Government forces went on a rampage this week in Kumba, Southwest region where they arrested many young Southern Cameroonians for unknown reasons.

The youths, most of whom say they do not know why they have been arrested, have been beaten and detained by Cameroonian soldiers who are asking the parents of those arrested to pay bribes for their children to be released.

A source in Kumba has informed the Cameroon Concord News that the young men “were forcefully taken out of their houses in a military raid carried out in the morning of Thursday, March 2, 2023 at about 2am and driven to the police station.”

Government forces have the bad habit of arresting young men for no just reasons and this is fueling a lot of tension and fear in the town, the source added.

The soldiers deployed in Southern Cameroons are here to make money and they are not missing any opportunity to exploit the already impoverished population, our source underscored.

It is challenging to drive around Southern Cameroons these days because of mixed patrol checkpoints in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

From Buea to Kumba, there are 9 checkpoints and all commercial drivers plying that road must pay CFAF 1,000 at each checkpoint. This is draining and it is killing business, the source lamented.

From Buea to Mamfe, there are 17 checkpoints and passengers are put through unnecessary checks which make free movement within the Southwest region challenging, our source pointed out.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a protest by teachers and lawyers in 2016 has already resulted in the deaths of some 10,000 people and there is no end to the killings as government troops think that killing civilians is a sport.

Instead of seeking to minimize the killings, Cameroon government soldiers have transformed the unfortunate situation into a money-making business and this is with the support of their bosses in Yaoundé.

This explains why some Yaoundé government officials are determined to scuttle any efforts aimed at bringing peace to the country’s two English-speaking regions like the Canada-led talks which were announced a few weeks ago.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

After weeks of speculation about the outcome of the investigations into Martinez Zogo’s death, it has been reported that Amougou Belinga and many of his accomplices have finally been moved to the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison known as Kondengui which is testimony that the investigators have found probable cause.

Amougou Belinga, Cameroon’s media mogul, is the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of Martinez Zogo, the whistleblower and investigative journalist who has been exposing the shady businesses of the media mogul and his unholy friendship with government officials such as Louis Paul Motaze, the country’s finance minister, and Laurent Esso, the country’s justice minister who has been variously cited as having a hand in the journalist’s death.

Martinez Zogo’s death has opened a can of worms and one of such worms is the independence of the country’s judiciary.

The investigation into Martinez Zogo’s death was ordered by the country’s president, Paul Biya, instead of the police and gendarmerie which should be responsible for the investigation of criminal offences in the country.

More will be your as details get unpacked by our Yaoundé correspondent.

By Nelly Epupa with files from Rita Akana

Around 7:00 am this Saturday, March 4, 2023, the CEO of the television channel Vision 4 was ferried from the Military Court in Yaoundé to the Kondengui Maximun Security Prison.

The business tycoon and media guru was too ashamed to speak to journalists as he left the Secretariat of State for Defense (SED) where he spent 25 days in custody as part of the investigation related to the murder of journalist and whistleblower Martinez Zogo.

Amougou Belinga started his last journey of many dangers around 5pm on Friday, March 3, 2023 for the Yaoundé Military Court under heavy escort and was auditioned till the early hours of Saturday March 4, 2023.

For more than 14 hours, journalists and relatives of the suspects stood in front of the Yaoundé Military Court.  Suspense was very intense and the late Martinez Zogo investigation proved to be longer than in the past, as the state prosecutor decided to close the preliminary procedure after two postponements. 

Lieutenant Colonel Justin Danwe, leader of the commando mission who kidnapped the renowned Martinez Zogo, in Yaoundé on January 17, 2023 before murdering him shortly thereafter was charged.

The Government Commissioner of the Yaoundé Military Court, Commander Cerlin Belinga, after having carefully read the preliminary investigation report produced by the Joint Gendarmerie-Police Commission said that there were enough corroborating clues to remand Lieutenant Colonel Justin Danwé, Amougou Belinga and all the elements of the DGRE in custody.

Amougou Belinga, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe including members of his killer squad have now joined the disgraced Commissioner Maxime Eko Eko, head of the General Directorate of External Research in Kondengui.

By some strange happenstance, journalist Bruno Bidjang the general manager of Vision 4, Colonel Raymond Thomas Etoundi Nzoe and Yannick Nkili, respectively Chief of Security and bodyguard of Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga were acquitted. Melissa Belinga’s driver and his wife were also freed.

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, the main man behind the murder of Martinez Zogo was charged with “complicity in torture by aiding”.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A woman died Tuesday from wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device exploded during a mountain race in Cameroon’s war-torn English-speaking region of Southwest, medical officials said.

Martin Mokake, director of the Buea Regional Hospital where the mother of three was undergoing treatment, said the woman died of cardiac arrest which was caused by the blast and wounds.

“We did everything to save her life,” Mokake told Chinese News Agency Xinhua over the phone.

The woman was among some 20 victims who were hit when three blasts went off three days ago during an annual athletic competition, dubbed Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, in Buea, the chief town of the Southwest region.

Separatists who want to create an independent nation in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest claimed on social media that they were responsible for the blasts.

Source:  Xinhua News Agency

A Spanish court on Tuesday absolved defunct state-owned arms company Defex of graft charges related to contracts to provide material to Cameroon.

Defex was accused of using a complex bribery and embezzlement system to secure the contracts in the Central African country between 2005 and 2013.

Spain’s National Court, which deals with major criminal cases, said it found evidence that Defex paid for gifts such as trips and cosmetic surgery to Cameroon officials to secure the contracts.

But it said this happened before Spain’s criminal code was reformed in 2015 to extend criminal responsibility to state companies like Defex, so its ruling “must be to absolve”.

The court, however, sentenced Defex’s former commercial director to a two-year jail sentence for corruption.

Public prosecutors had sought a 23-year jail sentence, but the court absolved him of the charges of forgery, money laundering and embezzlement of public funds.

It said the money which was allegedly embezzled did not belong to Defex, but was from a private bank which financed the projects in Cameroon.

The National Court is investigating two other suspected cases of corruption involving the sale of weapons and military equipment by Defex to the governments of Angola and Saudi Arabia.

Defex was founded in 1972 by the Spanish state to help export products made by the country’s defence industry. It was dissolved in 2017 as a result of the scandal.

Source: AFP

Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze has been banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into his alleged involvement in the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered late today that a prosecutor is seeking charges against Mr Motaze, who has been asked to explain his links with a key suspect in the killing, French Cameroun business tycoon Amougou Belinga.

Records show the two men had multiple phone calls just hours before the assassination, prosecutors say.

Minister Motaze reportedly wrote to Prime Minister Dion Ngute asking for permission to lead a delegation abroad for the signing with Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, an amendment to a contract on the program to secure customs revenues.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that on February 23, 2023, the Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s Office wrote to Minister Motaze to inform him that Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute has rejected his request.

Kidnapped during the night of January 17, 2023 in Yaoundé, the journalist and whistleblower Arsène Salomon Mbami Zogo alias Martinez Zogo, was found on January 22, lifeless and his body mutilated.

Motaze’s name and that of Justice Minister Laurent Esso were mentioned during the hearings related to the murder of Martinez Zogo. The Head of State could at any time give his high approval for the auditioning of these two ministers.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Three gun men attacked a private primary school in Molyko, Buea, on February 22, at about 11 am.

Following the attack, the head teacher was kidnapped by the attackers after verbal threats had been sent to the school proprietor.

The gunmen fired several warning shots into the air as they left the school campus.

Security forces arrived the scene only when the perpetrators had gone.

The head teacher who had been abducted was released the following morning after a ransom was paid.

By Cecilia Manjang