Southern Cameroonians in Western Europe and North America have saluted the decision by the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia endorsing the policy of self-defense. Supporters of the Interim Government on Ground Zero have also welcomed the move declaring victory after the IG succeeded in unifying all defense groups under the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council. But the Interim Government hasn’t learnt the lessons of how far the Biya regime has gone in corrupting the UN and the Africa Union systems. Unless some sort of action is taken deep inside Yaoundé, the Biya Francophone government’s slaughter of Southern Cameroonians in the cruelest and most illegal of ways is sure to continue apace.

Tactically, self-defense does not seem successful enough in urban centers such as Buea, Limbe, Kumba and Bamenda. French Cameroun’s oft-exaggerated military capabilities have turned out to be impotent. Questions are now swirling over self-defense’s effectiveness and long-term impact on the revolution following silly and childish comments made by the new US ambassador to Yaoundé,  Peter Barlerin last week describing the responsible leadership of the Southern Cameroons people “…a very tiny minority of Cameroonian-born individuals living in the United States”.

The Ambazonian Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu said the self-defense objective is to degrade the Biya regime’s killing capability and deter Biya from exterminating the Southern Cameroons population. Our senior correspondent in the Southern Zone hinted recently that the IG objective has been fulfilled.

No Western diplomat in Yaoundé has articulated how the ongoing killings of innocent Southern Cameroonian citizens fit into a larger diplomatic or political strategy in resolving the Anglophone crisis. Likely, there is none. No UN, EU or AU official has said anything about President Biya’s mass atrocities, his war crimes or his crimes against humanity. The clear message to President Biya from Ambassador Peter Barlerin is that Biya is free to keep killing Southern Cameroonians.

Only a few meters from the US embassy in Yaoundé precisely at the Commissariat Central, Biya has been running a torture and killing factory that former US ambassador Frances D. Cook called the worst machinery of cruel death inside Africa. Some brave French Cameroun defector soldiers have provided to Acting President Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako documentary evidence of Biya’s torture and murder of thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians in custody. It is estimated that some 2500 including the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe still linger in Biya’s jails.

French Cameroun soldiers are using a siege to starve civilians in Lebialem, Belo, Akwaya and in Muyenge.  Biya regime artillery shelling alone has killed hundreds of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians including traditional rulers. Cameroon government forces have raided hospitals and targeted civilians from the air. All these atrocities are violations of international norms and laws that the world shouldn’t tolerate. But they are continuing in Southern Cameroons under the watchful eyes of Ambassador Peter Barlerin.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia should ignore Ambassador Peter Barlerin and his female acolyte at the US State Department and liaise with the US Congress to facilitate the application of several other tools at the US Congress disposal to stop Biya’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and to impose justice and accountability for the perpetrators.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai