As China fights a vast threat that has already killed some 300 people, Cameroonians are also engaged in a struggle that has consumed millions.

China’s virus is natural and the authorities are making a conscious effort to limit its spread, though the stubborn virus has gone global and it is likely to reach many parts of the world with relative ease due to globalization.

In Cameroon, the CPDM, the country’s state party which is more dangerous than the Chinese version of the Coronavirus, has ruined the state.

In 38 years, the party has morphed into a consortium of crime syndicates made of the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia.

The crime syndicate has wasted huge financial resources on programs that have never delivered any results.

Corruption is its hallmark, while intimidation is its motto.

Over the last three years, the ruining and ruling CPDM has killed more than 5,000 people in Southern Cameroons, making it a more dangerous strain of the Coronavirus.

In East Cameroon, more than half a million people have died due to hardship and corruption. Thousands of women have died while in labour and an unknown number of children have disappeared because of neglect.

State resources are owned by the party and it conducts itself like a belligerent monarch who only gives you something when you praise it.

The party is designed to humiliate and dehumanize even its own members.

You must be corrupt and prepared to take humiliation for you to rise in the party. There must be huge skeletons in your cupboard for you to be a recognized as a good member of the party.

The party has impoverished its own people to the point where millions have to bow to the party leadership as Angels do to God to have something to eat.

It is a party without a genuine development plan. As far as this party is concerned, it is normal for a mechanic to be appointed as a health minister.

Recent appointments have seen teachers being appointed as delegates of agriculture, drivers have been appointed as translation service heads and stark illiterates have become regional planning experts. It is not a surprise that the country is making giant strides backwards.

Well, many Cameroonians are now running away from this Coronavirus that mostly attacks the state treasury.

With fake elections announced for February 9, 2020, it is clear that the few coins in the country’s coffers will vanish.

The CPDM is the only party on earth whose members don’t pay their dues. The entire country pays into state coffers, and the virus consumes everything.

As China seeks solutions to its own virus, so too are Cameroonians of goodwill struggling to eradicate the CPDM, this virus that has dehumanized Cameroonians and underdeveloped the country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The leaders of the Ambazonia nation, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government have opined that the people of British Southern Cameroons have no reason to be optimistic about the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in La Republique du Cameroun.

From the vicious marginalisation and political victimisation to the  systemic disenfranchisement of Southern Cameroons citizens inside the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon including the constant French Cameroun military atrocities in the Northern and Southern Zones of Southern Cameroons, from the daily killings and oppression of those living in Ground Zero to the routine humiliation of those living under its French Cameroun apartheid laws — not to mention the hundreds in French Cameroun detention centres and prisons in Mbouda, Buea, Douala and Yaounde— President Biya and his French Cameroun political elites continue to brazenly deny the people of Southern Cameroons their basic rights.

From February the 7^th to the 12^th, Southern Cameroonians with slavish minds including Ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Che Elung, Paul Tasong, Victor Mengot and a certain Lady Nalova will go to the polls in a French Cameroun teleguided elections,  we of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report will be joining Vice President Dabney Yerima, the Ambazonia Interim Government and millions of Southern Cameroons citizens both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora in boycotting the French Cameroun contest — refusing to participate in our own marginalization and declining to serve as a pawn for a state that exists for and of the French Cameroun people only.

In the French capital Paris last year, the French Cameroun head of state, Paul Biya told an audience during a Mo Ibrahim Show that La Republique du Cameroun is not a state for all its citizens: According to the ailing leader who will be 87 this February, La Republique du Cameroun is the nation-state of the Francophone people, and French speaking people only. Biya reiterated his message, telling the world that the French government and the UN gave French speaking Cameroonians a mission to assimilate British Southern Cameroonians.

Biya wasn’t wrong as notorious French Cameroun political elites such the current Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, Minister Issa Tchiroma, television host Ernest Obama, Dr. Owona Nguini and Justice Minister Laurent Esso have officially designated Southern Cameroonians — more than 20 percent of the country’s population — second-class citizens. So, La Republique du Cameroun is a nation only for its French speaking citizens.

Biya and his political allies have had no worries blasting anti Anglophone and anti Southern Cameroons messages from the rooftops of the state owned radio and television. Biya’s inflammatory rhetoric and a sea of other anti Southern Cameroons declarations have been constant on air ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis took a dramatic u-turn.

The recent massive deployment of Francophone soldiers and elements of the French Cameroun gendarmerie force was pushed by Beti Ewondo political elites advocating that the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé should be forcibly moving Southern Cameroonians to neighbouring Nigeria. In a final bid to gin up support, the Biya Francophone government over the weekend dished out huge sums of money to all political parties taking part in the elections.

Biya detest the very idea of universal suffrage and has governed for over 37 years as a Monarch. But how can this be surprising? For more than two decades, Biya and his French Cameroun acolytes have supported the settlement of thousands of French Cameroun citizens on towns and cities populated by Ambazonians — who, unlike the native Southern Cameroonians, enjoy government protection from French Cameroun civil administrators, French Cameroun police commissioners, French Cameroun gendarmerie bosses, French Cameroun judges and of course French Cameroun army soldiers.

Southern Cameroonians living in French Cameroun have hardly fared any better. Since the so-called reunification, senior French Cameroun politicians have portrayed Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia citizens as enemies from within, a demographic time bomb, and a fifth-column population.

The late mayor and government delegate to the Yaoundé City Council, Ema Basile even developed a diabolic harsh ploy that prevented Southern Cameroonians from acquiring land in the Center Region and in the nation’s capital. Those who succeeded in the purchase of land in Yaoundé passed the CPDM imposed loyalty test of speaking the French language fluently.

Senior French Cameroun political elites have in many occasions challenged Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé leaders to go and live under Nigerian rule, citing their lack of loyalty to Biya and the French Cameroun discriminatory state institutions.

Let it be told that for 58 years, Southern Cameroonians in La Republique du Cameroun have been living under what can best be described as Ahidjo-Biya Military Government which with the backing of successive French governments has slowly but surely suspended most of Southern Cameroons’ civil rights and legal protections.

Is it any wonder that many Southern Cameroonians continue to view their La Republique du Cameroun citizenship as a mere political fiction?

Unfortunately, it hardly matters which political party prevails in the February 7-12 elections. None of the parties and their candidates including those of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has a program for peace in Southern Cameroons. None seeks to end the marginalisation and military occupation and atrocities, let alone the killings and burning of Southern Cameroons towns and villages. All the political parties have received money from Biya and his gang and all have committed to the silly idea of a military solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. And all see Southern Cameroonians including Prime Minister Dion Ngute as second class citizens. Why should Southern Cameroonians lend their imprimatur to a twin poll that will only elevate those who would exclude them from political power?

Whether or not Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates win in February, French Cameroun’s trajectory is clear: continue with the extermination campaign in Southern Cameroons, force Southern Cameroonians to flee to Nigeria, recruit fewer Southern Cameroonians as civil servants in the one and indivisible Cameroon and continued demonization of Southern Cameroonians everywhere.

Biya and French Cameroun political elites have publicly proclaimed La Republique du Cameroun as the only functional democracy in the Central African Sub region. But in the end, elections in a country  where candidates go for campaigns in armored vehicles surrendered by heavily armed French Cameroun soldiers and that only one group of people (French speaking Camerounians) enjoy full rights as citizens are nothing but a fig leaf for apartheid.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon strongman Paul Biya, will turn 87 in about three weeks. Nearing 45 years in power, he is Africa’s and the world longest ruling non-royal executive national leader.

Biya is now doing a Robert Mugabe. Decades in power, in his 90s, and ill, the former Zimbabwe dictator clung to power, insisting on attending international events and making a spectacle of himself. If you are a big man, at some point you have join other rulers on a stage for things like a photograph, or get on a pulpit to deliver some great wisdom.

Unwell, Mugabe would try to take a few steps to join his peers, and would stall on the stairs, clinging desperately to the rails as he slowly slid to the ground. Guards would rush to hold him up.

At the India-Africa Forum Summit, host Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to rescue him from disgrace.

At the end of last year, a video circulated on the internet, showing Biya on an official visit to Paris.

He was being ushered through a grand entrance, and had to take just one step. Flailing like a feather in the wind, he approached the stairs, unable to take that one step. A French official helped him over, and he wobbled inside.

Speaker podium

One of the most valuable traits we can have, is knowing our limits and coming to terms with the march of the clock, that comes to us all.

Thus, it is only a foolishly optimistic 100-year-old man who takes a 25-year-old wife. An ailing 90-year-old president should know that if he insists on mounting the speaker podium at the UN General Assembly, he will likely embarrass himself and country.

In life, we have caring family who protect us from such disgrace. The older children of the 100-year-old widower, would veto their father’s bid to marry a 25-year-old if they love him.

If as a president you can’t walk from the bedroom to the dining table on your own, a diligent First Lady will draw the line and say you will not go to a state visit to Europe where you will be required to walk twice the distance to make a toast.

If your children, wife (or husband) can’t prevent such calamity, the state should have the structures to do so. It couldn’t in the case of Mugabe, and can’t in the case of Biya, because they were/are the state. They are the law. They are the beginning. They are the end.

This in part is because too much, including the economy, is still too concentrated in the African state, for many people, they won’t eat or live a good life, unless they please the ruler.

Acting in any way that acknowledges his frailties and infirmities, can be career-ending, because it would be saying he’s unfit to be in office. So, they all play along.

A government position is so crucial, a few days ago in Uganda a young politician recently appointed minister by President Yoweri Museveni, was hoisted and sat on a plastic on a hot tin roof of a house in his village, when he visited to celebrate winning a political lottery. Such a man would tell Museveni he can win the London marathon with a new record, even if “Mzee”, as they call him, couldn’t get out of a wheelchair.

Culled from The East African

The home of former Prime Minister, Simon Achidi Achu, has been burnt and his son shot, then roasted in the northwest regional capital of Bemenda.

The incident happened on Friday, January 24, 2020, as government efforts to roll back separatist attacks have intensified since the beginning of this year.

Mr. Achidi Achu is a staunch member of the ruling CPDM and one of the architects of the strategy the government is using in its efforts to oppress the people of Southern Cameroons.

The government has been on a home-burning spree over the last two weeks in the two English-speaking regions of the country in a bid to organize municipal and parliamentary elections in the entire country

The results of the elections are already known, and the ruling CPDM will emerge as the winner on February 9, 2020, but the government is desperate to prove to the international community that its victory has came after free and fair elections.

Southern Cameroons fighters had said they would disrupt the elections and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government had declared a lockdown which will ensure that the population of Southern Cameroons does not participate in elections many hold will not change anything in Cameroon.

Many Southern Cameroonians have been killed by trigger-happy government forces over the last three years, and Mr. Achidi Achu, considered as a major voice in the country, has never condemned the violent method the government has been employing to fighter restoration forces, most of whom live in the jungle.

With this incident, many are asking if Mr. Achidi Achu will still go about his business as if nothing has actually happened?

Many are also asking if he will still militate in a party whose method of dealing with descent has been condemned by the international community.

Speaking to a senior civil servant in Yaounde who elected anonymity, it was clear that many government officials are not in accord with what government forces are doing in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The source said the situation was really unfortunate, adding that after all the killing and burning of homes, will it still be possible for Southern Cameroonians to feel at home in a country wherein the only way of addressing issues is by using military force?

“How can we continue to think that Cameroon is one and indivisible when we see such pictures?,” he quipped.

He said he would be very disappointed if something was not done to end this barbaric actions still used by the government.

“Will Mr. Achidi Achu still continue to be part of this party, which many consider as a crime syndicate?,” he asked.

The knife is turning inwards, he said, adding that this is an opportunity for Mr. Achidi Achu to petition the government for these criminal operations to be suspended.

“If innocent people are being killed and senior government officials are not safe, who then can really trust this government,” he asked.

“If so many people are being rendered homeless because their homes have been burnt, how will these same people vote on election day when their national identity cards and voters’ cards have been lost in the fire set by government forces?,” he quipped.

He urged the international community to intervene forthwith, adding that at this level no government policies can address this unfortunate situation that has been going on for three years.

“Where is the special status the president talked about? Is the killing of people and burning of homes part of the special status?,” he asked.

He regretted having being part of a country wherein dialogue never exists when people disagree.

We cannot continue like this, he concluded.

By Joachim Arrey in Canada

Radicalised by the government’s use of death squads and arsonists to intimidate Southern Cameroonian fighters, a senior government official on Monday, January 20, 2020, clearly expressed his frustration with the government’s strategy to end the rebellion in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, over the phone, the senior official who elected anonymity said he was really frustrated with the manner in which the Yaounde government had mismanaged the Southern Cameroons crisis which started as simple protests by teachers, lawyers and students.

He said his anger boiled over because of the speech delivered by the country’s president, Paul Biya, on December 31, 2019, wherein he promised more violence to Southern Cameroonians if the fighters did not down their weapons.

“I am still at a loss for words. After three good years, we still believe that only military violence and atrocities can help restore peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country,” he said.

“We cannot continue treading the same path and be hoping for different results. Let the government understand that it was its violence that caused things to spiral out of control,” he said, adding that “won’t it be wise for the president and his tribesmen who are committing these atrocities to embrace a different approach? Why are they destroying homes and killing the innocent when the fighters live in the jungles?”

“It is too disheartening to see a man many thought he wanted to become a priest conduct such a nasty war against his own people. What type of country is he bequeathing to the next generation? Today, the country is much divided and there are many Anglophones who hold that they are being killed by a Beti death squad set up by Joseph Beti Assomo, the country’s defense minister. Does this create room for national reconciliation and unity, or does it pit Anglophones against Betis?,” he questioned.

“Many Anglophones in Yaoundé are really upset with the war strategy adopted by the government and the bitterness generated by government atrocities will linger for a long time,” he pointed out.

“Only very few Anglophones in Yaoundé are in favour of what is happening in our two English-speaking regions. Many are angry, but cannot talk. Some like the puffy jaw former Prime Minister, Mafany Musonge, are indifferent to the people’s plight because they are enriching themselves as things deteriorate in the two regions of the country. The world is really surprised at such display of greed. How are these people living with themselves?” he quipped.

He also took aim at Anglophones, stressing that the unity that characterized the revolution in the early days could have brought the government to its knees if the Diaspora had not resorted to shooting itself in the foot.

“Those of us who really feel for our people, but cannot talk, were counting on the Diaspora for salvation. We saw the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora as a silent liberating force. The huge amounts that were being raised in the United States and Canada to finance the war effort gave us hope. But our hope was dashed when the leaders started fighting each other and vital resources were allegedly  embezzled by some Interim Government officials,” the disappointed official said.

“Many of us were quietly happy when arms started getting to our fighters who before that could only lay their hands on machetes and hunting rifles,” he said.

“If Anglophones have to make more progress, the different factions must stop fighting each other. In moments like this, everybody should be your ally regardless of the individual goal.  We know some factions are for independence, others for federalism, while others are gradually settling for autonomy within Cameroon, but regardless of the philosophy of each group, our goal should be to mount pressure on the French-supported government so that it should embrace the Canadian-supported Swiss initiative that is popular with many Western countries,” he stressed.

Once the government buckles under the pressure and decides to embrace the Swiss initiative, then each faction can use the opportunity to present its case. Fighting and killing other fighters only weakens the struggle and the government is watching gleefully as we shoot ourselves in the foot,” the official said.

“We cannot keep on slinging mud at each other. We are splitting our ranks and this is diminishing our capacity to achieve anything meaningful,” he pointed out.

“Mistakes will be made along the way, but instead of focusing on those mistakes, we should be focusing on the solutions and methods that can enable all the factions to work together,” he stressed.

“From every indication, the government is desperate. The crisis has robbed the government of vital revenue streams and this is hurting so badly. The current burning of homes is designed to force the fighters to down their weapons, but from every indication, things will not work the way the government has planned,” he said.

He added that “the burning of homes in villages is not playing in the government’s favour. The Diaspora should use this reckless approach by the government to close ranks. A strong diplomatic initiative should be launched by all the factions and a huge delegation sent to the UN and other organizations to ensure that the Southern Cameroons crisis is not pushed to the back burner,” he stressed.

“Suppress your egos and let unity prevail. As Anglophones, we can achieve a lot if we close ranks, rob ourselves of our egos and consider that the real enemy is the Yaoundé government that is killing our people just for complaining,” he underscored.

“The government is hurting. It is running out of cash. Its coffers are drying up. Those of us within are aware of the state of the country’s finances. If this crisis continues for two more years, the government will shut down many operations. Things are not looking up for this government that thought it could restore order in one week, but it has failed woefully” he said.

He urged Anglophones to contribute money to any faction of their choice, adding that the ultimate goal should the improvement our fate. We have gone through a lot as a minority and if the Diaspora does not bail us out, then we are stuck with a government whose secret agenda is to assimilate us at all cost.

He concluded that he could have loved to express his views openly, but said it would be like committing suicide.

“This government is devilish. It never hesitates to kill those who challenge it. If Wirba had stayed in Cameroon, he would have been history today. He was smart to have left,” he pointed out.

The burning of homes cannot be part of the special status the fake major national dialogue came up with, he said.

“This government cannot be trusted. We must fight to attain our goals. There is no turning back. This government says one thing and does the opposite. Does special status mean burning homes and killing innocent people?” he questioned.

Since the conflict started in 2016, some 5,000 civilians have lost their lives, while sources close to the ministry of defense say some 2,018 soldiers have died and this figure does not include police officers and prison guards who have also been attacked by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United kingdom

A head of state is only as good as the counsel he seeks and the counselors who provide it. This is true as many celebrated leaders around the globe surrounded themselves with men and women with solid personal achievements. French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya rejected every top aide that state institutions provided for him when he took office in 1982 and systematically burned through so many top Francophone and Anglophone advisers and so much good will that he now operates with a hollowed-out tribal staff of half-baked academic and political experience.

This explains why, 4 gendarmerie officers killed by Nigerian smugglers in Agborkem German in the Manyu County was misinterpreted as a crime committed by Southern Cameroons separatists and a war was declared against the English speaking communities that has eventually laid to rest the doctrine of the United Republic of Cameroon or better still, the one and indivisible Cameroon.

Everyone deep within the consortium of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is now exhausted by Biya’s moods, offended by his shabby treatment of them and astonishingly shocked by his ignorance and low sense of judgment. The silence currently being maintained by men like Joseph Owona, Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, Peter Mafany Musonge and Philemon Yang is indeed a conclusion that if Biya is an institution, CPDM is no longer trustworthy.

The numerous lies regularly told by Biya and his gang of French Cameroun political elites show that his so-called “Special Status” for the people of Southern Cameroons cannot be accepted. In declaring war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, Biya embraced a French government course that his predecessor, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo rejected as too extreme in the days of Ndeh Ntumazah’s One Kamerun.

Following several incremental breaches of all accords signed in Foumban in 1961 with Southern Cameroons political leadership, Biya is now running away from the Etoudi palace in Yaoundé. Age is telling on him and his ancestors are calling!!  The average length of his numerous stay in his Mvomeka’a palace has gradually lengthened: whereas he spent only a few days each time a few years ago, he now stays there for several weeks in a row, or even more than a month.

The people of Southern Cameroons have made it crystal clear that they are no longer an item with La Republique du Cameroun.  The recent massive deployment of troops to Southern Cameroons and the upcoming February polls have escalated tensions to perilous heights between the Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Government.

A spokesperson for the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima was quoted lately as saying the Southern Cameroons Interim Government was responding to French Cameroun’s massive military deployments with massive resistance. There are no signs of de-escalation, Buea and Yaoundé could be heading for a divorce absolute.

Third-party mediation is not on sight which many have opined is the best mechanism for finding a solution to the crisis.

To understand why President Biya who will be 87 this February is still holding on to power, start with a simple fact. Ever since the attempted coup on April 6^th  1984, President Biya’s regime has killed too many Cameroonians both at home and abroad including his first wife Jeanne-Irène Biya that he was married for 32 years (until 1992) and embezzled and wasted too many billions of Cameroonian money, to make it plausible that he would ever voluntarily give up power.

Under the current La Republique du Cameroun constitution, President Biya can run again and again for president when his term expires in six years time. To be sure, the constitution and elections do not much matter in Cameroon. La Repubique du Cameroun is a crime syndicate and dictatorship masquerading as a democracy. You simply need French government support and some lobby firms deep within the European Union and in the USA with little or no economic growth and corruption to remain as head of state.

Biya and his gang control the state radio and television, he bars popular opposition candidates from participating in elections, his regime regularly co-opt tame French Cameroun opposition figures and arrests and intimidation are dished out to the less tame ones. He has support from Nigeria’s President Buhari who as a soldier makes little secret of his admiration for strongmen. With Southern Cameroons gone, French Cameroun only comfort is that even rulers-for-life such as the Monarchs don’t live forever.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon, a country previously known for its stability, faced violence and serious human rights abuses in 2018. The country endured abusive military operations against a secessionist insurgency in two Anglophone regions, attacks by the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, in the Far North, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. President Paul Biya, 85, won a seventh seven-year term on October 7.

In the South West and North West, government security forces have committed extrajudicial executions, burned property, carried out arbitrary arrests, and tortured detainees. A Human Rights Watch report documented a range of abuses by both sides in the Anglophone regions, including arson attacks on homes and schools. According to the International Crisis Group, government forces and armed separatists killed over 420 civilians in the regions since the crisis escalated in 2017.

The humanitarian consequences of the Boko Haram attacks and separatist insurgency are of growing concern. As of November, the United Nations estimated that more than 244,000 civilians were displaced in the Far North and  437,500 in the Anglophone North West and South West regions. About 32,600 Cameroonians found refuge in Nigeria. Also, Cameroon has continued to forcibly return Nigerian asylum seekers, fleeing Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria.

While the government maintained it did not tolerate serious crimes committed by security forces, it failed to demonstrate progress in investigating and punishing them.

On October 22, Cameroon’s Constitutional Council validated Paul Biya’s reelection, with 71.28 percent of the votes. The council’s decision was immediately contested by one of Biya’s rivals, Maurice Kamto, who claimed the results had been altered. In early November, dozens of pro-Kamto protesters were arrested in Bafoussam, Western region. Biya was sworn-in for a seventh term as president on November 6.

The Anglophone Crisis: Abuses on Both Sides

In the Anglophone North West and South West regions, the absence of a genuine political process to address decades-old grievances against the Biya government contributed to the radicalization of the discourse and tactics of Anglophone activists. Since mid-2017, Anglophone separatists have attacked government institutions and threatened, kidnapped, and killed civilians perceived to side with the government.

In 2016 and 2017, government security forces used excessive force against largely peaceful demonstrations organized by members of the country’s Anglophone minority who were calling for increased autonomy for their region. During demonstrations in late 2017, government forces used live ammunition, including from helicopters, against demonstrators and bystanders, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores. Some individuals detained in the context of the demonstrations were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

In October 2017, separatist leaders unilaterally declared independence of the North West and South West regions, and the formation of a new nation, Ambazonia. The following month, President Biya announced that Cameroon was under attack from terrorists and vowed to “eradicate these criminals.” The pace and scale of separatists’ attacks against security forces, government workers, and state institutions increased, especially following the arrest and deportation of 47 suspected secessionist activists from Nigeria in January 2018.

Violations by Government Forces

Human Rights Watch found that government forces responded to the growing separatist insurgency by carrying out abusive security operations against communities suspected of supporting secessionist groups. Security forces committed extrajudicial executions, used excessive force against civilians, tortured and abused suspected separatists and other detainees, and burned homes and other property in scores of villages.

During attacks documented by Human Rights Watch, security forces allegedly shot and killed over a dozen civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older women died, burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire.

Human Rights Watch also documented three cases where security forces detained people suspected of supporting the secessionist cause, and then tortured and killed them in detention. In a fourth case, Human Rights Watch analyzed evidence of torture filmed by perpetrators, who appear to be gendarmes. On September 24 and 27, a total of nine men were allegedly executed by security forces in the town of Buea, according to videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch and a report by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Abuses by Armed Separatists: Attacks on Students, Teachers and Schools  

To enforce boycotts of schools following protests by Anglophone teachers against perceived discrimination by the Francophone-dominated national government, separatist groups attacked and burned dozens of schools, threatened teachers, students and parents, kidnapped principals and violently attacked teachers and students. In March, people believed to be armed separatists attacked a high school dormitory in Widikum, North West region, and shot dead Emmanuel Galega, a student.

The pressure tactics forced the majority of schools to close during the 2016-2017 academic year, and as of May 2018 an estimated 42,500 children were still out of school, according to UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most schools did not re-open in 2018.

On April 30, Father William Neba, principal of St. Bede’s College, in Ashing near Belo, North West region, was reported abducted while celebrating mass with students. He was released two days later. The school suspended classes on the day of the abduction.  In September, unidentified gunmen attacked a girl’s school in Bafut, North West region, kidnapping five pupils and severely wounding the principal.

In September, the government endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political agreement to protect education during armed conflict.

On November 5, up to 78 schoolchildren were reportedly kidnapped in Bamenda, North West region, by unknown gunmen. They were released two days later.

Refugee Rights

Cameroon hosts more than 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including 260,000 from the Central African Republic and at least 90,000 from Nigeria. Despite its long history of hosting refugees, Cameroon has forcibly returned tens of thousands of Nigerian asylum seekers since 2015. A 2017 Human Rights Watch report documented how soldiers used violence and abuse, including torture, against asylum seekers in remote border regions. Authorities also imposed unlawful restrictions on movement in Cameroon’s only official camp for Nigerian refugees. In August 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that between January and July, Cameroon unlawfully returned at least 800 refugees and asylum seekers to Nigeria.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Cameroon’s penal code punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex” with up to five years in prison. Police and gendarmes continued to carry out arrests and harassment of people they believe to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). In April, police arrested four activists and a security guard at the office of AJO, an organization that works on HIV education with men who have sex with men (MSM), and other vulnerable groups. They spent a week in jail on spurious homosexuality charges before a lawyer secured their release. Cameroonian human rights organizations documented the arrest of at least 25 other men and at least two women on homosexuality charges in the first half of 2018. They also reported numerous cases of physical violence by private citizens targeting LGBT people.

Justice and Accountability

While the government has repeatedly promised to investigate crimes committed by security forces, it has not done so transparently or systematically.

Government officials told Human Rights Watch in June that while they conducted investigations, they did not want to make them public to avoid undermining the morale of government troops. However, the visible lack of accountability appears to have fueled abuses, like arson and torture, rather than ending them.

In July, the government finally granted access to ten Anglophone leaders who had been detained and deported from Nigeria to Cameroon in January. The individuals, held incommunicado for over six months, were permitted to meet their lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The government dismissed video footage that emerged in July showing two women and two children being executed by men in uniform in Cameroon’s Far North as “fake news.” Only after an investigation conducted by Amnesty International demonstrated the killings took place in Cameroon did the government announce it had arrested six soldiers suspected of executing the civilians in the video.

Key International Actors

France, the United States, and the United Kingdom are Cameroon’s principal partners, primarily in the context of the counter Boko Haram operations in the country’s Far North region. Both France and the US provide Cameroon with military and security assistance and training.

The US and the UK are the only close allies of Cameroon to have voiced public concern regarding the ongoing situation in the Anglophone regions. The US has continued to provide military aid to Cameroon.

In February, the European Union called for proportionate use of force and accountability for abuses in the Anglophone region.

In September 2018, as the pace and scope of abuses continued to escalate in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, the UN and African Union issued a joint communiqué calling on the government to facilitate access to humanitarian and human rights organizations and engage in an inclusive dialogue to address the root causes of the crisis.

The UN Security Council in August expressed concern about the situation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

In both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun, criminal gangs and politicians have been quietly trading money and favours for mutual gains. For 37 years, thugs like Paul Atanga Nji, YCPDM National President Prince John Akwo Mukete, the late Nelson Fomenky, Battey Johnson and the late Mayor Ekema Patrick flourished while elected officials thrived. However, the citizens have always been on the losing side.

Today, the mobile phone of Minister Paul Atanja Nji who is wanted by the French Cameroun Special Criminal Court is ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers are candidates for the February 2020 municipal and parliamentary elections, seeking the kind of help that the gangster Paul Atanga Nji is uniquely qualified to provide.

Paul Atanga Nji isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a French Cameroun gang leader who hails from Southern Cameroons and, for two decades, a CPDM grass root baron who now operates as Minister of Territorial Administration and has deep contacts inside Etoudi and the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo’s complex network of politicians and French Cameroun military gangs. The calls coming to Minister Paul Atanga Nji are all inquiring candidates wanting to know: “How much they need to pay and who do they need to pay the money to so they can get elected?

Minister Paul Atanga Nji, the renowned Samuel Eto’o and I were in a recent flight to French Cameroun!! Majority in the plane shared a conversation with Eto’o but ignored Atanga Nji who was a candidate in the Mezam CPDM race sometime ago and brought in a decent man Cletus Matoya to be his protégé.

Paul Atanga Nji has helped broker meetings between the Biya Francophone regime and at least two Southern Cameroons gang representatives in Nigeria, Dr Success Nkongho and General Nambere.  The gang representatives from Nigeria were former front line Ambazonia activists who had walked away from day-to-day thug life, but are still respected on the streets in Yaoundé but can no longer wield enough influence to the Southern Cameroons revolution.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ever since the abduction and extradition of the Southern Cameroons leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and the emergence of Pastors Samuel Ikome, Chris Anu and Success Nkongho as front liners of the Ambazonia struggle and quest for independence, many in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have come to the conclusion that one must first be a crook to be a pastor.

Southern Cameroonians are tired of the confusions they see on social media coming from these three so-called pastors. To be sure, it needed the intervention of the jailed leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who gave Southern Cameroonians a vice president in the person of Dabney Yerima who has successfully redressed and is now speaking-out and directing the Southern Cameroons war of independence.

Prior to the appointment of Vice President Dabney Yerima, there were three pastors running the Ambazonia Interim Government. The disgraced Ikome Sako was Acting President, Bishop John Egyawan was passing for a Defense Secretary and Chris Anu moonlighted as Communications Secretary.  Judging from their time deep within the Ambazonia Interim Government and after they were replaced by the people of Southern Cameroons, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that these so-called men of God have all along been professing Christ and serving the devil.

It’s so unfortunate that Sako, Chris and now Pastor Success Nkongho have fallen this much. Correspondingly, it will also not be wrong to say all of the pastors are now directly or indirectly serving the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. To be accurate, they lack revolutionary message, a huge sign that they were long disconnected from God and the Ambazonia struggle.

These men of God are holding Southern Cameroons children as slaves in their Churches in Nigeria and the US and via social media. Interestingly, they expect Southern Cameroonians not to say anything. We of the Concord Group will continue to sacrifice our time to free the slaves from their Sako IG camps so that they begin to serve the living God and once again be a part of the Ambazonia revolution.

It remains a mystery how the rapid emergence of counterfeit Southern Cameroons pastors such as Samuel Ikome Sako, Chris Anu, “His Lordship Bishop John Egyawan” and Success Nkongho among the Ambazonia leadership ranks went unchecked. This trend has undermined and brought shame to the people of Southern Cameroon, the Ambazonia Interim Government and God the Almighty Father. It has hurt Southern Cameroons citizens genuinely seeking secession from French Cameroun and it is slowly but surely stifling the Ambazonia independence struggle.

Loosely defined, counterfeits are goods and services of inferior quality, packaged in another’s brand name without the brand owner’s authorization, infringing on the trademark, patent or copyright of the genuine product. The Southern Cameroons revolution is under attack in the same way with fake pastors.

The situation has left a trail of destruction in the Southern Cameroons communities both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora where unsuspecting, gullible and impressionable Ambazonians have been robbed of their hard-earned money, their dignity and are dying every day like flies.

The creation of the Bank of Ambazonia and the launching of the Amba Bonds Project as a means of rebuilding confidence among Southern Cameroons donors have given Southern Cameroonians all over the world something to reflect on. While Southern Cameroonians are investing in the bonds, Vice President Dabney Yerima and his cabinet cannot remain unmoved. Comrade Yerima should usher in a tough approach towards the mushrooming of false information and as Martin Luther King Jr said: “To ignore evil is to become an accomplice of it.”

At this point one of the responsible things to do is to educate Southern Cameroonians on the things to watch out for before painting someone as an Ambazonia frontline leader.

Here are a few signs to counter Sako and Chris Anu IG’s deception.

Inability to lead

Sako, Anu, Kometa and Success Nkongho who now constitute the counterfeit Southern Cameroons front liners have made a concerted effort to lead Ambazonians away from Ground Zero and their jailed leaders leaving them revolutionary malnourished with many dropping down their weapons.

‘Fake pastors must go find other jobs’

The Ambazonia Interim Government must enact laws that restrict fake pastors to hold senior cabinet positions. This will of course enable them to follow different careers and get jobs outside the struggle.

Lack of integrity

If more often than not, there are reports questioning the integrity and ways of a revolutionary leader, one has to be concerned. A leader cannot always be in the news or on social media for the wrong reasons. This is typical of Sako, Chris, Kometa and Success.

Insatiable appetite for money

If during a revolution that has claimed the lives of thousands of Southern Cameroonians the leaders who are all Men of God are the only ones living a luxurious life with financial donations from the citizens, there is a reason to be doubtful.

Southern Cameroonians cannot be living in the bushes, open fields, tents or abandoned buildings in Nigeria while the leader is living a lavish life in the USA.

Sako Ikome, Chris Anu and Kometa including Success Nkongho were leaders who presented super-hero personalities in public but are private successful failures.

When electing an Ambazonia leader in your host country in Europe, the US and Canada be sure that the individual has a corporate job, is able to lead himself and his own family well before leading you.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai