AK-47 was designed by the late Russian inventor Mikhael Kalashnikov and put into mass production in 1947. It has since undergone little changes. Thousands of these AK47s are in the hands of the French Cameroun army and very few currently with Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The few AK-47 rifles presently being brandished by the Southern Cameroons self-defense groups were never provided by the Ambazonia Interim Government under the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako. The former Acting President fed Southern Cameroonians with stories about a renowned broker who had agreed to supply the rifles to Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces. Till this day, nothing has arrived Ground Zero.

All what Sako Ikome and his gang claimed to have done with Ambazonia money ranged from plain fiction to the most absurd. The few AK47s that the Ambazonia Self-Defense Forces seized from the Cameroun government army soldiers were test-fired in ambushes and encounters with the Biya regime troops.

Correspondingly, we see AK47s being used against Southern Cameroons women and children by troops loyal to the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaoundé and Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora are maintaining a kind of deliberate silence on the issue!

The AK47 is an iconic weapon of liberation armies and self defense forces throughout the world-Southern Cameroons being no exception. It is even important for the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe to order the inclusion into the Ambazonia flag an AK-47 in its emblem throughout this period of the struggle.

We of this publication are appealing to all Ambazonians in the diaspora to help Vice President Dabney Yerima to procure AK-47s from gunrunners in South Africa, Zimbabwe and neighbouring Nigeria. The Southern Cameroons diaspora should be mindful of the fact that even militias run by Minister Paul Atanga Nji and Mayor Patrick Ekema now carry the AK47 rifles and Chinese mining companies are donating more AK47s to the Biya regime.

The AK-47 is a favorite assault rifle because of its durability even under extreme conditions. Its accuracy is rated as good enough. Most armies have found the AK-47 easy to operate. No wonder it is also the world’s most smuggled assault rifle and is a favourite among criminal regimes like the one in Yaoundé.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai