Southern Cameroons Independence Struggle: France Enters the Fray Directly

It is now about two years since the people of Southern Cameroons rose up to claim their stolen independence from a botched decolonization process. In 1961, rather than simply grant independence to the UN Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons entrusted to her her care, the British rather auctioned the people to France and washed off her hands. Ever since then, Southern Cameroonians have been cheated, maltreated, dehumanized and reduced to second class citizens, with no one coming to their rescue, not even the United Kingdom.

Towards the end of the year 2016, the embittered peoples through their lawyers and teachers felt enough was enough and started peaceful protests and sit-down strikes to demand a reversal of obnoxious policies and a return to the two-state federal system which conditioned the coming together of the two peoples. Rather than examine the demands peacefully in a way as to provide reasonable solutions, the Biya – led government opted for the use of force; they killed scores of young people, arrested hundreds others arbitrarily and detained them and eventually declared war on an armless people.

Faced with muscled resistance from a resilient population determined to protect their land and lives, the Cameroon government is now being directly assisted by France, with French soldiers reportedly fighting physically alongside soldiers of La République du Cameroun.

The involvement of French soldiers was first reported by a woman who told reporters that she was shot at by a Whiteman among soldiers of La République du Cameroun.

On the heels of that revelation, the French President dispatched his Secretary of state at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne to Cameroon ftom the 28th to the 29th of June 2018 to talk about the crisis. At the same time, President Macron called Mr. Biya by telephone to dish out directives on how to annihilate the people of Southern Cameroons.

As if that were not enough, French President, Macron is reportedly in Nigeria at the time of writing this report to urge the Nigerian government to grant support to Yaounde at several levels, including military, logistics as well as building a military zone around the borders with Southern Cameroons to isolate, intimidate and possibly kill the male refugees hiding in the country in efforts to help Biya win the war.

While all this is happening, the African Union, the United Nations and other world bodies that should normally intervene to halt the hostilities have remained suspiciously silent.

Should Abuja cooperate, which will not be surprising viewing the treatment given to Southern Cameroons’ leaders who sought refugee protection there, then it will be a clear indication that the country is ready to support and promote a genocide in a neighboring state.

As the events unfold, the world is watching.

@Jakuroh