As the world seeks to make sense of the chaos playing out in Kabul, Afghanistan, Southern Cameroonian fighters are also thinking that victory in their fight against the Yaoundé government is in sight.

The Southern Cameroonian fighters, who have over the last two months posted some significant results, have now been emboldened by the victory of the Taliban who have always fought to be in total control of their country.

In a recorded message sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s London Office, a Southern Cameroonian commander speaking in pidgin, the language widely spoken by Southern Cameroonians, said victory was in sight, adding that if America could be defeated, then La Republique, the derogatory name Southern Cameroonians use to describe the Republic of Cameroon, can be defeated in Southern Cameroons.

 “The situation in Afghanistan is talking to us. The Taliban have proven that it is possible to beat even the most sophisticated military in the world. If America can be humiliated in Afghanistan, then we can humiliate La Republique in our own territory. We can replicate what has happened in Afghanistan right here,” the commander said.

“Over the last two months, we have proven that we can inflict a lot of pain and damage on the Cameroonian army which thought it would just come here to kill our people and walk away. They have already killed more than 5,000 civilians, but we have also dealt them some deadly blows and they now know that nobody has the monopoly to kill others with impunity,” he added.

“The time when we had outdated weapons is long gone. We have migrated from machetes to IEDs, and this has struck fear into the minds of the soldiers. We have proven to them that fighting our boys is not a walk in the park. We have delivered results which the government did not expect us to deliver. We are no longer scared of the military. With our new weapons and experience gained over the last five years, we are capable of getting to Buea a lot sooner than expected. Many Cameroonian soldiers are scared of us. Many have fled to neighboring countries and they no longer want to be part of a military that is poorly paid and is organized along tribal lines,” the commander said.

“We hear many people say the government wants to negotiate, but we have not seen any moves that convince us that the government is sincere and serious. We are going to continue rolling these forces of occupation out of our territory until the government sees the need for negotiations. The government is always saying that it has no people to discuss with, but our leaders are in their jails. Mandela negotiated while in jail. Nkrumah negotiated when he was in jail. Patrice Lumumba negotiated his country’s independence while in jail. Why does the government think that President Julius Ayuk Tabe and his colleagues who are in jail in Yaoundé cannot negotiate with the government? We are talking here about negotiations for our independence. We cannot continue to be with Francophones. Their ways are different, and we have come to the conclusion that we have to go our separate ways,” the commander stressed.

“We hope that now that the President of La Republique, Paul Biya, is back from his long sick leave, he will be able to understand that his soldiers cannot win this war. The soldiers have been crippled by fear just as age and diseases have crippled Mr. Biya and his Senate President, Marcel Niat Njipenji. We will never down our weapons until all foreign forces on our land leave. We don’t want to hear of federalism. Anybody who discusses federalism with Yaoundé will be doing so at his own risk. We have gone beyond federalism. We are now working for the total liberation of our land,” the angry commander said.

Meanwhile, the fighting in the two English-speaking regions of the country continues. While the military has been demoralized, Southern Cameroonians fighters, for their part, are motivated and they have succeeded to impose their law in many parts of Southern Cameroons where the military is scared of going to. Cameroon army soldiers do not want to get into any confrontation with the fighters because they understand that Southern Cameroonian fighters now have more sophisticated weapons and are capable of killing them.

Army soldiers have been beaten in the rural parts of Southern Cameroons, and the humiliation that has been inflicted on the soldiers captured has struck fear in many soldiers who prefer to quit the military or feign an illness just because they want to be out of the killing fields of Southern Cameroons. 

While the soldiers are being killed in Southern Cameroons, the politicians, especially those of the ruling party, are doing their best to line their pockets. Many of them see the killings in Southern Cameroons as an opportunity to make money to feather their nests.

Like their president, the ministers who are directly involved in this war, hardly visit the two English-speaking regions but have constantly misinformed the president about the progress of the war.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai