Biya will not die in peace. That’s what many in his entourage and extended family are now saying! A handful of his Beti Ewondo supporters are now clamoring for his son, Franck Biya to take over leadership. This position is not going down well in all the gangs that constitute the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.

Biya is looking frailer and the Cameroon political wind continues to bat him from side to side as he walks towards a shameful and disgusting exit.

Biya stubbornly insisted upon walking unaided inside the presidency and has been struggling lately to stay upright on his own. He now tells his political story even to cleaners in Etoudi as his children are all deserting him and revealing sensitive information on the running of the family on social media.

He recently ordered the Cameroon embassy in Dakar, Senegal to issue a passport to the wife of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Madam Ahidjo had her passport confiscated immediately after the April 6^th coup in 1984.

The issuing of a Cameroonian passport to the late president’s wife has indeed signaled the closing of a circle for Biya and hints of a man who wants to die in peace.

But as our London Bureau Chief, Asu Isong will reveal to us today, Biya has been caught in the pangs of a monster he (himself) created.

Stay with Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News and be the first to know!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons chief executive President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe displayed emotion from his cell at the Kondengui High Security prison in French Cameroun when news got to him that the veteran patriotic Ambazonian soldier Mola Njoh Litumbe had passed to eternity.

Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé city reporter who met the jailed Ambazonian leaders in Kondengui revealed that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe described Mola Njoh Litumbe as his most important Ambazonia leader and commander with whom he shared a deep bond.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s voice cracked as he said a prayer and chanted the Ambazonian national anthem to honour the late Southern Cameroons veteran.  President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s display of intense grief also signaled deep respect for the great Mola Njoh Litumbe.

Mola Njoh Litumbe the Southern Cameroons leader who passionately sought a free Ambazonia homeland for the people of British Southern Cameroons died on Tuesday 26th of May 2020 at Muna’s clinic in Douala, French Cameroun.

In a statement to the people of Southern Cameroons, exiled Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima noted that “Mola Njoh Litumbe will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its true intellectual and revolutionary giants. On this solemn day, his courage and purpose will be celebrated with all Ambazonian flags at home and abroad flying at half-mast.”

The late Mola Njoh Litumbe will be lionized as an Ambazonian figure that embodied Southern Cameroons’s lethal reach in the face of a vicious French Cameroun genocidal campaign against the people of Southern Cameroons.

Mola Litumbe was a committed leader who conferred with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe often and cemented the dream of getting to Buea soonest and helped to preserve and advance the principles of the Southern Cameroons four years revolution.

The relationship between the great Mola Njoh Litumbe and President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was so close that during a trip to the USA, Mola Njoh Litumbe was photographed thrice embracing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in ways that are customary in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for dads and their beloved sons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, many national leaders have become more present in their citizens’ lives. They announce new emergency measures, hold regular press briefings and attempt to reassure the population. Not so in Cameroon.

President Paul Biya only addressed the public since the first confirmed coronavirus case in early March yesterday the 19^th of May in a speech described by many commentators as “empty”. The outbreak is spreading, lockdown restrictions have been announced and then eased but the 87-year-old leader has only been notable for his absence. Amid rumours of his death, Cameroonians have taken to twitter with hashtags such as #WhereisBiya and #LetsFindBiya.

The president has revealed some of his movements. On 16 April, he posted a picture of his meeting with the French Ambassador to Cameroon at the presidential palace in Yaoundé. A month later, he tweeted similar photos with UN Special Representative François Louncény Fall.

Despite speculation they were photoshopped, these images and yesterday’s televised address seem to confirm that Biya is well and in the capital. Nonetheless, they have done little to allay frustrations at his lack of public presence.

“If Biya can receive the French Ambassador why can’t he address the people?” asked Cameroon’s main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, speaking to African Arguments. “Why can’t he say a few words to Cameroonians?”

Containing the coronavirus

The government has taken various measures to reduce the spread of the virus, with most official messages coming from Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Health Minister Malachie Manaouda. On 18 March, Cameroon closed its borders, shut down schools, and ordered restaurants and bars to cease operations after 6pm. It increased testing, banned large gatherings and non-essential travel, and required people to wear face masks in public.

While these measures may have helped reduce the disease’s spread, Cameroon has become one of the worst affected countries in Africa. To date, it has recorded 3,529 cases and 140 deaths. Moreover, a Reuters survey found that Cameroon has just 40 ventilators, a tiny fraction of the 2,422 that might be needed if the virus peaks according to estimates by Imperial College of London.

Despite the worsening crisis, however, the government eased some restrictions in early May, including allowing eateries to remain open past 6pm. This may have reduced the economic impact on many Cameroonians, some eight million of whom live in poverty, but has drawn criticism from the opposition.

“It’s extremely confusing,” says Kah Walla, President of the Cameroon People’s Party. “What is the government strategy? What are they trying to achieve with this and why would they expose the population to that degree?”

Neither the Minister of Health nor the Prime Minister’s Office responded to African Argument’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, a coronavirus fundraising initiative led by Kamto has been blocked by authorities, with its bank account shuttered and funds frozen. Last week, six of its activists were arrested for distributing face masks and sanitiser. They face charges of rebellion and could spend four years in prison if convicted.

Conflict in Cameroon

So far, most confirmed cases have been in urban areas, but many fear that the coronavirus could be particularly devastating if it spreads to areas facing insecurity. In the Far North, Boko Haram continues to operate. Meanwhile, in the country’s two Anglophone regions, a conflict between English-speaking separatists and government soldiers has claimed at least 3,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people since 2017.

Only one of the warring parties – which includes about fifteen separatist groups and government forces – has heeded the UN’s call for a global ceasefire. And while there was a brief lull in early March, fighting has resumed with abuses recorded in recent weeks on both sides. Some 115 hospitals in the two regions have been demolished in the conflict, while all humanitarian flights were grounded in March.

“How can you prepare a pandemic response in an area where violence is rife?” asks Ilaria Allegrozi, a senior central Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch. The organisation has urged Cameroonian officials to allow aid missions to continue unimpeded.  According to Allegrozzi, some flights to the Far North have resumed, but not to the two Anglophone regions.

“[The pandemic] adds another layer of complexity to an already intractable civil war,” says Billy Burton from the Anglophone Crisis Monitoring Project. “It has increased the risk to vulnerable, displaced populations – both outside and inside the Anglophone regions – and it makes it even harder for humanitarians trying to get aid in.”

A lack of accountable leadership

As Cameroon faces this set of complex crises, the president remains out of sight. This is keeping with his usual patterns of governance. A 2018 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Biya, who came to office in 1982, spends as much as a third of his time abroad some years, much of it at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.

“It’s long been part of Biya’s playbook not to get down in the mud or the daily details of governing,” says Yonatan Morse, author of How Autocrats Compete: Parties, Patrons, and Unfair Elections in Africa.

According to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of the pro-democracy non-profit Vanguard Africa, this ruling style is indicative of a much deeper problem in Cameroon’s governance.

“The coronavirus pandemic is only the most recent example of Biya’s absence and lack of accountability,” he says. “We have the tendency to highlight the symptoms of these crises, be they public health or humanitarian, rather than the cause, which is a lack of accountable and democratic leadership.”

Wherever he is, cases of COVID-19 in Cameroon continue to rise.

Culled from The African Arguments with additional editing from Camcordnews

Six opposition activists have been arrested in Cameroon for distributing face masks and disinfectant gel, their lawyers and Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The six were arrested on Monday in a busy market in the capital Yaounde. They are all supporters of main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who lost the 2018 presidential election to veteran leader Paul Biya.

Cameroon’s government has banned an initiative by Kamto to collect funds to fight the novel coronavirus, ordering banks to close its accounts and freeze the money.

Communication companies have also been told to close mobile accounts opened to support the fund.

There have been 3,000 coronavirus infections and 139 deaths in Cameroon, which ranks among the worst affected African countries.

Hippolyte Meli, one of the lawyers for the six detainees, told AFP that they were being held for “the illegal distribution of masks and hydroalcoholic gel.”

Cameroonian authorities contacted by AFP have not commented so far.

HRW said the six were accused of “rebellion” — an act that could fetch them up to four years in jail, if convicted.

“Earlier in May, the health minister rejected a donation by Kamto’s initiative of 16,000 protective and surgical masks and 950 COVID-19 screening tests, claiming the initiative had not been legally established,” the rights monitor said.

“Distributing free masks to those who need them is not rebellion and it certainly should not land people in jail. Cameroonian authorities appear to be more concerned with defeating the opposition than protecting public health.”

Biya, 87, has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and he has not appeared on television since the pandemic broke out.

Source: AFP

The President of the Swiss Confederation, Mrs Simonetta Sommaruga has said on her Twitter account that she had a telephone conversation with the French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya on the 14^th of May 2020 on the crisis in Southern Cameroons and the coronavirus pandemic.

She reiterated to the 88 year-old leader, her country’s willingness to accompany Cameroon in the search for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

“Happy to have had an exchange of views today with President @PR_Paul_BIYA on health and humanitarian cooperation in Cameroon and on Switzerland’s commitment to finding solutions in the North-West and South-West,” the Swiss official tweeted.

Correspondingly, the Swiss government reportedly tried in the past to initiate negotiations between the Cameroonian government and the English-speaking separatists. But the initiative has met with a stone wall from both sides, who are sticking to their positions.

 According to NGOs, the war in Southern Cameroons has caused at least 3,000 deaths and more than 700,000 displaced persons and refugees.

By Chi Prudence Asong

A prominent baron of the political bureau of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has told Cameroon Intelligence Report that President Biya 88 is no longer in charge of his government.

Speaking to our chief political correspondent Rita Akana in Yaoundé, the French Cameroun political elite who sued for anonymity claimed President Biya knows only 4 of his sea of ministers. Our source furthered that Biya only talks to Gregoire Owona, Laurent Esso, Atanga Nji and Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

“President Biya does not know the people he has been appointing as most of the several members of government came into cabinet through private connections with some close family relatives to Biya” he added.  

According to another well-placed source in Yaoundé, Biya’s lack of control over his government is now a major concern among his Beti Ewondo supporters. A lot of people who had access to him in the yesteryears are now being prevented from informing him on the poor state of the country by a selected few.

Biya recently betrayed his ignorance when he questioned the actions of the Minister for National Education. We gathered that he wondered aloud why Dr Dorothy Njeuma was not coming out strong on the fight against COVID-19 in schools and colleges but was reminded that it was Prof Nalova who was now at the head not Njeuma.

By Fon Lawrence in Yaoundé

French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya whose last two public appearances at Etoudi were on March 11, and April 16^th 2020 with the United States Ambassador, Peter Henri Barlerin and the French Ambassador Christophe Guilhou has been told by his French masters in Paris to end his COVID-19 self isolation and get back to Yaoundé, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from reliable sources in the French capital.

The Coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc throughout the country and ever since the announcement of Cameroon’s first case on March 6, 2020, the 88 year old Monarch has still not expressed himself in a televised message as several of his counterparts the world over have done.

Our source in Paris also hinted that French President Macron compelled the dictator to come out of his confinement when rumors about the bill of his health started gaining grounds in Yaoundé.

A retired French diplomat was quoted recently by newspapers in French Cameroun as saying that Macron was running out of patience with the frail leader and has again directed Biya to seek a lasting solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

Biya is expected to travel back to Yaoundé this coming week amid pressure exerted surreptitiously by French President Macron and opposition leader Prof. Maurice Kamto.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

The contract of Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor alias Agbor Balla, Instructor at the English Law Department of the University of Buea, UB, has been terminated on grounds that he breached university guidelines when he set an exam question on the socio-political situation in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.

Decision No. 2020/0326/UB/DVC/TIC/AcA/AA to terminate the contract of Agbor Balla is dated Wednesday, May 6, 2020 and signed by the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ngomo Horace Manga.

Members of a disciplinary panel set up through service note no. 2020/071/UB/VC/DVC/TIC/AcA/TTSD/AA on April 3, 2020 are said to have unanimously agreed that Agbor Balla’s contract be terminated at the end of a Disciplinary Hearing Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at the Board Room of the Central Administrative Block despite Agbor Nkongho’s “boycott”.

The rights activist is said to have breached professional obligations when he set an exam question on the Anglophone Crisis in a first semester level one course titled “Political and Constitutional History of Cameroon”. The question read: “The Anglophone crisis since 2016 was caused by lawyers’ and teachers’ strikes. Assess the validity of this statement. (40 marks).”

The Disciplinary Panel resolved that the question violates Article 40 and 42 (paragraph 1) of decree no. 93/027 of 19 January 1993, modified and completed by decree no. 2005/342 of 10 September 2005, to define provisions common to all university institutions.

Expected to enter appearance in defense, Agbor Balla rather sought the services of Sheriff-Bailiff Tapa Justin Lebrin to serve the Vice-Chancellor his “Appearance Under Protest”. The four-page document was received on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor by his private secretary early Wednesday morning. In the “protest”, Agbor Balla picked holes in the disciplinary hearing, positing that it fell short of due process.

Based on the outcome of the Disciplinary Panel, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ngomo Horace Manga decided to terminate with immediate effect the Contract of Mr. Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla recruited as Instructor in the Department of Law through decision No. 2015/0514/UB/AcA/TTSD/TSS of June 2, 2015.

“The Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Teaching, Professionalization and Development of Information and Communication Technologies, the Registrar, the Director of Academic Affairs, the Director Of Finance, the Dean of the Faculty of Laws and Political Science, each in their areas of competence, are charged with the implementation of this decision, which shall be registered and communicated wherever necessary,” said Professor Ngomo.

Agbor Balla took to Facebook and Twitter Wednesday night with the following words: “They celebrated when I was arrested; wished me death whilst I was in jail; prayed that I should never leave jail; jubilated when the minister wrote to the university; rejoiced when I was summoned but unfortunately for them they are not God. I have forgiven all of them.”

It would be recalled that the Minister of State  for Higher Education and Chancellor of Academic Orders,  Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo had on April 20, 2020 instructed the Vice-Chancellor of  the University of Buea ,Professor Horace Ngomo Manga  to put a definite end to all  on-campus activities of  Agbor Balla which breach the “ethics and deontology”  of the University. Sources at UB say the Minister of State’s letter followed complaints from parents sent to his office.

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that when the crisis in the North West and South West regions started in October 2016 with the Lawyers’ and later Teachers’ strike, Agbor Balla was President of the Fako Lawyer’s Association (FAKLA) as well as President of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC.

When pressure came to bear on government, the CACSC was banned on January 17, 2017 and Agbor Balla arrested same day along with Dr. Fontem Neba who served as Secretary General of the Consortium.

Brought before the Yaoundé military court for promoting terrorism among other charges that carry the maximum sentence, Agbor Balla was freed when President Biya ordered the discontinuance of proceedings against him and others on August 30, 2017.

Human Rights Lawyer Agbor Balla’s trouble at the University of Buea may not be unconnected to his civil society activities and his recent indictment of government for the February 14, 2020 killings in Ngarbuh, pundits say.

Source: Cameroon-Info.Net

The dust about Nkongho Success’ betrayal of the Southern Cameroonian cause seems to be settling, especially as the fight against the Coronavirus seems to have overshadowed the struggle for the independence of Southern Cameroons.

While Southern Cameroonians are observing a ceasefire to enable the international community battle an insidious and disruptive virus, Nkongho Success has been at work, betraying more Southern Cameroonians and hurting those he considers as his sworn enemy.

Today, he has sent Paul Ayah Abine, the illustrious judge and once-upon-a-time presidential candidate who helped him to grow politically, to the SED where he will face some tough questions about his political and financial activities.

Nkongho Success has been talking with the country’s Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, and Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, both of whom are in support of a sinister plot to silence the retired judge forever.

Mr. Nkongho claims he has evidence that Mr. Ayah Abine had sinister a plan to buy arms and destabilize the country.

He claims the learned judge wanted to use his church to raise money for his 2018 presidential campaign, some of which would have been channeled into an arms purchase deal.

He alleges that Judge Ayah had asked him to charge his faithful in his fake church CFAF 5,000 each which could have made the learned judge an instant billionaire and a huge threat to the government.

Judge Ayah is not a stranger to SED and his sound knowledge of the law will be the largest tool in his tool box in his effort to deal with this massive mess Mr. Nkongho has created for him and his family.

Mr Nkongho, who now lives in Yaoundé, is now enjoying some form of protection and immunity and these will last for as long as he continues to betray many Southern Cameroonians.

His family has been set up in Yaoundé by the government. All of his brothers have left Mamfe and his cousins who sympathize with the Southern Cameroonian cause have completely disconnected from him.

Speaking over the phone to a friend in Mamfe, Mr. Nkongho said he would never regret his decision, although Amba fighters had seized all of their farms and allocated them to other people.

He has sworn to destroy Judge Ayah, claiming that it was Mr. Ayah who attacked him first.

More will be yours as Cameroon Concord News Group gathers more details.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Lord Justice AYAH’S DYING DECLARATION

I, Ayah Paul Abine,

A retired Supreme Court judge

Former candidate at the 2011 Presidential Election

Former National President of People’s Action Party

Former National President of Popular Action Party

Do solemnly declare as follows:

1 That I was abducted by a six-man armed government’s killer squad from my residence in Yaounde on January 21, 2017. During my 223-day captivity in a solitary cell, I developed a cardiac condition that warrants my taking, at least, eight (8) drugs a day to sustain my life.

2 That the said government has blocked or procured the blocking of my bank accounts with BICEC, Buea, for upwards of two months now.

3 That, deprived of access to my accounts, my health has deteriorated steadily for the last four weeks running as I am unable to buy vitally necessary drugs to keep me alive.

4 That my scores of dependents at home and in the St Valentine Centre, (orphanage), risk dying as we live in the war zone where we cannot even fall back on a garden.

5 that the following THREE Anglophone personalities are responsible for my eventual death, and the eventual death of my dependent, and do have to account accordingly:

THE PRIME MINISTER, DR JOSEPH DION NGUTE

As the head of government that, from every indication, has plotted and does plot to kill me and, consequently, all my dependents; or has connived at such heinous crimes against humanity.

MR. PAUL ATANGA NJI

As the Permanent Secretary of the National Security Council. It may be instructive to know that it was the National Security that had my accounts blocked for no apparent reason, and without a court order.

A CERTAIN Dr SUCCESS NKONGHO

Said to be a pastor, the government has used, and is using him to forge a make-believe case against me. The very man that, ADMITTEDLY, killed soldiers and dismembered them – cutting off their heads, at times.

The very man that, ADMITTEDLY, burnt down schools; and kidnapped school children for ransom.

The very man that, ADMITTEDLY, had burnt to death alive in their homes and in their sleep innocent Ambazonian civilians.

The very man that had, ADMITTEDLY, kidnapped civilians for ransom…

MAY IT SO BE!

As for me, I can die any time soon from cardiac arrest, prepared for me by those three Anglophone personalities in the Government of Cameroun.

MAY GOD’S WILL BE DONE IN MY LIFE!

LORD, I COMMEND TO THEE MY SOUL!