Cameroon

13, December 2023

Nearly 3 million people face food insecurity in Cameroon ⁰

Over 2.9 million people in Cameroon face food insecurity due to conflicts and poor production, according to a report published by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

For the October-December 2023 period, 2,940,807 people, or 10.6 percent of the population, in Cameroon are in “acute food and nutrition insecurity,” Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Gabriel Mbairobe told a press briefing Monday night to officially present the report.

He said 10 of Cameroon’s 58 administrative divisions are facing food insecurity, mainly due to climate change and insecurity in the Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest, where an armed separatist insurgency is in progress, and in the Far North region, where the Boko Haram terror group continues to attack civilians and soldiers.

The report estimates that the number of people facing food and nutrition insecurity will drop to 2.5 million between June and August next year.

The government will adopt new policies, such as enhancing import substitution and providing support to small-scale farmers, who account for 80 percent of food production, to alleviate the food crisis, Mbairobe said.

Source: Xinhuanet

13, December 2023

Criminal Biya Francophone officials must be brought to justice ⁰

Southern Cameroons top official says criminal French Cameroun authorities must be brought to trial for their atrocities against the Ambazonian nation, stressing that the Ambazonia Interim Government is seriously following up on the matter at the International Criminal Court.

Comrade Dabney Yerima, Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, made the remarks on Tuesday during a telephone conversation with some Ground Zero commanders in Esu in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

Yerima stressed that criminal officials of the Biya French Cameroun regime must be tried and that the Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs headed by Professor Carlson Anyangwe has placed particular focus on the issue.

The top Southern Cameroons official went on to sharply criticize some Southern Cameroons traditional rulers for their refusal to cut off ties with the Yaoundé regime and expel Francophone civil administrators from ancestral lands.

“The Southern Cameroons liberation struggle is currently the root cause of unity among all Southern Cameroonians. Southern Cameroonians particularly those in the West are expected to alter their behavior, and put their words into actions,” Dabney Yerima stated.

Yaoundé has been waging a genocidal war after the people of Southern Cameroons declared an independent state known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia seven years ago. The Biya Francophone regime has killed at least 10,000people, including more than 5000 children and 4,000 women.

By Toto Roland Motuba

11, December 2023

Fuel shortages possible in Cameroon throughout December ⁰

As of Dec. 11, fuel shortages may persist nationwide through at least mid-December due to supply disruptions attributed to stranded cargo ships.

The scarcity has prompted increased demand and price hikes at available fuel stations, including Yaoundé, Douala, and Bafoussam, among other affected locations.

While officials announced that additional means had been deployed and forecasted a return to normalcy by Dec. 12, panic buying may prolong the scarcity.

Increased demand at available fuel stations may prompt congestion on nearby roads. Fuel shortages may affect business operations and transport services. Related protests remain possible, notably if fuel scarcity persists.

Source: Crisis 24

11, December 2023

Yaoundé authorities under pressure as North gripped by spate of lucrative ransom kidnappings ⁰

In just three years (2015–18), kidnappers in North Cameroon collected ransom money of around €3-million (CFAF 2-billion), according to Garoua police. This crime has soared despite government measures such as military deployment and the creation of vigilante committees.

Kidnappers are from different African countries and cross borders to capture or hide their victims — making this a complex transnational crime and difficult to contain.

On 2 September, four Forests and Environment Sector Programme employees were kidnapped on the Mayo Djarendi-Madingring road in the country’s Mayo-Rey department. The abductors demanded CFAF 40 million to release them. On 22 October, at least 40 people of Chadian and Cameroonian nationality were abducted near Touboro in North Cameroon.

Kidnappings for ransom have increased in the context of North Cameroon’s active agricultural and animal husbandry economy. These activities generate significant revenue, adding to border trading, which is particularly lucrative.

Mayo-Rey, Bénoué and Mayo-Louti, on the border with the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and Nigeria, are the departments most targeted by kidnappings for ransom. Persistent issues of weapons possession and trafficking in these countries, partly driven by sociopolitical crises and rebellions, provide kidnappers with the means to carry out their activities.

Sources in North Cameroon told the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) how hostage-takers cross these long and porous borders to find targets. They subdue their victims and sow fear among civilians, rendering them more vulnerable. They usually target farmers, cattle breeders, shopkeepers and humanitarian workers, chosen for their perceived ability to respond to the ransom demands due to their apparent financial capacity.

The phenomenon is spreading beyond the northern and eastern regions (Far North, North, Adamawa and East) to neighbouring areas in Chad, the CAR and Nigeria. It also involves various nationalities, as evidenced by ex-hostages. In Garoua, one informant, who requested anonymity, said his abductors were Nigerian. Another was certain that some came from Sudan. This cross-border dimension reveals a connection between the Sahel, East Africa through Sudan and Central Africa.

Source: Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

9, December 2023

Ambazonia Crisis: Nigerian lawmaker urges action on Amba attacks ⁰

The member of the House of Representatives representing Obanliku/Bekwarra/Obudu Federal Constituency, Hon Peter Akpanke, has decried attacks by Cameroonian Ambazonian separatists on Belegete community of Obanliku local government area of Cross River State, saying it had left him in bitterness, sadness and disappointment.

Hon Akpanke stated this at a press conference in Abuja, describing the attacks as horrific. He said the attackers abducted the clan head of Belegete community, Chief Ogweshi Francis and 30 others, including women and children.

The lawmaker noted that the Belegete community is very rich in natural resources like Uranium and Lithium and this is one of the major reasons the separatists from Cameroon attacked.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, intervene to forestall more pains from being inflicted on the community by ordering relevant security agencies to mount posts across the border.

The lawmaker also called the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to swiftly provide vital assistance for those affected and the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation to include areas affected by these acts that threaten the nation as well as places where Cameroonian persons of concern reside as high priority areas.

Source: Leadership.ng

7, December 2023

Yaoundé: Gabon’s New Military Strongman meets Biya ⁰

Gabon’s military leader, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, visited Cameroon on Wednesday, asking central African states to lift economic sanctions on his country before the 2025 elections.

When Nguema ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba in a bloodless coup on August 30, economic sanctions were imposed on the country by CEMAC, the six-nation Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community, which condemned the unconstitutional power shift and suspended Gabon.

Nguema said Wednesday that he and Cameroonian President Paul Biya discussed the possibility of lifting economic sanctions before he transfers power to constitutional rule in October 2025. Nguema said he took power to save Gabon from a long rule that ruined the country, and he wants to ensure order is brought back to Gabon before handing power to civilians.

Nguema’s visit to Cameroon ended a tour that has taken him to Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo since he seized power in August.

Jean Rene Oba, an international affairs lecturer at Omar Bongo University in Gabon, said Nguema has been able to convince central African leaders that a military coup was necessary to save Gabon from the Bongo family’s long and autocratic rule that impoverished civilians and created political and ethnic tensions.

“The president of the transition, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, is totally mindful of the reality that here is no single country on earth that can live in its own bubble in the 21st century, so he started a campaign explaining the legitimacy of the action he took on behalf of the Gabonese people and I think the arguments that he has been making are very powerful and that is why we could see he is so welcomed and understood,” Oba said.

Nguema told several hundred Gabon civilians in Yaounde that he seized power to improve living conditions in their oil-producing nation because its citizens remained poor during the 56-year reign of Ali Bongo Ondimba and his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba.

Gabon’s military ruler reiterated that he would hold elections in August 2025.

He said a new constitution that is being prepared would be presented to all citizens in October 2024 and a referendum on its adoption would be held that same year.

Before the elections, Gabon’s military junta says it will fight corruption, accelerate economic reforms, ensure sustainable economic development, restore stability and revise the electoral code.

Georges Mpaga, president of Gabon’s Network of Free Society Organizations for Good Governance, said Nguema’s insistence on executing so many projects looks like a plan to hold onto power.

Mpaga said Nguema should give priority to Gabon’s supreme interest, which as of now is the quest for a return to constitutional order. He said Nguema should make sure Gabon has a constitution which grants and limits powers of government officials, and paves the way for democratic, credible, fair and transparent elections that meet international norms and standards.

Nguema said he will keep his pledge to hand over power to civilians and that he will never betray the confidence entrusted upon him by his country’s civilians and military, as well as a majority of political parties and civil society groups.

Source: VOA

4, December 2023

Journalist Martinez Zogo Affair: CPDM break-dance on display ⁰

The investigating judge in the journalist Martinez Zogo case at the Yaoundé Military Court has reportedly issued two contradictory statements with 24 hours. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Justice Sikati II Kamwo Florent Aimé, is apparently under pressure from some powerful members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

The Francophone judge made public a decision on Friday December 1, 2023 for the release of the so-called media-business tycoon Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga and Léopard Maxime Eko Eko, head of Cameroon’s counter-espionage service.

We understand that the lawyers for these two disgraced personalities, who have been held for nine months in Yaoundé’s Maximum Security Prison in Kondengui for complicity in the kidnapping and torture of Martinez Zogo, were meeting with the sitting Clerk at the Military tribunal to commence with the process of releasing their clients when a new document appeared on social media networks denying the release of Eko Eko and Amougou Belinga.

Justice Sikati II Kamwo Florent Aimé wrote “I have the honor of informing you that the release order circulating on social networks this afternoon is not authentic. Any decisions in these proceedings will be taken at the appropriate time.” A document was also sent to the management of the Kondengui prison, asking the chief warden not to carry out any release order.

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko and his partner in crime believed they had obtained an order for release and their family members had announced a week-long celebration. However, the current CPDM break dance means both men will remain in custody.

It seems that there is a tug-of- war going on around this tragedy which occurred in January 2023. 16 suspects have been in pre-trial detention for around nine months.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

4, December 2023

Francis Ngannou is Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2023 ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group readers have always voted for a Person of the Year annually since 1999. The winner can be an individual or a group which has deeply influenced the people of the Republic of Cameroon and Southern Cameroons over the past year.

This sought-after distinction is not an endorsement but recognition by the readers of the Concord Group. The Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2023 is Francis Xavier Ngannou, MMA heavyweight champion who put up an exceptional performance against the world’s best, Tyson Fury, in his first boxing match.

Francis Xavier Ngannou was born in Batie, in the Western Region of Cameroon, on 5 September 1986. His parents divorced when he was six, and he lived with various extended family members in different villages and towns as he grew up.

He changed schools often, and family stability was alien to him. At nine, he started working in sand mine to earn an income to support his family. He quit school at 17 and began to plot his departure from the village. In 2012, Francis left his village for a better life in Europe. It took him three weeks to travel 3,000 miles to Morocco. His first six attempts to cross from Morocco to Spain failed, but that did not dampen his resolve.

More than seven decades before Ngannou was born, Sir Winston Churchill wrote, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” His multiple attempts to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain would break almost every mortal, but not this Rock of Batie.

Finally, after seven attempts at crossing the Mediterranean and a 14-month journey from Cameroon, he arrived in Spain in 2013. In Spain, his dream of becoming a boxing heavyweight champion was re-born. What had been latent for so long was suddenly real.

France

After his release from temporary immigration detention in Spain, Ngannou left for Paris in the middle of 2013. After arriving in France, Ngannou slept on the streets and immediately located a gym where he trained, took his bath in the public showers and slept at the parking lot.

In the Paris boxing gym, many saw the potential in him, and his physical stature and determination were apparent. With his goal to be the boxing heavyweight champion of the world not looking easy, a friend suggested mixed martial arts (MMA) to him. At first, he did not know what Mixed Martial Art was about, and it was never a part of his dream.

Becoming a world champion in a sport he did not know it existed seemed foreign and implausible, but he decided to give the new sport a try.

MMA

Ngannou started his Mixed Martial Art (MMA) career in November 2013 and fought mainly in France, Switzerland and Bahrain under French and some relatively obscure European promotions. During this period, he amassed a record of five victories and one loss before his big breakthrough came in 2015 when he signed for the leading MMA promotion, the UFC.

During his time with the UFC, Ngannou put together 17 wins from 20 fights. Renowned for his knock-out power, Ngannou beat many former world champions in the UFC with the fearsome Stipe Miocic, formidable Curtis Blaydes and dangerous Ciryl Gane among his victims in the Octagon.

Despite his vast global appeal and success at bringing in millions of dollars to the UFC, the promotions’ tier structure of low, medium, and high means some fighters earn as low as $10,000 per fight, whilst a select few in the highest tier may take home as much as $3,000,000 per fight. These figures pale in comparison to what elite boxers and MMA fighters under rival promotions earn per fight.

After failing to persuade Ngannou to remain with the UFC, on 14 January 2023, the UFC Heavyweight Championship was stripped from him.

After he left the UFC, in an interview with renowned sports journalist, Ariel Helwani, Ngannou stated that he had requested health insurance and the freedom for all UFC fighters to have their own sponsorships and fighter advocates present during contract negotiations. Still, the UFC vehemently refused this trailblazing request.

On 16 May 2023, Ngannou signed a multi-million-dollar, multi-fight deal with the Professional Fighters League (PFL), giving him more freedom to compete in boxing. In his PFL contract, Ngannou also negotiated on behalf of his opponents, guaranteeing them at least $2 million per fight. It is a commendable initiative and a true reflection of the man.

Challenging Tyson Fury Fight

On 28 November 2023, Ngannou debuted professionally against the boxing heavy-weight champion, Tyson Fury, in a “Battle of the Baddest” fight. After knocking down Fury in the third round, he lost the fight controversially on the judges’ scorecard. Many boxing pundits and former boxing champions believe that he won the fight. Since that boxing debut, he has been ranked number 10 by the WBC. Ten years after swimming against the dangerous and unforgiving tides of the Mediterranean to seek a better life in the West, Francis Ngannou is now a global phenomenon. Better gym equipment, training techniques, and superior coaches have helped the poor boy from Batie with huge ambition to realize his dream.

Role Model

Recently, there has been a massive deficiency of fighting men representing African countries globally. Men of African descent have all represented their adopted Western nations, but Ngannou has stayed true to the Cameroon flag. He flies to his village after his fights. He is the people’s champion, and his success inspires young people around Africa and beyond. He is winning hearts and minds with his humble attitude and outreach.

Global stardom has changed Ngannou’s bank account and significantly increased his social media following, but humility, charity, and politeness are still plenty in his armoury.

Francis has galvanized young Cameroonian and African men in a way not seen for more than a generation. Ngannou does not lose his nerve under pressure, understands that he is now a role model, and considers that a privilege and responsibility. His refusal to engage in the customary abusive dialectal during press conferences before professional fights is an example that many find inspiring and we of this media outlet consider tremendously commendable. He now has millions worldwide following him on social media and looking up to him, and he understands what that means.

He is determined not to let them and his family down. Global fame has not changed his values, and a recent photo in his mother’s dilapidated kitchen in his village is touching and inspirational.

Cameroon Concord News Group notes that Francis Ngannou, who has propelled himself into an inspiration to many minds in his native Cameroon and beyond, relies on a unique upbringing from his mother and grandmother to meet the current moment. He is well-mannered, but underneath, he possesses a burning desire to be the best in the world at his craft. Those who know him best say Ngannou lives a Spartan life: he trains, he rests, and he trains again. He lives in Las Vegas, but the Vegas nightlife does not appeal to him.

He represents the best to come out of Cameroon. Global stardom has not diminished his performance on the big stage. If anything, this six-foot juggernaut is getting better with age and international exposure. Today, Cameroon Concord News Group is singing rightfully earned praises of this fighting machine and reminding everyone of his never-die spirit and attitude.

In 2012, Ngannou travelled treacherously from Cameroon to Spain through the Sahara desert, Morocco and the Mediterranean. He survived inexpressible abuse on the way and in Morocco. Still, his indefatigability meant he kept his head up, and the little boy who worked in the sand mine at nine has now realized his dream of becoming a world champion. And to say he got to the top the hard way is an understatement.

Whether one looks at the story of Francis Ngannou as an educator to pick up material to weave for the benefit of an audience or as a young man inspired with hope by its content, the story is, of course, not entirely written yet. At 37, Francis Ngannou has a rich package of muscles and the ability to be the first man to become a world heavy-weight champion in Mixed Martial Arts and boxing. He has the world under his feet and possesses the temperament and aptitude to be the best version of himself.

For his bravery in successfully negotiating the hazardous journey from Central Africa to Europe through the dangerous Sahara desert, for reminding those in despair and poverty all over Africa that being born in lack and hopelessness is a temporary and not a permanent condition, for teaching humankind that hard work and determination will take one to any goals they set, for empowering millions of young men around the globe with his energy, fighting spirit, captivating life story and for his performance in the boxing match against lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, the readers of this publication have overwhelmingly voted for Francis Xavier Ngannou as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2023.

By Isong Asu, Cameroon Concord News Group, London Bureau Chief

3, December 2023

Martinez Zogo Affair: Confusion over release of Amougou Belinga and Eko Eko ⁰

Nearly 11 months after the assassination of Cameroonian radio host Martinez Zogo, the state scandal that it triggered continues to shake the nation.

On Friday morning (Nov. 01), the prime suspects in the murder of the late 50-year journalist were set to be released.

A document allegedly issued by the military court of Yaoundé ordered the provisional release of Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga and Léopold Maxime Eko Eko.

Examining magistrate of the Yaoundé military court, Lieutenant-Colonel Florent Aimé Sikati II Kamwo, on Friday supposedly considered that there was insufficient evidence to justify their continued detention.

Counter-intelligence boss Eko Eko and tycoon Amougou Belinga have been detained at Yaoundé’s Kondengui prison for months. In March, they were charged with torture.

Late on Friday, a missive indicated that documents issued earlier in the day, couldn’t be trusted.

A letter penned by the government commissioner read that the order of the examining magistrate of the military court granting release to the suspects in Martinez Zogo’s murder was a forgery.

The lawyers of counter-intelligence boss Eko Eko expressed disbelief as they await new developments.

What charges?

The businessman and the head of the Direction générale de la recherche extérieure (DGRE) are accused of having played a role in the death of the director of radio Amplitude FM, whose tortured body was discovered on the outskirts of Yaoundé in January. Zogo had not been missing for five days before his remains were located January 22 near Soa, a suburb of Yaoundé.

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko is suspected of “having provoked in any way whatsoever the torture of Martinez Zogo or given instructions to commit it”, in the words of the examining magistrate. In the course of the investigation, the intelligence chief was questioned several times on the substance of the case. In particular, he was confronted by his sole accuser, Justin Danwe, as well as several agents working within the DGRE at the time of the events.

Among the incriminating elements that interested the investigators: the holding of a meeting during which Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, Justin Danwe and several DGRE technicians allegedly listened to an audio tape attributed to Martinez Zogo, in which he allegedly made defamatory remarks about the head of the intelligence services.

In the minutes of the release order, quoted by jeune Afrique, the magistrates noted that Eko Eko, Danwe and the witnesses cited had assured them “that a meeting had never been held at the situation center with the journalist Martinez Zogo as the subject”.

Outrage over Zogo’s murder

The murder of Salomon Mbani Zogo better known as Martinez Zogo left many shocked in Cameroon as NGOs continued to call out violations of press freedom and freedom of speech.

The man in his fifties was the host of popular daily radio show, Embouteillage or Gridlock in English. On the air, he regularly tackled cases of corruption and alleged embezzlement, not hesitating to question important personalities by name. Amougou Belinga was one of them. The businessman is reputedly a friend of several ministers.

Fellow journalists paid their respects to Zogo and called for an investigation which Cameroonian President Paul Biya ordered on Thursday, February 2. The probe into the abduction and subsequent brutal killing of the journalist led to the arrests of Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga and Léopold Maxime Eko Eko.

Reporters without Borders alleged that “the outcome of the investigations [remained] very uncertain as the affair’s ramifications reach up to the highest level of the state while the political environment [was] described by several local sources as verging on insurrection.”

Source: Africa News

1, December 2023

Over 20,000 Southern Cameroons refugees seek asylum in Nigeria ⁰

About 20,000 refugees who fled the Republic of Cameroon are presently seeking asylum in Taraba State following the crisis rocking the Nigeria North-Western and South-Western regions of the Central African country.

The Cameroonians have been camping in five local government areas of the state, including Kurmi, Gashaka, Sardauna, Takum and Ussa.

The refugees had appealed to the Taraba State and Federal Government to assist in alleviating their sufferings.

Although worried about the security crisis rocking the state, the Taraba Governor, Agbu Kefas, has assured the refugees of their safety and protection pending the return of peace in their country.

Represented by his Deputy in a recent meeting, the governor promised to do his best to foster peaceful coexistence between the two neighbours.

The meeting is expected to draw recommendations that will facilitate a seamless integration of humanitarian services to refugees and vulnerable community members in line with global best practices on refugees.

Source: Dailypost