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Critics Condemn Life Sentences for Cameroon Separatist Leaders

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - A military tribunal in Cameroon has sentenced 10
   leaders of the country's Anglophone separatist movement to life in
   prison, which critics say will hurt efforts to end the separatist
   crisis through dialogue.

   Julius Ayuk Tabe, president of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia,
   and nine of his collaborators were sentenced Tuesday by Colonel Misse
   Njone Jacques after a heated court session in Yaounde that was
   boycotted by defense lawyers.

   Jacques found the defendants guilty of secession, terrorism and
   hostility against the state of Cameroon, and ordered them to pay a $50
   million fine.

   Immediately, observers voiced concern the ruling will derail efforts to
   end the crisis in the North West and South West regions. Armed groups
   in the two mostly English-speaking regions want to break away from
   Cameroon's French-speaking majority and form a separate nation.

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