Monthly Archives: October 2018

Cameroon’s displaced thousands fear disenfranchisement

4, October 2018

Cameroon’s displaced thousands fear disenfranchisement 0

“If you have the polling card, you go and vote, but it’s complicated once you’re there,” said Yagana Adi, 55, who wants to vote in Cameroon’s presidential election on Sunday. Her identity papers were lost when she fled an attack on her village by Boko Haram jihadists in 2014.

The raid happened in Djakana in Cameroon’s far north near the Nigerian border and forced her to abandon her home along with her 13 children.

“I said to the children that we were leaving, we walked for hours, days, and we arrived in Maroua,” the regional capital, she said. Two of her daughters did not manage to flee in time and were picked up by jihadists.

Nearly one in 10 people in the far north have followed a similar path to Yagana, fleeing repeated attacks by Boko Haram which is based in neighbouring Nigeria.

Roughly 80,000 have since returned home but 238,000 remain displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. Many have sought refuge with friends and family in the region’s towns like Maroua.

“If you go into a Maroua neighbourhood, they’re everywhere,” said a humanitarian source on the ground. “The problem is that they don’t have their papers anymore and so can’t register on the voter roll.”

– ‘Challenges for displaced people’? –

The electoral commission Elecam has vowed that those who have been “displaced will be able to vote,” according to the organising body’s regional director Amadou Ali.

“They’re not just displaced people — they are voters. The fact that they’ve been displaced will not have any impact on the election.”

He added that people without their documents will be able to register to vote in the towns where they have sought refuge. “It’s not true, I wasn’t able to get a voting card,” retorted Yagana, as she rested on a mat.

“I’ve requested it but a local official asked me for 40,000 CFA francs ($70, 60 euros).” Yagana and her family are now living on a vacant plot of land lent to her by a Maroua resident where they have erected a makeshift shelter using sheets and tarpaulins.

“I think less than one-third of those displaced in the far north are registered on the voters’ roll,” said Hans de Marie Heungoup, a Cameroonian researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank.

The region is Cameroon’s most populous and its poorest and has previously voted overwhelmingly for President Paul Biya.

“There’ll be an election in the far north, but who the people vote for is another question,” said a prominent figure in Maroua where Biya made his only appearance of the campaign so far at the weekend. It was also his first visit to the region since 2012.

Majority-francophone Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the southwest and northwest — have been rocked by a separatist insurgency since a symbolic independence declaration one year ago.

“The challenges for displaced people to vote there are greater,” said a senior military source based in Yaounde.

– ‘The election? It doesn’t concern us’ –

The army has been deployed to the two restive regions to battle separatist fighters since the end of 2017. According to the ICG, the secessionists control “a significant proportion of rural areas and main roads” in the regions. Skirmishes are violent and occur daily, displacing thousands of local residents.

In the southwest, 246,000 people have been displaced according to the UN, while no estimate exists for the northwest region which is largely inaccessible to aid groups and journalists.

Some 25,000 others are sheltering in neighbouring Nigeria, according to the UN. “The people have sought refuge in the bush and they are living in awful conditions,” said a humanitarian source in Buea. The town is rocked by bursts of gunfire daily, according to local sources.

No reception centres for displaced people have been opened in the anglophone areas where separatists have threatened to disrupt the vote. In the face of continuing clashes, a surge of troops is planned, according to the senior officer.

Elecam has also said that some polling stations will be “relocated” in the anglophone region which has traditionally been a reliable well of votes for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) whose candidate is Joshua Osih.

He has described the planned “relocations” in interviews as “an illegal measure” that could damage his chances. Asked about the looming vote, a student in Douala who fled Buea with his family said: “The election? It doesn’t concern us. I want to get my father’s job and our house back. Here, we are stuck.”

Source: AFP


Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Gov’t have Southern Cameroons on lockdown ahead of elections

4, October 2018

Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Gov’t have Southern Cameroons on lockdown ahead of elections 0

On Monday Oct. 1, Cameroon’s Anglophone separatists marked the first anniversary of their self-declared breakaway state, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) in a somber mood. This was a marked difference from last year’s outpouring of celebrations and rhetoric by locals to unilaterally and symbolically declare independence of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

That was because both the Cameroon government and the separatists themselves had decreed a total lockdown for the date, Oct. 1 and beyond—with an eye on a contentious national election less than a week away.

In order to circumvent the type of massive mobilization of English speakers which saw thousands on the streets last year, the government placed restrictions on movement. In the north-west region, movement of persons from one sub-division to another was prohibited for a period of 48 hours, spanning from Sunday Sept. 30 to Monday Oct. 1. The public gathering of more than four people was also temporarily outlawed. This added to a dusk-to-dawn curfew earlier in place.

The governor of the north-west region, Lele Lafrique Tchoffo Deben Adolphe said the temporary restriction of movement of people was an “appropriate measure taken to guarantee security of its citizens and their properties before, during and after this day [Oct. 1].”

In the south-west region, similar restrictions, including shutting down of all businesses, suspension of socio-cultural meetings, closure of motor parks and ban on circulation, were instituted by local administrators.

However, despite the measures, pro-independence English-speaking Cameroonians hoisted the blue-white flags of Ambazonia, and chanted their national anthem in some towns like Muyuka, Santa, Pinyin, Fontem, Ndu, Bafut, and even in far-off London where demonstrations took place.

For their part, separatists started enforcing a lockdown expected to end on Oct. 10, in a bid to frustrate political campaigns and a presidential poll on Oct. 7 in the two English-speaking regions.

The lockdown and the fear of being caught up in fresh clashes sparked the mass exit of people. Thousands of residents in the north-west and south-west regions have crossed over to the French-speaking parts of the country while others have gone abroad. In the south-west region alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 246,000 people have been internally displaced, with a further 21,000 having cross over the border to Nigeria as refugees.

To enforce the lockdown, separatists have sabotaged bridges linking different localities and used trees to block major highways in the restive areas. On Sept. 30, no fewer than five vehicles were set ablaze along the Kumba-Mamfe road and the wreckages used to block the road. Gunshots were also heard in towns like Buea and Bamenda, while clashes between the warring parties get more frequent and deadly.

Armed separatists are determined to forestall any election in “their region.” However, Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration has said the presidential poll will take place across all 360 sub-divisions of the country, including those in the embattled English-speaking regions.

The race for president involves nine contenders, including incumbent Paul Biya, 85, who is seeking to extend his 36-year rule by another seven years. Biya is campaigning on his “force of experience” to floor his eight challengers in the Oct. 7 poll. There is little likelihood the incumbent won’t win. Besides the fact that Transparency International says elections in Cameroon are often marked by irregularities, the challengers will have to share opposition votes, giving Biya an edge in a one-round election in which one requires just the highest number of votes to emerge winner.

President Paul Biya has reiterated his resolve to end the conflict which started as a modest protest by English speakers against real and perceived marginalization by his Francophone-dominated government. While launching his bid for re-election in the northern city of Maroua, on Sept. 29, he claimed the state had overcome the toughest ordeal in the conflict-ridden regions.

Culled from Quartz


Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Francophones say they are living in ‘fear’ in Victoria

4, October 2018

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Francophones say they are living in ‘fear’ in Victoria 0

“We live in fear,” said Edouard, a French-speaking resident of Limbe, a coastal town in Cameroon’s southwest anglophone region where francophone people have been frequently targeted by armed English-speaking separatists.

Trepidation has given way to terror in the cosmopolitan tourist town of 85,000 with a significant francophone population as the anglophone separatist crisis has grown following a symbolic independence declaration a year ago.

A number of French-speakers — both military and civilian — have fled the town with its sandy beaches and lush mountain backdrop after coming under attack. “I moved my family to Douala because we live in fear” here, said Edouard, a young secretary referring to the country’s nearby economic capital.

Other French-speakers, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, described how their loved ones had been “tortured” by the separatists seeking to break away from Cameroon. Cameroon’s southwest, including Limbe, and northwest are home to largely French-speaking Cameroon’s anglophone community who make up around one fifth of the population.

The separatists have vowed to disrupt presidential elections on Sunday in which President Paul Biya, who has dismissed the nascent insurgency as mere “trouble”, will seek a seventh term.

Edouard said he will never again return to Mile 4, the outer suburb where he had lived for years until his departure in July. Flanked by rolling hills, the area is isolated from the rest of the town and is one of the few places where separatists armed with machetes roam with impunity, according to witnesses.

When the men of the separatist movement are not asserting their presence in Mile 4, they hide in the nearby foothills. Late on the night of September 26, there was an attack on Mile 4’s police station that claimed the lives of two officers. The army encircled the area for several days following the audacious raid.

Several other attacks apparently intended to intimidate the area’s French speakers have been reported in Mile 4.

– ‘Situation could deteriorate’ –

“They came into the areas and started demanding which were the French homes,” said a resident.

“They came to my house twice to kidnap me — but fortunately they didn’t find me. “They (also) tried to kidnap a neighbour but he managed to escape.”

The resident added that the separatist elements came to the area nightly, singing the anthem of their self-proclaimed “Ambazonia Republic” in front of French households.

The increasing number of incidents persuaded Edouard to move his family, first staying at a hotel before securing accommodation in another suburb.

On Church Street, a smart road in the town centre where stylish young people sat on cafe terraces drinking and laughing, French and English groups sat apart.

“Generally people mixed here. But because of the crisis there’s a climate of mistrust — the anglophones mistrust the francophones, and vice versa,” said Edouard.

“The current situation could deteriorate into something worse,” warned a member of a local community organisation who declined to be named.

Anglophones in Cameroon have long felt marginalised and have previously called for greater recognition with the more vocal among them advocating for the creation of an independent nation in the southwest and northwest.

– ‘They think we’re inadequate’ –

The separatist movement erupted into violence a year ago with hundreds killed in the conflict.

“(The crisis) has allowed anglophones to conclude that they are unable to have anything more to do with us because they think we’re inadequate,” said Danielle, who moved to Limbe in 2005, and lives with an anglophone.

But Lessly, one of the few anglophones willing to speak about the situation, said the violence engulfing Cameroon’s English areas has a number of origins.

“A typical anglophone citizen who you’d meet on the street sees the destruction and killing perpetrated by the army as acts perpetrated by francophones,” he said.

He conceded that the crisis has damaged relations between the English and French communities because many anglophones do not realise that “in that very army, there are English speakers”.

“Division isn’t good and complicates life for everyone — socially and economically,” added the young businessman.

The apparent separatist goal is to seize control of Limbe’s Sonara oil refinery — the country’s largest — where the majority of staff including the managing director are French-speaking.

The town is also home to an elite army rapid intervention force which is often spotted heading to or from inland flashpoints of separatist violence including Kumba and Mamfe.

Source: AFP


Uneducated Footballers Stain Cameroon Polity: Eto’o, Song endorse Biya

3, October 2018

Uneducated Footballers Stain Cameroon Polity: Eto’o, Song endorse Biya 0

Samuel Eto’o announced Tuesday that he will vote for incumbent President Paul Biya in the October 7th presidential election. The former captain of the Indomitable Lions spoke at the end of a meeting with the President Biya, saying that the country needed a unifying leader.

Another former captain of the Cameroon national football team Rigobert Song also made it clear that he was voting for 85-year-old Biya.

The electoral campaign is currently in full swing in Cameroon. Paul Biya, is seeking a seventh consecutive term since taking office in 1982. Eight other candidates are running for office including Cabral Libii, and opposition leaders Maurice Kamto and Joshua Osih.

For the past 2 years the country has been facing unrest due to the ongoing crisis in the English Speaking regions. However, it is generally opined that the outcome of this election is very critical to the stability of the country as any irregularities may plunge the country into a civil war.

Source: Africa News


Biya Cancels visit to Southern Cameroons

3, October 2018

Biya Cancels visit to Southern Cameroons 0

“Biya was planning to go but security and medics advised otherwise on the visit,” said a well placed source of the last-minute decision to cancel the Buea campaign trip. The 85 year old cancelled his first visit to Southern Cameroons ever since the inception of the Ambazonia uprising from which more than 3000 Ambazonian women and children have been killed by Francophone soldiers loyal to his regime.

Biya instead held an emergency meeting with the visiting President of the Confederation of African Football. Both men including the controversial Cameroonian football legend Samuel Eto’o discussed the delay in infrastructural development and wider insecurity in Southern Cameroons.

Some pro CPDM comedians have criticized the Biya regime’s initial response to the Southern Cameroons crisis and EU officials last week said the government had done too little to adapt to the difficulties posed by the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon.  The European bloc also stated that it was not going to monitor the counterfeit presidential polls.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands candidate Paul Biya also annulled another campaign trip to Kribi. Our Yaounde city reporter noted that the Ministry of Territorial Administration had ordered massive deployment of troops and war machinery to the Fako County in the now Federal Republic of Ambazonia  costing the Cameroonian tax payer hundreds of millions of FCFA.

Joseph Emmanuel Ba’ana, Vice President of the so-called Biya Campaign announced the cancellation but did not provide any details as to the reasons that could have led to this last-minute change. However, a lot of under-the-table talk currently going in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé have it that the Francophone dictator is out of breath, tired and is no longer very motivated to carry on as Head of State. A CPDM baron who recently spoke to our undercover reporter observed that Biya was virtually forced by his entourage to seek the seventh mandate in this election despite his highly catastrophic record.

By Sama Ernest 


Russia’s delivery of S-300 air defense system to Syria completed

3, October 2018

Russia’s delivery of S-300 air defense system to Syria completed 0

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says his country has completed the delivery of an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria, irrespective of Israeli authorities’ strong opposition that it will pose a serious “challenge” to the Tel Aviv regime.

“We have embarked on a number of activities aimed at strengthening the air defense systems of the Syrian Arab Republic in order to ensure better protection for our military personnel. We have completed the delivery of S-300 complexes. This includes 49 pieces of equipment: illuminating laser radiolocators, defense priority systems, control vehicles and four missile launchers. The work was completed a day ago. We have delivered the whole system to Syria,” Shoigu said at a Russian Security Council meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

The Russian defense minister added that it will take three months to train Syrian specialists to use the S-300 air defense missile system.

Last month, Moscow vowed to bolster Syria’s air defense capabilities by deploying the modern S-300 surface-to-air missile system to the Arab country.

The announcement came in the wake of the accidental downing of an Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft with 15 servicemen on board by Syria’s S-200 air defense systems which were at the time responding to a wave of Israeli strikes on state institutions in Latakia.

Moscow held Israel responsible for the September 17 incident, saying the regime’s pilots had intentionally used the Russian plane as cover to conduct air raids, effectively putting it in the cross hairs of the Syrian air defenses.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Russia had begun delivering the S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria.

“The delivery started already and as President (Vladimir) Putin said, after that [downing] incident … the measures that we will take will be devoted to ensuring 100 percent safety and security of our men,” he told a news conference at the United Nations.

Moscow’s decision to supply the air defense system to Syria has raised worries in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Russia’s decision as “irresponsible,” saying Tel Aviv “will continue to do what it has to do to defend itself.”

Syrian army, allies inflict losses on Daesh in Tulul al-Safa  region

Meanwhile, Syrian government forces, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, have dealt heavy blows to Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Tulul al-Safa hilly region, which lies in Syria’s southwestern province of Sweida.

Syrian government forces patrol near the village al-Hamidia in the Syrian Golan Heights on August 14, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

 

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that a number of caves, which the extremists used as militant hideouts, in addition to weapons caches were destroyed in the process.

Report: Fateh al-Sham agrees to leave Idlib under pressure from Turkish intelligence service

Additionally, members of foreign-sponsored and Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, have reportedly agreed to withdraw from the demilitarized zone in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib under pressure from the Turkish intelligence service.

A general view taken on September 24, 2018 shows destruction in the town of Binnish, in Syria’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib. (Photo by AFP)

 

Syria’s pro-government al-Watan daily newspaper reported that Turkish intelligence agents have held several meetings with the leaders of the terror outfit, and vowed that the Syrian army would not carry out a military operation in Idlib.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.

Source: Presstv


Cameroon: a diverse country in central Africa

3, October 2018

Cameroon: a diverse country in central Africa 0

Diverse and football-mad Cameroon is Central Africa’s biggest economy but troubled by mounting unrest in its disgruntled English-speaking regions, where there is a push to break away.

Here is some background about the mainly francophone country ahead of October 7 elections in which President Paul Biya — the second-longest serving leader in Africa — is seeking a seventh term.

– ‘Africa in miniature’ –

The Atlantic Ocean nation, which sits just above the Equator, has this nickname because its many ethnic groups and diverse geographic and climatic zones are said to make it representative of the continent.

At the end of World War I, the German protectorate of Kamerun split into French- and British-mandated regions. The French section became independent as Cameroon in 1960 and was later joined by a part of the British area, the remainder of which chose to unite with Nigeria.

The country’s name comes from that of one of its main rivers, which 15th century Portuguese explorers called the Rio dos Camaroes, or River of Prawns, and is today the Wouri.

Francophones are in a majority while anglophones represent around a fifth of its more than 23 million people.

The population is young: three-quarters were aged less than 25 in 2014, according to a census that year.

– Biya, 36 years at the top –

In 1982 Cameroon’s ailing founding president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down in favour of his prime minister, Paul Biya. Nearly 36 years later, Biya is still in the job.

Aged in his mid-80s, he has a reputation for being tightly in control behind a smooth and discreet exterior.

He was able to extend his rule via a controversial 2008 constitutional revision that did away with limits on the number of terms a president can serve.

In Africa only Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been in power for longer, since 1979.

– Anglophones seek secession –

Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region and Southwest Region have been in deep crisis since late 2016 as a secessionist movement pushes for independence.

It started with demonstrations, encouraged by English-speaking lawyers and teachers, to protest against perceived discrimination by the francophone majority.

Clashes between troops and separatists take place on an almost daily basis and have led to dozens of deaths and the displacement of nearly 200,000 people.

In October 2017 separatist leaders issued a symbolic declaration of independence for a new republic called “Ambazonia”.

Cameroon has also been confronted since 2009 with attacks in the far north by jihadists from Nigeria’s Boko Haram, but these have diminished over the past months.

– Economy diverse, too –

Cameroon has abundant commodities like oil, high value timber, minerals, coffee, cotton, cocoa and cassava.

It is the largest economy in the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

In 2017 growth slowed to around 3.7 percent, due to the maturity of the main oil fields and to an avian flu epidemic, according to the World Bank.

It is expected to pick up in 2018 with new gasfields in operation and construction for its hosting of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Poverty is however rising, including because of rapid population growth, climbing by 12 percent between 2007 and 2014 to affect 8.1 million people, according to the World Bank.

Only one in 10 of the working population has an official job and a third of inhabitants live on less than two euros a day.

China is its biggest trading partner and foreign investor.

– Football felines –

Football is a near religion in Cameroon with the national team, Les Lions Indomptables (The Indomitable Lions), considered among the best on the continent and winning the Africa Cup of Nations five times, including in 2017.

However its hosting of the 2019 tournament is in doubt because of delays in infrastructure construction, with a final decision due in November.

AFP


French Cameroun Counterfeit Presidential Election: Biya still frontrunner despite crises

3, October 2018

French Cameroun Counterfeit Presidential Election: Biya still frontrunner despite crises 0

More than 6.5 million Cameroonians will elect their next head of state this week but Paul Biya, president for 35 years, remains the front-runner despite a raging anglophone insurgency and jihadist threats. The central African nation of 25 million people has never staged polls amid insecurity so serious that the military is currently deployed to three of ten regions.

In the far north, soldiers are tackling the Nigeria-based jihadist group Boko Haram, while in the two anglophone regions its mission is to suppress a nascent secessionist insurgency. The separatists have threatened to disrupt voting in the areas where they operate, prompting security forces to fan out across those regions ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.

Yaounde has been adamant that polling will go ahead across the whole country, according to a minister, while Biya has downplayed the conflicts are mere “trouble”.

Violence in the English-speaking regions has flared since the beginning of the crisis at the end of 2016 while security forces have responded to protest action with heavy handed tactics and waves of arrests.

The unrest has killed more than 400 people this year, according to the International Crisis Group think-tank, and there has been an exodus from these regions ahead of the vote.

What began as a limited movement calling for greater economic opportunities and recognition of the English language quickly snowballed into a deadly fight between Cameroon’s military and heavily-armed separatists.

Attacks on symbols of Cameroonian authority including police killings and kidnappings of civil servants have mounted while some local officials have fled anglophone areas, fearing for their lives.

 ‘The force of experience’

Officials at the Elecam electoral commission have said that some polling stations will be “relocated” to ensure the integrity of the vote.

Despite the challenges facing the nation, Biya has drawn upon a vast network of support to ensure the ubiquity of his campaign.

Towns across the country are dotted with billboards emblazoned with Biya’s face, proclaiming him to be the “force of experience”.

At his first and so far only campaign stop, in Maroua in the far north at the weekend, Biya was feted by ministers, party flunkies and traditional leaders. His supporters appear on television daily to proclaim his accomplishments and to defend his record.

Biya’s vision for Cameroon, first published in book form in 1987, was reissued in September in time for the polls. Biya, who typically keeps a low profile, said at the Maroua campaign meeting that he would use “a firm hand and dialogue” to resolve the crisis in the anglophone region.

Eight opposition candidates will face off against Biya on Sunday – but all will confront an uphill struggle with at least one candidate accusing the incumbent of having an unfair advantage.

Unlike the three previous elections where veteran opposition chief Ni John Fru Ndi stood, the field of opposing candidates this year is wide open.

Dislodge ‘the Sphinx’

“It’s the first time in Cameroon’s history that there are opposition candidates with such clearly differentiated, truly different policies,” said Fred Eboko, a Cameroonian analyst at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD).

The candidate for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party Joshua Osih is the contender carrying the torch for Ndi. Maurice Kamto is the insurgent candidate who has never before sought elected office and could benefit if the SDF struggles to mobilise its largely anglophone base in the conflict torn English-speaking regions.

Akere Muna, a renowned lawyer, benefits from strong overseas contacts and could benefit from protest votes cast against his better-known rivals.

No opposition coalition emerged ahead of campaigning for Sunday’s polls meaning that each of the eight challengers to Biya’s 35-year rule will have a herculean task to secure the numbers required to dislodge the leader known as “the Sphinx”.

As in 2011, an opposition upset victory looks highly unlikely. In that vote, Biya won 77.98% with both Washington and Paris warning that there were “numerous irregularities” in the conduct of the polls. The opposition, the Catholic church and a number of action groups have said they will deploy observers to deter and detect vote fraud.

Whoever wins at the ballot box, the victor will face immense challenges. Just 10% of working age people are in formal employment, one-third of Cameroonians live on less than $2.30 a day, and three in four people have only known Biya as their leader.

Source: News 24

 


AFCON 2019: CAF chief meets Biya during surprise visit to Cameroon!! Who is doing what

3, October 2018

AFCON 2019: CAF chief meets Biya during surprise visit to Cameroon!! Who is doing what 0

Confederation of African Football chief Ahmad Ahmad made a surprise visit on Tuesday to Cameroon, the troubled host of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Ahmad Ahmad reportedly told the world that his meeting with President Biya was organized by Cameroonian football legend, Samuel Eto’o.

The Madagascan met the 85 year-old Paul Biya, whose government is working to convince CAF it will be ready to host the continental festival of football despite doubts over the readiness and capacity of its stadiums.

Ahmad’s visit is expected to delay a planned election campaign visit by Biya to the town of Buea, which has been on the frontline of separatist violence by English-speaking fighters.

Officials had earlier suggested that he could travel to Buea as soon as Tuesday, but a presidency source said the trip was “unconfirmed”.

There are daily clashes between separatists and the army in the anglophone northwest and southwest regions, and security has been a major campaign issue ahead of Sunday’s presidential polls. Members of the nascent insurgency have threatened to disrupt the elections.

Towns in the anglophone regions were subject to a curfew ahead of the first anniversary of the separatists’ symbolic declaration of independence on Monday. On Sunday eight candidates will face off against Biya, 85, who is seeking a seventh term in power.

Camcordnews with files from AFP


The Situation in Southern Cameroons is only going to get worse and here’s why

2, October 2018

The Situation in Southern Cameroons is only going to get worse and here’s why 0

When school teachers took to the streets of Bamenda, a city in northwestern Cameroon, with thousands of others in November 2016, at least two people were killed by security forces that responded violently.

That event has become the rallying point for a crisis that has snowballed into an agitation for secession by the only two English-speaking regions in the country.

The North West and South West provinces, Cameroon’s only English-speaking regions, had long protested against perceived marginalisation by the political class accused of deliberately under-developing the regions.

The regions had merged with French-speaking Cameroon in 1961 through a referendum, decades after Cameroon, a German colony before World War I (1914-1918), was split into two and separately put under the control of France and Britain.

Even though federalism was established in the country in 1961, it was scrapped in 1972 by then-president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. Now, the North West and South West regions only make up two of Cameroon’s 10 semi-autonomous administrative regions.

Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions and their capitals, Bamenda and Buea.
Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions and their capitals

With the two regions being in the minority, it has long accused the central government of implementing policies deemed to be discriminatory to English-speakers, particularly in the education and judicial systems.

The teachers’ protest had happened just a month after the regions’ lawyers staged a similar protest to demand reforms that’ll address what was described as the overbearing use of French in the bilingual country.

While teachers complained that the education system in the English-speaking regions is too French-oriented to the detriment of English-speaking students, lawyers revolted against the increasing presence of Francophone magistrates and a French civil law system.

This scrutiny extended into other sectors of the country especially in politics where the important positions are believed to also be taken by more French speakers.

With the events that have transpired since 2016, separatist groups have now taken over the agitation to demand an independent new state called “Ambazonia”.

The government has massively cracked down on the regions over the past two years, leading to violent clashes between anti-government separatists and the country’s security forces.

Govt soldiers patrol in the streets of Buea, in Cameroon's Southwest Region, on April 26, 2018
Government soldiers patrol in the streets of Buea

When several negotiations between the government and leaders of the regions failed, they were arrested and thrown behind bars, further making the situation worse.

In their bid to force the government’s hands, Anglophone leaders instituted “Operation Ghost Town”, mandating citizens in the affected regions to stay at home with all institutions closed.

This resulted in one of the high points of the crisis when, in January 2017, the nation’s long-serving president, Paul Biya, shut down internet services in the Anglophone regions. The internet blackout was not lifted until April 2017, after 92 days which didn’t help to ease tensions in the troubled regions. The internet blackout was widely condemned for damaging the local economy and suppressing free speech.

President Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon for 35 years and is seeking a seventh straight term in the October 7 election
President Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon for 35 years

Despite the government’s violent crackdown and meeting room diplomacy, the agitations refused to die down and further came to a head when security forces killed at least 40 people during the brutal suppression of protests across major towns and villages in the Northwest and Southwest in September 2017.

Separatists were soon getting bolder and started carrying out attacks just months later in November, killing at least six security officers. With bomb explosions also going off in Bamenda, Biya was compelled to declare war against the separatists in December 2017.

“I think that things are becoming clearer to everyone now that Cameroon is victim to repeated terrorist attacks from a secessionist group.

“In the face of such repeated aggression, I’ll like to assure Cameroonians that measures have been taken to eliminate these criminals and bring back peace throughout the national territory,”he declared.

Soldiers patrol in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest region, November 17, 2017
Soldiers patrol in Bamenda

Some of Biya’s attempts to end the crisis includes the creation of a Common Law department at the Supreme Court and the School of Administration and Magistracy.

In January 2017, he also created a National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism as part of a response to address grievances of the regions.

His attempts have been deemed to be too insignificant or coming too late by the leaders agitating for the affected regions.

Fighters are now persistently locked in bloody battles with security forces in a conflict that’s believed to have claimed at least 400 lives.

This has resulted in a massive exodus of civilians with thousands of them fleeing from the violence in the troubled regions, as recently reported by the New York Times.

A common scene at the Buea bus terminal. The UN estimates that 246,000 people have fled their homes in the southwest for other parts of CameroonA common scene at the Buea bus terminal. The UN estimates that 246,000 people have fled their homes in the southwest for other parts of Cameroon

While many leave the regions to seek refuge in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, tens of thousands are also holed up in refugee camps in neighbouring Nigeria.

In May, 2018, as a direct consequence of the crisis in the Anglophone regions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) announced the registration of 21,291 Cameroonian refugees in 40 different locations across four states of Nigeria including Cross River, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Taraba. This massive influx happened in just seven months with the number projected to rise even higher to around 40,000.

With the nation’s presidential election scheduled to hold on October 7, 2018, the mass exodus of people from the Anglophone regions is set to pose a problem for Biya as he seeks a seventh term in office after already governing for 35 years.

Supporters of Cameroonian President Paul Biya gather at a stadium in Maroua for a campaign rally, September 29, 2018Supporters of Cameroonian President Paul Biya gather at a stadium in Maroua for a campaign rally

Separatists have already placed a ban on voting in the troubled regions and electoral officers and government officials are among the hordes of people that have already taken flight.

It remains to be seen how this will eventually factor into the election, but the crisis has already cost the Central African nation too many lives and put so many more on hold.

Culled from the Pulse.ng



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