[7] Following the arrest of the Ayuk Tabe cabinet in January 2018 in Nigeria, Samuel Ikome Sako was elected the acting president of the Interim Government.
[8] His presidency saw attempts to unite the separatist camp under one roof (notably the creation of the Southern Cameroons Liberation Council in April 2019[9]), but faced criticism for alleged incompetence, divisiveness and misappropriation of funds.
While the document recognized the Sako cabinet for its sincere efforts, it claimed that it was ultimately not fit to continue;[6] Considering that despite all efforts by well-meaning Ambazonians responding to my appeals to keep the Interim Government afloat by accommodating the caretaker cabinet while these issues of infighting in the struggle involving grave improprieties both in the management of material and human resources are sorted out, 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.
It is incumbent on me as a servant-leadership fiduciary to bring redress to the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonians, to their struggle and their nation, from their slow descent into a footnote of our own history.
[15] On September 10, 2022, long-term IG spokesperson Chris Anu (brother of deceased separatist general Lekeaka Oliver and former Sako loyalist) declared himself President of Ambazonia.
[18][19] By late 2023, researcher Alex Purcell argued that the leadership crisis involved various infighting groups, though the inter-rebel clashes were mainly fuelled by the conflict between "two pairs of protagonists", namely "Sako/Anu" and "Ayaba Cho/Nyih": Roughly ten major militias supported Sako and/or Anu, while Ayaba Cho and his Vice President Julius Nyih were mainly backed by the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF).
[25] By 2023, researchers Gordon Crawford and Maurice Beseng argued that the division within the Ambazonian exile leadership was a major obstacle to any further peace negotiations,[26] a view shared by Alex Purcell.
[20] The leadership crisis resurfaced in mid-2021, when pro-Ayuk Tabe AGovC announced an alliance with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a Biafran independence movement.
[29] Sako's impeachment by the Restoration Council in February 2022 coincided with an escalation of infighting on the ground, as the ADF had already begun to fracture.
[20] By 2023, the infighting among the exile leadership and the protracted nature of the insurgency had dimmed support for a continued armed separatist campaign among civilians in the war zone.