REBUTTAL TO BORIS BERTOLT’S OPEN LETTER TO AMBAZONIAN FIGHTERS
By an Ambazonian Historian and Public Affairs Analyst
Dear Compatriots,
Once again, we are confronted with the seductive voice of assimilation masquerading as solidarity. Boris Bertolt’s impassioned “Lettre Ouverte aux Combattants Ambazoniens” is not merely a call for peace—it is a dangerous attempt to hijack the legitimate cause of a colonised people and redirect it toward the sinking ship of La République du Cameroun (LRC). His argument, though draped in empathy, is rooted in denial, distortion, and ultimately, the erasure of our distinct identity and struggle.
Let us be clear: the Ambazonian war of liberation is not about removing Paul Biya. It is about undoing over six decades of colonial domination by a foreign state whose constitution, flag, legal system, and national identity are all foreign to us. Bertolt wants Ambazonian fighters to “calm the fire” and “give peace a chance” by allowing elections in Ambazonia. But elections in where, exactly?
- Ambazonia Is Not Part of Cameroon
Boris Bertolt glosses over the foundational truth that Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) was never legally annexed by La République du Cameroun. There was no treaty of union, no Act of Parliament, and no constitutional arrangement that ratified the 1961 plebiscite. International law and historical records affirm that Southern Cameroons was a UN Trust Territory distinct from Cameroun, which gained independence in 1960.
When he urges fighters to allow elections in “your regions,” Bertolt tacitly accepts the colonial fiction that the North West and South West are mere provinces of Cameroon. This is unacceptable.
- This Is Not a Protest, It Is a War of Independence
Boris says “your combat part d’une souffrance réelle et d’une cause légitime.” Yet, he immediately reframes that cause as a protest against Biya, rather than a liberation war against foreign occupation. This is no accident. It is the classical French tactic of absorbing colonised peoples into a broader “national revolution” that was never theirs to begin with.
We do not seek a “truce” to participate in Cameroonian elections. We seek total and irreversible disengagement from a union that was never legally consummated.
- Elections Have Always Been a Tool of Subjugation
Boris asks our fighters to allow the opposition to campaign freely, claiming this will weaken Biya. But what historical evidence supports that? From 1992 to 2018, every Cameroonian election has been rigged, fraudulent, and violently repressive. What has changed? Nothing—except that today, France wants to install a transition government using men like Dion Ngute to further pacify and fragment the Ambazonian spirit.
Is it by voting in colonial elections that the ANC dismantled apartheid South Africa? Did Algeria vote for independence from France? History teaches us that colonised peoples do not liberate themselves through the ballot boxes of their colonisers.
- This “Fraternal” Plea Is Strategic Sabotage
Bertolt accuses Ambazonian fighters of inadvertently helping Biya by blocking opposition campaigns. But this is pure projection. It is not the fighters who are strengthening Biya—it is those like Boris Bertolt who ask us to legitimise La République’s presence in our land by participating in its rituals of statehood: elections, registration, rallies, and campaigns.
Even more insulting is the suggestion that we can “take back our arms” after the elections. This is not a tap to be turned on and off at the whims of foreign pundits in Paris. Resistance, once compromised, is hard to recover. That is why we say: No elections. Not now. Not ever.
- There Can Be No Peace Without Justice
Boris speaks of peace, of letting people vote “against Biya.” But where was Boris when over 5,000 Ambazonians were slaughtered? When villages were burned? When Atanga Nji labelled his own people “terrorists” at the African Commission? When France flew war helicopters over Batibo? When colonial soldiers dragged women naked through the streets?
Do not tell a people being murdered to pause their resistance so you can pretend the system is fixable. We have already tried integration, federation, decentralisation, dialogue. We have only ever been met with blood, fire, and betrayal.
FINAL WORD TO OUR FIGHTERS
Dear brave souls in the forests of Bui, Fako, Momo, and Manyu:
Do not be seduced by intellectual sweet-talkers who speak of “national unity” while denying your national identity. Do not trade your rifle for a ballot paper issued by the very state that burned your village. Your resistance has shaken the foundations of colonialism. Do not let Biya steal even your pain.
Ambazonia is not a region. It is a nation.
Our struggle is not for change within Cameroon. It is for complete liberation from Cameroon.
No elections. No compromise. No retreat.
History is on our side.
God is our witness.
Victory is our destination.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same… I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” — Ezekiel 21:26–27
Long live Ambazonia.
No to elections in La République du Cameroun.
Total liberation or nothing.
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