The position of the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency, who enjoys the support of first lady Chantal Biya, seems to be under threat. Until now, he has always managed to save his skin.

Africa Intelligence reported that all pro Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh aides who regularly accompany President Biya as a VIP guest at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva were not included in the recent delegation that travelled to Switzerland with the president.

Ngoh Ngoh was also involved in the controversial management of the Ebo forest that fanned the flames of an unending clan warfare that is tearing the Biya regime apart.

Fingers are also pointing at Minister Ngoh Ngoh following the sudden flaring up in less than a fortnight of the latent security crisis in Southern Cameroons together with tensions generated by the Franck Biya succession palaver.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Despite promises to the IMF, Biya continues to back his perennial company directors from his Beti Ewondo extractions.

The CPDM crime syndicate headed by 88-year-old President Paul Biya has negotiated several measures to reform the management of Cameroon’s public companies with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, Biya has kept his loyalists at the head of the main parastatals, some of whom have been in place for more than twenty years.

Source: Africa Intelligence

The Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group, the Right Hon. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai has termed the so-called Swiss Peace Talks on the crisis in Southern Cameroons as useless.

Speaking of the deteriorating security situation in English speaking Cameroon, the Cameroon Concord News senior political man said the recurring Swiss talks in Geneva the city where the 88-year-old President Biya is currently hiding and wasting Cameroonian tax payer’s money are aimed at prolonging the war in Southern Cameroons until a military victory is gotten by the Francophone dominated regime.

“I share the vision of Dieudonne Essomba that French Camerounians will leave Southern Cameroons in the near future,” Agbaw-Ebai continued, “because Southern Cameroons self defense groups have made their decision to confront them and fight till the last man standing.”

Soter Agbaw-Ebai expressed hope that international pressure and efforts made by the Ambazonia Restoration Forces and Southern Cameroons Interim Government would drive some world powers to publicly demand the withdrawal of Francophone army soldiers from Southern Cameroons.

The War in Southern Cameroons has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

La Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by La Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

By Isong Asu in London

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has stressed that the people of Southern Cameroons are committed to a political solution aimed at preserving Southern Cameroon’s unity and territorial integrity.

During an Ambazonian town hall in South Africa dedicated to discussing the recent killing of Southern Cameroons academics by the Cameroon government military, Vice President Dabney Yerima emphasized that there was an urgent need for the two Cameroons to meet in a neutral country and discuss the terms of separation. Yerima added that Southern Cameroons firm principles cannot be compromised.

Vice President Dabney Yerima further stressed that the insistence of certain world powers to not listen to the voice of Southern Cameroonians and their Interim Government and to not change their governments’ wrong Southern Cameroons policies is bringing nothing but terror, chaos, instability and looting of Southern Cameroons resources by the criminal gangs running the political affairs in French Cameroun.

Dabney Yerima also referred to the on-going ghost town operation known popularly as “Kontry Sunday” saying that such mass public participation confirms Ambazonians commitment to their country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent national choices.

The War in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of French Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by La Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

By Isong Asu

Having an older leader has advantages and disadvantages. It has often been said that older leaders have had the time to build up knowledge and experience that can help them accomplish their policy goals. On the other hand, they may be more likely to struggle with health issues, face concerns about how fit they are for office, and may struggle to connect with younger citizens.

There are dozens of world leaders who are well into their 70s or their 80s. But the situation in Cameroon is now very disturbing as the number of foreign embassies waiting for accreditation from President Paul Biya keeps growing, much to the dismay of those concerned.

We reported recently that Mr. Paul Biya was rushed to a Yaoundé hospital and his sycophants responded by making the 88-year-old meet Nigerian business tycoon Aliko Dangote. Cameroon Intelligence Report can now reveal that President Biya is no longer   administering the executive duties of the Cameroon government.

The French Cameroun politician, who consolidated his stay in power via election tampering, has refused to let it go for decades. Biya has forced out political opponents, bribed allies, and changed the laws governing Cameroon so many times to allow him to stay in power indefinitely.

With age telling on him and his body now a colony of diseases, diplomats from other countries are in limbo in the nation’s capital Yaoundé as they await accreditation from Biya who is reportedly spending his last days at the extension of his palace in Mvomeka’a.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

A senior Francophone political commentator Dieudonné Essomba says Cameroon is heading straight for secession if steps are not taken to set up a federated state.

“There is no calm in English speaking Cameroon. New abuses are recorded almost daily. In recent days, several soldiers have been killed in ambushes by pro-secessionist armed groups” Dieudonné Essomba said.

Dieudonné Essomba furthered that the Biya regime is in a weak position and does not have the political, economic, financial, diplomatic, media and strategic means to overcome the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and its majority Ambazonian following. “It is mission impossible,” Dieudonné Essomba told an audience in ”Club d’Elites” a program on Vision 4 TV.

“I have been saying for the past four years that if Cameroon persists in the unitary state, the Amba Boys will beat you to the punch. Four years ago, who could believe that the secessionists could kill 24 soldiers in a week? Who could believe it? I was the only one who believed it, because I am the only rational one… The Amba Boys have evolved, they have gained experience, they are at home and they are armed. They have come from nothing and they have managed to climb. They still have an enormous amount of room to manoeuvre while the state of Cameroon is in crisis and is no longer able to finance this war,” said the retired French Cameroun civil servant.

“For me, the only solution is to negotiate confederation. We must put an end to the unitary state, the Anglophones don’t want it anymore. We must propose a reorganised federal state. Without this, Cameroon will experience separation like Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan,” Mr Essomba warned.

By Rita Akana

The bloodshed unleashed by Cameroon government army soldiers in Southern Cameroons where thousands of people, if not more have been killed is yet to raise any worrying question about Biya regime’s continued deployments and the Francophone dominated army’s  inability to crush the Ambazonian fighters controlling nearly all rural settlements and border posts in Southern Cameroons.

Recent attacks in Otu, Bamali, Ekondo Titi and Nguti proceeded like many others carried out by Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces in it’s over four-year-long resistance against the Cameroon government military.

The Amba fighters raided check points; military convoys burned down armored vehicles and killed several elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion before striking the National Gendarmerie Force. On Saturday, a large number of Amba fighters overwhelmed a gendarmerie checkpoint at Ngoketunjia and three gendarmes who were at the checkpoint were killed.

Since 2017, Cameroon government army soldiers have used explosives, AK47 guns and rape to further their goal of maintaining the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon.

The United Nations and Amnesty International say as many as 5,000 people may have been killed. The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has reported death tolls in the thousands. Journalists and international human rights organizations haven’t been able to access the Southern Cameroons territory.

While the death toll remains uncertain, we of the Cameroon Concord Group can now reveal that the once formidable Rapid Intervention Battalion known as BIR has been demystified and many of its members are biting the dust in the jungles of Southern Cameroons. 

The so-called BIR that was thought to be among Africa’s best militaries have been unable to stop a hastily assembled ragtag group of fighters now being referred to as Ambazonia Restoration Force.

There are so many issues involved in this prominent and successful failure on the part of the Cameroon government military and they include the francophonising of the army recruitment process, lack of a unified command structure, poor equipment, low morale and corruption among army generals and colonels.

Scores within the Cameroon government military have faced secret courts-martials in Buea, Douala and Yaoundé in recent months for disobeying orders and, in many instances, refusing deployment to Southern Cameroons.

A prominent army general stationed in Buea at the beginning of the conflict, openly complained that his men were underequipped and that high-ranking military officials were bilking the country of money meant to fight the Southern Cameroons war was replaced by President Biya. Complaints of a lack of equipment are a taboo within the Cameroon government army.

The 88-year-old Head of State and Commander-In-Chief has done everything including sending in additional troops and giving them expanded powers to fight the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces. President Biya’s troop surge is still not enough, nor is his tactics suitable for countering a group of determined young men and women whose hunting rifles have now been replaced with more sophisticated killing machines.

We understand that the Cameroon government army does not have sufficient armies deployed in the Far North to protect the civilian population against Boko Haram and the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is also not able to put enough soldiers on the ground in Southern Cameroons.

Meanwhile, the Cameroon military is now a constituency within the Cameroon political structure and its strength has developed in the past four years as the balance of state power in Yaoundé has shifted from civilian members of government to military generals.

Ever since the emergence of Boko Haram, the conflict in the Central African Republic and the war in Southern Cameroons, Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate have found it necessary to feed the military leadership as a way to protect their power.

Correspondingly, army generals and colonels have everything while the Cameroonian security is being underfunded and is currently under-manpowered.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon’s scandal linked to the mismanagement of Covid-19 funds has considerably damaged relations between Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the presidency’s secretary-general, and Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute. But it’s not the first time that the two have butted heads.

In early June, Balungeli Confiance Ebune, director of Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute’s cabinet, was interviewed by investigators of the Special Criminal Court, who were charged with shedding light on suspicions of embezzlement, overcharging and misappropriation of funds regarding the purchase of anti-Covid protection and screening equipment. The damage suffered by the state amounts to several tens of billions of CFA francs.

The head of government may well have experienced the humiliation of being interviewed himself. He was cited in a report by the Chamber of Accounts, which states that businessman Mohamadou Dabo, owner of Mediline Medical Cameroon and Moda Holding, was in possession of public contracts that accounted for 94.93% of the funds used.

When questioned on this subject during his hearing on 19 May, health minister Malachie Manaouda told investigators that he had acted on the prime minister’s orders. This was all it took for Ngute’s detractors to demand an explanation from him.

Opposed on everything

According to those close to him, Ngute only encouraged the health minister to choose the most qualified partner, especially to deliver screening tests, which were out of stock at the time. His chief of staff explained to the investigators that he was only responsible for formalising this encouragement in writing.

Of course, there is no question of tracing this back to the prime minister while he is still in office. But Ngute did not back down from the affront. His entourage believes that it is just yet another manoeuvre by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who has been the presidency’s secretary-general (SGPR) for 10 years.

This diplomat from the Central region, who speaks fluent French and English, enjoys the confidence of Chantal Biya, the first lady. The president has also delegated power of signature to him, which gives Ngoh a wide range of powers.

Ngoh got along fine with the placid former prime minister Philemon Yang, who had no problem with surrendering his prerogatives to the Palace. But Ngute is quite different. This rising Anglophone star, who was appointed prime minister on 4 January 2019, has quickly made his mark. Made of a different calibre than his predecessor, the 67-year-old lawyer does not hesitate to cross swords with the all-powerful SGPR.

The first disagreement between the two men took place on 13 August 2019, after Ngute asked ministers to propose names of directors general of companies and public institutions to replace those who had reached the end of their term.

Ngoh replied to this demand by writing a scathing memo to the secretary-general of the prime minister’s office. “I have the honour of informing you that the head of state has asked the prime minister, the head of government, to remind the heads of ministerial departments responsible for the technical supervision of public enterprises and establishments, that the power to appoint the social organs of said structures falls within the exclusive competence of the President of the Republic,” he wrote.

He continued: “In this regard, he would like to inform them that, pending several important decisions that the head of state must make, the officials in office should continue to exercise their functions as normal.”

The second dispute was over the organisation of the Major National Dialogue, aimed at resolving the Anglophone crisis. The two men disagreed with each other on almost everything. While Ngoh wanted to calibrate and control everything, Ngute wanted these discussions to be open and inclusive.

On the ground, while the SGPR was coordinating a Swiss mediation initiative, Ngute supervised direct discussions with the secessionist leaders, which were undertaken by Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, head of the special services. In the end, it was the prime minister who defused the anger of the religious leaders within the Anglophone zone, who were disillusioned by Etoudi’s disdainful treatment of Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi’s peace initiatives.

Close to Paul Biya

The prime minister’s attempts at mediation annoy the SGPR to the core, as it feels that Ngute is trying to create a diarchy within Cameroon. However, Ngoh cannot openly criticise Ngute, as he regularly meets face to face with President Paul Biya. Meanwhile, the presidency’s secretary-general only ever receives a small audience.

Finally, the rivalry between the two men has intensified as Ngute – who visited the Groupement Inter-Patronal du Cameroun (Gicam) in mid-May – has made sure to maintain ties with his contacts from within the private sector, where Ngoh has few friends.

This friction will no doubt produce sparks, unless a government reshuffle puts an end to this rivalry within the upper echelons of power.

Source: Africa Report

George Ewane Ngide, associate professor, recently appointed Technical Adviser at the Presidency of the Republic, is a shooting star, and appointment decrees or decisions shoot at him like meteoroids gone crazy in the galaxy.

In three years, since 2018, he has been appointed six times, up, up and further up the ladder. Appointments are obviously in search of worthy individuals and it is Ewane – him and nearly only him – the “best” ones find. Even if mannerism were the only criterion for all these, Ewane would deserve his fair share. He is, anyone can admit, a jolly good fellow, easy going, down to earth and, oh, that charming smile you may only miss in the dark or when you have an vision problem.

He was appointed, June 9, 2021, a couple of days after his sensational ENEMY IN THE HOUSE commentary over CRTV’s Cameroon Calling, in which some guess he might have been protesting against another very recent appointment and/or what he might have considered the gesticulations of regime hypocrites. Well, who the cap fits, let them wear it.

Before this June 9 appointment by presidential decree, Ewane was the beneficiary of a prime ministerial appointment and four CRTV board of directors’ decisions. On June 22, 2018, he was appointed technical adviser No. 4 at CRTV, which brought to an end his over 16 years record run as presidential correspondent, which he closed at the apex as Head of Division (Director) of the unit in charge of coverage of sovereignty affairs. Just over a year later, on June 26, 2020, he was appointed CRTV Radio Central Director. In between all that, he had been promoted to the CRTV professional apex of Editorialist.

His meteoric career progress notwithstanding, Ewane, who apparently found his way into journalism only by accident has been quoted by close friends as saying he has really never practiced journalism proper, as in news reporting because in his job assignments, he has been given more to commentaries.

Armed with a Maitrise in English at the time from the University of Yaounde under the wings of the late Professor John Lambo and the late Professor Gervais Mendo Ze, he found a place in the now scrapped Division 3 of the Advanced School of Mass Communication and, out of there, got recruited into CRTV. Many might have noticed him for the first on-camera when he anchor the live relay of World Cup 1998 matches from the studio in Mballa II alongside Francophone colleagues including Alex Mimbang, Valerie Dikos Oumarou and Emmanuel Mbede.

Ewane’s CRTV whirlwind rise was punctuated by his appointed by Prime Minister Dion Ngute as Spokesperson of the Major National Dialogue of September 30 to October 4, 2019. His appointment as Technical Adviser at the Presidency takes him “back home” where, as presidential correspondent for so long, he created and produced the TV programme “Insight/Inside the Presidency”, which The Guardian Post captures so aptly with the pun in its Sunday, June 13, 2021 edition front cover headline thus: George Ewane now “Inside the Presidency”.

On the academic sphere, the ex-student of GSS Nyassosso obtained a PhD in 2013 and got promoted to the academic rank of Associate Professor in 2020, but those were academic exploits, not appointments. Impressive all the same.

I believe and wish Ewane is or were more a star than a shooting star. They are not the same thing. CoolCosmos.Ipac.Caltech.Edu says, “Shooting stars look like stars that quickly shoot across the sky, but they are not stars. A shooting star is really a small piece of rock or dust [known as a Meteoroid] that hits Earth’s atmosphere from space. It moves so fast that it heats up and glows as it moves through the atmosphere leaving a short-lived trail of light called meteor.”

I should perhaps apologize for using the wrong analogy of a falling star to talk about a rising star; one that only glows briefly for someone who has been in the limelight and promises to remain there for long. In the language of Astrology, surviving meteoroids (falling stars) are paradoxically, those that hit Earth’s surface or simply put, those that fall to the ground, called Meteorites. The rest burn out in “flight” and disappear to nowhere. There is no scientific evidence to the contrary of the obvious, that the “surviving” ones fall to rise no more. At least, they are not known to germinate. But George Ewane is a star and stars shine up above in perpetuity, don’t they?

By Franklin Sone Bayen

*The author of this article, Franklin Sone Bayen, an Alfred Friendly (US) Press Partners Fellow, is a freelance investigative journalist, editorial writer and columnist. He can be reached (direct calls and WhatsApp) at: 656969090 and via email at: frankbayen@gmail.com

Trade deals being negotiated by Britain reveal cynicism, a disregard for public health and a strange sense of priorities.

The UK-Australia trade deal has received attention because of its negative implications for the British livestock business, animal welfare concerns and deforestation caused by industrial-scale cattle ranching Down Under.

But another recent agreement, this time with Cameroon, does not get column inches or airtime, although it sets a regrettable precedent, overlooking the track record of a corrupt, undemocratic and repressive Central African regime.

Both deals indicate the British government is conditioning Parliament to expect no scrutiny or debate, regardless of pressure from Emily Thornberry, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and SNP.

A Liberal Democrat adjournment debate on June 9th will ask why MPs are being denied any say in Britain’s future trading relationships.

But it seems that despite promises to return sovereignty and oversight to Westminster, this is what Brexit and Global Britain looks like.

Bombs and Bananas

In 2019, the UK sold £50 million worth of goods and services to Cameroon, while importing their bananas in return. The total deal is worth £200 million, a rounding error in international trade.

Compare it to the £41 billion we exported to Germany, our formerly biggest market and the customers we have casually shunned because of Brexit, along with the other EU buyers of UK goods and services – Ireland, which purchased £27bn worth, the Netherlands (£24bn), France (£23bn), and Belgium (£13bn).

We have literally sold our souls for a bunch of bananas. 

It may be immoral and distasteful, but there is at least a pragmatic financial argument for overlooking Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and its war in Yemen. In 2020, the UK sold the kingdom £3.59bn worth of goods and services, mainly military and oil industry equipment, along with providing lucrative money-butler-type consultancy.

But why does the UK ingratiate itself with tiny Cameroon? Since 2017, respected human rights watchdogs have condemned the Francophone regime of President Paul Biya, who, at age 88 has been in power since 1982, for persecuting peaceful Anglophone protesters who objected to having the French school curriculum and laws imposed on them.

The UN believes more than 700,000 people have fled into the bush as state security forces burn their villages. Their children have been unable to attend school for four years.

Unarmed civilians are caught between government soldiers and the increasingly violent separatists fighting for an independent country called Ambazonia. Cameroon’s brutal kleptocrats are worthy of targeted smart sanctions, not photo-ops with Foreign Office representatives.

Be Afraid – the facts about US chemicals

The financially insignificant Australian and Cameroon deals, and the neutering of Parliament’s capacity to scrutinise, are a dress rehearsal for the big one – the UK-US negotiations, which began last May.

The British public is already alarmed by the prospect of chlorinated chicken. We should also be concerned about other American consumer standards.

The United States Centers for Disease Control estimates there are more than 48 million cases of food poisoning a year in the USA, which counts for 14.7% of the population. This leads to more than 3,000 deaths annually.

The main culprits are salmonella, clostridium perfringens, campylobacter and staphylococcal, found in raw meat, seafood, fish and poultry.

In the UK, a fifth the size of the US, there are 1 million (1.5% of the population) annual cases of food poisoning and 500 deaths.

In other words, on a per capita basis the US has almost 10 times the number of cases of food poisoning and more deaths from food poisoning as the UK.

The US Department of Food and Agriculture claims it conducts 160 inspections each week. This amounts to 8,400 inspections a year, covering 172,969 food manufacturers. At the current rate, factories will be inspected once every twenty years.

The FDA says it has 8,000 food inspection “positions” but that tells us nothing about how many inspectors are on the road, going into factories.

Thanks to budget cuts, inspectors are under increasing pressure to complete their work rapidly. One inspector who would not give his name admitted he stands by a poultry production line, watching carcasses whiz past, with no time to do more than a rapid visual inspection.

Food safety, and the use of hormones and pesticides banned in Europe are not the only areas of concern. The US allows hundreds of chemicals in cosmetics and household cleaning products that have been curbed in the EU for decades.

The EU bans 1,300 chemicals from cosmetics, while America bans 11, and the US last passed legislation restricting their use in 1938. 

President Biden’s massive infrastructure budget proposal encourages more American self-reliance and less dependence on importing technology or other goods.

Perhaps the British government should also think twice before exposing UK consumers to products coming nowhere near the EU safety standards we have been used to since the 1970s.

We should also be more discerning about our economic partners if we are as serious about human rights as Dominic Raab claims we are.

Source: Leftfootforward.org