Violence is still plaguing the entire Southern Cameroons seven months after Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration told the world that President Biya has defeated Ambazonian separatists. In their latest attempt to suppress the Southern Cameroons resistance, Cameroon government security forces have reportedly burned down nine villages in Ekondo Titi, Eyumojock and Kumbo districts.

Several villagers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, informed Cameroon Concord News on Tuesday that Cameroon government army soldiers set fire to scores of rural homes after clashing with Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

Five people are known to have burned to death in Tatum in Bui Division. Our correspondent in Kumbo observed that the five victims were elderly residents who had been unable to flee their homes during the fire, and their bodies were found after some people returned to the village.

Photographs seen by Cameroon Concord News indicate that several houses in Otu, Lobe and Tatum were reduced to piles of ash and bricks.

We understand that most of the residents remained in hiding in nearby forests after fleeing the villages, when soldiers firing guns entered the areas.

Photos and videos circulating on social media also showed the Francophone administrators in the South West informing public opinion that some highly placed civil servants have been kidnapped in Ndian Division by Amba fighters.

In Tinta in Akwaya, burnt planks of wood, sheet metal, bricks and cooking pots were scattered around, with only a few trees left standing including charred bodies of farm animals.

As the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima blamed troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé for the near-destruction of the entire Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, the Cameroon government army pointed the finger at Amba fighters.

In a recent press release, the spokesman for the Cameroon government army Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack accused the exiled Ambazonian Vice President of deliberately plotting to discredit the Cameroon government military.

This is the latest example of how violence has become endemic in much of Southern Cameroons as the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime widens its efforts to suppress British Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai