Monthly Archives: July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: As the violence grows, Christians provide trauma healing

11, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: As the violence grows, Christians provide trauma healing 0

Cameroon is embroiled in what could be the precursor to a civil war. The nation is currently divided into two basic populations: the French-speaking majority and the English-speaking minority to the southwest who want to break off as their own nation — Ambazonia.

Those in the Anglophone region feel underrepresented by Cameroon’s government. Two years ago, they decided enough is enough. As English-speakers in southwest Cameroon clamor for autonomy, the French-speaking state military is clamping down.

We spoke with Efi Tembon, the Executive Director of the Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy, a partner of Wycliffe Associates. He says, “It’s actually like a genocide where the war is going on in one part of the country, in the English-speaking part of the country. The military has been deployed in that part of the country and they are causing horrible atrocities.”

(Map courtesy of Operation World)

“There are over 30,000 refugees who have fled into Nigeria and over 200,000 people have been displaced. Many of these people are hiding in the bushes — some of them elderly people, expectant mothers, mothers with young babies, and children without any care, without any food, without medicine, [and] without protection.”

State forces are going into villages in southwest Cameroon, burning homes, and shooting civilians.

The violence has become a vicious cycle.

“The people decided to fight back, so they have young people who get together and form their own groups in communities to defend their communities. So they ambush soldiers, they take weapons from soldiers and when weapons are taken or a soldier is killed, then the military goes out into the community and burns the [homes] and kills more people.”

(Photo courtesy of Efi Efi)

A paranoid military means it’s not even safe to ride a motorbike in Anglophone communities.

“Motorbikes have been burned in the area and many people have been shot because they were riding on motorbikes. Sometimes the people who attack soldiers also have motorbikes. They will attack the soldiers, ambush them, and take their weapons to fight back. So the government decided to ban motorbikes in some of the areas.”

Because of the travel dangers, including on motorbikes, CABTAL staff have a hard time getting around. But sometimes more dangerous than traveling is the danger of staying. Some translators have left their communities. Tembon says the president of a translation program had to flee the area when soldiers took over his church. Later he found out his entire village was burned.

This outbreak of violence in Cameroon has affected more than a dozen Bible translation projects.

“We have about 13 language projects in the area where this core of violence is taking place,” says Tembon. “Even some translators have died. The husband of one of our translators was shot and killed and we had to go rescue them in the forest. They were hiding in the bushes for weeks with babies and even older people. Whole families were hiding in the bushes, so we’ve taken them out into the regional training center where translation will be taking place now to help them. But even that center is not safe because it is at the heart of the crisis.”

Wycliffe Associates is hoping to raise funds to build a wall around the regional training center compound and make it safer. Also, computers and translation materials have been lost in the chaos. The ministry is trying to recover or replace those items as well. Currently, they are trying to raise $170,000.

Tembon assures, “In the midst of all of the violence, our teams are still working. God’s Word is still spreading. They are still reaching out to people.”

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

One thing CABTAL is doing to respond to the fighting is provide a trauma healing workshop for Christian leaders to be the healing hand of Christ in Cameroon.

“It’s a trauma healing workshop where we train people who can reach out to those who are suffering from the trauma. So we have launched out this workshop to train pastors and other leaders so they can help all these people scattered in the bushes to heal from this trauma of the war and the killing going on.”
Source: Mission Network News


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Presidential elections won’t cut it

11, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Presidential elections won’t cut it 0

For close to two years, Cameroon, a poor and corrupt Central African country has been caught up in a downward spiral as the killing in the two English-speaking regions of the country take a turn for the worse.

A strike by teachers and lawyers has turned into an armed conflict between Southern Cameroonian separatists and the Yaoundé regime that has distinguished itself through its corruption and indolence.

The mismanagement of the crisis has shocked the entire world, with many in the international community calling into question, the government’s ability to run a country that has once been the envy of its neighbors.

In the month of May, things appeared to be slowing down, but over the last week, the killing demon has reared its ugly head as the government steps up its attacks that have resulted in the killing of over a thousand civilians and some two hundred separatists.

The world is horrified by these killings and several actors are using back channels to mount enormous pressure on the country’s ailing president, Paul Biya, who is considered as the architect of Cameroon’s descent into chaos.

The chaos is still playing out in several cities in Southern Cameroons. On Monday, July 9, 2018, there was intense fighting in Buea, a city Southern Cameroonians consider as their capital. The fighting resulted in the killing of six police officers by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Residents of the city have reported that Monday was the worst day in their city. Southern Cameroonian fighters have finally decided to come to the cities so as to engage the ill-prepared army soldiers in street battles.

This is no good news for the Yaoundé regime that has been working tooth and nail to protect the city of Buea. Threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters have finally compelled the city’s mayor, Patrick Ekema, who had vowed to protect the city, to flee to Douala, East Cameroon’s major port city.

Even the South West region’s governor, Okala Bilai, has also taken up refuge in Douala as the pressure from Southern Cameroonian fighters mounts. It should be recalled that there is a “fatwa” on the heads of Mayor Ekema and Governor Bilai who have spent a greater part of the last two years insulting Southern Cameroonians.

In Limbe, Southern Cameroon’s major port city, residents were compelled to respect ghost town operations as they heard that the fighters had finally set foot in Buea. The city of Limbe has been insulated from the chaos that has been playing out in Southern Cameroons over the last one year and this has made it a safe haven for many who are fleeing other cities in search a peaceful sanctuary for themselves and their families.

But the pseudo-peace in Limbe will surely not last for a long time. Southern Cameroonian fighters who were initially lurking in forests around the region have made up their minds to come to the cities. They are sick and tired of constant attacks from mosquitoes and poisonous reptiles who consider their presence in the jungle as an unfriendly intrusion into their private space and territory.

Residents of Limbe know that they will soon be playing spectator to some violent attacks from Southern Cameroonian fighters. It is a matter of time. Other cities are already suffering as a result of the fighting. Schools and courts have remained closed in cities where there have been serious fighting. Businesses have been dealt a severe blow and poverty is gradually taking root among the suffering population. Limbe’s image as a peaceful environment is gradually being eroded.

With an influx of people coming from other cities, it is obvious that Southern Cameroonian fighters will use the opportunity to establish a foothold in the city. Residents of the city therefore have an interest to respect ghost town orders from the Southern Cameroons Interim Government that is widely considered as the legitimate authority in region.

For Southern Cameroons’ rural areas, life has become a tough interminable challenge. Schools have been closed for two years and the kids are gradually coming to terms with the fact that theirs will be a kingdom of illiteracy. Teachers have fled the villages and the make-shift infrastructure that was passing off as schools is crumbling at break-neck speed.

Today, most young men in Southern Cameroon’s rural areas have taken up residence in the jungles that offer more peace than their villages. Most of them are willingly joining the ragtag Southern Cameroonian Liberation Army that comprises many armed groups, some of which are turning their guns against their own brothers in arms.

As the fighting rages on, the Yaoundé government remains stubborn to appeals for a peaceful resolution. The government is wont to using unorthodox means to address its problems. It is therefore challenging for it to listen to even the voice of wisdom.

Ever since the crisis erupted, the country’s president, Paul Biya, also known as the owner of the country, has refused to listen to many respectable people across the world.

The Pope has had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Biya. Leaders of Western countries have advised him to pursue dialogue as a sure means out of the impasse. The African Union has offered to mediate. But all their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

The Francophonie, for its part, is still prepared to play a great role in efforts at restoring peace to the country, but the country’s authorities are reluctant to accept all these offers of assistance and this is causing the situation to spiral out of control.

Mr. Biya and his collaborators have clearly opted to pursue a path that is causing the country to lose its youthful population. They seem to be frozen in time and their strong faith in old ways is putting the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Across the country, some religious authorities have also called on the government to embrace dialogue in order to spare the country the agony it is going through. But all the wise counsel does not seem to be music to the government’s ears.

Recently, it was the U.S. Ambassador who delivered his government’s bold message to the country’s ailing president. Americans have clearly indicated that it is time for Mr. Biya to exit the political arena as his presence is only fanning embers of war. They hold that Mr. Biya should be focusing on his legacy rather than on holding power.

In their view, Cameroon’s political mess cannot be cleaned up by those who have created it. It is time for the old guard to yield the floor to a new crop of politicians who will place the people’s interest at the center of their actions. Mr. Biya and his entourage belong to the past, a past that has been characterized by corruption, injustice and arrogance.

Instead of taking such wise counsel seriously, the government instead sent its surrogates to TV and radio stations where they rained insults on the U.S. ambassador who was simply delivering a friendly message. Some of the surrogates even intimidated on national TV that they would kill the U.S. ambassador.

Strangely, none of those who uttered such irresponsible statements have been arrested for threatening a foreign dignitary with diplomatic immunity in Cameroon. To the Yaoundé regime, the U.S. ambassador was interfering in its internal affairs. But the U.S. government will not be interfering in Cameroon’s affairs when it grants the impoverished Central African country weapons and financial assistance to fight Boko Haram insurgents in the country’s northern region.

Right from the beginning of the crisis, the Biya regime has not really come out with a clear plan to address the legitimate demands of Southern Cameroonians. On the contrary, it has been seeking ways and means to distract and intimidate Southern Cameroonians.

The massive arrest of innocent civilians and the kidnapping of Southern Cameroonian leaders in Nigeria are among the strategies the government has used to prove that it has the ability and capability to lay to rest a rebellion that is proving that it will stand the test of time.

This week, it has come up with a new distraction which, in its view, will help to calm down tempers. It has announced the holding of presidential election in the first week of October 2018 in the hope that Cameroonians will rush to the polls. But presidential elections will not cut it. Mr. Biya, the most hated and corrupt Cameroonian, will surely be his party’s flag-bearer despite the wise counsel given to him by Americans and this will make the whole process predictable.

 

But Cameroonians will not be deceived. Elections during Mr. Biya’s time have been anything but transparent and fair. The 85-year-old Biya has total mastery of the electoral process. He has appointed his cronies to the election-organizing body and, being an iron fist in a velvet glove, he will be working through his crude territorial administration minister, Atanga Nji, to intimidate Senior Divisional Officers for them to do all they can for Mr. Biya to win the election.

Indeed, the results of the election are a foregone conclusion. While the opposition is still struggling to put its house together, Mr. Biya is already rolling out his malicious plan. The opposition is divided and some of the opposition party leaders are just too hungry to the point where they just want to get to the corridors of power.

A few opposition leaders do have some political cloud and popularity, but their chances of beating the corrupt Biya are slim. The Social Democratic Front, SDF, has a presidential candidate who understands the issues and is very engaging. Joshua Osih, considered as a candidate of the future, is currently in the United States to talk with Southern Cameroonian Diaspora.

He understands the Diaspora has a lot of influence on the population. Besides, he knows it is the Diaspora’s money that is helping the pool of willing Southern Cameroonian fighters to give the Biya regime a run for its money. A native of the South West region, Joshua Osih is considered by many at home and abroad as the person who may help to keep the country united within a federal structure, after all, his party has always called for Cameroon to be federal. But will the angry Southern Cameroonians listen to him?

Southern Cameroonians want to walk away from a fake marriage that has brought them a lot of pain and suffering. To them, federalism belongs to the past. They have been arrested and killed by the Yaoundé government for calling for federalism. For now, their mind is on seceding and this will imply walking away with about 60% of the country’s wealth. Southern Cameroons is blessed with many resources, including oil, gas, diamond and timber. Its rich sub-soil has brought lots of economic benefits to the country. For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil.

Over the years, Cameroon has exported over US$5.88 billion worth of crude oil and other petroleum products per year and most of this money has never trickled down to the South-west region where the oil fields and refinery are located. The people of this region have been living in abject poverty, while the Yaoundé regime has been feasting. This is one of the many bones of contention that are threatening to tear the country apart.

Another candidate in the election is Barrister Akere Muna. A bright lawyer whose work both at home and abroad has made many people to take him seriously. He is bilingual and he understands the corrupt system that has brought death and destruction to the country. But the sins of his father are clearly working against him.

His father, Solomon Tandeng Muna, a one-time speaker of the House of Assembly and John Ngu Foncha, former vice-president, were those who spearheaded the movement for reunification of the two Cameroons. They both benefited from the system and made life easy for their children while the majority of Southern Cameroonians have been languishing in abject poverty.

Barrister Akere Muna may be a native of Southern Cameroons, but his father’s role in the disaster that has and is still visiting Southern Cameroons makes it hard for him to be that person who will deliver Southern Cameroons from its damnation.

In the South West region in particular, his name casts more doubts than hope. Reunification brought untold hardship to South West politicians such as N.N. Mbile, Chief Nyenty of Bachou Ntai, Chief Ayamba, Dr. E.M.L. Endeley and others who died in abject poverty due to the dirty politics Muna and Foncha played to the detriment of the South West region.

Muna and Foncha will never be forgiven in this part of the country, although both had openly apologized for their errors in 1993 during the All Anglophone Conference held in Buea.

Cameroon is going down the drain. This country can only be saved if there is an inclusive and sincere dialogue. Mr. Biya and his cohorts are still stuck in the past. They still hold that Cameroonians are stupid and will not remember the past. They are still getting it wrong. Cameroon is sitting on a keg of gun powder. The international community still has time to defuse this ticking time bomb before it goes off.

Presidential elections may be good, but in this context, they will not bring any meaningful change to the country. The voters’ registration process has been flawed right from the beginning. In the two English-speaking regions, there was virtually no registration. With the violence that is playing out in these two regions and the frustration in the French-speaking part of the country, it is clear that Cameroon is walking down the path of a national political disaster. The world has to stop Biya before he destroys Cameroon.

Mr. Biya should be dragged to the negotiating table. Solutions to Cameroon’s numerous problems could be found at the negotiating table. The world will forever be guilty if it allows Cameroon to implode. Mr. Biya and his collaborators have no intention of addressing the economic and political issues that are undermining the country’s development efforts. It is time to take the right decision. The world cannot continue to stand on the sidelines while Cameroonians kill each other.

By Kingsley Betek and Irene Nanyongo on assignment in Washington, D.C., United States of America


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Police killed in flashpoint city of Buea

11, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Police killed in flashpoint city of Buea 0

At least three policemen, including a superintendent, have been killed in fighting between English-speaking separatists and security forces in western Cameroon, local sources said on Tuesday.

The violence, which continued on Tuesday, marks a bloody escalation in a campaign to gain independence for two English-speaking regions from the rest of the French-speaking country.

A local official in Buea, the capital of Southwest Region, said, “two police were killed yesterday [Monday] on the southern part of the city by terrorists.”

A policeman was also kidnapped “and we have no news of him,” the source said. A hospital source gave a higher toll, saying five police and a civilian had died on Monday, and another civilian had been wounded.

On Sunday, a police superintendent in Kumba, a town on the main road out of Buea towards Mamfe, was “slain in cold blood by armed men suspected to be anglophone secessionists,” the official said.

“He was having a drink at home when they killed him,” the source said. The report was confirmed by a local resident.

Separatists in the English-speaking Southwest and Northwest Regions want to break free of the rest of the country, after long protesting at perceived neglect by Cameroon’s francophone rulers.

The campaign began in 2016 with demands for greater autonomy, but radicalised as the authorities refused to make concessions.

After the separatists issued a symbolic declaration of independence last October 1, the authorities responded with a crackdown, and acts of violence and arson attacks on schools are now almost daily occurrences.

According to a government report last month, separatists had killed 74 soldiers and seven police since late 2017 while more than 100 civilians had died “over the past 12 months”.

The United Nations says 160 000 people have been internally displaced and 20 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.

Violence continued on Tuesday in the wake of President Paul Biya’s announcement on Monday before of a presidential election nationwide on October 7.

Biya, at 85 Africa’s longest-serving president, has not made his intentions known. But the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), traditionally associated with the anglophone regions, has designated a candidate, Joshua Osih.

The presence of a large English-speaking minority in Cameroon originates in the colonial period. The former German colony was divided between Britain and France after World War I.

The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons were amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Source: AFP


Keeping Biya in power in a divided country through a counterfeit presidential election will undermine efforts to achieve peace

10, July 2018

Keeping Biya in power in a divided country through a counterfeit presidential election will undermine efforts to achieve peace 0

Paul Biya has accepted and announced a President Macron initiative to hold presidential elections in French Cameroun without any attempt at resolving the crisis with Southern Cameroonians. This could be the greatest political disaster in the making for both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun including the European Union.

The deliberate silence maintain by the 85 year-old head of state and the ever growing influence of the Ambazonian Interim Government in Southern Cameroons  cast doubts on the feasibility of securing the October elections, making it premature to envisage a path towards peace and stability in lawless Cameroon.

The French are currently presenting the presidential elections as the way forward for the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon. However, it is abundantly clear that the French government’s position is more international than local. The plan is very ambitious and very risky, for a country that has been gripped by chaos since the emergence of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram and the numerous rebel movements in the Central African Republic.

A plethora of armed organizations and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are now in control of Southern Cameroons. Consequently, the idea of postponing municipal and parliamentary elections and focusing on holding presidential elections is unwise.

This President Macron-Buhari led initiative that did not consult powerful local forces and the leadership in Southern Cameroons will achieve nothing but a civil war. Europe and the US want to stabilize Cameroon but the Trump and Macron administrations are not reading from the same script. One very important issue in diplomacy is that whenever the equities are equal, the first one prevails. So, President Biya has opted to listen to French ambassador Gilles Thibault than the prophetic voice of US ambassador, Peter Barlerin.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are of the opinion that the presidential elections will not change anything. To be sure, it will make the political situation more intractable. President Buhari does not care about the difficulties of the people of Cross River and Benue States in curbing with the influx of Southern Cameroons refugees.  President Macron and French multinationals, on the other hand are only interested in French business interest and the oil fields in the Bakassi Peninsular.  Both Buhari and French President Macron claim to support Cameroon’s stability and President Emmanuel Macron’s push for a presidential election is an indication that France is ready to gamble with the giant of the CEMAC region.

The French can live with the risks from a destabilization of the Sub Saharan region and will still run the oil and gas fields in Cameroon but spikes in Southern Cameroons refugee numbers crossing into the Federal Republic of Nigeria could generate new security challenges for the Buhari administration. On one hand the Germans and the US government to a large extent believe a transition from Biya to the new generation should come before elections but the French are for presidential elections first.

It is really shocking for the French to still continue to present Biya to the west as a strong leader who can bring order to the country. Biya is expected to continue his often brutal military campaign under the banner of fighting separatists and terrorism in Southern Cameroons. That may well extend from the recent fighting in the South West and the North West into Littoral and West regions.

French support for Biya and granting him international legitimacy without ensuring there is any real form of genuine dialogue with Southern Cameroonians and rewarding potential Ambazonian spoilers such as Paul Atanga Nji in a corrupt, fractured environment may help to disintegrate what is left of French Cameroun.

Pro Biya comedians including French Cameroun political elites are now using the presidential elections as a political tool to avoid dialogue or reconciliation. Cameroon as a nation remains too chaotic for elections with Ambazonian Restoration Forces and the Cameroon government army soldiers indulging in extra-judicial killings, attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure, and abducting and disappearing people.

Southern Cameroonians residing in French Cameroun are now facing the risks of beatings, torture, extortion, sexual violence, and in detention centers nominally under the Francophone dominated army control. The UN revealed that some 161,000 Southern Cameroonians have been displaced internally and another 21,000 registered as refugees in Nigeria. This has created some new dramatic demographic changes and has led to more instability, poverty and violence thus pushing desperate Ambazonians across to Nigeria.

The upcoming presidential elections with the 85 year-old Biya as a candidate will further destabilize the already fragmented political situation. Keeping Biya in power in a divided country through a counterfeit presidential election will undermine efforts to achieve peace and stability making reconciliation between Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun much more difficult to achieve.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


US: Trump picks Brett Kavanaugh for US Supreme Court, angry protests erupt

10, July 2018

US: Trump picks Brett Kavanaugh for US Supreme Court, angry protests erupt 0

US President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court, provoking angry protests in Washington and elsewhere.

“It is my honor and privilege to announce that I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

Kavanaugh’s nomination set the stage for a bruising confirmation battle in the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a slim majority.

If confirmed, the 53-year-old judge will replace long-serving Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27th.

This is the second time Trump nominates a judge for the US Supreme Court. Last April, Trump’s pick for the post, Neil Gorsuch, garnered the Senate’s support after heated debates.

US Judge Brett Kavanaugh (R) speaks after being nominated by US President Donald Trump to the Supreme Court in the East Room of the White House on July 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP) 

 

Trump described Kavanaugh as “one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time,” saying he is “considered a judge’s judge and a true thought leader among his peers.”

Kavanaugh, who is a Conservative federal appeals court judge, underlined the need for a judge to be independent.

Shortly after the announcement, protesters decrying Trump’s nomination blocked traffic outside of Trump Tower in New York City, leading to the arrest of seven people, according to law enforcement sources.

In Washington DC, people took to the streets to show their opposition to Trump’s pick, chanting, “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Kavanaugh has got to go.”

Among protesters were US Sens. M Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) who led a demonstration against Kavanaugh’s nomination on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks with protesters in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on July 9, 2018. (Photo via AP)

 

“Are you ready for a fight? Are you ready to defend Roe vs. Wade?” Sanders said. “This is a tough fight but it is a fight that we can win . . . We have the American people on our side, now we have to go state by state by state to make sure senators do what their constituents want.”

“It’s a huge moment for our country,” said protester Kevin Camps, who was concerned that a more conservative court would undermine environmental protections. “What’s impossible to exaggerate is that this is the final word on most issues in this country.”

Source: Presstv


Kinshasa: President Kabila delays UN chief’s visit, refuses to see U.S. envoy Haley

10, July 2018

Kinshasa: President Kabila delays UN chief’s visit, refuses to see U.S. envoy Haley 0

Congolese President Joseph Kabila has put off a planned visit this week by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and refused to see U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who diplomats said had also separately planned to visit Kinshasa.

Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father Laurent in 2001, was busy organizing Dec. 23 elections and had to postpone a visit by Guterres and African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, said Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende.

“As for Nikki Haley I don’t see why and how the president’s refusal to see her has created so much controversy. Nikki Haley … was already in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and she met President Kabila,” Mende said.

Haley met privately with Kabila for 90 minutes in Kinshasa in October, warning him that “a relationship with the United States is dependent on how he acts going forward.” Diplomats said she had planned to visit again this week.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on Haley’s trip.

“Is it the case that in all African countries in the middle of the electoral process these same visitors come to verify if the preparations are going in the right direction? If yes, they are also welcome in our country,” Mende said.

Kabila’s ‘cat and mouse’ game with elections

Kabila was required by the constitution to step down in December 2016 but the election to replace him has been repeatedly delayed.

Since then, security forces have killed dozens of anti-Kabila protesters while surging militia violence has raised the specter of a repeat of civil wars around the turn of the century that cost millions of lives.

Term limits prevent Kabila from running for office again, but he has refused to publicly commit to leaving office and some of his supporters have recently floated a legal rationale that would allow him to stand again.

Candidates are due to register for the presidential election between July 25 and Aug. 8.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said there had been not been any “firm plans” for Guterres to visit Kinshasa. “If and when he’s ready to go there, we’ll let you know,” Haq told reporters on Monday.

Guterres is currently in Ethiopia at the African Union and diplomats said he had planned to visit Democratic Republic of Congo this week. The United Nation’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, is in the country, where some 18,000 U.N. troops and police are deployed.

The Congolese foreign ministry said in a statement that Guterres and Faki “remain welcome in Kinshasa at a date to be agreed on jointly.

REUTERS


Biya sets presidential elections for October 7, amid worsening Southern Cameroons crisis

10, July 2018

Biya sets presidential elections for October 7, amid worsening Southern Cameroons crisis 0

Cameroon’s president Paul Biya issued a decree on Monday saying a presidential election will be held on October 7, amidst a worsening security situation in the Southwest and Northwest Anglophone regions.

As Biya’s decree was being read on public television, the inhabitants of Buea, the capital of the Southwest region were still confined to their homes for fear of going out after witnessing gunfire in the morning between soldiers and Anglophone separatists.

This is the first time that gunfire has been exchanged in neighbourhoods of this city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, that has had a large number of military personnel deployed since the beginning of the English-speaking crisis at the end of 2016.

President Paul Biya, 85, who has been in power for close to 36 years has not announced whether he will run for a seventh re-election, but in May his party sais he is their “natural” candidate.

“Paul Biya is our candidate in the next presidential election, given his eloquent record, his national and international credibility, diplomatic, economic, social and cultural”, wrote leaders of the ruling party and traditional leaders from the South, where Biya comes from.

The same month, the US ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, said after a meeting with the president that Paul Biya “should reflect on his legacy and how he wants to be remembered in history books”, provoking strong criticism in the presidential camp.

Biya’s likely opponents

The opposition has described Biya’s state record as “chaotic”.

Among them, Joshua Osih, who was elected in February as candidate of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF, English-speaking).

This 49-year-old businessman contest for the Cameroonian presidency, after Ni John Fru Ndi, leader of the SDF and historical opponent to Biya decided to give way to the “young cadets” of the party.

Other prominent opposition candidates, according to analysts, include Transparency International lawyer and former vice president Akere Muna, as well as the president of the Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun (MRC) party, Maurice Kamto.

On October 7, these candidates will seek the 7 year mandate to run the affairs of the troubled West African nation.

Security crisis

The voting will take place in a delicate context.

The jihadist group Boko Haram is still active in the far north of the country and the English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West have been facing a serious socio-political crisis since late 2016.

The latter started as a modest industrial strike action by English-speaking lawyers and teachers in 2016, but has since developed into a full blown armed conflict.

Today, fighting between Cameroonian security forces and armed men claiming to be “restoration forces” of an English-speaking state that had briefly emerged between the two world wars, under British mandate, has disrupted business and livelihoods in the Anglophone regions.

According to the government, more than 80 members of the security forces were killed in the fighting.

The UN says up to 160,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the violence, while the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency says 34,000 have fled to Nigeria.

Source: Agencies


Congo-Kinshasa faces upsurge of violence unless a deal is done with President Kabila

9, July 2018

Congo-Kinshasa faces upsurge of violence unless a deal is done with President Kabila 0

Amid a fresh wave of civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the international community must question its confidence in President Joseph Kabila to achieve stability in a turbulent region. He has been at the helm since he took over as president in 2001 after his father, Laurent, was assassinated. The young Kabila ruled for a transitional period until 2006, before winning two elections.

He is now in his seventh year of what should have been just five years of his second term and is constitutionally barred from standing again. But he has remained in office after his mandate ended in late 2016. This, as the country awaits a long-delayed election. The delay has sparked deadly protests.

While Kabila cannot legally stand for a third term, the opposition is concerned that he might. Fears among opposition and church leaders have been further fuelled by Kabila’s appointment of three new judges to the constitutional court. Two are well-known allies.

But Kabila has no legitimacy and his authority is disintegrating. If the elections are delayed again there’s a real possibility that central Africa will slide into violent conflict once again. The armed violence is likely to be bloodier than in the past due to the number of fragmented localised groups aiming to grab their slice in one of the world’s most resource-rich countries.

If the international community wants to avoid another major armed conflict on the African content – in addition to the outstanding conflicts in Libya, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan – urgent action is needed to negotiate with Kabila for his own peaceful exit before the country slides back into full-scale armed conflict.

Deteriorating situation

In the wake of Kabila’s refusal to cede power, the security situation has deteriorated. At least 10 of Congo’s 26 provinces are in the grip of armed conflict. This has forced over two million people to flee their homes, 800,000 of them children. The total number of internally displaced people is estimated to be 4.5 million while refugees are flocking into Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia.

The security situation in the DRC is dire. As the violence in Kasai and eastern parts of the country intensifies, escalating conflict in south eastern Congo looks set to continue.

File 20180703 116152 zmz6ac.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1
President Kabila’s time in government has shown an inability to bring together the various ethnic groups. EPA/Michael Kappeler

More than 70 rebel groups are estimated to be operating in the country. They are all variously involved in skirmishes with the army or, more commonly, prey on civilians. This in turn creates a tangle of ethnic and tribal grievances for warlords to exploit.

In 2012, the M23 rebel movement briefly took the city of Goma. They were eventually thrown out by the Congolese army, supported by the UN. But the current violence in Kasai is threatening to overshadow even that disaster. In August 2017, for example, the “dead city” movements ensured that significant parts of the country’s urban population went on strike.

Some reports have suggested that more than 3,000 people have been killed since the start of 2017. More than 33,000 Kasai residents have fled into Angola. It has been suggested that the Bana Mura- a government sponsored militia – was behind the violence.

Last year major fighting occurred between Twa and Bantu populations in Tanganyika province. And as the year entered its last quarter, Uvira, on the outskirts of Lake Tanganyika, was the site for fighting between the rebel Yakutumba militia and government forces. Government forces fled and the rebels would have taken the city had they not been repulsed by Pakistani peacekeepers.

Despite a failure by the Yakutumba militia to take Uvira, it was a reminder of the level of dissatisfaction rising in the east, since the end of the Second Congo War in 2003. The rise of rebels operating in the east means violence could potentially spread to Kivu and beyond.

Uncertain times ahead

In 2017, presidential and legislative elections were delayed despite the Catholic Church reaching a deal with Kabila. The political crisis was further complicated by the death of long-standing opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi later in the year.

The election planned for December this year is unlikely to bring together the various groups or solve the outbreak of violence in the country. The most likely candidate with the perceived ability to bring together the different groups is Moïse Katumbi. He has succeeded in rallying together opposition parties into a coalition backing his candidacy – an impressive feat in a country as fragmented as the Congo.

He also has by far the best broad plan to reconcile the country, which is what the country needs if the fragile peace is going to hold. But the country’s attorney general announced recently that Katumbi may not be eligible to stand in presidential elections because he held Italian citizenship from October 2000 until January 2017.

Under Congo’s constitution, its nationals cannot hold dual citizenship and have to petition the government to regain their citizenship if they take up a foreign nationality. But the provision, however, is loosely enforced and many prominent politicians are believed to have second citizenships.

Kabila’s time in government has shown an inability to bring together the various ethnic groups and to control the growth of dissatisfied rebel groups. This is despite the fact that the DRC has the world’s largest UN peacekeeping force, numbering 18,000 blue helmets, who try to enforce a measure of calm in the east of the country.

The ConversationBotswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has said that he hopes to see a commitment from Kabila to leave office at year’s end. More African leaders need to acknowledge the gravity of the crisis and apply pressure on Kabila through existing African Union mechanisms.

Source: News 24


Biya regime deploys more soldiers to check Ambazonian militants attacking the Fako County

9, July 2018

Biya regime deploys more soldiers to check Ambazonian militants attacking the Fako County 0

Yaoundé has deployed more personnel to the Fako County attacked by Ambazonian Restoration Forces today in Muea and Mile 17. The additional troops deployed by the Francophone regime were drawn from the nation’s capital and Douala. The Southern Cameroons freedom fighters staged the raids in Muea and inside Buea.

The French Cameroun commander who received the elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion on behalf of the Governor of the South West told our correspondent that Yaounde had deployed them, accordingly, to fortify the security arrangement put in place within and around Buea the chief city in the Southern Zone.

The Ambazonian forces carried out coordinated attacks on two fronts beginning from Liongo in Muea and from Bomaka via Mile 17 exchanging gun fire with Cameroon government army soldiers. The Amba fighters reportedly pushed towards Bwitingi and Malingo killing two gendarmerie officers. Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé retreated to Bonduma.

The Southern Cameroons Liberation Army advanced as far as Small Soppo, Long and Razel Streets. Teachers handling this year’s GCE Examination of Shame in Baptist Buea and Lycee Molyko were forced to stop marking and told to hide under benches. A police officer Tiku Richard who attempted to fight back was killed by the restoration forces.

Many of the senior officers who had been scheduled to visit and supervise the newly deployed men were conspicuously absent. The mayor of Buea, Patrick Ekema has appealed to fleeing residents of the affected areas to return as normalcy had been restored and all the affected areas effectively secured with the presence of policemen and other security operatives.

By Sama Ernest in Buea


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Beginning of the End for Biya?

9, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Beginning of the End for Biya? 0

Actions by French President Macron and Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo this week have given a seal of approval to Ambazonian Restoration forces and could mark the beginning of the end of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo dictatorship that has ruled Cameroon for more than 35 years. Despite the fact that French president Emmanuel Macron all but confirmed the presence of French soldiers in Cameroon, the Biya regime denied that French soldiers were fighting in Southern Cameroons.

In the words of our senior contributing editor, Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo told MPs that the Anglophone crisis is a Cameroonian problem that will be solved by Cameroonians. He denied the presence of any French soldier either in the SW or NW region an indication that  Beti Assomo did not listen to President Macron during his live town hall in Nigeria, where he said, the goal of the French soldiers in Cameroon was to help re-establish “stability” in the Anglophone regions.

Top aides to the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako and members of other Southern Cameroons restoration groups expect the process to gain independence for Southern Cameroons to be long, complicated and bloody. But they say that events in French Cameroun and President Biya’s succession palaver – once the symbol of Anti Southern Cameroons nationalism – will embolden Ambazonian forces and encourage key foreign countries such as Nigeria to turn decisively against the regime of President Biya.

The United States Senate has had a hearing on the happenings in Southern Cameroons and slowly but surely the Trump administration will agree to allow the Interim Government to open an office in Washington. German MPs have also been pressing for sanctions against the Biya crime syndicate and the SPD party is expected to call for deploying of monitors in Southern Cameroons.

A source in the Bundestag hinted this reporter that the intent of such a deployment would be to deter the Francophone dominated armed forces from killing more Southern Cameroonians and provide independent accounts of clashes with Ambazonian Restoration Forces when they occur. With French government support, it is highly unlikely, however, that the consortium of CPDM crime syndicate headed by the 85 year old Biya would allow monitors into the country after killing more than 1000 Southern Cameroonians since 2016.

The Southern Cameroons opposition to the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has yet to unify as most South Sudanese did during their struggle for independence. The externally-based Morisc and an obscure organization known as ADF are at odds with the Interim Government.

French Cameroun opposition to Biya including the much respected NOW Movement of Barrister Akere Muna have said the only thing they want to negotiate with Biya is the manner and timing of his departure. Several members of the Cameroon government military have already defected, with many escaping to the Ivory Coast.

The Biya regime’s genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons is being carried out largely by soldiers from the North and Far North regions and the Presidential Guard – both largely comprised of members of the Beti Ewondo minority. The commanders are predominantly Beti- Ewondo.

Fear of Cameroon devolving into a multi-sided civil war among its numerous ethnic components was a major factor during the President Buhari-Macron meeting in Abuja. But Yaoundé is yet to stop the shooting of innocent Southern Cameroonians.

Over the past few weeks, Biya who lacks the strategic finesse of his legendary political god father, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo – has managed to alienate most of his once ardent CEMAC backers, including President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea who has reportedly chosen the path to dialogue for his country than excessive use of force.

Recently, a senior French Cameroun political elite told our Yaoundé correspondent, that Biya should see the tragic ends of the ones who declared war against their own people. The MP who hails from the Obala constituency also added that if he were in President Biya’s shoes, he would step down. The American Ambassador Peter Barlerin has also called for Biya to leave and an immediate end to the violence in Southern Cameroons.

Pressure from Paris forced the regime in Yaoundé to allow family members and a group of legal practitioners to meet with the detained Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others who were arrested in Nera hotel in Abuja but there were no indications that France, which virtually owns La Republique du Cameroun, was ready to break with the Biya regime.

The main Nigerian opposition party, the PDP has said it will keep the military option open to convince Biya to step down.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


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