There is indeed an urgent need for a change of leadership in Yaoundé! Every political commentator including the diplomatic community are wishing for the people of French Cameroun and their military to rid themselves of the burden of President Biya and his ruling CPDM gangs who console them with lies and have successfully trapped them into poverty.

The failed regime in Yaoundé started a war against the people of Southern Cameroons in 2016 on a pack of lies and the war has become unwinnable!  It was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the then English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories.

However, by 2017, Biya and the French Cameroun army leadership had pushed the situation to spiral out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both French Cameroun forces and Ambazonia Self Defense groups are now bogged down in a conflict, which observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

The conflict is slowly but surely becoming the worst fighting in the Gulf of Guinea in decades and it has claimed the lives of thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians including Cameroon government army soldiers.

Nearly four years into the deadly fighting in Southern Cameroons, the 87-year-old Biya and his corrupt Francophone political leaders have blatantly refused to end hostilities.

The global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International recently slammed the Yaoundé government, accusing the Biya regime of arbitrary detentions and military courts which clearly highlight the latest crackdown on opposition members.

The arrests, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions in military courts of opposition members who were peacefully gathering are the latest example of Cameroonian authorities’ crackdown on dissenting voices since late September, the rights watchdog said in its recent report on Cameroon.

According to the report, at least 500 people were arrested on 22 September, the majority of them members of the French Cameroun opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC). Of those, 160 remain in detention, 13 have been sentenced to prison by civilian courts, and 14 appeared before a military court.

“The harsh repression of opposition and dissenting voices shows no sign of relenting in recent months. People simply exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration have paid a high price with prison terms based on trumped-up charges,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty International West and Central Africa researcher,” the report says.

Biya regime’s ability to attract investors to the country has been diminished by the senseless killings and human rights violations taking place in both French and Southern Cameroons. Rebuilding SONARA is still an uphill climb, as investors have very low appetite for Cameroon’s debt.

The burden of rebuilding the country’s lone refinery is now another heavy load on the fragile and aging shoulders of Mr. Biya, who is currently suffering from a suspected cancer.

Biya and his men are no longer at ease. They have a lot on their plates and with their resources dwindling, it is clear that they might soon be down too!  Former regime barons are all jumping ship. International human rights organizations have become very vocal about the regime’s authoritarian nature.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites have transformed La Republique Du Cameroun into a rogue state and have refused to embrace the idea of an inclusive dialogue, release all political prisoners, including all Southern Cameroonians arrested within the framework of the armed conflict that has left thousands of Cameroonians dead, and grant general amnesty to all Cameroonians living abroad as a means of reducing the pressured that is gradually destroying it.

Because the Biya regime continues to conduct itself as it has done over the last 38 years, we of this group of publication now believe and fervently too that French Cameroun needs new political elites! French speaking Cameroonians should please stand up and be counted!!The ball is in your court!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai