International rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has predicted the likelihood of more violence in the months ahead in the crisis-hit North West and South West regions, where soldiers have for closed to five years now been battling separatist arms groups struggling to split the country.
In the tweet made Thursday 20 May 2021, Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior Central Africa Researcher for HRW stated there would be “more violence to come” in the two troubled regions. Her outing follows developments of a formal alliance between separatist movements in Nigeria and Cameroon.
The tweet carries link of an article published by Jess Craig, an independent journalist based in Central Africa on Foreign Policy – a well-known website. The article captures the announced strategic military alliance with joint operations and training bases between Cho Ayaba, leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council and Nnandi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group that advocates for the creation of the independent country of Biafra in Nigeria.
The formal alliance between the two separatist movements were announced in April with observers fearing cooperation between the two can ignite violence and instability in the two countries and across the West and Central African regions where violent extremist organizations affiliated with the Islamic State and al Qaeda are establishing a strong foothold.
Cho Ayaba and Nnamdi Kanu appeared in a press conference, live-streamed on social media in April to announce a strategic alliance. The announced alliance follows to five years of negotiations to this effect.
Factions of a secessionist movement in Southeastern Nigeria and a pro-independence movement in Cameroon have been gathering momentum, mobilizing supporters through social media, and clashing with government security forces in both countries.
“We have assembled here today in front of our two peoples to declare our intentions to walk together to ensure collective survival from the brutal annexation that have occurred in our home nations,” Ayaba is quoted as saying in the Foreign Policy report tweeted by HRW.
“The Ambazonia and Biafra Alliance is critical in an area where Nigeria and Cameroon have established two autocracies that have used violence as political tools to suppress our own peoples,” he added.
Capo Daniel, deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, the military wing of the Ambazonia Governing Council, told Foreign Policy that the scope of the alliance will include joint operations and training bases with both groups working to secure their shared border and ensure an open exchange of weapons and personnel.
Capo acknowledged the potential regional impact of the alliance but said that after almost five years of low-level armed conflict in Cameroon, there was no other choice.
“We have been very careful in our association with the Biafra movement, because we didn’t want to destabilize the region, but we have been cornered,” he said from his base in Hong Kong, adding that “Nigerians have failed to act, the international community has failed to act, so we have no other choice but to get into an alliance that can better our chances to defend ourselves.”
Ambazonia separatist fighters have grown increasingly violent in recent months. The fighters have stepped up attacks against government security forces, using improvised explosive devices to target military convoys, popular joints like markets, motor parks and others.
The Biafra movement is well equipped with weaponry and other defense technology from Nigeria’s large black market. There are fears that the Biafra-Ambazonia weapons exchange will bolster the Anglophone separatist movement, which has suffered in recent months from a severe lack of financial support from the diaspora, perhaps due to waning interest, pervasive human rights abuses carried out by separatist groups against civilians, or major divisions in the diaspora leadership.
The successful coalition of the two groups is likely to trigger a heightened response from both Cameroonian and Nigerian armed forces, which already work together to counter a Boko Haram insurgency in the northern regions of both countries.
Delay by government and the international community to provide a permanent solution to the conflict risk making it escalate further as indicated by Dr Christopher Fomunyoh, Regional Director for Central Africa Programs at National Democratic Institute.
“…domestic grievances, when allowed to fester, can ultimately convulse into broader conflicts and brother crises and armed conflicts, which could have devastating consequences on a transnational basis,” said the U.S.-based expert on democratization in Africa.
Violence in the regions has since displaced over 700,000 people and resulted in at least 4,000 civilian deaths, according to the United Nations and the International Crisis Group.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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