At least two people were killed in a fire accident at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Cameroon’s Far North Region, officials and local police said on Friday.

The fire, which broke out in a tent on Thursday night, gutted other shelters in the Ndaba locality that hosts the IDPs. Two children who were unable to escape were killed in the tragedy.

Local police said that at least 100 shelters were destroyed, while dozens of households in the camp were displaced.

Rescue workers were conducting an assessment to determine the extent of the damage, and the victims were in critical need of food, shelter, and other items, according to the police.

Fires in camps and communities where IDPs are resettled have become common in the semi-arid region, where temperatures sometimes reach 46 degrees Celsius.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Senior Divisional Officer for Bui should promptly and thoroughly investigate the killing of four Southern Cameroonians in the town of Kiyan instead of engaging in attempts to cover up the crime, Cameroon Concord News Correspondent in Kumbo said.

On Wednesday, February 7, Cameroon government military launched an attack on an Ambazonia fighter check point in Kiyan killing four innocent civilians held by the fighters.

The Cameroon government military has since maintained a kind of deliberate silence on the incident and has reportedly put out contradictory explanations.

The Cameroon government military’s recklessness is a result of the Yaoundé authorities’ consistent failure to hold them to account for a long list of such atrocities in Southern Cameroons.

The contradictory explanations offered by the prefect of Bui so far show complete disregard for civilian lives and suggest attempts by the Biya Francophone authorities to cover-up these grave human rights violations.

By Fon Lawrence

President Paul Biya on Tuesday met with a Chadian delegation made up of three ministers. The two sides discussed ways to enhance their historical, friendly relations.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, the Cameroonian Presidency said that Cameroon is a strategic trade partner to Chad, and that the establishment of a safe corridor for the transportation of goods via the Cameroonian seaports of Douala and Kribi and the Chad-Cameroon pipeline has significantly boosted bilateral ties.

The Chadian delegation was headed by Minister of State Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo.

Alhabo told reporters after the meeting in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde that they were mandated by Chadian leader Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno “to come and meet his elder (Biya), to explain to him the good relations of friendship and cooperation between our countries, and in return to receive his wise advice so that relations between the two countries are even better.”

Source: Xinhuanet

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says 91-year French Cameroun dictator and his Francophone military barons have failed to eradicate Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces and have lost their war in Southern Cameroons.

Comrade Dabney Yerima said the recent attack on the city of Buea is the result of the failure of Yaoundé and its Francophone dominated military to eliminate Amba fighters through the war.

“In the Buea restoration action, we see that La Republique du Cameroun is not capable of destroying Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Southern Cameroons. Southern Cameroons Restoration Force is a liberation and legitimate movement and will remain in Ground Zero,” Yerima said in an interview with Cameroon Concord News on Wednesday.

“The winner of the war in Southern Cameroons is the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and all resistance groups. So far, Biya and his Beti Bulu soldiers have been the main losers of this war” Dabney Yerima furthered.

Yaoundé waged the war on English speaking Cameroon seven years ago after the leader of the Ambazonian people Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of West Cameroon from the Francophone majority.

Since the start of the war, the Biya regime has killed over 10,000 Southern Cameroonians, mostly women and children, and left vast swathes of villages in ruins.

An additional, some 4,000 Cameroon government army soldiers have been reportedly killed by Amba fighters with scores injured.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Lawyers in Cameroon have called for prosecutors to launch an inquiry after dozens of women accused a businessman of sexual attacks in anonymous posts on social media.

The Bar association’s human rights commission said it was aware from social networks of anonymous testimony alleging “indecent exposure, sexual harassment, rapes, threats, illegal confinement and violence against several victims”.

The association’s letter called for an inquiry and urged the prosecution to bring the suspect to court “so that justice can be served in line with the law”.

Minister for women’s empowerment Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa on Friday said she was pleased to see the legal authorities take up the affair.

She urged victims “to break the silence” and offered to “supply the legal authorities with the elements needed to carry out procedures to establish the facts”.

The nation’s human rights commission took up the case on January 19 but on Saturday voiced regret at not being able “to deal with the affair properly” with a full investigation because the accusations are anonymous.

Since mid-January, more than 70 anonymous testimonies have been posted on social networks by a blogger accusing the businessman of sexual violence.

The hashtag StopBopda has taken off on a wave of indignation and seen more than 100,000 tweets on X, former Twitter, as African artists, athletes and influencers take up the cause.

In Douala’s Bali quarter, some 20 activists dressed in black gathered on Friday after the “Stand Up for Cameroon” movement called a protest.

“I am sickened, particularly since the person said to be a kidnapper and rapist is still at liberty on the streets of Douala,” said activist Chantal Egbe, calling on the justice system to prevent him from causing further harm.

Some 22 women linked to civil society groups also sent an open letter to the authorities on Thursday condemning the failure of government services to react to the allegations of sexual violence.

Source: AFP

The leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government says French Cameroun government actions that killed journalist Samuel Wazizi must be investigated as a war crime.

Separate investigations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International revealed that the Ministry of Territorial Administration was directly involved in the killing of the Anglophone journalist.

On Saturday, Vice President Dabney Yerima called for an immediate, independent, and transparent investigation by the International Criminal Court that holds Minister Paul Atanga Nji and other Francophone perpetrators to account for the crime.

Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Yaoundé hinted recently that evidence indicates that Minister Paul Atanga Nji teleguided the operations that killed Wazizi, making it a war crime.

Dabney Yerima told members of the Southern Cameroons war cabinet that the brutal murder of journalist Samuel Wazizi remains an unlawful and apparently deliberate attack on the free press in Southern Cameroons.

Yerima furthered that for over six years now, French Cameroun military operations have been direct attack on Southern Cameroons civilians that must be investigated as a war crime.

“No Southern Cameroons journalist should ever be targeted or killed simply for carrying out their work. Biya and his French speaking gangs must not be allowed to kill and attack Southern Cameroons journalists with impunity,” Yerima concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons resistance hopes against the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military did not come true, a top official in the Dabney Yerima led-Ambazonia Interim Government has conceded.

But the official who asked not to be named in this report, who presently co-ordinates Ground Zero operations, insisted: “That doesn’t mean that victory won’t be on our side.”

Vice President Dabney Yerima is currently trying to get the Southern Cameroons diaspora to rally once again behind the Interim Government, notably Southern Cameroonians in Canada and in the US.

A source in the Ambazonia Interim Government hinted that Yerima believes that at least some funding will surely come through that will facilitate Ground Zero actions this year.

Dabney Yerima has been speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News. He told us that upcoming events in La Republique du Cameroun will present great opportunities for Southern Cameroonians to get to Buea.

Yerima pointed out that every Southern Cameroonian citizens both at home and in the diaspora want the war to end with victory for the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

“The fact that we have been resisting the French Cameroun military for six years is already a big victory” Yerima furthered.

Amba fighters had hoped to take control of the entire South West and North West regions from the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé as well as forcing the international community to recognize Southern Cameroons as an independent state.

But disunity among the frontline leaders and lack of funding has made their efforts appear to have stalled.

Many Southern Cameroons academics in the West have acknowledged that the Ambazonia Interim Government had been over-optimistic.

A blame game has crept into Ambazonia public discourse about the degree to which the Maryland Group and their fighters – are at fault for what is currently happening now in Ground Zero.

Vice President Dabney Yerima refused to be drawn on when a new push to Buea could come.

“I can say for sure that we won’t stop,” he said. “We will continue fighting for our freedom, for our independence.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) paid tribute on Wednesday to peacekeeper Emmanuel Steve Atebele of Cameroon, who was killed last week by an explosive device, a UN spokesman said.

The Jan. 15 bombing attack in Mbindali in Ouham-Pende Prefecture also wounded five other peacekeepers. But they are all now in stable condition, said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Dujarric said that the UN mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, also reports that specialized units of the force, in coordination with the UN Mine Action Service, continue to work to minimize the risks linked to explosive devices.

He said they now regularly carry out clearances and destruction of unexploded ordnance operations and conduct awareness campaigns for the local population.

Peacekeepers have established a temporary operational base in Am-Dafock in Vakaga Prefecture, close to the border with Sudan, he said.

“This base will strengthen our efforts to secure the area and help prevent potential violence and tensions ahead of the seasonal movement of livestock, known as transhumance,” said the spokesman.

Source: Xinhuanet

At least five people were killed after the terror group, Boko Haram, raided two civilian communities in the Far North region, local and security sources said on Sunday.

The militants raided Ldubam Bah village of the region at about 7 p.m. on Saturday, killing four civilians, a security source in the region said.

At about 8 p.m. on the same day, the militants attacked Mavoumai village of the region, killing one person and injuring a girl, the source said.

“The bodies were buried early Sunday. Our brave soldiers will hunt them down,” the source added.

Local media reported that villagers were fleeing from the villages where the raids were carried out.

Boko Haram has been operating in the region since 2014.

Source: Xinhuanet