La Republique du Cameroun recently approved the trial of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium at military tribunals in Yaounde. The Consortium including many international organizations have blasted the measure including the rapes, extra judicial killings, the militarization of Southern Cameroons and the shutdown of internet services  as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law.

With many Southern Cameroonian groups still responding to the civil disobedience campaign orchestrated by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the complete and total boycott of all academic institutions, we of this publication believe that arrest and trial of the leaders of the Consortium is an indication that the Biya Francophone regime is in “a dire situation” and is unable to “retain” the security and stability in West Cameroon.

What is the difference if you are sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court or a civilian court? What matters here is the fact that the Francophone regime with its 84 year-old leader is desperate, that after only five months of the Anglophone revolution it finds itself forced to take those measures that are repressive and are defined by others as being against the spirit of the civil law.

The Southern Cameroons revolution is indeed the people’s revolution and has continued unabated and it has been peaceful and consistent in its demands. This is why the regime shut down internet services and cracked down on the Anglophone media because it does not want the media to reflect on what is going on in West Cameroon.

The Yaoundé Francophone government is now using Anglophone counterrevolutionary forces and the 2017 GCE situation to make the world to believe that they have defeated the revolution in Southern Cameroons. Only pro Biya regime journalists and human rights organizations are allowed to enter Southern Cameroons in an attempt to keep the news of the revolution away from the mainstream media.

According to our intelligence officers, the Consortium has helped the regime by reducing its very efficient ghost town operation to just one day a week. However, the Francophone regime has not been able to contain the popular Anglophone uprising, which began in 2016, despite all its repressive measures.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai