Monthly Archives: March 2018

15, March 2018

Yaounde: Biya to pursue crackdown on Southern Cameroonians ⁰

Cameroon’s long-ruling President Paul Biya today convoked a rare cabinet meeting and vowed to push ahead with a military crackdown on English-speaking separatists in the francophone country.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands and the anglophone minority complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

“The efforts (of the security forces) must be continued, especially to ensure a return of normal economic and social activity,” Biya told the first cabinet meeting held since 2015.

On October 1, separatists declared two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”, marking a turning point for the country’s English-speaking minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population.

Biya dispatched troops, combat helicopters and armoured vehicles to root out the dissidents, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

At least 28 soldiers have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP tally, and two state employees have been kidnapped.

The civilian death toll remains unclear, as non-governmental organisations and independent media are barred from the area.

Though the original Ambazonia leaders have dissociated themselves from militant offshoots — they claim their struggle is peaceful — there are a growing number of attacks against the government.

The government early this month created a ministry of decentralisation and development during a cabinet reshuffle. Decentralisation has been one of the key demands of separatist moderates, while more radical.

Biya today said this was a “rapid response to recurring demands” and added that “necessary measures” would be taken to ensure that peaceful and fair elections will be held this year.

The 85-year-old Biya, in power since 1982, has not yet said whether he will stand for re-election, though his party regards him as “the natural candidate”.

Source: www.busines-standard.com

15, March 2018

Biya says the government is winning the war against Ambazonia ⁰

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, on Thursday held his first cabinet meeting since 2015 and on the back of a recent reshuffle. The event took place at the Unity Palace (presidency) in the capital Yaounde.

According to a statement on the website of the presidency, Biya’s address to his appointees centered around security, decentralization, upcoming elections and the hosting of the African Cup of Nations among other issues.

Reuters reports that there was no explanation of why he had called the session and no other officials were permitted to speak about what went on in the conclave.

Portions of Biya’s address focusing on security said the government was winning the fight to secure the country’s Anglophone regions and the Far North – which is riled by incessant attacks from the Boko Haram group.

“Thanks to the firm action of our defence and security forces, we have been able to drastically curb the atrocities perpetrated by criminal groups in the Far North, North-West and South-West Regions.

“Efforts in that regard need to be continued, especially to ensure that economic and social activities return to normalcy,” he added.

The president had told his cabinet that “the best way to serve the country is to do everything, to make all the sacrifices that are needed,” the prime minister said.

“There are a lot of things to do,” Biya had added, singling out the Africa Cup of Nations annual soccer tournament that Cameroon is to host next year, and the presidential election in October this year.

Biya has ruled the Central African nation since taking over from a retired predecessor in 1982 and then winning an election by 99.98 percent a year later.

The meeting came as Cameroon faces a violent separatist movement in its western Anglophone region that a military crackdown has failed to quell. The rest of Cameroon speaks French. In an apparent attempt to smooth it over, Biya appointed two officials from the region to top positions earlier this month.

The economy has been sluggish because of low prices for its main exports oil and cocoa, and falling crude oil production. It was not by helped a shutdown in the economy of its restive Western region, which before the first crackdown in 2016 was becoming an unlikely hub for start-up tech firms.

Cameroon currently ranks 153rd on the U.N. Human Development Index, and average life expectancy is 56.

At the last council in October 2015, shortly after a sweeping reshuffle, Biya was similarly pre-occupied by sport, according to local press reports. He ordered ministers to “accelerate preparations for the important sports celebrations” that Cameroon was to host, namely the men’s African Cup of Nations match next year and women’s one that was held in 2016.

Outside of such meetings, Biya often meets his ministers at the airport between private trips abroad with his wife Chantal, famed locally for her luxurious dresses and bouffant hairdo. Their favourite destination is Switzerland.

Source: Reuters

15, March 2018

Two killed in day 3 of Guinea protests ⁰

A senior police source in Guinea has said two people were on Wednesday shot dead during riots in the Guinean capital as authorities clashed with anti-government protesters.

The circumstances of the two civilian deaths were not yet clear, but they occurred in the Wanindara suburb of Conakry , where witnesses say police and gendarmes clashed with protesters and dispersed crowds with tear gas.

A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the demonstrations in Africa’s top producer of bauxite where political violence frequently occurs.

Opposition parties in this West African nation are demanding the publication of results from local elections held on Feb. 4 that allies of President Alpha Conde say they have won.

Meanwhile, company and government officials say, rioting had subsided in the western mining towns of Boke and Kamsar, allowing bauxite shipments to resume.

Reuters

15, March 2018

Zimbabwe: Hospitals crippled as doctors escalate strike ⁰

Zimbabwean doctors at main state hospitals have escalated their strike, dealing only with emergency cases to pressure the government to agree to pay raise and address drugs shortage in hospitals.

Senior doctors on Wednesday joined the strike, which started two weeks ago among junior doctors, stoking fears of loss of lives.

“We will only return to work when all issues raised have been fully resolved,” the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) said in a statement.

“We note with concern the closure of almost all central hospitals, children’s units, provincial hospitals and cessation of emergency life-saving procedures throughout the country.”

Labor unrest could pose a test for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was officially sworn in as the country’s new president in November after long-time ruler Robert Mugabe resigned under pressure. Mnangagwa pledged to revive the country’s ailing economy and attract foreign investment, after public sector strikes over the state’s failure to pay salaries on time became a regular feature of Mugabe’s rule.

“My brother had an appointment for a review for his broken arm, but the doctors are only attending to critical cases,” said Sicelo Phahlane, leaving the main state hospital of Mpilo in Bulawayo City. “This new government must address the doctors’ grievances urgently to save lives and show it has a different approach to issues from the previous one.”

A doctor at Mpilo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We are not going back to work until the authorities address us.”

Source: Presstv

15, March 2018

Of Southern Cameroons Crisis, Atanga Nji and Intelligence Gathering: THE AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE ⁰

The measures taken by the so-called new Minister of Territorial Administration to stifle the Southern Cameroons uprising and quest for an independent state is shocking even to the Francophone political elites.

Indeed, Paul Atanga Nji, appointed Minister of Territorial Administration, on March 2, prescribed rapid intelligence gathering to all French Cameroun administrative authorities.

The MINAT boss, who also moonlights as the permanent secretary of the National Security Council, instructed the sub-prefects, prefects and governors to make several summaries per day, on the socio-political and security situation in their respective administrative districts.

We of Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News understand the sub-prefects, will now make their daily security report, twice a day, the first in the morning, at 9:30 (8:30 GMT), the second at 14:30 (13:30 GMT).

The SDOs will make their first intelligence report at 10:30 (9:30 GMT) and the second at 15:30 (14HGMT). For their part, the governors of the regions have been told to make their reports, first at 11 am (10HGMT) and at 16h (15HGMT), for the second.

Putting pressure on the various administrative authorities, Paul Atanga Nji, wants the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to understand that he is the right man for the top job and that he is capable after his experience in the underworld to respond to multiple security challenges in Cameroon, deeply shaken by the Southern Cameroons crisis since November 2016.

Among other challenges facing Minister Atanga Nji are the security threats on the borders of Cameroon in the Far North with Boko Haram and the East, with the incursions of Central African armed bands. Internally, the regime is facing a rise in serious crimes, kidnappings, rape of children and trafficking of all kinds.

In this edition of The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers if Paul Atanga Nji and his CPDM gang will succeed to put an end to the on-going revolution in Southern Cameroons. Let your voice he heard.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

15, March 2018

US Navy F-18 jet crashes, killing two aviators ⁰

A US Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday off the coast of Key West, Florida, killing its two crew members.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4:30 pm EDT, and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway.

The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but US Naval Air Forces reported late Wednesday night that both had died.

Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the crash is also under investigation.

The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

(Source: AP)

14, March 2018

Yaounde: Biya to chair crucial cabinet meeting ⁰

President Biya, who normally holds few ministerial council meetings, has summoned the government on Thursday, March 15 at the Unity Palace. Cameroon Concord News understands the council of ministers meeting will start at 11 am in Yaoundé.

We gathered that no debate has actually been planned during the forum. However, a well-placed source hinted that the 85 year old dictator intends to send a message to his cabinet. The Secretary General at the President of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh noted in a press release that the agenda will focus on: A special communication from the Head of State.”

Some political observers have opined that Biya could address the Anglophone question and preparation for upcoming elections. The country is already in chaos with several polls holding this 2018. The senatorial elections have already been convened for March 25, as well as the municipal, legislative and presidential elections.

Tomorrow’s meeting is going to be the first ministerial council since the government reshuffle of March the 2nd, which saw the appointment of two Southern Cameroonians at the head of the two important ministries and the departure of some barons of the regime. The last Council of Ministers meeting in Cameroon dates back to October 2015.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

14, March 2018

Guinea: Teachers reach deal with government, call off strike ⁰

Guinea’s powerful teachers’ union has reached a deal with the government on a pay raise, canceling a month-long strike.

Aboubacar Soumah, the secretary general of the SLECG union, announced the end of the strike after signing an agreement with Inspector General for Work Alya Camara on Wednesday.

The government provided the teachers a guarantee to raise pay by 40 percent, which was agreed in 2017 and was only partially implemented in February.

The union and the government have also agreed to hold talks on May 2-25 for a base salary of eight million Guinean francs ($880). The teachers were also promised that strikers would not be punished.

“Each of us put the interests of Guinea first, through the children who should be back at school,” said government mediator Mohamed Said Fofana.

The strikes have paralyzed the country’s education system and fueled tensions between teachers, parents and the state. President Alpha Conde has also been criticized for allowing the strike action to continue.

Rights groups regularly condemn heavy death tolls during demonstrations and industrial action in the West African country.

Source: Presstv

14, March 2018

Cardinal Christian Tumi accuses military of abuses in fight against Anglophone separatists ⁰

Cardinal Christian Tumi, the Archbishop emeritus of Douala, has accused the Cameroon military of excessive use of force against unarmed civilians in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions. The two English-speaking regions, that constitute 20 percent of Cameroon’s over 24 million people, have been in turmoil for over a year now over perceived marginalization and an assimilation drive by the predominantly French-speaking administration of long-serving President Paul Biya.

The current “Anglophone crisis” began in late 2016, when disgruntled lawyers and teachers began protesting the use of French in courts using the Anglo-Saxon common law tradition (practiced in the English parts of the country) and in Anglophone schools. The demonstrations soon spread to the general public, and the calls for outright secession started growing.

In a strongly-worded statement released on October 6, 2017, the Anglophone bishops condemned “the barbarism and the irresponsible use of firearms against unarmed civilians by the Forces of Law and Order” and called on Biya to stop “the bloodbath and genocide that has skillfully been initiated in the North West and South West Regions.”

In the absence of a dialogue initiative from the government, many English-speakers are now calling for secession, and the formation of a new state called Ambazonia.

The country’s president has promised to “eliminate the secessionists.” Biya has deployed the military to the two regions, but their actions on the ground have met with severe criticism by Tumi.

During a visit to the country’s North West Region, the cardinal gathered harrowing tales of torture, destruction and killings. “I was in Mbim village on 28 February and the military had visited the same village a day earlier,” Tumi told Crux.

“I saw and listened to people in their depression…I saw houses that had been reduced to ruins, to dust and ashes. I saw the house of a man who had fled with his wife and six children, reduced to dust and ashes,” the cardinal said.

Tumi described various signs of destruction in the village, including a destroyed water project, and a vandalized cooperative union. He also said the military harassed the population and committed crimes against the people.

“I saw the house of an old man ramshackled and I was told that the army had made away with two generators of the family. I saw a man looking completely depressed from whom the military had made away with $1500,” the cardinal said. “I saw the bar of a young man running a small business from where hundreds of bottles of beer had been taken away by the army, and what could not be taken was broken to bits and pieces.”

He said security forces also burned the villagers’ crops, destroying the year’s harvest. Tumi told Crux he was struck by the question an old man in Mbim asked him: “Cardinal, just what crime have we committed, that the army should be sent to treat us this way, as if we were foreigners who had come to ransack the village?”

Tumi said the lives of the “simple, innocent people” had been shattered by the actions of the military.

“If they are looking for a criminal, let them look for the criminal in all patience. They should not draw the conclusion that since the criminal was in this village, everybody in the village becomes a criminal. It’s not a logical conclusion,” the cardinal said.

Similar scenes of destruction are visible in many parts of Cameroon’s South West Region, where “Ambazonian” fighters have been engaged in hit-and-run attacks on security forces.

The attacks in both regions have so far left at least 24 members of the security forces dead. It is difficult to estimate civilian deaths, but UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has noted that “allegations of summary executions of civilians by members of the security forces have been reported, and are generating widespread resentment.”

The military action has been hard and decisive, with entire villages being burned to the ground, and several people being killed extrajudicially.

“An old woman who couldn’t flee was burnt to death in the South West,” Tumi said.

Bishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Mamfe – in the South West Region – said the destruction in Kembong village, where four soldiers had been killed by secessionists, looked like “a horror movie.”

“I saw more than 20 houses burnt down by soldiers and one dead body still lying there, being fed on by dogs and chicken,” said Nkea.

“Of the village’s 5,000 or so residents, only 30 remained, all huddled in the house of the area’s priest because they had nowhere else to go,” he said.

Tumi also claimed that the crisis could be serving to enrich some top-ranking people in the military.

“We are told that some high-ranking military people use the crisis to enrich themselves, because the state spends on these military operations, and the account on how the money is spent is not given,” he told Crux.

The cardinal blamed Biya for choosing a military solution for a purely political problem.

“The presence of the army is no solution. With a human being, you reason: You don’t use violence as if you are treating a beast. That is why the world is calling for dialogue. Nothing can be done without our meeting to talk about the problems. Many have called for what is called inclusive dialogue. The government should dialogue with everybody,” Tumi said.

Cameroon’s bilingual and bi-cultural status derived from its colonial heritage. Initially administered as a German Protectorate in 1884, Cameroon would later be shared with France and Britain as League of Nations Mandates after Germany was defeated in the First World War.

The end of the Second World War and the establishment of the United Nations saw the two parts of Cameroon transition from mandated territories to UN Trust Territories.

In 1960, the northern part of Cameroon administered by France gained its independence. The southern part administered by Britain as part of Nigeria was in 1961 subject to a plebiscite in which they were offered independence by reuniting with their francophone Cameroonian “brothers” or by remaining part of Nigeria.

The results showed an overwhelming desire by English-speaking Cameroonians to reunite with the French-speaking part of Cameroon.

The “marriage” was guaranteed by a Federal Constitution that was meant to preserve and protect the minority Anglophones and their colonial heritage. But in 1972 then-President Ahmadou Ahidjo organized a referendum that dissolved the federation in favor of a united republic, thereby removing the protections Anglophones enjoyed.

As the current crisis worsens, several Anglophones have fled to Nigeria, causing a refugee crisis in Cameroon’s neighbor. The United Nations has expressed “great concern” over Nigeria returning dozens of asylum seekers to Cameroon.

“We also urge the Government of Cameroon to ensure that the group is treated in accordance with human rights law and standards,” the UN refugee agency said in a statement.

Culled from Cruxnow.com

14, March 2018

Cameroon: Media Defies Ban on Political Debate ⁰

Private media outlets in Cameroon are defying a ban on political programs imposed by the country’s National Communication Council. The council had ordered the ban, insisting political debates may cause conflict ahead of senatorial elections on March 25.

National Communication Council president Peter Essoka says Cameroon needs to promote peace, democracy and human rights, and needs to avoid hate speech. He says journalists may incite the population with one-sided reporting.

“Propaganda is when you go into elaborately telling about one political party and what they have done and all kinds of shouting on what they are doing. That is propaganda. Now, there must be a limitation. Let them [journalists] as much as possible be able to keep to these principles,” said Essoka.

Public broadcaster CRTV and Cameroon Tribune have respected the NCC’s order. But the Cameroon journalists’ trade union president Denis Kwebo and other private media outlets described it as an attack on press freedom. Many radio and television stations have refused to respect the NCC instructions.

At Galaxy FM 93.5, a popular radio station in Cameroon’s capital city Yaounde, heated debates on the senatorial elections to take place on March 25 are going on in a French-language political program called “Au coeur de la Republique.”

Political analyst Jean Jacques Ola Bebe says the station has defied instructions from the NCC and is ready to face the consequences.

He says as an analyst, he can not accept that someone should restrain freedom of speech in a country that says it wants to be fully democratic. He says the pillar on which any true democracy should stand is freedom of expression and that Cameroonians need to listen to and question all candidates for the senatorial election on their political plans and ask the balance sheet of out going senators.

Cameroon has more than 500 newspapers and 100 radio and television stations. NCC secretary-general Jean Tobie Hond says the outlets who ignore the instructions will be punished.

He says they are calling on such media outlets to make sure there is some balance in what they are doing, so the campaign for senatorial elections remains democratic and goes on hitch free. He says if they continue to favor or give preference to some political parties, their media organs will be suspended.

Last year, Cameroon’s National Communication Council suspended 35 journalists and media outlets, accusing them of failing to respect professional norms and ethics. Some of those punished had criticized the government’s handling of the crisis in the English-speaking regions. Others criticized senior state functionaries over the use of public funds.

Source: VOA