Nature has once again added its voice in the political turmoil in Cameroon, and once again the partitioning of the country into Southern Cameroons and French Cameroon is becoming evident. The partition trope resurfaces periodically, most often while the one and indivisible Cameroon looks “too hard to fix.”

The N 63 road at the level of Bamendjou in the western region linking French Cameroun and the Bamenda County is impassable since Saturday. According to officials from the Western Regional Public Works Delegation, the traffic disruption on this part of the road was caused by a landslide over an 80-meter range at one of the sections, a drop of nearly three meters.

The Southern Cameroons Governing Council and many other advocates of partition suggest that Cameroon is a false construct of British and French colonisation and that Franco-phones and Anglophones are incapable of sustaining a heterogeneous state.

Southern Cameroonians who want to divide the country owe the African Union, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the rest of the world extensive, detailed clarification. Surely, any plan to drastically restructure Cameroon must be more thoughtful and detailed.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

Six people were killed on Saturday in a serious traffic accident in Bui County precisely in Kumbo. The accident between a semi-trailer carrying goods and a public transport bus also caused many injuries. As in 2010, when 1,200 people were killed on Cameroonian roads, there is a peak of deaths from traffic accidents in 2017 supporting calls for immediate independence for Southern Cameroons.

For the first eight months of 2017, (from January to August), 4190 accidents including 179 fatalities, 784 bodily and 3227 material were recorded in Cameroon. The month of August 2017, was the most deadly with a total of 626 accidents of all categories, including 34 fatalities, 79 bodily and 513 material. Officially, there were 98 deaths as a result of road traffic accidents, in August alone.

Cameroon experts attributed 70% of these accidents to human causes, 20% caused by road conditions and 10% to technical causes. The Francophone government fears that the upward trend will continue and recently claimed to have taken a series of measures, including the reform of the driving license. The new Cameroonian driver’s license, which includes a dozen points, entered into force on 1 September.

The Cameroonian authorities are also considering the use of mobile radars, multiplying joint checkpoints (police, gendarmerie and road traffic prevention in the Ministry of Transport), as well as general alcohol tests and other measures such as limiting the speed limit to 100 kilometres per hour for transit vehicles and heavy goods vehicles.

By Eyong Johnson
Cameroon Concord News

Southern Cameroons protesters have set fire on an administrative building in Kumbo, the chief town in the Bui County. Cameroon Concord News learnt that the Senior Divisional Officer for Bui, Mooh Simon Émile was seriously wounded.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) dated 4 September 2017, a gendarme opened fire in self-defense against an attack that came while investigating a narcotics problem. The officer shot and killed one of his assailants who possessed homemade weapons, noted Joseph Beti Assomo.

Southern Cameroonians dissatisfied with the situation set ablaze the SDO’s office. Military reinforcements were carried out. The Secretary of State for Defense (SED) Jean Baptiste Bokam announced that he has suspended the Commander of the brigade concerned.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

Primary school pupils and High school students across Southern Cameroons are engaging in increasingly frequent acts of ghost towns ordered jointly by the Southern Cameroons Governing Council and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. They have stayed out of the so-called official opening of the 2017 academic year today Monday the 4th of September 2017 in support of a strike action that was initiated by lawyers and teachers which subsequently laid the foundation for the Southern Cameroons revolution some 11 months ago.

There has been no reaction from the French Cameroun government officials currently in Southern Cameroons to push for the resumption of classes. However, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has warned that parents should carefully put as top priority the safety of their children during these difficult times in Southern Cameroons history.

The struggle for social and political rights in British Southern Cameroons has expanded across different sectors and entered different venues, highlighting in particular calls for an independent state of Southern Cameroons.

Recently and against the backdrop of a deepening political crisis and the release of Dr. Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr. Neba Fontem, all Southern Cameroons counties and Anglophone political associations both at home and abroad have declared independence from President Biya’s government.

Even the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, which has MPs in the national assembly, has announced they will not participate in next year’s elections under the prevailing circumstances. These recent collective actions were precipitated by president Biya’s decision to push through a fake agenda drafted by some Francophone political elites shifting the goal post to bilingualism and multiculturalism.

With little change 35 years on from the ouster of the late President Ahmadaou Ahidjo, there are plans for the creation of a Republic of Southern Cameroons. An operations manager in the Mamfe County explained to Cameroon Concord News that today’s successful ghost town operation is not a direct withdrawal from the Cameroonian state “flag and all but rather an expression of defiance against the lawlessness of the state that is buttressed by the ruling Francophone political elite headed by Mr. Paul Biya.”

There are calls for President Biya to meet with the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and securing the support of some prominent figures deep within the Southern Cameroons diaspora. The revolution has eventually washed away men like Musonge, Paul Atanga Nji, Yang Philemon, Patrick Ekema and Elvis Ngole Ngole.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Buea, Bamenda, Mundemba, Mamfe and Tombel
Cameroon Concord News

The Francophone dominated force known as the National Gendarmerie has revealed that a total of 116 people were killed in the month of August 2017 on the main roads in Cameroon. A spokesperson for the French Cameroun security apparatus, Colonel Tchinda Henri noted on Sunday via Canal Press program on Canal 2 International tv that 90% of these accidents were due to a human causes and 10% is related to environmental issues.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from the televised presentation that human causes were mainly the imprudence of the road users with recklessness manifested by speeding, dangerous overtaking, poor parking of vehicles and driver fatigue.

Colonel Tchinda Henri did not blame the poor state of the roads including the complete absence of traffic police and proper driving schools in the country but in a typical ruling CPDM pattern, presented a plan adopted by the Gendarmerie Nationale to limit road traffic accidents during this back-to-school period. This is what the policing services do every year and expect different results.

By Eyong Johnson with files from CIN

At least fifteen people were reported killed last night in a serious traffic accident on the Yaoundé- Douala highway. Police sources also revealed that the accident caused 4 serious injuries and the wounded were all taken to the Edéa Regional Hospital.

Cameroon Concord News learned that the accident occurred at around 10 pm (2100 GMT) some 20 km from Edéa, the chief locality in the Sanaga Maritime Division from a head-on collision between an inter-urban bus and a freight truck.

For more than a month, there has been almost no day without traffic accidents, resulting in loss of life in Cameroon.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

55 Southern Cameroonians arrested and tried in connection with the violence linked to the Anglophone crisis have regained their freedom after a decree signed by President Biya halting all legal proceedings. 24 others whose proceedings are still pending before the military court in Yaoundé including BBC Mancho are still in detention. Their fate will be known at the next hearings.

Cameroon Concord News understands the decree excluded from the list of beneficiaries, defendants prosecuted for murder, destruction of national emblems including the flag and the authors calling for secession. The so-called Cameroon government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma hinted that the decision taken by President Paul Biya is “in conformity with the provisions of article 13 paragraph 4 of law n ° 2017/012 of July 12, 2017 establishing a code of military justice.”

According to this law, the President of the Republic may at any time before a judgement is pronounced, prescribe a criminal prosecution before the military court. Issa Tchiroma also said it is not a question of “interference by the executive, nor of an interference with the independence of the judiciary, but of a mere application of the law in Cameroon. The President Paul Biya decree which sounded the return to social cohesion, was greeted by António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

The Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt has signed a ministerial order setting up a day of bilingualism in his ministry. The new innovation in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is unprecedented and comes just some few hours after the 85 year old dictator ordered the release of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine.

The Minister Bidoun Mkpatt’s order stipulates that all personnel in the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education are required to speak “English” to French-speaking employees or to speak “French” to English-speaking staff on the last Thursday of each month .

The Minister who is reportedly an in-law to President Biya stated that the initiative takes effect as from today Thursday the 31st of August 2017. Minister Bidoung set an example yesterday Wednesday the 30th of August 2017 in the morning at the Multipurpose Sports Palace in Yaounde during a ceremony to launch the so-called bilingual day whose objective is the promotion of the bilingualism in Cameroon. During his speech on the occasion, Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt alternated French and English.

However, there is still no news of the Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism created by the Head of State Paul Biya for eight months in a context marked by the Southern Cameroons crisis. We understand the commission’s chairman, former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge recently got married and maybe enjoying his honeymoon.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

President Biya has ordered the Military Tribunal in Yaounde to end all legal proceedings against the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon.

This item is developing

Alain Noël Mekulu Mvondo, the general manager of the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS) is facing serious accusations of financial malpractice and embezzlement. For some weeks now, journalists have been presenting evidence of embezzlement on television and on the Internet, which has overwhelmed the all powerful Francophone social security boss.

According to the documents recently made public, the GM of the National Social Insurance Fund is living a princely lifestyle and has cumulative advantages worth over 2 billion CFA francs (over 3 million euros) in his 8 years at the head of the fund, while in Cameroon, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics ) in its Ecam 2014 survey, 37.5% of the population live on less than 1 dollar a day with some civil servants earning 36 270 FCFA (55 euros) a month.

The docile Francophone public opinion was mostly shocked by the princely advantages of this new generation Beti Ewondo leader who perfectly illustrates the gap between the ruling elite and the ordinary citizen. He denies that he has filed a lawsuit against journalists who are responsible for the denunciations but explained on Tuesday evening, during a an interview with Canal 2, that his salary is not what some passionate spirits evoke.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News