The war in Southern Cameroons has reportedly separated some 90,000 Ambazonian families ever since it started on October 2016, amid a crackdown on innocent Southern Cameroonians by the government of the 85 year-old President Biya.

The Communications Secretary of the Ambazonian Interim Government, Hon. Chris Anu told Cameroon Intelligence Report that the number of family separations have risen very sharply in the past weeks, largely because of the French Cameroun army onslaught in the Northern and Southern zones particularly in places like Belo, Kwa Kwa, Otu, Muyenge, Menji, Azi, Menka-Pinyin, Mamfe, Ekondo Titi, Tombel, Kumba, Batibo, Kendem,  and Dadi. Speaking to CIR on condition of anonymity, a prominent Southern Cameroonian resident in Yaoundé noted that the situation is shameful, disgusting and disgraceful.

The numbers are the first comprehensive disclosure by the Acting President of the Interim Government, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako of how many families have been affected by the war declared by the French Cameroun dictator against the people of Southern Cameroons. The United Nations revealed recently that some 160,000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced while some 40,000 have fled the conflict into neighboring Nigeria.

President Biya has made his hard-line stance on the Anglophone uprising an integral part of his 35 years old presidency and has vowed never to negotiate with those he described as “separatists and terrorists”.  Biya and his minister for defense, Joseph Beti Assomo announced a “zero tolerance” policy which has led to crimes against humanity being committed in Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun army soldiers. Many Southern Cameroonians apprehended ever since the crisis started have been criminally charged and hundreds are being held in detention facilities in French Cameroun which generally leads to children being separated from their parents.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in a statement released last week further pointed out that some Southern Cameroons 867 teenagers currently in the Cross River State in Nigeria were separated from their parents in the Manyu County precisely from the Akwaya and Eyumojock Sub constituencies due to the intense gun battle going on in the area. The United Nations is yet to make an appeal for an immediately halt to hostilities.

By Chi Prudence Asong and Kingsley Betek