Cameroonian forces have invaded the camp of separatist militants in Isangele sub-division of Bakassi Peninsula but with no casualty.

It was gathered that the invasion, which took place at the weekend, may not be unconnected with the attack by the Black Marine, a suspected armed wing of the Biafra Nations League (BnL), that reportedly killed four members of the Rapid D’intervention Battalion (BIR) about two weeks ago when they attempted to forcefully invade the camp.

Sources said the Cameroonian soldiers did not meet anybody in the camp as the separatist fighters were said to have relocated, leaving items such as Biafran flags on the trees.

They said the militant group moved inwards into the creek, leaving the military wondering about their position.

The BnL leader of Bakassi, Ita Bassey, in a statement, yesterday, confirmed the attack. He said: “Our members are not afraid of military reinforcement in Isangele as we are fighting a genuine course.”

He declined to comment if the Black Marine were working for the BnL, but warned that BnL commands large loyalists in the Gulf of Guinea. He added: “We are ready to die for our course.”

Meanwhile, the leader of BnL, Princewill Richards, was in Idabato sub-division for few days, following reinforcement of troops. It was gathered that he sneaked in at night on Wednesday last week to engage his members.

Recall that the Black Marine has been terrorising the Gulf of Guinea and threatening Cameroonian oil companies operating in the area.

Source: The Guardian

The Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) says the Southern Cameroons resistance groups will not quit fighting La Republique du Cameroun until the entire Federal Republic of Ambazonia is fully liberated.

The IG said in a statement on Monday that French Cameroun’s latest episode of brutality against the people of Southern Cameroons was criminal and provocative.

The press statement that was made public by the Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs said what happened in the Northern Zone as recorded by Human Rights Watch was proof that there can never be any genuine dialogue with French Cameroun so long as the 89 year old Paul Biya was still at the head of affairs in Yaoundé.

Tensions have skyrocketed across the entire Southern Cameroons ever since Human Rights Watch published its report on the atrocities committed by Francophone soldiers in the Ambazonian homeland.  Over 40000 people including women and children have been killed.

Several Ambazonian commanders leading the resistance have also been killed.

Recent escalation particularly in the Northern Zone remains the worst since the 89 year old Biya declared war against English speaking Cameroonians in 2016.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Officials in Cameroon are urging people to eat local foods instead of imports, following protests over shortages and price spikes caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

President Paul Biya last week ordered ministers to explain to the public that Russia’s Black Sea blockade, not local taxes, has caused a nearly 60% increase in prices for fertilizer and imported foods.

Hundreds of people, a majority of them women, listened to explanations offered by government officials dispatched to the Mfoundi market in the capital Yaounde.

Harouna Nyandji Mgbatou, the top official in Yaounde’s first district, called on the public to consume locally grown food, which he sai was cheaper than imported food.

Asta Koumam, a 30-year old medical laboratory technician, was among those listening. She said that the price of a liter of imported vegetable oil has increased from less than two dollars to about three and a half. She said she and her children have decided to measure vegetable oil in a spoon no matter the quantity of food they are cooking because they cannot cope with food price hikes.

Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji outlined the scope of the problem.

Nji said a 50-kilogram bag of imported rice that sold at $25 in February now sells at $55. He said the same quantity of rice grown in Cameroon has seen a 5% price increase to $25 because the price of fertilizer imported from Ukraine and Russia has also increased from $30 to more than $70.

Cameroon’s trade ministry reports that the central African country imported more than 850,000 tons of cereals from Russia and Ukraine in 2020. In contrast, the Cameroon Importers Union said less than 45,000 tons have been imported since January of this year.

Last week, five government officials, including the ministers of agriculture, trade, finance and mines, held a press conference to explain the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The press conference, ordered by President Biya, was to help quell protests against price hikes in several towns and villages across Cameroon.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, spokesperson for Cameroon’s government, said that Yaounde has provisionally suspended the export of cereal crops, palm oil and other staple foods to neighboring countries to make sure that there is enough food for its own population. He said the government has also removed or suspended import duties and taxes on rice, fish, palm oil and building material to protect consumers from skyrocketing prices.

Julienne Gregoire Onguene Ateba, an economist and international transport and logistic specialist at Cameroon’s seaport in Douala, said that the current situation could have been avoided with more foresight.

He said if Cameroon’s government had invested in local production, especially of food as economists suggested to cushion the effects of COVID-19, the population should have been spared the price spikes and food scarcity that has resulted from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In July, Cameroon’s government called for emergency food support for more than two million people facing hunger. Authorities said destitute civilians threatened by food insecurity along the northern borders with Chad and Nigeria are finding it especially hard to cope with the rising prices.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Self Defense fighters killed three people, including a soldier and a police officer on Sunday in Kengwo a border locality in the West region.

Amba fighters attacked an army post in Kengwo, killing a soldier, a police officer and a motorcyclist, said the region’s governor, Augustine Awa Fonka.

The attackers seized weapons and suffered no losses, he added.

Kengwo is near the North West region, which with the neighbouring South West region has suffered a bloody conflict between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military for five years.

English speakers make up a majority of the regions’ populations in predominantly French-speaking Cameroon, which President Paul Biya has ruled with an iron fist since 1982.

Anglophones feel marginalised and an independent state called “the Federal Republic of Ambazonia” was declared in 2017 by their leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe without achieving international recognition.

Biya, 89, has resisted calls for more autonomy in the regions and responded with a crackdown on the separatists.

The violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

International monitors and the United Nations say both sides have committed abuses, including crimes against civilians.

In June, Ambazonia fighters killed five soldiers in an attack in western Cameroon.

By Rita Akana with files

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has reportedly raised the alarm over the rate by which Francophone army soldiers have been killing Southern Cameroonians so far this year.

Dabney Yerima was quoted by the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Cooperation (SCBC) as saying that the killings in Ground Zero are deeply disturbing and the maiming of so many Ambazonian teenagers this year is completely unacceptable.

According to Human Rights Watch, Cameroon government military summarily killed at least 10 people and carried out a series of other abuses between April 24 and June 12, during counter-insurgency operations in the North-West region. The troops also burned 12 homes, destroyed, and looted health facilities, arbitrarily detained at least 26 people, and are presumed to have forcibly disappeared up to 17 others.

Vice President Dabney Yerima pointed out that the Human Rights Watch figure does not include the killings in Wum, Ekok, Ekondo Titi and in Kumbo. Yerima pleaded with the Southern Cameroons diaspora to stand firm and make sure that such attacks must stop.

As many as 102 Southern Cameroonians young boys and girls have been killed so far this year, many as a result of the use of military force by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army.

Dabney Yerima condemned the widespread use of live ammunition by Francophone troops during operations across the entire Ambazonia homeland which is leading to an alarming increase in Ambazonia fatalities.

By Isong Asu

Cameroonian government has officially extended the entry age by five years for the recruitment of people with disabilities in the public service, according to Joseph Le, minister of the Public Service and Administrative Reform.

The official made the announcement during a media briefing Friday while launching competition entry examinations into public service.

“The age waiver must be considered as a preferential measure for the benefit of people with disabilities,” said the official.

In Cameroon, candidates seeking to work in civil or public service must not exceed 30 years of age, but the new measure allows people with disabilities to have access to employment opportunities in public service at up to 35 years of age.

“Permit me to invite our disabled brothers and sisters many of whom no longer meet the age requirement for recruitment into public service to take this unique opportunity offered to them,” said the official, calling it a “milestone” in public reforms and Cameroon’s commitment to “social justice.”

Persons with disabilities wishing to gain employment in the public service must show proof of professional, educational, and university training, possess a national disability card and apply only for jobs that suit the nature of their disability, said the official.

Source: Xinhuanet

Nearly 1,000 students undergoing training at a military academy in Cameroon have been dismissed over corruption allegations, the country’s Minister of Defense Joseph Beti Assomo said in a circular made public on Thursday.

Beti Assomo said the new 2022 recruits who were in full training had applied to join the workforce with fake certificates.

Army spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo on social media described the move as the “rigor and probity” of the army.

It was the first time the central African nation struck off so many trainee soldiers over such allegations, according to army officials.

Source: Xinhuanet

A Cameroon national was nabbed for allegedly selling counterfeit US dollar bills, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.

In a statement, the central bank said it assisted the Philippine National Police in an entrapment operation that led to the apprehension of Fonki Gregory Abueh, who was in possession of 14 pieces of fake $100.

The 47-year old resides in Makati but was caught in Taguig. The operation was conducted by the Quezon City Police Anti-Cybercrime Team and the BSP’s Payments and Currency Investigation Group.

 Abueh was charged before the Tagiug City Prosecutor’s Office with illegal possession and use of false treasury or banknotes under the Revised Penal Code, the BSP said.

The suspect is also facing separate swindling and estafa charges under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for defrauding an individual in a financial investment online scam.

Source: News.abs

Seven Cameroon government soldiers were killed this morning, Wednesday, August 10, 2022, by Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Bamboutos, a locality situated in the Western region of francophone Cameroon.

The circumstances surrounding the killings are yet to be elucidated as the incident is developing.

Bamboutos in the western region, bordering the restive Anglophone Northwest region, has been the target of several separatist attacks since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis over five years ago.

Today’s attack was the sixth by Anglophone separatists in the Galim district.

An armed separatist conflict has gripped the two English-speaking regions of the Northwest and the Southwest since 2016, with separatists and government forces regularly accused by non-governmental organisations and the United Nations of crimes against civilians.

So far, more than 3,000 persons have been killed since the beginning of the conflict, with more than one million internally displaced persons and others seeking refuge in nearby countries, especially Nigeria.

Source: Humanglemedia