News of Secretary Chris Anu’s resignation from the Southern Cameroons Interim Government may have hit Ambazonians like a raging lead ball. A lot of under-the-table talks have been going on ever since the popular Secretary of Communications made his decision public.  Everywhere, tongues are wagging all in an attempt to package the various versions of the events leading to this unfortunate outcome.

A chartered member of the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (ASC) who participated in the meeting that was chaired by His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe presented to the Cameroon Concord News Group the following details on what actually happened during that crucial meeting:

1) A joint meeting of the Interim Government (IG), representatives of the Restoration Council (RC), representatives of County Coordinators (CC) and those of the Ambazonia Self Defense Council (ASC) held on February 8, 2019 between 3PM to 7:20 PM Pacific Time. HE Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius himself chaired that meeting.

The meeting was going well until the issue of the planned conferences came up. The Ambazonian leader asked why and how Dr Fontem Neba’s conference was endorsed by the IG but the other conference was not. And why did IG postpone the scheduled physical meeting including IG, Restoration Council?

Responses from members of the IG were as variant as day and night. Obviously there was a divided IG! HE Sisiku Ayuk Tabe then ruled that we should vote on it. That’s was when Secretary Chris Anu went ballistic. He said it is only the IG that can vote on the matter. Sisiku Ayuk Tabe reminded him that a decision taken at a joint house of all branches of government overrides any decision taken by Interim Government.

Secretary Chris Anu incessantly interrupted President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. At last he made this regrettable statement: “You (Ayuk Tabe) will not lead from jail“. Chris Anu further observed that the long period of incarceration has rendered the Southern Cameroons jailed leaders mentally unfit to make any meaningful decisions for the struggle.  That was it. Then he chimed out of the meeting.

Cameroon Concord News Group has learnt that Secretary Chris Anu will be issuing a public statement on his decision to step down from the Interim Government. All attempts made at getting the former Ambazonia Communications Secretary to talk to us have been futile.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

Cameroon’s Ministry of External Relations on Friday denied allegations that its army is using U.S. military assistance to carry out human rights violations.

“Cameroon strongly denies accusations that U.S. military assistance has been used to commit human rights violations. While we have acknowledged instances of human rights violations, they have been investigated and prosecuted through proper judicial channels,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement came after the U.S. government on Wednesday announced that it has decided to cut defense assistance to the country due to concern over alleged human rights abuses.

The ministry said the United States is “an important” security partner for Cameroon and warned that any termination of the cooperation could have “serious implications for Central Africa.”

“Cameroon is committed to join efforts with the U.S. government to combat extremism and advance security in Africa. We look forward to continuing this work together.”

Cameroon army is fighting Haram terror group in its Far North region that borders Nigeria and an armed insurgency in its two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest, where separatists are seeking to create a new nation called “Ambazonia.”

However, it was unclear whether the U.S. move against Cameroon was in response to abuses carried out in one of these military actions, or could be both.

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin met with Cameroon’s Minister of Communication and Government Spokesman, Rene Sadi, and said despite the announcement that the United States has cut military aid, the relations between the two countries remain excellent.

“We are not going to stop security collaboration with Cameroon,” Barlerin told reporters after the meeting.

Xinhua

France said its defence co-operation with Cameroon was continuing a day after the United States halted some military assistance to the West African country over allegations of human rights violations by its security forces.

“France is bound by a defence partnership agreement it conducts according to international standards,” Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a daily briefing.

“In accordance with international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, this co-operation is intended to help Cameroon’s defence and security forces combat terrorism, especially against Boko Haram in the north, while protecting people. This co-operation continues.”

Cameroon co-operates closely with Western states in the fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram in west and central Africa. Rights groups accuse authorities of using the fight against Boko Haram to crack down on political opponents, make arbitrary arrests and torture people.

Authorities arrested opposition leader Maurice Kamto in January, accusing him of mobilising dissent against President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982.

Biya is accused by the opposition and rights groups of cracking down in Anglophone regions to root out armed separatists seeking independence.

A State Department official said the United States decision to terminate some military programmes and halt delivery of certain equipment was to push Cameroon to greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights security forces.

France, with significant business interests in its former colony and reliant on it to fight Islamist militants, is careful not to overly criticise government handling of the crisis.

It urged the Cameroonian government to engage in dialogue to stop an escalation in violence.

Reuters

Despite announcing plans to trim military support for Cameroon’s government over its alleged human rights violations, key U.S. officials say the United States will continue partnering on security efforts. But a Cameroon official contends the cutback could jeopardize the fight against extremism in the region.

U.S. Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin assured that the U.S. was “not going to stop security cooperation with Cameroon,” the Associated Press reported him saying, after he met Thursday with Cameroon government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi.

“Relations between Cameroon and the United States are excellent and longstanding,” Barlerin said, “and we aim to continue that relationship.”

His comments in Yaounde, the capital, came after it was reported Wednesday that the U.S. government was cutting about $17 million in military aid to the government of President Paul Biya.

Also Thursday, the head of U.S. Africa Command, Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington that Cameroon has “been a good partner with us counterterrorism-wise, but you can’t neglect the fact that … there are alleged atrocities,” The Washington Postreported.

Waldhauser also told the committee that Africa Command would sustain its mission “to train the counterterrorism forces in Cameroon that deal with Boko Haram,” the Islamist militant group.

The Pentagon has roughly 300 U.S. troops engaged in training and aiding Cameroonian security forces.

The State Department and Pentagon “recently assessed our security relationship with Cameroon,” according to a State Department email sent to VOA Thursday (and shared a day earlier with The Washington Post.)

Despite “the great cooperation” in fighting Boko Haram and “in restoring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea,” the email said, the U.S. government has “terminated” funding for four defender-class boats, nine armored vehicles, a radar system and helicopter training, among other things.

“We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” the State Department email said.

It added that the measure was intended to press Cameroon “to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights security forces, particularly in the northwest, southwest and far north regions.”

Cameroonian security forces – grappling with Boko Haram in the far north and the Ambazonian separatist movement in two English-speaking regions in the west – have been accused of committing serious violations against citizens.

“Cameroonian security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people, firing on crowds, displacing thousands of civilians, and destroying entire villages with impunity,” Adotei Akwei, an official with Amnesty International USA, said Thursday in a statement responding to the U.S. decision.

Cameroon’s government, in a statement Thursday, said it “strongly denies accusations that U.S. military assistance has been used to commit human rights violations. While we have acknowledged instances of human rights violations, they have been investigated and prosecuted through proper judicial channels.”

Last year, Cameroon’s government rejected a report by Amnesty International, saying its accounts of torture at the hands of security forces amounted to “a web of false allegations.”

The current Amnesty International statement urged the Trump administration to “press other donors of security assistance to review their programs and insist on accountability and reform within the Cameroonian security forces.”

France announced Thursday that it would maintain its support. 

“France is bound by a defense partnership agreement that it conducts according to the international standards,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll told reporters at a daily briefing, Reuters news service reported.

A spokesman for the Ambazonian separatist movement also praised the U.S. move and encouraged other Western countries to pull back support, too.

“What the U.S. has done, it came a little bit late – but we appreciate it and we hope that every European nation [and] Canada will follow suit,” Chris Anu, the movement’s secretary of state, told VOA. “Because if that is not done, the regime in French Cameroon will decimate everything that is in southern Cameroon before the world comes to know about it.”

VOA