Who Are Cameroon Separatists Fighting For?

On May 4, one of the former Ambazonia separatist leaders, Ngong Emmanuel Langha, popularly known as Capo Daniel, issued a statement in which he called for a cessation of hostilities in English Cameroon.

Through his People’s Rights Advocacy Platform, the one confidant of Warlord, Cho Ayaba, said they have resolved to choose a nonviolent approach to the struggle. He claimed that for over seven years, separatist fighters have not achieved their objective of liberating former Southern Cameroon.

What is today known as the War of Independence began in 2016 as a lawyers-teachers strike in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. UN figures say over 6,000 people have been killed, and more than 2 million need humanitarian aid.

Within 7 years and counting, the war has seen Amba fighters targeting the very population it was supposed to be protecting.

Lost battle?

In an exclusive interview with MMI, Capo Daniel said the peak of the fighting had long since passed. 

He said what is happening on the ground now are cartel-like groups fighting for economic interest. According to him, different factions on the ground are very frustrated and are now using that frustration to launch attacks on civilians instead of the Cameroon military.

“The primary example is the ADF. They have been at war with our people in Batibo, attacking communities here and there. Declaring genocide against villages,” he said.

To him, the fighting has evolved, and they have lost momentum. That is the reason he said he is terminating the people’s rights advocacy platforms, thereby engaging in diplomacy as a way to resolve the conflict on the ground. 

“We have made some strides, and we think that it is the right time for us to declare a cessation of hostilities,” he added.

The approach taken by Capo Daniel has been welcomed by human rights lawyer Agbor Balla, who was the one-time leader of the Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Balla, in an exclusive with MMI, said that some actions on the ground are being carried out by some overzealous fighters who are not ideologically grounded.

“For most of them, I don’t think it is about the struggle; it is about their stomach, personal welfare, and well-being,” he said.

“Every keen observer would accept that the separatist movement has failed woefully,” he added.

To him, the moment has failed not because the government has won the war but because they have antagonized the same population that they came to protect. 
“They came as protectors, but they ended up being our prosecutors. They have destroyed our families; they have destroyed the Anglophone unity. They are terrorizing the civilian population,” he stated.

Balla, in 2016, was the leader of the outlawed consortium that brought the government to the negotiation table under the auspices of Anglophone Cameroonians. He was later arrested and detained in prison for eight months. 

Since then, the Human Rights Lawyer has advocated for a non-violent approach to the Anglophone struggle. 

Escalation

As concerned about what is happening on the ground, Balla said the fighters and their leaders have divided anglophones more, and the people fighting are not doing it for federation but for personal gains.

He adheres to middle-ground policies like the one Capo Daniel recently adopted because of this.

“Anytime somebody joins the middle or moderate voices, I appreciate it. Whether it works or not, it is immaterial,” he said. According to Balla, if a former high-profile person like that has just realized that the war cannot be won through the battle of the guns, then it is a step in the right direction. 

Barrister Balla’s organization, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA),  recently published its first quarterly Human Rights Report, in which it indicated that human rights violations and abuses have dropped significantly.

In a document read by MMI, it says that between January and March, there were 52 killings, one arrest, 10 arson, 72 attacks and injuries, the use of two EIDs, and 37 kidnaps, among others.

Even though there is a reduction in the number of atrocities, there are still hardliners who want to see fighting persist.

Population in agony

Tata Shella is an IDP in Buea who fled from the separatists’s activities in her village in Donga Matung.

“They came and taxed us huge sums of money and even destroyed our business. I was raring goods, but they caught almost all. Every day, it was from one trouble to another,” Shella said.

As a businesswoman, Shella managed and escaped to Buea, where she started a new life.

She could not understand why separatist fighters, most of them children from the same village as her, could turn to inflict pain on the people.

Separatist fighters, like Achou, who goes by one name for security reasons, don’t care about the people they claim to be protecting.

She survived the numerous attacks carried out in Upper Banyang in Manyu Division by notorious Ako Giant, who is now in military custody.
“They used to come and harass our people and even kill them simply because of money,” she said.

“They made life more and more unbearable for us,” she added.

Now she is an IDP in the littoral region of Cameroon. But the trauma she and others went through can’t be forgotten.

The fighters terrorized the population in Upper Bayang until the people begged for the intervention of the Cameroonian military, as MMI had earlier reported. Most people are returning to the villages there following the capture of Ako Giant recently.

‘Unity Day must not happen’

Christ Anu, who claims to be the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, has declared a lockdown between May 19 and 20 to frustrate the celebration of the National Day of Unity in Cameroon.

In a communiqué dated May 7, he said that during the lockdown period, “all establishments, businesses, and transportation services are strictly forbidden from operating. Only essential medical facilities and personnel shall be permitted to function, and solely for emergencies. We urge every citizen to stockpile essential supplies of water, food, and medication in preparation for this lockdown.” 

Dialogue Only!

Speaking exclusively to MMI on Thursday, Chris Anu said that unlike Barrister Balla and Capo Daniel, Ambazonia fighters are fighting for the people.

“When you have war, you don’t expect things to be normal as in a time of peace,” he said, saying that “people go through inconveniences.” 

He said the blame is on the Cameroonian government, which does not want to sit and dialogue. 

“After seven years and over 37,000 people killed, who will think that we will just wave the white flag and walk away while the impunity in Cameroon continues? Of course not us,” he said.

To him, war has consequences, and food and insecurity are part of them.
For more than 7 years now, villages have been destroyed, people killed, and many millions of refugees have fled, yet the war is not showing any sign of ending soon.

Mimi Mefo Info