Monthly Archives: September 2017

7, September 2017

Al Jazeera: Linguistic tensions boil over in Cameroon ⁰

Thousands of students, shopkeepers and staff in Cameroon have protested this week against what they claim is the marginalisation of the country’s English-speaking minority population. The so-called ghost-town protests in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, including the city of Bamenda in the north and the town of Buea in the southwest, which led to the closure of schools, shops and market stalls, are the latest in a series of actions launched in November 2016.

Initiated by teachers and lawyers, the protests have revolved around encouraging people to use absenteeism to challenge what many English-speaking citizens claim is the dominance of French in society. Thousands of students stayed away as schools resumed this week. Petrol stations and shops were also empty.

Many protesters called for full linguistic representation in schools, courts and in the government. Cameroon’s English-speaking citizens make up around 20 percent of the nation’s total population of almost 24 million. The rest of the country speaks French, which is the language of use for government business.

Activists in the Southwest Region of Ambazonia told Al Jazeera that a mass skipping of the first day of school – Monday, September 4 – was a success. “Some people think that parents are not sending their kids to school because of the militarisation of these two regions, but that’s not the case,” said a participant who wanted to remain anonymous.

“How do you want kids to go back to a system that we are protesting against, the system that we want cleaned? It’s a peaceful protest.” On Monday, pro-government newspapers, the Cameroon Tribune and L’essentiel du Cameroun, published front-page stories showing children attending school as normal.

Security forces were also deployed in the affected areas at the start of the week to ensure there was no repeat of last year’s violent protests which witnessed the use of live ammunition and tear gas by state security forces. Since protests began last year, the government has frequently cracked down on disorder in the Anglophone regions of the country.

President Paul Biya, in power for 35 years, ordered a series of arrests and shut down internet access for three months. Security forces have killed at least six people to date and arrested hundreds more. Last Friday, President Biya ordered the release of dozens of political activists in a move seen as an attempt to ease tensions. The UN has called for both sides to engage in constructive dialogue.

Source: Al Jazeera

7, September 2017

Battle of the Presidents: Biya expected to take on the Southern Cameroons leader in Far North visit ⁰

President Biya is planning a campaign visit to the Far North region in which he is expected to attack the interim leader of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council, Cameroon Concord News has learned from reliable sources in Yaounde. Our informants have also hinted that Etoudi intends to package the tour to appear as if the 85 year old leader’s trip to Maroua is to boost the morale of the joint Anglophone and Francophone troops combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

The date of the presidential visit has not yet been made public. However, a well-placed source who spoke to our correspondent in Yaounde said the visit may be staged in the month of October 2017. A lot of tongues have been wagging against Mr. Biya who has never been to this region three years after he declared the war against Boko Haram.

Biya is reportedly fighting for his political survival and travelling to the Far North region will provide him with a rare opportunity of signing a new pack with the huge electoral bastion in the region. With support for his party and leadership style facing a catastrophic decline in Southern Cameroons, the Maroua trip is aimed at convincing the French government of President Macron that he remains the right man for the job.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

7, September 2017

FIFA/CAF joint mission in La Republique ⁰

Officials of the world football governing body, FIFA and the Confederation of African Football, CAF are in La Republique du Cameroun. Their main mission is to put in place a Normalisation Committee to replace the former FECAFOOT Executive after the elections were declared null.

According to a brief programme published, the officials entered the French speaking country on Wednesday 6th of September 2017. Today, Thursday 7th of September, the team will consult with stakeholders in the domain of football in the country and eventually appoint members of the Normalisation Committee.

On Friday 8th the Committee shall be officially installed before the delegation leaves Cameroon on Friday 9th September. Football fans are very excited to see the faces that will be assigned the onerous task of organising fresh elections in FECAFOOT within the six month.

Since Wednesday the 23rd of August when FIFA Executive board decided to appoint a Normalisation Committee to manage FECAFOOT, Blaise Moussa the Secretary General has been handling the daily affairs of the Francophone dominated FA.

The Franccophone puzzle is not only centred around those to be appointed within the Normalisation Committee but most especially those who will eventually be voted into a new FECAFOOT executive bureau on the 28th of February 2018.

Source: CRTV

7, September 2017

Maroua: Boko Haram kills 3 in dawn ambush ⁰

Three people were killed in an attack attributed to Boko Haram last night in the small border town of Dzaba, in the Mayo Moskota Division in the Far North region of La Republique du Cameroun. Security officials operating within the area say 9 people including women and children are missing.

According to another community source, the missing persons were kidnapped by militants of the Nigerian Islamic sect. We also gathered that 48 businesses and homes were burnt down by Boko Haram assailants during the attack.

Amnesty International recently reported that Boko Haram has killed at least 158 civilians since April 2017 in Cameroon, in armed attacks and suicide bombings. This is four times more than in the first five months of the year.

This upsurge in attacks is occurring in a context where the Nigerian Islamic sect, which has paid allegiance to the organization of the Islamic state and is now called the Islamic Province in West Africa, was announced militarily weakened.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

6, September 2017

Boko Haram Crisis: Cholera spreading in Nigeria ⁰

Cholera is spreading fast through camps housing people displaced by Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Most deaths were recorded in Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of state capital Maiduguri, the epicenter of the extremist insurgency that has also destabilized neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

A UN report said more than 530 suspected cases of cholera had been registered by Tuesday – more than three times the number reported five days earlier.

Twenty-three people had died, it added, up from 11 reported on Aug. 31.

The outbreak began late last month, and aid workers had already warned that Nigeria’s rainy season could spread disease in already unsanitary displacement camps.

About 1.8 million people have abandoned their homes because of violence or food shortages during the conflict, UN agencies say.

Displaced families stand at the main gate of a camp for internally displaced people at Monguno district of Borno State on February 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

As well as Muna Garage, the nearby camps of Custom House, Ruwan Zafi and Bolori II also had cholera cases, and there were reports of outbreaks in the areas of Moguno and Dikwa, northeast and east of Maiduguri, the UN note said.

In Dikwa, 80 km (50 miles) from Maiduguri, there were 103 suspected cholera cases, 17 of which had been confirmed with a rapid screening test at the local hospital, but no outbreak had been officially declared.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection spread by contaminated food and water. It can be easily treated with oral rehydration solution if caught early, but the disease can kill within hours if left untreated.

The latest figures suggested a 4.3 percent fatality rate – well above the 1 percent rate that the World Health Organization rates as an emergency. The short incubation period of two hours to five days means the disease can spread with explosive speed.

(Source: Reuters)

6, September 2017

US ambassador to Cameroon is leaving in the middle of the Anglophone Crisis ⁰

French Cameroun dictator, Paul BIYA has granted a farewell audience to the outgoing U.S. Ambassador – Michael Stephen Hoza. Both personalities met at the Unity Palace on Wednesday 6 September 2017.

Speaking to reporters after the audience, Ambassador Stephen Hoza emphasised that the U.S. will prolong its partnership with Cameroon – “a country with a bright future”.

Stephen Hoza noted that he was “proud to say that the United States and Cameroon broadened cooperation in numerous areas, such as in security, politics, economics, health, education, and the environment- issues that were never felt by the local population.

The U.S. Diplomat’s three-year stay in Cameroon significantly strengthened bilateral relations with CPDM sources claiming U.S. commercial investment rose from approximately US$300 million to over US$2 billion.

In his normal pro government pattern, Ambassador Stephen Hoza commended President Paul BIYA’s consolidation of peace and stability, which are keys to the attainment of an emerging economy. He also underlined the Head of State’s leadership in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorist group, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, and his handling of the refugee crisis in the Central African Republic.

Culled from the Presidency of the Republic

6, September 2017

Crop-eating army worm hits Northern Cameroon, Worsening Food Crisis ⁰

Crop-eating fall army worms have attacked nearly 37,000 hectares of maize in northern Cameroon, officials said on Wednesday, accentuating an already dire humanitarian crisis provoked by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram’s cross-border insurgency.

More than two dozen African nations have reported outbreaks of the invasive Central American variety of the pest, which is harder to detect and eradicate than its African counterpart.

They have now spread to all of Cameroon’s 10 administrative regions, though maize crops in the Extreme North region have only been heavily affected since July, Deputy Agriculture Minister Clementine Ananga Messina told Reuters.

“The army worm attack endangers the entire maize sector and is creating serious risks of food insecurity, because it’s the most commonly grown cereal in Cameroon,” she said. The Extreme North region bordering Chad and Nigeria has been hit hard by Boko Haram, whose campaign of violence and cross-border attacks has sent more than 93,000 Nigerians fleeing into Cameroon where some 235,000 people have also been displaced.

Across the Lake Chad region around 1.5 million people are confronting a food crisis, according to the United Nations. Cameroonian authorities have launched an action plan to fight against the infestation, but so far pesticides have failed to contain it.

“There are no effective means to fight armyworm currently existing in Cameroon,” said Agriculture Ministry expert Andre Marie Elombat Assoua. “The chemical products now being used by farmers are ineffective and too expensive.”
Around 12 million Cameroonians, more than half of the national population, regularly consume maize. It is also an important ingredient for the central African nation’s breweries and in the production of feed for livestock. Though the fall armyworm prefers maize, it also attacked sorghum and millet, two of Cameroon’s other staple crops, earlier this year.

Source: Reuters

6, September 2017

US: Thousands protest against rescinding ‘dreamer’ immigration program ⁰

Mass protests have been held in cities across the United States after President Donald Trump canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protected young immigrants.

The DACA program allowed nearly 800,000 young men and women, often called “dreamers”, who had entered the country as illegal immigrants, to stay in the US.

After Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement on Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators held protests in different cities including Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Washington DC, New York City and elsewhere.

Students from South Mountain High School walk out of class in Phoenix, Sept. 5, 2017. They were protesting the elimination of the program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. (Photo via The Republic)

In Chicago, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Their demonstration forced the diversion of traffic from an entrance to an expressway.

In Los Angeles, some protesters were holding signs, denouncing Trump’s decision, while some others told their stories.

One woman said her family had come to the US when she was seven to escape violence in Guatemala, but now, “Where do I go from here?” she asked.

“We went through so much things that a 7-year-old should never have to go,” said Yamilex, who asked to only be identified by her first name.

In Manhattan, where activists gathered on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower, police arrested at least 34 protesters, a New York Police Department spokesperson told CBS News.

A protester is arrested for blocking traffic at the Brooklyn Bridge at a rally to defend DACA, on September 5, 2017 in New York. (Photo by AFP)

“I don’t consider Mexico my home,” said a woman, 24, who came to the US from Mexico when she was 4. “Home is here in New York.”

In Denver, high school students took to the streets, holding signs in support of DACA. They later joined a larger demonstration downtown.

“I started crying because I don’t think it’s fair that people think that DACA is something wrong when it’s not,” said Maria Daniela Lopez, a DACA applicant.

Hours before Sessions announced the decision, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the White House, shouting, “We are America” and “We want education. Down with deportation.”

They then marched toward the Department of Justice, where the announcement was made, and later to the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and began a sit-in.

Pro-DACA protesters march away from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, September 5, 2017. (Photo via slate.com)

Trump’s administration said the move was necessary to show respect for the country’s immigration laws, and said nobody covered by the program would be affected before March 5.

Trump ordered a phased-out dismantling of DACA that gives a gridlocked Congress six months to decide the fate of these immigrants.

Source: Presstv

6, September 2017

President Putin says Trump is not my bride, and I’m not his groom ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to comment on domestic American politics and to criticize his US counterpart, taking a jab at Donald Trump by saying “He is not my bride, and I’m not his groom.”

Putin made the remarks at a news conference on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in China on Tuesday, answering a question whether the Russian leader was “disappointed” in Trump and in the improvement of Moscow-Washington relations amid a simmering diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Dismissing the question as “very naive,” Putin chastised the reporter and said, “He is not my bride, neither am I his bride or groom,” referring to the US president.

“Trump is guided by the national interests of his country, and I by mine. I very much hope that we will be able, as the current US president has said, to reach some compromise in resolving bilateral and international problems,” the Russian president added.

Putin also declined to comment on the prospect of the US president being impeached, saying it would be “absolutely wrong” to discuss US domestic politics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a news conference after BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China, on September 5, 2017.

During the conference, the Russian president censured as “uncivil,” the recent US decision to expel Russian diplomats from a consulate in San Francisco with just two days’ notice.

“The Americans had the right to reduce the number of our diplomatic offices. It is another matter altogether that they have done this in way that was absolutely uncivil. This does not do reflect well on our American partners,” he said.

“It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among part of the American establishment,” Putin noted.

The Russian president further called the shuttering of some Russian diplomatic facilities in the US “an obvious violation of property rights” and said that, “for starters,” he would instruct the Foreign Ministry to challenge the decision in court.

Ties between US and Russia have deteriorated especially since the US intelligence community concluded that Russia meddled in last year’s election to help Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The Kremlin has verily dismissed the allegations of interference in the US elections.

In December 2016, then US president Barack Obama ordered out 35 Russian diplomats and closed down two embassy summer houses over reports of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Putin on Ukrainian conflict

At the Tuesday conference, Putin also warned the US against supplying weapons to Kiev, arguing that the decision would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Putin said arming Ukraine will possibly prompt pro-Russia forces to expand their campaign, stressing that the move would not change the situation and would only add to the number of casualties.

“The delivery of weapons to a conflict zone doesn’t help peacekeeping efforts, but only worsens the situation,” he said. “Such a decision would not change the situation but the number of casualties could increase.”

The Russian president expressed alarm that the self-declared republics in eastern Ukraine have enough weapons to manage any possible war with Ukraine.

Putin also said he would submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council and propose the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine.

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a grenade launcher during fighting with pro-Russia forces in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 30, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine after people in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for unification with Russia in March 2014. The West brands the unification as annexation of the territory by Russia. The US and its allies in Europe also accuse Russia of having a major hand in the crisis in eastern Ukraine, an allegation denied by Moscow.

The crisis has left over 10,000 people dead and more than a million others displaced, according to the United Nations.

In September 2014, the government in Kiev and the pro-Russia forces signed a ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to halt the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern regions, collectively known as the Donbass.

The warring sides also inked another truce deal, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Russia, Germany, and France. Since then, however, sporadic fighting has occurred, with the parties blaming each other for initiating the violations.

Culled from Presstv

5, September 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Bui SDO’s office set on fire by protesters ⁰

Southern Cameroons protesters have set fire on an administrative building in Kumbo, the chief town in the Bui County. Cameroon Concord News learnt that the Senior Divisional Officer for Bui, Mooh Simon Émile was seriously wounded.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) dated 4 September 2017, a gendarme opened fire in self-defense against an attack that came while investigating a narcotics problem. The officer shot and killed one of his assailants who possessed homemade weapons, noted Joseph Beti Assomo.

Southern Cameroonians dissatisfied with the situation set ablaze the SDO’s office. Military reinforcements were carried out. The Secretary of State for Defense (SED) Jean Baptiste Bokam announced that he has suspended the Commander of the brigade concerned.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News