To not miss any African news, subscribe to the newsletter of the “World Africa” from this link. Every Saturday at 6 a.m., find a week of news and debates covered by the editorial staff of the “World Africa”.
Sentenced to life, but not to silence. Imprisoned for almost five years, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is today the self-proclaimed president of Ambazonia, a republic whose independence has not been recognized anywhere. Since his extradition from Nigeria in January 2018, then his conviction by the Cameroonian military justice, his power remains confined behind the bars of the central prison of Kondengui, in Yaoundé. Far from the hills of “his” country: the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, still plagued by a low-intensity war between independence movements and national forces. This does not prevent him, however, from speaking out in the press to lay down his conditions for peace.
“We first propose that Cameroon, which has declared war, declare a ceasefire and the demilitarization of the English-speaking regions, the release of all those imprisoned because of this crisis, an amnesty in favor of compatriots exiles and an international dialogue mediated by a neutral country and in a place agreed by the two parties. As soon as these conditions are met, we will sit down, if the government wants, to negotiate,” assures Mr. Ayuk Tabe in an interview with the Cameroonian daily The day published on December 5.
This proposal, already made four years ago, has little chance of being heard from the side of the presidential palace of Etoudi. “Ayuk Tabe is just a crook who embezzled millions of CFA francs from Sonel [l’ex-Société nationale d’électricité]. He has no power on the pitch anyway,” responds a source close to the presidency to close any possibility of talks. Firmness, intransigence and repression have so far been Yaoundé’s favorite responses to this crisis that emerged in October 2016.
More than 6,000 dead
Lawyers and teachers from the French-speaking minority (about 20% of the population of Cameroon) then went on strike to demand that their particularities be better taken into account in a system which they consider to be dominated by French-speakers. The brutality of the Cameroonian power’s response had thrown the NOSO – the abbreviation commonly used to designate the two regions with an English-speaking majority, the North West and the South West – into the war. Six years later, the conflict would have caused more than 6,000 deaths, according to estimates by the NGO International Crisis Group. According to the United Nations, nearly 630,000 people are now internally displaced and more than 85,000 are refugees in neighboring Nigeria.
You have 56.49% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.