The Cameroon government army has repeatedly claimed that its war in Southern Cameroons is simply against Ambazonian separatists and that it has been so careful in who it targets in its military operations. The Yaoundé regime military’s assertion is a stunning underestimation of the true human cost of French Cameroun 2-year-old war against the English speaking minority. A 6-month-long investigation by the Cameroon Concord News Group has found that Cameroon government soldiers are killing civilians in Southern Cameroons at a rate 20 times higher than its military spokesperson is admitting.

From Dadi to Batibo and from Menji to Weh including Belo, Munyenge, Kwa Kwa, Bekora and many other areas where the French Cameroun army had carried out raids against targets ostensibly linked to the Ambazonian Restoration Forces, we found that the Biya regime did not even reported how many civilians had died in the shootings.

The Cameroon army is yet to acknowledge the killing of even one Southern Cameroons civilian. Several innocent civilians killed by Francophone army soldiers weren’t counted among the deaths in a document that was made public by Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo.

This raises many troubling issues about the war currently going on in Southern Cameroons.  The Cameroon government army is also greatly underreporting the number of military casualties. That also raises questions about how many soldiers the Ambazonian fighters might be killing in Southern Cameroons. Cameroon Concord News gathered from civilians and local leaders that killing of Southern Cameroons civilians by the French Cameroun army is serving as a push for Ambazonia Restoration Forces recruitment.

The Biya war keeps killing Southern Cameroon civilians

The Cameroon military has a civilian casualty’s problem. For example, even the names of the American and Kenyan missionaries killed by government troops did not appear on Minister Beti Assomo’s list.  Yet, Francophone government officials acknowledge, they take the necessary precautions to ensure civilians aren’t casualties of the Ambazonia war — even though they are.

Despite claims that Yaoundé has a well organized army; it still cannot stop killing noncombatants because the French Cameroun leadership chooses to fight the Ambazonian restoration forces deep inside towns and villages and not in their assembly areas in the bushes. It is inevitable that civilians have become collateral damage.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Our chief intelligence officer in the Lebialem County  has admitted that French Cameroun troops did not kill a senior Red Dragons Commander, Lekeaka Oliver known popularly as “Field Marshall” during an helicopter gun battle that the Biya CPDM crime syndicate made a talking point for success in the two-year war in Southern Cameroons.

Ambazonian Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu told Southern Cameroonians recently that the Field Marshal is alive and leading military operations in the Lebialem County and even beyond. Our sources deep within the Cameroon government military also observed that the Francophone leadership was not able to confirm that Field Marshal was killed, although the army announced through its propaganda web site that Field Marshal was dead. The same web site had reported some years ago that the Cameroon army had killed Abubakar Sheku the Boko Haram leader.

Earlier intelligence from members of the Minister Tasong family led Yaoundé to believe Field Marshal had been killed. The Cameroon government army has intentionally avoided walking back its high-profile assessment of the fighting in the Lebialem County. The army said in a recent communiqué addressed to President Biya that it is targeting Red Dragons assembly areas in Lebialem.

Colonel Badjeck who also moonlights as the Cameroon army spokesperson has avoided questions on the killing of Field Marshal. We understand the modus operandi of the Red Dragons is much more complicated and provides for many ministers of war.

The Francophone dominated army, along with its corrupt leaders noted recently that the killing of the Field Marshal had dealt a significant blow to the Red Dragons. People in the know in Yaoundé have also openly opined that the army had intentionally withheld information indicating that it had not actually killed Lekeaka Oliver.

A newly announced reinforcement of French Cameroun troops to areas in Manyu near General Elokobi Njock’s village, to be used as a staging ground for attacks on Lebialem, will arrive relatively quickly, CIR has been informed.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Rita Akana

The convoy of the Governor of the North West region came under attack late last night as he was returning from church service, security sources have said.

At least one soldier was injured in the course of the attack but security forces succeeded to ferry the Governor safely home.

Sources say Adolphe Lele LAfrique’s convoy was attacked at 19h15 local time as he was returning from the Catholic Church Mulang where he had just attended cross over service.

Over 20 Ambazonia separatist fighters had erected barricades on the road which prompted a shootout before they retreated to their hideouts.

Police Inspector Fossi Frankline was the only member of the security forces injured in the course of the attack while it is difficult to determine if there were casualties on the part of the armed separatists.

Journal du Cameroun

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya said he will instruct the army to “neutralize the separatist groups” in the central African nation’s English-speaking regions if they refuse to participate in the government’s disarmament program.

“If my appeal to warmongers to lay down their weapons remains unheeded, the defense and security forces will be instructed to neutralize them,” Biya said in his New Year’s address to the nation broadcast on state TV CRTV on Monday. “I am very sensitive to their worries about their safety and their aspirations for a return to calm and normal social life.”

The conflict has left at least 400 people dead since it began two years ago. Biya started his seventh term in office last month with a call to the separatist groups to end the bloody insurgency while promising greater autonomy for the Anglophone Southwestern and Northwestern regions.

The only country in Africa with both English and French as official languages, Cameroon was split after World War I into a French-run zone and a smaller British-controlled area. They were unified in 1961, but the English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained of marginalization for decades.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Cameroon president Paul Biya says he is ready for dialogue with separatist elements to end the ongoing security crisis in the country’s English speaking regions. Biya in his New Year address to the nation said he was ready to engage with persons with goodwill to end the crisis that has been going on since October 2017.

“If my appeal to war mongers remain unheeded to, the defence and security forces will be instructed to neutralize them. I am aware of the situation and difficulties the rebels are putting the people in. “It will not continue,” Biya said. In other planks of security, the octogenarian stated that the security situation in the Far North where Boko Haram attacks are recorded had been stabilized.

It is the first time that Biya is speaking directly to the subject of dialogue. International partners and the church had long advocated this position as the only way out of the crisis.

There are no concrete clarifications on who exactly are the goodwill personalities Yaounde is willing to engage. Separatist leaders are currently facing treason and terrorism charges before a military tribunal.

The situation in the North West and South West regions worries me most…but I can assure You, it will not last for long.

President Paul Biya says he is aware of the difficulties of the population of the troubled North West and South West regions of Cameroon.

He has promised to hasten the decentralisation process and also enforce the activities of the bilingualism commission.

In the past, Biya’s Interior Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, has stressed that government was never going to enter any kind of dialogue with terrorists.

The crisis concentrated in the northwest and southwest regions have claimed scores of lives on the part of separatists and security forces. Civilians have also been killed in the line of fire.

Thousands of Cameroonians have fled the regions, some have crossed into the French side of the country whiles others fled into Nigeria.

Africa News