Journalists covering Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) assaulted, threatened ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group has written to Reporters Without Borders over the treatment of its staff correspondents by members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) covering the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

In a strongly worded statement, the Editor-In-Chief of the Concord Group stated that Besong Eunice Nchong and Alain Agbor Ebot including Cameroon Concord’s Bamenda and Buea city reporters were assaulted and threatened by elements of Cameroon’s elite force.

The Concord Statement to Reporters Without Borders also said that seven of its staff had been made to flee the country to Europe and North America.

Besong Eunice Nchong and Alain Agbor Ebot have continuously faced death threats from plain cloth security officers supporting the brutal regime in Yaoundé.

During a recent press conference in Yaoundé, Alain Agbor Ebot reportedly spoke of the ruckus in Cameroonian football and the rift between the Cameroonian FA and the Ministry of Sports and received a veiled threat from the head of protocol in the Sports Minister’s cabinet that “You are skating on thin ice. We advise you to err on the side of the government if you want to continue to practice this profession in Cameroon.”

Cameroon Concord News Chairman and Editor called on Reporters Without Borders to criticize such unacceptable behavior and to address instances of repression by the 42 year-old Biya regime against English-speaking journalists.

The Republic of Cameroon is among the world’s top oppressors of journalists and free speech.

The Minister of Communication was heard murmuring privately that all English-speaking media outlets operating outside of Cameroon are enemy media and their reporters inside Cameroon will not be safe.

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi