As a nation, not in our wildest imagination did we ever think that killing will be a sport in Cameroon, but ever since the country’s English-speaking minority protested against the government’s marginalization and the Biya regime responded with its legendary violence, killing has become normal.

The government was the first to start the slaughtering, using the most gruesome methods, sometimes even killing women and children just to prove a point and to send a tough message to the separatists it erroneously branded as terrorists.

Today, Southern Cameroons has become an open killing field. The government kills to prove a point while separatists kill to revenge. The government kills with impunity and separatist fighters must also kill for the military to feel the pain citizens of Southern Cameroons are feeling.

In a bid to understand the new mindset of the separatist fighters, the Cameroon Concord News Group has been talking to the fighters and finally had exclusive access to a major Southern Cameroonian commander following the spectacular killing of scores of army soldiers in the country’s northwest region and the commander had a lot to reveal.

Regarding the setback in the Northwest, the jubilant but cautious commander who elected anonymity said that “our job is to kill the soldiers and we are doing a great job. There seem to be a distribution of labor and each group is doing its job. The government sends the troops to the ‘slaughterhouse’ and we, the dreadful ‘butchers’ kill the cattle the government sends to us and the military takes the ‘carcasses’ in cadaver bags to family members of the fallen soldiers.”

“The military thought it would just walk into our territory and kill thousands of our people and just walk away with sang-froid. We could not allow that to happen to our people. We have developed new ways to fight the enemy and these ways are working like charms. We are no longer fighting them in our towns and villages but on their way to those towns when they are on their genocidal missions. This strategy is producing the desired results,” the commander said.

“The days when they used to arrive in Southern Cameroons like knights on white horses are long gone. We have succeeded to kill their bluff and propaganda. The soldiers are now scared of us. Their tanks are being disabled by our effective IEDs and they know they can be blown up at anytime,” he said smiling.

“We cannot thank our comrades abroad enough for their support which is both financial and moral. We have received good training from mechanical and chemical engineers in the building of IEDs and this training has gone a long way in maximizing the number of military corpses that we produce every month. We had a special contingent of engineers from the United States and China who gave us sound training in Nigeria. We buy the materials in Nigeria and mount the IEDs in Cameroon. Our IED manufacturing factory is working at full capacity and we are determined to make the Yaoundé government regret its mistakes. We must rob the government of its legendary arrogance and we have really bad news for Mr. Biya and his stooges,” he stressed.

“The production of chemical and biological weapons has been put off by Vice President Dabney Yerima. We know once the production of those chemical weapons goes under way, we will change the game forever. We have a message for those soldiers who are making the mistake of coming to Southern Cameroons. ‘With our chemical weapons, we will roast you alive and your parents will not have the luck of burying you. You have a choice. Quit the military or get roasted. We are not joking. We want our independence’,” he said.

“The world will soon be noticing a new way to achieve independence. We are not participating in any talks with the Yaoundé government. It is not trustworthy. It speaks from both sides of its mouth and it has never been as good as its words,” he pointed out.

“If the soldiers think the IEDs are producing any results, then they are mistaken. Let them wait until we come up with one of the crudest chemical weapons the world has ever seen. We want to kill as many soldiers as possible. We have been reading that we have already killed three thousand soldiers. That is really small. We should be at five thousand by now. It therefore implies that we are behind schedule. We must become Africa’s leading producer of military corpses by the end of the year. The Yaoundé government has transformed us into destructive monsters and we must be up to the billing,” he stressed.

“Killing soldiers is a lucrative business. Our financiers are happy with us. The money and praises are flowing. All our backers are telling us is that we should reduce civilian casualties and enable kids to go back to school. We are now urging parents and teachers across Southern Cameroons to go back to school. They are not targets. The government and its backers are our targets,” he underscored.

“Our independence is in the offing. We have brought fear to the enemy. We have also succeeded to transform Senior Divisional Officers (SDO) into Senior Dead Officials (SDO). They have all fled their duty stations and they continue to run even in their sleep. They are permanently having nightmares and we want to keep things that way,” he concluded.

The government has a choice. It can either swallow its pride or call for peace talks with third neutral parties moderating things or it can continue with its arrogance and obstinacy which will only lead to secession.

The time for arrogance is over. The world knows that the government cannot win this war. Manipulation cannot lead to anything meaningful. The game people like Prime Minister Dion Ngute are currently playing in Buea will not help. The Grand National Dialogue was roundly rejected by Southern Cameroons and going to Buea this week to talk about the implementation of the conclusions of the Grand National Dialogue is buffoonery in its superlative degree.

It is time to see the truth and act appropriately. The Yaoundé government is not deceiving anybody. Its half-hearted actions are simply pushing it into a very tight corner. It is currently in a cul-de-sac and with an 88-year-old driver at the steering, the government does not even have a fighting chance in a war that is far from being conventional.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai