The International Monetary Fund announced on Wednesday that its staff had come to an agreement with Cameroon regarding the second review of its loan programmes. If the Executive Board of the Fund approves, the agreement could result in the disbursement of $73.6 million.

According to the Fund, Cameroon’s economic outlook is still favourable, with growth of 3.8% predicted for 2022, but uncertainties are growing as a result of high rises in the cost of food, fertiliser, and oil due to the conflict in Ukraine.

An explosion occurred at Mokolo market in Yaounde the afternoon of July 2. Initial reports indicate the blast, caused by an improvised explosive device, has resulted in an unknown number of injuries.

Authorities have almost certainly deployed to the area, and may close nearby streets following the incident. There has been no claim of responsibility.

Heightened security and localized traffic disruptions are likely in the affected area through at least July 2 as police conduct their investigation.

Secessionist violence continues to undermine the security environment in Cameroon. Related attacks are regularly reported in the Northwest and Southwest regions, with incidents also occurring occasionally in Yaounde.

Veteran French Cameroun politician and peer to Biya and the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo, Hon. Felix Tonye Mbock has died, his family has announced.

He was hailed as the man who created the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and a true Francophone trailblazer.

Felix Tonye Mbock died on Saturday, July 2, 2022 from an undisclosed illness.

Felix TONYE MBOG served as Minister of Sports, Labour and Social Insurance, Posts and Telecommunications and External Relations.

He reportedly named the Francophone dominated football national team as the “Indomitable Lions” when he was Minister of Youth and Sports some few weeks before the 19 72 Africa Cup of Nations that was staged in Cameroon.

By Rita Akana

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé is number one enemy of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, lauding the people of Cross River State in Nigeria for their unwavering support for Southern Cameroons refugees.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a Tuesday telephone conversation with Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief.

“The people of British Southern Cameroons consider the French backed Biya regime as the number one enemy of Ambazonia,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader then lauded the people of Cross River and Taraba states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their support for Ambazonian refugees, saying, “Deep within the Interim Government we are sure that the people of Nigeria particularly those in the Cross River and Taraba constituencies will never distanced from support of Southern Cameroons refugees and the liberation of Southern Cameroons.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vice President Dabney Yerima said he was very satisfied with his recent trip to South Africa and his meeting with prominent South African politicians including Hon. Julius Malema.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Senior leaders of Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) have met in an undisclosed location in mainland Europe and exchanged views on ways to promote Ground Zero armed resistance against La Republique du Cameroun and thwart the threats posed by Anglophone CPDM officials, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from sources deep within the IG.

Our informant hinted that during the meeting Vice President Dabney Yerima and the frontline leaders discussed the latest developments in Akwaya, Fako, Meme and Mezam including the entire Ambazonia homeland.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the talks were on issues revolving around reinforcing the armed resistance in addition to the threats Southern Cameroons is facing from Yaoundé.

Our source said Vice President Dabney Yerima stressed the need for cooperation with all restoration groups in all areas of the struggle to serve its primary purpose of promoting the Ambazonian cause against French Cameroun.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The board of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), a federal body that oversees 27 museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, has agreed to return a number of objects to Cameroon and Namibia. The news is the latest significant restitution from Germany as the country continues to examine its national collections and refine its policy toward colonial-era artworks and objects.

A years-long negotiation with Cameroonian authorities has also concluded with the return of the so-called Ngonnso’, a female figure taken from the historical region of Nso’ (northwestern Cameroon) by colonial officer Curt von Pavel, who gave it to the Ethnological Museum in 1903.

The dialogue around the future of the object was accelerated by the group Bring Back Ngonnso, led by activist Sylvie Njobati. In a December 2021 meeting, scholars and museum officials from Cameroon and Germany agreed that, although the object had not been looted, the presence of von Pavel in the city of Kumbo was an expression of colonial violence.

“The question of returning collection items from colonial contexts is not just a question of a context of injustice,” Parzinger said in a statement. “The special—especially spiritual—significance of an object for its society of origin can also justify its return.”

Source: News.artnet

Contrary to a video circulating on social media that Amba fighters had slaughtered some 30 people in a small locality in Akwaya Sub-Division in Manyu Division, it is gradually emerging that the deaths have been caused by an ignored long-standing land dispute between two communities which have been at each other’s throat for decades.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the Division’s capital has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Editor-in-Chief that the incident which started as a land dispute between the Oliti people and the Messaga Ekol people of Akwaya turned deadly when elements of the Oliti community attacked and killed some Messaga Ekol people on their farms on April 29, 2022.

The current incident caused by the Messaga Ekol community is retaliation, our source has said.

The Olitis have been mobilizing for months, the source pointed out, adding that with the help of some armed men whom they hired, most of whom are suspected of being Nigerians, launched a vicious attack which resulted in the deaths of some 30 Messaga  people.

Their homes were also burned and some people were burned while asleep as the attack took place at night, our source added.The attacks led to the burning down of houses during which some people were burnt in their houses, including children and women, an idea corroborated by a Presbyterian Church press release issued on Monday.

With chaos playing out in many parts of the country, especially in the  two English-speaking regions of the country where the government has lost control of things, many people are using the crisis to settle old scores.

There is no government presence in those communities and with the police and army scared of venturing into such areas, it clear that the violence resulting from land disputes will continue to escalate, our source said.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has asked its correspondents in Mamfe to gather more information in the days ahead with a view to shading more light on an issue which has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons crisis.

It should be underscored that due to false intelligence following the death of four gendarme officers in Agborkem German in Manyu Division located on the Cameroon side of the Cross River, the Yaoundé government hastily rushed soldiers to the locality, causing the Southern Cameroons crisis to take a violent turn which will take years to check.

The four gendarme officers who were killed were not killed by Southern Cameroonians because of the crisis which was triggered by the torturing of lawyers and teachers by government police officers in Buea and Bamenda.

The gendarme officers were killed by Nigerian smugglers whose goods had been seized by those gendarme officers as it is a practice among Cameroonian police and gendarme officers.

To cover the matter up, the gendarme officers in Eyumojock misled the government in Yaounde and since the government only believes in violence, it immediately rushed soldiers to Agborkem German where the locals were tortured and young men forced to have sex with their mothers and grandmothers.

That was what caused the crisis to escalate. Biya was misled to declare a war at the airport in Yaounde upon his arrival from a summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The government must investigate the issues in Akwaya. It must not let these issues to fester. Government indifference is responsible for most crises in the country and because of the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country, government incompetence is now blamed on Amba boys who have nothing to do with the land dispute or the killing of 30 people in Akwaya.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

At least 26 villagers were killed in an attack on Saturday in the Akwaya district of Cameroon’s South-West region, where separatist insurgencies have added fuel to long-running inter-ethnic conflicts over land, local sources said on Monday.

The district medical officer, Enow Daniel Kewong, said 26 bodies had been found so far and other people were still missing after the attack on Ballin village, near the border with Nigeria.

Source: Reuters

Anglophone separatists in Cameroon have killed at least seven people and carried out scores of kidnappings since January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday, in a further condemnation of alleged abuses by the rebels.

“Armed separatist groups are kidnapping, terrorizing, and killing civilians across the English-speaking regions with no apparent fear of being held to account by either their own leaders or Cameroonian law enforcement,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s senior central Africa researcher, said in a report.

A conflict in Cameroon’s Northwest Region and Southwest Region has raged for nearly five years, pitching government forces against anglophones campaigning to secede from the majority French-speaking state.

The rights watchdog said rebels had killed at least seven people, injured six more, raped a girl and kidnapped as many as 82 people since January “in an uptick of violence.”

The separatists have targeted schools, torching at least two facilities, and attacked a university, it said.

The allegations are based on interviews with several dozen victims and witnesses as well as medical records and visual evidence, HRW said.

In 2017, mounting anglophone resentment at perceived discrimination snowballed into the declaration of an independent state — the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” an entity that is not recognised internationally.

The country’s veteran president Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 40 years, responded with a crackdown.

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

Schools have been attacked or boycotted as perceived symbols of the state — a campaign that in 2019 left some 850,000 children without denied access to education, according to UNICEF figures.

“These abusive calls (for school boycotts) trample the basic rights of an already terrorized civilian population,” HRW said.

The UN and international NGOs have accused both sides of human rights abuses.

HRW renewed this allegation, saying government troops had committed rights violations including “extensive burning of villages, homes, and shops, killings, torture, mistreatment, incommunicado detention and rape of civilians.”

On June 1, soldiers in the Northwest Region killed nine civilians, including a baby, the defence ministry said, describing the deaths as a “grave and unfortunate incident.”

Source: AFP

Benue State Government has advised Southern Cameroonian Refugees in Ikyogen, Kwande Local Government Area of the state to adhere to the laws of the land by ensuring peaceful coexistence within the community.

The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr Emmanuel Shior, gave the charge while commemorating this year’s World Refugees Day.

Represented at the occasion by the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr David Azenda, the Executive Secretary also identified with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are facing similar humanitarian crisis and appreciated the host community of Ikyogen, UNHCR and other Development Partners for their collective support.

In his remarks, the Team Leader of the National Commission for Refugee, Migration and IDPs Adikpo Field Officer, Mr Adeyemi Oluwaseyi, said there were more than 26.6 million refugees, out of which 76 Cameroonians were being hosted in Nigeria.

An officer of the UNHCR, who also spoke at the occasion, explained that the event focused on raising awareness of the plight and demonstrating to victims that their rights must be protected and treated with dignity.

The Paramount ruler of Kwande, the Ter Kwande, HRH, Chief Timothy Ahile, assured the refugees of the host community’s support and protection throughout their stay in the area, calling on them to be law abiding.

Two Refugees, Mr. Zefania Ekan and Mr. Chafa, also commended the state government, the host community and development partners for providing food and shelter for them in their trying moment.

Source: The Will Nigeria