Monthly Archives: November 2021

Taraba killing spree: Cameroon gov’t soldiers put on Amba clothes then shot 11 Nigerians

19, November 2021

Taraba killing spree: Cameroon gov’t soldiers put on Amba clothes then shot 11 Nigerians 0

Heavily armed Cameroon government army soldiers put on Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards robes before heading off on their killing mission to Taraba State in Nigeria, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a well placed source at the Ministry of Defense in Yaoundé.

The Cameroon government soldiers who slaughtered 11 Nigerian civilians and four Southern Cameroons refugees in Taraba were disguised in Ambazonia self defense dress, Cameroon Intelligence Report can now reveal.

The Cameroon government troops who targeted Manga village in Shigom ward of Takum Local Government Area and killed the local chief alongside four notables had standing instructions from Yaoundé, our source said.

People in the know deep within the Nigerian military positions in Taraba also hinted this reporter that those who carried out the attack spoke in French and had the kind of weapons used by Cameroon government special forces, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR).

First, a group of Cameroon government soldiers arrived the Takum Local Government Area and signaled the 23 Battalion of the Nigerian military command post in Takum that they were inside Nigerian territory on an anti Ambazonia mission. But their real mission was to provide cover for their colleagues disguised in Ambazonia Self Defense dress.

The disguised Francophone soldiers reportedly staged the attacks and were ferried back to their base by elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion.  Eleven Nigerian and four Southern Cameroons civilians were gunned down in Manga.

Speaking to our correspondent in Nigeria, a Taraba man recalled the terrifying scene as the disguised Cameroon government soldiers moved stealthily through Manga looking for more victims during their murderous spree.

In Abuja, a senator representing Taraba South, Hon. Emmanuel Bwacha, raised the alarm that Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty was under threat following the alleged invasion of Manga community in the Takum Local Government Area of Taraba by Ambazonia separatists from Southern Cameroon. His statement was greeted with much relief by pro Biya military officers.

Immediately after the attack, the 23 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, stationed in Takum Local Government Area was on high alert as locals raged about the killings.

So far Yaoundé has refused to comment on the Taraba attack even though Abuja has blamed the attack on Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ambazonia-Taraba Attack:  IG says the Guardian Post of Nigeria is covering the evils of Macron, Biya and Buhari

19, November 2021

Ambazonia-Taraba Attack:  IG says the Guardian Post of Nigeria is covering the evils of Macron, Biya and Buhari 0

The Guardian post of Nigeria lost credibility for attempting to cover the evils of Macron,Biya and Buhari on the people of Southern Cameroons and Taraba.

The ongoing armed conflict in the territory of the Southern Cameroons has finally redefined itself. It has redefined itself from a war simply of self-defense against the predatory onslaught of France through its vassal state of French Cameroun, to a decolonization war. It is a decolonization war against France, French Cameroun and its hawkish Bulu-Beti minority tribe. That tribe dominates and controls the government, the legislature, the judiciary, and the military in French Cameroun. It believes the people of the Southern Cameroons and their territory must remain imprisoned under French Cameroun colonization, spoliation, and occupation.

Macron and Biya unleashed the war on the Southern Cameroons under the subterfuge of maintaining a so-called “one and indivisible Republique du Cameroun.” But the territory of the Southern Cameroons, separate and distinct from the territory of French Cameroun, is firmly secured by international boundary treaties and is well delimited and demarcated. It is not, and has never at any time been, part of the territory of French Cameroun.

Nigeria a friendly neighbor is being used by France to serve their interest in the Cameroons. On the 10th of November 2020, Buhari was in Paris with Macron shortly after French Cameroun soldiers illegally entered into Taraba State (Nigeria) for unknown reasons and caused havoc on the people living in that community. This shameful heinouscrime perpetuated by Paul Biya’s military Junta on part of another sovereign country was reported by the Daily post of Nigeria on the 22nd of October 2021. It is believed Paris invited Buhari to cool down the tension and influence him to come up with a whitewash story through another news tabloid in Nigeria so as to continue to manipulate the people of Taraba and the world.

Following dubious reports received, as published in the  Guardian Post of Nigeria that Ambazonian fighters invaded Taraba and caused havoc, killing 11 people, your Interim government wants to make the following remarks.

1.)           We have not taken this war to La Republique du Cameroun, there is no reason whatsoever for our Liberation fighters to take it to a friendly neighboring country. Our liberation fighters have no motive or interest to invade another friendly Anglo-Saxon country.

2.)           If such invasion took place, indeed the Daily Post of Nigeria has earlier reported the invasion of Taraba by LRC military (Nigerian activists on social media have also accused Cameroun of invading Taraba),it  is clearly a well thought out plan from France with a supporting role formBuhari’s regime, and firmly executed by the French Cameroun military so asto get the Nigerian government directly involved in the ongoing genocidal war in Ambazonia.

As of October 2021, about forty thousand civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than a million persons have fled to Nigeria and other countries as refugees, and millions have been made IDPs. More that 600 towns and villages and countless homes have been burnt down by French Cameroun troops. Hundreds of females have been raped (a good number deliberately infected with HIV and other STDs), scores of children killed in targeted killings, food and food crops and livestock destroyed to impose conditions of famine, water sources defiled and polluted to provoke a pestilence, and mass graves punctuate the landscape. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun military which systematically continues to kill women, teenagers, and even babies, the elderly, the infirm. Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Paul Biya and Buhari bears direct responsibility for these heinous crimes.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to assume its responsibility under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to deal with French Cameroun’s colonial war in the Southern Cameroons. In the circumstances, it is not inconceivable that the Southern Cameroons abandons the self-defence posture to which it has so far restrained itself, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. It may eventually go on the offensive and broaden its offensive posture by targeting economic and social infrastructure in French Cameroun that support that country’s war effort, in the same way social and economic infrastructure in the Southern Cameroons continues to be targeted by the French Cameroun army. The objective of this new offensive would be to bring it home to Macron and Biya that their fanciful claim that “l’Ambazonieestcamerounaise” (Ambazonia belongs to Cameroun) is a pipe dream and that pursuing it will be very painful for French Cameroun in 2022 in the same way as the French claim that “l’Algerieestfranaise” (Algeria belongs to France) was for France in 1962.  The people of the Southern Cameroons strongly reject any idea or suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the Southern Cameroons is an area under French influence given that the Southern Cameroons does not have and has never had any ties, colonial or otherwise, with France.  

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Yaounde: Civil servants reject COVID-19 vaccines

19, November 2021

Yaounde: Civil servants reject COVID-19 vaccines 0

Authorities in Cameroon say fewer than 300 of a targeted 300,000 state workers have agreed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks into a campaign. Some civil servants who spoke to VOA hold a mistaken belief that the virus is no longer a threat in Cameroon. But health officials say vaccinations in the Central African state must be stepped up amid concerns about another wave of infections.

Several dozen people enter and leave Cameroon’s Public Service and Administrative Reform Ministry Thursday morning. At the ministry’s courtyard is a new stand where civil servants can get COVID-19 vaccines free of charge.

Vaccination team member Roland Njalla said only 11 of the expected 400 ministry employees have volunteered to be vaccinated over the past 10 days.

“People are not well informed and edified as to what the vaccine is going to bring as an advantage, as a plus. People are afraid, they don’t know the side effects of the vaccine. I think that is the principal problem,” he said.

Cameroon officially launched a one-month campaign to vaccinate at least half of its 600,000 active and retired government workers against COVID-19 November 10. Vaccinations started five days before the official launch.

The Public Health Ministry says it has vaccinated just 300 of the 300,000 expected active and former state workers.

Public Service and Administrative Reform Minister Joseph Le said he is pleading with workers to accept the COVID-19 vaccine.

“This campaign is intended to ensure that the professional environment is not a place where the virus spreads, but a suitable environment for professional development for all of us. We will continue to emphasize that vaccination is the only way to protect ourselves from the devastating effects of this terrible pandemic,” he said.

Cameroon announced last month that the COVID-19 Delta variant was present in the country and infection rates were increasing.

The health ministry is encouraging people to be vaccinated and continue to wear face masks, wash their hands regularly and keep at least a meter from each other.

Health Minister Manaouda Malachie said people are reluctant to take the vaccine because of lack of awareness, rumors and exposure to misinformation spread mainly on social networks.

Manaouda said 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, whom many Cameroonians consider their mentor, once called vaccinations the most powerful of all preventive health measures. He says the COVID-19 vaccine saves lives and reduces the risk of getting and spreading the virus.

The Cameroon Bar Association said last month that some government officials were blocking unvaccinated civilians from public offices.

Evaristus Morfaw Nkafu, president of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Bar Association, said no law compels public service users to provide vaccination cards.

“There are some authorities who have decided that those who are not inoculated will not enter into their premises. It means they are discriminating against Cameroonians. Rather than coercing, I think the government should educate the people. They should persuade the people and even give incentives,” said Nkafu.

Nkafu said a campaign to raise awareness on COVID-19 vaccination should be offered to those who are hesitant by reaching out and providing crucial information where they live.

The government denied that it is compelling people to be vaccinated.

It is definitely encouraging the jabs.Only one-half percent of the targeted 12 million people were fully vaccinated as of October 30.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons war spills into Nigeria as Taraba State Gov Ishaku begs for more troops

19, November 2021

Southern Cameroons war spills into Nigeria as Taraba State Gov Ishaku begs for more troops 0

Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, has expressed fear over the invasion and activities of terror armed men in the state.

The governor alleged that there are some Amazonian terrorists infiltrating the state and causing mayhem.

Ishaku called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency order the deployment of troops to border communities to halt the chaotic activities of the terror armed men.

He alleged that the terrorists from Cameroon have been unleashing terror on the residents of the state.

Governor Ishaku stated this while reacting to the recent attacks by soldiers from Cameroon on Manga village in Takum Local Government council.

Noting that the call for protection of the borders has become necessary, the governor who appeared on Channels Television on Thursday said Taraba has one of the longest borders with the Republic of Cameroon.

Passionately seeking the presence of security personnel in the State to man the border, he said, “there is an absolute need that this boundary must be manned by security agencies,” stressing that, “the military, precisely must man it.”

Stressing on how heavily armed the Cameroonian separatist group are, Governor Ishaku said; “they are a separatist group,” adding that “when they kill, they run away.”

Admitting that, ”It is not an easy thing, ” he emphasized that the military should be the ones to be deployed to the border communities.

Ishaku lamented that he had previously asked the military to help secure the border but that his appeal was treated with kid gloves.

Source: Naija.com

FECAFOOT Crisis: Abdouraman slams FIFA, Infantino for ignoring CAS rulings and preventing football development

19, November 2021

FECAFOOT Crisis: Abdouraman slams FIFA, Infantino for ignoring CAS rulings and preventing football development 0

FIFA has again come under attack for its political maneuvering in Africa, this time from a leading club president in Cameroon who criticises the world governing body and its president Gianni Infantino for manipulating the federation politics, manipulating and ignoring rulings made at CAS and preventing the meaningful development of the game in Africa.

Abdouraman Hamadou Babba, president of top flight club Etoile Filante de Garoua, in a letter to national associations and the FIFA Council titled ‘Denouncing the actions of FIFA President’, said: “In Africa in particular, the FIFA President, instead of working for FIFA, works for himself and for his re-election. All efforts made by FIFA staff in Africa are aimed primarily at establishing at the head of national associations persons who have pledged allegiance to Mr. Gianni Infantino, to ensure the vote of their respective federations during FIFA elections.”

It is an incendiary criticism and one that is frequently heard behind closed doors but such is FIFA iron grip on Africa, seldom heard publicly. Abdouraman Babba is one of a number of voices in football in Africa who has frequently held FIFA to account.

He says “the behavior of the President and GS (Fatma Samoura) of FIFA, in co-action with Mr. Veron Mosengo-Omba, henceforth GS of CAF, may be seen in several African countries, notably in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Chad, Madagascaror more recently in Kenya, to name but a few.”

With African nations increasingly falling into public dispute with FIFA, the African powerbase that Infantino has built his leadership could be potentially crumbling ahead of Infantino’s potential re-election.

“This obsession of the FIFA President to want, at all costs, to guarantee his re- election by choosing by himself thepresidents of the African national associations, is the main reason for the state of underdevelopment in which Africanfootball is found,” said Abdouraman Babba.

On 15 January 2021, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) annulled the Cameroon FA electoral process that had been “fraudulently” organised by the FIFA Normalisation Committee in 2017. That happened after the cancellation of another fraudulent electoral process organised in 2015 by another Normalisation Committee appointed by FIFA in 2013.

“Curiously” says Abdouraman Babba,  CAS suggested to FIFA to allow the Executive Committee whose election had been cancelled to remain in office to organise a new electoral process.  Infantino, who at that same time was visiting Cameroon, announced on national TV that FIFA will continue in office, on an interim basis, with the Executive Committee which had just had its election      annulled by CAS.

“This position of the FIFA President, which is contrary to the provisions of Article 19 of the FIFA Statutes, was confirmed on 16 January 2021 by a letter from the FIFA Secretary General, Mrs. Fatma Samoura,” says Abdouraman Babba.

In response to FIFA’s decision he says the “legitimate members of FECAFOOT’s General Assembly convened an extraordinary session to appoint a Provisional Executive Committee to manage the current affairs and to organize a new electoral process.

“Despite this appointment and despite the clear position of the Cameroonian Minister of Sports, Mrs. Fatma Samoura and Mr. Véron Mosengo-Omba did what      had hitherto never been seen – jointly signed a letter on a header carrying the  logos of FIFA and CAF.  This letter ordered the illegal Executive Committee to hold a general assembly session, composed of illegitimate members of FECAFOOT, to adopt false statutes for FECAFOOT and to proceed to organize on this basis a false electoral process.”

Abdouraman Babba goes further, accusing the CAS Registrar’s office of being complicit with FIFA in withholding decisions made at arbitration and “influence the fate of certain arbitral rulings and even modify them in certain cases, especially when the interests of the FIFA President are at stake”.

In his letter he calls for a rewriting of the FIFA statutes around the imposition of Normalisation Committees as well as reform of CAS  which he says is “only   an instrument of domination and colonization in the hands of the FIFA President.It is urgent, in collaboration with the IOC, to put an end to the networks of influence peddling, which have captured CAS and are seriously hindering the development of football in the world.”

Source: Inside World Football

Etoudi: Most French Cameroonians have doubt about Biya’s health and mental fitness

18, November 2021

Etoudi: Most French Cameroonians have doubt about Biya’s health and mental fitness 0

Most French speaking Cameroonians are now feeling uncertain on the bill of health and mental fitness of the 88-year-old President Biya.

A recent video of the dictator presently circulating on social media showed a very weak Biya and has prompted many politically docile French speaking Cameroonians to disagree with the statement that Biya is in good health.

“Biya is no more physically and mentally fit for office” a French Cameroun political commentator said last week.

The Beti Ewondo regime’s overall approval rating is now at its greatest low with civil administrators blaming the war in Southern Cameroons on Anglophone teachers.

A majority of French Cameroun ruling clans and tribes now disapprove of Biya and his CPDM party’s performance and many are saying that Biya should go and go now.

Biya and his men are also facing harsh criticism from every segment of the society including the Roman Catholic Church.

The Francophone dictator is also under pressure for corruption in the military, the senseless war in Southern Cameroons, the disturbing security situation in the East and the reemergence of Boko Haram in the Far North including the poor handling of Covid-19 funds.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Yaoundé and Bangui hold talks on Central African rebels incursions

18, November 2021

Yaoundé and Bangui hold talks on Central African rebels incursions 0

Rebel incursions, kidnappings, ransom demands, trafficking, harassment, insecurity … these are some of the topics that were discussed between the Central African and Cameroonian authorities, a statement from the Ministry of Defense in Yaounde revealed.

The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo reportedly led a ministerial delegation to Bouar in the Central African Republic.

Cameroon Concord News understands the two countries held talks on security issues on Tuesday, 16 November 2021.

Both sub saharan countries share a long border of about 1,000 km to the east by Cameroon and to the west for the Central African Republic and their two French speaking peoples have always traded.

But in recent years, trade on the Douala-Bangui corridor, a vehicle for sub-regional integration, has been halted several times for security reasons.

Cameroonian populations are regularly subjected to incursions by Central African armed groups.

The UN says that there are more than 295,000 Central African refugees on Cameroonian soil.

By Rita Akana

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bui SDO accuses teachers of financing Amba Fighters

18, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bui SDO accuses teachers of financing Amba Fighters 0

The Senior Divisional Officer for Bui Division in the North-West has accused Southern Cameroons teachers of financing the Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards and by extrapolition, the war in West Cameroon.

According to Menyong Gilbert Sunday, prefect of Bui, teachers in his administrative unit are contributing financially to the war effort in support of the separatists fighters.

The Biya appointee opined recently that Southern Cameroons teachers were “taking advantage of the persistence of the Ambazonia conflict and are not going to the classrooms, but receive their salaries at the end of each month.”

The new Senior Divisional Officer for Bui signed a prefectural order asking the six sub-prefects of his command unit to draw up a list of absentee teachers in order to punish them.

The National Union of Higher Education Teachers (Synes) has denounced the prefect’s accusations and promised to take the matter to the administrative court.

As a reminder, the Anglophone crisis began in October 2016 with corporatist demands from teachers and lawyers.

The teachers denounced their working conditions while the lawyers demonstrated against the absence of the English version of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (Ohada).

In five years, these demands have led to a conflict that has resulted in at least 10,000 deaths and more than 700,000 internally displaced persons and refugees.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Southern Cameroons Crisis: ‘Military Invasion’ of Catholic Hospital

17, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: ‘Military Invasion’ of Catholic Hospital 0

Sisters at a Catholic hospital in the war-torn Anglophone regions of Cameroon have been threatened by government soldiers for the second time this year. Army officers told the Tertiary Sisters of St Francis they were looking for armed separatist group members known as the Amba Boys. After a two-hour search of the medical facility, the heavily-armed officers found no combatants. However, a media release from the Sisters reports that the soldiers vowed to burn down the hospital the next time they visit it.

Cameroon government soldiers in three armoured vehicles arrived at the St Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital Cardiac Centre at 1.30pm on November 14. The hospital is in Shisong in the Bui area of the mainly English-speaking North-West Region. The hospital director, Doctor Sister Anshoma Helen Mbouh, was summoned and forced to accompany the soldiers as they spent more than two hours searching every section of the health facility.

The media release from the Tertiary Sisters of St Francis continues, “Not finding the Amba boys they were looking for, they started insulting and threatening the Reverend Sisters.” The officers said they would shoot the Sisters, and it is alleged that they then severely beat two hospital security officers during interrogation.

The same hospital was searched by armed soldiers on July 19 this year. The media release reports that when they left the hospital on November 14 at 3.45pm, some of soldiers expressed remorse. “However, some of them continued with their threats to the Sisters and the Hospital. They promised that the next time they would be back, they will set the entire hospital on fire.”

Commenting on the invasion, Lord Alton said, “It is intolerable that a hospital and its patients and staff should once again be subjected to heavy-handed intimidation, threats and harassment by government forces. This is an outrageous violation of a place dedicated to saving lives and healing. The Cameroon government owe the hospital an immediate apology and a promise that there will be no recurrence.” It is a war crime to attack a hospital during a conflict, even when it treats enemy wounded.

Lord Alton will be tabling a Parliamentary Question asking the British government, which recently signed a trade deal with Cameroon, to urge the authorities in Yaoundé to urgently participate in inclusive peace talks to break the impasse in the Anglophone Crisis.

There has been increasing violence in the English-speaking area of Cameroon since 2016, when the Francophone-dominated government tried to impose French-language procedures, judges, and teachers in courts and schools on the area’s six million Anglophones. Hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians have been driven from their villages as their homes have been burnt, causing a humanitarian crisis which continues to deteriorate. Armed separatists demanding independence for the Anglophone regions which they call Ambazonia have responded to harsh government tactics with violence of their own. Doctors, nurses, religious orders and medical facilities have also been threatened by armed men claiming to represent the Ambazonian separatist fighters. Repeated efforts by the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and Swiss government to hold inclusive peace talks have been rebuffed by Cameroon, and encouragement from the Vatican has gone unheeded.”

Source: Independent Catholic News

Cameroonians Plead for Tolerance Among Religions, Francophones, Anglophones

17, November 2021

Cameroonians Plead for Tolerance Among Religions, Francophones, Anglophones 0

More than 200 people, most of them women, marched in the city center of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, on Tuesday against what they call growing intolerance in the Central African state. The protesters, marking this year’s International Day for Tolerance, sang that there is a growing lack of respect for each other’s cultural and religious beliefs.

Secretary General of the Council of Imams and Muslim Dignitaries of Cameroon Adamou Ngamie took part in the protest. Ngamie says all Muslims, especially Imams, must try to preach inter-religious tolerance because it is praised by God in the Holy Quran. He says intolerance is bringing confusion and discord in Cameroon, which is in dire need of tolerance that will breed cohesion and bring back peace to the country.

In 2020, the government of Cameroon reported on problems of inter-religious intolerance in the central African state. It cited conflicts between Christian Pentecostal churches and Muslim fundamentalist movements on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. The report said several clashes resulted in casualties but gave no further details.

Tuesday’s protesters noted intolerance in Cameroon spiked in 2017 when Anglophone separatists, complaining of second-class treatment, took up arms against the French-speaking majority state.

Cameroon’s separatist conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than 550,000, according to the United Nations.

22-year-old University of Yaounde student Anabel Michou marched in the protest. She says hate speech and propaganda on social media by both separatists and authorities promote intolerance.

“We are calling on everybody to join us on board, to build a hate free Cameroon, to promote social cohesion, to ask for peace. Wherever we find ourselves, we have a collective role to play to make Cameroon a better country. There are alternative, nonviolent means of saying what we have and using the right channels for our thoughts to be heard. And we should also remember, we cannot build by destroying. We have to build by making what we have better.”

The Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement, which has been urging troops and separatists to lay down their arms, organized the protest. Movement member Nicoline Nwenushi Wazeh says the separatist conflict would be greatly reduced if Cameroonians learned to tolerate each other.

“We need to acknowledge that every human being is a separate entity [person] and this acknowledgement needs to come from the government through enforceable laws against intolerance. Parents should have a communication around tolerance with their children. In schools, children should be able to know about tolerance. We should be able to promote tolerance.”

In July, Cameroon launched a campaign against what it called growing online hate speech, intolerance, and xenophobic statements.

Rights groups, however, note that along with xenophobic statements, authorities also define hate speech as criticism of the state and long-time President Paul Biya.

The government did not issue any statements for this year’s International Day for Tolerance but has in the past called on all Cameroonians to live together in harmony.

Source: VOA

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