Violence between the security forces and armed separatists in Cameroon continues to escalate, increasing the risk of potential mass atrocity crimes. On 26 May the bodies of at least 29 people, including children, were discovered in the town of Menka in the northwest of the country, highlighting the increasingly violent and insecure environment within Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Peaceful demonstrations over the alleged marginalization of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority began in 2016. According to an Amnesty International report released on 11 June, government forces used live ammunition against protesters, arbitrarily arrested and tortured detainees, and have destroyed a number of villages in the restive Anglophone regions. In response, armed Anglophone separatists have killed at least 44 military personnel, burned down schools and attacked teachers for not participating in a separatist boycott. Over 20,000 Cameroonians have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

In order to prevent any further armed conflict and address the growing threat of potential mass atrocity crimes, the government of Cameroon should immediately initiate a dialogue with Anglophone community leaders and constructively address the historic grievances of the English-speaking minority. The government must also ensure that the universal right to freedom of expression and assembly are respected. The security forces must end the use of disproportionate and deadly force against peaceful demonstrators and ensure that the human rights of all Cameroonians are protected, regardless of language or identity.

All perpetrators of grave human rights abuses in Cameroon, including members of armed separatist groups and the military, must be held accountable for their actions.

Source: Reliefweb

Six villagers were killed overnight in northern Cameroon in an attack attributed to Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist group, a local leader said today.

The attack occurred in the village of Mangave Foya, said Abdoulaye Yerima Bakari, the head of the Dogba administrative region. “They attacked the home of a district chief, whom they shot, as well as two other people” who were in the building, he said.

When the neighbours came out to investigate the gunfire, the assailants opened fire, killing three of them, he said. A local self-defence group and the security forces, joined by some villagers, gave chase, killing five attackers and arresting three others, he added.

Boko Haram, a militant movement opposed to Western influence and seeking an Islamic state based on Sharia law, has caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people since it took up arms in Nigeria in 2009.

Their insurgency has spilled into neighbouring countries, including Cameroon. Since 2014, the group has killed 2,000 civilians and soldiers and kidnapped about 1,000 people in northern Cameroon, according to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Source: AFP

Robberies and kidnappings are on the rise in eastern Cameroon, as violence from the neighboring Central African Republic spills across the border. Armed groups from the C.A.R. have been stealing supplies and taking dozens of people hostage for ransom.

Iya Gabdo, a cattle rancher, says armed men took him hostage three weeks ago after he could not pay the $5,000 they demanded. Gabdo says many of his peers were also kidnapped that day.

He says the only available water for the hostages was from doubtful sources, and they were hardly served a meal a day. He says most of the hostages are now sick, either because they did not bathe or because they drank dirty water.

The military freed Gabdo this past week, returning him and 13 others to the town of Ngaoui. The military said one hostage was killed in the rescue and several were wounded. Several armed men also were killed.

Ngaoui hosts one of the largest cattle markets on Cameroon’s border with the C.A.R. The market was reduced to a shadow of itself four years ago when armed groups started crossing the border to attack and kidnap Cameroonian cattle ranchers and business people for ransom, or to steal their property.

On several occasions, Cameroon sealed the border.

In 2016, business resumed in border areas when new C.A.R. President Faustin-Archange Touadera promised to bring peace to the troubled nation. But last year, the United Nations reported that fresh fighting involving armed groups in the C.A.R. was leading to new waves of bloodshed and displacement.

Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon, says that since the fighting erupted again, there have been increasing attacks in Cameroon’s territory.

“They kidnapped the chief of Akundere and they asked him a ransom of a hundred million CFA [$180,000],” Boukar said. “So, I want to invite the population to continue cooperating, giving the information to the forces of law and order, to the administration. And I think, I do hope we are going to put an end to this type of banditry.”

The C.A.R. descended into chaos after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013 by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called the Seleka. Christian militias called the anti-Balaka emerged in response, accelerating a cycle of sectarian violence.

Last month, the C.A.R.’s minister of humanitarian activities visited Cameroon and said violence continues in her country because it is hard to control the circulation of arms, or to bring the various armed factions together for true dialogue.

Culled from VOA

Former South African President Jacob Zuma, who was ousted by his own party in February, appeared at the Durban High Court on Friday for the second time on corruption charges relating to a $2.5 billion arms deal in the late 1990s.

Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to the deal to buy European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s armed forces after the end of apartheid in 1994.

State prosecutors and Zuma’s lawyers presented arguments over a start date for the trial, a rare example of an African leader being held to account for his actions.

Judge Mjabuliseni Madondo adjourned the case to July 27 for the state and the defense to indicate whether they can commence the case. The matter will be heard in the nearby city of Pietermaritzburg to allow for renovations at the Durban court.

“There are still some applications to be launched,” he said, adding that it was still too early to say when a trial could start. Lawyers for the state said they were still ready for a trial to start in November.

Zuma, clad in a dark suit and red tie, shook hands and laughed with his supporters as he left the court. Outside, hundreds of supporters sang his name and waved placards.

The national prosecutor this week turned down a request by the 76-year-old to delay Friday’s hearing pending the outcome of a separate legal challenge over the state paying his legal fees.

The speed with which prosecutors have moved against Zuma is a sign of his waning influence since he was replaced as head of state by Cyril Ramaphosa, his former deputy, four months ago.

Ramaphosa has made the fight against corruption a top priority as he seeks to woo foreign investment and revamp an ailing economy.

Zuma’s supporters say the former president, whose nine years in power were marked by economic stagnation and credit rating downgrades, is the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt.

(Source: Reuters)

The French government has never denied its involvement in Cameroon politics. It is an open secret that French Commissioner Roland Pre toppled the government of Andre Marie Mbida and installed Ahmadou Ahidjo who slaughtered thousands of Bamilekes and Bassas during the uprising against the French in the late 50s and early 60s. French diplomats in Cameroon have also never resisted genocidal claims brought against Paris by French Cameroonians.  Cameroon Intelligence Report has gotten reliable information that the French embassy in Abuja worked with Nigeria’s secret service and mobile police to arrest the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in Abuja and it is currently bankrolling Nigerian police officers in the Cross River State and Benue to suppress the Southern Cameroons resistance.

We gathered from Nigerian police sources in Abuja that the French government paid the Nigerian DSS via an arrangement with President Buhari’s security adviser, Babagana to arrest the Ambazonian leadership that was operating in the Nigerian capital city and in some parts of the North and Cross River and the French are even helping to plan Buhari’s reelection bid in 2019.

According to the United Nations, some 40,000 Southern Cameroonians have fled the wave of terror and killings in their ancestral home to Nigeria. The UN again noted recently that some 160,000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced and badly in need of food, shelter and medicine. French multinationals running the oil fields in the Bakassi Peninsula have been accused of collaborating with the Biya regime in the extermination campaign going on in Southern Cameroons. A highly placed Cameroon government official who spoke to our undercover reporter revealed that Total has been paying millions of dollars to the Cameroon government military deployed to Southern Cameroons.

A Southern Cameroons commander serving with the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Force hinted that French military equipment and vehicles are playing a big part in French Cameroun military operations in Southern Cameroons and he conceded that Yaoundé had paid the military huge sums of money to dish-out to Southern Cameroons local leaders- a move recently denounced by the Interim Government of the people of Southern Cameroons.

Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group say the French Cameroun army is overseeing a human rights tragedy in Southern Cameroons. Most of the alleged human rights abuses, they say, follow the Biya regime’ refusal to dialogue with the exiled Interim Government. French speaking Cameroonians are not able to take on the French multinationals that virtually controls every aspect of the Cameroonian nation from rails to ports and from politics to football.

For 57 years, the people of Southern Cameroons have seen their human rights constantly abused by successive French Cameroun governments with the support and backing of French multinationals and diplomatic missions. Speaking recently to the Cameroon Concord News Group, the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako observed that hundreds of Southern Cameroonians are being killed and thousands are brutalised for attempting to raise grievances to the international community. The Ambazonian exiled leader also stated that French Cameroun government forces are threatening, beating, killing and jailing local leaders of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

By Sessekou Asu Isong with files from Kingsley Betek and Sama Ernest

At least three people have been confirmed dead and several are feared trapped after a five-story building collapsed in a residential area of Nairobi, local media said on Sunday, June 3.

Eye witness accounts say locals rushed to the scene to help before rescue workers arrived, digging through the rubble of the building with their bare hands; they rescued a man and a woman who later died in hospital.

Former Governor Evans Kidero, said in June 2017 at the scene of a building collapse in a residential area of Nairobi, that at least 30,000 to 40,000 buildings constructed without approval in the Kenyan capital were at risk.

Kenya has seen similar tragedies in the past. A total of 49 people died in April 2016 when a six-story building in Huruma, a poor neighborhood, collapsed during a heavy nighttime downpour.

(Source: Reuters)

The Akwa Ibom Government has appealed to the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, to come to the assistance of Cameroonian refugees who have settled in the state.

The Permanent Secretary, Deputy Governor’s Office, Nkopuruk Ekaiko, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Uyo on Friday. Ekaiko said that the state government had been over stretched in rendering assistance to the refugees, calling on the commission to intervene.

According to him the commission has given assistance to refugees in the neighbouring states saying that those in Akwa Ibom should be so treated. He said: “What I am saying is that the relevant federal agencies should live up to the expectations of these people.

“The agencies should ensure that they provide relief materials to the refugees and rehabilitate them as they are doing in other states. “It is not only in Akwa Ibom state that we have these refugees. There are some in Cross River and there are kinds of interventions the commission has made there and other places.”

He disclosed that the state government had informed the commission about the presence of the refugees since last year and had been waiting for its response. The permanent secretary said the state government had expected that the commission would as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of the refugees.

He said: “Last year, there were some returnees and refugees from the Republic of Cameroon. Each of them was interviewed by the immigration services. “This office visited their camps at Mkpat Enin, Eket and Oron for some assessment. Immediately after that assessment late last year, the state government sent relief materials to them.”

Source: The Eagle Online

Thirty-five-year-old Obot Ayuk, a cocoa farmer and father of three in Southern Cameroon town of Kembong which shares borders with Nigeria, watched helplessly as soldiers wreaked havoc in the community. He saw houses burning with elderly people in them. Farmlands were destroyed, women raped and about 11 unarmed civilians, including three teenagers were killed in one fell swoop.

Now an internally displaced person (IDP) in one of the camps in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, Ayuk told our correspondent that his village had turned into a ghost town with goats and other domestic animals occupying homes. He had fled to Douala through the forest and was still searching for his wife and three children.

He said: “They invaded our villages, raped our women, burnt down houses and looted properties. They said we were hiding Ambazonian fighters, and for that reason, they would kill us all. Since October last year, we have not known peace in Kembong. The village has become desolate and our farmlands have been destroyed.

Ayuk wondered how a government would do things like these to its people and still claim that the country is one.

He added: “In one fell swoop, the army murdered about 15 people, including three teenagers. People watched helplessly as their loved ones were killed by French-speaking soldiers. The only offence of the murdered people was that they were Anglophones.

“As I speak to you, I do not know where my wife and children are. I do not know where the rest of my family is. What kind of life is this? Why can’t they go after the Ambazonian warriors themselves? Why kill innocent civilians and tag them terrorists? I wonder why the world is keeping quiet to this carnage in Southern Cameroon.

“I came to Douala through the forest in February. These killings started September 28 last year. That was a few days after the secessionists announced breakaway from La Republique Du Cameroun (Republic of Cameroon). The next thing, soldiers invaded our community and started killing people.

“At first, I fled to Bakassi. But when the crisis got worse there, I had to return to Kenbong before leaving for Douala through the bush. I have lost everything I have worked for in my entire life.”

The monarch, it was said, lost his only son and heir to the troops three weeks ago after he was alleged to be sympathetic to the cause of the secessionists.

Our correspondent, who was in Cameroon for four days, gathered that no fewer than 61 communities in the southern region had been completely razed since the Ambazonian Separatist Movement (ASM) declared the secession of the Anglophone region from Cameroon last September.

Angered by the action, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, had declared total war against the ASM, tagging them terrorists and enemies of the state. Unfortunately, the war has taken a toll on communities and cities in the south, following allegations of gross human rights violations against Cameroonian soldiers deployed to fish out the rebels.

Most of the communities our correspondent visited had become shadows of themselves with charred, mutilated or decomposing bodies everywhere.

There were also video footages showing some persons in military uniform dehumanising civilians. In one of the videos, about four of the uniformed men said to be Cameroonian soldiers, were beating a young man, dragging him in the mud, pouring water under his feet and whipping him with cutlasses. They marched his head with their jackboots and dragged him on the ground until he died.

According to locals, the soldiers, rather than go after the separatists, descended on unarmed civilians, torturing, killing and maiming them on allegations that they were shielding Ambazonian warriors.

A recent report from the United Nations indicated that at least a thousand persons had been killed and over 167,000 displaced as a result of the crisis. Among the affected towns are Kwakwa, Boa Bakundu, Bole Bakundu, Dipenda Bakundu, Big Ngwandi, Bakumba, Bokosso, Nake, Kombone Mission, Kake I, Kake II, Bekondo, Big Massaka, Nganjo, Foe Bakundu, Ekombe, Small Ekombe, Ediki, Kuke, Ebonji, Etam, Nguti, Mongo ndor, Bello, Anjang, Angin, Anyagwa and Azi.

Others include Kumba, Doti Nobi, Kugwe, Ambo, Efah, Kumku, Ashong, Ngie, Ejeke, Mbene, Bati-Numba, Kagifu, Dadi, Gurifen, Muyenge, Bafia, Ekwe, Kumbe-Balue, Ekona Mombo, Batibo, Bafut, Mbalangi, Oshie, Baingo, Bombele Mbonge, Kumu kumu, Bangele, Konye, Guzang, Widikum and Babadiehka.

“For each soldier killed by the rebels, a drone is deployed to level the community where the incident occurred,” said a lawyer who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity.

He added: “Three octogenarian women were said to have been burnt alive in their homes at Kwakwa following their inability to run out when the soldiers ordered people to vacate their residences or risk being burnt with them.

“The government is not handling this issue properly. Rather, it is making us, Southern Cameroonians, to have sympathy for the rebels. I do not support secession, but it is completely unacceptable to kill people, burn down communities and rape women.

“The government has deployed maximum force in the region and the French soldiers sent to the region are too proud. They do not want to work with locals to gain their trust and cooperation. They think they can achieve result by force, and that is why most times, no one gives them useful information.

“The problem did not start today. It is an agitation that has been on for a long time. This agitation is borne out of genuine desire for equal treatment. What the government needed to do was to look at the issues raised and see those that can be addressed immediately. But it chose to deploy maximum force against our people.”

A Cameroonian journalist who led our correspondent round some of the areas said he personally witnessed the dumping of over 80 corpses at the Buea General Hospital mortuary on October 1, last year, adding that the corpses were brought in military lorries.

He said the soldiers seized all the mobile phones of the people at the scene and removed all means of identification from the corpses, most of whom were youths staging peaceful protest with green leafs in their mouths and hands.

To cover up their crime, the journalist said, the soldiers announced that the corpses were those of terrorists who fled Nigeria into the country and were killed in battle.

“I do not think I have seen anything that callous. These were young boys, mostly students, who were staging peaceful protest against marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroon. They had green leaves in their mouths and hands. They had their identity cards in their pockets but the soldiers took them away and passed the deceased off as terrorists from Nigeria.

“The killings have not stopped since then. I get calls on a daily basis on the atrocities of the soldiers against civilians. It is really disturbing. Instead of applying diplomacy, the government has continued to use maximum force against the people. The worst part is that people are not talking.

“Even in Douala and Yaounde, it is a taboo to discuss the issue. If security forces should see images or videos of the carnage in Southern Cameroon on your phone, they will detain you instantly.

“The government has been busy singing unity and oneness. They even built a unification village in Yaounde to mark the Reunification Day celebrated every May 20. Circulars were sent to churches to ensure their services ended latest 8 am on Sunday, May 20. Civil servants across the country were also issued a stern warning to come out that day or risk sanctions.

“This whole tension is crumbling the economy of the country. Our major export is cocoa and much of these cocoa grow in the southern region. With this fight, farmers have fled their homes and farmlands have been destroyed. Nothing is really moving as it should and it bothers me that the government is too proud to consider certain compromises for peace to reign.”

What the agitators want

With the arrest of some government critics by the Nigerian Security forces and their subsequent repatriation to Cameroon on December 31 and February 25, the situation got worse as the people intensified their protest against the regime, demanding the unconditional release of all 48 deportees.

It was gathered that despite the claim by Cameroon’s Minister for Communication, Issah Tchiroma, that the detainees had returned, neither their relatives nor their lawyers have seen or known where they were being kept.

This, our correspondent was told, further worsened the situation, as the rebels were said to have gone after perceived allies of the government in the region.

Locals said the incarceration of alleged separatist leader, Ayuk Tabe, 53, alias Sisiku, and nine others arrested with him in Abuja- Tessang Fombang, 48; Nfor Nfor, 66; Shufai Berinyu, 51; Eyambe Ebai, 49; Fidelis Ndeh-Che, 41; Prof. Cheh Awasum, 50; Dr. Cornelius Kwanga, 47; Dr. Egbe Ogok, 53, and Dr. Henry Kimeng, 50- as well as all those the Nigeria Police rounded up at Gembu, Sarduana Local Government Area (LGA) of Taraba State, was a wrong move.

“The government cannot force unity on anyone. It cannot scream unity from one lip and then use maximum force, intimidation to silence critics. If the government truly wants peace and unity, the first thing it should do is allow those detainees access to their relatives and to lawyers.

“The government should also implement UN Resolution 1608 of 1961, as submitted by the Fourth Committee, A/4737.

“By virtue of the fact that the confederation deal was never conclusive, everything that has been done in Cameroon in the name of unity is null and void ab initio, and must be considered not binding on Ambazonia (Southern Cameroon), which has clearly and effectively proven that there were unpardonable discrepancies in the unity process that has led Cameroon to treat Anglophone Cameroonian masses as second class citizens, and above all, refused to be lawful and accountable to/on the acts of government.

“The non-implementation of UN Resolution 1608 is a glaring proof of a material breach of treaty and requires that the UN actively takes part in terminating the now too falsified relationship between Ambazonia and Cameroon before the situation turns into a bloody war of liberation,” said Ayuk Obot, a Cameroonian lawyer.

In a letter to Cameroon’s Attorney General dated May 15, counsel to the 46 deportees, Abdul Oroh, sought access to them under Article 14(3) of International Convention on Civil and Political Rights,1966, which provides that an accused person must be told his offence and given a fair trial with access to counsel of his choosing.

Oroh said: “Assuming without conceding, that our clients engaged in criminal acts against the law of Cameroon, it is important that they be treated with dignity and in accordance with the rule of law and international instruments with regards to their status.

“In line with the above mentioned international instruments and several others adopted and domesticated by Cameroon, we demand access to our clients as their counsel. This is in line with Article 14(3) of the International Convention of Civil and Political Right. This has been reaffirmed by the provisions of Article 7(1)(C) of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which provides that every individual shall have his caused heard.

“This comprises the right to defence, including the right to be defended by counsel of his choice.

“We demand that the Cameroonian authority should ensure their fair treatment in line with international practices and conventions, and that the authorities in Cameroon ensure that our lawyers are safe during their visit to Cameroon.”

Faulting their deportation to Cameroon by the Nigerian government, Oroh said the detainees were recognised refugees, registered asylum seekers or legal residents of Nigeria, adding that the action violated all known international humanitarian and refugee laws.

“As counsel to the detainees, we are worried and our fear is fuelled by the continued silence of Cameroonian authorities on the welfare and safety of our clients, coupled with the fact that they have been denied access to their families, doctors and lawyers.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, recognises the inherent dignity and the equal inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. It is the main component of the Declaration expressing its main objectives and ideals.”

Efforts by our correspondent to obtain comments from the Cameroonian authorities did not succeed as calls made to the Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma’s lines went unheeded; he also did not respond to the text message sent to his phones.

However, in a statement obtained online, the government defended that its troops, in spite of provocation from the agitators, have always stuck to rules of international engagement in the handling of the Southern Cameroon situation.

Culled from The Nation

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says people smugglers shot dead more than 12 refugees who were attempting to flee a camp in Libya last week.

The incident, previously reported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and local sources, took place in the town of Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, on May 23.

“Human traffickers in Libya reportedly killed more than a dozen people and wounded many others after a group of some 200 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis, being held captive, attempted to escape,” the UNHCR said in a statement on Friday, noting that those murdered “were shot”.

“The survivors spoke of torture abuse and exploitation at the hands of traffickers – some being held in captivity for up to three years,” the statement added.

Bani Walid is a hub for smugglers to bring refugees from Libya’s southern sub-Saharan neighbors to the coast, from where they are shipped by boat to Italy.

People smugglers and kidnappers control around 20 detention centers in the town, telephoning the refugees’ families to demand ransoms.

Since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, chaos-ridden Libya has become a major transit hub for refugees trying to reach Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing violence and persecution have made the perilous journey through Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. Many have perished en route.

“This latest deadly incident demonstrates, once again, the huge challenge of providing protection to refugees in Libya, where many people fleeing war and persecution fall prey to criminal networks,” the UN agency added.

Source: Presstv