Financial support for armed separatist activities in the North West and South West regions has “declined over time,” largely due to government actions, according to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled).

The report which examines the separatist conflict, notes that the Cameroonian government intensified its monitoring of financial flows between the diaspora and armed groups starting in 2019, two years after the conflict began.

“As a representative for the Agence Nationale d’Invéstigation Financière (ANIF), the Cameroonian national financial crime agency explained, the government realized that separatist armed groups tended to collect their transfers in the early morning or late evening, and security forces began monitoring pickups at these times, which led to numerous arrests,” the report indicates.

According to the report, the government’s crackdown involved tracking financial movements. This tracking led to “serious consequences for some of the individuals involved.” For instance, one person was arrested after security forces examined his bank account, which revealed a transfer from the diaspora, resulting in his imprisonment at Douala New Bell prison.

However, tighter monitoring of financial flows isn’t the only factor behind the dwindling financial support. The report highlights a loss of trust among members of the Anglophone diaspora, driven by suspicions of embezzlement and the opaque use of funds by some well-known separatist leaders. Many donors, initially under the impression they were funding humanitarian efforts, were disillusioned upon discovering their contributions were being diverted to fund armed conflict. “Reportedly, many of the donors who had given money to activists fundraising for the separatist cause had been led to believe they were funding humanitarian, not militant efforts,” the report explains.

Another key factor in the decline of financial aid is the atrocities committed by separatists against civilians, which has repelled some financial backers. “A decline in the credibility of the diaspora leaders was an important factor in the decline of diaspora donations. However, this decline was also linked to a decline in the credibility of the armed groups themselves, particularly in regard to their treatment of civilians,” the report concludes.

In response to the reduced funding, armed separatists have turned to forced “taxation,” extortion, and kidnappings for ransom to sustain their activities.

Source: Business in Cameroon

After a month of seeing an empty television studio with the word “censored” splashed across the screen, Cameroonians are finally able to watch Équinoxe TV’s flagship Sunday politics show “Droit de Réponse” again.

The privately owned station fell foul of Cameroon’s regulatory National Communication Council (NCC), which judged it to have harmed the reputations of two ministers in the government of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the Central African country since 1982. The show and its presenter Duval Fangwa were suspended for one month. When Équinoxe TV broadcast a replacement Sunday show, “Le Débat 237,” the NCC swiftly banned that too.

Despite the return of Droit de Réponse, the station’s difficulties are far from over.

Two Équinoxe TV political journalists told CPJ that they had received death threats by phone and been threatened with arrest in connection with their work.

“Every day, when I leave my house, I know that the worst can happen,” said one, who does not feel safe despite relocating. The other journalist has been in hiding since early August. Both declined to be named, citing safety concerns.

Attacks on the press have escalated as Cameroon prepares for elections in 2025 that could see Biya — one of the world’s longest serving presidents — win another seven-year term. Tensions have been exacerbated by the delay of parliamentary and local elections until 2026, which Biya’s opponents fear will strengthen his hand in the presidential vote.

“The reduction of freedom of expression and the media has begun. Journalists are censoring themselves under the instructions of their bosses or editors,” Marion Obam, president of the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon, told CPJ.

Obam condemned as an “attempt to muzzle the press” a July 16 local government order banning from Mfoundi department, which includes the capital Yaoundé, anyone who “dangerously insults” government institutions or officials or takes action that could “lead to serious disturbances to public order.” Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, prefect of Mfoundi department, said he was concerned about “the statements of certain guests on television or in radio studios.”

Djikdent was swiftly backed up by communication minister René Sadi, who condemned an “upsurge in the use of abusive language” against state institutions and called for “restraint.”

CPJ has since documented the following:

• August 8
  The NCC suspended the privately owned newspaper Première Heure, its reporter Alain Balomlog, and publishing director Jeremy Baloko for one month for failing to “cross-check and balance” allegations of mismanagement by regional agriculture delegate Jean Claude Konde.
• August 13
  Police sealed the doors of RIS Radio following the NCC’s August 8 order to suspend broadcasting and to stop station manager Sismondi Barlev Bidjocka practicing journalism, both for a period of six months. The NCC said that Bidjocka aired “unfounded and offensive statements” about the powerful Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Secretary General of the Presidency, on July 22.

• August 22
  La Voix du Centre editor Emmanuel Ekouli was beaten by three men on a motorcycle in Yaoundé who stole his laptop, phone, and recording equipment. He was similarly attacked by three men on a motorcycle on July 9. Ekouli has received threats over his journalism and work with the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders investigating the 2023 murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, according to five screenshots reviewed by CPJ. La Voix du Centre reporter Guy Modeste Dzudie told CPJ that he and Ekouli had also received threatening calls and messages over a June report on corruption in an inheritance case.
• August 28
  Amadou Vamoulké, former managing director of the state-owned Cameroon Radio and Television, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement. The 73-year-old has been jailed since 2016 and was given a 12-year sentence in 2022 on a separate embezzlement charge. CPJ believes his imprisonment is in reprisal for his journalistic independence in the face of government directives.

• September 4
  Police arrested Le Zénith reporter Stéphane Nguema Zambo while he was attending an appointment related to his investigation into embezzlement in the Ministry of Secondary Education, Le Zénith’s publishing director Zacharie Flash Ndiomo told CPJ. Zambo was threatened and coerced into publishing a Facebook post recanting his findings before being released on September 6, Ndiomo said.

“We are going through a difficult period,” said François Mboke, president of the Network of Press Owners of Cameroon (REPAC). “There are risks for those who want to remain professional.”

NCC spokesman Denis Mbezele told CPJ that the regulator’s sanctions were to remind the media to act responsibly.

Police spokesperson Joyce Cécile Ndjem declined to respond unless CPJ came to her office in Yaoundé.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from the office of the Presidency, the Ministry of Communication, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Secondary Education, and Mfoundi Prefecture were not answered.

Culled from CPJ

Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces have arrested Roland Ewane, the Divisional Officer of Idabato in the Bakassi Peninsula in Ndian Division which borders Nigeria, early Tuesday.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the sub-prefect and a staff member of the Idabato council were arrested on Tuesday morning.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Gilbert Guibai Baldena in a statement confirmed the Ambazonia action but added that the Amba fighters were an “unidentified armed group who took direction toward Nigeria on board flying boats.”

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces are now active in the Bakassi Peninsula of Ndian division, which was once at the center of a boundary demarcation conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria.

The Ambazonia Interim Government is yet to comment on the incident.

By Kingsley Betek in Mundemba

Two French banks Natixis and Bpifrance cancelled a late September meeting in Paris with a delegation from Cameroon. The meeting had been scheduled to discuss a €590m motorway construction funding package for Yaoundé.

The French financial establishments made the decision after President Paul Biya decided to halt an investigation into the so-called “55 metal bridges” affair, which several government ministers have been caught up in.

Africa Intelligence reported that the President Paul Biya’s flagship project, the Yaounde-Douala highway, will cost three times more than the financing provided by Beijing.

By Rita Akana with files from Africa Intelligence

President Paul Biya has prostate cancer that is spreading and he has been told that he is going, Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Paris has gathered from credible sources in France.

Biya is 91 years old and is Cameroon’s longest serving head of state that plans to still run for office in the upcoming presidential elections.

Cameroon government officials say the dictator is holidaying in France but those who are in the know have hinted this publication that Biya is secretly dying of prostate cancer and he is now aware his time is nearly up.

The French government is reportedly using secret channels to prepare the Cameroonian military, the gendarmerie including senior political elites in Yaoundé for the expected outcome.

We understand things took a dramatic turn for President Biya while in China and his Swiss doctors are now worried that at any time he could enter a sharp decline.

Biya’s aides have never said he has cancer and are normally fiercely defensive of the corrupt leader’s medical privacy. Unity Palace has also never said publicly that Mr. Biya has cancer.

“Treatment will be stopped because of Biya’s age and also because the cancer is spreading,” a source at the Cameroon embassy in Paris, France was quoted as saying to a secret service officer.

French diplomatic cables are saying that if fully recovered, Biya intends to attend the Francophonie Summit in France before going home to die.

At the time of filing this report, information filtered that Biya’s prostate cancer has spread to other organs.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Nyene Mawn is the name of a new group looking to form a fresh Manyu women association in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  It is made up of individuals from the defunct MOWAH – and it intends to launch its existence with a flurry of interest on social media in the entire Nigeria.

Nyene Mawn Nigeria appears to be the brainchild of scores of Manyu women who no longer identify with MOHWA Global. The Nyene Mawn Nigeria project is also supported by hundreds of Manyu women in Europe, Cameroon and the USA.

Chief Stella Arhewoh says on her face book:

“This is an era of understanding the Manyu diaspora: empowering the Manyu girl child, moving Manyu Division forward and stop the spread of disunity among Manyus. We urgently need an answer. But MOHWA failed to provide an alternative.”

The creation of Nyene Mawn in Belgium inspired thousands of Manyu women around the globe who are oppose to corruption, lies and arrogance in leadership.

Chief Stella Arhewoh will now be overseeing the destiny of Nyene Mawn in Nigeria and the hundreds of Manyu women in Nigeria, Ghana and Benin Republic denied a voice by the MOHWA dictatorship in Cameroon.

Speaking on Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria, Chief Stella Ntui observed that Manyu Division needs a woman organization that offers real solutions that challenges the old MOHWA system and builds meaningful relationship with a wide range of Manyu women organizations all over the world.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Nyeme Mawn Nigeria

President Paul Biya who has been hospitalized in France will not be returning to Cameroon anytime soon, a source close to the ailing leader has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group.

Mr Biya travelled to France for a prostrate cancer operation and has not been responding to treatment, the source added.

“The cancer seems to be spreading and due to his age, things are not falling in place as planned. If the president will be coming home, he might not be in front of the plane as his health is not the best. He is old and anything can happen. Our concern now is who will take over after him when the next in line is also very sick in France?”

Meanwhile, the ruling CPDM is planning to have an extraordinary congress before the end of the year based on the fact that the news from Paris is not good.

The extraordinary congress will also look at how to modify the party constitution to ensure that the position of chairman is not a lifetime affair.

The congress will also be an opportunity to look at those who might possibly step in just in case the president returned in the cargo compartment of the plane, our source said.

Our source furthered that an Anglophone was being considered for the post of party chairman and anybody who occupies the post might run in case the inevitable occurs.

However, there are also fears that the military might step in if the transition is not properly managed. Our informant hinted that one of the generals whose name the Cameroon Concord News prefers to keep under wraps was already being suspected of talking with the French government.

“A palace coup is very likely to take place in Cameroon. We might see the Gabon-style coup. Cameroon is in for dangerous times. We are scared of street violence as the level of frustration and unemployment leaves much to be desired. The days ahead are unsettling and if care is not taken, Cameroon could descend into chaos”.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

While his Swiss doctors have done their best over the years to keep Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, alive over the last decade, a prostrate operation gone wrong in France is threatening to kill the 91-year-old Biya whose bill of health is a top secret in his native Cameroon, a source has told the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman.

Mr. Biya has been a colony of diseases for years and he has been able to manage those issues due to good health systems in Western countries where he has been their patron. But after 42 years in power, Biya has not been able to endow his country with good health facilities.

But a bad prostrate operation in France has weakened the Cameroon strong man and there is panic within his family. It seems the end is near, our source said, adding that such an operation could be risky, and given that the patient here is 91 years old, things could easily spiral out of control.

At 91, Mr. Biya cannot handle a full sedation and that was the first issue prior to the operation. But it is the operation itself that is causing panic both in Paris and Yaoundé, with Mr. Biya’s family losing sleep as his situation deteriorates, our source revealed.

His family members have been holding long prayer sessions, urging God to give their father another chance, but the prayers do not seem to get to their destination as his recovery is raising more concerns.

While Mr. Biya’s family is calling on God for another chance for their father, many Cameroonians, for their part, are holding secret prayer sessions, urging the same God to rid them of the damnation which has been theirs for over four decades.

Mr. Biya has become a millstone around the necks of his countrymen due to his incompetence and corruption. Cameroonians are leaving their country in droves as the economy has collapsed with youth unemployment standing at over 40%.

The country’s economy is characterized by its informality, causing the government to lose tax revenues. But the Biya regime is not in a hurry to modernize the economy and digitization which could help reduce corruption has been on the back burner for decades.

Tribalism and regionalism have been institutionalized and this is causing tensions within the country. For more than eight years, the Yaoundé government has been unable to find good and sustainable solutions to the sociopolitical crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions which has created thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees.

Many Cameroonians hold that a dead Biya will be good news to the country and more secret prayer sessions are in the cards.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai