The Cameroonian government has put in place the system of “divide and rule”, which makes attempts by the country’s military to overthrow President Paul Biya impossible, a Catholic peace entity has said, allaying fears of “a possible coup” in the Central African nation.

Following recent military coups in Africa, particularly the July 26 one in the West African nation of Niger that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum from power, and the one in the Central African nation of Gabon on August 30, which resulted in the ouster of President Ali Bongo from power, the 90-year-old Cameroonian President reportedly made significant changes in his military, reshuffling the country’s defense delegate to the presidency, the staff of the air force, the navy, and the police.

According to Denis Hurley Peace Institute (DHPI), which has presence in Cameroon, the Central African country’s citizens are calling for the forceful removal of President Biya who ascended to the presidency through a coup d’état in 1982.

According to the peace entity of the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Cameroonians are congratulating Gabon and have “unanimously called on the military leaders of Cameroon to follow suit.”

A coup in Cameroon, DHPI says, may be an uphill task for the military who have been divided into various groups, and an animosity created among them.

“It must be noted that Paul Biya, who has been the ruler of Cameroon since 1982 had diversified the Armed Forces in the country as a preventive measure for a possible coup,” the peace entity says.

Having suffered a failed military coup in 1984, Biya is said to have wasted no time in creating many arms of the military. In this light, the country has the Gendarmerie, the Regular Army, the National Presidential Guard and the Rapid Intervention Brigade widely known by its French acronym as BIR.

“With this diversification of the Armed Forces, Biya has used the tactic of divide and rule as some arms of the military are given preferential treatment to the detriment of others, for example the BIR is supposedly the envy of the Armed Forces in Cameroon,” DHPI says.

The SACBC entity says the diversification of Cameroon’s Armed Forces, coupled with the recent adjustment in command of the top brass of Defense Sector “has canceled out any possibility of a military coup taking place in Cameroon any time soon.”

“Paul Biya will continue wielding power until a different strategy is devised to unseat him”, the Catholic peace entity reports, adding that President Biya’s early years in office had been “tarnished by tyranny and breaches of human rights.”

Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Niger and now Gabon have all faced the upheaval of military takeovers over the past three years, removing democratically elected presidents.

Culled from aciafrica

A Nigerian Lawyer and Former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu has alleged that the Cameroon President, Paul Biya did not campaign in the last election and was strangely announced the winner. He said in an interview with Arise TV news that the democratic choices of the people in Africa have become strangulated recently. He further argued that the crisis of elective governance in Africa is crisis of interminable Presidencies.

He said, ”When government makes it impossible for people to exercise that option to renew that legitimacy properly, then the democratic choices become strangulated. And that is really what you have in many countries.

Paul Biya did not campaign in the last election in Cameroon and he was announced the winner. And anyone who looked at Paul Biya the last time he appeared in the United States will feel sorry for him. Because nobody should be exposed to the kind of indignities that he subjected himself to as an old man.”

Source:  Opera News

The National Chairman of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate in Yaoundé has condemned the recent coup in Gabon that ousted sit-tight leader, Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Paul Biya, one of the longest-serving dictators in Africa has ruled for 41 years.

A statement issued by the Minister of Communication, René Emmanuel Sadi, on Thursday, said, “The Government of Cameroon has taken note of and is worried about the events that occurred in Gabon on 30 August 2023.

“It condemns the ongoing anti-constitutional change of Government which violates the fundamental principles and values of the Economic Community of Central African States and of the African Union.

“It calls on all the stakeholders to ensure the physical integrity of President Ali Bongo Ondimba and members of his family, the rapid restoration of constitutional order, and the preservation of peace and stability so dear to the sons and daughters of Gabon and the other Central African countries.”

The situation in Gabon reportedly forced Biya to make new appointments at the Defense Ministry’s central administrative unit.

Biya has ruled as the President of Cameroon since November 6, 1982, having previously been Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.

With the latest coup in Gabon on Wednesday, Africa has experienced eight coups over the last three years, since August 2020 which is good news for the suffering new generation.

By Chi Prudence Asong with additional reporting from Ewang Miriam Metchane

The war in Southern Cameroons is demonstrating that there appears to be widespread concerns that something fundamental is wrong with the union with French Cameroun not only in terms of perceived political marginalization, but also in terms of socio-economic exclusion and ensuring justice in all spheres.

Few including Prime Minister Dion Ngute and the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji maintain that nothing is wrong with the Republic of Cameroon and that all what is required is attitudinal change on the part of the political leadership.

For Southern Cameroonians, the United Republic of Cameroon experience simply needs a rebirth, a fundamental rebirth. While there appears to be widespread consensus about the need for separation in Ground Zero, there is a lack of consensus on the type of rebirth and the process of bringing about the desired change that will keep the two Cameroons together. Convening a Grand National Dialogue was advocated as one of the steps to be taken towards an attempt at fixing the problem with the two Cameroons.

Prime Minister, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute now thinks that much progress has been made in the implementations of the recommendations of the Grand National Dialogue.

The pro Yaoundé Southern Cameroons political elite was addressing members of the committee charged with the follow-up of the implementations of recommendations of the Grand National Dialogue during their fifth session on August 11, 2023 in Buea.

According to Mr. Dion Ngute, President Biya has signed a couple of decrees and implemented many recommendations of the National Dialogue.

Dion told members of the corrupt CPDM committee that “Basic infrastructures are being rehabilitated; special funding was allocated in the 2023 finance law for the construction and development process. The funds were increased following the recent amendment of the said law signed by the Head of State. Major infrastructures such as the Limbe Deep Sea Port are ongoing; a lot of work has been done there.”

On a lighter note, Dion Ngute recommended that; “We therefore have to continue in our efforts towards a complete return to normalcy by maintaining our focus and believing on the commitments, to fulfill the aspirations of our people.”

The secretary general of the committee, Felix Mbayu, spoke on what has been achieved in terms of infrastructural development, employment and agricultural productivity.

The Grand National Dialogue can never be an automatic solution to the problems in Southern Cameroons. It remains a Francophone scheme designed to attract ordinary Southern Cameroonians to relate with Yaoundé.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group think that Prime Minister Dion Ngute is part of the French Cameroun retrogressive force using the so-called Grand National Dialogue to take Southern Cameroonians backwards.

Prime Minister Dion is indeed a good example to demonstrate that practice does not make perfect.

By Asu Isong

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group has affirmed that the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is living in its worst situation ever, enumerating the reasons for the unprecedented decline deep within the ruling CPDM party.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai made the remarks during a talk in Dublin over the weekend in which he also presented a fair and balance state of the Anglophone uprising.

He referred to the recent sacking of General Ngambou Esaïe over comments the general made aimed at Minister Paul Atanga Nji as a very disturbing development in Yaoundé.

The Right Hon. Soter Agbaw-Ebai went on to cite three indications of the uniquely dire situation that was being experienced by the 90-year-old President Biya and his ruling Beti clique.

Firstly, Agbaw-Ebai pointed to the unhealthy rivalry and division that is presently manifesting itself within the government and warned that there were signs of a domestic war in the nation’s capital Yaoundé.

“Army generals were untouchable until Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Atanga Nji came to the lime light. We didn’t use to hear such things as firing of an army general or sending an army general on retirement,”

Secondly, Cameroon as a nation had come to be surrounded by hydra headed armed conflicts, ranging from the never ending Boko Haram incursions to the war in Southern Cameroons.

“The third one, there are concerns from the native populations in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé about crime and the massive wave of movement from the Far North region and Southern Cameroons to Douala and Yaoundé.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai said support had waned for the 90-year-old President Biya across all Cameroon state institutions including the military and that the West now considers Biya as an X-Factor.

“Europeans and American politicians have actually become tired of the CPDM crimes and practices.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in Dublin

Health minister Manaouda Malachie currently under investigation by the Special Criminal Court over alleged involvement in a huge Covid-19 corruption scandal has organized a meeting calling on the 90-year-old President Paul Biya to stand for re-election, two years before the next polls are due.

The move interpreted by many political commentators as a cunning manoeuvre by the politician from the Far North has also generated a lot of under-the-table talk in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé.

Investigators have been sending out new summons as part of a probe into the alleged embezzlement of IMF funds given to Cameroon to help with its Covid-19 response. Health minister Manaouda Malachie is among those on the list.

As part of the inquiry into the management of Covid-19 funds, judges at the Special Criminal Court have also issued Minister Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh with a summons. However, his high-level contacts within the security apparatus are currently offering him protection.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana in Yaoundé

90-year-old President Biya has received six new ambassadors at the Unity Palace in Yaoundé. The Monday 5th June 2023 ceremony involved heads of diplomatic missions who came to present their credentials to the Cameroonian dictator.

Among the six who performed the diplomatic ritual were Corinna Fricke, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Cameroon, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Christian Dennys-Mcclure, Martin Strub, the Ambassador of Switzerland, Filipo Scammacca Del Murgo, the Ambassador of Italy, Nozomu Takaoka, the Ambassador of Japan and Anindya Banerjee, the High Commissioner of India to Cameroon.

The six diplomats presented their credentials to Mr. Biya, in a solemn diplomatic ceremony that sealed their appointment as representatives of their countries to Cameroon.

By Rita Akana with files

The plantation town of Mbanga in the Littoral region, 310 km from the capital Yaoundé, is known for its banana plantations. But that’s not why it was in the spotlight on June 10, 2020. A video with plantation worker Clement Ytembe Bonda had gone viral, and it was going to haunt him forever.

It all started when news spread about how government ministries had mismanaged COVID-19 funds to the tune of XCF 180 billion (USD 226 million). When the pandemic hit in 2020, the IMF gave Cameroon this money to help deal with the pandemic.

In June 2020, civil society organizations, opposition party members sounded an alert on the mismanagement of the COVID-19 fund. Jean Michel Nintcheu, opposition Member of Parliament from the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, observed that there were no beds and toilets in one of the COVID-19 treatment centres in the Littoral region of Cameroon, even though XCF 100 million (about USD 165,000) was earmarked to hire mobile toilets. On orders from the presidency, the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court investigated the management of the funds later released a summary of investigation.

The summary indicated that the Ministry of Scientific Research had been importing hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, labeling them as their products instead of producing chloroquine. The XCF 15 million (about USD 25,000) meant for renovating the production unit was therefore allegedly not spent. The Ministry of Public Health was involved in overbilling and the mismanagement of funds.

In 2021, Cameroon was ranked 144/188 on the Transparency International corruption index. A report from the National Anti-corruption Commission highlights the most corrupt entities in Cameroon, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of State Property and Land Tenure, and the police and gendarmerie. Former Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono is in jail for the mismanagement of HIV/AIDS funds. This is why rights groups and opposition sounded an alert over the alleged embezzlement.

Clement Ytembe Bonda could not digest the news of the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds. On that fateful morning he took his phone and asked his friends Wameni André Boris and Flavy Kamou Wouwe to film him as he poured out his anger. “We have to get up at 4:00 am for XCF 32,000, while another [the ministers] will wake up at 8:00 am, and go to an air-conditioned office to steal XCF 180,000 billion. See bananas everywhere but you cannot touch even one.” Bonda used explicit language to talk about the head of state and government ministers responsible for the alleged embezzlement.

Through the video, Bonda exposed the employment situation in Cameroon, where a university graduate, for the lack of employment, is forced to work in a plantation. He also revealed the living conditions of plantation workers in Cameroon who toil the whole day without food to produce bananas for the owners. The minimum wage in Cameroon in 2022 is XAF  36,270, (USD 60.05) but Bonda and his friends were paid XAF 32,000 (USD 52.94), which is less than the minimum wage.

The video went viral on social media and Bonda soon became a wanted man, because speaking this way about the president and ministers provokes a strong response in Cameroon. The police accused him of insulting president Biya. He was tracked down and arrested, with his friends Andre Boris Wameni and  Flavy Kamou Wouwe, at the Plantation des Haut Penja, an affiliate of a French agro-industrial company.

Arrested on June 11, 2021, Bonda and his friends first appeared in court on June 14, 2021. On June 17, 2021, they were tried at the Njombe Court for outrage against the head of state and for spreading false information on social media under article 78 of the cybercrime law. It states that “Whoever uses electronic communications or an information system to design, to publish or propagate a piece of information without being able to attest its veracity or prove that the said piece of information was true shall be punished with imprisonment for from 06 (six) months to 02 (two) years or a fine of from 5,000,000 (five million) to 10,000,000 (ten million) CFA francs or both of such fine and imprisonment.”

Article 113 of the Criminal Procedure Code punishes with imprisonment from three months to three years anyone who issues or spreads false news when such news is likely to harm the public authorities or national cohesion.

A year later, Andre Boris Wameni and  Flavy Kamou Wouwe were freed, but Bonda remained in jail.

There were divergent opinions as some have argued that the young man deserves to be jailed because it is impolite to insult President Biya using vulgar language. Some have linked the arrest with the state of freedom of expression in the country — Cameroonians are free as long as they don’t criticize president Biya on or offline.

This is not the only case of cracking down on free expression. In 2009, journalist Jean Bosco Talla was jailed for insulting President Biya, but he said he had only published passages from a book in his newspaper.

The case of a TV program presenter Serge Alain Ottou and his guest Engelbert Le Bon Datchoua, a member of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM party on Equinoxe TV, a local online broadcast channel, is also still fresh in the minds of Cameroonians. The guest said President Biya “is the worst thing that happened to Cameroon,” and the Minister of Territorial Administration ordered an interrogation. The Ottou and Datchoua were questioned at the Littoral regional delegation of police. The Communication Council summoned the proprietor of Equinoxe TV and the presenter Ottou in November 2022 for questioning. The issue has not been mentioned again.

Freedom after expression

The 1996 Cameroon constitution guarantees freedom of expression. “The freedom of communication, of expression, of the press, of assembly, of association and of trade unionism as well as the right to strike shall be guaranteed under conditions fixed by the law.”

But it is an open secret that criticizing the head of state and his government online or offline calls for trouble. The police, armed forces, the ministries of territorial administration, and communication, and the courts are state apparatuses used to keep firm control on the people to prevent criticism and dissent. The state brandishes its traditional role of safeguarding public security and peace but tramples on freedom of expression.

Culled from advox.globalvoices.org

Six members of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party have been kidnapped a day after they took part in activities marking the 51st National Day in the restive Anglophone region of the country, a member of parliament has confirmed.

Stephen Ujambeng- a local CPDM party official and Member of the North West Regional Assembly and five others including two secondary school principals were returning from the locality after taking part in National Day activities when armed men kidnapped them, Hon Philip Awuta a Member of Parliament for the area said.

“They (the kidnappers) are asking for FCFA 50 million (over $82,000) ransom only for Stephen Ujambeng and have given a three-day deadline for the money to be paid,” Hon Awuta said.

“They have not said anything yet about the five others”, he explained.

Among those kidnapped, the Member of Parliament said are a local official of the youth wing of the ruling party, two secondary school principals and two other civil servants who were returning together with Mr Ujambeng.

The North West is one of two English-speaking regions of Cameroon where gunmen pushing for the separation of English speakers from the majority French-speaking country have been battling government troops since 2017.

The separatists say they want to form an independent country called Ambazonia – made up of the two English-speaking regions.

Cameroon celebrated its 51st National Day on Saturday May 20 amidst growing tension in English speaking regions where a separatist conflict has killed over 6,000 people since 2017.

May 20 or National [Unity] day commemorates a referendum organised in 1972 by then president Ahmadou Ahidjo to change the then two state Federal Republic into one country that was baptised the United Republic of Cameroon. It was rechristened the country as Republic of Cameroon 12 years later.

The separatists had called on people in the Anglophone regions to boycott the National Day which according to them has no significance and denotes the enslavement of the people of two formerly British-administered regions to the predominantly French speaking Republic of Cameroon.

But president Biya’s government called on all citizens to come out massively and celebrate the date as a sign of unity.

Fighting between government troops and militia groups in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon has claimed over 6,000 lives since 2017 and uprooted 800,000 others from their homes – 60 percent of them being women and children who now face differentiated risks, including gender-based violence and child trafficking, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

Source: Nation.Africa