In its ongoing military campaign to suppress and subjugate an increasing conscious Southern Cameroons population who have since November 2016 been progressively pressuring the francophone dominated government to listen to their legitimate demands, the Biya régime, through its continuous and unabated violence and brutality in the two English speaking regions have crossed the red line.

Thousands of Southern Cameroonians have fled their homes seeking refuge in the bushes and forests as they battle with diseases, snake bites, insect bites and every imaginable risk under such conditions. Some 40,000 have made their way into neighboring Nigeria.  According to the latest UN report, 160.000 Southern Cameroonians have been displaced internally. Cameroon government forces have ever since engaged in burning down entire village communities abandoned by desperate Ambazonians whose voices have been loud but ignored by those who are the watchdog of global security.

In his senseless malicious military campaign against citizens of the former British Cameroons, the young, the old and the weak have been burnt alive as they constitute the vulnerable class of people who are unable to undertake the pernicious and physically challenging adventure in to the forests.

Teenagers like the 11 year old Ellen of Bansoh Bui and the 14 year old Medien of Widikum have suffered life threatening and definitely life changing injuries. Both girls received bullets in their faces and have ever since been receiving medical care thanks to the relentless humanitarian campaign of the Lord Justice Ayah Foundation.

Unlike the young Pakistani girl Malala who survived the Taliban gun attack and who gained international recognition and support, these Malalas of Southern Cameroons have been ignored by the same community and organisations that stood up in support of Malala from Pakistan.  In the face of all these abuses, a lot of tongues have been waging on how many more are going to flee their homes and seek refuge in dangerous habitats before the world stands up to the realities of the crisis? How many more Southern Cameroons youths are going to be slaughtered, tortured to death, and buried in mass graves before the UN will take action?

Southern Cameroonians have been calling for international assistance. They now want the world to protect them against their supposed protectors. The government’s mass murdering tactics and collective punishment have drawn a lot of flak in recent times and even the Trump Administration has been disappointed by the methods the dictatorial government in Yaounde is using to restore order in the two restive English-speaking regions of the country.

Thursday’s Menka murders came on the heels of a scathing criticism of the reckless Yaounde regime by the U.S. Ambassador, Peter Barlerin, who used his audience with the country’s president, Paul Biya, to call for an end to the senseless and targeted killings in the two English-speaking regions.

Mr. Barlerin also used the occasion to call on Mr. Biya to think of his legacy, a coded way of telling the Yaounde dictator not to run in the upcoming presidential election. It should be recalled that the Americans have a way of advising their erstwhile friends to quit power. Mr. Barlerin is simply walking in the steps of other American ambassadors who hold that governments must be accountable to their people.

The international community, and world organizations like the UN, the Commonwealth have all shown solidarity with Biya by their inaction and regular visits including exchange of pleasantries as they wine and dine in the luxurious so-called Unity Palace. The reaction of the UN and the Commonwealth has been all sound without fury, as the Biya régime goes viral with its excesses.

By Ntam Charles Ngeh

Bonn, Germany