The Chairman of the Cameroon Concord News Group has said that the 89-year-old President Biya and his Beti Ewondo kinsmen will be thrown into the dustbin of history if they do not change course and hand over power to a moderate Southern Cameroonian.

The Right Hon. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai made the remarks on Tuesday while watching the Biya-Macron presser in Yaoundé.

“Biya’s muscles are all gone and the dream of portraying the 89-year-old as a strong and healthy person is fast turning into a nightmare” he said.

“Biya cannot walk, he cannot hear, he struggles to even talk and has lost control of himself. He is at the mercy of the kleptocrats and his young and foolish wife who are putting up a façade of happiness and satisfaction with the old man’s dismal performance”  Agbaw-Ebai said, adding, “If Biya and his gang persist with their behavior, abject failure awaits them all and they will be thrown into the dustbin of history.”

The Chairman who also moonlights as Editor-In-Chief of the Concord Group warned Yaoundé to be mindful of their mistakes and errors, saying, “If they continue with the war in Southern Cameroons for just one more year, it will cut off their hands.”

Biya’s collaborators have always projected him as the strong man, ordained by God to be eternal not only on earth but also on the throne, but the last years have proven that eternity here on earth is simply a mirage and that no man, including Paul Biya, born of a woman, will ever be physically eternal in a world nobody really understands. Biya’s end is near and there is nothing anybody can do.

For more than five years now, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, has seen his energy waning. Though he seems to believe his own lies that he is still energetic, many events have continued to remind him that time is running out for him.

Cameroonians have seen him struggle to walk, talk and when he dares to walk; he trembles like a 7-month baby who wants to try his luck at walking.

As his energy levels decline, so too do his muscles fall apart and that makes it hard for his clothes to fit him.

Not long ago, his own trouser sought to take French leave of him during an event where there were thousands of guests at the Unity Palace.

The humiliation was huge. His wife, Chantal Biya, who doubles as a live-in care-giver, is permanently on the watch when she is in public with the aging and ailing Biya. She knows something bizarre might happen anytime as the tired 89-year-old president is gradually losing his mind and his physique, which once gave him the looks of an Adonis.

The Unity Palace event wherein his trousers dropped to the floor left Mrs Biya with a pink face. It was a day Chantal Biya wanted to demonstrate that her husband was still alive and strong, but nature had an unpleasant surprise for her and it came in a way she least expected.

By Chi Prudence Asong

When the French president, Emmanuel Macron, landed in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Monday for a two-day visit, France’s puppet leaders across Africa were assured of one thing: Françafrique is back. The question is what this means for the future of millions.

The answer – and Macron’s legacy – is more repression, more coups, more corruption, more violence, more suffering and, ultimately, more refugees and migrants making dangerous journeys to Europe in search of safety. It will also mean the further incursion of Russia and China, which highlight European colonial crimes even as they ramp up their own influence.

Born after the independence of France’s former colonies in Africa, Macron presents himself as the antithesis to Françafrique – the doctrine that dictates the terms of governance in former French colonies, by military force if necessary – or, as I see it, Colonisation 2.0.

Rather than abolish it, Macron reformed the colonial CFA franc – originally franc des colonies françaises d’Afrique – a currency still printed in France and used by 14 African countries. It will be renamed the Eco by 2027, sparking accusations of neo-colonisation, including by Italy’s then-deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio.

To regain credibility, Macron agreed to return some of the African artefacts looted under colonialism in French museums, and to declassify secret files on the assassination in 1987 of Burkina Faso’s anti-colonial leader Thomas Sankara. He commissioned a report that criticised the former French president François Mitterrand over actions around the Rwandan genocide, agreed to return the skulls of 24 Algerian resistance fighters taken to France in the 19th century as trophies, and – as the diplomatic lead for all things related to French-speaking Africa at the UN security council – Macron also pledged to stand up for democracy and protect human rights.

Yet Macron’s first foreign trip outside Europe since re-election in April will see him meet Paul Biya, an 89-year-old despot who has been in power since Macron was five years old.

Over the weekend the Élysée Palace said Macron was meeting Biya not to find a solution to Cameroon’s anglophone crisis, which has seen separatist militias and government forces committing human rights abuses with impunity for the past five years, but to discuss the food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, agriculture and security issues.

Notably absent from the Élysée’s reasons for the visit are Biya’s human rights abuses, including the persecution of LGBT people.

No justification for Macron’s visit can erase the fact that Paris is still the bedrock for Françafrique and its puppets – such as Alassane Ouattara, in Ivory Coast; Ali Bongo Ondimba, in Gabon; Faure Gnassingbé, in Togo; Gen Mahamat Déby, in Chad; Denis Sassou Nguesso, in Congo-Brazzaville; as well as Biya – that France shelters under its security and diplomatic umbrella despite their gross abuses of human rights, corruption and electoral fraud that have impoverished their countries.

As violence in the Congo escalates, thousands are in effect being held hostage

Take Chad, where one in three – or 6.1 million people – need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. When Idriss Déby, in power for 30 years, died from wounds sustained in combat last year, Macron said France had “lost a brave friend,” and endorsed his 37-year-old son, Mahamat, who dissolved the government and declared himself president, in violation of Chad’s constitution, before his father was even buried.

In Cameroon, the situation is dire. As Africa’s largest timber producer and the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer, the country should be prosperous. Instead, Biya’s ruthlessly authoritarian regime has made it one of the world’s poorest, ranking 153 out of 189 countries in the 2020 Human Development Index. More than half of the 26 million population were “food insecure” long before soaring global commodity prices made it harder for families to put food on the table.

Add to this the codification of violence against women under Biya. According to Cameroon’s civil code, only men can be the heads of households, only men can choose the place of residence, and men and women do not have equal property rights.

In the penal code, adultery is always punishable if committed by a woman, but is only punishable when committed by a man if it is “habitual” or takes place in the matrimonial home. Abortion is criminalised, unless the mother’s life is in danger or if pregnancy is the result of rape – and rape is not a crime within marriage.

Macron, of course, knows all of this, but it seems what matters most is still Françafrique.

Culled from The Guardian

French Head of State begins an African tour in Yaoundé on Tuesday. Despite their differences on the subject of human rights, the two leaders will meet to discuss in particular the economic partnership between the two countries.

Two years ago, Emmanuel Macron severely criticized the Cameroonian head of state Paul Biya. He said he wanted to put her “maximum pressure” to liberate opponents. The French president had also denounced human rights violations in Cameroon, in the English-speaking separatist north. According to a source at the Elysée Palace, this time again, during his trip to Youndé on Tuesday July 26, Emmanuel Macron should not avoid angry subjects… even if he will not meet opposition figures directly. Cameroonian.

Despite the differences and tensions, France had to reconnect with Paul Biya, 89, 40 of whom are in power, says Antoine Glaser, journalist specializing in Africa. If only because Cameroon has just signed a defense agreement with Russia: “We see that the presidents of the former French colonies [le Cameroun oriental a été sous administration française entre 1916 et 1960] especially from Central Africa, are increasingly turning to Russia and therefore there is a kind of re-engagement of Emmanuel Macron in these countries in the name of realpolitik.”

On the menu of discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya: agricultural cooperation between Cameroon, the leading economy in Central Africa, and France. The two leaders will notably discuss the threat of food shortages in the context of the war in Ukraine. For his first State visit to Africa since his re-election, Emmanuel Macron is accompanied by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, but also by the Minister for Foreign Trade, Olivier Becht, and by a large economic delegation.

Paul Biya and Emmanuel Macron should also talk about security and terrorism. Cameroon is indeed shaken by attacks attributed to Boko Haram in the north of the country. A subject that concerns Paris as much as Yaoundé. France could therefore opt for discreet aid via equipment deliveries or air support.

The French president will then visit Benin on Wednesday and Guinea Bissau on Thursday.

Source: California 18

Emmanuel Macron is visiting Cameroon on Monday, the first leg of a four-day visit to Central Africa dedicated to food security, French investment and governance. There he will meet Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state in power for forty years, in the context of political uncertainty about his succession.

His first official tour begins with Emmanuel Macron, on Monday, 25 July, visiting Cameroon in Central Africa, three months after his re-election, then in Benin and finally in Guinea-Bissau.

A visit that marks a new phase in the French president’s African policy, after a first five-year term that dominated the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and the development of relations with English-speaking Africa.

The tour will therefore begin in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, where Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to meet 89-year-old Paul Biya on Tuesday, who has become one of the oldest presidents on the African continent after forty years of undivided power.

The discussion will focus on the new agricultural partnership to tackle the food crisis, the fight against terrorism, but also governance and the rule of law. A sensitive subject, which has already been the subject of difficult talks between the two leaders.

Negotiation and diplomatic hurdles

On October 7, 2018, Paul Biya was reappointed for a seventh term, scoring a landslide victory over his rival Maurice Kamto. To fight these results on the street, the opposition candidate, as well as many of his supporters, were arrested in January 2019, then finally released after nine months in custody. Underhand, the matter had been the subject of several exchanges between Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya.

The amnesty involving a total of a hundred prisoners was announced five days before a meeting between French and Cameroonian leaders at a summit in Lyon.

A few months after the episode, on February 22, 2020, on the agricultural show, a Cameroonian activist Emmanuel Macron questioned the situation in the English-speaking region, where officials are fighting a separatist insurgency, accusing power . There massacre. The French president promised to put “maximum pressure” on Paul Biya to end human rights violations.

An exit was praised by the Cameroonian government, which confirmed it intended to “remain the master of your destiny”. At the same time, several hundred people demonstrated in front of the French embassy in Yaounde, demanding an “apology” from France.

“If they both reflect the authoritarianism of the Cameroonian regime, then the question of political prisoners and the management of the separatist conflict are two very different issues”, underlines associate researcher Thierry Virkoulon at the Africa Center of IFRI (French Institute for International).

“Maurice Kamto is not the first political prisoner to be released by France; François Hollande had already managed to oust Michel Thierry Atangana, an engineer who had spent seventeen years in prison. But on the question of the separatists, It’s another story; Emmanuel Macron has hit the wall. Because in the age of Paul Biya, you don’t change the software: he has experienced a centralization of power and has no intention of changing. Part of this is to English speakers. hand over”.

strengthen strategic partnership

Elysee confirms that Emmanuel Macron’s visit will be an opportunity to take a fresh look at this ongoing conflict and in particular the commitments made by the government. But “it is by no means a question of positioning oneself as a teacher or promoting a model”, we say.

The stated aim of the visit is above all to forge a new agricultural partnership with Cameroon, the leading economy in Central Africa, while the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine threatens the continent.

Investments by French companies will also be on the agenda in the context of stronger competition, as the country continues to strengthen its ties with China, its main supplier, and recently signed a military agreement with Russia.

“Through this visit, Paris seeks to ensure the loyalty of Cameroon’s partner in the context of the loss of influence in its East African backyard, as demonstrated by the examples of Mali, Central Africa and to a lesser extent Guinea and Burkina Faso” , analyzes Nicanor Tachim, doctor in political communication at the University of Paris-Est Creteille. Cameroonian experts recall that a partnership with the country is essential for Paris, due to its strategic role in supplying the sub-region, and especially Chad, where France has a military base.

For Cameroonian researcher Larissa Kojoue, there is no doubt that the visit marks a change in the tone of Cameroonian power.

“Upon his arrival in the elysée, Emmanuel Macron wanted to adopt a form of breakdown in the African policy of France, especially in comparison to its former colonies”, analyzes the teacher of political science at the University of Buea, in the Southwest of the Country. “He took a fairly critical position with the Cameroonian authorities, but since then we have a feeling he has softened his speech, getting caught up in the systemic relationship between Paris and the continent, which puts economic interests at the fore than the rule of law’.

Shadow of Paul Biya’s Succession

Larissa Kojoue also wonders about the message of the visit, while the country is plunged into a period of political uncertainty as the country approaches succession.

“Paul Biya’s greatest political victory has been in convincing the people that there was nothing after him, to stay in power all these years. He duly dismissed all those who had anythe political project. , including his own camp. Today, the name of his son, Franck Biya, is aired as a possible successor. Like it or not, Emmanuel Macron, visiting Cameroon on an official visit , certainly strengthens the President in his position.”

“The arrival of the French president concerns the expatriate as part of the population in Cameroon, with respect to time”, underlines Nicanor Tachim. “A presidential election will be held in 2025. As the regime nears the end of its reign, some see the arrival of Emmanuel Macron as a desire to prepare for the post-Biya period”.

As the visit drew near, opposition MP Jean-Michel Nintecheu issued a statement reflecting this concern. Criticizing France’s role in maintaining “the dictatorial and sometimes dynastic rule at the head of African states”, he affirmed that the people of Cameroon “will not accept anything imposed on them as supreme magistrate”. freely and democratically elected”.

“France is not organizing any transitions neither in Cameroon nor anywhere else, but in these political circumstances, our role is to maintain close relations with our negotiators,” Emmanuel’s Africa adviser Franck Paris said.

While Maurice Kamto, leader of the Movement for the Renaissance (MRC) of Cameroon, called on the French leader to meet with Cameroon’s opposition during his visit, Elysee said such talks were “not in use”.

Emmanuel Macron’s advisor nevertheless specified that upstream or downstream contacts were possible with these movements.

Following his interview with Paul Biya, Emmanuel Macron will meet with youth representatives, as well as members of civil society, to address “all aspects of Cameroonian society”.

Culled from News84media

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says holding a referendum involving all the people of Southern Cameroons is the sole political solution to the Ambazonia crisis.

Comrade Dabney Yerima made the remarks on Saturday during a war cabinet meeting convened to examine the disturbing situation in French Cameroun and the President Emmanuel Macron visit.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader noted that he expects the French government of Emmanuel Macron to support the referendum initiative that was registered at the United Nations by the leader of the Ambazonia nation President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. The plan is based on holding a referendum with the participation of the original inhabitants of West Cameroon.

Yerima went on to say that the happenings in Yaoundé are not related to the Southern Cameroons problem.

Vice President Dabney Yerima further stressed that the people of Southern Cameroons were no longer interested in the politics of French Cameroun and whosoever becomes head of state in La Republique du Cameroun after Biya will sit with the Ambazonia Interim Government and discuss the terms of separation to decide about the fate and future of the two Cameroons.

Yerima said holding a referendum on the fate of Southern Cameroons with the participation of all inhabitants had first been proposed by the late S.T.Muna and the late Dr John Ngu Foncha.

By Isong Asu

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday begins a three-nation tour of western African states in the first trip to Africa of his new term as he seeks to reboot France’s post-colonial relationship with the continent.

Macron will begin his July 25-28 tour, also the first venture outside Europe of his new mandate, with a visit to Cameroon, before moving on to Benin and then finishing the trip in Guinea-Bissau.

Top of the agenda in the talks will be food supply issues, with African nations fearing shortages especially of grain due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But security will also loom large as France prepares to complete its pullout from Mali this year, with all countries in the region seeking to head off fears of Islamist insurgencies.

The trip to three countries which rarely feature on the itinerary of global leaders comes with Macron, who won a new term in April, pledging to keep up his bid for a new relationship between France and Africa.

France has also followed with concern the emergence of other powers seeking a foothold in an area Paris still considers parts of its sphere of influence, notably Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but also increasingly China and Russia.

‘Political priority’

The tour “will show the commitment of the president in the process of renewing the relationship with the African continent”, said a French presidential official, who asked not to be named.

It will signal that the African continent is a “political priority” of his presidency.

In Cameroon, which has been riven by ethnic violence and an insurgency by anglophone separatists, Macron will meet President Paul Biya, 89, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years and is the longest-serving non-royal leader in the world.

Biya has run the country with an iron fist, refusing demands for federalism and cracking down on the rebellion by separatists.

Macron will move on Wednesday to Benin, a neighbour of Africa’s most populous nation Nigeria. The north of the country has faced more deadly attacks, with the jihadist threat now spreading from the Sahel to Gulf of Guinea nations.

He is likely to be lauded for championing the return in November of 26 historic treasures which were stolen in 1892 by French colonial forces from Abomey, capital of the former Dahomey kingdom located in the south of modern-day Benin.

Benin was long praised for its thriving multi-party democracy. But critics say its democracy has steadily eroded under President Patrice Talon over the last half decade. Opposition leader Reckya Madougou was sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.

On Thursday, Macron will finish his tour in Guinea-Bissau, which has been riven by political crisis at a time when its President Umaro Sissoco Embalo is preparing to take the helm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Rethink strategy

With all the countries criticised by activists over their rights records, the Elysee has insisted that governance and rights issues will be raised, albeit “without media noise but in the form of direct exchanges between the heads of states”.

Macron’s first term was marked by visits to non-francophone African countries including regional powerhouses Nigeria and South Africa as he sought to engage with the entire continent and not just former French possessions.

Benin is a former French colony, but Guinea-Bissau was once a Portuguese colony while Cameroon’s colonial heritage is a mixture of British and German as well as French.

Macron meanwhile has insisted France’s military presence in the region will adapt rather than disappear once the pullout from Mali is complete.

He announced last week that a rethink of France’s presence would be complete by autumn, saying the military should be “less exposed” in the future but their deployment still a “strategic necessity”.

The pullout from Mali follows a breakdown in relations with the country’s ruling junta, which Western states accuse of relying on Russian Wagner mercenaries rather than European allies to fight an Islamist insurgency.

Source: AFP

No Cameroonian, not even President Biya enjoys paying taxes and the ruling CPDM has been running the country with taxes and oil revenue from Southern Cameroons. While it’s no fun coughing up those hard-earned FCFA to the corrupt government in Yaoundé, taxes and CPDM waste are the two reasons Cameroonians cannot have quality roads, schools, street lamps, fire departments, and sewer systems, the nice array of conveniences that all make contemporary life a lot easier and definitely more sanitary.

If there’s one infuriating thing that Cameroonians from all corners of the spectrum can agree on is watching the sneaky government officials in Yaoundé snatching up those valuable tax money and spending the dough on something selfish, greedy, or just plain stupid like the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Unfortunately, the wrong politicians in Cameroon have the keys to the national piggy bank and have given the world the most egregious examples of officials wasting government money.

The Government Delegate to the Yaoundé Urban Council Hon. Esimi Evouna has gotten a little too enthusiastic about receiving French President Emmanuel Macron and he is using 10.5 million FCFA of Cameroonian taxpayer’s money to mobilize desperate CPDM militants from the Mfoundi constituency in Yaoundé to line the streets.

The purpose is to mislead President Macron and international public opinion that all is well in the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon. The 10.5 million CFA franc is only for transportation! We do not know how much will be dished out on purchases on wine, makeup, and gift cards.

Nonetheless, spending 10.5 million on only Mfoundi CPDM Section is a bit much, when all the folks involved certainly get paid enough to transport themselves to the ceremonial ground without breaking the piggy bank.

Long Live the ruling CPDM Crime Syndicate

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Dark clouds are gathering over Dion Ngute, the country’s prime minister, who is on his way out of the Star Building in Yaoundé. Dion Ngute was elevated to the rank of Prime Minister because the Unity Palace felt he could help disconnect the Southwest region from the Northwest, thus reducing the crisis which is tearing the two English-speaking regions of the country apart. 

But three years after taking the reins of power, Dion Ngute is still struggling. The Southwest is still a hotspot and there is no end in sight. Dion Ngute has tried to bribe General Two-Kobo to keep it low in Ndian Division, but his own right-hand man, Kenneth Nanji, the former Mayor of Ekondo-Titi, saw the agreement between Dion Ngute and General Two-Kobo as a possibility for him to enrich himself, but that only resulted in a plot by Dion Ngute which cost him his life. 

Cutting out the Southwest region from the Northwest will require cutting Manyu Division completely off, but this is not possible without massive sacrifices and arrangements. Noted for their volatile and mercurial temperament, it will take a long time for the people of Manyu Division to walk away from the struggle, especially as Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is still in the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison. 

It will take another well-respected and trusted Manyu son who can talk Sisiku into walking away from secession to disconnect the Southwest from the Northwest. And there are a few South-westerners who have been very influential when it comes to the crisis which has made the two English-speaking regions ungovernable. 

Two have been identified and they are both working for international organizations. The candidate at the World Bank has a likeable character, simple and peace-loving, but he has no leverage over separatists and might not deliver the peace the government is looking forward to. 

According to a Cameroon Concord News source at the Presidency of the Republic, the right candidate will be someone who can talk to all the factions and has the trust of his people.

According to the source, the country needs someone with a very strict personality who is open to new ideas and can bring separatists to the fold. We do not need to split our country. If Ndian and Manyu Divisions can be stabilized, then the fighting will be concentrated in the Northwest region and this will make it easy to focus on the pockets of resistance in the Northwest region, the source said. 

“We are still hearing that there is someone in Abidjan who can help with this mess in Cameroon. Many people hold him in high esteem. I hear that this person is not interested in money and has a high sense of political awareness. A friend of mine in the intelligence community says they have been attending fundraisers for Internally Displaced Persons in Washington DC with separatists, though they believe in federalism,” the source, which elected anonymity, said. 

“I hear there are a few sticking points which are making it hard for the government to come up with an acceptable cabinet. My sources at the Presidency have said that the Abidjan candidate has underscored the need to free Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and others arrested during the conflict. He stressed that some gestures would be necessary to demonstrate that the government is a reliable peace broker, but his advice seems to be falling on deaf ears and this is only making things worse. The killings are still going on and the spirit of revenge is clearly visible. The killing of Field Marshal will not go unpunished. Many soldiers and civilians will be caught in the crossfire,” our source said

“The government is yet to come to terms with the fact that a military victory will not be possible and some Yaounde hawks are still of the opinion that their failed decentralization policy is still the right policy to pursue. I have heard that the Abidjan candidate has been arguing that the decentralization policy has failed, and it will not deliver any meaningful results and that if the government really needs to walk away from the quagmire it has created for itself, then it must bend over backwards,” the source said. 

“Of course, the government must meet the separatists halfway and we need someone who can bring everybody with him to Yaoundé, at least mentally. We thought Dion Ngute would deliver the golden egg, but he has failed woefully. The Unity Palace is now aware of his failed dealings with some unpopular fighters in his native Ndian. Those dealings have not really changed much in terms of violence. Ndian Division like Manyu Division is still a no-go area, and it will take a lot of convincing for things to be better and Dion, who is a man of few words, is not the person who will do such heavy-lifting,” he said. 

 “Biya is holding his cards so close to his chest, but we are also hearing that the French President’s visit to Cameroon in the coming days might change a lot of things and the news will not be good for Dion Ngute. He has failed and he must go for someone else to try. He has never spoken to any separatist and is not in a rush to solve this problem which is tearing the country apart. Many people hold that he is a likeable character. He has a good smile, but others hold that behind the prettiest smiles hide some dark secrets and the killing of Kenneth Nanji is one secret the Prime Minister is hiding,” our source pointed out.

“Dion should be bracing for bad news. The country needs to go in a different direction and Dion cannot lead the country down that route. Let us give younger people a chance. They may not have the magic wand, but they might do what their predecessors were unable to achieve.  Time is of the essence! We can break the spiral of killings by using young people to do what has been a near-impossibility. I am personally waiting. Our country must stop bleeding. We have the men who can change things for us,” our source concluded.

At the Star Building, not much is happening. The mood is somber, and the Prime Minister seems to be fully aware of the decision taken at the Unity Palace after months of secret meetings and interviews with potential replacements. In three years, the Prime Minister has not succeeded to talk to any influential separatist.

He has not achieved anything, and he has been serving as an errand boy for the President and his Secretary General. That is not the job of a respectable Prime Minister. Even the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, disrespects Dion Ngute openly. We need a Prime Minister with a character, a Prime Minister who will point the country in the right direction, a Prime Minister who will inspire hope.   

By Rita Akana with editing by Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai