The man who facilitated the killing of hundreds of French Cameroon service men and women of Hausa extraction after the 1984 April 6 coup has died in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé.

Minister Amadou Ali, leader of the Fulani CPDM mafia was a staunch supporter and acolyte of President Paul Biya.

Cameroon Radio and Television confirmed his death a few hours ago but did not say what he died from.

Minister Amadou Ali reportedly collapsed in a flight from Geneva to Yaoundé and died some few hours later.

Since then scores of gendarmerie officers have stood guard outside his Yaoundé residence. Cameroon’s leading independent newspaper Cameroon Intelligence Report said last year that he had cancer and had shown signs of disorientation and rapid weight loss.

His trademarks were silent violence against political opponents and Fulani Beti Ewondo hegemony. Correspondents say his death is a severe blow to President Biya’s ruling CPDM party. The Biya regime is already reeling from the recent deaths of three ministers from Covid 19.

Amadou Ali was born in 1943 in Kolofata, in the Far North region of the country and has been appointed minister several times in the Biya Francophone regime. Since 2011, he has served as Minister in charge of Relations with the Assemblies.

Ali had a meteoric rise in the corrupt system in French Cameroun. He was First Deputy Prefect of Ngaoundéré (1971-1972), Director at the Ministry of Territorial Administration (1972-1974), Secretary General Ministry of Public Service (1974-1982), General Delegate for Tourism ( 1982-1983), Head of the National Gendarmerie (1983-1985) and was again Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the National Gendarmerie from 1985 to 1996.

In 1996, he was appointed Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic in a move that was aimed at annoying Professor Titus Edzoa. He held the portfolio concurrently with his duties as Secretary of State for Defense. He was Minister-Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense from 1997 to 2001. He was also appointed Minister of State, in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals from 2001 to 2004.

By Chi Prudence Asong

President Emmanuel Macron announced on September 15, 2022 that he has appointed General Thierry Marchand to be the next French ambassador to Cameroon.

Thierry Marchand is a favorite among France-Afrique supporters in Paris who want to see President Biya’s eldest son, Franck Biya succeed the father. As ambassador, he would oversee the Elysée plan.

French President Emmanuel Macron signed a decree on September 15, 2022, making official the appointment of Marchand as ambassador to Cameroon replacing his compatriot Christophe Guilhou.

The appointment of General Thierry Marchand comes at a time when military cooperation between the Francophone dominated Biya government and France is faltering, even though it was renewed in September 2021.

People in the know have opined that Russian presence in the Central African Republic and the recently signed military cooperation agreement with Moscow by the Biya regime has been a difficult pill to swallow for Elysée.

General Thierry Marchand has served the French Republic in Gabon, Central African Republic, Djibouti and Somalia flirting with diplomacy and the military.

By Rita Akana

The entire Southern Cameroons territory has been shutdown ever since the government in Yaoundé announced its so-called back-to-school policy. Businesses and government offices remained close as Ambazonians continue to reject the current political status quo with French Cameroun.

An estimated three million Southern Cameroonians have stayed indoors in numerous towns and villages throughout Southern Cameroons and amid a brutal crackdown by Cameroon government army soldiers, the back-to-school lockdown has resulted in the deaths of several people.

“The Ambazonian Interim Government and the people of Southern Cameroons are proving that they have the will to resist and experience in developing networks and taking it upon themselves not to allow the French Cameroun regime to continue to dictate and dominate the political life in Southern Cameroons,” Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government told journalists recently in Den Hague, Holland.

Since top Cameroon army general Bouba Dobékréo  announced he will crush the Southern Cameroons uprising within months, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have carried out a series of deadly ambushes against the Cameroon government military which have been on a bigger scale than anything yet seen since the start of the conflict five years ago. And now, the resistance is being spiced with acts of civil disobedience to denounce French Cameroun’s military presence and atrocious activities in Southern Cameroons.

Five years into the conflict, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have again imposed a successful lockdown in both the South West and the North West regions. Southern Cameroonians have remained defiant and unified on one thing, which is the complete rejection of Biya, Yaoundé and French Cameroun.

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu thinks the unity among Southern Cameroonians today in Ground Zero is growing stronger again and that the complete implementation of the Big Rubbergun Project will be a turning point to mark the beginning of the end of Biya French Cameroun rule in Southern Cameroons.

Members of a ‘think-and-do-tank’ in the UK with strong ties to the Ambazonia Interim Government have urged Vice President Dabney Yerima to mobilize resources for all Amba fighters in Ground Zero.

Anger has been rising since the appointment of General Bouba Dobékréo and it is now further growing as the military creates more victims. Many Southern Cameroons families too have not recovered from atrocities committed by Amba fighters.

Despite violent repression from the Cameroon government military and the paramilitary Rapid Intervention Battalion Forces (BIR), the Southern Cameroons lockdown is raging on against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Francophone army soldiers have kept up their heavy-handed response and launched sweeping arrests of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia activists. There are reports of the Cameroon government military going house to house in Kumbo in Bui Division detaining Southern Cameroonians.

Ghost towns and lockdowns have been successful in Southern Cameroons in the past; but this time around they are the two most effective tools the Ambazonia Interim Government has!

The 2022 back-to-school lockdown has taken root in Southern Cameroons with a wide array of participating Ambazonia groups and restoration forces.

In the entire Southern Cameroons, the majority of government and educational institutions have stopped working, and several businesses and banks have remained closed as many people responded to the lockdown calls.

Demands include the complete release of all Southern Cameroons detainees including President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and an end to French Cameroun occupation of the Ambazonia homeland.

Lockdown is an extreme form of peaceful protest in Southern Cameroons to tell those in power in Yaoundé that, if they want to rule, Ambazonians won’t cooperate and they will squeeze French Cameroun economic and political interest in Southern Cameroons dry until their demands are met.

However, the campaign, besides hurting the political and military leadership in Yaoundé, affects Southern Cameroonians in their livelihoods, though many are willing to pay such a price for the greater good down the line.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

89-year-old President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has reportedly reaffirmed he will retire before the next presidential election and stressed that he is not grooming anyone to succeed him; a well-placed source deep inside the presidency has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report.

”I have said it before and during my press conference with French President Macron that when my term ends I will retire to my village,” our source quoted the Cameroonian dictator as saying recently inside Etoudi.

Our informant added that the octogenarian leader also pointed out clearly that he will let the new generation choose their next leader.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands Biya told his top aides that he had never indulged in the process of grooming a successor and he will never do that.

Our Yaoundé city reporter covering the head of state said Biya wants his successor to come from the ruling CPDM party and he has always opined that Cameroon opposition parties are disorganized and badly managed.

For many months now, there have been secret discussions at the Unity Palace on who should succeed Paul Biya, Cameroon’s ailing and desperately old President who has been in power for 40 years but has nothing to show for his long stay in power.

As Mr. Biya’s health continues its relentless march towards the tubes, his inner circle is working closely with the French government on the possibility of making Franck Biya, the ruthless dictator’s eldest son, the country’s next president.

According to another source at the Unity Palace who elected anonymity, the plan to hand over power to Franck Biya is now complete and the French have put their seal of approval on the plan they fear could trigger a civil war in the country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

When Emmanuel Macron, the young French President, visited Cameroon a few months ago, many suspected that he was up to no good.

For many months now, there have been secret discussions at the Unity Palace on who should succeed Paul Biya, Cameroon’s ailing and desperately old President who has been in power for 40 years but has nothing to show for his long stay in power.

As Mr. Biya’s health continues its relentless march towards the tubes, his inner circle is working closely with the French government on the possibility of making Franck Biya, the ruthless dictator’s eldest son, the country’s next president.

According to a source at the Unity Palace who elected anonymity, the plan to hand over power to Franck Biya is almost complete and the French have put their seal of approval on the plan they fear could trigger a civil war in the country.

However, Cameroonians both at home and abroad are not waiting for this vile plan to be put in place before they can start scrambling desperately for a solution.

In Paris, the country’s Diaspora descended on the French National Assembly today in a bid to nip the plan in the bud.

In a video, which has been trending on social media, thousands of Cameroonians could be heard singing “non au pouvoir gré à gre au Cameroun” which translates as “no to a negotiated transfer of power in Cameroon.”

This situation is embarrassing to the French and many of the country’s lawmakers are calling on their government to distance itself from a collapsing dictatorship which is costing the country tons of money and opportunities.

The French know that in the event of a free and fair election in Cameroon, the country’s population will overtly reject any French leaning government and this could cost the French their vast economic interest.

This is a developing story and more will be yours.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Police in Yaoundé have arrested several people who held up Franck Biya posters during President Emmanuel Macron visit on Wednesday July 27.

A senior Cameroon government official contacted by Cameroon Concord News but who sued for anonymity said that holding up the Franck Biya posters demonstrated absolute disrespect for the 89-year-old head of state President Biya.

Our source added that the posters had nothing to do with right to freedom of expression which is guaranteed by the Constitution and the law on freedom to express an opinion in public.

The so-called Franck Biya supporters now in police dragnet include Tchouta Marthe Marguerite, Mengan Même Marc Aurélien, Anyouzoa Mbida Éric Arcene- an Accountant at the Central Regional Office, Belinga Obama, Ayissi Robert- a Divisional Delegate at the Centre Region, Nkoumou Jean Chanel, Atangana Assembe Norbert Hermann-Divisional Delegate from Nyon & Foumou, Abafack Marc Berthol, Akoa Marie Christelle, Ntsama Mpega Christian and Sandjock Yves.

A police officer leading the investigation was quoted as saying “political thuggery has no place on the streets of Yaoundé”  but he refused to confirm if Franck Biya, the president’s eldest son will be summoned for questioning on the matter after he was seen sharing a conversation with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

Many Francophone opposition figures have described the Franck Biya posters as “utterly shameful“.

By Rita Akana

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