Condemnation is widespread in Cameroon following government threats to arrest civilians who criticize the country’s president. The threats increased after Cameroon’s political opposition accused President Paul Biya of postponing elections. In a release Tuesday, Human Rights Watch described the threats as censorship of free speech.

Cameroon’s opposition says it is not intimidated by threats from officials who are warning them to stop saying negative things about President Biya.

This week, government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said it was unacceptable for people to use irreverent language about the 91-year-old president.

Before Sadi’s statement, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, a top local government officer in the unit where Yaounde is located, announced he would expel anyone from the capital who insults Biya or state institutions.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said Djikdent’s announcement should be revoked to ensure the right to freedom of expression. The rights group says it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak freely in Cameroon.

Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, says he is surprised that the opposition criticizes Biya, whom he says is the architect of Cameroon’s democracy.

Nji says democracy given to Cameroonians freely by Biya must be constructively used to build and not to destroy. He says all government and administrative officials should be firm in punishing opposition and civil society members why defy and insult state authority.

Nji told state TV on Tuesday that opposition parties that call for protests against state officials will be arrested for rebellion, insurrection and treason.

Cameron’s opposition accuses Biya of ruling with an iron fist and says he is not showing signs he is ready to relinquish power.

Ndah Grimbald, assistant secretary-general of the opposition Social Democratic Front Party, says Biya should emulate the example of U.S. President Joe Biden and hand over leadership to a dynamic civilian.

“Our president, Paul Biya, is 10 years older than Biden. He is 91 years [old] and instead of thinking [of] how to hand over power to the younger generation, his regime is doing everything to impede the rights, the fundamental rights of Cameroonians from assembling and discussing the affairs of their country,” said Grimbald.

Supporters of Biya say he is a democrat and has won all elections since the return of multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990.

Biya has not said if he will be a candidate in the next presidential polls, but his party supporters have been organizing regular political rallies to urge him to run for re-election.

Opposition groups were angered earlier this month when Biya ordered his majority Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement or CPDM party to pass a government bill extending terms for all 180 lawmakers by 12 months, into 2026.

The law makes it hard for main opposition leaders, including Maurice Kamto, to gain the legislative seats they need to be eligible to run against Biya in the next presidential election.

Kamto says he won the 2018 presidential election but lost it to Biya through fraud. Kamto then boycotted Cameroon’s 2020 local council and parliamentary elections.

Cameroon’s laws make it possible for presidential aspirants who do not have legislative seats to submit 300 signatures from influential politicians, including former ministers, traditional rulers and religious leaders, to secure a spot on the presidential ballot.

But the opposition and civil society say getting the signatures is highly difficult because the leaders are either scared of Biya or are his political partners.

Biya is Africa’s second-longest serving leader after the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in power since 1979.

Source: VOA

President Paul Biya, was scheduled to leave Yaoundé, the nation’s capital, yesterday in what was dubbed as a private visit to an unknown destination in Europe.

Sources at the Unity Palace in Yaoundé have hinted the Cameroon Concord News Group that Mr. Biya, 91, who is going through tough health challenges, was being rushed to his usual destination for health reasons.

“The head of state is in agony. His usual demons have reared their ugly heads and he is in very bad shape. His wife who moonlights as a care giver is already sick and tired of cleaning him up as even the thickest diapers are not a match for Mr. Biya’s incontinence,” our source at the Unity Palace said.

“Mr. Biya is heading to Switzerland where he hopes to find some relief. His body is failing him. He rarely talks these days and his heart and other organs have joined the fight to bring down the long-serving, incompetent and low-energy leader,” our source, which elected anonymity, said.

“Despite his failing health, Mr. Biya is still holding on to power and it is being rumored that the dying Biya is still insisting that he will be his party’s flagbearer in next year’s election. Why can Mr. Biya not learn from Joe Biden who has thrown in the towel because of age and poor health?” Our source quipped.

Meanwhile, the country’s Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, was also rushed to France in a small bundle for emergency health care.

The 90-year-old is in a critical and unstable situation. He was rushed to France in an air ambulance and many of his collaborators thought he might not make it to France as his health had deteriorated very fast.

A source close to Mr. Niat said he might not return to Cameroon in front of the plane. “He might end up in the cargo section of the plane as his health is very concerning,” our source said.

Over the last couple of years, Mr. Niat has been a colony of diseases but he cannot quit his position because he wants to continue having free health care and other perks which come with his position as Senate President.

More will be yours as our correspondents in Europe provide us details about the two Cameroon strong men.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

BAT Cameroun has condemned the expropriation of its land in the Bastos district of Yaoundé. The seizure was overseen by lands minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi, and several names linked to the president’s office have been cited.

In France, publishing company A Média, which runs news station Africa 24, has been summoned to appear before the Nanterre Commercial Court in the Paris suburbs on 4 June. The indebted company faces compulsory liquidation proceedings, five years after its takeover by the Cameroonian state.

 At the heart of the intrigues at the troubled TV news station is the former owner of the group, Constant Nemale, who never strayed far from the channel.

Culled from Africa Intelligence

The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, recently signed an agreement with the government of South Korea totalling XAF 23.21 billion (US$38 million) for the execution of five development projects in the country.

Part of the funds will be channeled to the next phase of an ongoing project to upgrade and digitize the country’s civil status registration system.

Ousmane Mey signed the agreement on behalf of Cameroon, while the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Cameroon, Nam Ki-wook, appended his signature for his country.

Cameroon is fully on a journey to digitize its civil status registration system and several actions have been taken in this regard. Already, a pilot using the OpenCRVS platform for birth registration in 20 municipal councils of the country has been completed, and a new course of action is awaited. In May, the country held a national forum of mayors to discuss hindrances to civil status registration.

Ousmane Mey said $4.8 million out of the $38 million grant will be deployed to subsequent activities of the project which seeks to set up a robust, efficient and secure foundational identity system for the country.

A project in Cameroon dubbed the “Support Program for the Modernization of the Civil Registration System” (PAMEC) is supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and it is within that framework that this latest grant funding from Korea has been made available, said the Ambassador. The project also has the financial support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

While underlining that the funding agreement underpins the good state of relations between the two countries, the diplomat urged the government of Cameroon to implement the project in a transparent and accountable manner.

Another digital project to benefit from the financing, according to the partners, is the second phase of a program to digitize Cameroon’s public contracts procurement system, known as “e-Procurement System Development Project.” This project, to get $5.6 million from the package, is a continuation of efforts by the country to simplify procurement procedures of public contracts by enhancing transparency and efficiency.

A “Smart Campus” project is also part of the lot, according to Ousmane Mey, and will get $8 million from the grant. He says the project seeks to promote digital government efforts in the public administration and modernize service delivery in the public service.

Apart from these three projects related to digital, the two others to benefit from the Korean financing have to do with the provision of potable water schemes in four council areas, and the strengthening of the country’s emergency medicines management system.

Source: Biometricupdate

Cameroon continues its inevitable free fall into chaos as the Biya regime skips from one mistake to the other.

The country’s economy has bottomed out, with more than 70% of the country’s graduates being unemployed or underemployed, while their parents struggle to make ends meet.

Cameroon has the lowest salaries in the CFA Franc region and with escalating living cost, Cameroonians are going through hell.

Many parents have to help sustain their adult children, most of who are graduates but cannot find jobs due to bad governance and corruption.

While the poor economic situation is stressing up Cameroonians, the country’s administrative officials are doing their best to stifle any dissenting voices.

The country’s minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, an ex-convict, is noted for using the law abusively to sow fear in Cameroonians.

Over the last few years, intimidation is being used as a dissuasive tool to nip any anti-government actions or plans in the bud.

Recently, it is the Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi, a division in the Centre Region, who issued a press release intimidating anybody who might think of planning or supporting a people power revolution in Yaoundé.

With the country’s president, Paul Biya, at death’s door, administrative officials, who know how bad things are in Cameroon, are now trying to stave off any protests in the country through unconstitutional and undemocratic means.

However, their efforts will surely not last for a long time as Cameroonians are sick and tired of the chaos the Biya regime has thrown at them.

Cameroon is ripe for a revolution and only genuine reforms and sincere dialogue can help the country avoid the political chaos which has been playing out in other African countries where dictators have lasted in power for decades.

By Alain Agbor Ebot

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces have arrested an individual in Ekok in Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu on charges of directing a disinformation campaign against the Ambazonia Interim Government and manipulation of Anglophone public opinion against the struggle.

The official Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Cooperation news agency said the individual, whose identity was not immediately available, had manipulated the minds of ordinary people in Eyumojock Sub Division through a disinformation assault on the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, spread lies against the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, desecrated the national Ambazonia flag and participated in CPDM rallies banned in the entire Southern Cameroons.

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima has been quoted as saying that Amba intelligence forces managed to hoax the counter-revolutionary agent into Eyumojock from Yaoundé and capture him in Ekok.

The development comes only a few days after Amba forces identified and arrested an individual in Bui in the North West on charges of espionage for the Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

The Ambazonia Interim Government said in a statement late last week that several other pro French Cameroun fugitives wanted in Ambazonia will be arrested this coming December.

By Besong Eunice Nchong with files from Kingsley Betek

Brenda, daughter of Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, has shared a photo of herself kissing another woman.

In a recent social media post, the president’s daughter revealed that she is in a relationship with Brazilian model Layyons Valença.

In the accompanying caption, Brenda openly expressed her love for the model and declared her lesbian status.

“I am crazy about you and I want the world to know,” Brenda wrote, adding a love heart emoji.

This is not the first time that the two women have shown their closeness on social media.

Brenda, who is 26 and a singer, also shared an article published by Le Monde, wherein the magazine reported that she had “come out”.

Paul Biya, 91, became Cameroon’s president in 1982 and he is one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders.

Since 2016, the country’s penal code provides up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 CFA francs (305 euros) in the event of sexual intercourse between two people of the same sex.

Human rights groups have previously criticised Cameroon’s strict laws against members of the LGBT community.

There have also been questions about whether Brenda’s sexuality is a privilege that can only be enjoyed by a select few in the country.

Bandy Kiki, the Cameroonian LGBT activist, said anti-LGBT laws in the country “disproportionately target the poor”.

“It highlights a harsh reality. Wealth and connections create a shield for some, while others face severe consequences,” Kiki said.

President Biya and the Cameroonian government are yet to officially comment on the issue.

Source: The Cable

Aboubacar Siddiki, known as Babadjo, was released from prison in Cameroon on June 21 after serving a three-month sentence for insulting a local governor. Moments after he stepped out of the prison he was rearrested on charges of disturbing public order, demonstration, and hate speech. Babadjo’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that these charges are based on claims by the Cameroonian intelligence service that Babadjo’s supporters were planning to demonstrate to celebrate his release. 

Babadjo, a member of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (Union nationale pour la démocratie et le progrès), was first arrested on March 8 at his home in the city of N’Gaoundéré, in the region of Adamawa, after he criticized the region’s governor on a WhatsApp group. His friends and local human rights defenders told Human Rights Watch that the governor ordered his arrest.

That wasn’t Babadjo’s first run-in with authorities. In 2020, he was arrested for a song he released that criticized local officials. He is currently detained at the gendarmerie headquarters in N’Gaoundéré. On June 24, his lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition before the high court, which is expected to rule on the case on July 4. Babadjo, his relatives and friends said, has diabetes and requires specialized medical care.

“This latest arrest of Babadjo exemplifies the government’s repression towards opposition and dissenting voices,” said Aboubakary Siddiki, president of another opposition party in northern Cameroon, Mouvement patriotique du salut camerounais. “The crackdown is increasing ahead of the 2025 vote as we see political meetings and political coalitions banned.”

Cameroonian authorities have cracked down on opposition and dissent for many years. In March, the territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, banned two opposition coalitions, the Political Alliance for Change (Alliance politique pour le changement), led by Jean-Michel Nintcheu, and the Political Alliance for Transition in Cameroon (Alliance politique pour la transition), led by Olivier Bile.

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, 91, in power since 1982, is serving his seventh term. He was last re-elected in 2018 after a contested vote-counting process which sparked a wave of political repression and a lethal crackdown on peaceful protests.

That Babadjo was rearrested as he left prison underscores how the Cameroonian authorities are silencing freedom of expression in the country. Authorities should release Babadjo, drop the charges against him, and ensure he has access to adequate health care while in detention.

Culled from Human Rights Watch