Full Address
My Fellow Southern Cameroonians,
This year marks 65 years of continuous subjugation, colonization, oppression, and violent repression from so-called brothers whom the United Nations pronounce as our co-equals in a union of two States of equal status. Many of us, including yours truly, were not born yet. Today also marks the 9th anniversary of a war for the continuation of the colonization 0f the peace-loving people of Southern Cameroons by the Republic of Cameroon. That is what this is all about. Each colonial master in our history handed us over to the next.
Portuguese explorers discovered our beaches, so they said, the British colonized us, then the Germans took us over from the British, then the British took us back from the Germans, and handed us over to the Republic of Cameroon to recolonize us in 1961, our first black colonial master. I wonder: did God create the people of Southern Cameroons to remain eternally as a colonized people?
Addressing the People today, my first words are not to governments or diplomats. They are to my people on the ground, because you have carried, and still bear, the heaviest burden of these years from birth. You have lived with uncertainty in your own communities, through cultural erosion, through molestations, rejection and humiliations, through neglect and abandonment, through cruelty and suffering; not to mention the disruption of livelihoods, displacement from homes, interrupted education, separation of families and the grief of losing people whose lives should not have ended when they did. Self-determination is a god–given right. I don’t know how a group of fellow human beings can think they have the right to go around deciding who should be free and who should not. Our freedom is God-given! Therefore, please accept my greeting: Happy Independence Day.
Your resilience will go down in the annals of African history. You farm. You trade. You teach. You raise our beautiful children. Families with little continue to make room for relatives with less. We have suffered destruction, yet we continue to rebuild our lives and our livelihoods. As parents with every reason to despair, we keep imagining a future for our children. We bury our dead, and somehow we find the courage to face another morning. Listen to me, your hope of freedom shall not be cut off. All hail the Great Spirit of Ambazonia!!
Honoring the Armed Forces
I particularly want to honor those who have accepted to lay down their lives to defend our people, the Ambazonia State Armed Forces. You should never, ever allow anyone to guilt-trip you into thinking you are wrong for what you do. Permit me to paraphrase Winston Churchill here: If you give-in to the aggression and barbarism (of the Republic of Cameroon), there will be no end to the humiliation and losses you will have to suffer.
Genuine Ambazonia State Armed forces are men and women who have sacrificed their safety, education, livelihoods, and families because they believe the survival of their people matters more than their personal lives! They believe the country’s interests are greater than their personal interests. Some of these heroes have paid with their lives. Others carry injuries they may have to live with forever. Their families have also paid a price that we must all remember. They are targeted daily by the occupation forces of the Republic of Cameroon. Many are in prisons, others have disappeared, while some are in hiding for their lives.
But let me promise you on this occasion, we shall raise monuments for them, and richly compensate all who died, not for selfish gain, but as a sacrifice for all who survive. We celebrate all those who use their lives as a shield to defend the rest of us. We hail you for stepping out of the cage of fear, to defend yourselves, our families, our communities, and our constitutional identity. Whatever the mistakes you may have made, I will never blame the reaction of victims that you are, who were not given any other options but to stand their ground!
However, let’s be objective, a weapon alone does not make one a hero. Neither does a uniform or flag.. The genuine Ambazonia State Armed forces of Our Land are known by what or who they defend, and by how they conduct themselves while doing so. It takes selfish love to defend oneself, or one’s family, but it requires selfless love to defend a nation of people you don’t know and who don’t know you. Those amongst you who protect our civilians, respect our rules of engagement, and observe international humanitarian law, deserve our people’s respect and gratitude. A soldier who possesses the power to abuse a civilian and refuses to do so demonstrates discipline. A commander who holds his own men accountable demonstrates leadership.
The fighter who understands that the civilian population is the reason for this struggle, and therefore must never make them the victims, has drawn the line between liberation and organized criminality– a political enterprise and gangsterism. That is the difference between soldiers and “unidentified gunmen.” Act therefore like the proud soldiers of Ambazonia!
Policy on School Opening
Permit me to reiterate our policy for school opening at this juncture. Ours is common sense. We have not changed it since 2020. The Southern Cameroons Government is not responsible for any closed school in Ambazonia today; he who declared this senseless war, he that created the state of insecurity, the bloodthirsty state of Cameroon, is solely responsible. We cannot be seen to enforce a boycott we have not declared, or a strategy that is counter-productive to our self-defense argument.
Addressing International Community and Stakeholders
To the International Stakeholder,
To those Independent human-rights organizations and research institutions that are documenting the grave abuses by Cameroon government forces and some armed separatist fighters, we should never demand one standard of proof when the allegation wears the colors of Cameroon, and another when the presumed perpetrators bear the characteristics of Southern Cameroons fighters. Where responsibility is claimed or established, let us say so. Where something remains an allegation, let us also say so. The tendency to attribute every act committed by actors in civilian attire to Ambazonian forces, without prior investigation, is wrong.
That inadvertently helps the propaganda strategy of the bloodthirsty forces of the Republic of Cameroon. Because today they have multiplied their atrocity crimes by simply taking off their uniforms. Sometimes they organize their vigilantes to commit more of such atrocities and make sure they are recorded; after all, Ambazonian fighters will be automatically blamed for it without investigation, and use that to justify continuing their military option. Not investigating these atrocities helps Cameroon to label its political opponents as criminals. Hence, you hear them say unashamedly, we don’t talk with criminals. Who decides who the criminals really are?
For your information, since April 2019, Cameroon has kept denying entry into the so-called North West and South West Regions, to Human Rights Watch researchers who want to investigate abuses committed by both government forces and some so-called armed separatist forces. Human Rights Watch also reported that even the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights sought permission to investigate abuses in the two regions and was denied access. So, it goes without saying that all their reports on the war since have been based on secondary sources. Little wonder their death toll has stood at 6000 for 5 years instead of 50,000!
In December 2020, Cameroonian authorities suspended Médecins Sans Frontières, as they have done and threatened to do to other Humanitarian organizations in the so called North-West Region, under the cooked-up pretext that these organizations are supporting armed groups—allegations MSF and others consistently denied. This matters because when we report atrocity crimes on our people, the world frequently asks us to produce independent verification of what we report. But when French Cameroonian forces commit crimes in Mufti, those are automatically attributed to Ambazonia forces instead of unidentified elements. In this scenario it is our word against theirs, so the party with the deepest pockets and the loudest speaker wins the media trial.
Evidence matters. Independent verification matters. But what happens when the very organizations capable of independently investigating allegations are banned from reaching communities where the alleged crimes occur? Cameroon cannot openly obstruct the people capable of independently verifying what happening in the Southern Cameroons. But the International Community uses the absence of independent verification to dismiss the reports of those who say atrocities are being committed. The answer to allegations of abuse should therefore be investigation, not darkness, or armchair refutations.
This is a cry of alarm! Let Cameroon open access to all humanitarian actors including investigators. Fact-finding is a humanitarian endeavor. Cameroon should be prosecuted for hindering access to humanitarian activities. Let credible international investigators go into our communities. Let them speak privately with victims. Let them examine graves, burned villages, photographs and videos. Let them investigate Cameroon government forces. Let them investigate our own defenders when the evidence requires it.
I call on the UN and ICC to launch a fact-finding mission in Ambazonia as part of their responsibility to protect the People of Southern Cameroons. And if the world bodies cannot do a thing to enter Ambazonia because Almighty Biya says no, then what is the role of the UN in world peace and security? Our responsibility as Ambazonian leaders is to continue to document what our people report, preserve photographs and videos, identify witnesses, authenticate material where possible, investigate what we can, and preserve credible information to the world through reports and press releases. What we know, we document. Where the evidence is incomplete, add and document. We are thankful to the Universities of Toronto, UCLA, Oxford, and South Africa, who decided to keep some record of the atrocity crimes committed on our people.
On the other hand, shame on the Cameroon State, for maintaining that Southern Cameroonians are their citizens, forgetting that such a claim carries a basic responsibility – how can a government slaughter more than 50,000 of its own people for a political disagreement, while rejecting all forms of genuine dialogue? A real government over its people cannot invoke citizenship by ruthlessly asserting authority over its population and disregard the protection owed to those same people when they challenge that authority. La Republique du Cameroun is twisted in its claims of sovereignty over the Southern Cameroons.
The Bible says, “By their fruits we shall know them.” By the fruits of their barbarism towards us, we know that they are not our brothers. Their actions have spoken the loudest.
Let me reiterate the question of true heroes even on the enemy side. The true heroes on any side are those who sacrifice themselves rather than sacrifice the people they purport to protect.
Fellow Ambazonians,
A CPDM Government agent said recently that he has spoken with Ambazonian leaders in the diaspora and that they are prepared to talk and find a middle ground solution with the Republic of Cameroon, because they are tired. I don’t know the activists or leaders he spoke to. Our position as the government of the Southern Cameroons in exile is, Yes we are ready to talk, not because we are tired and want to take a middle-ground solution. If anyone wants to guess where we, the government, stand in this struggle, don’t ask the diasporans; ask those fighting on the ground. We will never abandon their position on any negotiating table! Leaders who openly profess a different solution from the overwhelming majority of our people have decided to agree with and join the adversary to undermine our struggle.
That is what treachery looks like. No one in the diaspora, including myself, owns the struggle to the point of taking a different position from those who have laid down their lives for it; the people at home own this struggle. Any solution that does not stop the guns is not a solution, it is a set up. We, the government, will only serve as the people’s mouthpiece, not as the deciders of the final resolution. Whatever the solution, those who have paid the prize for freedom must be the ones to have the final say, not any so-called leader. All that we, the Government of Southern Cameroons seek to do is to negotiate terms to enable the sovereign people of Southern Cameroons to freely decide. A driver who determines the destination instead of the passenger is a hijacker. This is the kind of divide-and-rule that hurt the Southern Cameroons in Foumban 1961.
Those Ambazonian leaders who have already decided that we must stay with Cameroon under a Federation, Special Status, or Confederation are more interested in a deal with Cameroon than resolution of this war! They are more dangerous than CPDM zealots. There is an Ambazonian proverb that says, one snake in the house is more dangerous than a thousand in the bush. Shame on anyone who thinks Fighters shall pay with their blood, but others can decide how it ends. Ambazonians, never forget. Beware of leaders who refused to participate in Switzerland’s International Mediation, where only Ambazonian restorationists were present to meet LRC on equal terms. But these leaders did not hesitate to meet secretly with regime envoys in Yaoundé, and they endorsed or even attended the One Cameroon talks in Canada. What made Switzerland bad and Canada better? People of Ambazonia, as the Principal in this conflict, observe what leaders do, not just what we say. This struggle is not some political bazaar.
Addressing the Adversary
My fellow Southern Cameroonians, We are paying great attention to what is happening in Cameroon. Cameroon today faces serious political, economic and security challenges. We take no pleasure in their demise. They deserve what they are getting because they chose it. This war we are fighting is not a war between Ambazonians and Cameroonians. Our problem with the Cameroonian leadership is their refusal to let us go after they rescinded the constitutional arrangement that brought us together; it is left to the people of Cameroon to deal with their leadership vacuum and their absentee-president, whose only concern is dying in power to escape accountability.
Cameroon’s major cities, including Douala and Yaoundé, are loaded with millions of tons of garbage, as a literal sign of decay. Corruption, electricity blackouts, inflation, mounting street insecurity, displacement, and a chronic conflict, impose huge economic and human costs. Even their friends at the IMF have correctly identified ongoing security challenges as risks weighing on the country’s outlook, investor confidence, and future. This should make those supporting Yaoundé to think again. Because while Yaoundé is declining, our critical forces are becoming surgical and stronger every day. Diaspora-led distractions on the political side are on the decline.
Those who branded themselves as parallel governments yesterday, confusing the International Community, now exist in name only. When you hear some ex Ambazonian government officials saying we do not need a government, it is not just a change of vocabulary but a fundamental shift in their core convictions. It is only someone now pursuing a one-Cameroon solution that would insist we do not need two governments on the table. When they were in the government we needed a government, as soon as they left the government we don’t need a government. But none of them resigned from the government because they thought we did not need one. Beware of people who change their stance based on whether they are with you on the table or not. Those are players who prefer you lose the march to our adversary if they don’t feature in the line-up.
Dear Colonial Oppressors,
The Colonial Government of the Republic of Cameroon, There is something tragic about trying to annihilate the people of the so-called Southwest and Northwest Regions, whom you insist are your people. No thinking person shoots and kills his own kindred for professing an ideology. Let me tell you how this will end. It will be like a mother in difficult labor who refuses to give birth because she cannot accept that the child should live separately from her body. She fears separation from her baby. She can refuse to give birth. But she cannot remain in labor indefinitely. Eventually she must put to birth, or she and the child will die.
That is how I see the political tragedy facing Cameroon. Yaoundé maintains that Southern Cameroons must remain within Cameroon. Our position is different. We maintain that the people of Southern Cameroons possess the right to determine and live their own political future. But whatever position one takes on that ultimate political question, after years of bloodshed, one fact should command attention: force has not and will not produce a durable political settlement. There comes a time when the world must stop asking how much more force can be applied to a wound, and begin asking what else could be done to stop the bleeding.
Looking Forward and Call to Action
As the LRC plunges into uncertainty, it is time for Ambazonia to shine our lights brighter; we must communicate clearly and in detail what Ambazonia will do differently. We must demonstrate that our structures can survive any geopolitical shock within the region, and project Ambazonia as a haven of freedom and democracy. When confusion causes Yaoundé to fall out with most of its allies because of greed and internal division, it is time to position ourselves as the institutional alternative. No one goes to war with an unvetted colleague and trusts that he will defend him.
The world is vetting Ambazonia. This must become part of our diplomatic argument. Our diplomatic work must therefore accelerate now. We continue exploring and maintaining institutional relationships, engaging potential partners, presenting our case and seeking international guarantors and facilitators of a Just Peace. Of course, diplomatic progress rarely follows emotions or our preferred timetable. Governments make decisions according to law, interests, regional stability and their assessment of the facts. They always take time. Our greatest argument for freedom must increasingly become the kind of society we are prepared to build. That means thinking beyond the conflict.
What economy are we preparing for our children? What schools? What hospitals? What system of justice? What relationship will exist between the government and citizens? How will our natural resources serve our communities, rather than create another privileged political class? How will a young person in Buea, Ekondo Titi, Bamenda, Kumbo, Mamfe, Batibo, Nkambe, Wum or Victoria build a meaningful life with the support of his government based on merit and not connection? When we coalesce around our own government and speak with one voice, we send a message to those who are watching.
We must therefore give the International Community confidence, not just grievances. We must demonstrate capacity. The experience of other African countries should remind us that political independence is not the end of the struggle, it is the beginning of a greater challenge, to build something better than the system we replace.
My fellow Southern Cameroonians,
In a long and perilous journey, some will sustain wounds. Some of us will feel that the sacrifices we have already made are enormous and wonder how much more we can reasonably do. But I am here to announce that the enemy is not having it any better. If we relent now, we will be handing victory over to the Republic of Cameroon, a victory they would not otherwise have earned. If you find your enemy crying profusely, wipe your own tears, because victory is surely around the corner. Whatever is making him cry is working for your good. We shall win this struggle not only by the size of our strength but by the weaknesses of our adversary also.
This is our time – Ambazonia is free! I hear your pains of birth. Let us not become a nation of expectant spectators–People who will begin every statement with, “in those days when we were fighting”. Quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit. We cannot all serve in the government. Not everyone can contribute the amount of money we need. Not everyone can defend their communities. But everyone who believes in this future can do something. Knowledge is a contribution.
Professional expertise is a contribution. Diplomacy is a contribution. Humanitarian service is a contribution. Documentation is a contribution. Teaching our children is a contribution. Supporting displaced families is a contribution. Building supportive platforms is a contribution. Writing is a contribution. Bringing reconciliation is a contribution. Prayer is a powerful contribution. And sometimes simply refusing to surrender to despair is our greatest contribution. As we go forward, I ask for the best of your sacrifice, because though we are few or many, our assignments have only increased.
Closing Remarks
Fellow People and Supporters of the Government of Ambazonia,
On all tiers, Sacrifice cannot be what leaders demand from the people while insulating themselves from its cost. We have reached a stage that requires greater discipline, accountability, institutional maturity and unity of purpose. When a runner approaches the decisive part of a race, he does not spend his remaining strength looking backward at every difficult mile. He fixes his eyes on the purpose that brought him there and uses his remaining strength wisely.
I therefore ask our Government Officials at all levels to continue working together without rivalry. I ask our defenders to remain disciplined, to protect the population, and refuse labels designed to separate them. Soldiers are not politicians, and politicians are not soldiers. I ask our Diaspora to remain engaged and stop trying to divide our forces with lies and innuendos; it is “injury time” now, the march is drawing to a close. Do not forget that our populations on the home front bear consequences that distance sometimes shields us from. Let’s help them without trying to make things harder for them. I ask our Communities to reject criminals arrayed in liberation garments. I ask our institutions to grow stronger than the personalities temporarily entrusted with them. And I ask every Southern Cameroonian to remember that disagreement does not make another Southern Cameroonian your enemy. Life will continue after this conflict.
On this 2026 Independence Day, therefore, I ask you not only to celebrate, I ask you to remember! Remember those we have lost, those in prison, the refugees, the wounded and the displaced. Remember the children whose education has been interrupted. Remember families who have sacrificed quietly without recognition. Remember defenders who have remained faithful to their responsibility to protect the people. Remember public servants in our government who remained at their posts when walking away would have been easier. And remember why we began this journey. Our freedom must be worthy of the people who have sacrificed for it.
To Our People on the Ground,
Today is our National Day; you have not been forgotten. You are not a footnote to this struggle. You are its center. Whatever offices we occupy, whatever titles we carry, whatever diplomatic relationships we establish, and whatever institutions we build, their worth must reflect your views and sacrifices!
To our genuine defenders, Ambazonia State Armed forces, Today is our National Day; remain honorable. Let respect for civilians distinguish you from the Cameroon-sponsored criminals. Let International Humanitarian Law remain part of your strength.
To those who serve in Our Government, Maybe you served in the government before, this is our National Day; remember that none of us owns this struggle and none of us owns this government. We are temporary custodians of something larger than ourselves.
And to every Southern Cameroonian, this is your National Day. Wherever you are today, do not surrender your portion of the work to somebody else. Do not become an expectant spectator waiting to inherit a victory purchased entirely by the sacrifice of others. We have come too far to surrender our responsibility now.
May God comfort our grieving families. May He protect our people. May He give Wisdom and Grace to those entrusted with leadership, Discipline to those entrusted with defense, Courage to those who continue despite exhaustion, and Justice to those who have suffered.
May God bless the People of Southern Cameroons.
Happy Independence Day 2026 !!
Thank You!!
Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako
President
Government of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) in-exile
Date: Thurssday October 01st 2026
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