Monthly Archives: January 2017

Consortium rubbishes Biya’s national commission to promote bilingualism

24, January 2017

Consortium rubbishes Biya’s national commission to promote bilingualism 1

The two interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, have rejected the National Commission to promote Bilingualism created by presidential decree saying it is an attempt to rubbish the integrity and legitimacy of “ongoing winning West Cameroon Struggle”

The interim leaders, Tapang Ivo Tanku and Mark Bara said, “By every logical implication, the decree is of bad faith. It is a lame walk to promote equality in the use of English and French languages and showcase the numerous cultures he seeks to present to his commission.”

According to a release of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which has gone viral on social media, the problem of an Anglophone has never been language but marginalization in areas like ENAM, ENS, EMIA, ENSET, CUSS and recently CENAJES in Bamenda where only two Anglophones were admitted in 132 candidates.

To the leaders, creating another Commission will just add to numerous others which have never worked, they cited CONAC which according to them has been a wasted body because even those who have embezzled are promoted the next day. They also said until the banned Consortium leaders are released ghost town will continue till February 23, 2017.

Cameroun Info.Net

PAUL BIYA’S COMMISSION ON BILINGUALISM: THE END TIMES OF A FAILED UNION

24, January 2017

PAUL BIYA’S COMMISSION ON BILINGUALISM: THE END TIMES OF A FAILED UNION 1

The non-respect of the bilingual, bijural and bicultural character of Cameroon presented by the Anglophone Consortium of Civil Society associations was one among a plethora proofs that a supposed union that was contemplated in 1961 between the Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun had failed.   The Consortium in taking this position was merely conveying the position of a majority of the people of the Southern Cameroons who alone voted in a plebiscite to attain independence by joining the Republic of Cameroun in Federal Union founded on the equality of the two states.

Whereas the non-violability of the federal character of the country was enshrined in article 47 of the supposed federal constitution, other provisions of the constitutions protected the bijural, bicultural and bilingual nature of the federation;  re-enforcing the sacrosanct character of this inviolability clause.   History will hold Babatoura Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya responsible for their treasonable conduct in destroying this fundamental basis on which this experiment was anchored.

Southern Cameroonians are justified in holding firmly that with the collapse of the purported federation, the bilingual, bijural and bicultural character of the country, and a return in 1984 of East Cameroon to its name and identity at independence on January 1960, the putative union was dead.  They were entitled as a matter of international law, to regain their own identity at independence on October 1, 1961.

The actions by Paul Biya in disbanding the Consortium, kidnapping its leaders and other significant Southern Cameroon leaders and charging them on spurious politically motivated charges before a Francophone court-martial for presenting the very grievances which he has trivialized by decreeing a so-called National Commission on Bilingualism are to say the least infantile and laughable.  Not only are the Consortium Leaders, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr Neba Fontem along with Mancho Bibixy, Hon Justice Chief Paul Ayah, Mola Njoh Litumbe and hundreds of Southern Cameroonians still in detention, the perpetration of  widespread and systemic crimes against humanity and genocide of the Southern Cameroons is ongoing with impunity.

In this situation, the question may be asked, for what purpose is a so-called Commission on bilingualism wrapped in the blood of Southern Cameroonians when there is an internet blockade of the territory, egregious crimes and violations against armless civilians, the continuing detention and trial of its citizens?  Of what importance we may ask, is a supposed decree creating a consultative Commission on bilingualism when Mr. Paul Biya the supposed guarantor of the Constitution has over the past 34 years failed to enforce the Constitutional provision on bilingualism.  So therefore, in the estimation of Mr. Biya a right which the Constitution has failed to afford at the detriment of Southern Cameroonians will be obtained by a mere decree?

So for Mr. Paul Biya has come to the conclusion that Southern Cameroonians have become so malleable, gullible and dispensable to the extent that not satisfied with the crimes that have claimed the lives of many, the impunity with which these crimes are perpetrated, he, through this ridiculous commission intends to move a step further in dancing on the graves of the slaughtered and spitting in the mouths of the kidnapped and the detained?.

This decree is a belated admission of failure and a public confession of Mr. Paul Biya’s treasonable violation of his own Constitution over 34 years for which he should be arrested and prosecuted.

The so-called Commission established by decree is a nullity and of no legal value whatsoever because it cannot and will never attain the results which the failed Constitution failed to attain.  If anything, considered within the backdrop of the resistance of the Southern Cameroons against annexation and colonial rule, this decree along with the consistent pattern of crimes, systemic violations and the bastardization of our cultural values, this decree is one among many actions taken by Paul Biya to give effect to the end of the putative union as we know it.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Technical failure blamed for deadly helicopter crash in the Far North region

24, January 2017

Technical failure blamed for deadly helicopter crash in the Far North region 1

The Cameroon military has made public the final assessment of the helicopter crash in the Far North region late on Sunday.  Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that all four occupants – one brigadier-general, one colonel and two lieutenants – were killed in the accident that occurred at Madide, a village about 9 km from Bogo, Diamaré, Far North region.

A statement from the government confirmed our earlier report that it was a technical breakdown that caused the crash. The hypothesis of a Boko Haram attack has also been ruled out by the Yaounde regime. The officers were returning from a mission to supervise their troops on the ground, who are engaged against the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram at the time of the crash.

The bodies of the four victims, namely Brigadier General Jacob Kodji, Commander of the 4th Inter-Armed Military Region, Colonel Kameni Alphonse, Commander of the 4th Gendarmerie Region, Lieutenant Chinda Brice, Helicopter Pilot and Lieutenant Ngrassou Souloukna Basile, a copilot engineer, have all been placed at the morgue of the military hospital in Maroua and will be transported to base 101 in Yaoundé.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

 

Southern Cameroonians snub Biya, says only Consortium has legitimate authority

24, January 2017

Southern Cameroonians snub Biya, says only Consortium has legitimate authority 2

The civil disobedience campaign launched by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has entered its fourth day today Tuesday the 24th 2017. Southern Cameroonians are observing the ghost town in all localities in the Northwest and South West regions, where Internet services have been disconnected by La Republique du Cameroun since last Tuesday.

Our cream of reporters all over Southern Cameroons from Akwaya right down to Kumbo and from Isangele to Wum in Menchum say schools remained closed and no one is visible either in the streets or in the offices.  Commercial activity remained strongly paralyzed same as yesterday.

The interim leaders of the “Consortium” are expected to address Southern Cameroonians soonest and to extend the ghost town operation to other sectors that will hit the Francophone regime in Yaounde. Day-by-day, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is losing its grip on Southern Cameroons territory. We have been reliably informed that the Francophones intend to begin trial of Anglophone leaders today in Yaounde.

On Monday, the so-called government had invited teachers, parents, students and pupils to resume classes. The Francophone authorities reassured the population that their security would be guaranteed. Some pro Biya political elites and traditional leaders were involved to convince parents to accompany their children to school. On public radio, journalists announced the resumption of classes in several schools, particularly in bilingual and francophone schools. However, it is evidently clear that West Cameroonians have gotten enough from the Francophone political elites.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

Arrest of Lord Justice Ayah: Biya regime says judge did not honor a summon

24, January 2017

Arrest of Lord Justice Ayah: Biya regime says judge did not honor a summon 0

The Francophone government has claimed that Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine who also moonlights as President of the People’s Action Party (PAP) did not honor a summon from a judge who asked him to report to the Secretariat of Defense on 20th of January 2017.

The Supreme Court judge was arrested on Saturday January 21st at his home in Yaoundé and ferried by six armed men to the SED where he is still detained. The Francophone regime in Yaounde say Lord Justice Ayah is a chartered member of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), an organization now banned by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization.

Paul Ayah Abine was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2014. Before this appointment, persistent information declared him as the leader of the SCNC.  After being a Member of Parliament under the banner of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate from the Manyu constituency in the South West region in 2002, he resigned from the party in 2011. He created PAP and was a candidate for the last presidential election.

Within the CPDM, Paul Ayah is noted for his strong positions, usually rowing against the guidelines of the party’s hierarchy. In 2008 he opposed the constitutional revision that allowed President Paul Biya to run indefinitely in the presidential elections. In June 2006, he was one of the MPs who asked for an investigation into corruption against a cabinet minister, the late Augustin Frederic Kodock, who was then in charge of the Department of Agriculture.

By Sama Ernest

Biya signs Bilingual decree amid tension and ghost town

24, January 2017

Biya signs Bilingual decree amid tension and ghost town 0

The 83 year-old dictator signed a decree yesterday creating what his Francophone regime calls the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism. For the first time in his 34 years in power, a presidential decree was made public in both English and French. The decree is in line with an empty promise, the national chairman of the ruling CPDM made on the 31st of December 2016.

Biya stated that the commission will have 15 members who will have to report to him every 6 months. With pressure mounting on Yaounde over the Anglophone problem, the General Manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television, Charles Ndongo spent time analyzing the decree which the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society have dismissed as a non event.

Ghost town operations will continue today Tuesday the 24th of January throughout Southern Cameroons territory. The plan by Government for school to resume in the North West and South West regions has failed to yield positive outcome after both regions observed the fourth ghost town since last January 9, 2017

The minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Massena Ngale Bibehe on behalf of Prime Minister had signed a release calling on all students and pupils to go to school come Monday which is already the third week in Second term. The release also urged parents to send their children to school. The government went as far as sending communiqués to be read several times in churches and used the State Media as major tool of propagating their views.

But the observation Monday in towns like Kumbo, Bamenda, Buea, Limbe, Tiko, and Kumba among others indicated that ghost town was successful in spite the arrest of trade Union leaders. Schools remained closed, vehicles were off streets and shops remained permanently shut down. Few Francophone students could be seen in bilingual schools in Buea but classes were not effective.

The governors of the North West and South West regions who had programmed an inspection tour in some schools cancelled their trips because of the ghost town owing to the fact that no student was on campus. The government is battling for school to resume before February 11 which could be an embarrassment for the 34 year old regime.

CAMCORDNEWS/CIN

Panic in Yaounde as Southern Cameroons ghost town records 100 per cent success

23, January 2017

Panic in Yaounde as Southern Cameroons ghost town records 100 per cent success 1

Day 1 of the three-day ghost town campaign in Southern Cameroons has recorded a 100 per cent success, thanks to the disconnection of internet and other social media which greatly angered West Cameroonians.  The interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society have reportedly lauded the response to the civil disobedience calls.  A highly placed Francophone government official was heard murmuring privately at the Prime Minister’s office earlier today that the CPDM government did not expect the civil disobedience action of this week to be that successful.

Cameroon Intelligence Report senior political commentator emphasized that the protest action is succeeding because of the Southern Cameroon youth’s determination and use of the social media.  Thirty-seven thousand West Cameroonians listened to a live broadcast by Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang on Face Book. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society has managed to attract a large response among even Francophone citizens in Daoula and Yaounde who are now clamoring for President Biya to step down for real dialogue to begin. Today’s success has motivated even militants of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to participate in further steps against the tyrannical regime that has ruined the country.

Last week, the so-called Minister of Secondary Education issued a statement for schools to resume in British Southern Cameroons. The call was ignored as all academic institutions in Southern Cameroons remain closed. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has said that the civil disobedience campaign will hold tomorrow Tuesday the 24th of January 2017.  All measures taken by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government to stifle the Anglophone revolution have been counter-productive. The shutting down of internet services and electricity supply has completely destroyed economic activities in Southern Cameroons with soldiers begging for food and water from the civilian population. The state daily newspaper, Cameroon Tribune attempted with a montage of photos to deceive international public opinion that schools have started in West Cameroon.

Francophone security officers have detained hundreds of Southern Cameroons activists including Barrister Agbor Nkongho Felix and Dr. Neba Fontem of the Consortium. The Yaounde regime has also arrested Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon in order to prevent Southern Cameroonians from publicly protesting against La Republique du Cameroun. Amnesty International and the African Human Rights Commission have both released a call for urgent action regarding the rapes, extra judicial killings and incommunicado detention of Southern Cameroons leaders.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is the most active West Cameroon group since its members began their public campaign against the government’s oppressive policies in several Anglophone towns last year. Wilfred Tassang has also lauded the response to the ghost town calls and observed that a “continuation of the policy will bring about even better results.”

The situation in the country would have been much better if the government would have listened to the voice of reason and allowed its policies and attitudes to be reviewed, instead of underestimating and ridiculing any Southern Cameroons leader. The government’s future and the unity of Cameroon are now put to the test. It will have to base its options on the broad rejection of the people of Southern Cameroons of its devastating policies.

By Rita Akana

Gambia: Former President Jammeh ‘emptied coffers’ before leaving

23, January 2017

Gambia: Former President Jammeh ‘emptied coffers’ before leaving 0

The Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh, who caused a political crisis in the African country before finally going into exile, has emptied the government’s treasury, plundering millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, says an aide to the country’s new president.

“Over two weeks, over 500 million dalasi (11 million dollars) were withdrawn” by Jammeh, Mai Fatty, an aide to President Adama Barrow, said in the Sengalese capital Dakar on Monday. “As we take over, the government of The Gambia is in financial distress… The coffers are largely empty,” he told reporters.

Long-time ruler Jammeh flew out of The Gambia on Saturday and headed for Equatorial Guinea, where he is expected to settle with his family. Before deciding to leave, he pushed the country to the brink of war by refusing to concede defeat in the presidential election held in December last year. The subsequent political crisis drew in mediators from regional countries, some of which were coping with crises of their own.

Those regional mediating countries also formed up a military force to force Jammeh out of power if he did not step down voluntarily. Jammeh clung to power even for some two days after his mandate expired despite the threat of the use of force but ultimately decided to go into exile. He had been in power since a coup in 1994.

A woman celebrates after hearing about the departure of former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, in Banjul, January 21, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The West African military force entered The Gambia on Sunday to provide security and allow Barrow, who has been staying in neighboring Senegal, to return to The Gambia, whose own military had sided with Jammeh. Barrow is eager to return “as soon as possible,” said his aide, warning that “the state of security in The Gambia is still fragile.”

According to Fatty, President Barrow wants the deployed West African military force to remain in The Gambia for the time being. “We want their mandate to be extended,” Fatty said, explaining that Barrow was waiting for personal assurances of loyalty from national security forces.

He said that after the full transfer of power, the new administration’s first priority will be to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of people who have fled the country in recent weeks fearing a violent escalation.

Presstv

Southern Cameroons Uprising: Strikes and ghost town must continue

23, January 2017

Southern Cameroons Uprising: Strikes and ghost town must continue 0

There are very urgent and compelling reasons why the strike action and resistance to the colonial rule and the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity to enforce it on the Southern Cameroons must continue and continue with more intensity. The collective punishment of Southern Cameroonians through the disconnection of internet facilities and electricity to ensure that the ongoing  elaborate genocide and crimes against humanity are no longer recorded and shown to the world; the arrests and charging of  Lawyer Felix Agbor Nkongho, the President of the  Consortium of   Civil Society Associations,  Dr Neba Fontem, the Secretary-General of the Consortium, Hon, Justice Paul Ayah, an Advocate General at the Supreme Court  and Mancho Bibixy a community activist, and  the programmed abduction and trial in a Military Court of many more Southern Cameroonians  in French and away from the territory of the Southern Cameroon is  a declaration of war warranting sustained resistance.

It is commonsense to venture a speculation that by now, even die heart Iscariot’s like Atanga Nji  have realized that the ongoing war aimed at exterminating Southern Cameroons instead of frightening the people to capitulate in fear, have rather emboldened the peoples’ resolve to unite and resist with their last energy. The people have comprehensively demonstrated that they will not succumb to perpetual enslavement through the blackmail of criminality, blood baying military, paramilitary and police bestiality.

Though the people have endured significant loss of life and limb, there are encouraging signs that the Southern Cameroons like the phoenix will emerge from this senseless invasion and slaughter a free, dignified and more united people. The people are more than ever unity in their resolve to attain their freedom no matter the sacrifices and no matter the costs. The time to put an end to the humiliations and criminality of annexation and colonial rule is now.

The collective punishment inflicted on the Southern Cameroons without distinction on political grounds and ethnic affinity has helped Southern Cameroonians to rediscover the blessings of unity among its citizens. Unity of purpose and action are the sole panacea towards securing our common existence and survival. For this purpose, the people of the Southern Cameroons have discovered strikes and ghost towns as a powerful weapon of resistance which the enemy cannot break.  Therefore the strike action and ghost towns called to reclaim our right to life, dignity, freedom and the pursuit of happiness within our own territory and survive on our good given resources must continue.

The voices and wailing of our children, women, mothers and boys and fathers as they are bludgeoned to death in cold blood dragged from the sanctity of our homes and streets will torment our individual and collective consciences if we do not pursue the cause of justice for which they gave their lives.  Let the strike proceed until all our people are freed and the blood of our loved ones accounted for. For it makes no sense to send our children to schools to be raped, killed and kidnapped to please a sanguinary despotic colonial regime.

Lest we forget, the genocidal forces deployed by La Republique du Cameroun to rape, maim, destroy and kill did not distinguish a Bafren person from a Banyangi or a Bangwa; a Moghamo from a Bakweri, an Oroko from a Banso, a CPDM militant from SDF. Rather the instructions to kill, rape, humiliate, and brutalize was aimed at indistinguishably on their common Southern Cameroons identity. Government Ministers and some Iscariots in Southern Cameroons have publicly congratulated themselves for the zeal with which they have executed these crimes against the unarmed people Southern Cameroonians.

Aggravating these criminal conduct, is the humiliating kidnapping and transfer our people to be tried and possibly executed by a Military Tribunal whose proceedings will be in French and whose outcome has already been made public by officials of La Republique from Governors to Ministers.  Under these circumstances, there is no reason for Southern Cameroonians to send their children to school to be raped and killed.  The internet and electricity blockade of the Southern Cameroons and the collective punishment of our people have comprehensively emphasized the divide between La Republique and the Southern Cameroons. The wound inflicted in these acts of bestiality may never heal and so the pathing path should have been negotiated and not at the cost of so much blood.

For the above reasons, the strike and ghosts towns are justified and should continue.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Anglophone Problem: Journalists defy CPDM censorship

23, January 2017

Anglophone Problem: Journalists defy CPDM censorship 1

The National Union of Cameroon Journalists has condemned The decision of the National Council For Media Communication On The Anglophone Problem. In an outing on January 21, 2017 Denis Nkwebo, the Unions National President enjoined all Journalists in Cameroon to disregard the decision by Peter Essoka who is the regulators President.

Denis Nkwebo writes “On 20 January 2017, the President of the National Communication Council (NCC), Peter Essoka, read a statement on CRTV, warning the media about how they deal with current events in Regions of the North-West and South-West.”

Among other things, the communiqué prohibits the media from addressing issues related to federalism and secession. The outing of the president of the NCC intervenes after several measures of restriction of the freedoms, in particular the suspension of the Internet in the Northwest and the Southwest.

The National Union of Journalists of Cameroon, (SNJC) calls on all media and Journalists to disregard the injunctions of Mr. Essoka Peter, once again condemning the cynicism of the NCC, to consider the injunctions as null and void and of no effect.

The SNJC invites the Cameroon media and Journalists to give a fair and equitable echo to all the opinions expressed by Cameroonian citizens on the issues of federalism and secession. The SNJC notes that the NCC and its President are no longer hiding to defend and implement the censorship imposed by the regime that subsidizes them.

The SNJC reserves the right to retaliate against Peter Essoka, the NCC and the government they serve.

SNJC asks the Fédipresse and the other media promoters to clarify their positions on the professional existence and legitimacy of the NCC.

Done at Douala on 21 January 2017 Denis Nkwebo President of the SNJC.

Cameroun Info.Net

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