June 27, 2024, 6 p.m.
A separatist movement in the Central African nation of Cameroon has ensnared U.S.-based diaspora groups in legal troubles and raised questions about the legality of sending assistance overseas.
Nearly two years ago, three U.S. citizens were jailed for allegedly supporting Anglophone separatist militias who are battling for independence from the Francophone central government in Cameroon. The Justice Department alleged that Claud Chi of Missouri, Francis Chenyi of Minnesota, and Lah Nestor Langmi of New York all provided material support to separatist militias engaged in a conspiracy to kidnap Cameroonians and demand ransoms from their U.S.-based relatives. The three men have been in prison ever since and were denied bail pending trial.
Advocates for the three Cameroonian Americans now argue that there is a double standard. With violent conflicts proliferating around the world, including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, many Americans are sending aid to relatives and others as they defend themselves from invaders. Many of those U.S. citizens have no way to verify how recipients use that material support once it arrives.
Samuel Ikome Sako, the 58-year-old Maryland-based president-in-exile of the Southern Cameroonian independence movement, argues that members of the African diaspora are treated differently from other Americans who send aid to U.S. allies, such as Ukraine or Israel. He made that case in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland this month.
“To what extent will America support human rights advocacy, self-determination efforts, or the fight for democracy and freedoms on the continent of Africa as opposed to what they are doing for Ukraine, they’re doing in the Middle East, they’re doing for Israel?” Sako asked in a conversation with National Journal. “Or should we, the African diaspora in America, be afraid that if we stand for our freedoms, we will not have the support of America, the beacon of freedom will not be on our side?”
After fleeing government persecution in Cameroon in 2010, Sako arrived in the U.S. and obtained asylum. He’s been in the United States ever since. He claims that in 2019, a group of Anglophone Cameroonian freedom fighters and diaspora-led civil society groups representing the 13 Southern Cameroonian counties elected him to represent the Southern Cameroonian proto-state, the Republic of Ambazonia.
Sako told National Journal that he knows the three jailed men personally. He argues that they were only trying to support vulnerable people who resisted the Cameroonian government’s persecution.
“Our cause is legitimate,” Sako said. “Property has been destroyed, lives are being destroyed, and families are being targeted, and we decided to lend support to our communities to organize and resist these invaders.
“When we provide this money, or resources … it could be for food, or to help the children, or to help those who are in the hospital, or to get whatever they can get to defend themselves,” Sako added. “We don’t have that kind of control of who does what. We know that there is an informal structure on the ground that is able to channel resources so that they will do what is most important. If you have wounded and a lot of people who are killed, those things have to be addressed based on the resources they have.”
Sako’s letter has circulated among U.S. lawmakers, but senators and House members declined to comment on an ongoing case from the Justice Department. The department did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Scott Anderson, a national security law expert and fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the case against the three individuals is tied to a law Congress enacted in 1994, U.S. Code 2339A. That law placed restrictions on money given to foreign groups, even if those groups are not officially designated as terrorist organizations.
“The original approach they had here is if anybody gives money to a group to engage in an act of violence—notably not defined as terrorism, defined in terms of violence—then they will be prosecutable,” Anderson said. “That will be what the Justice Department is going to have to prove in court to make these convictions stick. They’re going to have to show that people gave this money knowingly or with the intent that this money was going to be used for these particular sets of violent acts.”
Anderson noted that demonstrating intent in court can be difficult, but that the Justice Department would not have brought charges if it didn’t believe it had a good case.
The law does not differentiate between giving material support to a group fighting on behalf of a nation-state and or fighting against one. However, acts of war during an armed conflict are excluded from some legal statutes. It’s unclear whether Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, sometimes called the Cameroonian Civil War or Ambazonia War, is considered an armed conflict to the extent that participants could rely on those exemptions for their defense.
Despite the particularities of Cameroon, the case could set a precedent for others who have provided support to groups abroad. Much rests on prosecutorial discretion, and a future Justice Department could theoretically prosecute individuals for having provided support to Israeli settler organizations that perpetrate violence against civilians in the West Bank. The same could go for sending aid to Ukrainian militias if they committed violence against civilians.
“There’s no zero risk here,” Anderson said about sending aid to foreign conflicts. “Maybe a future government will say this is a violation of these very, very broadly worded criminal statutes about acts of violence.”
The case in Missouri isn’t the first time Cameroonian Americans have gotten caught up with the law over their support for groups back home. Two years ago, another Maryland resident was arrested over an alleged plot to send weapons obtained in the U.S. to Cameroon.
While supporters of these groups say they are fighting for freedom, the reality on the ground is murkier. At least 10 separatist groups operate in Southern Cameroon, including the Ambazonia Defense Forces, the Tigers, and others that allegedly work for the interim government of Ambazonia. The groups’ leadership structure is unclear, and reports of infighting are numerous.
There is also credible evidence that both the Anglophone separatists and the government have committed atrocities against civilians. Violence has been ongoing since 2016, and the organization Human Rights Watch noted that separatists seeking independence for the country’s Anglophone regions “targeted civilians, including aid workers, students, and teachers, while continuing to enforce a boycott on education.”
“Security forces have also committed abuses including the killing of civilians, destruction of civilian property, sexual violence, and torture of suspected collaborators with separatist groups,” the organization stated.
The conflict has garnered some attention from Congress. Three years ago, the Senate passed a resolution condemning abuses by the Cameroonian state and the country’s many armed groups in the northwest and southwest. It also called on members of the international community to take “specified steps toward resolving the ongoing civil conflict in Cameroon.”
But the prospect for peace in Cameroon today remains elusive. Last year, Canada began organizing pre-talks between the separatists and Cameroonian officials. However, the Cameroonian government was reluctant to participate, and the initiative has led to little progress. Meanwhile, the violence continues.
Nalova Akua, a Cameroonian journalist, noted that many of the attacks the separatists carry out are sporadic. That can include entering a village and firing warning shots or even burning buildings.
“It’s guerilla warfare, like a hit and run,” Akua said. “They just come and send a message that, 'We do exist.'”
