Cameroon officials say the number of people displaced by the separatist war in the English-speaking regions has plummeted, indicating the government is winning the conflict. However, nongovernmental organizations say the number has remained steady at a half-million, with a huge majority living in desperate conditions.

At the Cathedral Hall of the Roman Catholic Church in Bamenda, Christians sing as they receive 35 people who fled clashes last Monday between the military and separatist fighters in the town of Kumbo.

“We were caught inside the crossfire,” Joseph Mussa told VOA. He says he escaped with his wife and six children after they had counted 11 corpses within a week..

“Luckily for us we know some bush roads, bush tracks. We had to find our way across the bush and streams, even spending some nights in the bush, and we find ourselves in Bamenda where we are crowded in small narrow room,” he said.

Last week, the Catholic diocese of Kumbo said it had documented evidence that 385 civilians were killed and 750 houses torched within seven months in Kumbo alone, and young people had deserted most villages, leaving only the very old.

Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, says the situation in the northwest and southwest regions has improved greatly, and the number of internally displaced people has dropped 70 percent from its peak of 500,000 early last year.

“Statistics from administrative authorities and NGOs working in close collaboration with the government show there are about 152,000 internally displaced in the two regions,” he said. “Inflating the number presents another danger which can even jeopardize the sovereignty of the state.”

Atanga Nji said the government has supplied humanitarian aid to 100,000 of the displaced and will eventually reach the other 50,000 living in hard-to-access areas.

He dismissed as unfounded local media reports that the aid cannot reach everyone in need because of continued clashes between the military and English-speaking separatists who seek to break away from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

But NGOs have contested the government’s figures.

“We have 600,000 and above, and the U.N. says it is 500,000 and above, and all credible organizations are above the 500,000 mark, and these are professional organizations, which have a history of doing such a job [gathering statistics],” said lawyer Agbor Balla, founder and executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. “But being as it may, the focus is to ensure that the necessary aid, food and non-food items are provided to those who are internally displaced.”

He says Atanga Nji’s figures are politically motivated, and designed to show the government is resolving the crisis.

VOA

Cameroon has deployed troops to crack down on protesters calling for the release from jail of 150 opposition party members, including their leader Maurice Kamto, who says he won the October presidential election, not long-serving President Paul Biya. Kamto has been in jail for more than two months and his supporters say he should be unconditionally released.

It was a quiet but tense Saturday morning in some neighborhoods of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, as residents went about their daily activities, watched by combat-ready police. Half a dozen officers have been deployed around the headquarters of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party of Kamto, who remains in jail and insists he won the presidential election on Oct. 7, even though official results give a decisive victory to incumbent Biya.

Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji said security forces are there to protect the population from the opposition political party that he said wants to see the country in chaos.

He said even though President Biya has kept Cameroon democratic and peaceful, with freedoms and liberties, authorities will not accept protests carried out in disrespect of the law and they will not tolerate those who want to use violence to make their voices heard. He said Cameroonians are peace-loving people who reject the violence some opposition parties want to bring.

Nji said Saturday the government banned protests organized by the opposition MRC party until April 13 because the action is provocative and intended to create an uprising in a country that already has Boko Haram terrorism to contend with on its northern border with Nigeria. He pointed out that Cameroon also has suffered from carnage that has spilled over from the neighboring Central African Republic on its eastern border and has had to deal with the separatist crisis that killed at least 1,000 people in the English-speaking regions of the bilingual country that also has French as its official language.

Nji said April 6, which the MRC chose for its protests, remains a painful day for Cameroonians because it is the anniversary of a 1984 coup attempt to oust Biya from power. He said he has instructed all 10 regional governors to arrest anyone who protests.

MRC Party Secretary General Christopher Ndong says members are mobilized and ready to demonstrate their support for jailed members of their party and Kamto, who claims his victory was stolen by Biya.

“Do you expect us to fold our hands and stand. Professor Maurice Kamto won the 2018 presidential election and the president that was supposed to be [in power] was the one caught and locked up. The government does not want him to take over power. Our liberties are infringed, our right to freedom of speech infringed. It is not because the government is clamping down on us that will make the population fear,” Ndong said.

The protesters had asked for authorization to march and asked the government to solve the crisis in the English-speaking regions that has gone on for three years.

Pierre Hubert Mbida of the Cameroon Citizenship Movement said by refusing to authorize the protest and deploying security forces to clamp down on protesters, Cameroon is simply confirming that it disrespects people’s rights and freedoms.

He said the Cameroon government is abusing public liberties and people’s freedoms and expresses joy only when its supporters sing praises about its management of public affairs, governance and its long serving leader Biya. He said it is funny that when people go to the streets to complain that they lack water to drink, they are described as unpatriotic citizens who are a menace to public order. He said it is intolerable that for quite some time now, Cameroon has continued to recruit soldiers to protect its leaders.

Biya, who has led Cameroon for 36 years, won 71.3 percent of the vote, far ahead of Kamto’s 14.2 percent, according to official results of the Oct. 7 poll.

Police arrested Kamto and his supporters more than two months ago after days of peaceful protests turned violent in Yaounde and three other cities.

Kamto is charged with sedition, insurrection and inciting violence in Cameroon and its embassies, including in Paris and Berlin.

VOA

NGOs are exaggerating the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Cameroon’s two war-torn English-speaking regions in a bid “to make business,” an official said on Thursday.

“I read a public document recently published by an NGO saying that we have more than 400,000 internally displaced people in Cameroon. That is total misinformation and I can say it’s fake news,” Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji told a press conference here in the capital city. “It is unfortunate that some partners want to use the situation to make business. Inflating the number of IDPs presents another danger which can even jeopardize the sovereignty of the state,” he added.

Nji’s statement came after Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based NGO, reported that close to 500,000 people have been displaced internally in the two war-torn English-speaking regions. “Statistics from administrative authorities and serious NGOs working in collaboration with government show that there are about 152,000 internally displaced people in the northwest and southwest regions and about 6,000 internally displaced in the west, central and littoral regions,” Nji said, adding that 75,000 IDPs have been assisted by the government.

Armed separatists have been clashing with government forces in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since November 2017, seeking to secede from French-majority Cameroon and create a new nation called “Ambazonia.”

 Xinhuanet

Cameroon said Tuesday that it firmly opposed what it called “bias” report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on atrocities in its war-torn English-speaking regions.

The HRW report published on March 28 blamed government forces for killing “scores of civilians”, using indiscriminate force, and torching “hundreds of homes” over the past six months.

“The government of Cameroon categorically rejects these allegations against its professional forces who are fighting to preserve the territorial integrity of the country,” Cameroon’s Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Emmanuel Rene Sadi told a press conference here.

The minister accused the HRW of “obvious bias in favor of armed gangs.” He said Cameroon was “really surprised” that the report failed to put stress on kidnappings, closure of schools, burning of hospitals and “other atrocities” committed by armed separatists.

Armed separatists fighting for the “independence” of the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon have been clashing with government forces since November 2017.

The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict.

Source: Xinhuanet

The residence of the mayor of the Mamfe Rural Council, Hon. Ayuk John Takunchong was attacked by armed Southern Cameroons militants at exactly 1:45 am on Wednesday. The mayor and his two kids were home at the time of the attack carried out by an unidentified group operating deep within the Manyu County.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News, Mayor Takunchong said armed Ambazonia militants stormed his residence and burnt all his cars before running away towards unknown destinations. The attack is the second against a senior Manyu CPDM politician after that of Minister Victor Mengot as the Ambazonia group targeted the Mamfe mayor, Bishop Andrew Nkea and Rev Father Tabeson.

A total of 170 Southern Cameroons civilians were killed recently by Cameroon government forces in the Northern Zone, while several hundred were injured according to a report by the Human Rights Watch.

Manyu Odeshi Warriors continue to launch sporadic attacks across Cameroon government troops and pro Biya regime establishments in Manyu. Cameroon government Security reports indicate that Southern Cameroons group still poses threat against stability in the country. The Manyu Warriors still has dormant cells in Mamfe through which it carries out attacks, across the county like it used to do when the crisis started some three years ago.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons fighters have reportedly blocked a newly built road linking the capital of the Menchum County to Bamenda, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt, while CRTV Bamenda reported that troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé secured a strategic highway between Batibo and Mamfe, the chief town in the Manyu County.

In the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia Restoration Forces took over three Cameroon government gendarmerie posts on the truck A road that serves as an alternate route into Wum via Fundong after days of fighting. The Rapid Intervention Battalion built the bypass after Southern Cameroons Self Defense forces cut off the original main route to Menchum.

Meanwhile, the Francophone dominated army say they have been able to secure the highway linking Muyuka and Kumba.  The reports came as CEMAC nations hinted that some of the challenges confronting France-Afrique of which CEMAC is the heart-beat, included the growing debate on colonial security, economic and cultural pacts, the CFA Franc, the Multinational war against Boko Haram, Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea, the instability in CAR and the DRC Congo.  The sick French Cameroun despot with a failing memory was chosen recently to lead the group.

The United States so far has balked at the Ambazonia Diaspora sending weapons to the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces, fearing the arms could end up in the hands of extremists. Over 430,000 have fled in response to the violence. The violence is also compounding poverty in the country, as farmers have been forced to abandon their crops and exports are in decline.

As a result of the violence, earlier this week, the U.S. placed sanctions on over 20 military personnel, civilian actors, and government ministers in Cameroon. Aid programs and military training by the U.S. have been withdrawn. France has kept the faith in the 86 years old Biya supplying his regime with guns.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons Liberation Council (SCLC) condemns, in the strongest terms, the reported kidnapping of an unknown number of civilians in the Republic of Ambazonia, formerly the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

The victims include a former Bar Association president and former presidential candidate, Barrister Akere Muna, and an unknown number of people who were traveling in his convoy in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia.

The SCLC calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all those kidnapped and points an accusing finger at the regime of President Paul Biya for orchestrating the crime.

Ambazonian Restoration Forces operating in the Northern Zone, including the commander in charge of Ambazonian self-defense forces in the area, have denied involvement. One General issued an audio press release Tuesday, denying responsibility for the crime. In the audio, the commander prays that no harm be done to the victims if they are in the keeping of any Ambazonian forces; that no ransom be accepted and that victims be released if their safety cannot be guaranteed.

The SCLC also accuses thousands of pro-regime militia operating in Ambazonia who have specialized in hostage taking for ransom. Regime armed and security forces have also carried out abductions, kidnappings, deportations to jails outside Ambazonia, and raids on UN-managed refugee camps.

Massacres, targeted killings, extrajudicial executions are among a long line of desperate crimes by regime forces aimed at convincing the international community that the pro-independence campaign is a terrorist organization.

In October, November and December 2018 and in March 2019, masked gunmen, who were later revealed to be soldiers of the regime, kidnapped students in Bafut and Bamenda, in the Northern Zone, and in Kumba and Buea, in the Southern Zone.

In the November 2018 kidnapping of 81 students and their teachers in Bamenda, the regime appeared to have been seeking to generate the global outrage which followed the kidnappings, in April 2014 by Boko Haram, of 276 Chibok Girls in Nigeria’s Borno State. The lead kidnapper in that case was later positively identified as Armel Rostand Mveng, an officer in the Cameroonian army.

The SCLC reiterates that the only terrorists in the Cameroons are Biya’s colonial forces. After declaring war on Ambazonia on 30 November 2017, the regime issued radio announcements, promising to commit war crime. It ordered civilians to vacate villages suspected of hosting Ambazonian fighters, known to the regime as “rats”, “dogs”, “terrorists” and “secessionists”.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed so far. Over a million Ambazonians now live in the forests, fleeing the colonial forces which have looted and razed nearly 200 villages.

The Francophone dominated army deployed to Southern Cameroons have reportedly arrested scores of Ambazonian civilians in Mutengene in the Fako County. Cameroon Concord News understands that the arrests were made on Monday.

The Yaounde regime ordered the Rapid Intervention Battalion stationed at the police school in Mutengene to storm the locality in a bid to counter ghost town operations decreed by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.  

Our correspondent in Victoria who contributed to this report observed that a handful of those arrested were later on released while several others were ferried to Buea in military trucks. Troops loyal to the Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaounde have carried out numerous raids in Mutengene ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

By Sama Ernest

Separatists in restive Northwest Cameroon have, in a rare move, freed a former government minister unharmed after two weeks in captivity. Emmanuel Ngafeson Bantar, a top Ministry of Justice official, was the first advisor to President Paul Biya to be abducted in the Northwest.

Bantar says his stay with the separatists convinced him that an end to the three-year-conflict with the separatists is possible if the government pursues sincere dialogue.

Family and friends sang and danced at Bantar’s Bamenda residence after he was released on Saturday.

Bantar, a former secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice in charge of prison administration, was abducted by armed men in mid-March.

But, while most Cameroon officials kidnapped by suspected separatists end up dead, Bantar says that his captors treated him well.

“Would you imagine that they will come and tell me what is available and ask me what I would want to eat?,” he said. “Would you imagine that they supplied me with mineral water?”

Bantar’s treatment by separatists fighting for an independent English-speaking state in Cameroon is rare.

Cameroon’s government says at least 15 government officials and five traditional rulers have been abducted over the past two years. Nine were later found dead while the whereabouts of eight others are unknown. Others were freed only after large ransoms were paid.

Bantar would not say if he paid a ransom for his release.

Human rights activist Frankline Ndi says Bantar’s release may show that separatists are tiring of the fighting, which has killed at least a thousand people in Cameroon, displaced half a million and brought economic life in rebel areas to a halt.

“War cannot go without an end. We cannot continue fighting when we do not know how the fight will end,” said Ndi. “We have lost many already. We have lost properties. I do believe it is a time for any rightful thinking son of the Northwest and Southwest to put on that thinking cap and reflections on peace.”

Cameroon’s Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji says if the rebels are serious about peace, they should drop their guns and be pardoned as President Paul Biya asked.

“Some of the terrorists in certain localities have willfully handed over their weapons to the forces of law and order,” said Nji. “They were realistic because they know that you cannot fight a state. We have pockets of resistance but how long will they last?”

Cameroon’s separatists complain the country’s English-speakers are treated as second-class citizens in the Francophone central Africa country, and want to create an independent state. The international community has condemned violence from both the rebels and security forces and called for a negotiated end to the conflict.

VOA

The All Anglophone Conference designed to enable all Southern Cameroons’ factions to find a unified position on the way forward in efforts at resolving the conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

The Washington conference will also help to soften certain positions and iron out some of the differences that have made it hard for Southern Cameroonians to take a common stance that will help them deal with the Yaounde government that has unleashed a reign of terror on civilians in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Though some factions like the group led by Dr. Cho Ayaba have refused to attend the Washington conference, the first day clearly revealed that most of the Southern Cameroons factions are looking forward to dialogue that can help bring about the cessation of hostilities in the country.

Some 5,000 Cameroonians have been killed ever since the conflict started in 2016 and the government’s refusal to embrace calls for an inclusive dialogue implies that more hostilities are in the offing.

Reports by rights groups have placed the blame for the hostilities on the government’s doorstep and the government’s intransigence is provoking the wrath of countries such as USA, Canada and the United Kingdom which hold that an unstable Cameroon is bad news to the entire sub-region.

Stay tuned for as our correspondents talk with the various stakeholders.

By Kingsley Betek in Washington