The Youth Front to represent the struggle for the freedom and emancipation of Anglophone Cameroon has been born. Today, in Bamenda, with several TV networks and Journalists across the board, the Cameroon Youth Association was reborn in a press conference opened to the public. The association will act as the mouthpiece of the youths bringing together all youth organizations across the 13 division in Anglophone Cameroon. It should be noted that this youth front shall hence build a synergy with likely minded youth groups from Meme, Menchum, Mezam, Lebialem, Boyo, Manyu, Ndian, Bui, Kupe, Ngo Ketunja, Fako, Donga-Mantung and Momo

Below is the press release from the coordinator of the youth front and former leader of the University of Buea Students Union-UBSU.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, Fellow Citizens, and true patriots permit us to begin this statement of ours with two verses from the bible Job 32 verses 4-10 and Esther 4:11-14.

There comes a critical moment in the life of any nation, a turning point in its history, an opportunity to make a choice, one that will make the nation rise and be respected or fall into the abyss of Chaos and disintegration.
Permit us to state unequivocally that we are facing that moment as individuals and as a people and the choices we make today will make or mar us.

We as the youths and Cameroon Youths Association, in particular, have waited as in the above scripture (Job 32:4-10) hoping that our fathers and leaders will resolve the issues, we have waited in anxiety hoping for the truth to be told and the nation stabilized, we have waited for open minded and nation oriented dialogue, to no avail. We have instead watched with consternation, the massacre of our brothers, self-justification, the use of national issues for selfish political interests, the conspiratorial silence of statesmen and custodians of our tradition.(Traditional rulers). We have watched with shock, the misuse of our military and security by self-minded individuals who were entrusted with the sacred authority of our country and the deliberate misinformation of our people, and attempts to sow ethnic conflicts in issues that are purely constitutional and governmental.

In the light of the above, the CYA wishes to state as follows:
1) Condemn all forms of violence in the expression of grievances as well as the maintenance of order from all parties.
2) Condemn the gruesome massacre of Anglophones or Southern Cameroonians by forces recruited to protect them, as well as the transfer of those arrested from the locus crimilis where as there are competent courts in those areas to try them if at all. Hereby demand the release by the government of all arrested in Bamenda and Kumba and their return to their families.
3) Pledge full support to the lawyers and the teachers as well as the consortium put in place to advocate for the rightful place of the Anglophone in Cameroon.
4) State clearly and unequivocally that the present crises are not political but constitutional and as such should be regarded and resolved as such (b) Decry the poor attitude of politicians defending their offices instead of the unity of the nation.
5) Notes that a Federation was the basis of the Union between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun, besides, a Federation brings more accountability, increases political participation, quicker and balanced development and a safeguard to the cultures and identities of its entities and so endorse same as an appropriate solution to teachers, lawyers, and other sectors’ problems.
6) Condemn the insidious plans of ill-willed politicians to turn the citizens against each other thereby fomenting ethnic conflicts which have the propensity of leading to genocide.
There is no problem between Anglophone and Francophone and so should never be any. However, there is a problem between the citizens on the one hand and poor and failed government policies on the other.
7) Call on the government to treasure the unity, peace, and prosperity of the state above individuals who have made themselves gods against the general good.
8) Call on the government to put in place the necessary framework for a durable, equitable and just Federal Constitution.
9) We hereby caution that any cosmetic solutions will be breeding grounds for future and more violent confrontations. Hence we call on all Cameroonians from both francophone and Anglophone jurisdictions, to rise up as one, speak the truth in love and tolerance, shun violence and party discipline that is contrary to the national good, and safe our country from future upheavals. “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to say and do nothing”, Edmund Burke. We call on the good men to arise and speak out.
We stand for a Strong, Just and United Federal Republic of Cameroon.

For the association,
Marcel Amabo Mutanga,
Coordinator.