Cameroonian authorities should immediately release journalist Paul Chouta and drop criminal defamation and false news charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On May 28, in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde, five police officers arrested Chouta, who works as a reporter for the privately owned Cameroon Web news website, in response to a defamation complaint filed by French Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala, according to Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, and a person with knowledge of the case who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.

Chouta was detained at the local police headquarters following his arrest, and on May 31 was denied bail, according to his lawyer, Emmanuel Simh, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app. On June 10, he was charged with defamation, spreading false news, and hate speech; the hate speech charge was dropped the following day, and Chouta was sent to the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde to await trial, according to Vitus and the person with knowledge of the case.

His next court appearance is scheduled for July 9, Vitus said.

“Instead of holding Paul Chouta in a maximum security prison, authorities should release him and encourage Calixthe Beyala to seek redress through civil remedies, not criminal action,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. “Criminal defamation and false news laws have no place in a fair and just country, and Cameroon should change such laws.”

If found guilty, Chouta could face up to six months in prison and a fine of 2 million Central African francs ($3,447) for the defamation charge, and up to five years in jail and a fine of 1 million francs ($1,723) for the false news charge, according to the Cameroonian penal code.

In several posts on Beyala’s personal Facebook page, which CPJ reviewed but which have since been deleted or set to private, Beyala alleged that Chouta and other unspecified individuals made defamatory allegations about her personal life on social media and on the Facebook news page Le TGV de l’info, which Chouta manages.

CPJ called Beyala and messaged her on Facebook and WhatsApp, but did not receive any response.

Cameroonian Deputy Justice Minister Jean De Dieu Momo told CPJ via WhatsApp message that he was “not aware if web journalist is a profession organized by Cameroon law,” and declined to comment further on the case.

CPJ called and sent messages to Charles Manda, an adviser to the country’s communications minister, and Joyce Ndjem, the national communications chief for the Cameroonian police, but did not receive a response.

Chouta received repeated anonymous threats in recent months, and was attacked outside his home in February by suspected government agents, as CPJ reported at the time.

Vitus told CPJ that he suspected that the government’s harsh charges against Chouta, along with denying him bail, were in retaliation for his reporting on the government. The editor described Chouta as a vocal critic of Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president since 1982. Chouta’s recent reporting covered topics such as the arrest of a former Cameroonian government official and abuse allegations against police and a pro-government journalist.

Cameroon is the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Egypt and Eritrea, with at least seven journalists behind bars for their work on December 1, 2018, according to CPJ’s annual prison census. It is the second-worst jailer of journalists on false news charges in the world, after Egypt, according to the census.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalist

Fellow Ambazonians,

The Interim Government hereby informs the people of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and the general public that with immediate effect, Comrade Chris Anu is no longer Secretary of State for Communications and Information Technology. He, therefore is no longer a member of Cabinet.

Following the announcement of 14th May 2019 reconstituting the pre-5th January 2018 Cabinet and a Call to Service issued by Vice President Dabney Yerima on 22 May 2019, Chris Anu retorted in his public broadcast on ABC TV on 25 May 2019 that he will not work under the leadership of President Sisiku AyukTabe.

In a follow-up letter issued on 26 May 2019, Vice President Dabney Yerima notified Chris Anu that by rejecting the call to duty, he had given up his position as Secretary of State for Communication and Information Technology (SoS DCIT)
Accordingly, Comrade Chis Anu no longer speaks for the Interim Government and the people of Ambazonia.

Henceforth, whatever he says in the name of the revolution whether on his ABC TV, Facebook page or any other media platform should be considered as his personal opinion, which he is legitimately entitled to.
Any attempt to publicly articulate any views as representing the position of the Interim Government would be treated as gross misrepresentation with all the consequences associated thereto.

While we appreciate his service and contribution to our struggle, we also cannot overlook his mounting excesses that have become a liability to the revolution. We trust that he will continue to play a useful role in the revolution in his capacity as a private citizen.

On behalf of the entire Cabinet and the people of Ambazonia, I want to thank Comrade Chris Anu for his contribution to our struggle. We wish him well in all his future endeavours.

The Under Secretary of State for this department, Comrade Milton Taka assumes the role temporarily as Secretary of State for the DCIT until an appointment is announced in due course.

Thank You,
God Bless The Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Chris Anu, the disgraced Ambazonia Communications Secretary, said in a meeting that was convened to impeach the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

“We have the yam and the knife!! We should neutralize him,” Mr Chris Anu told a corrupt Ambazonian group of front liners in the USA.

His comments have exposed former Acting President Dr Ikome Sako and Barrister Fru John Nsoh as agents of the French Cameroun regime with unfinished business.   “Pastor Chris Anu is pursuing a personal vendetta” noted an aide to Vice President Yerima

Many Southern Cameroonians are convinced that there is a large measure of personal motivation in Mr Anu’s pursuit of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the attempts to undermine his credibility and the thinly disguised wish to see him removed from office.

A senior Ambazonia figure, said: “I think this reflects what has always been said – that Sako and Chris Anu are only interested in Ambazonia money, and for a sitting Communications Secretary to announce openly their gangster intention is a reflection of what kind of government Ambazonians have been dealing with.”

As Communications Secretary, Mr Chris Anu raised the profile of the Southern Cameroons struggle immediately after the abduction of the Ambazonia leadership in Abuja, Nigeria.  Following the appointment of a Vice President, he refused to switch loyalty and has ever since been leading a nasty campaign against the Ambazonian leader.

It is believed that Sako and some of his acolytes, including Chris Anu, want President Ayuk Tabe eliminated.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Elizabeth Etimu, 62, is inconsolable. Her son, Eric Etimu, a 27-year-old police officer, was killed Monday by separatist fighters in the English-speaking southwestern town of Mamfe.

Dozens of family members and well-wishers have been visiting their Emumbo, Yaounde, residence to console the widow. Eric’s uncle, 50-year-old military man Bruno Azegue, acts as spokesperson for the family. Just returned from Mamfe, says God saved him from the devastating war that killed four of the nine troops with whom he fought against the separatists for three months.

He says his wish and prayer is for the government to immediately negotiate an end to the war so that their disgruntled English-speaking brothers, who have taken arms and are not ready to lay them down until their grievances are attended to, return home and stop the loss of too many lives. He says the war has affected so many French-speaking Cameroonians either by killing, wounding and incapacitating their loved ones or ruining their economies.

Wounded French-speaking troops and their family members are asking the government of Cameroon to negotiate a peaceful end to the separatist war in its English-speaking regions. The soldiers, who have been flown to hospitals in Yaounde and Douala, say within the past two months, many of their peers are dying because the fighters have acquired modern weapons of war and have a mastery of the environment.

Currently at the Yaounde military and police hospitals, there are 32 wounded soldiers brought in within one month. The military says there are 14 in Douala.

Martial Monthe, 34, was part of the forces fighting separatists in the English speaking south west region is a survivor. He says for the first time since the war started, he saw separatists fighters using modern war weapons when they were attacked at Eyumojock.

He says one of their vehicles was pulled down by a bomb planted by the separatists. He says as they struggled to evacuate him and his wounded colleagues to the nearest hospital, they detected many other land mines and could not continue, and some of his already exhausted and wounded colleagues died from excessive bleeding as they were not able to treck to the nearest hospital that was 10 kilometers away.

Monthe said although he is a soldier ready to defend Cameroon all the times, he thinks a negotiated deal could spare the lives of many, especially now that the fighters seem to be importing more war weapons.

Cameroon’s police head, Martin Mbarga Nguele, visited the wounded policemen and the families of those who died in battle. He says all survivors and victims will be taken care of and Cameroonians should be proud of people who die defending them.

He says although the agony has been almost unbearable, Cameroonians should be proud they have heroes who agree to serve their beloved country by defending it and its people from every aggression even if it means paying the ultimate price. He says Cameroon will always remember them as people who died defending its territorial integrity and will also support their families.

Mbarga Nguele said the government will supply what it takes for the forces to crush the fighters.

Security analyst Christian Ndongo, consultant with the peace commission of the six member state Central Africa Economic and Monetary Commission says the fact that wars have persisted in central African countries for the past 12 years is an indication there is illegal trade and proliferation of arms that supply armed groups.

He says Cameroon and its neighbors, especially Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic, need to put in place permanent structures to examine and control the proliferation of weapons in their countries. He says the Boko Haram crisis, and the carnage in CAR are indications there are massive illegal movements of weapons across porous borders. He says the separatists in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon may be getting supplies from existing illegal suppliers.

The crisis in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon — now three years old — escalated on October 1, 2017, when militant secessionist groups symbolically proclaimed independence of an English-speaking state called Ambazonia.

The United Nations estimates at least 1,800 people have been killed and more than 530,000 displaced since fighting broke out. It says about 1.3 million people are in need of assistance.

Source: VOA