Monthly Archives: August 2020

Southern Cameroons War: UN Guterres Greenlighted Biya To Kill in Muyuka

19, August 2020

Southern Cameroons War: UN Guterres Greenlighted Biya To Kill in Muyuka 0

As more and more civilians have been killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, absentee president for 37 years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been silent. And the UN Security Council has been failing, too.

Things have become so corrupt in the UN that August’s President of the UN Security Council, Indonesia banned Inner City Press from asking Cameroon questions at its Program of Work press conference.

On August 10 Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric, also violating quarantine, issued a rare for the UN statement on Cameroon – but one that has emboldened Biya and his army to kill more civilians. While refusing to answer Inner City Press’ written questions about the army’s abuses, Dujarric cited the “murder of a young woman in Muyuka in the South-West…We call on armed actors to refrain from attacks against civilians.”

Following this statement, on which Dujarric allowed no follow up questions from Inner City Press, Biya’s BIR has been burning down homes and killing entirely uninvolved civilians in Muyuka, and the UN has said nothing. These truly are Guterres’ murders.

 UK’s former UN Ambassador Karen Pierce, observed that  “Cameroon is not on the UN Security Council’s agenda, but there have been several serious discussions of events there, held at the UN. The UK has chaired ARRIA meetings on Cameroon and has also sponsored a resolution at the HRC.”

 Pro-Biya UNOCA Envoy Francois Fall continues to call “separarists” in British Southern Cameroons as ‘extremists.’

Culled from Inner City Press

Mali: Can Cameroon be the next?

19, August 2020

Mali: Can Cameroon be the next? 0

The Malian coup d’état of August 18, 2020, that flushed out the country’s former president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has sent shock waves across the African continent, especially in Cameroon where the country’s authorities are also being accused of the same crimes and sins that brought about the humiliation of the Malian president.

Over the last five years, former president Keita and his collaborators had been accused of corruption, mismanagement and incompetence which had brought untold hardship to the hard working people of Mali, causing the military to intervene in order to clean up the mess.

But compared to the situation playing out in Cameroon, former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his collaborators will surely be seen as saints. Their crimes pale in comparison to those committed by the Biya regime.

In Cameroon, corruption, mismanagement and dictatorship have become the country’s hallmarks, with the country’s ruling party considering itself as the government.

Mali has been dealing with Islamic terrorists for years and president Keita’s incompetence and inability to roll back the terrorists caused the population to see him as a square peg in a round hole.

In Cameroon, the country’s president, Paul Biya, is not only a square peg in a round hole, he is a dead square peg in a huge round hole that has been swallowing up the country’s limited financial resources.

Cameroon too has been dealing with a challenging insurgency in the country’s two English-speaking regions of the country for four years and this conflict is costing the country a pretty penny.

For close to four years, the country’s English-speaking minority has taken on the government, accusing it of marginalization and discrimination.

The conflict has hurt the country’s economy with many state-owned corporations located in the two English-speaking regions of the country winding up due to constant attacks of their facilities by restoration forces.

Rather than seek to address the issues that triggered the fighting, the country’s authorities have instead opted to play the ostrich, hoping that time would help them address the issues.

Over the last four years, the country’s military which is supposed to protect the country’s population has been killing civilians and burning homes in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been killed by the military, and thousands now live in the jungle out of fear for a military that is very pro-government.

The government’s heavy-handed approach has also caused restoration forces to adopt violence as a key weapon that will enable their message to get across.

Where the government’s military violence cannot deliver the goods, it uses young girls as spies and they have succeeded on several occasions to infiltrate the ranks of the restoration forces. An approach that has led to the death of many restoration forces!

Restoration forces, for their part, have been sending a clear message to those who betray the revolution. Last week, a young lady was hacked to death in Muyuka, a town in the country’s southwest region where the insurgency has taken root. She had been accused of flirting with and spying for the military, an allegation that has been confirmed by the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Muyuka.

The said lady had been working with three other girls and a young man who had earlier been kidnapped. He was questioned and later killed by restoration forces. He was the one who betrayed the young lady and restoration forces felt she must be taught a lesson. Her three friends who have been sleeping with soldiers and betraying the people’s cause have all fled the region and are now hiding in Yaounde where they are protected by the corrupt and incompetent Biya regime.

But it is not only in the country’s two English-speaking regions that there is a problem. The country’s northern region has been facing threats from Boko Haram and this has left the government with a sticky situation.

The situation in the north is getting worse by the day, with northerners holding that they have been left out of the current political dispensation ever since the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, left power in 1982.

Ahidjo who died more than a decade ago, was buried in Dakar, Senegal, and Mr. Biya and his collaborators have refused to let Ahidjo remains to return to the country of his birth.

This has irked northerners, with many of them holding that there must be revenge. In the 80s, the Biya regime engineered many fake coups with the intention of eliminating many Ahidjo supporters. Thousands of northerners were killed and several thousand also fled the country. Today, northerners are mobilizing to challenge the regime and if their plan materializes, the Yaounde regime will be left in a pretty mess.

With such a long catalog of issues, crimes and sins, the country’s government is losing sleep, fearing that the military might intervene to rid the people of Cameroon of an incompetent dictator who has nothing to show for his 38 years in power.

Though the country’s president has, over the last 20 years, reduced the country’s military into a violent tribal militia, it is still concerned that things could spiral out of control, prompting the military to take over power.

Tuesday’s coup d’état in Mali has left many francophone African leaders wondering, but it is the Yaounde regime that is very likely to lose sleep because of the huge skeletons in its small cupboard.

But can the Cameroon military ever act like the Malian military? Will the Cameroon military ever think that its loyalty is with the people and not with a bunch of incompetent kleptocrats who have worked very hard to ruin the country?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Mali: Mutinying soldiers say they have detained President Keita, Prime Minister Cisse

18, August 2020

Mali: Mutinying soldiers say they have detained President Keita, Prime Minister Cisse 0

A leader of the mutiny said both Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse had been detained by soldiers, sparking fears that a coup was in progress as witnesses said soldiers had surrounded Keita’s private residence.

A leader of the mutiny said both Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse had been detained by soldiers.

“We can tell you that the president and the prime minister are under our control,” the leader, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

Two security sources confirmed to Reuters that Keita had been detained.

Soldiers in Mali took up arms in the garrison town of Kati on Tuesday and detained senior military officers in an apparent mutiny, raising fears of a coup after several months of anti-government demonstrations calling for the president’s resignation.

FRANCE 24 Africa specialist Nicolas Germain said a highly placed source had confirmed the detention of the president and prime minister.

Earlier in the day an officer at Mali’s ministry of internal security, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, described the chaotic scenes. “Officials are being arrested – it’s total confusion.”

In the nearby capital of Bamako, government workers fled their offices as armed men began detaining officials, including the country’s Finance Minister Abdoulaye Daffe.

President Keita, who was democratically elected, has broad support from former colonial power France and other Western allies.

About 100 of the protesters who have called for Keita’s ouster gathered midday in Bamako in a show of support for the mutinous soldiers.

The African Union said it “forcefully” condemned Keita’s arrest.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been in touch with regional leaders and has called for mediation, the Élysée presidential palace said in a statement.

The United States said it was opposed to any change of government in Mali, where French troops and UN peacekeepers have been working to stabilise the country amid an Islamic insurgency that took hold after a 2012 coup.

“The US is opposed to all unconstitutional changes of government whether in the streets or by security forces,” tweeted J. Peter Pham, the State Department’s special envoy for the Sahel region.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has been mediating Mali’s current political crisis, urged the soldiers to return immediately to their barracks in Kati, which is only 15 kilometres (less than 10 miles) from the presidential palace in the capital.

Prime Minister Boubou Cisse had earlier called for dialogue with the soldiers. “The government is calling for calm and makes itself available … to engage in fraternal dialogue in order to remove all misunderstandings,” he said in a statement. The prime minister also admitted that the soldiers may have “legitimate frustrations”.

Echoes of the 2012 coup

The unrest erupted Tuesday at the very same military barracks where the country’s 2012 coup originated. The overthrow unleashed years of chaos in Mali when the ensuing power vacuum allowed Islamic extremists to seize control of northern towns. Ultimately a French-led military operation ousted the jihadists but they merely regrouped and then expanded their reach during Keita’s presidency.

The president has faced growing criticism of how his government has handled the relentless Islamic insurgency engulfing the country once praised as a model of democracy in the region. The military faced a wave of particularly deadly attacks in the north last year, prompting the government to close its most vulnerable outposts as part of a reorganisation aimed at stemming the losses.

The fact Mali’s finance minister was among those targeted Tuesday bolsters the theory the mutiny was motivated by salary disputes, said Alexandre Raymakers, senior Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

“This remains a fast-moving situation, but initial indications point to the mutiny being within the national guard, with significant elements of the army still loyal to [Keita],” he said. “The mutiny is likely driven by a range of factors closely tied to the deteriorating military situation in central and northern Mali, rather than the ongoing political crisis. ”

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

Ambazonia leader says late brother’s life was exceptional

18, August 2020

Ambazonia leader says late brother’s life was exceptional 0

Fare thee well dear brother.

Good times build confidence and tough times build character. Your life built confidence in us and your demise is building our character. Inspite of the fact that you fought this illness for fifteen years, your departure still leaves a very deep hole in our hearts.

In the fifty years that we shared together, there have been laughs, smiles, toils, sweat, pain, victories, losses and tears. We stood by each other through thick and thin, rain and shine, storm and calm, high and low, defeat and victory.

The memories are too many to recount but notable amongst them is how through the windy, rainy storm, you supplied me with sticks and stones to protect the roof of ours, the only thatched house in the Down-Customs quarter in Ekok village. Who would have imagined that we will come this far? To God be the glory!

Your departure is happening at a time when, for a cause bigger than any one of us, I as well as a multitude of our Ambazonian brothers and sisters, am in prison. Without regret or surrender but with confidence and God’s reassurance, know that I am determined and committed to this fight to it’s very end, until we reach the foot of the mountain.

My entire ATAB family have lost a dear one. We miss you so much, particularly because most of us will not be there physically to bid you our final goodbyes. My wife Lilian with our children; Ayamba, Manyo, Nkongho and AyukBakia are joined by our adopted daughters; Nalova, Manyi and Agbor to wish you a deserved rest in the celestial home of the Lord. My granddaughters; Enyang and Lilian might not have seen you but they will know you through the stories that will be told of you.

As you go, meet and greet our siblings and other family members who went ahead. Be reassured that we are marching forth to victory in the name of our Lord.

With a very heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I know that I cannot appeal this God’s case concerning you. Fare thee well kid-brother.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Civilians protest growing barbarism, increasing Violence

18, August 2020

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Civilians protest growing barbarism, increasing Violence 0

Hundreds of Cameroonians have braved a heavy military presence and separatists’ threats to protest increasing violence and barbarism in the central African state’s restive English-speaking regions. The protest in the southwestern town of Muyuka was provoked by the killing of civilians and other brutality by the military, which is searching for separatists said to be responsible for a recent wave of attacks and murder of women and aid workers.

About 300 people, most of them women and children marched silently on the streets of Cameroon’s southwestern town of Muyuka Sunday. Twenty-nine-year-old Ernestine Naayah said Cameroon’s Womens Peace Movement, which she represents in Muyuka, and four other organizations organized the protest because they are fed up with growing violence in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

“I am out here today to say no to violence, to decry the killings of innocent civilians and especially women. Our cry today is for the leaders of the nation to do something about the crisis in the North and Southwest regions. We all deserve to live in peace in this glorious land God has given us,” she said.

Naayah said the groups organized the anti-violence protest in Muyuka because it is in the southwestern town that the latest gruesome case of murder was reported.

Gruesome killings

On August 11, Comfort Tumasang a 32-year-old mother of two was gruesomely murdered in Muyuka. A video her beheading went viral on social media, provoking widespread condemnation.

Comfort’s mother, 63-year-old Mary Tumasang, said separatists accused her daughter of collaborating with the military as an informant. She said she supports the protest because she wants peace to return to Cameroon. She said she wants her daughter’s killers arrested.

She said when separatists came to her home, her frightened daughter, Comfort, did not hesitate to hand over her telephone as the fighters requested. She said 30 minutes later, she watched helplessly as Comfort was forced out of the house to a neighborhood called Sandsand. She said in Sandsand, the fighters tied Comfort to a tree but residents raised an alarm and the fighters fled, taking her daughter along.

Comfort Tumasang was later found dead in a pool of her own blood. Thirteen other cases of gruesome killing were reported in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

Emmanuel Ledou Engamba, highest administrative officer in Muyuka’s Fako Division said the military has been deployed to restore peace. He said the troops have been instructed to arrest Tumasang’s killers.

“These criminals are going to be prosecuted, and actions have been undertaken to make sure that they are tracked down. I have extended the condolence message of the head of state [Cameroon’s President Paul Bya] to the bereaved family of late Mrs. Tumasang, who was brutally assassinated by criminals [separatist fighters],” he said.

The separatists say the military organizes some of the attacks on civilians to give fighters a bad name.

The military says separatists have resorted to attacking civilians because their fighters’ ability to attack has been greatly reduced by government troops.

The Cameroonian government, rights groups and embassies also blame separatist fighters for the increasing brutality and gruesome killing of civilians and aid workers.

Civilians say the military brutalizes populations as troops search for separatists suspected to have been responsible for the killings.

The military insists that its troops have remained professional.

The United Nations reports that Cameroon’s four-year separatist crisis has killed over 3,000 and displaced at least 500,000 others.

Source: VOA

CPDM regime reporting fake bomb threats in Yaoundé to guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power

18, August 2020

CPDM regime reporting fake bomb threats in Yaoundé to guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power 0

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé announced another bomb threat at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA). French Cameroun media houses sponsored by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate reported that an improvised explosive device was discovered at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform at noon on Monday, 17 August 2020.

Security sources in Yaoundé revealed that the device was concealed in documents, but was discovered before it exploded. The buildings were evacuated.

Cameroon Intelligence Report undercover reporter visited the scene and we can now reveal that what the entire regime have been selling as bomb threats in the nation’s capital, ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd and the bomb threats are simply to keep the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in power.

Biya’s time as head of state is approaching its end and his Beti-Bulu kinsmen in the Secret Service are reporting fake bomb threats to try and delay it. Secret Service officers serving the ruling crime syndicate are disguising as BAS and Amba fighters and calling the police anonymously and reporting fake bomb threats.

Yaoundé have witnessed numerous bomb explosions and threats but no arrest has been made and no one has been jailed so far.  The Delegate General for National Security could not be reached for comment.

Making these false reports is doing more damage to the already battered economy but the regime is only interested in striking fear into the Yaoundé community.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

World Must Not Sit And Watch Atrocities In Southern Cameroons

18, August 2020

World Must Not Sit And Watch Atrocities In Southern Cameroons 0

The Events in Southern Cameroon (Ambazonians) deserve an immediate, urgent and serious intervention by the African Union Peace and Security Commission as well as the United Nations Security Council.

The Cameroonian French Troops are killing innocent civilians mercilessly. They apear to have intensified the killing methods. And one wonders what their Commander in Chief President Paul Biya is doing about. He must be brought to account for the killings according to international law.

The world cannot sit and watch the killings without intervention. For more than 4 years now, I have begged the world to intervene and create peace in Cameroon and give the English-Speaking country of Ambazonia their status that they got under Resolution 1608 of UN General Assembly.

Kenya, as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, must now take up the matter and ask for a cease-fire that restrain the forces from slaughtering innocent civilians because this has led to the displacement of hundreds or probably thousands, with women and children worst affected.

The USA must come in now and fulfill the promise of NO-FLY ZONE in that part of South Western Cameroon where the Yaoundé troops are killing, maiming, defiling, and raping young girls in front of their parents. Time is running out and Paul Biya must be brought to account.

After 42 years in power, Paul Biya and his family have looted and destroyed democracy in that country. They have looted money and everything stashing it in France. France is the beneficiary that is why it has blocked every effort to bring President Paul Biya to book.

Our humble request to President Uhuru Kenyatta and other like-minded leaders who love peace in Africa is to take up the matter as matter life and death to rescue the women and children trapped in the war zone of Cameroon.

AUC Chairperson is compromised by the foreign non-African states that have captured the AU and put blinders on it not see the suffering in the Ambazonia. The tears roll down when you see the killings that are videoed by the killers themselves in Cameroon army uniform. This is sad.

Source: Capitalfm.co.ke

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos is in the UAE

18, August 2020

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos is in the UAE 0

Former monarch Juan Carlos I of Spain has been in the United Arab Emirates since he left his country amid a growing financial scandal, the Spanish royal household said Monday, resolving a two-week mystery and reining in speculation over the ex-king’s whereabouts.

The Spanish government and Royal House officials have been tight-lipped about Juan Carlos’ location since Aug. 3, when he published a letter to his son, King Felipe VI, that said he was moving outside Spain due to the “public repercussions of certain episodes of my past private life.”

At 82, the former king is the target of official investigations in Spain and Switzerland into possible financial wrongdoing.

Conservative Spanish newspaper ABC had published a photo of Juan Carlos stepping out of a plane at an airport in Abu Dhabi. But without any official confirmation, Spanish media had placed him in places as far afield as the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Switzerland or New Zealand.

Ending the swirl of speculation, a Royal House spokesman said Monday that Juan Carlos had asked to convey that he had traveled to UAE on Aug. 3.

“That’s where he currently remains,” the official, who wasn’t authorized to be quoted in media reports, told The Associated Press.

The spokesman declined to say if the UAE, a federation of seven sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, would be Juan Carlos’ permanent residence.

UAE authorities have not responded to repeated questions regarding Juan Carlos’ stay in the country.

Juan Carlos facilitated Spain’s transition to democratic rule in the 1970’s, when the heir of the Bourbon dynasty replaced former Gen. Francisco Franco as the country’s head of state. He reigned for nearly four decades while Spain modernized and joined the European Union.

But criticism grew as his luxurious life and corruption scandals tarnishing members of the royal family offered a striking contrast with the suffering of Spaniards during the global financial crisis.

In 2014, Juan Carlos abdicated the throne that then went to Felipe, who has taken steps to shield the monarchy from the scandals.

Felipe VI has not publicly spoken about his father’s departure earlier this month. On Monday, he and Queen Letizia were scheduled to pay a visit to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. The royal couple and their two daughters are currently vacationing on a nearby island.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose monarchy-supporting Socialist Party is in a coalition government with the pro-republic, far-left Unidas Podemos (United We Can), has praised the Royal House’s decision to take distance from the former king.

Spain’s king has a mostly ceremonial role. Executive power lies with the elected parliamentary government.

Despite relocating outside of Spain, Juan Carlos has pledged via his lawyer to make himself available to prosecutors in Spain. Their investigation, which is in early stages, is looking into whether the former monarch received millions of dollars in kickbacks from Saudi Arabia during the construction of a high-speed railway there by a Spanish consortium.

A separate Swiss judicial probe is looking into millions of euros (dollars) that were allegedly given to Juan Carlos by Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah and allegedly transformed by Juan Carlos to a former companion.

Source: AP

UN treacherous condemnation of violence won’t affect Ambazonia Restoration Forces

17, August 2020

UN treacherous condemnation of violence won’t affect Ambazonia Restoration Forces 0

Southern Cameroons Secretary of the Economy, Tabenyang Brado says the treacherous condemnation of French Cameroun orchestrated violence in Southern Cameroons by the UN spokesperson; Stéphane Dujarric will not affect the Ambazonia battle for independence.

The United Nations stated its position during its daily news briefing in New York on Friday in which the world body observed that “On Cameroon, we have seen recent reports of serious human rights violations and abuses in that country.

“These include a shocking video allegedly showing the brutal murder of a young woman in Muyuka in the South-West.

“We strongly and unequivocally condemn this atrocious act of violence.

“We call on the authorities to swiftly launch an investigation into these allegations and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,’’ Dujarric said.  

The senior Southern Cameroons exiled leader made the remarks on Saturday, deploring the UN’s statement on the genocidal campaign going on in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia as worrying.

The Stéphane Dujarric’s pronouncement has already drawn condemnation from various Southern Cameroons groups as well as the Ambazonian diaspora from across the planet.

Secretary Tabenyang Brado noted that Southern Cameroonians are confident that the treacherous stance of the UN will not impact the resistance of the Ambazonia people and the Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

By Isong Asu

US voices concern about escalating attacks in Southern Cameroons

17, August 2020

US voices concern about escalating attacks in Southern Cameroons 0

The US Embassy in Cameroon raised concern about horrific attacks against civilians in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Central African country by armed separatist fighters.

“We note the disturbing rise of brutal attacks in recent weeks, including beheadings, torture, and bombings in civilian areas,” the embassy said in a statement on Friday.

“We offer our condolences to all those bereaved by these acts, and call for impartial investigations to take place and for perpetrators to be brought to justice in accordance with Cameroonian law,” it added.

Condemnations came after footage of the murder of two women by separatist groups in the Northwest and Southwest regions was shared on social media. The separatists had also kidnaped and murdered an aid worker.

It has generated outrage across the country and calls for justice and investigation.

Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary for US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, took to Twitter to express his concern about the escalating attacks by armed separatists against civilians in the above-mentioned regions.

“My condolences to all of the victims and their families, and I hope to see impartial investigations to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Nagy said.

The Cameroon government also condemned the “acts of barbarity and horror perpetrated in recent days by secessionist terrorist armed gangs, which continue to sow terror and desolation among the populations in the Northwest and Southwest regions.”

Earlier this year, the Norwegian Refugee Council named Cameroon as the world’s most neglected displacement crisis for the second year running.

Cameroon has been marred by protests since 2016, with residents in English-speaking regions saying they have been marginalized for decades by the central government and the French-speaking majority.

Violence in the Anglophone regions over the last three years has claimed an estimated 3,000 lives and caused the displacement of over 730,000 civilians, according to the Human Rights Watch.

Source: Anadolu Agency

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