Thousands of people are demonstrating this week, calling for peace and reconciliation ahead of National Day on May 20. Peace caravans led by activists, clerics and traditional rulers are calling for an end to hate speech and the separatist conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people in Cameroon since 2017.

A band of youths leads several hundred Cameroonians in protests against hate speech in the capital, Yaounde, on Thursday. The protesters are also calling for peace and reconciliation in the central African state.

Organizers say the protests began in towns and villages across Cameroon on Monday ahead of the country’s National Day on May 20.

Thousands of Christians from Cameroon’s Catholic, Presbyterian and Baptist churches joined the protest in Yaounde Thursday.

Reverend Father Humphrey Tatah Mbui is the director of communications at the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. He said Christians cannot be indifferent at a time when increasing hate speech and xenophobic statements are creating conflicts and damaging Cameroon’s image.

“It is wickedness and the type of hate speech that destroys the country. If we want peace in this country we must learn to start controlling the kind of words we use, the way we talk to other people and dialogue,” he said.

Mbui said clashes between communities increased in Cameroon after the disputed 2018 presidential election in which President Paul Biya was declared the winner. Opposition leader Maurice Kamto also claimed victory.

In addition, some French-speaking host communities accuse English speakers displaced by the separatist conflict in the west of being separatist fighters or sympathizers.

The tension goes the other way, too. Earlier this month, a human rights group said scores of French speaking civilians in English-speaking regions were victims of hate speech.

Meanwhile, Cameroon’s National Communication Council issued over two dozen warnings last year to radio and TV stations the NCC says hosted guests who promoted hate speech.

Cameroon’s communication minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, said civilians are also increasingly using social media to vilify and humiliate people, or to incite hatred and call for violence against people of different religions, languages, ethnic groups and gender.

Sadi said all social strata in Cameroon suffer the consequences of hate speech fanned by some civil society groups, intellectuals, politicians, activists and social influencers. He said the most common manifestations of hate speech in Cameroon include ethnic and social discrimination, stigmatization, tribalism, irredentist claims, calls for insurgency and sometimes genocide, gender violence and violence against minorities.

Sadi said the Cameroon government is fighting hate speech as a priorty to safeguard democracy and the rule of law and to preserve the values of peace, unity and living together.

The government says President Biya wants Cameroonians to show love for their country as they celebrate National Day on Saturday. Biya will preside over celebrations in Yaounde.

In 2021, the International Crisis Group warned in a report that social media platforms, especially Facebook, were increasingly being used by Cameroonian youths to heighten political and ethnic tensions.

Source: VOA

Jean Marc Mpay, Cameroon’s former ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, has died aged 78.

Jean Marc Mpay’s death was confirmed by the Cameroon embassy in Berlin following media reports which claimed he had suffered a stroke while in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital.

Paying tribute, Chief Ashu Peter Ashman former CPDM Sub Section president for Wuppertal said: “He was a great diplomat and a great character.”

“All our thoughts are with his family,” Chief Ashu Peter added.

Ambassador Jean-Marc Mpay was born on 21 July 1945. He completed studies in Law and Economics at the University of Yaoundé and post-graduate studies in Political Science in Ottawa, where he also served from 1977 to 1981 at the Embassy of Cameroon.

From 1991 to 1998, he was Cameroon’s First Embassy Counsellor and later Envoy-Embassy Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cameroon to the United Nations in New York.

Ambassador Jean-Marc Mpay was nominated ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon in Berlin on February 2008 as successor of Jean Melaga, who served for 24 years as Cameroon’s chief diplomat in both Bonn and Berlin.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Essen, Germany

President Biya has been visibly limping.  Recently, he canceled some of his meetings.

The 90-year-old Biya who has been ruling Cameroon for 41 years is currently suffering from a bad knee with speculation rife over his participation in this year’s national day celebration.

The Francophone dictator was expected in Geneva, Switzerland for surgery on his ailing knee but did not show up due to happenings in Yaoundé.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Biya had to deal with the Martinez Zogo affair that involved his spy chief Eko Eko and Justice Minister Laurent Esso. He was also concerned about the sudden diplomatic crisis with the Republic of Chad over the oil company Savannah Energy.

All these issues forced Biya to give up surgery on his knee, which has been causing him pain for several months. The operation would have meant a trip to Geneva for several days, and above all a forced rest on a wheelchair for several months-a situation that is unthinkable for the Biya entourage who are only interested in showing the world that he is still in charge of affairs in Yaoundé.

Cameroonians have seen time and again that their president struggles to climb or go down stairs during his rare public appearances. Paul Biya is expected on Saturday, May 20, 2023 at the “Boulevard du 20 Mai” to preside over the civilian and military parade of the National Unity Day, which will be in its 51st edition.

By Rita Akana

The Cameroonian government is appealing for hundreds of millions of dollars to help vulnerable groups such as children, people with disability, and women who are the most affected by conflict.

The government, along with humanitarian agencies, says they must raise $407 million to meet the needs of the approximately 3 million most vulnerable people in the country.

Overall 4.7 million people in the country could be classed as “vulnerable”, it was revealed. That’s one in six people who need assistance. More than three quarters of them are women and children.

About 3 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and more than 2 million people are internally displaced, refugees, or returnees.

The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan drawn up by the government and International humanitarian agencies says they need money for protection services and life-saving assistance for people suffering the effects of violence, natural disasters, climate shocks, and disease outbreaks.

The announcement did not specify who they would ask for this money, but the request was aimed at “the international community”.

Sufficient funding

Matthias Naab, Humanitarian Coordination in Cameroon during his presentation on Thursday urged the international community to provide “early, flexible and sufficient funding”.

“It will support livelihoods and resilience, to ensure that affected women, men, girls and boys can meet their basic needs. Priority will be given to interventions for those in greatest need, including internally displaced persons, returnees, refugees, and host communities who continue to generously open their homes to those in need,” he said.

Cameroon is dealing with terrorist attacks in the Far North region, where the civilian population continues to be subject to armed attacks, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), kidnappings, including of children, looting, and destruction of property and infrastructure, by Islamist militants.

Seven years after separatists embarked on a mission to independence in the Northwest and Southwest, there have been reports of human rights violations that have led to important population displacements.

Insecurity in the neighboring Central African Republic has seen the influx of over 340,009 refugees in the East, Adamawa, and Mort regions.

Over 224 humanitarian organizations are working with the United Nations and government to boost response in Cameroon.

Source: Humanglemedia.com

The Cameroonian government has secured new financial support as part of the reconstruction of the war-torn Anglophone regions of the Northwest and Southwest. Yesterday, the Minister of Economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey, signed a loan agreement of €32.250 million (about CFA21.1555 billion) with Muhmmad Al Jasser, Head of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

This financing, the Cameroonian official said, “will support the government’s efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate essential infrastructure, strengthen social cohesion and revitalize the local economy in the targeted regions”. It is another helping hand in this reconstruction process, for which fund mobilization remains a headache.

Out of a requested CFA154 billion (about $258 million), Cameroon only raised CFA11.5 billion by mid-2022, representing a mobilization rate of 7.4%, official data showed. In detail, Paul Tasong, who coordinates the project, explained that 75% of this amount came from the State itself; the private sector contributed CFA1.2 billion; the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) CFA400 million; and Japan CFA1.5 billion. Last March, Japan approved an additional CFA1.3 billion, bringing its total contribution so far to CFA2.8 billion.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says October 1, 2023 will begin a new path of the struggle for liberation of the entire Southern Cameroons territories from the clutches of the vicious French Cameroun regime.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Intelligence Report on Tuesday about the situation of the Southern Cameroons resistance, Dabney Yerima stated that October 1 this year will be a new beginning for the Ambazonia revolution and actions will be staged by Amba fighters that will hasten the liberation of the entire British Southern Cameroons.

Yerima said that all Southern Cameroons restoration groups will be at the forefront of such a campaign, emphasizing that the actions will go beyond the Moungo.

Dabney Yerima highlighted that Southern Cameroons resistance groups are moving towards the formation of a central command system in Ground Zero that will end the French Cameroun occupation.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Yerima also condemned the recent killing of a Southern Cameroons journalist in Bemanda and he underscored the need for Amba fighters to protect the people of Southern Cameroons.

Dabney Yerima stated that the Ambazonia Interim Government under the stewardship of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe has gloriously and proudly emerged triumphant over problems in the past years, describing the extent of internal crises that the Biya French Cameroun regime is currently facing in Yaoundé as unprecedented since the 1984 coup.

He went on to note that Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero are at the forefront of defending the homeland, emphasizing that special emphasis must be laid on providing generous support to Amba fighters.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Hundreds of biometric visas have already been issued by different diplomatic services of Cameroon since the online application system went live on May 1.

The country’s embassy in Belgium said it issued more than one hundred visas within two days after the system rolled out, according to information from the Foreign Ministry in Yaoundé.

Ahead of the launch, Foreign Minister Mbella Mbella, in a briefing on April 25, explained the purpose and functionalities of the biometric visa system, saying it is the first step in a series of government efforts aimed at improving the country’s diplomatic machinery by aligning it with cutting-edge international best practices in the domain of visa issuance.

“Cameroon is writing a new page in its history. If things go on as planned, from May 1, applicants will be able to get their entry visa into Cameroon within a period of 72 hours upon submission of the online application,” said Mbella Mbella at the briefing.

He also explained the category of visas available for long and short visits and their fees, which have seen an increase from the previous visa regime, in line with the prescriptions of the 2023 state budget.

Short-stay visas have a validity of six months while long-stay ones are valid for 12 months, costing between 100,000 Central African francs (US$167) and XAF 200,000 ($334) depending on the type (either ordinary or express). Express visas are issued within 24 hours.

The government official also explained that the new system has been designed in a flexible way to deliver secure visa stickers. The process is fast, efficient and cuts wait time and other procedural bottlenecks, he added.

In a previous government communication, Mbella Mbella had explained how the system works and the various stages involved in the application process.

Impact Palmarès R&D SAS is the Cote d’Ivoire-based company running the system under a ten-year contract on a Public-Private Partnership basis. It is reported that per the contract terms, the company earns 30 percent of the fee paid for each visa issued.

Since the system went live, the Foreign Ministry has been running an awareness campaign on its official social media pages on how the system works. It publishes short messages explaining the online application process to applicants, and calling on them to guard against cybercriminals who may try to create a prototype system.

Source: Biometric update

At least 15 people have been killed and 19 others injured in a bus accident in Cameroon, local police said.

The tragedy occurred Tuesday afternoon in a village along the highway linking the East and Adamawa regions.

Police said the driver of the bus, which was heading to Adamawa regional chief town of Ngaoundere, lost control, and the vehicle crashed and then exploded because it was also transporting fuel.

Cameroon Radio Television, the state television, reported that a three-year-old child was among the dead. Local media reported that seven women were also killed.

The injured were rushed to hospital and “are under intensive medical care,” the police said.

The Cameroonian Ministry of Transport estimates that 1,500 people die in road accidents each year in the central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

A fresh crisis is brewing over the process of getting a new Fon of Baba I situated in Ngoketunjia Division in the North West region, as all ten kingmakers have rejected one Fue Nghaper as the candidate for the stool.

The ten notables in the Ngumba who constitute the Mohs have separately petitioned the North West administrative authorities, warning against the recognition of a primary school pupil who they described as not ready for the throne.

Ever since the late Fon Fuekemshi II travelled to the land of his ancestors, members of the Ngumba have met and performed the noble rituals but Cameroon Intelligence Report North West Bureau Chief observed that no discussion was opened on succession.

A source with strong ties to the Baba I palace contacted by this reporter revealed that the Fon of Guzang with the support of some Baba I political elites in the ruling CPDM crime syndicate were part of the dubious process that brought the young Fue Nghaper II to the limelight as the new Fon of Baba I.

The Baba I kingmakers are expected to make public a statement soonest calling on the administration to be wary of recognizing Fue Nghaper II as the new Fon.

Some concerned Baba I elites have also voiced their support for the Ngumba saying that Fue Nghaper is unqualified and they have appealed to the kingmakers to stop the desecration of the customs and tradition of the Baba I people.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from CIR Bamenda Bureau

At least 123 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the year during the conflict in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Communities are demanding self-rule from the Central African country. They cite marginalisation by the government of President Paul Biya, with a majority of officials from the majority French-speaking zones.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) disclosed the death toll, which could be higher since the figures are for the period covering January to March.

The crisis is escalating in the North-West and South-West regions.

UNICEF reported that during the period, no less than 187 people had been injured in the clashes perpetrated by the Ambazonian militants, who are running battles against the military and civilians.

Some 539 people were arrested during military searches or operations in both regions.

In the North-West and South-West, at least ten lockdown days were imposed and observed during official events organized by the Cameroonian government.

Most localities in these regions continue to comply with the ongoing, so-called Monday ghost town days.

However, humanitarian organizations report that during this reporting period, 11 civilians were killed for not observing the curfews.

In the northwestern division of Momo, humanitarian activities, including food movements, were suspended due to roadblocks mounted by non-state armed groups.

Elsewhere, suspected members of Boko Haram from neighbouring Nigeria are terrorising communities.

An estimated 1 652 people have been newly displaced due to this ongoing insecurity in the Far North. There, unidentified gunmen abducted 82 civilians in February.

Torrential rains have exacerbated matters in the South-West region.

Rains that struck the city of Buea in March caused mudslides that affected an estimated 900 people.

At least two fatalities, four injuries and one person missing were documented.

Water supply infrastructure and latrines serving over 3 000 people were damaged.

Without immediate funding of US$940 000) required by UNICEF, there will be a shortage of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), leaving over 20 000 children aged 0-59 months without treatment and an increased risk of death.

The secessionist crisis in the country of 28 million started in 2017, leaving hundreds dead. Critics also accuse Biya of rigging elections.

Aged 90 and in power since 1975 as Prime Minister and in 1982 as president, he is the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader and the oldest head of state in the world.

Source:  CAJ News