DEPARTMENT OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AMBAZONIA GOVERNING COUNCIL
AGovC/DSFA/0112/2021/UNSG January 12, 2021
 
To: H.E. Mr. António Guterres
Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters
New York, New York 10017.

The Ambazonia Governing Council, the vanguard organization leading the  Ambazonian people’s right to external self-determination is once more calling  on your esteem self and office to act while there is time to do so. 

On Sunday,  10.01.2021, we noted another massacre of our people, the people of the  former British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), perpetrated by the terrorist  forces of La Republique du Cameroun (LRC). Over 10 civilians were  massacred, including mothers, babies, young girls, and boys, who were  brutally shot at point-blank range in an unprovoked attack in the village of  Mautu in Muyuka, in the Southern State of Fako. This is just one more  massacre, following a series of previous massacres. 

Unfortunately, and in the  eyes of humanity, this one is just preceding many more that are yet to  happen. We have seen them happening in quick successions and have  documented how systematic they are in their nature. The counts are limitless and will continue to be if the world maintains its silence over these genocidal actions of the occupier, La Republique du Cameroun (LRC), on Ambazonians.

In September 1999, while presenting his annual report to the UN General  Assembly, Kofi Annan your predecessor reflected upon “the prospects for  human security and intervention in the next century” and challenged the  Member States to “find common ground in upholding the principles of the  Charter, and acting in defense of common humanity”. He repeated the  challenge in his 2000 Millennium Report, saying that: “if humanitarian  intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should  we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica, to the gross and systematic violation  of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?” 

More than 20 years since this reflection from Mr. Annan, the Ambazonian  people are facing an ongoing genocide that is being ignored by the international community and the United Nations. This inaction is despite the recommendations of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) of 2001 led by the Canadian Government which issued  the report on the Responsibility to Protect. At the 2005 high-level UN World Summit meeting, Member States finally committed to the principle of the responsibility to protect by including it into the outcome document of that meeting (A/RES/60/1). Though the concept adopted omitted some of the  aspects proposed initially by the ICISS, it retains its fundamental aspects in relation to the prevention of and response to the most serious violations of  international human rights and humanitarian law. Paragraphs 138 and 139 stands out as the basis for protection and intervention. As the occupying power in Ambazonia, Cameroun has failed to live up to its commitment to paragraph 138 of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect. 

Paragraph 138. “Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. This responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including their incitement, through appropriate and necessary means. We accept that responsibility and will act in accordance with it. The international community should as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and support the United Nations in establishing an early warning capability.”

The Ambazonia Governing Council is therefore calling on the United Nations to invoke the R2P based on paragraph 139 which states:“The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the  Charter, to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In this context, we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case-by-case basis and in cooperation with relevant regional organizations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. We stress the need for the General Assembly to continue consideration of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity and its implications, bearing in mind the principles 
of the Charter and international law. We also intend to commit ourselves, as necessary and appropriate, to helping States build capacity to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and to assisting those which are under stress before crises and conflicts break out.”

We noted with disappointment, the December 1, 2020, UNOCA ReportS/2020/1154, submitted by the Secretary-General to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the conflict situation between Cameroun and Ambazonia. 

We also noted with utter dismay, the very controversial statistics on the humanitarian developments in Ambazonia as presented in sections 30, 31, and 32 of the report, and the contrast of it in the assertions of the United Kingdom representative, Dame Barbara Woodward, in the UN Security Council briefing of 9 December.

We have denounced the UN’s effort to continuously applaud the government of Cameroun for its implementation of the alleged National Dialogue resolutions, and its refusal to accept us as Ambazonians and/or address us as the people we have chosen to be. We equally have denounced, in very strong terms, the idea of the Reconstruction Project of the UNDP on our territory, given them our earnest proposals of the right course of actions that should preoccupy every attempt towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict between LRC and Ambazonia. 

Judging from repeated calls for an all-inclusive political dialogue as a solution to the conflict, including in the Security Council’s Press Release - SC/14377 of 9 DECEMBER 2020, we get the impression that the UN is not interested in the deplorable humanitarian situation in Ambazonia. Therefore, we stress  that its complacency is fundamental of all reasons why LRC continues unabated, with its barbarism on our people; the burning down of homes and villages, and the indiscriminate and targeted killings, especially of our younger population. 

While the humanitarian situation in Ambazonia remains dire, and our call for an internationally mediated peace process to end the conflict sacrosanct, we reiterate, amongst others, the following:

1. That LRC is engaged in a systematic campaign of targeted violence and killings against Ambazonians.

2. That Genocide Watch recognizes the alarming genocidal situation in Ambazonia as Stage 9: Extermination and Stage 10: Denial.

3. The invocation of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) the people of Ambazonia from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.

4. Given that LRC on December 8, 2020, unilaterally suspended the activities of Doctors Without Borders in the Northern Zone (Bamenda region) of Ambazonia, we demand that it be pressured to comply with humanitarian assistance services by allowing for the inflow of necessary medical supplies, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an essential aid for Ambazonians suffering as a result of the continued  violence and destruction of critical infrastructure as indicated in section 32, and corroborated by declarations in sections 41 and 86 of December 1, 2020, UNOCA Report- S/2020/1154.

The Ambazonia Governing Council, therefore, reiterates its position of being ready for a multilaterally led and internationally facilitated negotiation process of the current conflict between Cameroun and Ambazonia. Such negotiations should take place in a neutral venue mediated by a credible international institution with guarantees for the implementation of the outcome. 

Until such time when the international community takes up the responsibility to protect the Ambazonian people, we shall continue to resist the occupation, arm our 
people, and maximise for them, the opportunity to defend themselves until complete and unconditional freedom is achieved.
 
Dr. Larry AYAMBA
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Ambazonia Governing Council