No plans to attack Nigeria — Cameroun separatist group

A Cameroon separatist group, the Interim Government of Southern Cameroon Ambazonia has said the group has no plans to attack Nigerian citizens.

It accused the Cameroonian government, through her military, of plots to put the group on collision course with Nigerian government by disguising as ‘Ambazonians’ to attack Nigerian security personnel.

In a release signed by the leader of Southern Cameroons Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako, the group said :

“The intelligence reaching us from within the Cameroon military discloses a well thought out plot to carry out assassinations on the Nigerian security agents serving along the border with Southern Cameroons. Our military informant states that the plot is particularly targeted to assassinate Nigerian coastguards and border officers. The plot is right now at its execution phase. The intelligence says.”

According to the release, details of the plan include sending Cameroonian military men in plain (civilian) clothes to attack several Nigerian security men, women, and civilians including women and children in border villages and towns, especially on local market days or ceremonial days, to ensure maximum casualties

The group said the atrocious act by Cameroon military would be followed by video-recordings showing some pseudo fighters or French Cameroon BIR forces, dressed as Ambazonian civilians, wielding the Southern Cameroonian/Ambazonian flag, singing the Ambazonian anthem, repeating rehearsed phrases in pidgin English, usurping Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF) and claiming responsibility for the attacks and killings.

The group said a recent military collaboration pact signed between the Nigerian government and the French Cameroon officials might have been done by the Nigerian government in good faith, but the hidden agenda by the French Cameroon government is to hurry the Nigerian government into believing that Ambazonia’s legitimate quest for the restoration of its independence constitute an immediate danger to Nigeria’s security. Within the context of the said agreement with Nigeria, French Cameroon wants Nigerian troops to help them to fight unsuspecting Ambazonian fighters in joint cross border operations inside Ambazonian territory.

The group called on the Nigerian government, local authorities, and Nigerians as a whole to be on the alert. It said further:

“The Interim Government of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia seizes this opportunity to tell the government of President Muhamadu Buhari and the international community that our Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF) for the past four years have been operating in self-defence only, and exclusively within the internationally defined boundaries of the former British Southern Cameroons a.k.a Ambazonia.

“The Interim Government Forces (the ARF) do not and will never engage in cross-border attacks on Nigerian territory neither have we ever attacked or killed a single Nigerian security officer. For four years, we have not taken the fight into French Cameroon territory, which is engaged in this brutal war against us, why should we attack Nigeria which has shown us nothing but love and hospitality?” (Agency report)