The Francophone Beti-Ewondo trial of Ambazonia leaders and the Swiss Connection

1, July 2019

The Francophone Beti-Ewondo trial of Ambazonia leaders and the Swiss Connection 0

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides have been notified with a decision of the President of the Court of Appeal in the Centre Region of French Cameroun dismissing the NERA 10 Recusal against Magistrate Lt Colonel Misse Njone Jacques Baudouin. Interestingly, the French Cameroun court also ordered the Southern Cameroons leaders to pay Colonel Misse Njone a symbolic franc as damages for Moral Prejudice suffered.

Cameroon Intelligence Report chief political correspondent covering the trial noted that when the Ambazonian leaders filed this Recusal which is a very serious application challenging a Magistrate for being bias, they had a very serious problem notifying the concerned Respondent by Bailiff because all the Bailiffs contacted declined service for security reasons. Our intelligence services in Yaoundé hinted that all French Cameroun Bailiffs have been threatened with either detention or being messed up by undercover security operatives. Some were economically victimized by Magistrates refusing to endorse their bills for payment.

As if this was not enough impediment to justice and fundamental right to fair hearing protected by both international legal instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and even the Preamble of the French Cameroun Constitution as read with Article 65; … The Applicants/Petitioners were never notified with the Statement of Defense of the Respondent Magistrate nor even given opportunity to attend court or given a hearing as would be the practice in any regular or normal Anglo-Saxon judicial system. The Petitioners were only notified with a decision or judgment of the Court of Appeals which in Cameroun sits in first and last resort in matters of Recusals. This should be the more reason why the court ought to have notified the Petitioners with the statement of Defense of the Respondent so that they may have opportunity to bring further evidence arguments to backup their allegations against the Magistrate.

“Nowhere in the world is known to us where someone brings an action to court of this magnitude or importance and it is heard without him seeing the defense challenging his allegations” an adviser to the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima noted.  “One would expect pleadings and further pleadings to be exchanged and oral arguments of the parties taken before the court decides … especially in a situation like this one where the court sits in first and last resort meaning that there is no appeal against its decisions” the Yerima aide further pointed out.

This tells the story of the nature of the judiciary in French Cameroun and justifies why Ambazonians think they must go back home, restore their autonomy and enforce the truly adversarial judicial system Southern Cameroonians had known before the ill-fated & illegal unification of 1961.

Correspondingly, it was premature for any Ambazonian organization or grouping to go into any form of discussion or dialogue with any Swiss mediator without certain preliminary issues and conditions being settled. It is evidently clear that the so-called Swiss mediator is the mediator of the adversary.

It is shameful and disgraceful for Southern Cameroons groups to go for any form of negotiation while the war ensues and their people are still being killed, villages torched and many more arrested and incarcerated.

To be sure any talks whatsoever must be preceded by a Declaration of Ceasefire by the party who declared the war, release of all detainees Incarcerated as a result of the war and a demilitarization of the Ambazonia territory.

These are confidence building measures which ought to be agreed upon and the process of implementation of all decision clearly put in place with the Ambazonia Interim Government and with the consent of Vice President Dabney Yerima.

Given the severe breach of trust between the parties to the conflict, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group would have expected the so called Ambazonian negotiators in Switzerland to insist on the presence of a strong intermediary nation like the USA who has the capability to ensure the implementation of all decisions brokered by the talks.

In the absence of the above, we of Cameroon Concord News Group see clearly that the Swiss are merely helping French Cameroun to use its numerical and political strength against Ambazonia thereby taking us back to where we began in 1961.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Vice President Yerima, Hon. Wirba come out for SCNC rally in London

1, July 2019

Vice President Yerima, Hon. Wirba come out for SCNC rally in London 0

London was decorated in the blue and white colours of Southern Cameroons. It was the Southern Cameroon National Council convention that held on Saturday the 29th of June 2019. The SCNC Convention in London moved from a very successful Conference earlier in East London to a fundraiser in the Northof town. The sense of pride on the faces of the organisers and attendees was valiant. The chairman of SCNC UK, Mr Robert Tamanji, gave a strong welcome talk honouring Pah Njoh Litumbe, Fon Gorji Dinka and Nfor Ngala Nfor. These greats of the SCNC will never be forgotten he said. For his part, Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who is also moonlighting as the acting Secretary General of SCNC spoke of the SCNC’s role in Southern Cameroon’s quest for freedom and independence through peaceful nonviolence action.

Also at the London SCNC event, was the much respected Hon Wirba Joseph of the Social Democratic Front. Wirba recounted his first meeting with some great SCNC pioneers over thirty years ago. He called on Ambazonians to pay respect to the true and brave heroes of Africa’s newest nation who have shed and continue to shed their blood for the freedom of the homeland. Wirba tempered undue excitement and cautioned that for the Ambazonia struggle to succeed; its foundation has to be based on the truth. Wirba referred to La Republique du Cameroun as the Evil Republic and explained that the actions of La Republique in their brutality over the last three years has left Southern Cameroonians with no choice but to make sure that Ambazonia becomes a reality. He observed that, the statement from French Cameroun President Paul Biya and his gang that Cameroun is one and indivisible remains an inaccurate stereotype.

Joseph Wirba indicted the Southern Cameroons diaspora for the disconnect with Ground Zero. As his audience celebrated his words and energy, he moved another gear into re-counting a series of conversations he had with the disgraced chairman of the Imaginary Restoration Council, Elvis Kometa. “Elvis Kometa called me to say he was under pressure to impeach President Sissiku Ayuk Tabe” he revealed. “I counselled Kometa against the decision and I told him that if the pressure becomes unbearable, he should resign as chairman of this ‘Imaginary Restoration Council’.

Wirba castigated the diaspora for creating imaginary political offices and attaching importance to positions thereby disremembering the reasons for the struggle. He said, in a revolution ‘if the enemy takes a brother or a sister, that person becomes a Saint’. The SCNC delegates were unanimous in their decision that rallying behind the ‘Saints in Kondengui’ as the focal point of the revolution is the only way forward. Calls for Hon Wirba to play a more active role in piloting the revolution were loud and clear. His next move in this struggle is eagerly anticipated.

Asu Isong London

Africa Should Not Fail Cameroon

1, July 2019

Africa Should Not Fail Cameroon 0

The United Nations Security Council, after more than two years of neglect, is finally giving some attention to Cameroon’s deteriorating human rights situation. The three African members of the global body – Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea – shouldn’t miss the chance to add Cameroon’s worsening crisis to the Council’s agenda.

Over the past three years, Cameroon has been embroiled in a cycle of civil protest, followed by government repression, and violence that threatens to escalate into an all-out human rights catastrophe. A wider conflict could destabilize an already volatile region – Cameroon, which has been waging a war against Boko Haram insurgents in its Far North region, borders the Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Chad, Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Cameroon’s separatist crisis began in October 2016, when students, teachers and lawyers from the minority English-speaking regions took to the streets to demand greater recognition of their cultural and political rights. The ruthless response of the security forces, who killed and arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters, as well as of the government, which banned civil society groups and shut down the internet, escalated the crisis.

Since then, numerous separatist groups have emerged and taken up arms calling for the independence of the Anglophone regions, which they call “Ambazonia.” These groups have killed, kidnapped, and tortured perceived opponents, while enforcing a boycott of education, which has kept children and their teachers out of school for over two years in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The government has responded with violence, burning hundreds of homes, killing civilians, and detaining and torturing alleged separatists in a gendarme-run prison in the capital, Yaoundé. The crisis has displaced half a million Cameroonians, many of whom desperately need protection and humanitarian assistance.

As Cameroon has spiraled into violence, the African Union, the continent-wide body that aspires to promote “African Solutions to African Problems,” has refused to confront or acknowledge the problem.

The UN Security Council hasn’t done much better, failing to issue any statement about the serious human rights abuses by both the government forces and the armed separatists, or to warn both sides about the consequences.

There are signs, however, that the UN might take more robust action. Last month, the United States, with the support of Germany, the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom, organized an informal session of the Security Council to help put the situation in Cameroon on its members’ radar.

This was a worthy effort, but the event was an informal side event and only focused on the humanitarian situation. Fierce resistance from the Council’s African members, wary of Western-led interventions on the continent, almost derailed the effort. The African Union’s permanent representative to the Security Council didn’t even attend the session.

Non-Western states uncomfortable about Western countries taking the lead on an African crisis should join forces to get Cameroon on the Council’s agenda. There is no better way to mobilize the fractious Security Council to address the crisis in Cameroon than for its African members to demonstrate leadership and demand vigorous action.

Equatorial Guinea is unlikely to rise to the challenge. As a country knee-deep in human rights violations, it has ample reason to defend the self-serving idea that what happens inside the border of a state, no matter how egregious for rights or threatening to security, is its own business.

South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid was helped by international solidarity, including the active support of the UN Security Council. In recent years, however, successive South African presidents have pushed back against international pressure seeking to address serious and widespread human rights abuses in countries such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, and, until recently, Myanmar. The newly elected president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has promised to promote, “democracy, justice, human rights, and good governance” at the UN, and the Cameroon crisis would be a good place to start.

The best hope, though, may be Côte d’Ivoire, whose brutal 2010-11 post-election crisis was resolved with AU and Security Council support. President Alassane Ouattara, when campaigning in 2016 for his country to join the UN Security Council, said that it, “must be the principal organ in which courageous decisions are taken, to save people and states from conflicts and wars, with the suffering and distress that they bring.”

Côte d’Ivoire finishes its term on the UN Security Council at the end of 2019. Although its voting record is far from perfect, President Ouattara’s government has shown some leadership on human rights issues. Côte d’Ivoire broke with other African states to initiate an arms embargo on South Sudan, although on May 30 it abstained on a resolution reauthorizing the ban.

Supporting action on Cameroon, by formally placing the Anglophone crisis on the Council’s agenda and addressing the serious human rights abuses, would strengthen Côte d’Ivoire’s legacy as a supporter of human rights defenders and conflict resolution. It would also demonstrate that African governments can have the courage and conviction to address pressing crises on the continent.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Cameroon, Ghana share spoils in epic battle

1, July 2019

Cameroon, Ghana share spoils in epic battle 0

Defending champions Cameroon played out to a barren draw with Ghana in a hotly contested West African clash of the titans in a Total Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Egypt 2019 Group F clash in Ismailia on Saturday.

Substitute Kwabena Owusu should have won all three for the Black Stars barely a minute after coming on for Andre Ayew but his cracking shot from the edge of the box came off the crossbar. Andrew Yiadom had a chance five yards from goal a minute later, but saw it saved by Andre Onana.

With the result, Cameroon have moved to four points while Ghana are on two points after back to back draws. The Ghanaians have to beat Guinea Bissau on Tuesday to be certain of a place at the next round.

On the balance of chances, Cameroon should have gone to the break at least one up. A massive save by Richard Ofori four minutes from time and a timely tackle from Jonathan Mensah earlier on ensured the scores were 0-0 after the opening 45 minutes.

View image on Twitter

Ofori made a brilliant full stretched-save to punch out a shot from Christian Bassogog from inside the box. Ghana were caught in possession with Baba Rahman losing the ball on the left. Karl Toko Ekambi picked up and cut back a cross for Bassogog which was well saved.

Ghana had dodged another bullet on the half hour mark when Mensah, coming in for the suspended John Boye, made a timely tackle to poke the ball off Ekambi’s feet after he was sent through with a delightful backheel flick by Zambo Anguissa.

Ghana were forced to an early sub after 14 minutes when Christian Atsu limped off injured with a hamstring problem after taking an aim at goal off a counter with a low shot from the edge of the area. He was replaced by Samuel Owusu.

Atsu had Ghana’s second chance just after Nuhu Kassim’s shot from a Thomas Partey cut back went over in the eighth minute. In the 28th minute, Mubarak Wakaso swung in a brilliant cross from the left, but Jordan Ayew could not get a vital touch from the edge of the six yard box as he came flying in.

View image on Twitter

Ghana pressed more in the second half as they looked to earn a first ever win over Cameroon in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Cameroon coach Clarence Seerdof made an attacking change, pulling out defender Gaetan Bong for striker Eric Choupo-Moting while his opposite number Kwesi Appiah responded by throwing in Asamoah Gyan for Kwadwo.

It was Ghana who would finish the game brighter, but nothing to show of in terms of goals.

Total Man of the Match: Andre Franck Zambo Anguissa (Cameroon)

Source: CAFonline

Fru Ndi released after abduction in Southern Cameroons

1, July 2019

Fru Ndi released after abduction in Southern Cameroons 0

The leader of one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties was released by his captors on Saturday after being abducted by unidentified gunmen in the country’s restive Anglophone region a day earlier, his party said.

Separatist rebels have been battling government forces for nearly two years over perceived marginalization of English speakers by the central African country’s Francophone-dominated government.

John Fru Ndi, who heads the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and finished runner-up to President Paul Biya in the 2011 election, was taken from his home in the city of Bamenda on Friday, the second time in two months he had been kidnapped.

Jean Robert Wafo, an SDF official, said in a statement that Fru Ndi had been released on Saturday evening. He provided no details about who had taken him or where he had been held.

The SDF blamed his previous abduction in April, which lasted a few hours, on Anglophone secessionist rebels. The SDF has criticized Biya, who has served as president since 1982, for his handling of the crisis, but has not endorsed separatist demands for an independent English-speaking state.

The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed about 1,800 people and displaced over 500,000 since 2017.

Reuters

Geneva: Swiss police fire water cannon, stun grenades at Cameroon protesters

1, July 2019

Geneva: Swiss police fire water cannon, stun grenades at Cameroon protesters 0

Swiss police fired water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades at Cameroonian protesters outside UN headquarters in Geneva Saturday as the crowd surged towards a luxury hotel hosting Cameroon’s president.

About 250 demonstrators demanding an end to President Paul Biya’s rule squared off with dozens of police, many in riot gear, backed up by armoured vehicles.

The standoff turned violent when the crowd, many draped in Cameroon flags, started making its way towards Biya’s hotel, about 500 metres (1,600 feet) from a square outside the UN where they had gathered.

An AFP reporter witnessed police beating and kicking a protester on the ground.

Biya, 86, “has run his dictatorship for nearly half a century,” said rally co-organiser Robert Wanto, a Cameroonian national who has lived in exile for three decades.

“We are here to demand that Cameroon be allowed to enter the modern democratic era,” he told AFP outside of the UN’s European headquarters ahead of the protest.

Several hours before the rally started, about 30 protestors set up a stage with banners and graphic pictures of dead bodies apparently mangled by torture, with the message: “The people say no to Paul Biya”.

Cameroon’s embassy in Bern warned earlier this week that Cameroonian nationals living in various European countries were planning a “violent” protest against Biya on Saturday.

Geneva police told AFP it was expecting a “large” demonstration. Authorisation was granted but limited to the square outside the UN.

  • ‘Ultimatum’ –

They were not granted permission to march to the five-star Intercontinental Hotel where Biya is believed to have been staying since Sunday.

But Wanto told AFP the demonstrators had given Biya an “ultimatum” to leave and if he remained at the hotel when the protest began, “we will march there”.

He pointed out that Biya had made it a habit to stay at the pricy Intercontinental during long visits to Switzerland, where he reportedly comes for medical treatment.

“He thinks it is OK to come here and spend billions of our money when our country is economically sick,” Wanto said.

Early Saturday, dozens of suit-clad men believed to be part of the president’s security detail stood around the hotel.

Several police vans were also parked outside the hotel and groups of officers had been stationed at regular intervals between the tall glass building and the UN square.

Over the past week, there have already been several scuffles with small numbers of demonstrators outside the hotel and even inside the lobby.

An attack on a Swiss journalist covering the events by men believed to be Biya’s security staff sparked a diplomatic incident, prompting the Swiss government to summon Cameroon’s ambassador in Bern on Thursday.

“The dictator must be senile to want to transport the violence he unleashes on his country on a daily basis to the soil of a democratic country,” Wanto said.

Cameroon, a former French colony, has faced a succession of crises and is wracked by a deadly conflict between separatists and government forces in its English-speaking west.

Opposition leaders have faced mass arrests, and rights groups claim detainees are tortured and many disappear.

AFP

Europe: Deadly heatwave roasts as wildfires spread

29, June 2019

Europe: Deadly heatwave roasts as wildfires spread 0

Europe was bracing itself for a sweltering Saturday as the heat wave continued across the continent.

The Meteo-France weather service lifted its red warning but forecast a “very hot day” across a large central band of the country with the mercury expected to rise to 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts.

With France, Spain, Italy and parts of central Europe hard hit by the record-breaking temperatures, officials pleaded with people to take precautions.

France’s new record temperature of 45.9 degrees C (114.6 degrees F) was registered on Friday in Gallargues-le-Montueux, a village in the southern department of Gard near Montpellier, breaking successive records set earlier in the day, Meteo-France told AFP.

A visitor takes shelter from the heat under “Umbrella Sky Project” installation by Portuguese artist Patricia Cunha in Aix-en-Provence on June 28, 2019 as a heatwave hits France with temperatures that may exceed 45 degrees Celsius, a high never seen in mainland France. (Photo by AFP)

This is the same area where the previous high of 44.1 degrees Celsius was set in August 2003. Records began at the turn of the 20th century.

The weather service said the new high was comparable to August temperatures in California’s Death Valley.

Earlier Friday, the mercury rose above 44 degrees C in the southeastern French town of Carpentras. The town was deserted, with cafe owners contemplating empty terraces which would normally be packed.

“We have never seen this!” one exclaimed.

The new record makes France just the seventh European country to have recorded a plus 45-degree temperature, along with Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and North Macedonia, Meteo France said.

‘Avoidable deaths’

Two deaths linked to the heat wave were reported in Spain.

A Spanish teenager felt dizzy while helping harvest wheat in the southern Andalusia region, took a dip in a swimming pool, and collapsed in convulsions.

Firefighters and emergency workers assist a woman suffering from the heat in Tours on June 27, 2019, during a heatwave. (Photo by AFP)

He was rushed to hospital in the town of Cordoba where he died, the regional government said.

A 93-year-old man collapsed and died on the street in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid, police said, giving heatstroke as the cause of death.

Heat-related deaths have also been reported in Italy, France and Germany, mainly among the elderly.

France remains haunted by the memory of the devastating heat wave of August 2003 which exposed the shortcomings of emergency services at the height of the summer holidays.

That year, nearly 15,000 people are estimated to have died because of the heat, many of them elderly people at home.

Tourists stand near the Trocadero Fountain in Paris during a heatwave on June 28, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

“I want to appeal to the sense of responsibility of citizens — there are avoidable deaths in every heat wave,” said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Scientists warn that global warming linked to human fossil fuel use could make such scorchers more frequent.

Germany’s national weather service said the country experienced temperatures more than four degrees higher in June than the average, on one measure.

Fire hydrants uncapped

French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn warned people tempted to plunge into cold water, both young and old, to do so only in designated public bathing areas, adding that four people have drowned since the beginning of the week.

On Thursday, Buzyn lamented that despite a barrage of public health warnings on radio, TV and on public transport, some parents were still leaving their children in hot cars and joggers were out exercising in the midday heat.

A six-year-old Syrian child was seriously injured north of Paris Thursday after being catapulted into the air by water gushing from an open fire hydrant and then crashing to the ground.

The incident occurred in the multi-ethnic Saint-Denis neighborhood, where “uncapping” hydrants has long been used as a way to cool off.

A child cools off under water jets in a fountain during a heatwave in Montpellier, southern France, on June 27, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

In the Italian city of Milan, a 72-year-old homeless man was found dead at the main train station Thursday after falling ill in the heat wave.

A day earlier, four people died in Germany in bathing accidents.

Spanish inferno

In Spain, firefighters managed to halt the progression of a forest fire that broke out Wednesday in the northeastern Catalonia region and had burned more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres).

Catalonia’s forest service said the fire likely began when an “improperly managed” pile of manure at a chicken farm spontaneously combusted in the extreme heat.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by troops and aerial water bombers were hampered by roasting 44-degree temperatures and very low humidity.

This handout aerial picture released on June 26, 2019 by the firefighters of Catalonia, Bombers Generalitat Catalunya, shows a wildfire at Torre de l´Espanyol in Ribera d´Ebro,  on the banks of the river Ebre, northeastern Spain. (Photo by AFP)

Spain’s north-east was on red heat wave alert denoting “extreme risk”.

The stifling temperatures have caused air quality to nosedive in some European cities, prompting local authorities to take anti-pollution measures.

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, authorities have banned the most polluting cars from the roads in recent days.

(Source: AFP)

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen kidnap Fru Ndi

29, June 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen kidnap Fru Ndi 0

Unidentified gunmen in Cameroon’s Anglophone region kidnapped the leader of one of the country’s leading opposition parties on Friday for the second time in two months, his party said.

Separatist rebels are battling government forces in English-speaking areas of the bilingual central African country, where the Francophone majority has long dominated.

John Fru Ndi, who heads the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and finished runner-up to President Paul Biya in the 2011 election, was seized from his home in the city of Bamenda by gunmen who wounded his bodyguard, an SDF statement said.

Fru Ndi’s current whereabouts were unknown, it said. Fru Ndi, 77, was also abducted in April in the town of Kumbo during a funeral procession and held for a few hours before being released. The SDF said Anglophone secessionist militants took him and tried to convince him to support their cause, though no one claimed responsibility.

The SDF has called for Biya, who has served as president since 1982, to step down in favor of a transitional government than can resolve the conflict.

But the party has not endorsed secession, angering separatists who turned to violence in late 2017 after the government suppressed peaceful protests against the Francophone majority’s alleged marginalization of Anglophones.

The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed about 1,800 people and displaced over 500,000 in less than two years.

Switzerland said on Thursday it had agreed to mediate talks between the two sides, although some of the separatists said they would not speak to the government until it ceased hostilities.

Cameroon’s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between allied French and British victors.

By Haggai Fung Achuo

Swiss summon Cameroon ambassador over ‘unacceptable’ journalist attack

29, June 2019

Swiss summon Cameroon ambassador over ‘unacceptable’ journalist attack 0

Switzerland said Friday it had summoned Cameroon’s ambassador over an “unacceptable” attack on a journalist in Geneva by men believed to be part of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s security detail.

“Diplomatic procedures have been launched… Cameroon’s ambassador was summoned in Bern and the foreign ministry informed him that such incidents are unacceptable,” foreign ministry spokesman Georg Farago told AFP in an email. “Freedom of the press is protected and must be respected,” he added.

The ambassador was summoned on Thursday, a day after a journalist with the RTS broadcaster, Adrien Krause, was reportedly assaulted by a group of men outside Geneva’s luxury Intercontinental hotel on Wednesday.

He had been filming a clash between around a dozen demonstrators against Cameroon’s 86-year-old president Paul Biya, who has reportedly been staying at the hotel since Sunday, and men believed to be the president’s security detail, RTS reported.

The likely Cameroonian security agents suddenly attacked Krause, immobilising him and grabbing the bag containing most of his professional equipment, and also took his phone and wallet, it said.

After Geneva’s diplomatic police got involved and Krause filed a complaint over the assault, his property was returned to him.

Neither the Swiss foreign ministry nor Geneva police would confirm the identity of the attackers.

Farago meanwhile rejected reports that Biya’s security staff might enjoy diplomatic immunity.

“The people accompanying the president do not have any particular status and must respect Swiss law,” he said.

“Switzerland recalls that it is very attached to freedom of expression and of the press, and to the respect of the rules in public spaces,” he added.

Wednesday event came a day after some 40 protestors entered the Intercontinental and reportedly scuffled with Biya’s security staff in the lobby.

A large demonstration against Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is also scheduled to take place in Geneva on Saturday.

The country’s embassy in Bern warned earlier this week that Cameroonian nationals living in various European countries were planning a “violent … protest against the presence of the Head of State, His Excellence Paul Biya, in Switzerland.”

“The embassy calls on the Cameroonian community in Switzerland and in neighbouring countries to turn their back on such demonstrations, which for some time have been an expression of hatred, violence and tribalism, which are all contrary to patriotism and love of Cameroon,” it said in a statement.

Source: AFP

Ambazonia: IG’s Press Statement on Humanitarian Dialogue Facilitated Talks/Negotiations in Switzerland

29, June 2019

Ambazonia: IG’s Press Statement on Humanitarian Dialogue Facilitated Talks/Negotiations in Switzerland 0

Since September 22, 2017, our communities have been subjected to some of the most ruthless and systematic assaults the international community have witnessed anywhere in recent history. Initiated to suppress peaceful demonstrations for fundamental rights.

 Today we have more than 2000 of our fellow citizens killed, more than 80,000 in refugee camps in Nigeria and the UN reports more than 4.3 million of our people are affected by the conflict. A situation the UN described as one of the fastest growing human displacement crises in Africa. 

 This is no sports. That anyone should go show up somewhere and provide the lobbyist of Cameroon with signature and documents so they can derail efforts by serious countries like the US to get our case as a standalone Item on the Agenda of the UN Security Council is not just shameful but treasonous.

 It is because of the importance of the situation that we questioned the seriousness of the Switzerland based Humanitarian Dialogue when they ignored the questions we sent to them in reply to their invitation for the said meeting.

 So let me be as clear as I can on this. NO I did not attend this meeting with Humanitarian Dialogue. And, no one from my team and our leadership behind bars led by President Sisiku AyukTabe attended that meeting. We had no representative there. Let me repeat this again. The one thing that we learnt from the Anti-apartheid struggle is that leadership behind bars is the sole target of any honest effort at negotiation.

 The Cameroun government has thus far refused to do the bare minimum required for confident building towards any real negotiations. Which is: 1. To stop violating the inalienable rights of the people you hope to negotiate with; and  2. To allow an international independent Fact Finding Mission to establish the facts on the ground and to stop the killings.

 We have heard the calls for dialogue without preconditions. These are not preconditions. They are trust building mechanisms we have seen deployed in most conflicts in the past several decades with relative success in reducing tensions, from East Timor, Sri lanka to Myanmar. 

 What does it mean to tell us to go into some room to have Talks/Negotiations with a Cameroun regime which has twice refused the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human rights access to investigate credible reports of international crimes?

 What does it mean to tell us to go and have Talks/Negotiations with a Cameroun regime that continues to slaughter our people as we speak? 

 If Humanitarian Dialogue is serious about facilitating Talks/Negotiations and the Swiss government is serious let them tell Cameroun to Stop the killings, release all our political prisoners, who are being held in violation of their fundamental human rights, allow an independent international fact finding mission to establish the facts on the ground like in all other recent conflicts. But more importantly Humanitarian Talks/Negotiations should go to Kondengui prison and discuss with our leaders there about their plans for dialogue.

 Again these are not preconditions. They are confidence building procedure. I will say this though. As far as this struggle is concerned.

 It shall be Total Independence or Resistance Forever.

 Yours truly,

 Dabney Yerima Vice President

 – Federal Republic of Ambazonia

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