Some armed men attacked vehicles on Sunday, March 13, 2023 at 10pm along the Douala-Yaoundé road and eyewitnesses reported that there were some casualties.

According to a Cameroon Concord News source whose car had been riddled with bullets, the armed men were all Francophones and their motive was not necessarily money.

“The armed men are not after money. They just want to sow terror in the country and it is hard to characterize them at this time. However, they are either terrorists or armed robbers, but we will wait for the government to tell us who they are,” the source said.

He added that “going by what they were saying in French, it is obvious that they are sick and tired of the messy political situation in the country. If they really needed money, they would have asked us to hand them our belongings.

“They were shouting in French that the country was messy and that something must be done if Cameroon must be saved,” he said.

Our people are suffering and the government is not taking appropriate decisions. We are living in darkness as if we are in the dark ages. Where in the world would you find neighborhoods in a nation’s capital without water and lights for years?” the attackers said.

The attack, which occurred at 10 pm, sowed panic and chaos on the Yaoundé-Douala highway and many people traveling at that time had to make a U-Turn to avoid the attackers, who were visibly angry, the source said.

Meanwhile, an Amba fighter who called the Cameroon Concord News stated that if the armed Francophones needed weapons, then they should contact Amba fighters who had a massive warehouse of weapons which could help the “fighters of later days” to achieve their goal – unseating the Biya regime which has brought untold hardship to the people of Cameroon.

“If these attackers are really serious, they will contact us. We have an arsenal of deadly weapons lying idle. We can put that at their disposal for them to achieve their goal,” the Amba fighter said.

“Our weapons are effective and if anybody has doubts, he can check with the Cameroon army. Our bullets have already sent more than 3,000 army soldiers to an early grave and the government now lives in fear,” the angry Amba fighter pointed out.

“We are in the business of sending soldiers home in body bags and many Cameroonian soldiers do not want to come to the two English-speaking regions because they know what awaits them. We can help our Francophone brothers with our weapons. What are brothers for?” the Amba fighter said.

“We cannot fight in French Cameroon but if the armed Francophone fighters need any training, they can come to us for capacity building sessions,” he said.

“We will train them. The first session will transform them into butchers. I was trained to severe the heads of soldiers in a neat way and we did a good job in our first days to chop off heads and penises,” the Amba soldier who refused to give his name said over the phone.

Meanwhile, Cameroon Concord News has dispatched its correspondents to the venue of the mayhem and initial reports say government security forces are on the ground to reassure the population.

For now, those using the Yaoundé-Douala highway are in fear and they know they are strictly on their own as the Yaoundé government is still trying to figure out if it is a problem of banditry or terrorism.

However, something is happening in French Cameroon and this might be the beginning of a more complex and complicated situation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s military says separatists in its North-West region have blocked roads and attacked military vehicles to disrupt Sunday’s Senate elections. Witnesses say several bodies were seen around the destroyed vehicles. The military has not confirmed any casualties and vowed to protect voting, despite the rebel blockade.

Cameroonian government troops exchange fire with separatist fighters in Tadu, a village in the central African state’s North-West region.

In the audio, extracted from a video shared on social media, a man identifying himself as separatist general Viper says fighters will chase out or kill government troops deployed to protect voters in Cameroon’s March 12 senatorial election.

Cameron’s Senate, the upper house of Parliament, has 100 seats. The election will be held for 70 seats. The other 30 will be appointed by President Paul Biya.

The military confirms that the video was taken in Tadu on Thursday. The military says besides Tadu village, government troops have fought gun battles with separatist fighters in several dozen locations, including Bamenda, Ndop, Wum, Jakiri, Oku, Bambili and Sabga in the North-West region and Manfe, Menji and Tiko in the South-West region.

The government says several military vehicles have been destroyed by improvised bombs planted by separatists in the Northwest.

Army captain and military spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo refused to comment on the number of troops killed but said about two dozen fighters have died in two weeks.

Civilians say bodies were seen around destroyed military vehicles.

Vanigansen Mochiggle is an opposition Social Democratic Front, or SDF, candidate. He says battles between Cameroon government troops and separatists are making it impossible for Senate candidates to campaign.

“The prevailing situation in the region is not propitious for an election. The conflict exacerbated,” said Vanigansen. “The separatists are all over the place. It is even very difficult for the candidates to move to their various divisional headquarters, so we have that challenge.”

A statement from the Roman Catholic Church in Kumbo and Ndop says transport buses and private vehicles are grounded and there has been no movement of people or goods in the past three days.

The government says civilians who disrespect separatist orders and move out of their homes are being abducted and tortured.

The SDF says candidates must send campaign messages through radio and TV, telephone calls and social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook.

The SDF accuses Cameroon’s government of ordering the military to protect only candidates with the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, which the government denies.

Deben Tchoffo is the governor of the Northwest region.

Tchoffo says Biya has given instructions to the military to protect all civilians and make sure the March 12 senatorial elections are hitch-free. He says separatists who are attacking government troops and civilians to disrupt the elections will be killed if they do not surrender.

Tchoffo said despite the separatist threats Cameroon will prove to the world that it is a democratic state by organizing free, fair and transparent senatorial elections.

Separatists who have vowed to disrupt the elections in English-speaking western regions launched their rebellion in 2017 after what they said was years of discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

The conflict has killed more than 3,500 people and displaced more than half a million, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

The man widely believed to have been the driver of the black Prado used to kill the financial crime radio host Martinez Zogo has been arrested in Yaoundé, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a well-placed source at the Secretariat for Defense.

Our source in the nation’s capital hinted that the yet to be identified getaway driver currently held under high security is already confirming evidence pointing to business tycoon Amougou Belinga as being  the masterminded of the brutal murder of journalist Martinez Zogo.

Martinez Zogo, a household name in Cameroonian journalism was kidnapped, humiliated in the presence of Amougou Belinga and killed after he promised revealing a massive fraud scheme involving the disgraced so-called media guru.

This reporter contacted Amougou Belinga’s lawyer early this morning but he declined to make a statement saying his English is not too good.

Martinez Zogo became famous for reporting several fake financial transactions between the Amougou Belinga business empire and the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Pierre Amougou Belinga is on trial along with 22 other men for alleged involvement in a series of murders and attempted murders.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Thousands of women in Cameroon took to the streets on Wednesday, International Women’s Day, to protest the high cost of living. The government blames soaring food and energy prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hundreds of Cameroonian women blow trumpets and whistles on the streets of the central African state’s capital Yaounde, shouting and decrying the high cost of living amid surging inflation.

The women say they want the government to help them cope with price increases.

Suzanne Menanga is coordinator of the Cameroon Female Consumers Union that organized the protest.

She says her group protested on International Women’s Day because more than 80% of Cameroon’s roughly 14 million women are either unemployed or earn very low wages that make it difficult to cope with the high costs.

She says a February 2023 minimum wage increase for private sector workers from about $60 to $68 and the 5.4% salary increase for government workers has not improved the living conditions of Cameroonians.

Menanga says food price inflation increased from 25% in 2022 to 40% in 2023, adding that it is difficult for families to purchase everyday items like bread, sugar, fish, salt, soap and vegetable oil, whose prices are up by between 18 and 45%.

The women say the minimum wage for private sector workers should be increased to at least $100. The government should increase the salaries of state workers by 20%, according to the women.

The government says protests took place in several towns including Bamenda, Bafoussm, Ngaoudere and Ebolowa on Wednesday.

Cameroon’s trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana says Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to an increase in the prices of basic commodities all over the world.

Atangana says Cameroon, like the World Bank and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), blames the current high inflation and slow economic growth in low- and middle-income countries that rely heavily on Ukraine and Russia for grains and plant oils on disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He says Cameroon is one among scores of low-income countries where high fertilizer prices have become an obstacle to food production. Atangana says Cameroon is lucky that it is not experiencing food shortages.

Atangana said civilians should learn to live with the price increases. He adds that living standards are affected all over Africa and may only be reduced when Russia stops its aggression in Ukraine.

Last year, the Cameroonian government said President Paul Biya ordered an immediate disbursement of more than $15 million to grow wheat and rice in the central African state.

Cameroon Orders Investment in Wheat Production to Quell Protests Sparked by Shortages

The government asked civilians to eat locally produced food instead of imports.

The women say it is difficult for them to obey government instructions to stop overdependence on expensive imported rice, maize and beans because a 60% increase in prices for fertilizer is making it difficult to grow crops locally.

The agriculture ministry says it has already spent one million dollars on fertilizer subsidies since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.

International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Source: VOA