Four years of unceasing conflict have overwhelmed any attempts to separate civilians from Ambazonia Restoration Forces and made the concept of a normal, quiet life a seemingly unachievable goal in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

While the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, the French Cameroun military,  weapons and goals of both President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and President Paul Biya have shifted shape and character, the average Southern Cameroonian has borne the brunt of a conflict that is hard to fathom but too easy to feel.

Yesterday’s attack on civilians in Bamenda by soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaoundé despite calls for a ceasefire by the UN Security Council  is a willful act from a determined French Cameroun political structure backed by French President Emmanuel Macron that does not  care about international laws but it is only interested to win at any cost.

Evidently speaking, the attacks on civilians in Bamenda have finally revealed how French Camerounians hate the people of Southern Cameroons. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from a well placed source that the soldiers were under the influence of alcohol and drugs provided by the administrative hierarchy headed by Governor Lele Afrique.

The chaotic nature of the Southern Cameroons crisis and the immaturity and ignorance of many in the Cameroon government and military is helping to ensure that attacks on Southern Cameroons civilians are constant and unrestrained.

Why Cameroon government army soldiers attack civilians

The four years of the Southern Cameroons crisis can best be defined as a “war against Southern Cameroons civilians”.  The success of the Biya led-war can be measured only in the sea of dead bodies and thousands of broken families in both the North West and the South West constituencies of Southern Cameroons. To be accurate, the idea of civilians coming under attack and being subjected to torture and other vicious forms of treatment once reserved for captured Ambazonian fighters is now a legal part of the Cameroon government army.

The international community is being fed stories of crimes committed by Ambazonia fighters with the support of Barrister Agbor-Balla the founder of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, an organization that is claiming to be documenting human rights violations in the ongoing crisis and representing victims of the violence.

However, what the human rights lawyer did not mention in his recent report is that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Cameroon government troops have not halt their attacks on Southern Cameroons towns and villages because they are having trouble deciding who is an Amba fighter and who is a town or village resident but have simply replaced the United Nations policy of treating civilians well with a scorched earth approach where Francophone army soldiers are being ordered to burn the people’s property.

When I met Barrister Agbor Balla some months ago in the city of Essen in Germany, he pointed out that “Burning 1 or 2 villages may be a mistake but burning 300 is definitely a government policy.”  Of course destroying all, burning into ash is the objective of fighting the Southern Cameroons enemy.

Cameroon government soldiers are destroying the Southern Cameroons economy! To be sure, the Biya regime in Yaoundé backed by the French is destroying everything Southern Cameroonian. Soldiers are burning houses, warehouses, cutting off roads; electricity and water supply in order that Southern Cameroonians lack supplies to even combat the Covid-19 so that the population would compromise.

The Bamenda attacks witnessed civilians running in front of bullets. It was indeed the Francophone soldiers’ intention to shoot them as their bullets have no eyes. The Bamenda attack was shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. It may as well be a birthday gift from the Biya regime to Barrister Agbor Balla who celebrated his 50^th recently.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

La Republique du Cameroun is evidently on the verge of a civil war, more likely a tribal war, instigated by the Beti, Bulu and Ewondo tribes of the Central and South Regions. The President of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon Prof Maurice Kamto has invited all political entities including the diaspora to pool their efforts to oust the 87 year old President Paul Biya.

Beti Ewondo servicemen and women, armed Bulu militias’ including senior army officers all backing President Biya are ready to stage attacks against the Bamilekes who are pushing for change in Etoudi.

Yaoundé inhabitants are reportedly preparing for a nightmare scenario as they believe there is the prospect that Biya loyalists will fight to hold on to power and will refuse to accept any outcome that will keep the ruling CPDM party out of government.

Biya and his kinsmen are also preparing for the anticipated fight and the regime is doing everything to intimidate the population of the capital city with regular fake bomb alerts.

Prof Maurice Kamto has blamed the fighting in Southern Cameroons on the Biya regime and he is also pressing the government to reform the electoral law that has legalized electoral fraud, voter suppression, irregularities, late ballots and long lines at the polls which are problems often manufactured by ELECAM the French Cameroun body responsible for organizing elections run by persons appointed by President Biya.

Ever since the 1988 Kaki and Green parliamentary elections, the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has excelled at rigging their own internal elections for the party’s favorites and National Chairman Paul Biya by suppressing and targeting potential challengers. The late Ayissi Mvodo, Prof Titus Edzoa and Albert Nzongang have all been victims.

The situation in French Cameroun has become very complicated. To be sure, what is different in this recent appeal by Prof Kamto is that the Beti Bulu Ewondo political and military elites, who usually work overtime to suppress citizens from other ethnic extraction on election days, now have a president whose end is looming!

A likely outcome is that there might be a major split in the French Cameroun army if someone from the Biya family is chosen to succeed the 87 year old dictator.  Both sides of the French Cameroun divide are “Frenching” up in Paris for an epic fight.

Conditions in French Cameroun are dire now. La Republique du Cameroun is on the verge of a civil war, more likely a tribal war. Even if Biya agrees to step outside, such a war might still be in the offing, as some CPDM hardliners have been hungering for such a war against the Bamilekes for decades and the emergence of Prof Kamto and Biya’s imminent departure has green lighted the plan.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

“Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction,” says Dr. Joachim Arrey, a Canada-based translator and technical writer in this soul searching interview with Chi Prudence Asong 

Cameroon Concord News: You recently sent a message to Mr. Wilfred Tassang which many people truly appreciated. What really prompted you to write to him?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain a few things about my response to Mr. Tassang, who through his letters has been arrogating to himself the status of a saint and a speaker of the truth. His last letter to the President of Southern Cameroons, Sisisku Julius Ayuk Tabe, wherein he raised a number of issues which I found to be so trivial was one letter too many, especially in the context in which the country finds itself. I understand that when people are working together, there are bound to be differences, especially differences of opinion, but I hold that when I work with other people, there are differences that could be overlooked in the interest of the group’s unity and interest. It is hard to find a very united and well-oiled team, but that does not imply that the group’s dirty linen must be washed in public. In my view, Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction. His failure to understand this simple philosophy was actually what prompted me to respond to one of his many write-ups that do not really make a lot of sense to me.

Cameroon Concord News: But some people hold that your disagreement is more ideological?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Mr. Tassang believes in the total independence of Southern Cameroons. He has a right to his opinion and there are many Southern Cameroonians who think like him and will not bulge an inch. Like the government, they are frozen in their positions and this attitude is what is feeding the rebellion and carnage that are taking place in the country’s two English-speaking regions. I respect Mr. Tassang and his view, but this does not imply that he is beyond reproach. I hold that the parties involved in the fighting back home could meet each other halfway through constructive and purposeful dialogue. I clearly stand for federalism and I think this system of government could help the country address those issues that triggered the disagreement and fighting.

What all Southern Cameroonians agree on is the fact that they have faced marginalization for more than five decades and they want it to stop so that future generations do not face the same issues. I must recall here and now that if there are more than three million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is because of the systemic and institutional marginalization that has robbed the people of Southern Cameroons of so many opportunities. However, this can be addressed if the government and those who are calling for total independence demonstrate exceptional flexibility. But with people like Mr. Tassang frozen in their positions, it will be hard for genuine peace to return to our own part of the country.

In his letter to President  Julius Ayuk Tabe, he clearly stated that Barristers Paul Ayah and Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla were not fit to negotiate for the people of Southern Cameroons because of their moderate stance, but he fails to understand that those two barristers have much to offer because of their sound knowledge of legal justice and their involvement in the struggle. There won’t be a better negotiator than a lawyer. Furthermore, Mr. Tassang like the Yaounde government holds that victory will be obtained in the battlefield. I think he is simply oblivious of the reality on the ground. His knowledge of history is either inadequate or it is failing him. No war has ever ended without talks and negotiations. The Treaty of Versailles sanctioned the end of the First World War while the Yalta and Potsdam agreements remain in history as those negotiations that ended the Second World war.

Talking and negotiating to end a conflict are as old as man. Mandela negotiated to bring about racial parity in South Africa. Colonial Africa had to negotiate to end colonialism. Why does Mr. Tassang hold that talking with the Yaounde government is tantamount to treason? Why would he chide those who had accepted an invitation for talks with the government when he knows that without talks, the current situation in Southern Cameroons which is close to an apocalypse will linger for a long time? When a man invites you, go and listen to him. You will surely have your turn to talk and you will tell him how you feel and why you do not buy their perspective of things. If you turn down the invitation due to anger or inflexibility, then your point of view will never be known and that could be used against you. A reasonable person will not want to go down in history like someone who lacked foresight and a vision. That is where I disagree with Mr. Tassang, but we agree that we are all victims of the government’s marginalization policy.

Cameroon Concord News: But even after the informal meeting and the international community’s pressure, the killing has continued, and many people are still fleeing the region.

Dr Joachim Arrey: I am indeed unhappy about the way things are playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Right from the beginning, I was against any armed conflict because such conflicts easily start but linger for a long time. The government had an opportunity to avoid such a catastrophe in our country, but it opted for violence. Southern Cameroonian fighters, for their part, felt they had a right to self-defense, and this has left the country in the grip of Kafkaesque violence that has already consumed more than 5,000 lives and reduced many villages to ashes. What the government and Southern Cameroonian fighters thought would be a walk in the park has turned out to be Sisyphean task.  There is no end in sight, especially as both parties are stuck in their positions. The mindset must change, and all Cameroonians have to work and pray to bring about sustainable peace in our country. I have been seeing pictures of Southern Cameroonian fighters killing soldiers and there are also pictures of soldiers killing innocent civilians. It is even alleged that soldiers now arrest civilians just to make a fortune out of them, especially after the ministerial order banning the purchase of machetes without authorization from a senior divisional officer. I do not know how residents of those two regions will be going about life, especially as 80% of them are farmer and machetes are part and parcel of their lives. I believe that there is a better way to do things. Both parties should be open to dialogue so that the local population can go about its business without fear.

Cameroon Concord News: You have written a lot about this conflict, but we are not seeing an improvement. Do you think your writing is having any impact on the parties involved?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for acknowledging my peaceful role in efforts at seeking a lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons conflict. As a writer, my primary role is to make both parties see the mess they are creating in their country. I have always stated that fighting and destruction will not address any issues. I believe in talks and if we can talk, we will spare so many lives. This is not the time to demonstrate that we are tough. History has no respect for people who believe in destroying the lives of others. History has a good place for people who turn to seek solutions and that is why people like Mandela, Koffi Attah Annan, Bishop Desmond Tutu, etc will always be remembered. While they oppose oppression in any form, they hold that oppression, no matter how hard, could be defeated at the negotiating table. Apartheid was defeated at the negotiating table and not in the battlefield. South Sudan gained its independence at the negotiating table and not necessarily in the battlefield. Canada addressed its issues with Quebec at the negotiating table and not on the streets. Southern Cameroonians can learn from Quebecers and the Canadian government. Like Canada, we can have one country, two systems where each linguistic group uses its culture to address its problems. Federalism has never threatened Canadian unity. It has only made Canada the envy of the world. The Yaounde government and Southern Cameroonian fighters should use the Canadian example to bring peace to Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News: I have always asked you this question and you have always been evasive. When will you return to Cameroon to put your vast experience at the service of your people?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for asking this question. As I have always said, when it comes to human resources, Cameroon has more than enough. I might be experienced, but I hold that my place is in my native Ossing where I can positively impact many lives. I would let others do the politics while I watch them from the sidelines. I could carry out an analysis of their actions and publish for the public to gain a better understanding and maybe draw its conclusion.  Spectators could also influence players and I want to be that spectator who holds sway over players through writing. That is my role as a writer, and I love it. Thanks indeed for recognizing that I have the experience that can help others. I will however take it to my native Ossing where I can help the farmers to be better and encourage kids to go to school. I will certainly go back, but that is if the fighting ends.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you for your time!

Many political commentators in French Cameroun have opined that the 87 year dictator Paul Biya is a liar, a corrupt man, fraudster, a cheat and he is cruel. Deep within the Anglo Saxon tradition which is in the DNA of every Southern Cameroonian, Paul Biya is indeed a reckless leader with no principles and he is so mean.

None of the above description of Mr. Biya is new to the hardworking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia and all of them ring true as well throughout French Cameroun territory but it doesn’t seem to matter to men like Prof Joseph Owona, Prof Fame Ndongo, Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Dr Dion Ngute, Hon. Philemon Yang, Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya and Biya legion of followers in the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

As his late kinsman Ayissi Mvodo pointed out some years ago, Paul Biya knows nothing about domestic policy, foreign policies, economics, or any other subject, other than living a lavish lifestyle in Europe which his parents could not provide for him in his youth days. Biya was never qualified to be president and has been manipulated by Francophone political elites who flatter him including those he envies like Joseph Owona who has produced a PhD son in the person of Eric Mathias Owona Nguini.

Several French Cameroun political elites who successfully insinuate themselves by flattery into Biya’s inner circles have persuaded him easily to carry out incredibly destructive policies. The chief example is Minister Amadou Ali, who has consistently lined up a sea of cabinet ministers from his Far North Region with nothing to show as development in the area. This was also true with the late Dr Martin Belinga who spent all his time in government posing as the next-of-kin. And of recent Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who has plunged Biya into a Southern Cameroons journey of many dangers.

Biya’s Southern Cameroons bungling has resulted in almost 35,000 deaths and the economy of the two Cameroons is in shambles with record unemployment. Five thousand people are now homeless in Douala because the city council spends money organizing CPDM rallies instead of investing on waste management and anti flooding schemes. The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has completely run short of ideas. It has bailed out Camair Co, state corporations and left working citizens on their own. To be sure, if French Cameroun were a company, it would have long been shut down!

In any functioning society with a decent military like Mali and Algeria, Paul Biya would have been history but French Camerounians are the most docile people on planet earth. The only genuine opposition leader Prof Maurice Kamto does not have support from the French imperialistic apparatus running the politics of French Cameroun and there are fears he may chase the French Cameroun oligarchs.

While many French Cameroun villages, towns and cities are experiencing nothing in terms of economic development and job creation, police brutality is steadily on the rise, all in a bid to guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power. Biya and his gang will stop at nothing to ensure they remain on top and they are using every dirty trick in the book including the Covid-19 pandemic against their opponents and the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

For over four decades, Biya and his French Cameroun criminals have done nothing to address the gross inequality in the two Cameroons and nothing will be done to curb Francophone interventionism in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

French Cameroun is a failed state, one where a dubious business tycoon, Amougou Belinga is shown on national television celebrating a presidential decree that propelled his wife to a senior judge in the French Cameroun judiciary.

The regime in Yaoundé is controlled by oligarchic elites who are intent on further enriching themselves at the detriment of the entire nation. Southern Cameroonians will never have any real voice in the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon government and the people of the Ambazonia will never be allowed to have the ability to stop the French Cameroun madness.

It’s up to the Southern Cameroons diaspora to support the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima and reject French Cameroun hegemony. They can do so if they forget about the Maryland comedians such as Ikome Sako, Chris Anu, Fru John Nsoh and Elvis Kometa.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Originally planned for March 2020 the International Conference on the Armed Conflict in the Southern Cameroons was postponed indefinitely due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic. We are pleased to announce that this conference will now take place from October 30 – November 1, 2020 and will be online only.

The last few months have seen, unfortunately, a severe escalation in the armed conflict in the Southern Cameroons. Gross human rights abuses are registered daily with women and children bearing the brunt of it. Despite a recent United Nations resolution for a global ceasefire, the conflict in the Southern Cameroons is rather escalating. There is currently a stalemate in the Swiss initiative and no credible pathway for a broad-based negotiation to resolve the conflict.

The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations has again undertaken consultations in view of identifying a pathway for durable negotiations. All Southern Cameroonians must come together to define a path to durable negotiations and an end to the armed conflict.

Given the urgency of the situation and after due consultations with various stakeholders, we have rescheduled the International Conference on the Armed Conflict in Southern Cameroons to October 30 to November 1, 2020. Due to travel restrictions this conference will be organized VIRTUALLY.

The 3-DAY Virtual Conference will bring together Southern Cameroonians from all walks of life: civil society leaders, all leaders of “restorationist” (separatist) groups, Southern Cameroons political leaders, activists, religious and traditional leaders, legislators, businessmen and businesswomen, youth leaders, academics, media personalities and members of the diaspora.

The theme of the conference is:

“Defining a Pathway for Our Future”

The Conference has two main objectives:

Engage all segments and professionals of Southern Cameroons origin to establish the majority view on a pathway to a permanent negotiated solution to the armed conflict, and

Develop a detailed framework for a robust post-conflict reconstruction.

The seven previously established Working Groups (WG) will guide deliberations throughout the conference. WGs are made up of technical experts, representatives from major stakeholder groups and interested Southern Cameroonians. The seven Working Groups are: (1) Mediation and Negotiations; (2) Healthcare and Humanitarian Relief; (3) Judiciary and Constitutional Affairs; (4) Peacebuilding and Public Security; (5) Economic Reconstruction; (6) Education and Vocational Empowerment; and (7) Governance.

The Coalition has put in place a credible authentication process to ensure the decisions and positions during this conference represent the views of Southern Cameroonian attendees. We strongly encourage Southern Cameroonians from all walks of life to become actively engaged. The stakes could not be higher. We need to do everything possible to bring a durable end to this escalating war.

Canada-based translator, technical writer and journalist, Dr. Joachim Arrey, analyzes the letter written by Mr. Wilfred Tassang, one of the NERA 10 who are currently in the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison known as Kondengui to the leader of the Southern Cameroons struggle, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe. In his analysis, he calls for unity of purpose and urged Mr. Tassang to see the negotiating table as the place where sustainable solutions to the Southern Cameroons conflict could be found.  

Dear Deacon Tassang,

I have read your message to Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe with rapt attention and I do sincerely appreciate your decision to let Southern Cameroonians have an insight into your mindset and your vision of life. While you have cast your letter as an attempt at mending the cracks on the wall of the Southern Cameroonian leadership, it must also be pointed out that your litany of unnecessary complaints and reprehensions is instead counterproductive as it clearly puts on public display the bitterness and anger that have inhabited your mind for years. It will also go a long way in turning off many Southern Cameroonians and their friends around the world who sincerely hold that those in jail must forge a unity of purpose in order to conquer the enemy.

Instead of making this message an attack on your intellectual genius, I would rather like to use it to highlight the shortcomings in your thought process contained in your more than 8,500-word-long letter which, to all intents and purposes, does not help the Southern Cameroonian cause which, for some time now, has been struggling due to internal divisions and betrayals. I will, therefore, conduct a profound, but objective analysis of some of the paragraphs in your long letter. The selected paragraphs are in inverted commas.

“I come to you not as a judge, but that we may reason together, review together how far we have come. I do not come in bitterness like you are want to think, but in distress. He is a foolish man who does not take time off to recollect, to examine himself, and to be his own judge; but sometimes, we become too complacent to our persons that we paint ourselves in glowing colours even when everyone else sees us in darker shades. If those around us do not tell us the reality of our situation, it is most probably because they know what pleases us and that we would take offense if told the reality, or that they actually desire our fall. However, there are others like me who will say it as we see it because we believe that the truth in all circumstances brings advancement and that falsehood will cause nothing but retardation at all times. In clearer terms, falsehood can never lead to any measure of advancement, just as the truth will always push every good cause forward.”

In the opening paragraph of your letter to Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, you cast yourself as a man with the monopoly of the truth and who must say it at all time. Unfortunately, many are those who will clearly disagree with your assertion. I know you are a teacher and given your age, I would think that you are aware of the adage that “silence is golden”, and this is all the more true in this context which clearly calls for a demonstration of unity of purpose. Your view is not necessarily the truth because it is you. Arrogating to yourself the status of a visionary and a lover of the truth only casts you in very negative light. A good team player is he who keeps differences out of the public square, especially if such differences could dampen the determination of the group’s followers. Also, from your litany of complaints, you seem to seek perfection which unfortunately is not of this world. Sisiku Ayuk Tabe will surely not be the first perfect human being on earth even if he implements all of your untested recommendations. I would like to advise that those who lay claim to the monopoly of the truth and wisdom are good materials for psychiatric and mental analysis. In many cases, they are the problem and not the other way round.

“…Perhaps not; I mean that I know about our cultures and traditions and do respect them, especially, the titles that get conferred on people. I don’t know what “Sisiku” means, but from the way you go about with this title, from the value you attach to it, (to the extent that it has replaced your name), it is clear to me that “Sisiku” is indeed a great title, and that those who answer it are to be reverred. Is the reverence found in the title or is it found in what those who go by the title do? 

I also know that titles are inherited through one’s lineage, or that one may earn them through achievements such as acts of chivalry or benevolence towards one’s community. I trust that yours belongs to one of the above, and not to the third category of those who purchase theirs at the village market square. If it is so, then it is a worthy title indeed.”

Deacon Wilfred, I guess you know that in diplomacy, you must call people by the titles they want you to call them. Besides, as Africans, at a certain stage in our lives, we avoid calling our friends by their first names out of respect which must be reciprocal. I am not from the north west region, but I have many friends from this region who call each other by certain titles and this is done out of respect. Talking about traditional titles from Manyu Division with such levity is like throwing a grenade in your own camp while expecting the enemy to die. I have noticed in your letter that you add titles to almost all the names from the North West region, but you claim to be non-conformist when it comes to Sisiku.  The following are just a few examples and I would like you to advise if this demonstrates your claim to non-conformism. “Shufai Barrister Blaise Berinyuy, Pa Nfor, Mister Nanchop, and Dr. Santos.” Do these people deserve their titles just because they are from the northwest? I do not want to get into the northwest – southwest divide because it will adversely impact the cause of the Southern Cameroonian, but would like to draw your attention to the fact that you have a moral obligation to sow unity by controlling the flow of your emotions and ink.  You seem to have profound disrespect for Manyu traditional titles by playing down their importance and this spells disaster for our unity of purpose. While I seek unity, I would advice that I have the courage of my conviction and I do have the right stomach to fight this northwest-southwest fight.

Again, you lay claim to the monopoly of wisdom and the truth in the following paragraph. This is hurting the cause and you should know this if you are the wise man you claim to be.

“You see, dear brother, (how I wish we could return to those days when you and I called each “brother”) many people think that things are going wrong because I have not spoken to you, to let you know that the path you have taken is the wrong one. When I have told them that you believe that I am rather the one that has chosen the wrong path, they don’t believe me. I do not know why they think you would listen and harken to me though. That is why I have decided to write this love letter to you, trusting the heavens and the earth, even the walls of this prison to be our witnesses. More importantly, the Ambazonian people shall bear me witness this day. Therefore, this note is not about any new occurrences, but rather, it is a synthesis of things that have happened which you and I are witnesses to; which we had spoken about, and or taken part in executing. It is my pleasure to lovingly replay this tape to you, but I will try to do so in the reverse gear as it were.”

From the paragraph above, it seems you have been conducting surveys on Southern Cameroonian issues that directly affect the lives of our people. I think the ideal thing to do will be publishing the findings of your surveys instead of keeping them to yourself. The fact that a few people get in touch with you does not imply that they represent a huge segment of the Southern Cameroonian population.

“…I was really shocked that you could disown Dr Santos. I’d like to remind you that several times in the past, even after we had parted ways, I advised that you distance yourself from certain persons whom I judged to be ruining the struggle though they seemed to be working in your favour. On all these occasions, you turned down my advise and declared that people had the right to speak freely. Yes, freedom of speech even when that freedom was used against the revolution and in your favour, was to be allowed. To refresh your memory, I advised that you distance yourself from Kisob Bertin who was and is clearly against the struggle, but you refused. Remember that this Kisob approached us (you, Pa Nfor and myself) only a few days after we entered Prison Principale.”

From the paragraph above, it is obvious that you consider your advice as the “gospel truth” that must be applied to the letter. I guess you understand that when you advise someone, they still have the right to reject or accept your advice. A true leader should listen to those around him, but he must demonstrate a lot of maturity when making decisions. I personally do not understand why you think your views are the best and must become the Southern Cameroonian law. Even the Bible is questionable. I guess you remember that the Bible was used to enslave and colonize people around the world, though it teaches love and humanity. I see that you quote it extensively in your letter to send home your message but be advised that those who preach the Bible hardly live according to their own teachings. The Bible and those who have faith in it advise that there is a world (Heaven) that is better than the one in which we currently live and that death is the vehicle that will take those who qualify to that world. Strangely, when the same people are sick, they go looking for the most effective medication. The Coronavirus would have been an ideal vehicle to take many people to Heaven, but for eight months now, pastors, deacons, religious ministers and priests have been hiding in their homes, scared of going to Heaven; the place they tell us is without sorrows. This is just an example to let you know how hard it is to implement one’s advice.

Also, you seem to hold that every Southern Cameroonian believes in your philosophy of independence. I do not know if you have conducted another survey. I would like to point out that the common thread that holds us together as Southern Cameroonians is our total rejection of the marginalization that has blighted the lives of our people. This does not imply that we all are fighting for independence. As a wise man, you should have known this, and you should have known that we must make common cause if we must achieve something. It is therefore preposterous of you to brand some people as unfit to negotiate for Southern Cameroonians.  This unreasonable message of yours is contained in the following paragraph taken from your letter:

“Birds of the same feather flock together my brother. I have heard you several times declare that there will be no negotiations without the likes of Justice Ayah Paul, Agbor Balla, and Mancho Bibixy sitting at the table to negotiate for Ambazonia, and you have not even of recent shifted from this position. When you make these declarations, do you expect us to read some hidden wisdom behind it, or is it that you are completely oblivious to the fact that all these people are unionists/federalists? Can you truly get Agbor Balla and Justice Ayah Paul to go and negotiate homeland restoration for Ambazonia? My brother, I am trying to help you search your mind. As for me, there shall be two parties at the negotiation table; LRC and Ambazonia. If the likes of Mancho, Balla and Ayah will sit there, it shall be on behalf of Yaoundé. Am I making sense at all? Are you even beginning to see why we fear you are compromised? If you are not, how can you even dream that Mancho who has declared that his “Coffin Revolution” was hijacked from it’s original purpose, and the above listed whose positions are equally known to be against homeland restoration, can be hired to negotiate for the same? So, brother, are you a federalist or a restorationist? While Ambazonia when restored shall belong to all equally, I think that it is ill advised to join forces with Federalists during the restoration quests. That was why I backed off a fundraising programme organised by Yanick Sikod in the US when I discovered that Tapang Ivo, a federalist (at the time) was his co-organiser.” 

Deacon Tassang, the fact that we are flocking together today does not imply that we are birds of a feather. We have a common problem – marginalization – and this requires all Southern Cameroonians to make common cause so that it can be ended once and for all. That can also be achieved through the negotiating table if the opponent is understanding and willing to bring about peace. From your letter, it is obvious that only the slaughtering taking place in the cities and towns of Southern Cameroons can grant you the independence you want. There is just no single way that is the only effective way that will help us wade off the death and destruction that have become our people’s fate. What is happening in Southern Cameroons is not new. History is replete with such unfortunate situations. If you look into the mirror of history, you will find out that the African National Congress in South Africa also went through the same crisis Southern Cameroons is going through at this time. While Mandela felt that negotiations could result in the racial parity that all South Africans needed, some extremists thought it could only be achieved in the battlefield. Mandela and his group won the day and today, South Africa is a rainbow nation that is still forging ahead despite the challenges and issues that still undermining efforts at bringing a beautiful life to everybody. This is however not unique to South Africa. Other nations also have their own challenges.

“Like me, you spent part of your youth in the village; did you at anytime witness a common congregation of doves and vultures? What do you really think our people would think of you when your friends are those who have in their words and actions, turned against the struggle? Or did you not also learn that “actions speak louder than words?” Even if you did not, let me remind you that you have made reference to this truism several times when pontificating on leadership here in prison; or were you referring to other people’s actions only and not yours? In Communication, you said, words account for less than 20 per cent of information transmission, tone of voice for 30, gestures or actions for 50 per cent. Do you now see how hollow we sound when we proclaim “Restoration or Resistance forever” and yet do the things that delay restoration?” 

Indeed, you seem to be enamored with your own expressions and views to the point where you think reconciliation and peaceful negotiations are impossible. I hear you were a teacher before ending up in the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison, but you do not seem to have sound knowledge of history that should be guiding you and informing some of your views. Sometimes, even hungry lions spare the lives of their preys. Some predatory species sometimes live in peace with theirs preys. I guess you still remember the story of Romulus and Remus who were twin brothers. They were abandoned by their parents as babies and put into a basket that was then placed into the River Tiber. The basket ran aground and the twins were discovered by a female wolf which eventually saved their lives.

In the following paragraph, your know-it-all mentality comes through like a moon in a bright sky.

“You know Sir, that I have always told you the truth; even the things that those who “love” you won’t tell you, I have not kept away from you. Fortunately, you have only not liked the animated way I make some of these criticisms, but have listened with sports each time. Remember how I presented to you an observation made by the partner at Foley Hoag when you visited the head office of the law firm in Washington? The counsel said: “Wilfred, your new leader speaks well, and seems to know what he is about, but….” He said he didn’t know how you would take it but thought he could raise the point more easily with me; that he thought your dressing didn’t exactly reflect the cause you stood for, defending the cause of a suffering people. Your “gold watch” did not reflect the suffering people you were supposed to be representing, he said. This, I remember telling you in SED, but did it register? You did agree that you wore a gold watch. We have not agreed on this (dressing code) ever since, yet the call for modesty in all things stands, not only for you and I, but for every leader in the struggle. Your position on this matter has been that a man is addressed as he is dressed. I agree with you here but differ on where the virtue lies. While the monk is not made by his cassock, it is also true that a man who is flamboyant in appearance proclaims what he will do if allowed to manage the community’s granary.”

I would like to highlight here that before the struggle, many Southern Cameroonians, including Sisiku Julius Tabe Ayuk, had their money. Their good jobs and skills opened huge doors for them. Dressing properly or expensively is a matter of choice. There are very many wealthy people whose sartorial taste leaves much to be desired. This does not imply that they do not cherish their wealth. I guess you are not calling on Sisiku Julius  Ayuk Tabe and other wealthy Southern Cameroonians to dump their earthly possessions just because Southern Cameroons is going through a crisis. There is no rule in life that states that to lead a people, you must be modest in your dressing. In the Southern Cameroons’ case, dressing properly is part of good packaging, especially when it comes to meeting other personalities and dignitaries in the West. Your dressing is part of your ID. If you lose it, you lose who you are. Tell Southern Cameroonians that in his seven weeks as a leader, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe embezzled their funds just to buy suits and a gold watch, we will all understand. I will be the first to go after him. But telling Southern Cameroonians that he was wearing a gold watch bought with his own money only portrays you like a man who is chasing a mirage. You seem to be pursuing perfection which is not of this world. Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were leaders of the African National Congress. They never went about naked to prove their modesty. Mandela was a lawyer and he had to dress appropriately. I strongly hold that Southern Cameroonians have more serious issues to deal with. The ones you have raised in your letter are, indeed, a major distraction that should be avoided. The USD 1.2 million that is missing in Washington was embezzled by those who took over from Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and there are documents to prove that. Stop distracting the hard-working people of Southern Cameroons.

Deacon Tassang, I would like to end here. My objective is to highlight some of the weaknesses in your thinking. You know more than I do that Southern Cameroonians are focused and they have their eyes on the big prize. They know they will have it at the negotiating table and not in the battlefield. Instead of seeking to demonstrate your monopoly of wisdom, I would suggest you work very closely with other people who think that negotiating could deliver better results than the slaughtering that are taking place in the towns and cities of Southern Cameroons. I wish you the best and more courage as you deal with the frustrations of incarceration.

Sincerely,

Dr Joachim Arrey

The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

Fellow Ambazonians,

Over the last three weeks, the barbarisms of the French Cameroun Army and the regime in Yaoundé have been laid bare and the world is witnessing again the unpleasant side of the Yaoundé neo-colonial regime. The past few weeks are a clear sign of its utter desperation in the full realization that our people have decisively rejected annexation and colonial bondage for good. I come to you today on the 34th anniversary of the Lake Nyos disaster to speak of the tragic loss and devastation the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) has faced over the last three weeks.

On Monday 2 August 2020, Mr Tangem Thomas, a Southern Cameroonian Prisoner of Conscience was tortured again by being shackled to his sick bed until he died on 5 August 2020.  The Interim Government can confirm explicitly that he died from torture related injuries and trauma. He was abducted in 2017 and detained incommunicado at the torture chamber of SED Yaoundé where he was repeatedly tortured. He was never charged for any crime and died for being an Ambazonian.

On 7 August 2020, a staff of COMINSUD, an implementing partner for several United Nations agencies, was kidnapped from his home and later killed by unidentified armed individuals. On 11 August 2020, an unacceptable and despicable video circulated on social media of the slaughter of a woman in Muyuka. Upon close scrutiny, Ambazonia Intelligence Services identified that the perpetrators spoke with French Cameroun accents.

On Wednesday, 12 August 2020, three Southern Cameroonian minors were murdered in their gardens as they hunted for snails by French Cameroun prowling forces.  A lawyer commissioned to ascertain the facts surrounding their murder was unlawfully arrested, harassed, detained for two nights. French Cameroun lawless forces continued their genocidal campaign by invading the village of Mautu, in Fako County on 13 August 2020, slaughtered over 30 civilians and recorded themselves dragging the lifeless body of a young man along the streets.

Paul Biya and his minions have committed every crime under the sun. Over the last three weeks, we have been reminded of Paul Biya’s atrocities by the hideous execution of a woman in Muyuka, the murder of three children in Tiko, the abduction and brutal execution of four men in Bafut, the massacre in Mautu, the burning of villages in Ikata, the murders in Ndop and the dragging of the body of a slayed young man on the road. These genocidal crimes were committed by Biya’s tribal army and their proxies. Our gallant freedom fighters cannot possibly commit such atrocious crimes and film them for the world to witness.

Over the last three weeks, Interim Government lawyers have made contact with many young men of Southern Cameroons descent who have been randomly abducted and detained incommunicado in torture chambers. Fellow Ambazonians, be under no illusions; we are facing an extermination campaign by the French Cameroun terrorist state. The regime in Yaoundé has one agenda; to wipe-out the Southern Cameroons!Over two weeks ago, French Cameroun’s so called colonial ‘governor’, OkalaBilia, planned to meet with the authorities in Cross River State, Nigeria to send our people back to a war zone in the Southern Cameroons. With the intensity of slayings over the last few weeks by the French Cameroun’s lawless military and its militias, an act of this nature is a violation of the rights of our refugees.

We call on the International Community to put continuous pressure on the neo-colonial regime in Yaoundé to create an atmosphere conducive for pre-talks and eventual end to the conflict between our two nations. The Interim Government of Ambazonia believes that the following confidence-building measures would create an atmosphere for productive engagement:

• A UN humanitarian intervention in the Southern Cameroons. This necessary action will secure the safety of the people of the Southern Cameroons and humanitarian workers.
• The release of all Southern Cameroons political prisoners being held by La Republique du Cameroun in various prisons and torture facilities.
• An international fact-finding mission to investigate the crimes perpetrated in Ambazonia from 1 September 2016 by the regime in Yaoundé.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia considers the adoption of these measures as critical for lasting peace and security between our two nations.

Our people are pressed on every side by an army and a regime sponsored by the might of France but our determination for justice and independence will see us through. Thisstruggle is protracted, fierce and bloody but despite the challenges of the last three weeks, we shall overcome. As a nation, we will never give up.

Our nation has gone through some dark moments over the last few weeks but with the courage and determination of our restoration forces, we shall emerge stronger. The marauding French Cameroun army and the neo-colonial regime in Yaoundé have lost the argument for their continuous annexation of our land. Their goal is to destroy the people of the Southern Cameroons and extinguish as a polity our Homeland, a former trust territory, the independence vote of which was endorsed by the UN. We now have a responsibility to inform Mr Biya and his unruly tribal militias that there are bitter and poisonous weeds in Ambazonia. There are certainly a great many more since their execution and massacre of the last three weeks.

I pay tribute to these young men defending our land and fighting for our freedom. They deserve our gratitude. Let me use this occasion to express the sympathy of the Interim Government to all who have suffered bereavement or who are still anxious that the enemy will attack them again soon. Let me state that our self-defence forces are exceptionally more determined. They are prepared to fashion our independence. We have a duty to buy our AmbaBonds to fund them.

As the nights lengthen for our people in Ground Zero and the destruction of our communities grow, I have come today to tell the regime in Yaoundé that for this savagery and genocide, we will have no ceasefire with them devoid of genuine independence. There is a false assumption that is being made. It is that there is a credible and legitimate government in the French vassal state of Cameroun with which to conduct good faith negotiation leading to an outcome binding on that country.

The outfit that passes for a government exists simply because nature abhors a vacuum. Otherwise, the indications are that there is presently no credible and legitimate government in that despotic state. There is rather a repellent tribal coterie that thrives on deception, terror, torture and murder. That regime is highly contested and suffers from severe fissures that have generated antagonistic factions, each plotting to assume control of the atrocious dictatorship. There is complete opacity as to who is really in charge in that melancholic country tormented by deep endemic corruption, a beleaguered and crumbling economy, and a resurgence of antagonistic atavistic tribal identities that has split that failed state along several fault lines.

French Cameroun and its puppeteer, France, promote the fiction of the existence of many Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) ‘groups’ as an obstacle to engaging in negotiation. This is a red herring. The people of the Southern Cameroons will not go to negotiate as ‘groups’.

French Cameroun will not be heard to say it will come to the negotiation table to talk with ‘groups’ within its territory. Any such idea is misconceived and stillborn.  There are two parties, and only two parties, to the would-be inclusive dialogue to deal with the root causes of the territorial and human rights dispute that has led to a war of independence imposed on the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) by the French-controlled Cameroun state. On the one side there is the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) with its team of negotiators; on the other side is Cameroun Republic with its team of negotiators. How each side organizes itself and approaches the negotiation is a purely internal matter for each.

I have full confidence that if we all do our duties, we shall prove ourselves able to fashion the freedom and independence we so seek and deserve. That is the resolve of our leaders in detention. That is the resolve of our refugees and IDPs as they showed in refusing Okala Bilia from visiting them. That is my resolve. That is the resolve of the Interim Government of Ambazonia.

At the funeral of Pah Tangem Thomas, a statement from President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe delivered by Barrister Pekum Emmanuel, read “By his passing he has liberated so many of us and has paid the ultimate price for the nation that we are forging. Like him, several of ours have been brutally massacred by the occupational forces of la Republic du Cameroon and have gone without seeing our promise land. The worse thing that can happen to us, God forbid, is that knowing all that we have gone through and clearly seeing the barbarism of our Eastern neighbour, we failed on this one-way journey. We must individually and collectively promise Brother Tom and those that have gone before us that we will continue the fight from where they ended till the last person standing, until we arrive Buea”.

Fellow Comrades, We must never give up. We shall ride out the storm of genocide and tyranny that has been unleashed upon us.  We must never give up.

Prepare my fellow comrades for the road ahead is dreary. We shall never turn from our purpose, however dismal and challenging it gets, however grievous the cost, because we know that out of this time of trial and tribulation will be born a new freedom and glory for the people of Ambazonia. We must never give up. Never give up! We shall never surrender and would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time and with all His power and blessing, Ambazonia shall be a reality.

Thank You, God Bless Ambazonia, God Bless You All

Many Cameroonians have never known the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, as a comedian.

The conman has always been known as an unrepentant butcher and a self-aggrandising crook and trickster, especially over the last three years when citizens of the country’s two English-speaking regions took up arms to defend themselves against the Yaounde government whose only conflict resolution tool is the gun.

As a special adviser at the presidency, Atanga Nji distinguished himself through his reckless and ill-informed declarations on the Southern Cameroons crisis which only inflamed the country’s English-speaking minority.

His total and unwavering support for the corrupt Yaounde government enabled the country’s president, Paul Biya, to hand him the territorial administration portfolio with special focus on cleaning up the mess the government had created in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Known for his impulsiveness and lack of a deep sense of analysis, the conman cum territorial administration minister thought the Augean Stable created in the northwest and Southwest regions would be cleaned up through trickery and assassination of a few youths.

In his warp thinking, he thought it would take just a few days and his master would pour kudos and accolades on him.

Atanga Nji did not know he was leading a tough mission into the unknown; a quagmire that would rob him of his youthfulness and health.

Four years after Southern Cameroonians took to the streets to demonstrate against systemic and institutional marginalization, the country’s two English-speaking regions are now awash with guns and bombs have started going off, targeting mostly uniformed officers and enablers of the corrupt Yaounde government.

A mission that was supposed to be a walk in the park to the “brain-dead” territorial administration minister has become a sisyphean  task and the crisis that the Biya regime thought could be wrapped up in a few weeks might outlive most Yaounde-based politicians if care is not taken.

The crisis has become a huge nightmare to the government and Paul Atanga Nji who was considered as the man with the “midas touch” seems to be running out of solutions as Southern Cameroonian restoration forces take on the ill-trained and corrupt national army with confidence.

Initially, the government thought killing a few people would prompt Southern Cameroonians to walk back on their decision to call it out, but the killing of a few people only turned out to be grave mistake whose consequences might linger for decades.

Instead of rescinding their decision to fight against marginalization, Southern Cameroonians instead made common cause. They know that bullies must be confronted and for three years, the hunting rifle bearing fighters have morphed into an organized army with sophisticated weapons and whose hit and run tactics have reduced the national army to scouts whose members are  seeking to establish a war economy in the region instead of seeking to roll back the insurgency.

The government is running out of options and currently, it is working with blacklegs within Southern Cameroons who are willing to betray their souls for a paltry CFAF 50,000 and sex from the alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers.

But restoration forces have a strong message for anybody who betrays the cause and this message was delivered when some angry fighters slaughtered Comfort Tumassang in Muyuka in broad daylight last week.

The message is a reminder to all Southern Cameroonians on ground zero that aiding and abetting the enemy is a treasonable felony that must be punished in a manner that is far from being fair.

The Southern Cameroonian justice system – at least that which is being enforced by the fighters – is fast. In the region, justice is never delayed, so it is never denied. This is the only region in the world where all the fighters are judges and lawyers. Their laws are not written and only those fighting in the jungles of Southern Cameroons can interpret them.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group source, Ms. Tumassang has been flirting with sex-starved soldiers and receiving money from them as an incentive for her to betray Southern Cameroonian fighters who, for three years, have given the military a run for its money.

Her killing sent three of her friends who were also involved in espionage against Southern Cameroonians packing to Yaounde where they are being protected by the corrupt regime that has been avoiding frank discussions and negotiations with Southern Cameroonians.

The gruesome killing of Comfort Tumassang has sent the government into a tailspin and instead of seeking a genuine and sustainable solution to the problem, it has, through its conman in chief, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a document banning the purchase of machetes in a region wherein subsistence agriculture is the mainstay of the region’s economy.

To purchase a machete, many farmers in the two English-speaking regions of the country, most of whom live in very rural regions which are not accessible even during the dry season, have to head to Divisional headquarters to obtain a permit from the Divisional Officers. This is the new Cameroon government comedy at work.

By this ministerial order signed by Paul Atangha Nji, the government has clearly demonstrated that it is running out of solutions to bring the insurgency to an end.

For three decades, the government has been ruthless and many Cameroonians have very little or no respect for their government.

This new order banning the purchase of machetes demonstrates that those ruling the country are comedians and they are now ready to take their comedy to the next level.

According to an opposition figure in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, this new decision by the country’s territorial administration minister to place restrictions on the purchase of machetes is the outcome of putting square pegs in round holes.

“When you put the wrong people in certain positions, you only get what you are getting today in Cameroon. When you transform roadside mechanics into mechanical engineers, you end up getting the wrong solutions for problems that might tear the country apart,” he said.

“Cameroon is collapsing, but our political and social architects are more concerned with robbing the country blind and keeping power. The Southern Cameroons crisis is an issue that has weakened the state and if care is not taken, it might result in the balkanization of our beloved country. Many other groups are watching and they hold that the crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions might inspire them to seek independence too,” he added.

“Rather than placing restrictions on the purchase of machetes in Southern Cameroons’ rural areas, it would be wise for the government to head to the negotiating table where there are possible solutions to the issues that triggered the crisis. For the last four years, the government has been seeking to cure a cancer patient with aspirin and this has caused the cancer to spread to other parts of the body. The government should understand that its tricks and pseudo-solutions are not delivering the much-needed results. It is time to change course,” he stressed.

“Paul Atangha Nji’s brand new skills as a comedian will not help this country. As a heartless conman and despicable butcher, he did not deliver much. If the government thinks he is the man who will seek real solutions to those issues that are giving our country a bad name, then even the head of state is confused. The government needs to adopt a new approach and dead wood like Atangha Nji should be weeded out of the political system. He lacks what it takes to deal with this complicated issue. It is way out of his league. He should instead go back to his village and become a farmer, though he will need an authorization to purchase a machete. That is where he belongs. Politics is not his thing,” he concluded.

The government seems to be overwhelmed and to distract the docile population, it has resorted to a strain of comedy that is not putting smiles on anybody’s face.

Like Atanga Nji, the country’s president cum comedian-in-chief, Paul Biya, is also trying to distract Cameroonians by announcing that all those who played in the 1990 World Cup competition would be granted homes thirty years after the competition.

Several of those players have already died and many of them have been reduced to bags of bones by poverty and psychological torture.

Some of their children have been robbed of the opportunity to go to school because of the the government’s insensitivity to the plight of those who are, indeed, the heroes of that country.

The granting of these apartments is welcomed, but if not well managed, those apartments might end up becoming ticking time bombs as those failed children might end up fighting each other as their ailing and aging parents disappear from the scene.

While it is a welcome relief to many of those players, especially to the family of Tataw Eta Stephen who captained the team in 1990, but died in abject poverty a few weeks ago, many Cameroonians think that the corrupt Yaounde government could do better by putting in place well-defined mechanisms that can serve the country’s heroes and ambassadors such as musicians and players.

Many of these cultural ambassadors and players end up in dire financial straits because the government has failed to play its role as a creator of opportunities and mechanisms for proper financial management.

The Yaounde government has to abandon it improvisation and comedy to focus on the job that is its own. Cameroonians deserve better and they think it is time to walk away from the comedy that has given their country a bad name and sent many hardworking citizens to an early grave.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

The Malian coup d’état of August 18, 2020, that flushed out the country’s former president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has sent shock waves across the African continent, especially in Cameroon where the country’s authorities are also being accused of the same crimes and sins that brought about the humiliation of the Malian president.

Over the last five years, former president Keita and his collaborators had been accused of corruption, mismanagement and incompetence which had brought untold hardship to the hard working people of Mali, causing the military to intervene in order to clean up the mess.

But compared to the situation playing out in Cameroon, former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his collaborators will surely be seen as saints. Their crimes pale in comparison to those committed by the Biya regime.

In Cameroon, corruption, mismanagement and dictatorship have become the country’s hallmarks, with the country’s ruling party considering itself as the government.

Mali has been dealing with Islamic terrorists for years and president Keita’s incompetence and inability to roll back the terrorists caused the population to see him as a square peg in a round hole.

In Cameroon, the country’s president, Paul Biya, is not only a square peg in a round hole, he is a dead square peg in a huge round hole that has been swallowing up the country’s limited financial resources.

Cameroon too has been dealing with a challenging insurgency in the country’s two English-speaking regions of the country for four years and this conflict is costing the country a pretty penny.

For close to four years, the country’s English-speaking minority has taken on the government, accusing it of marginalization and discrimination.

The conflict has hurt the country’s economy with many state-owned corporations located in the two English-speaking regions of the country winding up due to constant attacks of their facilities by restoration forces.

Rather than seek to address the issues that triggered the fighting, the country’s authorities have instead opted to play the ostrich, hoping that time would help them address the issues.

Over the last four years, the country’s military which is supposed to protect the country’s population has been killing civilians and burning homes in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been killed by the military, and thousands now live in the jungle out of fear for a military that is very pro-government.

The government’s heavy-handed approach has also caused restoration forces to adopt violence as a key weapon that will enable their message to get across.

Where the government’s military violence cannot deliver the goods, it uses young girls as spies and they have succeeded on several occasions to infiltrate the ranks of the restoration forces. An approach that has led to the death of many restoration forces!

Restoration forces, for their part, have been sending a clear message to those who betray the revolution. Last week, a young lady was hacked to death in Muyuka, a town in the country’s southwest region where the insurgency has taken root. She had been accused of flirting with and spying for the military, an allegation that has been confirmed by the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Muyuka.

The said lady had been working with three other girls and a young man who had earlier been kidnapped. He was questioned and later killed by restoration forces. He was the one who betrayed the young lady and restoration forces felt she must be taught a lesson. Her three friends who have been sleeping with soldiers and betraying the people’s cause have all fled the region and are now hiding in Yaounde where they are protected by the corrupt and incompetent Biya regime.

But it is not only in the country’s two English-speaking regions that there is a problem. The country’s northern region has been facing threats from Boko Haram and this has left the government with a sticky situation.

The situation in the north is getting worse by the day, with northerners holding that they have been left out of the current political dispensation ever since the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, left power in 1982.

Ahidjo who died more than a decade ago, was buried in Dakar, Senegal, and Mr. Biya and his collaborators have refused to let Ahidjo remains to return to the country of his birth.

This has irked northerners, with many of them holding that there must be revenge. In the 80s, the Biya regime engineered many fake coups with the intention of eliminating many Ahidjo supporters. Thousands of northerners were killed and several thousand also fled the country. Today, northerners are mobilizing to challenge the regime and if their plan materializes, the Yaounde regime will be left in a pretty mess.

With such a long catalog of issues, crimes and sins, the country’s government is losing sleep, fearing that the military might intervene to rid the people of Cameroon of an incompetent dictator who has nothing to show for his 38 years in power.

Though the country’s president has, over the last 20 years, reduced the country’s military into a violent tribal militia, it is still concerned that things could spiral out of control, prompting the military to take over power.

Tuesday’s coup d’état in Mali has left many francophone African leaders wondering, but it is the Yaounde regime that is very likely to lose sleep because of the huge skeletons in its small cupboard.

But can the Cameroon military ever act like the Malian military? Will the Cameroon military ever think that its loyalty is with the people and not with a bunch of incompetent kleptocrats who have worked very hard to ruin the country?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief