Yaounde: Diplomats urge Biya to step down
Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt that Moussa Faki Mahamat of the African Union, Patricia Scotland of the Commonwealth and Louise Mushikiwabo of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie met President Paul Biya privately in Yaoundé and insisted that the French Cameroun dictator should give up power.
Our chief intelligence officer in Yaoundé said the meeting, which involved representatives of the US and French embassies in Yaoundé, was held at an undisclosed location. We understand that the diplomats from the US side delivered a clear and firm message that the only way to free La Republique du Cameroun from a civil war was for the 86 year old Biya to step down.
The secret meeting occurred after a televised one with Prime Minister Dion Ngute in which French Cameroun state media, CRTV reported that Biya was still in the good books of the West and his troops were winning the Ambazonia Restoration Forces for control of the oil rich Southern Cameroons.
The Southern Cameroons Interim Government announced last week the creation of the Bank of Ambazonia which was followed with the appointment of the governor of the bank by Vice President Dabney Yerima in what would be a major boost to the Southern Cameroons campaign for total and complete independence.
The French Cameroun Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh was heard murmuring privately after the meeting that the Biya regime welcomed discussions but only without preconditions.
The French Cameroun military has changed tactics several times in the back-and-forth fighting in Southern Cameroons since the Ambazonia uprising began nearly four years ago.
State TV, in a bid to counter claims that the Biya regime was crumbling, has been showing images of ordinary life in Southern Cameroons with students reportedly back to school. Biya is refusing to step down despite pressure from the United States and the European Union.
We gathered that French Cameroun political elites are now calling their pro Yaoundé Southern Cameroons counterparts as traitors. Eneo, the sole electricity provider has not been able to pay salaries for the last three months.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai