An Ambazonian in
exile writes to the editor of the Independentist news.
(Name withheld by request)
BY INDEPENDENTIST NEWS l.
Letter to the Editor
The Independentist news
June 2025
Subject: The Commonwealth’s Complicity in the Ambazonian Tragedy
Dear Editor,
As the genocide in Ambazonia deepens, the silence from the Commonwealth—and more pointedly, the United Kingdom—speaks louder than words. It is not the silence of diplomacy. It is the silence of guilt.
Since 2017, over a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced, thousands killed, and entire villages burned. Schools have been militarized, children traumatized, and clergy silenced. Yet the Commonwealth, built on the ideals of democracy and human rights, remains mute. No sanctions. No investigations. No justice.
But this silence is no accident. It is rooted in betrayal.
In 1984, the UK accepted £1 million from Paul Biya’s regime to wash its hands of the British Southern Cameroons. This deal ended not only economic investment in the CDC but also political responsibility. That was the day Britain sold its trust territory, and France picked up the dagger.
During President François Mitterrand’s state visit to Cameroon, he reportedly told Biya, “No Anglophone should ever be president.” He went further: any Anglophone uprising must be crushed militarily. And it was, with full knowledge that Britain had already collected her silver coins.
After the contested 1992 presidential elections, France prepared for war. A French frigate was stationed in the Port of Douala with orders to fire missiles at Bamenda, anticipating mass protests. It was only thanks to the Americans—who released satellite images of the frigate to The Cameroon Post—that the plan was exposed. Editor Paddy Mbawa, who published the images, was arrested and detained. The embarrassment forced France and Biya to stand down.
The plan to wipe out Ambazonians has long existed, and London knew. But so long as cheap CDC bananas flowed to British markets below fair value, morality was irrelevant. Genocide was simply good business.
Britain’s betrayal didn’t stop at silence. It backed the so-called Center for Negotiation and Dialogue (CND), stacked with British-trained operatives tasked not with reconciliation but with neutralizing the independence movement. It continued military training for Cameroon’s elite forces, despite credible reports of war crimes. Meanwhile, clergy like Archbishop Andrew Nkea and Bishop Michael Bibi seem more focused on favour with Yaoundé than on standing with their persecuted flocks.
Even Queen Elizabeth II, before her death, acknowledged President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s plea for help. But she did nothing. Not even a word of symbolic concern.
And now, British officials travel the region, speaking Lamnso and Bafut, charming the people with dialects they once ignored, while quietly supporting a system that aims to erase those very communities. When next you see a white man fluently speaking your dialect, ask not what he understands—ask what he’s hiding.
Soon, we too may say: “The British are coming”—and not for good.
If the Commonwealth has any remaining moral authority, it must act:
Launch an independent inquiry into the Cameroon conflict
Suspend all military and intelligence support to Biya’s regime
Review Cameroon’s standing in the Commonwealth
Publicly acknowledge Britain’s betrayal of its former trust territory
Anything less will only confirm what many of us now know to be true: that the Commonwealth is not a shield for justice but a cloak for old imperial loyalties.
My very heartfelt thanks to The Independentist for having the courage to investigate and to publish such truth behind the Commonwealth’s betrayal of Ambazonia. In a world clouded by hypocrisy and silence, your voice has brought clarity and moral courage.
Sincerely,
An Ambazonian Living in Exile.
(Name withheld by request)
The Commonwealth’s Complicity in the Ambazonian Tragedy
