More Activists Arrested in Kumba

After the arrest of over 200 Anglophone activists who on October 1, converged under the banner of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, on Buea Mile 17 Motor Park to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the independence of Southern Cameroons, reports later emerged that similar arrests were made same day in other localities of the Southwest region -notably in Kumba where Anglophone activism is also strong.

Arrey George:SCNC Radical

       A certain Arrey George, orn on December 6, 1989, who since his joining the SCNC in 2007 is identified as a radical of the movement, was reportedly arrested alongside a few others in Fiango- Kumba by police in mufti.They were picked-up as they were mobilizing for the 50th anniversary of the Independence of Southern Cameroons. It was not the first time Arrey George, who is a native of Mbinjong in Manyu Division, was   falling into the hands of security agents in connection with his militancy in the SCNC.

       The SCNC,created in 1994 with Barrister Ekontang Elad as pioneer president, has as objective the “restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons” and as motto “The Force of Argument, Not the Argument of Force”.

 But it is now in factions due to leadership tussles, with supporters claiming to be loyal to this or that factional leader.

        It is feared that the  arrested activists could be subjected to torture, for others arrested in the past complained of molestation and torture.

       Earlier informed of plans by the SCNC to observe the 50th anniversary of the independence of Southern Cameroons, the Government ,which tags the SCNC an outlawed group intended  to destabilize  “one and indivisible Cameroon”, threatened a crackdown.

       In Buea,as police  embarked  on arresting the activists who had come f  for the  protest march, over 50 of the  activists fled in to the residence of the Nigerian consul-general for protection.Government has always described  fighters for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroon as secessionists especially SCNC members.

rom various towns in Anglophone Cameroon

        Mola Njoh Litumbe, Home Front Leader of the Patriotic Coalition Front, which had mobilized the activists for the march, was put under house arrest for the whole day of October 1.           It was on October 1, 1961 that the former British Southern Cameroons gained independence by joining the Republic of Cameroun (former French Cameroon), which had earlier, on January 1, 1960 gained its independence.

         October 1, 2011 there fore marked 50 years of the independence of Southern Cameroons and at the same times its reunification with la Republic du Cameroun (French Cameroon)

        The so-called reunification of Southern Cameroons with La Republic du Cameroun was not legally binding, since it did not comply with the UN charter by getting the union registered at the UN as required.

         According to the UN Charter, in its  Article 102(1) : “Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the secretariat  of the UN and published by it”

        Article 102(2) states. “No party to such treaty or international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations”

      Mola Njoh Litumbe, frontline advocate for the independence of Southern Cameroons, has written a book on what he calls the Colonization of the then UN British Administered Territory of Southern Cameroons by La Republic du Cameroun.

      Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest Regions are what used to be the UN British Administered Territory of Southern Cameroons, which Mola Litumbe strongly argues has only been annexed by a neighboring sovereign state,  the Republique du Cameroun.

     Litumbe challenges La Republique du Cameroun, which claims Southern Cameroons is part of its territory “to produce the documentary proofs, based on the UN Charter provisions.”

      The arrests ptook place barely days to Cameroon’s Presidential election, billed for October 9.