The Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ), has condemned the increasing arrest of journalists “and their continuous incarceration without judgment” in the country. In a statement issued on Friday February 11, the National President of the association, Simon Lyonga notes that since a protest erupted in the English speaking regions of the country late last year, many press officials have been harassed and radio stations closed.

Friday’s statement followed the apprehension of two English speaking journalists in Buea in the South West region a day earlier. Atia Tilarious, political desk editor of The Sun newspaper and Amos Fofung, Buea bureau correspondent of The Guardian Post were whisked from the latter’s Molyko domicile and conveyed to the third police district of Buea where they’ve since been in custody.

“This comes to increase the number of journalists held in custody this day by state authorities,” the CAMASEJ release noted citing another journalist, Tim Finnian arrested in Bamenda last month and ferried to the Secretariat of State for Defense (SED) in the nation’s capital.

The association has called for their immediate and unconditional release. “While calling for their immediate release, we are calling on all our members and pressmen to remain calm and most of all professional in the discharge of their duties. For professionalism is the only but strongest weapon placed in the hands of a journalist,” Simon Lyonga stated in the statement.

The CAMASEJ president called on authorities to regard journalists in the country as partners reminding the latter that Cameroon is signatory to the United Nations charter that promotes freedom of speech.

“Also the 1990 law on social Communication in Cameroon enables its citizens; talk less of journalists to express their views freely,” Simon Lyonga said wondering why media men and women should be prevented from carrying out their missions.

Cameroun Info.Net

Cameroon Concord News has been reliably informed that the Moderator of  the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Anglophone Roman Catholic Bishops and the Baptist authorities have signed a joint communique declaring themselves not fit to call off the teachers’ strike.

The Anglophone religious leaders say those who announced recently that the strikes have been suspended did not consult them and that internet shut down and continuous arrest are not security guarantees for classes to resume.

This item is still developing

Some angry Southern Cameroon youths in Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu Division have reportedly burnt down a vehicle belonging to the mayor, John Ayuk Takunchong. The youth were protesting against the mayor’s hostile stance towards the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Sources in Manyu say the mayor drove out early this morning with a gang of pro CPDM militants to prepare the grand stand for the outlawed 11 February celebrations when the population decided that they had gotten enough of his provocative actions.

We gathered that Ayuk Takuchong had long been cautioned and told to listen only to the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The mayor who himself had been a victim of Francophone marginalization following three attempts at joining the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun but was rejected on grounds that he lacked a mastery of the French language remains an ally of one popular Manyu traditional ruler, Chief Tabetando of Bachuo Ntai on whose command he is sabotaging the people’s revolution.

The angry youth are threatening to set his house and office ablaze after torching his car. The Manyu administration has however not conformed the news.

By Ebai Kenneth

Various Southern Cameroons grassroots groups and prominent Anglophone activists are preparing for a massive ghost town operation on the 13^th of February 2017 to signal West Cameroonians disapproval of the arrest and trial of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The trial of Barrister Agbor Nkongho Felix and Dr Fontem Neba will be met with a massive civil disobedience campaign, Cameroon Concord News has learnt.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime may have won a battle by arresting and torturing hundreds of Southern Cameroonians, but if the throngs of demonstrators across the Anglophone regions who oppose any dealing with La Republique du Cameroun have their way, Cameroon will be partitioned. Southern Cameroons has been fraught with disruption and massive civil unrest with the regime in Yaounde maintaining a kind of deliberate silence.

Working under the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, many grass root groups are already planning on a series of decentralized direct actions that will shut down the entire La Republique system in West Cameroon and paralyze Yaoundé itself. According to their call-to-action, ghost town operations will be observed today and tomorrow the 11^th of February 2017. The interim leaders of the Consortium have announced that the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will no longer tolerate betrayals from any Southern Cameroon citizen.

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, Ni John Fru Ndi recently observed that the Biya administration handling of the Anglophone crisis has been a disaster. Day-by-day, the resistance is growing from strength to strength and Southern Cameroonians are taking to the streets and protesting. In areas such as Ndop, Kembong in Eyumojock Sub Division and Ekodo Titi, Southern Cameroonians have blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and made more noise and good trouble than the Biya Francophone establishment can bear. Slowly but surely, the Anglophone uprising is delegitimizing President Biya and all his administrative authorities.

An operations manager of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium noted to our Muyuka informant that “We don’t ask permission from any Francophone SDO or DO or put our faith in the CPDM political elites from the South West or North West, instead, we use our bodies to stop the smooth operation of the system we oppose.” Another coordinator of the Consortium in Kumbo was quoted as saying “If there is going to be a positive change in the Southern Cameroons society, we have to make it ourselves, together, through direct action.”

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

The President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya addresses the youths today. The Consortium has received a tip-off that he may acknowledge mistakes in the handling of our struggle. We are told the acknowledgement would not be sincere, but meant to fool us once more; a thing we should have become used to by now.

Secondly, we have read from the French Language Daily- “Le Messager” that the President has designated the Archbishop of Douala, His Grace Samuel Kleda as mediator in this struggle. We respect the man of God, who has demonstrated always that he is honest and has a personable character. But we must point out that in as much as we are ready for dialogue at any time, we abhor diversion.

Let it be known that all those leaders the people of Southern Cameroons put their trust in to negotiate on their behalf are either in jail or on the run. They must be found and brought to pilot any negotiations that shall engage the responsibility of the people; no government appointee shall speak for us, the people of the two regions have very resoundingly rejected those regime stooges.

Furthermore, the Consortium re-iterates that any discussions with government that shall not be based on one agenda only; the practical modalities for the putting in place of a two-state federation, and in the presence of representatives of the United Nations, and the UK shall be a waste of time.

While we maintain our struggle as a non violent movement for the liberation of our people, we want to strongly condemn the continuous provocation by forces of law and order against peaceful and unarmed citizens. We particularly deplore the actions of gendarmes who raped students in a boarding school in Kumba last Wednesday night; reason we keep asking parents to keep their children at home.

The excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, kidnappings and torture on our people is pushing many to begin wondering whether federalism is even an option anymore!

God is with us!

On behalf of the Consortium,

Tassang Wilfred, Tapang Ivo, Mark Bara

I want to thank you all for the kind words, encouragement and prayers. I might not be able to respond to all your messages because of the present circumstance, but I am well and we are together. We will use this platform to give an unmatched impetus to the people’s Consortium.

This is a historic moment in West Cameroon. Despite the unlawful arrest of our people, extra-judicially killings, rape, torture, intimidation, harassment, internet blackout, bribery, divide and rule tactics (not exclusively), we are taking our destiny into our hands.

The colonial government of La Republique is desperate and slowly running out of options. The time is now for us to stand up more than ever before to this reign of terror over our people! With or without telephone networks Ghost towns continue on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th. Do not believe any news from the colonial propaganda machinery CRTV.

West Cameroon will be on trial on the 13^th of February!! To honour Barrister AGBOR BALLA & ALL OUR BROTHERS ON TRIAL, GHOST TOWN will be stage on MONDAY the 13^th  Starting 4am! They stood for us!!  LETS STAND FOR THEM UNTIL THEY’RE SET FREE!

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Front has said that the victory of the indomitable Lions should not be politicized.  Fru Ndi made the declaration inside the Unity Palace during the presentation ceremony of the 2017 African Cup of Nations trophy to the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

The SDF Chairman dwelled on the Anglophone problem rather than the ceremony and showered praises on goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Anglophone community. “I came to tell Mr Biya that he should step and say something about the North West and South West. I had to come here to congratulate Ondoa who understood the problem. He said he is Bamenda. Football should not be politicized. In the North West and South West, anybody talking about federalism is locked up, arrested … they continue to arrest, kill “.

It should be recalled that a few hours after the Cameroon – Egypt encounter, Fabrice Ondoa made a video in which he dedicated the trophy to Anglophone Cameroonians. He said he was wholeheartedly with them and pronounced the famous phrase “I am Bamenda”.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Intelligence Report has collected figures from 6 detention centers in Douala, Bafoussam and Yaoundé giving a total of at least 102 killed in the unrest in Southern Cameroons since 2016. The breakdown of these figures is: 52 in Yaoundé- Sao, 40 in Douala, and 10 in Bafoussam. These figures are based on unofficial cables obtained from Francophone government sources at the Kondengui prison in Yaoundé and security sources including medical doctors in Douala and Bafoussam.

Authorities in the Ministry of Communication have rejected our findings and those of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium as false, and said that the ministry would issue an official death toll when told to do so by the presidency of the republic.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Africa Union have both turned a blind eye on the genocide going on in Anglophone Cameroon.

In detention facilities in French Cameroun, our intelligence officers obtained unofficial lists with names of those who had died and buried in mass graves.  We have received figures of the number of persons killed during the protests from doctors in Kumba, Buea, Kumbo and Bamenda who were on duty on the emergency wards. Our intelligence officers also regularly visited the many torture facilities in Douala, Edea and Mbouda and obtained the number of confirmed deaths from doctors there.

According to anonymous Francophone government sources, many of these deaths occurred in 2016 as a result of live gunfire and rubber bullets. A significant proportion of deaths were caused by teargas canisters fired at close range in Bamenda and Kumbo. Access to the Kondengui high security prison and the detention center at the Secretariat for Defense was very difficult and only possible after personal assurances that Cameroon Intelligence Report would protect the names of the security agents who agreed to speak to us. Cameroon Intelligence Report has been unable to see death certificates citing causes of death or to gather the names of all those killed. In all the cases, families have also been unable to obtain certificates stating the cause of death.

Some of the Francophone security personnel who spoke to our undercover reporters hinted that the prison wardens have been under pressure to downplay the overall number of deaths. A senior aide to the regime in Yaounde who hails from the Foumban constituency in the West region observed that it is possible the actual number of deaths is significantly higher than the 102 reported to our investigative team because that figure is based on only three localities.

Culled from CIR

The South West Elites Association, European chapter has distanced itself from the recent Buea declaration orchestrated by former Prime Minister and Head of Government, Peter Mafany Musonge. A meeting of SWELA Europe that held recently in Dublin, Ireland refuted growing allegations that South Westerners are stooges of the Biya Francophone government who have been paid to guarantee Francophone political elites continued marginalization of Southern Cameroonians.

“Some people say the South West elites are the mouthpiece and stooges of the Biya government. But SWELA came into existence not because it likes any regime but it is because the forum likes the country.” The Secretary General of SWELA Europe, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai who also moonlights as the Chairman of the Cameroon Concord News Group pointed out that the academics and political elites of the South West started as VIKUMA- meaning Victoria-Kumba-Mamfe and then to SWELA. “We came out on our own, not on the platform of Mr. Biya and we have not been paid for doing that.”

Speaking during the Dublin forum, the Secretary General did observe that the founding fathers of VIKUMA and later SWELA never antagonized the ruling government be it CNU or CPDM nor sought favours from it. SWELA’s main concern, he went on, was to protect the interest of the South West people and playing down anything that may divide or bring disaffection in the country.

The leadership of SWELA Europe revealed that there were communication gaps between the public and the Musonge minority CPDM following including the demands of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The Secretary General of SWELA Europe therefore advised that SWELA should serve as a unifying factor between the Biya government and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

“I think there is a serious communication breakdown between CPDM elites and the South West Elites Association. Peter Mafany Musonge cannot claim to be the prophetic voice of the South West people than Bishop Emeritus Francis Lysinge of the Mamfe Diocese. Both the CPDM elites and the South West Elites Association should listen to the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.” Concluded the SWELA Europe Secretary General.

By Diamond Ebs Esoh in Dublin

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has released a detail assessment of today’s ghost town operation in West Cameroon. In a press statement made public by the interim leaders, Mark Bareta and Tapang Ivo, the Consortium announced that Southern Cameroonians responded to the call and isolated the Biya Francophone regime.

The interim leaders said the provocation and political statement issued by the Francophone government via the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun were just a ploy for Biya and his Musonge gang to buy time. Bareta and Tapang observed that the footballers never stood when Anglophones were maimed and killed by French speaking soldiers.

The interim leaders added that the communiqué from some teachers calling off the strike action was an indication that the Francophone political elites were unwilling to concede to the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium proposals for institutional changes to usher in genuine federalism and democracy.

Bareta and Tapang pointed out that all what the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime was bent on doing was to bring back the North West/South West divide tactics which has failed woefully. The interim leaders noted that the people of Southern Cameroons are indeed in charge and the struggle continues.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai