Joshua Osih was elected Sunday, October 29, president of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), said this party, which is one of the two main opposition movements in Cameroon, a country led unchallenged for more than forty years by Paul Biya.

Mr. Osih, 54, until then first vice-president of the party, succeeds John Fru Ndi, who died on June 12 after having chaired the SDF since its creation in 1990. The SDF is the first opposition movement represented in the National Assembly with 5 seats out of 180 in a chamber largely dominated by the party of President Paul Biya. At 90 years old, the latter is regularly accused by the UN and international NGOs of repressing the opposition in this vast Central African country of nearly 30 million inhabitants.

Mr. Osih was elected with 62% of the votes of SDF activists gathered in congress against two other candidates, Jean Takougang, member of the party’s electoral commission, announced to AFP. John Fru Ndi had long been the main opponent, very close to winning the presidential election in 1992 with nearly 36% of the vote against nearly 40% for Mr. Biya. But in recent years, the SDF has lost ground, going from 43 deputies in 1997 to only 5 in 2023.

“Violation of human rights”

During the 2018 presidential election, the SDF recorded the worst score in its history, with Joshua Osih receiving only 3.35% of the vote. It was the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) which then positioned itself as the leading opposition party, its leader Maurice Kamto winning 14.23% of the vote against 71.28% for Mr. Biya.

In June, Amnesty International accused the government of “violation of human rights”in particular by imprisoning “arbitrarily” opponents, civilians, journalists, civil society leaders and by having them judged by military courts, invoking acts of “terrorism”.

Mr. Kamto was imprisoned for nine months without trial in 2019 for peaceful protests against the government and was only released after international pressure. The MRC has no elected representatives in the Assembly because it boycotted the 2018 legislative elections.

In 2019 and 2020, nearly 700 MRC executives and activists were arrested like Mr. Kamto, during and after “unquestionably peaceful marches” but “objects of violent repression”, had accused experts mandated by the UN in November 2022. The majority were released after eight months of detention without trial but forty-seven were sentenced to prison in 2021 by a military court. Forty-four are still imprisoned.

Source: AFP

On the evening of Oct. 4, two frightened-looking middle aged men in T-shirts were forced by armed men to sit on the ground in the middle of a village square in Guzang, in North West region of Cameroon, one of two main English-speaking regions in the predominantly Francophone Central African country.

The two men were alleged to have been spies for the national Francophone-led government. In a video seen by Semafor Africa, and shared widely on Cameroon social media in recent weeks, the men were lined up and executed by a firing squad in front of a small crowd of villagers. The execution has been claimed by the armed wing of the Ambazonia Governing Council (AGovC), a separatist group.

That moment of almost casual, coldblooded violence earlier this month is a dark reminder of one of Africa’s low profile but seemingly intractable armed conflicts taking place in Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions, which the separatists refer to as an independent state called Ambazonia.

The battle has also moved to Washington DC’s K Street, infamous for its expensive lobbying firms. Houston-based separatist leader Chris Anu confirmed to Semafor Africa that, on behalf of the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” he had contracted the lobby firm Scribe Strategies, led by veteran Washington player Joseph Szlavik, in a bid to make their case to key Africa watchers on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations.

“La Republique du Cameroun [government of Cameroon] is in the habit of saying that it doesn’t know who to talk to in Ambazonia,” Anu said. “By hiring a lobbyist, we are saying to LRC that they now know who to talk to and how to reach us.” He said the separatists will be speaking with “one voice” in conducting future negotiations or referendum matters via the firm.

Know More

Cameroon’s armed separatist conflict has claimed the lives of over 6,000 people, displaced 630,000 internally and a further 88,000 as refugees to next-door Nigeria. Its roots lie in Europe’s imperial past. In 1884, Germany annexed swathes of independent kingdoms in Central Africa to form a colony it named Kamerun but lost it after World War I to Britain and France which partitioned the territory.

In the 1960s, some in the British territory wanted independence by forming their own state, and not by joining neighbouring Nigeria or the already independent French Cameroun. However, they were not given that third option under a U.N.-organized referendum. This has bred frustration and secessionist agitations ever since. In 2016, protests against the imposition of French language officials in English-speaking schools and courts sparked protests and strike action by lawyers and teachers. But things turned violent the following year.

Amindeh’s view

For the past seven years, the lingering Anglophone crisis has attracted little global attention aside from the odd headline, presumably because it doesn’t significantly threaten the interest of major foreign powers.

Much of the battle is being fought on the ground and also on social media platforms with separatist activists and pro-government operators taking turns to spread propaganda.

It’s important to note both sides in the crisis have been spending in the U.S. to fund a lobby war. Since the conflict erupted, separatists told us they have contracted at least two lobby firms, Foley Hoagg and now Scribe Strategies & Advisors. The government for its part has used several lobby and PR firms on a variety of matters. They include Glover Park Group, Clout Public Affairs, Mercury Public Affair and Squire Patton Boggs.

It seems the conflict has descended into a stalemate with both sides hoping that the other will get exhausted and give up. As Arrey Elvis Ntui, a senior analyst for Cameroon at Brussels-based International Crisis Group, put it, the conflict has outlived narrow efforts made by the government and Anglophone separatist groups in the last seven years. “What could change the scenario is the parties doing what they have so far failed to do: discuss an end to hostilities and a political solution,” Ntui posited.

Room for Disagreement

Cameroon’s government insists that the socio-political upheaval in its North West and South West regions is an internal affair which it has under control. When the Canadian government announced early this year that Cameroon’s leaders had agreed to enter a peace process facilitated by Canada, Yaoundé was quick to issue a rebuttal. “It is first and foremost up to the Cameroonian people, to the institutions and leaders that have been freely chosen, to seek appropriate ways and means to address problems facing our country [Cameroon],” it said in a statement.

The View From Buea, South West Cameroon

Dr. Suh I Fru Norbert, a political scientist and conflict resolution expert at the University of Buea in the South West region, said nothing substantial had changed since the shock of the executions. “In a situation of asymmetric warfare, it is common for fighters to make sporadic appearances of the sort to remind the enemy they can still do something…However, what appears as a puzzle is to see such a mobilization at a market square in the day without the presence of conventional security forces,” Norbert told Semafor Africa.

Culled from News.Yahoo

Former Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Professor Titus Edzoa expressed his willingness to lead a transition government in the event President Biya agrees to step down.

Edzoa, however, maintained he will not support another mandate for President Biya in the next presidential race.

Professor Titus Edzoa told Equinox TV that any change in the government should be made under constitutional processes.

“Should there be a transition government and I am asked to serve the Cameroonian people solely for transition purposes, I would agree to lead,” Edzoa said.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

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