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9, December 2016

Anglophone Problem: Violence begets violence ⁰

The violence that was served to residents of Bamenda on Thursday, December 9, 2016, following demonstrations in the North West regional capital should not be part of the country’s history if the culture of dialogue and tolerance had been sown in the collective psyche. The negotiating table was also designed for Cameroonians and the country’s government should be promoting this culture that has served other people and stood the test of time. The demonstrations that were started by lawyers were designed to be peaceful until the forces of law and order came to sow disorder. Many lawyers were brutalized and this has drawn the ire and flak of many Anglophones who now hold that the government is not interested in addressing their issues in a peaceful manner. Yesterday’s killings in Bamenda constitute irrefutable proof of the government’s arrogance and determination to push the country into the abyss of violent conflict.

While ordinary, armless and peaceful Anglophones are simply calling for their leaders to listen to them, the government which is supposed to be leading from the front seems to be looking for an excuse to mow down its own citizens and Bamenda did serve yesterday as a training ground for the military to put into practice its own killing skills. Such violence does not create proper room for meaningful dialogue. Taking down your own citizens only makes matters worse. Violence, regardless of the form, only begets violence. If demonstrations by Anglophones are not considered legal, what could have justified the CPDM march that was supposed to take place in Bamenda? Just a few days ago, SDF parliamentarians were blocked in a hotel in Buea just because they wanted to demonstrate their support for the striking Anglophone Cameroonians. If the SDF march in support of angry Anglophone teachers and lawyers was not right, why did CPDM stalwarts think their own march in Bamenda would be considered right and appropriate by a people who feel frustrated and marginalized? Does this not look like a double standard? Why should there be different strokes for different folks? When will the government and ruling party understand that tricks of the past cannot really produce the same results in a new era?

In a genuine democracy, it is normal for frustrated citizens to make their angst known to their leaders without resorting to violence. But when government officials seem to live in an Ivory tower, it becomes challenging for dialogue to actually take place. When will Cameroon government officials come down from their pseudo pedestal of superiority to have frank and meaningful discussions with the people they government? This is not the attitude to develop when running a country with different linguistic blocs and multiple tribes. It is preposterous to hold that unity and peace will always prevail and that weapons will always intimidate the people. Differences of opinion will always exist in such societies, but it is incumbent upon the government to play its role as a stabilizing force. Cameroonians, especially those of Anglophone extraction, sincerely think that there is no true and reliable partner on the other side for them to have real discussions on those issues that have made the union feel and smell like a very bad marriage. In their view, it is hard to achieve anything in their country without taking to the streets. They point to the creation of more universities in 1993 in the country and this only happened after long and painful demonstrations wherein some of their compatriots were killed by the people who weresupposed to protect. Multiparty politics was birthed in bloodshed in Cameroon and the memories of the past are still very fresh. The country is still littered with victims of this period. The psychological and physical scars are still there and the people, especially North-westerners, will surely not forget those bad and ugly days. Such examples only come to strengthen the argument that citizens of this country cannot achieve anything without bloodshed. Some even assert that even the government comes to the negotiating table, it ends up speaking from both sides of its mouth. Isn’t it time for the government to clean up its own act?

Like their Francophone counterparts, Anglophones simply want the government to lend an ear to their cry. They are slowly running out of tears and blood seems to be replacing tears. The need for dialogue is not new in Cameroon. Even in the days of the country’s first president, Anglophones always called for dialogue, although the cries fell on deaf ears and their marginalization and assimilation gathered full momentum when the country’s first president yielded power to the current president.

In a letter to President Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1964, Prof. Bernard Fonlon said that “A traveler on the road stops from time to time to look back and see the ground he has covered; merchants close shops at intervals to take stock; users of machines are bound to service and overhaul them now and again. Thus it is the most natural of things for the people engaged in an enterprise such as this to halt, once in a while, to see how much ground has been covered, to draw up their balance sheet, to service or overhaul, if need be, the machinery of the State.” This implies that both Anglophones and Francophones should come to the table to assess the state of their union. It also implies that Anglophones have been crying for a very long time and the government be it the current or the past one has been totally indifferent to their sorry plight.

Prof. Fonlon like current Anglophones had called for genuine dialogue. He summed up the Anglophone spirit of dialogue in the following words, calling on the government not to view an assessment of the union as a challenge. “We shall call upon you, therefore, brothers and co-builders, to hear us with sympathetic understanding. As I have said, again and again, we are not making this appeal in a fault finding spirit. We are making it because of our love for this country, because of our faith in its destiny, because of our concern for this welfare and prestige. We make it because we are mindful of the solemn words of practical wisdom addressed to all builders in the Sermon on the Mount.”

Cameroon political authorities should lend an ear to their people. Dialogue is the answer. Violence has never addressed any issues. Violence only begets violence. Government authorities can spare this beautiful nation the scourge of war if they embrace dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts. Provocations, regardless of the form, only cause problems to escalate.

Dr Joachim Arrey

Cameroon Concord News Group

9, December 2016

Southern Cameroons militant group vows to blow up pipelines in SONARA ⁰

A Southern Cameroon militant group in Mutengene in the South West region has reportedly given the Biya regime an ultimatum to withdraw all its troops from Bamenda or face severe consequences. Cameroon Concord News has been reliably informed that the group has vowed to blow up pipelines in SONARA.

A spokesperson for the group was quoted as saying that if the Biya administration fails to demilitarize the North West region, the group will begin vandalizing pipelines anytime soonest. They claim that the Francophone government was exploiting and terrorizing Southern Cameroonians.

Troops from La Republique du Cameroun backed by helicopters killed dozens of Southern Cameroonians in Bamenda on Thursday the 8^th of December following violent protest that rocked the entire North West region.

By Rita Akana

9, December 2016

Biya mocks anti social network cabinet ministers ⁰

Biya has made a mockery of his cabinet ministers who have been clamoring for a ban on social media. The Cameroonian leader and his wife during a reception on Thursday at the Etoudi Palace in honor of the indomitable Lionesses, finalists of the 10th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations appeared in a different light alongside the indomitable Lionesses and went into selfie frenzy.

The 83 year old dictator took the selfie all smiles and full of energy and under the watchful eyes of ministers hostile to social networks. Alongside the female football players, Biya and his wife had many selfies that has reportedly aroused reactions of admiration even among the fiercest critics of the regime. Questions are now being asked if it was a kind of political communication or a simple seduction operation.

By Kingsley Ebong in Yaounde

9, December 2016

CPDM crime syndicate cancels Bamenda “peaceful rally”, PM still in hiding ⁰

The Prime Minister and the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM have cancelled a planned pro Biya Francophone CPDM rally that was to hold in Bamenda this week. The decision was made public by Jean Nkwete, the Secretary General of the ruling party as he was escorted out of Ayaba Hotel late last night by security agents. Cameroon Concord News understands the Prime Minister and Minister Atanga Nji are still hiding in one of the rooms in Ayaba.

Urban guerrilla scenes in Bamenda staged by young Southern Cameroonians who were opposed to the holding of the so-called “peace meeting” prompted the decision. The freedom fighters multiplied their acts of violence that eventually pushed Prime Minister Philemon Yang and his entourage into hiding. The Francophone defense and security forces that intervened found it hard to contain the protesters who break and burn.

Dozens of the freedom fighters were shot dead and many wounded. The official record of these bloody clashes has not yet been published by the authorities. Given this renewed violence, the CPDM party that has for 34 years marginalized the Anglophone communities decided to cancel the meeting, which caused the escalation of tension in the capital of the Northwest Region.

The meeting of the CPDM consortium of crime syndicates was coordinated by Philemon Yang, Prime Minister, Head of Government and Jean Nkuété, Secretary General of the Central Committee who wanted through this forum to inform international public opinion that Cameroon was one and indivisible. Mood movements and strikes by Anglophone teachers and lawyers have paralyzed the activities in British Southern Cameroons for several weeks, despite the Francophone government’s proposals to end the crisis.

By Sonne Peter in Bamenda

8, December 2016

Anglophone Uprising: 2 killed and nearly 100 wounded in Bamenda ⁰

Nearly 100 people have been wounded and 2 killed in today’s clashes in the North West regional capital of Bamenda, the worst outbreak of violence since the Anglophone uprising.

Witnesses and journalists at Commercial Avenue, a hotspot neighbourhood for anti-government demonstration in recent months reported seeing bodies in the street and two apparently shot at close range.

Other witnesses reported further bodies seen lying in streets in other parts of the city. A journalist with Cameroon Intelligence Report described one of the victims as “kid” and said he had been shot execution-style “through the top of the skull”.

It is an absolute horror; those who committed this are war criminals. Blasts and gunfire echoed around T-junction for most of today after heavily armed soldiers attacked civilians protesting against a visiting Prime Minister.

There are fears that Cameroon is slowly but surely sliding into ethnic conflict as hatred for French speaking tribes keeps mounting.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest

8, December 2016

Gunshots heard at Commercial Avenue in Bamenda ⁰

Cameroon Concord News reporters in Bamenda have confirmed that gunshots came from an army vehicle firing at Anglophone protesters at Commercial Avenue some few hours ago. A huge crowd has gathered to stage an anti government demonstration in support of federalism or the creation of a Southern Cameroons state. The angry population is reportedly firing back with locally made firearms.

8, December 2016

1,750 Takfiri terrorists may have returned to Europe ⁰

An EU report warns that a third of the estimated 5,000 European nationals who traveled to Iraq and Syria to join Takfiri terrorists have returned home, probably with a mission to launch attacks. The report, to be presented to EU interior ministers on Friday by the bloc’s counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, said as many as 1,750 Takfiri terrorists may have returned home. Fifty-percent of the terrorists remain in the battle theater, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans, while between 15 to 20 percent of those who joined the terrorists have died, the report added.

There were two types of “foreign terrorist fighters” returning, the report said, identifying them as “those in the majority that will drift back, and those who will be sent back on specific missions, which are of most concern.” Even some European women and children born or raised in areas under the control of Daesh could present a security threat as they may have been influenced by the group’s Takfiri ideology, it added.

Some returnees have been convicted and serving prison sentences, while some others are being carefully monitored and some are free in their communities, the report said without giving any figures. Last month, Belgium warned that Takfiri terrorists were increasingly returning to Europe. Daesh claimed responsibility for March 22 Brussels attacks which killed 32 people. The attackers were linked to November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed some 130 people.

According to the new report, “there is also a significant foreign terrorist fighter contingent with Daesh in Libya which might attempt to use their nationality or family connections to return to Europe.” It said the European Takfiris remain in touch with Daesh via social media networks, and are greatly migrating from the from mainstream Twitter social networking service to Telegram end-to-end-encrypted messaging service.

Presstv

8, December 2016

Yaounde under pressure to investigate police inhuman treatment on Anglophones ⁰

As pressure keeps mounting on the Biya regime over police and army brutality on innocent British Southern Cameroon citizens, the two security departments have asserted recently that by resorting to force as a last resort, they were obeying the orders of their leaders. The predominantly Francophone dominated military and police force were caught on camera inflicting inhuman treatment on Anglophone students and lawyers.

The international communities have been fed with videos circulated on social networks featuring law enforcement elements brutalizing students and lawyers from the Anglophone section of the country. The United States government reacted by calling on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to provide protection to its citizens. Yaoundé responded through Issa Tchiroma, Minister of Communication by making a mockery of the Anglophone people observing that public authorities are required to ensure the maintenance of order and security.

Faced with national and Western pressures due to the often bloody repression, the CPDM leadership has reportedly announced sanctions against some elements responsible for the wronged abuses. Last Friday at the national assembly, Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said that investigations are under way and that the guilty parties will be punished. “There will be disciplinary and criminal penalties against those responsible. On the civil plane there was a violation of human rights and on the military level there was a violation of instructions, “declared a senior official at the ministry of defense.

Confronted with this intractable situation, the elements of the forces of order in question have hardened their tone. A spokesman for the police department was quoted as saying that “Each unit has a leader. The elements positioned on the ground acted according to what their head of unit asked them to do. So there is no need to say today that we will punish the elements.”

By Rita Akana

8, December 2016

The Anglophone Problem – When Facts don’t Lie ¹²

A preacher once told his congregation: “Next week, I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17.” The following Sunday as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the pastor asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The preacher smiled and said: “Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying.” This joke says a lot about human nature, but shows how Francophones are often caught committing the sin of lying about the Anglophone problem. Francophones are wont to wish into reality what is not there, and to deny the truth when it suits them. Lying is a sin that was committed by five Francophone Ministers who told the world at a press conference that there is no Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The integrity deficit associated with lying about the Anglophone problem is a travesty that insults and diminishes every Cameroonian and must stop.

The point must therefore be made, and with emphasis, that there is an Anglophone problem but the problem is deeply embedded in the asymmetrical political structure of the country, which has led to institutional paralysis engendered by leadership failure. Anglophones are divided over the Anglophone problem, just as Francophones are united in their bellicosity and belligerence towards Anglophones whom they cast as treasonable felons and secessionists who cannot be trusted. Francophones have used this self-fulfilling fallacy as an excuse to exclude Anglophones from the commanding heights of decision-making and treat them as second class citizens. But facts don’t lie like the lying laity of Mark 17.

Consider this: over 55 years after independence and re-unification, there has never been an Anglophone President or an Anglophone Secretary General or Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency. Nor has an Anglophone ever held the strategic ministerial portfolio of Defense, Finance, Territorial Administration, Communication, External Relations, National Education or even in charge of the Police, Gendarmerie, the Army and Intelligence services; not even ambassadors to English-speaking countries like the USA and Nigeria. For a region that represents about 20% of the population, accounting for over 60% of GDP, the fact that the lone oil refinery named in French (SONARA) is in Anglophone Cameroon, yet has been run by Francophone general managers with a predominantly Francophone workforce since its creation is unacceptable. It just cannot be that there are no competent Anglophones to occupy these positions.

As if that was not enough, higher institutions like the National Polytechnic, ENAM, IRIC, ESSTIC, INJS, IFORD, CUSS, Public Works, ENSPT, IRAD, are heavily laden with French courses; another way of saying, Anglophones need not apply. Although Cameroon is officially a bilingual country where both English and French are equal, when has the president ever made an official address to the nation in English? All official correspondences are in French, even when directed to Anglophones. French is the language used in the administration, police, gendarmerie, army and the courts. Anglophones have to seek translators at their own expense. All road signs are in French and there is not a single word in English on the FCFA currency in circulation; is this constitutional?

The facts and figures of Anglophone marginalization under President Biya are staggering. Of the 700 ministers appointed since Biya took office in 1982, only 76 (10.8%) have been Anglophones. In the current 63-member cabinet, there are only six Anglophones (9%) and only, Philip Ngole Ngwese (2%) out of the 38 Ministers has a cabinet portfolio. There are four Anglophone Secretary Generals (10%) and three Anglophone DAGs (7%) in the central administration. In state corporations, there are less than 15 Anglophones (11%) out of over 130 general managers. Of the over 130 Board chairmen of state corporations, there are only 10 Anglophones (7%). Of the 58 SDOs in the country, there six Anglophones (10%) and only three of the nation’s 33 generals in the Armed Forces are Anglophones.

The picture in the judiciary is even more pathetic and scandalous with Francophones occupying all key positions in the Supreme Court – President of the Supreme Court; Attorney General; Head of Judicial Division; Head of Administrative Division; Head of audit Division; Head of Special Criminal Court; Special Attorney Special Criminal Court; Director of Military Justice; Registrar-In-Chief Supreme Court and Secretary General Supreme Court. 58 (39%) of the 148 magistrates in the Southwest are Francophones while 54 (61%) of the 89 magistrates in the legal department in the Southwest are Francophones. Of the 50 magistrates working in Buea (Bench & Legal Department), 20 (40%) are Francophones while 20 (71%) of the 28 magistrates in the legal department in Buea are Francophones. Of the 30 new bailiffs that were appointed in January 2014 in the Southwest, 28 of them (93%) are Francophones.

The situation in the Northwest region is even worse. Of the 128 magistrates in the Northwest, there are 67 Francophones (52 %). Of the 97 magistrates of the legal departments, 64 of them are Francophones, (65.9%); 22 (48.9%) of the 45 magistrates in Bamenda are Francophones. There are 27 magistrates in the legal department in Bamenda of which 21, (77.8%) are Francophones. All the 21 new bailiffs (100%) appointed in January 2014 to the Northwest are Francophones. Comparatively, of the 119 magistrates in Douala, only two (1.7%) are Anglophones. Likewise, only two (1.9%) of the 107 magistrates in Yaoundé are Anglophones. These are very disturbing statistics in a bilingual country with two legal systems!

There is no reference hospital and no functional airport or seaport in Anglophone Cameroon. It is worth recalling that preliminary studies by the consortium charged with the construction of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline had established that the project will be cost-effective if the pipeline was built from Doba in Southern Chad to Limbe, which has a natural deep seaport. According to documents from the World Bank and the Washington-based Environmental Defence Fund, the then Secretary General at the Presidency, Joseph Owona re-routed the project to his native Kribi; taking the pipeline through ecologically sensitive areas and increasing the distance by 90 miles and the cost by $2 billion. Owona warned the investors that Limbe was risky because Anglophones might one day agitate for secession and the pipeline will be exposed to sabotage and vandalism.

To add insult to injury, the government has made it a point to assign Francophones who neither speak nor understand English to Anglophone regions. A Francophone DO in Oku, Kamdem Andre once called a meeting with traditional rulers and started speaking in French. Not understanding what he was saying, the Fons started dozing. Feeling snubbed, the angry DO ordered his bodyguards to wake-up the Fons with a slap each and the meeting ended in chaos. DO Kamdem is not an isolated case. Francophones disrespect Anglophones in positions of authority, even the prime minister, head of government. Francophone ministers either ignore cabinet meetings called by the PM or come late, in breach of standard protocol. When then prime minister, Achidi Achu appointed Raymond Gwanyalla as Director of Customs, the then Finance Minister; a Francophone openly challenged the PM in a flagrant display of insubordination. The Minister not only refused to preside at Gwanyalla’s installation, but ordered a boycott of the event which was heeded by all Francophone Directors in the Ministry of Finance. Surely, nothing like this happens in any country worthy of respect.

As Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge was humiliated by the paymaster general in Yaoundé. Musonge was dealing with a crisis after a timber truck derailed killing dozens, mostly roadside hawkers in the hotbed of Mutengene. Anger was boiling on the streets when President Biya ordered that FCFA 200 million be given to the PM to go help the victims and deceased families. A voucher was established to this effect; with the “visa” of the Finance Minister and the PM’s office and sent to the Yaoundé central treasury, but then paymaster general, Etogo Mbezele refused to pay, ostensibly because the director of the treasury had not “visa” the voucher. The treasury director was vacationing in France and traveled abroad with his “visa.” Informed of Mbezele’s decision, an exasperated Musonge could not help but exclaim in anger and frustration: “Oh these Frogs!” It must be stated in no ambiguous terms that Musonge spoke from the heart. His spontaneous outburst speaks to a deep-seated Anglophone frustration with an erratic system of government, with its consequent value misplacement, the like of which should never be countenanced in any civilized nation.

There are countless instances where Francophones are appointed to boss better educated and qualified Anglophones. It is a tragedy that after fifty-five years of independence and re-unification, we are still talking of Anglophones and Francophones, but that is the sad reality of Cameroon. Anglophones have been treated shabbily; they are asking whether they made the right choice in 1961, since only they were asked if they wanted reunification with Francophones. Despite that fact that East Cameroun was deeply embroiled in a bloody insurgency and terrorism, Anglophones closed their eyes and voted with their hearts. Fifty-five years after that vote, all Anglophones are asking is to be given the opportunity to manage their own affairs but they are being called secessionists and enemies from within, Biafrans, and even asked to go back to Nigeria.

This in itself is demeaning and outlandish. Our strength as a nation lies in our diversity. The bridge towards our future will be built on lessons from the past; hence the government must refrain from assuming that anyone calling for restructuring of the present structure wants to breakup the country. It is not Anglophones who threaten national unity; rather, it is the politics of exclusion and marginalization of Anglophones that poses a threat to peace and stability. Those who see Anglophones as a conquered people should look at these unsettling statistics and learn the right lessons because the mood is very scary but the looming crisis is still avoidable.

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

7, December 2016

Bashar al-Assad says victory in Aleppo “a huge step” in ending the war in Syria ⁰

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says victory in the battle for the city of Aleppo will be “a huge step” in bringing the war in Syria to an end. Assad said the full liberation of Aleppo in northwestern Syria would deal a huge blow to the regional and international supporters of militant groups, al-Mayadeen television station said, citing an interview with al-Watan newspaper expected to be published on Thursday.

“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let’s be realistic, it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria,” Assad said. “But it will be a huge step towards this end.” The Syrian president said in response to a question about the possibility of a ceasefire in Aleppo that such a possibility was “practically non-existent, of course.” “The Americans in particular are insisting on demanding a truce, because their terrorist agents are now in a difficult situation,” Assad said.

Washington would have no more trump cards to show if Aleppo is liberated, the Syrian president stated. Assad said Aleppo was the “last hope” of militants and their supporters, “after their failure in the battles of Damascus and Homs.” The Syrian president said the militants’ defeat in Aleppo would fully change the course of battle in Syria. “The decision to liberate all of Syria is taken and Aleppo is part of it,” al-Mayadeen quoted the president as saying. Assad also stated that Turkey had done its best to protect the militant stronghold in Aleppo, but it has failed.

The Syrian government has been making advances in militant-held areas in eastern Aleppo, with recent reports saying that the military and its allies have managed to retake two-thirds of the territory that used to be under the control of the militants. The conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Presstv