Cameroon

Biya regime deploys more soldiers to check Ambazonian militants attacking the Fako County

9, July 2018

Biya regime deploys more soldiers to check Ambazonian militants attacking the Fako County 0

Yaoundé has deployed more personnel to the Fako County attacked by Ambazonian Restoration Forces today in Muea and Mile 17. The additional troops deployed by the Francophone regime were drawn from the nation’s capital and Douala. The Southern Cameroons freedom fighters staged the raids in Muea and inside Buea.

The French Cameroun commander who received the elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion on behalf of the Governor of the South West told our correspondent that Yaounde had deployed them, accordingly, to fortify the security arrangement put in place within and around Buea the chief city in the Southern Zone.

The Ambazonian forces carried out coordinated attacks on two fronts beginning from Liongo in Muea and from Bomaka via Mile 17 exchanging gun fire with Cameroon government army soldiers. The Amba fighters reportedly pushed towards Bwitingi and Malingo killing two gendarmerie officers. Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé retreated to Bonduma.

The Southern Cameroons Liberation Army advanced as far as Small Soppo, Long and Razel Streets. Teachers handling this year’s GCE Examination of Shame in Baptist Buea and Lycee Molyko were forced to stop marking and told to hide under benches. A police officer Tiku Richard who attempted to fight back was killed by the restoration forces.

Many of the senior officers who had been scheduled to visit and supervise the newly deployed men were conspicuously absent. The mayor of Buea, Patrick Ekema has appealed to fleeing residents of the affected areas to return as normalcy had been restored and all the affected areas effectively secured with the presence of policemen and other security operatives.

By Sama Ernest in Buea


Dozens die in Cameroon bus accident

8, July 2018

Dozens die in Cameroon bus accident 0

At least 28 people have been killed and five others injured in a bus crash in central Cameroon, officials said.

The vehicle was travelling on the road that links the political capital, Yaounde, with the western regional capital, Bafoussam.

Naseri Paul Bea, governor of the central region, told The Associated Press news agency that the bus drove into a river in Boutorou town early on Friday.

The governor said authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, but that such accidents in Cameroon are often linked to the poor state of roads and drivers.

“Almost everyone is dead. Only five injured were transported to the Bafia hospital,” Ombang Christian, one of the survivors, told Anadolu Agency.

Last March, an accident in the same locality killed five people and injured 20 others, according to local authorities.

The Ministry of Transport estimates that 1,500 people die in road accidents each year.

Source: Aljazeera


Southern Cameroonians want to see President Biya tried as a war criminal

5, July 2018

Southern Cameroonians want to see President Biya tried as a war criminal 0

President Biya should be arrested and tried as a war criminal over the killings in Southern Cameroons, according to a survey conducted by Cameroon Concord News Group.  Hundreds of Ambazonians who took part in the survey in Bamenda, Buea, Mamfe, Mundemba, Kumba, Wum, Muyuka, Tiko, Ndop and Bali said Mr. Biya is knowingly misleading international public opinion on the genocide in Southern Cameroons and should be tried as a war criminal.

The number of Ambazonians who said President Biya should be arrested and tried as a war criminal was higher among those who had served as civil servants under the CPDM regime when compared with the several hundreds of unemployed. 5% noted that once independence is gotten, Southern Cameroonians should move on and take no action against a foreign head of state.

Nearly half of the 18 to 24-year-olds said they wanted to see Mr Biya tried as a war criminal in Den Hague in Holland.  The Cameroon Concord News Group findings come as some members of the International Criminal Court noted recently that crimes against humanity were being committed in Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been playing out for almost two years has finally entered a critical phase. While Southern Cameroonian fighters are making huge advances, which are making a mockery of the government’s military action, the Yaoundé government is now scrambling for a peaceful resolution as it has noticed that it is dealing with a very dicey situation. The government is under enormous pressure as the killing of army soldiers becomes a daily ritual.

It is becoming clear to the government that there will never be a convincing military victory in this battle that will surely last for decades. The government is gradually coming to terms with the fact that it was a huge mistake to declare war on Southern Cameroonians who were simply complaining about a system that has reduced them to second-class citizens.

Currently, the dynamics are changing. The government’s arrogance is gradually being eroded by the determined Southern Cameroonian fighters whose actions have struck fear in the minds of many army soldiers. The government is today staring down the barrel of defeat, as its treasury continues to lose money and its soldiers feeling really despondent as they face the prospect of dying in the Rocky Mountains and dense jungles of Southern Cameroons.

Many government officials know that defeat is staring the government in the face. Many want to sue for peace, but they don’t know how to proceed as their arrogance has muddied the waters and made reconciliation challenging. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has accused Mr Biya of committing a crime of aggression by invading Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Kingsley Betek


Cameroon man gets 14 years for scamming Chinese girlfriend 6m yuan

5, July 2018

Cameroon man gets 14 years for scamming Chinese girlfriend 6m yuan 0

A Cameroonian man was sentenced to 14 years in prison and deportation from China after he defrauded his Chinese “girlfriend” of more than 6 million yuan ($896,000).

A woman surnamed Hu in Beijing transferred the money to her “boyfriend,”  who she met on a dating website in 2014, agreeing to support his studies, living expenses and medical care costs, before she found herself swindled, The Beijing News reported on Tuesday, referring the Cameroonian national as “Weili.”

Local police detained Weili in October 2016 after receiving a complaint from Hu, and the suspect was prosecuted in September 2017.

According to Hu, Weili claimed to be born and raised in France. Hu fell in love with him and sold her house in Beijing to meet Weili’s demands for money during their less-than-two-year relationship.

Starting in August 2014, Hu transferred money various times to Weili’s bank account. Weili defrauded money from Hu using different pretexts.

For example, he said he needed help to pay for his living expenses in Paris when he “attended” a UN global climate conference.

Hu later discovered that Weili was actually in Cameroon instead of France at the time when he claimed to attend the climate conference.

While dating Hu, Weili also lived in Beijing together with his pregnant Cameroonian girlfriend, to whom he transferred some of the money he got from Hu.

The Third Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing in 2017 sentenced Weili to 14 years in prison, fined him 140,000 yuan and ordered him deported from China.

There was no information on whether the defrauded money had been returned.

Source:ECNS.cn


Southern Cameroons Crisis: More than half a billion CFA francs ($900 000) collected from the public in Douala

5, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: More than half a billion CFA francs ($900 000) collected from the public in Douala 0

Cameroonians have donated hugely to an emergency aid fund for two anglophone regions hit by violence between separatists and government forces, the state media reported on Tuesday.
More than half a billion CFA francs ($900 000) has been collected from the public in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, and in the regions of Centre and South, CRTV radio said.

On June 20, the government announced plans for a 12.7 billion CFA franc emergency aid plan for the Southwest and Northwest regions, where life has been badly hit by the violence.

The money would come from “the state budget, an appeal to national solidarity and contributions from international partners,” it said. The Northwest and Southwest regions are home to most of Cameroon’s English-speakers, who account for about a fifth of a mainly French-speaking population of 22 million.

Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority have fuelled demands for anglophone autonomy, which last year culminated in a declaration of independence.

A government crackdown then followed, plunging the two regions into almost daily acts of violence and retribution.

A government report last week said anglophone separatists in Cameroon had killed 81 members of the security forces and more than 100 civilians, and torched at least 120 schools.

The overall toll among civilians remains unclear.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank, at least 120 civilians and 43 members of the security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN says 160 000 people have been internally displaced and 20, 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.

The presence of a large English-speaking minority dates back to the colonial period.

Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I.

The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Source: AFP



War in Ambazonia: There are no longer any words to describe Southern Cameroons’s horror

4, July 2018

War in Ambazonia: There are no longer any words to describe Southern Cameroons’s horror 0

The senseless war in Southern Cameroons has exhausted all superlatives. Worst day, worst month, worst year, worst ever. To be sure, words can no longer describe the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons. For the past few days, Cameroon government army soldiers have fired rockets and artillery in many areas in the Northern and Southern Zone.

Over the weekend alone, the French Cameroun government army killed more than 87 residents, including women and children in villages around the Muyuka and Muea districts according to a variety of groups contacted by Cameroon Concord News Group. The two year crisis death toll has now exceeded a thousand.

The state-run Cameroon Radio and Television reported on Monday that separatist’s fire from within the Fako County had killed civilians. However, what we do know is that Cameroon government troops have been responding to attacks from the Ambazonia Restoration Forces with strikes destroying homes and burning down villages.

The desperate situation and the near-total absence of any sign that further violence can be avoided have pushed many Southern Cameroonians to flee to neighboring Nigeria and some to French Cameroun. A Roman Catholic clergy who spoke to our correspondent in Buea wondered aloud if those inflicting the suffering on Southern Cameroons women and children still have words to justify their barbaric acts.

No doubt the so-called United Nations will express concern over the bloodshed, and that is it. Many more Southern Cameroonians will die, with words of sympathy ringing in their ears.

By Chi Prudence Asong, London


Cameroon Accelerating Toward Armed Conflict

2, July 2018

Cameroon Accelerating Toward Armed Conflict 0

The House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations met on Wednesday to discuss challenges in the Republic of Cameroon. Over the past year, the relationship between Cameroon’s government and the country’s minority Anglophone community has become increasingly violent, accelerating into armed conflict.

Hans De Marie Heungoup, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, called conflict in the Anglophone regions “the biggest security threat to Cameroon stability, which if left unaddressed could turn into civil war as has occurred in other African countries,” in a statement issued to the subcommittee.

The roots of the current conflict go back to Cameroon’s achieving independence almost 60 years ago.

Prior to independence, France and the United Kingdom colonized the territory. French Cameroon became independent in 1960, and one year later part of British-controlled Cameroon joined in a referendum overseen by the United Nations.

Since that referendum, the Anglophone community in Cameroon has felt increasingly marginalized. Initially, political power between the Anglophone and Francophone regions of Cameroon was balanced in a federal system. In the years following independence and unification, however, Cameroon moved toward a unitary, rather than a federal model, thereby limiting political autonomy for the minority Anglophone community.

The political system also provides for a strong executive. In 2008 constitutional amendments abolished term limits and granted the president immunity from prosecution after leaving office, resulting in protests. President Paul Biya, who has been in office since 1982, has concentrated power in the French-speaking part of Cameroon. His political party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, controls most of the seats in the National Assembly and the Senate.

The English-speaking community also feels marginalized economically. The government tends to invest more in projects in French-speaking regions, as opposed to Anglophone areas. For example, the 2017 public investment budget allocated $225 million for projects in the Francophone South region, while the Anglophone North West and South West regions were given just over $150 million combined.

The current crisis began in late 2016, when lawyers and teachers in the Anglophone regions protested the appointment of French-speaking judges and teachers who lacked familiarity with British customs in the Anglophone parts of Cameroon. Negotiations with the government collapsed, spurring a crackdown that included cutting internet access in English-speaking regions and prosecuting leading activists.

Protests reignited in late 2017, and on Oct. 1, the anniversary of the reunification of Francophone and part of Anglophone Cameroon, secessionists proclaimed an independent state called Ambazonia.

The International Crisis Group reported that “defence and security forces responded with disproportionate force, leading to at least 40 deaths and over 100 injured protesters between 28 September and 2 October.” Cameroon security forces also “arrested hundreds of people without warrant, including in their homes” and “made use of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The report adds that the violence of September and October 2017 “opened up a rift between the government and the population, exacerbating the climate of mistrust and making the idea of secession more attractive.”

Christopher Fomunyoh, a senior associate and regional director for Central and West Africa programs at the National Democratic Institute, told the Free Beacon that support for secession has increased over the past two years “in large part because of the manner in which this crisis has been managed.”

In the past eight months, over one hundred secessionists and civilians have been killed by security forces, and hundreds of others have been arrested. Rebels have reportedly killed at least 80 soldiers in the past year and have tortured local officials and government supporters. The U.N. says more than 160,000 people have been displaced within Cameroon since 2016, and over 20,000 refugees had fled to Nigeria by the end of March.

Earlier this month, BBC News released video depicting violations of human rights, primarily by security forces. A clip from April shows soldiers setting fire to a house in Azi, a village in the Anglophone South West region. The soldiers’ uniforms were consistent with those worn by Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, although a government official claimed that separatists are able to obtain military uniforms and commit violent acts in order to blame the government.

Fomunyoh thinks that if a transparent referendum or consultative process took place in Anglophone Cameroon, then “the vast majority of Anglophones today would say that based on the grievances of the past plus the manner in which this government has managed this crisis in the past two years, there is no reason for them to be part of the Republic of Cameroon.”

If the government continues to insist on a violent crackdown and refuses dialogue, Fomunyoh warns, “the potential for this crisis to worsen is extremely high” because of “long pent-up frustrations and grievances that are legitimate and need to be properly addressed.”

 

Source: The Washington Beacon


Boyo villagers tell of Francophone forces’ reprisal killings after restoration’ deadly attack on police officer

1, July 2018

Boyo villagers tell of Francophone forces’ reprisal killings after restoration’ deadly attack on police officer 0

Following the crisis that has rocked Southern Cameroons and the solid resistance from Ambazonian Restoration Forces, the Biya government has reportedly stepped up its excessive use of military might to crush the self defense actions by the English speaking communities. Yaoundé has consistently rejected calls for genuine dialogue and the 85 year old Biya has ordered another massive deployment of French Cameroun soldiers to Southern Cameroons.

This weekend has seen nearly all the villages along the stretch of road linking Fundong and Bamenda deserted. Cameroon Concord News correspondent in the Bamenda County noted that Southern Cameroonians in the Northern Zone have escaped into the bushes anticipating a military onslaught being planned by government forces in retaliation for the killing of a police officer earlier this week. The said police officer was allegedly arrested by an unknown group of Ambazonian Resistance Forces three weeks ago.  His badly mutilated body was found along the Fundong -Njinikom road a day after Cameroon government troops shot and killed a family man whose name we got as Titus at his home in Boyui.

A native of the area told this reporter that the late Titus was gun down in front of his wife and children. We understand that military action is already going on at Baingo, with soldiers forcing passengers out of cars, and asking them to undress themselves and roll over in mud, humiliating them in an unthinkable pattern. Our informant in Baingo has also confirmed the killing of a lady late yesterday.

Elsewhere in Fundong, a CPDM Councilor and business tycoon,   Njvua Ignatius was killed by members of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces. The pro Biya comedian was an outspoken and diehard supporter of the Yaoundé regime and noted for defying orders given by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

A prominent acolyte of the Yaoundé regime was heard murmuring privately in Bamenda that the collapse of the central authority in Southern Cameroons is an indication that President Biya is no longer the man in charge.  Last week, footage of a video emerged on social media showing Francophone army soldiers firing from a machine gun into homes without any visible threat to their security.

From the nation’s capital in Yaoundé, the political situation appear to be going well for the Biya Francophone regime that has deployed approximately 35,000 army soldiers in Southern Cameroons and has destroyed more than 72 Southern Cameroons towns and villages.

But the view deep inside the Federal Republic of Ambazonia tells a different story as some officials and Southern Cameroons opinion leaders recently told Senator Peter Mafany Musonge. The complete absence of a genuine political process to accompany the military onslaught going on in Southern Cameroons is instead driving all Ambazonian communities including Anglophone CPDM militants to consider allying with the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Staffman Ntam Charles Ngeh in Bonn

Germany


Innovative Cameroon project will benefit refugees and hosts

30, June 2018

Innovative Cameroon project will benefit refugees and hosts 0

The dilapidated delivery room at a small health centre in northern Cameroon is without power and adjoins an abandoned toilet.

The beds, meant to receive young mothers, are stained and unusable.

“We lack everything: staff, drugs, beds,” explains Paul Korke, the supervisor at the centre in this ramshackle border village.

The clinic has just two state-sponsored medics to care for the 30 to 50 women and children who use the centre each day, some residents and other refugees who have fled violence in the neighbouring Central African Republic.

Poverty and underdevelopment in this poor corner of Cameroon affects refugees and residents alike.

For this reason, the World Bank, supported by UNHCR, is providing targeted support for these underdeveloped regions hosting refugees to improve basic social services and infrastructure, and by extending social safety nets to the most vulnerable refugees and local residents.

The bank’s International Development Association (IDA) last month approved US$274 million in targeted funding to help the most vulnerable have access to health care, education and “social safety nets”.

The package includes a $130 million grant. The country is the first to benefit from $2 billion in dedicated funding provided by the IDA to support low-income countries hosting large numbers of refugees.

“The only thing I can do is to write a new page every day on the blackboard.”

“These resources are critical to supporting the government in bringing adequate services to refugees and their host communities,” said Elisabeth Huybens, World Bank country director for Cameroon.

“Most refugees live side-by-side with Cameroonians in the regions that are already the poorest and most fragile of Cameroon, including the area subject to Boko Haram attacks.”

The funding will go to four projects, with the first disbursements due by the end of the year.  It will go towards improving health centres, providing new equipment, and funding and training for staff, as well as money for schools to improve the quality and quantity of teachers, among other things, desperately needed in mixed communities such as Mbiti in the Kette municipality in which refugees represent half of the overall population.

A few steps from the border village’s strained medical centre is the overcrowded primary school. There are 872 pupils, mostly refugee children, studying a total of four classes.

One of the teachers, Florian, leads a mixed class of 172 pupils, with few teaching materials: “We have no books for the kids,” he says. “So, the only thing I can do is to write a new page every day on the blackboard.”

Development funds are particularly needed in the Central African country, which has played a key role in welcoming refugees from various crises and conflicts in the volatile region in recent years which have slipped from the headlines.

Paradoxically, at the height of the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria and the CAR displacement, the arrival of humanitarian workers in Cameroon offered these poor regions, including communities like Mbiti, a second wind. As they have dropped from public attention, donors gradually pulled out and funding to assist refugees grew scarce.

“The needs are enormous, especially in terms of education and health.”

In 2017, UNHCR received only seven per cent of the money needed to assist the most vulnerable, a shortfall that has affected essential programmes such as the clinic and primary school in Mbiti.

“Before, we received 40,000 CFA francs per month (60 euros). But since 2018, this has reduced to 35,000 (53 euros) and we just learnt that it will be further cut to 22,000 CFA francs (33 euros)”, says Florian, highlighting their dwindling resources.

The needs of the mixed communities of refugees and residents persist, but there is no hope that the humanitarian funds will return to the regions in greatest need, says Kouassi Etien, UNHCR’s representative in Cameroon.

“It is unlikely that we will succeed in obtaining the kind of funding we had at the height of the emergency. Yet these populations, refugees and Cameroonians alike, need support,” Etien says, stressing the important role of projects like that announced by the World Bank. “Emergency must make way for development for all.”

The programme has yet to disburse funds to the areas most in need in the north and east of the country. At the local level, authorities have high expectations, among them Michel Nada, the mayor of Ngoura, a village a few miles from the border with CAR, which has received large numbers of refugees in the past four years.

“Many of them have settled in camps, but the majority has been welcomed into local communities” he says. “Today, the needs are enormous, especially in terms of education and health.”

“We are expecting a lot of this dedicated support which should help improve the living conditions of all our fellow citizens, refugees and Cameroonians.”

Source: The UN Refugee Agency


US throws weight behind Cameroon’s humanitarian plan for Southern Cameroons

23, June 2018

US throws weight behind Cameroon’s humanitarian plan for Southern Cameroons 0

The US says it may support a humanitarian plan unveiled by the Cameroonian government aimed at responding to the crisis in the north west and south west regions of the country. The authorities in Yaoundé outlined a 19-million-euro project to carry out reconstruction as well as provide food and basic necessities including blankets and mattresses.

“The United States commends the Cameroonian government for taking the initiative to address the problem of humanitarian assistance and access in the north west and south west regions,” said US Ambassador Peter Barlerin.

“We will be examining the proposal closely with a view towards considering how we may be able to support it.  We call on both sides to renounce further violence and urge broad-based dialogue with no pre-conditions,” according to a statement sent to RFI.

Cameroon’s Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Wednesday presented a report detailing the government’s assessment of the crisis in the Anglophone regions. The humanitarian aid package will be paid for through the state budget, a national solidarity fund and contributions from international partners, according to the 23-page report.

The package includes 7.6 million euros for reconstruction, 5.7 million euros for food and 4.7 million euros for basic necessities such as blankets and mattresses.

Almost 75,000 people have been internally displaced by violence in the Anglophone regions, according to the government report. In addition, more than 20,000 people from the north west and south west regions have registered as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria, according to the UN refugee agency.

The government report also blamed armed separatists for the violence in the Anglophone regions, attributing the deaths of some 84 members of the security forces to assassinations and several decapitations.

“These terrorist groups have carried out a number of crimes, executions,” Prime Minister Yang said during the presentation of the report in Yaoundé. “The terrorists have notably attacked the education sector, economic activity, the security forces, administrative and traditional authorities as well as civilians,” he added.

The Cameroonian authorities said the Anglophone separatists had burned schools, recruited child soldiers, committed rape and spread disinformation and fake news designed to promote “imaginary atrocities” carried out by the security forces.

However, the separatists, who are fighting for the establishment of an independent state called Ambazonia, rejected the government’s accusations, despite taking credit for the killing of Cameroonian security forces.

“If there have been military deaths within the conflict, we have no apology to give Cameroon about the deaths of its terrorist forces within Ambazonia,” said Cho Ayaba, leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council. The Ambazonia Governing Council is linked to the Ambazonia Defence Forces, one of the armed groups involved in clashes with the security forces.

“Armed separatists are not responsible for the burning of schools,” Ayaba told RFI in a telephone interview, saying that the separatists do not use child soldiers or incite hatred via social media.

“It’s a laughable plan,” Ayaba said of the government’s humanitarian proposal. “It invades, it shatters communities, deprives them of their livelihood, burns down their means of survival, chases them out of their homes and then throws a bone and hopes that, like hungry dogs, they’ll fight over it.”

Rights group Amnesty International has accused both sides of being responsible for rights abuses since a spike in violence in the Anglophone regions.

The Amnesty report accused the separatists of being responsible of the burning down of at least 42 schools. But also levelled allegations at the security forces, blaming them for targeting whole villages in the north west and south west regions.

Amnesty described the response to the Anglophone crisis as “heavy-handed” with the army and police responsible for unlawful killings, extra-judicial executions, destruction of property, arbitrary arrests and torture.

The crisis in the Anglophone regions of the country began with protests demanding the use of the English language in classrooms and courts. But since last October it has escalated with the self-declaration of independence for so-called Ambazonia. Separatists with basic weapons and little training have clashed with Cameroonian security forces.

Source: RFI


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