Monthly Archives: February 2019

US Officials Tout Good Ties with Cameroon Despite Aid Cut

9, February 2019

US Officials Tout Good Ties with Cameroon Despite Aid Cut 0

Despite announcing plans to trim military support for Cameroon’s government over its alleged human rights violations, key U.S. officials say the United States will continue partnering on security efforts. But a Cameroon official contends the cutback could jeopardize the fight against extremism in the region.

U.S. Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin assured that the U.S. was “not going to stop security cooperation with Cameroon,” the Associated Press reported him saying, after he met Thursday with Cameroon government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi.

“Relations between Cameroon and the United States are excellent and longstanding,” Barlerin said, “and we aim to continue that relationship.”

His comments in Yaounde, the capital, came after it was reported Wednesday that the U.S. government was cutting about $17 million in military aid to the government of President Paul Biya.

Also Thursday, the head of U.S. Africa Command, Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington that Cameroon has “been a good partner with us counterterrorism-wise, but you can’t neglect the fact that … there are alleged atrocities,” The Washington Postreported.

Waldhauser also told the committee that Africa Command would sustain its mission “to train the counterterrorism forces in Cameroon that deal with Boko Haram,” the Islamist militant group.

The Pentagon has roughly 300 U.S. troops engaged in training and aiding Cameroonian security forces.

The State Department and Pentagon “recently assessed our security relationship with Cameroon,” according to a State Department email sent to VOA Thursday (and shared a day earlier with The Washington Post.)

Despite “the great cooperation” in fighting Boko Haram and “in restoring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea,” the email said, the U.S. government has “terminated” funding for four defender-class boats, nine armored vehicles, a radar system and helicopter training, among other things.

“We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” the State Department email said.

It added that the measure was intended to press Cameroon “to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights security forces, particularly in the northwest, southwest and far north regions.”

Cameroonian security forces – grappling with Boko Haram in the far north and the Ambazonian separatist movement in two English-speaking regions in the west – have been accused of committing serious violations against citizens.

“Cameroonian security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people, firing on crowds, displacing thousands of civilians, and destroying entire villages with impunity,” Adotei Akwei, an official with Amnesty International USA, said Thursday in a statement responding to the U.S. decision.

Cameroon’s government, in a statement Thursday, said it “strongly denies accusations that U.S. military assistance has been used to commit human rights violations. While we have acknowledged instances of human rights violations, they have been investigated and prosecuted through proper judicial channels.”

Last year, Cameroon’s government rejected a report by Amnesty International, saying its accounts of torture at the hands of security forces amounted to “a web of false allegations.”

The current Amnesty International statement urged the Trump administration to “press other donors of security assistance to review their programs and insist on accountability and reform within the Cameroonian security forces.”

France announced Thursday that it would maintain its support. 

“France is bound by a defense partnership agreement that it conducts according to the international standards,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll told reporters at a daily briefing, Reuters news service reported.

A spokesman for the Ambazonian separatist movement also praised the U.S. move and encouraged other Western countries to pull back support, too.

“What the U.S. has done, it came a little bit late – but we appreciate it and we hope that every European nation [and] Canada will follow suit,” Chris Anu, the movement’s secretary of state, told VOA. “Because if that is not done, the regime in French Cameroon will decimate everything that is in southern Cameroon before the world comes to know about it.”

VOA

Attack on Lebialem County: How Biya failed to get Field Marshal

8, February 2019

Attack on Lebialem County: How Biya failed to get Field Marshal 0

French Cameroun troops stormed bases and strongholds of the Red Dragons across Lebialem County. But the Francophone soldiers who have killed many innocent Southern Cameroonian civilians with the rogue Paul Biya regime providing them sanctuary were running for their lives. French Cameroun President Biya ‘s expression of La Republique’s desire to neutralize the Field Marshal seemed not to come true.

The battle for the Lebialem County had been conceived as a swift campaign with a single objective: defeat the Red Dragons and destroy the Grand Manyu Resistance by capturing the Field Marshal and other key leaders. A unique combination of BIR power, France and French Cameroun intelligence and special operations forces teams and indigenous CPDM allies failed to sweep the Red Dragons from control of the Lebialem County.

While keeping the Cameroon army’s deaths to a minimum, Yaounde is aware that the mission failed to capture or kill the Field Marshal.  The failure to capture the Field Marshal represents a lost opportunity for the Biya regime that will forever alter the course of the Southern Cameroons conflict and quest for independence.

The Invasion of Lebialem County was reportedly led by General Buba of the French Cameroun army. Ambazonia Restoration Forces mounted the resistance when the invading French Cameroun army soldiers left Chief Forminka to Esoh Atah. Our correspondent in Menji revealed that a French Cameroun regiment from Arulakeng that braved the bad roads to Esoh were ambushed by the Dragons. Another French Cameroun army deployment from Azi to Nkah also came under attack.

The bodies of several Francophone soldiers killed during the Lebialem onslaught have been moved to a mortuary in Dschang. We gathered that the Biya regime is planning a more sophisticated raid with helicopters soonest.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from CIR Lewoh Desk

8, February 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: “Cameroon is a ticking time bomb” 0

A senior Cameroon government official has said Cameroon is a ticking time bomb. The official, who has elected anonymity, holds that with the chaos taking place in the country, it is clear that if things are not properly managed, the country might derail into a full-blown chaos.

The senior official who spoke to the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman over the phone was referring to the running battles between hawkers and policemen in Yaounde on Friday, February 8, 2019, which resulted from a bad decision by a police officer who molested a hawker in the Yaounde Central Market, the country’s largest market. The other hawkers quickly jumped into the fray to support their colleague and this developed into a huge stand-off between the hawkers and government security forces.

“Cameroon is a ticking time bomb and if care is not taken, it might go off and the consequences might be far-reaching. This country is gradually drifting into chaos. There are demonstrations every day in the country and the government appears to be unable to put a handle on the issues. We are all living in fear. Even senior government officials are wary of the path the country is taking. We hope things could be brought under control to spare the country the type of chaos we see in other countries,” he said.

“The Anglophone crisis seems to have opened the floodgates for demonstrations and chaos. Even Francophones are now courageous to challenge their own authorities. Anglophones might have lost so many lives, but their determination and selflessness has taught Francophones that they must stand up for themselves. The government has to be very careful the way it handles some of these issues. The country is a tinder box and any little thing can trigger a huge fire,” he stressed.

“Things have gotten worse since the last presidential election whose results Professor Maurice Kamto is protesting. His determination to reclaim his victory is causing some government officials to lose sleep. Many of them have already sent their children out of the country. They are scared of any reprisals in the event of a regime change. They know they have not handled things properly and the use of brute force has not helped matters, especially in the North West and South West regions. We are all living in fear. If I were still young, I would have migrated to another country just to escape the disaster that is hanging over our country like the Sword of Damocles,” he said.

“President Biya is out of steam. Those around him are manipulating him. They are mostly people related to his wife and they are simply implementing Chantal Biya’s agenda. Our country is in for real trouble and the days ahead are not promising. We need divine intervention. Our country is bleeding. The country is losing its young human resources in a war that was declared out of arrogance. Besides, the war itself is consuming lots of resources. The Anglophone regions have been contributing much to the country’s GDP, but with the fighting getting more violent by the day, the country is being robbed of those resources that could help make life better for all Cameroonians. The lock-down is already biting the government and I hear there will be a more rigorous lock-down after February 14. This will trigger more problems and many more souls will be lost,” he regretted.

The economic chaos resulting from the war has hit the country like a ton of bricks and it will take Cameroon a long time to recover from the mess it has created for itself. The country is cash-strapped and some of its allies have bad news for the government. The Anglophone problem has now become a millstone around the government’s neck. The people are sick and tired of a government that has nothing to show for its long stay in power. Its ailing and senile leaders hold that only violence can address all the issues facing the country. They are mistaken. Times have changed and approaches must also change if peace has to prevail.

The failure to embrace new ways is ruining many things and enabling nepotism and tribalism to rear their ugly heads. The country is clearly dealing with many crises. The arrest and detention of Professor Maurice Kamto, the clear winner of last year’s presidential election, has opened a new front in the battle to oust the crime syndicate that has been ruling the country for more than five decades.

But it is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is finally robbing the Yaounde government of its sleep. For more than two years, the Yaounde government has been ignoring calls for an inclusive dialogue as a major step towards addressing the political and military crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. For three years now, the country’s two English-speaking regions have been the theater of a bloody conflict that has already consumed more than five thousand lives, including some 2,000 army soldiers. The number of those injured is in the thousands too and there is no end in sight.

Government forces are the primary suspect of the violence that has made life unbearable in the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they have the nasty habit of shooting at any and everything, especially when some of their colleagues have fallen in combat.

While the Yaounde government thinks it can ignore every call, the Americans have been figuring out how to bring the corrupt government in Yaounde to order. Americans just like their Canadian and British allies have kept urging the country’s president, Paul Biya, and his government to do the right thing for the sake of peace and stability in the Central African nation which, for many decades, was considered by many in the world as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

But the refusal of the ailing and senile Cameroon president to listen to the world has been upsetting many in the international community, especially the United States government which has been extending military and financial help to the cash-strapped dictator in Yaounde. The government’s refusal has prompted the US government to cut millions of dollars in security and military aid to Cameroon amid growing concerns over the Cameroonian government’s dismal human rights record.

According to a US official who spoke to CNN, the US intends to “terminate” over USD17 million in security aid, including funds for radars, four defender-class patrol boats, nine armored vehicles, training programs for C-130 airplanes and helicopters and the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program.

A planned US funded upgrade to a Cessna aircraft belonging to Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion has also been terminated. The battalion, which has been previously advised by US troops, has been accused of engaging in human rights abuses. Some of the security assistance money had been put on hold by Congress due to those concerns.

Last May, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, gave a speech that accused pro-government Cameroonian security forces of conducting “targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages.”

The US government has continued to urge the Cameroonian government to take all credible allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, investigate those allegations thoroughly, hold accountable the perpetrators of such abuses, and disclose the outcome of the investigations to the people of Cameroon, these calls have falling on deaf ears because the Yaounde dictators holds that only a military solution can bring peace to the troubled country.

“We have informed the Cameroonian government that lack of progress and clarity about actions undertaken by the government in response to credible allegations of gross violations of human rights could result in a broader suspension of US assistance,” the State Department official said, adding that the US has “been assured by the government of Cameroon at the highest levels that US security assistance will not be diverted from other than its intended purpose.”

Another State Department official emphasized that “it is in Cameroon’s interest to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights abuses by security forces, particularly in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North Regions.”

“The successes of the Cameroonian military — in part as a result of our training and equipment — have yielded long term and sustainable increases in Cameroon’s ability to defend its territory, its borders, and come to the aid of its neighbors, in particular northeast Nigeria and the Central African Republic,” the official said, adding that they “recognize the great cooperation we have had in the fight against Boko Haram and in restoring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.”

“For the time being, other programs will continue. We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” they said. One US official said those programs include education programs for Cameroonian officers focused on professionalization and peacekeeping as well as continuing to support “select counterterrorism and maritime security programs that have been evaluated to have low risk of diversion to the Anglophone region.”

It should be stated that the Pentagon has already withdrawn an offer for Cameroon to participate in its State Partnership Program, a “security cooperation program” that teams US state National Guards with host nation militaries. Originally the Defense Department had intended Cameroon to partner with the Nebraska National Guard. The US has 14 such partnerships with African countries, including Cameroon’s neighbor Nigeria.

The State Department is also seeking to have an additional USD 10 million that was placed on hold released to fund the sustainment of certain military equipment already in Cameroon’s possession such as Cessna airplanes, mud boats for patrolling Lake Chad, and Scan Eagle Drones.

The US has had hundreds of troops in Cameroon tasked with training, advising and assisting local forces in their fight against ISIS West Africa, Boko Haram and other violent extremist organizations in the Lake Chad Basin region.

US Africa Command launched an investigation last August to determine if US personnel were aware of allegations of torture of suspected terrorists being carried out by US-trained Cameroonian troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion at a base that was also frequently used by US military advisers.

The results of that investigation were not made public, but a US defense official told CNN that the investigation “found that US military forces in Cameroon were not involved in or aware of human rights violations committed by Cameroonian forces.”

However, the official said the Defense Department and State Department “will assess the validity” of claims by Amnesty International that Cameroonian forces engaged in torture in a “separate investigation.”

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of US Africa Command, is scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Trump administration recently decided to cut the number of US troops in Africa engaged in counterterrorism with the bulk of those reductions expected to take place in West Africa.

Meanwhile, another State Department officer who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s chairman over the phone said that with the events unfolding in Cameroon, it is clear that the Biya regime now belongs to the past. The government is anti-democracy. It is jailing and killing opponents who hold political views that are not in line with its own.

“The US stands for democracy and we will not support a regime that is killing its own people. We grant millions in aid to the government and we support many programs in Yaounde to further democracy in Cameroon, but the government’s behavior in recent years has proven that it is not willing to be part of the democratic world and we think it clearly belong to the past. If Mr. Biya and his government do not take appropriate measures to be in line with 21st Century governance principles, the US and its allies will ensure that the government pays for the violations it has been accused of,” the official said.

“If the reduction in military aid does not bite as planned, our administration will resort to other methods and this will include, but not limited to freezing the assets of senior government officials and refusing them and their children visas. We will be working with our allies to make sure Mr. Biya ends the violations taking place in Cameroon,” the official concluded.

It is clear that these measures will hit the Yaounde government like a ton of bricks, especially as rights groups are working hard to ensure the country’s president acts in accordance with international human rights law.

Amnesty International, a global human rights group, has already called on the US to press other donors to cut assistance to Cameroon. In response to reports that the US government has decided to cut security and military aid to Cameroon amid concerns over its human rights record, Adotei Akwei, deputy director for advocacy and government relations for Amnesty International USA said there was evidence Cameroon security forces had been involved in human rights violations.

“Cameroonian security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested, and tortured people, firing on crowds, displacing thousands of civilians, and destroying entire villages with impunity. These abuses continue, following the presidential elections that took place in October that returned 36-year-incumbent Paul Biya to power.

“The United States must continue to show that it takes human rights violations committed with its aid seriously, through the suspension of all security assistance until the Cameroonian government can show it has not been utilized to commit serious violations of international law and persons responsible have been held accountable. The Trump administration should press other donors of security assistance to review their programs and insist on accountability and reform within the Cameroonian security forces”.

In June 2017, Amnesty International issued a report on torture in Cameron entitled Cameroon’s Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram. In June 2018, the organization released a report detailing abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, ‘A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon’. The report was based on in-depth interviews with over 150 victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde and Irene Nayongo in North America

8, February 2019

An Ambazonian in French Cameroun Court: 57 years of annoying Southern Cameroonians 0

His Excellency President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe told the French Cameroun Judge that he and his nine co-defendants were not Cameroonians; and do not understand the language they were speaking in court.

Instead of getting a judge from their so-called one and indivisible Cameroon who speaks and understands English, the French Cameroun tribunal took it on the translators, who were ignominiously sacked.

It is worth noting that the presiding military judge is the wife of Cameroon’s intelligence chief (DGRE), Leopold-Maxine Eko Eko; and she ought to recuse herself because of the conflict of interest. Case adjourned again to Feb 20.

French Cameroun army says 10 Ambazonia fighters killed, 6 soldiers wounded in clashes

8, February 2019

French Cameroun army says 10 Ambazonia fighters killed, 6 soldiers wounded in clashes 0

Cameroon army said on Thursday ten armed separatists were killed and six soldiers wounded in a clash in Ndawara, a locality in Northwest, one of the country’s two strife-torn English-speaking regions.

“Secessionist terrorists ambushed a military truck in Ndawara. They stood on a hill and started rolling down stones to hit the vehicle. Six soldiers were wounded, among whom three were seriously injured.” The army said in a statement.

The army regularly refers to armed separatists as “secessionist terrorists”.

On Tuesday, armed separatists began what they called a “10-day lockdown” banning all sorts of activities in the two war-torn Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest from Tuesday to Feb. 14 as a move to disrupt National Youth Day activities expected to be celebrated on Feb. 11.

An armed insurgency started in the regions in November 2017, after separatists declared the “independence” of a “nation” they called “Ambazonia”, complaining of systematic marginalization of minority anglophones in the largely French-speaking country.

Fighting is escalating in the two regions despite repeated appeals by President Paul Biya for separatists to give up their weapons and follow the right track.

Xinhua

Battle for Ambazonia: Four Southern Cameroonians killed in Fako County

8, February 2019

Battle for Ambazonia: Four Southern Cameroonians killed in Fako County 0

Four people have been killed in fresh violence in southwestern Cameroon, where anglophones have launched an armed campaign for a separate state, sources said Thursday. Two students were killed by separatists on Monday in Buea, the capital of Southwest Region,” in an act of reprisal” for opposing the forced closure of schools, said a source close to the authorities.

The same day, a soldier was killed in the nearby town of Limbe, a local official said. On Wednesday, the body of a decapitated man was found in Buea, where shooting was also heard. His severed head bore a military beret, witnesses said.

An army officer in Yaounde confirmed the account but gave no further details. Since October 2017, Cameroon’s Southwest and neighbouring Northwest Region have been in the grip of an insurgency by anglophones demanding independence from the majority French-speaking country.

The two regions were previously ruled by Britain as the Southern Cameroons. They were folded into Cameroon in October 1961, 22 months after France granted the country independence. The separatists on Tuesday launched a 10-day “ghost town” campaign, aimed at closing down Buea.

The goal is to disrupt national youth day on February 11 — the anniversary of the 1961 referendum that led to the regions’ incorporation into Cameroon. The unrest in the two regions follows years of stalemate over demands to tackle perceived discrimination against English-speakers.

In 2017, the anglophone movement became radicalised, leading to the declaration of the self-described Republic of Ambazonia, which has never been recognised internationally. Ransom kidnappings and extortion have proliferated, along with attacks on troops and police, plus arson assaults on public buildings and schools.

The government has responded with a crackdown, deploying thousands of soldiers. More than 200 members of the security forces and at least 500 civilians have been killed since, according to the International Crisis Group think-tank. According to UN estimates, more than 437,000 people have fled their homes due to the unrest.

In Johannesburg on Thursday, 15 civil society groups urged the UN to probe alleged rights abuses. The signatories, including Civicus and the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, accused the Cameroon government of “carrying out a systematic and ruthless military campaign” in the anglophone regions.

(AFP)

8, February 2019

US can no longer ignore alleged atrocities by Cameroon gov’t forces-Gen. Waldhauser 0

The United States has cut some military aid to Cameroon over human rights concerns but the countries’ relations remain excellent, the U.S. ambassador asserted Thursday, while the central African nation’s government remained silent. France said it would not follow the U.S. lead despite a call by Amnesty International for other donors to take similar action.

The U.S. move against a key security partner, confirmed late Wednesday, came after videos circulated online last year showing Cameroonian forces shooting and killing civilians, including women with small children strapped to their backs. The videos were verified by Amnesty International and other global media outlets.

Cameroon is fighting both a separatist movement in its Southwest and Northwest regions and Boko Haram extremists in the Far North, with some attacks carried out by women. The State Department has urged “greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights by security forces.”

“We are not going to stop security cooperation with Cameroon. We have our differences, Cameroon is a sovereign country and the United States is a sovereign country,” Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin said Thursday after meeting with Cameroon’s government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi. “Relations between Cameroon and the United States are excellent and longstanding and we aim to continue that relationship.”

The Pentagon and State Department said the reduced U.S. support involves armored vehicles, boats, aircraft upkeep and parts, helicopter training and an invitation to a partnership program. Some 300 U.S. troops are based in the northern town of Garoua to train and assist Cameroon’s military, including in its fight against extremism.

In Washington, the head of the U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had met with Cameroon’s President Paul Biya alongside the U.S. ambassador before elections in October.

“We were very emphatic with President Biya that the behavior of his troops, the lack of transparency, could have a significant impact on our ability to work with them,” Waldhauser said. The U.S. has put on hold several security assistance programs in recent months, he said.

The U.S. military’s main role in Cameroon is limited to training local counterterrorism forces to combat Boko Haram and “they have been a good partner with us, counterterrorism-wise,” Waldhauser said. Nonetheless, he added, the U.S. cannot “neglect the fact that there are alleged atrocities in what’s gone on there.”

Waldhauser said AFRICOM will continue to take cues from the State Department and the ambassador on security assistance.

U.S. Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa ground combat element trained with the Cameroon Marines in infantry tactics at a training site in Cameroon, Feb. 14, 2018. (Gunnery Sgt. Rebekka S. Heite/Marine Corps)

U.S. Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa ground combat element trained with the Cameroon Marines in infantry tactics at a training site in Cameroon, Feb. 14, 2018. (Gunnery Sgt. Rebekka S. Heite/Marine Corps)

The security and human rights concerns have posed a challenge for 85-year-old Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He became president in 1982 and won another term in October, after which the military launched fresh offensives against the separatists.

The United Nations has said some 430,000 people in the Southwest and Northwest regions have fled the fighting between security forces and English-speaking separatists who seek independence from the largely French-speaking country.

In December, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, said he feared the separatist crisis could get “much, much” worse and warned against a “brutal response” to extremism. Cameroon’s government in the past has said it would investigate alleged abuses.

Local businessman Eric Njowir welcomed the U.S. decision, saying he hoped other countries will take similar action. Countries that help Cameroon militarily also include Israel, Germany and China. “What the military has been doing is against human rights and human freedoms,” Njowir said. Source: MilitaryTimes

Southern Cameroons War: France to continue military cooperation with Cameroon

8, February 2019

Southern Cameroons War: France to continue military cooperation with Cameroon 0

France aims to continue its defence cooperation with Cameroon “in which it acts according to current international norms”, French Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said on Thursday.

“In full compliance with international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, this cooperation is intended to help Cameroons security and defence forces to combat terrorism, and particularly Boko Haram in the northern part of the country, while protecting local populations,” von der Muhll told reporters.

The spokesperson noted that France’s structural cooperation on security and defence issues with its former colony also focuses on officer training.

Asked if Paris was considering halting military assistance to the West African country in response to alleged human rights abuses there, as Washington has done, she said “this cooperation is ongoing.”

Southern Cameroons Lockdown: 15 killed and several others injured in Bole-Bakundu

8, February 2019

Southern Cameroons Lockdown: 15 killed and several others injured in Bole-Bakundu 0

About 15 people were killed and several others injured on Wednesday in Bole-Bakundu, a locality in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, local sources said.

“I personally counted 15 dead bodies, men and women. All of them were shot in the market. They were not armed,” a local resident who asked not to be named hinted.

There were conflicting reports of who committed the act. Locals claimed that they were shot by government forces but the Biya Francophone government said they were killed in a clash between the military and armed separatists.

“They (separatists) blocked the road to the locality and the military opened fire to scare them. They retaliated and soldiers decided to invade the area. Most of those killed died in the crossfire,” a local official who preferred not to be named said. The French Cameroun army is yet to comment on the incident.

On Tuesday, at least four civilians were shot dead in the war-torn Southern Cameroons as armed Ambazonian Restoration Forces began what they called a “10-day lockdown”.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has banned all sorts of activities in the regions from Tuesday to Feb. 14 as a move to disrupt National Youth Day activities expected to be celebrated on Feb. 11.

Since November 2017, French Cameroun government forces have been clashing with armed Ambazonian Restoration forces who have seceded from the largely French-speaking nation and created a new country called “The Federal Republic of Ambazonia”.

By Sama Ernest with files from Xinhua

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaounde hit hard by American sanctions

7, February 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaounde hit hard by American sanctions 0

Finally, the noose around the neck of the Yaounde government is getting tighter. The corrupt regime is now in a crisis management mode and its dwindling resources indicate that it might not be equal to a task it had assigned to itself. A few days ago, an overzealous government official made some anti-Semitic remarks that caused the Israeli embassy in Yaounde to react aggressively and it is clear that those remarks will come back to bite the entire government that has been anything, but humble.

The country is clearly dealing with many crises. The arrest and detention of Professor Maurice Kamto, the clear winner of last year’s presidential election, has opened a new front in the battle to oust the crime syndicate that has been ruling the country for more than five decades. The crime syndicate is being presided over by the country’s president, Paul Biya, who has been in power for almost four decades and has nothing to show for his long stay in power.

But it is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is finally robbing the Yaounde government of its sleep. For more than two years, the Yaounde government has been ignoring calls for an inclusive dialogue as a major step towards addressing the political and military crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. For three years now, the country’s two English-speaking regions have been the theater of a bloody conflict that has already consumed more than five thousand lives, including some 2,000 army soldiers. The number of those injured is in the thousands too and there is no end in sight.

Government forces are the primary suspect of the violence that has made life unbearable in the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they have the nasty habit of shooting at any and everything, especially when some of their colleagues have fallen in combat.

While the Yaounde government thinks it can ignore every call, the Americans have been figuring out how to bring the corrupt government in Yaounde to order. Americans just like their Canadian and British allies have kept urging the country’s president, Paul Biya, and his government to do the right thing for the sake of peace and stability in the Central African nation which, for many decades, was considered by many in the world as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

But the refusal of the ailing and senile Cameroon president to listen to the world has been upsetting many in the international community, especially the United States government which has been extending military and financial help to the cash-strapped dictator in Yaounde. The government’s refusal has prompted the US government to cut millions of dollars in security and military aid to Cameroon amid growing concerns over the Cameroonian government’s dismal human rights record.

According to a US official who spoke to CNN, the US intends to “terminate” over USD17 million in security aid, including funds for radars, four defender-class patrol boats, nine armored vehicles, training programs for C-130 airplanes and helicopters and the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program.

A planned US funded upgrade to a Cessna aircraft belonging to Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion has also been terminated. The battalion, which has been previously advised by US troops, has been accused of engaging in human rights abuses. Some of the security assistance money had been put on hold by Congress due to those concerns.

Last May, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, gave a speech that accused pro-government Cameroonian security forces of conducting “targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages.”

The US government has continued to urge the Cameroonian government to take all credible allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, investigate those allegations thoroughly, hold accountable the perpetrators of such abuses, and disclose the outcome of the investigations to the people of Cameroon, these calls have falling on deaf ears because the Yaounde dictators holds that only a military solution can bring peace to the troubled country.

“We have informed the Cameroonian government that lack of progress and clarity about actions undertaken by the government in response to credible allegations of gross violations of human rights could result in a broader suspension of US assistance,” the State Department official said, adding that the US has “been assured by the government of Cameroon at the highest levels that US security assistance will not be diverted from other than its intended purpose.”

Another State Department official emphasized that “it is in Cameroon’s interest to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights abuses by security forces, particularly in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North Regions.”

“The successes of the Cameroonian military — in part as a result of our training and equipment — have yielded long term and sustainable increases in Cameroon’s ability to defend its territory, its borders, and come to the aid of its neighbors, in particular northeast Nigeria and the Central African Republic,” the official said, adding that they “recognize the great cooperation we have had in the fight against Boko Haram and in restoring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.”

“For the time being, other programs will continue. We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” they said. One US official said those programs include education programs for Cameroonian officers focused on professionalization and peacekeeping as well as continuing to support “select counterterrorism and maritime security programs that have been evaluated to have low risk of diversion to the Anglophone region.”

It should be stated that the Pentagon has already withdrawn an offer for Cameroon to participate in its State Partnership Program, a “security cooperation program” that teams US state National Guards with host nation militaries. Originally the Defense Department had intended Cameroon to partner with the Nebraska National Guard. The US has 14 such partnerships with African countries, including Cameroon’s neighbor Nigeria.

The State Department is also seeking to have an additional USD 10 million that was placed on hold released to fund the sustainment of certain military equipment already in Cameroon’s possession such as Cessna airplanes, mud boats for patrolling Lake Chad, and Scan Eagle Drones.

The US has had hundreds of troops in Cameroon tasked with training, advising and assisting local forces in their fight against ISIS West Africa, Boko Haram and other violent extremist organizations in the Lake Chad Basin region.

US Africa Command launched an investigation last August to determine if US personnel were aware of allegations of torture of suspected terrorists being carried out by US-trained Cameroonian troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion at a base that was also frequently used by US military advisers.

The results of that investigation were not made public, but a US defense official told CNN that the investigation “found that US military forces in Cameroon were not involved in or aware of human rights violations committed by Cameroonian forces.”

However, the official said the Defense Department and State Department “will assess the validity” of claims by Amnesty International that Cameroonian forces engaged in torture in a “separate investigation.”

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of US Africa Command, is scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Trump administration recently decided to cut the number of US troops in Africa engaged in counterterrorism with the bulk of those reductions expected to take place in West Africa.

Meanwhile, another State Department officer who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s chairman over the phone said that with the events unfolding in Cameroon, it is clear that the Biya regime now belongs to the past. The government is anti-democracy. It is jailing and killing opponents who hold political views that are not in line with its own.

“The US stands for democracy and we will not support a regime that is killing its own people. We grant millions in aid to the government and we support many programs in Yaounde to further democracy in Cameroon, but the government’s behavior in recent years has proven that it is not willing to be part of the democratic world and we think it clearly belong to the past. If Mr. Biya and his government do not take appropriate measures to be in line with 21st Century governance principles, the US and its allies will ensure that the government pays for the violations it has been accused of,” the official said.

“If the reduction in military aid does not bite as planned, our administration will resort to other methods and this will include, but not limited to freezing the assets of senior government officials and refusing them and their children visas. We will be working with our allies to make sure Mr. Biya ends the violations taking place in Cameroon,” the official concluded.

It is clear that these measures will hit the Yaounde government like a ton of bricks, especially as rights groups are working hard to ensure the country’s president acts in accordance with international human rights law.

Amnesty International, a global human rights group, has already called on the US to press other donors to cut assistance to Cameroon. In response to reports that the US government has decided to cut security and military aid to Cameroon amid concerns over its human rights record, Adotei Akwei, deputy director for advocacy and government relations for Amnesty International USA said there was evidence Cameroon security forces had been involved in human rights violations.

“Cameroonian security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested, and tortured people, firing on crowds, displacing thousands of civilians, and destroying entire villages with impunity. These abuses continue, following the presidential elections that took place in October that returned 36-year-incumbent Paul Biya to power.

“The United States must continue to show that it takes human rights violations committed with its aid seriously, through the suspension of all security assistance until the Cameroonian government can show it has not been utilized to commit serious violations of international law and persons responsible have been held accountable. The Trump administration should press other donors of security assistance to review their programs and insist on accountability and reform within the Cameroonian security forces”.

In June 2017, Amnesty International issued a report on torture in Cameron entitled Cameroon’s Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram. In June 2018, the organization released a report detailing abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, ‘A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon’. The report was based on in-depth interviews with over 150 victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images.

Meanwhile, the fighting in the two English-speaking regions has continued. More than 100 Southern Cameroonians have been killed by the country’s military over the last two days. In Bole Bakundu, soldiers opened fire on civilians who were in the market to conduct their business. Most of those killed were young unarmed men and women who were in the market to conduct business.

In Besongabang, a village some 2 km from the Manyu divisional headquarters of Mamfe, the rampaging soldiers burnt down more than ten houses and killed some 3 unarmed civilians. The soldiers had on Saturday also carried out their punitive measures in Ossing, another town some 5 miles from Mamfe. After burning homes in Ossing, the soldiers arrested hundreds of civilians who are now being held at the Gendarmerie Brigade in Mamfe where they are being asked to pay USD 500 before they can be released.

Also, in Buea, soldiers arrested hundreds of civilians on Wednesday and herded them to an unknown destination. Videos of the arrests are online and it is suspected that many of those arrested might simply disappear or will be used to participate in the upcoming youth day which will be boycotted in many parts of Southern Cameroons due to the lockdown declared by separatist leaders living abroad.

In the Northwest region, many villages and residents are still taking a pounding from army soldiers who are determined to prove that they are doing a great job. Under instructions from the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomou, the soldiers are maiming and killing young unarmed civilians and planting weapons on them. Even babies and women are not spared in the scorch earth policy the soldiers are implementing in the region.

The government seems to believe that peace can only return to the country through the barrel of the gun. Many critics however hold that if the barrel of the gun could deliver such victory, it could have done so a long time ago. If the Southern Cameroonian fighters who are only armed with Dane guns are giving the soldiers a run for their money, it is clear that an outright victory is impossible. Critics of the regime are therefore calling on it to stop military action and call for the inclusive dialogue as a means of putting an end to the bloodbath that is playing out in the country.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde with contributions from Irene Nayongo in North America and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

«< 10 11 12 13 14 >»