For many years now, many Cameroonians, especially those in the Diaspora, are being considered as those who are hurting the country’s reputation because of their call for a regime change in Cameroon.

The Yaoundé government, which has been struggling to project itself as being progressive and responsible, has been facing tough challenges from its Diaspora.

In North America, the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is doing its best to give the beleaguered Yaoundé government a really big and bad name.

There are more than two million Southern Cameroonians in North America and they are not sparing any opportunity when it comes to demonstrating that the Yaoundé government led by the 90-year-old president, Paul Biya, is the worst thing that has ever happened to the country.

Recently in Washington DC, demonstrators bearing the Southern Cameroonian flag and public address systems brought the world’s attention to the bloody massacres being committed in the country’s two English-speaking regions during the US-AFRICA Leaders Summit held in the US capital.

Though uninvited, the demonstrators made sure their opinion was heard. They chanted songs depicting Mr. Biya as the architect of the bloody political and economic mess in Cameroon.

But it was Mr. Biya himself who actually stole the show in Washington DC. His mental confusion made many African leaders to ask if he was actually capable of running the country.

In a video which has really gone viral, Mr. Biya’s dementia was put on display for all to see. Mr. Biya confused questions in a high-level meeting were testimonies to his senility.

In another video, despite the tons of steroids he took in Geneva before heading to the US, Mr. Biya could not even get out of his own car and was bundled out of the car like a baby in diapers.

No Cameroonian is hurting the country’s reputation like the country’s senile president who has made up his mind to die in power though he is no longer effective as a leader.

His behavior has made many in Cameroon to view him as the country’s “embarasser-in-chief.”

Many Cameroonians are very disappointed with Mr. Biya who was supposed to have transformed the country into an earthly El-Dorado.

The country’s economy has taken a nose-dive, leaving millions in a dire situation. The rate of unemployment is unprecedented, causing many young Cameroonians to look outward in search of opportunities.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Though not officially invited to the US-African Leaders Summit, Ambazonians made sure they too were heard during the summit and the message went far and wide.

They came in thousands and their noise was indeed deafening. They made sure the Biya regime was really embarrassed and embarrassed it was as Ambazonian demonstrators came with their public address systems to tell the world that Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, was a devil with a human face.

For more than six years, Cameroon has been battling an insurgency in the country’s two English-speaking regions which is hard to overcome though the Yaoundé government has thrown everything it has at the insurgents.

More than ten thousand Cameroonians, including four thousand soldiers, have died because of the conflict in the country’s two English-speaking regions and the country’s economy is still reeling from the government generated chaos.

While preparing for the Summit in Washington DC, proponents of the anemic government in Yaoundé had spread propaganda that the country’s president was going to bring home some Southern Cameroonians arrested in the US for exporting weapons and death to Cameroon.

But America is not Nigeria. The law works in America and American presidents never interfere in legal matters.

Besides, America is not in the business of shipping its citizens abroad. Most Southern Cameroonians living in the US have American citizenship which makes it impossible for them to be repatriated to Cameroon.

If Mr. Biya achieved anything, it was his usual embarrassment of the country as he demonstrated during the Summit that he had overstayed his welcome at the helm of affairs.

In a video which has gone viral, Mr. Biya who had received a massive dose of steroid in Geneva, did not even know where he was and where he had to deliver his long and rambling speech.

He could be heard arguing in total confusion with the aide who informed him that he had already been introduced, adding that he could deliver his speech sitting but the confused Biya walked like a drunk to the podium where he delivered his long and boring speech.

Mr. Biya and his entourage did not even have the opportunity to talk to American officials about the three Southern Cameroonians arrested in America as they found out that talking about it was like flogging a dead horse.

Mr. Biya and his crowd of kleptocrats are expected to be back in Yaoundé before Monday to continue misleading a country which was once the envy of the continent.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s senile and aging president, Paul Biya, is expected in Washington DC in the weeks ahead where he will be meeting with the American President, Joe Biden, where both men will discuss a broad range of issues, including the insurgency in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

Over the last six years, the country’s two English-speaking regions have been open air killing fields where more than ten thousand Cameroonians have lost their lives, including some four thousand soldiers, many of whom were brought down by home-made explosive devices laid by insurgents seeking the total independence of Southern Cameroons.

While the situation on the ground might be improving, there are still fears that a recrudescence of violence is still possible as the key issues which led to the conflict remain unaddressed.

The government has not been receptive to numerous calls from Western powers and international organizations, calling for genuine and fruitful dialogue which should result in a sustainable solution.

The killings in the two regions have reduced to trickles, more so because the country’s army has stopped conducting unnecessarily violent raids in the two English-speaking regions.

The military is to blame for the murder of more than six thousand civilians as it operated based on the government’s Machiavellian and tough principle that negotiations cannot take place with non-state actors, but the insurgents picked up weapons because of the government’s indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians.

The government was clearly caught in the act when its soldiers killed many people in Ngarbuh, Muyengue, Santa, Kumbo, Kwa Kwa and other towns in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

There is ample evidence that the government is to blame for those deaths and several reports by the International Crisis Group have clearly indicted the Yaoundé government, citing the government’s inhuman approach to conflict resolution.

There are videos where religious authorities clearly state that they have evidence of the government’s deliberate killing of its own people just to prove a point.

While Mr. Biya will urge the Biden Administration to arrest many Southern Cameroonians living in the USA and send them to Cameroon, he will be facing very tough challenges as the US government never repatriates its citizens to any country for trial.

Besides, Mr. Biya and his entourage will have to produce incontrovertible evidence that those being suspected were directly involved in the commission of the atrocities the Yaoundé government is alleging.

America is no banana republic nor is it Nigeria which can be bribed and browbeaten for it to ship its citizens to a country where the rule of law is still a foreign concept.

The Yaoundé government is known abroad for its corruption and it will have to convince Americans that whatever evidence it will be providing is not doctored.

 Americans would like to conduct their own investigations, if necessary, and if there is no probable cause, then the Yaoundé government’s plea would end up as a dead letter.

The Yaoundé government is desperate. The current calm may be the calm before the storm. The Biya government has never addressed any real issues for forty years. It has always counted on time to address its issues and the likelihood of old demons rearing their ugly heads is very high.

Cameroonians living in the United States have already lawyered up and the battle, if any, will be a tough one. Even the three Southern Cameroonians indicted in the United States have vowed that they would not go down without a fight.

In the American justice system, an indictment is nothing. Lawyers, who are out looking for lucrative lawyering opportunities can end up messing up the FBI’s case and sometimes those cases could go on for years and some of those cases, could go on even after the 90-year-old Biya joins his ancestors. It will never be a walk in the park in America when it comes to legal justice.

Moreover, not all those being considered as suspects by the Yaoundé government live in the United States. Canada is also hosting thousands of Southern Cameroonians and most, if not all of them, bear Canadian passports and Canada too is not in the business of shipping its citizens to foreign countries where one man’s rule has replaced the rule of law.

Canada wants to mediate and its stance on the Southern Cameroons issue is clear. It wants a federal system in Cameroon. Canada has huge experience in dealing with linguistic minorities and the government clearly holds that a Canadian-style federal system will bring peace to Cameroon.

North American countries never disown their citizens and even when arrested in those rogue countries, Canada and the United States will find a way to bring their citizens home.

Diplomacy is always Canada’s first weapon, but when it does not yield dividends; Ottawa will use economic power to achieve its goal.

The Yaoundé government has a tough task ahead of it. It must come to terms with the fact that times have changed and peaceful resolutions can deliver better results than expensive wars against its own citizens.

If the Yaoundé government is really longing for peace, it must bend over backwards to work with the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora which is estimated at more than four million.

Fighting is not the best way forward and hoping that the United States will do its dirty work is being naive. Sending an American citizen abroad for trial has always been a bridge too far and there are always political consequences for any American administration which engages in such irrational act.

Cameroon needs peace and the Yaoundé government should use its allies to engineer that peace. Instead of wasting time and other resources to seek revenge for the humiliation it has suffered in Southern Cameroons, the Yaoundé government should grant a general amnesty to all those who have been directly or indirectly involved in the conflict.

It should also grant dual nationality to appease the Diaspora which has vast financial resources which could be used to destabilize the country. Cameroon is not yet out of the woods.

Pardoning everybody including the military is the best way forward and not revenge. The military bears greater responsibility for the massacres which have put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The constant bickering between the various US-based factions involved in the war in Southern Cameroons has hurt efforts by the country’s English-speaking minority to gain its independence from the francophone majority which has ruled the country for decades.

The tension between the country’s English-speaking minority and the various governments which have ruled the country has always been there, but things finally came to a head in 2016 when the government’s crackdown on demonstrating English-speaking Cameroons led to calls for the total independence of the once British mandated territory.

The fighting has resulted in the economies of the two English-speaking regions being reduced to nothing, with more than a million English-speaking Cameroonians either fleeing to Nigeria or East Cameroon.

The last two years have really discredited the separatists who have being fighting over control. This uncalled for power struggle had gone a long way in destroying a struggle which had actually left the Cameroonian government in a quandary.

All efforts by the beleaguered government to wipe out the insurgents have all failed, but the separatists’ change of their objective from protecting the people to kidnapping the population for ransom has caused the population to turn against those the people once considered as liberators.

The fighting is now not against the government but against separatist fighters who have transformed themselves into violent kidnappers and rapists.

The population has decided to help the government to track down these unscrupulous elements who are notorious for their atrocities against their own people.

While the local population is living through a nightmare that has lasted some six years, the separatist leaders are enjoying life in many Western countries, with some of them purchasing masions at a time when the people on ground zero  are really struggling with life.

To destroy the insurgency forever, the Yaoundé government has called on the French government to take its plea to the Biden Administration and this strategy is delivering some appreciable results.

On the eve of Macron’s visit to Washington DC, the FBI visited some separatist leaders and their homes were thoroughly searched.

Chris Anu and Eric Tataw are in the cross hairs of the Biden Administration and the raids on their homes are just the beginning of a long process which has been designed to send them to jail for a long time.

The FBI does not always visit people, but when its agents show up on your property, then you must know that they have probable cause to lead you down the path of a long and tricky legal battle.

This week, three separatists living in the United States were sentenced to long jail terms for exporting arms to Cameroon and this is clearly against US laws.

They are also accused of sponsoring terrorism through illegal financial flows.

According to a State Department source, more Southern Cameroonians are being closely monitored and names like Ebini Christmas and Cho Ayaba are on the FBI long list of people wiring money to questionable beneficiaries in Southern Cameroons.

Macron is currently meeting with Biden in the American capital and he is very likely to raise the issue of Cameroonian separatists terrorizing their own people.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the US has said that there is panic among Cameroonians living in the US as they do not know if they are on the FBI radar.

No matter the outcome of the raids on the homes of Southern Cameroonians living in the United States, the fact is that the nasty rebellion in Southern Cameroons which has kept many children away from school for six years and robbed the population of its freedom, is gradually coming to an end.

As its leaders are being hunted abroad, some of their surrogates are already fleeing to Nigeria as they know their days are numbered.

The Cameroon government is now working with the population and anybody caught trying to kidnap or extort money from the population is immediately executed.

 The young men taking advantage of the situation in Southern Cameroons to make money should understand that things have changed and the end is near, a source at the Unity Palace said.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

In only one year, Chief Ewume John, member of the Cameroon military, has been identified as a perpetrator of at least seven different acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment on 11 men in different areas of the English-speaking Southwest Region of Cameroon. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) have documented these acts and intend to refer them to the United Nations Committee against Torture if these cases are not investigated and prosecuted.

Chief Ewume John, also commonly known as Chief Moja Moja, is both a soldier of the Cameroon army and the traditional authority of Bwasa Village in Buea, Southwest Region. The region has been marred by continuous human rights violations in an ongoing conflict between the security forces and a separatist group. Chief Ewume John has used his position to systematically arrest and torture civilians suspected of separatist activities.

On 6 November 2022, Chief Ewume John arbitrarily arrested two men, Kenah Pascal Kum and Zang Emmanuel Buh, members of the Christ Embassy Church, at Bongo Square, Buea, and severely beat them with machetes before handing them over to the National Gendarmerie (Legion) in Buea, capital of the Southwest Region.

Chief Ewume John has a reputation for filming his acts of torture and posting them on social media. He intentionally causes mental suffering and intimidates his victims without fear of prosecution. Despite a complaint filed against him in July 2022 for torture before the military tribunal of Yaoundé, no investigation has been initiated, thus encouraging perpetrators to terrify civilians already exposed to continuous human rights violations.

The OMCT and the CHRDA call on the Cameroonian government to uphold its international obligations and hold the authors of torture accountable for their acts. The two organisations have been mandated by the victims to seize the United Nations Committee against Torture, currently in its 75th session, if they are not provided with reparation and rehabilitation following an independent investigation and prompt prosecution.

Culled from omct.org

Southern Cameroonians both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora deeply distrust a majority of the frontline leaders particularly those based in the USA, and this can be linked to why today, most anti Yaoundé actions are demonstrated through what is termed as individual acts of bravery from the likes of General No Pity.

With Biya regime’s continued use of live ammunition against innocent Southern Cameroons citizens and with Amba fire power very silent all over the various counties; many are now asking the question if the Southern Cameroons resistance is approaching its end!

When Southern Cameroons youth rose up against Cameroon government aggression in 2016, many political commentators and analysts eagerly explained the phenomenon as a reflection of profound desperation fuelled by anger and disgruntlement toward Francophone army soldier brutality and the complacency of its leadership in Yaoundé. It was evidently clear that the main impetus driving Southern Cameroonians to seek an independent state of Ambazonia was one of despair and the understanding that they have nothing to lose.

The arrest of the Ambazonian leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and the subsequent extradition to Cameroon by the corrupt Buhari administration brought a group of dubious religious pastors who jointly and severally ushered in a program and discourse that has been destructive for the Southern Cameroons struggle. The Southern Cameroons resistance today appears stagnant largely due to the continued failure of leadership, unhealthy rivalry among Southern Cameroons groups and corruption among the US based frontline leaders.

Who has legitimate authority in Ground Zero?

The hydra-headed situation as it stands requires a deeper understanding of the Amba fighters in Ground Zero whose efforts continue to be monopolised on as a source of power by groups such as the so-called ADF of Cho Ayaba Lucas and the Sako-Chris Anu-Kumeta comedians in the USA to further their own agenda of enriching themselves through financial donations for the struggle.

It is important to note that 85% of the Southern Cameroons population is in Ground Zero. Essentially, there has never been any direct representation of people in Ground Zero in the Ambazonia Interim Government now headed by Vice President Dabney Yerima.

In concurrence to the lack of leadership both in the diaspora and Ground Zero, there has been a diabolic harsh ploy by men like Chris Anu and Kumeta in the USA to attract all attention to themselves while ignoring the daily survival of the Amba fighters inevitably perpetuating the disenchantment of the fighters. There is a plethora of factors which have played an explicit and implicit role in the current culmination of events in Ground Zero.

These factors range from the compartmentalizing of the Ambazonia struggle into isolated tribal strategies and factionalism within Southern Cameroonians.

For instance, Chris Anu was always on social media concocting and propagating self defense actions that were supposedly carried out by the late Field Marshal of Lebialem all in vain efforts to inform the Southern Cameroons public opinion that his county was at the forefront of the resistance while Cho Ayaba was busy doing same in the North West.

We have seen brave Amba fighters begging for 500 frs CFA to feed while Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are using money meant for the struggle to purchase designer suits and shoes for themselves and renting houses in posh areas in Maryland for their families.

“This scenario exemplifies the internal struggle and our fighters are now considering and reconsidering their choice to resist actively. This is an overt consequence of failure to listen to the leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that God in his infinite image gave the people of Southern Cameroons” the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima reportedly observed during a radio interview in South Africa.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe cannot govern from Kondengui

This was the first slogan exploited by the criminal pastors in the USA as a source of power for Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and their supporters. Consequently, the sense of revolution became muddled and was stripped from Southern Cameroons dynamics by absorbing it into a kind of Ambazonia politics and quest for power and money, while Yaoundé continues its human rights violations.

Apart from the structure run by Dabney Yerima in Europe and with the support of some fertile minds in South Africa, nobody knows the real position of the so-called front line leaders in the USA!  Fighting Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and black mailing him with the support of people like Deacon Tassang has served the colonial project rather than benefit Ambazonians and what we see today is an increased rivalry between Southern Cameroons factions in the USA that have failed Ground Zero.

Those who wish to help Dabney Yerima mobilize Southern Cameroonians again, must not only consider Cameroon government army atrocities but also account for Amba fighter’s brutality which has hindered resistance efforts from donors both at home and in the diaspora.

Judging from anti Dabney Yerima propaganda coming from Maryland USA and Norway from Cho Ayaba, the Ambazonia Interim Government is deemed as an obstacle to be fought rather than a part of the population to join hands with.

Chris Anu, Cho Ayaba, Ikome Sako and Kumeta Elvis are all part of a Southern Cameroons despotic regime, serving their personal interests even if it means ruling on Face Book or Whatsapp chat groups. Frankly speaking, it is not the knife in the chest that is killing the Southern Cameroons struggle; it is the knife in the back.

While Southern Cameroons political factions represented by Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta continue to capitalize on their revolutionary history in combating French Cameroun occupying forces, the reality on Ground Zero today forces every Southern Cameroonian to reconsider the authenticity and sincerity of those that claim to fight in the name of the Ambazonia struggle.

The Way Forward

As the Biya Francophone regime increases its violent suppression of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia politicians such as Chris Anu, Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Elvis Kumeta forsake the resistance for their own personal gains, it is time for Southern Cameroonians to rally behind Vice President Dabney Yerima to get the struggle back on track!

What is happening now is Southern Cameroonians are heartily trying to blame their docility on the Maryland cabal while still allowing them to continue to drown the entire Ambazonia nation in defeat.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

“LET ME GO!”

“A few weeks ago, my health seriously deteriorated. Urgently transported to the central hospital of Yaoundé, I was able to discover in broad daylight the true nature of some beings in all their displayed baseness.

They came in procession, their faces engraved with a false mask of sadness, while in reality; they were hiding the lens of their androids to expose my nudity.

Oh, Lord Jesus, forgive them!

Others spread a false rumor about a supposed presidential pardon. Even my weakened heart leapt with hope, for this supreme decision loomed a medical evacuation that might have prolonged my life by a few months?

I was who I was, reaching the heights of knowledge and skirting the heights of the honors of this world. I have rubbed shoulders with crowned heads, sung to their glory and consolidated their power. I’ve reached out and given a smile to those in need.

But was I wrong in the end to believe that I was more altruistic than altruism and more humanistic than all humanisms? Didn’t I wrongly consider myself as a kind of ebony “Robin Hood”? Only history will judge.

I have hurt and hit many people, crushed innocent toes under my weight, but know that like any man, I have caused harm that I regret not having been able to repair.

Dear compatriots, as you begin to conjugate my life in the past tense, know that mine should serve as a lesson to you. May those who still have the possibility to forgive me do so.

Let those who are more upset remember one of my songs: “One Za? Who are you to judge the actions of your fellow man? No matter what we become in this world, we are very little and this time we think we have is only a deceptive illusion.

Cameroon my country, dear compatriots and fellow travelers, LET ME GO!

May Jesus Christ whom I have so magnified rid me of the chains of my sins, and free me from the illusory vaults of the grandeur of this world.”