Amid the crisis in Cameroon between the English-speaking southerners, who are agitating for self-government under the name of Ambazonia, and the French-Cameroon government, which has resulted in an alleged genocide, the leader of the southerners, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako, has pledged to continually defend his people from being massacred.
He also said he would persist in the quest for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons as was intended on October 1, 1961.
Sako expressed his concerns over the silence of many African leaders on the alleged killing of his people, stressing that they should not wait till they become another statistic before they react.
He noted that recent events had seen tens of thousands of innocent Ambazonian citizens killed and hundreds of their villages razed with the people fleeing into neighbouring countries as refugees.
He disclosed that the death toll keeps increasing as a result of atrocious crimes perpetrated by the military forces of French Cameroon, culminating in the recent gruesome killing at a checkpoint of a six-year old school girl, Caroline, by the security forces who shot her on the head.
“More than 30,000 civilians have been killed with about 500 villages burned to the ground, and more than 120,000 refugees in neighbouring countries while there are over 1.5 million refugees/IDPs in French Cameroon and Ambazonian territories respectively.
“About 10,000 enforced disappearances who are Ambazonian citizens unaccounted for, likely massacred and buried in mass graves across both territories by French Cameroonian genocidal forces, while several massacres including those of Ngarbuh, Mautu, Santa-Pinyin, Bali, Bafut and Kumba are well-documented in various universities and libraries in many Western nations,” he added.
Sako noted that as much as the Ambazonian leaders were trying to adopt the peaceful process to achieve their desired goals, they might be forced to defend themselves if the alleged massacre by the French Cameroon forces doesn’t stopped.
Ambazonian Secretary of Communications, Ms. Irene Ngwa, lamented that while millions of other African children were going to schools and enjoying the comfort of their parents, millions of Ambazonian kids were traumatised as they were being forced to survive under the elements in a debilitating conditions with their parents in various IDP camps.
Deputy Secretary of Communications, Dr. Ngwambe urged African nations to support all current efforts aimed at resolving the conflict in the country, which include the implementation of the 2019 Switzerland proposal to mediate between Cameroon and Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia).
Lolo Ijeoma Njoku Obinwannem News writer / Nov 6, 2021
