8, December 2016
Anglophone Uprising: 2 killed and nearly 100 wounded in Bamenda 0
Nearly 100 people have been wounded and 2 killed in today’s clashes in the North West regional capital of Bamenda, the worst outbreak of violence since the Anglophone uprising.
Witnesses and journalists at Commercial Avenue, a hotspot neighbourhood for anti-government demonstration in recent months reported seeing bodies in the street and two apparently shot at close range.
Other witnesses reported further bodies seen lying in streets in other parts of the city. A journalist with Cameroon Intelligence Report described one of the victims as “kid” and said he had been shot execution-style “through the top of the skull”.
It is an absolute horror; those who committed this are war criminals. Blasts and gunfire echoed around T-junction for most of today after heavily armed soldiers attacked civilians protesting against a visiting Prime Minister.
There are fears that Cameroon is slowly but surely sliding into ethnic conflict as hatred for French speaking tribes keeps mounting.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest
9, December 2016
CPDM crime syndicate cancels Bamenda “peaceful rally”, PM still in hiding 0
The Prime Minister and the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM have cancelled a planned pro Biya Francophone CPDM rally that was to hold in Bamenda this week. The decision was made public by Jean Nkwete, the Secretary General of the ruling party as he was escorted out of Ayaba Hotel late last night by security agents. Cameroon Concord News understands the Prime Minister and Minister Atanga Nji are still hiding in one of the rooms in Ayaba.
Urban guerrilla scenes in Bamenda staged by young Southern Cameroonians who were opposed to the holding of the so-called “peace meeting” prompted the decision. The freedom fighters multiplied their acts of violence that eventually pushed Prime Minister Philemon Yang and his entourage into hiding. The Francophone defense and security forces that intervened found it hard to contain the protesters who break and burn.
Dozens of the freedom fighters were shot dead and many wounded. The official record of these bloody clashes has not yet been published by the authorities. Given this renewed violence, the CPDM party that has for 34 years marginalized the Anglophone communities decided to cancel the meeting, which caused the escalation of tension in the capital of the Northwest Region.
The meeting of the CPDM consortium of crime syndicates was coordinated by Philemon Yang, Prime Minister, Head of Government and Jean Nkuété, Secretary General of the Central Committee who wanted through this forum to inform international public opinion that Cameroon was one and indivisible. Mood movements and strikes by Anglophone teachers and lawyers have paralyzed the activities in British Southern Cameroons for several weeks, despite the Francophone government’s proposals to end the crisis.
By Sonne Peter in Bamenda