Ambazonia Defence Forces

Ambazonia Defence Forces
Flag of Ambazonia
Founded 2017
Leadership
C.I.C Dr. Ayaba Cho Lucas[1]
Chairman of ADF Council Benedict Kuah[2]
Manpower
Active personnel 1,500 (according to the ADF)[3]
Related articles
History Anglophone Crisis

The Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) are the military forces of the State of Ambazonia, a self-declared independent state in the Anglophone region of Southern Cameroons, Cameroon. It is the "official" military wing of the Ambazonian separatist movement, and although other smaller, independent militias exist, they tend to cooperate closely with the ADF if not absorb into it altogether.[3]

The ADF has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Cameroonian Armed Forces in the Anglophone part of the country since September 2017.[2] It claims to have 3,500 soldiers under its command, spread across 60 bases across Southern Cameroons.[3] Numerically and materially inferior of their adversary, they rely on hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and raids, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain. The ADF aims to raise the cost of Cameroon's military presence in the region higher than the profits the country gets from there.[4] Cameroonian authorities have acknowledged that they have little control outside the cities in Southern Cameroons;[5] according to a foreign journalist who spent time with the ADF, this owes partly to the poor infrastructure in the region, making it hard for the army to pursue the guerrillas.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Is the Comander in Chief of the ADF’, Cameroon News Agency, Feb 4, 2018. Accessed Apr 19, 2018.
  2. 1 2 ADF Lands Ground Troops in Southern Cameroons, Declares War on LRC, Cameroon Journal, Sept 10, 2017. Accessed Apr 19, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Cameroon: I spent a week embedded with Anglophone armed separatists, RFI, Jun 14, 2018. Accessed Jun 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ 'This is a genocide': villages burn as war rages in blood-soaked Cameroon, The Guardian, May 20, 2018. Accessed Jun 1, 2018.
  5. ↑ 'Dirty war' ravages Cameroon's Buea region, Daily Nation, May 5, 2018. Accessed May 7, 2018.
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