Monthly Archives: June 2019

10, June 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 8 killed, dozens injured in Ekona ⁰

Eight people were killed and several others injured on Saturday in Ekona, a locality in Southwest, one of the two troubled English-speaking regions of Cameroon, according to local sources.

“I personally saw over eight corpses, mostly men and a woman. They were lying in the bush. All of them were shot at close range,” a local resident who asked not to be named revealed on Saturday.

There were conflicting reports of the identity of the killed. Armed separatists claimed that all those were civilians shot by government forces, but the army said they were separatists killed in a counter-attack.

“The army received intel (intelligence) of the presence of several terrorists (separatists) in the locality and ambushed them on their way to attack a village. They opened fire the moment they discovered our position and we retaliated. About 10 of them were neutralized and others escaped with serious injuries,” an army officer who preferred not to be named said.

Since November 2017, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest to secede from the largely French-speaking nation and form a new country called “Ambazonia”.

Reported by Xinhuanet

8, June 2019

Nigeria’s Game of Thrones: Buhari intervenes in Kano governor – Emir feud ⁰

Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari on Friday was reported to have moved to intervene in a power tussle between the political and traditional authorities in the north central Kano State.

Tensions had been high in Kano over a move by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to oust the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II after a fallout deemed to be political in nature.

The Daily Nigerian portal cited an inside source at the presidency as confirming the news. Other portals have since reported same.

“You know the president hardly interferes in matters of states. But on this issue, the president had to just interfere. The president is not happy with the governor for taking the unpopular decision of balkanizing the emirate and making moves to dethrone the emir.

“The president therefore summoned Ganduje on Thursday and directed the Director-General of the DSS to call for emergency meeting with governors of the North West.

“The governors are led by the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who first met and briefed the president on the matter on Thursday,” the source is quoted to have said.

Buhari’s intervention comes on the final day the Kano State government had given to the emir to respond to a query of financial misappropriation and to explain why he should not be suspended.

Reports say the fallout between the two men was due to perceived support of the emir for the main opposition candidate in this years gubernatorial elections which Ganduje won after a supplementary vote to secure his final term in office.

The Emir, a former Central Bank governor, has had his powers split after Ganduje split the Kano Emirates – which dates back to centuries – into five. He appointed four extra emirs with the same powers as Sanusi.

Source: Africa News

8, June 2019

Sudan: Military arrest protest leaders after meeting with Ethiopia PM ⁰

Sudanese military forces have detained leading opposition members after they met with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was in the capital Khartoum to help end the ongoing political impasse in the country.

Ahmed met representatives of both sides on Friday in a bid to revive talks between Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) and protest groups.

Among those who attended the meeting were opposition leader Mohamed Esmat and a leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Ismail Jalab. Security forces arrested both men later on without giving any reason, their aides said Saturday.

“A group of armed men came in vehicles at 3:00 am (1:00 GMT) and took away Ismail Jalab .. without giving any reason,” said Jalab’s aide Rashid Anwar, adding that SPLM-N spokesman Mubarak Ardol was also detained.

“We don’t know where they are being held,” he added.

PressTV-Khartoum protest turns bloody as Sudanese forces storm sit-in

The meeting came days after the military raided a sit-in protest outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum, killing at least 30 people.

The protesters have been calling on the military rulers to hand over power to a civilian government.

The Sundanese military announced last month that it had unseated President Omar al-Bashir and later imprisoned him. It then set up the TMC to rule the country and promised to hand over after elections.

But protests, under whose pressure Bashir was forced out, have continued in Sudan, with people demanding that more civilians be on the council than military figures during the transition period.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have already announced their support for the transitional military council. They have also expressed support for measures taken by the council following Bashir’s ouster.

PressTV-Saudi Arabia, UAE grant $3 billion aid to Sudan's junta

A Sudanese military expert told the Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity that Sudan’s military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had even discussed the recent crackdown on the protesters with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

“The breaking up of the sit-in was one of the main points on the agenda that was discussed. Unless he got the green light from his regional allies he would not have been able to commit such a crime,” he said.

The military expert was referring to a recent visit by Burhan to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have ties with Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, through their participation in the kingdom’s protracted war on Yemen.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had previously pledged to continue supporting the military transition council if Khartoum agrees to keep its forces in Yemen.

Source: Presstv

7, June 2019

UN concerned over refugees’ ‘ghastly’ conditions in Libya ⁰

The United Nations (UN) has criticized the “ghastly” conditions in migrant detention centers in Libya, where some refugees have died of tuberculosis and many others have simply disappeared.

“We are deeply concerned about the ghastly conditions in which migrants and refugees are being held in detention in Libya,” the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

According to UN figures, some 3,400 migrants and refugees remain jailed in the capital, Tripoli, which has seen a surge in fighting since a mix of militia outfits — which have come together as the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) — launched a major military offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli in early April.

Amid the rampant violence and insecurity, the Libyan Coast Guard has detained thousands of people off Libya’s coasts and handed them over to the country’s detention facilities.

Referring to the conditions in one detention center, in Zintan, which was recently visited by UN officials, Colville said that the refugees and migrants there were “severely malnourished, lacking water, locked in overcrowded warehouses reeking with the smell of rubbish and waste from overflowing latrines.”

He warned that the conditions in the prison, which houses 654 refugees and migrants, “amount to inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and may also amount to torture.”

‘This really is a crisis’

The UN human rights spokesman also said that 22 people had already died of tuberculosis in the Zintan detention center since last September.

Sub-Saharan Christian migrants attend a mass at the St. Francis Cathedral in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on May 3, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Colville added that 90 other inmates had contracted the disease. Sixty of those, he said, had been locked in a separate isolation hangar, which he described as a “hell hole,” while the other 30 had been transferred to the Gharyan Detention Center, south of the capital.

“They have reportedly been sent there to die because there are no burial facilities for Christians in Zintan,” he said.

“Tuberculosis need not be a killer disease, but in these circumstances, clearly it is killing people and there is a risk that others will die,” Colville said. “This is really a crisis.”

He also expressed concern about the disappearance of hundreds of migrants from a facility in al-Khoms City, which is under the oversight of the Department for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM).

“This is particularly worrying given reports that migrants are being sold for forced labor or to smugglers promising transit to Europe,” Colville said, also expressing concern about “reports that some women have been sold for sexual exploitation.”

The UN official urged the Libyan government to launch an immediate investigation “to locate these missing people.”

“The Libyan Coast Guard and the DCIM must ensure that they are accountable for every person in detention, and that their human rights are respected,” Colville said.

Libya has been in effective chaos since 2011, when longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled from power after an uprising and a NATO military intervention.

The migrants fleeing Libya often attempt to reach Europe. Alarmed by increasing numbers of migrants, European countries have over the past years tried to convince Libya to crack down on such migration.

Source: Presstv

7, June 2019

Francophone Crisis: 100 opposition members freed ⁰

A hundred members of the opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) were freed Thursday following their arrest during demonstrations last week, the party told AFP.

However MRC vice president Mamadou Mota, who was also detained on June 1, remains in detention, the same opposition party source said. “Today 100 of our members, arrested on Saturday… have been freed,” said lawyer Christopher Ndong, secretary general of the MRC.

In all, 351 MRC supporters were arrested during protests which took place in several towns throughout the country, including Nkongsamba, in the west, and Yaounde, according to the party’s figures.

“There are still 251 people incarcerated in prison cells,” said Ndong.

At least 30 of those arrested, including Mota, have been transferred to Yaounde’s main prison.

The prison also houses MRC head Maurice Kamto, the country’s main opposition figure who has been detained since January.

The MRC has been organising demonstrations since the October 2018 presidential election. According to official results, Kamto came second but the MRC says the vote was rigged in favour of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years.

Saturday’s protests called for the release of Kamto and other party supporters who were arrested after another protest in January.

Such protest marches are banned by Cameroon.

Video footage posted on social media sites Thursday show MRC militants claiming, after their release, that they were tortured while in detention.

The use of torture in police station is a frequent occurrence according to many sources.

In February Kamto and other opposition supporters appeared before a military tribunal in Yaounde accused of “insurrection, hostility to the homeland (and) rebellion”, offences which carry a possible death penalty.

Their lawyers have appealed to the UN working group on arbitrary detention over the arrests.

Source: AFP

7, June 2019

As violence rages, Biya Regime, Ambazonia Interim Gov’t in denial ⁰

Prospects for talks between authorities and separatist movements to end escalating violence in Cameroon’s English-speaking region are slim, a senior human rights official said on Friday (Jun 7), dismissing assertions by both sides to be open to dialogue.

A separatist insurgency broke out in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest, which complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority.

Prime Minister Joseph Ngute has said the government would be willing to talk to the rebels, but would not consider their demand for secession – a position hardline separatists have said they will never accept. Eleven movements representing Anglophone Cameroon, including the main armed factions, last month said they were willing to enter mediated discussions with the state. But almost daily violence from both sides has intensified, forcing thousands of civilians to seek refuge in Cameroon’s French-speaking regions and neighbouring countries. “There is no desire for dialogue … The abuses are coming from both sides and the civilians are finding themselves in the middle,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior Central Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch, told reporters in Paris. “The position of the government is an almost complete denial … and there is total impunity for the violence.”

The oil, cocoa and timber-producing nation was among western Africa’s most settled until a few years ago. But the United Nations estimates that, since 2017, about 1,800 people have been killed and more than 530,000 displaced with 1.3 million in need. Authorities have promised to act over accusations of rights violations by security personnel.

Allegrozzi, who was refused entry to the country in May over her research, said it was also clear that rebels were too divided to form a platform to negotiate, an element the government was using to its advantage. She estimated the total number of separatists fighters at about 3,000 and there was evidence that they were acquiring more sophisticated weaponry.

The crisis has tended to slip beneath the international radar given President Paul Biya’s close cooperation with Western states in the fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram in West and central Africa. But the United States has become increasingly critical of the government and the separatist crisis was discussed for the first time at the U.N. Security Council last month.

Allegrozzi said the Anglophone population was increasingly in tune with idea of independence. “There is a growing feeling of support towards the separatists and secession,” she said.

Source: Reuters/nh

6, June 2019

SONARA Meltdown: No longer at ease!!! ⁰

It is almost one week since Cameroon’s lone oil refinery went up in smoke and the scale of the destruction is now obvious to everybody. SONARA will be out of business for at least three years and the government will have to come up with a huge chunk of money if it must have its largest ATM up and running again.

Rebuilding SONARA will require more than USD 20 billion and the government does not have that money in its coffers right now. SONARA has an insurance policy, but that will not kick in until cost adjusters and other agents complete their investigations.

This is indeed bad news for the cash-strapped and corrupt government that has been treating SONARA as its piggy bank, with government officials always sending helicopters to pick up raw cash from the oil refinery when a financial squeeze is staring the government in the face.

This has been the government’s modus operandi for decades. But this is gradually coming to an end, as state corporations keep on sliding into financial challenges. The Southern Cameroons crisis has robbed the Yaounde government of its vital sources of revenue.

CDC and PAMOL have gone under and it will take billions of dollars to set them back on track. Preliminary meetings with multilateral donors like the World Bank and the African Development Bank Group have not yielded much as state-owned corporations in the English-speaking regions of the country will need billions for them to get back into operation and they are really not good businesses for investors, at least for now.

It should be mentioned that a few months ago, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group had approved a loan in favor of the Yaounde government for the construction of the ring road in the Northwest region. The World Bank had also approved its own share of the money, but both institutions had to put every on hold as the military situation in the region spiralled out of control.

The government’s military violence and its scorch earth policy in the two English-speaking regions of the country are gradually coming back to bite it. Its penchant for violence has robbed the country of vital resources that could help give the Central African nation’s development efforts a shot in the arm.

Cameroon is teetering on the brink of a human rights catastrophe in a cultural and linguistic conflict that has already killed more than 3,000 people. A government campaign against the country’s English-speaking minority has devolved into an armed conflict between security forces and over 10 armed secessionist groups. This situation might only get worse if urgent actions are not taken by the international community.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started a protest by teachers and lawyers has been allowed to tailspin into chaos and this is really sucking energy and oxygen out of the country’s economy.

The government’s ability to attract investors to the country has been diminished by the senseless killings and human rights violations taking place in the country. Rebuilding SONARA will be an uphill climb, as investors have very low appetite for Cameroon’s debt.

The burden of rebuilding the country’s lone refinery has been placed on the fragile and aging shoulders of the country’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, who is currently suffering from insomnia. He thought his only challenge was the Southern Cameroons crisis, but the sticky situation born of the explosion in the country’s lone oil refinery is robbing Mr. Ngute of his sleep. It is also dumping a lot of age on him.

Ever since the fire gutted the refinery, Prime Minister Ngute, has been working the phones and holding countless meetings. Raising USD 20 billion has become a nightmare to Mr. Ngute who understands that the government he leads lacks credibility and confidence of bilateral and multilateral donors.

Very few people will actually invest in an unstable environment. The Yaounde government is very much aware of that and this explains why it has been shouting since last week that the explosion that reduced SONARA to rubble was a case of force majeure and not sabotage as claimed by separatists who have been hellbent on bringing the facility to its knees.

If the government admits that rebels are to blame for SONARA’s meltdown, then it would lose the race for resources to rebuild the bedeviled refinery that is still threatening to throw up more fire.

On Monday, huge fires were reported where the refinery’s reservoirs are located. It took firefighters and officials of the facility three hours to figure out what was happening. SONARA seems to have been jinxed and its woes will not be over anytime soon.

The initial fire that occurred last Friday had gutted the atmospheric distillation unit which is a key component of the facility. Indeed, that is where the oil refining process starts and engineers working for the refinery have indicated that it will take a very long time to rebuild the facility which has been delivering “golden eggs” to the corrupt and irresponsible Yaounde government.

Several meetings have been going on at the Presidency, but it is the panic at the Prime Minister’s Office that is attracting attention. Dion Ngute is losing sleep. The SONARA meltdown is putting his leadership qualities through their paces.

Prime Minister Ngute has to address so many issues, including the thorny Southern Cameroons crisis that has given the government a very bad name. But for now, he seems to be focused on SONARA. The government is out of cash and it needs other means to replenish its resources.

It is based on this that the Prime Minister is looking at the possibility of sending a high-level delegation to Abidjan to have discussions with the African Development Bank, the continent’s premier development finance institution that is capable of granting Cameroon an emergency loan of about USD 1 billion through its soft arm window.

The continent’s surest conduit for the channeling of investment finance has the experience of granting Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Under Stress (HIPCUS) like Cameroon low interest loans with little or no conditionalities. That is why the Yaounde government is seeing the African Development Bank (AfDB) as the institution that will grant it a bailout.

The African Development Group will next week hold its Annual Meetings in Malabo where it will be seeking a capital increase and an African Development Fund replenishment. If this is achieved, Cameroon will surely be one of the first countries to benefit from the replenishment.

That is why Prime Minister Ngute will also dispatch a huge delegation headed by the country’s Minister of Plan and Regional Development who doubles as the African Development Bank Group’s Governor to Malabo to have talks with AfDB officials. The minister will be meeting with the AfDB President who is open to lending Cameroon a helping hand.

There are also plans to send another delegation to Washington D.C. to have discussions with World Bank authorities. The discussions will focus on loans and grants that will enable the beleaguered government to rebuild the collapsed refinery.

But the discussions in Washington will be very tough as America might influence the World Bank’s decision. World Bank loans and grants to Cameroon might come with conditionaities that might border on the cessation of hostilities in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Currently, the government has been discussing with the French government through unofficial channels. The French are willing to provide some financial infusion as they have been the primary beneficiaries of Cameroon’s oil. They are however concerned about the hostilities in the country and the current political climate is worrisome to them.

The jailing of Cameroon’s leading opposition leader, Professor Maurice Kamto, the presumed winner of last year’s presidential election, has attracted condemnation from rights groups across the world.

France is concerned about its own image and it is gradually distancing itself from the Biya regime that has become a lightning for controversy, especially as the majority of EU countries are insisting that the Yaounde government must hold an inclusive dialogue with Southern Cameroons. They are also calling for the release of Professor Kamto who is considered by the EU as a prisoner of conscience.

The government of Cameroon is no longer at ease. It has a lot on its plate and with its resources dwindling, it is clear that it might soon be down on its luck. This is more disturbing as its former allies are all jumping ship. EU countries have become very vocal about the government’s authoritarian nature.

America and Canada are breathing down the government’s neck and this is rattling the fragile government which needs more friends at this time. The end seems to be near and the rantings from Yaounde are no longer cutting ice with anybody.

The Yaounde government still has a choice. It must stop conducting itself as a rogue state. It should embrace the idea of an inclusive dialogue, release all political prisoners, including all Southern Cameroonians arrested within the framework of the armed conflict that has left thousands of Cameroonians dead, and grant general amnesty to all Cameroonians living abroad as a means of reducing the pressured that is gradually destroying it.

If it continues to conduct itself as it has done over the last three years, it must be ready to face the worst and even donors and investors will not come to its aide when the chips go down. The ball is in its court!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai at the Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom and Kingsley Betek in Malabo for the African Development Bank Group’s Annual Meetings.

6, June 2019

AFCON: Delegation to persuade Liverpool’s Joel Matip for a return ⁰

Liverpool defender Joel Matip could be set for a return to the Cameroon side if the expected meeting with representatives of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) goes according to plan.

The Uefa Champions League winning defender’s problems with Cameroon stem from a breakdown in communication with the previous coaching staff.

Matip missed the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) owing to his self-imposed exile, but the Indomitable Lions – managed by Hugo Broos at that time – won the tournament in Gabon.

Earlier this year, Clarence Seedorf told Goal that Matip and Nicolas Nkoulou – wouldn’t be begged to return to the side, although the door remained open if they had a change of heart.

However, according to a report by Football365, the team of representatives of Fecafoot will meet with the former Schalke defender momentarily and will bring up his absence from the national team.

Matip represented Cameroon at the Fifa World Cup in 2010 and 2014 but has never featured for the Central African nation in the greatest showpiece on the African continent having also rejected a call-up in 2010.

Matip was omitted from their provisional squad for the upcoming competition in Egypt.

The five-time African champions qualified for this year’s competition with a 3-0 defeat of Comoros in March and will aim to defend their title at the biennial tournament.

Seedorf’s charges begin their title defence in Group F against Guinea-Bissau at Ismailia Stadium on June 25, before facing off with four-time champions Ghana on June 29, with their final group encounter against Benin on July 2.Start the conversation

Goal.Com

6, June 2019

Rights monitors sound alarm over ‘neglected’ Southern Cameroons crisis ⁰

Rights groups have sounded a warning over the escalating crisis in western Cameroon, where separatists and government forces are locked in deadly combat.

“The international community is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the crisis in Cameroon,” the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland, said in a report issued on Tuesday.

“Brutal killings, burned-down villages and massive displacement have been met with deafening silence.”

Two regions in Cameroon are in the grip of an armed campaign by English-speaking militants seeking independence from the francophone-majority country.

On October 1 2017, they declared the creation of the “Republic of Ambazonia,” covering the two English-speaking regions incorporated into post-independence Cameroon in 1961.

The declaration went largely unnoticed outside Cameroon, and “Ambazonia” — named after a bay at the mouth of the Douala River — has been recognised by no-one.

The government responded with a brutal crackdown, and the separatists in turn have mounted a campaign of attacks on state buildings, shooting and kidnappings.

According to the International Crisis Group think tank, 1,850 people have been killed, while more than 530,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to UN figures.

The NRC said the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Regions topped its annual list of the world’s “most neglected displacement crises”.

There has been no major mediation effort, no large relief programme, minimal media interest and insufficient pressure to stop attacks on civilians, it said.

Second and third on the NRC list were long-running conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

Separately, a report by a Cameroon-based rights group in Africa, the CHRDA, and the Canada-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, accused the armed forces of conducting “a deliberate, violent campaign against civilian populations”.

It acknowledged that local armed groups also bore “much responsibility” for the violence.

“It is sometimes argued that the current crisis is just one more conflict in a series of reciprocal attacks and reprisals between government and secessionist forces,” the report, published on Monday, said.

“However, minimizing the seriousness of the attacks on civilians as part of the ‘normal’ conflict serves to shield serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity and may even enable their continuation.

“Minimizing the conflict also ignores evidence that the violence is spreading, engulfing Francophone regions of the country, becoming a threat to the entire sub-region.”

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

Resentment has long festered at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority in education, law and the economy.

In recent years, growing demands for autonomy or a return to Cameroon’s federal structure were rejected by President Paul Biya, prompting radicals to gain the ascendancy in the anglophone movement.

AFP

6, June 2019

French and Southern Cameroons Crisis: Full-blown war can still be averted ⁰

As Cameroon tops a list of the most neglected crises, the world must help those in need and demand an end to attacks on civilians

Mary hands me two tattered photos. In the first, family members stand proudly outside their modest home in Buea, South-West Cameroon. In the second, an empty plot remains, their wooden hut burned to the ground.

Mary and the 14 family members who lived in the house fled to the bush last December. They are still waiting for help to rebuild their home and their lives.

Conflict has uprooted half a million people in South-West and North-West Cameroon. Hundreds of villages like Mary’s have been razed. Hospitals have been attacked. Health workers fear being abducted or killed. Over 780,000 children are out of school, and their teachers are attacked and abused if they try to restart classes.

When brutal fighting displaces hundreds of thousands of civilians, it usually sets international alarm bells ringing. But Cameroon’s fast-deteriorating crisis has resulted in no mediation efforts, no large relief programme, little media interest and too little pressure on the parties to stop attacking civilians.

The silence is chilling.

This is why Cameroon tops this year’s global list of the most neglected displacement crises, according to NRC’s annual tracking system.

Cameroon’s crisis has roots in the country’s troubled colonial history. After World War One, the former German colony was split between a French and British mandate. When the French part became independent in 1960, people in the English speaking regions had to merge with either Nigeria- or French-speaking Cameroon. What was then known as Southern Cameroons ended up with the latter, creating a country with French and English as official languages. However, communities in the English-speaking part of the country have felt increasingly marginalized since.

In 2016, people took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations. A heavy crackdown by security forces ensued, leading to widespread violence and the formation of armed opposition groups.

A year later, non-state armed groups in the region officially declared a symbolic independence from Cameroon, followed by clashes between the national army and secessionist groups. Both sides have been accused of horrific human rights violations. The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, described the situation as spiraling completely out of control, after visiting in May.

Unbiased information is scarce. Social media is swamped by photos of apparent atrocities. But independent journalists are absent or restricted, and the crisis rarely makes international headlines.

The lack of public attention to the crisis is followed closely by a lack of financial support. Despite being one of the smallest UN’s aid appeals, Cameroon is among the least funded. The consequences of this can been seen immediately.

When I visited Cameroon in April, only a splattering of poorly-resourced international relief organisations were visible on the ground. Too few reach beyond the provincial capitals, so many families receive no assistance, even though it is possible to negotiate access with the parties on the ground. Communities ration and share the little assistance they receive, often travelling long distances themselves to deliver aid to those still hiding in the bush.

The women I spoke with in Buea said they feel abandoned by the international community. They asked me, ‘where is the international solidarity? Where is Europe?’

Europe is dragging its heels. Cameroon’s colonial history should be an argument for positive engagement today, and not disengagement. Furthermore, Cameroon is seen as an important ally for many countries in the fight against Boko Haram in the country’s north. The attention to problems there is no excuse for political inaction.

Countries with influence in the region must demand conflict parties stop attacks on civilians and allow schools to reopen.

When I addressed an informal session of the United Nations Security Council in May, my message on Cameroon was clear. More aid is needed, but it is only a temporary solution. Coherent conflict resolution efforts towards a political solution are the only thing that will end the violence and the suffering. Regional and international bodies, like the African Union, the European Union and the UN Security Council can and should play a more important role.

There is still time to avert a full-blown war.

Source: Reuters