April 2025
SOUTHERN CAMEROONS (AMBAZONIA) STUDENTS CAUCUS
To: Professor Maurice Kamto
President of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC)
La République du Cameroun
Subject: SIXTEEN REASONS WHY WE SHALL NOT REGISTER NOR VOTE IN THE 2025 ELECTIONS AS YOU REQUESTED
Dear Professor Kamto,
We, the members of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) Students Caucus, write to you in direct response to your address dated 18 April 2024, wherein you urged the people of the North West and South West regions, which we rightfully identify as the Southern Cameroons, to register with ELECAM and participate in the 2025 elections of La République du Cameroun.
Out of respect for your academic credentials and professional pedigree, we offer herein a detailed and historically substantiated exposition rejecting your appeal in its entirety. We categorically state that we shall not register, nor shall we vote in your elections. This decision is rooted in historical truth, international law, and the gross violation of treaties and UN resolutions to which La République du Cameroun is signatory.
We note with great irony that on 8 July 2024, you, Professor Kamto, delivered the inaugural lecture at the 93rd Public International Law Summer Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law, held at the University of Montreal. There, before an audience of over 300 legal scholars and jurists from more than 90 countries, you lectured on the principle of “International Law and Uncompleted Decolonisation”. You eloquently expounded on the inviolability of post-independence boundaries, the Latin maxim uti possidetis juris, and the critical role of independence dates in international legal identity.
In full accordance with your declarations at that forum, we draw the following conclusions and reasons for our refusal to legitimise the colonial entrapment of our people:
La République du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons have separate and distinct dates of independence: 1 January 1960 and 1 October 1961, respectively. They were granted by two separate UN Resolutions: 1349 (XIII) and 1608 (XV).
The 11 February 1961 plebiscite was not an act of annexation or assimilation. It was conditioned upon a joint agreement among the parties involved, which never occurred. No binding union treaty exists.
Southern Cameroons was not included in La République du Cameroun’s admission to the United Nations on 20 September 1960. Therefore, any claim of territorial inclusion is baseless in international law.
Article 102(1) of the UN Charter requires a duly signed treaty for any modification of national boundaries. No such treaty has ever been signed or deposited.
You have repeatedly misrepresented historical facts to Francophones, distorting the implications of the plebiscite and the federation, which dissolved in 1972 through a fraudulent referendum.
France, your colonial patron, has explicitly obstructed democratic outcomes in La République du Cameroun. In 1992, when John Fru Ndi won the presidency, France intervened to deny him the office due to his Anglophone heritage.
The dissolution of the federation in 1972 by Ahidjo, under French direction, violated Article 47 of the federal constitution and principles of international law.
The fallacy of “German Kamerun” is a colonial relic. All former German territories were redistributed through mandate and trusteeship arrangements following the Treaty of Versailles. The UN oversaw their transition to independence.
The mantra of “one and indivisible” is not only false but historically and legally indefensible. The phrase was never ratified as agreed and was imposed dishonestly.
The 1984 change of the country’s name by President Paul Biya to “La République du Cameroun” effectively revived the post-independence identity of East Cameroon, thereby nullifying any pretence of union with Southern Cameroons.
The misuse of terms like “unification” and “re-unification” has been a strategic attempt to falsify the historical record and confuse future generations.
The assertion of two referenda is misleading. The Southern Cameroons had only one plebiscite, and it was never a vote to join La République du Cameroun as a province.
There is no legal instrument binding Southern Cameroons to La République du Cameroun. If such exists, we challenge you to publish it.
What La République du Cameroun is doing to Southern Cameroons is an act of colonialism, which is universally recognised as a crime against humanity. International scholars and institutions have condemned it as such.
The war being waged against Southern Cameroonians has resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 civilians. The destruction of communities, schools, and churches under the guise of national unity must be denounced.
Voting in your elections would legitimise our continued colonisation and undermine our lawful quest for self-determination and liberation.
In light of the above, and consistent with the very principles you espoused before The Hague Academy, we restate that the Southern Cameroons is a distinct political and legal entity. Our non-participation in your elections is not a boycott; it is an affirmation of our sovereignty and our commitment to international law.
We urge you and all scholars of conscience to abandon the false narrative and support the only path to justice: the full decolonisation of the Southern Cameroons.
Please Check, https://ambazoniagenocidelibrary.com
SOUTHERN CAMEROONS (AMBAZONIA) STUDENTS CAUCUS
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