The President of the Supreme Court of Cameroun, Lord Justice Daniel Mekobe Sone used the solemn sitting of the judicial recess on February 22^nd 2017 and gave a shot at the ills that have rocked the Cameroonian society under Paul Biya. In accordance with article 33 of the law of December 29^th determining the organization and functioning of the highest court in the land, Lord Justice Mekobe wondered aloud if Cameroun is governed by the rule of law.

The Supreme Court president avoided statements on the arrest of Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine and observed that Cameroun was facing an intolerable drift in the rule of law. To illustrate his message that the nation has failed, Lord Justice Daniel Mekobe Sone cited as an example, “people beaten at public places for robbery, the triumph of popular justice, inflation of crapulous crimes, ritual crimes directly or indirectly attributed to individuals suspected of witchcraft, the example of employees who hold their employers hostage in the enterprise, the populations of our villages who barricade roads to claim payment of their compensation, the landlord who remove windows of their tenants, the attitude of some teachers who desert classrooms or amphitheatres to demand improvement in their working conditions or the response to their various demands and the media lynching of honest citizens.

Daniel Mekobe Sone issued the normal CPDM statement that Cameroon remains a state of law. Critics of the speech said the Supreme Court president is a toothless bulldog that barks but cannot bite and that Lord Justice Mekobe is just another ordinary Biya appointee.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

One person reported to be 30 years old has died in Mutengene, a town in Tiko Sub division, following attacks on state establishments by angry Southern Cameroonians. The attacks that have been strongly condemned by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium saw  the buildings hosting Government Bilingual High School Mutengene set ablaze with some classrooms brought down to ashes. Cameroun Info.Net reported that the Mutengene Police Station was ransacked and four prisoners allegedly escaped.

Sources say four vehicles have also been burnt down. According information gotten from a senior security official Peter Nusta, Police Commissioner in Mutengene, the men of the underworld were close to 200. They barricaded the road leading to the slaughter house in Mutenegene. Reinforcement only came at about 3am when the men had disappeared. At the time of the incident only three Police officers were on duty.

Unconfirmed reports say the burning down of GBHS Mutenegene is to show their anger that some Francophone students have continued going to school despite the ongoing strike action. The incident comes 24 hours before the reception of the AFCON trophy in the region which will definitely passed via Mutengene to Buea, the chief city in the South West region.

CIN

Two people including the suicide bomber and an eight-year-old child were killed on Wednesday after a suicide bombing in the locality of Wouro Dole, near Amchide, Kolofata district, Mayo-Sava department in the Far North region.

According to our security source, the suicide bombing that is attributed to Boko Haram took place in the afternoon on Wednesday in Wouro Dole, a Cameroonian border town with Nigeria.

The suicide bomber whose identity was not revealed was reported to be about 13 years old. He died after having activated his device. The deflagration resulted in the death of a child of approximately 8 years.

The security forces deployed in the area announced earlier today that several people were wounded, including two girls of about 10 and 11 years. The injured were quickly taken over by the military medical staff, before being transported to Amchide hospital for first aid.

By Sama Ernest

The Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze of La Republique du Cameroun has been accorded the green light by President Biya to sign loan agreements with some foreign banks for the construction of low cost houses, Cameroun Tribune reports. The Minister therefore has to sign a funding loan agreement amounting to about FCFA 14.104 billion with Banque Intesa Sanpaolo SPA. The money will serve to finance studies for the construction project of 10,000 low cost houses in Yaounde and its environs, construction of pioneer 1,000 houses as well as the construction of an industrial base. In another decree signed the same Friday, February 17, 2017, the 84 year old dictator empowered the Economy Planning and Regional Development Minister to sign a financing loan agreement with Banque  Intesa Sanpaolo SPA  amounting to about FCFA 101.024 billion.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Jean Claude Mbwentchou in a typical CPDM style said the decrees of the Head of State marked a decisive turning point in the housing sector. He said improvement in quality and quantity is envisaged in the housing sector considering that the decrees also spell out the construction of an industrial base where materials for the construction of the houses and other related equipment will be manufactured. The low cost houses, Minister Mbwentchou specified will be constructed by an Italian company, PIZZAROTTI.

As for the land where the houses and industrial base will be constructed, he said, the Minister of State Property, Survey and Land Tenure has already allocated some areas land and others are awaited. He said the two decrees of the Head of State concerns phase I of the project that comprises of all studies, construction of the industrial base and the pioneer 1,000 houses. Mr Mbwentchou disclosed that will Mbankomo at the outskirt of Yaounde will benefit.

Cameroon Tribune

Amnesty International has condemned the excessive use of military force in Southern Cameroons by soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime. In its 2016/2017 annual report, the international human rights organization also denounced the numerous violations of freedom of expression in the two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon.

At the end of October, lawyers, pupils and teachers from Anglophone regions of Cameroon went on strike to protest against what they considered to be a marginalization of the Anglophone minority. Demonstrations took place in several towns in the South West and North West of the country, such as Bamenda, Kumba and Buea.

“Cameroon’s security forces arbitrarily arrested demonstrators and used excessive force to disperse them. For example, on 8 December, they killed four people by firing live ammunition at a demonstration in Bamenda, in the North West of the country, “Amnesty International said.

The organization also accused the Yaounde regime of orchestrating numerous abuses on militants of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram detained in Cameroon including torture, deaths in detention and enforced disappearances, violation of freedom of expression, association and assembly , unfair trials, impunity, prison conditions, and the lack of respect for the rights of refugees and migrants.

Amnesty also observed that Boko Haram carried out at least 150 attacks, including 22 suicide attacks, which killed at least 260 civilians. The civilian population living around Lake Chad was targeted in a systematic way, the respectable body revealed.

By Sonne Peter

The arbitrary arrest of the Chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho and Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine including the demands of the Anglophone lawyers and the Penal Code adopted during the parliamentary session of June 2016 will certainly be on the menu as judges of the Supreme Court prepare to meet today Wednesday.

The event which is the traditional solemn opening ceremony of the judicial year will have a completely different twist this 2017 notably the adoption of the Penal Code and the continued grumbling of lawyers in Southern Cameroons. As regards the Penal Code, the CPDM crime syndicate crafted new items that introduce alternative penalties to imprisonment, criminal liability of legal persons, and penalization of adultery. Cat calls had greeted some aspects in the new law on the immunity of members of the government and the penalization of offenses on public demonstrations, press offenses, as well as adultery.

As for the situation in the English-speaking part of the country, the matter has become more intractable over the failure of the regime to address the demands earlier made by Anglophone lawyers for a better consideration of the Common Law principles in judicial practices. The Southern Cameroons legal practitioners had indeed called for the establishment of a specialized section in the Supreme Court to examine appeals from West Cameroon and the lawyers also wished that a particular branch be created at the National School of Administration and Judiciary, ENAM for the magistrates of Common Law. These demands were met with a stone wall erected by the Francophone political elites who described Anglophones as ‘rats’ not fit to be part of the state of Cameroon.

The solemn hearing of the Supreme Court next Wednesday takes place in accordance with the provisions of article 33, paragraph 1 of Law No. 2006/016 of 29 December 2006 on the organization and functioning of the Supreme Court. At the beginning of each judicial year and not later than February 28, the Supreme Court shall hold a solemn reopening hearing.

By Rita Akana

The Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent Ndumu Nji has lashed out on the so-called South West elites who spoke lengthily in Buea a forth night ago accusing the North West people of playing a negative role in the current Southern Cameroons nationalism and quest for an independent state. The South West gang including former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Dr Nalova Lyonga, and Chief Barrister Tabetando jointly and severally opined that the ongoing strike action especially the ghost towns were being spearheaded by North Westerners.

Vincent Ndumu reportedly the worst Government Delegate ever in Bamenda history stated that those preaching national unity are the same persons championing xenophobia against the North Westerners. He added that contrary to allegations by some South West Elites about the leadership of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, all secessionist groups and leaders operating in West Cameroon hail from the South West region. Vincent Ndumu did not stop there as he reminded the South West Elites that it was a North West Prime Minister who created the Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE Board with headquarters in Buea.

The Bamenda Government Delegate also pointed out that the same ‘Graffis’ accused of championing disorder in the South West region voted overwhelmingly for reunification. Vincent NDUMU reminded South West Elites that the North West had the chance to change the capital of West Cameroon from Buea to Bamenda but did not despite the fact that they had Prime Ministers from 1961 to 1972; he added that these claims are just a way to give a dog bad name to hang it.

Reacting on the academic situation in Southern Cameroons, the Government Delegate said efforts made by government are good enough for school resumption and that the Missions and Private colleges have the key to get the schools on and running again in the two regions. According to him, advocating for school boycott is sacrificing the future of the next generation. A spokesperson for the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, the body with legitimate authority over Southern Cameroons territory has dismissed the Vincent Ndumu interview as a diabolic harsh ploy by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to reignite the North West/South West Divide and sabotage the people’s revolution. Also speaking, our North West political commentator observed that both Vincent Ndumu and Peter Mafany Musonge are not the prophetic voices of Southern Cameroonians.

By Sama Ernest with files from Cameroun Info.Net

All Southern Cameroonians in North America have been invited to a mass demonstration on Friday, March 3rd, 2017 at the  Dag Hammarskjod Plaza  in New York .This demonstration will take place between 11 am and 2:00 pm.

Our senior political commentator and editor, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai opined that the area chosen to host the event is significant. Mr. Agbaw-Ebai pointed out that it was Dag Hammarskjod who as UN Secretary General did declare French Cameroun independent under Prime Minister Ahmadou Ahidjo.

West Cameroonians residing in the DC Metropolis have been told to register in order to help the organizing committee know how many buses to hire. A statement from Chairman Elvis Kometa noted that further modalities will be given later.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Barack Obama has been rated as the 12th best American president a month after leaving the office, according to a new survey. C-SPAN’s 2017 presidential historians survey published on Friday put the first African American president between former heads of state Woodrow Wilson (No. 11) and James Monroe (No. 13) and outranking Bill Clinton (No. 15)

The 91 historians who were consulted for the survey gave Obama and 42 other commanders in chief a score of one to 10 on 10 different “qualities of presidential leadership,” including “economic management,” “vision/setting an agenda,” “relations with Congress,” “crisis leadership” and “public persuasion.”

He ranked 10th on public persuasion, 15th on crisis leadership, 8th on economic management, 7th on moral authority, and 24th on international relations. Obama was the 19th president in terms of administrative skills and 39th in terms of relations with Congress. The former president, who left the office with a notable 57 percent job approval rating, ranked third when it came to pursuing equal justice for all.

“Although 12th is a respectable overall ranking, one would have thought that former President Obama’s favorable rating when he left office would have translated into a higher ranking in this presidential survey,” said Edna Greene Medford, a Howard University history professor and one of the survey’s advisers.

“But, of course, historians prefer to view the past from a distance, and only time will reveal his legacy,” she added. Topping the overall list was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American 16th president known for abolishing slavery and leading the Union through the Civil War.

George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower ranked below Lincoln. The country’s 15th president James Buchanan, whose presidency preceded the Civil War, took the bottom spot.

Presstv

At least 56 soldiers were seriously injured in an accident on Wednesday in Yaoundé. Among the 56 wounded soldiers, nine reportedly sustained life threatening injuries and have been rushed to the military hospital of Yaoundé.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that these were essentially new military recruits who traveled to the Btap training center at Koutaba in the West region to continue their training. The accident happened at the Olembé school entrance, where one of the trucks in the military convoy lost its brakes and drove into another military vehicle parked full with gendarmes and military students. Traumatized, the convoy from Yaounde, turned back towards the headquarters of the gendarmerie.

Culled from CIR