Monthly Archives: November 2019

19, November 2019

French Cameroun military to bear severe consequences if Ambazonia war persists ⁰

The leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has warned Yaoundé against the continuation of its atrocious military campaign against the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, saying elements of the so-called Rapid Intervention Battalion including the French Cameroun gendarmerie will have to accept grave consequences if the war in Southern Cameroons persists.

Vice President Dabney Yerima in this week’s briefing that held yesterday in Den Hague, in the Netherlands called on the Biya Francophone regime to stop the aggression and occupation of Southern Cameroons, otherwise the risks of continuing the war are great and the results will be tragic for French Cameroun and the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Comrade Dabney Yerima revealed that the French Cameroun government is running a secret detention facility in Mbouda according to information confirmed by the Interim Government’s intelligence service operating in the Western region of French Cameroun.

Dabney Yerima added that the Amba Bonds Project will help Ambazonia Restoration Forces to continue to acquire military hardware and in the nearest future launch much harsher retaliatory attacks in case the French Cameroun assaults continue.

“Southern Cameroonians who are planning to stage elections in Ambaland and working with the French Cameroun assimilators seeking to bring the people of Ambazonia to their knees are doing a dangerous and unpatriotic job, and nothing but damage and harm awaits them,” Yerima pointed out.

“We of the Ambazonia exiled interim Government understand the level of suffering that our people are enduring as a result of the war and the activities of pro Yaoundé armed militias,” the Southern Cameroons second-in-command highlighted while calling on the Ambazonian people both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora to stay resilient in the face of oppressive French Camerounians.

Elsewhere in the Ambazonia Vice President’s Monday remarks, Dabney Yerima stressed that Southern Cameroonians should continue to invest in the bonds project and be ready for much difficult times ahead.

French Cameroun launched a devastating campaign against Southern Cameroons more than three years ago, with the goal of forcing Southern Cameroonians into a Francophone dominated union and crushing Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Ambazonia Interim Government estimates that the war has claimed more than 20,000 lives over the past three years. The war has also taken a heavy toll on the Southern Cameroons’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals and schools. The UN says over 4 million Southern Cameroonians are in dire need of humanitarian aid.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

19, November 2019

Revisiting the 2019 SOBA UK Residential Convention at The Five Lakes Resort, Colchester ⁰

Dear Guest,

Thank you!

We trust that you must have settled into your usual routine after the fantastic time at The Five Lakes Resort, Colchester on 2nd and 3rd November 2019 with SOBA UK. We want to say a massive “Thank you” for your continuous support for our association, and especially under our theme of “Working For A Brighter Future”.

This year SOBA UK provided the platform for the community to raise funds to support the victims of the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, through the endeavours of the Bishop of Kumbo and the Bishop of Mamfe once again. We are using this opportunity to thank you again for supporting this initiative and we will report back next year.

We thank the representatives from other Cameroonian alumni and community groups, and our sponsors – SellamQuick, XCape and Vic’s Kitchen for their support in the UK.

Please be on the lookout for announcements from the SOBA UK Secretariat on our future events. Our next event is “Celebrating the Saint Joseph’s Feast Day on Saturday 21st March 2020”. In the summer of 2020, we will be exploring an opportunity to bring you a special event as a first for SOBA UK. We will also share the official pictures and video of this year’s convention event in the coming days.

We continue to strive to do better every year, therefore, any feedback about your experience will help us to deliver better events in the future.

We wish you good fortunes, a happy festive season over Christmas and we look forward to seeing you again in 2020.

Kind regards,
Franklin Egbe
President, SOBA UK
On Behalf of the Events Management team

19, November 2019

French Cameroun: CPDM ship is sinking at catastrophic rapidity ⁰

French Cameroun is a sinking ship that will never submerge unless some very young and intelligent military officers decide to take some bold actions. With Southern Cameroons already gone out of the one and indivisible unitary state, French Cameroun appears now like a ship that is sinking faster than many political commentators had envisaged.

There is evidence that French Cameroun is sinking entirely. Mr. Biya was caught shuffling along in France like a stalling car clearly showing signs of senile decay. For many decades, the country has been caught up in a downward political and economic spiral.

The country’s unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high and crippling taxes have taken the wind out of the sails of many small businesses. The situation in French Cameroun has been likened to that of passengers on the Titanic, the cruise ship that sank in 1912 and corruption and mismanagement is escalating ever since Prime Minister Dion Ngute took over office as the so-called head of government.

French Camerounians have been scared of pouring into the streets to confront a government that has made corruption and nepotism its hallmarks. Investors in the world have very low appetite for country’s debt. The corruption for which the Biya CPDM regime is known is making it hard for foreign money to make its way into the country’s economy.

Many EU countries are insisting on Yaoundé calling for an inclusive dialogue with the Ambazonia Interim Government that will help normalize things in both Cameroons. But Yaoundé has been indifferent to those calls. President Donald Trump’s determination and his ability to mobilize other countries, including some of Cameroons neighbors have rattled the Biya Francophone regime and its supporters.

French Cameroun regime supporters, including the Speaker of the House and the Senate President have been shouting from rooftops that there is a global conspiracy to destabilize the country. They blame this on Southern Cameroonians.

To be sure, no political understandings will ever take place under the current leadership involving French Cameroun political parties and even the Ambazonia Interim Government. Biya and his gang have no agenda to help to calm down the streets.

Since the last counterfeit presidential election, pro Maurice Kamto supporters have held nationwide rallies, expressing discontent with what they view as the government’s failure to find solutions for the country’s economic and political woes.

The Ministry of Finance is hiding figures related to French Cameroun’s national debt with more than 85% of the French Camerounians living in poverty.

In the meantime, the United States government has ended Cameroon’s preferential trade benefits citing what the Trump administration called the country’s “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

19, November 2019

As UK Parliament Is Told of Biya Abuses No UNSC Meeting: Guterres Silent Censor ⁰

On September 29 Inner City Press was sent another tweet about Biya’s platform for national dialogue, an account featuring a photos of the grip and grin between Guterres and Biya’s foreign minister. This is the result of Guterres’ sold out diplomacy – a Potemkin Village of fake dialogue accompanied by violence and censorship. Guterres is no better than Biya. At least Biya is officially senile. What is Guterres’ excuse?

Here is a from a report just filed by Oxford Faculty of Law with the UK Parliament – as the UK as president of the UN Security Council for November has not even set up a meeting on Cameroon: “Cameroonian security forces, in particular, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), have engaged in a systematic campaign of terror against anglophone communities. The most prominent example of this is the tactic of targeted property destruction in which security forces have reportedly burned down hundreds of structures such as homes, businesses and local government buildings.

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, based in Cameroon, has published a report alleging that since the conflict began, 106 towns and villages in the anglophone regions have been targeted with arson attacks and have had their inhabitants either partially or fully flee the area… The Cameroonian authorities have consistently engaged in the violation of the rights to freedoms of speech, expression and assembly, particularly when it concerns criticism of the government and is directed against the President.

The crisis has deepened a preexisting culture of censorship, with several NGOs that represent the interests of journalists arguing that authorities have instigated a climate of fear that has led to reporters self-censoring to avoid persecution.95 Moreover, the U.S. State Department’s report on the situation in Cameroon noted that several journalists had been arrested by police for investigating human rights abuses within the anglophone areas.96 70. In relation to freedom of assembly, the Government has been noted for its heavy-handed response to peaceful protests, often deploying armed security forces that have resulted in violent clashes where protesters have been shot at by security forces, and mass arbitrary arrests are common.” And Guterres? He’s on board, and himself engaged in censorship inside the UN.

Now Guterres has again gone missing on public money for days before being set to reappear in Paris for a FrancAfrique conference featuring none other than Paul Biya, photographed on a red carpet leaving Yaounde. Golden statue III? We will await the read outs of Guterres’ censoring spokesman Stephane “French Whine” Dujarric.

Culled from Inner City Press

19, November 2019

Open letter to President Macron on human rights abuses in Cameroon ⁰

Dear President Emmanuel Macron,

We, the intellectuals, writers, and human rights lawyers undersigned, write to implore France to strengthen its commitment to the resolution of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, described by some analysts as “Rwanda in slow motion”.

Specifically, we respectfully urge France to use its considerable influence on the government of President Paul Biya to encourage Cameroon to openly join the peace talks led by Switzerland, which would make it possible to stop the murders and atrocities perpetrated in the country. North West and South West regions of the country. A durable solution must come from a mediation process that includes English-speaking armed separatist groups and non-violent civil society leaders.

It’s urgent; the dehumanizing violence in Cameroon must not reach the same scale as that which occurred in Rwanda in 1994. On the one hand, non-state armed groups and bandits use machetes to maim, torture and decapitate, on the other hand. Government forces commit crimes against humanity such as extrajudicial executions and burnt villages. Journalists, opposition politicians and other civilians are wrongly detained. More than half a million Anglophones are displaced while fleeing violence. Hundreds of thousands of children have missed school for more than three years, and according to recent United Nations reports, 1.4 million people are at risk of starvation.

France and the international community may be aware that the recent Grand National Dialogue organized by Cameroon did not adequately address the Anglophone crisis. As a result, violence has persisted in English-speaking areas since the end of the dialogue on October 4.

The Great National Dialogue and the release of political prisoners have been a step in the right direction. However, the dialogue does not address the root causes of the conflict; it excluded any discussion of other forms of governance and did not offer sufficient security guarantees to diaspora and separatist leaders. In other words, it did not put an end to the atrocities or produced an acceptable or viable political solution for the English-speaking regions. The talks led by Switzerland now seem to be the only way to reach an appropriate political solution, through an inclusive negotiating table.

Mr. President, we hope that you personally and your country, France, value your historical relations and your ties with Cameroon, and wish for the return of peace in this country. We believe that France does not want to be complicit in another genocide in Africa after Rwanda and that it take all possible measures now. Please strongly promote the Swiss talks so that villainous violence can cease immediately, that human rights are respected and that normalcy returns to English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroon.

Cameroonians and Cameroonians, brothers, sisters and friends of Cameroon in France as well as the whole world are waiting for you.

Alphonsus BM Gbanie, Executive Secretary, Human Rights Defenders Network – SL, Sierra Leone
Awada Ali Yakhoub, National President of AECPEM, Association for Koranic Education and Protection of Mouhadjirine Children, Chad
Center for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa
CLEEN Foundation, Nigeria
Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations – CEHRO, Ethiopia
Cory Williams, Co-Founder, Darfur and Beyond, USA
Kenya Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, Kenya
Dr. Al Sutton, Africa Freedom Coalition, USA
Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said, John Jay College, City University of New York, USA
Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University; Former President, Genocide Watch; Former First Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars, USA
Dr. Gerald Bareebe, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto – Scarborough, Canada
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch, USA
Dr. James Angove, Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK
Dr. Lynn Cockburn, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Manjeet Ramgotra, Lecturer in Law, SOAS, University of London, UK
Dr. Michael Minch, Peace and Justice Studies, Utah Valley University, USA
Dr. Piet Konings, Honorary Fellow, African Studies Center, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Dr. Robert K. Hitchcock, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, USA
Dr. Roxana Willis, Researcher in Law and Criminology, University of Oxford, UK
Dr. Samuel Totten, Professor Emeritus, University of Arkansas, USA
Eric Cohen, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Investors Against Genocide, USA
Esther Sprague, Director, Sudan Unlimited, USA
Francis Kpatindé, Associate Professor, Sciences Po Paris, France
Fred Muvunyi, Editor, Germany’s International Broadcaster DW; Consultant, Freedom House; Op-Ed contributor, The Washington Post, Germany
Gabriel Stauring, Stop Genocide Now, USA
George Shirinian, Executive Director, Zoryan Institute, Canada
Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director, Vanguard Africa, USA
Jonathan Osei Owusu, Executive Director, POS Foundation; Vice Chairman, Ghana Human Rights NGOs Forum; Convener, West African Human Rights Defenders Network – Ghana chapter and UN UPR, Ghana
Kim Klett, Educators’ Institute for Human Rights, USA
Kyle Matthews, Executive Director, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Canada
Lauren Fortgang, Director and Co-Founder, Never Again Coalition, USA
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Linda Melvern, Author: A Betrayed People – The role of the west in Rwanda’s genocide; Conspiracy to Murder – The Rwandan genocide, UK
Ms. Mama Koité Doumbia, President of the MUSONET / Mali Network; Africa Representative to Trust Funds for Victims of the International Criminal Court / ICC; Member of FemWise Africa / African Union; President of the Platform of Women Leaders of Mali; Member of the UN Women West and Central Africa Advisory Group; Member of the Francophone Network Equality Women Men / OIF, Mali
Martha Boshnick, Co-chair, Darfur Interfaith Network, USA
Ndifuna Mohammed, Executive Director, Justice Access Point – Uganda (JAP), Uganda
Pearl Eliadis, Human Rights Lawyer and Adjunct Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Canada
Professor Adam Jones, Political Science, University of British Columbia, Canada
Professor Amanda Hammar, Director, Center for African Studies, University of Copenhagen; President, Africa-Europe Group for International Studies (AEGIS), Denmark
Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddin, SOAS, University of London, UK
Professor David Livingstone Smith, University of New England, USA
Professor Elisabeth Weber, University of California – Santa Barbara, USA
Professor Gareth Austin, Professor of Economic History, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Ian Taylor, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, UK
Professor Alton of Liverpool, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Professor William Felstiner, Cardiff University, UK
Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, Canada
Rebecca Tinsley, Founder, Waging Peace, UK
Sam Weller, Canadians for Peace in Cameroon, Canada
Terry Nickelson, Executive Director, Our Humanity in the Balance, USA.

19, November 2019

Trump Impeachment: Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi call on president to testify ⁰

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling on Donald Trump to come forwards and testify before an ongoing inquiry into potentially impeachable conduct by the president.

“Speaker Pelosi invited President Trump to come testify, and I think her invitation is correct,” Schumer said on Sunday during a press conference in New York, The Hill reported.

Earlier in the day, CBS’s Face the Nation aired an interview with Pelosi, during which she had said, “If he (Trump) has information that is exculpatory…then we look forward to seeing it.” “Trump could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,” she had added.

The inquiry was launched after a whistleblower in the US intelligence community revealed that Trump had asked Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to help incriminate Joe Biden. The former US vice president is expected to pose a serious challenge to Trump’s 2020 re-election hopes.

Trump and allies reportedly made the smear campaign against Biden, a pre-condition for military aide to the former Soviet republic and a gift meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House. According to a rough transcript released by the White House, Trump asked Zelensky during a July call to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, to “look into” the Bidens, namely Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was hired by a Ukrainian gas company named Burisma.

Last week, the impeachment inquiry began taking hearings from key witnesses. The next batch of hearings is due later this week.

The White House has blocked almost everyone from cooperating with the inquiry, which it dismisses as a sham investigation.

Dems accuse Trump of ‘witness intimidation in real-time’

Is Trump hiding anything?

Schumer, meanwhile, blasted a delegitimization campaign, launched by the president against the inquiry, which has seen him calling the probe “a witch hunt” and tweeting and retweeting derisive comments about it. Most recently, a tweet by the president bashed “The Crazed, Do Nothing Democrats,” who are behind the investigation.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t agree with what he’s hearing, doesn’t like what he’s hearing, he shouldn’t tweet. He should come to the committee and testify under oath, and he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath,” Schumer said.

Schumer also raised the question whether the president was afraid of giving testimony. “When Donald Trump refuses to come to the committee, now that Speaker Pelosi has invited him, when he doesn’t let all the people around him come before the committee, you gotta to ask the question, what is he hiding? Why is he afraid to confront what these people have said?” he asked.

Source: Presstv

18, November 2019

Deadly clashes in eastern Mali kill Malian soldiers, jihadists ⁰

Twenty-four Malian soldiers and 17 jihadists fighters were killed Monday in clashes in the east of the country, the army said, as security in the west African nation deteriorates further.

Mali and Niger forces were carrying out a joint operation when a patrol was attacked by “terrorists” near the northeastern town of Tabankort, the army said on social media.

According to the military the total toll was “24 dead, 29 injured and material damage” while 17 of the jihadists were killed and a hundred more suspects captured.

The prisoners are in the hands of Niger soldiers, the statement said.

In an earlier statement, which gave a lower death toll, the army said French and Niger forces took part in a counterattack.

The authorities have not named the assailants or identified which group they belonged to. From strongholds in Mali, groups with al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) group links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilising parts of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Violence across the Sahel border regions

Northern Mali fell into the hands of jihadists in 2012 before the militants were forced out by a French-led military intervention.

Since then however, the border regions of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have become the theatre of repeated clashes with jihadist fighters.

Mali’s army has been struggling to contain the Islamist insurgency despite help from France, African neighbours and the UN.

Monday’s action was another heavy loss for the army, which lost a hundred soldiers in two jihadist attacks in a month in the autumn.

The West African country is still reeling from an attack on an army post that killed 54 in early November – one of the deadliest strikes against its military in recent memory, which underscored the increasing reach and sophistication of armed jihadist groups active in the wider region.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

18, November 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis and the greatest revelation from Cardinal Tumi ⁰

Three years ago, Cardinal Christian Tumi revealed how a French diplomat unknowingly hinted him in Rome Italy that France was championing the process of assimilation of British Southern Cameroonians by the French speaking majority in Cameroon.

The French diplomat thought wrongfully that the only Cameroonian Roman Catholic cardinal hailed from French Cameroun. The Cardinal was addressing a small forum summoned by the French embassy in Rome using the French language when the French diplomat added that the skillful change of name from the Federal Republic of Cameroon to Republic of Cameroon is one of the hallmarks of the process of assimilation teleguided from Paris.

Many Southern Cameroons media organizations published their first bombshell story based on Cardinal Tumi’s leaked top-secret showing that the French government was directly behind the evil perpetuated on Southern Cameroonians by French Cameroun political elites including the current genocidal campaign against the Ambazonia people.

Many pro French Cameroun and CPDM Southern Cameroons comedians such as Ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Victor Mengot, Paul Tasong and Paul Elung Che dismissed the Cardinal Tumi’s revelation as fake news. Then recently in Paris, the truth surprisingly came out from a celebrated French surrogate: His name Paul Biya.

In one of the most outrageous and dangerous statements ever from a leader sitting in a peace conference that held from the 11-13 November 2019 in Paris, French Cameroun head of state Paul Biya claimed that German Kamerun was his country that was divided into the British and French trusteeships. The 86 year old leader noted that he has tried to assimilate and dissolve the English 20% into the French 80% but failed and wants to give a special status to the English 20%, but keep them within one country. It is based on this claim to German Kamerun being his country, which the French government of President Emmanuel Macron think, that Paul Biya and French Cameroun have the duty to kill Ambazonians to force them to belong.

When asked if more revelations were in the pipeline, the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima said on Sunday that “Even the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo will be telling these truths, with shame and regrets in his grave. Many more were coming including from the double player and tribal thug Fru Ndi and his SDF party, who not long ago dissociated from and smeared Hon Wirba for telling those truths in their terrorist chamber called national assembly.”

So the greatest story in the British Southern Cameroons political story from Cardinal Tumi revealed that France had been providing French Cameroun with virtually all political, financial and military apparatus and engineering to assimilate and marginalize the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Cardinal Tumi revelation remains the most insightful, frank and thoughtful key to understanding why France has kept the AU, EU and the UN away from the killings going on in Southern Cameroons.

The uproar caused by the Tumi story led President Biya of French Cameroun to embark on his first international journey of many dangers which saw him humiliated by business tycoon Mo Ibrahim. Nobody in Paris or Yaounde has attempted to deny any knowledge of what Cardinal Tumi said after Biya’s poor outing in Paris.

By Asu Isong in London

18, November 2019

Benzema hits back at French football boss: ‘I alone will call end to international career’ ⁰

France’s ostracized striker Karim Benzema has fired back at the head of the French Football Federation, who declared this week that the Real Madrid star’s international career was over.

Though a fixture of Real Madrid’s squad for the past 10 years, Benzema has been excluded from the French national team since 2015 over his alleged involvement in an attempt to blackmail a former teammate.

Earlier this week, his coach at Real Madrid, French football legend Zinedine Zidane, called for Benzema’s four-year exile to be ended, describing him as France’s “best” striker.

But Zidane’s plea was promptly dismissed by Noël Le Graët, the head of the French Football Federation, who told French radio that Benzema’s days with Les Bleus were over.

On Saturday, the player hit back at Le Graët, writing on his Twitter account: “Noël I thought you didn’t interfere with the decisions of the France coach.

“Please understand that I and I alone will call an end to my international career.”

The 31-year-old striker, who is of Algerian origin, added that Le Graët should let him play for another country if he thinks he is done with France.

Benzema was placed under formal investigation in 2015 for his alleged part in the attempt to blackmail teammate Mathieu Valbuena. The case is still pending.

France’s coach Didier Deschamps has maintained that Benzema’s omission is in the best interests of the French squad, who won last year’s World Cup without him.

The striker has scored 9 goals in 11 La Liga appearances for Real Madrid already this season.

“He has always wanted to play for France,” Zidane said this week of his player.

“He is the best and I think he should definitely have a place in the national team,” Zidane added. “Football-wise, there is no debate.”

Source: France 24

18, November 2019

President Trump ‘frustrated, disappointed’ with Netanyahu: Reports ⁰

Anonymous sources in the White House have told an Israeli news website that US President Donald Trump has become “frustrated” and “disappointed” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel in general.

“Americans are discouraged and frustrated by Israeli politics and the current political crisis, which has prevented the White House from unveiling the political part of the deal of the century,” they were cited as saying by Ynet News, referring to the Trump administration’s so-called peace plan for the Middle East.

They added that the president, who has claimed of having a dream to end conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, has openly talked about feeling “very disappointed” with the Israeli premier.

Trump told his close assistants that Netanyahu should pay millions of dollars in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority if he thinks Washington’s decision to cut it altogether was wrong.

“The president doesn’t like losers,” said a White House source, referencing his failure to secure a clear victory in the April 9 elections.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump, said at an event at Harvard University two months ago that the prime minister “played” Trump by providing him with incorrect information.

“In dealing with Bibi, it’s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,” Tillerson said. “It bothers me that an ally that’s that close and important to us would do that to us.”

Since he took office, Trump has illegally recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the Israeli capital and acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights.

Source: Presstv