A short history lesson for those on my TL wondering what ‘Ambazonia’ is.

The Cameroon restoration movement, also referred to as secessionist movement started quite soon after British Southern Cameroons voted in Feb 1961 to join La Republique du Cameroon which was already independent.

British Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria. The split became official on October 1 1961.
Both Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons joined their respective countries as federations.

So when British Southern Cameroons and La République du Cameroun (LRC) joined together to create The Federal Republic of Cameroun.

The Restoration movement contends that this was unlawful. They petitioned the UN to state that Northern and Southern Cameroons were only given the option to choose Nigeria or LRC whereas they ought to have been given choice of independence as their own country.

Many in Southern Cameroons felt that this was the best of two evils. And wanted to reunite with their brethren who spoke French. In fact there were strong ties between the nationalists in LRC and Southern Cameroons.

Many of the leaders from UPC, which fought for independence in LRC sought refuge in Southern Cameroons when pursued by French colonial forces.

In any case, there was always quite a culture shock between former Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun. You can well imagine if France and UK became one country and a Frenchman was the President.

In 1972, the government wanted to centralize power and held a country wide referendum to disband the federation and become a unitary government. The Federal Republic of Cameroun became The United Republic of Cameroon.

This was within the context of continued fighting between the UPC nationalists (then called terrorists) and the Yaounde based government.

After 1972, many of the institutions in former Southern Cameroons were disbanded or moved to the Central government. Remaining were the legal system which follows Common Law and the educational system which is the GCE system.

These changes further emboldened those who wanted to achieve full independence in 1961 instead of joining LRC or Nigeria. Also those who had favored joining Nigeria.

One of the leaders of that movement was Chief Gorji Dinka. He led delegations to the UN asking for a vote on the issue. In the 1980s Gorji Dinka declared former Southern Cameroons independent and called this country Ambazonia.

He took the name from Ambas Bay which is located in the SW of Cameroon.

Few people followed Gorji Dinka and he was an outlier. Considered an extremist even by most former Southern Cameroonians.

While there has always been a movement to restore the rights of Southern Cameroonians, those calling for independence were marginal.

This until recent. The current movement came from peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers who were arrested and branded terrorists. The brutal repression of this movement radicalized many in former Southern Cameroons.

With the pacific leaders in jail, more radical leaders, mostly living outside of Cameroon began gaining more followers and garnering more attention. The population on the ground also radicalized.

Former Southern Cameroons (split into two administrative regions of SW and NW) was heavily militarized and there were many exactions carried out by military or paramilitary forces brought in from former LRC.

This led to the ‘defense forces’ operating in former Southern Cameroons that have attacked military and recently, an election official.

The loss of life within its ranks has caused military to retaliate against the population in order to force them to turn in members of the ‘defense forces.’ Villages burnt to the ground, killing, arrests.

According to NGOs about 45,000 have fled the conflict areas to take refuge in neighboring Nigeria.

Recently, Nigerian officials have accused Cameroon of sending its forces into Nigeria into refugee areas.

Jan 5 the ‘President of Ambazonia’ and other movement leaders living in Nigeria were taken. Details are murky but LRC govt states that they were extradited to Cameroon and they are in good health.

However no family member or lawyers or UN have seen them and rumors are that they were executed. Family has asked for proof of life.

Amongst those detained are @sisiku_ayuktabe a computer Engineer, @fnche also a software engineer, Professor Awasum, who is apparently a US Citizen.

Although it is reported that 10 were taken from the Nera Hotel in Abuja, the Cameroon govt has reported that 47 were extradited. Their fate at this moment is unknown.