As Amadou Vamoulké, the former director-general of Cameroon’s national radio and TV broadcaster CRTV, completes his seventh year in arbitrary detention today (29 July), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voices concern about his failing health and calls on the Cameroonian authorities to allow him access to appropriate medical care, quash his conviction and free him.

An appeal by one of Vamoulké’s lawyers against the rejection of a habeas corpus petition is due to be heard on 1 August, four days into his eighth year in arbitrary detention.

“I have contracted several illnesses in prison,” reports Vamoulké, whose detention has “no legal basis” and whose state of health is the subject of “deep concern,” the United Nations said in 2020 in response to a referral by RSF. His health has continued to decline since the authorities sentenced him to 12 years in prison in December 2022 on a trumped-up charge of “misusing public funds” while running the state-owned national broadcaster.

“Amadou Vamoulké is the victim of a particularly alarming case of judicial persecution. It is absolutely intolerable that a journalist – one of Cameroon’s leading media figures – is still in prison and is being denied appropriate medical care despite having serious health problems. He has been held for seven years on spurious charges unsupported by any tangible evidence. We appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to release this journalist at once. His situation must be reviewed during the appeal hearing on 1 August in the habeas corpus proceedings initiated by his lawyers.”

Now aged 73, Vamoulké suffers from a neurological condition described as “severe” by two neurologists who have examined his medical file. He contracted the condition, which he says is “extremely painful,” after being jailed in Kondengui prison, in the capital Yaoundé. He developed other conditions there, including asthma, which was aggravated by “the very unhealthy air you breathe in the prison.” And he suffers from dental problems, glaucoma, high blood pressure and prostatitis that need costly treatment.

Vamoulké’s neurological condition requires tests and treatment that would be “difficult to provide in Cameroon,” according to one of the neurologists who has studied his case, the Paris-based professor of neurology Hervé Taillia, who already recommended “hospitalisation in France” back in 2019. But all of Vamoulké’s requests for a provisional release for the purpose of medical tests have been rejected, as have all of his other judicial petitions and appeals.

Absurd conviction

Vamoulké has been held ever since his arrest on 29 July 2016 on the absurd charge of “misusing public funds” – not for his personal benefit but for the benefit of CRTV, the public broadcaster he ran from 2005 to 2016. After six and a half years in provisional detention and a trial before a special criminal court that was adjourned 150 times, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a fine of 47 million CFA francs (70,000 euros). After his appeal, the court ordered him to pay an additional 390,000 CFA francs (600 euros) for “photocopying case file costs.”

Vamoulké is manifestly the victim of “false imprisonment,” one of his lawyers, Guy Gueyo Kamga, told RSF. He said his client was arrested “on the basis of an illegal provisional detention warrant” and his detention ever since has been clearly arbitrary and political in nature. The prosecution produced no serious evidence or testimony during the trial, which was conducted in a manner that violated both national and international law. The judges were legally required to deliver a verdict within nine months and Cameroon’s criminal code places an 18-month limit on provisional detention, while Vamoulké’s lasted nearly six and a half years.

Kamga filed a habeas corpus petition in April 2023 calling for Vamoulké’s release on the grounds of the arbitrary nature of his detention. The petition was rejected at the end of June but Kamga appealed this decision and the next hearing is scheduled for 1 August. To support the petition, Vamoulké wrote to President Paul Biya on 9 June asking him to intercede on his behalf. The letter remains unanswered.

Cameroon fell 20 places in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index and is now ranked 138th out of 180 countries.

Culled from Reporters Without Borders

90-year-old President Biya is unable to walk because of ill health.

Biya left the nation’s capital Yaoundé today, accompanied by his wife, Chantal and a sea of cabinet ministers to attend the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in Saint-Petersburg.

The Cameroonian dictator is making headline news in Moscow for the wrong reasons and has come to be regarded as something of a joke and a global laughing stock.

In an incident in Saint-Petersburg captured on camera despite the best efforts of his wife Chantal Biya, the 90-year-old president was making his way to shake hands with President Putin but could hardly move and the Russian leader had his first laugh since the beginning of the Ukraine counteroffensive.

It is likely that Biya is the most parodied politician alive today.

His wife was quick to step in and helped Biya the rest of the way to the conference hall.  He is now too old and unable to walk.

Cameroon, a once-prosperous nation of 25 million people in Sub Saharan Africa, has struggled ever since Biya came to power.

Biya is accused of using widespread violence to win several disputed elections, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The country is suffering hyperinflation and facing a powerful secessionist movement in the English speaking regions known as the Ambazonia Interim Government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Biya left Yaoundé today, accompanied by his wife, Chantal and a sea of cabinet ministers to attend the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit which will be held in Saint-Petersburg from 26 to 30 July 2023.

The official delegation of the 90-year-old includes Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA, Minister of External Relations, Samuel MVONDO AYOLO, Minister, Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic, Joseph BETI ASSOMO, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Louis Paul MOTAZE, Minister of Finance, Emmanuel NGANOU DJOUMESSI, Minister of Public Works,  Luc Magloire MBARGA ATANGANA, Minister of Trade, MENGOT Victor ARREY-NKONGHO, Minister in charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic,  Alamine OUSMANE MEY, Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development,  Vice-Admiral Joseph FOUDA, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic, MAHAMAT PABA SALE, Ambassador of Cameroon to Russia and Simon Pierre BIKELE, Chief of State Protocol.

The trip, which will be one of the most closely watched visits to Russia in decades, comes at a time when the Russian unprovoked attack on Ukraine is developing into a hydra-headed conflict.

The Cameroonian dictator is making the trip less than 48 hours after his return from Geneva, Switzerland.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon government officials do not know how many people were inside a building in Ngaoundere, Adamawa region when it collapsed.

At least four people have now been confirmed dead after the lifeless bodies of a woman, her two children and her younger sister were pulled from the rubble of a four-storey uncompleted building on Tuesday July 25, 2023, in the Côte D’Azur vicinity in Baladji, Ngaoundere, Adamawa Region.

Cameroon Concord News understands authorities are still searching for 42 unaccounted people.

A huge section of the building was reduced to rubble when it crashed to the ground on Tuesday.

The number of fatalities and people unaccounted for has not been updated by the Francophone dominated police and gendarmerie force.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Cameroon government spokesman Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said that councils have been given firm instructions to control and stop building constructions that do not comply with norms in their municipalities.

Rene Sadi’s empty press release was in reaction to the 4-storey building collapse in Douala on Sunday, July 23 that killed more than 37 people.

The Governor of Adamawa Region, Kildadi Taguieke Bouka visited the scene of the incident and told reporters that search will continue for survivors.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana

Cameroonian authorities have been urged to stop the killings, torture, rape, house burnings and other atrocities committed in the English-speaking regions.

The call follows the release of a new report detailing widespread human rights violations and other crimes under national law committed by various parties.

Amnesty International released the report, entitled “With or against us. The population is caught between the army, armed separatists and militias in the North West region of Cameroon.”

It exposes the crimes committed, mainly since 2020, by armed separatists, militias and members of the defense and security forces.

Amnesty called on authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these acts, in fair trials before independent, impartial and competent courts.

“Victims of these crimes and violations have a right to justice and reparation,” said Samira Daoud, the human rights group’s director for West and Central Africa.

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon stems from the crackdown on largely peaceful protests that took place in 2016 and 2017, demanding an end to the marginalization of the minorities that occupy regions populated by English speakers.

The North-West and South-West regions are the epicentre.

Locals accuse the government of President Paul Biya (aged 90), which is dominated by French-speaking Cameroonians, of marginalising them.

He has been in power since 1982.

Critics accuse him of vote rigging and repression to maintain power in the Central African country of 28 million.

Source: CAJ News

The death toll from a weekend building collapse in Cameroon’s commercial hub Douala has risen to 34 from an earlier estimate of 12, the housing and urban development minister said on Monday.

The four-storey building collapsed on Sunday, destroying a nearby building and injuring scores of residents.

“The building in question unfortunately had no building permit,” Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes said, adding that an investigation had been launched.

She said rescue efforts were ongoing on Monday to make sure no one was still trapped in the rubble, despite difficult access conditions.

It remained unclear how many occupants were in the building at the time it collapsed. Residents said the building had shown signs of dilapidation with exposed and rusted steel reinforcement rods.

Source: Reuters

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have ambushed a military convoy in Ekok, Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu, on Monday, killing at least three soldiers.

The attack would be the second against the military within a week as last Friday; one gendarmerie officer was killed in Otu a border settlement not far away from Eyumojock town.

According to Cameroon Concord News sources in Mamfe, Monday attack was targeted at a BIR convoy travelling between Eyumojock and Ekok.

Quoting a senior military officer, our correspondent reported, “We lost three soldiers in the ambush by Ambazonia terrorists. The Amba Boys, in their large number, opened fire on the convoy and killed two police officers and a gendarme.”

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the arrival of reinforcements forced the Amba fighters to retreat.

Corroborating the officer’s account, a commercial driver who was almost caught in the ambush told Cameroon Concord News that he was trailing behind the military convoy when the Amba Boys opened fire. A three-star Police Inspector has been identified as one of the victims.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files from Kingsley Betek

President Biya and wife Chantal have landed back in Yaoundé after he reportedly took part in a summit in France a month ago.

Photos shared on social media on Tuesday showed a beaming Biya dressed in a blue suit outside the arrivals section of Nsimalen International Airport.

Biya and his gang were received at the Nsimalen International Airport by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and the Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

By Rita Akana

Manyus and members of several Cameroonian communities in Great Britain were treated to a cheerful and vibrant gala in Birmingham, UK on Saturday, July 22 2023, intended to raise funds for the ongoing Besongabang water project. Besongabang is one of the largest villages in Manyu Division, Cameroon, with a population of over 2,552, according to the latest population survey. The village is blessed with a very successful diaspora in Europe and North America, but like many places in the country, water and other essentials for life are not readily available. So, for over twelve years, the Besongabang diaspora has engaged in a worthy cause of soliciting funds to construct boreholes to supply drinkable water to their village. And last weekend’s fund-raising event provided a rare opportunity for friends of Besongabang and Besongabang citizens in the UK to put their names in the history books of the village.

The Birmingham city occasion was organized by the Besongabang General Association and animated by the renowned DJ Eko. Guests were treated to a live display of the Obasinjom dance with traditional drums and songs to match. The Obasinjom display, the first of its kind in the UK, was coordinated by two Besongabang sons, Chief Agbortarh Takor and Nfor Mgbe Nelson Agbor.

A distinguished son from the Ayuktayak clan, Prof Julius Oben, the Director of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Yaoundé 1, was the guest of honour. The award-winning academic and philanthropist flew into the UK from Cameroon with his wife and son at short notice just for the event. He graced the evening with a soul-searching speech and donated £700 in cash to the cause.

The laudable gesture from Prof Julius Oben has sent shudders through the Manyu diaspora because other Besongabang notables in the UK were conspicuously absent from the event.

Among the dozens of donors were Ms Patience Ekule and Mrs Naomi Enowpka-Kum who also supported the water project with £500 and £700, respectively. Besongabang UK, Vice President Ms Marie Eyong, who hosted more than twenty-five donors at her residence after the historic gala nite was visibly delighted with the result. Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Seseskou Asu Isong had a seat on the high table.

By Esther Ashu

At least 16 people have been killed and nearly three dozen injured after a four-storey building collapsed onto a smaller one in Cameroon’s largest city, according to authorities.

“The casualty figures may be higher”, said Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon’s Littoral region, where the city Douala is located.

The commercial centre is 210 kilometres west of the capital, Yaounde.

The governor said that “rescue workers, assisted by Cameroon government troops, are still digging the wreckage to see if more bodies can be recovered.”

The military’s fire brigade has been ordered to join the country’s Red Cross and other rescue services in searching for survivors.

Residents living in the Ndogbon neighbourhood where the incident took place said they were in shock.

“We heard people screaming … and struggled to help some out of the wreckage, but could not do it with our spades and hoes,” Gaspard Ndoppo, who lives near the collapsed buildings, said.

The four-storey building caved in around midnight local time and the cause remains unclear, but locals said it looked to have deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Building collapses happen often in Douala, sometimes due to natural disasters such as landslides and other times because of poor construction, locals say.

Douala’s city council is currently demolishing houses in high-risk zones susceptible to floods or landslides but the building that collapsed was not marked for demolition.

Source: AP/Reuters