Hundreds of women and activists marched in the capital of Cameroon Monday, calling for an end to the country’s separatist crisis and for the government to provide more help to reduce the high cost of living. The march coincides with the observance of Pan African Women’s Day.

Several hundred women at a courtyard in the neighborhood of Tsinga listen or sing along with the song “Family Love” by singer Kareyce Fotso.

The song urges families to sincerely love each other and be united as they try to overcome difficulties caused by several crises Cameroon is experiencing.

Anne Anaba, one of the coordinators of Monday’s march, says the women assembled at the courtyard afterward to demand an end to the separatist war in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions.

The war has killed about 6,000 people and displaced 700,000 others.

The march was also part of activities marking the annual observance of Pan African Women’s Day. The holiday, declared by the African Union, is observed every July 31.

Anaba says poverty and hardships triggered by armed conflicts and unprecedented spikes in commodity prices have impacted families from building foundation stones for solid African societies. She says conflicts kill or displace men from communities and women spend time running for safety instead of teaching children to love, live together in peace and socially develop their communities.

She said women are the most affected by Cameroon’s separatist crisis.

Women and children are also deeply affected by food insecurity along the northern borders with Chad and Nigeria where an Islamist insurgency has left more than 36,000 people dead, and 3 million displaced.

Cameroon women say besides the armed conflicts, they are finding it extremely difficult to cope with the rising prices of goods— which they blame on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The government says since the Russian war began in February 2022, prices of rice, wheat, fuel and fertilizer have increased by between 40 to 60%.

Kiven Juliet, the president of Wheat Farmers in Cameroon’s Center region, says she followed the Russia-Africa summit on July 27 when Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will begin free deliveries of 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain to some African countries.

But Kiven says Cameroon can ensure sufficiency by growing its food at home.

“I heard during the Russia-Africa summit that Russia will be giving wheat to African countries free of charge, but that is not what we want. Our governments should give subsidies for farmers to buy fertilizers and produce the wheat themselves,” she said.

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment, says in 2022, President Paul Biya ordered the disbursement of over $15 million to grow wheat in the central African state. She says women who apply will have funding for fertilizer, wheat and rice seeds.

“Women represent an essential agricultural workforce and undeniably contribute to [the] fight against hunger and poverty,” she said. “Women contribute significantly to the stability of life in the countryside and reduce the scale of rural exodus. They take care of their children, are involved in domestic and agricultural works to ensure food and nutrition for families and communities. They are also known for their support of movements for democracy, human rights and peace.”

Biya was among the African leaders who attended the summit in St. Petersburg. He asked Putin to help Africa by increasing investment and canceling debt from loans.

Source: VOA

John Fru Ndi, the founder of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) was posthumously elevated on Saturday to the rank of Cameroonian Grand Cordon of Merit. This is the highest distinction in the Cameroonian Order of Merit.

The pro French Cameroun Anglophone politician, who passed away on June 12 in Yaoundé, began his final trip on Thursday July 27 and was buried on Saturday in Babba II, his native village near Bamenda.

Great cordon of Cameroonian merit as an honorary distinction was posthumously bestowed upon the Chairman of the SDF. The attributes of this mark of recognition of the Nation were laid on his coffin by Jean Nkuete, personal representative of the Head of State.

Fru Ndi’s funeral was reportedly attended by senior members of the Biya regime including representatives of the diplomatic corps and the business community.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files from Fon Lawrence

As Amadou Vamoulké, the former director-general of Cameroon’s national radio and TV broadcaster CRTV, completes his seventh year in arbitrary detention today (29 July), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voices concern about his failing health and calls on the Cameroonian authorities to allow him access to appropriate medical care, quash his conviction and free him.

An appeal by one of Vamoulké’s lawyers against the rejection of a habeas corpus petition is due to be heard on 1 August, four days into his eighth year in arbitrary detention.

“I have contracted several illnesses in prison,” reports Vamoulké, whose detention has “no legal basis” and whose state of health is the subject of “deep concern,” the United Nations said in 2020 in response to a referral by RSF. His health has continued to decline since the authorities sentenced him to 12 years in prison in December 2022 on a trumped-up charge of “misusing public funds” while running the state-owned national broadcaster.

“Amadou Vamoulké is the victim of a particularly alarming case of judicial persecution. It is absolutely intolerable that a journalist – one of Cameroon’s leading media figures – is still in prison and is being denied appropriate medical care despite having serious health problems. He has been held for seven years on spurious charges unsupported by any tangible evidence. We appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to release this journalist at once. His situation must be reviewed during the appeal hearing on 1 August in the habeas corpus proceedings initiated by his lawyers.”

Now aged 73, Vamoulké suffers from a neurological condition described as “severe” by two neurologists who have examined his medical file. He contracted the condition, which he says is “extremely painful,” after being jailed in Kondengui prison, in the capital Yaoundé. He developed other conditions there, including asthma, which was aggravated by “the very unhealthy air you breathe in the prison.” And he suffers from dental problems, glaucoma, high blood pressure and prostatitis that need costly treatment.

Vamoulké’s neurological condition requires tests and treatment that would be “difficult to provide in Cameroon,” according to one of the neurologists who has studied his case, the Paris-based professor of neurology Hervé Taillia, who already recommended “hospitalisation in France” back in 2019. But all of Vamoulké’s requests for a provisional release for the purpose of medical tests have been rejected, as have all of his other judicial petitions and appeals.

Absurd conviction

Vamoulké has been held ever since his arrest on 29 July 2016 on the absurd charge of “misusing public funds” – not for his personal benefit but for the benefit of CRTV, the public broadcaster he ran from 2005 to 2016. After six and a half years in provisional detention and a trial before a special criminal court that was adjourned 150 times, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a fine of 47 million CFA francs (70,000 euros). After his appeal, the court ordered him to pay an additional 390,000 CFA francs (600 euros) for “photocopying case file costs.”

Vamoulké is manifestly the victim of “false imprisonment,” one of his lawyers, Guy Gueyo Kamga, told RSF. He said his client was arrested “on the basis of an illegal provisional detention warrant” and his detention ever since has been clearly arbitrary and political in nature. The prosecution produced no serious evidence or testimony during the trial, which was conducted in a manner that violated both national and international law. The judges were legally required to deliver a verdict within nine months and Cameroon’s criminal code places an 18-month limit on provisional detention, while Vamoulké’s lasted nearly six and a half years.

Kamga filed a habeas corpus petition in April 2023 calling for Vamoulké’s release on the grounds of the arbitrary nature of his detention. The petition was rejected at the end of June but Kamga appealed this decision and the next hearing is scheduled for 1 August. To support the petition, Vamoulké wrote to President Paul Biya on 9 June asking him to intercede on his behalf. The letter remains unanswered.

Cameroon fell 20 places in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index and is now ranked 138th out of 180 countries.

Culled from Reporters Without Borders

90-year-old President Biya is unable to walk because of ill health.

Biya left the nation’s capital Yaoundé today, accompanied by his wife, Chantal and a sea of cabinet ministers to attend the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in Saint-Petersburg.

The Cameroonian dictator is making headline news in Moscow for the wrong reasons and has come to be regarded as something of a joke and a global laughing stock.

In an incident in Saint-Petersburg captured on camera despite the best efforts of his wife Chantal Biya, the 90-year-old president was making his way to shake hands with President Putin but could hardly move and the Russian leader had his first laugh since the beginning of the Ukraine counteroffensive.

It is likely that Biya is the most parodied politician alive today.

His wife was quick to step in and helped Biya the rest of the way to the conference hall.  He is now too old and unable to walk.

Cameroon, a once-prosperous nation of 25 million people in Sub Saharan Africa, has struggled ever since Biya came to power.

Biya is accused of using widespread violence to win several disputed elections, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The country is suffering hyperinflation and facing a powerful secessionist movement in the English speaking regions known as the Ambazonia Interim Government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai