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3, June 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis Traps Girls In Sex And Servitude ⁰

Fourteen-year-old Landa wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to wash dishes and scrub floors before feeding and dressing her boss’s children for school, which she is not allowed to attend.

She has worked as a live-in servant, unpaid, for a year in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala since a separatist conflict forced her family to flee their hometown in the southwest.

Out of work and living with a cousin, Landa’s mother entrusted her to a wealthier couple who promised to send her to school in exchange for babysitting.

Like many, she was deceived.

“I do everything. I do the dishes, the laundry. I wash the floors. I don’t sleep until everyone else is in bed,” said Landa, whose name has been changed for her protection.

It is a world away from flying planes or delivering babies – the jobs Landa had dreamt would be hers after finishing school.

She is one of thousands of children uprooted by fighting in Cameroon’s two western Anglophone regions, where a movement for independence from the majority Francophone country turned violent in 2017.

It was already common for girls from the English-speaking regions, whose population has long felt marginalised, to work as maids in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde.

But the conflict has forced more children into work and left them vulnerable to slave-like conditions as thousands of schools shut and families fight poverty, said local human rights groups.

The government denied this, saying many displaced children had been welcomed by host families and enrolled in school in Douala, Yaounde and other cities, and that mistreatment of domestic workers was not a problem in Cameroon.

“Cameroon is a country of rights where this type of practice, if it existed, would be severely punished under our law,” said the communications ministry in a statement.

One activist estimated that hundreds of girls from the conflict zone, at the very least, were trapped in domestic servitude in the major cities.

“Most often they promise the parents to educate their daughters, to take care of them and give them a better future,” said Thomas Ngoh Mudoh, president of the Human Rights Defence Club, a national non-governmental organisation.

“But 95% of the time, this is not the case. These young girls, innocent and manipulable, become domestic slaves,” he said.

The girls often work without rest and some are raped or beaten, he said. If they are paid, it is often with rice, salt or oil that is sent to their families in the conflict zone.

Young boys who have fled the conflict also work, sometimes on construction sites or collecting plastic bottles; others are left to fend for themselves on the streets, locals said.

BETTER THAN WAR

The crisis has forced half a million people to flee their homes and left 1.3 million in need of aid, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Security forces have used heavy-handed tactics to quash the rebellion, including destroying schools, medical facilities and entire villages, said a U.N. rights committee.

The separatists have also closed schools as part of their protests and been accused of kidnapping dozens of children.

Landa attended school in the department of Manyu until two years ago, when clashes between separatists and the army reached her town. She fled with her family as houses burned.

They were barely getting by, living seven to a room, when Landa’s mother fell sick and their desperation grew.

The job offer meant one less child to feed.

“My mother accepted. I wasn’t going to school anyway and my boss promised to send me later,” Landa said.

Landa’s boss, who owns two clothing shops, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that she would send her to school next year. “This year I couldn’t because the children were very sick and there was no money,” she said.

But the family recently bought a new car and repainted their apartment, said Landa, who wants to finish her studies. Before the conflict, she had dreamed of becoming a pilot or a midwife.

Other girls and parents of girls who had left home considered servitude an acceptable price to pay for safety.

“Being employed in a house is better than anything. I don’t hear shooting and cries anymore,” said Katia, 18, who fled the northwest region for Yaounde last year.

She is scolded and humiliated at work and earns just 5,000 CFA francs ($8.60) a month, she said, but her boss also feeds her and gives her old clothes.

“At least there, they are in houses,” said a beautician with relatives who had gone to the cities to work as maids.

“Even if they are mistreated, it’s not serious. It’s the school of life,” she said from her home town of Buea, in the southwest region.

“WE ARE THE SLAVES” For many girls, the alternative to housework is prostitution, said victims, families and activists. The government said these reports were unfounded. At nightfall, in the Bonaberi quarter of Douala, the bars are full of girls, many with childlike faces.

“The prostitution rate has risen. We find many young Anglophone girls having fled the crisis who were left to themselves with no money, no resources,” said Bibiana Mbuh Taku, co-founder of a women’s empowerment association called Otabong.

Taku tries to source donations for the girls’ schooling, but said it is difficult; even in her educated circle, she said, friends were regularly seeking young girls to do housework.

“I explain to them that it’s slavery. They must understand a child’s place is in school, not in the home,” she said.

Felicity, 15, earns 10,000 CFA francs a month working as a housekeeper which she sends to her mother and younger brothers taking refuge in Douala. Her sister, 17, works the streets.

“It’s hard. They threaten me and I work a lot. One time I even passed out because I didn’t have time to eat,” she said, on a rare Sunday break when she was given four hours off to visit her mother in the outskirts of Douala. Her mother, 53 and divorced, said she never wanted this outcome for her daughters but that they had fled their home in the southwest with nothing and had no other means to eat.

“Because of the Anglophone crisis, I am a ‘maid’ and my big sister sells herself,” said Felicity. “We are the slaves of this dirty war.”

Culled from Reuters

3, June 2019

Biya regime arrest 300 demonstrators ⁰

At least 300 people were arrested in demonstrations in several cities across Cameroon on Saturday.

Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party said its members and supporters were arrested while calling for the release of party leader Maurice Kamto and 150 of their supporters, who were imprisoned late January during protests against October 2018 elections.

Kamto and his supportes have been charged with hostility against the homeland, insurrection among others.The EU, UN, US and France have questioned the arrest of the political leader.

At least 300 people were arrested in demonstrations in several cities across Cameroon on Saturday.

The MRC party has been protesting the elections calling it an electoral hold up since their party leader was announced second to President Biya’s re-election.

Source: Africa News

3, June 2019

SONARA declares force majeure after blast ⁰

Cameroon’s state oil refinery declared force majeure on Saturday, after a storage tank exploded overnight, causing a fire that shut down output at its main refinery in Limbe but caused no deaths.

A letter to its partners seen by Reuters said the fire had “caused a production stoppage at all of our units for a period to be determined.”

Cameroon’s Sonara refinery, which is almost entirely state owned apart from a 4% stake held by Total, has a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of crude a year. It serves the whole country, so any delay in getting it back up and running has the potential to cause severe fuel shortages. It is also a major supplier to the region, including Nigeria, Togo and Ghana, with some products also being exported to the United States and Europe, according to its website.

A Sonara spokesman declined to comment.

On Twitter, the company wrote that “there were no deaths nor injured,” in the blast.

A project has been under way for nearly a decade to try to boost its capacity to 3.5 million tonnes, but Sonara has struggled to raise the needed finance.

Source: Reuters

3, June 2019

Thousands Defy Police in Cameroon, Demanding Kamto’s Release ⁰

At least 73 people have been arrested in demonstrations in Cameroon as thousands of supporters of Maurice Kamto, the man who says he won the October 7 presidential election, have defied a heavy police presence and are staging protests in several towns of the central African state. They are seeking the immediate release of their party leader, among other things, and scores of his supporters have been jailed since January.

During a protest on Saturday in Yaounde, businessman Moustapha Ali, 27, said he will continue protesting until they find justice, which he said is being denied to them by Cameroon President Paul Biya, his government and the institutions he has created.

He said no one will stop them from pressing for freedom for Kamto and those supporters arrested at the beginning of the year. He said even though Kamto has not been inaugurated, he nonetheless is legitimately the president of Cameroon.

At least a dozen people, including Kamto’s first vice president, Mamadou Mota of the MRC party, have been arrested and detained in Yaounde and Douala.

The strong police presence and their anti-riot equipment did not deter demonstrators in several towns, including Douala, Banjoun, Bafoussam and Bouda. Cameroon had banned protests in most of its cities, saying it was a threat to peace.

Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Cameroon’s minister of External Relations, warned last week during a meeting with diplomats, United Nations staff and international NGO’s that the planned protests would not be tolerated.

Mbella Mbella said any political action or initiative that questions the legitimacy and legality of Paul Biya as president of Cameroon is tantamount to undermining Cameroon state sovereignty and is intended to disrupt public peace. He says the country’s constitutional council examined and threw out as baseless all petitions filed by those who contested the election and Cameroon’s institutions.

FILE - Incumbent President Paul Biya of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party, casts his vote during presidential elections in Yaounde, Oct. 7, 2018. — FILE – Incumbent President Paul Biya of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, casts his vote during presidential elections in Yaounde, Oct. 7, 2018.

Fidel Djoumessi, an official of Kamto’s MRC party, said the protests will continue until Kamto and his supporters are freed, the government opens up dialogue to resolve the crisis that has claimed close to 2,000 lives, and investigations are opened into why the Confederation of African Football seized hosting rights of the 2019 Africa Football Cup of Nations from Cameroon.

He said it is a scandal the government of Cameroon would decide to prohibit peaceful protests, which are a constitutional right. He said he does not understand why simple demonstrations to ask for electoral reforms and talks to return to the restive English-speaking regions should be described by the government as a threat to national security.

Police arrested Kamto, nine of his party officials and close to 200 of their supporters last January after days of peaceful protests in cities, including the political capital Yaounde and the economic capital Douala.

Similar protests took place in various Cameroon embassies around the world, including Paris and Berlin, where the pictures of president Biya were shattered.

Kamto and his colleagues were accused of inciting the protesters and now are facing eight charges, including treason, inciting violence, and disruption of public peace.

Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been calling on Cameroon to release all peaceful protesters, including Kamto.

Source: VOA

3, June 2019

Southern Cameroons War: The soul on the lone star on fire ⁰

This is not a celebration of a tragedy. It is about the lessons to draw from the capricious nature of fire as a weapon of war. Impunity plants the seeds of tragedy in the soul of humanity. The symbolism of fire as an official weapon of war and atrocity crimes against Southern Cameroonians is evident in the fire that gutted the SONARA fire resources bank of the war against the Southern Cameroons. How can fire be this capricious?

A person on the driver seat of impunity loves being worshipped and glorified. He is worshipped as a magician of time, possessing absolute power of life and death over his people. Some called him a god, others a messiah and others, the master and controller of time. He accepted all the and rewarded the blasphemers with political and administrative positions to encourage others to join the sycophantic train. He is feared and revered not for his good services to humanity but for the impunity and ruthlessness with which he compels allegiance.

His ability to mystify and magnify his temporal and spiritual domination of the souls of ordinary frail humans is wrapped in a mythical flag of impunity. With this, he wages war against peaceful, armless people in need of peace and justice. Two grand masters of the mystical world were invited to re-enforce these powers in the full glare of all and sundry. , To his dismay, the 57 years colonised and dominated people of Southern Cameroons, with profound faith in God and the justice of their case, like St Paul, took the bait, confronted and rebuked the driving spirit of Bar-Jesus that empowers and directs his policies of impunity and criminality. In anger, he declared war against the Southern Cameroons. Fire was then decided by the civilian and military commanders under his supreme command to use fire as a cost-effective weapon to enforce the planned genocide on the Southern Cameroons. The policy was to execute the genocide against the owners with the proceeds of the oil wealth plundered from the territory and refined in SONARA. Bar Jesus was a counsellor to Sergius Paulus, the Roman Proconsul on Cyprus whom St Paul who was full of the Spirit, accused of trickery, deceit, and perverting the ways of the Lord and rebuked.

Hell is real so the Holy Bible says. This biblical truth is sacrosanct. The reality of life in hell purposively keeps the individual and collective excesses of humanity in check. Has it?

Playing a costly trick on history, the Republic of Cameroon chose the colours of its flag to be green, red, yellow with a single star conspicuously on the centre on the red. Whatever the symbolism of this flag as currently laid out, the truth that the soul of the lone star on the red is terminally disturbed, cannot be disputed. This fact is obvious even to the jaundiced eye.

A quick google search of the symbolism of the red colour, reveals that red is a colour of extremes; from the passionate to the atrocious. Within the context of many cultures and traditions, red is seen as the colour of fire and blood. In this contextual crime environment or polity, Cameroun, where an official policy exists for the perpetration of atrocity crimes with impunity, the two extremes may complement each other. In that context, atrocity crimes are committed with passionate zeal and reckless arrogance.

There is a strong symbolism about the fire which has gutted down the installations of SONARA in the town of Victoria, Southern Cameroons, Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. The economic cost of the damage caused by the fire has not been assessed yet. It is projected to be monumental.

Because this fire has torched the political and economic nerve centre of the petrol-dollar economy of Cameroun, and its affiliated partners, its occurrence no matter how, will be strongly felt. The loss suffered may be regretted by its beneficiaries and its impact strongly felt. For a while, the government of Cameroun will feel the painful impact of fire on its war economy. It will feel the loss of one of the wealth generating channels which sustained its war economy. SONARA is perceived by Southern Cameroonians as a cash-cow and symbol of colonial rule over the Southern Cameroons.

The wealth procured from SONARA and the oil resources in the Southern Cameroons sustains the regime of personal power in Cameroun and facilitates the procurement of arms and ammunitions to prosecute a meaningless war of choice that Cameroun’s President declared against the then peace plant carrying Southern Cameroons armless civilian justice and peace crusaders. SONARA is an emblematic symbol of the political and economic staying power of the regime in power in Cameroun.

The fire of hatred, aggression and arrogance of power that a leader relies on to command and superintend the perpetration of atrocity crimes with passionate alacrity may not relent after the SONARA fire incident. Since the targeting of armless civilians, women, men, children, the weak and the vulnerable is motivated by the fire of impunity from the soul and the heart, the burning of civilian settlements will continue unabated.

This official policy of targeting civilian settlement with fire and the deportation of victims from their ancestral homes, came early shortly after the declaration of war against the Southern Cameroons. It was one of the first-choice weapons of war used by Cameroun soldiers to prosecute the genocide of the Southern Cameroons. The Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu, one Oum II signed an order which was widely publicised over the radio and print media ordering the deportation of the civilian population of some thirteen villages in Manyu to make way for a scheduled military operation in those villages.

In the execution of the forced deportation order, thousands of Southern Cameroonians fled across the border to Nigeria for safety. The marauding soldiers pursued the refugees to Nigeria where many were slaughtered, and others abducted. A distinctive Cameroun government official war policy of torching civilians’ settlements was experimented through the burning down of the ancestral civilian settlements of the endangered refugees who were deported to Nigeria. By the last count, Human Rights organisations in published reports stated that about 207 towns and villages have been burnt down by Cameroon soldiers on the orders of their civilian and military commanders.

In the face of this heart wrenching record of atrocity crimes, the civilian and military commanders of the Cameroon soldiers deployed to prosecute the war have publicly praised the professionalism of the marauding soldiers in the implementation of the scorched earth policy. The charred bodies of helpless old, weak, sick, vulnerable victims of the fire devastation in villages torched by Cameroon soldiers have shocked the conscience of humanity. Far or near, we are all primary or secondary victims of the trauma of this culture of impunity, and the policy of devastating fires used by the government and army of Cameroon as weapons of war.

The world must therefore not analyse the SONARA devastating fire no matter the cause, in the abstract or as an isolated event in its symbolism. The fire and devastation of the atrocity crimes that are consuming the lives and property of Southern Cameroonians carries the same symbolism as the fire that has gutted down SONARA installations. The fire of hatred and criminal arrogance that Satan has planted into the hearts of men and women of power to enable them play “three cards” with the lives of the weak, the powerless and the vulnerable will consume them and their colonial power architecture in the Southern Cameroons and beyond. People who have chosen fire as a weapon to prey on the Southern Cameroons victims of genocide, have a lot to learn in the SONARA fire disaster, about the capricious nature of fire, its symbolism and its unbending exclusive loyalty to nobody.

Lest we forget, Mami Apey’s hut in which she was burnt to death was valuable to her far more than SONARA. Indeed, the villages and ancestral lands and property that have been devasted by the fire and impunity of atrocity crimes are more valuable to every victim dead or alive than SONARA. Theirs was their legacies and their humanity. The SONARA fire disaster is a painful symbolism that highlights the less reported or less recognised but more significant symbolism of the devastation caused by every fire and the accompanying atrocity crimes on victims and generations unborn.

For the Alices in Wonderland of one and indivisible Cameroon, the symbolism may be a strong signal and symbolism that, at long last the soul of the lone star on the central red of the Cameroon flag is irredeemably on fire. The symbolism is a rude reminder to those who have overplayed and manipulated the fire of impunity, that the moment to account for the painful reality and responsibility for the devastation they have caused or are causing is almost here.

The use of fire as a weapon of war and the devastation it has caused could have been avoided. Rather it is praised. With its security apparatus in place and a President with near omnipotent powers of impunity, could the fire have been prevented? The fact is that it was not. Indeed, the worldly power of impunity has limit. If anyone doubts, read again the encounter between St Paul and Bar Jesus.

In conclusion, I hope that the international community with the UN leading, will not wait until the entire Gulf of Guinea is on fire before they intervene. With their slow to intervene policy, this fire may ignite an inferno whose impact may be felt in all parts of the world. That will be an unpardonable betrayal of the pledge which the civilised made in 1945. In that eventuality, the pledge of “Never again” will be an empty slogan deriding the foibles and follies of a world at war with its very soul.

By Chief Charles A. Taku

2, June 2019

Understanding who is Barrister John Nsoh and what does he represent? ⁰

Has any Southern Cameroons lawyer “back stabbed” their client? Have they started to try and get the client in prison and convict them of their crimes? We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are not aware of any particular instances. However, we do know that this kind of stuff is seriously unethical and is frowned upon by the entire profession and legal community.

So we don’t imagine that any lawyer is bragging about it. Although this has not come as a surprise in the Barrister Fru John Nsoh-Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Affair, almost all lawyers actually take those ethical considerations seriously.

Barrister Fru John Nsoh has followed a number of other Southern Cameroons elites in destroying his credibility in front of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Barrister Fru as leader of the Ambazonia Nera defense team proclaimed himself a personal lawyer to Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and observed that the Southern Cameroons leader has been compromised.

Southern Cameroons Interim Government recently dismissed as fraud the Barrister John Fru’s indictment of the Ambazonian leader. In a statement issued exclusively to the Cameroon Concord News Group, a senior aide to Vice President Dabney Yerima pointed out that former Acting President Dr Samuel Ikome Sako while in office had ordered Barrister John Nsoh to liaise with Prof. Maurice Kamto’s team of experts and help push the Southern Cameroons case internationally.

Correspondingly, the Southern Cameroons Interim Government sponsored Barrister John Fru Nsoh’s trip to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In line with Sako Ikome’s directives, Barrister Fru met with the head of the Southern Cameroons legal team in Nigeria, Hon. Barrister Oroh and during that trip shared a telephone conversation with the renowned Barrister Falana in Lagos.

Barrister Fru upon his return to Cameroon reported the success of his Nigerian mission to the Ambazonian Interim Government and a cabinet meeting chaired by Sako Ikome received a briefing from John Fru Nsoh. (Attached here is a screen shot of what Barrister John sent to former Acting President Ikome Sako.

The IG statement further stated that “We of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government join other Ambazonian citizens in acknowledging and supporting President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, as President Interim of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, in order for him to lead the people of Southern Cameroons to Buea and free our homeland.”

We gathered that the Southern Cameroons leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe would speak to Mr Fru John Nsoh in person to communicate the Interim Government position on his ABCTV comments. The Fru Nsoh interview on ABC TV has been criticised by several Southern Cameroons groups, who accused the man of law of supporting a bad precedence in Southern Cameroons, with some saying that it is a worrying development in Southern Cameroons revolution policy.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

2, June 2019

The writing on the wall for the Emperor of SOBA, Prof Ephraim Ngwafor ⁰

The SOBA America Annual Convention has come and gone; but SOBA, the world over still remains in turmoil and leaderless. This is mainly because Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor who is gradually making himself a cult personality by arrogating absolute power to himself, continues his quest for relevance, even in America, where his protégé Mafany Itoe rolled out the red carpet to the failed President of SOBA. Even presidential candidates in the just ended SOBA America elections were asked to pledge allegiance to the Ngwafor leadership in exchange for votes, while there now exist a Caretaker Committee headed by Dr Namanga Ngongi that is here to stay as the alternative linchpin in SOBA Cameroon.

The Sasse Old Boys Association is the leading ex-students association in Cameroon and the Cameroon Diaspora community. Since Prof Ngwafor became its leader, he has moulded the once famous and highly respected alumni association into his image. An image of disorder in anything he places his hands on, as recorded in his time as the rector of the University in Yaoundé, his unusually short tenure as a minister in La Republique du Cameroun, and now SOBA. His presence at the SOBA America Convention just shows how toxic and divisive he is, with several senior SOBANs who came from all the nooks and crannies of the America and even beyond to avoid being seen around him. His tenure as SOBA President has been so controversial that, SOBA America had to employ the services of armed police officers to protect him in an ex-school event as reported by our Washington Bureau Chief. He likened the permanent armed police presence at the convention venue to a coup being staged by Prof Ephraim Ndeh Ngwafor. The question that the SOBA America presidential hopefuls were not asked was whether they accepted Ngwafor’s new constitution to diminish the powers of the General Assembly, the same Assembly that has given him the platform to rebuild his shattered reputation.

All of the sudden Prof Ephraim Ngwafor after six years at the helm of SOBA is seeking relevance and recognition by attending Conventions and General Assemblies in the Diaspora (Germany and America).

“This is a man who has never called an ordinary General Assembly in his tenure as President of SOBA and when Chapters deferred decision making to their General Assembly as their constitution requires, he frowns at it. This attitude towards the General Assembly, which was always the ultimate decision making body of SOBA is reflected in his total disregard of the body in his recent so called 2018 Constitution’ noted a senior SOBAN who spoke to our correspondent in the America. This has prompted a “change.org” petition against Prof Ngwafor that has been signed by close to 130 Sobans and counting.

“In his quest to become the Emperor, he has arrogated all the decision making power to himself and the kangaroo committee he now calls the SOBA General Council. Prof Ngwafor has shown so much disdain for SOBANs and their right to govern themselves where ever they are, to the extent of claiming to dissolve a duly elected Executive in the Diaspora” a SOBAN was heard murmuring privately as he left the well attended SOBA America gala night. Prof Ngwafor has banned all the SOBANs who opposed him for life, by rewriting the constitution and using it even before it has been ratified by SOBANs.

We understand that Prof Ephraim Ngwafor who was seeking for allegiance from SOBA America Presidential Candidates can not show anything he has done for SOBA or Sasse College which has now closed its campus for education, except for the chaos that he has left behind in America, UK, Ireland, Germany and Cameroon. His inappropriate donation of significant sums to wealthy SOBA America whilst SOBA in Cameroon has empty coffers with uncompleted projects in Sasse Campus shows his desperate attempt to buy favour from his host.

The Sasse Old Boys Association now looks like the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement; CPDM which has no platform through a General Assembly in Cameroon where members can express their views, but instead has a SOBA President who has changed the constitution and removed powers from the General Assembly. The Constitution now allows for ordinary members to bypass their Chapter General Assembly and report to the president’s council in Cameroon directly. SOBANs in the Diaspora are asking, how such a management structure could be possible, as SOBA Diaspora chapters exist in different legal jurisdictions.

Prof Ngwafor has nothing to show for, after 6 years at the head of SOBA. His poor record include inter alia:

Failure to give accounts for the 75th anniversary celebrations
Failure to hold an ordinary general assembly in 6 years
Failure in the UK, Ireland and Germany
Failure to unite SOBA in Cameroon
Failure to ratify constitutional reforms worldwide
Failure to complete projects in Sasse College Campus

What next for Ngwafor after 6 years (2013 to 2019)?

Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Ngwafor shall sleep no more! SOBANS in the South West and North West in Cameroon no longer recognise him as SOBA President. He has blatantly refused to dialogue with the Caretaker Committee in order to settle their differences in Cameroon and bring all Sobans together.

Can Prof Ngwafor square the circle in the UK?

An overwhelming number of SOBANS in the UK and Ireland do not recognize Ngwafor as the legitimate leader and have been annoyed by his constitutional changes and banning for life of those who oppose him.

In the UK, Ngwafor is supporting a dissident group of SOBANs fighting the main group. Prof Ngwafor has misappropriated the name of the Bishop of Buea in his quest to support the UK dissident group.

Will Prof Ngwafor help SOBA Foundation in Germany rebuild?

Following his visit last year to the Federal Republic of Germany, SOBA Foundation Germany has been plunged into an unprecedented fracas over pronouncements that Ngwafor made in the city of Essen in 2018. SOBA Foundation Germany is now in crisis and which threatens it’s very existence.

So, given all the facts presented against Prof Ephraim Ndeh Ngwafor as SOBA President over the past 6 years, his continuous stay in this role will leave Sasse Old Boys more divided and in turmoil, both in Cameroon and in the Diaspora.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

2, June 2019

John Bolton’s dangerous ‘obsession’ with Iran ⁰

As the US announced plans on Friday to send 1,500 more troops to the Middle East amid hostilities with Iran, analysts say the ultra-hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton has driven much of the escalation in tensions between the two countries.

More than two weeks after the US announced a strengthening of its military presence in the Middle East in response to Iranian “threats”, relations are still fraught between Washington and Tehran.

Since taking office, Donald Trump has expressed an array of conflicting positions, from saying he wants dialogue with the Islamic Republic to making luridly vengeful threats, such as his May 19 tweet: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”

The central figure behind America’s increasingly belligerent stance towards Iran is, however, not the US President but John Bolton, a consistent advocate of regime change in Iran.

‘To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran’

Bolton had been pouring forth warlike rhetoric against Iran for several years before his appointment as national security adviser in April 2018, in paid speeches, opinion columns and as a talking head on Trump’s favourite TV channel, Fox News. “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran”, implored the headline of his opinion piece in The New York Times in 2015, when the Obama administration was negotiating the nuclear deal from which Trump would go on to withdraw in May 2018.

In 2017, Bolton gave a speech at a conference in Paris organised by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran – a militant opposition movement detested by the Iranian regime and classed as a terrorist group by the US and EU. He declared at this event that the Islamic Republic of Iran would “not last until its 40th birthday” (April 1, 2019).

In his role as national security adviser, Bolton asked the Pentagon to draw up military options for an attack on Iran – provoking considerable disquiet amongst senior officials. On February 11 2019, the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Bolton used the White House’s official Twitter account to tell the Ayatollah Khamenei: “I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy.”

Such “extremely belligerent rhetoric” has caused heightened concern because there is a “shared interest amongst several leaders – those of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and indeed the US – in ramping up the antagonism towards Iran,” Karim Sader, a Middle East specialist and former researcher at the French ministry of defence, told FRANCE 24.

“The US has returned to the anti-Iranian reflex of the George W. Bush era, and the Trump administration – especially its national security adviser – is obsessed with the Iranian threat,” he continued.

It remains to be seen how far Bolton will get with his ferociously hawkish views on Iran. Despite his aforementioned moments of vitriolic fervour against the Islamic Republic, Trump ran for the White House as a non-interventionist candidate, and analysts say that his instincts are broadly isolationist.

Is Bolton ‘manufacturing a crisis’?

However, the recent developments in US-Iran relations seem to suggest Bolton’s influence is growing. Indeed, the national security adviser is reportedly taking advantage of the void left by James Mattis, the internationalist defence secretary who resigned in December. Mattis’ successor, the low-key and little-known Patrick Shanahan, is still waiting for the Senate to confirm his appointment.

Bolton was the first US official to announce the dispatch of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf to “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime”, in a statement posted on the White House website.

He also lobbied successfully for the Pentagon to produce a plan to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American soldiers or accelerate its nuclear weapons programme, The New York Timesreported on May 13. Trump denied it, speaking to journalists the next day: “I think it’s fake news, ok? Now, would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that.”

“I think this is manufactured by Bolton to try to justify the administration’s very harsh policy toward Iran despite the fact that Iran has been complying with the nuclear deal,” Barbara Slavin, an Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington DC, told AFP.

“Given Bolton’s record,” she continued, “I wouldn’t put it past him to try to manufacture a crisis here.”

American officials and diplomats have been at pains to argue that the US is not trying to provoke a conflict with Iran. Trump’s strategy – as seen with North Korea – may well be to impose harsh sanctions on Iran and then try and negotiate from a position of strength. “If they call, we would be certain to negotiate,” the US president told journalists on May 20.

“Going back to sanctions and threats against Iran is counter-productive,” Sader warned. “It is the best way to strengthen the most extreme factions within the Iranian state.”

Trump ‘tempers’ Bolton

Described as “tenacious” by Condoleezza Rice (secretary of state during Bolton’s brief, controversial tenure as US ambassador to the UN under Bush from 2005 to 2006), Bolton seems to regard the notion of diplomacy with distaste.

The US president himself said last week that he is a moderating influence on Bolton. “I actually temper John,” Trump said.

The influence of a national security adviser who makes Trump look moderate has even prompted anxiety amongst Republican legislators. Senator Rand Paul – a maverick non-interventionist on foreign policy, but broadly supine in the face of Trump’s decisions – called Bolton “a malign influence on the administration”.

“I think the most important thing is to put the administration on notice that they do not have congressional permission to go to war with Iran and we need to make sure we’re not involved in anything that is provocative enough to encourage a skirmish that leads to a bigger war,” Paul continued.

It could be that Trump agrees with Paul. The president lambasted his advisor for pushing forward the US’s hardline stance on Nicolas Maduro, which hasn’t lived up to its promise of forcing the Venezuelan president out of power. Trump said Bolton wants to get him “into a war”, The Washington Post reported on May 8.

Bolton certainly likes to play hardball on the world stage. But it’s a game that could have calamitous consequences for the Middle East.

France 24

2, June 2019

Woman accuses footballer Neymar of rape in Paris ⁰

Paris Saint-Germain’s star striker Neymar has been accused of raping a woman at a hotel in Paris, Brazilian media reports said Saturday, charges that the player’s father slammed as attempted blackmail.

According to a complaint filed with São Paulo police and reported by the UOL and GloboEsporte websites, the Paris Saint-Germain star is accused of “using violence to have sex with the victim without her consent”.

São Paulo’s security secretariat would not provide a copy of the complaint to AFP, confirming only that one had been filed but saying its contents were classified.

The unidentified woman, who lives in Brazil, allegedly met Neymar through Instagram and, after exchanging messages, the footballer invited her to visit him in Paris in mid-May.

According to the complaint, Neymar arrived at the hotel “apparently intoxicated”, and the two chatted and exchanged “caresses”.

But then “he became aggressive and used violence to have sex with the victim without her consent”, the document said.

Neymar’s father, who is also his agent, categorically denied the accusations in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster Bandeirantes.

“This is not true, he has never committed any crime,” said Neymar Santos, arguing that his son was a victim of blackmail. “We have all the evidence and we already gave everything to the lawyers.”

According to Neymar Santos, his son and the woman went on a date, but Neymar did not want to see her again. Since then, the woman has tried to extort money from the player and his family, he said.

“My son can be accused of many things, but I know what kind of man he is… It’s clear that this was a trap,” he said, adding that the family was prepared to release WhatsApp messages that would exonerate Neymar.

According to the media reports, the accuser was in Paris from May 15 to 17, but waited until last Friday to file the complaint in Brazil because she was “emotionally shaken”.

Neymar has recently been embroiled in assault scandals. In May the French football authorities banned him for three matches after he lashed out at a fan after PSG’s embarrassing French Cup loss to Rennes in April.

Neymar, 27, is currently in Brazil preparing for the Copa America, which takes place in the country from June 14 to July 7.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

2, June 2019

Barrister Fru John Nsoh: Southern Cameroons Judas Iscariot ⁰

Dear senior colleague, I am Barrister A P Asafor formerly Secretary/founding member of Meme Lawyers Association (MELA).Presently I am the President of Southern Cameroonians in Los Angeles (SCILA) California. We met several times during Cameroon Bar Association meetings in Yaounde,Douala and Bamenda mostly in the 90s.

I remember you running for a Bar Council seat during one of these meetings. I was impressed by your contributions during discussions at the General Assembly. In the recent past when you propounded and defended the SC/Ambazonian position in Equinox TV and various other media outlets, my admiration for your fearlessness grew. You spoke with a boldness and candour,that could not but convince your listeners that you knew what you were talking about. Our people say that “when I do well no one remembers, but when I do something bad, everyone remembers!“

As lead counsel for the SC/Ambazonian Leadership in French Cameroun jails, I observed that you and your team of lawyers have done a commendable job so far. Ambazonians cheered for you and your colleagues. They saw you as “knights in shining armor“, who would ultimately rescue our Leaders. Now, permit me to fast-forward to your recent utterances on ABC AMBA TV, and other media.

You unleashed a bomb by your various utterances. Due to time constraints, permit me go into just a few and make my observations as your keen admirer. The most outstanding revelation you made was that Sissiku AyukTabe Julius, imprisoned Ambazonian Leader is compromised (by French Cameroun officials ostensibly.) You offered as evidence, the possibility that Ayuk Tabe met with the Director of Cabinet of Paul Biya,and also with Kamto Maurice (the acclaimed winner of French Cameroun’s last presidential elections) who happened to be in the same jail (Kondengui) as Sissiku.

You also alluded to documents being released by Sissiku AyukTabe without consulting you. And finally there was the reference to Sissiku stating that you are no longer his Attorney. Sir, the evidence you presented to buttress your allegations that Sissiku Ayuk Tabe is compromised, are so circumstantial, frivolous, and totally lacking in relevance, that no one except the gullible public would even consider it. For such serious accusations as you’ve leveled against Sissiku, the requirements must be concrete, compelling irrefutable evidence as proof. What you offered as best is mere speculation, which anyone with a healthy imagination can concoct. “Sissiku met with Biya’s Director of Civil cabinet. Biya declared war on Ambazonia. Therefore, Sissiku’s meeting with that gentleman can only mean that: Sissiku is compromised!!”

Again, Sissiku met with Maurice Kamto,who claims to have won presidential elections, and has been imprisoned by Biya in Kondengui. Sissiku’s meeting with Kamto,to you has only one reason. He is compromised! Is that the only conclusion that can be drawn from Sissiku’s meeting with those 2 individuals, if at all, he did? How many apartheid leaders did Mandela meet while incarcerated? Almost all of the last four! Did that make him compromised? Sir, with your 30 years experience as a practicing Attorney, it’s my humble opinion that you can do better than this.

Senior Colleague, we were taught in the Nigerian Law School, during Professional Ethics, that there is client/lawyer confidentiality. All information that a client discloses to his Attorney, or that the Attorney comes across, in the course of his retention by the client is protected by attorney/client confidentiality. That said, your disclosures on public media, of information that you acquired as Lawyer for the SC/Ambazonian leaders has seriously breached the rule on confidentiality. Not only that, your exposures portray your client in bad light, and amount to character assassination defamation and exposing his life to risk! Think carefully about your words Sir, and the timeliness of your so-called revelations. The social media has exploded and is abuzz in the past couple of days with your allegations.

As someone who believes in the Struggle of Ambazonians to throw off the yoke of neo colonialism,it is my humble submission that your revelations have done more harm than good to our Struggle. You have “washed our dirty linen in full view of the entire world”! Are you happy now? Even if Sissiku AyukTabe is guilty of all the crimes you accuse him of, is the world stage the best forum to seek for redress? Do you seriously believe in this fight? Or is it merely an opportunity for you to build your popularity, and amass wealth at the expense of our suffering masses and leaders? Could you not have approached a select group of SC/Ambazonian “elders/wise men” to look into and resolve these issues without resorting to this drama of yours?

Finally, would it be true that your public outrage is mere vengeful payback at Sissiku over his reduction of the monies you were getting from this “brief”? The other Lawyers who are involved in defending our leaders (Hon Barrister Oroh of Nigeria, Barrister Yong etc, why haven’t they raised the same concerns as you have? If,Sissiku Ayuk Tabe has been compromised, how come just last week he released a powerful letter to the UNO and the world, stating conditions under which Ambazonians will negotiate? Were the contents of that letter, evidence of a man who is “compromised?” Doesn’t the Bible say that “by their words we shall know them?”

In summary, I would opine that casting aspersions on Sissiku AyukTabe’s name and person has not portrayed you in the best of lights. You have accused a man (your client,) tried him, and sentenced him to condemnation, all this while he is incarcerated without the opportunity to reply. Boxers would say you “hit below the belt!” Others less polite would say: you stabbed your client in the back, in the dark! And in trying to exact vengeance you caused untold havoc to the SC/Ambazonian Struggle! Think about it as you enjoy your new-found fame on social media. “He who throws up gravel in the market place, should not be surprised if his wife returns home blind”. The cockroach says that it does not talk much, not because it is dumb, but because its words, if carelessly released, have the potential of scattering the market place!

By Barrister Asafor