Monthly Archives: August 2021

Biya regime deploys troops after inter-communal violence kills 12, injures 48

13, August 2021

Biya regime deploys troops after inter-communal violence kills 12, injures 48 0

Troops have been deployed to Cameroon’s Far North region after the killing of 12 people on Tuesday in inter-communal violence, the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari said on Thursday.

At least 48 people were also seriously injured and more than 100 houses torched when dispute over water source and land between members of the fishing community of Mousgoum and Arabchoas who are cattle breeders in the town of Kousseri erupted on Tuesday.

“The situation is calm and stable but the tension is still very high. (Military) reinforcement has been mobilised and they (soldiers) are moving there progressively,” Bakari said on phone. “We have been instructed to do everything possible to restore peace.”

State officials, security and local community leaders have agreed to form an investigation committee and visit the communities to defuse tension and reach reconciliation, according to Bakari.

The area which is located in the Logone and Chari division of the region has witnessed several bloody clashes between tribes in the last five years, but Tuesday’s violence was the deadliest, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

French Cameroun: 9 killed in intercommunal conflict in Far North

12, August 2021

French Cameroun: 9 killed in intercommunal conflict in Far North 0

At least nine people were killed and several others injured in fighting between rival ethnic communities in Cameroon’s Far North region, local media and officials said on Wednesday.

Jean Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, prefect of Logone and Chari division told local media the feud flared Tuesday night following a land dispute between villagers of Mousgoum and Arabchoas in the small town of Kousseri.

Six Arabchoas villagers and three Mousgoum villagers were killed in the conflict, according to officials.

Calm has returned to the villages following “rapid intervention” by government forces, local journalist Dairou Mohammed told Xinhua on phone.

Land disputes are common in Cameroon’s Far North region.

Source: Xinhuanet

Douala: CEO of ActivSpaces Rebecca Enonchong arrested

12, August 2021

Douala: CEO of ActivSpaces Rebecca Enonchong arrested 0

Businesswoman Rebecca Enonchong was arrested yesterday in Douala following an order from a French Cameroun judge at the Court of First Instance in Bonanjo.

The Littoral judiciary is yet to issue a statement detailing the reasons for her arrest. However, people in the know have hinted Cameroon Concord News Douala city reporter that the arrest is part of an ongoing affair in the Enonchong family.

The Enonchong family has also not yet expressed themselves on the subject.

Founder of AppsTech, a company specialize in business management software in more than 40 countries around the world and president of ActivSpaces, one of the main start-up incubators in Cameroon, Rebecca Enonchong is one of the prides of Cameroon internationally.

In 2020, the 53-year-old was named one of the 50 most influential women in Africa by Jeune Afrique magazine.

She is also known for her commitment to the fight against inequality and bad governance. She does not fail, when the opportunity arises, to criticize the management of affairs by the Cameroonian government. Her political opinions have not earned her friends within the Biya governing apparatus.

By Fon Lawrence with files

French football hails Messi’s PSG move, but will the beleaguered Ligue 1 benefit?

12, August 2021

French football hails Messi’s PSG move, but will the beleaguered Ligue 1 benefit? 0

Paris Saint-Germain’s surprise signing of Lionel Messi has been hailed as a shot in the arm for France’s cash-strapped football league, but experts warn that the Argentine superstar’s arrival is not all good news for an increasingly unbalanced Ligue 1.

Call it the revenge of the “farmers’ league”.

As the least prestigious of Europe’s major football leagues, France’s Ligue 1 is well-accustomed to the derogatory moniker, the “farmers’ league”. But now that the world’s most famous footballer has joined the farm, it’s time for a little payback. 

On Tuesday night, hours after Lionel Messi signed a two-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain, the league’s Twitter account posted an image of a goat leaning on a farm’s fence with the shirts of Ligue 1’s top players hanging on either side. The caption read, “The farmers have a new goat” – a reference to Messi’s unofficial standing as football’s “GOAT” (Greatest of all time).

Capping a decade of sensational signings by Qatar-owned PSG, the Argentine’s surprise move to Paris has been met with a mix of shock and delight in France, where few pundits had openly entertained the idea that Messi would one day play Ligue 1 football. In terms of prestige, it dwarves even the club’s record €220 million purchase of Neymar in 2017.

In unusual comments praising a club’s transfer dealings, Ligue 1 chief Vincent Labrune – a former president of PSG’s arch-rivals Marseille – celebrated Messi’s signing as a big win for French football in a statement on Wednesday.

“Messi’s arrival will bolster the attractiveness and visibility of our championship across continents,” Labrune said, thanking the club’s owners for creating what he called one of sport’s biggest global franchises.PSG fans hail ‘start of a new legacy for Paris’

Instead of lamenting the widening gulf between the free-spending Parisians and the rest of the pack, PSG’s domestic rivals have also hailed the arrival of Argentina’s six-time Ballon d’Or winner.

“Can you imagine Messi coming to town?” asked Saint-Etienne coach Claude Puel, celebrating a “huge boost” for the French league.

His Brest counterpart Michel Der Zakarian struggled to contain his enthusiasm, telling reporters: “We say that we have a shit league, but if we manage to bring in a player like that, it would be exceptional. I’m not going to be polite here – but he gives me a hard-on.”

Is he the Messiah?

In normal times, PSG’s rivals may well have frowned at the Parisians’ latest move to catch another star. But these are no ordinary times for clubs whose revenues have been hollowed out by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many teetering on the edge of a cliff. Indeed, it’s no surprise French football sees a saviour in the Argentinian superstar, whose name is pronounced the same way as the French word for Messiah (“Messie”). 

According to economist Christophe Lepetit, a member of French football’s DNCG auditing body, Paris Saint-Germain’s lavish spending has helped raise Ligue 1’s profile by luring the world’s top players to France. 

“In recent years, the club’s high-profile signings have countered the notion that the Ligue 1 is a ‘farmers’ league’, and Messi’s arrival will further debunk the myth,” he says. 

PSG’s star transfers – which in recent years has included the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, David Beckham and Kylian Mbappé – have also helped to qualify another criticism levelled at Ligue 1: that it is merely a “feeder league”, nurturing young talent that is then sold off to the highest bidder. Instead, Lepetit says, “PSG prove that French football can also attract and hold on to the biggest stars in the game.”

The challenge for Ligue 1 officials is now to ensure the league’s heightened star power translates into an increased global audience – and thus greater revenue. 

“Talent scouts are already very familiar with the French league, but many in the wider public may discover it now, thanks to Messi,” says Lepetit. “And by watching PSG’s league games, they may discover new players and clubs they want to follow.” 

Boosting Ligue 1’s global audience is crucial to French hopes of improving the rotten deal they get from television broadcasters when compared with Europe’s “big four” leagues: England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and Germany’s Bundesliga. 

Three years ago, Neymar’s signing helped push the value of Ligue 1’s international broadcasting rights from €25 million up to €80 million. But that is still only a fraction of what the Premier League and La Liga earn, and less than half the money fetched by the Italian and German leagues. 

With legions of fans scattered across the globe, Messi should be an even greater pull than Neymar. Unfortunately for the French league, however, news of his arrival comes just days after it signed off on a new three-year broadcast deal following months of bitter wrangling – meaning the Argentine will be aged 37 by the time that deal expires.

A dead rubber?

Until a more lucrative deal is signed with the broadcasters, and the dividends are spread out across the board, there is little evidence to suggest that other French clubs will benefit from PSG’s most prestigious signing yet.

Amid the euphoria prompted by Messi’s arrival, some have likened his move away from his boyhood club Barcelona to that of another illustrious Argentine, the late Diego Maradona, more than three decades ago. But Maradona’s bold 1984 switch to Italy was precisely what Messi’s transfer is not: a transformative move that singlehandedly put southern minnows Napoli – then the butt of rival Italian fans’ racist jokes – on the football map, breaking the richer northern clubs’ stranglehold on Serie A. 

Instead, analysts warn that Messi’s move to PSG will only widen the chasm between the phenomenally wealthy Qatar-owned club and its domestic rivals – a divide that arguably does more harm to the French league’s global standing than the actual quality of the football produced.

“What we’re seeing is the further strengthening of the one club that already outstrips all others, at least in terms of the stars at its disposal,” says sports economist Jean-Pascal Gayant at the University of Le Mans.

“If Messi had signed for another French club, rather than the one that already dominates all others, then yes, that would certainly have heightened interest in the French league,” he says. “But it’s the opposite that’s happening.”’Messi makes football magic,’ says PSG president

According to Gayant, PSG’s signing of an umpteenth superstar is both good and bad news for French football, adding to the pool of talent on display but also increasing the competitive imbalance between clubs. 

“Two factors determine a sport’s attractiveness: the amount of talent on display and the level of competitiveness, without which there is no suspense,” he explains. “In this case, an increase in the first factor will almost certainly be offset by a further decline in the second.”

More worryingly for Ligue 1 officials, and indeed their European peers, Messi’s move threatens to widen the disconnect between Europe’s heavyweight clubs, like PSG, and smaller outfits. In this respect, Gayant argues, it increases the likelihood of a future split between a continental “Superleague” and second-tier domestic leagues.

Culled from France 24

Biya: The aggressive virus that wrecks everything in its path!

12, August 2021

Biya: The aggressive virus that wrecks everything in its path! 0

Nobody ever imagined that the man the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, handed power to will one day be the most hated person in his own country. This is exactly what is happening in Cameroon as Paul Biya keeps fighting for his dear life in a Geneva Clinic where multiple ailments, including a heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease are robbing him and his family of their happiness. 

Paul Biya, the man who succeeded Amadou Ahidjo, is now being viewed by his own compatriots as a virus introduced into the system to destroy the entire country and even on his dying bed, Cameroonians think his demise will be good riddance. They hold him responsible for all the issues that are currently assailing the country.

The country’s economy is on its knees due to bad policies and professionally engineered pervasive corruption that will take decades to clean up. Cameroon, a country once known for its strong economy, is today known for its humiliating corruption that is gradually suffocating the economy. While the people loathe the corruption, the country’s president and his corruption love the mess they have created for their country. The people have been pauperized by a Machiavellian government whose objective is to perpetuate its stay in power and this makes it easy for it to lead the people by their noses. 

The level of unemployment is mind-blowing. University graduates have simply thrown in the towel. They have been reduced to sorry spectators of events in their own country. They are tired hitting the pavement to look for jobs and many are waving the white flag. Even the low paying civil service jobs have lost their attractiveness as many Cameroonians look outwards for salvation. The Biya government, which was seen in 1982 when Mr. Biya came to power as a “salvation army”, has turned out to be a nightmare that will not be going away anytime soon. 

Biya, many Cameroonians say, is like a computer virus that even affects the mind. Though he inflicts pain on many Cameroonians, many still think that at 89, he is the only person who can rule the country, though he has been in power for close to 40 years and has nothing to show for his long stay in power. Many analysts think many Cameroonians have been overwhelmed by the Stockholm syndrome which is an emotional response, and it happens to some abuse and hostage victims when they have positive feelings towards an abuser or captor.

Some of these analysts attribute these helplessness and admiration for a man who has robbed an entire nation of its dignity and promise to the alcohol that flows like a stream throughout the country. But not everybody has lost his minds. Some Cameroonians are clearly out of patience and they want Biya out. They accuse him of all the crimes and sins in this world even when he has nothing to do with personal issues.

The level of frustration has pushed some Cameroonians to even blame their erectile dysfunction on Biya. Some hold him responsible for their premature ejaculation that is tearing their families apart. He is now to blame for even unwanted pregnancies as well as the proliferation of churches in the country.

But such personal issues are not the ones that will tear the country apart. The Southern Cameroons crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions is what may destroy the country beyond recognition. Southern Cameroonian fighters have stood their ground for more than four years despite the military’s superior weaponry and they are more determined than before. Their military victories have given them more confidence and their use of explosives and other remote-controlled devices is striking fear in the military. 

Over the last two months, there has been a swift and inexplicable reversal of fortunes that has put the military in a very tight spot. The Southern Cameroons Defense Forces (SCDF) have proven that they are a force to deal with and they understand the terrain more than the soldiers. The fighters who started off with hunting rifles have struck fear in the minds of many soldiers, with many deserting the military for fear of being killed in a war they hold could have been avoided through peaceful negotiations with the country’s English-speaking minority. 

While the tentative death toll stands at some ten thousand dead, sources in the country’s Defense Ministry have hinted that more than three thousand soldiers have been killed and more than four thousand maimed, while up to a thousand have simply melted out of the country. Southern Cameroons is now a nightmare and a graveyard to many of the hastily recruited soldiers from the Center and South regions who have been misled to think that power belongs to them and that Southern Cameroonians are seeking to rob them of what is rightfully theirs.  

The Southern Cameroons crisis has also given the country’s economy some deadly blows to the liver, exacerbating the already bad economic situation. Most state-owned corporations in the two English-speaking regions of the country have been seriously affected by the fighting and they are only operating at half capacity. Many of the workers have been laid off and the country has no employment insurance program or alternative retraining programs that can enabled those laid off to find new jobs. The pain is excruciating and the level of criminality in the two regions is just breath-taking.

While the country’s English-speaking minority is creating nightmares for the government in the Southern part of the country, in the North, Boko Haram, the notorious religious sect that started its activities in Nigeria, is spreading death and destruct. Even with support from Western countries, the Yaounde government has not been able to flush Boko Haram fighters from its northern territory. On the country, Boko Haram fighters are gaining new territory every day. Ordinary citizens do not trust the government, as its soldiers are wont to killing children and women with impunity and this is hurting the government’s effort. Civilians prefer to collaborate with Boko Haram fighters instead of with soldiers who always unleash their frustration on the innocent civilian population.

Cameroon is on the brink of a massive implosion. If the armed conflict and terrorist attacks do not bring down the delipidated edifice called Cameroon, the inter-tribal wars that have been in the wings for decades will surely cause the country to go up in pieces. The tribe-based government that has led the country for almost four decades has hurt other Cameroonians and the pent-up anger and frustration may spill over once Mr. Biya exits.

Northerners want to recapture power after more than four decades which have seen many northerners treated like second-class citizens. Northerners have a bone to pick with this regime and they know the Betis will be their target once power falls into their hands. Thousands of northerners were killed in 1984 following a failed coup and they have yet to forget that those summary killings were designed to push the North from the corridors of power for good. 

Biya, the dangerous virus, has succeeded to divide Cameroonians. He thought he could only rule for long if he divided a people who had total faith in their national unity. He might have succeeded for close to four decades, but he seems to be running out of luck and those who followed him blindly are now regretting. These days, most Biya supporters seem to be walking on tenterhooks. They are scared of the bad news, but it is bound to happen. The once admired president might only return to his country in an expensive coffin. The odds are against him. 

The latest information reaching the Cameroon Concord News Group says that Mr. Biya will not be able to head home next week. Twice his return has been announced and twice it has not taken place. He has now been out of the country for 30 days and in a few days’ time, a vacancy may be announced by the country’s political opposition if Mr. Biya does not cut his treatment short to demonstrate that he can still rule the country.   

This is really bad news for his political party and the crooks that are hiding within the party. Cameroonians are bitter and they want to take their pound of flesh for all these years that the regime has oppressed and suppressed them, and they will surely be targeting the flesh that is closest to the heart.

They want to hit the ruling party where it hurts the most. Most ruling party members are indebted to the state or have committed some financial malfeasance that might take them to the country’s maximum-security prisons and the public is looking forward to the day most of them will be dragged through the streets before being thrown in jail.  

Many of those crooks and praise-singers are seeking visas to leave the country before the bad news finally makes its way to Yaounde. Biya is in a pretty mess! His health has failed him badly. From every indication, he will not be making it before a vacancy is announced. The “virus” has been infected by many dangerous and powerful viruses. Nature is talking! Biya is gradually understanding that he is not indispensable. He also knows that death can also be his potion and the arrogance with which he ruled Cameroon was uncalled for.  

If the worst were to happen, many things will fall apart for some of the criminals who have been using the ruling party to rob the country blind. Many regime insiders are worried, and some have already started talking like magpies. They know Biya has messed up the country, and they know there is no justification for their joyful participation in the destruction of a country that has been considered for many years as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos and the economic engine of the Central African region.  

The days ahead are critical for Cameroon. The dying Biya is still hanging on. He has beaten many illnesses and cheated death on many occasions. Will he be able to stage a spectacular come-back this time around? Time and age are not on his side. He has ruined a once beautiful and prosperous country. However, there is some time for him to deliver his mea culpa. Cameroonians will surely forgive. They want to move on. But will they ever forget this dark chapter in their country’s history?

Biya the virus is no longer dangerous, and he might not have another opportunity to hurt Cameroonians. He has already ruined a lot. The country has hit rock bottom. There is not much he can do again. He is on his way out and Cameroonians have only one prayer point for him. May his soul rest in peace when and if that news gets made public.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun military forces have no legal mandate to operate in Southern Cameroons

11, August 2021

French Cameroun military forces have no legal mandate to operate in Southern Cameroons 0

The Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs says French Cameroun army soldiers deployed to the Ambazonian homeland have no legal mandate to stay in the country under the allegations of fighting separatists.

“Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups are very much aware of the fact that French Cameroun armed forces have no legal mandate to operate in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The fact that Yaoundé is still discussing British Southern Cameroons issues is just ridiculous” the Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement recently.

Earlier, Prof Carlson Anyangwe, a prominent figure within the Foreign Affairs Department told Cameroon Concord News that the presence of French Cameroun soldiers in Southern Cameroons violates international law. Prof Anyangwe added that the French Cameroun deployment is meant to plunder Southern Cameroons resources.

The 88-year-old French Cameroun dictator President Biya admitted on more than one occasion that French Cameroun have been implementing the policy of assimilation in Southern Cameroons.

The War in Ambazonia has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

La Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by La Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

Why the people of Ambazonia are fighting

Self-determination under international law

The people of Ambazonia are fighting to vindicate their unquestionable and inalienable right of self-determination. They will continue to fight until self-determination is achieved. The right of self-determination is a norm of jus cogens. It is fortified by the internationally-secured territorial framework of the territory of Ambazonia, a framework standing firmly on two territorial treaty-based pillars.

Legitimate rejection of colonialism in any form, shape or manifestation: The fight of the people of Ambazonia also represents a strong and unyielding rejection of colonialism in any form, shape or manifestation. The rejection is consistent with international law which gives colonized people struggling for their liberation the right to the assistance of third parties.

Territory secured by boundary treaties

The territory of Ambazonia is safeguarded by international treaties. Ambazonia’s international boundary to the north and to the west down to the Bakassi Peninsula is well defined by, and is now demarcated on the basis of, the Anglo-German treaty of 1913 specifying the boundary between the British territory of Nigeria and the German territory of Kamerun. Ambazonia’s international boundary to the east is defined and demarcated on the basis of the Anglo-French treaty of 1916. The boundary alignment was endorsed in 1919 at the Treaties of Versailles, confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922, and reconfirmed by the Anglo-French treaty of 1931 respecting the boundary between the British Cameroons and French Cameroun. The territorial integrity of Ambazonia is thus firmly secured under international law.

Title to territory and the principle of utipossidetisjuris

 Sovereign title to the territory of Ambazonia belongs to the people of Ambazonia, and not to any other people. The people of Ambazonia are entitled to the integrity of their territory. And this means Republique du Cameroun, which achieved its independence from France on 1 January 1960, must respect the integrity of its own territory, respect the AU core principle of intangibility of African borders as obtained on the day of achievement of independence, and abandons its pursuit of the internationally wrongful conduct of territorial expansionism.

By Chi Prudence Asong with additional reporting from Camcordnews political desk

Sudan to hand former leader Omar al-Bashir, other officials to ICC

11, August 2021

Sudan to hand former leader Omar al-Bashir, other officials to ICC 0

Sudan will hand over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) several of its former leaders, including deposed autocrat Omar al-Bashir, wanted for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the conflict in Darfur, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“The Council of Ministers has decided to hand over the wanted persons to the International Criminal Court,” Mariam al-Mahdi, Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to the official Suna agency, the decision was arrived at after a consultative meeting between the office of the foreign ministry and the new chief prosecutor of the Hague-based court, Karim Khan, who was visiting Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

Al-Bashir’s government responded with a campaign of aerial bombings and raids by militias known as janjaweed, who stands accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

The court charged al-Bashir with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks in Darfur. Sudanese prosecutors last year started their own investigation into the Darfur conflict.

Also indicted by the court are two other senior figures from al-Bashir’s rule: Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed Haroun, a senior security chief at the time and later the leader of al-Bashir’s ruling party. Both Hussein and Haroun have been under arrest in Khartoum since the Sudanese military, under pressure from protesters, ousted al-Bashir in April 2019.

The court also indicted rebel leader Abdulla Banda, whose whereabouts are unknown, and janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, who was charged in May with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Source: Africa News

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Swiss leaders call for Biya to step down

11, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Swiss leaders call for Biya to step down 0

Prominent political figures in the Swiss Federation have in a secret memo called for the 88-year-old President Paul Biya to step down over his failed Southern Cameroons policy, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a reliable source in Geneva.

Biya arrived Geneva in a very bad shape and news filtered recently that it will be a miracle if the ailing president emerges from his multiple and complicated health challenges.

Our source hinted that under directives from French President Emmanuel Macron, a Swiss delegation reportedly told Biya that the time has come for him to step aside.

Our senior political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai says the happenings in Geneva marks a significant increase in pressure on President Biya for sending his Francophone army soldiers against Southern Cameroons protesters four years ago.

Meanwhile, some legal minds deep within the International Criminal Court have said that the use of violence in Southern Cameroons may amount to crimes against humanity and are pushing the UN Human Rights Council to refer the Southern Cameroons crisis to the International Criminal Court.

Human Rights Watch believes about 4,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and thousands arrested since the crisis started as Cameroon government security forces try to quell the Anglophone uprising.

President Biya has promised political reforms but has continued with his military campaign and blaming the unrest on separatists groups.

The future of the two Cameroons must be determined through frank and genuine dialogue but President Biya is standing in the way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering Southern Cameroonians.

By Isong Asu

Yaoundé Says Hundreds of Boko Haram Militants from Nigeria and Chad Surrender

11, August 2021

Yaoundé Says Hundreds of Boko Haram Militants from Nigeria and Chad Surrender 0

Cameroonian officials say at least 82 former Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria and Chad, along with their families, have surrendered to authorities in the past week. Authorities say they’re the latest among hundreds of the militant Islamists who have been defecting since May, when the group’s leader was killed. Cameroon plans to deport the former fighters as the influx has overwhelmed rehabilitation centers along the border.

Cameroon’s government on August 10 said its National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration center in Meri, a northern town on the border with Nigeria, has 967 former jihadist militants. A week ago, there were about 700 former Boko Haram fighters and their families in the center.

Among the over 260 who arrived within the past one week are 82 former Boko Haram male fighters. The others are women and children.

Francis Fai Yengo is the director of DDR centers created by the government of Cameroon for former fighters. He says over 200 of ex-militants are Nigerians. He spoke on Monday after President Paul Biya sent him to meet the former militants and to evaluate their needs.

“We came to see the fighters, those young women and men predominantly made of Nigerians flooding out from the Boko Haram camps into our country,” he said. “The numbers are increasing daily. We welcome them, but after we have done the necessary verifications, we will send them back rapidly to their country because of the good relationship that our country [Cameroon] has with our neighboring country to the west [Nigeria].”

Yengo said several of the former militants are Chadians. He said Biya has provided space and funds for a bigger DDR center to be constructed in Meme, another northern town not far from Nigeria. Yengo said the center at Meri was too small to contain the increasing number of fleeing Boko Haram militants.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin that is fighting the jihadist group said the former militants handed themselves to troops around the Sambisa Forest on the Cameroon Nigeria border, an area considered as Boko Haram’s stronghold. The task force is made up of troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.

Borno State and Sambisa Forest

Nigeria has not issued a statement on the militants’ defections. Cameroon says it has voluntarily handed former combatants to Nigeria several times but that the number that surrendered this week is the highest.

This month, Cameroon said since May, when Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was declared dead, the jihadist group Boko Haram and its fighters are weaker and likely to surrender.

Swaibou Issa, a researcher on Boko Haram at the University of Maroua, says  Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad should encourage fighters who are still reluctant to surrender and help to reconstruct their communities. He says rival jihadist groups are carrying out charitable acts around the Lake Chad Basin aimed at luring in Boko Haram militants and having fighters join other terrorist groups.

Issa says within the past two months, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or the ISWAP, a splinter of Boko Haram, is increasingly gaining power and influence. He says ISWAP has been highly active along the Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad border. He says while recognized international aid groups distribute food to populations in need, ISWAP also shares food to gain sympathy and recruit civilians.

Speaking through the messaging platform WhatsApp from Maroua, Issa said it is possible that many militants want to surrender but fear reprisals from jihadist fighters. 

Kalbassou Daniel is the president of Cameroon’s Far North Regional Council, or the CPDM party, created by the government to speed up local development.

 Kalbassou says it is imperative for the governments of Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad to provide jobs for the ex-jihadist militants. He says the former militants who surrender must be encouraged to have self confidence that is needed before they can reintegrate work for development and become productive contributing members of society. 

Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria’s northeast. The fighters began attacks inside Cameroon in 2014.

According to the U.N., 30,000 people have been killed and 1.8 million displaced in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad since 2009 when the fighting deteriorated into an armed conflict with Nigerian government troops. 

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Crisis causing hardship for women

11, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis causing hardship for women 0

Cameroon President Paul Biya must let “peace reign” in the country’s troubled Anglophone regions, according to a former mayor and Catholic activist.

Elizabeth Kang, a leading member of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) spoke to Crux on the sidelines of the women’s convention for peace in Yaoundé.

“I am pleading on God Almighty to do to the Head of State as he did to Saul. Saul was a murderer and when he was going down to Damascus again to carry out his killing, God changed him and renamed him Paul, and he became a great preacher and wrote many books in the Bible. If our Paul today is Saul, God will change him back to the real Paul,” she said.

Biya has been largely blamed for the five-year conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions where a separatist war has left over 4000 dead and forced more than a million people to flee their homes.

When Anglophone teachers and lawyers took to the streets in 2016 to protest the use of French in English-speaking schools and Common Law courts, Biya deployed the military, taking a hardline stance that escalated tensions, and morphed into demands for self-rule by the country’s English speakers.

Separatists have been fighting the military ever since, and violently enforced a school boycott that has left the regions’ children without an education for five years.

Kang says she believes that Biya has the power to bring the conflict to an end.

“The head of state of this country is the father of this nation. He has the authority to say ‘stop the killing, come my children, let us discuss this issue.’ For me, I hold him very responsible,” she told Crux.

“The head of state of this country has to make a statement to the effect that we are all his wives, we are all his children. … As one woman we want to cry out: Withdraw the army. The army too is dying. The mother of the soldier is wailing like me, the mother of the civilian. We are the same women wailing for our children.”

Kang is a witness to the daily horrors of war in her native Wum. Sometimes, the horrors are too close to home. Among others, her husband has had to spend time in the dreaded Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé.

“The first person I lost was my brother’s son whom I raised. Some armed people came and called him out of the house in my absence. In the morning, they had chopped off his ears. The second one was my son. They came and took him out at 5 a.m. [in front of] his wife beat him up and tore his left ear. The third one is my husband who was carried up to Kondengui. He stayed in Kondengui for nine months, and when the family head is not there, you know what that means. An entire family can go astray because the pilot of the house is not there. The other one was my neighbor’s son whose head was blown off by cartridges from unknown persons, and he died. I will not name my cousins that were slain in a whole village. Sometimes, people were carried in other villages and shot in Wum town.”

Holding back tears, Kang notes that women are paying a disproportionate price in the conflict, many of them “menstruating on leaves. The pride of a woman has been taken away. Women are delivering children in the bush, and under very bad conditions.”

The Catholic Women Association came up with various proposals to bring an end to the hostilities.

They called for continued and inclusive dialogue that addresses core issues around peace, solidarity and shared humanity in Cameroon; as well as the equal and permanent involvement of women peace mediators and negotiators in peace processes at all levels, while enforcing their protection at all times.

They also underscored the need to create additional centers for psychological support and trauma treatment, while at the same time making sure that the country’s disarmament and demobilization centers are made functional and responsive to the existing conflict.

“Peace has to reign,” Kang said simply, but added this will be contingent on Biya “calling the army to the barracks, the separatists dropping their guns, and genuine and sincere dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.”

Source: Crux

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