2, February 2018
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Mass graves located in Mamfe 0
The Cameroon military will soon be answering for its crimes in Manyu Division following its actions in that region. It is now emerging that after the government’s military operation in Manyu Division, many residents of the Division’s leading city are talking of mass graves in and around the city. Cameroon Concord News Group West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek, who is currently in Mamfe, has gathered that there is a huge mass grave behind the former Council Office which is located just in front of deep valley.
Residents of the area have been advising our correspondent of the eerie sounds and cries of young men being beaten as the military sought to check the “Odeshi Boys” who were chopping down army soldiers sent from Yaounde to come and quell the rebellion in Mamfe.
“We used to see many young men being dragged to that location by angry soldiers. The boys were being maltreated and despite their plea that they were not responsible for the killing of army soldiers, government troops beat them up like animals. I know that many have been killed and dumped behind the former council office located on the way to Banya. I am prepared to testify whenever the international community comes to investigate the crimes committed by the soldiers,” a resident of Mamfe, who elected anonymity, said.
“The army is supposed to protect civilians, but when the troops came here, they beat up everybody for a crime that was committed by a few people. We do not even know those who have been killing the soldiers, but each time that happens, soldiers go on a rampage. They have completely destroyed Kembong and other surrounding villages and this makes it hard for us to go to our farms and send our children to school. It is like they are instead helping to enforce ghost town operations here,” the angry resident of Mamfe added, stressing that “government has to change its strategy. We would not be in this mess if the government had seen things differently.”
“The government does not even seem to see the folly in its actions. Intimidating and killing civilians makes it hard for the civilians to work with the police or gendarmes. For any real security to return to the environment, the government must consider the local population as its ally instead of its enemy,” he stressed.
There are also reports that there are other mass graves on the way to Eshobi, a little town some 40km from Mamfe town where government troops had set up camps, giving the impression that they wanted to construct the road. Many residents are today accusing the government of employing that strategy to hide its evil deeds in the area.
Residents of villages in Manyu Division are still bitter about the military action against them. They accuse the soldiers of having stolen their cocoa, coffee and petrol as they swept through those villages in their search for the young and determined fighters who actually gave the soldiers a run for their money.
It is alleged that huge bags of cocoa and coffee are being stocked at the Besongabang military camp and some soldiers are using this produce to make some fast money. Besides using the conflict as an excuse to enrich themselves, army soldiers are stopping business people from plying their trade in the region. Many rice exporters are being asked to give more than CFAF 2,000,000 as bribe for them to carry their products to Nigeria and this is done with the knowledge of the top military officials in the region. This is not only robbing the people of their revenue, it is also rendering many young men unemployed and these young men are those who are swelling the ranks of the dangerous fighters.
Meanwhile, the fighting in Southern Cameroons has intensified following the extradition of the Ambazonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, to Yaounde. Many young Southern Cameroonians have stepped up attacks on soldiers and gendarmes in a bid to express their frustration and anger.
Two gendarmes were attacked on Thursday in the North Western town of Mbingo by masked men, who shot the uniformed officers point blank, killing the male officer on the spot. The female officer is struggling for her life in the town’s main hospital.
In Bangem, a town in the Southwest region of the country, Amba Tigers have been fighting running battles with Cameroon’s military in the city’s downtown core where it is reported that an ELECAM official has been killed alongside some army soldiers. Unconfirmed reports indicate that more than four people have been killed in Bangem since the Tigers showed up to carry revenge attacks against army soldiers following the extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe who has become the incontestable poster child of the Southern Cameroons struggle.
It has also been reported that civilians in the town of Bangem are heading out of the town in large numbers to surrounding villages in a bid to seek refuge from army soldiers who have been attacking and killing unarmed and innocent civilians.
Other towns such Pinyin and Batibo in the Northwest region have also witnessed clashes between Ambazonian fighters and government troops. The increasing attacks had been predicted by many analysts and politicians who had posited that the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe would only exacerbate things as more people would be radicalized.
Many international observers are calling on the government of Cameroon to use this moment to smoke the pipe of peace as military violence and intimidation have not produced the results the government had expected. They contend that the government must change its strategy as the current one is gradually pulling the country towards a bloody civil war that is unnecessary.
It should be recalled that the government of Cameroon which is stuck in the past is using old tactics that had been employed in the 60s against French Cameroon freedom fighters popularly known as Maquisards in the pious hope that the Southern Cameroons population will submit to its will.
Critics point out that it has unfortunately failed to understand that times have changed. People are more educated today and the existence of the Internet have made it hard for such tactics to produce the desired results. Besides, with a huge and prosperous Southern Cameroons Diaspora, it will be hard for the government of Cameroon to obtain an outright victory.
The Diaspora is propping up efforts of the young and determined fighters who sincerely hold that with a little luck they can successfully bring the government of Cameroon to the negotiating table or get Southern Cameroons out of the mess in which short-sighted politicians like Muna and Foncha had dumped the region.
The Southern Cameroons Diaspora will continue to destabilize Cameroon for a long time if the government does not make permanent dialogue a way of life in a country that was hastily stitched together by the United Nations. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is rich and it has successfully transformed marginalization into a huge opportunity.
The government therefore stands to gain if it changes its policies to recognize the Diaspora as a strategic partner in the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.
Mr. Biya and his government must now embrace dialogue as the ideal way to pull the country from the brink. From reactions obtained following the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe, it is obvious that more blood will continue to flow, as Southern Cameroonians are determined to follow through with their threat of splitting the country.
By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe
2, February 2018
Joshua Osih: The Compromise Candidate 0
Over the last two years, Cameroon’s political future has been very uncertain, especially as the current political elite is constituted mainly of people who are over 75 years. For many Cameroonians, this is very concerning, especially as more than 70% of the country’s population is between 20 and 50 years old.
But one of the greatest challenges facing the country today is that of holding the country together. The country’s unity is under threat. Over the last two years, Cameroon has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The Anglophone crisis has revealed the inadequacies of the current political system and the divisions within the country are clearly pointing the country in the wrong direction. These divisions are threatening the very foundation on which this beautiful country has been built.
The Anglophone minority is threatening to leave the union on grounds that it has been characterized by injustice, corruption, marginalization and abuse of human rights. Months of street demonstrations in early 2017 only resulted in violent clashes, with government troops killing Anglophone demonstrators.
Matters came to a head in the later part of 2017, with Anglophone fighters taking on army soldiers. The consequences of this fighting have been unbelievable. The death toll has been high on both sides and the end is unfortunately not in sight, as the government remains steadfast in its logic of winning the war through military violence and at all cost.
The crisis has not only revealed how politically vulnerable the country is, it has also demonstrated that a new political class is supposed to emerge if Cameroon, the once stable nation, has to preserve that attribute that has made it a special country on the African continent. The country’s dual colonial heritage has always made it to stand out and this beauty is under threat as the conflict between Anglophones and the State plays out on the streets and jungles of former West Cameroon.
While Anglophones are right in their fight against political and economic marginalization, there is a growing consensus that there is a huge governance problem that needs emergency action. The country lacks modern infrastructure. Its roads have become death traps. Its hospital have been reduced to consultation clinics and the quality of education that inspired hope in millions of Cameroonians has declined over the last twenty years to ridiculous levels.
Today, human rights abuses are rampant. The courts have lost the people’s respect. The judiciary is at the beck and call of the executive branch of government and this is making it hard for Cameroonians – both Anglophones and Francophones – to get the justice they need in their own country.
Cameroonians in general are looking forward to meaningful political change. The current political leaders have fallen short of the people’s glorious expectations. The ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), has monopolized power for more than five decades and there is nothing to show for it. The arrogance of government ministers and CPDM parliamentarians has been the subject of many discussions ever since the Anglophone crisis started. And this is causing many people to take a look at different strategies that can help the country rid itself of the ruling party which is widely considered as a crime syndicate.
But it is not only the political scene that is begging for improvement. The country’s economy has been melting down at an alarming rate and this has been exacerbated by the escalating corruption that has made life unbearable for millions of Cameroonians. Cameroon’s economy has contracted over the last decade and this contraction is bound to continue, especially as the country is mired in multiple conflicts. The Anglophone crisis is already swallowing huge amounts of financial resources that could have been invested to transform the lives of many young Cameroonians and this situation is very likely to continue as the government refuses to call for an inclusive and sincere dialogue that most believe can deliver better results. In the North, Boko Haram is maiming and killing innocent Cameroonians and this threat is also affecting the country’s economy.
Over the years, unemployment has become an issue in Cameroon. Unemployment is blighting the lives of many Cameroonians as a resulted of long years of mismanagement and corruption. Today, many young Cameroonians prefer to look outwards as their country has failed to harness their potential. Poverty –generated by the ruling party – has robbed Cameroonians of their dignity. Their desperation can be seen on their faces. The people of Cameroon need change. They need someone who can inspire hope in them. Someone who understands their plight and is driven by a strong feeling of patriotism. This has been the missing ingredient in the entire political game for the last thirty years.
But all hopes are not lost. A new political class is gradually emerging and Joshua Osih, the smart, bilingual and patriotic Cameroonian who understands the people’s plight has finally thrown his cap into the ring. After having served for long as vice-president and parliamentarian of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Mr. Osih believes that this is the right time to help pull the country out of the political and economic doldrums.
His candidacy in the upcoming presidential election comes as a relief to many young Cameroonians who clearly hold that it is time to walk away from the ineffective and inefficient gerontocracy that has brought pain and death to many Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians hold that the country needs younger hands to transform the country’s economic and political landscape and Joshua Osih has a safe pair of hands.
It is widely believed that his understanding of both Francophone and Anglophone cultures makes him the ideal candidate for the post of president in a country that might implode if the right person does not step in. His moderate stance on many issues has earned him the respect of the entire nation.
Joshua Osih’s time has come. He is being considered as the comprise candidate even by Anglophones who have clearly demonstrated their frustration with the Yaounde government. Cameroon needs to heal and only someone with Joshau Osih’s temperament and charisma will be able to help the country walk away from its ugly past.
Born on 9 December 1968, Joshua Osih is the first Anglophone Cameroonian to serve as a Parliamentarian in Douala in the Littoral region. Besides being a politician, he is the chairman of Camport PLC in Cameroon, a successful business that has made many to think that he is the right man to lead Cameroon into a prosperous and peaceful future.
A Cameroon Concord News Group Production