Press Release
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PRREF#0028-09/11/2018

September 11, 2018

 

French Cameroun Government is once more engaged in a calculated misinformation campaign, this time on the road blockade and the wreckage that took place at Akum, a stretch of road linking Ambazonia’s Savanah zone to French Cameroun. That evening, a handful of public transport buses heading out of the city of Bamenda were intercepted and with the use of caterpillars, were severely defaced and rendered inoperable. The buses belonged to a mass transit company. Same caterpillars were used to cut off the road, rendering it impassable from either end.

 

 

Passengers in the hundreds were abused, some tortured, asked to lay flat on their bellies on a muddy road soaked by rains that had been pouring most of the day. A driver of one of the buses was shot deadat the scene for alleglly resisting instructions from the forces that carried out the operation. After usingthe caterpillars to scorch all but one of the buses, before cutting off the road, they were then set on fireto the bewilderment of all at the scene.

 

 

French Cameroun’s Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma has said that Ambazonian Restoration Forces (RF) initiated and carried out the attacks. But so far, they haven’t been able to prove that indeed the vandals were RF of Ambazonia. In the absence of such evidence as to who carried out the act, here is what the Interim Government (IG) of Ambazonia has found out. Facts we have gathered from our own investigations point to impeccable evidence that the thugs who cut off the road, brutalized and killed people and reduced to junk, mass transit buses, were French Cameroun soldiers, disguised as Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

 

 

First, the Caterpillars used for the wreckage belonged to a road construction company called SATOM. SATOM, we have learned was carrying out repairs on the stretch of road and they had finished work for the day and parked their equipment there. For somebody to have been able to operate their equipment, the person must have been in possession of the keys to turn on the transmission.Restoration Forces were not in possession of the keys and had no way of getting access to them. SATOM has as of this moment not reported any of the keys to the equipment missing. They know who they handed their keys to. Even if the restoration forces had the keys, their ability to operate and manipulate such heavy equipment without prerequisite training would still be in question. It would take a trained Caterpillar operator to manipulate it to take down the roof of a high rise 70 sitter bus.The facts point to the conclusion that there must have been a conspiracy between SATOM and some other party to carry out the act using their caterpillars.

 

But this isn’t all of it. The incident occurred in Akum; Akum is located only a few kilometers from Upstaion Bamenda and Santa, another urban centre. Leaving Akum to Bamenda Upstation, there is one of Bamenda’s tightest security post even before you get to Upstation. There is also a Police post in Santa. How does anyone explain the fact that this incident went on for hours and no security showed up in spite of the fact that most of the pedestrians called for help ever before their phones were confiscated by the thugs? If the perpetrators were indeed Restoration Forces of the Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia as Issa Tchiroma would want the world to believe, how come they happily returned the phones seized from the pedestrians?

 

 

For the record, Ambazonia RF do not torture people, not especially when those people are Ambazonians. That the people were forced to sleep and roll in mud under the rain is characteristic of French Cameroun soldiers’ comportment. Throughout this revolution, footage upon footage of videos have emerged of French Cameroun soldiers having Ambazonians rolling and swimming in dirty mud water with impunity. What happened in Akum wasn’t new to those who have seen such savagery from the soldiers recently.

 

It is a thing of public knowledge that Ambazonian RF have called for the shutting down of movement within Ambazonia beginning September 16th. What would have been their motivation to cut off the road before September 16th? Paul Biya’s regime continues to get desperate by the day in its campaign to portray Ambazonians as terrorists. In the past week, they declared schools resumption but went around our counties rounding up students they call terrorists and arresting their principals. Some of the students and principals died in custody. All in calculated efforts to blackmail the restoration movement of the Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia.

 

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia condemns these kinds of schemed cruelty in our territory in the strongest of terms. Since they declared war on Ambazonians, theyc ontinue to make daily living a hell on Southern Cameroonians, hoping that by so doing, they did break our resolve to defend our freedom and independence. They plan an illegal election in our territory, and they think they can intimidate our people to participating in the vote. These ploys won’t work. The Southern Cameroons would continue to vehemently assert her sovereignty and will continue to consider any forms of attacks on our people and territory as acts of terrorism by French Cameroun and its invading soldiers.

 

The United Nations and the International Community are in the position to step in to mitigate the maiming and genocide that has been ongoing in Cameroon for two years, but they have chosen to pay a blind eye. 200,000 people according to UN own’s stats, have flown genocide into the bushes,170,000 others live as refugees in Nigeria, 6000 killed, and 3000 in jail, including leaders of Ambazonia Interim Government. It is high time the international community and international media pay attention to this escalating conflict. The Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia will “live free or die.” 

 

 

Chris Anu

Communications Secretary

Federal Republic of Ambazonia