The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has warned CAF that the city of Limbe is a war zone and unfit for African Nations Championship matches.

These matches include pool D games involving Namibia, Zambia, Guinea and Tanzania. The tournament is due to run from 16 January to 7 February across three cities. Other tournament venues are in Yaoundé and Japoma Douala.

“With regards to the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations, Ambazonia Intelligence Service (AIS) has briefed the Interim Government on sophisticated new strategies that would be employed to defend our national interest. We have informed French Cameroun and nations participating in this tournament that any attempt to bring its activities to Ambazonia would be considered a deliberate violation of our sovereignty, and our response will be prompt and definite” the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima cautioned.

Many football fans around the continent have been expecting a reaction from the government in Yaounde. Cameroon Concord News understands that it is still unclear to the tournament organizers if the Ambazonia threat is authentic.

Other Southern Cameroon front line movements have unanimously backed the Interim Government and have strongly advised the African football governing body to immediately terminate any plan to play any game in Victoria (Limbe) or to host any team anywhere in the territory of Ambazonia for safety and security reasons.

The people of British Southern Cameroons have often claimed they are being unfairly treated by Paul Biya’s French-centred government. Paul Biya has held the reins in Cameroon for nearly four decades (and was prime minister before that).

This resulted in militant secessionist groups symbolically proclaiming the independence of a new nation — including the two Anglophone regions — called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, which lies between Nigeria to the west and French Cameroon to the east.

The Interim President of Africa’s newest nation,  Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, and other members of his cabinet are in French Cameroonian prisons where they have been sentenced for life.

It is a conflict which is scarred by violence and severe human rights violations from both security forces and armed groups, Amnesty International reported.

Over 6 000 people have died and close to half a million have been displaced. Multiple separatists groups have formed in the southwest and northwest of the country.

At least five people died and five more were wounded on Wednesday after a roadside bomb exploded in Momo County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

By Isong Asu in London with files from Namibian.com