameroons day of shame for the French Cameroun armed forces.”

The roasting of vulnerable people is also nothing new during this conflict that has already sent more than 7,000 English speaking Cameroonians to an early grave. 

Kwakwa and Ngarbuh are still fresh in many minds. In Kwakwa, an old woman and a sick old man were roasted alive by army soldiers who are supposed to protect innocent civilians.

In Ngarbuh, government troops gunned down scores of people and set homes ablaze, leaving many calcinated in their homes. These were young children and pregnant women who had nothing to do with the insurgency that has been playing out in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon for over four years.

The government clearly holds that burning the homes of the poor and innocent people will cause the population to discontinue its support to the insurgents even when it has not been really proven that the population is supporting the fighters.

From every indication, it is also clear that the population has been caught between the devil and deep blue sea. The same population is being threatened by the Southern Cameroonian fighters when the fighters feel that they have been betrayed by somebody. The population is confused and does not know who to turn to.

At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. Cameroon has been passing for a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

The international community has repeatedly called for genuine and inclusive dialogue but the Biya regime remains intransigent in the face of global outcry.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Cameroon’s soldiers are currently facing new challenges in Southern Cameroons and some of these challenges could be life-threatening.

The war that has been a nightmare to young army soldiers is gradually morphing into the end of the road for young army soldiers sent to the English-speaking regions without proper training.

From every indication, it is not only the ferocious Amba fighters who have struck fear in the minds of army soldiers that are a problem to Cameroon’s army, the poor state of the roads in that region and poorly maintained military trucks have become the new challenge that might cause more problems to the already stretched military.

Each time the country’s soldiers are sent to Southern Cameroons, many of them head to the jungles of Southern Cameroons with tons of butterflies in their stomach.

Amba fighters have killed thousands of soldiers and the fear of these hastily recruited soldiers can be read on their faces when they cross into former West Cameroons. They want to earn the salary, but are scared of doing their job in a region that has been the graveyard of many of their colleagues.

Yesterday, the bad roads in Manyu delivered bad news to the government. These roads have been impracticable for years and the government’s negligence seems to be catching up with it.

Cameroon government army soldiers on board a military vehicle were seriously injured in a crash late on Friday near Mamfe, the capital of Manyu Division, where the insurgency has always remained a tough challenge to the government.

The Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that the military vehicle slipped off the muddy road and overturned, resulting in 8 soldiers sustaining life-threatening injuries. They are currently in the ill-equipped Mamfe General Hospital which may become their mortuary if they don’t get evacuated.

Though the bad roads could be to blame, many locals told our correspondent in Mamfe that the vehicle was driving at lightning speed going through an area that is still under the control of the dangerous Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Francophone Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu whose presence in the Division is very disturbing has been quoted as saying that the Manyu population should remain calm and wait for the outcome of an investigation by the military.

But the population is not buying the administrative officer’s message seriously, especially as the government has been caught on many occasions performing a mincing dance around the truth.

Manyu has remained a hotspot since the fighting started 4 years ago, especially as the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, hails from this natural resources-rich Division.

The natives of this Division are not going to throw one of theirs under the boss anytime soon and the Amba fighters who have been keeping law and order in the Division have vowed that they will not be downing their tools until Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe gets released from the East Cameroons dungeons where he has been locked up for more than 2 years.

While Amba fighters are not inflicting more pain on the soldiers, the bad roads are gradually wearing down the war-weary soldiers who have begun questioning the rationale behind this war that could have been avoided.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai