On the Importance of GZ Collaboration – lessons from the Big Babanki Debacle

Collaboration is a corner stone of the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle. Be it Building Bridges between Diaspora stakeholders and GZ ARFs, Complementary Commitment to synchronise the various sacrifices and efforts of diaspora and GZ ARFs or other practical and obvious aspects of “having your brothers’ back”, it all seems common-sense when reflected on.

The last fortnight in Big Babanki [Kedjom Keku] provides a salutary, and possibly timely, lesson for reflection, especially as carpet bags are being unfurled in certain quarters in the vicinity of the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle. Instead of victimising the women enough for them to take to the streets to voice their upset, any ARF involved in “taxing” should have valued the fact that their survival on our whole territory is mainly thanks to the good will and sympathy of our citizens before applying the very intimidation tactics that the Enemy has failed with over more than six decades. Maybe it is worth outlining the collaboration that needs to be taking place on GZ.

The Restoration Forces need to be on survival terms such that each group knows that they all survive together and shares intelligence and support to back-up neighbouring groups, even if they are not “united”. They do not need to be united to know that their survival and success would be vastly improved by the their “having each others’ backs”. Enemy militias should never “surprise” any Ambazonia Restoration Forces again. Instead groups should routinely share and update live movement and locations of enemy forces, ensuring that if they are able engage, that the enemy does not have the freedom to roam our hills and valleys with relative impunity. Such intelligence sharing will be the sole property, ideally of the local GZ groups, who for the purposes need to know, for one thing, that strict control of its circulation would improve security.

Just as intelligence saves their lives, they should do all they can to ensure that our civilians never consider a choice between them and the enemy, but instead rely on their protection as citizens of Ambazonia. In the case of the Big Babanki tragedy, the enemy would never have had the daring to deploy in the village had the idiotic media not provided “evidence” of discord between the civilians and the ARF in the area. Whatever the actual truth of the media, the effect was that the enemy was afforded a window to deploy there by the mistakes of over pressurising the civilians then producing footage which was scarcely believable as anything other than enemy propaganda media. Ambazonia News still cannot “credit” the offending media as the work of genuine Restoration Forces.

To be clear: GZ Ambazonia Restoration Forces must make sure that they collaborate with the civilians for their mutual survival. The ARF must be able to answer in the affirmative the question whether our civilians’ encounters with them are better than their encounters with enemy forces. Whenever, rather if ever, the answer wavers from “yes”, the ARF must adjust as needed.

As our ARF continue to learn from experience we all continue to trust that The Most High God is the Watchman of our nation.

Ambazonia Endures as African “Leaders” tour Ukraine and Russia

Their efforts have been described as a primitive attempt at waging or winning an information war. Ambazonia News contends that the minimum requirement for any information battle to qualify as such is that it must not be spotted. And yet the inept sextet, looking like an overaged boy-band pranced for the camera exactly like is not befitting for a commemorative act!

They are the “leaders” of the continent which, though being agricultural, fell “victim” to the shortages caused by the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. What should have been an opportunity to export more of their products turned out to be an opportunity to push out the begging bowls again and amaze one an all with the astounding idea that they depend on imports of food! No comment!

Meanwhile, it has been seven years since La Republique du Cameroun launched a genocidal war on Ambazonia. Apart from attending Yaounde to receive a statue from dictator Biya, Moussa Faki, AU Commission chair has marshalled decade if silence in disrespect of all the victims of such acts on the African Continent. In Chad, Senegal, Cameroun, Sudan, … the killings have continued. The AU has continued to respect the decade of silence!

There was absolutely no irony in the motley crew, in Western styled suits marched and posed in Ukraine, where they may have expected a better review. The Ukrainians did not fall for it and frankly could have done without the circus as they continued a valiant defence of their land. Ambazonia News hails Ukraine and empathises as our Restoration Forces continue to get better and better at defending our homeland in the face of La Republique du Cameroun aggression.

Strangely, Mr Sall was making the trip in the same week when his “forces of law and order” were killing Senegalese citizens. Of course, the AU, true to form is observing this decade of silence, only breaking it occasionally to push out begging bowls.

Later on, though not too much later, an even wider cast of-shame-and-dignity-free converged on Paris to “demand” a new financial pact from the countries they assume are trying to help their economies, if they could be called such, grow. Yes, the clever African leaders came to demand-please of the Western Powers, who are squealing under a cost-of-living crisis, to bung it into their begging bowls because the Western Powers are nice. They did not come to loot Africa and nor are they doing it now! They are nice! They will find hundreds of billions to channel to Swiss banks via the African leaders’ begging bowls. Irony of ironies it is not theoretical that the bung would end up off the continent, in the case of the French colonies who still do let the nice French, who also kindly provided lavish hotels for the “sommit”, keep “their reserves” and dish out occasional “pocket money”!

To think that Ambazonia was once trapped in such a tragic farce! Dignity is priceless.

Ambazonia needs you; APP on 24/6/23

IT President Marianta Njomia and her cabinet invite all Ambazonians and Ambazonian Independentist entities to an open meeting.

Please come and find out about the state of the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle.

Ambazonian Liberation: sacred traditions are of the past.

This past week in Big Babanki has been a sobering and timely, full of lessons for the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle. There was a demonstration of how collaboration should be improved on the ground. Then there was a question about the tendency to cling to traditions even when they are patently against the objective, not say actively militating against, the objectives of the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle.

In a previous post Ambazonia News outlines different aspects of collaboration, including a brief reference to how it would work on the ground.

Between ARF groups there should be a protocol for intelligence flow which, as a minimum, provides a day by day map of enemy locations on Ambazonian territory. The ideal should aim to be hourly movement with the aim that no ARF should ever be surprised again. This could work if the ARF forward intelligence in a system of trust where the groups know they can rely on each other and should eventually lead to each group backing up it’s neighbours and ensuring that La République du Cameroun militias are in as hostile an environment as can be provided for them. For this flow to work, the civilian arm of our nation must be protected and supported by the ARF, knowing that they each depend on each other unconditionally and implicitly. This need not be elaborated as Ambazonians must look forward to a more dignified life in our nation.

The second lesson of Big Babanki is that Ambazonia cannot keep being timid on the question of who is Ambazonian. Clearly being born in Ambazonia does not make one an Ambazonian and this applies without any need for explanation to those who don the flag of La République du Cameroun and pose as colonial functionaries on our land. The group that we must resolve with great urgency is those chiefs and Fons who still wield inexplicable power despite demonstrating that they are unworthy of the deference of their sovereign subjects. Our Fons of the past were great warriors who would be out on the battle front leading in battles to defend their subjects. They were not auxiliaries of foreign countries and, most certainly, never invited foreigners onto their ancestral land, much less ever contemplated sanctioning the deaths of any of their subjects. If the Fon of Big Babanki had run from the battle field he would be in less disgrace, not as much as when offering up his people and future generations to secure his 30 pieces of silver as an auxiliary. His ancestors would never welcome him again, nor any living individual who would welcome or acknowledge him on the land where they are buried. Indeed if he abdicated to escape from a battlefield he would be less cursed and would retain some dignity as a subject. He would only be shunned. As it is he will never be mentioned again. This aberration, for it can be nothing else, will only be resolved when a new more worthy Fon is found. To that extent Big Babanki has just become the first Ambazonian village to shed it’s auxiliary La République du Cameroun colonial stooge. The twenty odd victims have not died in vain.

Other auxiliaries must also know that our Fons are servants who are there due to the consent of the people, despite the deference. It is time for them to become more worthy or “their” subjects will become similarly liberated and absolved as the Big Babanki have. As Ambazonia News understands it the Fons have to be the custodians of tradition and custom or they will be answerable to our ancestors. Their “subjects” are not slaves of tradition, which does not, in any case equate to blind adherence to the whims and feeble thoughts of Fons. So tenuous is this trust-tradition that the “traditional authorities” flip from rulers to personae non-grata, as the stooge of Kedjom Keku has realised, within the blink of an eye.

It is time to move beyond the so-called MHS for La République du Cameroun and her enablers.

Auxiliaries of La République du Cameroun cannot be custodians of tradition while they are bought and paid for and would even lift their hand against the people. Is there a better way to spot an enabler?

The Most High God remains the Watchman of our Nation.

RIP Fru Ndi

Tributes are being paid to SDF founder John Fru Ndi who has died after a period of illness. He was 81.

John Fru Ndi was once the bright hope of the Cameroons, having dared to launch the SDF in a one party state.

He is widely believed to have won LRC presidency in 1992 though the result was announced for the incumBENT REGIME and endorsed by their mentors.

As soon as that happened it was always going to be downhill from there and, sure enough, SDF gradually accepted the shilling to become a facade opposition for the one party state to continue to claim political plurality.

Worse still, when LRC declared war in 2017 and started killing “his constituents” he did not show the same daring he had when founding the SDF. He instead became the pathetic figure who was reduced to the role of an apologist for LRC atrocities on what his party still insisted on calling “anglophones” in a vain and ironic posture of being part of “the elites”.

It would appear he had too much to lose by then.

History may well record JOHN FRU NDI as a victim of FrancAfrique who was thwarted at the one instance when he could have become truly influential in the history of the Cameroons.

RIP JOHN FRU NDI

Nambere lesson for Ambazonians

The following is an old blog written, almost a year ago, when Nambere posted that “regret” video, but not passed for publication. Maybe still worth a look to keep things in perspective. With hindsight …

When Nambere laid down arms and was paraded and feted by LRC it was a difficult period for Ambazonians as many LRC commentators resorted to taunts about the liberation movement. Ambazonia News’ honest reply to such was that some fighters would be expected to grow wary under the pressure and could take a break. Thus his “break” did not spell the end of the Liberation Struggle.

Clearly Nambere believed the flattery of LRC’s agents that got him to turn-coat and promote their course only to subsequently find out that all that glittered was not gold for him.

It is also possible now that not all is as it seems with this video act! Even so there are a few lessons for all those who are subscribed to “unionism” be it federal or “decentralised”.

The long term aim of LRC is still to assimilate rather than adapt to accommodate Southern Cameroons. Otherwise, they would have sought to resolve the crisis in 2016 by, not even negotiating, but making the necessary adjustments. Far from even having to adapt in 2016, the grievances would not have arisen in the first place had there been any instinct other than assimilation. Of course even assimilation could have succeeded had tribalism, corruption, incompetence and the persistent ritual humiliation of the “brothers” not undermined it.

The other “disarmament center” tenants would have been afforded a better deal if LRC had any real desire to cease the war. That some fighters laid down arms is to do with the same optimism that lead the “founding” fathers to keep hoping that “things” would improve with time.

Sadly, or realistically, Nambere should at least have been savvy enough to know whose word he could bank, so to speak, when it comes to LRC officials. He is indicating now that he could not rely on the PM’s promise and that only reflects Nambere’s own naivety and ego being dazzled by the mere fact of being “contacted”. No disrespect but if an Ambazonian bases any decision on the word of the “Prime Minister, Head of Government” of La Republique du Cameroun they need their head examined and are better off as far away from operations as they can be! Maybe all is well that ended well!

Being flattered does not mean being in the tent! But there is still one possibility! Like another notorious “discontented” former turncoat who now engages as a part propagandist part misinformed, Nambere could well be another seedling waiting to be planted. In that case, the colourful threats to the PM, “Head of government” could be the fertilizer.

Suffice it to say no matter how much fertilizer is sprinkled such a plant is unlikely to thrive.

Ambazonia is no longer a niche where a small group could be undermined or intimidated. Too many people have taken up the cause, witness the persistent weekly enjoyment and assertion of dignity.

The Most High God keeps watching over Ambazonia

APP on 10th June 2023…

IG President Marianta Njomia is inviting one and all to the regular APP next weekend.

In line with Accountability and Action, you will be updated on efforts in progress even in this time of talking about talking.

The APP is open to all Ambazonian Independentist stakeholders in line with the IGs Building Bridges protocol. We will succeed together better and faster than individually.

The IG continues to advocate Complementary Commitment to the Diaspora and GZ. The Ambazonian Liberation Struggle will succeed through the joint application of financial, material and time contributions from the diaspora to complement the commitment of the Ambazonian Restoration Forces and GZ civilians to actualize our independence and decolonisation.

Our tiny droplets 💦 will make the ocean to flush La Republique du Cameroun off Ambazonia’s neck.

We trust in the Most High God as the Watchman of our nation.

Ambazonia Team ACT – In-coming chair promises more collaboration

Patriot Epassamoto was introduced as the new chair of ACT in the group’s weekly meeting on 3/6/23. He was introduced by the out-going Chair, Dr Taylor who is going to continue as one of the college of three along side Epassamoto and the soon-to-be designated next chair from MORISC.

For background information ACT is a collaboration group of several Ambazonian Liberation independentist entities which has engaged in a huge amount of capacity building and collaboration notably in the run up to the Swiss process and again in the Canadian pre talks process. Recently ACT has deployed some of that experience in navigating the spate of conference initiatives.

The Chair’s Objectives for the 6 month ahead:

Address of current chair of trio chairs of ACT on Saturday 3rd June 2023. 👇🏽

Patriotic Greetings!

We, the Interim Government (IG) of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia (FRA) will want to share the 4 main intentions of our chairmanship with all seating entities of the Ambazonian Coalition Team (ACT) (Team Ambazonia) for your appraisal, scrutiny, suggestions, consolidation and validation as action plan, so that during the subsequent 6 months it becomes our collective engagement as Team Ambazonia to work towards materializing the adopted action plan.

We will:

1) Work in strict collaboration as trio chairmanship to materialize pending projects that had been adopted by ACT (es USIP, ACT Fireside ….) as well as remain open to work with each independentist entity in ACT to present to this ACT Council, their suggestions or proposals of initiatives that will uphold the institutional strength of ACT and fast track the freedom, independence and sovereignty of Ambazonia.

We will,

2) Foster Inter-ACT member entity collaboration through effective Participation and Promotion of initiatives of ACT member entity that are geared towards fighting THE ENEMY, on the believe that the success of any ACT member entity is success for Ambazonia.
ACT member entities might differ in approach in fighting the enemy. This does not mean we are divided as the International Community would want to put it. Our differences in approach in fighting the enemy should rather be considered an indisputable strength in so long as we are UNITED in our Objective or Purpose of a FREE, INDEPENDENT and SOVEREIGN Ambazonia.

We will,

3) Make concerted effort to CATEGORICALLY REJECT THE LONG-LASTING COLONIAL MENTAL MANIPULATION OF AMBAZONIANS by ensuring that the RIGHT MINDSET is preserved and the APPROPRIATE APPELLATIONS are used in our communication within the Ambazonian community as well as, in our communication when addressing the International Community.

We are where we are today, as an invaded and suppressed people, because the western world has persistently inculcated THEIR ideology of a “dependent-freedom in the name of freedom” through a systematic and voluntary verbal inculcation of words that have manipulatively poised the mindset of our people over the years, to the extent that most of our people turn to forgo their right to total freedom and just feel privileged and satisfied for the “dipendent-freedom” or “half-freedom” package that has been fraudulently offered by the international community.

I’ll therefore be respectfully craving your indulgence to the effect that during these 6 months Chairmanship and hopefully thereafter, we all try as much as possible to use and address ourselves and the International Community with a terminology that fully dignifies who we are as a people and that fully expresses what we as leaders of different Ambazonian independentist entities are mandated to represent per the WILL of our people, without fear or favor and without mincing words.

Going forward, we should consider the need to stick firm to specific appellations that will affirm our stance and erase the decades of mental manipulation of our people.

In the prosecution and management of our liberation struggle, we should therefore rationally, strategically, tactically and persistently ADOPT the use of:

i) INDEPENDENTIST (not just stakeholder): The prime stake in our liberation struggle is the total and unconditional independence of Ambazonia. We must therefore persistently and unapologetically state the precise prime stake that we hold in the prosecution of our liberation, without leaving room for any skepticism.

ii) ENTITY(not group, not movements, not organization): An entity is a BEING, defined by her distinct and independent existence. It would be more appropriate in our communication for our different groupings or movements or organizations to be considered as ENTITIES. We should therefore say “Ambazonian Independentist ENTITIES” henceforth.

iii) PATRIOT(not comrade): A comrade is a colleague or a fellow member of an organization. It defines just the belonging. In fact a Comrade can be an accomplice in orchestrating extortion and Kidnapping, or an ally in facilitating the syphoning of community funds or a proxy in patronizing a private business agenda. A Patriot is a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. So the word Patriot defines both a belonging and specifically defines the commitment to sacrifice temporal, economic and intellectual resources SELFLESSLY for the well-being of a People and a Nation. We are therefore Patriots in a liberation struggle because the quest of our plight is attaining a free, independent and sovereign Ambazonia, not comrades mentally manipulated to fight for internal reforms, hence a revolution in the context of a one Cameroon.

iv) LIBERATION STRUGGLE (not revolution): A Revolution is an uprising or insurgency in the context of a one nation, like One Cameroon, aimed at clamoring for internal reforms with the objective of a forcible overthrow of a government.
Conceptually we no more belong to any one Cameroon agenda nor recognize the governance of LRC.
A Liberation struggle on the other hand is an armed rebellion waged by a people to secure FREEDOM from either colonial rule or minority oppression.
We are fighting against Cameroons invasion, oppression and neocolonialism agenda of Ambazonia, hence ours is a LIBERATION STRUGGLE, not a revolution.

v) THE ENEMY LRC, her Allies, Enablers and Proxies (not just The Enemy): Going forward, we should convincingly and unapologetically use the appellation “THE ENEMY” to mean LRC, her Allies, Enablers and Proxies that we are committed to fight against.

vi) Social, Economic and Political FREEDOM (Not just Freedom)
Our quest for total and unconditional independence covers our legitimate claim as a people for the right to SOCIAL Justice, the right to manage our RESOURCES and the right to free association with other independent sovereign states.
We will therefore use and make explicitly clear to any third party that our quest for freedom entails fighting for Social, Economic and Political FREEDOM, as entailed in the UN chatter on the right to EXTERNAL SELF-DETERMINATION of a people, that denotes the legal right of a people to decide their own destiny in the international order.

We will,

4) Work in strict collaboration as trio chairmanship and upon effective and timely consultation with ACT, in BUILDING CONSENSUS FOR ALL-INCLUSIVENESS OF AMBAZONIAN INDEPENDENTIST ENTITIES.
PREMISES
We will be working in line with the ACT constitutional document and based on the premises that I will cherish to share for a better comprehension of our unflinching efforts towards BUILDING CONSENSUS FOR ALL-INCLUSIVENESS OF AMBAZONIAN INDEPENDENTIST ENTITIES.
We will work on the obligatory premise that:
a) We all represent Independentist entities that are fighting THE ENEMY LRC her Allies, Enablers and Proxies Diplomatically or/and in Self-defence or/and in Advocacy;
On the premise that:
b) Each independentist entity boarded in ACT is honestly and effectively engaging in fighting the enemy as declared to ACT or as prescribed by their constitutional document;
On the premise that
c) We should recognize, appreciate and empower the strength that each entity brings to the coalition, ACT;
On the premise that
d) ACT will remain open to and make continuous efforts to ensure all-inclusiveness of any identified Ambazonian Independentist entity that is fighting the enemy.

In summary, during this tenure of chairmanship of ACT, we would cherish to be seen ACTing (note the acronym of ACT!) as patriots of the Ambazonian liberation struggle that are putting efforts to build consensus for all-inclusiveness of the Ambazonia independentist entities without undermining the strength that any independentist entity brings to the coalition.

The rationale is that once a consensus on all-inclusiveness is attained, we can, at any given time, COLLECTIVELY decide on a REPRESENTATIVE BODY from within the coalition, when need arises, without nursing sentiments of exclusion. This will preemptively guarantee that the outcome of any deliberations sustained by a REPRESENTATIVE BODY OF ACT, that will function in strict consultation with all independentist entities within ACT, will be representative of the will of the Ambazonian people and will be Authentic, Binding and Void of spoilers.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share these four main objectives of the IG Chairmanship tenure with you.

I am sharing this presentation in the ACT forum and await your feedback, for adoption, before presenting it officially during our upcoming ACT Fireside.

I will be reaching out to the leadership of all the Ambazonian Independentist Entities in ACT not present in this meeting, including Abdul Karim, to align the working intentions during these 6 months tenure of chairmanship.

I’ll end by extending enormous gratitude to the previous seating ACT Chair Patriot Taylor and previous outgoing ACT Chair Patriot Chebs for their efforts to bring us where we are today. I’ll be counting on their expertise and support and the support of every single Patriot in ACT to accomplish the mission statement that will be agreed upon and asigned to the current trio chair leadership.

Together we will exhale for Ambazonia.

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia!

Saturday 3rd June 2023

Patriot Epassamoto
ACT Chairman
SOS for Defence of the IG of the FRA

The Banjul ruling (2009): learning points

For six decades it appears La République du Cameroun has had one idea and scheme where Southern Cameroons is concerned. For a country plagued by corruption, incompetence and lack of commitment to the extent that “Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun” has become a proverb it is remarkable how fixed and committed they appear to be on the idea of dominating and colonising Southern Cameroons.

Many episodes have cropped up to remind and dictate “logical adjustments” but every one of them has been batted away even when they could improve the prosperity of La République du Cameroun.

One such episode was the ruling of the African Commission in 2009 in the “Southern Cameroons Vs La République du Cameroun” following Kevin Mgwanga Gumne et al vs. Republic of Cameroon.

The commission went out of its way to make sure La Republique du Cameroun knew that the complainant’s case was sound. They accepted all the accounts of domination, colonisation, marginalisation and discrimination, only citing their [the Commission’s] lack of competence as a reason for not issuing sanctions.

Even so they issued a range of recommendations for La République du Cameroun to implement to solve the established problems.

The African Commission’s [water under the bridge by now] Recommendations to LRC:

Abolish all discriminatory practices against people of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon, including equal usage of the English language in business transactions;
Stop the transfer of accused persons from the Anglophone provinces for trial in the Francophone provinces;
Ensure that every person facing criminal charges be tried under the language he/she understands. In the alternative, the Respondent State must ensure that interpreters are employed in Courts to avoid jeopardising the rights of accused persons;
Locate national projects, equitably throughout the country, including Northwest and Southwest Cameroon, in accordance with economic viability as well as regional balance;
Pay compensation to companies in Northwest and Southwest Cameroon, which suffered as a result of discriminatory treatment by banks;
Enter into constructive dialogue with the Complainants, and in particular, SCNC and SCAPO to resolve the constitutional issues, as well as grievances which could threaten national unity; and
Reform the Higher Judicial Council, by ensuring that it is composed of personalities other than the President of the Republic, the Minister for Justice and other members of the Executive Branch.

It goes without saying that La République du Cameroun not only ignored the recommendations but sought to characterise the ruling as a victory over secession even though the complainants had not intended or expected such an outcome from the case.

As “Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun” they ignored the “warning signs” of having moved the complainants enough to undertake to bring the case and continued on their ill-fated course to self-destruction.

In a world where trade is easier in English as “Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun”, they decided that English should be expunged so that a small group of incompetents could continue to go to Europe for health care.

Maybe it has just been incompetence all these decades. They couldn’t have actively made any of these choices, could they? They would need a base of some competence.

Given that “Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun”, Ambazonia cannot afford to make any decisions that rely on La République du Cameroun’s competent choice, certainly no dependence or reliance on any action in LRC’s sole hands.

Download the complete Banjul ruling from here