President Biya is expected to name former Prime Minister Simon Achidi Achu as the new mediator for the crisis that has rocked the Anglophone regions of the country. A source at Unity Palace hinted CIR that the 84 year old dictator held an emergency meeting with his close aides on the Southern Cameroons uprising.

Biya is said to be under considerable pressure to release the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court. A well-placed source also told Cameroon Intelligence Report that Biya has ordered the restoration of internet services in Southern Cameroons.

During the emergency meeting at state house, close aides to Biya urged the president to appoint Simon Achidi Achu as the main CPDM negotiator for the Anglophone problem. Achidi won the hearts of the regime barons following his 15 February 2017 declaration that called on Yaoundé to release all Southern Cameroonians detained in Francophone jails and accelerate the decentralization process that was agreed and documented in the 1996 Constitution.

The former Head of Government and Senator made public his position after a conclave of 15 February, which was attended by parliamentarians and Senators of the ruling CPDM party from the North West constituency.  The Right Honorable Simon Achidi Achu unlike Peter Mafany Musonge who betrayed his kinsman and brother, Chief Inoni Ephraim recognized the relevance of the problems posed by Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

By Rita Akana