2001-present
Repression of the group increased significantly in 2001 when the organization was declared illegal and clashes with police at a demonstration resulted in multiple deaths. As a result, multiple international offices and branches of the SCNC have opened and engaged in political activities. In 2001 a group of exile-SCNC-members founded a so-called "South Cameroon's Embassy" in the German town of Frankfurt. The group boycotted the 2002 municipal elections in Cameroon and the 2004 presidential election. The government has continued with "arbitrary and unlawful" detention of members, often with mass arrests at peaceful gatherings (like one in 2007 while members of the group were trying to hold a press conference).
In 2006, a faction formally declared the Republic of Ambazonia and a military wing known as the Southern Cameroon Peoples Organization (SCAPO) begun activity. In 2007, this group claimed responsibility for an attack on the Cameroon military in Bakassi.
International recognition remained limited although the group became part of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization in 2006. In 2009, however, the African Union (AU), with a large push from Muammar Gaddafi, began considering efforts regarding the SCNC call for independence. However, in late 2009, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights rejected the SCNC's petition and slowed the efforts by the group in the AU.
The 2012 Amnesty International Report on Cameroon found that the security forces continue to disrupt SCNC activities. In February 2011, Chief Ayamba Ette Otun was arrested while traveling through the country. He was released soon afterwards without charge. In October 2011, a meeting in Buea was disrupted and 50 members were arrested and released without charge days later.
Read more about this topic: Southern Cameroons National Council