On Monday, the 22nd of July 2019, there were peaceful protests by Ambazonian Prisoners of Conscience held in Kondengui central prison, Yaoundé. Their reasons for demonstrating were; excessively overcrowding as their detention centre built for 1500 inmates now currently holds over 9000; unlawful detention without charge; no access to lawyers; living in inhuman conditions; no access to healthcare and routine torture.

These peaceful demonstrations continued till late that night. Instead of sending in police officers, the Cameroun authorities sent their elite anti-terrorism unit. We were later informed by dependable sources and allowed video evidence showing live ammunitions and teargas canisters being used against defenceless, peaceful and caged protestors by the authorities in La Republique du Cameroun.

On Tuesday, the 23rd of July 2019, we witnessed yet another clampdown by the same regime on peaceful protestors in the prison in Buea, with the use of live ammunition and teargas.

We are told that over eleven defenceless inmates were massacred, over 50 wounded, some with life threatening injuries. Over one hundred detainees have been ferried to unknown destinations for torture and perhaps massacre. Some prominent political leaders ferried away in blindfolds include Comrades Macho Bibixy, Penn Terence, Tsi Conrad, Ngalim Felix, Babila Vena. We find these events very disturbing, as they are nothing short of genocidal violence on a people guilty of nothing but the right to express their political views and uphold the origins of their constitution in an unholy union.

On behalf of the people of Ambazonia, and all people of goodwill the world over, The Interim Government of Ambazonia and her collaborators condemn this in the strongest terms.  We would use every tool in our armoury to take these incidents to the eyes, ears and minds of the international community.  1.  The facts of these two separate incidents confirm what was already the opinion of an overwhelming majority of Ambazonians when it comes to Cameroun’s disregard for the lives of our people, and thus the implications to the life and safety of our people everywhere in the world. In that sense what these incidents communicated to us is Cameroun’s unwavering commitment to violence as the sole medium of resolving this conflict and its determination to wipe Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) as a nation and a people from the face of this earth.

After monitoring the situation in the Kondengui and Buea central prisons, The Interim Government of Ambazonia and its collaborators hereby make the following pronouncements:

1. we call on the Cameroun authorities to make public immediately without delay the whereabouts of all the detainees that have been removed to unknown destinations;
2. we call on the Cameroun authorities to release with immediate effect all Ambazonian political prisoners in their dungeons;
3. we call on the Cameroun authorities to give immediate, unconditional access to all independent international media and human rights groups to be able to reach every detainee of their choice in any LRC detention facility, especially Kondengui, Yaoundé; and
4. we call for a Two Days Total Lockdown of the Republic of Ambazonia on Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th of July 2019. All business and social undertakings are required to adhere to this lockdown. We equally call for worldwide solidarity protests at the Embassies of Cameroon and/or France over the next few weeks. This is in solidarity with our heroes currently experiencing the worse acts if dehumanization in prisons and torture centres in La Republique du Cameroun.

Fellow Ambazonians, this is a treacherous and difficult journey we have embarked on. No one can say with 100% certainty what the outcome will be. We have seen hundreds of our villages burnt to the ground, thousands of our men, women and children shot dead for no other reason than belonging to our community. Livelihoods destroyed from the burning of the bikes of bike-taxi riders to the destruction of corn farms in Bali. From the shooting dead of a 4-month-old baby to the burning alive of elderly grandparents, and everyone in between, our innocents have suffered. No one can say for sure how much more suffering we will be subjected to by this regime — how many more months of hardship, how many more people will be killed. We must continue forward and keep our eyes on the prize. The greatest danger of all is for us to give up at this point. The price of freedom is always high but we must remember that we tried peace at the expense of freedom and got 58 years of bone-chilling terror instead of real peace. We most definitely shall not accept a return to the status quo, nor accept anything less than total independence. This time, we want real freedom and real peace.

This declaration is one of our many peaceful steps intended to bring this gloomy state of affairs to a close. As a people, it has always been our intention to achieve our freedom and independence through peaceful means and we hope the regime in Yaoundé lives up to its international obligations.

Short Live the Revolution

Justice for Ambazonia Political Prisoners

God Bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Yours in Servant Leadership

Dabney Yerima

Vice President  Federal Republic of Ambazonia