In 2017, the leading Ambazonian nationalist movements led by the Southern Cameroons National Council, which hold "de facto" control over the interior of the territory, regrouped under the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF). On the 46th independence anniversary October 1, 2017, SCACUF Chairman Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe proclaimed the restoration of Ambazonian independence from the defunct Cameroon federation. The Cameroonian government stated that the declaration had no legal weight, and on November 30, 2017 declared war against Ambazonian nationalists. The ensuing war is known as the Anglophone Crisis in the Cameroons. On 5 January 2018 Sisiku Julius AyukTabe and his aides were abducted from an Abuja hotel in an international conspiracy and transported to Yaounde where the leaders were levied political charges, tried in a military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment. Subsequent efforts by Cameroon to divide Ambazonian nationalists through the imprisoned former leader Julius Ayuk Tabe precipitated the 2019 Ambazonian leadership crisis and fomented greater resolve for independence which is manifested in boycotted presidential polls and parliamentary elections in Ambazonia and as well as bipartisan advocacy by the United States Senate for unconditional talks.