# Ambazonia fighters overrun a gendarmerie as Biya's eighth term begins
> Separatists stormed the Belo Brigade in the North-West, killing the commander and a gendarme and seizing weapons — the deadliest assault in months, with the 92-year-old Biya re-installed and 48 dead in election protests

**Meta:** type: story · date: 2026-06-10 · heads: ما الذي تعطّل, كيف تنتهي الحروب فعلاً · 7 takes · 3 lenses · 6 regions

## Summary

[Cameroon](/ar/entity/cameroon)'s Anglophone war flared as President [Paul Biya](/ar/entity/paul-biya) began an eighth term. In June 2026 [Ambazonian](/ar/entity/ambazonia) separatists overran the Belo Gendarmerie Brigade in the North-West Region, killing brigade commander Sahok Martial and gendarme Ambassa Djona and seizing rifles, ammunition and body armour — one of the deadliest assaults on government forces in months. It follows separate December 2025 and January 2026 attacks that killed 23, mostly women and children, in Wowo and Gidado. The 92-year-old [Paul Biya](/ar/entity/paul-biya), in power since 1982, was declared winner of the October 2025 election by the Constitutional Council; the disputed result and crackdown on supporters of runner-up Issa Tchiroma Bakary left at least 48 dead. Analysts say Biya enters the term with no strategy for the [twin](/ar/n/cameroon-biya-vp-succession) Anglophone-jihadist crises.

## By the numbers

- 2 — gendarmes killed in the June 2026 Belo Brigade assault.
- 48+ — killed in protests after Biya's disputed October 2025 win.
- 23 — killed (mostly women and children) at Wowo and Gidado, Dec 2025-Jan 2026.
- 1982 — year Biya took power; he is now 92 and serving an eighth term.
- 0 — countries recognising Ambazonia's independence.

## Why it matters

A separatist force capable of overrunning a gendarmerie and arming itself from the spoils shows the Anglophone insurgency intact eight years on. With [Paul Biya](/ar/entity/paul-biya) re-installed under a contested vote, no succession plan, and 48 dead in the crackdown, Cameroon faces deepening instability on two fronts and a leadership vacuum at the top.

## What to watch

- Whether separatist attacks on security posts escalate after Belo.
- Biya's succession and any VP appointment given his age.
- Fallout from the contested election and Tchiroma's opposition.
- Spillover with the Boko Haram threat in the Far North.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### unlabelled
- **Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect — Cameroon** (United States, en) — GCR2P's Cameroon page — the atrocity record for the Anglophone crisis, documenting separatist and security-force abuses in the North-West and South-West, the baseline behind the Belo assault and the wider toll.
  Source: https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/cameroon/
- **Al Jazeera** (Qatar, en) — 
  Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/27/biya-declared-victor-of-cameroon-election-why-deadly-protests-broke-out
- **International Crisis Group** (Belgium, en) — 
  Source: https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon
- **The Conversation** (South Africa, en) — 
  Source: https://theconversation.com/cameroons-conflict-is-part-of-a-bigger-trend-negotiations-are-losing-ground-to-military-solutions-261697
- **Wikipedia — Anglophone Crisis** (Global, en) — 
  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglophone_Crisis

### Anglophone / pro-Southern Cameroons
- **Cameroon Concord** (Cameroon, en) — Anglophone outlet's account of the Belo Brigade assault: separatists overran the compound, killed commander Sahok Martial and gendarme Ambassa Djona, and seized rifles, ammunition and body armour — framed as a separatist operational success.
  > "Ambazonia rebels overran the Belo Gendarmerie Brigade, killing the commander and a gendarme and seizing weapons and bulletproof vests."
  Source: https://www.cameroon-concord.com/southern-cameroons/ambazonia-rebels-kill-two-gendarmes-belo-brigade-assault

### security analysis / twin insurgencies
- **Jamestown Foundation** (United States, en) — Reads Cameroon as caught between the Anglophone separatists and Boko Haram in the Far North, arguing Biya's eighth term brings no political or military strategy to resolve either, so both crises are likely to deepen.
  > "Cameroon is rattled by twin insurgencies amid the presidential elections."
  Source: https://jamestown.org/cameroon-rattled-by-twin-insurgencies-amid-presidential-elections/

## Across the graph
- Related: [[cameroon-biya-vp-succession]]
- Entities: Cameroon Ambazonia, Cameroon, Ambazonia, Paul Biya

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/cameroon-ambazonia-belo-attack-2026