In September 2019, prominent Cameroonian Anglophone peace activist Abdul Karim Ali was arrested. He was held without access to a lawyer for five days before authorities finally released him weeks later. But history has a sad way of repeating itself in Cameroon, where Ali has once again been detained.

On August 11, soldiers arrested Ali in Ntamulung neighborhood in Bamenda, North-West region, and took him to the local gendarmerie station. He was not allowed to see family members until August 13 when, following sustained pressure from his lawyers, authorities allowed his wife to visit.

Ali’s lawyers told Human Rights Watch they were not permitted to view his file and that he was questioned in their absence, in violation of Cameroonian law. While there are no official charges against Ali, he was told he is accused of “apology of terrorism” for possessing a video on his phone showing alleged human rights abuses committed by a Cameroonian soldier against civilians in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Ali’s lawyers said he is being detained in deplorable conditions, in a six-square-meter cell without windows, a toilet, or mattresses. He shares the cell with 12 other detainees.

Arbitrary detention and mistreatment of detainees are rife in Cameroon. Many people perceived as opposing the government are held on bogus charges related to national security or terrorism. Following his arrest in 2019, Ali was taken to the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’État à la défense, SED), a notorious detention facility in the capital, Yaoundé, where Human Rights Watch has documented widespread use of torture. Ali was held incommunicado until his whereabouts were finally made public in September 2019 when he appeared before the Yaoundé Military Court and was charged with acts of terrorism, financing terrorism, and secession. He was released on November 1, 2019.

Jailing Ali instead of working with him is a missed opportunity for the government, said Barrister Awah Joseph Fru, one of Ali’s lawyers. “Arresting a peace advocate stifles an environment for genuine dialogue,” he told me.

Authorities should clarify Ali’s status and respect his rights. Possessing videos of soldiers allegedly committing abuse is not a crime. Unless he is promptly brought before a judge and charged with a genuine offense, he should be released and allowed to continue his work.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

The Francophone dominated military has killed three Southern Cameroonians and injured more than twenty-nine others during an incursion into Akwaya Sub Division.

Clashes broke out when the Cameroon government army soldiers raided Tinta one of the last Manyu settlements in the borders with Nigeria.  The Biya regime forces destroyed houses and part of the building hosting the only primary school in the village wounding or killing those who were hiding inside.

According to our informant at the SDO’s office in Mamfe, three people who were brought to the Akwaya so-called health centre in very critical conditions succumbed to their injuries.

The Cameroon government military is reportedly carrying out night raids in many villages in Akwaya on lame and ridiculous reason that it is fighting separatists.

Following the raid, there was a trade of gunfire in Akwaya town itself while clashes with the Francophone soldiers also broke out in other parts of Manyu.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has described Ambazonian fighters as the frontrunners of the battle against French Cameroun.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a speech aired recently by the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Cooperation (SCBC) as he addressed the people in Ground Zero and Ground One on the state of the resistance.

The Southern Cameroons exiled leader said Ambazonia fighters are at the forefront of battle against the French Cameroun enemy. Yerima added that the resistance is getting stronger again than ever and that Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora should continue to invest in the Big Rubbergun project which has caused senior Francophone military officials to be gripped by fear.

Dabney Yerima pointed out that the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will no longer accept the looting of their natural resources.

The front line leader furthered that the hand extended from Yaoundé that has been plundering Southern Cameroons natural wealth is now being cut off.

He called for the swift formation of a more efficient Southern Cameroons think tank in Europe and North America, urging all restoration groups to join forces in order to overcome existing crises and resolve the sufferings of the Ambazonian nation.

Yerima concluded that the Ambazonia Interim Government is working to achieve a powerful Federal Republic of Ambazonia, which is capable to defend its own sovereignty and wealth.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroonian forces have invaded the camp of separatist militants in Isangele sub-division of Bakassi Peninsula but with no casualty.

It was gathered that the invasion, which took place at the weekend, may not be unconnected with the attack by the Black Marine, a suspected armed wing of the Biafra Nations League (BnL), that reportedly killed four members of the Rapid D’intervention Battalion (BIR) about two weeks ago when they attempted to forcefully invade the camp.

Sources said the Cameroonian soldiers did not meet anybody in the camp as the separatist fighters were said to have relocated, leaving items such as Biafran flags on the trees.

They said the militant group moved inwards into the creek, leaving the military wondering about their position.

The BnL leader of Bakassi, Ita Bassey, in a statement, yesterday, confirmed the attack. He said: “Our members are not afraid of military reinforcement in Isangele as we are fighting a genuine course.”

He declined to comment if the Black Marine were working for the BnL, but warned that BnL commands large loyalists in the Gulf of Guinea. He added: “We are ready to die for our course.”

Meanwhile, the leader of BnL, Princewill Richards, was in Idabato sub-division for few days, following reinforcement of troops. It was gathered that he sneaked in at night on Wednesday last week to engage his members.

Recall that the Black Marine has been terrorising the Gulf of Guinea and threatening Cameroonian oil companies operating in the area.

Source: The Guardian

The Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) says the Southern Cameroons resistance groups will not quit fighting La Republique du Cameroun until the entire Federal Republic of Ambazonia is fully liberated.

The IG said in a statement on Monday that French Cameroun’s latest episode of brutality against the people of Southern Cameroons was criminal and provocative.

The press statement that was made public by the Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs said what happened in the Northern Zone as recorded by Human Rights Watch was proof that there can never be any genuine dialogue with French Cameroun so long as the 89 year old Paul Biya was still at the head of affairs in Yaoundé.

Tensions have skyrocketed across the entire Southern Cameroons ever since Human Rights Watch published its report on the atrocities committed by Francophone soldiers in the Ambazonian homeland.  Over 40000 people including women and children have been killed.

Several Ambazonian commanders leading the resistance have also been killed.

Recent escalation particularly in the Northern Zone remains the worst since the 89 year old Biya declared war against English speaking Cameroonians in 2016.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Officials in Cameroon are urging people to eat local foods instead of imports, following protests over shortages and price spikes caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

President Paul Biya last week ordered ministers to explain to the public that Russia’s Black Sea blockade, not local taxes, has caused a nearly 60% increase in prices for fertilizer and imported foods.

Hundreds of people, a majority of them women, listened to explanations offered by government officials dispatched to the Mfoundi market in the capital Yaounde.

Harouna Nyandji Mgbatou, the top official in Yaounde’s first district, called on the public to consume locally grown food, which he sai was cheaper than imported food.

Asta Koumam, a 30-year old medical laboratory technician, was among those listening. She said that the price of a liter of imported vegetable oil has increased from less than two dollars to about three and a half. She said she and her children have decided to measure vegetable oil in a spoon no matter the quantity of food they are cooking because they cannot cope with food price hikes.

Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji outlined the scope of the problem.

Nji said a 50-kilogram bag of imported rice that sold at $25 in February now sells at $55. He said the same quantity of rice grown in Cameroon has seen a 5% price increase to $25 because the price of fertilizer imported from Ukraine and Russia has also increased from $30 to more than $70.

Cameroon’s trade ministry reports that the central African country imported more than 850,000 tons of cereals from Russia and Ukraine in 2020. In contrast, the Cameroon Importers Union said less than 45,000 tons have been imported since January of this year.

Last week, five government officials, including the ministers of agriculture, trade, finance and mines, held a press conference to explain the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The press conference, ordered by President Biya, was to help quell protests against price hikes in several towns and villages across Cameroon.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, spokesperson for Cameroon’s government, said that Yaounde has provisionally suspended the export of cereal crops, palm oil and other staple foods to neighboring countries to make sure that there is enough food for its own population. He said the government has also removed or suspended import duties and taxes on rice, fish, palm oil and building material to protect consumers from skyrocketing prices.

Julienne Gregoire Onguene Ateba, an economist and international transport and logistic specialist at Cameroon’s seaport in Douala, said that the current situation could have been avoided with more foresight.

He said if Cameroon’s government had invested in local production, especially of food as economists suggested to cushion the effects of COVID-19, the population should have been spared the price spikes and food scarcity that has resulted from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In July, Cameroon’s government called for emergency food support for more than two million people facing hunger. Authorities said destitute civilians threatened by food insecurity along the northern borders with Chad and Nigeria are finding it especially hard to cope with the rising prices.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Self Defense fighters killed three people, including a soldier and a police officer on Sunday in Kengwo a border locality in the West region.

Amba fighters attacked an army post in Kengwo, killing a soldier, a police officer and a motorcyclist, said the region’s governor, Augustine Awa Fonka.

The attackers seized weapons and suffered no losses, he added.

Kengwo is near the North West region, which with the neighbouring South West region has suffered a bloody conflict between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military for five years.

English speakers make up a majority of the regions’ populations in predominantly French-speaking Cameroon, which President Paul Biya has ruled with an iron fist since 1982.

Anglophones feel marginalised and an independent state called “the Federal Republic of Ambazonia” was declared in 2017 by their leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe without achieving international recognition.

Biya, 89, has resisted calls for more autonomy in the regions and responded with a crackdown on the separatists.

The violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

International monitors and the United Nations say both sides have committed abuses, including crimes against civilians.

In June, Ambazonia fighters killed five soldiers in an attack in western Cameroon.

By Rita Akana with files