A joint military operation involving the armed forces of Nigeria and those of the Republic of Cameroon  is currently going on in the North-East, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali ,has said.

Dan-Ali made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen after the Juma’at service at the National Mosque, Abuja, to mark the 2018 Armed Forces Day.

He said that the joint operation was aimed at flushing out remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists.

“In the North-East, I can say we have made great success. As I am talking to you, there is an operation going on between Nigeria and Cameroon,’’ the minister said.

He called on other neighbouring countries to collaborate with Nigeria in routing the insurgents.

The minister pledged the readiness of the military to continue to defend the territorial boundary of the country and in addressing internal security challenges.

Also, the Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, said that government had put in place structures to address internal security challenges and was “re-enforcing those structures.’’

Earlier in a sermon, the Deputy Chief Imam of the National Mosque, Dr Mohammed Kabir, called for continued prayers and support for the military.

Kabir noted that the military had made sacrifices to defend the nation. He also said that while Jan. 15 was observed annually to remember the fallen heroes, serving members of the armed forces should be supported to ensure the security, peace and unity of the nation.

“They sacrifice their lives for this nation, it is our duty to show kindness to their families, it is our duty to support them; it is our duty to make sure that they live normal lives,’’ he said.

www.punchng.com

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions are observing a three-day “dead city” protest against the arrest of a number of separatist leaders in Nigeria last week, local media reported.

At least 10 Cameroonian separatists, among them leader Julius Tabe, were arrested in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the activists said in a statement on Sunday.

In protest of the move, the English-speaking separatists urged the population to stay at home from Monday through Wednesday.

“For fear of reprisals, we remained at home. Everything is calm on the streets … Banks, travel agencies and shops are closed. Only security forces are patrolling the streets,” Musa Abu, a Bamenda resident told Anadolu Agency late Monday.

The strike also affected the reopening of schools that had been scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8.

“The school was opened early in the morning, but the students did not come. We were forced to close it, otherwise the building would have been burned by activists,” Tatou Godlove, the principal of the Bafut High School in the Northwest Region said.

Ayaba Acho, the so-called defense minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ambazonia, said Nigeria should not extradite “our leaders” to Cameroon, because they “are not” Cameroonians.

“They are Ambazonians,” he said referring to the Northwest and Southwest Regions. “We are in the process of increasing contacts with the Federal Government of Nigeria for their release”.

The government has also shut down the Internet in the two English-speaking regions in the Central African state.

Protests have been going on for more than a year in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. The Anglophone minority say they are being marginalized by the Francophone majority.

The protesters are calling for a return to federalism or the independence of the English-speaking Cameroon, which the demonstrators refer to as the “Republic of Ambazonia”.

French Cameroon gained its independence From France in 1960. In 1961, a federal state was set up when British Cameroon gained its independence from Great Britain and joined French Cameroon.

The federal state was later dissolved in favor of a unitary state in 1972.

Since then, English-speakers say they are being marginalized, forced to use French in public institutions and schools, and also use the French-Cameroon legal system in courts.

www.aa.com.tr

Soldiers in Ivory Coast’s second largest city looted weapons from the base of an elite military unit overnight before setting it on fire, leaders of the faction said on Wednesday.

The soldiers, who were involved in a series of mutinies last year that tarnished the image of Ivory Coast, one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, accuse the elite unit, known as the CCDO, of spying on them.

Residents of Bouake reported late on Tuesday hearing gunshots and heavy weapons fire between the rival factions, though they said the situation on Wednesday was calm after some early sporadic gunfire and businesses were operating normally.

(Source: Reuters)

Fifteen months back, when a group of Anglophone lawyers went on strike in Cameroon, few would have predicted how far and how quickly events would escalate.

Back then, in October 2016, the lawyers were objecting to the appointment of French-educated judges to their courts. A few other frustrated groups joined them later in peaceful protest against other government actions they perceived to be discriminating against the country’s English-speaking regions.

Fast-forward to today, however, and that initial modest impetus has spiralled into Cameroon’s most alarming internal conflict since independence. In recent months, scores of civilians have been killed. Armed attacks have led to the deaths of at least sixteen army and police officers. The government has deployed the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, which is usually found combatting Boko Haram, to the area. And thousands of refugees have fled to Nigeria, with the UN Refugee Agency expecting up to 40,000 more.

Pushed to extremes

From the start of the crisis, the government’s instinct has been to respond to protest and grievances with force. The initial demonstrations in late-2016 were met with mass arrests and the deployment of security forces. In January 2017, there was brief hope that dialogue would lead to a resolution. But these talks fell apart as the government banned the umbrella group with which it was negotiating and detained its leaders.

Since then, the government has not looked like returning to the negotiation table. It has arrested around 1,000 people, according to activists. It has empowered the police, gendarmes and army to use heavy force. And it has shut off the region’s Internet for months at a time on at least two occasions.

These actions have had a high human cost. “Cameroonians in the hundreds have lost their lives needlessly while expressing themselves and their ambitions for Cameroon,” says Barrister Akere Muna. “Others remain incarcerated under circumstances that might well have been avoided by the simple choice of dialogue over confrontation and repression.”

Moreover, many argue that rather than stifling dissent, the government’s strategy has made the situation more volatile and extreme.

What began as more specific grievances regarding the perceived imposition of French in courts and schools has escalated into demands for greater autonomy, federalisation and even secession. Meanwhile, the repression of largely peaceful protests has contributed to the emergence of armed groups calling for secession. Even moderate voices have been pushed to more extreme positions, and Cameroon has seen attacks on security forces and growing threats of a violent insurrection.

On 1 October 2017, members of the Southern Cameroonian Ambazonia Consortium United Front declared the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The government responded with what the UN criticised as “excessive use of force”. Its crackdown along the border with Nigeria caused thousands to flee. In response in November and December, separatists launched a number of attacks against defence forces that resulted in several casualties.

Combating separatists

In his address on 31 December, 2017, President Paul Biya sought to reassure the nation and project strength.

“I have issued instructions that all those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly,” he said. “The security operations conducted to that end have already yielded excellent results. They will continue unabated, but without excesses.”

However, many Cameroonians are concerned that the conflict will deepen and spread. As the government’s crackdown continues, there are suggestions that militant elements within the secessionist groups are gaining in strength, number and resolve. On 5 January, several separatists were arrested across the border in in Abuja, Nigeria.

In December, Brigadier General Donatien Melingui Nouma, commander of the troops in the South West region, revealed that some of his troops had defected to the separatists. He also claimed: “We know that they are trained by foreigners, including some white mercenaries whose nationality I would not mention.”

Uncertain times for Cameroon

This ongoing crisis is occurring at a particularly difficult time for Cameroon. In the north, it is still contending with the menace of the Boko Haram insurgency and the thousands of refugees it has created. In the east, it faces a challenge from the presence of displaced persons and rebels from Central African Republic. A drop in commodity prices has contributed to a significant drop in economic growth figures. Meanwhile, the country is set to hold four sets of elections – municipal, parliamentary, senatorial and presidential – this year.

Amidst this uncertainty, many are calling for dialogue to resolve the Anglophone crisis. However, there are few indications that constructive steps are being taken to establish such talks. Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary has said repeatedly that the government is ready to negotiate but only on the condition that issues related to the structure of the state are not discussed. That effectively rules out activists’ primary demands for federalism or significant structural change.

As the crisis deepens, international leaders such as UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland have increased pressure on President Biya to engage in talks. It remains to be seen if this will have any effect. If it does not and the government’s current military approach continues, many expect activists’ demands, grievances and strategies to get increasingly desperate, militant and extreme.

www.africanarguments.org

As many as 64 refugees are feared dead after a traffickers’ overcrowded rubber dinghy from Libya started sinking in the Mediterranean Sea, officials said Monday.

The Italian coast guard rescued 86 people from the boat hours after it started sinking Saturday morning due to a puncture. Specially trained rescue divers leapt into the water to pull dozens to safety, including those who managed to stay aboard the half-submerged dinghy as well as others already flailing in the cool waters around it. The bodies of eight dead women were also recovered.

Since trafficking dinghies are often crammed with far more than 100 refugees, fears quickly arose that dozens more could be missing in the sinking. UN officials said Monday that accounts from survivors bore out those fears.

An Italian coast guard search that went through the night didn’t find any more survivors or corpses.

Flavio Di Giacomo of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a tweet Monday that survivors interviewed by the agency in Catania, Sicily, after they arrived on a rescue ship said 150 people had been aboard the dinghy when it set out from the coast of Libya.

“Sixty-four migrants lost their life in the shipwreck (which) occurred last Saturday,” Di Giacomo said, adding that “probably 56 missing migrants” were lost at sea.

“Among them there were many children who are believed to have drowned at sea,” said Doctors Without Borders Sea on Twitter.

Catania Mayor Enzo Bianco told Italian Radio Radicale that among the survivors was a child who lost her mother.

“I watched a 3-year-old girl while she was starting to play at the port here. She was saved, grabbed at the last second by the coast guard in the sea,” the mayor said. “She was clinging to her mother and she saw her drown.”

Bianco said the child is now with her aunt, who was among the survivors.

The dinghy, half-submerged, had been spotted by an aircraft from a European naval mission combating refugee trafficking.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been rescued at sea and taken to southern Italian ports in the last few years, including nearly 119,000 last year. Another 3,100 drowned along the way in 2017, the IOM says.

They include refugees fleeing wars or persecution who hope to receive asylum as well as economic refugees, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, who aren’t eligible to be granted permission to live in Europe.

Italy is working with various groups and authorities in Libya to slow the flow of newcomers.

Di Giacomo couldn’t immediately be reached for further details on the weekend survivors.

(Source: Agencies)

Cameroon Concord News has been informed that an emergency meeting of the African Bar is ongoing on the arrest of the Interim Head of State of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and 9 members of his cabinet in Abuja, Nigeria.

Sources within the African Bar say there are two members among those arrested namely Elias Eyambe and Nalova Bih. We understand a petition will be handed over to the Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria tomorrow Monday the 8^th of January 2018. The leadership of the African Bar is expected to hold an international press conference by midday tomorrow.

There is no extradition treaty between Nigeria and French Cameroun.  A transfer of Southern Cameroonians to La Republique du Cameroun where they will be immediately executed will be a violation of international law and construed as an act of terrorism.

Cameroon Concord News cream of reporters in Abuja and Lagos will provide you details on the happenings in Nigeria tomorrow.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nigerian Secret Service officers have arrested the leader of the Ambazonian Interim Government including seven members of the governing council. Cameroon Intelligence Report learned that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and seven prominent members of the Interim Government were summoned to Abuja for questioning following the detention of 39 Southern Cameroonians in Taraba by Nigerian security forces.

Our correspondent in Abuja said the Interim President and 7 members of his team were last seen at Nera Hotels in Abuja. Nothing has so far filtered about the exact location of the incident and the names of the Ambazonians who accompanied the President to Abuja.

We understand the Ambazonian Secretary for Education, Wilfred Tassang was running late for the meeting. He has also not been seen ever since the trip to Abuja. CIR had reported that the Biya regime had authorized its secret service through a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Philemon Yang to liaise with Nigeria to assassinate Sisiku Ayuk Tabe considered to be the principal Southern Cameroons planner of military and terrorist operations against La Republique du Cameroun.

The Buhari administration has not claimed responsibility for the abdication. Abuja is one of the most secure cities in Africa and the seat of the Nigerian government.

Culled from www.camerooonintelligencereport.com

Southern Cameroonians who fled from Kembong to Ossing village recently following a Cameroon armed forces onslaught have reportedly turned down food items donated by the Member of Parliament for the Eyumojock constituency, Hon. Okpu Susan Nsosei .

The female MP, according to a Cameroon Concord News source, had taken the gift items: three bags of rice and two bags of salt on Friday the 29^th of December to Ossing village hosting more than 400 Ambazonians from Kembong but was bluntly rejected. All entreaties to make the Ossing traditional council realise that the items were meant for distribution to the needy from Kembong fell on deaf ears as the people of Eyumojock stated that they were not hungry and didn’t solicit for any donations.

The ruling CPDM party has been banned in Southern Cameroons and designated as a terrorist organization by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  Informed sources in Ossing indicated that the donation came while the people of Ossing were having a meeting on how to accommodate those who escaped from Kembong and they all corroborated the fact that the CPDM was no longer a legal entity in Southern Cameroons and insisted the food items be returned.

Hon. Okpu Susan Nsosei has not been seen or heard ever since the genocide campaign started in her Eyumojock constituency.

By Ojong Joseph  Ojong in Mamfe

Mindful of the fact that the Biya regime is unable to refine enough crude for local consumption, the Francophone dominated armed forces destroyed petrol worth more than 400 million FCFA in the Ekok County in Ambazonia.

The Cameroon government forces waging a war against the people of Southern Cameroons said it destroyed the fuel imported from Nigeria and sold inside Cameroon territory. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the depots in Ekok were destroyed last week.

Some traditional rulers in Manyu including the Chief of Ekok had reportedly asked the Yaoundé regime to legalise and regulate the sale of petrol as a means of job creation. The Francophone government has not indicated any willingness to legalise or regulate the fuel sector but is now bend on stifling the Ambazonian ecomony.

The military post in Ekok now has a gunboat to fortify its operational capacity in the Mfum River and had intensified patrols in the border settlements and waterways in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  The intensified patrols by the French Cameroun army command had led to the arrest of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians. A similar action was staged in Mamfe at the Satom Bridge.

By Judith Fon in Ekok

Fourteen worshippers were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a mosque on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, civilian vigilantes told AFP. The suspected Boko Haram jihadist blew himself up amid worshippers inside the mosque in Gamboru around 5:00 am (0400 GMT), shortly before morning prayers. “Fourteen bodies have been pulled out of the rubble,” said Umar Kachalla, a civilian militiaman, who said the mosque had been completely destroyed. “Only the muezzin has survived and we believe more bodies are buried under the debris,” said Kachalla. “The death toll may likely rise.”

An hour earlier, a patrol of vigilantes spotted four suspected suicide bombers on the outskirts of the town and arrested one of them after a chase, said a second vigilante, Shehu Mada. “Two of them turned back and fled while the fourth disappeared into the darkness and we believe it was he who attacked the mosque,” Mada said. Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency against the government of Nigeria has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, killing around 20,000 people and displacing more than 2.6 million. In August 2014, the group seized Gamboru, a trading hub along with neighbouring town of Ngala.

Nigerian troops retook both towns in September 2015 with the help of Chadian forces following months-long offensives. Despite the recapture of the area, Boko Haram fighters continue to launch sporadic attacks, laying ambush on troops and vehicles as well as attacking and abducting farmers. On Tuesday Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video message claiming a series of attacks in the northeast including those in Gamboru.

Source: Vanguard