Business

26, January 2018

Biya regime internet shutdowns cost Ambazonians millions ⁰

For people in the English speaking parts of Cameroon, free speech on the internet has become all but impossible. Authorities in the country’s Anglophone region have blocked access to social media and messaging apps for almost four months in an ongoing attempt to quell criticism aimed against the government.

It is the second internet shutdown within a year in the West African nation. “Cameroonians have come to expect internet restrictions when they voice their dissent against the government; they have accepted this has become a way of life,” Judith Nwana, a US-based Cameroonian human rights activist with a background in telecommunications, told Al Jazeera.

“When it first happened, we were all taken unaware because we never imagined that this could happen in Cameroon. Then there was the gradual acceptance that the crisis was threatening the government and we were living in an oppressive regime,” she added.

That first shutdown happened in January 2017, after Anglophone teachers, lawyers and students went on strike over alleged bias in favour of Francophones. The Anglophones claimed they face discrimination and that they were excluded from state jobs as a result of their limited French language skills.

“The Anglophone regions feel neglected and left out of the national government’s agenda,” Peter Micek of digital rights organisation Access Now told Al Jazeera.

“Then, the government took the extreme measure to shut down the internet completely,” he said. The first shutdown lasted 93 days, from January to April 2017. “It was devastating. People didn’t know how to work around it,” Judith Nwana said, adding that the whole society was affected; education, money transfers, healthcare and businesses all relied on internet access, which was now shutdown.

Eventually, internet access was restored in April after international pressure from, among others, the United Nations and Pope Francis. However, in October a second, more targeted shutdown was enacted after renewed protests in the Anglophone areas.

The new blockade took aim at social media and messaging apps. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp were all shut down. But by this time, many Cameroonians were prepared, using VPN services to circumvent the blockade.

“Unfortunately, VPNs are expensive and not everyone can afford one or had budgeted for one. Regardless, businesses, the tech industry, healthcare and education are seriously affected,” Nwana said.

One of those affected businesses belongs to Mambe Churchill Nanje, a software engineer and CEO and founder of Njorku, a search engine that allows people all over Africa to look for jobs.

Nanje is based in Silicon Mountain, a tech-hub based and around in the city of Buea, which was hit hard by both shutdowns.

“They not only affected me and my business, but the whole of Silicon Mountain,” Nanje told Al Jazeera.

“It has pushed out a lot of the talent [at Silicon Mountain]. They had to leave because they can’t work. They either moved to other parts of Cameroon or out of the country,” he said.

Internet refugee camp

As the shutdowns continued, many Cameroonians were forced to travel back and forth to regions with internet access to conduct business or access vital information.

“They came together and formed an internet refugee camp along the border with the littoral region, where others could come and get internet access from the neighbouring region,” Nwana said.

The first shutdown alone cost the country at least $38m, Nwana added. The effects of the second blockade are not as severe economically, but Nwana emphasised there is more than just monetary loss.

“Shutting down social media sites is akin to shutting down the internet. It’s how people communicate today. Cases have been recorded of people missing deadlines or scholarships and opportunities when the information is put on social media,” she said.

“Those in Anglophone Cameroon don’t get to see this, which reinforces the feeling of marginalisation and discrimination,” Nwana added.

Micek echoed Nwana’s sentiment, saying the economic effect is big but also not the only thing that is lost because of these shutdowns.

“The Silicon Mountain region is a hub of innovation and that has suffered enormously. Besides, the economy is integrated, so getting services from the Silicon Mountain area is gonna be hard, wherever people are in the country, either in the Anglophone or Francophone regions,” Micek said.

“And this blockade prevents not just Cameroonians but all of us from accessing businesses, personal stories and other rich content from these areas in Cameroon,” Micek said.

“The whole world suffers because of these shutdowns.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

19, January 2018

Ambazonia: Interim Government threaten attacks on foreign companies ⁰

A group of Cameroonian activists demanding secession from the French-speaking regions says it’s considering attacks on foreign companies operating in the central African nation.

The group, which hails from the country’s two Anglophone regions, says it wants to “target foreign companies investing in Cameroon” because their revenues sustain “incompetent officials” in President Paul Biya’s government, according to emailed comments from a spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday. Anu didn’t specify the nature of the attacks.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which refers to the two Anglophone regions as the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. Nigeria’s State Security Service has denied knowledge of their detention, he said. Nigerian authorities haven’t yet commented on the issue.

“Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only just spur us the more,” the group said in a statement last week.

Thousands of people have crossed the border into Nigeria and more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the Cameroonian government intensifies its actions against the pro-independent movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a Jan. 16 statement. The agency and its Nigerian counterpart, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, officially registered 9,620 asylum seekers by Jan. 12, according to the statement.

www.bloomberg.com

17, January 2018

Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria ⁰

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

EKOK, Cameroon: Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

Cameroon has been gripped by spiralling violence since November 2016, when government forces crushed a peaceful movement of Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting against their perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority.

Violent clashes between separatists and security forces have cut many Cameroonian buyers off from parts of the Southwest region, source of roughly half of Cameroon’s total production which reached around 240,000 tonnes last season.

“Our usual buyers are scared. Some come, but they stop in towns like Mamfe and do not dare to venture further into villages that produce more cocoa,” said Takor, a cocoa farmer in Mamfe, who did not give his surname out of fear of retribution.

“Now we have buyers that come from Nigeria,” he said.

A Reuters reporter in the south-western town of Ekok saw bags of cocoa beans loaded on to pick-up trucks and into cars registered in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

Cocoa smuggling has long been an issue along the border. But Cameroonian farmers and buyers told Reuters that the crisis has aggravated the practice.

Smugglers, they said, are now paying higher prices for beans and venturing deeper into Cameroon, the world’s fifth biggest producer, to scoop up more of farmers’ output.

One farmer in the south-western village of Eyang Ntui said Nigerians paid between 850 and 1,000 CFA francs (£1.1-£1.3) per kilogram of beans. Cameroonian buyers were, meanwhile, paying around 600 CFA francs/kg, he said.

“The crisis has brought us closer together. It is easier to sell to the Nigerians who are near us,” said Mbeng, who farms 12 hectares of cocoa near Mamfe and also withheld his surname.

No estimate was available for the smuggled volumes, but Cameroonian farmers and buyers said the amounts were significant.

Farmer Georges Eyong said his cooperative had sold 53 tonnes of beans to Nigerian buyers this month.

A senior official with Cameroon’s sector regulator, the National Office for Cocoa and Coffee (ONCC), said it plans to curb cocoa smuggling by setting up check points along the Nigerian border.

“This is an illegal trade. We are not opposed to exporting Cameroonian cocoa, but exporters need to meet all the necessary terms and conditions,” said the official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

www.channelnewsasia.com

12, January 2018

Ambazonian farmers abandon cocoa plantations amid crackdown ⁰

Thousands of cocoa farmers have fled violence between separatists and security forces in Cameroon’s Southwest Region, which grows more than 100,000 tonnes of beans, nearly half of the country’s output, farmers and buyers told Reuters.

They said the clashes could put a dent in output from the world’s fifth largest cocoa producer, which is already seeing production dip compared to last season due to poor weather.

The crisis in Francophone-dominated Cameroon’s minority English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions has worsened over the past year in reaction to a violent government crackdown on demonstrations by the Anglophones.

The government ordered residents of 16 villages in the region to leave their homes early last month as it launched a military operation against the separatists.

Others have fled on their own, often to larger towns. More than 15,000 have fled to Nigeria, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said on Thursday.

The repression has breathed new life into a once-fringe separatist movement that in October unilaterally declared independence for a breakaway state known as Ambazonia.

“In the beginning, I thought the situation would calm down. But the shooting continued. I abandoned two hectares of cocoa and I fled,” said Peter, a farmer from the village of Kembong who declined to give his surname out of fear of reprisals.

Peter fled Kembong, a stronghold of the independence movement hours after separatists killed four paramilitary gendarmes there last month.

He spoke to Reuters in Mamfe, one of the main towns in the area, where he had sought refuge.

“I’d already dried nine sacks of cocoa. I left everything to flee, even the cocoa pods are still on my plantation,” John Mfor, another farmer, told Reuters.

The Southwest Region is home to Cameroon’s most productive growing zones, producing just under half of the Central African nation’s 230,000 tonnes a year output.

Four farmers, an upcountry buyer and an exporter told Reuters that output from areas affected by the violence had dropped, but gave no figures.

Total cocoa arrivals at the port of Douala, Cameroon’s main export point, were down around 20 percent by mid-December compared to last season, exporters said.

While they said poor weather conditions were largely to blame, they also pointed to the separatist unrest as likely compounding the shortfall.

“Since the start of the crisis, the buyers are afraid to come here. The farmers have fled,” said Etienne Tanyi, an Olam purchasing agent based in the village of Omogoko.

“The cocoa is rotting in the bush.”

Source: Reuters

11, January 2018

Ambazonia risks wider destabilization as Cameroon army begins operation to crackdown businesses ⁰

With the arrest and killing of hundreds of Ambazonians in the Manyu County this week, the Biya Francophone regime has taken a step closer to provoking a violent insurgency in the Southern Cameroons territory by embarking on an economic crack down. As tensions rise, both the Cameroon administration and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have succeeded to push Nigeria further into the British Southern Cameroons conflict

After the massive seizure of cocoa, rice and the destruction of fuel largely imported from Nigeria, Tuesday the 9th of January 2018 witnessed the Cameroon armed forces intensified their actions on motorbikes. More than 200 motors bikes were confiscated in Mamfe Central sub constituency.

Cameroon Concord News learned that road blocks were erected from the High Court Junction in Mamfe town right to the Customs office. All the bikes that were forcefully collected from their riders were transported using an army truck to a military camp in Besongabang.

The leadership of the Francophone dominated army reportedly auctioned some of the bikes to raise money for the purchase of food stuffs and drinking water for the starving soldiers. The Manyu constituency in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia now risks wider destabilization with this current Cameroon army economic crackdown on Southern Cameroonians.

By Judith Fon

10, January 2018

Unauthorised gold mining in Cameroon reaps deathly toll ⁰

Forty-three gold diggers died in abandoned mines in Cameroon in the first 10 months of last year, a watchdog group said Wednesday.

“The toll of people who died in mining holes… reached 43 in the first 10 months” of 2017, said Foder, a local NGO whose full name in English means Forest and Rural Development.

The group said much of the blame lay with corporations, many of them Chinese, which abandon open-cast gold mines after profitable seams run out.

When the companies leave, individual gold hunters move in, digging holes into a site that in some cases have already been excavated to a depth of 200 metres (650 feet).

Nine died last year after the walls of their hole collapsed on top of them, Foder said. In September, a 12-year-old boy drowned in a lake that had formed in an abandoned pit.

Foder said the problem is worst in eastern Cameroon, where from 2012 to 2014, 250 mines were opened and then abandoned by their operators. It is campaigning for mining companies to cover over open-cast operations with earth when they pull out.

Source: The Citizen

5, January 2018

Border Shutdown Hurts Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea Business ⁰

The border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea has been sealed for nearly two weeks due to the alleged coup attempt against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Merchants on the border say the closure is costing them business.

It is a relatively quiet atmosphere here at Kiossi, a town in southern Cameroon that borders Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The town is normally a conduit for farm produce, beverages and other goods being trucked across the borders.

But Cameroonian businessman Fidele Kemmengne says activity has been at a standstill since the border was sealed. And Kemmenge himself has been stuck in Equatorial Guinea for nearly two weeks.

He says when they were returning from work on December 24 at about 4 pm, they discovered that the military from Equatorial Guinea had blocked entry into their country. He says they thought it was a temporary move to control the huge number of people crossing over for end of year festivities, but adds that authorities have not reopened the border since then.

Cameroonian food merchant Abdou Fayou is waiting for the border to reopen so his trucks can come back for more supplies.

“There is nothing coming [from] the Equato Guineans because they have the problem of security. No passengers from the 23rd [of December] to now,” Fayou said.

Equatorial Guinean businesswoman Falamu Fatouma says the border closure is preventing her from making deliveries.

She says since the border was sealed on December 24, she has not been able to do business and the goods she provides to her customers are perishing and she will not be able to refund their money.

FILE -This file photo taken on June 24, 2013 shows Teodorin Obiang Nguema, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, arriving at Malabo stadium for ceremonies to celebrate his 41st birthday.

Coup fears

On December 29, Equatorial Guinea said it had arrested people on the border in possession of rocket launchers, rifles and a stockpile of ammunition. It said the men planned to destabilize the government of President Theodoro Obiang, who has led the country since 1979 and is the longest-serving leader in Africa.

Cameroon said it arrested 40 heavily-armed men on the border and has strengthened security along the 290-kilometer boundary.

Felix Nguele Nguele, governor of Cameroon’s south region, says Cameroonians should be vigilant as soldiers are there to assure their security and safety in case of any attacks.

He says the military has taken measures to rigorously check movements on the border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and surveillance measures have been intensified. He says there is an alert of insecurity from neighboring Equatorial Guinea but that authorities are assuring the population that the situation is under control.

Obiang, who is 75, was elected to a fifth seven-year term in 2016 in polls the opposition said were rigged in his favor.

His country is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, but a large proportion of its 1.2 million people live in poverty. In 2004, mercenaries attempted to overthrow Obiang in a coup thought to be largely funded by British financiers. Last week, Obiang said a war is being prepared against his regime, allegedly because of his length of time in power.

Source: VOA

4, January 2018

China-backed Kribi port project in Cameroon leaves locals frustrated ⁰

Chinese investors want to transform the Cameroonian city of Kribi into to the largest seaport in central Africa. But after initial promises of an economic revival in the area, locals feel left out in the cold.

Screenshot Homepage of China's embassy in Cameroon (china-embassy.org)

Kribi’s autonomous port is one of the biggestChinese investment projects anywhere in the world. When it finally opens for business, it will be the largest deepwater port in central Africa.

Some 85 percent of the €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) budget for the new harbor project is financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, with the rest falling to the government of Cameroon. The state-run China Harbor Engineering Corporation (CHEC) has been overseeing construction.

Natural resources for China

Cameroon’s government is hopeful the new port will stimulate its economy and provide relief for the harbor at Duala, the country’s most populous city, while also providing dock space for larger ships. China, meanwhile, has its eye on nearby iron reserves, which are to be connected to new road and rail infrastructure.

Investors and government leaders hope Kribi can become Cameroon’s main port for seaborne trade

To build the port, the village of Lolabe had to be destroyed. Unfortunately for its 300 inhabitants, land law in Cameroon is a gray zone. When Yasa peoples founded Lolabe in the early 20th century, they did so without property deeds or administrative permission. Very few of the villagers possessed papers proving they own property. They were given a small amount of money in damages and were then forced to immediately leave their homes for a CHEC-constructed housing development.

Rampant corruption

By 2013, only €22 million of the €36 million that Prime Minister Philemon Yang approved for compensation back in 2010 had been paid out. The other €14 million is alleged to have been embezzled by corrupt politicians.

“Villagers were very optimistic when they heard about the harbor project. We hoped it would bring jobs and improve our lives,” said Theodore Ivaha, Lolabe’s vice village chief. “But for the last couple of years we have just gotten more angry because we are not profiting at all.”

China Philemon Yang and Xi Jinping (Getty Images/AFP/Wang Zhao)

Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang has worked to strengthen ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Although construction has created jobs, they are rarely given to locals, instead going to workers from other parts of Cameroon. Most people in the region, and especially those from villages directly neighboring the harbor, simply do not have the qualifications required to fill them.

Villagers waited in vain for the head of CHEC to visit them in an effort to fill positions — something that is regular practice among French companies operating in the country. But it didn’t happen. Job openings were publicly listed and quickly filled. Many of those Cameroonian workers who relocated to the area are accused by locals of having “stolen” their jobs.

Cultural and physical divide

Cameroonian laborers on the building site have complained about working conditions, while Chinese supervisors have derided the locals’ poor work ethic. Chinese site manager Qiangquang Li likened the endeavor to “looking for gold in the desert.”

A beach in Kibri, Cameroon (picture alliance/Bildagentur-online/AGF)

Prior to the port project, Kribi was most famous as a beach resort destination

Chinese and local workers at the site are often separated by more than just cultural divides. The roughly 300 Chinese workers in Kribi reside in a closed camp at the harbor, with living quarters, offices, a cafeteria and a Chinese cook. They rarely leave, and there is little if any contact with locals. Local products, contrary to all prior hopes, are largely shunned by the Chinese workers.

“The government should actually mediate between residents and foreign companies, informing them of the wishes and needs of the locals, helping foreign organizations and companies to foster development,” said investigative journalist Christophe Bobiokono. “But many governments in Africa simply fail at that task, so companies cannot count on them.”

That leaves it up to locals and CHEC to create an effective communication platform. The first steps have already been taken. Now locals are hoping that tourism might take off when family members come to visit those Cameroonian workers who relocated here from other parts of the country.

Culled from Deutsche Welle

3, January 2018

9 killed in Cameroonian gold mine collapse ⁰

9 people have been killed following the collapse of a gold mine in the East region of French Cameroun. The tragedy occurred in Ngoura, a district in the Lom-and-Djerem Division headquartered in Bertoua.

The commune of Ngoura, bordering the Central African Republic is hosting a sea of gold prospectors mainly of Cameroonian and Central African nationalities.

According to the Francophone dominated security service in Bertoua, the bodies of the 9 victims were found, identified and handed over to their respective families. They will be buried in the coming days.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

30, December 2017

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc calls on Biya regime to facilitate investment projects ⁰

The Vietnamese Government chief made the point on December 27 in Ha Noi while receiving Cameroon Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella.

The host leader said he was convinced that the visit would contribute to accelerating the bilateral ties and opening up a new chapter in the bilateral relationship, especially when the two sides signed important agreements.

PM Phuc hailed the socio-economic achievements which Cameroon has attained, affirming that Viet Nam always treasures the traditional ties and hopes to broaden economic ties with Cameroon in accordance with the fine political relations.

The PM praised the close coordination of the two countries at international forums and thanked the Cameroon Government for supporting Vietnam- invested projects there.

Viet Nam always creates favorable ways for foreign investors to do business, he said.

In reply, FM Lejeune Mbella Mbella said that Cameroon’s Government pays special attention to expanding ties with Viet Nam, which is the reason of his visit.

He said that along with agricultural development, Cameroon is focusing on upgrading infrastructure systems such as roads, ports and airports. The country is also keen on developing energy, information technology and digital economy, he said, expressing his hope to promote partnership with Viet Nam in these fields.

Source: News.Chinhphu