The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Southern Cameroons as Christmas approaches.

Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News that thousands of Southern Cameroonians are trying to survive with the most basic resources as Christmas approaches. Nearly five years of a Biya French Cameroun war have left much of Southern Cameroons infrastructure and agricultural lands destroyed.

“Our Southern Cameroons diaspora groups have gone back to their Makossa celebrations while the humanitarian situation in Ground Zero is catastrophic and deteriorating day by day. Our people are facing a bitter Christmas ahead and they have little or nothing. The Interim Government needs financial support to push with the Big Rubbergun Project so that Ambazonia fighters will be able to protect our towns and villages including the most vulnerable. The situation is nothing short of critical for many Southern Cameroonians,” said Vice President Dabney Yerima.

More than a million Southern Cameroonians living in rural areas, including women and children, are in need of food and medicine. More than half a million Southern Cameroonians have fled into neighbouring Nigeria, Ghana and around three hundred thousands are displaced within French Cameroun.

“Many of our fellow Southern Cameroonian citizens in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea are living in terrible conditions and are struggling to put food on the table.  The truth is, our refugee population are living with the uncertainty of not knowing what tomorrow will bring or even if they will ever make it back home one day,” Yerima added.

The exiled Ambazonian leader re-echoed an earlier position saying supplying weapons to Amba fighters in Ground Zero is morally legitimate and that there is a right to armed defense in the case of aggression.

By Isong Asu in London