Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the self-proclaimed president of Ambazonia, an unrecognized English-speaking breakaway region in southwestern Cameroon, and nine of his followers were handed life sentences on Tuesday by a military tribunal in the capital of Yaounde, media reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2019) Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the self-proclaimed president of Ambazonia, an unrecognized English-speaking breakaway region in southwestern Cameroon, and nine of his followers were handed life sentences on Tuesday by a military tribunal in the capital of Yaounde, media reported."Incitement of terrorism, secession, complicity in carrying out acts of terrorism, financing terrorist attacks, revolution, insurgency, holding military operations against the homeland, spreading fake news, criminal acts undermining internal and external security of the state, lack of a national identity card," judge Jacques Baudouin Misse Njone said while announcing the verdict, as quoted by Jeune Afrique magazine.
In January 2018, Ayuk Tabe was arrested with his followers in the Nigerian capital of Abuja and extradited to Cameroon. They then spent almost a year in custody before being transferred to a high-security prison in Yaounde. Their trial started in December.
The tribunal also ordered them to pay $422 million in damages for their activities in the country, the publication said.
Ambazonia is an unrecognized entity in the southwest of Cameroon with a predominantly English-speaking population. It was a part of Southern Cameroons, once a UK-controlled territory. In 1961, it gained independence from the United Kingdom and united with the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon. Since the 1990s, separatists have been ruling this region.
In October 2017, separatists proclaimed the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and formed an interim government in exile, headed by Ayuk Tabe. The Cameroonian government later proclaimed that the separatist declaration had legal grounds. In November 2017, the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, declared war on Ambazonia.
