As the crisis in Southern Cameroons intensifies, the American administration and its allies are working behind the scenes to bring the Yaounde government to order.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, who is on an official visit to the continent has been sending a very clear message to the Biya regime, urging it to embrace dialogue or face the consequences.

Before arriving Cameroon, Mr. Nagy had said the Trump administration clearly felt that the Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons was an incident that required global attention.

Mr. Nagy who had visited other African countries is currently in Cameroon and will be meeting with the country’s president, Paul Biya, to whom he will be delivering a warning from President Trump. The Trump administration is threatening to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Cameroon government officials if they do not halt the reckless killing of innocent Southern Cameroonians.

A source close to the Yaounde government has indicated that there is panic in Yaounde and that Mr. Biya has called on his collaborators to change their language vis-à-vis Southern Cameroonians.

The source, which elected anonymity, says the American position is being taken seriously as it has the backing of Canada and the United Kingdom which have been seeking to help bring about peace in Cameroon.

With Mr. Nagy in Yaounde, the language has begun changing. The first to set the tone is the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, a staunch supporter of war and a huge beneficiary of the chaos playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Mr. Assomo, on Monday, 18 March 2019, urged army soldiers to stop terrorizing civilians, a clear indication that the message from America and its allies has gone through.

Mr. Assomo who is in Buea to install some military officials; all of whom are from his region, advised soldiers to collaborate with the population to normalize things in the troubled region.

Those installed are:

• Col. Eyenga Severin, as Commander of the 21st Motorized Infantry Brigade (BRIM)…
• Major Eyengue Amougou Allain Wilfred, as Commander of the 21st Motorised Infantry Batallion (BIM)
• Colonel Ateba Leonard Josue, as Regional Delegate of Ex-Service Men.

The newly installed official also warned soldiers in the two English-speaking regions to guard against terrorizing the population.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s editor, Kingsley Betek, who is currently in Yaounde, will be providing a detailed report on Mr. Nagy’s visit to Cameroon. Stay tuned for any updates from your trusted online news platform.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Rene Sadi on Monday called on the European Union to “have a good understanding” of the political and security situation in the country in a bid to make “informed” declarations and decisions.

“The government calls for a good understanding of the situation by all and our cooperation with the European Union (EU), in view of wise and multifaceted support for a return to peace in the interest of Cameroon,” Sadi said in a statement released late Monday.

His reaction came after EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini condemned the “deteriorating” political and security situation in Cameroon. Mogherini said earlier that the imprisonment of the opposition leader and the violence in the two English-speaking regions showed “growing political malaise” in the country.

“These declarations show a bit of interest our European Union partners have in Cameroon which we welcome, nevertheless, they show lack of analysis of the reality and veracity of the facts,” Sadi said, adding that opposition leader Maurice Kamto and his militants of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party were awaiting trial for charges including “insurrection, hostility against the state, rebellion and destruction of public property.”

“Concerning the Northwest and Southwest, the situation in the two regions is under control and the prospects for a return to normal are becoming more favorable every day,” Sadi said. Cameroon is facing growing insecurity in its two anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest, where separatists want to create a new nation called “Ambazonia.”

Kamto was arrested alongside 117 militants of the CRM party in late January after they organized protests to denounce what they called an “electoral hold-up” and the “useless war in Anglophone regions.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Despite somewhat slipping from global headlines in recent weeks, Cameroon has nonetheless maintained its death spiral. The root cause of the crisis can be unequivocally placed at the doorstep of the Presidency, or the Geneva Intercontinental Hotel, where President Paul Biya spends much of his time. As we have previously written on this site, President Biya is Africa’s oldest head of state, having been in power since 1982, and recently secured a seventh term in office despite credible allegations of vote rigging, electoral fraud, targeted threats of violence against opponents, and an ongoing, bloody uprising in the country’s Anglophone regions.

Biya’s main challenger in the October 2018 election, Maurice Kamto, has been subsequently charged by a military court with rebellion, insurrection and “hostility to the homeland,” after his political party staged peaceful protests in several of Cameroon’s major cities. To be sure, Kamto’s ordeal is only the latest example in a long succession of targeted harassment, intimidation and persecution of the country’s dissidents and opposition political figures. Akere Muna, for instance — another 2018 presidential challenger who ultimately joined Kamto’s coalition — has been repeatedly targeted by local authorities, as has Kah Walla, a former presidential candidate, leading women’s rights activist, and president of the Cameroon People’s Party.

Next week, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy visits Cameroon, Maurice Kamto and countless other political prisoners will likely remain behind bars and the country’s activist community still living in fear. Importantly, however, political leaders in the U.S. have begun to speak up, while certain sectors of the U.S. government have also taken actions to hold Cameroonian leaders accountable, or at least put the government on notice that human rights violations will not be allowed to continue without consequence.

Last month, for example, U.S. officials committed to “terminate” over $17 million in security assistance to the Biya regime, as well as the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program, which links 81 nations around the world with the U.S. armed forces “in a mutually beneficial relationship.” This move, indeed, was long overdue given the ongoing, absolutely horrific abuses being perpetrated in the country — most notably in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, which has resulted in tens of thousands of refugees and, according to recent public opinion polling, a dramatic decline in citizens’ faith in their leaders and state institutions.

U.S. Congressional leaders are also speaking out, including Representative Eliot Engel, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who this week wrote a letter of concern focused specifically on Cameroon to Secretary Nagy, in light of his upcoming trip. This is no small feat. In the letter, Congressman Engel requested that Secretary Nagy — who has previously served in Cameroon — to “raise the fact that the Government of Cameroon has clearly violated the rights of Mr. Kamto and other political prisoners to assemble freely and express and disseminate their opinions, which are encapsulated in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), which Cameroon ratified three decades ago.”

Certainly, the issue at hand is not about “western moralizing” or “American finger wagging” as it is often perceived or otherwise presented by Cameroon state media (and other repressive governments on the African continent). These rightful voices of concern are simply pointing out the fact that leaders in Cameroon, among others, often fail to live up to the language enshrined in their own constitutions, conventions, norms and regional standards. The ACHPR, for example, and the African Charter on Democracy, Governance and Elections exist for a reason. And they should be duly respected.

Instead of engaging in a comprehensive, much-needed dialogue with the political opposition, civil society, and Cameroon’s beleaguered business community, which is also suffering as a result of the crackdown, President Biya and the ruling cabal have doubled down, contracting highly paid lobbyists in Washington to whitewash their crimes while engaging in a scorched earth policy back home. Increased repression, and the climate of fear that is purposefully cultivated as a result, may keep President Biya and his enablers in power for the time being. The only viable path, however, towards achieving progress, development and ultimate peace will surely have to be based on respecting democratic principles and meeting the so far unmet aspirations of its people who are yearning for a better life — many of whom continue to quite literally put their lives on the line to secure a better, more prosperous country for future generations.

APO Group

The recent arrest of a former official in Cameroon for alleged corruption has sparked a debate over whether the government is actually trying to stamp out corruption, or is cracking down on anyone it sees as a challenger to longtime President Paul Biya.

Former defense minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o was arrested along with his wife and three of his close collaborators.

Political analyst Eugene Mbida says Mebe Ngo’o had occupied several strategic positions, including the director of Biya’s cabinet, police chief, minister of transport and defense minister — who was instrumental in arresting people considered as opponents of Biya. Mebe Ngo’o was widely viewed by Cameroonians as the emblematic future president, according to Mbida.

At least two dozen former government officials have been arrested and imprisoned in Cameroon over the past 10 years, including a former prime minister, several ex-ministers, and heads of state-owned corporations.

The charges against Mebe Ngo’o have not been made public, though corruption is said to be the cause of his arrest. The other officials were arrested on embezzlement charges, but they say they are political prisoners who are suffering for raising their voices against Biya’s 37-year stay in power.

‘Prisoners of conscience’

Former Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono, in his book titled Mensonges d’Etat (Lies of the State), says he and other detainees are “prisoners of conscience.”

Jacques Mfeugue of the Yaounde-based Center for the Promotion of Good Governance says the only way for citizens to know if officials are stealing from the public purse is if officials are forced to declare their assets before taking office.

In addition, he says, Cameroon should upgrade the audit bench of the Supreme Court to an autonomous court that investigates financial crimes.

The government denies that Biya persecutes those who oppose him and insists that it fights only corruption. It says the country has lost about $1.5 billion in stolen funds over the past decade, and that the anti-corruption body recovered about $260 million last year.

VOA

A senior member of Cameroon’s Parliament on Tuesday called on the international community and the government to be more “objective” in resolving the conflict in the two English-speaking provinces of the West African country.

The remarks by Enoh Tanjong, the eldest member of Cameroon’s National Assembly, is believed to be made to show the stance of the Parliament for the first time since the armed conflict started in 2017.

“Solidarity and objectiveness of the international community and the government are fundamental in resolving the conflict,” he said while denouncing “in the strongest terms” the violence perpetrated by “gunmen” in the troubled regions.

“The international community particularly has to be more objective in assessing the political tensions in Cameroon,” Tanjong said as the new parliamentary session opened.

According to the United Nations, more than 430,000 people were internally displaced in the clashes between the government forces and the armed separatists seeking to create an independent nation in the English-speaking Northwest Region and Southwest Region.

“For once the dean (eldest member of parliament) has decided to mention the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions. I hope this is the beginning of many things to happen. We need peace to become a reality in Cameroon. This session might be very decisive,” another member of the National Assembly, Joseph Mbah Ndam, told Xinhua.

The parliamentary session, which will last through April 12, is widely expected to come up with a blueprint to end the conflict. It will also elect a new executive bureau for the National Assembly and the Senate, the upper house.

Xinhuanet

Cameroon’s Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo on Monday held a meeting with senior military and police officers to evaluate security measures in the country in the wake of “growing violence”.

“The security situation in the country now is marked by violence sparked by secessionists and criminal gangs in the Northwest and Southwest regions. This has led to suffering,” Assomo said at the start of the meeting in the capital, Yaounde.

“Fortunately this is being fought by defense and security forces with courage, determination and professionalism in strict respect of laws,” he said, while expressing his regret over the dissemination of “fake news” about the conflict in the regions, which is detrimental to the army’s image.

“In any case, defense and security forces, will not fall into the traps of fake news. They (forces) will sanction any undisciplined soldiers going against military rules.” Assomo said. The meeting is expected to establish a blueprint that will ensure a return to normalcy “in violent parts of the country”, officials of the army told reporters.

Cameroon is facing growing insecurity in its two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where separatists want to create a new nation called “Ambazonia”. Government forces are also engaged in battles with kidnappers in the mountainous region of Adamawa and Boko Haram terror group in the Far North region of the country.

Xinhuanet

In the capital of Southern Cameroons, people drily say the streets are so dangerous that even the dogs are too scared to go outside.

Buea has been stalked by violence for 18 months, after English-speaking separatists declared an independent state and took up arms against the French-speaking authorities.

In Buea, barely a day goes by without the “Amba Boys” attacking police stations, state-run enterprises and public buildings — anything that is a recognisable symbol of the state.

Gunfire is heard frequently, despite army patrols introduced as part of a wide-ranging crackdown, and kidnapping is rampant.

Last month, around 15 Ambazonia Restoration Fighters entered the city, firing into the air and burning cars. After they left, people found a decapitated head left on the pavement. The victim has so far not been identified.

A disturbing video being shared on social media shows a woman in her 30s being disfigured by separatists who accuse her of being an informant for the army.

On Tuesday, the EU issued a statement warning about Cameroon’s political and security situation, pointing especially to the two restive anglophone regions, where there were “persistent violence and violations of human rights”.

– Fear –

One civil servant, who asked not to be identified, told AFP he had been living in his office for five months out of fear of being attacked.

“I spend the night at the office to avoid the trip home,” he said. “Informants could see that I was disobeying the Amba Boys’ ban on working for the government.”

Nearby, his camp bed was folded in one corner, just beside his suitcase. Two jackets were hung up nearby while the remains of the previous day’s meal sat on a hotplate.

The town, once known as a peaceful haven nestled at the foot of Mount Cameroon, has been transformed by the conflict.

“Buea is suffering,” one local radio presenter recently lamented on air.

Some businesses say they are struggling to survive. Fearing reprisals, they do not dare defy the shutdowns regularly declared by the Ambazonian Restoration Forces.

The cost of living is mounting. One woman selling mangoes at a crossroads for 1,000 francs (about 1.8 euros, $2) apiece said the price of the fruit was rising “because there are few people to go and harvest them.”

– Exodus –

The authorities in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde have responded to the rebellion by stepping up the security presence in the region.

Troops and Ambazonia Forces alike have been accused of targeting civilians.

At least 500 civilians and more than 200 members of the security forces have died in clashes, attacks and a government crackdown, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank says.

At least 437,000 people have fled the two regions, according to UN estimates, with another 32,000 fleeing across the border to Nigeria.

Many people in Buea have fled to the port of Limbe, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) away. The road between the two towns is littered with the burnt-out remains of cars.

As night falls on Down Beach, the view over the bay comes with an incessant roar of armoured vehicles carrying troops.

In the local schools, teachers have got used to pupils turning up wearing uniforms from other establishments. “They come from nearby villages,” said a teacher at one secondary school. “We put up with it.”

– Colonial legacy –

Around a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million are English speakers.

The roots of the conflict today date back a century, when post-World War I Germany surrendered Kamerun, its principal colony in West Africa, which was then taken over by Britain and France.

France was given the greater part of the territory, which became independent in 1960.

A year later, the British colony also gained independence.

Some of the English-speaking areas opted to join newly-formed Nigeria, while others chose to join the federation of Cameroon.

In 2017, anglophone resentment at perceived discrimination by the francophone majority came to a head, leading to the declaration of the ” Federal Republic of Ambazonia” in the two regions, named after the local Ambas Bay.

AFP with additional editing from CIR

Cameroon’s ex-Defence minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, often touted as as a possible successor to he long-serving President Paul Biya, has been remanded in prison over corruption allegations.

The Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé ordered that Mr Mebe Ngo’o be remanded at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison while investigations continue into an alleged corruption and embezzlement case against him.

Mr Mebe Ngo’o, who had earlier been barred from leaving the country, was at the special criminal court on Tuesday for the second grilling in less than a month. Eye witnesses said he was in tears as he was being whisked from the court to prison.

Public funds

The erstwhile former minister was being investigated for alleged bribery and corruption over the purchase of military equipment from Magforce, a company that sells a full range of military clothing, equipment and vehicles.

The amount of money involved in the deal has not yet been disclosed, but the Special Criminal Court only handles cases of embezzlement of public funds that range from $86,000 (FCFA50 million) upwards, according to the 2011 law creating it.

Two top military officers, Col Ghislain Victor Mboutou and Col Maxime Leonard Mbangue and Mr Victor Emmanuel Menye, an assistant General Manager of SCB bank, were also remanded with the former minister for their alleged involvement in the scandalous deal.

Also implicated in the faulty transactions are Mr Mebe Ngo’o’s wife Bernadette Mebe Ngo’o and their two sons, who were expected to appear before a prosecutor at the Special Criminal Court in the capital later on Wednesday.

A demotion

Prior to his appointment as Defence minister in 2009, Mr Mebe Ngo’o served as Delegate-General for National Security (National Police Boss) for five years. After six years at the helm of the ministry of Defence, he was appointed Transport minister in 2015 in what critics described as a demotion.

The 62-year-old senior civil administrator has been jobless since his removal from government in 2017.

He joins many other former members of government either serving prison terms or in pre-trial detention at the Kondengui jail.

The East African