English-speaking separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe, imprisoned in Yaounde, described as "non-event" the recent speech by President Paul Biya on the convening of a "major national dialogue" to resolve the Anglophone crisis "
The speech (Cameroonian President "was a non-event," Ayuk Tabe reacted in a note sent to AFP by one of his lawyers!!
Ayuk Tabe, 54, who had proclaimed himself in 2017 "president" of "Ambazonia ", the state that the separatists want to found, was sentenced in late August to life with nine of its supporters by a military court in Yaounde.
In his note, Ayuk Tabe regrets that President Biya calls for a dialogue with the diaspora without defining the "legal modalities" that would allow the return to Cameroon of refugees or asylum seekers who fled the country because of "persecutions" of the country. regime of Yaoundé.
For the separatist leader, the exit of Mr. Biya is an "awkward attempt" to avoid UN sanctions.
He also criticizes the Cameroonian leader for wanting to mislead the international community by making him believe that the first cause of the malaise expressed by the English speakers is their marginalization.
For him, Anglophones are fighting for the restoration of their sovereignty in their region of origin where separatists want to create an independent state. "The Anglophone crisis is not an internal problem in Cameroon, it is an international problem".
Ayuk calls on President Biya to put an end to the war he declares "unilaterally" in the English-speaking regions.
For more than a year, Yaoundé has deployed in these areas soldiers who face armed groups of separatists. Abuses on both sides and fighting have left more than 2,000 dead since the end of 2017, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), and forced more than 530,000 people to flee their homes, according to the UN
Source: AFP