News

20, March 2017

Biya to meet Italian President Mattarella today in Rome ¹

48 hours after his arrival on Italian soil, it is this Monday that Paul Biya will be received at the presidential palace. According to the official program, a state dinner will be organized today Monday in honor of the Cameroonian President who is on a 72-hour state visit.

The exchange between Biya and Mattarella is expected to focus on economic issues. A member of the Biya delegation was quoted as saying that Cameroon wants to enrich itself with the Italian economic model.

The visit of the Cameroonian dictator to Italy takes place one year after that of his Italian counterpart in Yaounde in March 2016.

By Chi Prudence Asong

19, March 2017

Paris: Flights resume at airport after attempted attack ⁰

Flights have resumed at Paris’ Orly Airport one day after a man was shot and killed while attempting to stage a shooting attack. Officials announced on Sunday that schedules at Orly, which is Paris’ second-biggest airport and serves domestic and international flights, were returning to “normal.”

On Saturday, a 39-year-old French national identified as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, carrying a petrol can in his backpack, grabbed a soldier’s gun and fired shots before he was gunned down by security forces. One soldier was reportedly slightly wounded in the incident, but no one else was harmed. Severe chaos was also caused in flight schedules for several hours following the shooting.

French anti-terror investigators, who took into custody Belgacem’s father, brother, and cousin following the incident, released the father but held the other two as they sought to build a profile of the assailant. An autopsy is to be carried to determine if the attacker was under influence as a small amount of cocaine was found during a search of his apartment in a northern Paris suburb.

Police said Belgacem had had a record of criminal activities and had been known to authorities. Since September last year, he had been under judicial monitoring. He had also shown signs of radicalization, although there was no indication immediately that he had traveled abroad.

The Saturday shooting comes as France remains in a state of emergency over terrorist attacks. The emergency state was initially imposed in November 2015, when terrorist attacks in and around Paris killed 130 people and injured 350 others. The emergency rule has been extended several times because the French government believes the risk of terror attacks remains high.

Presstv

18, March 2017

Anglophone Crisis: 500 arrested!! Francophones residing in West Cameroon urged to help troops with intelligence ²

The Francophone dominated army has raided Bamenda, the main city in the North West province of Southern Cameroons and arrested more than 500 young men suspected of being followers of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the troops from La Republique du Cameroun also seized mobile telephones from hundreds of Southern Cameroonians. During the last ten days, at least 800 Southern Cameroonians have been nabbed in different operations launched by several arms of the Francophone force.

Troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR swung into action at about 4 am today in Bamenda and arrested some 500 people. The Southern Cameroonians arrested were subsequently handed over to a special army unit in the West region for further action.

French speaking Cameroonians residing in Bamenda and Limbe including Buea have been urged to provide useful information to the Francophone troops in order to apprehend Southern Cameroon freedom fighters. A highly placed military official who spoke to our undercover reporter said the operation will continue to ensure conducive environment for legitimate businesses and schools to thrive in Southern Cameroons.

Another military spokesperson was quoted as saying that Francophone troops will henceforth respond to any tip-off from agents of La Republique du Cameroun and arrest suspected Southern Cameroon militants in any hideout. Corruption, the Boko Haram crisis and the current Southern Cameroons uprising have plunged Cameroon into economic recession. The country remains burdened by rapidly declining government revenues due to numerous internal conflicts and low oil prices in the world market.

By Rita Akana

18, March 2017

Namibia: Tribes lodge complaint against Germany for colonial-era genocide ¹

Descendants of two Namibian tribes who suffered one of the most horrific genocides under Germany’s colonial rule more than a century ago have now lodged a complaint against Berlin in a New York court. Lawyers representing Namibia’s Herero and Nama tribes and an American non-profit association on genocide were to appear in the court on Thursday as part of a class-action lawsuit, which seeks reparations from Germany for the mass killing of tens of thousands of people and other crimes by German settlers and troops from 1904 to 1908.

Germany has admitted that genocide took place but it has yet to make an official declaration. Berlin also refuses to pay direct reparations, saying it has generously supported Namibia’s development programs since the country’s independence from South Africa in 1990 through paying hundreds of millions of euro. The original lawsuit was brought against Germany in January under the Alien Tort Statute that allows investigations of international law violations against non-US citizens by American courts. Besides seeking reparations, the plaintiffs also demand that they be represented in negotiations between Germany and Namibia on the genocide. They say their exclusion from the talks is a violation of the UN declaration on the indigenous people.

The lawsuit claims that German colonial authorities explicitly consented to settlers’ seizure of a quarter of Herero and Nama lands — about thousands of square miles — from 1885 to 1903. Historic documents suggest that around 65,000 Herero people were massacred in the bloody Battle of Waterberg in August 1904. Around 10,000 people from the Nama tribe were also killed after they sought to rebel against the Germans during the conflict. Germany and Namibia have been in talks over the massacres but Berlin is yet to release any details of the deal being negotiated.

Presstv

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