Cameroonian authorities should speedily investigate an alleged arson attack on community radio station Sky FM in the volatile Northwest region and ensure those responsible are prosecuted, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Unknown persons on August 3 set fire to the station, destroying the building and equipment, according to the station owner Abdou Borno, an article on Sky FM’s official Facebook page, Cameroonian journalist Ndi Eugene Ndi, and two local website reports. The equipment included two transmitters, computers, four recorders, a video camera, a mixer, decoder, television set, and office furniture, according to Borno.

The radio station is based in the town of Ndu, about 124 km (77 miles) from Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region–one of two regions where Anglophone separatists have been waging an armed struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia against the predominately French-speaking government of President Paul Biya, according to news reports. A recent Human Rights Watch report blamed both sides for grave abuses against civilians, including killings.

“All parties to the conflict in Cameroon, whether government forces or Ambazonians, should stop targeting journalists and media organizations and allow them to operate safely and without fear of reprisal,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator. “The media is not the enemy. Journalists are simply trying to do their jobs by ensuring that citizens are armed with useful information in what has become an increasingly bloody phase in Cameroon’s history.”

Borno told CPJ that he learned of the fire the morning of August 4 when the manager of the nearby Summit Hotel, Nformi Victor, called him to tell him that the radio station had burned down. According to Borno, Victor told him that a hotel receptionist heard a noise at about 11 p.m. the night before; she did not investigate further since she did not hear the noise again and because it was windy.

Sky FM’s station manager, Bernard Tata Gibip, found a cutlass, gasoline container, and a box of matches near the radio station after he too was alerted by Victor, Borno told CPJ.

The station broadcasts in English and “all other local languages including Limbum and Mbororo,” on topics including culture, health, and the economy, according to Borno, who is a local official of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party. The station also broadcasts BBC programs and national broadcasts in French.

Borno told CPJ on August 7 that he believed his radio station was targeted because of its “Back to School” campaign, which began last year encouraging students to return to school. The new school year starts in September, and a school boycott has been in place since November 2016 when lawyers and teachers in both the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions began protesting the alleged marginalization of English by Biya’s central government in Yaounde, according to news reports. The grassroots protest was then taken over by separatist factions as the conflict escalated with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accusing them of violently enforcing the boycott, according to the independent humanitarian news website, IRIN.

The station has been off air since May 19 after its two transmitters were damaged in a lightening strike; they were planning to relaunch the week of August 8, according to Borno.

Borno told CPJ that because the new school year starts next month, the “separatist activists know very well our stand so they decided to burn the entire radio house with all equipment.”

In a detailed emailed statement to CPJ, a spokesperson for the separatists’ Self Defense Council of the Ambazonian Interim Government (ASC), A.J.N. Mbiydzenyuy, said it controlled about 98 percent of the “restoration forces”– who are the self-defense units of the separatist Ambazonia movement– in the Northwest and Southwest regions and that there was no evidence that they were responsible for the arson attack.

“The ASC leadership has never approved [an] arson attack, the restoration forces council in Nkambe is unaware of any involvement of their forces…and the field commanders of our forces in Ndu declined responsibility of the FM radio station arson attack,” he said.

CPJ could not verify independently the alleged motive or whether separatists were responsible for the alleged arson.

Ndi, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the weekly NewsWatch, told CPJ that both the government and separatists were targeting journalists. “Separatists are threatening us with messages that we are siding with government in our reports as we try to stay neutral or objective in the crisis. On the other hand, any report that seems to be propagating the agenda of the separatists is tantamount to the crime of ‘apologies de terrorisme’ punishable under the anti-terrorism law by the government,” he said.

Borno said he employed four staff members to report and produce programs. He said that the station, which he established in 2013, was not a profit-making enterprise, nor was it subsidized by the government.

Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who also serves as a government spokesperson, did not respond to CPJ’s request via Whatsapp for comment. The Northwest Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique had not replied to CPJ’s request for comment at the time of publication.

In a Cameroon special report about the abuse of anti-terror laws against journalists published last year, CPJ spoke to journalists who said they were increasingly caught between the Cameroonian government and separatists.
Source:CPJ

Local media portals in Cameroon are reporting of floods in parts of the country. On Tuesday, the city of Limbe in the country’s South West was hit by floods.

Whiles in Douala, the country’s largest city and economic capital located in the Littoral region, heavy rains accompanied by landslides are said to have left scores stranded.

Videos and photos shared on social media showed streets submerged as flood waters have risen to knee-level of people who attempted wading through.

Some journalists are also reporting that in the case of Limbe, as the waters receded, people are counting their loses. There are no official account of loss of lives but local media are putting it at ten.

Floods continue to cause havoc across parts of Africa where high rain patterns have resulted in loss of lives and destruction to properties. The most recent was in the capital of Ivory Coast, Abidjan where government was forced to evacuate close to 200 families.

Source: Africa News

Cameroon is grappling with the threat of escalating violence in different crisis locations across the country even as the authorities prepare for run-up to the presidential elections set for Oct. 7.

About a fortnight ago, a video emerged showing men in the military fatigues of the Cameroonian army executing two women and two children. The video is believed to have been taken in the north of the country where the military is taking on Boko Haram. The clip of the extra-judicial killing of the women and children, presumably linked to the Islamic terror group, went viral on social media and sparked outrage.

Activists in the ongoing Anglophone crisis used the footage to describe what they claim are ongoing indiscriminate and unjustified killings in the country’s English-speaking regions, over 800 miles away. Government troops had previously been accused of targeted killings in those North West and South West Regions.

Global rights group, Amnesty International says the men in the video were Cameroonian soldiers carrying out the executions. The organization’s experts matched extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue and uniforms that feature in the video, with digital verification techniques and testimonies to arrive at the conclusion that the perpetrators are soldiers of the Cameroon army.

Nevertheless, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s minister of communication, strongly rebutted the video, denying the Cameroon army’s involvement. Tchiroma has challenged previous Amnesty reports on crimes and human rights violations committed by the army. Yet, he said “owing to the gravity and intolerability of the facts contained therein, the Head of State [Paul Biya] has ordered the opening of a thorough investigation to shed light on this case.”

Samira Daoud, deputy director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office, raised concerns over the genuineness of the government probe. “The Cameroonian authorities’ initial claim that this shocking video is fake simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. These hasty and dismissive denials cast serious doubt over whether any investigation will be genuine.”

Though Reuters reported that four Cameroonian soldiers had been arrested in relation to the execution, Tchiroma tweeted on Saturday noting that no military officer had been detained.

In addition to the Boko Haram threats, Cameroon’s government has been gaining negative global media coverage over the last year as the troubles in its English-speaking regions have escalated. What started out as a modest industrial strike action by English-speaking lawyers and teachers over real and perceived marginalization by the Francophone-dominated central government has turned into a full-fleg.

The long-drawn out crisis has so far caused the internal displacement of no fewer than 160,000 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An additional 21,000 affected by the crisis have had to cross over to neighboring Nigeria as refugees. Even the Nigerian business community in some key towns in the restive area have returned home. Frequent gun battles between republican forces and armed separatists have led to hundred of deaths.

Like other concerned organizations and structures, Human Rights Watch is advocating an end to the killings. The rights group has recommended a mediated dialogue involving all the warring parties. But none has taken concrete actions which could breed such peace-restoration efforts.

Despite the volatile nature of the country’s two English-speaking regions, voters have been called to the poll on Oct. to elect a president. Current president Paul Biya, 85, has been in office since 1982 and has confirmed he will be running for his seventh term. Some 27 hopefuls have already manifested interest in challenging the incumbent. Biya’s grip on power has been shaken by the security threats of Boko Haram and more recently the Anglophone separatists but most watchers are not optimistic there will be change.

Even then, there are few indications the election will run smoothly in the restive Anglophone regions as some council branches of the elections management body, ELECAM, have remain closed.

Culled from Quartz

Capital of Cameroon restive South West region, Buea, was deserted by residents in observing an unofficial ghost town ritual that has been in place for over a year.

Streets of Buea were largely deserted as at the morning of July 23, 2018 and businesses refused to open as ordered by the Lord Mayor. In

Photos sent exclusively to Africanews showed that Buea was observing a ghost town. Residents had virtually abandoned the streets and all social and economic activities had come to a halt.

Late last week, Lord Mayor of the Buea Council Ekema Patrick Esunge, warned that the body will take punitive measures against economic operators especially who respect the most recent call for a ghost town.

In a press release, he said Monday (June 23) remained a normal working day. A word of caution to persons who planned to respect a call to stay away by suspected separatists.

His release read in part: “He further informs them (businesses) to stop respecting the so-called ghost town from unknown individuals.

“Defaulters of the above Municipal Order will have their businesses sealed till further notice considering that several communiques and press conferences have been held with them to desist from this phenomenon.”

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports by people on social media disclosed that the Mayor was sealing off shops that did not operate. Authorities are said to be doubling locks of shops that refused to open.

Source: Africa News

Residents of Tiben, a rural village in Cameroon’s Northwest region are still mourning but returning to life after an alleged military-led retaliation took the lives of 15 people July 12.

Reports indicate that people were collecting their wares to head to the nearby market when trucks of people wearing military-like fatigues and with advanced weapons stormed into the village and opened fire, targeting women and children. The apparent soldiers shot a number people as they fled and then proceeded to kill a family harboring those fleeing the conflict, taking the life of a teacher who owned the house.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in Tiben and the overall conflict taking place in Northwest Cameroon,” said Adam Cole, executive director for Join the Journey.

“Join the Journey is committed to justice and serving others as Jesus Christ would, and we stand with the people of Tiben in this period of recovery. May God heal these wounds.”

Tiben lies in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region, near the border with Nigeria, where a long-running conflict has smoldered between residents here and the national French-speaking majority government. Those in the Northwest who are striving for their own country— or at least autonomy under the name Ambazonia—seek to establish public services and other rights of life that have been ignored by the government.

Ambazonia’s call for independence has increased over the last several months and so have killings like the ones in Tiben. Similar reports and accompanying video of shootings occurred elsewhere in Cameroon. Amnesty International’s recent analysis links that particular killing to military forces.

One of the deaths in Tiben was Enjeck Helen Enjei, who had been selected as one of five candidates for Join the Journey’s micro-loan program. The program was in the early stages of launching before the recent tragedy. Join the Journey had already been running a poultry empowerment program in Tiben and had assisted several churches in the village with rice distributions during holidays.

Source: StandardNewsWire

Government Teachers Training College, GTTC Ndop has reportedly been burnt down by a group of unknown Southern Cameroons militants in the early hours of Saturday the 21^st of July. The Francophone dominated police service revealed that locals sounded the fire alarm at 9 am.

A resident noted that the fire consumed the administrative department of the school including the principal’s office and the staff room.  The French Cameroun administrators have blamed the incident on Ambazonian separatists operating in the area.

We understand the school premise has been used by the hierarchy of the ruling CPDM party for political meetings the most recent being that of Honorable Njinguh Musa, CPDM MP for Ngoketunjia North Constituency.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

July 21, 2018

********** Revolutionary greetings to the great people of Ambazonia

The focus of my statement today is organizational change within the ASC. My brief statement is in three parts. I am going to start with a significant announcement in the context of which the council exist. Secondly, I will offer appreciation to restoration forces and the general population of Ambazonia for your solidarity and determination in this liberation war. Finally, I will share one fact that underpins our collective determination, cross partnership, and unity of purpose in the defense council.

The leading goal of my statement today is to announce to the national and international audience a major organizational change within the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council toward fighting the war that was officially declared on the unarmed, hospitable, and peace-loving citizens of Ambazonia on 30 November 2017 by President Paul Biya of la Republique du Cameroun. At the time, President Biya expected a victory within 24 hours during which his usual military autocracy and crooked government machinery would overrun our territory, crush our will, capture us, and subject us to perpetual bondage and slavery under a non-legally binding union since 1961.

On behalf of the people of Ambazonia, the ASC sends this clear message to the government of LRC – Ambazonians are not push overs on our soil within our international recognized boundary. The gruesome and inhumane atrocities of LRC soldiers on Ambazonia soil have crossed ASC redline and the actual liberation war for Ambazonia is yet to begin. This relates directly to why there is organizational change within the ASC. To that end, I am excited to announce today that the Council has tasked me another assignment and greater responsibilities. Therefore, I am stepping down as the ASC spokesperson to take up my new responsibilities. Simultaneously, the Council has appointed a new spokesperson to  continue to provide defense related information to the national and international audience.

In the spirit of one fight one goal and one purpose, I am honored to introduce Comrade Jude Mbiydzenyuy as the new ASC Spokesperson. Thank you, Comrade Jude Mbiydzenyuy for your commitment to serve the people of Ambazonia by accepting to fill this important position. You have my full support. My country people, I plead that you give Comrade Jude Mbiydzenyuy even greater support than you gave me to facilitate our journey to Buea, the historic capital of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

A second goal of my statement today is to thank you for your commitment and loyalty to the liberation war. Beloved brothers and sisters, the bible says everything that has a beginning also has an end. It has been a pleasure serving you as the pioneer Spokesperson for the Ambazonia Self Defense Council (ASC).

I want to sincerely thank our professional commanders and gallant restoration forces in ground zero for putting their lives on the line to defend our country and our citizens. Thank you for protecting our women, sisters, mothers, wives, sons, and daughters against the existential threat they face daily from the barbaric soldiers and security forces of LRC. I salute all the courage and sacrifice of our fallen soldiers. You are the true heroes of Ambazonia. Your contributions to this liberation struggle will forever be appreciated. Your blood will not go in vain.

Finally, I will like to share assessment of our challenges and progress. My dear country people, it has not been easy. But thanks to God Almighty, our sole source of strength and wisdom, the Restoration Forces of the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council continue to uproot conventional and heavily armed LRC soldiers in an unprecedented manner. In your heart, know that a free Ambazonia is a few miles away. Strategically and tactically, all defense forces remain focused to weaken, defeat, and repel the forces loyal to the annexing government of la Republique du Cameroun.

My dear citizens, I like you to note that by dint of the hard work and unparalleled resilience of our restoration forces, we have partially contained the incursion of mercenaries hired by LRC government to fight alongside LRC soldiers to kills, maim, and abduct our citizens as well as to torch our homes, and in some cases with our disabled seniors inside. I would like to point out that this determination to fight until victory is achieved is motivated by our love for our God given fatherland Ambazonia and our quest to live free and in dignity in our preferred economic, political and social system consistent with international norms.

In conclusion, I will like to thank the ASC, IG and people of Ambazonia for giving me the opportunity to serve Ambazonians in the capacity of the ASC Spokesperson. Together we shall get to Buea. God Bless Ambazonia.

Thank you. SIGNED: Nso N. Foncha

The Cameroonian government has disclosed that over 100 members of the Defense and Security Forces (DSF) have been lost to the activities of separatists in the Anglophone regions.

In giving figures on the impact of secessionist activities on the DSF and the general population, government said 109 DSF were killed whiles 200 were wounded.

The figures which were valid at at mid-July 2018 also revealed that:

• 82 civilians kidnapped, many of whom are missing;
• 120 schools burnt down;
• 14 attacks against traditional rulers;
• 170 attacks against the structures, personnel and convoys of * the Defence and Security Forces;
• 25 vehicles of the Defence and Security Forces destroyed;

Yaounde was responding to queries by Human Rights Watch (HRW) ahead of the group’s publication of its latest report on the Anglophone crisis.

HRW maintained in the report that violence on the part of both the government and secessionists was adversely affecting life in the northwest and southwest regions. They called on both parties and other interested parties to intervene to stop the crisis.

The government, however, stressed that it was working relentlessly to resolve this crisis in order to return to lasting peace, and reiterates its commitment to preserving the country’s unity and territorial integrity, in strict compliance with the international legal instruments to which it is signatory and its domestic legislation.

Source: Africa News

Cameroon has arrested four soldiers suspected of shooting dead two women and two children in the country’s far north where its army is battling jihadist group Boko Haram, two security sources told Reuters.

A video of the incident, which has been shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter since it emerged last week, has provoked international outcry.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary initially described the footage as “fake news” and said that the men in the footage, who were wearing military fatigues, did not appear to be Cameroonian soldiers. However, he said the government would open an investigation.

“Four soldiers were arrested on Sunday. They are suspected of being the authors of the executions in the video,” said an army officer in Cameroon’s Far North region near the border with Nigeria.

A second security source said that three of the soldiers had been transferred to the capital Yaounde while the fourth was still being held in Maroua, the capital of the Far North.

Spokesmen for the army and the government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The shaky footage shows two women, one with an infant strapped to her back, being led across a patch of dusty scrubland by a group of uniformed men, who accuse them of belonging to the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

The women, silent throughout the ordeal, are blindfolded and told to sit down alongside their children. Moments later, two men step back, level their rifles and fire a series of rounds.

Amnesty International said last week that it had gathered credible evidence that the men in the video were indeed Cameroonian soldiers based on an analysis of their weapons, speech and uniforms.

Four Cameroonian military sources, including the officer in the Far North, told Reuters that the video did show Cameroonian soldiers. Two said the video was filmed in 2014 or 2015 in the early months of Cameroon’s operations against Boko Haram.

REUTERS