Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Rene Sadi on Monday called on the European Union to “have a good understanding” of the political and security situation in the country in a bid to make “informed” declarations and decisions.

“The government calls for a good understanding of the situation by all and our cooperation with the European Union (EU), in view of wise and multifaceted support for a return to peace in the interest of Cameroon,” Sadi said in a statement released late Monday.

His reaction came after EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini condemned the “deteriorating” political and security situation in Cameroon. Mogherini said earlier that the imprisonment of the opposition leader and the violence in the two English-speaking regions showed “growing political malaise” in the country.

“These declarations show a bit of interest our European Union partners have in Cameroon which we welcome, nevertheless, they show lack of analysis of the reality and veracity of the facts,” Sadi said, adding that opposition leader Maurice Kamto and his militants of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party were awaiting trial for charges including “insurrection, hostility against the state, rebellion and destruction of public property.”

“Concerning the Northwest and Southwest, the situation in the two regions is under control and the prospects for a return to normal are becoming more favorable every day,” Sadi said. Cameroon is facing growing insecurity in its two anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest, where separatists want to create a new nation called “Ambazonia.”

Kamto was arrested alongside 117 militants of the CRM party in late January after they organized protests to denounce what they called an “electoral hold-up” and the “useless war in Anglophone regions.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Despite somewhat slipping from global headlines in recent weeks, Cameroon has nonetheless maintained its death spiral. The root cause of the crisis can be unequivocally placed at the doorstep of the Presidency, or the Geneva Intercontinental Hotel, where President Paul Biya spends much of his time. As we have previously written on this site, President Biya is Africa’s oldest head of state, having been in power since 1982, and recently secured a seventh term in office despite credible allegations of vote rigging, electoral fraud, targeted threats of violence against opponents, and an ongoing, bloody uprising in the country’s Anglophone regions.

Biya’s main challenger in the October 2018 election, Maurice Kamto, has been subsequently charged by a military court with rebellion, insurrection and “hostility to the homeland,” after his political party staged peaceful protests in several of Cameroon’s major cities. To be sure, Kamto’s ordeal is only the latest example in a long succession of targeted harassment, intimidation and persecution of the country’s dissidents and opposition political figures. Akere Muna, for instance — another 2018 presidential challenger who ultimately joined Kamto’s coalition — has been repeatedly targeted by local authorities, as has Kah Walla, a former presidential candidate, leading women’s rights activist, and president of the Cameroon People’s Party.

Next week, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy visits Cameroon, Maurice Kamto and countless other political prisoners will likely remain behind bars and the country’s activist community still living in fear. Importantly, however, political leaders in the U.S. have begun to speak up, while certain sectors of the U.S. government have also taken actions to hold Cameroonian leaders accountable, or at least put the government on notice that human rights violations will not be allowed to continue without consequence.

Last month, for example, U.S. officials committed to “terminate” over $17 million in security assistance to the Biya regime, as well as the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program, which links 81 nations around the world with the U.S. armed forces “in a mutually beneficial relationship.” This move, indeed, was long overdue given the ongoing, absolutely horrific abuses being perpetrated in the country — most notably in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, which has resulted in tens of thousands of refugees and, according to recent public opinion polling, a dramatic decline in citizens’ faith in their leaders and state institutions.

U.S. Congressional leaders are also speaking out, including Representative Eliot Engel, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who this week wrote a letter of concern focused specifically on Cameroon to Secretary Nagy, in light of his upcoming trip. This is no small feat. In the letter, Congressman Engel requested that Secretary Nagy — who has previously served in Cameroon — to “raise the fact that the Government of Cameroon has clearly violated the rights of Mr. Kamto and other political prisoners to assemble freely and express and disseminate their opinions, which are encapsulated in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), which Cameroon ratified three decades ago.”

Certainly, the issue at hand is not about “western moralizing” or “American finger wagging” as it is often perceived or otherwise presented by Cameroon state media (and other repressive governments on the African continent). These rightful voices of concern are simply pointing out the fact that leaders in Cameroon, among others, often fail to live up to the language enshrined in their own constitutions, conventions, norms and regional standards. The ACHPR, for example, and the African Charter on Democracy, Governance and Elections exist for a reason. And they should be duly respected.

Instead of engaging in a comprehensive, much-needed dialogue with the political opposition, civil society, and Cameroon’s beleaguered business community, which is also suffering as a result of the crackdown, President Biya and the ruling cabal have doubled down, contracting highly paid lobbyists in Washington to whitewash their crimes while engaging in a scorched earth policy back home. Increased repression, and the climate of fear that is purposefully cultivated as a result, may keep President Biya and his enablers in power for the time being. The only viable path, however, towards achieving progress, development and ultimate peace will surely have to be based on respecting democratic principles and meeting the so far unmet aspirations of its people who are yearning for a better life — many of whom continue to quite literally put their lives on the line to secure a better, more prosperous country for future generations.

APO Group

The recent arrest of a former official in Cameroon for alleged corruption has sparked a debate over whether the government is actually trying to stamp out corruption, or is cracking down on anyone it sees as a challenger to longtime President Paul Biya.

Former defense minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o was arrested along with his wife and three of his close collaborators.

Political analyst Eugene Mbida says Mebe Ngo’o had occupied several strategic positions, including the director of Biya’s cabinet, police chief, minister of transport and defense minister — who was instrumental in arresting people considered as opponents of Biya. Mebe Ngo’o was widely viewed by Cameroonians as the emblematic future president, according to Mbida.

At least two dozen former government officials have been arrested and imprisoned in Cameroon over the past 10 years, including a former prime minister, several ex-ministers, and heads of state-owned corporations.

The charges against Mebe Ngo’o have not been made public, though corruption is said to be the cause of his arrest. The other officials were arrested on embezzlement charges, but they say they are political prisoners who are suffering for raising their voices against Biya’s 37-year stay in power.

‘Prisoners of conscience’

Former Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono, in his book titled Mensonges d’Etat (Lies of the State), says he and other detainees are “prisoners of conscience.”

Jacques Mfeugue of the Yaounde-based Center for the Promotion of Good Governance says the only way for citizens to know if officials are stealing from the public purse is if officials are forced to declare their assets before taking office.

In addition, he says, Cameroon should upgrade the audit bench of the Supreme Court to an autonomous court that investigates financial crimes.

The government denies that Biya persecutes those who oppose him and insists that it fights only corruption. It says the country has lost about $1.5 billion in stolen funds over the past decade, and that the anti-corruption body recovered about $260 million last year.

VOA

A senior member of Cameroon’s Parliament on Tuesday called on the international community and the government to be more “objective” in resolving the conflict in the two English-speaking provinces of the West African country.

The remarks by Enoh Tanjong, the eldest member of Cameroon’s National Assembly, is believed to be made to show the stance of the Parliament for the first time since the armed conflict started in 2017.

“Solidarity and objectiveness of the international community and the government are fundamental in resolving the conflict,” he said while denouncing “in the strongest terms” the violence perpetrated by “gunmen” in the troubled regions.

“The international community particularly has to be more objective in assessing the political tensions in Cameroon,” Tanjong said as the new parliamentary session opened.

According to the United Nations, more than 430,000 people were internally displaced in the clashes between the government forces and the armed separatists seeking to create an independent nation in the English-speaking Northwest Region and Southwest Region.

“For once the dean (eldest member of parliament) has decided to mention the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions. I hope this is the beginning of many things to happen. We need peace to become a reality in Cameroon. This session might be very decisive,” another member of the National Assembly, Joseph Mbah Ndam, told Xinhua.

The parliamentary session, which will last through April 12, is widely expected to come up with a blueprint to end the conflict. It will also elect a new executive bureau for the National Assembly and the Senate, the upper house.

Xinhuanet