Monthly Archives: September 2018

22, September 2018

Why Cho Ayaba’s intended treachery MUST be condemned ⁰

When Paul Biya of French Cameroun rushed his Secretary-General Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh to London a few months ago to sign an oil deal over the oil resources of Ambazonia, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report in an editorial called on the Serious Fraud Unit of the British Police, the FBI and the Ambazonia Federal Criminal Investigation Department to initiate criminal investigations and the prosecution of all the persons and entities involved in this criminal oil deal. Cameroon Concord News Group cautioned that the deal was intended to generate money to buy weapons to prosecute the genocide against Ambazonia. A majority of Ambazonians condemned the criminal deal. They overwhelmingly supported the call for the investigation and the prosecution of the culprits.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia promptly harkened to the people’s call and initiated complaints against the bloodletting criminal and commenced diplomatic efforts to stop the criminal deal. Thousands of Ambazonians world-wide threw their overwhelming support for the measures taken by the Interim Government to preserve our oil resources and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and individual citizens of Ambazonia in Britain and other parts of the world, mounted diplomatic efforts in Britain for this blood oil deal to be nullified. The diplomatic efforts began paying off with British members of the House of Commons bringing up the crimes committed against Ambazonians for debate during parliamentary sessions and with other arms of government.

The momentum and pressure were on when Cho Ayaba devised a means of delegitimizing the criminal complaints of Ambazonia over this criminal blood oil deal. He hoped to sign a contract legitimizing this fraudulent and criminal deal on behalf of Ambazonia for his self-interest. It could not have been intended to be a separate contract over the oil fields which a British Government department had welcomed and celebrated and which were under legal and diplomatic challenge by the Interim Government and the people of Ambazonia. No reasonable person would have expected that a British oil firm would get into an oil deal which was already recorded in official records and publicly celebrated by a member of government, Dr. Liam Fox.

The supposed plank was played on Ayaba by persons he knows so well and who have previously worked with him. The actions of these individuals within Ayaba’s organizational network might have its motives. And more will be known so long as Ayaba and his surrogates continue to attack them in the social media. Falsely accusing every person else but Ayaba and his organization and their greedy motives which Cameroon Concord News Group had long warned against is childish.

If these persons who allegedly set him up were not well known and trusted by him, how come a whole Commander-in-Chief who wants people to trust him for operational command decisions fall so easily to the prank? How does he expect the international community and Ambazonians to trust a Commander –in- Chief and supposed political leader who lacks a sense of discernment, is gullible, greedy and vulnerable? How can he be trusted with diplomatic and security confidences? How can he be trusted with the lives of more than eight million Ambazonians? If he is a committed warlord that he wants everyone to submit to his authority and command, why can he not learn from the Niger Delta Avengers how they are treating oil cartels illegally exploiting oil in their territory and devastating their environment? Did they struggle to sign oil deals with predatory murderers knowing that the oil firms although on the surface are independent of each other but operate as a cartel against the interest of the masses in the exploited territories?

The actions of Ayaba show that he still does not know the motivation against the annexation, colonization and genocide of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The war and genocide against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are indeed about the appropriation of the oil fields and natural resources that Ayaba went to London to sell off for his personal gain. Without the oil, France will never have connived with Britain to steal the natural resources of Ambazonia and slaughter millions of Ambazonians over these 67 years. It is for this oil that many Ambazonians are dying for the fatherland, many slaughtered, and many more driven to refugee camps. It is about this oil that His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, members of the Interim Government, Mancho Bibixy and thousands Ambazonians have sacrificed their liberty and lives. It is about this oil that the independence of Ambazonia was stolen.

Cameroon Concord News Group is surprised by the fact that a few opportunists are struggling to justify the actions of Cho Ayaba and blaming the majority of Ambazonians who have and are sacrificing their lives to defend and protect the fatherland. Ayaba and his surrogates go so low and equated what happened to him to the abduction of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government in Nigeria. That is an insult to the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The criminal operation against President Ayuk Tabe was carried out by three countries, with the support of the oil cartel. Cho Ayaba went to London hoping to sign a contract selling off Ambazonia for personal gain. The countries are Nigeria, France and French Cameroun. The Cho Ayaba’s scandal was an operation launched within his inner operational cycle by persons he has worked with, whom he knew and for reasons which will be known with time exposed him for what he is. The tough guy whom his surrogates are projecting in him pales in the face of the prank he fell into. No tough guy is that cheap to get. Not one claiming to be an army commander.

The conduct of Ayaba must be strongly condemned by all reasonable people. Ayaba needs to respect the call by a majority of Ambazonians to shelve his greedy warlord ambition and work with the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to genuinely defend the restoration of independence which was declared by His Excellency Sisiku Ayuka Tabe on the 1^st of October 2017. The overwhelming mandate which the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia gave the Interim Government under His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe on 22 September 2017 to declare the actualization of independence on 1^stOoctober 2017 now devolves on the Interim President His Excellency Samuel Sako. Cho Ayaba cannot sincerely say he is fighting to defend the actualization of the independence declared by the Interim Government while fighting to destroy the Interim Government. His conduct in wanting to legitimize the sale of Ambazonia oilfields in a criminal oil deal is a serious crime against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. His conduct in attacking and kidnapping or killing other self defense forces within the national territory of Ambazonia must be opposed and denounced. He should be apologizing like the prodigal son seeking to be allowed back into the fold, instead to attacking the sovereign will of the people of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Asu Vera Eyere

22, September 2018

Tanzania president orders arrests over ferry disaster as death toll rises ⁰

Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Friday ordered the arrest of the management of a ferry that capsized in Lake Victoria, killing 151 passengers.

The death toll from the sinking has risen to 151, state-run TV station TBC said Saturday as rescue workers pressed on with the search to find more people feared drowned.

In a speech broadcast on TBC 1 public television, Magufuli said “it appears clear that the ferry was overloaded”, adding that “negligence has cost us so many lives… children, mothers, students, old people”.

“I ordered the arrest of all those involved in the management of the ferry. The arrests have already begun,” he added. President Magufuli declared four days of national mourning on Friday and said that the government would pay funerary costs for the victims.

Authorities have begun a criminal investigation into the MV Nyerere, which sank with an unknown number of passengers aboard on Thursday afternoon near Ukara, the lake’s biggest island, which is part of Tanzania.

Initial estimates indicated that the MV Nyerere was carrying more than 200 people onboard, when the ship’s capacity is just 101. It went down just a few metres from the dock in Ukerewe district, according to national ferry services operator TEMESA, but it is likely that most on board did not know how to swim.

But it was hard to establish the precise number of passengers on board since the person dispensing tickets had also drowned with the machine recording the data lost. “There were more than a hundred passengers on board when the ferry sank, it is feared that a significant number have lost their lives,” said George Nyamaha, the head of Ukerewe district council.

The ferry was also carrying cargo including sacks of maize and cement when it capsized close to the dock.

Reporting for FRANCE 24 from Tanzania, Emmanuel Makundi noted that while the cause of the accident was not immediately clear, he had interviewed a witness who was on the lake shore at the time of the accident: “He said that as the ferry was approaching the shore, many people tried to reach the gate and that led a car that was onboard the ferry to topple over. That led the ferry to list on one side, causing the accident.”

In 1996, a ferry disaster on Lake Victoria in the same region killed at least 500 people. In 2012, at least 145 people died in a ferry disaster in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, on a vessel that was overcrowded.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

22, September 2018

Eyeing Oscar run, Kenya briefly lifts ban on lesbian love film ⁰

A Kenyan court on Friday overturned a ban on Wanuri Kahiu’s “Rafiki” – though for seven days only – allowing the film about a lesbian romance to be considered for the Academy Awards.

Kahiu brought the court action after the Kenya Film Classification Board banned Rafiki for “promoting lesbianism”, effectively barring it from the Oscars competition.

Judge Wlfrida Okwany ruled that Rafiki could now be shown to “willing adults only” for seven days, a minimum requirement for submitting feature films for the Academy Awards.

Okwany said that to maintain the ban would deprive Kahiu of “the fame, glory, exposure and opportunity that the Oscar nomination brings a film maker.

“The matter is not for determination on whether homosexuality is right or wrong, moral or immoral, but whether an artist or filmmaker can, in exercising his or her right to freedom of expression and artistic creativity, make a film depicting a gay theme.”

Rafiki made history this year by becoming the first Kenyan movie to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. It featured in the “Un Certain Regard” category, earmarked for emerging directors or unexpected or marginal themes.

Kahiu now wants her film to have a shot at the Oscars in February. However, the award rules state that a film must “be first publicly exhibited for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theatre for the profit of the producer and exhibitor” to enter the competition.

With the deadline of 30 September approaching Kahiu sought – and won – a court order in her favour.

Many applauded the court ruling allowing Rafiki to be shown in theatres, but some on social media noted that LGBT Kenyans continue to face harassment in an intensely homophobic culture.

Kenya has retained British colonial-era laws that make homosexuality illegal. The ruling comes as Kenyans await another potentially landmark ruling on the constitutionality of a law that punishes same-sex intercourse with up to 14 years in prison.

Ezekiel Mutua, the censorship board’s head and a self-described “fervent moral crusader”, banned the film “due to its homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law.”

Mutua denounced Friday’s ruling, asking on Twitter: “What pleasure, pray, does a person of a sane mind find in watching girls having sex with other girls?”

It would be a tragedy and a shame to have homosexual films defining the Kenyan culture. That’s not who we are and homosexuality is not our way of life

The film does not include sex scenes, but the censorship board accused producers of changing the original script that was licensed for production, which they say didn’t have romantic scenes between the female actors.

The board released a statement saying that “it is a sad moment, not only to the film industry, but to all Kenyans who stand for morality, that a film that glorifies homosexuality is allowed to be the country’s new branding tool abroad.”

“Rafiki” – meaning “friend” in Kiswahili – is adapted from an award-winning story called “Jambula Tree” by Ugandan writer Monica Arac Nyeko. It tells the tale of two young women, daughters of rival politicians, who fall in love.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

22, September 2018

In Cameroon, social media plays key role in vote campaign ⁰

Footage of abuses published on Facebook, politicians tweeting their every move: for the first time, the West African state of Cameroon is heading into a presidential election in which social media is taking a central role.

Nine candidates are contesting the October 7 poll, including President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years and is hoping to be re-elected for a sixth time.

But this time, the 85-year-old broke with media tradition by announcing his candidacy on Twitter.

During the last election in 2011, only a handful of candidates were using social media. Today, almost all of them have a dedicated team to ensure they are very much present online.

One of Biya’s main challengers is Joshua Osih — head of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) — who has taken to engaging with voters online.

When he came under fire for “unpresidential behaviour” after posting a picture of himself at the airport in Paris, he hit back immediately on Twitter, saying that was exactly the point.

“I want to break with protocol and everything to do with the myth around the presidency,” he wrote.

“I want to be close to the people I rule and not shut up in a palace.”

– ‘Much greater reach’ –

For candidates, going online offers far greater exposure than traditional forms of campaigning, explains Julie Owono, executive director of Internet Without Borders, an NGO.

“There is much greater potential in terms of reach than when their words are communicated through the written press or the radio,” she said.

For Owono, this increased presence online is the result of a significantly higher rate of internet connectivity in Cameroon.

Figures released earlier this month by the ministry of postal and telecomms services show connectivity jumped from a mere 0.24 percent of the population in 2011 to 35 percent last year.

“There has been a fall in the cost of internet access and network quality has also improved,” she said.

– ‘Disinformation’ –

Although the official launch of the election campaign is only due to start on Saturday, social media is already highlighting prominent topics, especially the security crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Blighted by armed conflict, the two regions have remained largely inaccessible to the media and NGOs but those involved in the fighting have used social media to expose purported human rights violations by the other side.

Since the conflict began at the end of 2017, footage of alleged abuses involving both anglophone separatists and Cameroonian soldiers have been doing the rounds almost every day on social media.

A military policeman with his head cut off, villages burnt by the army, and even scenes of torture: all these excesses caught on camera are used by both sides to try and discredit the enemy.

Faced with the surge of horrific footage spreading online, the government has called for calm, denouncing the “inappropriate use of the internet”.

Both the increase in hate speech and the proliferation of “fake news” are proving to be “a threat to our right to reliable information, above all in an election period,” said Communications Minister Tchiroma Bakary.

In July, the minister dismissed out of hand a video purportedly showing abuses by Cameroonian soldiers in the country’s Far North Region, where troops are deployed to root out Boko Haram jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria.

Several weeks later, an investigation was opened and several soldiers were arrested.

“The main challenge regarding the use of social networks is disinformation,” said Janvier Ngnoulaye, who heads an NGO called Internet Society Cameroon.

– Internet shutdown? –

With less than three weeks until the vote, Biya’s supporters — who see him as best placed to handle the separatist crisis and the threat posed by Boko Haram — maintain that footage of alleged abuses by the army was put online in order to sabotage his re-election bid.

“It’s all about harming Biya’s image,” a security source told AFP.

In fact, the campaign has sparked an online war of images: when one side posts pictures of roads in disrepair, the other responds with photos of huge construction projects, such as the motorway between Yaounde and Douala.

Earlier this month, a misleading rumour began circulating on social networks suggesting that Yaounde was going to shut down internet access during the vote, as happened in Mali in August.

“Fake news,” responded the communications minister.

But such fears are not entirely unfounded.

In early 2017, as the separatist protests multiplied in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, Yaounde sought to stamp out the unrest by cutting off internet access in the two areas for over three months.

AFP

22, September 2018

‘Imagine in five years’: how education became a casualty of Southern Cameroon’s war ⁰

If Simon had the chance to tell his class about his summer holidays, the seven-year-old Simon would no doubt mention the large tarpaulin sack that for almost four months served as his sleeping bag and his magic carpet.

When the family fled their home in the town of Batibo, in Cameroon’s north west, his mother used grain bags to carry her two youngest children as Simon ran alongside. Later, out in the open jungle, all three children slept inside the bags.

“It protected them from the snakes and the mosquitoes,” says Rebecca, Simon’s mother, 25, her voice still sounding panicked as she describes the exodus and the stray bullets she feared could hit her children.

But Simon will not be telling any summer holiday stories this year. Like tens of thousands of other Cameroonian children, school has been suspended for yet another year.

The crisis in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions – the north-west and south-west – began in October 2016 with peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers demanding the wider use of English, rather than French, in local courtrooms and schools, as well as more English-speaking school teachers, adherence to a dual legal system and a fairer allocation of resources.

But the situation has spiralled out of control amid a vicious war of kidnapping, decapitations and the burning of entire villages.

Classrooms have become part of the ongoing warfare between the government and separatist forces. School attendance is compulsory for all Cameroonian children until the age of 12, but gunshots on the streets and threats from separatist forces mean many are denied this right.

In recent months, teachers who dared to show up for work have been killed, and buildings burned. This week an unknown group of men stormed a school in Buea, capital of the south-west region, attacking students and teachers with machetes and guns. This followed reports that on 3 September, the first day of the academic year, gunmen attacked a secondary school in the town of Bafut, about 25km from Bamenda, the capital of the north-west region, kidnapping five pupils.

Condemning such incidents, Jacques Boyer, who represents Unicef, the UN children’s agency, in Cameroon, said: “All children in the north-west and south-west regions – like any other children across the country – must be able to go to school in peace.”

Unicef estimates published this month show that, of more than 300 million five- to 17-year-olds not in school worldwide, one-third live in conflict areas.

But Unicef is not providing any educational support for people living in the affected regions and there appears to be little help from other organisations. Cameroonians are being left to get on with things themselves.

The country’s two Anglophone regions are home to approximately a fifth of the country’s population, estimated at 23 million. More than 180,000 people have fled their homes in the Anglophone areas, and families are growing increasingly anxious about the impact of missed schooling on their children.

“Imagine five years from now, the children still not going to school – what will happen to them?” says Bridget, 50, a retired nurse who fled her north-west hometown. “They will become a terror group fighting the government.”

Such fears may already be a reality. Claire, 38, from Kumbo, north-west region, says children she used to see in her church now run around the neighbourhood with guns.

“One of their leaders is a girl whose grandmother was burned alive in her home [by government forces],” she says. “Now she’s one of the ones giving orders.”

Today, she can shoot a gun. “But what will happen to her when she is arrested?” says Claire.

There are also worries that lack of schooling will increase already high teenage pregnancy rates. According to the Cameroon Medical Council, one in four pregnancies in the country are among school-age girls.

Though there are no official statistics, parents from the north-west region who have fled to the capital, Yaoundé, say they have noticed more pregnant teenagers. With shops and businesses closed, schoolgirls are looking for cleaning or babysitting jobs, leaving them at risk to abuse.

More affluent families have sent their children to schools in the French-speaking parts of the country, and cities like Douala and Yaoundé are beginning to feel the squeeze.

Sandrine, 17, a student at Deido billingual high school in Douala, says class sizes have increased considerably. “In theory, there are supposed to be around 40 students in a classroom, but that’s a joke,” she said. “It’s more like a hundred.”

During last summer’s exams season, she said students had to turn up extra early to claim a desk or face being turned away.

For those stuck in the crisis-ridden regions, private education – which is becoming ever more expensive – is the only option, says Frances, a mother of one in Kumba.

“The teacher charges 30,000 [West African CFA] francs per month, so for nine months the fees will be 270,000 francs (£370), while school used to cost just 90,000 per year,” she says.

Organising home schooling is not always possible, adds Frances, since group gatherings of more than five people can attract the attention of the authorities.

Students leave school in Mbalmayo, a village south of Yaoundé

“I haven’t got a job, and I can’t afford the school fees,” she says. She does not speak French, the working language in the capital. She is afraid people will turn on her when they realise where she is from.

“We are too afraid to even go outside and speak English,” she says. Other mothers nod in agreement. Surveying the calm Yaoundé traffic, Claire, about to return to Kumbo, says she fears young people in her hometown will be a lost generation. “You can sacrifice anything, but not the future of the children.”

*All names have been changed at the request of the interviewees, who feared repercussions if identified.

Source: The Guardian

21, September 2018

The United States Can Stop Biya’s Brutal Crackdown ⁰

Since the end of 2016, Cameroonian citizens in the country’s English-speaking regions have been calling for more equitable representation in government and more respect for English—one of the country’s two official languages—in courts and schools. English has been increasingly marginalized, creating a society where knowledge of French is a necessity to attend the country’s top schools, receive government appointments, or conduct business.

Anglophones are also protesting the fact that more government resources are allocated to Francophone regions. In 2017, the two Anglophone regions were allocated a combined $153 million of the country’s Public Investment Budget, while the country’s south—the home region of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than three decades—was allocated more than $225 million, despite having a far smaller population, according to 2012 data.

What began as peaceful protests by lawyers, teachers, and everyday citizens has devolved into a near-civil war.

The hands of those fighting back are certainly not clean—there are credible reports of ambushes on military and police officers, kidnapping of local officials, and extortion of businesses for financial support—but what has allegedly happened at the hands of Cameroon’s most elite military force, and members of the country’s other armed forces, is far more alarming.

Hard reporting has been difficult to come by and sporadic given the government’s grip on power and its tendency to cut off internet access in Anglophone regions for prolonged periods—150 days in 2017 alone.

But for months, there have been widely circulated videos of individuals in military uniforms—both those of the Cameroonian army and those of the government’s elite military guard, the Battalion d’Intervention Rapide (BIR)—committing a vast array of violent acts against civilians, including burning dozens of villages in Anglophone regions, torture, and indiscriminate killing.

In one video, men in military fatigues can be seen setting village houses ablaze before walking away to let them burn to the ground.

In one video, men in military fatigues can be seen setting village houses ablaze before walking away to let them burn to the ground.

Another shows individuals in BIR uniforms beating a man with a two-by-four. And in July, videos surfaced showing military officers executing women and children.

After initial cries of “fake news,” the government ultimately acknowledged its veracity. Sadly, these are not anecdotes; there is a vast library of documented atrocities—and with presidential elections less than a month away, the violence is likely to get worse.

The conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is rooted in the country’s colonial past and path to independence, and it cannot necessarily be resolved by outside powers. But the U.S. government could put a unique type of pressure on Cameroon’s leaders simply by enforcing U.S. laws already on the books.

The so-called Leahy Law, passed in 1997 and named for its chief advocate, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, essentially bars the Departments of State and Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security forces that have credible accusations of human rights violations made against them. From a growing number of press reports, firsthand accounts, and on-the-ground videos, it’s clear that the BIR and the military more broadly are violating Cameroonians’ human rights.

From a growing number of press reports, firsthand accounts, and on-the-ground videos, it’s clear that the BIR and the military more broadly are violating Cameroonians’ human rights.

These are exactly the types of forces the Leahy Law was designed to target. The BIR has always been a bit of an outlier when compared with its counterparts from other branches of the armed forces: It’s well funded, receives training from the United States, and is led by a retired Israeli military officer. The BIR doesn’t even report to the country’s defense minister, taking orders instead directly from Biya.
Source: Foreignpolicy.com

21, September 2018

Cameroon’s Worsening Anglophone Crisis Highlights Need for Dialogue and Inclusion ⁰

Anglophone Crisis – Though Boko Haram’s lethality and tactical innovation, al-Shabaab’s resilience, and the brokering of partnerships by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have rightfully dominated analysis of political violence in Africa, other situations are also increasingly relevant for those concerned with political violence in Africa.

With the escalation of the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon and the October general elections presenting a risk of further increased tensions, the evolution of the country’s conflict and its implications for political violence across the continent is worth noting.

Much can be learned about conflict escalation from the Cameroonian government’s reaction to the calls of Anglophone activists, which has pushed the country towards violent conflict and has made the prospects for peaceful dialogue ever dimmer. The Cameroonian government, historically, has not effectively integrated and engaged its Anglophone population through inclusive governance practices. And since protests erupted nearly two years ago, the Biya administration has not seemed inclined to engage in peaceful dialogue to draw down the crisis. Taken together, these suggest that the scale of the conflict, and its lethality, are likely to escalate.

Origins of the Crisis

The origin of friction between Anglophone and Francophone populations in Cameroon can be traced back to the colonial era. Originally under German rule, Cameroon was partitioned between the French and British into two territories, both governed as trusts. Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians were unified under a federal system in 1961 after a plebiscite was held in which voters were given a choice to join either Nigeria or Cameroon. It is worth mentioning that, among Anglophone Cameroonians, nearly 60 percent of Anglophones in the majority-Muslim northern region voted to join Nigeria, while roughly 70 percent of Anglophones in the majority-Christian southern region voted to join Cameroon.

In 1972, under President Ahmadou Ahidjo, the federal system was discarded in favor of a united, bilingual republic. To this day, however, Anglophone regions are governed by Common Law, whereas the rest of the country is governed by a civil code. Debates over the extent to which the country is dominated by Francophones, what sub-national authorities that the two Anglophone regions should be granted, and various cultural matters, have resulted in a proliferation of Anglophone activist groups and general politicking around the issue. Groups that may seem at face value to be apolitical—including teachers’ unions and legal associations—have taken up Anglophone issues as a part of political campaigns.

Anglophones currently make up roughly 20 percent of the country’s population and are undeniably under-represented in President Paul Biya’s government. Since taking power in 1982, less than 11 percent of the ministers appointed by Biya have been Anglophones. At present, just three of the 33 generals in the country and six of the 63-person cabinet members are Anglophones. Even within Anglophone districts, government jobs are often given to Francophone appointees.

Escalation of the Crisis

Though longstanding, the conflict between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians took a lethal turn in 2016 when widespread, peaceful protests and strikes emerged. Media reports focused on the role of Common Law lawyers advocating to abandon the Cameroonian Bar Association. Other groups, including the country’s teachers, then joined the protests. After weeks of strikes, gendarmes used tear gas against protesters. Shortly thereafter, four people were killed in clashes with security forces during a protest in Bamenda that arose after the Cameroon Teacher’s Trade Union called for a strike. Reports also emerged in late November of sexual violence against students at the University of Buea by Cameroonian security forces.

As the protests continued, the Biya government also began detaining and arresting Anglophone activists and journalists and shutting down newspapers and radio stations. Beginning in January 2017 the government cut or greatly slowed down internet services in Anglophone regions. The internet shutdown ended up being one of the longest recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, lasting just under 100 days. The shutdown was economically harmful—given the region’s reputation as “Silicon Mountain”—and also hamstrung efforts to keep track of events in the region.

At the same time, the government also engaged in some conciliatory measures. A National Commission on the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism was established and was accompanied in short order by the “appointing [of] Anglophone magistrates and bilingual teachers, and [the] releasing from prison some Anglophone civil society leaders and activists.” According to Amnesty International, however, “these moves were viewed by the Anglophone movements as being too limited,” and the protests continued.

The groups that have emerged to advance Anglophone rights have advocated different means and different ends. The vast majority of Anglophone activists advocate for peaceful resolution of the conflict, but as government repression has intensified, groups who advocate secession, or worse, violence, have become more significant. Some groups advocate for more federalism, while others call for secession and the establishment of an independent state called “Ambazonia.” A number of armed separatist groups also formed an umbrella organization, the Ambazonia Recognition Collaboration Council (ARCC), claiming to have thousands of fighters.

Through the spring and summer of 2017, however, Anglophone protesters steadily escalated their tactics. Over this period, at least 42 schools and a number of market stalls in Anglophone Cameroon were burned down. A recent report catalogued a number of instances in which Anglophone separatists targeted civilians who did not engage in the demonstrations. The Biya government imposed curfews and increased the security sector’s presence in the region in response. Despite this, Anglophone separatists declared independence on October 1, 2017; in clashes with the state security forces that day, reports indicated that at least a dozen people were killed and 40 arrested.

By November 2017, separatists were making attacks on the government more frequently and brazenly. In the Northwest province, for example, they began targeting police with homemade explosive devices. The Biya government stepped up its repression and arrests, labeled the separatists “terrorists” by comparing them to Boko Haram, and declared war on them.

Actions taken by armed separatist groups and the government continued to worsen. Separatists are suspected to have kidnapped nine employees of a construction firm and in response to the arrest and repatriation of Anglophone activists that fled to Nigeria, an armed separatist group called the Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF) began abducting government officials. Soon thereafter, a Tunisian national living in Cameroon was abducted and killed, after which the government organized a rescue mission to release 18 hostages, including 12 Europeans. Just this May, a radio journalist and Anglophone activist, Mancho Bibixy, was sentenced to 15 years in prison under the country’s anti-terrorism law in a military court. Four journalists had previously been held under the act until President Biya issued a presidential decree for their release. Bibixy’s conviction has prompted speculation about what sentences could be handed down to the other detained activists and journalists.

Throughout this escalation, more than 20,000 people have fled the country for neighboring Nigeria and an estimated 150,000 have been internally displaced. The escalation has transformed a generally peaceful, albeit contentious, debate over the extent and nature of federalism in modern Cameroon into a violent, potentially-existential crisis over the future of the Cameroonian state.

What Lies Ahead?

Though a number of the characteristics of this conflict are specific to Cameroon, the events of the past few years highlight the importance of inclusive governance measures and the ramifications of heavy-handed security responses to political dissidents. In particular, the Cameroonian experience points to the need to engage moderate political dissidents early and earnestly. In waiting months before attempting to work with the Anglophone community and doing so after violence began to escalate, the Biya administration allowed hardliners and separatists within the movement to mobilize effectively and gain influence. Had the government engaged the initial protests, led by lawyers and teachers, the escalation of the crisis may have been averted.

In October, Cameroon will hold elections, which could result in increased tensions. Anglophone territories have previously thrown their support behind the Social Democratic Front (SDF), which currently controls 18 of the 180 seats in parliament. If any perception of illegitimacy in the electoral process takes hold, the current level of violence could take an even deadlier turn. Avoiding an escalation of this kind, and ultimately changing the tone of the current situation, requires dialogue between prominent moderate, non-violent Anglophone activists and the government.

www.searchzima.com

21, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Military brutality makes school resumption impossible ⁰

For more than two years, schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been closed following a peaceful demonstration by lawyers and teachers in 2016 against injustice and widespread marginalization.

The demonstrations were followed by the violent military action and this has pushed the country into a military conflict with government troops killing more than 3,000 civilians. The schools are bound to remain closed as government troops are killing students and teachers.

Last week a teacher of the Cameroon Protestant College (CPC) Bali, Mr. Ndeh Blaise, was gunned down by a trigger happy soldiers for no reason. The teacher, who was going to town to run some errands, was stopped by soldiers on patrol. He was asked to present his national identity card, which he promptly did. He was asked by one of the soldiers to undress. He reluctantly did that given that there were some passengers around some of whom were women.

He was later ordered by the soldier to face a wall which he did without question. He was shortly after shot to the leg by the soldier and while lying on the ground, the other passengers rushed to help him, but the said soldier ordered them to stay away or they would be killed. The other passengers were ordered to leave and a moment after, they heard gunshots. It was Mr. Ndeh who had taken a bullet to the chest, a bullet that killed him instantly.

With situations like this, it is hard for schools to resume. Parents are scared of sending their children to school and teachers are reluctant to go to school as both the country’s military and Southern Cameroonian fighters have made them their target.

Many teachers and students in the English-speaking regions have simply migrated from the region for fear of being killed. The conflict in the region has taken unacceptable proportions and the population is moving out.

Last week, things took a turn for the worse. Huge crowds could be seen traveling from the English regions to East Cameroon where they hoped they would find a safe place. The situation was overwhelming and even the South West governor, Okala Bilai, who once called the people of his region “dogs”, had to plead with the residents to cancel their trips. But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The fear was prompted by threats by Southern Cameroonian fighters to implement a strict movement of goods and persons within the region from September 20, 2018 to October 7, 2018. It should be indicated that Cameroon will be having presidential elections on October 7, 2018 and this has ignited a new wave of fighting and killing in the region as the government seeks to mop up the environment.

Campaigns for presidential elections scheduled for October 7, are currently underway and it is generally held that Mr. Biya, considered by the ruling crime syndicate as its natural candidate, will emerge as the winner in an election that has already been rigged.

The movement of the population has prompted new tensions in the cities vacated by the population. As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

While the majority of the population is out, those who do not have relatives out of their main towns have opted to stay and this is costing them their lives. Government militias dressed in the country’s military fatigue are on a rampage. The government has trained a group of Beti killers and unleashed them on the Southern Cameroonian population. A massacre of a global scale is unfolding in many villages and towns in the English-speaking regions.

Pictures emerging from the region are too graphic to be shown. The story is hard to tell. Young men hiding in their homes have been reduced to a mass of flesh as army soldiers move from house to house to carry out a mission they have been handed by Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed; there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

“They have trained killers to kill young able-bodied Southern Cameroonians in the region. This is not the right time for any young man to be in the Southwest and northwest regions. The government has decided to cleanse the region and its militia and military are working hand in glove to implement a plan put in place by the defense minister and his collaborators,” the source said.

“The days ahead will be the bloodiest. The government has no respect for human life. I am really ashamed to be called a Cameroonian. I wish I could express myself in public, but the position I hold makes it hard for me to speak. I am dying in silence. Our country is going through the toughest moments in its history. How can a complaint by a peace-loving people be allowed to degenerate into a civil war,” he added.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many parts of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

While the killings are going on, the Yaoundé government has decided to seal its leaps. The massacre speaks to a well-orchestrated genocide. The government of Cameroon has decided to wipe out all adult males from certain communities as a move to end any opposition it might face in the region.

With presidential elections on the horizon and October 1 which is considered by many Southern Cameroonians as their independence day, the government is hard at work to ensure that it faces no challenges in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch, has not expressed any regret about what is happening in his country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaoundé government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

On the contrary, the defense minister has only issued a press statement indicating that among those who have fled the carnage in the Southwest and Northwest regions to Yaoundé, are some terrorists who have to be neutralized.

The press statement therefore implies that government security forces will be carrying out attacks and searches in neighborhoods inhabited by Southern Cameroonians. The government seems to be rolling out its genocide plan and it is clear that Southern Cameroonians are not safe even in the nation’s capital.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions has finally migrated to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become ghost town as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 20, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

The crisis in Cameroon will not be coming to an end anytime soon. The devil is at work in that part of the world. Government troops and the fighters are all committing atrocities that could not have been associated with Cameroon a few years back. The world has to step in if the carnage must stop. Mr. Biya has finally achieved his goal – leave Cameroon with a civil war once he leaves the stage. The country has finally inherited the dictator’s legacy that has affected many countries on the continent.

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda

21, September 2018

Vietnamese President Quang dead at 61 ⁰

Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang died Friday at age 61 after a prolonged and serious illness, state media reported. He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, Quang had a reputation as a tough leader with little tolerance for dissent.

Though he held one of the country’s top four positions and was officially the head of state, his role as president was seen as largely ceremonial, greeting visiting leaders and hosting diplomatic events in a bid to boost Vietnam’s profile on the world stage.

Quang had appeared thin and pale in public, and was unstable on his feet last week when he hosted a welcoming ceremony for Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Hanoi last week.

His last public appearance was just two days ago, at a meeting with visiting Chinese politicians and foreign dignitaries in Hanoi.

Quang, a member of the Politburo, had a reputation as tough and influential in the inner circles of the communist party, though often appeared uncomfortable in the public eye and lacked the charisma of some of his peers in the upper echelons of the party.

In an interview with AFP in 2016 ahead of a visit by the former French leader Francois Hollande, Quang read from a prepared statement and was quickly escorted from the room by staff when a question went off-script. State media made a somber announcement of his death Friday and celebrated his long commitment to public service.

His time in office was dominated by a simmering conflict with Beijing over the South China Sea, a long-running dispute between the communist neighbours that escalated on several occasions. Vietnam cancelled at least one oil drilling project in the resource-rich region during Quang’s tenure in an apparent bid to quell tensions.

He was the administration’s most public face at a series of high-profile events, most notably at an APEC meeting in Danang in November last year where he hosted a bevy of world leaders including US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.

As president, he oversaw a crackdown on dissidents that rights groups have decried as a chokehold on free expression. More than 40 people were jailed this year and some 100 have been behind bars as of April 2018, according to Amnesty International.

(AFP)

21, September 2018

US sanctions China for buying Russian jets, missiles ⁰

The United States expanded its sanctions war against Russia to China on Thursday, announcing punitive measures against a Chinese military organization for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Stepping up pressure on Moscow over its “malign activities,” the US State Department said it was placing financial sanctions on the Equipment Development Department of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, and its top administrator, for its recent purchase of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles.

Officials said it was the first time a third country has been punished under the CAATSA sanctions legislation for dealing with Russia, and signaled the Trump administration’s will to risk relations with other countries in its campaign against Moscow.

They also said that the US could consider similar action against other countries taking delivery of Russian fighter jets and missiles. US ally Turkey is currently talking with Moscow about an S400 deal.

“The ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia,” a senior administration official told journalists, insisting on anonymity.

“CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country. They are aimed at imposing costs on Russia in response to its malign activities.”

CAATSA, or the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, was passed in 2017 as a tool that gives the Trump administration more ways to target Russia, Iran and North Korea with economic and political sanctions.

With regard to Russia, CAATSA arises from the country’s “aggression in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, cyber intrusions and attacks, interference in the 2016 elections, and other malign activities,” the State Department said.

The legislation allows the government to take action against those companies and individuals who have been placed on the CAATSA blacklist.

EDD and its director Li Shangfu became targets after taking delivery over the past year of the jets and missiles from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms export entity already on the CAATSA blacklist for its support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Targeting Russian ‘big ticket’ arms deals

At the same time, the State Department also announced it was placing 33 Russian intelligence and military-linked actors on its sanctions blacklist under the CAATSA rules.

All of them — defense related firms, officers of the GRU military intelligence agency, and people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency disinformation group — have been on previous US sanctions lists and 28 of them have already been indicted by Russia election meddling investigator Robert Mueller.

“We will continue to vigorously implement CAATSA and urge all countries to curtail relationships with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors, both of which are linked to malign activities worldwide,” the State Department said.

The sanctions freeze any of EDD’s and Li’s assets in US jurisdictions.

They also restrict EDD’s access to global financial markets by blocking foreign exchange transactions under US jurisdiction or any transactions in the US financial system.

The senior official stressed that CAATSA is not going to be implemented across the board, but that the US was choosing Russia’s sale of “bigger ticket items” of “new, fancy, qualitatively significant stuff” that could have a “security impact” on the United States.

“The CAATSA was not intended to take down the economy of third party countries. It’s intended to impose appropriate pressures on Russia in response to Russian malign acts,” the official said.

The official declined to answer if the US would take similar action if Russia delivers S400 missiles to other countries such as Turkey, which is in talks to buy them.

However, he said, “You can be confident that we have spent an enormous amount of time talking about prospective purchases of things such as S-400s and Sukhois with people all around the world who may have been interested in such things and some who may still be.”

“We have made it very clear to them that these — that systems like the S-400 are a system of key concern with potential CAATSA implications.”

(AFP)