The National Assembly building at Ngoa-Ekelle has suffered its third fire since its construction. But that which occurred yesterday, November 16, 2017 remains the most serious.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that it took about three hours to completely extinguish the fire that broke out around 9 pm yesterday.

The fury of the flames consumed the third and fourth floors before firefighters could control the spread of the flames. The fire was reportedly turned off shortly after midnight.

Some French Cameroun MPs, including the Honorable Cavaye Yegui Djibril, rushed to the scene and watched helplessly.
After 1995 and 2013, it is the third time since its construction that the glass house at Ngoa Ekelle is attacked by fire. The Francophone dominated security agencies have opened an investigation.

By Sama Ernest in Yaounde

A young French Cameroun gendamerie officer recently deployed to Mamfe in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to counter the Southern Cameroons revolution was found death on November the 9^th 2017 in the Manyu River.

Constable Glorian Cédric  described by Francophone security sources as a student gendarme was detached to strengthen a special unit set up since October 1, 2017 in Mamfe and Ekok. His demise comes amid the unfortunate incidents of Jakiri and Bamenda where three gendarmes were cowardly killed.

Constable Glorian Cédric was reportedly in a training at Camp Yeyap in Yaoundé and was hurrily sent to Mamfe where he drowned in the main river not far from the  gendarme head office in Mamfe-Egbekaw.  Cameroun Info.Net reported that after a morning sport session with his pals, the gendarmes went to the river to swim and while they were bathing, Cédric was washed away.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Cameroon Info.Net

Janet Ngwafor has been named as the Ambazonian civilian victim of the attack on the gendarmerie checkpoint in Bafut. She died at a military hospital in the Bamenda County late yesterday.

She succumbed to her wounds inflicted by a bullet on Tuesday night in Bafut. In this attack, two gendarmes were also killed making a total of three deaths in this incident attributed to Southern Cameroons militants who in recent days are multiplying attacks against Francophone law enforcement officers.

In its latest report published last October, the International Crisis Group called on French Cameroun political authorities and international partners to find “strong” measures to prevent the birth of armed insurgency in Southern Cameroons. Speaking on the Southern Cameroons Television, Prof. Carlson Anyangwe blamed the Bafut attack on forces loyal to the Biya Francophone regime and called on the UN to investigate the killings.

Beyond the electoral issues pending the 2018 presidential elections, the sporadic violence of recent months and communications in social networks have shown that Ambazonians are bracing up for an armed struggle.

By Sonne Peter, CCN

Tension is reportedly mounting in many counties in Southern Cameroons ever since the Governing Council renamed the territory as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Cameroon Concord News has learned that representatives of the Governing Council  are urging locals to form self-defence groups against the “occupation forces”, after the government deployed thousands of soldiers to the various states.

A gendarmerie officer was killed while pursuing Southern Cameroons militants who attacked a school in Jakairi in the Bui County.

“Suspected Ambazonian militants gunned down a gendarme on (Monday) in Jakiri,” a town in the Ambazonia’s northwest, a source close to local authorities said, an account confirmed by the Biya Francophone government. “They killed him with the officer’s own gun,” the sourced added.

Gendarmes were in pursuit when the officer found himself cut off and encircled by the attackers in a forest, the source said.  Citizens of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia say they suffer inequality and discrimination, and last month the interim head of state, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe issued a symbolic declaration of independence which was met with a French Cameroun government crackdown.

International monitors say  the Southern Cameroons conflict has created a refugees crisis in the Cross River State in Nigeria.  At least 255 people have been killed in clashes since late September, but those figures are disputed by the government of the 84 year old President Paul Biya.

By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN

At least seven people have been killed in the Far North region of French Cameroun in the space of three days, in several attacks attributed to the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News gathered that in Bogo, a small locality in the Diamaré constituency, a rich merchant was killed on the night of Thursday, November 2, 2017, by unidentified men.

According to security sources, three men aboard a motorcycle shot the merchant at close range in his home. The militants did not take anything from his residence.  On the night of 4th November, 3 people were also killed in Mahola, a town located in the Mayo-Sava Division, just over 30 km from Mora, targeted by Islamist armed incursions. Before disappearing, the attackers took away cattle and 8 motorcycles. The attackers arrived on board motorcycles and fired shots.

The French Cameroun security forces have always attributed these murders to Boko Haram fighters. Troops have been withdrawn from the Far North region and deployed to Southern Cameroons leaving the inhabitants vulnerable to attacks coming in from neighboring Nigeria.

By Sonne Peter, CCN

French Cameroun activists have announced a series of anti-government demonstrations to coincide with celebrations marking President Biya’s 35-years in power. The activists are planning events in major capitals around the world, including London, Paris, Washington, Brussels.

Through their demonstrations, these French Cameroonians intend to show support for the people of Southern Cameroons who are victims of repression from the Biya regime.  Our French Cameroun sources in Paris hinted that the organizers plan to demand the release of prominent Southern Cameroons detainees including all those arrested in connection with the so-called “Anglophone” crisis.

They also intend to demand the organization of an inclusive national dialogue, as well as the reform of the electoral code and the creation of an independent electoral commission. Back home in La Republique du Cameroun, the ruling CPDM crime syndicate which has been banned in Southern Camerons and labelled a terrorist organization by the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council is mobilizing its troops for the 35th anniversary of President Biya’s accession to power.

French Cameroun political elites say this 35th anniversary is under the theme: “Let us contribute together to strengthen the” spirit of Cameroon “for the consolidation of national unity and integrity and peace”. As a reminder, it was on November 6, 1982 that the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya came to power after the resignation of the first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

In one of the most revealing and self-destructing recording audios ever released, Agbor Balla has opened up to the world about his warped mind. In a struggle that has seen hundreds killed and thousands of Southern Cameroonians flee to seek refugee status in Nigeria, Agbor Balla has finally revealed what he sees as a game to fulfil his personal ambitions.

Whilst millions of British Southern Cameroonians dream of a day when they will be free from the shackles and manacles of Paul Biya’s servitude, Agbor Balla describes their dream as ‘living in a fairy-tale world’. With an aura of invincibility, he boosted about his elfin postings with the United Nations to shady and wretched countries which belong at the bottom of any reputable diplomat’s wish list.

 AUDIO………………………………….

No matter the hatred that people have for me today, I will be president of Ambaland.

I’ll not insult you that you are living in your fairy-tale world  if you want secession.

‘If we have a Southern Cameroon State today, I’ll be the president. I am realistic so I want federalism so we can work towards secession.

I’ll beat Sessekou Ayuk in an election. I have an interest for us to have an Ambaland because I know I will be elected as the president.

I worked in Afghanistan and went to Congo and came back. What can someone tell me?

1999 I wrote a thesis on self-determination about southern Cameroon right to self-determination.

In 2002 I was with Albert MUKONG in the EU commission.

17 years ago, where was Tassang? 17 years ago, where was Sessekou?

What have you guys done by protesting outside embassies. I hear you guys are saying that I was released because of your protests?

In 2001 I protested with Cho Ayaba. To march in Europe is easy. I have done this already.

I have a pedigree that none of them have and they know that. That is why SCAFUF is scared of me. If I am invited to their conference to speak, none of them would be able to speak. I’ll ask them individually what they have done for the struggle. What all them are doing can’t match what I can do alone.
By Chi Prudence Asong in London

A man whose identity has not been revealed reportedly killed his three children aged 13, 6 and 3 years respectively in the night of Wednesday November 1, 2017 in their family home in the Kondengui district in Yaounde.
Cameroon radio and television announced that after his crime, the alleged murderer who returned to Cameroon after spending 20 years in Switzerland,rushed to the Swiss Embassy in Yaounde and reported his crime.

A military court in Cameroon has sentenced an opposition party leader to 25 years in prison following trial that has been branded as unfair by Amnesty International.

Aboubakar Siddiki, President of the main opposition party in northern Cameroon, ‘Mouvement patriotique du salut camerounais’, has been convicted of charges including hostility against the homeland, revolution and contempt of the President.

However, Amnesty International has said Aboubakar Siddiki who was arrested in August 2014 together with Abdoulaye Harissou, has been convicted despite “no credible evidence being presented to the court”. They were accused of being involved in a conspiracy to destabilise the country.

“Aboubakar Siddiki is the latest victim of the Cameroonian authorities’ strangling of opposition voices. Alongside Abdoulaye Harissou he has already spent more than three years in detention, suffered torture and now he must face a future behind bars on the basis of a politically motivated and deeply flawed trial,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s Lake Chad Researcher.

In the same trial, Abdoulaye Harissou, was also sentenced to three years prison for non-denunciation. A report by Amnesty International claims that the two were held incommunicado for over 40 days in an illegal facility run by the General Directorate of External Relations and subjected to torture following their arrest in 2014.

Initially charged with complicity in murder, illegal possession of arms, hostility against the homeland, revolution, non-denunciation and contempt of the President, their trial began on 22 January 2016. On 9 October 2017, all charges except ‘non-denunciation’ were dropped against Harissou, but those against Siddiki were maintained.

The court also dropped all charges against three journalists – Baba Wame, Felix Ebole Bola and Rodrigue Tongue –who were charged in 2014 with ‘non-denunciation’ of information and sources in relation to the same affair.

Amnesty International has called on the Cameroonian authorities to release and drop all charges against Aboubakar Siddiki and Abdoulaye Harissou while advising the Central African country to refrain from ever using military courts to prosecute civilians.

The government denies the charges are political. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in a crackdown in recent months on protests in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions. Residents there say they suffer social and economic marginalisation in the predominantly Francophone country. The protests have become a lightning rod for opposition to President Paul Biya’s 35-year rule.

Source: Malawi 24