US: Washington Police Reject Calls To Stop Anti- Biya Protest
Police in Washington DC has turned down a request from the French Embassy to send away protesters chanting Anti-Paul Biya songs in front of the Embassy. Members of Brigade Anti-Sardinards – BAS, a Pro-Kamto group are said to have gathered at the French Embassy at 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, US, Monday May 20, 2019 to demonstrate their disdain for the Cameroon government. Reports say as they were chanting protest songs, carrying placards describing Paul Biya, Cameroon’s President as a Murderer and Dictator, elements of the DC Police appeared at the venue at the behest of the French Embassy. Our source hinted that the Embassy had called the police in the hope that protesters would be kicked out of the arena. Instead, the police allowed the protest on the grounds that those involved had duly received a permit in line with the law.
A participant at the protest said they were protesting against the Biya Regime that has used the military to kill thousands in the two English-speaking Regions of the North West and South West, adding that the choice of the French Embassy weighs on the fact that French President, Emmanuel Macron might be supporting the carnage going on in Cameroon. Live bullets corroborating those from the Rapid Intervention Battalion, a special unit of the Cameroon military known by its French acronym as BIR have been in many occasions found on the innocent civilians each time they’re killed.
On October of 2016 a disagreement in language led to agitations in the two English-speaking regions but government mismanaged it, turning it into an armed conflict with a demand by majority of Anglophones in the North West and South West for a separate state called Ambazonia. The Cameroonians were also protesting against what they describe as Electoral Holdup and also calling on the release of Prof Maurice Kamto, Chair of Cameroon’s main opposition political party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) who has been officially charged on eight (8) counts including facing a death penalty. Kamto competed in the country’s Presidential Elections against incumbent Paul Biya and went on to declare he won. He later challenged the results at the country’s Constitutional Council where the Council’s ruling was considered by many Cameroonians as jaundiced. Kamto believes the Electoral Commission imputed figures to favour the incumbent especially as elections were boycotted in the North West and South West Regions buried in an armed conflict
Source: Leadership.ng