Ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis started in November 2016, seven Anglophone journalists have been arrested. Six are still in detention and one was miraculously released on bail.  Many news men and women have reportedly abandoned the profession and escaped from the territory. Others are in hiding and no longer feeling secure to carry out their duties. The government has also shut down internet services in the Anglophone regions of the country.

Those arrested and still in detention include, Atia Tilarious, Amos Fofung, Thomas Awah, Tim Finian, Mofor Ndong, Achomba Hans. Only BBC’s Randy Joe Sa’a is out on bail. The National Communication Council, NCC has systematically shut down all Anglophone media houses covering the crisis.

The Biya Francophone regime has crackdown on pro Southern Cameroons media establishments preventing journalists from reporting the numerous rapes and extra judicial killings going on in West Cameroon.  Security forces loyal to the Yaoundé government have tortured many reporters and columnists and detaining some under inhuman conditions.

The regime has also placed the families of the detained journalists under Secret Service surveillance making life difficult for their respective children and wives who are currently being avoided by close friends and relatives for fear of being a target. The so-called Cameroon Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma has maintained a kind of deliberate silence on the attack on press freedom.

THE MARK BARETA, TASSANG WILFRED, AND TAPANG IVO TANKU’S SITUATION OF THE CONSORTIUM

Dear compatriots, thank you all for your trust and confidence in the type of leadership which we are trying to provide for REAL CHANGE in Cameroon. We understand that your hearts are worried, and you are scared about the future of our commitment to bring about determining change in our nation. Let me vehemently state the following facts:

1- Tassang Wilfred is not under any chains and he has not been arrested. I speak from very fine information and from very reliable sources confirming that he and his family are now safe and healthy.

2- There is a reconciliation meeting which has been going on between Mr. Tassang Wilfred, Mark Bareta, and Tapang Ivo Tanku in order to stabilize the confusion which detractors have been trying to bring within their realms of operations.

3- Nobody has resigned from the Consortium and the Consortium is well and its constituted leadership be they interim and others are working out strategies to strengthen the vision of the Consortium to enable the possible pressure on government to release Dr. Fontem Neba, Dr. Barrister Agbor Balla Felix NKONGHO, Chief Justice Aya Paul ABINE, Mancho BBC, Godden Zama, and all those who were arbitrary arrested during this crisis period in Cameroon.

Moreover, I visited Dr. Agbor Balla Felix NKONGHO, BBC Mancho, and the others yesterday, and they are in very high spirit.

So, rest assured, from what I know, the Consortium is going on well. Just hold the hands of someone and say, WE SHALL OVERCOME!!

Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless our nation.

Harmony Bobga Mbuton, president of Cameroon’s North West Lawyers Association, returned to The Stream on Al Jazeera this week, just over two months since the show originally explored the protests among his country’s English-speaking communities, who claim French-speaking President Paul Biya’s government is treating them as second-class citizens.

The Stream host Femi Oke says that, since that show, “The government of Cameroon has pulled the plug on the internet and banned public gatherings in the regions fraught with tensions. What started as strikes for bilingualism in the Northwest and Southwest territories have revealed very deep political divides that spread beyond language, culture and geography.”

On The Stream in December, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the Minister of Communications, promised negotiations but Mbuton says these broke down quickly. “In fact, I was part of the negotiations that ensued and took place in Yaounde on 27-28 December 2016. The government had constructed the questions that had to be dealt with in the negotiation to suit their own purpose. We walked out of the dialogue and the next thing we heard was that they started arresting us, which is what forced me to flee from Cameroon, through Nigeria to here [Washington DC] now.”

Mbuton’s wife and children are still in Cameroon, where he says, “The situation is bad,” comparing it to “what happened in Rwanda when the genocide began.” He claims that people are being arrested and taken away, with their families unable to find out where. “It is tipping into the point where the population is saying that even with their empty hands and sticks, they are ready to start providing resistance to protect themselves.”

The media and internet blackout makes it difficult to verify claims like this; as Mbuton says, the internet ban has meant “that the government has operated behind the curtains because there is no easy access to information within the territory anymore.” Mbuton says people are using smartphones to send images and information out to the world by traveling to the French-speaking parts of Cameroon where there is still internet, “but it’s not flowing as it was.“

Since the protests began nearly four months ago, Biya has signed a decree establishing a national commission to promote bilingualism and has addressed protesters several times in major speeches. At least several hundred protesters have been arrested. Some are being tried for terrorism for allegedly calling for secession of the Anglophone regions. They could face the death penalty if convicted.

Mbuton says the strike is ongoing and international protests are increasing. Even Cameroon’s recent victory at the African Cup of Nations was not enough to unite the country. “The provocative move to go and show off the African Cup that was won by Cameroon was welcomed by ghost towns,” says Mbuton. “People abandoned the streets. Only the entourage from Yaounde was parading the streets – in military vehicles.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society has announced a civil disobedience campaign for Monday the 27^th of February 2017 as political tensions mount in the La Republique du Cameroun over the Biya’s regime failure in resolving the Southern Cameroons crisis.

The interim leaders of the Consortium: Tampa Ivo and Mark Bara have appealed to Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora to mobilize their people back home and to forge ahead with the struggle. Ever since the Biya Francophone regime detained the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, there have been many diabolic plots to stifle the Consortium and put an end to the Anglophone uprising.  On Saturday in connection with the boycott policy and ghost operation, Southern Cameroonians snubbed the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope. Cat calls greeted some of the Francophone officials who traveled to Buea for the event.

The Consortium statement added that some slight modifications have been made in the resistance and ghost town operations.  For three months now, scores of Southern Cameroonians have been killed and hundreds arrested by troops loyal to the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. In December last year, many Southern Cameroonians were killed in Buea, Kumba, Kumbo, Bamenda and Njakiri when the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society showed strong opposition to the so-called Ad Hoc Committee created by the government.

Opposition politicians in French Cameroun have recently called for President Biya to release all those arrested in West Cameroon and urged authorities to probe the rapes and killings going on in the Anglophone regions of the country.  Biya has so far not declared his intention to run in the presidential vote set for 2018 as his ruling CPDM party has been politically volatile in recent times in the Anglophone regions. The country is now experiencing a revolution that could unseat the president.

By Sama Ernest

The people of Mutengene, Tiko sub division in the South West region are still demanding answers from the Police on who killed Chrispo Akem Leku,a carpenter shot last Wednesday night February 22,2017.

It was a tense atmosphere Thursday in that locality of the sub division known for its hostile nature especially during situations like this, heavily armed police officers took over the entire Quarter Two as the Tiko Divisional Officer Che Ngwashi and his collaborators made preliminary investigations. Access into Government Bilingual High School Mutengene was denied as Police have also closed the building which was partially burnt by unidentified men.

Eyewitnesses say Chrispo Akem was killed by a police officer. However, Assistant Police Commissioner for Mutengene, Peter Nusta, observed that there were several versions of who killed the carpenter on that fateful night. While others say he was shot by Police on patrol, others say it was an element of ESIR, Mobile Intervention Unit of the Police.

Though investigations have been opened, the population of Mutengene has promised sleepless nights to the police department if the killer-police is not exposed and brought to justice.

Cameroun Info.Net

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