More than 21,000 people from Cameroon’s Anglophone region have fled to Nigeria in recent months. Not only do they struggle to find enough to eat but also have to come to terms with their traumatic experiences.

Pauline Agba knows many residents of the Adikpo refugee camp. They keep stopping her on her rounds to talk about their situation. Agba works for the Caritas Justice, Development and Peace Committee (JDPC). Together with 20 colleagues and other help organizations she tries to provide for the refugees’ needs. “A couple of days ago the water pumps stopped working,” she said. Now the water supply is functioning again. On this particular day, 34-year-old Napoleon Egumu stops her to ask for building material. “We need doors, to build our houses,” he said, pointing at the unfinished structures.

Nearly 1,100 people, most of them Cameroonians, live in the camp in Nigeria’s Benue state. It doesn’t look like other refugee camps. Small houses are being built everywhere. The children go to schools nearby. The refugees and the local authorities, as well as international organizations, do not expect the conflict in Cameroon to stop anytime soon. They believe the number of refugees will increase.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that more than 21,000 people have left Cameroon since October 2017. The majority fled to Nigeria’s Cross River State, followed by Benue and Taraba. “New people are arriving every day,” said Remigius Ihyula, a priest and JDPC coordinator.

Dreams of independence

The refugees fled Cameroon due to the ongoing conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions. The population there speaks English and not French which is widely spoken in the rest of the country. But Anglophones make up only 20 percent of the 25 million Cameroonians. They have been complaining of discrimination for years. “We suffer. Our children do not get any jobs. We do not have roads, only villages,” said Dorothy Offum, who fled with seven of her own children, two grandsons and two other children.

35-year-old Offum finally feels safe in Adikpo. The fact that the refugee camp is three hours away from the Cameroonian border helps. “We discussed this with the government. Keeping them closer to the border would have increased a sense of uncertainty. The Cameroonian government might have come looking for them,” said UNHCR representative in Nigeria, Antonio Jose Canhandula. However, there is a logistical challenge. New refugees have to be picked up in places like Abande. Due to the bad state of the roads, this can take several weeks.

The refugees’ flight is fraught with danger. Dorothy Offum took a whole week to reach the border. She kept having to hide in the forest until she finally reached Adikpo months later. What she saw still haunts her. “The day we fled they shot at people. Some managed to hide in the bush. Others died.” A woman sitting next to her nodded silently. Later she told us that one of her children was killed on the way to Nigeria.

More than one conflict

It takes the refugees a while to be able to talk about what they’ve experienced. “Many people are traumatized. We haven’t had a chance to deal with this yet,” Remigius Ihyula told DW. The conflict has attracted little attention worldwide, he added. One reason is that Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where the state of Benue is situated, is itself in a deep crisis. Hundreds have died in a conflict between farmers and herdsmen since the beginning of the year. Thousands have left their homes.

When visiting Benue, Antonio Jose Canhandula was made aware of the situation. The Nigerians who have been displaced are now also receiving aid. Canhandula expects the number of Cameroonian refugees to go up. “According to our information, the situation in Cameroon is not improving; it is getting worse,” he said.Separatist violence grips anglophone western Cameroon.

Source: Deutsche Welle

A blimp depicting Donald Trump as an orange, snarling nappy-wearing baby flew outside the British parliament in London on Friday, launched by critics of the U.S. president who are demonstrating throughout his visit to the country.

Trump, who arrived on Thursday, said he would avoid London as much as possible to avoid the protests.

“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” he told the Sun newspaper. “I used to love London as a city. I haven’t been there in a long time. But when they make you feel unwelcome, why would I stay there?”

Many British politicians regard close ties with the United States, which they call “the special relationship”, as a pillar of foreign policy and Prime Minister Theresa May has courted Trump before the country’s departure from the European Union.

But some Britons see Trump as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues. More than 64,000 people have signed up to demonstrate in London against the visit while other protests are expected around the country.

Around 1,000 people gathered to watch the blimp launch in Parliament Square, with organizers of the stunt wearing red boiler suits and baseball caps emblazoned with “TRUMP BABYSITTER”.

Nicola Tanner, a 33-year-old public official from the southwestern city of Bristol, took the day off work to demonstrate. Wearing a t-shirt with the word “RESIST” on it, she said it was great that the blimp had “touched a nerve” with Trump.

“It’s embarrassing how much our government is falling over themselves to try to appease someone who has no interest in any sort of give-and-take in the UK-U.S. relationship at all, and is so capricious he can change his mind between the end of one tweet and the start of the next one,” she told Reuters.

After a countdown from 10, a cheer went up as the six-meter (20 foot) high balloon rose up. It hovered around 10 meters off the ground, next to the Westminster parliament building and near the River Thames.

Organizer Daniel Jones, 26, a charity communications officer, said they were trying to make people laugh as well as making a serious point. “It’s also about giving a boost to those in America resisting his policies,” he said.

One man dressed as a gorilla and wearing a plastic Trump mask, stood inside a large metal cage.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was criticized by Trump in the Sun interview for failing to control crime and prevent militant attacks, gave his blessing for the blimp to be flown.

Khan rejected suggestions this showed a lack of respect for the U.S. president. “The idea that we restrict freedom of speech, the right to assemble, the right to protest because somebody might be offended is a slippery slope,” he told BBC radio. “We have a rich history in this country of having a sense of humor as well.”

(Source: Reuters)

At least five persons were injured on Thursday following an attack by separatist fighters on the convoy of Cameroon’s Defense Minister along the Kumba-Ekondo-Titi road in the South West Region of the country, sources have confirmed.

According to credible reports, four soldiers and a journalist working for state -run newspaper Cameroun Tribune who were all part of the Minister’s convoy heading to a military camp in Small Ekombe along the Kumba-Ekondo Titi road were all injured in a shoot out that ensued between the military and separatist fighters.

Army spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck who was also part of the convoy said six “secessionists were neutralised” in the course of the shootout.

According Grégoire Djarmaila, the journalist, one of the embedded journalists who sustained an injury, their convoy met stiff resistance from the fighters who were stationed on both sides of the road after erecting barricades.

The convoy succeeded to reach its destination but once again under fierce attack on their way back with the attackers targeting the armored car in which the Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo was found.

In the course of the shootout, a shattered glass particle caught me on the jaw and I started bleeding,” Grégoire Djarmaila, the injured Cameroun Tribune journalist said.

However, they succeeded to get to Kumba safely before being air-lifted to Douala where the other injured four soldiers were given medical attention.

Thursday’s events followed days of fierce fighting in Kumba, Buea and other parts of the North West and South West Regions in Cameroon with several casualties recorded on both sides.

Culled from Journal du Cameroun

An investigation by Amnesty International experts has gathered credible evidence that it was Cameroonian soldiers depicted in a video carrying out the horrific extrajudicial executions of two women and two young children. While an investigation has now been announced, the Ministry of Communication earlier dismissed video footage of the killings as “fake news”.

Extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue and uniforms that feature in the video, paired with digital verification techniques and testimonies taken from the ground, all strongly suggest that the perpetrators of the executions are Cameroonian soldiers.

The Cameroonian authorities’ initial claim that this shocking video is fake simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

“The Cameroonian authorities’ initial claim that this shocking video is fake simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. We can provide credible evidence to the contrary. Given the gravity of these horrific acts – the cold blooded and calculated slaughter of women and young children – these hasty and dismissive denials cast serious doubt over whether any investigation will be genuine,” said Samira Daoud, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office.

“It is imperative that a proper, impartial investigation is undertaken and those responsible for these abhorrent acts are brought to justice.”

While all the elements analyzed so far by Amnesty International strongly suggest the authenticity of the video, the date at which it was taken remains unclear.

The video shows the soldiers using either a Galil or a Zastava M21, in addition to Kalashnikov-style rifles. While AK-type weapons are common, the weapon we strongly believe was used in the execution – either a Galil or the very similar Zastava M21 – is comparatively rare. The Small Arms Survey lists the Galil as only “occasional” in sub-Saharan Africa among governments, and as unknown among non-state actors. The only force in the area carrying Galil’s are a small subset of the Cameroon Army. The Zastava M21 is not specifically reported in the Small Arms Survey online database.

Both the weapons and uniforms of the soldiers in the video are indicative of the Cameroon army, and display patterns consistent with a number of possible units, including regular infantry and the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), the special forces of the Cameroonian army.

The person filming the video specifically identifies two members of the group as soldiers. The first is a second-rank soldier (soldat de deuxième grade) who he names as “Cobra”, the second a Master Corporal (caporal chef) who is named as “Tchotcho”. These names mean that the group can be identified.

The evidence we have provided forms a firm basis for strongly suggesting that the individuals committing these atrocities are members of Cameroon’s armed forces

The Master Corporal’s uniform is a tiger stripe pattern that is standard among Cameroon regular army. The other soldiers are wearing black shirts and green-and-black woodland pants. While the Ministry of Communication claims that the mixed and casual nature of the uniforms indicates a lack of authenticity, Amnesty investigators have found the opposite. Mixed and partial uniforms are common among army personnel, especially in remote areas where this incident took place. Soldiers in the Far North region wearing casual flip flops and T-shirts, as well as a mix of tiger stripe print and woodland print, can be clearly seen in videos previously verified by Amnesty International.

The soldiers are followed by about 10 people whom the sources consulted said are most likely members of the local vigilantes’ committee (because they carry light weapons such as clubs and machetes) from the nearby village.

According to Amnesty International’s analysts, the video was likely filmed in the Mayo Tsanaga area in the Far North region of Cameroon. The vegetation is generally consistent and matches other footage from the area. Terrace cultivations, as visible in the video, are found in Mayo Tsanaga. The rocks, the mountains and the low-growing shrubs (locally known as “tchaski”) can also be found in Mayo Tsanaga. There is a military base located in Mozogo in this region.

“The evidence we have provided forms a firm basis for strongly suggesting that the individuals committing these atrocities are members of Cameroon’s armed forces. Some individuals are clearly identifiable and cannot be allowed to get away with such a heinous act with impunity,” said Samira Daoud.

“While the crimes under international law, including war crimes, and human rights violations committed by Boko Haram in Cameroon are despicable, absolutely nothing can justify the crimes being committed by some members of the armed forces.”

Amnesty International is calling for those suspected of criminal responsibility for these crimes under international law, including superiors who knew or should have known that subordinates were committing the extrajudicial executions, to be brought to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts.

Background

Amnesty International has documented crimes under international law, some amounting to war crimes, as well as human rights violations by members of the Cameroonian security forces in their fight against the armed group Boko Haram in the Far North region of the country.

This includes the widespread use of torture to extract ‘confessions’ from hundreds of people accused – often with little or no evidence – of being affiliated with Boko Haram.

Source: Amnesty International

President of the United States, Donald Trump, says he is on a mission to achieve global peace especially peace on the African continent.

In comments made to journalists on the sidelines of a North America Treaty Organization (Nato) summit in Brussels, Trump stressed that Africa’s problems were so complicated that only few people could understand it.

Trump said in part: “Africa right now has got problems like few people would understand. They have got things going on there that nobody could believe in this room.

“If you saw some of the things that I see through intelligence – what’s going on in Africa – it is so sad, it is so vicious and violent – and we want peace. We want peace for Africa. We want peace all over the world.

The U.S. is a strong partner to governments across Africa in several areas of cooperation. Washington’s diplomacy is by far the strongest on the continent. It also has strong ties in the area of economic, anti-terrorism and humanitarian endeavours.

“That’s my number one goal – peace all over the world and we are building up a tremendous military because I really believe through strength you get peace. We are going to have a military like we never had before,” he added.

The U.S. is estimated to have thousands of troops and over thirty military bases across Africa. Security watchers have also averred that it has other facilities that remain secret. The most recent loss the army suffered was when four special forces were killed in an ambush in Niger last year.

Source: Africa News

Ambazonian Communication Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu has confirmed that France is a key partner of French Cameroun military aggression against and partial occupation of Southern Cameroons. In an audio broadcast released today Thursday the 12^th of July 2018, Chris Anu also pointed out that soldiers from Chad and French Cameroun government forces have been killing innocent Southern Cameroonians and many are undergoing torture at a network of clandestine prisons in French Cameroun.

The Interim Government statement of hope further revealed that large numbers of Southern Cameroons young men and women have been subjected to enforced disappearance after being arbitrarily arrested by troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé.

Chris Anu observed that Ambazonian families find themselves in an endless nightmare where their loved ones are being killed on a daily basis. The Ambazonian Government spokesman said through an investigation conducted by the Interim Government, the Southern Cameroons resistance is very much alive and active in the Southern and Northern zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Chris Anu also stated that the French and Chadian troops operating in shadowy conditions in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, appears to have created a parallel security structure outside Ambazonia and French Cameroun laws, where egregious violations continue to go unchecked.

85 year old President Biya launched a brutal war against the people of Southern Cameroons in an attempt to prevent a secession bid by Anglophone Cameroonians. The offensive initially consisted of helicopter attacks but was later coupled with machines guns and the deployment of ground forces into Southern Cameroons. The UN is yet to discuss the war and the killings ever since the crisis started two years ago.

The UN announced in a statement that the war has displaced 161,000 Southern Cameroons civilians. The war is slowly but surely causing famine across Southern Cameroons. The Yaounde-led aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the Southern Cameroons’s infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories run by the CDC. The UN has said that a record 21,000 Southern Cameroonians have been registered as refugees in Nigeria.

Several Western countries, the United States and France in particular, supply the Biya regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Anti-Trump placards are being prepared ahead of US president Donald Trump’s visit to Britain, and a high security metal fence has been erected outside the US ambassador’s residence Winfield House in London, where Trump will stay overnight.

Trump arrives in Britain on Thursday after a NATO summit and thousands of protesters are expected to join demonstrations during his visit, including plans to fly a blimp over parliament portraying Trump as an orange, snarling baby.

(Source: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court, provoking angry protests in Washington and elsewhere.

“It is my honor and privilege to announce that I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

Kavanaugh’s nomination set the stage for a bruising confirmation battle in the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a slim majority.

If confirmed, the 53-year-old judge will replace long-serving Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27th.

This is the second time Trump nominates a judge for the US Supreme Court. Last April, Trump’s pick for the post, Neil Gorsuch, garnered the Senate’s support after heated debates.

Trump described Kavanaugh as “one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time,” saying he is “considered a judge’s judge and a true thought leader among his peers.”

Kavanaugh, who is a Conservative federal appeals court judge, underlined the need for a judge to be independent.

Shortly after the announcement, protesters decrying Trump’s nomination blocked traffic outside of Trump Tower in New York City, leading to the arrest of seven people, according to law enforcement sources.

In Washington DC, people took to the streets to show their opposition to Trump’s pick, chanting, “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Kavanaugh has got to go.”

Among protesters were US Sens. M Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) who led a demonstration against Kavanaugh’s nomination on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington.

“Are you ready for a fight? Are you ready to defend Roe vs. Wade?” Sanders said. “This is a tough fight but it is a fight that we can win . . . We have the American people on our side, now we have to go state by state by state to make sure senators do what their constituents want.”

“It’s a huge moment for our country,” said protester Kevin Camps, who was concerned that a more conservative court would undermine environmental protections. “What’s impossible to exaggerate is that this is the final word on most issues in this country.”

Source: Presstv

The Southern Cameroons crisis which seemed to have slowed down a few weeks ago has entered a new phase following the government’s decision to step up its attacks. The Yaoundé government is under enormous pressure from the international community that is urging it to find a swift and peaceful resolution.

But the hawks in the Yaoundé regime still hold that an all-out military assault will bring them the results they have been hankering after for close to two years. All measures and tricks by the Yaoundé regime have fallen flat on their faces, as Southern Cameroonians pool together to prove that they can make a ridicule of a government that only understands one language – an iron fist.

The government iron-fist approach has resulted in the attack of many villages and towns in the North-West and South-West regions of the country. These attacks have resulted in the killing and maiming of many innocent Southern Cameroonians who have nothing to do with the unfortunate political and military crisis that has been playing out in Cameroon, a country once considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

Over the last weeks, government army soldiers have been raiding many villages in Manyu Division with a view to reducing the number of violent criminal gangs that have become a nightmare to army soldiers and even to some civilians who members of the armed groups consider as traitors.

There have been reports of young men having been killed by Southern Cameroonian fighters because they are suspected of being traitors. In Ndekwai, a small town located some ten kilometers from Mamfe, Marshal Ayuk was gunned down in front of his home. He was accused of working with government troops and betraying the revolution that has put the Yaoundé government in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Last week in Ossing, Mr. Lucas Ayukobi lost his son following a visit by some violent Southern Cameroonian fighters. He was gunned down point blank and this has drawn a lot of flak from many people who accuse the fighters for misusing their weapons. This is bringing a lot of pressure on the struggling Interim Government that appears to be losing control of many things.

Southern Cameroonian fighters are clearly engaging in summary executions and this is giving the revolution a very bad name. They are also offering the beleaguered government a reason to raid many towns and villages in Southern Cameroons. The government is quick to point to such atrocities and inhuman acts as a reason for it to mop up the country that is now awash with weapons and criminals who are using the revolution to extort money from unsuspecting civilians.

For more than two months, Manyu Division has witnessed some relative peace. Most of the fighting in the South-west region has been playing out in other Divisions of the region. Muyuka, Buea, Kumba and other small towns in the Southwest region have stolen the show from Manyu Division that has been termed as the graveyard of the Cameroon military.

It should be recalled that the very first killing of army soldiers during this conflict took place in Agborkem German, a small town on the banks of the Cross River that serves as the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. The killing of four army soldiers in Agborkem German was responsible for the country’s president, Paul Biya, to declare war on Southern Cameroonian fighters in Manyu Division.

The government felt that by declaring war on its own people, it will restore state authority that has been challenged by the killing of four army soldiers. But the declaration of war has turned out to be the government’s greatest undoing.

More than one thousand Southern Cameroonians have been sent to an early grave, while some 400 army soldiers have been killed in retaliation for their criminal acts in Southern Cameroons. And the number of atrocities and deaths has continued to rise as the government keeps on dilly dallying about the creation of the right conditions for the holding of the inclusive dialogue that the international community has called for.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started as a simple strike by teachers and lawyers in October 2016 has gradually metamorphosed into a full blown civil war, making the independence of the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon a certainty, especially as there are targeted killings and huge refugees movements in and out of the country.

Ever since the crisis started, the country’s president, Paul Biya, also known as the owner of the country, has refused to listen to many respectable people across the world.

The Pope has had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Biya. Leaders of Western countries have advised him to pursue dialogue as a sure means out of the impasse. The African Union has once offered to mediate. But all their pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears.

The Francophonie, for its part, is still prepared to play a great role in efforts at restoring peace to the country, but the country’s authorities are reluctant to accept all these offers of assistance and this is causing the situation to spiral out of control.

Mr. Biya and his collaborators have clearly opted to pursue a path that is causing the country to lose its youthful population. They seem to be frozen in time and their strong faith in old ways is putting the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Across the country, some religious authorities have also called on the government to embrace dialogue in order to spare the country the agony it is going through. But all the wise counsel does not seem to be music to the government’s ears.

Mr. Biya is intent on destroying the country before he leaves this world. His total refusal of outside help to restore peace to the country is costing Cameroon a lot. Increased military action has disrupted the people’s life and the burning and destruction of many homes, has left many Southern Cameroonians homeless and desperate.

But it is the economy that is suffering the most. State corporations located in Southern Cameroons are already feeling the heat. Pamol, a palm oil production corporation located in Lobe, a small town in Ndian Division, has finally shut its doors as the fighting between Southern Cameroonian fighters and army soldiers takes a turn for the worse.

More than three thousand Pamol workers are today unemployed and living in permanent fear, as the fighting between the warring factions rages on. Schools and courts in the region have been closed for more than two years and it is increasingly obvious that the Yaoundé government has lost control of certain parts of the two English-speaking regions.

The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), one of the major employers in the region, is also going through a rough patch. Malende, a small town located some 6 km from Muyuka, has witnessed huge unemployment rates. The corporation’s rubber factory was set ablaze last week by some unidentified men and this has hit CDC like a ton of bricks.

In other plantations, many workers have simply deserted. The fighting is disrupting economic activities in those plantations and many workers hold that it is better to quit than to be caught up between the devil and the deep blue sea. The fighting, coupled with the derisory salaries the corporation pays to its workers, has made CDC unattractive and this is gradually eroding the government’s tax base.

Similarly, government revenue has taken a nosedive, as the national oil refinery located in the Southwest region is also facing some major challenges. The crisis is a true nightmare to this once-upon-a-time oasis of peace. It is indeed a millstone around the neck of the government which is gradually collapsing under its weight.

While the government is putting on a brave face in public, it is indeed worried that Southern Cameroonians might walk away from the union that was stitched together in 1972 between West and East Cameroon. Southern Cameroonians hold that the union has been predicated upon lies right from the beginning and that a review of the system is long overdue.

Southern Cameroonians stress that much blood has already flowed and this makes it hard for the warring factions to sit around a negotiating table to narrow their differences. The killing of many Southern Cameroonians and the burning of their homes have left Southern Cameroonians with just the option of quitting their French-speaking counterparts.

Walking away from that ‘political marriage’ implies taking with them about 60% of the country’s wealth. Southern Cameroons is blessed with many resources, including oil, gas, diamond and timber. Its rich sub-soil has brought lots of economic benefits to the country. For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil.

In 2014, Cameroon exported US$5.88 billion worth of products, of which US$2.65 billion, about CFAF 1,650 billion, was from crude oil. This is a significant amount of money and no government can afford to stay on the sidelines and watch manna vanish into thin air.

But the government’s indifference to calls for an inclusive dialogue is giving secessionists more confidence and time to spread their gospel. The government’s military action has transformed it into a monster and this has pushed the civilian population into the arms of secessionists who are making hay while the sun shines.

The secessionists have worked hard to win hearts and minds among Southern Cameroonian moderates who, right from the beginning, stood for a federal system that would give the regions greater autonomy and authority over their lives. But the delay to talk to Southern Cameroons leaders, many of whom are in jail or exile, is compounding instead of helping matters.

The radicals have taken their gospel of secession to the international community and there is a significant crowd that is listening to their gospel with rapt attention. If secession were to happen today, it would be a very costly mistake on the part of the government that is being accused around the world of being indifferent to the country’s declining political and economic situation.

Every nation’s economic progress and development depend on its political stability. Instability spells doom for a country’s prosperity and prolong periods of instability could be a death sentence on many investments and investors do not like uncertainty. Allowing the Southern Cameroons crisis to fester is tantamount to committing economic and political suicide.

The government’s military action has put the economy on a tailspin. The South-West region which has been the country’s bread basket is today a no-go area. Many small businesses have been dealt a big blow by the crisis. Businesspeople both in French-speaking and English-speaking Cameroon are feeling the pinch. The crisis has robbed them of their source of livelihood and this has created enormous fear in the country.

If Cameroon has to heal, the Yaoundé government has to change its approach. Burning houses and stepping up military action will surely not address the issues. The government is supposed to understand that at this stage dialogue is the answer. Southern Cameroonians are determined. Though they may be having some internal conflicts, they understand that they have a common enemy and this has been the glue that has held them together for close to two years.

The government of Cameroon has to look into the mirror of history to understand how other countries came out of their conflicts with their minorities. Canada and Spain hold solutions that might inspire the Cameroon government. There are many ways of addressing political conflicts. Sticking to a strategy that has only made things worse will surely not help the Yaoundé government to lay to rest this crisis that has given it a very bad name.

Today, many Southern Cameroonians are living in the jungles. The bitterness stemming from living a dangerous life might push many of those innocent civilians to join the fighters and this will only cause the conflict to drag on for many years.

Cameroon is really facing a bleak future. Its economy is going south. It has been caught in a downward political spiral and it is finally going the way of other countries in the region. The government has failed to understand that it is also possible to catch flies with honey. Its military action has really threatened national unity and it will take a lot of effort to get all the warring factions to the negotiating table.

However, where there is a will, there will always be a way. Instead of taking unpopular measures, it will be necessary to make some meaningful concessions so as to appease Southern Cameroonians who are determined to walk away. The pain will linger for a very long time, but great political and social measures may help to heal the wounds. It is time to change strategies and tactics. Cameroon is bleeding. Further military action may simply break the country into two. The ball is in the government’s court. And the world is watching.

By Kingsley Betek on assignment in North America with contributions from Irene Nanyongo

Four people were injured when a medical helicopter crashed on a highway in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday night, with one in critical condition, officials said.

The pilot made a “mayday” radio call from a Eurocopter 135 air ambulance at about 9:15 p.m. Central Time (0215 GMT Sunday), according to a Federal Aviation Authority statement. The helicopter crashed on a ramp of the Interstate 57 highway soon after, it said.

Local media reported that a patient on the air ambulance was in critical condition, while the pilot and two others on board were listed in stable condition in Chicago hospitals.

No one on the ground was hurt and the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the crash.

(Source: Reuters)