Anglophone Uprising:

Secessionists Threaten Attacks on Foreign Companies

- Spokesman for activists declines to specify nature of attacks

- Leadership of Anglophone group held in Nigeria since Jan. 6

Ambazonia defence forces are now threatening to attack foreign companies in Cameroon

A group of Cameroonian activists demanding secession from the French-speaking regions says it is considering attacks on foreign companies operating in the central African nation.

                The group, which hails from the country’s two English-speaking regions, says it wants to “target foreign companies investing in Cameroon” because their revenues sustain “incompetent officials” in President Paul Biya’s government, according to email comments from the group’s spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday last week. He did not specify the nature of the attacks.

                Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which refers to the two Anglophone regions as the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held at an undisclosed location in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. Nigeria’s State Security Service, SSS, has denied knowledge of their detention, Falana said. Nigerian authorities haven’t yet commented on the issue.

                “Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only spur and invigorate us the more,” Chris Anu said in the email statement.

                Thousands of people have crossed the border into Nigeria and more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the Cameroonian government intensifies its actions against the pro-independence movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a January 16 statement. The agency and its Nigerian counterpart, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, officially registered 9,620 asylum seekers by January 12, according to the statement.