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Man arrested in Bachou Akaegbe in connection with Mamfe Gendarmerie post attack

9, December 2017

Man arrested in Bachou Akaegbe in connection with Mamfe Gendarmerie post attack 0

Cameroon Special Forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé say they have arrested the main agent recruiting soldiers for the Southern Cameroons Defense Force. Our source within the military leadership hinted that AYUK NKEN Franklin was arrested in Bachuo Akaegbe village some 12 kilometers from Mamfe the chief town in Mamyu.

The Francophone dominated army also revealed that he was arrested in possession of three weapons of war and ammunition. The army added that his mission was to enlist and train young people in combat.

We understand that on the night of 7 to 8 December 2017, five Ambazonian militants were shot dead by the Cameroon Defense Forces, who responded to an attack by nearly 200 freedom fighters on the Mamfe gendarmerie post.

Three of the Southern Cameroonians killed were named as Tako Prosper Arrey, Anyong Patrick Abong and Disengi Kendry. Constable KELLY Hervé on duty at the Mamfe Gendarmerie Territorial Brigade was killed during the attack and ten members of the defense forces were wounded.

By Sama Ernest


Mamfe shooting: Conflicting reports, Hoaxes arise after tragedy

8, December 2017

Mamfe shooting: Conflicting reports, Hoaxes arise after tragedy 0

The Biya francophone regime has announced that 10 suspected Southern Cameroons terrorists were shot dead by the Cameroonian army in fighting in Mamfe, Manyu Division.  The Yaounde government stated that the “terrorists –secessionists” entered the country from Nigerian on board a speed boat.

The government statement also hinted of some arrests that were made at the Bombe-Bakundu weighing station with firearms and ammunition. According to military officials, the secessionists fired the first salvo killing a gendarme and wounding several others.  The Cameroonian forces fought back fiercely. The provisional balance sheet records from the regime revealed that at least 10 assailants were killed and several others neutralized and injured.

There are conflicting reports on last night incident in Mamfe with CIR sources saying that the bodies made public by troops loyal to the Biya regime where those of detainees who attempted to escape from the Mamfe Central prison when the shootings were going on.

The images of the so-called “terrorists-secessionists” were aired on state television without the ammunition they were carrying during the raids on the Mamfe gendarme station.  The attack occurred as a tribute ceremony to honour recently killed soldiers was underway in Buea.

We gathered that the Biya regime has blamed the attacks on the interim government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia headed by Sisuku Ayuk Tabe. For his part, President Ayuk Tabe told CIR that he has instructed the defense secretary to carry out an assessment of the happenings in Manyu. The Ambazonian leader reassured the Southern Cameroonian people that all options were on the table against the Biya French Cameroun regime.

By Sama Ernest


14 UN peacekeepers killed, over 40 wounded in DR Congo attack

8, December 2017

14 UN peacekeepers killed, over 40 wounded in DR Congo attack 0

An armed group has attacked a base of the United Nations peacekeepers in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 14 peacekeepers and wounding 40 others.

The UN peacekeepers, who were mostly from Tanzania with at least five Congolese soldiers, blamed the Friday attack on a rebel group based in neighboring Uganda.

“It’s a very huge attack, certainly the worst in recent memory,” said UN deputy-spokesman Farhan Haq from New York.

The base, which is located about 45 kilometers from the town of Beni, has been repeatedly attacked by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group. It is home to the peacekeeping mission’s rapid intervention force, which has a rare mandate to go on the offensive, according to Radio Okapi, which is backed by the UN mission.

The UN has described the attack in Congo as the worst in the recent UN history as well as a war crime.

The radio station, citing military sources, said fighting had lasted four hours.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had one of the most brutal colonial rules before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that left the mineral-rich country poor and politically unstable.

In 2006, the UN mission helped carry out Congo’s first free and fair elections in 46 years, paving the way for President Joseph Kabila to be elected for a five-year term.

His second term in office ended in 2016. Under the DR Congo’s constitution, Kabila is banned from seeking a third term. However, Kabila is authorized to stay in office until his successor is elected but he decided to remain in power. This prompted the UN to urge the Congolese authorities “to respect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Congolese Constitution.”

The delay in holding an election has flared up violence in the country.

Source: Presstv


Cameroon refugee’s crisis spills over into Nigeria

8, December 2017

Cameroon refugee’s crisis spills over into Nigeria 0

Violence in English-speaking areas of Cameroon over the last year is having a knock-on effect in neighboring Nigeria, where thousands of refugees are seeking sanctuary. Some are fleeing the unrest while others are suspected to be secessionists in favour of armed struggle, who could use the Nigerian side of the border as a base.

John Inaku, head of the Cross River state emergency management agency in southeast Nigeria, said over 28 000 people have arrived from western Cameroon since October. “But many of them have not been registered yet and people are still coming in,” he told AFP.

Most have fled across the border on foot through the bush since the start of an increased crackdown by authorities in Yaounde. Cameroon was divided between French and British colonial rulers before independence in 1960 and English-speakers account for some 20 % of the population of 23 million.

They have long protested against what they perceive to be a bias towards their French-speaking compatriots. In recent weeks, growing numbers have joined the ranks of the secessionists, some of whom are openly advocating armed struggle for an independent state.

The security situation has worsened significantly since the authorities have cracked down on pro-independence demonstrations.Ten soldiers and police officers, as well as several civilians, have been killed since October 1, when separatists symbolically declared an independent state of “Ambazonia”.

The recent violence blamed on small, well-organised groups has been concentrated in forested and mountainous border areas. Only two roads link Cameroon and Nigeria.

 

Source: AFP


Battle for Ambazonia: Gendarmerie officer killed in series of attacks in Mamfe

8, December 2017

Battle for Ambazonia: Gendarmerie officer killed in series of attacks in Mamfe 0

Armed Southern Cameroons militants reportedly staged a series of attacks deep inside Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu on Thursday the 7th of December 2017. According to sources from the South West Gendarmerie Legion, the Mamfe gendarmerie company headquarters was attacked.

Constable Keli Hervé of the class of 2015 was killed and nine other gendarmes were seriously injured. Cameroun government sources say five of the assailants were killed in the attack. The same sources indicated that during the attack, a vehicle belonging to the Mamfe gendarmerie was carried away by the attackers who abandoned it further on the Mamfe – Bamenda highway. This new attack brings to eleven the number of elements of the Cameroonian forces killed ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis.

 

Source: Cameroun Info.Net

Ambazonia Crisis: Defense Minister, Delegate General for National Security in Buea County

8, December 2017

Ambazonia Crisis: Defense Minister, Delegate General for National Security in Buea County 0

Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo is among a Biya Francophone government delegation that travelled to the Buea County to pay tribute to the soldiers and policemen killed by suspected Anglophone militants in Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies.

Beti Assomo was expected in the Upper House in Yaounde for a discussion on the Southern Cameroons crisis today December 8th 2017. Cameroon Concord News understands, the defense boss has dispatched the Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the gendarmerie Minister Jean Baptiste Bokam to meet the senators in the 3rd parliamentary session of the legislative year 2017.

Joseph Beti Assomo arrived Buea yesterday accompanied by Martin Mbarga Nguele, the Delegate General for National Security. Mr. Beti Assomo will inter alia coordinate a special security meeting on the army operations in the Manyu State.

By Sama Ernest


Cameroon’s Military Moves In on Separatist-held Villages

8, December 2017

Cameroon’s Military Moves In on Separatist-held Villages 0

Cameroon’s military has taken over two villages held hostage by separatists whom the government called terrorists. The separatists had been collecting taxes, rendering justice in their courts and imposing prison sentences on people who refused to collaborate with them.

The separatists have killed at least eight soldiers and policemen over the past month in their campaign to break from francophone Cameroon and form a separate anglophone state called Ambazonia. They also aim to loosen President Paul Biya’s long grip on power.

In the southwestern village of Bafia, one of those retaken, hundreds of people have returned, nearly two months after they fled. Resident Enow Basile, 31, said he and about 100 villagers were arrested by the armed groups and detained at a local government school, where a man calling himself General Amstrong, leader of the group, had installed his headquarters.

“When you come, they tie your eye, they beat you up,” he said. “If you don’t have from 100 thousand francs ($180) and above, they promise to take your life, so people were paying.” More than 100 people complied, he said.

“And they always attacked trucks that were transporting cocoa to Douala,” Basile added. “They attack them, each pay 50 thousand francs ($90) to pay a pass, but if you don’t pay, you will not pass. You don’t take cocoa to Douala.”

Muyenge, 10 kilometers from Bafia, was the other occupied village. Resident Ayuk Lucas said the invaders were sanctioning anyone who did not respect them.

“They even create a court. Everything. A whole government where they send to come and collect somebody and ask you to pay some money to them,” he said.

Last week, Cameroon’s military arrested 20 members of the armed group. But the U.N. Committee Against Torture expressed concern Wednesday, demanding an investigation into the deaths of at least 17 people killed in October 1 clashes between the security forces and those seeking a separate state. It said more than 500 people had been arrested, some of them from the hospital in the wake of the unrest, and it criticized Yaounde for not responding to several demands seeking information on those still being held.

Muyenge resident Ebune Francis said the armed separatists were expressing anger about what he described as the Cameroon government’s neglect of English-speaking regions. He said he did not support secessionists but did support demands made by teachers and lawyers when they began a strike more than a year ago that later degenerated.

“We had been supporting the government, supporting the government. Nothing is coming, so we all are annoyed,” Francis said. “We are abandoned by the government. We don’t have water, sometimes we don’t have electricity. You want us to be happy with the government? No.”

The government has assured the population of the English-speaking regions that it will assure their safety.

Schools have been closed in most of the English-speaking northwest and southwest since November last year, when the lawyers and teachers called for a strike to stop what they said was the overuse of the French language.

Source: VOA


Cameroon arrests author who criticised President Biya

7, December 2017

Cameroon arrests author who criticised President Biya 0

Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang was arrested at the airport as he tried to fly to Zimbabwe a day after publishing an opinion piece sharply critical of Cameroon’s president, a source said Thursday. Nganang, who teaches literature at New York University, “was taken into custody yesterday (Wednesday) at Douala (airport),” a source close to the police disclosed. “He drew attention to himself in recent days with several acts of provocation,” the source said, also mentioning Nganang’s Facebook posts.

Agents were waiting for him at the airport in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, and he has since been taken to the capital Yaoundé for detention. The writer had been en route to Harare after wrapping up a stay in mainly French-speaking Cameroon, during which he visited the restive Anglophone regions that have been hit by an anti-secession government crackdown.

On Tuesday, Nganang published a French opinion piece on the Jeune Afrique news site that was critical of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s handling of the Anglophone crisis. “It will probably take another political regime to make the state understand that the machine gun cannot stem a movement,” wrote Nganang. “Only change at the head of the state can settle the Anglophone conflict in Cameroon,” he said.

Calls for greater autonomy in Cameroon’s two English-speaking areas, the Northwest and Southwest Regions, have been rejected by Biya whose government has led a crackdown on the separatist drive. Anglophones make up about a fifth of the country’s 22 million people, and often say they suffer from economic inequality and discrimination, especially in education and the legal system.

AFP


Ambazonia: Interim Gov’t refutes reports of alliance with Biafra Youth

7, December 2017

Ambazonia: Interim Gov’t refutes reports of alliance with Biafra Youth 0

“Biafra youth form alliance with Anglophone secessionists”

DISCLAIMER:

The attention of the Interim Gov’t of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has been drawn to a fabricated cover story in The Guardian Post newspaper No. 1313 of Thursday December 7, 2017

The story, titled “Biafra youth form alliance with Anglophone secessionists,” which is essentially an advertorial paid for by the Cameroun Gov’t, is a frame-up meant to discredit the Ambazonia Interim Gov’t and to smear relations with the Federal Gov’t of Nigeria which is home to thousands of refugees fleeing genocide, arrest and torture by Cameroun troops. The Guardian Post story states that the IG is forming an alliance with a group of Nigerians to fight the Gov’t of Cameroun. That is not true.

We note that the Republic of Cameroun first began circulating this narrative on social media before sponsoring the Guardian Post to run the story. The Post did not care to verify the story, nor did it care to corroborate their facts with the IG since it was a hit job.

The Interim Gov’t renounces the story and any form of relationship as reported therein with any group or groups in any part of Nigeria. The Guardian Post will do well to begin practicing real journalism instead of ‘jumbo’ and sensational reports that leave the publication without integrity. What the Guardian Post has published is a disservice and a disgrace to the profession of journalism.

The IG of Ambazonia has made it clear time and again that Ambazonia is neither a secessionist nor separatist movement or Gov’t. It is a restorationist Gov’t. Ambazonians are neither seceding nor separating because nothing, nothing bound us before with the Republic of Cameroun. If the Republic of Cameroun thinks there is, then the burden is theirs to prove.

Let it be made known in no uncertain terms that when it comes to defending our country, the IG needs no alliances to do so. Should Paul Biya and his gov’t take us down that route, Ambazonians can rest assured that we will be well able to defend our land without depending on any foreign alliances or groups.

 

SIGNED: Chris Anu

Communication Secretary,

Federal Republic of Ambazonia


UN tells Cameroon to put an end to torture by security forces in the fight against Boko Haram

7, December 2017

UN tells Cameroon to put an end to torture by security forces in the fight against Boko Haram 0

Cameroon must act swiftly on the recommendations published today by the UN Committee against Torture and put an end to the widespread use of torture by security forces fighting Boko Haram, Amnesty International said.

The Committee expressed deep concerns about the use of secret torture chambers documented by Amnesty International in July, and its failure to clarify whether investigations were being carried into these allegations, as well as other reports of killings of civilians and enforced disappearances.

“With the Committee against Torture now also demanding an end to the use of torture in Cameroon, it is becoming impossible for the world to ignore the widespread practice of torture in the country,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s Lake Chad researcher.

“The clamour for justice is growing and Cameroonian authorities should respond by taking these reports of torture far more seriously and launching an independent and efficient investigation into these horrific practices.”

Based on submissions from organisations including Amnesty International, the UN Committee noted that large numbers of people from Cameroon’s Far North region are likely to have been held incommunicado and tortured by members of the military and the intelligence services in at least 20 illegal detention facilities between 2013 and 2017.

The Committee also raised concerns that this torture took place with the likely knowledge of senior BIR and intelligence officers at one military base, and that dozens of people may have died following torture and inhuman conditions of detention.

In its recommendations the Committee called on Cameroon to publish a declaration from the highest state level affirming an absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment and put an end to the practice of incommunicado detention.

It also called for effective, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture, incommunicado detention and death in custody, and for alleged perpetrators and accomplices of such acts, including those in command responsibility, be prosecuted and sentenced in proportion to the seriousness of the offences.

Elsewhere in its concluding observations, the UN Committee also echoed concerns raised by Amnesty International and others in relation to human rights violations committed in the Anglophone regions of the country, including by demanding an investigation into the deaths of at least 20 people killed in October in clashes between the security forces and protestors.

The Committee criticized the failure of Cameroon to provide information on the number of people still detained following protests in the regions, or whether investigations had been launched into the excessive use of force.

UN experts also noted their concerns that journalists such as RFI correspondent Ahmed Abba had been charged under counter-terrorism laws, and that some had been subjected to torture while in detention. The Committee also criticized the regular use of military courts in trials of civilians.

“The UN’s anti-torture experts have recognised that there is a major problem in Cameroon, and their warnings should be heeded. There should be no tolerance of human rights violations like torture, and we hope that the Cameroonian authorities and international community will respond to this report with the seriousness it deserves,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi.

 

Background

On 7-8 November, the Committee against Torture convened in Geneva, where among other things it completed a two-day review of Cameroon’s fifth periodic report on its implementation of the provisions of the Convention against Torture covering the period 2010-2015.

The Committee – which is comprised of 10 independent experts – engaged in a dialogue with the Cameroonian delegation which included representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Police, and the Permanent Mission of Cameroon to the United Nations Office at Geneva. Cameroon is among the 162 state parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

 

Source: Amnesty.org


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