This month, Ambazonians celebrate the proclamation of the restoration of our independence on October 1, 2017, as well as the four year anniversary of the mass nonviolent lawyer-led uprising in October 2016 which sparked the people’s will toward this. Given the importance of these anniversaries for the Ambazonian people, APOCS would like to comment on the significance of the October 1, 2017 proclamation.
Please join the campaign to support our political prisoners' demand for Justice for Black Lives in Ambazonia! The campaign linked here will directly contact all 535 of US Congress, and decisionmakers in a half dozen other countries:
To add your voice, click on the link above, then enter your address and click the red “Start Writing” button. Then you will see the contacts specific to your location in the right-hand column. You can use the default letter, which appears automatically, or you can personalize it or write your own.
In July 2019, APOCS Network joined War Resisters' International as an affiliate member. Today, WRI is featuring our work in honor of "Prisoners for Peace Day," which takes place every year on December 1. For over sixty years on this day, WRI has been sharing stories and contacts details of conscientious objectors and activists for peace. Read Call for support for Ambazonian prisoners of conscience on Prisoners for Peace Day
January 5, 2020 will mark the two-year anniversary of the illegal arrest and imprisonment of Sisiku AyukTabe Julius, known for his nonviolent leadership of the movement for the rights of the people of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons), and 9 of his senior aides. They remain imprisoned in Cameroon despite a March 2019 Nigerian court ruling that they should be immediately released. .
Eight human rights defenders and leaders of the Cameroon Association for the Defense of Students’ Rights in Cameroon (Association pour la Défense des Droits des Etudiants au Cameroun - ADDEC) continue to languish in jail following their arrest in May 2019. A military court later charged them with with rebellion, complicity in subversion, failure to report, using a false title, and dissemination of false news.
Below is the Front Line Defenders statement on the case from June 2019:
Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD], has introduced a bill into the US Senate which addresses the conflict between Ambazonia and Cameroon. In our opinion, this bill has the strongest potential of passing and becoming law. It has many positive aspects, including a clear call to the government of Cameroon to “release human rights defenders, civil society activists, political prisoners, journalists, trade unionists, teachers, faith leaders and any other citizens who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial or charge;...”
Imprisoned leaders have ended a hunger strike after 10 days, having achieved most of the demands set forth. Imprisoned leaders maintain that all brothers who have been whisked away to other jails must be immediately returned, and that all illegally detained Ambazonian prisoners must be released. Solidarity is needed from the international community to attend to the urgent health needs and prevent further injury of the prisoners.
On 22 July 2019, the French neocolonial regime in Cameroon pre-meditatively and viciously attacked prisoners of conscience who are being illegally held at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison, killing four and injuring several others. The attack followed the initiation of a coordinated protest by prisoners to highlight the needs of schoolchildren in the war-torn region.
Rep. Karen Bass, the chair of the Black Congressional Caucus in the United States, has introduced a bill into the US House of Representatives which addresses the conflict between Ambazonia and Cameroon. In our opinion, this bill has the strongest potential of passing and becoming law as any bill introduced so far. It has many positive aspects, including a clear call to the government of Cameroon to “release human rights defenders, civil society activists, political prisoners, journalists, trade unionists, teachers, and any other citizens who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial or charge.” APOCS applauds this language, and unites with Karen Bass to achieve this goal. However, the bill also has some serious shortcomings and outright misrepresentations of the Ambazonian struggle. Therefore, we are calling on all US-based Ambazonians and allies to call on your Congressional Representative to FIX AND PASS H.RES. 358!!!
52 years ago today, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave perhaps his most famous speech ever, declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War and the system of militarism from which it emanated. In explaining why he had to take this stance, King talked about his experience interacting with young Black men arming themselves in self defense in the inner cities of the United States. He explained:
