The Interim Government of Ambazonia was formed from the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front, a nonviolentindependence movement. Its members includes former leaders of the Southern Cameroons National Council, an independence movement that was prominent in the 1990s. It was SCACUF, led by Chairperson Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, that declared the independence of Ambazonia on October 1, 2017. The Interim Government was officially formed on October 31, 2017, with Tabe assuming the role as President of Ambazonia and SCACUF forming the Interim Government. By the time SCACUF transformed into the Interim Government, a separatist war had been raging for almost two months. Several separatist militias were active, with the largest one - the Ambazonia Defence Forces - answering to the Ambazonia Governing Council, led by Ayaba Cho Lucas and with Benedict Kuah as Chief of staff. The Interim Government initially rejected the idea of an armed struggle, preferring civil disobedience and a diplomatic campaign. In early November, the Interim Government condemned an ADF attack on gendarmes. In January 2018, most members of the Interim Government were arrested by Nigerian authorities and extradited to Cameroon. They were subsequently imprisoned for almost a year, before a trial started in December 2018. This became controversial in Nigeria, as most of those deported had submitted claims for political asylum. In March 2019, a Nigerian court determined that the arrest and deportation had been unconstitutional, and ordered everyone returned to Nigeria and compensated. This had no practical implications, and on August 20, 2019, the ten leaders, including Ayuk Tabe, were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.
Sako cabinet (2018–19)
Following the arrest of most of the Interim Government, Samuel Ikome Sako as announced as acting president in February 2018. In an attempt to unite several local militias under a single banner, the Interim Government created the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council in March 2018. While the ASC is collectively larger than the ADF, it does not have a centralized command structure and is more of a cooperation project than a single organization. President Sako sought to bury the differences between the Interim Government and the Ambazonia Defence Forces, which is loyal to the Ambazonia Governing Council. On December 31, 2018, he announced that a Mobile Wing Police would be established, and that the separatists would abandon their defensive strategy and seize the offensive. He also promised to take action against anyone involved in the kidnapping of civilians, which had become a growing problem in Southern Cameroons. On March 31, 2019, the Interim Government and several Ambazonian movements agreed to create the Southern Cameroons Liberation Council, a united front consisting of both separatists and federalists. However, despite its attempts at uniting the separatists, the Sako cabinet became divisive due to accusations of incompetence and misappropriation of funds.
Leadership crisis (2019–present)
On May 2, 2019, a document signed by Ayuk Tabe declared that the Sako-led interim cabinet had been dissolved, and that his own pre-arrest cabinet had been restored. The document expressed recognition for the job the Sako-led cabinet had done, but claimed that infighting had rendered it unfit to continue; the caretaker cabinet has lost the ability to reconcile our people and, in doing so, has imperiled the identity and mission of the interim government to complete the decolonization of Southern Cameroons through advancing our collective national interests. This triggered a leadership crisis within the Interim Government, as the Sako-led cabinet refused to step down. In June, the Ambazonia Restoration Council impeached Ayuk Tabe for "treasonous misconduct", and declared that a proper change of leadership would be initiated in three months. The Ambazonia Governing Council threw its support behind Ayuk Tabe and in August it formally allied itself with the Ayuk Tabe-led faction of the IG. Despite the imprisonment and the infighting within the Interim Government, Ayuk Tabe was still considered more influential than Sako. In July 2020, Cameroonian officials met with Ayuk Tabe and other members of his cabinet to discuss a ceasefire. When asked about his conditions for a ceasefire, Ayuk Tabe listed three; that the ceasefire be announced by President Paul Biya, that the Cameroonian military would pull out of the Anglophone regions, and a general amnesty for separatists.
