Cameroon Secessionists Threaten Attacks on Foreign Companies

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

The group, which hails from the country’s two Anglophone 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 emailed comments from a spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday. Anu didn’t specify the nature of the attacks.

Cameroon Secessionists Threaten Attacks on Foreign Companies

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

“Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only just spur us the more,” the group said in a statement last week.
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-independent movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a Jan. 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 Jan. 12, according to the statement. www.bloomberg.com