Republic of Cameroun". The amendment involved the annexation of the Southern
Cameroons and had the effect of extinguishing the Southern Cameroons political status as
a self-governing territory schedule to achieve independence on 1 October 1961. In the same
month, the French-led troops of former French Cameroun violated the territorial integrity
of the Southern Cameroons and committed acts of murder.
13.
The Complainants state that on 30th September 1961, the UK Administering Authority of
the Southern Cameroons invited a foreign leader, the President of former French
Cameroun, to the Southern Cameroons and, as the British Government herself has since
admitted transferred sovereignty over the Southern Cameroons to the Republic of
Cameroun". The effect of that transfer was that the Southern Cameroons once again found
herself under foreign rule: re-colonization rather than):t~colonizatiort was the result, with
the Southern Cameroons moving from rule by the UK to rule by la Republique du
Cameroun, successor colonialist. What has thus been dubbed as the Anglophone
Problem" is actually a problem of decoloni a~on from black-on-black colonization.
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14.
The Complainants also allege that on 20' May 1972; the Yaounde government of la
Republique du Cameroun staged a so-called referendum in which the majority French
speakers approved a highly centralized constitution and the federal state was replaced
with a unitary state denoted as "United Reptil:Slicb(Cameroon". Southern Cameroons'
autonomous status, liberal constitution, fnstitutions.; governance structures and state
culture were overnight decreed out of existence."The territory was split into two,
thenceforth designated as Cameroun Northwest and Southwest Provinces. The people of
the Southern Call1~~,oopsvehemently denounced their experience and common suffering
as annexation and"c'olonization de novo, and many Pro-independence groups, such as the
Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM), the Southern Cameroons National Council
(SNCN), the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL), Ambazonia, Free West
Cameroon, and::;the Southern Cameroons, Peoples' Organization etc. soon emerged,
challenging the ri'~wdispensation' al'ld sh'uggling for independence, They decried, inter
alia, the subjugation of the people of the Southern Cameroons.
15.
The Complainants submit t!1at the Pro-independence groups point to the nonimplementation 'ofcUN Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961, which required the
Government of the United Kingdom, the Government of the Southern Cameroons and the
Government of the Republic of Cameroun to engage in talks with a view to finalize and
implement before 1 October 1961, the agreed measures for political association of the
Southern Cameroons and former French Cameroun; and violation by the UK Government
of the binding UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960. The
violation of this instrument consisted in the fact that before leaving the Southern
Cameroons on 30 September 1961, Britain handed sovereignty over the Southern
Cameroons, NOT to the elected Government of the Southern Cameroons as required by
international law but to a foreign country: former French Cameroun.