For years, Ambazonians have cried out against the brutality, injustice, and oppression of the Paul Biya regime, only to be dismissed, mocked, and branded as terrorists. Today, that same machinery of state violence has turned its guns on Francophones, and suddenly, they are beginning to feel the pain and humiliation their Anglophone counterparts have suffered since 2017. The tables have turned, and the cries once ignored are now echoing loudly in the streets of Yaoundé, Douala, and Garoua.
The reaction of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a once staunch defender of the regime, has become symbolic of this awakening. His outburst following the sham presidential election of October 12, where his supposed victory was shamelessly stolen, exposes the true wickedness of the Biya system. Tchiroma, who once justified military crackdowns and political repression in Ambazonia, now finds himself tasting the same venom he helped administer. His pain mirrors that of countless Ambazonians who have watched their voices silenced and their votes ignored by a regime that survives only through manipulation, deceit, and force.
In the wake of the election, Francophones poured into the streets demanding justice and the restoration of their stolen mandate. The regime responded with its trademark brutality—armed soldiers firing live bullets, police beating unarmed civilians, and hundreds thrown into overcrowded detention cells. Reports indicate that at least 30 people have been killed in Douala, Bafoussam, Maroua, and Garoua, while hundreds more languish behind bars. The same dictatorial playbook that crushed Ambazonian protests in 2016 and 2017 is now being replayed in the Francophone regions with chilling precision.
Interestingly, Francophones are now embracing the same tools of resistance once pioneered by Ambazonians—ghost towns. Once mocked as a “terrorist tactic,” the idea of shutting down cities to paralyse the economy has now become the weapon of protest in Douala and Yaoundé. Shops remain closed, taxis stay off the streets, and communities are defying state threats in a show of civil disobedience. What began as an Ambazonian act of defiance against tyranny has now crossed the Mungo, symbolising a growing national awakening against Biya’s failed system.
The Ambazonian crisis started in 2016 as peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers, demanding reforms and equal treatment. The regime’s violent response—arrests, killings, and the burning of villages—transformed what was a civil movement into a full-blown armed conflict. Today, the Francophones stand at that same dangerous crossroads. Their current civil disobedience, if met with continued bloodshed and repression, could easily evolve into armed rebellion.
If history is any guide, the seeds of revolt are already germinating. Once people realise that peaceful protests only invite bullets, they begin to consider the alternative, self-defence. The same flames that engulfed the Anglophone regions could soon spread across the Francophone heartland, igniting a national uprising that even Biya’s brutal machinery will struggle to contain.
The truth is simple: oppression knows no language. The suffering once confined to Ambazonia is now national. Francophones are waking up to the realisation that the enemy is not their Anglophone brothers but the corrupt and ageing regime that has enslaved them all. Whether Cameroon survives this reckoning depends on whether its people, from Buea to Bertoua, can unite against a common oppressor. For now, the Biya regime stands exposed, wicked, crumbling, and dangerously close to facing the wrath of a nation it has long deceived.
By Lucas Muma
