Manyus and members of several Cameroonian communities in Great Britain were treated to a cheerful and vibrant gala in Birmingham, UK on Saturday, July 22 2023, intended to raise funds for the ongoing Besongabang water project. Besongabang is one of the largest villages in Manyu Division, Cameroon, with a population of over 2,552, according to the latest population survey. The village is blessed with a very successful diaspora in Europe and North America, but like many places in the country, water and other essentials for life are not readily available. So, for over twelve years, the Besongabang diaspora has engaged in a worthy cause of soliciting funds to construct boreholes to supply drinkable water to their village. And last weekend’s fund-raising event provided a rare opportunity for friends of Besongabang and Besongabang citizens in the UK to put their names in the history books of the village.

The Birmingham city occasion was organized by the Besongabang General Association and animated by the renowned DJ Eko. Guests were treated to a live display of the Obasinjom dance with traditional drums and songs to match. The Obasinjom display, the first of its kind in the UK, was coordinated by two Besongabang sons, Chief Agbortarh Takor and Nfor Mgbe Nelson Agbor.

A distinguished son from the Ayuktayak clan, Prof Julius Oben, the Director of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Yaoundé 1, was the guest of honour. The award-winning academic and philanthropist flew into the UK from Cameroon with his wife and son at short notice just for the event. He graced the evening with a soul-searching speech and donated £700 in cash to the cause.

The laudable gesture from Prof Julius Oben has sent shudders through the Manyu diaspora because other Besongabang notables in the UK were conspicuously absent from the event.

Among the dozens of donors were Ms Patience Ekule and Mrs Naomi Enowpka-Kum who also supported the water project with £500 and £700, respectively. Besongabang UK, Vice President Ms Marie Eyong, who hosted more than twenty-five donors at her residence after the historic gala nite was visibly delighted with the result. Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Seseskou Asu Isong had a seat on the high table.

By Esther Ashu

At least 16 people have been killed and nearly three dozen injured after a four-storey building collapsed onto a smaller one in Cameroon’s largest city, according to authorities.

“The casualty figures may be higher”, said Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon’s Littoral region, where the city Douala is located.

The commercial centre is 210 kilometres west of the capital, Yaounde.

The governor said that “rescue workers, assisted by Cameroon government troops, are still digging the wreckage to see if more bodies can be recovered.”

The military’s fire brigade has been ordered to join the country’s Red Cross and other rescue services in searching for survivors.

Residents living in the Ndogbon neighbourhood where the incident took place said they were in shock.

“We heard people screaming … and struggled to help some out of the wreckage, but could not do it with our spades and hoes,” Gaspard Ndoppo, who lives near the collapsed buildings, said.

The four-storey building caved in around midnight local time and the cause remains unclear, but locals said it looked to have deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Building collapses happen often in Douala, sometimes due to natural disasters such as landslides and other times because of poor construction, locals say.

Douala’s city council is currently demolishing houses in high-risk zones susceptible to floods or landslides but the building that collapsed was not marked for demolition.

Source: AP/Reuters

A four-storey building collapsed in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala, killing at least 12 people and injuring others, the regional governor said on Sunday.

The building, located in the city’s eastern Ange Raphael neighbourhood, caved in around midnight.

“Twelve died and the others are in hospital for medical attention,” the governor of the surrounding Littoral region told journalists at the site, saying 31 people in total were affected.

The situation was under control and rescue teams were making sure no one remained under the rubble, he said.

Though the cause of the collapse was unclear, local residents said it looked deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Source: Reuters

Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions are experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis: more than 630,000 people are internally displaced, and more than 86,000 people have taken refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. The ongoing sociopolitical crisis in both regions led to violence that is affecting the local economy and people’s access to essential social services. Essential services and infrastructure have now collapsed in the most severely affected areas.

Approximately 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close since April, and many that are operational are struggling to function.

Internally displaced persons, returnees, and some host populations, especially those in hard-to-reach areas without health facilities, are facing challenges accessing health care. Partners are mobilizing to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need.

Source: UN

Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey signed on Tuesday (July 18) three financing agreements with the head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Cameroon, Philippe Van Damme. The CFAF40 billion support covered by the agreement will support the fight against food insecurity, the construction of certain infrastructure, and the resilience of women in the North-West, South-West, West, and Littoral regions.

The women resilience program notably covered by the agreements involves the promotion of women empowerment with the creation of income-generating activities and an improvement of access to vocational training, Philippe Van Damme says. 

Food insecurity, which is also targeted by the EU funding, officially affects around 3 million people in Cameroon, or around 11% of the country’s population. Children under the age of 5 are the hardest hit, with 1/3 suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon’s military says it has arrested scores of rebels suspected in the shooting deaths of 10 civilians Sunday in the northwest town of Bamenda. The military says separatists disguised themselves as government troops to try to frame them for the killings, which a rebel spokesperson denies.

Bamenda city mayor Achombong Paul, who visited Bamenda Regional Hospital on Tuesday morning, said residents of the city are living in fear after Sunday’s brutal killings.

“Every human life has value. Every human being has a right to live and nobody for whatever reason has a right to take away the life of an individual,” he said. “We cannot live in a town where there is chaos, fear and all the kinds of atrocities going on at the same time. We will never move forward with this attitude. No, we won’t. People can’t go to work, nothing works in this town because people are scared to be killed.”

Hospital director Nsame Denis said at least 600 people have visited the hospital since Sunday’s killings to find out if their family or friends are among the victims.

“We received in total 12 victims of firearm injuries. Out of this 12, one is in the intensive care, one took treatment and went home, and at the level of the mortuary, we have 10 corpses amongst whom three are female and seven are males ranging from 24 to 56 years,” Nsame said.

Cameroon’s military, in a July 17 statement, said about 12 heavily armed fighters dressed in military gear similar to that of the central African state’s military shot indiscriminately at civilians at Nacho Junction in Bamenda.

The military said scores of suspects have been arrested in a crackdown operation less than 48 hours after the killings.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest region, said fighters want to create panic among civilians who collaborate with the military by reporting suspected separatists.

“I would like, on behalf of the head of state, to assure the population that measures are being taken by the security services to locate the authors of that barbaric act and sanction them. I would like to strongly condemn those attacks by a terrorist group,” he said.

Separatists on social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp, denied responsibility for the killings. They said government troops were responsible, asserting that the military wants to give separatists a bad image to the international community.

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa reports that Sunday’s killing comes two days after Cameroon’s military was said to have raided Awing Quarter, another neighborhood in Bamenda, and killed at least five people.

Northwest Region Governor Tchoffo acknowledges that civilians were killed in Awing Quarter but blames fighters for the killings.

The Cameroon government said people wounded in both attacks are being treated free of charge in hospitals in Bamenda.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Democracy, accuse both the military and rebels of abuses, including rape, torture and killings.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions have seen years of deadly battles between government troops and separatists fighting to carve out an English-speaking state from French-speaking majority Cameroon.

The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced more than 760,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group.

Source: VOA

Separatist activism is likely to continue in Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon through at least late 2023. Unidentified assailants dressed in official military uniforms entered a bar and opened fire indiscriminately in Bamenda (Northwest) at around 19:30 July 16, killing nine people and injuring two others. The exact reason for the attack is unclear. A military spokesperson has attributed the attack to Ambazonia separatists.

The threat of violence remains elevated in the English-speaking regions as various armed groups continue to call for secession, highlighting the dangers for those operating or traveling in western Cameroon. The situation has remained tense since October 2017, when secessionists unilaterally proclaimed the independence of the so-called state of Ambazonia, which is unrecognized internationally. Human Rights Watch estimates that about 4000 civilians died due to armed forces and separatist-linked violence since late 2016.

Security-related operations are ongoing. Checkpoints and searches of vehicles and personnel are likely, particularly outside major cities such as Buea (Southwest) and Bamenda (Northwest). Authorities may enact temporary security measures such as curfews and telecommunication restrictions without notice in the event of significant violence or unrest.

Various armed groups operate in the region, such as the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF), which is also plagued by banditry and other criminal activities.

Security forces frequently skirmish with Ambazonia secessionist militants (also called “Amba boys”), regularly leading to casualties. Separatists have carried out ambushes targeting security forces and government officials involving improvised explosive devices. There are also reports of militant abuses, including kidnappings and killings, against the local population. Militants often issue stay-at-home orders (also known as “ghost cities”); residents who do not comply with such measures may face intimidation and violence.

While many kidnappings go unreported, it is estimated that dozens to hundreds of people are kidnapped each year in both Northwest and Southwest regions. Targets notably include prominent members of civil society, politicians, security forces, teachers, and priests, among others. Militants may target foreign nationals due to their perceived worth in the event of a ransom demand. High-profile individuals have been kidnapped in recent months, including a senator and her driver, who were seized by ADF militants in Bamenda on April 30. Security forces released several hostages, including the senator, during a military operation in Ashong (Northwest) on May 30. The Bakassi Peninsula (officially part of Cameroon) also hosts many oil-related operations attracting criminals and militants who seek to kidnap oil workers, aiming for a higher ransom.

Culled from Crisis 24

Unidentified gunmen have carried out a deadly attack, resulting in the loss of nine lives, including that of a recently married couple in the city of Bamenda in Cameroon.

The victims, identified as Simplice Lontsi Tsomene, 37, and his wife Hélène Raisa Tanga, 25, were known as loving parents to three children and were also the proud owners of a phone shop.

Authorities are attributing the attack to separatist rebels, who struck at a busy junction. According to reports, the assailants arrived in two unmarked vehicles and immediately ordered people to lie down.

Eyewitnesses have come forward to reveal that the gunmen accused the victims of being “black legs,” insinuating that they were either colluding with the government or were not complying with the separatists’ directives.

Rebels who want to create a separate country called Ambazonia for Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been locked in conflict with the government since 2017, and Bamenda is one of their hotspots.

A day before these latest shootings, troops attacked a residence in the same neighbourhood of Nacho, killing five young men.

The situation is rapidly deteriorating, with horrendous human rights abuses and atrocities being committed. Amnesty International recently published a report detailing alleged murders and rapes by both sides in the Anglophone armed conflict and urging the government to investigate.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the killings, some separatist Ambazonia leaders in the diaspora have been urging their fighters to go after those they brand as “black legs”, without mercy.

Sources: BBC and Africa News

Cameroonian journalists are facing lethal threats and false legal charges as they pursue reporting in the midst of Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, according to a new report on press freedom and freedom of expression submitted to the United Nations by Freedom House, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights, with the support of Covington & Burling LLP.

The joint submission on press freedom in Cameroon released ahead of the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva later this year marks six months since the abduction and killing of prominent Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo, whose mutilated body was found five days later.

The groups’ submission highlights that the killing, physical attacks, abduction, torture, and harassment of journalists by Cameroonian police, intelligence agencies, military, and non-state actors continue to have a severe chilling effect. Several journalists have been forced into exile, two journalists have died in government custody under suspicious circumstances since 2010, and, most recently, prominent journalist Martinez Zogo was murdered in January 2023.  In addition, two other journalist deaths are being investigated by CPJ.

“President Paul Biya’s government routinely claims that the plethora of media outlets in the country proves that the right to media freedom is enjoyed in Cameroon, but the reality is the polar opposite as laid bare in this joint report,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator.  “The arbitrary detention of journalists labeled terrorists, the killings with impunity and the widespread censorship tactics fostered by the government, must be reversed for democracy to overcome Cameroon’s protracted conflict.” 

The arbitrary imprisonment of journalists coupled with incommunicado and lengthy pre-trial detention has made Cameroon the second worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa after Eritrea. Cameroon also detains journalists the longest after Eritrea. Five journalists are currently being detained there, four of whom are being held on anti-state charges in connection with the ongoing Anglophone conflict that has pitted separatists in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon against the forces of the majority French-speaking government.

The Cameroonian government uses anti-terror, anti-state, “false news” charges, and criminal defamation legislation to detain and convict journalists. It also prosecutes journalists by military tribunals rather than impartial civilian courts and consistently denies them the right to a fair trial and appeals process.

“The politically motivated detention of journalists in Cameroon is of serious concern,” said Margaux Ewen, Director of Freedom House’s Political Prisoners Initiative. “Through this submission, we remind Cameroon of its obligations under domestic and international law. We also show solidarity with the five journalists currently behind bars, who will not be forgotten.”

The Cameroonian government frequently suspends broadcasts and broadcast permissions, orders internet shutdowns, and blocks access to social media, communication platforms, and journalism offices and studios.

Cameroon is rated “Not Free” in Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2023 report. The country has an overall score of 15/100, with a score of 0/4 for media freedom (since 2018). The country has consistently appeared on CPJ’s annual prison census since 2014, with press freedom and journalist safety in decline for more than a decade. The American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights has documented multiple due process violations in trials of journalists reporting on the Anglophone crisis.

“This submission conclusively shows that the Cameroonian justice system continues to fail to protect journalists and other human rights defenders,” said Ginna Anderson, Associate Director of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Human Rights. “The significant fair trial violations that the ABA Center for Human Rights has documented show an escalating breakdown in the rule of law and the protection of fundamental freedoms. It is vital that the UN Human Rights Committee engage the government of Cameroon on the specific violations and recommendations contained in this report.”

 “Through Covington’s Kurt Wimmer Media Freedom Pro Bono Initiative, our lawyers provide pro bono support on media freedom matters, seeking to protect and advance media freedom and the safety of journalists,” said Peter Lichtenbaum, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP.  “Our work on the joint submission to the United Nations UPR Review process assessing Cameroon’s actions with respect to press freedom supports these objectives.”

Among the recommendations in the report, CPJ, Freedom House and the ABA urged President Paul Biya’s government to finally account for the death in custody of Samuel Wazizi, to free the journalists it has arbitrarily detained, including those falsely accused of terrorism, and to ensure that the murder of Martinez Zogo and the killing of Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe do not go unpunished. They also called for Cameroon’s overly broad anti-terror law to be reviewed and to include a public interest defense.

Cameroon will undergo its UPR in November 2023 as part of the 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group in Geneva.

Source: CPJ