Monthly Archives: March 2019

8, March 2019

Gabon dismisses rumors president is ‘cloned’ ⁰

The Gabonese presidency has dismissed rumours that the ailing president, Ali Bongo, has been replaced by a clone. Bongo, who is currently recovering in Morocco, has only returned to Gabon twice since he became ill in 2018 whiles on an official trip. On both ‘visits,’ he stayed briefly and flew back to Rabat.

Reports had been festering that the president had recruited a look alike to replace him for months while he received medical attention for a stroke in 2018.

Ike Ngouoni, presidential spokesman said: “The President of the Republic was (t) here in flesh, a number of people saw him. He went around the city. “Some of them were able to approach him, observe him, see him. It is totally a hoax. I admire the level of creativity, especially on the internet and their persistence in these rumours,” he told reporters.

The presidency initially said he had been hospitalized in Riyadh for fatigue. The vice-president admitted at a rally that the president had suffered a stroke weeks later. Since October last year, a section of Gabonese have expressed mixed concerns as to the health situation of their president as it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate rumours and the reality.

In January, a failed coup was attempted in Libreville to denounce the president’s absence and establish a “democratic transition.” Bongo is the second leader having to fight cloned rumours, the first being Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari.

Africa News

8, March 2019

WWF-funded forces in Cameroon have tortured and killed indigenous people ⁰

The World Wide Fund for Nature was warned years ago that its staff was complicit in “frightening” raids on indigenous villages by anti-poaching eco-guards, internal documents reveal. A BuzzFeed News investigation exposed on Monday how the beloved wildlife charity WWF has for years funded and equipped paramilitary forces that have tortured and killed villagers living near the national parks it supports. WWF responded by announcing an “independent review” of the evidence. “We see it as our urgent responsibility to get to the bottom of the allegations BuzzFeed has made, and we recognize the importance of such scrutiny,” the charity said in a statement.

BuzzFeed News has revealed that WWF-funded forces in Asia and Africa have tortured and killed indigenous people.

But this is not the first time WWF has launched an independent investigation of this kind. The charity commissioned a report in 2015, obtained by BuzzFeed News, which implicated WWF in violence against indigenous people in Cameroon. “Indigenous peoples and local communities bordering protected areas are victims of human rights abuses and violations by eco-guards,” the report found — noting the perpetrators were backed by “considerable technical, logistical and financial support” from WWF. But those findings were never made public, and WWF’s director general, Marco Lambertini, went on to dismiss concerns about the treatment of indigenous people as “matters for the government of Cameroon,” while the charity continued backing the park and its guards.

When asked about the 2015 findings by BuzzFeed News, WWF said that its new investigation would examine the way reports of abuse are handled by executives in Switzerland. “All allegations will be subject to our independent review, which will look at specific allegations, and governance,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The explosive 2015 report was prepared by an indigenous expert hired by WWF to review its operations in Cameroon, who found staff there were “gravely concerned” about the abuses they were witnessing.

According to the report, WWF Cameroon was participating in “coercive” nighttime raids of villages in which eco-guards employed by the government and backed by the charity “violate[d] the rights of communities” by looting houses and beating their occupants. The report found that the perpetrators went unpunished even when there was “evidence and testimony from the victims.”

“Indigenous peoples and local communities bordering protected areas are victims of human rights abuses and violations by eco-guards.”

After obtaining the report, BuzzFeed News contacted its author, Diel Mochire Mwenge. He said that the charity did not acknowledge the findings of his report publicly “because it incriminated them.” Mwenge told BuzzFeed News it was clear the charity was complicit in the abuse of indigenous people. “We understood that it was WWF that sent these eco-guards, it was WWF who paid, it was WWF who did everything,” Mwenge said. “And so we had to directly conclude that WWF was sufficiently implicated.”

WWF declined to answer detailed questions from BuzzFeed News about abuses in Cameroon. But in a January interview, the charity’s chief operating officer, Dominic O’Neill, said he had personally traveled to Cameroon to make clear to its partners that WWF “can’t tolerate any human rights abuses at all.” “We’ve had issues and we’ve dealt with those,” he said. “But not to the extent where we said this relationship is now broken.” BuzzFeed News can also reveal that WWF opened another investigation last summer into allegations including gang rape and murder by eco-guards at Salonga, a massive national park it comanages in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The charity confirmed after inquiries from BuzzFeed News that several rangers have been suspended or fired based on its findings. However, WWF declined to answer questions about its ongoing support for the park’s anti-poaching patrols. The German government’s development bank, a major backer of WWF, has confirmed to BuzzFeed News it has requested “statements and information” from the charity on the abuses and has said it will monitor the findings of its internal review.

The 2015 report warning of “frightening” raids on indigenous villages.

At Lobéké National Park, one of the Cameroonian parks highlighted in Mwenge’s report, allegations of ranger abuses — beatings, torture, torched huts, stolen goods — date back years. When the park opened in 1999 with the backing of WWF to protect the area’s forest elephants and lowland gorillas, local Baka people lost access to wide swaths of their ancestral forests.

WWF helped recruit Lobéké’s first forest rangers, who patrol the park for poachers. Known locally as “eco-guards,” the rangers are employees of the Cameroonian government run by the longtime dictator Paul Biya.

But secret budgeting documents show how closely WWF’s staff have worked with the government forces. The charity has helped train them, paid their salaries, and built them homes. It has bought them radios, satellite phones, TVs, 4x4s, and boats. And it has allocated a significant portion of the millions in donor money it spends at Lobéké to “enforcement” activities, including patrols and raids.

The park’s management plan says WWF will help organize raids, known as “coups de poing,” on local villages suspected of harboring poachers. In 2012, Sarah Strader, an American Fulbright researcher, witnessed eco-guards near Lobéké pull a man out of their 4×4. They beat him as he “moaned incomprehensibly,” Strader wrote in her diary, which she shared with BuzzFeed News.

“We torture them when they don’t want to tell the truth.”

Strader reported what she saw to a field office shared between the government and WWF. There, a forest ministry official told her the beating was a normal part of the fight against poaching. “We torture them when they don’t want to tell the truth,” the official said, according to Strader’s diary. Strader was stunned by this casual admission.

“Literally WWF is right there,” she told BuzzFeed News, “and he’s telling me that ‘we torture people.’ It was appalling to me that the WWF would stand for this juxtaposition.” Strader told a WWF senior manager, David Hoyle, about what happened. Hoyle, who has since died, complained to the Cameroonian government. He also reported the allegations back to WWF’s Swiss headquarters. Strader said she never heard from WWF about her complaint. The charity continued to work with the rangers.

Culled from BuzzFeed News

8, March 2019

Cameroon Holds Mass Wedding to Boost Women’s Legal Rights ⁰

In Cameroon, 82 couples have taken part in a mass wedding ceremony as part of efforts to better protect the legal rights of women. Only 10 percent of marriages in Cameroon are legalized, leaving wives with few rights. The mass wedding ceremony is part of activities to mark Friday’s International Women’s Day.

For the event, traditional Cameroonian dancers performed in the courtyard of the Maroua Town Council. There, they celebrated the official marriage of 82 couples, most of them Muslims.

Among the couples were 16-year-old Asta Ismaila and her 47-year-old husband.

Ismaila said she was forced to be the man’s third wife when she was barely 14 years old. After giving birth, she said, her husband did not take care of her or her baby.

Although the couple split last year, they agreed to legalize their marriage so Ismaila and their child would not be shunned by the community.

It also provides mother and child with important and rare legal protection.

Cameroon’s Institute of Statistics says only 10 percent of couples have legalized their marriages – relying instead on simple, traditional ceremonies.

If the husband dies, his family members often take the couple’s property and send the woman away with nothing.

The Cameroon Association of Lawyers’ Hamadou Hamajarou says with a legal marriage, the state protects the wife’s property rights.

He said Cameroon’s penal code punishes anyone who forces a widow out of her marital home with a prison term of three months to one year and a fine of $100 to $1,000. If the woman is pregnant or violence is used, the sentence can be from two to five years in prison.

In northern Cameroon’s polygamous Muslim communities, men often bring home an additional wife without consulting their current ones. Without a registered marriage, the wives have few legal options to challenge the man’s decisions.

Aissa Dumara, coordinator of the Association for the Fight Against Violence on Women and Girls, said women who defy their husband – legally or not — are often abused or kicked out of the house.

She said only 35 of the 351 abused women who sought the group’s help in 2018 were legally married. Dumara said they were forced at very young ages into the homes of men who promised to marry them but instead they were battered, forced to do difficult domestic work, or simply dismissed.

The group arranged the mass wedding to educate women of the importance of legalizing their marriages.

It’s no small challenge in Cameroon’s remote villages.

Ismaila tried to convince her husband’s two other wives to legalize their marriages as well. But they said their families were against it because the husband and his family had yet to pay them money or property for the marriage – known as a bride price.

The cost for the wives having no legal protection could prove to be much higher.

VOA

8, March 2019

Francophone Crisis: Yaounde High Court Refuses to Release Opposition Figures ⁰

High Court refused to release opposition leader Maurice Kamto, as well as six of his supporters, who were arrested in January on politically motivated charges.

The Mfoundi High Court, located in Cameroon’s political capital, Yaoundé, made this decision following a habeas corpus request filed by the detainees’ defence lawyers.

Kamto and his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), claim they won the country’s 2018 elections, although the official results say the current President Paul Biya – in power for 36 years – won the vote.

They were detained as a part of a massive government crackdown on demonstrations and political activities, including the arrest over 200 people on January 26. Since then, political activists have been regularly threatened and harassed.

Kamto and his six supporters are charged with a number of offenses linked to their rejection of the election results, including hostility against the homeland and threats to public order and rebellion.

These arrests highlight the tightening political space in Cameroon as well as the impunity with which police can disregard the law.

Kamto was arrested without a warrant on January, 28 in Douala and held for 15 days at the headquarters of the Special Operations Groups (Groupement spécial d’opérations, GSO), which is not gazetted as a detention facility for those awaiting trial.

Célestin Djamen, a member of Kamto’s party, was arrested at the hospital where he was recovering after police shot him in the leg during a January 26 demonstration. He was held for 15 days at the Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense (SED) which also is not meant to hold people in police custody.

Lawyers for Kamto say that they were unable to access their client for two days, in violation of the Cameroonian law. A lawyer for Djamen said he did not see his client for 15 days.

Kamto and the other detainees were only presented before the prosecutor 15 days after their arrest, in violation of the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code. Moreover, despite being civilians, they are being tried in a military court. This means there are real questions about the legality of the court itself.

These arrests appear to be a politically motivated move to curtail dissent, and what’s happened so far calls into questions Kamto’s ability to get a fair trial. Cameroonians – political opponents or not – should be able to expect that officials will uphold the law, not flagrantly violate it.

HRW.ORGNEWS

8, March 2019

Yaounde needs to address Southern Cameroons Crisis: US Top diplomat ⁰

The current crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions has raged since late 2016 with protests over perceived marginalisation by the Francophone majority morphing into almost daily clashes between security forces and armed separatists.

“There’s a very serious national crisis going on, but I believe the government needs to be more serious in how they address it,” said Nagy.

“I’m not sure, and I hope I’m wrong, that the government realises just what a serious problem it is,” added. “Even though there have been some policies announced by the government – in my view, they have been more symbolic than active.”

The US cut some military assistance to Cameroon in February over concerns about human rights violations allegedly committed by the Cameroonian military.

The country has been seen as a key security partner for the US and some 300 troops are based in the northern town of Garoua in an effort to fight hardline Islamists in the north of Cameroon.

“I think it could be settled relatively quickly,” said Nagy, in discussion of the Anglophone crisis. “A couple of positive steps would be if the people in the north west and south west could directly elect their governors.”

The American diplomat, referring to regional governors who are Francophone, said it would be unlikely that officials would be French speakers if Anglophones had more say over their own governance. Nagy also suggested that the security forces operating in the Anglophone regions “need to speak English”.

A conference bringing together all sides involved in the crisis would be “very positive”, according to Nagy. It would need to be “endorsed by the highest levels of government”.
RFI

8, March 2019

Southern Cameroons: Fear reigns in the capital city ⁰

In the capital of Southern Cameroons, people drily say the streets are so dangerous that even the dogs are too scared to go outside.

Buea has been stalked by violence for 18 months, after English-speaking separatists declared an independent state and took up arms against the French-speaking authorities.

In Buea, barely a day goes by without the “Amba Boys” attacking police stations, state-run enterprises and public buildings — anything that is a recognisable symbol of the state.

Gunfire is heard frequently, despite army patrols introduced as part of a wide-ranging crackdown, and kidnapping is rampant.

Last month, around 15 Ambazonia Restoration Fighters entered the city, firing into the air and burning cars. After they left, people found a decapitated head left on the pavement. The victim has so far not been identified.

A disturbing video being shared on social media shows a woman in her 30s being disfigured by separatists who accuse her of being an informant for the army.

On Tuesday, the EU issued a statement warning about Cameroon’s political and security situation, pointing especially to the two restive anglophone regions, where there were “persistent violence and violations of human rights”.

– Fear –

One civil servant, who asked not to be identified, told AFP he had been living in his office for five months out of fear of being attacked.

“I spend the night at the office to avoid the trip home,” he said. “Informants could see that I was disobeying the Amba Boys’ ban on working for the government.”

Nearby, his camp bed was folded in one corner, just beside his suitcase. Two jackets were hung up nearby while the remains of the previous day’s meal sat on a hotplate.

The town, once known as a peaceful haven nestled at the foot of Mount Cameroon, has been transformed by the conflict.

“Buea is suffering,” one local radio presenter recently lamented on air.

Some businesses say they are struggling to survive. Fearing reprisals, they do not dare defy the shutdowns regularly declared by the Ambazonian Restoration Forces.

The cost of living is mounting. One woman selling mangoes at a crossroads for 1,000 francs (about 1.8 euros, $2) apiece said the price of the fruit was rising “because there are few people to go and harvest them.”

– Exodus –

The authorities in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde have responded to the rebellion by stepping up the security presence in the region.

Troops and Ambazonia Forces alike have been accused of targeting civilians.

At least 500 civilians and more than 200 members of the security forces have died in clashes, attacks and a government crackdown, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank says.

At least 437,000 people have fled the two regions, according to UN estimates, with another 32,000 fleeing across the border to Nigeria.

Many people in Buea have fled to the port of Limbe, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) away. The road between the two towns is littered with the burnt-out remains of cars.

As night falls on Down Beach, the view over the bay comes with an incessant roar of armoured vehicles carrying troops.

In the local schools, teachers have got used to pupils turning up wearing uniforms from other establishments. “They come from nearby villages,” said a teacher at one secondary school. “We put up with it.”

– Colonial legacy –

Around a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million are English speakers.

The roots of the conflict today date back a century, when post-World War I Germany surrendered Kamerun, its principal colony in West Africa, which was then taken over by Britain and France.

France was given the greater part of the territory, which became independent in 1960.

A year later, the British colony also gained independence.

Some of the English-speaking areas opted to join newly-formed Nigeria, while others chose to join the federation of Cameroon.

In 2017, anglophone resentment at perceived discrimination by the francophone majority came to a head, leading to the declaration of the ” Federal Republic of Ambazonia” in the two regions, named after the local Ambas Bay.

AFP with additional editing from CIR

7, March 2019

Eto’o to take ‘forced’ DNA test to determine paternity of ex-girlfriend’s son ⁰

Cameroon football legend Samuel Eto’o could soon undergo a paternity test against his wish in the culmination of a two-decade battle against his alleged love child.

According to media reports, the former Cameroon International – considered one of the best African football talents of all time – is battling accusations from one Adileusa do Rosario Neves, 39, that he is the biological father of her 19-year old son.

“He told me I was like all the w***es who go looking for footballers, that I was a b**ch and that if I didn’t have an abortion then I was going to have problems,” Adileusa is reported as saying.

DNA TEST

Adileusa’s lawyer Fernando Osuna confirmed on Tuesday that the hearing would take place at a Madrid court on April 24.

“He has so far agreed to a voluntary DNA test and I doubt at this stage that he will. At the moment our case is based on things like photographs and affidavits from witnesses but a refusal by Eto’o to agree to a voluntary DNA test would go in our favour,” he said.

PREGNANCY

The lawsuit presented by Cape Verde born Adileusa says she fell pregnant after a meeting with Eto’o – formerly at Barcelona and Chelsea, but now playing in Qatar – in a nightclub in the Spanish capital in 1997 when he was playing for Leganes on loan from Real Madrid.

The complainant also claims that Eto’o, 37, who has six legitimate children with four different women, including his wife Georgette, told her he would ‘act responsibly’ soon after she broke the news but then cut off all contact with her.

It is believed the outcome of the paternity test will determine whether mother and child can launch a legal battle against Eto’o.

NairobiNews

7, March 2019

Nigerian govt condemns ejection of refugees by Cameroon ⁰

The Nigerian government has condemned the ejection of her citizens who are taking refuge in Cameroon by the country’s authorities.

A statement issued by the Federal National Commissioner for the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Sadiya Farouq, accused the Cameroonian government of flouting the United Nations Convention on Refugees and its 167 Protocol.

He said the Protocol forbids member nations from ejecting refugees under any circumstances.

According to the Commissioner, the ejected refugees are residents of Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government Area of Borno State, who fled their community to neighbouring Goura town in Cameroon due to incessant Boko Haram attacks in January.

The statement reads: “It is highly regrettable and sad to note that despite the passionate appeal made by the Nigerian Authorities to the Government of Cameroon not to chase out the victims of Boko Haram attacks from Rann Local Government of Borno State, this appeal has been ignored.

“Information reaching us is that the Cameroonian Government has thrown out the Displaced Persons from Rann who ran into Cameroun for safety in total disregard for the appeal and a clear breach of the United Nations Charter and Convention on the protection of Displaced Persons which both countries endorsed.

“The United Nations Convention on Refugees and its 167 Protocol states that , “no contracting state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his or her life or freedom will be threatened on account of his or her race, religion or nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

Mr Farouq, however, said Nigeria would not retaliate by ejecting Cameroonian refugees currently in Nigeria. He said; “You may recall that on January 14, 2019, persistent attacks in Rann compelled residents of the area to run into Cameroon territories for their safety, but from the onset, the Cameroon Government threatened to chase them out.

“The Nigerian Government had to remind its Cameroonian counterpart of its obligation to the displaced Nigerians, bearing in mind the UN Convention. Unfortunately, today Cameroon has made good its earlier threat by throwing the Nigerian Refugees back to the country in large number. In due course, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take appropriate steps on the matter.

“Meanwhile, it is worthy of mention to state that Nigeria is currently hosting many Cameroonian refugees located at Cross River, Benue, Akwa-Ibom, Taraba States and some of them in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja since October 2017 and we continue to provide them with relief, care and maintenance items. This is a clear demonstration of our commitment to international Conventions on humanitarian obligations and in the spirit of good neighbourliness.

“The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) in line with its mandate will continue to provide care and maintenance to persons of concern including nationals of other countries without any form of discrimination. However, we demand that Nigerian citizens in a foreign land must not be subjected to any shabby treatment under any circumstance.”

Source: Premium Times

7, March 2019

Yaounde: Mebe Ngo’o was in tears as he was being whisked from the court to prison ⁰

Cameroon’s ex-Defence minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, often touted as as a possible successor to he long-serving President Paul Biya, has been remanded in prison over corruption allegations.

The Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé ordered that Mr Mebe Ngo’o be remanded at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison while investigations continue into an alleged corruption and embezzlement case against him.

Mr Mebe Ngo’o, who had earlier been barred from leaving the country, was at the special criminal court on Tuesday for the second grilling in less than a month. Eye witnesses said he was in tears as he was being whisked from the court to prison.

Public funds

The erstwhile former minister was being investigated for alleged bribery and corruption over the purchase of military equipment from Magforce, a company that sells a full range of military clothing, equipment and vehicles.

The amount of money involved in the deal has not yet been disclosed, but the Special Criminal Court only handles cases of embezzlement of public funds that range from $86,000 (FCFA50 million) upwards, according to the 2011 law creating it.

Two top military officers, Col Ghislain Victor Mboutou and Col Maxime Leonard Mbangue and Mr Victor Emmanuel Menye, an assistant General Manager of SCB bank, were also remanded with the former minister for their alleged involvement in the scandalous deal.

Also implicated in the faulty transactions are Mr Mebe Ngo’o’s wife Bernadette Mebe Ngo’o and their two sons, who were expected to appear before a prosecutor at the Special Criminal Court in the capital later on Wednesday.

A demotion

Prior to his appointment as Defence minister in 2009, Mr Mebe Ngo’o served as Delegate-General for National Security (National Police Boss) for five years. After six years at the helm of the ministry of Defence, he was appointed Transport minister in 2015 in what critics described as a demotion.

The 62-year-old senior civil administrator has been jobless since his removal from government in 2017.

He joins many other former members of government either serving prison terms or in pre-trial detention at the Kondengui jail.

The East African

7, March 2019

The role of imperialism in Anglophone-Francophone bloodshed ⁰

Monday 1 October marked the one-year anniversary of the declaration of independence by anglophone separatists in the southwest of Cameroon, when they announced the birth of a new nation: Ambazonia. That declaration of independence provoked a brutal clampdown by the Cameroonian government, leading to hundreds of civilians and dozens of members of the security forces being killed over the past year.

In the build-up to the anniversary, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, governor of the largely English-speaking northwest region, announced a curfew, stating that: “The movement of people between areas in the northwest is banned for a period of 48 hours from Sunday, 30 September until Monday, 1 October.” Similar measures were in force across Cameroon’s other anglophone areas.

President Biya responded to the declaration of Ambazonia and the subsequent anglophone insurgency with repression, which was met in turn with bloody attacks by separatists

In Buea, a town in the southwest that has been at the heart of the anglophone insurgency, officials also announced a raft of “special security measures”. All shops and bars were closed, cultural and sporting events cancelled and public and private transport suspended throughout Sunday and Monday. The two-day curfew also affected the southwestern coastal towns of Limbe and Tiko.

This came a week ahead of polls opening for Cameroon’s presidential elections on 7 October, a vote that anglophone secessionists vowed to disrupt. 85-year-old, Francophone incumbent Paul Biya is seeking a seventh term, having already been in power since 1982, amidst rampant corruption and brutal repression of the anglophone minority (which represents approximately 20 percent of the Cameroonian population). However, opposition leader Maurice Kamto has already declared himself the winner ahead of the official results (not uncommon in African nations), in an election that has seen an extremely low turnout in anglophone areas.

Last year’s independence declaration triggered a crisis that has cast a shadow over the current elections, with tit-for-tat skirmishes between the security forces and anglophone separatists. Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the North-West and Southwest — have seen almost daily violence that has left at least 400 dead in the past year.

Biya responded to the declaration of Ambazonia and the subsequent anglophone insurgency with repression, which was met in turn with bloody attacks by separatists, who have killed troops and police and torched schools and other symbols of the Cameroonian state. Six civilians and two police officers were killed in Cameroon’s English-speaking southwest, and two police officers were allegedly killed and a policewoman injured on the outskirts of the beach resort town of Limbe. Meanwhile, in Buea, the capital of the southwest region, police shot dead six civilians and injured another. Soldiers and separatists also traded gunfire in Bamenda, the main city in the anglophone northwest region.

Last year’s independence declaration triggered a crisis that has cast a shadow over the current elections, with tit-for-tat skirmishes between the security forces and anglophone separatists

Cameroon is undergoing a crisis that has its roots in the imperialist domination and carving up of the country. The anglophone and francophone divisions date back to British and French occupations, which took over from German colonisation. The two imperialist powers divided Cameroon into separate spheres of influence that were later formalised by the League of Nations: the forerunner to the UN. The much-larger French colony was eventually granted independence in 1960, followed a year later by the British colony also gaining independence. Some of the anglophone areas chose to join newly-formed Nigeria, while others remained part of the Federation of Cameroon. In this article, we will situate the present situation within its historical context, and explain how the bloody hand of capitalist imperialism set the current turmoil in motion.

The situation today

Violent skirmishes have become commonplace in anglophone Cameroon. A typical clash took place on 14 September at 9pm, at a roadside checkpoint on the outskirts of Bamenda: the capital of the northwest region and home to many of the separatist fighters embroiled in the ongoing civil war. A storm was raging, and the thunder was punctuated by machine gun fire, exchanged between anglophone separatist fighters and a gendarmerie brigade. When the French-speaking officer called to cease fire, six separatist fighters’ bodies were strewn across the pothole-laden road. This is but one example of the daily fighting between English-speaking rebels and the francophone security forces loyal to the government of President Biya in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé.

The re-election of Biya for another seven years in power is a foregone conclusion (although the official count might not be announced for weeks after the polls opened on 7 October). Nevertheless, the government engaged in a renewed crackdown on separatists to try and reinstate law and order in the anglophone regions of Cameroon, so the vote could take place. It was always a fanciful idea that the military would be able to sufficiently quell the separatists to allow even a semblance of an election to occur in these regions, as the civil war is currently at fever pitch. Predictably, the turnout in these regions was extremely low: less than 5 percent, compared to 55 percent for francophone Cameroon.

Violent skirmishes between government forces and pro-independence fighters have become commonplace in anglophone Cameroon

Separatists have escalated their actions in recent years, from demonstrations and strikes for language recognition, to organising the Ambazonian Defence Force in the hope of making the region ungovernable so that they will be able to create a new state for English-speakers. There is a deep-seated hatred towards the presidency of Biya from those fighting for the establishment of Ambazonia, as anglophones have faced discrimination for decades, coupled with the pillaging of natural resources from their homes. Oil was discovered in the English-speaking regions in 1970, but the main beneficiaries have been the foreign companies granted rights for extraction, and the Biya government itself, which has reaped the spoils while systematically underfunding the anglophone areas of Cameroon.

The spark for the current situation can be traced to late 2016, when English-speaking teachers were ordered to teach in French-speaking regions and French-speaking teachers were moved in to replace them, meaning learning was forcibly conducted in French. Courts were also ordered to conduct their proceedings solely in French, meaning that English-speaking lawyers could no longer represent their clients, and defendants in the anglophone population were unable to understand what was happening to them in court.

This provocation led to the teachers and lawyers going on strike. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding full recognition of their language rights. Security forces tried to suppress the situation by firing into a demonstration, killing 17. These murders hardened many of the anglophone population into supporting independence for Ambazonia and also had the effect of creating armed groups, which responded in kind by killing soldiers, police officers, and people they believed to be collaborating with the authorities.

The government in Yaoundé says more than 120 of their security forces have been killed in these actions, while the United Nations says the fighting has caused 160,000 people to flee their homes and 34,000 more to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Nigeria. The number of civilian deaths cannot be ascertained due to the continued fighting in the region.

us sailors conduct search and seizure familiarization training in douala Image US Military

The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), which reports directly to President Biya, is trained in combat and torture techniques by US, French, Israeli and British military personnel

Government forces have been accused of committing genocide against the anglophone population by international organisations such as Amnesty International. Villages in anglophone areas have been systematically targeted and razed to the ground. The internet has been suspended, curfews instigated, and new anti-terrorism legislation has been passed that has placed hundreds of people on death row for organising protests against the government. President Biya has declared war on all separatists.

The elite wing of the military, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), which reports directly to President Biya and is trained by US, French, Israeli and British military personnel, has been videoed executing unarmed women and their toddlers, faced corroborated reports of shooting into peaceful demonstrations and also stands accused of implementing torture techniques (learned from the Americans) on the separatists. The actions of the government have thrown petrol on a situation that has its roots in the imperialist carving up of Africa and the reunification of Cameroon in 1961.

German imperialism and partition

Today’s Republic of Cameroon was created out of territory that was dominated by German imperialism from 1884 to 1916, called Kamerun. The Germans, through companies mainly based in Hamburg and Bremen, conducted plantation activities during the European imperialists’ “Scramble for Africa” and subjugated the local populations, who spoke a wide range of local languages and dialects. Unsurprisingly, the German colonisation of Cameroon did not succeed in uniting the populations in a common sense of nationhood but did leave a legacy of a common name for the region, which at a later date was utilised to defend imperialist interests.

Cameroon boundary changes since 1901 / Image: Roke

At the end of the First World War, British and French troops, with some help from Belgian forces, managed to expel the German military from Kamerun. The 1919 London Declaration, which was decided solely between France and Britain, granted one-fifth of the former German colony to Britain and the remainder to France. The League of Nations accepted the partition of Kamerun in 1922. This is what created the future anglophone minority in Cameroon and a francophone majority in the rest of the country. London chose to split her new war spoils and formed a Northern zone, where Islam was practiced by large numbers of people, and a Southern zone where Christianity was more widely followed. Both were to be administered by the neighbouring British colony of Nigeria.

After the Second World War, Britain and France were drastically weakened as world powers and the US emerged as the leader of the so-called “free world”. Through the United Nations, and a recognition on the part of the old imperialist powers that they could no longer govern in the same ways as before, the US pushed for the Cameroonian mandates granted by the League of Nations to be transferred to UN Trusteeships with the expressed understanding they would be granted independence at a yet-undecided future date. At this time, the call for reunification of Cameroon had very little support among the local populations, split between the French and British-controlled areas. But a movement around this demand would materialise; supported and pushed, in the first instance, by Cameroon’s western-educated elites who saw opportunities to further their own prestige and political goals.

Cynical maneuverings

It was this elite – that had previously adapted very easily to the German, and then French or British, colonial rule – that saw the United Nations as a vehicle for promoting their project. One of these men was Paul Soppo Priso: Cameroon’s first native millionaire. Soppo Priso was born to one of the most important families in Douala and his schooling led him to train in topography: the study of mapping and surveying land.

After the fall of Kamerun from German control, and its consolidation into French and British hands, many German families decided to sell their assets and move back to the Motherland. Soppo Priso put his training to good use, managing to purchase a construction company and some land at a very cheap rate from a fleeing German family. This would later be the basis of Soppo Priso’s wealth: the extraction of raw materials, predominantly stone, to be sold to foreign companies. During the 1930s, Soppo Priso would develop extremely close relationships with the French colonial government and as a result held two ministerial positions in the colonial regime. The French then sponsored Soppo Priso to form the Jeunesse Camerounaise Française (JEUCAFRA). JEUCAFRA’s main political aim was to undercut Hitler’s intentions of recovering Germany’s lost colonial possessions.

Soppo Priso: Cameroon’s first native millionaire / Image: public domain

JEUCAFRA had success in winning support from Cameroon’s business elite, who had benefited from the German exodus and from a general anti-German sentiment. Their first demonstration was held in January 1939 in front of the office of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in Cameroon and was attended by over 20,000 people. JEUCAFRA was wound up after serving its purpose at the end of the Second World War, but Soppo Priso now had grander political intentions and launched his second political adventure, Rassemblement Camerounais (RACAM).

Soppo Priso ensured that RACAM made reunification a cornerstone of its politics. This policy was cynically developed to boost Soppo Priso politically. He had seen, at the United Nations, how the idea of unification of the Ewe people in Tongoland – whose territory was split between Britain and France after the Germans lost control in 1916 – had garnered support. As a result, Britain and France, to undercut public support for unification of the Ewe, were forced to grant greater political autonomy to Tongoland, which was seized upon by the native Togolese politicians of the same ilk as Soppo Priso. Thus, Soppo Priso believed he could use the United Nations and the idea of reunification to further himself and the class which he represented.

The UPC

Outside the country, RACAM had a focus on moderation and not upsetting their French masters unduly. This would not be a movement fit for young radicals, who were influenced by Marxist ideas and who had links with the French CGT trade union. On 10 April 1948, a small grouping of radical nationalists met in a bar in Douala Bassa quarter and formed the Unions des Populations du Cameroun (UPC). The UPC advocated immediate reunification and had a focus on garnering local support for their cause.

At first, the UPC’s work was confined to the wealthier strata and organised workers within the French provinces of Cameroon, but quickly spread to British-controlled Cameroon through francophone émigrés working on the plantations there, who had fled the harshness and oppressiveness of the French colonial system. Over 17,000 such workers were living in the Southwest British province of Cameroon in 1950.

In 1948, radical nationalists formed the Unions des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), which had links with the French CGT union

It was these workers on the plantations who initially formed the real basis of support for unification of Cameroon. It was a logical way for them to throw off the yoke of French imperialism and the stigmatisation they now faced from the British authorities, while linking back to their kin still in the French-controlled Cameroon.

The idea of unification also found fertile ground among sections of anglophone workers, who for a long time had suspected that Nigeria was being favoured for funding in the region, given that Britain was using the nation to govern their portion of Cameroon. This sentiment was seized upon by various new political formations, most of which mixed anti-francophone sentiments with a demand for an independent province, separate from British Nigeria and French Cameroon.

The UPC was the only organisation with unification politics that managed to span the anglo-francophone divide with some success. By 1950 they were considered the largest political grouping in the whole of Cameroon, although in reality they were still limited mainly to the southwest of the country, particularly in areas where the ethnic populations of Bassa and Bamileke peoples were most prominent.

The United Nations

Although the UPC had a clear focus on building locally they also had illusions that they could succeed in appealing to the United Nations to force France and Britain to respect the wording of the Trusteeships granted to them. As Article 76 of the Trusteeships Charter said:

“The basic objectives of the Trusteeship system, in accordance with the Purposes of the United Nations laid down in Article 1 of the present Charter shall be:
“A) to promote international peace and security;
“B) to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories and their progressive development toward self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.”

In 1952, the UPC leadership under Ruben Um Nyobe asked if they could present their case as an oral petition to the General Assembly of the UN. Um Nyobe believed that he could make a compelling case to the General Assembly that the British and French troops were occupying forces, and in order to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the peoples of Cameroon, unification must take place against the whims of imperialism.

Um Nyobe tried but his words were greeted with no support. The UPC would continue, under Um Nyobe’s leadership to try to convince the United Nations of this argument, but to no avail. A tactic was developed by the UPC to send petition after petition to the General Assembly asking for them to push for unification of the region. Over the 1950s, hundreds of petitions – each with tens of thousands of names – were sent from the UPC to the General Assembly.

The problem for the UPC was that their argument, although not fundamentally incorrect (that is, the imperialist looting of Africa was holding back the development of its people) ignored the fact that the United Nations does not work as a debating club, where argument and debate fundamentally affect their course of action. The UN is governed by the main imperialist powers and can only act when these powers agree. Sadly, the fledgling UPC failed to understand this and spent untold time gathering signatures and sending petitions and letters to the UN.

Banning the UPC, and the Hidden War

The activities of the UPC and their politics of anti-colonialism, while building local meetings and branches, made it impossible for them to avoid the ire of the authorities, especially at first in the French-controlled land. The UPC was banned in French-controlled Cameroon in 1955, following riots in major cities when they had a membership of over 100,000 and 450 branches. The UPC was driven underground and their headquarters and buildings burned to the ground. Many of the leadership fled to the British-controlled regions, where they were not persecuted to the same degree.

UPC leaders were systematically targeted and decapitated by French troops. The survivors fled or were driven underground

The Catholic Church and traditional tribal leaders also declared war on the UPC – and their influence spanned beyond the borders of the French-controlled territories. The Church accused anyone associated with the UPC of being violent communists who were in a conspiracy to destroy their institution. The old tribal rulers, whose authority was based on a mix of ethnic support and old relationships (and whom the UPC labelled “parasitic, feudal barons…ripe for destruction”) called for those loyal to their tribes to run the UPC into the ground. These calls united the most backward layers in Cameroonian society against the UPC.

The quelling of the UPC was brutal. It is estimated that it resulted in over 75,000 civilian deaths. Most of these people hailed from the Bamileke ethnic group and that is why this ruthless massacre is known as either the Bamileke War or the Hidden War due to the limited international attention to the atrocity.

The number of deaths is hard to estimate, yet General Max Briand, the commander of all French military forces in Cameroon, gave a report that an estimated 20,000 “terrorists” were killed in 1960 alone. The French, now backed by the British authorities, also instigated a policy to decapitate the leadership of the UPC, which would, in their view, put an end to the “communist plague” gripping the country. In September 1958, French troops tracked down Um Nyobe and succeeded in assassinating him in his own home, while his mother watched.

In 1958, UPC leader Um Nyobe was assassinated by French troops in his own home, while his mother watched

The UPC had been successfully smashed by the full force of the state. The membership had been killed, imprisoned or driven underground. The leaders of the organisation were murdered or in exile. Also, those leaders who did manage to seek refuge in neighbouring countries were split between the support of either the Moscow or Chinese leaderships in the ongoing Sino-Soviet split. Devoid of any relationships with the workers’ and peasants’ movements in Cameroon, the shell of the UPC quickly deteriorated further and eventually moved away from any kind of socialist leanings; ultimately accepting capitalism and focusing solely on national liberation through the armed struggle. The UPC as a progressive political force was now dead.

Towards independence and reunification

RACAM under Soppo Priso was forced to wind up in 1947 under pressure from the French authorities, as they believed at this time that any unification demands would undermine their continued control in the region. Soppo Priso would go from millionaire to billionaire by successfully enriching himself under the new leadership of Ahmadou Ahidjo in French-controlled Cameroon.

Ahidjo’s rise to power coincided with a change in tactics on the part of the French authorities. The French ruling class was facing a protracted war not only in Cameroon but also on a larger scale in Algeria, France’s most prized colony. The Algerian crisis of 1958 brought de Gaulle to power and his government prioritised maintaining Algeria at the expense of French-controlled West Africa.

From 1958 to 1960, all 12 of their colonies in West Africa were granted independence: an independence that would see the main leaders handpicked in the first instance by the French authorities, as those political groups opposed to French interference were outlawed as terrorist groups. The doctrine of the French at this stage was to find a small but influential elite – that was sufficiently satisfied with the status quo to refrain from anti-French sentiment – to take up leadership positions post-independence.

Independence for French-controlled was granted under Ahmadou Ahidjo’s leadership on the condition that the republic remain subordinate to France

Ahidjo was no different in this regard and formed closer links with France through the French Union. With Ahidjo in place and the decision on independence already made by the French authorities, the UN sent a ‘fact-finding mission’ in 1958 to see if Cameroon should move from Trusteeship to independence. The fact-finding mission came back, agreeing with the new French position, that independence should be granted, with Ahidjo’s government to rule the new territory.

When independence was granted in 1960, Ahidjo declared that Cameroon would be a liberal, capitalist state that would depend upon the goodwill and aid of the French. Ahidjo was indifferent towards unification of the British-controlled area with the newly formed republic. He simply stated that he would leave it to the people of the region to decide their future and that he would not stand in their way if they chose to join.

During this time, the British held elections in the areas under their control. A party called the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) won the elections in the Christian southern provinces by alluding to unification with the rest of Cameroon. The idea of unification, built up by the UPC, still gripped the minds of the remaining émigré workers and radical students, although this was still a minority position in the region. The majority view of the people, at this stage, was for independence from Nigeria and Cameroon and for the setting up of their own independent state.

British imperialism feared that allowing a newly independent state to be set up could become a source of instability and thus affect economic relations and, most importantly, their own looting in the region. Therefore, through their power at the UN, the British government pushed for an upcoming referendum to decide the future of the region, on a simple choice of either union with Nigeria or with Cameroon.

The British authorities achieved such a position at the UN – of ignoring the peoples’ choice of independence – by a dual tactic of arguing that such a state would be unstable and, by extension, could fall prey to communism, and that the people of these regions couldn’t comprehend a referendum with more than two options! When the selective referendum was held, the northern region decided to join Nigeria and the southern provinces voted to join Cameroon.

The dictatorships of Ahidjo to Biya

The war against the UPC was still raging when unification took place in 1961. Ahidjo used this as justification to increase his authoritarian rule and instigated a repressive dictatorship backed by French troops. In 1966, he managed to achieve one of his major political goals and dissolved all other political parties, forming a one-party state that he called a “ruling democracy”. The limited press freedoms and freedom of association that existed before independence were now completely removed. Ahidjo then attempted to project himself as father of the nation and plastered his image on billboards entering and leaving every town. To question Ahidjo’s authority in public was now considered suicidal, as the last of the dwindling UPC militants were drowned in blood.

In 1972, president Ahidjo, after proclaiming an end to the UPC, centralised the little remaining political structures outside of his direct control and destroyed any federal structures that still existed for the provinces. This was achieved through a sham constitutional referendum with a turnout reported to be 99.8 percent, with 99.9 percent of people supposedly voting in favour of Ahidjo’s new powers. This further realignment of political power saw no serious condemnation from France, Britain or the UN.

President Biya’s continued 36-year rule is characterised by brutal repression of anyone who opposes him, and especially the English-speaking peoples of the former British colony

From the period of 1960 to 1982 Ahidjo ‘won’ five elections under the “ruling democracy” system, with no less than 100 percent of the vote each time and a reported turnout of at least 99 percent. In 1982, with Ahidjo reaching his 58^thbirthday and 22^nd year in power, the situation within his own party was growing increasingly fractious and French imperialism was also becoming concerned that Ahidjo was mounting a move to break with them. Thus, in unclear circumstances, Ahidjo resigned (amidst reports of bad health) and President Biya replaced him.

The new president didn’t waste time in consolidating the existing power structure in his own image. Images of Ahidjo were removed and replaced with those of Biya and when there was an apparent coup attempt against Biya in 1984 the finger was pointed solely at Ahidjo. Ahidjo was then forced to flee the country and was consequently sentenced to death by the new regime in his absence for allegedly trying to overthrow the ruling democracy – that he had established to begin with!

President Biya at first promised increased freedoms, yet what came to pass was the exact opposite. He moved to rename the country from United Republic of Cameroon to just the Republic of Cameroon – a name that francophone Cameroon had before the 1961 unification. This move angered the peoples in the anglophone regions and marked a furthering of direct discriminatory policies and a process of forced assimilation of English speakers in the country.

Trapped between two devils

President Biya’s continued 36-year rule is characterised by brutal repression of anyone who opposes him, and especially the peoples of the former British colony. Although there was an opening up of limited freedoms of the press and a renewal of opposition parties in 1991, each subsequent election has been clearly fraudulent in Biya’s favour – including the present one, which has seen Biya leverage the entirety of the state against the opposition. Such is his confidence of victory, he has barely bothered to campaign, having organised only one rally, in the country’s north region.

Zanda Carol, on violence in Buea, in English-speaking Cameroon: “We are between two devils”

This is the backdrop to the ongoing fighting today in Cameroon. Zanda Carol, from Buea in English-speaking Cameroon, said his city was a ghost town on election day. Soldiers patrolled the streets, while armed insurgents declared and violently enforced a ban on voting in what they called an illegal poll. “We are between two devils,” Carol said.

France and Britain have supported, and continue to support, the dictatorships of first Ahidjo and then Biya. The working peoples and peasants of Cameroon, and Africa more broadly, have been subjugated to the will of imperialism, aided at times through mechanisms of the United Nations, to continue their looting of the continent. What is needed is to renew struggle based on the best traditions of the UPC and fight for true international socialism, which can unite the working people and peasants of Western Africa under the banner of genuine anti-imperialist struggle. This can only be achieved by expropriating the multinational corporations that are sucking the blood out of this potentially rich continent, and by building a socialist federation throughout the whole region.

Source: Marxist.Com