The Social Democratic Front (SDF) party has called for an immediate bilateral seize fire and the release of all prisoners of war. This call was made by Hon. Forbi Nchinda on behalf of the SDF party on May 10th at Ayaba hotel in Bamenda after granting audience to the prime minister and head of government chief Dr. Dion Ngute.

Hon Forbi while speaking to the press after meeting with the prime minister

said the SDF has retained the fact that the Head of State is ready to dialogue out the crisis plaguing the two English speaking regions of the country but he presented some points the party had carefully carved out that will give room for dialogue “The first point is; we are asking for an immediate bilateral seize fire. The second point is that we are asking for an immediate release of all political prisoners, all prisoners of war. They should be released as a condition for peace. The third condition is we are asking that a mediator be put into place that will go between the worrying parties, the ambazonian forces and the government to negotiate. The party has offered the services of our national chairman here present, Ni John Fru Ndi

as one of the best candidates for negotiation, for serving as the mediator. On the same score, we have been asking that independent observers be put in to watch the peace process once the seize fire has been put into place to make sure that both sides are respecting the seize fire all the way down to the negotiations.”

He went further to say that only structured dialogue can bring about peace “After the negotiations, the first point we are asking is that there be a structured dialogue, not on twitter, not large debate but structured. And at the end of it, there will be a document that will either get legislative cover through the assembly or any other way that will be binding which after, you can put into place peace and reconciliation.”

In addition, the SDF put it clear that there will not take part in either the legislative or municipal elections that are forth coming as the honorable added “We are on a path to peace. We reminded the Prime Minister that as we are looking for this peace in the nation, we cannot accept that elections take place in the NW and SW regions. We reminded him that the presidential elections never took place and that under the sane circumstances with the insecurity going on, there will be no legislative, there will be no municipals, there will be no regionals”.

While concluding the message from the SDF party, Honorable Forbi called for the government of Cameroon to take immediate actions to solving the crisis before other countries step in on humanitarian basis ” Finally, we reminded him that time is no longer in our favor for the simple reason that the humanitarian atrocities have been too many. That the country cannot continue for too long. These solutions must be put into place in order to avoid the other countries coming in on the grounds of the violation of human rights, to take over from the government. The government will have to make that choice, either it moves fast or the other countries will set in on humanitarian grounds”.

By M. Sandrine