Taking to twitter midday Friday, February 7, 2020 in eight distinct tweets, Ayuk Tabe paid glowing tributes to those who have since died in Ambazonia, a geographical allusion to Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.

Apparently expressing his anger, Ayuk Tabe wrote inter alia: “I will like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all Southern Cameroon, Ambazonians and sympathizers who have endured the struggle for our liberation from brutal subjugation…since it intensified in 2016… We remain committed to total Independence or resistance forever.”

Although he failed to cite his sources, the separatist leader said the situation in the North West and South West Regions “has degenerated into a genocide” with “more than 27,500 people killed, over 500 villages burnt, a minimum of 120,000 refugees and no fewer than 1.4 million internally displaced perosns as well as over 3,000 persons in detention.”

Ayuk Tabe adds that: “On January 5, 2018, 12 of us met in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss the degenerating refugee situation and to create a coordinating platform for our refugee brethren, unfortunately, we were kidnapped & illegally traded to Cameroun where we are imprisoned/detained with many other compatriots."

This is the first time Ayuk Tabe is writing after meeting Barrister Akere Muna, former President of the Cameroon Bar Association ahead of April’s Africa Forum on Cameroon,

National and International Human Rights Groups have blamed Defense and Security Forces and the separatists for the degenerating situation in the restive regions.

“The separatists should know the world is paying attention and those responsible for torture will face the consequences,” Lewis Mudge, Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch said last year. “Armed separatists should let children return to their studies and stop using the schools to carry out their campaign.”

Human Rights Watch had said: “Since late 2016, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon have been gripped by deadly violence, claiming the lives of over 1,800 people and forcing half a million to flee their homes. Government forces have killed scores of civilians, torched hundreds of homes, and used torture and incommunicado detention against people suspected of belonging to separatist groups, with near-total impunity.

“Armed separatists have killed hundreds of members of security forces and assaulted and kidnapped hundreds of people during their increasing attacks and growing calls for secession of the North-West and South-West regions.

“Since the crisis escalated, armed separatists have used schools as bases, deploying fighters and weapons and holding people hostage in and near them. Separatists have disrupted normal life in the areas they control by enforcing strikes, consistently targeting school buildings, and threatening education officials and students with violence if they did not comply with separatist demands to boycott schools.”

Cameroon’s international partners and the UN Security Council should impose targeted sanctions on separatist leaders who bear responsibility for abuses, including torture and occupation of schools, Human Rights Watch said.

After October’s Major National Dialogue, Cameroon’s international partners, including the Secretary General of the United Nations are urging the Yaoundé regime to hold an inclusive dialogue to find lasting solutions to the situation.