“No Safe Haven: Ambazonian Refugees and Families Targeted in Nigeria”

Almost nine years into the war of extermination against the people of Ambazonia (Anglophone Cameroon), Nigeria continues to turn a blind eye as French Cameroun soldiers brazenly cross its borders to violate international law by hunting down refugees who fled the barbaric regime of 92-year-old dictator Paul Biya. Instead of enjoying the protection they are entitled to, Ambazonian refugees in camps across Nigeria are terrorized by plainclothes French Cameroun soldiers, often operating with the complicity of corrupt Nigerian security officials

One of the victims, Jam Divine—recognized as a legitimate refugee in Nigeria—has been forced to flee from town to town simply to stay alive. Divine escaped Cameroon s year before the 2023 assassination of General RK, his childhood friend. After seizing the fallen general’s phone, French Cameroun forces reportedly began tracking and persecuting anyone linked to its contacts. In Nigeria, Divine’s supposed place of refuge, plainclothes soldiers stormed his shelter in an attempt to silence him forever. He stresses that he has never been a fighter, yet his life is in constant danger simply for being an Ambazonian whom like others simply want to be treated as equal Cameroonian citizen.

Divine’s ordeal is far from unique. Since the illegal abduction and repatriation of the Ambazonian leaders led by Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in January 2018 (the “Nera 10”), the Biya regime has pursued war and repression over dialogue. It has defied repeated international calls for an inclusive political solution, preferring instead to massacre its own citizens. The toll has been catastrophic: more than 53,000 lives lost, over 200,000 refugees scattered across Nigeria and other African nations, and close to 800 villages reduced to ashes by French Cameroun soldiers. Just this year alone, mor than 430 innocent English-speaking Cameroonians have been killed by the French Cameroun barbaric solders

The world cannot continue to look away. Every raid, every burning village, and every refugee forced to run for safety yet again is proof of a deliberate campaign of extermination. Silence and inaction by regional powers like Nigeria and global actors only embolden the regime in Yaoundé to continue its crimes against humanity.

Genesis of the Refugee Crisis in Nigeria

The leader of French-Cameroun, Paul Biya, declares war on British Southern Cameroonians, calling them terrorists, secessionists and promises to eliminate them in 2017. He also offers condolences to some French Cameroun soldiers killed in the peaceful uprising despite thousands of British Southern Cameroonians killed by his soldiers; a clear indication that British Cameroonians are sub-humans, thus good for extinction. His appointed authorities in British Cameroon also forced villagers to leave or be eliminated. The communique below attest to it. Many who could not relocate were killed.