Ali Dan Ismael, with Investigative report.
LONDON-June 2025: While war crimes intensify in the Southern Cameroons, now known as Ambazonia, the Commonwealth—a body purporting to uphold democracy, justice, and the rule of law—remains eerily silent. For well over eight years, the government of Paul Biya has waged a brutal campaign against the English-speaking population of Cameroon, killing tens of thousands, displacing over a million, and torching entire villages. Yet no sanctions have been levied.
No statements of condemnation have come from Marlborough House. No fact-finding missions have touched the blood-soaked soil of Buea or Kumbo.
This silence is not incidental. It is historical, deliberate, and complicit.
While countries like Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Fiji, and Gabon have faced swift condemnation and punitive measures for democratic infractions, Cameroon has enjoyed a decades-long immunity. What makes the Biya regime untouchable? Why does Ambazonia’s suffering meet only muffled whispers where other crises have stirred global outrage?
Double Standards of the Commonwealth: Sanctions for Some, Silence for Others
The Commonwealth has acted when political suppression is undeniable. Nigeria’s suspension in 1995 followed the state execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders. Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002 after election rigging and human rights abuses. Fiji faced censure for military coups. Gabon and Niger were also ejected following unconstitutional seizures of power.
In stark contrast, La République du Cameroun has never faced such measures—despite carrying out a systematic, ethnically targeted campaign against her English speaking population.
Since 2017:
Schools across Ambazonia have been militarized or shut.
Political leaders and ordinary civilians have been jailed without trial.
Human rights groups have documented mass killings, torture, rape, and arson by government forces.
Yet Cameroon remains a “member in good standing” of the Commonwealth. Its officials attend Commonwealth summits. Its flag flies undisturbed. Its crimes remain unpunished.
Lady Scotland’s Visit and the Cowardice of Diplomacy
In 2017, Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland visited Cameroon amid increasing reports of violence and civilian deaths. She requested a symbolic visit to Buea—the heart of former British-administered Southern Cameroons and the center of the uprising. The Biya regime refused.
She complied. She returned to London without protest, without public comment, and without accountability. That was the moment the Commonwealth officially turned its back on Ambazonia.
The Trump vs. Britain Approach: Exposing the Hypocrisy
In sharp contrast to Britain’s complicity, the first administration of President Donald Trump in the United States suspended security assistance to Cameroon in 2019 due to “credible allegations of gross human rights violations” by elite military forces, particularly the Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide (BIR).
Britain, however, went the opposite route.
While the U.S. imposed sanctions, Britain secretly trained Cameroon’s BIR forces, many of whom were implicated in scorched-earth campaigns across Ambazonia. Britain’s Defense Ministry maintained training ties under the guise of “counter-terrorism support” even as British-trained soldiers burned down villages, executed civilians, and raped women with impunity.
The ‘Center for Negotiation and Dialogue’: A British Trojan Horse
At the height of the crisis, Britain also backed the creation of the Center for Negotiation and Dialogue (CND)—an entity purportedly designed to explore peaceful resolutions to the Anglophone Crisis. While sounding noble, its construction was far from neutral.
Most of its key figures were British-trained or resident in the UK:
Prof. H. Sama Nwana, Managing Partner, Generva
Ms. Judith Nwana, a prominent figure in British-Ambazonian networks
Friends of Cameroon, a quiet but influential conservative British pressure group, played a shadow role. One of its core members Tim C.(full name withheld) a plausible MI6 operative, once a resident in Bastos Yaoundé and now lives in the Schengen countries commented after the 1992 elections: “Britain no longer has any interests in Southern Cameroons.”
Their underlying ideology, as uncovered by insiders, was the belief that Ambazonia could be “pacified without secession”—that assimilation, decentralization, or a form of managed autonomy could crush the self-determination movement.
In effect, Britain had shifted from trustee to tactician, covertly supporting Cameroon’s position while playing peacemaker.
The Attempted Kidnapping of Dr. Sako.
After the abduction and illegal detention of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his cabinet in Nigeria. Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako was elected to lead the interim government—later consolidated into the Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. His leadership brought a renewed push for diplomacy and resistance, but it also made him a target.
Shortly after assuming office, a British operative offered “material support” to the movement on the condition that Dr. Sako personally travel abroad to “inspect the resources.” Insider sources later revealed it was a trap—an attempted lure into foreign detention akin to what befell Sisiku in Abuja.
Dr. Sako refused the bait. The plot failed. But it exposed the depths of British duplicity and their quiet support for efforts to dismantle the Ambazonian leadership.
The Queen’s Silent Betrayal Before his abduction,
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe traveled to Britain and formally appealed to Queen Elizabeth II, invoking the UK’s moral and historic responsibility under the UN Trusteeship. His appeal was received and publicly acknowledged.
But the Queen’s response was muted.
“Her Majesty will do her best,” her office stated.
No follow-up came. No diplomatic pressure was applied. No action was taken.
Until her death, Queen Elizabeth II presided over the silent abandonment of a people Britain once promised to protect.
The One Million Pound Betrayal: Britain Sells the Knife
Perhaps the most shameful chapter in this history occurred behind closed doors in 1984.
As Biya consolidated power in his early years, the British government approached him with a proposal: complete auctioning of all claims to Southern Cameroons in exchange for compensation.
The deal? One million pounds (Mr.Bond).
This sum represented Britain’s full “investment” in the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC)—the colonial-era agro-industrial complex headquartered in Ambazonia.
When Biya visited London that year, a cheque was quietly deposited into Britain’s public trust fund. No public statement was made. But diplomatic insiders have confirmed: that was the day Britain handed the slaughter knife to France and Biya.
From then on, Britain abandoned its historic and moral responsibility toward the people of Southern Cameroons.
France Holds the Reins, Britain Shields the Crimes
France remains the primary imperial puppeteer in Cameroon—arming the regime, shielding it diplomatically, and embedding its corporations in every corner of the Cameroonian economy.
But it is Britain’s silence—Britain’s betrayal—that has lent the regime moral cover on the world stage.
The Commonwealth, which should have been a forum for Ambazonia’s voice, has instead become a fortress of indifference.
Ambazonia, Alone but Unyielding
The people of Ambazonia must wake up to this truth: no knight is coming. No saviour wears a Commonwealth crest. The betrayal is complete. Britain has exchanged blood for balance sheets. The Commonwealth has traded its charter for convenience.
Ambazonia’s existential war is no longer just against Cameroon. It is against a global architecture that rewards colonial legacies and punishes resistance.
But silence will not win. History teaches us this: nations born from injustice carry a truth louder than any gun or cheque. Let Ambazonia document, organize, remember, and rise.
For one day, the archives of betrayal shall stand as testimony before a free people—and those who watched in silence will answer for it.
