Politics

11, March 2019

US: Sentor Sanders says Trump ‘does not know the difference between truth and lies’ ⁰

US Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced he is running for president again in the 2020 elections, has lashed out at US President Donald Trump, calling him a “pathological liar,” who “embarrasses” the United States daily.

Speaking at a campaign rally in in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday, the Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, accused the president of constantly defending authoritarianism, and added that Trump “does not know the difference between truth and lies.”

“As many of you know, all over the world today, there is a great struggle taking place between a growing or authoritarianism and democracy. And Trump is consistently on the wrong side of that struggle,” he said.

“Time and time again he has words of praise and affection for those leaders who despise democracy, while picking fights with longtime democratic allies. Democracy is about serious debate over public policy, not having a president who is a pathological liar and has told thousands of blatant lies since he is in office,” he stated.

“Now I don’t care, people in a democracy have different points of view — and all of us have conservative friends that we argue –we have a debate. But it is not acceptable to me and I think not acceptable to vast majority of the American people no matter what their political perspective is, that we have a president who simply does not know the difference between truth and lies,” he added.

Sanders continued that “Trump told the world very clearly how he feels about democracy and dissent, when he refused to criticize Saudi Arabia after that despotic regime murdered a journalist in cold blood.”

The 77-year-old lawmaker described as beyond disgraceful Trump’s reference to the American media as enemies of the people.

The Vermont senator stressed that such attitude is that of a demagogue who instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, claims that what everyone is saying about him is a lie.

Sanders, who has been a relentless critic of Trump, has also called him “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”

“We are running against a president who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” Sanders said in an email to Reuters last month after announced his 2020 election campaign.

Trump has in turn railed against what he claims is the Democratic Party’s turn to socialism, citing the rising popularity of Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both self-proclaimed democratic socialists.

Sanders

A former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders won a US House of Representatives seat in 1990, making him the first independent elected to the House in 40 years. In 2006, he won a US Senate seat and in 2018 was voted in for a third six-year term.

Sanders made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2016, losing out to Hillary Clinton, who was in turn defeated by Trump.

His call for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education has gained huge strong support among young liberals.

He mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton as he spoke to swelling crowds and garnered passionate support on social media. His 2016 campaign also rejected the use of corporate money and instead relied on small-dollar donations.

Presstv

10, March 2019

President Erdogan says US angered by Turkey’s independence ⁰

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the United States is pressuring Turkey to cancel an arms agreement with Russia because Washington is angered by Ankara’s independence.

“The issue is not about (the Russian defense system) S-400. It is because Turkey takes action of its own will regarding regional developments, particularly in Syria,” President Erdogan said in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday.

Turkey has been maintaining military presence in Syria to ward off Kurdish militants, whom it associates with anti-Ankara separatists. The US, which has also been present on Syrian soil, has been arming those Kurds under the pretext of helping them fight the Takfiri terror group of Daesh. Ankara has been at loggerheads with Washington over that support.

Russia and Turkey finalized an agreement on the delivery of Russian S-400 missile defense systems in December 2017. Turkey is expected to take delivery of the systems between later this year and early next year. The US has been selling its own Patriot missile systems to regional countries to push back against Russia’s expanding influence among them.

A day before Erdogan made the comments, the US Department of Defense warned Turkey of “grave consequences” if it took delivery of the Russian equipment. “They (the Turks) would not have access to Patriot and the F-35,” acting Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers said, also referring to an advanced American fighter jet that the Turks plan to purchase.

PressTV-US warns Turkey of 'grave consequences' over S-400 deal

The US was about to sell the Patriots to Turkey before Ankara chose to purchase the Russian systems. It is also contracted to deliver 100 F-35 stealth warplanes to Turkey. Washington claims that members of the Western military alliance of NATO, including Turkey, should be using certain weapons to ensure “interoperability.”

Erdogan, however, said, “Everyone knows that this issue has nothing to do with either NATO and the F-35 project nor the security of the US.”

Turkish-US tensions are at a peak mainly due to Washington’s support for the Kurds and Turkey’s subsequent imprisonment of an American pastor.

Last year, Ankara also imposed tariffs on US goods in response to American tariffs on Turkish-supplied steel and aluminum.

The two sides are separately at odds over Washington’s refusal to extradite Fetullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric accused of masterminding an abortive 2016 coup against the Turkish government.

The situation was not defused despite Turkey’s release of the pastor, whom it had detained over alleged links to anti-Ankara outfits.

Source: Presstv

10, March 2019

Constitutional crisis worsens in Cameroon ⁰

What started as a struggle for sovereignty by citizens of southern Cameroon has spiraled into a full-blown crisis. Rebel groups seeking an end to what they consider domination of the anglophone south by the francophone north have taken up weapons against the government’s security forces, causing hundreds to die while tens of thousands are forced from their homes.

Factories have been shuttered, roads have become impassable, warehouses have been destroyed, and truck drivers are routinely kidnapped for ransom.

The current crisis heated up in 2016 when activists in Cameroon’s western provinces protested the official use of the French language in these predominantly anglophone regions.
In the past two years, those protests have turned deadly.

A prominent Cameroonian scholar and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, Achille Mbembe, observes that Anglophone Cameroonians “don’t feel there is a place for them in the current administrative and political order in the country.”

People complain about being marginalized because the administration doesn’t speak their language, Mr. Mbembe says, adding that the controversy over language is an expression of deeper, long-held grievances around good governance and equitable political and social representation.

Humanitarian problems

UN Secretary-General António Guterres in September 2017 urged Cameroonian authorities to “promote measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis, including by addressing its root causes.”

In her report to the 39th session of the UN’s Human Rights Council last September, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet mentioned the crisis in Cameroon: “Fighting has intensified in the so-called anglophone regions between security forces and armed groups.

“The government has not acted to promote the conference on dialogue suggested by religious leaders, and there is still no mechanism in place which could envisage a halt in hostilities in the short term.”

Approximately 437,000 people are internally displaced across the affected provinces, said David Malan of the local Norwegian Refugees Council Office in an interview with Africa Renewal.
Most displaced people are taking refuge in remote rural areas or in surrounding bushlands and forests, several humanitarian agencies confirmed. Mr. Malan added that “getting them needed help has proved challenging.”

Business

Cameroon’s GDP growth had been projected to reach 3.8% this year, a rebound from the previous year, due to an increase in natural gas production. That goal is now likely unattainable.
The country’s economic growth “depends on the government’s ability to successfully handle the violent secessionist conflict in the two anglophone regions,” the World Bank stated last October.

The western provinces, hotbed of the crisis, produce cocoa and coffee, the country’s two main agriculture exports. Oil production, which accounts for an estimated 40% of the country’s GDP, mostly takes place in the coast of the Southwest Region.

Groupement inter-patronal du Cameroun (GICAM), an association of business leaders, declared in September that violence in two anglophone regions in the west of the country was forcing companies to halt operations.

Due to the crisis, GICAM estimates total loss of revenue as of October 2018 to be about $470 million, while 13,000 jobs, mostly in the agricultural sector, have been or are about to be lost.

Regional concerns

While fighting so far is within Cameroonian borders, there are fears its escalation could destabilize all of Central Africa and parts of West Africa.

Cameroonian refugees have begun moving to border communities in Cross River State in the south of neighboring Nigeria. They arrive nearly destitute and eke out a living in low-wage jobs.
They are mostly young people and women who have witnessed violence firsthand. “I could not take any clothes. There was shooting—they killed my uncle and shot my cousin,” a 39-year-old mother of four told UNHCR, in a story published on the refugee agency’s website.

Janet Obi, who used to trade in cocoa and clothes back home in Cameroon, is now tending cornfields in a village in Nigeria, the Qatar-based media company Al Jazeera reported in August.
“I get paid between 500 to 1,000 naira [$2 to $4] a day,” Stella Obi (no relation of Janet) told Al Jazeera as she worked the soil in a small vegetable field. “I never tasted this kind of suffering when I was in my village in Cameroon.”

These refugees are “employed as cheap day labourers, mostly in cocoa fields,” Chiara Cavalcanti of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) told Africa Renewal. Just as it is for western Cameroon, cocoa is Cross River State’s main commercial agricultural product.

Meantime, rights groups continue to denounce both the activities of the separatists and the central government’s tough response. Political observers warn that government crackdowns may exacerbate the situation.

Cameroon gained independence in 1961 and operated a federal system comprising two former UN trusteeship territories: French Cameroun and British Southern Cameroon. In 1972, the federal state was abrogated in favour of the United Republic of Cameroon, which was later renamed Republic of Cameroon.

In 1990, the first All Anglophone Conference was held in Buea, the historic capital of British Southern Cameroon. The participants called for a return to a federal state by April 1993, deeming the federal arrangement a better option than the prevailing unitary system.

The dream of a federal government did not materialize, sparking complaints over the years by people in the western regions that they were being marginalized by the central government.
Although the government has made efforts to address the situation by promising an inclusive approach to governance, few or no actions seem to have been taken, which prompted the latest protests and the ensuing violence.

The Catholic Church steps in

The Catholic Church recently renewed its calls for dialogue. “The Catholic Church can help break this dangerous stalemate,” suggests the Brussels-based international policy research group International Crisis Group (ICG).

Some 30% of the Cameroonian population is Catholic, giving the religious body clout to bring the warring parties to a peace table, the ICG believes.

Still, there appears to be divisions between anglophone and francophone clergies. Those divisions “stand in the way of [the Catholic Church] playing a constructive role,” notes the ICG.
To resolve the crisis and bring stability to the country, Mr. Guterres indicated his preference for a “genuine and inclusive dialogue between the government and the communities in the South-West and North-West regions.”

Culled from NewsGhana

9, March 2019

No one should ask why things are as they are: These questions will be answered at the right time ⁰

On August 31, 2006, my friend Bate Besong wrote a dedicated poem titled “Why we laugh at politicians and give them names”. That poem and its premonitory message impels me to struggle to find the underlying message behind the poem dedicated to me by a friend with whom I spent time discussing everything from literature to history, law, Marx, Osageyfo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Nwalimu Nyerere, CLR James, Marcus Garvey, politics generally, cultural issues, religion, maths, music etc. On occasion, he talked to me about many of his students whose potential intellectual bravery and literary ingenuity he admired. One of the names he mentioned was Dr Joyce Ashuntangtang.

Why do I bring up this name among others in this brief memorial statement? The name surely came up many times, but he first mentioned her name when we discussed the show of shame which is celebrated in Cameroun March 8, every year as the “Women Day”.

Bate Besong and I opposed the celebration of March 8, in ways that portrayed the African woman as hypnotised political tools. He opined that a celebration of the African woman should be in the systemic and societal recognition of women and their contribution toward human development. He hoped for a new generation of women intellectuals whom he believed will challenge the operating political, social and cultural order.

Bate Besong died on 8th of March 2007 the day set aside every year for showcasing the collective enslavement of women by the Cameroun systemic crime syndicate. This was not the intendment of the Peking Women Conference nor that of the international community that decided to use the ceremony every year to raise awareness on women related issues and women contributions as equal partners in efforts to protect and promote universal human values without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality or any discriminatory basis whatsoever. The Cameroun ceremony is the opposite of what the international community intended.

At the time of his death, I was not aware of the poem he dedicated to me and the underlying message in the poem. Our revulsion for the treatment of women by the crime syndicate so-called new deal, and the sycophantic submission of the population and the bastardising of scholarship and faculty admission that we discussed and despised has not abated. I have watched the younger generation whom Bate Besong told me about and his predictions are true. So therefore, was Bate Besong a Prophet? In the context of present-day commercial religion and prophesy, BB would never accept this title. BB went into the originality of the grassroot authentic creativity of some pathfinders to support his prediction that the challenge to the pervasive influence of contemporary Africa status quo will come from the grassroots, his students and their contemporaries.

We both agreed that a musician of Kalabari origin in the Nigeria Delta called Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson fitted in this category. Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson challenged the highlife music status quo in his time, imposing respect and recognition from highlife musical giants like E.T, Mensah, Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, Roy Chicago, EC Arinze, Chief Osita Osadebe. He died at the age of 32 after changing the face of highlife music and eternalising his musical genre for eternity. The religious and cultural messages conveyed through his music which he sang with passion at times made him cry on stage accompanied by his ever-increasing audience. Yet the music and the messages he delivered were the products of his work of art, some of which he composed on stage. While in Port Harcourt attending the conference of the African Bar Association, I requested and met Chief Tony Odili aged 93 and still and performing, the renowned percussionist of the Rex Lawson band. He confirmed in reasonable detail, what Bate Besong told me about Rex Lawson and his revolutionary change of the status quo in the Nigerian and West African highlife music. Nigerian gospel music is a derivative of the Rex Lawson highlife music revolution.

In the poem dedicated to me, Bate Besong in poetic form reminded me not to forsake the liberation struggle. He again raised our collective worries that years of enslavement and mental slavery had ruined generations of intellectuals and so-called elite on whom the people placed their hopes for liberation, freedom and independence. He like me believed that the peoples ‘moment would come when terror, fear and death will rather than scare the people, embolden them to take back their destiny, freedom and independence. As if to bid me and everyone goodbye, he in conclusion, enjoined us:

“No one should ask why things are as they are

These questions will be answered at the right time”

That right time is here for all to see and nothing will stop the wind of liberation and freedom which is blowing over the land. The relics of the old social order is fighting back through terror, treachery, corruption, criminality, distractions, confusions and all manner of sideshows. But Ground Zero and the generational liberators whom Bate Besong identified are out in arms fighting to win. And win they shall. Not the politicians whom Bate Besong came to distrust and made their treachery the subject of his premonitory poem to me. No not them. Their betrayal of the peoples’ aspirations has exposed them for what they have always been. This critical peoples’ moment when long deferred questions are finally been answered at the right time as BB predicted will consign them to ignominy and derision. This is also the moment to know “why we laugh at politicians and give them names” and for them to take stock of their treachery and the futility of their Iscariot politics of thirty silver and the unconscionable complicity in the extermination of their own people to satisfy the blood feeding of a vampiric dictator.

This memorial message should have been posted on March 8, 2019 but in honour of the greatest revolutionary and visionary seer of our times Dr Bate Besong, the judgment of the Abuja High Court exposing another international conspiracy and violations which like the McCleod Slave deal or bazaar aimed to stifle our march to freedom, it is but appropriate to place my considered opinion on the judgment in honour of Bate Besong the liberator, the Obasinjong warrior, the seer, and may I with his permission, call him the genuine prophet at the service of freedom and liberation of the sovereign people of the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia.

By Chief Charles A Taku

8, March 2019

Yaounde needs to address Southern Cameroons Crisis: US Top diplomat ⁰

The current crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions has raged since late 2016 with protests over perceived marginalisation by the Francophone majority morphing into almost daily clashes between security forces and armed separatists.

“There’s a very serious national crisis going on, but I believe the government needs to be more serious in how they address it,” said Nagy.

“I’m not sure, and I hope I’m wrong, that the government realises just what a serious problem it is,” added. “Even though there have been some policies announced by the government – in my view, they have been more symbolic than active.”

The US cut some military assistance to Cameroon in February over concerns about human rights violations allegedly committed by the Cameroonian military.

The country has been seen as a key security partner for the US and some 300 troops are based in the northern town of Garoua in an effort to fight hardline Islamists in the north of Cameroon.

“I think it could be settled relatively quickly,” said Nagy, in discussion of the Anglophone crisis. “A couple of positive steps would be if the people in the north west and south west could directly elect their governors.”

The American diplomat, referring to regional governors who are Francophone, said it would be unlikely that officials would be French speakers if Anglophones had more say over their own governance. Nagy also suggested that the security forces operating in the Anglophone regions “need to speak English”.

A conference bringing together all sides involved in the crisis would be “very positive”, according to Nagy. It would need to be “endorsed by the highest levels of government”.
RFI

7, March 2019

The role of imperialism in Anglophone-Francophone bloodshed ⁰

Monday 1 October marked the one-year anniversary of the declaration of independence by anglophone separatists in the southwest of Cameroon, when they announced the birth of a new nation: Ambazonia. That declaration of independence provoked a brutal clampdown by the Cameroonian government, leading to hundreds of civilians and dozens of members of the security forces being killed over the past year.

In the build-up to the anniversary, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, governor of the largely English-speaking northwest region, announced a curfew, stating that: “The movement of people between areas in the northwest is banned for a period of 48 hours from Sunday, 30 September until Monday, 1 October.” Similar measures were in force across Cameroon’s other anglophone areas.

President Biya responded to the declaration of Ambazonia and the subsequent anglophone insurgency with repression, which was met in turn with bloody attacks by separatists

In Buea, a town in the southwest that has been at the heart of the anglophone insurgency, officials also announced a raft of “special security measures”. All shops and bars were closed, cultural and sporting events cancelled and public and private transport suspended throughout Sunday and Monday. The two-day curfew also affected the southwestern coastal towns of Limbe and Tiko.

This came a week ahead of polls opening for Cameroon’s presidential elections on 7 October, a vote that anglophone secessionists vowed to disrupt. 85-year-old, Francophone incumbent Paul Biya is seeking a seventh term, having already been in power since 1982, amidst rampant corruption and brutal repression of the anglophone minority (which represents approximately 20 percent of the Cameroonian population). However, opposition leader Maurice Kamto has already declared himself the winner ahead of the official results (not uncommon in African nations), in an election that has seen an extremely low turnout in anglophone areas.

Last year’s independence declaration triggered a crisis that has cast a shadow over the current elections, with tit-for-tat skirmishes between the security forces and anglophone separatists. Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the North-West and Southwest — have seen almost daily violence that has left at least 400 dead in the past year.

Biya responded to the declaration of Ambazonia and the subsequent anglophone insurgency with repression, which was met in turn with bloody attacks by separatists, who have killed troops and police and torched schools and other symbols of the Cameroonian state. Six civilians and two police officers were killed in Cameroon’s English-speaking southwest, and two police officers were allegedly killed and a policewoman injured on the outskirts of the beach resort town of Limbe. Meanwhile, in Buea, the capital of the southwest region, police shot dead six civilians and injured another. Soldiers and separatists also traded gunfire in Bamenda, the main city in the anglophone northwest region.

Last year’s independence declaration triggered a crisis that has cast a shadow over the current elections, with tit-for-tat skirmishes between the security forces and anglophone separatists

Cameroon is undergoing a crisis that has its roots in the imperialist domination and carving up of the country. The anglophone and francophone divisions date back to British and French occupations, which took over from German colonisation. The two imperialist powers divided Cameroon into separate spheres of influence that were later formalised by the League of Nations: the forerunner to the UN. The much-larger French colony was eventually granted independence in 1960, followed a year later by the British colony also gaining independence. Some of the anglophone areas chose to join newly-formed Nigeria, while others remained part of the Federation of Cameroon. In this article, we will situate the present situation within its historical context, and explain how the bloody hand of capitalist imperialism set the current turmoil in motion.

The situation today

Violent skirmishes have become commonplace in anglophone Cameroon. A typical clash took place on 14 September at 9pm, at a roadside checkpoint on the outskirts of Bamenda: the capital of the northwest region and home to many of the separatist fighters embroiled in the ongoing civil war. A storm was raging, and the thunder was punctuated by machine gun fire, exchanged between anglophone separatist fighters and a gendarmerie brigade. When the French-speaking officer called to cease fire, six separatist fighters’ bodies were strewn across the pothole-laden road. This is but one example of the daily fighting between English-speaking rebels and the francophone security forces loyal to the government of President Biya in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé.

The re-election of Biya for another seven years in power is a foregone conclusion (although the official count might not be announced for weeks after the polls opened on 7 October). Nevertheless, the government engaged in a renewed crackdown on separatists to try and reinstate law and order in the anglophone regions of Cameroon, so the vote could take place. It was always a fanciful idea that the military would be able to sufficiently quell the separatists to allow even a semblance of an election to occur in these regions, as the civil war is currently at fever pitch. Predictably, the turnout in these regions was extremely low: less than 5 percent, compared to 55 percent for francophone Cameroon.

Violent skirmishes between government forces and pro-independence fighters have become commonplace in anglophone Cameroon

Separatists have escalated their actions in recent years, from demonstrations and strikes for language recognition, to organising the Ambazonian Defence Force in the hope of making the region ungovernable so that they will be able to create a new state for English-speakers. There is a deep-seated hatred towards the presidency of Biya from those fighting for the establishment of Ambazonia, as anglophones have faced discrimination for decades, coupled with the pillaging of natural resources from their homes. Oil was discovered in the English-speaking regions in 1970, but the main beneficiaries have been the foreign companies granted rights for extraction, and the Biya government itself, which has reaped the spoils while systematically underfunding the anglophone areas of Cameroon.

The spark for the current situation can be traced to late 2016, when English-speaking teachers were ordered to teach in French-speaking regions and French-speaking teachers were moved in to replace them, meaning learning was forcibly conducted in French. Courts were also ordered to conduct their proceedings solely in French, meaning that English-speaking lawyers could no longer represent their clients, and defendants in the anglophone population were unable to understand what was happening to them in court.

This provocation led to the teachers and lawyers going on strike. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding full recognition of their language rights. Security forces tried to suppress the situation by firing into a demonstration, killing 17. These murders hardened many of the anglophone population into supporting independence for Ambazonia and also had the effect of creating armed groups, which responded in kind by killing soldiers, police officers, and people they believed to be collaborating with the authorities.

The government in Yaoundé says more than 120 of their security forces have been killed in these actions, while the United Nations says the fighting has caused 160,000 people to flee their homes and 34,000 more to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Nigeria. The number of civilian deaths cannot be ascertained due to the continued fighting in the region.

us sailors conduct search and seizure familiarization training in douala Image US Military

The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), which reports directly to President Biya, is trained in combat and torture techniques by US, French, Israeli and British military personnel

Government forces have been accused of committing genocide against the anglophone population by international organisations such as Amnesty International. Villages in anglophone areas have been systematically targeted and razed to the ground. The internet has been suspended, curfews instigated, and new anti-terrorism legislation has been passed that has placed hundreds of people on death row for organising protests against the government. President Biya has declared war on all separatists.

The elite wing of the military, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), which reports directly to President Biya and is trained by US, French, Israeli and British military personnel, has been videoed executing unarmed women and their toddlers, faced corroborated reports of shooting into peaceful demonstrations and also stands accused of implementing torture techniques (learned from the Americans) on the separatists. The actions of the government have thrown petrol on a situation that has its roots in the imperialist carving up of Africa and the reunification of Cameroon in 1961.

German imperialism and partition

Today’s Republic of Cameroon was created out of territory that was dominated by German imperialism from 1884 to 1916, called Kamerun. The Germans, through companies mainly based in Hamburg and Bremen, conducted plantation activities during the European imperialists’ “Scramble for Africa” and subjugated the local populations, who spoke a wide range of local languages and dialects. Unsurprisingly, the German colonisation of Cameroon did not succeed in uniting the populations in a common sense of nationhood but did leave a legacy of a common name for the region, which at a later date was utilised to defend imperialist interests.

Cameroon boundary changes since 1901 / Image: Roke

At the end of the First World War, British and French troops, with some help from Belgian forces, managed to expel the German military from Kamerun. The 1919 London Declaration, which was decided solely between France and Britain, granted one-fifth of the former German colony to Britain and the remainder to France. The League of Nations accepted the partition of Kamerun in 1922. This is what created the future anglophone minority in Cameroon and a francophone majority in the rest of the country. London chose to split her new war spoils and formed a Northern zone, where Islam was practiced by large numbers of people, and a Southern zone where Christianity was more widely followed. Both were to be administered by the neighbouring British colony of Nigeria.

After the Second World War, Britain and France were drastically weakened as world powers and the US emerged as the leader of the so-called “free world”. Through the United Nations, and a recognition on the part of the old imperialist powers that they could no longer govern in the same ways as before, the US pushed for the Cameroonian mandates granted by the League of Nations to be transferred to UN Trusteeships with the expressed understanding they would be granted independence at a yet-undecided future date. At this time, the call for reunification of Cameroon had very little support among the local populations, split between the French and British-controlled areas. But a movement around this demand would materialise; supported and pushed, in the first instance, by Cameroon’s western-educated elites who saw opportunities to further their own prestige and political goals.

Cynical maneuverings

It was this elite – that had previously adapted very easily to the German, and then French or British, colonial rule – that saw the United Nations as a vehicle for promoting their project. One of these men was Paul Soppo Priso: Cameroon’s first native millionaire. Soppo Priso was born to one of the most important families in Douala and his schooling led him to train in topography: the study of mapping and surveying land.

After the fall of Kamerun from German control, and its consolidation into French and British hands, many German families decided to sell their assets and move back to the Motherland. Soppo Priso put his training to good use, managing to purchase a construction company and some land at a very cheap rate from a fleeing German family. This would later be the basis of Soppo Priso’s wealth: the extraction of raw materials, predominantly stone, to be sold to foreign companies. During the 1930s, Soppo Priso would develop extremely close relationships with the French colonial government and as a result held two ministerial positions in the colonial regime. The French then sponsored Soppo Priso to form the Jeunesse Camerounaise Française (JEUCAFRA). JEUCAFRA’s main political aim was to undercut Hitler’s intentions of recovering Germany’s lost colonial possessions.

Soppo Priso: Cameroon’s first native millionaire / Image: public domain

JEUCAFRA had success in winning support from Cameroon’s business elite, who had benefited from the German exodus and from a general anti-German sentiment. Their first demonstration was held in January 1939 in front of the office of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in Cameroon and was attended by over 20,000 people. JEUCAFRA was wound up after serving its purpose at the end of the Second World War, but Soppo Priso now had grander political intentions and launched his second political adventure, Rassemblement Camerounais (RACAM).

Soppo Priso ensured that RACAM made reunification a cornerstone of its politics. This policy was cynically developed to boost Soppo Priso politically. He had seen, at the United Nations, how the idea of unification of the Ewe people in Tongoland – whose territory was split between Britain and France after the Germans lost control in 1916 – had garnered support. As a result, Britain and France, to undercut public support for unification of the Ewe, were forced to grant greater political autonomy to Tongoland, which was seized upon by the native Togolese politicians of the same ilk as Soppo Priso. Thus, Soppo Priso believed he could use the United Nations and the idea of reunification to further himself and the class which he represented.

The UPC

Outside the country, RACAM had a focus on moderation and not upsetting their French masters unduly. This would not be a movement fit for young radicals, who were influenced by Marxist ideas and who had links with the French CGT trade union. On 10 April 1948, a small grouping of radical nationalists met in a bar in Douala Bassa quarter and formed the Unions des Populations du Cameroun (UPC). The UPC advocated immediate reunification and had a focus on garnering local support for their cause.

At first, the UPC’s work was confined to the wealthier strata and organised workers within the French provinces of Cameroon, but quickly spread to British-controlled Cameroon through francophone émigrés working on the plantations there, who had fled the harshness and oppressiveness of the French colonial system. Over 17,000 such workers were living in the Southwest British province of Cameroon in 1950.

In 1948, radical nationalists formed the Unions des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), which had links with the French CGT union

It was these workers on the plantations who initially formed the real basis of support for unification of Cameroon. It was a logical way for them to throw off the yoke of French imperialism and the stigmatisation they now faced from the British authorities, while linking back to their kin still in the French-controlled Cameroon.

The idea of unification also found fertile ground among sections of anglophone workers, who for a long time had suspected that Nigeria was being favoured for funding in the region, given that Britain was using the nation to govern their portion of Cameroon. This sentiment was seized upon by various new political formations, most of which mixed anti-francophone sentiments with a demand for an independent province, separate from British Nigeria and French Cameroon.

The UPC was the only organisation with unification politics that managed to span the anglo-francophone divide with some success. By 1950 they were considered the largest political grouping in the whole of Cameroon, although in reality they were still limited mainly to the southwest of the country, particularly in areas where the ethnic populations of Bassa and Bamileke peoples were most prominent.

The United Nations

Although the UPC had a clear focus on building locally they also had illusions that they could succeed in appealing to the United Nations to force France and Britain to respect the wording of the Trusteeships granted to them. As Article 76 of the Trusteeships Charter said:

“The basic objectives of the Trusteeship system, in accordance with the Purposes of the United Nations laid down in Article 1 of the present Charter shall be:
“A) to promote international peace and security;
“B) to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories and their progressive development toward self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.”

In 1952, the UPC leadership under Ruben Um Nyobe asked if they could present their case as an oral petition to the General Assembly of the UN. Um Nyobe believed that he could make a compelling case to the General Assembly that the British and French troops were occupying forces, and in order to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the peoples of Cameroon, unification must take place against the whims of imperialism.

Um Nyobe tried but his words were greeted with no support. The UPC would continue, under Um Nyobe’s leadership to try to convince the United Nations of this argument, but to no avail. A tactic was developed by the UPC to send petition after petition to the General Assembly asking for them to push for unification of the region. Over the 1950s, hundreds of petitions – each with tens of thousands of names – were sent from the UPC to the General Assembly.

The problem for the UPC was that their argument, although not fundamentally incorrect (that is, the imperialist looting of Africa was holding back the development of its people) ignored the fact that the United Nations does not work as a debating club, where argument and debate fundamentally affect their course of action. The UN is governed by the main imperialist powers and can only act when these powers agree. Sadly, the fledgling UPC failed to understand this and spent untold time gathering signatures and sending petitions and letters to the UN.

Banning the UPC, and the Hidden War

The activities of the UPC and their politics of anti-colonialism, while building local meetings and branches, made it impossible for them to avoid the ire of the authorities, especially at first in the French-controlled land. The UPC was banned in French-controlled Cameroon in 1955, following riots in major cities when they had a membership of over 100,000 and 450 branches. The UPC was driven underground and their headquarters and buildings burned to the ground. Many of the leadership fled to the British-controlled regions, where they were not persecuted to the same degree.

UPC leaders were systematically targeted and decapitated by French troops. The survivors fled or were driven underground

The Catholic Church and traditional tribal leaders also declared war on the UPC – and their influence spanned beyond the borders of the French-controlled territories. The Church accused anyone associated with the UPC of being violent communists who were in a conspiracy to destroy their institution. The old tribal rulers, whose authority was based on a mix of ethnic support and old relationships (and whom the UPC labelled “parasitic, feudal barons…ripe for destruction”) called for those loyal to their tribes to run the UPC into the ground. These calls united the most backward layers in Cameroonian society against the UPC.

The quelling of the UPC was brutal. It is estimated that it resulted in over 75,000 civilian deaths. Most of these people hailed from the Bamileke ethnic group and that is why this ruthless massacre is known as either the Bamileke War or the Hidden War due to the limited international attention to the atrocity.

The number of deaths is hard to estimate, yet General Max Briand, the commander of all French military forces in Cameroon, gave a report that an estimated 20,000 “terrorists” were killed in 1960 alone. The French, now backed by the British authorities, also instigated a policy to decapitate the leadership of the UPC, which would, in their view, put an end to the “communist plague” gripping the country. In September 1958, French troops tracked down Um Nyobe and succeeded in assassinating him in his own home, while his mother watched.

In 1958, UPC leader Um Nyobe was assassinated by French troops in his own home, while his mother watched

The UPC had been successfully smashed by the full force of the state. The membership had been killed, imprisoned or driven underground. The leaders of the organisation were murdered or in exile. Also, those leaders who did manage to seek refuge in neighbouring countries were split between the support of either the Moscow or Chinese leaderships in the ongoing Sino-Soviet split. Devoid of any relationships with the workers’ and peasants’ movements in Cameroon, the shell of the UPC quickly deteriorated further and eventually moved away from any kind of socialist leanings; ultimately accepting capitalism and focusing solely on national liberation through the armed struggle. The UPC as a progressive political force was now dead.

Towards independence and reunification

RACAM under Soppo Priso was forced to wind up in 1947 under pressure from the French authorities, as they believed at this time that any unification demands would undermine their continued control in the region. Soppo Priso would go from millionaire to billionaire by successfully enriching himself under the new leadership of Ahmadou Ahidjo in French-controlled Cameroon.

Ahidjo’s rise to power coincided with a change in tactics on the part of the French authorities. The French ruling class was facing a protracted war not only in Cameroon but also on a larger scale in Algeria, France’s most prized colony. The Algerian crisis of 1958 brought de Gaulle to power and his government prioritised maintaining Algeria at the expense of French-controlled West Africa.

From 1958 to 1960, all 12 of their colonies in West Africa were granted independence: an independence that would see the main leaders handpicked in the first instance by the French authorities, as those political groups opposed to French interference were outlawed as terrorist groups. The doctrine of the French at this stage was to find a small but influential elite – that was sufficiently satisfied with the status quo to refrain from anti-French sentiment – to take up leadership positions post-independence.

Independence for French-controlled was granted under Ahmadou Ahidjo’s leadership on the condition that the republic remain subordinate to France

Ahidjo was no different in this regard and formed closer links with France through the French Union. With Ahidjo in place and the decision on independence already made by the French authorities, the UN sent a ‘fact-finding mission’ in 1958 to see if Cameroon should move from Trusteeship to independence. The fact-finding mission came back, agreeing with the new French position, that independence should be granted, with Ahidjo’s government to rule the new territory.

When independence was granted in 1960, Ahidjo declared that Cameroon would be a liberal, capitalist state that would depend upon the goodwill and aid of the French. Ahidjo was indifferent towards unification of the British-controlled area with the newly formed republic. He simply stated that he would leave it to the people of the region to decide their future and that he would not stand in their way if they chose to join.

During this time, the British held elections in the areas under their control. A party called the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) won the elections in the Christian southern provinces by alluding to unification with the rest of Cameroon. The idea of unification, built up by the UPC, still gripped the minds of the remaining émigré workers and radical students, although this was still a minority position in the region. The majority view of the people, at this stage, was for independence from Nigeria and Cameroon and for the setting up of their own independent state.

British imperialism feared that allowing a newly independent state to be set up could become a source of instability and thus affect economic relations and, most importantly, their own looting in the region. Therefore, through their power at the UN, the British government pushed for an upcoming referendum to decide the future of the region, on a simple choice of either union with Nigeria or with Cameroon.

The British authorities achieved such a position at the UN – of ignoring the peoples’ choice of independence – by a dual tactic of arguing that such a state would be unstable and, by extension, could fall prey to communism, and that the people of these regions couldn’t comprehend a referendum with more than two options! When the selective referendum was held, the northern region decided to join Nigeria and the southern provinces voted to join Cameroon.

The dictatorships of Ahidjo to Biya

The war against the UPC was still raging when unification took place in 1961. Ahidjo used this as justification to increase his authoritarian rule and instigated a repressive dictatorship backed by French troops. In 1966, he managed to achieve one of his major political goals and dissolved all other political parties, forming a one-party state that he called a “ruling democracy”. The limited press freedoms and freedom of association that existed before independence were now completely removed. Ahidjo then attempted to project himself as father of the nation and plastered his image on billboards entering and leaving every town. To question Ahidjo’s authority in public was now considered suicidal, as the last of the dwindling UPC militants were drowned in blood.

In 1972, president Ahidjo, after proclaiming an end to the UPC, centralised the little remaining political structures outside of his direct control and destroyed any federal structures that still existed for the provinces. This was achieved through a sham constitutional referendum with a turnout reported to be 99.8 percent, with 99.9 percent of people supposedly voting in favour of Ahidjo’s new powers. This further realignment of political power saw no serious condemnation from France, Britain or the UN.

President Biya’s continued 36-year rule is characterised by brutal repression of anyone who opposes him, and especially the English-speaking peoples of the former British colony

From the period of 1960 to 1982 Ahidjo ‘won’ five elections under the “ruling democracy” system, with no less than 100 percent of the vote each time and a reported turnout of at least 99 percent. In 1982, with Ahidjo reaching his 58^thbirthday and 22^nd year in power, the situation within his own party was growing increasingly fractious and French imperialism was also becoming concerned that Ahidjo was mounting a move to break with them. Thus, in unclear circumstances, Ahidjo resigned (amidst reports of bad health) and President Biya replaced him.

The new president didn’t waste time in consolidating the existing power structure in his own image. Images of Ahidjo were removed and replaced with those of Biya and when there was an apparent coup attempt against Biya in 1984 the finger was pointed solely at Ahidjo. Ahidjo was then forced to flee the country and was consequently sentenced to death by the new regime in his absence for allegedly trying to overthrow the ruling democracy – that he had established to begin with!

President Biya at first promised increased freedoms, yet what came to pass was the exact opposite. He moved to rename the country from United Republic of Cameroon to just the Republic of Cameroon – a name that francophone Cameroon had before the 1961 unification. This move angered the peoples in the anglophone regions and marked a furthering of direct discriminatory policies and a process of forced assimilation of English speakers in the country.

Trapped between two devils

President Biya’s continued 36-year rule is characterised by brutal repression of anyone who opposes him, and especially the peoples of the former British colony. Although there was an opening up of limited freedoms of the press and a renewal of opposition parties in 1991, each subsequent election has been clearly fraudulent in Biya’s favour – including the present one, which has seen Biya leverage the entirety of the state against the opposition. Such is his confidence of victory, he has barely bothered to campaign, having organised only one rally, in the country’s north region.

Zanda Carol, on violence in Buea, in English-speaking Cameroon: “We are between two devils”

This is the backdrop to the ongoing fighting today in Cameroon. Zanda Carol, from Buea in English-speaking Cameroon, said his city was a ghost town on election day. Soldiers patrolled the streets, while armed insurgents declared and violently enforced a ban on voting in what they called an illegal poll. “We are between two devils,” Carol said.

France and Britain have supported, and continue to support, the dictatorships of first Ahidjo and then Biya. The working peoples and peasants of Cameroon, and Africa more broadly, have been subjugated to the will of imperialism, aided at times through mechanisms of the United Nations, to continue their looting of the continent. What is needed is to renew struggle based on the best traditions of the UPC and fight for true international socialism, which can unite the working people and peasants of Western Africa under the banner of genuine anti-imperialist struggle. This can only be achieved by expropriating the multinational corporations that are sucking the blood out of this potentially rich continent, and by building a socialist federation throughout the whole region.

Source: Marxist.Com

6, March 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis-Maurice Kamto Affair: Yaounde 1, Washington Nil ⁰

Yaoundé has denounced political pressure coming from the United States on its management of the Maurice Kamto Affair and the crisis in Southern Cameroons observing that foreign governments should stay clear of the domestic affairs of sovereign nations.

Communications Minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi issued the statement following remarks that came from Tibor Nagy, the US top diplomat on African affairs who reportedly said on French radio that, the Cameroonian government was aware that Maurice Kamto was arrested and imprisoned for lame and ridiculous reasons and called for his immediate release.

“I think it would be very wise to release him. Because, whether true or false, he is perceived to have been incarcerated for his political activities and this is unacceptable” said Tibor Nagy

Hon. Tibor Nagy also called on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to be more serious in the management of the crisis in Southern Cameroons. In his reaction to the Tibor Nagy interview in France, Minister Rene Sadi noted with contempt for the Trump administration that Tibor Nagy’s words “not only denote the lack of knowledge of the issues and facts concerning the arrest of Mr. Kamto and many of his supporters, as well as the situation in the North West and South West regions but betray a serious impulse barely veiled and unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.”

Emmanuel Rene Sadi repeated the Biya regime’s popular inaccurate stereotype that Cameroon is a state of law and that Kamto and his supporters of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon are subject to the rules that govern the republic.

Kamto and his supporters are prosecuted for common law crimes, including insurrection, hostility against the homeland, rebellion and the destruction of public property inside the country and in several diplomatic missions abroad. Tibor Nagy is expected in Cameroon on March 17 as part of an African tour. Both parties will no doubt have the opportunity to explain themselves.

Rita Akana in Yaounde

6, March 2019

Francophone Crisis: Maurice Kamto vs Paul Biya – What the AU Proposed ⁰

An AU delegation met with the Cameroonian government after discussing solutions to the post-election stalemate with Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC) opposition leader Maurice Kamto on December 20, 2018, Africa Info reports. The delegation presented President Paul Biya’s administration with a proposal that was geared at defusing the impasse gripping the country after the disputed November presidential elections, and also address the crisis in the two English-speaking regions.

The AU proposed that:

1. Creating the post of vice-president of the Republic during the next parliamentary session in March, to be occupied by Maurice Kamto. The VP would succeed the president

2. Creating a coalition government

3. Changing the electoral code and the Constitution as proposed by Kamto and the other opposition parties before the next elections

4. To give Kamto the responsibility of solving the Anglophone crisis (A UN proposal to the African Union)

5. Organizing Cameroon’s presidential elections within 3 years

Kamto expressed his reservations about the VP post being linked to presidential succession, preferring that the president choose a running mate for elections. As for the government of national unity, he told the commission that it did not interest his team to be part of a government of “slaves and future prisoners”. This did not go down well with the AU delegation but they accepted his stance.

Kamto has accepted these AU proposals:

1. The responsibility to resolve the Anglophone crisis

2. The amendment of the electoral code and certain aspects of the Constitution

3. And the organization of presidential elections within 3 years

This explains why on his return from Addis Ababa, Kamto delivered an “appeasement” speech after he initially presented his proposals for amendments to the Constitution and the electoral code. The reason MRC later took to the streets is because information (reportedly leaked by a Biya government minister) reached the party that the Biya regime did not intend to implement the proposals of the African Union. The government source said Biya’s administration is playing for time so that the momentum for change is lost before the March session in Parliament to discuss the AU proposals.

The government intends to appoint one of Biya’s proteges, Presidency Secretary-General Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh as the vice-president, according to the government source. Kamto then realized that there are people in the government benefiting from the war in the North West and South West, and it was not in their interest for the war to end.

Source: All Africa.Com

5, March 2019

US: Clinton rules out another presidential run ⁰

Hillary Clinton has for the first time ruled out running for president in 2020.

“I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton said Monday in an interview with News 12, a local TV channel in New York.

Clinton was the frontrunner in 2016 but ended up losing to Donald Trump. “I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out,” Clinton said.

“I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country, the kinds of things that are happening right now, are deeply troubling to me.”

Clinton has held meetings with some of the Democrats who are now vying for the party nomination or considering a run. CNN has reported that they include former vice president Joe Biden, who has not yet said if he is running.

“I’ve told every one of them, don’t take anything for granted, even though we have a long list of real problems and broken promises from this administration that need to be highlighted,” Clinton said.

Asked if she would run again for some kind of public office, she seemed to avoid ruling that out.

“I don’t think so, but I love living in New York and I’m so grateful that I had the chance to be a senator for eight years and to work with people across our state,” said the former secretary of state and senator for New York state.

AFP

4, March 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The price of occupation ⁰

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in 2016 is now costing billions of dollars to the Yaounde government. For long the government has thought it will bear the cost but actions by the separatists have proven that the conflict will not only be long, but costly.

The country’s economy is going through a storm and it is obvious that it might not survive. The Southern Cameroons crisis that started as a protest by teachers and lawyers has finally developed into a full blown conflict and this is costing the country’s treasury a fortune.

The Southern Cameroons economy that accounted for at least 40% of the country’s wealth is now anemic and the government is losing revenue. Most of its revenue streams in the two English-speaking regions have simply dried up. Its coffers are empty and this is a huge source of frustration for the beleaguered government.

The South West region alone accounts for more than 50% of the government foreign earnings. The country’s oil deposits are firmly rooted in the Rio Del Rey Estuary and it is being confirmed that more oilfields have been located around the creeks surrounding Tiko, a major city in the Southwest region. Oil alone gives the government millions of dollars every year. But threats by separatists to disrupt activities in the oil sector are causing the Yaounde government violent nightmares and it has been obliged to step up security to protect its oil assets in the region and this is costing it an arm and a leg.

The Southwest region is the country’s largest producer of cocoa, and with the chaos playing out there, jobs and incomes from the cocoa sector have been lost. The two English-speaking regions also account for more 50% of the country’s coffee production. The conflict in these two regions implies that the country has slipped down the list of the world’s major cocoa and coffee producing nations.

The Southern Cameroons crisis is hitting the Yaounde government like a ton of bricks. The country’s economy is suffering. Its Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) seem to be out of service. State corporations located in Southern Cameroons are already feeling the heat. Pamol, a palm oil production corporation located in Lobe, a small town in Ndian Division, has finally shut its doors as the fighting between Southern Cameroonian fighters and army soldiers takes a turn for the worse. This revenue stream has stopped flowing and Yaounde is really ill-at-ease.

Pamol’s closure is bad news for the government. More than three thousand Pamol workers are today unemployed and living in permanent fear, as the fighting between the warring factions rages on. Schools and courts in the region have been closed for almost two years and it is increasingly obvious that the Yaoundé government has lost control of certain parts of the two English-speaking regions.

But it is not only Pamol’s closure that is causing the government nightmares. The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), one of the country’s major employers, is also going through a rough patch. Some of its factories have closed shop, while the fighters have deliberately set some of its infrastructure ablaze as part of their economic sabotage campaign. Malende, a small town located some 6 km from Muyuka, has witnessed huge unemployment rates. The corporation’s rubber factory was set ablaze sometime last year by some unidentified men and this has hit CDC like a ton of bricks.

In other plantations, many workers have simply deserted. The fighting is disrupting economic activities in those plantations and many workers hold that it is better to quit than be caught up between the devil and the deep blue sea. The fighting, coupled with the derisory salaries the corporation pays to its workers, has made CDC unattractive and this is gradually eroding the government’s tax base.

Similarly, government revenue has taken a nosedive, as the national oil refinery located in the Southwest region is also facing some major challenges. While falling global oil prices are spreading pain and suffering among oil exporters, the declining oil output and constant attempts by Southern Cameroonian fighters to bring down the country’s lone oil refinery are leaving the government in a huge messy economic quandary. The crisis is a true nightmare to this once-upon-a-time oasis of peace. It is indeed a millstone around the government’s neck.

The government is gradually recognizing that declaring a war on its own people has been a big mistake, as the impact of the war is spreading into East Cameroon. With a large influx of internally displaced people into East Cameroon, housing and food have become very expensive in those cities receiving the internally displaced. Douala and Yaounde have been home to most of this internally displaced people and these two cities lack the proper infrastructure to handle such situations.

Declining oil revenues and falling production of some of the country’s major employers like CDC and Pamol implies that the government is heading for a financial disaster. This is exactly what is causing frustration within the government and the frustrations has pushed army soldiers to burn villages and kill young adult males in a reckless campaign that will make reconciliation impossible.

But the bad news is only getting worse by the day. Cameroon’s civil servants are facing the prospect of not receiving their salaries in the months ahead. For now, lecturers at the University of Buea have gone for three months without a salary and they are threatening to go on strike. This is bad news for the government which is cash-strapped and has many crises on its hands.

If well organized, the strike might spread to other sectors of the economy. Cameroon is like a tinder box and any spark could trigger an inferno. Cameroonians are sick and tired of the government’s indifference to their plight and they want to take the bull by the horn. The government’s abusive use of the military and the country’s institutions has been one reason that most frustrated Cameroonians have not been demonstrating, but the mindset is gradually changing as the Diaspora plays a critical role to sensitize those back home.

Meanwhile, as the government pursues its military campaign and rejects all calls for a peaceful and inclusive dialogue, many women in East Cameroon have taken it upon themselves to change things. They are now making the most of a bad situation, as many Southern Cameroonians migrate to East Cameroon to avoid being caught up in the government’s collective punitive expedition. They are using their bodies to bring about that dialogue the government is refusing to hold with Southern Cameroonians in a bid to de-escalate things.

The efforts seem to be paying off as perceptions of who the Southern Cameroonian are changing. When many Southern Cameroonians were fleeing the military’s violent operations in the two English-speaking regions of the country, not many thought they could be useful on the other side of the Mungo. Many had left their villages and cities for places they did not even know. Douala, Bafoussam, Dschang, Yaounde and Edea are some of the cities in which some of these young energetic, but idle internally displaced boys have settled.

Many were helpless when they got to these places. They knew nobody. They have been living rough and accepting whatever nature throws at them. The frustration of abandoning home has been huge and the fear of never returning to their native Ambazonia has be stalking them like a stubborn shadow.

Hunger and the stigma of being considered by their own government as terrorists have been robbing them of their smiles. But this is gradually changing. The smiles are slowly returning, and hunger, considered to be their companion, is gradually migrating to other places.

The Ambazonian has finally found work in East Cameroon. The idle boys, whose biceps and triceps are hanging loosely as if meant for destructive purposes are now fully employed as women in East Cameroon who were undersexed and sex-starved have now found a huge pool of studs who are impregnating them at an unbelievable rate.

In Douala where a huge segment of the male population is suffering from erectile dysfunction and low libido, the women are now looking in the direction of young Ambazonians who are prepared to do whatever comes their way.

Sources in Douala say, the old men do not know what to do with the young Ambazonina whose muscles spell danger to them. The old expiring men whose sex lives are in chaos are scared of these young Ambazonians, especially as the news from the warfront speaks of the bravery and determination of Ambazonians.

While the men are scared of the boys, the women, for their part, are licking their lips and smiling. The women, who have been suffering in silence, are having a never-ending party and this can be seen from the number of women who are carrying distended stomachs.

Our sources say pregnancy rates in cities like Bafoussam, Yaounde and Douala have gone up by 10% and this number is expected to rise as women open up and Ambazonians grow in confidence.

Speaking to a lady in Douala who is happily spotting a pregnancy, she said hers was the kingdom of happiness. She could not hide her glee as her cry for many years has been to be pregnant. An Ambazonian has made her dream to come true and she is now on cloud nine. She now only swears to Ambazonians.

Also, a married woman in Douala told the Cameroon Intelligence Report reporter that her husband had been neglecting his duties and this has been a bone of contention in their home. Before Ambazonians showed up in Douala, there was a lot of fighting in their home.

She added that ever since she met a young helpless Ambazonian, the fighting in their home had reduced.

“I hate the war in the two regions of our country because so many people are being killed. But the fighting out there has brought more peace than war to my family. My husband has been wondering about the sudden change in my life. He does not know he is being helped by an internally displaced person. We are all happy. I get the sex I need and the Ambazonian gets his food and a little money. My husband now sleeps in peace,” she said.

Cameroon is indeed at the crossroads. With elections around the corner and the fighting in the English-speaking regions raging on, it is clear that a disaster is lurking somewhere and before long the country could be transformed into an inferno. The frustration in East Cameroon is also mounting, as many people fall into abject poverty. It is becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Biya is not the man to lead the country to the land of promise. His time is up and there is a consensus around the world that he has overstayed his welcome.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom