One Year On: Dr. Cho Lucas Ayaba’s Unyielding Spirit Lights the Path for Ambazonia’s Freedom
By Mark Bareta Oslo, Norway – September 24, 2025
In the shadowed corridors of a Norwegian detention center, where the chill of isolation meets the fire of unbowed conviction, Dr. Cho Lucas Ayaba, the visionary architect of Ambazonia’s liberation struggle, marks a painful yet pivotal milestone: one full year in captivity. Detained on September 24, 2024, amid what many in the Ambazonian diaspora decry as an international stitch-up orchestrated by La République du Cameroun (LRC), Ayaba’s ordeal has not dimmed the flame of resistance. Instead, it has forged it sharper, illuminating the cracks in the oppressor’s facade.
We reach out to you, Dr. Ayaba, with hearts heavy yet hands clasped in solidarity: The people of Ambazonia stand unbreakably with you. From the rolling hills of Buea to the resilient souls scattered across the globe, our voices echo as one. Mark Bareta, the steadfast sentinel of the cause, joins us in this chorus—his words, his actions, a beacon affirming that your vision endures. Cameroon will fail. Its machinations, its betrayals, its desperate bids to silence the truth, will crumble like the hollow regime it props up. Your detention is not a defeat; it is the anvil upon which our freedom is hammered.
The events leading to this anniversary are etched in the collective memory of a people who refuse to be erased. Traitors within and LRC propagandists without rejoiced at the news of Ayaba’s arrest, toasting what they saw as a decapitation of the Ambazonia Governing Council (AGovC) and the Allied Defense Forces (ADF). They peddled illusions of “normalcy” in the war-torn territories, even as villages burned and families mourned. But the Ambazonian spirit, tempered by years of colonial erasure and brutal crackdowns, was neither intimidated nor fractured. “Our resolve remains unflinching,” declared sources close to the AGovC, echoing the unyielding ethos that has defined the movement since its inception.
Far from cowering, Ayaba’s leadership transformed this setback into a masterstroke of global awakening. As directed by the man himself, the AGovC seized the moment to educate Norway and the international community on the injustices of Ambazonia’s plight—the arbitrary borders drawn by colonial pens, the Yaoundé regime’s genocidal grip, and the righteous quest for self-determination. One year later, the lessons have reverberated: petitions flood European halls, awareness swells in activist circles, and the narrative of Ambazonia as a forgotten colony gains traction in forums once deaf to its cries.
Yet, this education has come at a steep price, one that demands we call out the complicity of Norway itself. For 365 days, Dr. Ayaba has languished without a single substantive court hearing to challenge the legality of his detention—a glaring violation of due process that stains the Nordic nation’s vaunted human rights record. What began as a supposed “temporary hold” has morphed into indefinite limbo, with Norwegian authorities dragging their feet while LRC’s influence lingers in the shadows. This is not justice; it is acquiescence. Norway, we implore you: End this charade. Release Dr. Ayaba unconditionally, or at the very least, grant him the fair trial your laws promise. The world watches, and history will judge those who shield oppressors under the guise of neutrality.
A glimmer of reckoning approaches. On October 20, 2025, Ayaba’s case returns to Norwegian courts—not for the hollow ritual of reviewing his unlawful detention, but to deliberate his conditional or unconditional release. “We told you so,” the AGovC reminds with quiet triumph, underscoring the foresight that has kept the movement one step ahead.
In the face of this, gratitude flows to the Gazette (GZ) and its call for civil disobedience—a thunderclap that has rippled far beyond Ambazonia’s borders. From boycotts in diaspora communities to defiant gatherings in the homeland, these acts have stunned enemies internal and external alike. The implications? A regime in Yaoundé increasingly isolated, its economy strangled by sanctions whispers, and its military overreach exposed as the folly it is. LRC’s attempts to “propagate fake normalcy” ring ever more hollow, as reports of atrocities mount and international scrutiny intensifies.
Dr. Ayaba, if these words find you in the quiet hours of your cell, know this: Your vision—of a sovereign Ambazonia, free from the chains of assimilation and violence—pulses in every heartbeat of our people. We mourn the year stolen from you, the councils unattended, the strategies untold. But we celebrate the resilience it has instilled, the unity it has welded. Cameroon will fail, as all empires built on denial must. Norway’s dalliance with injustice cannot endure.
As Dr. Julius Nyih so poignantly noted in his reflection on this anniversary, Ayaba remains “the only visionary and nationalist leader” whose absence only amplifies his presence. The path to liberation winds through valleys of trial, but with leaders like him—and supporters like Bareta and the unbreakable Ambazonian collective—we march on. Freedom is not a gift; it is a seizure. And seize it we shall.
