A woman in Cameroon has told BBC Pidgin that she was jailed for three months instead of her husband when the military couldn’t find him.

On 1 October, the military came in search of Delphine Dzelafen’s husband. “As I was about to go to bed, I heard a big knock on the door, I thought the door was going to break, I rushed to see, about 10 military men,” she said.

“As I opened the door, they jumped in and started searching, asking, where is he, as they looked for my husband, Njilah Jones. They searched they whole compound, then arrested me.”

She spent the night at Kumba police station and the next morning was blindfolded and taken to prison in Yaoundé.

Her family didn’t know where she was until she was released on 5 December. Barrister Agbor Balla Nkongho, founder of the Centre for Human Right and Democracy is documenting all the detainees connected with the Anglophone crisis.

He said unjustified detention is becoming more common: “This is how many people find themselves in prison in connection with the Anglophone crisis when they have not committed any crime.”

Authorities cracked down on months of protests in Cameroon where the English-speaking minority said they were being discriminated against by the French-speaking majority.

BBC

Minister Victor Mengot’s Manyu Solidarity Assistance Initiative for displaced persons in Manyu is ending in controversy today as the Mamfe population and tribal groups boycotted the event.  The youthful CPDM Member of Government arrived Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu amid growing anger and calls for “Odeshi” strikes on the ceremonial ground.

Minister Mengot was due to issue a policy statement projecting the CPDM crime syndicate as still in charge of affairs in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia but there was no one to listen to him.  A spokesperson for the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia said the boycott action was taken in response to Mr Mengot’s “inaccurate, misinformed, and disrespectful statement” regarding the genocide in Manyu.

Minister Victor Mengot has consciously denied the reality of the occupation and the killings of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians in Manyu by the francophone dominated armed forces.

“As Ambazonians and supporters of the Interim Government, we cannot in good conscience host Minister Mengot, a person who denounces Manyus and prioritises the feelings of our women and children” noted Agbor James Enow a local businessman in Mamfe.

By Judith Fon in Mamfe

With the number of people fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon for Nigeria growing, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is increasingly concerned at the plight of women and children among them.

Women and children represent about 80 per cent of the approximately 10,000 refugees registered so far in eastern Nigeria’s Cross River state. Thousands more are among the population of unregistered Cameroonians in neighbouring states.

Some of these are boys and girls who fled to Nigeria alone. Unaccompanied and separated children are particularly affected by difficult access to food and the lack of subsistence opportunities.

UNHCR staff have received numerous reports that children have to work or beg to survive or to help their families. Many children are unable to attend school, as they lack both the time and funds for education. Although schooling in Nigeria is free, there are still some basic costs, such as those for school materials.

UNHCR is working with the Nigerian authorities to assist with the reunification of separated children with their families, to provide unaccompanied children with protection services and to restore the basic right of all children to education. Some children arriving to Nigeria reported to UNHCR that they had been out of school in Cameroon for the whole of the past academic year.

For women, the lack of work combined with the over-stretched reception facilities, creates a higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly from survival sex. So far, only a limited number of such cases have been recorded, mainly in the Amana community of Cross River state. However, UNHCR is concerned that many more incidents go unreported or are referred only to community elders. Incidents of domestic violence, as well as cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls as young as 14, have also been reported.

In Nigeria’s Benue state, where two school buildings have been reserved by authorities to serve as temporary refugee hosting accommodation, women and their families are forced to sleep inside communal school halls, deprived of private space and the right to family dignity. For them – and for the rest of the population living in temporary tents hastily built next to local residences – sufficient and appropriate shelter is key to ensure adequate registration, systematic aid distribution and reduced protection risks.

UNHCR is currently working with the Nigerian authorities to identify sites away from the border, where the refugees can be hosted according to international standards. We are also establishing offices in the towns of Calabar and Adikpo to better provide assistance and protection to the women and children. Our support includes food, basic relief items, health, and water and sanitation facilities.

UNHCR recognizes the enormous generosity of the Nigerian border communities, opening their doors to Cameroonian refugees. Almost all of those registered reported that they had left their homes because of insecurity and that they would go back only when it’s safe to do so.

Source: The UN Refugee Agency

URGENT PRESS RELEASE

Sons and daughters of Manyu, you might have heard an announcement on CRTV and your local radio stations about
a Manyu Solidarity Initiative in Mamfe on Saturday, January 20th, 2018 launched by Victor Mengot and other
Manyu CPDM sell outs serving in the Gangster regime of Paul Biya. We are strongly outraged, and believe those who have lost their loved ones should feel more outraged.

Here are some questions that should really outrage you:

Where was Victor Mengot and his Solidarity Initiative towards the sons and daughters of Manyu when Paul Biya sent his soldiers to kill our people?

Where was Victor Mengot and his hypocritical love towards the peoples of Kembong, Agborkem, Akwaya, Kajifu and
Eyumojock when the Soldiers of Paul Biya killed and forced them go on exile to Nigeria?
Was Victor Mengot ignorant about the evil plans to kill Manyu people? Why didn’t Victor Mengot warn his Manyu People or even tell Paul Biya to leave Manyu alone?

We have not forgotten the Press Release put out by the SDO of Manyu warning our people to flee from their villages
or be killed.

We have not forgotten how the Governor of the South West Region tricked our Manyu people by sending another
Press Release telling our people not to run into hiding.

We have not forgotten that the assurances from the criminal Governor proved to be a death sentence for our people
who did not run away. Those who stayed were brutally killed by the soldiers of Paul Biya.

Now that they do not see more of our people to kill for their blood rituals, Paul Biya has sent Victor Mengot to come
and deceive our people who escaped to return home, just as the Governor deceived those who ended up dead. Victor
Mengot is preparing the ground to get our people killed, so that the living witnesses of the evil carried out by Paul
Biya through the corrupt silence of people like Victor Mengot and other Manyu CPDM conspirators can be hidden
forever.

Therefore, we write to warn you not to fall for this trap. Victor Mengot and his CPDM friends are snakes. The blood
of our Manyu sons and daughters rest on the heads of Mengot and his CPDM DEVILS who turned their backs on
Manyu while Paul Biya slaughtered them.

We call on our brave brothers and sisters who are still around Mamfe to do everything within your power to Disrupt
and Boycott the holding of any such event in Mamfe on the 20th of January.

This bunch of murderers and blood suckers do not speak or represent the People of Manyu. Victor Mengot and the
corrupt Manyu CPDM gang do not own Manyu. The young people whose petrol was destroyed by the Mengot/ Biya
soldiers are the real heroes of Manyu. Their lives cannot be destroyed for the likes of the Mengots and Tabetandos to
reap political gains.

Sincerely
The Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee

According to the Wum Gendarmerie Company Commander in Menchum Division in Southern Cameroons, a Credit Union Microfinance Bank located at Weh village market some 7 km from Wum, the chief town in Menchum on the Nyos axis was attacked on the 16^th of January 2018 by unidentified men.

Two of the five gendarmes guarding the premises of the bank were killed.  The Wum Gendarmerie Company identified the two as Constable Ndjameya Jean-Bosco (Class of 2013) and Peloton 905.

The Francophone dominated gendarmerie force also revealed that two other gendarmes were wounded during the aggression and one is in “a serious condition”.  Cameroon Intelligence Report was reliably informed that the weapons of the officers killed were carried away by the thugs.

Since the outbreak of the socio-political crisis in Southern Cameroons, security forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have been frequently attacked by Ambazonian militants in these areas.

www.cameroonintelligencereport.com

The National Executive Committee of the SDF has authorized Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi to visit Ambazonian refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cameroon Concord News has learned from SDF sources.

We gathered that it was one of the resolutions taken at the National Executive Committee meeting that held in Bamenda last weekend.  SDF executive members also resolved to appeal for the establishment of parliamentary commission of inquiry on the Southern Cameroons crisis and the release of those still detained by the francophone dominated army.

Discussions during the NEC forum also focused on the future of the current leader John Fru Ndi who has been at the helm of the party since its creation in May 1990. A majority of SDF militants and sympathizers have been calling on the Chairman to step down.

Information has filtered that contrary to what was reported by some Cameroonian media houses, Fru Ndi has indicated his willingness to seek a new term as the head of the party during the February 22nd convention.

By Rita Akana

The governor of the West region  says at least 21 people have been killed and at least 38 injured when a bus veered off a road and crashed into a tree in a ravine.

West Region Gov. Awah Fonka said Sunday that the death toll from the accident late Saturday is likely to increase. He said the bus driver and at least four others were uninjured.

The Cameroon government said the 70-passenger unregistered vehicle was headed from Dschang to Douala in the West Region.

Fonka said it’s still too early to determine the cause of the accident. He says the people injured are being treated at a local hospital.

Source: Fox News

Cameroon Concord News has learned that a bloody clash has been averted in Buea following an attack on a school in Muea today.  According to the report, unknown gunmen burnt down a school in Muea and were heading to Buea forcing parents to rush to get their kids from schools in the South West regional capital.

The scenario started with the killing of an officer in Mbonge and later moved to Muea. Our reporter in Buea revealed that even businessmen and women including passers bye had to scamper to safety. We gathered that Buea has not been respecting ghost town operations ever since the arrest of the Ambazonian leaders in Abuja, Nigeria.

Military trucks have been seen descending to Muea.  Elsewhere a report reaching us from Kumba says gun shots were heard throughout the night. Shops in Bamenda have also been closed down following an alleged attack by ADF militants in Widikum.

By Ojong Ojong Joseph

Cameroon military sources say an officer deployed to Ekondo Titi was murdered by the members of the Ambazonian Defense Force on Sunday, January 14, 2018.  The department of the South West Gendarmerie Legion identified the soldier as Chief Warrant Officer Endaman.

“We were alerted in the morning of January 14th of the kidnapping of our comrade. After this announcement, a research was launched and in the evening we found his lifeless body, “noted a spokesperson for the Cameroon army.

Since President Biya declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons, more than fifteen soldiers have been murdered in Ambazonia. In his address to Cameroonians on December 31, 2017, President Paul Biya once again made the matter more intractable:

“I have instructed that all those who have taken up arms, who practice violence or who incite violence, be fought relentlessly and answer for their crimes in court.”

By Sama Ernest

Four people were killed and two others kidnapped in separate overnight attacks in the far north of Cameroon, blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram, sources told AFP on Thursday. Three of the victims were “slaughtered” in Kolofata, a town which borders Nigeria and that has seen a spate of attacks blamed on the jihadists, said a source close to the security services.

A security officer in the region confirmed the information to AFP, and that two people were also abducted. In a second overnight attack, Boko Haram fighters are believed to have killed one person and injured another in nearby Ashigashiya, also by the Nigerian border, said the security officer. The jihadists also burned some 60 boxes of grain and motorcycles, he added. The attacks come after Cameroon and three other West African states launched a major offensive against the jihadist group in Borno state, in north east Nigeria this week.

Cameroon soldiers, along with troops from Chad, Nigeria and Niger, are targeting a Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and another led by Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad.

According to the Nigerian military, scores of jihadists have been killed and hundreds of others have been forced to surrender in recent days. Boko Haram began its bloody insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in the country. The militants began cross-border attacks in 2014, and have regularly carried out raids in Cameroon, killing, looting and kidnapping villagers.

Since 2014, Cameroon has been fighting a military campaign against the group, including cross-border operations with Nigerian troops. But the group is estimated to have killed some 2,000 civilians and soldiers, and abducted more than a thousand people, in the last four years. Across the region, violence committed by Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 and displaced more than 2.6 million people.

Source:AFP