| Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium | |
|---|---|
 Logo of CACSC | |
| Leader | Felix Agbor Balla [1] |
| Ideology | Federalism Anglophone interests |
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) is an Anglophone Cameroonian federalist movement. [2]
| Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium | |
|---|---|
| Logo of CACSC | |
| Leader | Felix Agbor Balla [1] |
| Ideology | Federalism Anglophone interests |
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) is an Anglophone Cameroonian federalist movement. [2]
CACSC consisted of lawyers and teacher trade unions in Southern Cameroons. They opposed what they saw as threats against the language and common law system in the Anglophone regions, particularly the use of French in schools and courtrooms. On October 6, 2016, the organization started a sit-down strike, which was supported by peaceful protests in cities such as Limbe, Buea and Bamenda. This initiated the 2016–2017 Cameroonian protests. [2] The government responded violently; within a week, more than 100 demonstrators and activists had been arrested, and six were reported dead. [3]
In January 2017, the Cameroonian government created a committee to enter a dialogue with members of the CACSC led by Tassang Tilfred. At the first meeting, the CACSC refused to talk until the government released all activists who had been arrested. This was followed by more arrests, drawing condemnation from Consortium members. CACSC presented a draft proposal for a federal state, with autonomy for the Anglophone regions. As a response, on January 17, CACSC and the Southern Cameroons National Council were branded as threats to the unity of Cameroon and banned through a ministerial decree signed by minister René Sadi. A few days later, CACSC leaders Agbor Balla and Fontem Neba were arrested. [4] [5]
In the end, members of CACSC spent months in detention, while others fled the country and came to support complete separation of the Anglophone regions from Cameroon. With the outbreak of the war known as the Anglophone Crisis in September 2017, federalism lost support among Anglophone activists. In May 2019, the Cameroonian government announced it was ready to discuss federalism. [6]
Ambazonia, officially the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, also referred to as Amba Land, is a self-declared state in West Africa constituting the Northwest Region and Southwest Region of Cameroon, part of the country historically known as the Southern Cameroons. No country has formally recognized Ambazonia's independence, and it is currently the site of an armed conflict between Ambazonian separatists and the Cameroonian military known as the Anglophone Crisis. Ambazonia is located in the west of Cameroon and southeast of Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea.
Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British mandate territory of British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Region and Southwest Region. Since 1994, pressure groups in the territory claim there was no legal Document in accordance to UNGA RES 1608(XV) paragraph 5, and are seeking to restore statehood and independence from the Republic of Cameroon. They renamed British Southern Cameroons as Ambazonia.
Anglophone Cameroonians are the people of various cultural backgrounds, most of who hail from the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. These regions were formerly known as British Southern Cameroons, being part of the League of Nations mandate and United Nations Trust Territories. An anglophone Cameroonian is widely regarded as anyone who has lived in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, undertaken Anglosaxon education and practices the Anglo-Saxon system of education and law.
The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is a political organisation seeking the independence of the anglophone Southern Cameroons from the predominantly francophone Republic of Cameroon. It is a non-violent organisation with the motto "The force of argument, not the argument of force." Because the SCNC advocates separation from Cameroon, it has been declared an illegal organisation by the government of Paul Biya. Security forces regularly interrupt SCNC meetings, arresting members and typically detaining them for several days before release.
The Anglophone problem, as it is commonly referred to in Cameroon, is a socio-political issue rooted in Cameroon's colonial legacies from the Germans, British, and the French.
Ayaba Cho Lucas is an Ambazonian activist. He is the former Secretary General of the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) and is the current leader of Ambazonia Governing Council, a separatist organization in Southern Cameroons.
Ayaba was expelled from the University of Buea in 1993 because he had led a one-man demonstration against tuition increases; he has been in exile from Cameroon since then. He eventually ended up in Norway, where he studied human rights and development at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and from where he has based his activism ever since. In January 2017, Ayaba was allegedly targeted for assassination in Brussels, Belgium.
Agbor Nkongho aka Balla is an Anglophone Cameroonian human rights lawyer who is the president of the Fako Lawyers Association, vice president of the African Bar Association in charge of Central Africa, founder and chairman of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and founder of Agbor Nkongho Law Firm an activist and freedom fighter who was arrested on 17 January 2017. Agbor Nkongho was born on August 23, 1970. He is a leading member of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) which has been banned and its activities declared illegal in Cameroon.
Dr Fontem A. Neba is a Cameroonian University lecturer, author and an civil rights activist who emerged on the Cameroon political stage as the founding Secretary General of Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium before it was banned by the government of Cameroon on January 17, 2017. He was arrested on the same day alongside Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor and deported to Yaoundé overnight where they would both spend nine perilous months in the Kondengui Maximum security prison. Before becoming Secretary General of the banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), he was the Secretary General of teachers’ trade union of the University of Buea (SYNES) before his arrest on 17 January 2017 for staging a peaceful protest in the defence of Anglophone Cameroon common law system of education. He is the author of English Language Mastery and Academic Success which was launched on June 18, 2015.
The 2016–2017 Cameroonian protests were a series of protests that occurred following the appointment of Francophone judges in English-speaking areas of the Republic of Cameroon. In October 2016, protests began in two primarily English-speaking regions: the Northwest Region and the Southwest Region.
Bandy Kiki is a Cameroonian blogger, LGBT activist and a serial entrepreneur based in the U.K. She is the creator of Kinnaka's Blog, a high traffic English-speaking website in Cameroon for news and entertainment. She is a controversial figure due to her political views and LGBT activism, and has been called "The Most Hated Anglophone On Social Media in Cameroon."
The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonia War, or the Cameroonian Civil War, is a conflict in the Southern Cameroons regions of Cameroon, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of 2016–17 Cameroonian protests, Ambazonian separatists in the Anglophone territories of Northwest Region and Southwest Region launched a guerilla campaign against Cameroonian security forces, and later unilaterally proclaimed the restoration of independence. In November 2017, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.
Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is an Ambazonian separatist leader, and the first president of the unrecognized Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2017.
This is a timeline of the Anglophone Crisis during 2019.
From 2018, the Anglophone Crisis drew increasing international attention, and became a challenge to Cameroon's foreign relations. Triggered by a violent crackdown on the 2016–2017 Cameroonian protests, the conflict escalated from a low-scale insurgency to a civil war-like situation. While Cameroon enjoys support from African countries, no country has openly supported the Ambazonian independence movements. However, many countries have put pressure on Cameroon to talk to the separatists. In addition, the separatists enjoy support from officers in the Nigerian Army, who have helped arrange arms deals for them.
The Interim Government of Ambazonia is the provisional government in exile of the internationally unrecognized Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
The Ambazonia Governing Council (AGovC) is the main Liberation movement within the Ambazonia Liberation cause. The Ambazonia Governing Council commonly referred to as AGovC is the vanguard organisation that has been fighting for the total liberation of Ambazonia since 2013 when it was founded.
Dr. Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga is an Ambazonian independence activist. He is the chairman of the African People's Liberation Movement, an Ambazonian separatist movement, and heads its armed wing, SOCADEF. A former student at the University of Buea, he and fellow activist Ayaba Cho Lucas founded a pro-independence student association. Their movement was soon outlawed, and in 1997, Akwanga was imprisoned for six years. Following his escape from prison, he joined forces with the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC). When the SCNC split into several factions, he became the leader of the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL). The SCYL eventually transformed into the African People's Liberation Movement (APLM). In March 2019, he oversaw the APLM taking part in founding the Southern Cameroons Liberation Council, in an attempt to form a united front. Akwanga is also an advocate of the Biafran case, and has spoken in favor of an alliance between Ambazonian and Biafran independence movements. He has called for referendums on independence in both Southern Cameroons and Biafra.
The Major National Dialogue is the official name of a dialogue between the Government of Cameroon and various opposition parties, aimed at resolving the Anglophone Crisis. The event took place between September 30 and October 4, 2019.
Thomas Awah is an activist and journalist from Cameroon born in 1969. Awah was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on charges of terrorism, spreading false news, hostility to the fatherland, secession, insurrection and revolution.
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