WHY CAMEROUN MUST COME TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE FOR A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF THE ONGOING WAR IN AMBAZONIA
In June, 2019, the Government of Switzerland agreed to mediate talks between Cameroonian authorities and the Southern Cameroons – Ambazonia Restoration movements, in a bid to end the war of genocide that was launched by the Yaounde Regime on the peacful peoples of Ambazonia. The ongoing war of National Liberation has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, with tens of thousands of refugees forced into Nigeria and other countries, millions of intenally displaced, thousands illegally abducted and imprisoned, and hundreds of Ambazonian villages burned down by the genocidal forces of Cameroon. This has led to calls from the International community, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, as well as countless Non-Governmental organizations like the International Crisis Group, the Nowegian Council, as well as major powers like the US, Russia and China for unconditional peace talk to end the conflict. Being a peace loving people, Southern Cameroonians – Ambazonians launched a non-violent strike action by lawyers and teachers in late 2016, to press for the legitimate rights of our peoples, leading to a violent crackdown by the Yaounded regime, and provoking our proud peoples to pick up arms in self-defence.
Six years into the conflict, with tens of thousands killed on both sides, and mostly Southern Cameroons – Ambazonian civilians, there’s increased calls from the international community for renewed talks towards a peaceful resolution. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia led by HE, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako has long stated that the Ambazonian people, under the Umbrella of the Ambazonia Coalition Team (ACT) endorses the Swiss Process, as a sign of good faith, in a Pan-African spirit towards a peaceful resolution of the ongoing war. It must be noted that it had long been the policy Southern Cameroonians, under the canopy of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), to seek for a peaceful resolution to the long running occupation and annexation of the Southern Cameroons by the neighboring Republic of French Cameroon. This was demonstrated by the long standing Motto of the SCNC, which articulated “The Force of Argument, and Not the Argument of Force”. It was in this spirit that in 2003, a coalition of Southern Cameroons restoration movements sued the Republic of Cameroon at the African Court of Peoples and Human Rights (ACPHR) sitting in Banjul, Gambia (266/03 Kevin Mgwangs Ngumne et al/Cameroon). At the root of this lawsuit were gross violations suffered by the people of Southern Cameroon emanated from the UN plebiscite of 11 February 1961 that determined the political future of Southern Cameroon. Therefore, in Southern Cameroons, the ACHPR was right in finding that the people of Southern Cameroon qualify to be referred to as a people. In its 2009 ruling, the ACHPR affirmed Anglophone grievances against the Biya government and recognised Southern Cameroons as a distinct ‘people’, and recommended ‘comprehensive national dialogue’ involving the Yaounde regime and the peoples of the Southern Cameroons. Since 2009, The Biya government’s unwillingness to honour this ruling, and to rather adopt violence and brutality in dealing with the legitimate demands of the Ambazonian peoples is what finally triggered the ongoing war.
In this respect, and inspite of the Government of Switzerland’s offer in facilitating an inclusive negotiation process as tasked by a majority of the stakeholders, the Yaounde regime has remained adamant, and has rather intensified her war of occupation, annexation and genocide against the peoples of the Southern Cameroons. In the meantime, the Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARFs), under the command of HE, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako has continued their fierce resistance to the terrorist genocidal forces of Yaounde, inflicting heavy losses on their occupying armies in the past years. Just in the month of May, more than 20 terrorist forces of French Cameroun have been neutralized in their attempts to invade, brutalize and kill innocent women, children and young men across the territory of Ambazonia. Our resistance forces will therefore continue to confront and to inflict heavy losses on the enemy forces until the government in Yaounde realizes that they must concede to a peaceful negotiating process that will examine the root causes of the current war, and seek lasting solutions that will guarantee the internationally recognized rights of the Southern Cameroons – Ambazonia people to sovereign independence and statehood. It should be clear to the Yaounde regime now that they can’t subdue and subjugate the peoples of Ambazonia through fraud and force as they have been doing in the past. The only viable solution for them now is to come to the negotiating table as demanded by the international community.
