News

24, December 2016

Cameroon’s Human Rights Commission approves a draft budget of 1.7 billion FCFA ⁰

Officials of the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms have agreed on a program for 2017. This was during the commission’s 21st Ordinary Session chaired by the institution’s Chairman, Dr Divine Chemuta Banda.

During the meeting, members approved a draft budget of 1.7 billion CFAF for 2017. Apart from the budget, members scrutinized the 2016 report on the state of human rights in Cameroon that is expected to be published.

In this regard, there was a zoom on cases of the violation of human rights during the strike actions in the South West and North West Regions. Dr Divine Chemuta Banda said the commission shall continue to encourage dialogue as the best way to maintain peace. Also during the session, commission members had the opportunity to take stock of the successes in 2016.

CRTV

23, December 2016

Former Director of M16 says Germany overwhelmed by some 7000 “live” terrorists ⁰

A former director at the British MI6 has claimed that German intelligence authorities are overwhelmed by and are almost unable to track some 7,000 “live” terrorist cases in their country. Richard Barrett told the BBC Radio 4’s Today program that there were around 550 “really extreme potential terrorists on the books” in Germany.

“If you include all the Lander (local regions) in Germany, they have about 7,000 live cases,” he claimed. “As you can imagine, that is an almost impossible number to control.” Barrett is a former director of global counter-terrorism operations at the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as the MI6.

In addition, Barret said, a wider group of potential suspects were those who had “come to attention in this context of radical extremism,” and were therefore “worthy of investigation.” It was not clear whether Barret was citing official data from Germany and, if so, how he had obtained it; and there was no comment from German intelligence authorities as of Friday morning.

German security forces have been criticized for a recent terrorist attack in the country that killed 12 people and injured 50. The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly active in militancy in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the Monday attack. Germany security officials have identified the main suspect in the terrorist attack, in which a 40-ton truck was rammed into a busy Berlin Christmas market, as Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker.

Amri, who had been under surveillance by German intelligence after he arrived in the country in 2015 and had been arrested three times already this year, should have been deported several months ago as his asylum application had been rejected.

However, Amri’s deportation papers were never served to him as he slipped under the radar despite being a known radical extremist who is alleged to have received weapons training, possibly by Daesh militants. Police have now spread a dragnet to find Amri, who remains at large and possibly dangerous.

Presstv

23, December 2016

Minister Laurent Esso says Common Law Lawyers strike “unnecessary” ³

The so-called Minister of State in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seal has made a mockery of Cameroon Common Law Lawyers in a presentation at the National Assembly. Laurent Esso revealed that lawyers are only protected while in court and not on the streets.

Said Esso “With respect to the protection of lawyers on the street, I want to be clear on that. A lawyer is covered by immunity before the courts and this immunity relates to statements made at the hearing and documents filed at the hearing. When a lawyer is before a court, he is protected by the Prosecutor of the Republic of the jurisdiction. But when a lawyer is on the street, he does not enjoy immunity because that is not what the law says. He is protected only in the courts.”

The Francophone minister added that those who go out on the street face the police and it is not the Ministry of Justice or the court that ensures the maintenance of order. They have their own procedure and are implemented by the Sub-Prefect, the Prefect or the Governor. “So if lawyers want to be protected, let them come before the courts.” Laurent Esso also noted that the Department of Justice has received no complaints from what he painted as “the so-called Common Law lawyers”. To the Minister, the Common Law Lawyers strike is unnecessary.

By Sama Ernest

23, December 2016

War on terror: Cameroon shifts troops in Nigeria ⁰

Hundreds of Cameroonian servicemen and women from the Rapid Intervention Battalion have entered Nigerian territory. The troops were deployed at the request of President Buhari for a decisive and intense anti Boko Haram operation. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the soldiers operating under Operation Alpha are currently stationed at Goshe, a village in northeastern Nigeria about twenty kilometers from the Cameroonian town of Achigachia.

Ever since the beginning of this massive military campaign, the damage in the ranks of the Cameroonian army has been minimal. The only incident recorded occurred on the first day of the operation, when an army vehicle jumped on a mine and two soldiers’ sustained injuries.

Cameroon military sources say the operation was launched under the banner of the Joint Multinational Force and the offensive aims to reopen the Bama-Banki axis and resettle the Nigerian army in Goshe, which is said to be one of the strongholds of Boko Haram. The current operation is also taking place in a mountain sanctuary of Boko Haram located in Sambisa.

By Rita Akana

22, December 2016

Francophone dominance: HYSACAM takes over Bamenda City Council ⁰

The Government Delegate to the Bamenda Urban Council, Vincent NDUMU has announced that the company in charge of collection and recycling of refuse will be officially installed in the city in 2017. Ndumu who has come under fire recently in the way garbage is managed in town also said that the Council has signed over 5 billion Francs deal with HYSACAM for five years.

According to the government delegate, the coming of HYSACAM will reduce the heavy load and burden on Council’s resources. Before the arrival of HYSACAM next year, the Bamenda City Council has been using its own resources to collect and dispose waste in the city for a meager sum of about 350 000 000 frs for one year.

But Mr NDUMU said the coming of HYSACAM will mean dozens who were working in the Hygiene and Sanitation department will have to be sacked, hence it will cause massive unemployment. Even though he reassured that he could integrate them in other services, a majority of workers stand to lose their jobs. Garbage disposal in the North West regional capital Bamenda has been a thorn in the flesh of the Government Delegate who has been accused of not working to preserve the beauty of the town which is gradually fading into a jungle.

But he says that those who are accusing him are ignorant of the huge task the Council has. He cited case of markets where taxes are far below what they use to dispose garbage from the markets. Vincent NDUMU has challenged City Dwellers to tell him which Government Delegate out of the 14 has worked hard like him to embellish the town. He frowned at media reports which according to him always target his personality.

Cameroun Info.Net

22, December 2016

President Biya is Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year 2016 ³

Blood and intrigues have earned President Paul Biya Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year nomination. This may seem unprecedented but justifiable. Blood and intrigues are the defining attributes of Paul Biya’s presidency. Indeed, blood and intrigues are at its highest as we write. They, therefore merit special attention in our choice of our man of the year.

The choice of Mr Biya as Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year 2016 is not without difficulties. The first difficulty is that it is unprecedented and requires some explanation for reasonable people to contextualize and understand.

We are conscious that no matter what explanation we may give, there will be significant questions begging for answers. The choice is unconventional and fails to meet the conventional criteria for the choice of a classic man of the year. But we hasten to state that this choice is not intended to celebrate any remarkable achievement of Mr Paul Biya for the public good. Far from that, it is intended to create international awareness and focus on the acts and conduct of the man whom if the international community fails to act promptly, may set the entire sub-region on an internecine war of attrition and possible genocide.

President Paul Biya is an African strongman who over a period of thirty-four years has established an absolute brutal dictatorship. During these long years in power, he has succeeded to make Cameroon a deeply divided nation. He is a master of the politics of ethnicity.

His staying power is mired in dividing and playing one ethnic group against the others in order to compel subservience. His reign is characterized by a state of fear, a permanent state of emergency symbolized by daily motions of support broadcast by the national radio-television network and published by the national daily Cameroon Tribune. These motions of support convey a sublime sense of potential political instability, fear and the anxiety of a nation at war with its soul.

In thirty-four years President Biya has established a system of government which may be characterized as a pyramid scheme of institutional corruption. With it, he manipulates, controls and dominates Cameroon’s political life. From the summit of this corrupt enterprise, he politicizes and supervises a supposed war against corruption. He relies on this war against corruption to keep in check a frightened and docile nation.

Among the many victims of this war are, some ambitious members of his crime syndicate who initiated a premature contest for power; at a moment Biya needed their unalloyed support to eternalize power. For daring, he put them in jail. The next are the rats in Paul Biya’s Alibaba Empire of corruption. They are the gate-keepers of the corrupt empire. Their crime is that they helped themselves beyond their permitted limit from the sesame treasure of Paul Biya’s prurient corrupt government. While he has encouraged and promoted this category of stooges, he has on occasion sacrificed them as disposable fodder aimed at concealing or deflating international attention and spotlight on the dire consequences of his failed economic policies, systemic corruption, egregious violations and crass misgovernance.

The third category is made up of potential troubling witnesses whom he brought too close to his regime of personal power, but whose long term allegiance, he cannot vouchsafe. To instill fear and compel allegiance from the political power elite he created and nurtured to serve him and him alone, he created a Special Criminal Court which he uses against adversaries, real or apparent at his will and caprices.

A key consideration in our choice of Mr Paul Biya as Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year is his presidency of blood and intrigues. These are key attributes on which his presidency was firmly established from inception. From one stage-managed attempted coup d’état aimed at expunging the lingering political influence of his “illustrious predecessor” Ahmadou Ahidjo an attempted coup d’état which was savagely repressed was organized. The toll in human and material cost of the violent repression has never been made public. Timid attempts by Northern Cameroon’s power elite to seek an answer to this lingering and smoldering powder keg has so far been ignored.

That massacre set the stage for President Paul Biya to establish a platform for the fulfillment of a long term French- inspired ambition to completely wipe out the internationally recognized identity of the Southern Cameroons as a means of securing its gulf of Guinea oil economy. President Biya engineered and enacted a law re-emphasizing and clarifying the identity of La Republique du Cameroun and its inherited boundaries at independence on January 1, 1960. This action was the powder keg that ignited the identity crisis that has bedeviled Cameroon ever since, with the Southern Cameroons arguing with international law and history on its side that by redefining its identity within its international recognized borders consistent with its international identity at the UN and the AU,, La Republique du Cameroun must withdraw its forces and administrators on the territory of the Southern Cameroons to its said internationally recognized boundaries forthwith.

The ongoing mayhem, crimes against humanity and a drift towards potential genocide in the territory of the Southern Cameroons perpetrated by forces deployed by President Paul Biya to suppress a popular uprising clamoring for freedom and independence arose from resistance to annexation, cultural asphyxiation and colonial imposition. The ongoing uprising therefore arises from the arrogance of power, political and geostrategic choices that are endangering the peace and security in the gulf of Guinea requiring urgent United Nations Intervention.

The plethora of deliberate but uninvestigated human disasters in Lake Nyos, the Nsam fire disaster, the University of Yaounde Zero Mort student massacres, the University of Buea students massacred during various student protests, the February 28, 2008 massacre of peaceful protesters all over the national territory, the recent Eseka train disaster and persistent shameful attempts to conceal responsibility for these crimes against humanity bear the stamp of presidential responsibility. The legitimate question to ask is who stands to benefit from these crimes if not the President who holds the constitutional mandate to protect all citizens and uphold fundamental freedoms?

The use of the constitutional institutions of governance like the National Assembly and the Judiciary as tools for the entrenchment of tyranny and oppression makes President Paul Biya, an imperial president, endowed with the power of life and death over a citizenry resigned to their fate and the forces of nature for survival.

Rather than confront the ills afflicting the nation, like the institutional pauperization of the masses, the paucity of basic necessities like water, electricity, affordable medical care, road infrastructure, and rising insecurity, the President relies on these depravities as political tools to compel allegiance and political control.

The resolution of the Bakassi crisis was supposed to be celebrated as a defining achievement of a Biya presidency, but the Southern Cameroons problem of which Bakassi is a significant component if not satisfactorily resolved, will lead to reigniting with ferocious intensity, the Bakassi crisis with sub-regional and regional consequences.

The President declared war against Boko Haram from a foreign capital, Paris. That again was an unprecedented. However, while due credit must be given to the Cameroon Army for their war effort against Boko Haram, the economic neglect which was exploited to recruit Cameroonians into these terrorist organization must be addressed. Doing so needs adequate resources and a national Marshall Development plan which President Biya has in thirty-four years failed to establish. Cameroon is instead economically on the decline and has become a heavily indebted nation, mortgaging the future of the nation far into posterity.

Without any form of stylistic felicity, Cameroon Concord News holds the firm opinion that under the circumstances painted above, Cameroon is living on the heart pulse of one individual. There is no visible possibility of democratic change of government in Cameroon. The institutional framework does not exist. There is no constitutional court envisaged by the Constitution to adjudicate on constitutional issues including the political transition, should there be a constitutional imperative. This is a powerful indication that Mr Biya does not envisage retiring from politics and relinquishing power through constitutional means.

President Paul Biya is undoubtedly the undisputed heart pulse of a nation of twenty-three million people who are living at his pleasure. He is deified by his supporters who additionally credit him for being the master of time and destiny of the nation. One of them, Professor Fame Ndongo claimed the status of the President’s slave and invited the nation to follow. These attributes confer considerable power and authority on President Paul Biya next to, if not at par with God. This indeed, is the problem with Cameroon.

By nominating Mr Biya Cameroon Concord News Man of the Year, Cameroon Concord Group does not in any way subscribe to or validate these attributes or the policies of Mr Biya that have earned him this nomination. Cameroon is besieged from the East, the North and now the Southern Cameroons in international conflicts. These conflicts are a product of a deliberate policy of blood and intrigues.

Behind this facade of the power of blood and intrigues, there are visible cracks on the walls of absolute power and the tyranny of absolute personal power. Will the His Excellency the pulse of the nation, the master and controller of time, beat the timeless time of one and only true God to mend the visible cracks to sustain his eternal power? The answer lies in a clear understanding of the parable of the rich fool.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

21, December 2016

Eseka train disaster: Shameless delay on publication of Philemon Yang inquiry ⁰

Two months after the Eseka train tragedy which occurred on the 21^st of October 2016, some 128 km from Yaoundé the nation’s capital, mystery still persists on the official causes of the tragedy. The CPDM government is yet to establish the responsibilities and role played by prominent officials prior to and after the crash.

Four days after the accident which officially claimed the lives of 79 people and wounded over 600, President Paul Biya, on leave at the time of the events, and whose drama had precipitated his return to the country, announced that his government was determine to make public the causes of the railway accident and to propose measures to limit the risk of the occurrence of such a catastrophe in the future.

After a month’s work, the commission created by the Cameroonian dictator and headed by the Prime Minister handed over its findings to the Head of State. The presidency has not made any official declaration on the subject. Access to the site was highly secured and many journalists were prevented from visiting the crashed wagons of the Inter city service 152. Consequently, Cameroonians are still unaware of the real causes of the train accident which cost the lives of several of their compatriots.

The President of Bolloré Africa Railways was quoted as saying that the train was running at an “abnormally high” speed before the derailment. The various investigative commissions set up by the judicial police in Yaoundé and announced by the public prosecutor at the Mfoundi and Nyong-et-Ekelle High Court (Eseka), seem to have disappeared.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

21, December 2016

Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh says police brutality on Kumba youths “unacceptable” ⁰

Dr Christopher Fomunyoh was honored on Tuesday December 20, 2016 by the Publisher of The Scoop newspaper. The much respected Cameroonian opinion leader who also moonlights with the US based National Democratic Institute was described during the award ceremony as the most Combatant politician in Cameroon in 2015.

The President of US based National Democratic Institute, NDI; Dr Christopher Fomunyoh used the forum to assure the people of Kumba that the time has come when all their wounds will be healed and their worries forgotten.

He described recent Police brutality on Kumba youths as unacceptable and urged them to hold on steadfast, “This is an opportune moment to send a strong message to fellow Cameroonians to say I have been very dismay by what is happening since the month of November,I have really been saddened by the loss of lives and the violence and my message is that this is the time for healing ,the healing needs to begin and it is going to happen”. He reassured them.

Kumba inhabitants say they now live in fear of the unknown after last week’s brutal acts on them where some youth lost their lives and others were arrested.

Culled from Cameroun Info.Net

21, December 2016

Washington denies involvement in assassination of Russian envoy ⁰

US Secretary of State John Kerry has denied American involvement in the assassination of Russia’s envoy to Turkey, voicing concern about Ankara’s rhetoric against Washington. On Tuesday, Turkey blamed US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen for Monday’s assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey and tried to place blame on the United States for allowing Gulen to live in the country. Kerry has raised concerns about “some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination yesterday because of the presence of Mr. Gulen here in the United States,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

Kirby dismissed the accusation as ridiculous and warned against hasty conclusions. “We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions,” Kirby added. “But any notion that the United States was in any way supportive of this or behind this or even indirectly involved is absolutely ridiculous.” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Kerry during a phone call on Tuesday that both Turkey and Russia “know” that a movement led by Gulen was behind the attack, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was fatally shot on Monday by an off-duty policeman while attending an event at an art gallery in Ankara. The assailant, identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, was later killed in a shootout with police. After carrying out the murder, which was caught on camera, the assailant went on a rant, blaming Russia for the death of civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The assassination was condemned by the Turkish and Russian leaders as an attempt to derail bilateral ties. It came as the countries are maintaining cooperation over the Syrian crisis. Moscow and Ankara support the opposing sides of the conflict in Syria and the two have military presence in the Arab country.

Presstv

20, December 2016

Congo-Kinshasa: 9 killed in clashes amid rising tensions ⁰

Nine protesters have reportedly been killed in clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, amid rising tensions over the refusal of President Joseph Kabila to quit after the expiration of his term in office. On Tuesday, the United Nations director of human rights in the Central African country announced that there were “solid” reports that 20 civilians had been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kinshasa. “On the issue of deaths, it looks bad. We are reviewing allegations of up to 20 civilians killed, but it (the information) is pretty solid,” said Jose Maria Aranaz.

The UN also raised concern earlier on Tuesday over a new wave of detentions in the DRC over Kabila’s refusal. Director of the UN mission in the DR Congo, Maman Sambo Sidikou, announced that his office had documented 113 arrests of opposition leaders and civil society activists, human rights campaigners and journalists by police and intelligence authorities since December 16. “I am gravely concerned by the arrests of those who seek to express their political views,” said Sidikou, who also serves as the UN secretary general’s special representative to the Central African country.

“I urge the national authorities to strictly adhere to their international human rights obligations, to create a climate of political tolerance and respect at this important juncture in the DRC’s history, and to grant full access to United Nations personnel to all detention centers,” he added. News outlets reported sounds of gunfire in the country’s two largest cities as the opposition leader urged citizens to reject Kabila, whose second and final term expired on Tuesday with no indication pointing to his intent to quit or hold new polls.

As fears grew about the eruption of new violence across the country, gunfire rang out in the capital as well as the second largest city of Lubumbashi. Moreover, dozens of troop carriers patrolled the populous capital of nearly 10 million people and police officers and paramilitary forces have remained deployed in other cities since Sunday. Meanwhile, as the deadline of Kabila’s end-of-mandate approached on Tuesday, crowds had gathered before midnight Monday to blow whistles and beat on improvised drums, calling for the president to step down.

State television overnight announced the establishment of a new government in line with an October deal between the ruling party and tiny fringe opposition groups to leave Kabila in office pending elections in April 2018. The main opposition bloc, however, rejects the plan. The new cabinet will be led by Sami Badibanga, a defector from the party of the mainstream opposition party led by 84-year-old Etienne Tshisekedi.

Presstv