World Refugee Day, June 20th, 2022- Our Resilience is our Strength

Monday June 20th 2022 Ref.HSS/FRA-121-20/06/22

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Department of Health and Social Services

Subject: World Refugee Day, June 20th, 2022- Our Resilience is our Strength

Theme: Seeking Safety is a Human Right

Fellow Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians,

Our Dear Southern Cameroonian/Ambazonian refugees across the world.

Good citizens of the world,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year's World Refugee Day, more than 2 million peoples of the former British Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia are forcibly displaced from their homes, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND in a country that is not their own. It saddens our heart that more than 60% of these refugees are yet subjected to inhumane conditions mostly in developing countries. The Department of Health and Social Services DHSS of your Interim Government - IG, on the occasion - World Refugee Day, June 20, 2022 therefore wishes to join the crusade of recognizing the plight of these oppressed peoples of the Former British Southern Cameroons and the dire need to seek for solutions now.

Firstly, we would like to extend a word of appreciation to all our partners and volunteers, and a word of encouragement to these refugees for their resilience; six years into a senseless war - the genocide ongoing, we have a people denied of everything that belong to them, oppressed and suppressed maimed and killed, forcefully incarcerated and subjected to decay, but still determined to exist. Most of these displaced - Ambazonian refugees faced with unthinkable difficulty still have managed to create a living. Your will to live is such an inspiration. Congratulations!

To the family members of these oppressed peoples - the Ambazonian refugees and asylum seekers who have lost their lives, we would like to extend our sincerest condolences; the Interim Government hears your cries, sees your challenges and shares your pains.

To all our refugees globally, especially the over 150 thousand suffering refugees in Neighboring Nigeria and 250 thousand in Neighboring La République du Cameroun who are still battling for basic source of living, and challenged with rage at the developing setup, we plead with the consciences of policymakers on the precept: Seeking Safety is a Human Right. The current global challenges and collective desire for survival especially against the pandemic have shown that we are all connected to each other. That is why we cannot agree any less with this year's theme for the World Refugee Day which connotes; Whoever, Whenever And Wherever has the right to seek for Safety!

On these premises we therefore wish to encourage all and sundry to take advantage of the legal instruments that have been established in their various host countries, and most especially to be law abiding and pursuing; our doors will always open to provide any assistance that will facilitate your pursuit of seeking safety, resettlement and/relocation.

As a result of the diplomatic efforts of your Interim Government and intervention of the US government, our refugees in the USA can now enjoy an immigration facilitative procedure; the Temporary Protective Status -TPS granted by the Biden's administration. We also encourage every Southern Cameroonian to take advantage of this offer and have their statuses regularized.

The Interim government is aware of the challenges our refugees are faced with in different territories/countries. In Neighboring La République du Cameroun, they are not recognized as refugees.

In Nigeria for instance:

For more than a year now the process of registration by the UNHCR has completely slowed down and is not being performed in most of the areas making it difficult for the refugees to be registered. Also, it has been more than a year today that most of the Refugees Identification Cards expired and still have not been renewed by the authorities, leaving the refugees to be tormented daily by the immigration officials and even the military and forces of law and order.

There is huge negligence in providing the basic humanitarian needs to refugees by the Nigerian Authority and the UNHCR. The UNHCR have reduced the Cash Based Intervention (CBI) from an initial amount of 7,200 Naira to now 2,600 Naira, in addition to huge inflation of the prices of food and non-food items, have left the Southern Cameroonian Refugees in Nigeria in hunger, frustration and total exploitation by the locals. It is alleged that the hunger and starvation have led to the committing of suicide by some refugees. Young girls are also being sexually exploited and forced in to prostitution due to hunger and extreme hardship.

There’s inadequate provision of social amenities like water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and Health facilities to the expanding host communities, thereby leaving the refugees into miseries of very poor health.

There’s lack of basic education for the children and lack of economic empowerment opportunities for the adult refugees to become self-reliance and self-dependent have led to them becoming jobless thereby leading the refugees into highly dependency and exploitation by the locals.

Lack of shelter and sheltering materials like mattresses, bed covers and blankets. Refugee Communities undergo days without drinking water due to lack of portable drinking water and extreme bad conditions for the few existing boreholes.

Last year - 2021, we achieved our best ever thanks to the collective efforts of the Ambazonian diasporic community. Like never before, the Department of Health and Social Services of the Interim Government reached out to many more refugees settlements and communities across, Nigeria.

We provided relief and sustenance to hospitals, settlements and camps and other communities hosting our refugees in the Cross River States in Nigeria. We engaged refugee boards in different African and European countries hosting some of our refugees and also sought assistance and collaborated with external and International Humanitarian Organizations like UNHCR .

We therefore seek this opportunity to appreciate the efforts of the following humanitarian organizations who provided tremendous support to our refugees in Nigeria. We thank Caritas Nigeria, Save the Children, Save the Women and Protect the Girl Child, Rhema Care, the Red Cross Society, Great Step, Community Refugee Relief Initiative (CRRI) and the Nigerian SEMA and the NCFRMI. We delightfully call upon them to continue providing services to our people.

Fellow Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians,

Our dear Southern Cameroonian/Ambazonian refugees across the world.

While ensuring that you get relief, the HSS wishes to use this opportunity to raise concerns about the safety of refugees and is reminding them to remain very vigilant. We continue to get information that some French Cameroun agents parade the camps trying to lure you into returning home. The HSS has successfully stopped two or three of such agents from carrying out such activities which are in themselves, a violation of your right to safety. Our message to all refugees is that, do not give an ear to such illusionists. Do not follow them anywhere especially to French Cameroon which is the cause of your departure from your homeland. You must be capable of telling such emissaries from the Yaounde regime to address the root causes of the war they declared on us. Remain vigilant, be each other’s keeper and report the presence of such people to your refugee community leaders or contact the HSS directly.

Cognizant Of our duty to serve our people during this time of war, The Department of Health and Social Services has been positioned strategically to galvanize timely and consistent support in an increasing dimension to all of our refugees globally. We will provide details of this framework for all to benefit. I must also mention that Your IG would continue to engage stakeholders, UN agencies and other governments to ensure that they force the French Cameroon Regime to end its war so that we can have a place to call home.

In the end, while we wish you a Happy Refugee Day 2022, we wish to remind all people of goodwill that the DHSS is still receiving and will appreciate your kind donations in medication, medical equipment, foodstuff, clothing for honest and transparent deliveries to all our refugees.

Long Live the FRA, short live the struggle, so that our people can finally return to homeland.

Yours Truly,