I was going through my archives the other day. I discovered that is exactly what the French did in Bamileke land. They would circle entire communities to prevent any escape and then burn down entire villages. Then they would seize those trying to escape and subject them to all forms of torture.

The French pleaded as excuse the fact that the people were harbouring and supporting the Bamileke UPC ‘terrorists’ (‘maquisards’). After razing villages to the ground the French herded survivors from various villages into cordoned-off locations known as ‘camps d’internement’ analogous to Hitler’s concentration camps. There the hapless villagers tried to etch out a living as best they could under the circumstances. These camps were under the supervision of ‘prefets’. No one was allowed to leave or enter these internment camps.

It was during this period that French Cameroun soldiers like Pierre Semengue, Rene Meka, and Samombo cut their torture techniques and brutality teeth. They were well schooled by the French in the techniques of committing atrocities against their own countrymen. This French-derived culture of beastial atrocities has remained the hallmark of French Cameroun army. French Cameroun soldiers are actually no more than certified criminals and terrorists in army uniform. Check the background of native French Cameroun ‘soldiers’. You will be surprised to know that they have dubious backgrounds and a sub-standard level of education. Even the ‘officer’ corps of that army is not highly educated. This is not surprising. The Camerounese military tradition does not put a high premium on high educational qualifications.

The French soldiers in Bamileke country and who taught the infant French Cameroun army various techniques of torture and the art of perpetrating atrocities were in fact murderers and part of the disgracefully defeated battalions of French army at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. A good many survivors of the defeated French army were deployed to French Cameroun with orders to commit the most wanton atrocities imaginable so to make sure any challenge to French hegemony is crushed. Having suffered humiliating defeat in Europe at the hands of Hitler’s Germany, in the Far East at the hands of Ho Chi Migh’s Vietnam, and in North Africa at the hands of Boumedienne’s Algeria, the French had a morbid fear of another humiliating defeat. If France were to suffer defeat in French Cameroun it would be the second defeat by a Black country after its defeat by Haiti.

Prof Carlson Anyangwe

Legal Luminary and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Federal Republic of Ambazonia