Cameroon

21, April 2017

What effects did internet sanctions have on Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Biya Francophone regime now has the record for the longest Internet shut down on the African continent. Southern Cameroonians were deprived of internet for 93 days following a decision by the Yaoundé regime on the 17^th of January 2017. The Francophone political elites wanted to prevent the circulation of images showing army and police brutality against lawyers and students in the Anglophone section of the country demonstrating since November 2016.

The 84 year old butcher of Yaoundé lifted the internet ban on Thursday the 20th of April 2017 after fingers were raised in the United Nations, Internet Without Borders including an action from the famous American computer scientist, Edward Snowden. The decision to shut down the internet demonstrated a frightful and unloving attitude towards the Anglophone community who are now seeking an independent state of Southern Cameroons.

The disconnection caused enormous disturbances and pains and will of course have far reaching political consequences for Cameroon as a nation. Anglophones clustered on the Moungo Bridge because at that point smart phones were able to connect to internet signals that came from French Cameroon. The same situation was visible at Mbounda in the West region.

Economically, the losses have been enormous and companies based in these two regions of the country have been completely and totally destroyed. “We came back to the Stone Age. In the absence of the connection, we were obliged to physically transport our data on CD or USB stick. One of the executives of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) lamented.

The banks whose servers were mostly installed in Douala and Yaoundé were the most hit. Some of them did introduce new procedures including the use of the telephone while others invested in the acquisition of V-Sat- a means of satellite communication. So many young start ups including Silicon Mountain all witnessed three months of inactivity.

The inevitable decline in business turnover has also inevitably impacted on the taxation department. These large contributors to the Yaoundé regime’s budgetary revenues had paid CFAF 617 billion of taxes and duties over the period 2010-2014. With the introduction of a new tax on telephone communications and internet services in 2016, the government was planning to increase this pool. The poor handling of the Anglophone crisis and the internet shut down is likely to thwart these expectations.

By Rita Akana and Fru James

Cameroon Concord News

20, April 2017

Cameroon to restore internet services cut off in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The 84 year Cameroonian dictator, Paul Biya has instructed the Francophone Minister of Post and Telecommunications to restore internet services to predominantly English-speaking parts of the country which were cut off in an appalling violation of Anglophone right to freedom of expression.

Biya made the decision following pressure from the United Nations and other international bodies. Cameroonians in the northwest and southwest regions, which are predominantly English speaking, have been unable to connect to the internet since 17 January amid widespread protests against the Francophone government policies which have reportedly marginalized the country’s English-speaking population.

Southern Cameroonians have long reported that they face discrimination and marginalization and are excluded from top civil service positions and public services. They also complain their access to justice is limited because the majority of legislation and judicial proceedings are in French. A network shutdown of the Southern Cameroons scale violated international law.

By Chi Prudence Asong

20, April 2017

French Cameroun: Huge fire engulfs Etoudi market ⁰

Some ten shops have been destroyed by wild fire at the Etoudi market in Yaoundé. The flames that erupted in the early hours of Tuesday the 18^th of April 2017 were believed to have come from a poor electrical connection in the market.

Soldiers of the National Fire Brigade at Etoudi intervened and later received support from the Mimboman Fire Brigade to effectively contain the fire that engulfed a portion of the busy market.

No human lives were lost in the incident but millions of CFA francs of investments were reduced to nothing. The fire reportedly consumed mobile phone shops and some restaurants. Travel agencies situated behind the electronic section of the market also suffered some damages.

Traders were wailing in consternation as they helplessly watched their livelihood crushed away in huge fumes of dark smoke. The Etoudi market is located barely a few kilometer from the State House. It is currently under construction though parts of the uncompleted structures have already been occupied by traders.

Source: CRTV

20, April 2017

Detained Anglophone Lawyers distance themselves from Bar Council President ⁰

Detained Southern Cameroon Lawyers have distanced themselves from declarations made by the President of the Cameroon Bar Council on April 9,2017 in which he confirmed that after due consultations, Anglophone Lawyers have agreed to resume work on May 2.

In a Press Conference held in Yaoundé Tuesday April 18, 2017 the lead defense Counsel for the detainees, Barrister Bernard MUNA said his clients were not party to declarations coming from Barrister Jackson Ngnie Kamga and that the Batonnier did not consult those detained or their defense counsel and did not say what will happen to those imprisoned after courts reopen.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the Biya Francophone regime has been wooing some young Anglophone lawyers in the South West who are suffering financially due to the strike action to resume work. Some of the legal minds in Limbe, Tiko and Buea are already flirting with the idea of getting back to court. However, one of the lawyers interviewed by our undercover reporter in Buea said Anglophone lawyers will only go back to court when certain conditions are met.

By Rita Akana

20, April 2017

La Republique: Inspector General at the Ministry of Finance owns a Qatari-type castle ⁰

The images of a castle reportedly belonging to Antoine Félix Samba, former Director General of Budget at the Ministry of Finance has ignited the web. It was an amateur photographer who captured the images of the house owned by Antoine Félix Samba currently serving as Inspector General in the same Ministry.

It is a residence made up of successive duplexes surmounted by dome roof and connected by suspended footbridges. Work has not even finished as there seem to be an extension as indicated in one of the videos posted. The whole house is bathed in an ostentatious luxury, with a recurrence of marble, gilding, precious wood, staff, glazing and wrought iron. The owner of the house has a taste for decoration, with a canvas depicting the Last Supper, where Jesus and his apostles took the last meal before the passion of Christ.

The owner also loves of art. A Bamileke mask is recognizable among many others, lions and goddesses are frozen in the marble of eternity in this environment that transpires the splendor. On one of the photos posted there is a swimming pool, the ultimate embellishment of a house that has nothing to envy the castles of Qatar emirs presented in documentaries dedicated to billionaires.

The estate built by Italian entrepreneurs, it is said to be located in the Nkolondom district in Yaoundé, on the flank of one of the seven hills of Yaoundé. The public now say Mr. Samba got the money as a result of bad governance, unfair distribution of wealth, laxity of our leaders and an irresponsible Cameroonian population.

18, April 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 3 Roman Catholic Bishops to stand trial ⁰

Three Roman Catholic Bishops will appear before a court in the Bamenda province of Southern Cameroons for not intervening to ask parents to send their children to school. The plaintiffs backed by the corrupt regime in Yaoundé are claiming the sum of 150 billion CFA francs in damages.

The spiritual leader of the Bamenda ecclesiastic province, Archbishop Cornelius Esua, his deputy, Bishop Michael and His Lordship Bishop George Nkou of the Kumbo Diocese were summoned to appear before a court in Bamenda on Friday April the 21^st for their possible role in the strike action orchestrated by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The summons was given to the Bishops a few days ago, during the Holy Week by a regime headed by a Roman Catholic Christian with good ties with the Vatican.

The civil parties constitute a group of parents whose children are enrolled in Catholic schools and they claim that the prelates have not done enough to ensure the resumption of classes in Catholic institutions ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis started last year.

The Southern Cameroons Bishops who are by extrapolation members of Pope Francis cabinet have argued that they have never closed any Roman Catholic academic establishment. Barrister Richard Nde who has opted to defend the Bishops told Radio France International that the trial is basically political. “There is nothing concrete. It is only the interest of money and the political aspect.”

In February, the West Cameroon Episcopal Conference stressed in a statement that the Anglophone crisis was symptomatic of a deep “socio-political” crisis. The bishops then argued that the numerous killings, arrests, torture , rapes and the shutdown of the Internet had aggravated the situation. Relations between the State and the Church remain strained even though President Paul Biya was received last month by the Holy Father Pope Francis at the Vatican.

By Chi Prudence Asong

18, April 2017

Archbishop of Douala says attack on Anglophone Bishops is “sacrilegious” ⁰

The President of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Archbishop Samuel Kléda has denounced the Yaoundé regime’s fierce attack on Southern Cameroons Bishops. The Archbishop of the Douala Diocese say Roman Catholic Bishops of the Bamenda ecclesiastical province cannot be held responsible for the closure of denominational schools as claimed by the a group backed by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.

The Man of God observed that the attack on the Roman Catholic Church by government agents is a real scandal! The Metropolitan Archbishop of Douala told Radio Equinoxe that the Catholic Church did not orchestrate the Anglophone crisis that has paralyzed the English-speaking regions since November 2016. He pointed out that the Southern Cameroons Bishops did not shut down the private and public schools. Archbishop Kleda wondered aloud if the so-called Consortium of Parents that sued the Anglophone Bishops will also file a complaint against those responsible for private and public institutions.

Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua, his assistant Bishop Michael Bibi, the bishop of Kumbo Diocese George Nkuo, and the principal of the Sacred Heart College of Mankon, are expected to appear before the Bamenda Court of First Instance on Friday, April 21, 2017, to answer the charges against them. The two plaintiffs are senior officers of the Cameroonian army. They blame the respondents for collecting tuition fees on behalf of the school year, which is drawing to a close, without giving anything as a course. Therefore, they are claiming compensation of 150 million FCFA.

Monday, April 17, 2017 was the day of resumption of classes for the 3rd quarter of the school year 2016/2017 throughout the national territory. In Buea and Bamenda as in other towns in the South-West and North-West Regions, several schools belonging to the Anglophone educational sub-system, including denominational schools of the Catholic Church, have not been opened.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Eyong Johnson

17, April 2017

Easter Sunday crash: 4 killed on the Yaounde-Douala Highway ⁰

An Easter Sunday accident at Ebombé, located some 25 km from Edéa on the Douala-Yaoundé highway has claimed the lives of 4 people including the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Dieudonne Ndonfack.. A small Toyota car collided with a large VIP coach from the United Express travel agency.

A spokesperson for the police department has said that the cause of the accident shall be made public soonest. The wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Dieudonne Ndonfack of the national Gendarmerie and three occupants of the Toyota car died instantly. Colonel Ndonfack was rushed to the regional hospital in Edéa and he is under intensive care.

By Fru James

16, April 2017

Dr. Boniface Forbin: Exit of a journalistic Icon ⁰

Dr. Boniface Forbin has met his end in his home in Yaoundé. The circumstances surrounding his death have not been made public by his family. The publisher-editor’s death may not be separated from The Herald Newspaper. Former newsmen and women including the Herald People have observed that at the inception of multiparty politics in Cameroon, relations between the Herald and the Biya administration took a nose-drive and the Herald Group took an unfriendly view of the regime (e. g, Biya’s fictitious anti-corruption campaign). Such became the unfolding of fishing in trouble waters…

Forbin resigned from the defunct Cameroon Airlines and started The Herald Newspaper. He understood that media freedom was better in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea than in Cameroon. He successfully taught Anglophone journalists the difficulty of being a reporter in Francophone dominated Cameroon.

Forbin and his kinsman Asong Ndifor invested time in training young correspondents on the challenge for Journalism in Cameroon. Forbin had the support of Napoleon Viban and men like Dr. Joachim Arrey, the late Kum Set Ewin, Peter Ngea Mbeng, Tabe Paul Blondo, Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Gerald Ndikum and the Herald Newspaper told the world that the story of the press in Cameroon was that of persecution and perseverance and closure of newspapers, often without an enabling law.

Forbin declared his unflinching support for the Publisher of the Cameroon Post Group, Paddy Mbawa over the Epey Mandengue Affair. Paddy Mbawa had been flogged, head shaved with broken glass and photos published by some sister Anglophone newspapers for 30 pieces of silver. Forbin stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the wives of journalists who suffered persecution. He was in a Douala hospital to see the wife of the late Pius Njawe who lost her baby after her husband was forced out of their home and taken to the New Bell prison.

He told this reporter when he joined the Herald from the Weekly Post that “When you really want to expose human rights abuses in Cameroon… it becomes more dangerous.” Rest in peace Doc

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

15, April 2017

Southern Cameroons: Fon Chaffah Isaac comes under attack from villagers ⁰

The people of Bangolan village situated in Babessi Sub division,Ngoketundjia in the North West region have stormed the village square demanding the departure of their Fon Chaffah Isaac XI.

Men, women including the youth say the Fon Chaffah is no longer permitted to enter and reside in the chiefdom. The Bangolans also observed that Fon Chaffah is no longer their traditional ruler. Fridays protest comes one year since the people of Bangolan staged a fierce demonstration which led to many deaths and several persons injured.

On March 19, 2016, the Bangolan palace came under attack when angry villagers besieged the palace demanding the Fon to leave. The Fon’s son was allegedly shot before palace guards retaliated by shooting and wounding some villagers.

The alternate Senator who opted for reconciliation in February last year has ever since not known peace in his village. His subjects accused him of defiling the tradition by publicly denouncing traditional practices by attending a crusade with Apostle John CHI. Salim, a man selected by the villagers as their new chief died last year under mysterious circumstances.

Source: Cameroun Info.Net