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27, April 2019

Containing and Deterring Biya: Act now or face disaster, aid chief warns ⁰

A separatist conflict in Cameroon that has forced half a million people from their homes is in danger of worsening, the head of a major aid agency has warned, condemning what he called the “international silence” over the crisis.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said the world had underestimated the impact on civilians of the violence that has gripped Cameroon, where entire villages had been burned to the ground.

“I’ve been all over the world, dealing with humanitarian work for many years and I was really shocked by the unbelievable extent of this emergency that is underestimated, underreported and neglected by the international community,” said Egeland.

“There are atrocities every single day against civilians … and the world doesn’t seem to know or want to know about it,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone during a visit to Cameroon.

Long-running tensions in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon erupted into conflict in late 2016, prompting crackdowns by security forces and leaving 1.3 million people in need of aid, according to the United Nations.

Egeland said the violence had pushed tens of thousands into hiding in the bush without access to food or medical help, and meant nearly a million children could no longer go to school.

But he said there was a danger the situation could worsen. “I really, really hope there will be mediation efforts, that there will be an outreach and an interest in dialogue on both sides that will lead to talks which can end this before it is too late,” he said on Thursday.

“I’ve seen too many places which started with a smaller conflict … and ended up in a war that no one could stop.”

Cameroon’s English speakers have felt increasingly marginalized by the French-speaking government in the capital Yaounde and in 2017 thousands took to the streets to demand a breakaway state.

The military stepped in and thousands of Anglophones fled the ensuing crackdown, which Cameroon authorities described as an anti-terrorist operation.

In a statement Egeland, whose organization is distributing survival kits to victims including food, tools and materials for temporary shelters, said there had been little pressure on the parties to stop attacking civilians.

“The international silence surrounding atrocities is as shocking as the untold stories are heart-breaking,” he said.

A U.N. human rights committee in February criticized the “heavy-handed approach” of the security forces to the crisis, which saw medical facilities, schools and entire villages destroyed. Allegra Baiocchi, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator in Cameroon, said the violence was hampering relief efforts, and also blamed a lack of funding from other countries.

“The violence has been characterized by massive human rights violations. Attacks against schools and health providers have reached an alarming scale,” she said.

“Negotiating safe humanitarian access is extremely complicated and it is slowing us down.”

Source: Reuters

27, April 2019

Southern Cameroons Civilians Continue to Be Slaughtered in Midst of Clash Between Soldiers, Separatist Forces ⁰

Civilians in the African nation of Cameroon continue to be killed in the crosshairs of ongoing violent clashes between French-speaking government soldiers and English-speaking separatist forces seeking to form their own country.

The violence has been unceasing for the past three years in the midst of grievances that boil down to the alleged underrepresentation and squelching of those who speak English and follow British common law.

As France and Britain were allies against Germany in World War I and were granted rule of the colonies by the League of Nations, Cameroon has been a mix of both French and English-speaking inhabitants. Areas were known as French Cameroon and British Cameroon. However, following the formation of a united Republic in the 1960’s that merged both into one nation, Anglophones — those who spoke English — began sensing that although the country was considered bilingual, they were in the minority. Out of the 10 regions, eight are French and base their legal system on French law, while the other two, in western Cameroon, follow British common law.

The government also speaks French, the country’s currency is in French, and most television and radio programs are in French.

Because of this, Anglophones have felt marginalized, and the last straw seemed to be in 2016 when a business transaction law was circulated in French but not also translated into English. Lawyers in the English-speaking regions had enough of the installment of local judges who didn’t speak English well and weren’t familiar with common law.

Teachers were likewise upset about Francophones increasingly being hired in Anglophone schools. According to reports, lawyers and teachers alike took to the streets to protest the encroachment, which resulted in both arrests and violence. During one protest, government forces used live bullets and tear gas to try to break up the gathering.

Anglophones have since called for the formation of their own country, called Ambazonia, but the Cameroonian government does not wish for the nation to be divided and has sought to put down any rebellion.

Over the past three years, as clashes between English separatists and the French security forces have raged, thousands of residents have fled for their lives into other regions or to the neighboring nation of Nigeria. Reports of innocent civilians being killed have regularly been in the headlines, and both sides have been blamed for the violence.

“People are dying everywhere,” Pamela Njoke told the New York Times. “In short, it’s horrible.”

“Armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have stabbed to death and shot military personnel, burned down schools and attacked teachers, while security forces have tortured people, fired on crowds and destroyed villages, in a spiral of violence that keeps getting more deadly,” wrote Amnesty International in June.

It explained that video footage obtained by the organization showed military forces burning down the village of Kwakwa, while residents in other areas have allegedly been detained and tortured in an effort to get them to confess that they supported the separatists.

However, those who do not cooperate with the efforts of the Ambazonia Liberation Forces, or who are even suspected of supporting the government, are reportedly also vulnerable to violence and unmerited attack by the separatists. A number of schools have been set on fire or principals abducted, and some students or teachers have even been shot.

“The assailant … told me that I was still coming to school in defiance of calls for a schools boycott. … He then asked me to raise my hands, but before I could do so, he shot me,” one teacher told Amnesty International.

A report published by AFP earlier this month says that five civilians were shot and killed by security forces in an English-speaking village, with one beheaded.

“Three of the bodies were later discovered mutilated, including two found with their hands tied and their genitals cut off,” the outlet states.

One woman was also killed at a local hospital and another wounded while government soldiers searched for separatists.

“[S]ecurity forces allegedly shot and killed over a dozen civilians, including at least seven people whom witnesses said had intellectual, psychosocial or physical disabilities who did not flee because they were unable or refused to. At least four older women died, burned alive, after security forces set their homes on fire,” Human Rights Watch similarly wrote in its 2019 report.

In September, The Guardian published an article stating that “[a] self-declared member of the Ambazonia Liberation Forces appeared in a … video alongside images of a soldier’s decapitated head …”

President Paul Biya urged separatists last year to cease the fighting or they will be “neutralized.”

“If my appeal to warmongers to lay down their weapons remains unheeded, the Defense and Security Forces will be instructed to neutralize them,” he said, according to Journal Du Cameroun. “I am well aware of the distress these rebels are causing the populations of these regions. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.”

However, some have stated that the government’s equally violent response has not helped to bring peace.

“People in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are in the grip of a deadly cycle of violence. Security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested and tortured people during military operations which have also displaced thousands of civilians. Their heavy-handed response will do nothing to calm the violence. In fact, it is likely to further alienate Anglophone communities and fuel further unrest,” Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Director for West and Central Africa, said in statement.

More than 500 civilians have been killed as a result of the three-year clash, as well as over 200 government soldiers, and an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 residents displaced. The European Union has spoken out against the violence and has called for dialogue between the two sides.

“Regrettably, unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly in the regions, allegedly involving both the security and defense forces and separatist groups,” one representative recently lamented before the EU parliament.

Source: Christian News

26, April 2019

Anti Ambazonia Policy: Biya regime’s new petroleum code to boost output ⁰

Cameroon’s new petroleum code is seeking to improve upstream production and revenues amid greater regional competition and major political troubles.

The national assembly has approved a new and expanded petroleum code. It must now be ratified by President Paul Biya in the next 15 days in order for it to enter into law.

Although Cameroon’s new petroleum code has not been made public yet, Interfax Natural Gas Insight understands it contains several provisions aimed principally at boosting hydrocarbon production, government revenues and local content. The majority of the changes appears geared towards rekindling investor interest and is being introduced against…

Source: Interfax Global Energy

26, April 2019

UK commits to help Biya regime tackle terrorism and Anglophone crisis ⁰

The UK is determined to help Cameroon overcome the challenges it has been facing,” in terms of terrorism and troubles in the northwest and southwest regions. This is, according to the Presidency of the Republic, an outcome of an audience granted April 24 by President Paul Biya to the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Cameroon, Rowan James Laxton.

According to the related statement, the African country has already benefited from UK support to fight against Boko haram and handle refugees. Cameroon welcomed the British government’s peace keeping actions in the face of separatist violence in the southwest and northwest.

According to the British diplomat, his country is also willing to contribute in big development projects in Cameroon. Focus is on key sectors that impact people’s lives energy, trade, social housing.

Source: Business in Cameroon

26, April 2019

Cameroon’s Biya Tunes Out Foreign Critics ⁰

Authorities in Cameroon are jailing opposition politicians and barring their supporters from holding rallies. Security forces and separatist groups continue to carry out atrocities in the country’s restive Anglophone regions. More and more civilians are being forced from their homes, adding to a tally of displaced people that already exceeds half a million.

These problems and more were cited in a speech delivered last week to the European Parliament by Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top foreign policy official. Her words painted a picture of an increasingly volatile country, just six months after 86-year-old President Paul Biya coasted to reelection following a campaign in which he pitched himself as the only conceivable guarantor of stability.

Brussels isn’t alone in sounding the alarm. African and Western diplomats and human rights groups, to say nothing of observers within Cameroon, have become more vocal in denouncing conditions under Biya, who appears to have interpreted his reelection as an invitation to become even more aggressive in targeting his opponents.

The external scrutiny is the latest indication of Cameroon’s deteriorating international image, which is perhaps inevitable for a country that’s had the same autocratic leader for more than three decades and is battling multiple insurgencies. Yet it’s unclear, at this stage, whether diplomats are interested merely in signaling concern or if they’ll push for real change.

Moreover, there’s no guarantee that, with a leader as entrenched as Biya, the latter is even possible. Hans De Marie Heungoup, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, notes in an interview that while Biya once put more effort into guarding Cameroon’s reputation, these days he is playing a kind of political “survival game,” making it more difficult for outsiders to influence his behavior. If critical statements aren’t accompanied by steps that could undermine his security apparatus and patronage networks, Biya might be willing to simply ignore them.

“Nowadays he has prepared himself psychologically to withstand this kind of pressure,” Heungoup says. “If that pressure moves from simple, powerful statements to meaningful concrete action, then I suspect that Biya could step back and try to show a more democratic face.”

Cameroon’s security woes, which fuel many of the human rights violations taking place there, are complex. It’s been more than five years since fighters from Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based extremist group, first infiltrated northern Cameroon, drawing the country into a regional counterterrorism campaign. These days, however, instability stems primarily from the “Anglophone crisis,” which has been on the world’s radar for more than two years now. What began in late 2016 with anti-government protests in regions of western Cameroon dominated by the country’s English-speaking minority has turned into an all-out insurgency, with rebel fighters working toward the establishment of an independent nation called Ambazonia.

The separatist violence has triggered a brutal state crackdown. Human Rights Watch reported in late March that security forces, including the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, have engaged in a spate of violent activity in the months since Biya’s reelection, shooting and killing civilians, sexually assaulting women and burning and looting homes. Human Rights Watch said security forces had “killed scores of civilians,” while warning that “the number of civilian deaths is most likely higher.”

It’s unclear, at this stage, whether diplomats are interested merely in signaling concern or if they’ll push for real change.

Separatists, for their part, have continued their campaign of kidnappings and assault. One witness told Human Rights Watch that two people were beaten to death by separatists on suspicion of having voted in the presidential election, which the separatists considered an illegitimate exercise.

Given the difficulty of reporting in the Anglophone regions, it’s unclear whether the overall level of violence there has increased since the vote. But Heungoup, with the International Crisis Group, says the conflict is expanding into areas that had previously been relatively untouched. And Human Rights Watch noted that violence on the part of the government risked making the situation even worse. “Cameroon’s authorities have an obligation to respond lawfully and to protect people’s rights during periods of violence,” Lewis Mudge, the organization’s Central Africa director, said last month. “The government’s heavy-handed response targeting civilians is counterproductive and risks igniting more violence.”

The political space is similarly troubling. Those looking to mount any kind of challenge to Biya are operating under mounting restrictions. Official results from the October election showed Biya winning reelection with 71 percent of the vote; his closest challenger, Maurice Kamto, officially earned 14 percent. Yet elections in Cameroon are neither free nor fair, and Kamto has insisted that he was the real winner.

In late January, supporters of Kamto’s political party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, participated in protests in multiple regions of the country, including its two main cities, Yaounde and Douala. In response, security forces used live ammunition to disperse crowds and arrested hundreds of protesters, according to Amnesty International. The following week, Kamto himself was arrested, and he has remained in custody ever since. His request for provisional release was rejected, a decision that was upheld on appeal earlier this month.

Kamto’s fate seems to be of particular interest to Western officials. In addition to Mogherini, Tibor Nagy, the top U.S. diplomat for African affairs, has raised it publicly, including on a visit last month to Cameroon. This prompted a quick rebuke from a government spokesman. “The Cameroonian government deeply regrets these words which denote a lack of knowledge of the issues, realities and facts,” the spokesman wrote in a press release that accused Nagy of interfering in the government’s internal affairs.

As Emmanuel Freudenthal pointed out in an in-depth report for WPR last year, Washington has recently been more inclined to criticize Cameroon than has France, a former colonial power with deep ties to Biya. Yet Heungoup says that, across the board, there are signs diplomats are recalibrating their approach to Biya’s government.

“They have started to realize the true nature of the regime,” he says. “When I discuss with some diplomats, they are less defensive of Biya. We now see statements at the highest level—statements that we used to not see.”

But will these same diplomats do anything to back up their words? Perhaps Biya’s greatest vulnerability is the security forces. In February, the U.S. announced that it was reducing military aid to the country, citing human rights concerns related to the fight against Boko Haram and Anglophone separatists. “The bottom line is right now in Cameroon, they have been a good partner with us counterterrorism-wise, but you can’t neglect the fact that they have—there are alleged atrocities in what’s gone on there,” Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, said at the time.

Similar measures from the U.S., France and Israel, all of which have been involved in military training and security assistance, could ramp up pressure on Biya. Targeted sanctions could also get the Biya government’s attention, though Washington might want to avoid the kind of standoff they would produce.

In the absence of such steps, it will likely fall to Cameroonians to spur change, perhaps via large-scale protests like those that have threatened the government in the past, most recently in 2008. This would be the messiest kind of upheaval, further giving the lie to the notion that Biya, and only Biya, can keep the country stable.

Reported by World Politics Review

26, April 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Aid group says Ambazonians need more help ⁰

Tens of thousands of people are living in the bush without humanitarian aid in Cameroon after two years of fighting between separatists and government forces that has failed to attract widespread international support, an international aid agency said Thursday.

More than half a million people have fled their homes but the crisis has yet to generate the humanitarian response that is needed, according to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who visited the restive Southwest region this week.

“They are not able to return to their torched villages nor do they have confidence that they can go to the towns,” he said.

The English-speaking separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions allege years of marginalization by the government of largely French-speaking Cameroon. President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Hundreds have been killed as fighters from a number of armed groups battle government forces and attempt to economically paralyze the regions.

Egeland met with women who had sought refuge in the capital of Southwest region, Buea. “They told harrowing stories of how villages have been attacked at night. Often they wouldn’t know whether it was one side or the other,” he said. “Some said they thought it was government. Others said they thought it was rebels. What they have in common is that they fled with nothing.”

Civilians also have been targeted by the separatists, who have kidnapped students from schools. They also have amputated the hands of those still working on rubber plantations after a boycott was called to halt the local economy.

Egeland called on all sides to allow humanitarian organizations access to the volatile regions, and on other aid groups and European governments to step up assistance.

The Central African nation is divided along lines created during colonialism by European powers. The country now known as Cameroon was first ruled by the Germans then divided among the French and British. As a result, there are English- and French-speaking regions. English speakers are estimated at about 20% of the population.

Culled from The Washington Post

25, April 2019

US: Trump mocks Biden after his bid for Democratic pres. nomination ⁰

US President Donald Trump has attacked former Vice President Joe Biden on social media, mocking the veteran Democratic politician for his physical and mental abilities.

Trump insulted Biden on Thursday questioning the septuagenarian’s capacity in his first reaction shortly after Biden’s official announcement that he will run for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election.

“Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign,” Trump tweeted in the morning.

Trump tried to dissuade Biden from pursuing the Democratic nomination, saying the upcoming political competition would “be nasty” and he would be forced to confront “people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas,” an apparent reference to other Democratic primary candidates.

“But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!” Trump tweeted.

Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. It will be nasty – you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2019

Election pundits regard Biden as the front-runner of the Democratic Party candidates seeking to challenge Trump in the upcoming election.

Biden officially announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Republican Trump in their quest for the White House on Thursday.

‘I asked president Obama not to endorse’

Biden said that he asked his old boss Barack Obama not to endorse him because wanted to win the nomination on his own merits.

“I asked president Obama not to endorse,” Biden told reporters, adding: “Whoever wins this nomination should win it on its own merits.”

Asked whether he believed that he was the Democratic party’s best choice to compete against Trump in the upcoming race for the presidency, Biden answered: “That’ll be for the Democrats to decide.”

A source close to Obama said the former president was “excited” by the extraordinary and diverse talent in the Democratic lineup and believed it would be best “to let the candidates make their cases directly to the voters.”

However, an Obama spokesperson, Katie Hill, noted that Obama and Biden had “forged a special bond” during their eight-year work in the White House and still remained close.

This photo taken on January 10, 2017, shows then US President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden hugging after the President delivered his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois. ( by AFP)

In January 2017, days before the end of Obama’s presidency, Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US, to Biden.

Meanwhile, Biden is one among twenty candidates seeking the Democratic nomination.

Other nominees include senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, several current and former members of the House of Representatives and Obama’s former cabinet member Julian Castro.

Source: Presstv

25, April 2019

US: If impeached, Trump to ‘head to Supreme Court’ ⁰

US President Donald Trump has warned Democrats that he would turn to the Supreme Court if he is impeached.

Trump made the comment in a tweet Wednesday, claiming he was not guilty to be impeached.

“I DID NOTHING WRONG,” Trump said. “If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

PressTV-There is ‘ample evidence’ of Trump collusion

After a report by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, Democrats are taking steps that could lead to the impeachment of the president.

Mueller did not take a stance on obstruction of justice, but detailed 10 instances, in which Trump tried to interfere with the investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which yielded President Trump.

According to the president, Mueller’s report was written by a team biased against him with “unlimited money,” yet “didn’t lay a glove on me.”

PressTV-Impeach Trump or no 2020 support: US billionaire

Trump has also been attacking at his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.

“Not only are there no ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ there are no Crimes by me at all,” the president said on Twitter. “All of the Crimes were committed by Crooked Hillary, the Dems, the DNC and Dirty Cops – and we caught them in the act! We waited for Mueller and WON, so now the Dems look to Congress as last hope!”

According to a 1993 ruling by the Supreme Court authority for impeachment trials resides in Congress and” nowhere else.”

Source: Presstv

25, April 2019

South Africa: 60 killed, over 1,000 displaced in flood ⁰

At least 60 people have been killed and more than 1,000 have fled their homes after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides along South Africa’s eastern coast, authorities said on Wednesday.

Most of the deaths were in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in neighboring Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said.

The rains mainly hit areas around the port city of Durban. Multiple dwellings collapsed in mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings on Wednesday. Victor da Silva, a resident of the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.

“On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn’t stop raining,” Da Silva said.

“And then an hour and a half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn’t stopped. Authorities in southern Tanzania ordered evacuations of residents from low-lying areas and the closure of schools and offices ahead of landfall of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth on neighboring Mozambique’s coast on Thursday.

“We’ve decided to evacuate all residents of valleys and other low-lying areas and we advise them to seek refuge at public spaces,” Mtwara regional commissioner Gelasius Byakanwa, told reporters.

Johan Fourie said he fled his home in Amanzimtoti, Kwazulu-Natal, just before part of it collapsed. “I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital,” Fourie told eNCA television.

The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the extent of the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said.

Some people were swept away by the water, he added.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday and was expected in the Eastern Cape in the next few days.

“This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it,” he said.

Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.

(Source: Reuters)

25, April 2019

Battle for Ambazonia: Francophone gendarme killed in Muyuka ⁰

A Cameroonian gendarmerie officer was kidnapped and beheaded on Wednesday by an unknown Southern Cameroons Liberation Force in the Muyuka Sub Constituency in Fako County.

The young officer deployed to Southern Cameroons by the regime in Yaounde had been reportedly kidnapped. Cameroon Concord News gathered that he was then beheaded by the Ambazonian fighters, who eviscerated him.

The viscera of the Francophone officer were scattered in pieces in some few corners of Muyuka. The gendarme’s head was abandoned on the main road linking Muyuka to Buea. It is difficult to establish the group behind the act.

However, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime announced recently that several secessionist camps were dismantled on Tuesday night and 6 Ambazonian fighters killed in fighting in Kwakwa and Bafut.

Ever since the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons declared the independence of their own state, clashes between Ambazonian Restoration Forces and troops loyal to the regime in Yaounde have been reported all over the Ambazonian territory.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than half a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced and several hundred killed by Francophone soldiers.

By Sama Ernest in Buea