South Africa’s EFF, Southern Cameroonians demand end to French influence in Africa
Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a South African political group, led by Julius Malema, have staged protests in front of the French embassy in Johannesburg, demanding that France should leave Africa with immediate effect.
The party’s spokesperson told, Sinawo Thambo, told reporters that their goal was to call for an end to the French influence on the African continent.
The protest on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, also had among them, some Southern Cameroonians who held banners and placards, demanding that the war in the Anglophone regions be stopped. One of the banners accuses France of sponsoring President PaulBiya to kill Anglophones “France sponsor of bloody genocide”
Another one read, “UN, AU, ECOWAS, Nigeria, stop Paul Biya, the genocide crusader”
The EFF commander, Julius Malema, led the protests that also marked the 59th edition of the African day.
CIC @Julius_S_Malema leading the #EFFAfricaDayPicket https://t.co/LEQa2Y9hds
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) May 25, 2022
The Ambassador of France to South Africa, Mr. Aurélien Lechevallier, accepted the EFF Memorandum for onward transmission to the French government.
The EFF thinks that there can be no economic emancipation without the freedom and emancipation of Africa as a whole continent.
The war in Anglophone Cameroon started in 2016 and has led to thousands of deaths and millions of others internally displaced while some are refugees.
The Cameroon government unleashed terror when lawyers and teachers protested for better conditions and respect for the Anglo-Saxon system of education and the common law practice.
A further tight military response to October 1, 2017 protests and proclamation of independence by the imprisoned leader, Sisiku Ayuktabe, pushed the Anglophones to pick up arms and fight back.
The Vice President of an Ambazonian group called Interim Government Care, Dabney Yerima, also took part in the protest, took up the podium and spoke: “on behalf of the Ambazonian people”.
“Thank you for giving Ambazonians an opportunity to tell France to pack out of Africa…Ambazonia is fighting french imperialism in West Africa…More than 40,000 of our people have been executed and 3 million are internally displaced and over a million are living as refugees in Nigeria, Ghana, and Mexican borders and all over the whole…today will make 1601 days since the cameroon regime with the help of the Nigerian government abducted our leaders Sisiku Julis Ayuktabe and 11 of his strong aides…It took over 120 days when they were taken into custody for them to have access to a lawyer or being brought to be taken before a judge They were charged in a military tribunal for fighting for the basic rights of the Ambazonian people and sentenced to life …We demand France leave Ambazonia and leave Africa immediately” Yerima said in a speech.
