News

18, March 2017

Largest wave of arrest by BIR in Bamenda ¹⁰

The army has sealed the entire Metta Quarter, Azire and T-Junction in the city of Bamenda and scores of Southern Cameroonian youths have been arrested and are currently being transported in military trucks to an unknown destination.

Our security informant observed that the troops started the operation since 4 am local time. We also gathered that bikes and taxis are not allowed to use the neighborhoods where the soldiers have been stationed.

CAMCORDNEWS DESK

17, March 2017

Douala: CPDM man busted with 7 vaginas in his freezer ⁰

A prominent CPDM militant has been arrested in Douala for murdering a girl and mutilating her genitals in the economic metropolis. Police sources revealed that he lured the girl into his apartment, had sex with her and then killed her. The man seen here but whose name was not disclosed by police removed organs from the girl’s body including what a spokesman for the Douala police described as “genitals”.

Rita Akana of the Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted that the alleged murderer arrested and currently being detained by security agents in Bonanjo, the administrative district of Douala is a chartered member of a gang involve in trafficking human organs. A security source who sued for anonymity said police also discovered 7 vaginas in his freezer. The neighbors who heard shouts from his apartment reportedly called in the police.

Organ traffic and ritual killings is rising in Cameroon. Many senior citizens are now involved in trafficking organs with the complicity of health personnel and doctors, for economic and financial purposes.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

17, March 2017

Photo exhibition for 25 people killed by Cameroon security forces in Maroua jails ²

The Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (Redhac) has once again expressed its anger over the killings of innocent citizens by Cameroon security forces in Magdeme in the Far North region. The Human rights body revealed that 25 people were abducted, tortured were killed on 13 March 2015.

Through a photo exhibition linked to the commemoration of the second anniversary of the killing of the 25 people in gendarmerie cells in Maroua on 13 March 2015, Redhac is asking the Yaounde authorities to clarify the matter and that the bodies be handed over to their loved ones.

In the early hours of December 27 2014 Cameroon security forces closed two neighboring villages in the department of Mayo-Sava, Far-North region and carried out a sweeping operation that was aimed at Boko Haram. The operation resulted in numerous violations including at least nine unlawful killings and massive destruction of property. 130 cases of disappearances were registered and 25 deaths in custody following torture. The families, for their part have continued to demand the fate of their missing relatives.

By Rita Akana

17, March 2017

UN Road Safety Mission in Cameroon ⁰

A United Nations road safety performance review mission is presently in Cameroon to oversee government’s policies on road safety. The team is in the country to ensure that road safety measures put in place strictly conforms to the United Nations latest action on road safety proclaimed in 2010.

The crew is made up of experts in road safety, the UN Secretary General’s envoy on road safety missions and a delegation from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The mission is expected to hold working sessions with stakeholders within the road safety domain. These stakeholders are drawn from the Ministry of Transport, Members of the National Road Board and the road safety task force of the National Gendarmerie.

The evaluation mission comes at a time when government has been on the offensive in its road saftey campaign. A number of repressive measures have been put in place to punish recalcitrant road users. Also regular supervision missions are being jointly organized by the Ministry of Transport and National Gendarmerie to ensure the strict implementation of the measures.

CRTV

16, March 2017

Lives of Southern Cameroonians means nothing to Francophones ²

The exiled leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium who recently fled to Ghana and Nigeria have voiced concern about expulsion and killing of Southern Cameroonians by troops loyal to the Biya regime.

The international community says a lot but does nothing to save the lives of Southern Cameroons minority in La Republique du Cameroun. The Consortium leaders opined that the world is now aware of what is going on in Southern Cameroons but international bodies such as the African Union and the UN keep saying exactly what everybody else knows, but it doesn’t choose to do anything about it.

The reality is that the lives of Southern Cameroonians are meaningless to Biya and the Francophone political elites including some Western powers generally, because the greater interest is for economic exploitation of West Cameroon.

A four-month crackdown on the Southern Cameroons minority has seen hundreds including a Member of Parliament, veteran journalist Tina Nene Nganda, Barrister Eyambe and the Secretary General of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society flee to Ghana and neighboring Nigeria.

The violence against Southern Cameroonians by Francophone soldiers and police officers is a blow to efforts put by an Anglophone Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang to reach a comprehensive peace with the Cameroon’s Anglophone minority.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium leaders further criticized the 84 year-old Biya saying, “The international community considers him a person of peace. It’s total hypocrisy. If he is a true democrat and somebody committed to human rights and peace, he should be speaking up on the violation of Anglophone’ rights in the country.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in Lagos

16, March 2017

Twelve points for the New African Union Commission Chairperson ⁰

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the new chair of the African Union Commission (AUC), takes office in mid-March as the continent faces its worst spate of humanitarian crises since the 1990s. The most alarming is in the Lake Chad basin where more than eleven million people need emergency aid. In Somalia, 6.2 million (almost half the population) face acute food shortages and in South Sudan, where the UN recently declared a famine, nearly 5 million are severely food insecure. The suffering is largely man-made: the effects of drought have been exacerbated by prolonged wars and mass displacement.

More promisingly, Gambia’s peaceful transition, negotiated by the Economic Community of West African States with AU support, is one of the steps toward democracy and rule of law being taken in much of the continent. Whether these gains can be multiplied across Africa depends on how well Mr Faki, Chad’s former foreign minister, will use the tools at his disposal to persuade member states to address the triggers and longer-term drivers of conflict: fraught electoral processes; leaders who refuse to leave office as scheduled; corrupt, authoritarian or repressive governments; population growth; joblessness and climate change. These same forces precipitate two other major continental challenges, migration and the threat from religious extremists and other violent non-state groups.

International Crisis Group

15, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Synod Clerk says arrests, torture, high handedness and threats to life won’t solve the problem ⁰

The Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Rev Babila Fochang has said that university students cannot go back to school and study smoothly without internet in this present generation. In his recent homily, the Right Rev. Babila Fochang observed that the Church as a body will never play games with the future of children nor can tell lies in the face of the current crisis that has rocked the two English speaking regions of the country.

The Presbyterian Church leader pointed out that Anglophone Christian churches in Cameroon have been under serious attack with some Anglophone members of government making lame and ridiculous claims that the churches are playing Pontus Pilate role in the on-going Southern Cameroons uprising. The Man of God noted that some church leaders are under surveillance with threats of arrests while pastors have been bullied to say all is well in West Cameroon.

Revered Babila Fochang declared, “Now that media houses have been threatened that they will be shut down if they mention anything concerning what is going on, the prophetic voices remains the only outlet of truth.” He reminded the laity of the threat on Jeremiah’s life because he prophesied the word of the Lord just as the Lord asked him to and added that Jeremiah told them he had only spoken what he was asked to by the Lord. Like Jeremiah the true prophetic voice can only say, “…Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God… As for me, I am in your hands, do with me whatever you think is good and right.”

“My people, history have demonstrated that killing of prophets and human rights activists have never been the solution to suppress truth! Let us face issues and deal with them upfront! Arrests, torture, high handedness and threats to life won’t solve our problems. Don’t treat fellow humans as animals! You can’t expect university students to go to school and function smoothly without internet! Not in this generation! God forbid this inhuman treatment and violation of human rights! Fear God and allow good citizens to enjoy their just rights; and by so doing we would all escape the wrath of God.”

Cameroun Info.Net

15, March 2017

Bamenda: Corrupt Government Delegate attacks the Consortium ⁵

The frustrated and corrupt Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent NDUMU NJI, has urged traders in Bamenda major markets not to respect ghost town days but to go about their usual activities. The man who attempted to claim a building at T-Junction belonging to a late business tycoon, made the call on Tuesday March 14, 2017 at the City Council hall during a crisis meeting held to discuss the way forward after a fire incident ravaged close to 60 shops in the market.

The loud sounding nothing CPDM militant opined that ghost town was helping to paralyze activities of traders than the killings, rapes and militarization of the Bamenda province of Southern Cameroons. Vincent Ndumu sounded like his Buea counterpart, Patrick Ekema by appealing to all traders to send their children to school and forget about school boycott.

Without any security backing from the Francophone dominated police establishment in Bamenda, Mr. Ndumu reiterated that the fire incident was perpetrated by those people who do not want children to go back to school. His suspicion he claimed was based on tracks which were reportedly circulated Monday warning traders who continue to boycott ghost town days.

In an attack on the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium that has legitimate authority in Southern Cameroons, Vincent NDUMU stated that people should not be obeying leaders they cannot see. He added that if the Government had succeeded to take Bakassi from Nigeria, defeat Boko Haram, then it would be able to track down perpetrators of the burnings in Bamenda.

During the enlarged meeting with victims of the fire incident and market Masters of some major markets, Vincent NDUMU NJI promised that the burnt shops will be reconstructed within three months and that the new ones will be modernized.

The fire incident occurred early Tuesday ravaging about 60 shops, it was only contained by army rescue unit and police who exploited water Canons that were previously used on innocent students at the University of Bamenda. The Bamenda so-called government delegate avoided to comment about traders whose children have been abducted and ferried to unknown destination in La Republique du Cameroun.

By Rita Akana with files from CIN

15, March 2017

Ethiopia: Death toll from landslide rises to 82 ⁰

The death toll from a landslide at Ethiopia’s largest rubbish dump reached 82 on Tuesday as the country’s parliament declared three days of national mourning, a government minister said. Communications Minister Negeri Lencho said, rescuers are still searching for survivors and victims’ bodies.

Part of the largest hill at the Koshe rubbish dump in the capital Addis Ababa gave way on Saturday, swallowing up a slum that had been built on the trash and burying families alive in their homes. Most of the dead are women and children. Rescuers on Tuesday pulled a woman alive from the rubble more than two days after the disaster, said Dagmawit Moges, a spokeswoman for the Addis Ababa city administration. Starting Wednesday, flags in Ethiopia will fly at half-mast as the country observes three days of mourning for the victims.

The Koshe landfill has for more than 40 years been the main garbage dump for Addis Ababa. Hundreds of people lived at the landfill on the outskirts of the capital, collecting recyclables trucked in from neighborhoods around the city of about four million people. The government tried last year to close the dump and move it to a different location, but opposition from residents at the new site forced the authorities to back down.

Residents blamed the landslide on the construction of a new biogas facility on top of the rubbish. Lencho rejected that claim, saying slum dwellers had caused the collapse by digging into the soil to find rubbish to sell.

Presstv

14, March 2017

Nigeria: Reform of Internal Security System ⁰

Demands for increased operational effectiveness in internal security operations in Nigeria has grown in the past decade due to increasing level of public perception of insecurity. Growing terror campaign since 2010 has further worsened calls for overhaul and restructuring in Nigerian Policing and Law enforcement system. Several reforms later, Nigerian security environment is now populated by Pretoria of security agencies performing overlapping functions, thereby leading to confusions and chaos.

As internal security agencies has been bundled under the ministry of interior, under a seasoned security professional for the first time in the history of the country, the whole world awaits the institution of a well-orchestrated Programme for thorough reform of this sector.

Three major issues –aside from normal security problem any state surfers from- challenges law enforcement operations in Nigeria today; the Niger Delta militants operation, the Fulani Herdsmen attacks and the Boko Haram terrorism in Northeast Nigeria. Unfortunately, policing authorities in Nigeria has always been bedeviled with high level of public mistrust. Policing can only succeed if the people could relate with local law enforcement institutions with some amount of trust.

To improve policing operations in Nigeria the Ministry of Interior could:

Improve the Police to Population Ratio: The ratio of police to population in Nigeria is clearly below international average. The Nigeria Police Force has about 390,000 and the NSCDC has about 80,000 officers and men, direct policing in Nigeria is expectedly performed by less than 500,000 officers in a country of about 180,000,000 million people, an average of 1 policeman securing 400 people. This number though higher than the UN basic average would have been sufficed, but the use of police officers as; security guards for the elites and government functionaries, escorts for banks and money movements, admin and other non-operational functions. To top this there are no direct operational supports between the NPF and the NSCDC leading to duplication of functions.

Integration of Policing Units: There exists need for a formal integration of NPF and NSCDC functions towards achieving a better focus in policing operations. As both organizations enjoys constitutional backing, merging them might not be the right solution, but a formal management of functions to reduce current rivalry could help in improvement of the deliverables in the short run.

Deployment: Security operative deployments are currently done without any proper interagency collaboration. This lack of institutional cooperation is reflected on the field as joint operations have severally turned to turf war while the project suffers. There has been several calls by practitioners for the setting up of a committee on Internal security, comprising of all Heads of security agencies operating in the Nigerian Homeland and an office of Head of Internal Security (HIS) which should constitutionally be the Inspector-General of Police. The roles of this office should include among other things:
Joint internal security planning and operational roles delimitation during joint ops
Information and intelligence sharing and analysis
Policy formulation and harmonization
Act as central operation command in time of national crises
Draw up joint internal security development Programme for the MOI in sequence with overall needs of all agencies

Recruitment: The process of security personnel recruitment in the country is too politicized. Hence mediocrity is allowed under the guise of catering to favored candidates. To improve this process recruitment of security personnel should be done with all professional conduct. All recruitment process should be supervised by the MOI to reduce influence peddling.

Patrols: Security operatives in Nigeria are mostly reactive and never proactive. This was due to operational environment and no personal ties with the people there. Policing can only survive when the people are part of its operations. The lack of synergy between policing authorities and the people was the basis of failure of security in all areas of Nigeria. Current vehicular patrol system with arms never endears the security personnel to the people. The foot patrol system is still used globally and is reputed to bring cohesion between security personnel and the public.

Formal Policy Management Body: Lack of a formal body to manage internal security in Nigeria. NPF, NSCDC, NIS, DSS, NPS and other bodies are operating individually in securing Nigerian Homeland without a direct policy making, monitoring and evaluating and supervisory management body. Nigerian Defense is better managed through the office of the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) unifying and managing the three arms of defense. Lack of centralized body has occasioned several mishaps in the homeland security operations.

Creation of the office of the Director of Homeland Security to manage the affairs of internal security reporting to the Minister of Interior. The DHS federal operations may compose of all policing heads in the country and should meet weekly to analyze and plan security operations in Nigeria. At state levels, DHS could discus policies made at federal level and adapt to suit local operations; dividing operational duties according to personnel capabilities to agencies and setting basic monitoring and evaluation deliverables for all allotted tasks. The DHS in states could compose of all heads of law enforcement units in each state.

Internal Affairs Office: Lack of independent supervisory body for internal security has led to several cases of abuse of power by security personnel in and out of duty. Set up department of internal affairs to monitor, supervise and recommend disciplinary measures for officers’ infringements and abuse of power and process. This may increase the operational efficiency of the security personnel and at the same time increase public supports for the security institution.

Introduction of a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) with responsibility for supervising and monitoring policing operations in Nigeria will improve local perception of the forces and efficiency of the policing agents. The DIA could be designed to be independent of current policing organisation and based in the MOI with offices in all states of the federation. This department could be in state and federal levels.

Clear Definition of Roles: Overlapping functions of several agencies needed to be redefined. The Nigerian public is sometimes confused on whom to defer to on security issues. The MOI may need to rearrange functions of agencies and publish to guide the agents and the public on roles, duties and responsibilities of all agencies to clear all ambiguities.

The MOI may control security information decimation to reduce ongoing security mediatization in the country. The need to showcase operational abilities of agencies above others has occasioned this unrelenting performance for media camera by all agencies. Security information that might need proper vetting are divulged by agencies to score points in the media. The public needed to be informed but there has to be a process for doing this.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Who really guards the guardians? Power corrupt has been the bane of public supports for policing in Nigeria. There are no direct authority managing policing operations in Nigeria. This lack has been blamed for increasing lack of proper services delivery in this sector. There should exist an independent body charged with overseeing the operations of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

Legal Development: The MOI could sponsor better law enforcement laws to bring policing into the next generation in Nigeria. Nigeria Criminal Code is still in the last generation and needed proper development to meet 21st century policing challenges.

Training and Retraining: To meet the challenges of the future, there is need for training and retraining of current policing personnel. There exists need for a reorientation of the psyche of an average security operative in Nigeria. Aside from lack of appropriate level of force in operation and the need to respect the suspect, security men are known to become judge and accusers at the same time while on duty. There is need for attitudinal and operational development training and retraining for them. The MOI could design and supervise major training for the development of personnel in policing agencies to achieve stated goals.

Promotion, postings and welfare: All internal security agencies are bedeviled with unethical favoritism in promotions, postings and welfare distribution in the past twelve years. This has led to high incidence of indifference and indiscipline in the services. This challenge has to be revised towards improving operational efficiencies and incentive to perform. There is need for a review of personnel promotions in the past ten years towards achieving proper justice in the service. The practice in which favored officers without any special performance or abilities are promoted several rungs above their colleagues and seniors should be revised and remediate to ensure justice and equity in the system.

Recognize and Integrate Informal Policing Organizations: Policing in Nigeria currently encompasses the formal and informal sectors. Increase reliance of the public on informal policing organization in day-to-day security needs is a pointer to the importance of this sector in Nigerian internal security operation. There is need for formal regularization and inclusion of the informal sector in Nigerian security planning and operations.

Regularization of this sector under the MOI might improve its standardization and improve services delivery within the sector. The MOI could undertake the certification of proficiency and professionalization of corporate bodies and professionals in the industry. Proper standards will ensure better trusts in this growing industry.

Above all, the Nigerian Homeland need a well-structured security operation with evaluable achievement over time. The MOI could use this opportunity to instill professionalism in local security operations through formal and informal reorganization and upgrade of current system. The obvious low productivity in this sector is clearly a function of uncleared vision, obvious lack of direction; purpose; supervision; and lack of coordinated cooperating system by all agencies involved.

There are many more process that might improve current standard, this was not a direct indictment of the internal security system in Nigeria, yet we all surmised, there exists need to tinker with current operations towards achieving a better value chain in our security system.

Towards achieving this, proper identification of the challenges of these agencies has to be elucidated, properly itemized and proffer workable solutions to before we could start shouting ‘Uhuru” This is the onerous task before the MOI and the time for this to be done is now.

By Don Michael Adeniji

Senior Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group