After a series of meetings recently by Cameroonian activists in the UK to raise funds to continue the struggle for the liberation of Southern Cameroons, another meeting has been scheduled for 31 July 2010 in Hamsworth, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The objective of this meeting is not quite clear, but insiders say it might be in the same direction like previous meetings.

Even after the Banjul ruling on the Southern Cameroons case that called for dialogue between government, the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation, SCAPO, no moves have so far been taken about two years after the verdict.
The verdict also proposed that SCNC and SCAPO should transform into political parties to foster this dialogue.

Sometime ago the Vice Chairman of SCAPO, Augustine Ndangam, in a press conference in Bamenda announced that SCAPO was transforming into a political party. While many Southern Cameroonians cried foul of a possible manipulation, nothing has been heard of this transformation into a political party since then.

Southern Cameroonians had expected the court cases against the SCNC chairman, Chief Ayamba Ette Ottun and others to be thrown out and for those incarcerated to be freed.

The activists who are usually arrested and tortured are most often charged with secession and for holding illegal meetings.

Prior to the Banjul ruling in 2009, activists who carried out demonstrations especially in Kumbo in the North West region and Mamfe in the South West region were subjected to all forms of torture.
This forced some activists like Ebenezer Akwanga, Cho Ayaba and several others to go into exile. Despite the Banjul court’s call for dialogue, other activists who were students like Hiler Simplice Kendo Ndoumbeu, Tembong Mary, Eveline Atanga all from Bachou Akagbe village who have been militants of the SCNC since 1999 saw themselves rounded up by security forces and taken to Bamenda, Kumbo, Douala and Yaounde prisons.

People like Ebenezer Akwanga only managed to escape from the Kondegui prison.
The crackdown on Southern Cameroonian activists intensifies each time 1 October approaches; a day which the activists usually use to shout slogans and hoist flags in celebration of what, they claim, is the independence day of Southern Cameroons.

John Fokou, a human rights activists in Mamfe remembers how on 1 October 2001, he and the Assistant Youth Coordinator for the SCNC in Mamfe sub division, Hiler Simplice Kendo Ndoumbeu and other activists were badly beaten in Kumbo for expressing their political views.

Fokou says he finally backed off from all political activities given that his 32-year-old companion and student Simplice Kendo was forced to escape from Cameroon. He like many others are at risk should they return to Cameroon given that their stance on the Southern Cameroons case is already known.
Nonetheless, activists are bound to forge ahead despite pressure from Yaoundé authorities.