27, January 2020

Yaounde on high alert over possible Ambazonia attacks ⁰

Cameroon’s police are on high alert over possible separatist attacks in the capital, Yaounde, a senior police officer said on Monday.

Cameroon police chief Martin Mbarga Nguelle said security forces have been on high alert since receiving relevant intelligence reports.

He urged the police to adopt a higher level of vigilance in “sensitive posts” and to report any suspicious activities.

Nguelle warned that the attackers mainly use motorcycles to undertake their operations.

Police sources said some of the “wanted and notorious” armed separatists have already made contacts with “their friends” as they plan to sneak into the capital and other urban centers to launch attacks.

Armed separatists want the Northwest and Southwest English-speaking regions to secede from the majority French-speaking Cameroon and form a new country known as “Ambazonia.” They have been clashing with government forces since 2017.

Last Friday, Cameroonian president Paul Biya said on last Friday, although the security situation in the regions has improved, “few (separatist) groups” continue to commit atrocities and to destroy the property of citizens.

Source: Xinhaunet

27, January 2020

Revealed: Ambazonia General Chacha killed during a French Cameroun military operation ⁰

The renowned Ambazonia General Chacha leader of a Southern Cameroons Restoration Force popularly known as the Bui Warriors, was killed on Sunday January 26, 2020 during a French Cameroun military operation in Bui County.

The Francophone dominated Cameroon government army reportedly launched a surprise attack late in the night in the camp that was harbouring the brave Southern Cameroons fighter and twenty of his combatants in Kikaikom in the Kumbo district.

French Cameroun army general Valère Nka, commander of the 5th military region who made the news public also said the security situation in Bui County was heading back to normal.

General Chacha is the second prominent Ambazonia Self Defense chief to be killed within a week, after General Efang .

Since the beginning of the 2020, the Biya Francophone regime has announced significant military reinforcements in Southern Cameroons, in preparation for the parliamentary and municipal elections on February 9.

By Rita Akana

27, January 2020

World mourns NBA star Kobe Bryant, daughter following chopper crash ⁰

American basketball star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and three others were killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Sunday, his sudden death at age 41 touching off an outpouring of grief for a star whose celebrity transcended basketball.

The chopper went down in Calabasas, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Authorities confirmed that five people died, with no survivors.

Bryant, an all-time basketball great who spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, was among the victims, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

A different person familiar with the case confirmed that Bryant´s 13-year-old daughter Gianna also was killed.

Word of Bryant´s sudden death at age 41 rocketed around the sports and entertainment worlds, with many taking to Twitter to register their shock, disbelief and dismay.

“There’s no words to express the pain Im going through,” tweeted Lakers teammate Shaquille O´Neal, who won three NBA titles with Bryant. “(at)kobebryant I love u and u will be missed. … IM SICK RIGHT NOW.”

“Man I don´t even know where to start,” tweeted Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid. “I started playing ball because of KOBE after watching the 2010 finals. I had never watched ball before that and that finals was the turning point of my life. I WANTED TO BE LIKE KOBE. I´m so FREAKING SAD right now!!!!”

NBA legend

Bryant retired in 2016 as the third-leading scorer in NBA history, finishing two decades with the Lakers as a prolific scorer with a sublime all-around game and a relentless competitive ethic.

He held that spot in the league scoring ranks until Saturday night, when the Lakers´ LeBron James passed him for third place during a game in Philadelphia, Bryant´s hometown.

“Continuing to move the game forward (at)KingJames,” Bryant wrote in his last tweet. “Much respect my brother.”

Bryant had one of the greatest careers in recent NBA history and became one of the game´s most popular players as the face of the 16-time NBA champion Lakers franchise. He was the league MVP in 2008 and a two-time NBA scoring champion, and he earned 12 selections to the NBA´s All-Defensive teams.

He teamed with Shaquille O´Neal in a combustible partnership to lead the Lakers to NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He later teamed with Pau Gasol to win two more titles in 2009 and 2010.

Bryant retired in 2016 after scoring 60 points in his final NBA game.

Investigating the accident

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the downed chopper was a Sikorsky S-76.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a “go team” of investigators to the site. The NTSB typically issues a preliminary report within about 10 days that will give a rough summary of what investigators have learned. A ruling on the cause can take a year or more.

“They will look at man, machine and environment,” said Gary C. Robb, an aviation attorney in Kansas City who wrote a textbook on helicopter-crash litigation.

“They will look at the pilot – was there any indication of fatigue, any indication of a training issue?They´ll scour his or her record,” Robb said. “They will look at this helicopter from stem to stern. They will take the engine to the NTSB metallurgical laboratory outside Washington, D.C., and examine it to see if there was something that malfunctioned in flight.”

Investigators will also consider what role might have been played by weather, terrain, radio towers or bird strikes, he said.

Robb said he has handled many cases involving Sikorsky S-76 crashes and regards the machine as having a good reputation.

“It is generally regarded as a good helicopter with a good safety record,” he said, “but parts fail, parts break. Anything can happen.”

Beyond basketball

Along with his work boosting women´s sports, Bryant opened a production company and entered the entertainment field in retirement. He won an Academy Award in 2018 for his contributions to “Dear Basketball,” an animated short about his relationship to the game. He also produced content for ESPN.

In 2003, Bryant was charged with attacking a 19-year-old employee at a Colorado resort. He had said the two had consensual sex. Prosecutors later dropped the felony sexual assault charge against Bryant at the request of the accuser.

Source: AFP

27, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cardinal Tumi says things are improving ⁰

Cardinal Christian Tumi is a known critic of the Cameroon government, yet he was one of those chosen by the regime to lead a “peace caravan” to the West African country’s troubled Anglophone regions.

After weeks meeting with various stakeholders, the cardinal now believes peace is gradually returning to the two regions, which contain about 20 percent of the country’s population that has often felt marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

In a wide-ranging interview with Crux, Tumi talks not only about the peace process, but he also examines the historical trajectory of the Anglophone problem in Cameroon, the 2017 death of Bishop Jean-Marie Benoît Balla – which authorities have said was a suicide but the nation’s bishops say was murder – as well as the life of the Church in the country.

Crux: Is the Christian faith still embedded in the hearts of Cameroonians who you meet daily?

Tumi: I think so. When a Christian goes through a difficult situation, it’s at such a time that his faith is tested. Sometimes, when God allows for difficult situations in the life of a Christian, it is to put him in a situation of persevering prayer. It is also to put him in the school of patience.

What do you mean by “the school of patience”?

We tell our Christians every year that no matter the situation, no matter the difficulty, they should always have faith in the Lord who knows our past, our present and our future, and who knows all that is good for our spiritual life and even for our material life, because he is the one who created us.

During the celebration of the Feast of Nativity, the Archbishop of Yaoundé, Jean Mbarga, called on Cameroonians to “take their destiny into their hands.” That seems to contradict your insistence that people should pray and wait for God to decide their fate?

I am not contradicting what the archbishop of Yaoundé said. To wait doesn’t mean to do nothing by oneself. First, the fact that one can take the initiative to ask God to get us out of our difficulties, it’s already something. He himself has said, despite the fact that He already knows our needs, he asks us to pray without ceasing.

Pope Francis during his Christmas message condemned violent uprisings across the world, and went forward to comfort persecuted Christians. Is this message relevant to Cameroon?

Of course! It depends where we find ourselves. In the north of the country – I spent twelve years in the North of the country – and I am convinced that there are Christians in the north of the country who lived their Christian lives like martyrs and I am not only thinking of Catholics. I am thinking also of Christians from other denominations who suffered, who lost their jobs because they were Christians.

And we know many priests have been killed, with many believing Bishop Jean-Marie Benoît Balla was murdered.

Don’t forget that my predecessor in Garoua, Archbishop Yves Plumey was assassinated, and up to now, we don’t know who did it and why. There are people abroad who thought it was Cardinal Tumi who was assassinated. If it were me, there would have been a reason at the time. Archbishop Plumey was cold-bloodedly murdered on his bed. So Bishop Balla’s assassination was not the first case. And know that in the past 20 years, I think about 400 priests have been killed in Africa, because of their positions against authorities in their countries, and those are positions you take in conscience. Jesus told us: do not be afraid. When it comes to condemning evil, no matter its origin, priests and bishops don’t have to be afraid … besides, all the Apostles were killed.

Have you ever been fearful for your life?

No, not at all. Ever since I became priest, I have always been threatened. In Yagoua I was threatened. In Garoua, I was summoned to the military courts. In Douala, I was threatened after denouncing the assassination of 9 people in Bepanda … up to now, we are not told what happened. The Church must condemn with all its force such killings.

And there is a feeling that as a result of all this, the Church has a conflictual relationship with the state?

No, there is no conflict between us. All we want is that they should explain to us why this or that priest was killed …we are not at war with the state.

Cardinal, let’s talk about the Anglophone problem. What in your opinion are the fundamental causes?

Remember that before President Paul Biya called the major national dialogue to resolve the Anglophone problem, some retired clerics from other denominations and I had initiated an Anglophone General Conference to examine the root causes of the conflict. It did not take place, but we carried out a research to determine the causes, and to make proposals.

So, we produced a 400-page document with a 10-page summary.

For the causes, they are many: Bad government in the management of public affairs. At the time we were carrying out that investigation, the majority – 69 percent – said separation was the only way forward. But the problem escalated because the government intervened late, and the people became radicalized. But the problem started way back in 1972 when the name of the country was changed from the Federal Republic of Cameroon to the United Republic of Cameroon.

Why did the change in name constitute a problem?

Because we began to forget all that was specific to Anglophones-their heritage. Do not forget that from 1961-1972, we had a government there, [in Anglophone Cameroon], with a Prime Minister and his ministers. Anglophones had a system of governance that they inherited from the British.

We were raised in a democracy because the British governed by ‘indirect rule.’ They governed us through traditional rulers. They listened to the people. There was so much self-development, for instance, the roads. The roads that linked villages were dug by the people, for free. They were not paid. And they did that with so much joy … In Anglophone Cameroon, the policeman was a friend, all he had was a baton. We never saw the army. The army was in the barracks, because they were not there to attack the population. I saw an armed policeman for the first time during the reunification.

So how did the change in name affect all of that?

We had the impression that the goal of that change in 1972 was to assimilate the Anglophones; to abolish all that was Anglo-Saxon. I remember a Frenchman who told me that he was surprised that just months after the abolition of federalism, he visited Cameroon and discovered that all public notices and signboards were in French, so he thought he was already in a francophone country. And I have never ceased to recount a story that I lived in Rome with a French diplomat. We were invited to the French embassy in Rome, and one of the employees there approached me and asked me which country I came from. I told him I was from Cameroon. He told me: “Thank you for all you are doing to assimilate the Anglophones. That was a French diplomat.”

What effect did that have on you?

It all dawned on me: that is the goal. That is the source of the problem. When I told this story to some Frenchmen, they said, that’s not possible, because it was not diplomatic for him to say that. It revealed everything.

Should all of that frustration lead youths to take up arms?

No, I condemn that. Nothing can be resolved through violence. It’s always good to come together and dialogue.

Cardinal, after the national dialogue, you and the Bishop of Mamfe [Andrew Nkea Fuanya, who was named Archbishop of Bamenda on Dec. 30] were designated to lead “peace caravans” to the two regions. You have said the situation on the ground is changing for the better. What makes you say that when we still see daily killings on the ground?

And I still hold that opinion. You know, my mother’s house was attacked, and the doors broken. I stand to repeat exactly what I said: The situation is changing. What are the proofs today? The proofs are some people are going back to their communities. That is a simple example.

Yesterday, somebody was here to tell me that his mother was kidnapped in the Ndop plains and they were asking for money. The mother said: ‘I prefer to die.’ Thirdly, there is contradiction now between the separatists and the population. There are some cases, like in Bamenda … I got a letter from a priest in Bamenda who said there are tracks which are thrown in the town of Bamenda which say: “No school, no amba.” This means if the amba boys do not allow children to go to school, there will be no amba. [Editor’s note: The amba boys is the common name for separatist rebels.]

Some parents are ready to fight back, so that their children go to school. And the Bishop of Mamfe said almost all his schools are functioning now. So we can cite examples to show that what was happening yesterday is changing. And finally, many of these boys are coming now to see us. They don’t go to see those people who are contradicting me…

What justifies this change in attitude?

There are 29 separatist fighters in Boyo who want to come to Douala. There are 15 in the Ndop plains. They trust us, and I think that is why the state got us involved in all of this. There are four right here with me, and the Prime Minister is aware.

There may be many reasons. First of all, the prayers of the faithful that this crisis ends. Those who have come here say they heard about me and they agree with my positions …. believe them. One of the reasons is that they don’t have the means anymore … I received an amba boy, married, and university student who told me when he came to see me, that they were fooled by the diaspora. The diaspora was saying that the UN would intervene, and they would have salaries of over 400,000 CFA [around $675] per month. In the last pastoral letter by the Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, they say not even one quarter of the promises made by the diaspora had been attained.

What is pushing the young people out of the forests?

First, they have got nothing to eat. Secondly, many are dying from disease. I can tell you that in Cameroon and out of Cameroon, no one has been in contact with the heads of these armed separatists. It’s only the Bishop of Mamfe and I. And they want an end to the crisis. They want to create a political party. They don’t have a political party. How would they conquer political power without a political party? The Bishop of Mamfe and I are encouraging them to create their political party, to fight politically. It’s the only means by which they can get to power.

One recommendation to resolve the Anglophone problem emanating from the grand dialogue was the special status for the English-speaking regions. Are you comfortable with the contents?

I was among the first to make a proposition for the content. I was clear, and the Prime Minister’s office too, said that I was the clearest: I proposed a government, I proposed a house of parliament, I proposed a house of elders, the independence of the civil service … the civil service is to serve the government, not a party; so therefore, during campaigns, civil servants should not be seen campaigning. The independence of the educational and legal systems. We should be in the Anglo-Saxon style that we inherited …To be frank, what will satisfy Cameroonians is a sort of federalism. But the present political authority doesn’t want to hear about federalism. I’ve told people that federalism is in my blood. That is what we voted for at reunification.

What is lacking in the special status?

Even though there is a regional council – an assembly of representatives of the region – they cannot vote a law, they cannot initiate a law.

Personally, I am not satisfied with the contents of this Special Status.

Be it as it may, what do you think is the way forward for a Cameroon, now described as “sick” by some?

Truth. The truth will save Cameroon. How many billions have been stolen from our coffers? Don’t forget, when Paul Biya came to power, he said that economically and financially, we were faring well, and that we will not go to the Bretton Woods institutions to borrow. No sooner after that – in two or three years – we were on our knees begging to be accepted as a poor and heavily indebted country.

And what message do you have for Cameroonians as they go into a new year?

Let’s love our country. Let’s love each other, and to love your neighbor means you do to him what you would love to be done to you. Do not do to your neighbor the evil that you won’t want done to you. And we should love the other virtues, like living together so we fall in line with our communities, as citizens and as brothers and sisters of the same nation.

Crux

26, January 2020

Ex-basketball star Kobe Bryant, four others dead in helicopter crash ⁰

Retired basketball star Kobe Bryant and four other people died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday (January 26) morning, the city of Calabasas reported.

“It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of Kobe Bryant and four others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The aircraft went down in a remote field off Las Virgenes around 10:00 this morning. Nobody on the ground was hurt,” the city of Calabasas said on Twitter.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff said on Twitter that five people died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of Los Angeles, and that there were no survivors. It did not identify the victims.

First responders put out the flames of the crash site, the sheriff’s department said, posting a picture of a fire truck and smoke emerging from the brush in a ravine.

Bryant, 41, was known to use a helicopter for travel dating to his days as a star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, when he commuted to games in a Sikorsky S-76 chopper, the celebrity news website TMZ said.

The US Federal Aviation Administration identified the crashed helicopter as a Sikorsky S-76, saying in a statement that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

Bryant won five NBA championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was an 18-times NBA All-Star who wore the No. 24 during his 20-year career with the team.

Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, have four daughters: Gianna, Natalia, Bianca and Capri, who was born in June 2019.

(Source: Reuters)

26, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Atanga Nji to be appointed minister of state after February elections ⁰

Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, and the brain behind the killings in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, will be made a minister of state after the February twin elections, a source close to the government has said.

Mr. Nji, who hails from the northwest region, has been committing atrocities to please the Yaounde government and to prove that he has no sympathy with those who have challenged the government.

The source has also disclosed that Mr. Nji is really concerned by the number people who have been killed over the last two years, but he is very much driven by his desire to gain more recognition in Yaounde and the need to amass much wealth.

The source added the Mr. Atanga Nji had just purchased a large home in Miami, Florida, where he paid down his entire mortgage; something that even bothered the American real estate agents and bankers.

Other sources hold that Mr. Nji may migrate to the USA once he gets dropped from government as he will not stand the mockery and criticism in the newspapers when he will be out of government.

Mr. Nji, whose children are a living in the USA, tells his Yaounde masters that he will never live in his native northwest as his people will never welcome him.

It should be recalled that Mr. Nji has been holding conflicting views about the crisis in Cameroon.

When the crisis started he said there was no Anglophone crisis. He later said there was a problem, but Anglophones could take solace in the fact that he had been made a minister.

He had also said that there was no humanitarian catastrophe in Cameroon, but has spent much of 2019 giving humanitarian aid to internally displaced people in Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam.

By Linda Asonganyi in Yaounde

26, January 2020

Biya is now doing a Robert Mugabe ⁰

Cameroon strongman Paul Biya, will turn 87 in about three weeks. Nearing 45 years in power, he is Africa’s and the world longest ruling non-royal executive national leader.

Biya is now doing a Robert Mugabe. Decades in power, in his 90s, and ill, the former Zimbabwe dictator clung to power, insisting on attending international events and making a spectacle of himself. If you are a big man, at some point you have join other rulers on a stage for things like a photograph, or get on a pulpit to deliver some great wisdom.

Unwell, Mugabe would try to take a few steps to join his peers, and would stall on the stairs, clinging desperately to the rails as he slowly slid to the ground. Guards would rush to hold him up.

At the India-Africa Forum Summit, host Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to rescue him from disgrace.

At the end of last year, a video circulated on the internet, showing Biya on an official visit to Paris.

He was being ushered through a grand entrance, and had to take just one step. Flailing like a feather in the wind, he approached the stairs, unable to take that one step. A French official helped him over, and he wobbled inside.

Speaker podium

One of the most valuable traits we can have, is knowing our limits and coming to terms with the march of the clock, that comes to us all.

Thus, it is only a foolishly optimistic 100-year-old man who takes a 25-year-old wife. An ailing 90-year-old president should know that if he insists on mounting the speaker podium at the UN General Assembly, he will likely embarrass himself and country.

In life, we have caring family who protect us from such disgrace. The older children of the 100-year-old widower, would veto their father’s bid to marry a 25-year-old if they love him.

If as a president you can’t walk from the bedroom to the dining table on your own, a diligent First Lady will draw the line and say you will not go to a state visit to Europe where you will be required to walk twice the distance to make a toast.

If your children, wife (or husband) can’t prevent such calamity, the state should have the structures to do so. It couldn’t in the case of Mugabe, and can’t in the case of Biya, because they were/are the state. They are the law. They are the beginning. They are the end.

This in part is because too much, including the economy, is still too concentrated in the African state, for many people, they won’t eat or live a good life, unless they please the ruler.

Acting in any way that acknowledges his frailties and infirmities, can be career-ending, because it would be saying he’s unfit to be in office. So, they all play along.

A government position is so crucial, a few days ago in Uganda a young politician recently appointed minister by President Yoweri Museveni, was hoisted and sat on a plastic on a hot tin roof of a house in his village, when he visited to celebrate winning a political lottery. Such a man would tell Museveni he can win the London marathon with a new record, even if “Mzee”, as they call him, couldn’t get out of a wheelchair.

Culled from The East African

26, January 2020

Biya says security situation in Southern Cameroons has improved ⁰

Cameroonian President Paul Biya said on Friday the security situation in the troubled English-speaking region of the country has improved since a national dialogue to end the conflict took place last year.

“Thanks to the determination of our defence and security forces to protect our fellow citizens in the northwest and southwest (Anglophone regions), the situation has significantly improved,” Biya said here in a speech during the 37th graduation ceremony of the Combined Services Military Academy.

“It is hoped that the new measures taken following the major national dialogue will contribute towards restoring lasting peace and calm,” Biya said.

He regretted that despite the peace efforts, “few (armed) groups” continue to commit atrocities and to destroy the property of citizens in the region.

“For those who persist in going down the wrong road to use violence, we will have no other choice but to combat them to protect our fellow citizens,” Cameroon’s Minister of Defense Joseph Beti Assomo told Xinhua following the ceremony.

Since 2017, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the northwest and southwest English-speaking regions to secede from the majority French-speaking nation and form a new country known as “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

25, January 2020

Football: Barca beaten by Valencia in early blow for Setien ⁰

Quique Setien’s honeymoon period lasted less than a fortnight as he tasted his first Barcelona defeat on Saturday in his second La Liga game in charge after a 2-0 loss to Valencia.

Maxi Gomez’s strike and a Jordi Alba own goal at Mestalla handed Barca their fourth league defeat of the campaign, giving Real Madrid the chance to move three points clear of the champions at the top of the table when they visit Real Valladolid on Sunday.

Barcelona had most of the ball but their opponents had the best chances as Gomez missed a penalty and also hit the crossbar in the first half. Gabriel Paulista saw a third goal ruled out late on.

While performances under previous coach Ernesto Valverde were stodgy, he left a team that sat top of the table. Setien promised a new style but despite dominating possession, Barcelona went nowhere with it and as Valencia grew in confidence, they ceded control.

“It should not take us long,” Setien had said on Friday, when asked how quickly his players could adapt to his methods.

Valencia climb to fifth and continue to improve under Albert Celades. This success came without their captain Dani Parejo and, largely, without star striker Rodrigo Moreno, who has been linked with a January move to Barcelona.

The hosts hardly touched the ball for the first six minutes, their fans whistling as they urged a more aggressive approach.

But the plan was to sit and absorb and it worked, with Barcelona unable to cut through or create a single clear chance.

– Valencia dangerous –

And when Valencia did intervene, they were more dangerous too. With their first attack they won a penalty as Jose Gaya slipped past Gerard Pique and would surely have scored from eight yards before being brought down.

Pique was booked and, with Parejo absent, Gomez stepped up, only for his driven shot to be well saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, albeit with the help of half a yard’s headstart off his line.

Barca were riding their luck. Sergi Roberto’s header cannoned off Pique but fell just close enough for Ter Stegen, who parried a Gomez shot onto the crossbar and almost spilled another to Kevin Gameiro.

Referee Gil Manzano puts his hands together as if to apologise after failing to play advantage when Ferran Torres was clear but the frustration of Valencia’s fans turned to ecstasy shortly after half-time.

Pique’s flicked header landed at the feet of Gomez, whose driven effort took a cruel deflection off Alba and flew in.

Setien traded the patience of Arthur Melo for the physicality of Arturo Vidal and Rodrigo came on to a rousing reception.

Barcelona exerted some pressure and Lionel Messi led the way, hauled to the ground by Francis Coquelin and then denied by a brilliant Gabriel tackle. He fired past the post, headed wide and saw a curling free-kick saved.

Yet just as a Barcelona equaliser began to feel inevitable, Valencia struck again. A quick throw caught Alba out of position and Torres did well to cut inside and switch to Gomez. He took a touch and curled into the corner.

Gabriel thought he had a third after volleying in from a corner but VAR persuaded Manzano there had been a push. When Messi ballooned a late free-kick into the stands, Valencia knew their win was secure.

Source AFP

25, January 2020

Ambazonia Self Defense Council weighs in on Bui County incident ⁰

The Bui event is another indicator of the need and urgency to achieve a unified self-defense front in the Ambazonia war of independence

The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (ASC) notes with dismay the unfortunate event in Bui that has resulted in the loss of some of our bravest fighters due to miscalculation among defense forces. We are deeply saddened by the news. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families.

In fact, the ASC strongly condemns any act that results in the taking away of the life of a person, maiming a person or any act that is contrary to the recognized norm of self-defence against illegally occupying military and administrators of La Republic du Cameroun within the territory of Ambazonia. Instead, we must strive to minimize internal misunderstanding and by coming together under a united front in order to better confront our common enemy: La Republique du Cameroun.

We encourage those responsible for the forces, both Bui Warriors and ADF forces, to conduct thorough investigations for the appreciation of the people of Ambazonia and identify concrete corrective steps, and implement them to prevent such incidents from happening again anywhere across Ambazonia.

While expecting the concerned authorities in Bui and ADF to investigate the Bui event to help inform the Ambazonia public on what happened, why it happened, and how it happened, we would like to offer some best practices that can be implemented immediately to minimize misunderstanding in Ground Zero.

Moving forward, we encourage all Self-Defence forces to incorporate and abide by following five rules of engagement:

Every fighter or unit that plans to move into or pass through a friendly territory must notify the appropriate commanders operating in advance of at least 12-24 hours. The advance notification time is necessary to allow consultations, determine if the request is from a friendly fighter or unit, and assess that the intent of the request is genuine, prior to deciding whether to approve. Do not inform them while on the move because by then it would be too late and you will be mistaken for an enemy. On the other hand, the receiving commander who is in the territory should address the request in a timely manner usually within 12 to 24 hrs. This is a necessary mechanism to avoid friendly fire exchange.

Neighboring commanders must maintain constant communication amongst themselves to ensure they are aware of their surroundings and avoid any intruder.

We are our brothers’ keepers. Every self-defence force must ensure the safety of the force. Any disputes must be addressed by the leadership in a timely manner. No restoration force or the commander should make life and death decisions on the battlefield by themselves regarding other Restoration forces. Any of such actions that occur will be addressed through the appropriate hierarchy as soon as possible.

The priority of every self-defence force or unit on GZ is the protection of civilians and their property against the forces of La Republique du Cameroun that has increased acts of massacre, arrest for ransoms, and burning to ashes economic assets of our people and their homes including humans.

All Self-Defense forces must act at all times in a disciplined manner and professionalism to earn the trust and confidence of our civilian population, who is the most important person we are fighting for. In turn, we call on our civilian population to continue to provide the support to all our Self-Defence forces until we completely liberate our land from the illegal occupying and terrorist forces of President Paul Biya.

Long Live Ambazonia