A report from Lagos says a leading member of a separatist movement in Cameroon, Julius Ayuk Tabe, has been taken into custody with his aides in Lagos, the commercial capital of neighboring Nigeria.
The movement, which gathered steam in the last few months following a military crackdown on protests, represents the gravest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of President Paul Biya who is likely to seek re-election this year. Mr. Tabe, the Nigeria-based Chairman of the Governing Council of Ambazonia separatist movement, was taken into custody with six others at a hotel in Abuja last Wednesday.
Bilateral relations between Nigeria and Cameroon have been strained by a separatist movement in Cameroon which often clashed with the Cameroonian army and prompted thousands to flee across the border to Nigeria. Cameroonian troops last month crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without seeking Nigerian authorization, causing diplomatic wrangling behind the scenes.
Separatists, including armed radical elements, have been agitating for an independent state of Ambazonia, for the nation’s Anglophone regions. The men were said to be having a meeting at Nera Hotels in Abuja when they were rounded up by security agents.
The unrest in Cameroon was intensified last November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions of that country, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy. French is the official language for most of Cameroon, but English is spoken in two regions that border Nigeria.
Protests by separatists prompted a violent crackdown by Cameroon’s military last year in which troops opened fire on demonstrators.
