Fighting for a new nation
In a peaceful Norwegian settlement,
Cho Lucas Ayaba (46) sits and leads an uprising with the goal of
secession from Cameroon and the establishment of a separate state:
Ambazonia. Right now, a bloody conflict, which few in Norway have heard
of, is more than 8,000 kilometers away. But in the home office of an
anonymous residence somewhere in Norway, one of the main players is
sitting in what could turn into a new civil war in the West African
country of Cameroon.
–
More than five million people are affected by the conflict. There are
as many inhabitants as in the whole of Norway. Thousands have been
killed and over 500,000 people have been displaced from their homes, Cho
Lucas Ayaba told VG.
He is the leader of the separatist movement
Ambazonia Governing Council and commander-in-chief of Ambazonia Defense
Forces – the largest of the at least 20 armed groups fighting for
independence for Ambazonia, also called Ambaland.
This is a
self-proclaimed state consisting of the English-speaking parts of
Cameroon – a land strip along the border with Nigeria, which formerly
constituted Southern Cameroon and was under British administration until
1961.
VG is welcomed in the home office, which consists of a
desk, a couple of chairs and a bookshelf. One wall is covered with a
solid banner with a map and photos from Ambazonia. A small Amazonian
flag adorns the desk.
Cho Lucas Ayaba folds his hands, leans forward and talks seriously about the situation in his home country.
The
English-speaking minority in Cameroon claim to be politically and
economically discriminated against and marginalized by the
French-speaking majority, and in recent decades have protested against
the authorities and pushed for reforms in the education system and the
judiciary – without success.
– The situation in Cameroon is
extremely bad. We are forced into a French system that does not work. We
want to make our own laws and be able to take education in English, but
it is not possible as long as the French speakers are in the majority.
That is why we want our own state, says Ayaba.
When the English
speakers took to the streets of Cameroon in 2016, there was not much
talk of independence and detachment. The protesters were driven by a
number of problems they encounter in everyday life, such as a rigid
educational system that favors the French-speaking majority and is
disadvantageous to the English-speakers, and a judiciary dominated by
the French-speaking, making it difficult for the English-speakers to
reach with their requirements.
In 2017, President Paul Biya’s
government hard-fought protesters, demanding that English language be
used in classrooms and courtrooms in the English-speaking regions.
Security forces fired sharp ammunition from low-flying helicopters into
crowds, and videos of unarmed protesters knocking began circulating
online.
The signal was clear that the government did not intend to
give in to the demands of the English-speaking minority. An armed
conflict flared up.
According to independent observers, such as
the International Crisis Group, the government bears much of the
responsibility for the conflict. It has failed to recognize the
displeasure of the English-speaking population, and the security forces
have carried out extensive assaults and imprisoned many peaceful
activists, according to the organization.
– We urged the UN to
provide protection for the civilian population, but no international
efforts were made to help. We do not want to undergo the same thing as
the Tutsis in Rwanda, which is why we want to protect ourselves and
fight for our existence, says Ayaba.
He himself has been an
activist for a number of years, which led to him having to flee. In 1998
he was granted asylum in Germany. Later he also became a German
citizen.
In Norway he has taken a master’s degree in international
politics, and in England he has recently completed a doctorate in
international human rights.
Although he is thousands of miles from
the conflict zones in Cameroon, he keeps in touch with his followers
through social media. Regularly answers caller questions and holds
calls, which are posted directly on Facebook and viewed by thousands of
viewers. The goal is to mobilize the people on the ground, but also the
more powerful Cameroonian diaspora around the world.
He says he has been attacked several times in Europe.
–
I’ve been on the death list for a long time. The regime knows that I am
in Norway. I am constantly getting information about people who are on
their way to the country, and I know that they have sent agents here.
The threats are on many levels, but there is not much I can do but be
careful, says Ayaba, presenting threat messages from social media on
mobile.
Ayaba claims that friends and acquaintances have been
contacted by French-speaking Africans on the street, who have asked for
him. Ayaba is convinced that these are agents sent to Norway by the
Cameroonian government. He has many enemies – both among Cameroonian
authorities and among rival separatist groups. According to himself, PST
is informed of his situation.
– I am a threat to the regime in
Cameroon because of the way I articulate how my people are treated. We
can’t stand it anymore. The only way the regime can stop me is to “take
me out”.
The area where the state of Cameroon is today consisted
of several smaller kingdoms before the colonial era. The Portuguese
noticed that the Wouri River, which flows through the area, had large
deposits of lobster, and called it “Rio dos camarões”. The Germans, who
created a colony here in 1884, called the area Cameroon. After World War
I, the victorious powers of Britain and France divided the colony as a
mandate, sowing the seeds of today’s conflict.
The British ruled
their territory from the colony of Nigeria, while the French integrated
the economy into their mandate in the country’s economy, improving
infrastructure through investment and skilled workers.
The issue
of independence became increasingly urgent after World War II, and in
1960 and 1961 respectively, French and British Cameroon gained their
independence. At first, the state was a federation, but after a
referendum in 1972, French and British Cameroon joined forces in a
united republic.
Today’s President Paul Biya quickly rose to the
rank of a bureaucrat in the 1960s, and in 1975 he became the country’s
prime minister. After Biya joined the presidency in 1982, he has
continued to consolidate the dominance of French speakers in the
country. In the fall of 2018, he won his seventh presidential election,
becoming the world’s longest-serving non-royal leader, and the oldest
president in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Francis Nyamnjoh,
professor of anthropology at the University of Cape Town, the Anglophone
movement is not only a protest against the marginalization of the
English-speaking population but also a protest against the president,
who has held power in Cameroon for 37 years.
– The fact that the
English speakers oppose the government does not necessarily make it a
specific problem for the English speakers. In fact, it is a very
Cameroonian problem: a state that does not deliver, a state that has
nothing to do there, because there are no results, says the professor in
an interview with the Nordiska Afrikainstitutet in Uppsala.
Already
in 1999, Nyamnjoh wrote a scientific article describing how the state’s
“divide and rule” system causes Cameroon’s regional and ethnic groups
to turn against each other.
– Unfortunately, this is what we see today, says the professor, who himself is Cameroonian.
Moderate
voters, which have called for a return to a federal state rather than
independence for the English-speaking regions, have been imprisoned or
forced into exile in recent years. Separatist groups now believe that
the time window for entering negotiations is closed and that the only
possibility now is total detachment.
Human Rights Watch
characterizes the Ambazonia Governing Council as an extremist group and
criticizes it for committing abuses, as well as using hateful rhetoric
against the French-speaking population and the security forces of the
government. Ayaba refutes the charges.
– Our forces have not
committed crimes against humanity. We have disciplined forces that have
standing orders on how to act: They must follow the Geneva Convention in
the fight against the regime, he states.
During the interview
with VG, he is even called by a person who is alleged to be a local
commander. Ayaba puts him on speaker. They ask what to do with a group
of government soldiers they have captured. They can’t afford to feed
them – can they be shot?
– No no no! You must follow the rules of
war. If you cannot take care of the prisoners of war you take, you must
release them. I’ll make sure you get the money to feed them, says Ayaba.
The
International Crisis Group estimates that around seven armed rebel
groups fighting for the independence of Ambazonia consist of between
2,000 and 4,000 armed insurgents, some security guards, as well as
dozens of Nigerian mercenaries and pure criminals who have fled the
Niger Delta.
However, Cho Lucas Ayaba claims that there are tens
of thousands of English speakers who have taken up arms, in what he
refers to as self-defense and armed resistance to the oppressive regime.
According
to Human Rights Watch, it is unclear how the various groups are
organized and to what extent they coordinate with each other. According
to a report released last year, some groups have a local-level
structure, with village commanders reporting to regional leaders.
“It
is structured to have a general or a leader for each village,” said a
civil society activist who traveled in areas controlled by armed
separatists in March 2018 to Human Rights Watch.
– We were stopped
at a roadside checkpoint by Amazonian boys. When I said that I work for
an organization, they pulled me aside. I was questioned and eventually
the manager let me go after getting phone instructions from someone
else, she says according to the report.
Ambazonia Defense Forces have also been accused of being behind kidnappings – something Ayaba rejects.
“These
actions have been carried out by people pretending to be separatists,
who want to spread an impression of chaos in our war of independence,”
said Ayaba – statements he also made in an interview with Sky News.
He
is partially supported in the report by the International Crisis Group,
which points out that the armed groups last year carried out numerous
kidnapping for ransom, blackmailing shop owners and “taxing” businesses.
This relative economic independence allows the local rebel groups to
disengage from political organizations in the exile communities,
ignoring orders to respect the rights of civilians and carry out abuses.
Amnesty
International has documented violence and abuse perpetrated by
individuals and groups who have acted on their own initiative but have
expressed support or are known to act in sympathy with self-proclaimed
armed groups or the armed detachment. Amnesty International emphasizes
that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to verify claims about
the various attacks.
In English-speaking areas where the
government is still present, the population is largely forced to live
under emergency conditions, and President Biya’s security forces have,
according to Foreign Policy magazine, made it a habit to arrest and
torture random people of conflicting age. The government forces have
also been guilty of burning down dozens of villages.
This is a
situation that encourages the population to either flee the region or
join the fight. There is no indication that the rebel groups will run
out of new recruits in the near future.
Refugee Aid
Secretary-General Jan Egeland visited the affected areas in Cameroon
earlier this year. According to his organization, 530,000 people are
internally displaced in these regions, while more than 35,000 people
have fled to Nigeria. In a speech to the UN Security Council, he stated:
–
In my 40 years as a humanitarian worker, I have often seen how the lack
of early intervention has led to less conflict developing into cruel
and endless wars. It is still time to prevent the conflict in Cameroon
from escalating further, with unspeakable suffering as a consequence.
Ayaba’s
family is unfamiliar with war and suffering. His father was one of the
600,000 African soldiers who fought for Britain against the Axis during
World War II.
– My father fought for Europe’s freedom. He received
three medals and a broken back. He died already when I was 11 years
old, and his mother received a hundred dollars in pension for his
efforts during the war, says Ayaba.
He now hopes that the United
Kingdom and other Western countries will be on the path to put pressure
on the Cameroonian government, and most preferably to recognize the
independence of Amazon.
Earlier this year, the United States cut $
17 million in military support for Cameroon’s fight against the
Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram on suspicion that the funds may have
been used to commit human rights violations against the
English-speaking population. Ayaba interprets it as a sign that
Americans are sympathetic to their cause.
– There have been
hearings about Cameroon in the US Congress, and now much is being
discussed in the UK. The situation in Cameroon is also being discussed
in the EU. The world has begun to see what is happening, he believes.
Ayaba wants his children, born and raised in Norway, to be able to travel to an independent and free Ambazonia.
– I’m not going to push them to go back to Ambazonia – but I want them someday to have the opportunity.
Par bareta.news
