Politics

5, October 2018

October 7: Biya sees Far North as path to poll victory ⁰

“It was horrible, you have no idea,” says Abdoulaye, 23, whose village in northern Cameroon was overrun by Boko Haram in 2015. Abdoulaye now wanders the streets of the district capital Mora selling small items.

He used to live in Kerawa, a village that was often targeted by fighters from the Nigeria-based Islamist group until army patrols were stepped up, ushering in a return to normality.

Despite not having any identity papers after fleeing and therefore being unable to vote, Aboulaye vocally supports President Paul Biya, who will seek a seventh term at polls on Sunday.

A poster in Biya’s signature blue adorns the trolley he uses to transport his wares, and Aboulaye argues passionately that a vote for Biya is a vote “to expel Boko Haram from the far north region”. Home to more than 1.2 million of Cameroon’s 6.6 million voters, the far north is the country’s most populous yet poorest region — a strategic target for Biya.

Days ahead of the vote, the Elecam electoral commission sought to reassure voters in the region that “there will be a polling station in each community, as planned”, according to the organisation’s regional chief Amadou Ali.

Though the suicide bombers who once terrorised the region are gone, low-key attacks happen almost daily. In September a convoy of the military’s rapid reaction force was targeted not far from Achmide, on the Nigerian border.

– ‘Isn’t a day without an attack’ –

Other sporadic attacks, including looting of shops and food stores, are frequent blights on daily life. “The truth is that there isn’t a day without an attack,” said one prominent figure in the region. “The far north is safe,” responded a senior officer based in Mora.

“No polling station will be relocated,” said Ali, the Elecam boss of the region’s planned 4,062 polling stations. Two other members of the election organising body said however that some polling stations in “danger zones” would be “regrouped” to “protect them from attack”.

Election candidates of all political stripes have headed to the provincial capital Maroua, taking heed of the region’s electoral importance. Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for 35 years, spent several hours in the town on Saturday.

During the campaign rally, parliament speaker Djibril Cavaye Yeguie, who is from the region, said that “100 percent” of the area’s voters would back Biya.

Joshua Osih, tha main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party candidate, held a rally on Friday. Cabral Libii, Garga Haman Adji and Maurice Kamto also made pit-stops in the town.

– ‘More pressing problems’ –

The far north remains a crucial factor in deciding the election, added the prominent figure who declined to be named. “The population is poor and easily manipulated,” said a social sciences researcher in Maroua who alleged that “here, you can buy a vote from someone poor for 2,000 CFA francs (3 euros, $3.50)”. In the far north, 74 percent of people live below the poverty line compared with 37.5 percent nationally, according to the International Crisis Groups (ICG) think-tank.

Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has allegedly been handing out cash incentives ahead of Sunday’s vote.

“Unlike the rest of the country there’s no one here to take control so there’s always a risk of fraud,” the researcher said. Elecam also published a list of some 50 polling stations that were difficult to access because they were near “impassable roads”, “flood zones” or “rugged terrain”.

The researcher said that the absence of observers in some areas could lead to ballot stuffing. Everyone interviewed in the region said that, after four years of conflict, they preferred to concentrate on “more pressing problems” than politics.

Abdoulaye dreams of making enough to pay for his sick mother’s care and to resume his studies. The conflict forced him to curtail his education before graduating from high school. He is now asking, “Will Biya enable me to do that?”

AFP

4, October 2018

CPDM has been in shambles since 1985 ⁰

A senior aide to President Paul Biya told Cameroon Concord News on Monday in Yaoundé that the ruling CPDM party has been in shambles since it was created in 1985. The outspoken baron who sued for anonymity also condemned President Biya for slowly but surely pushing the nation into disaster.

The French Cameroun political elite further pointed out that Francophone mediocrity has ruined the nation and sharply divided the ruling party adding that the aftermath of the October 7^th presidential election would be ‘disastrous’ if President Biya and the ruling CPDM party fails to heed the US ambassador’s advice.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from another reliable source that the CPDM is badly in need of a new leader and a new idea that can save the party from its current ill-fated flight. We understand, Biya and his gang had long planted a demon that was growing in the womb of the party for their own selfish Francophone Beti Ewondo interest.

There are fears deep within the Central Committee of the CPDM that even after the presidential elections; the ruling CPDM crime syndicate may end up without a genuine leader and without candidates at all legislative arms of government.

Our source said many elderly politicians opposed the idea of Biya seeking a 7^th term and had told the party’s Secretary General during a private Central Committee caucus meeting last year. He said President Biya was misled to believe that he was still the people’s choice.

“What happened in the meeting in Mvomeka’a was that there were people who misled Biya and the CPDM hierarchy and are using Biya’s continued stay in power to achieve their own ends. The CPDM has been in shambles in the last three decades.”

The CPDM and Biya have made promises to change the country, to restore things that were working properly under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and to cleanse the public service and state owned companies. But the country has now regressed to extending illegally postponing council and parliamentary elections so many times something that doesn’t exist within the constitution of the nation.

Most of the crises Cameroon now faces including the conflict in Ambazonia are as a result of CPDM internal wrangling and illegality, imposition of grassroots leaders, manipulation of the nation’s constitution and extension of tenure of mayors and MPs.

Our Yaoundé city reporter who contributed to this report observed that there are barons within the CPDM party, particularly Francophones, “You see them mostly every day coming to the Unity Palace, they feel that Cameroon belongs to them, they are closer to President Biya than any other person. They antagonize Southern Cameroonians calling them Biafra and Anglos.”

By Asu Vera Eyere with files from Rita Akana

3, October 2018

Uneducated Footballers Stain Cameroon Polity: Eto’o, Song endorse Biya ⁰

Samuel Eto’o announced Tuesday that he will vote for incumbent President Paul Biya in the October 7th presidential election. The former captain of the Indomitable Lions spoke at the end of a meeting with the President Biya, saying that the country needed a unifying leader.

Another former captain of the Cameroon national football team Rigobert Song also made it clear that he was voting for 85-year-old Biya.

The electoral campaign is currently in full swing in Cameroon. Paul Biya, is seeking a seventh consecutive term since taking office in 1982. Eight other candidates are running for office including Cabral Libii, and opposition leaders Maurice Kamto and Joshua Osih.

For the past 2 years the country has been facing unrest due to the ongoing crisis in the English Speaking regions. However, it is generally opined that the outcome of this election is very critical to the stability of the country as any irregularities may plunge the country into a civil war.

Source: Africa News

3, October 2018

French Cameroun Counterfeit Presidential Election: Biya still frontrunner despite crises ⁰

More than 6.5 million Cameroonians will elect their next head of state this week but Paul Biya, president for 35 years, remains the front-runner despite a raging anglophone insurgency and jihadist threats. The central African nation of 25 million people has never staged polls amid insecurity so serious that the military is currently deployed to three of ten regions.

In the far north, soldiers are tackling the Nigeria-based jihadist group Boko Haram, while in the two anglophone regions its mission is to suppress a nascent secessionist insurgency. The separatists have threatened to disrupt voting in the areas where they operate, prompting security forces to fan out across those regions ahead of Sunday’s presidential election.

Yaounde has been adamant that polling will go ahead across the whole country, according to a minister, while Biya has downplayed the conflicts are mere “trouble”.

Violence in the English-speaking regions has flared since the beginning of the crisis at the end of 2016 while security forces have responded to protest action with heavy handed tactics and waves of arrests.

The unrest has killed more than 400 people this year, according to the International Crisis Group think-tank, and there has been an exodus from these regions ahead of the vote.

What began as a limited movement calling for greater economic opportunities and recognition of the English language quickly snowballed into a deadly fight between Cameroon’s military and heavily-armed separatists.

Attacks on symbols of Cameroonian authority including police killings and kidnappings of civil servants have mounted while some local officials have fled anglophone areas, fearing for their lives.

‘The force of experience’

Officials at the Elecam electoral commission have said that some polling stations will be “relocated” to ensure the integrity of the vote.

Despite the challenges facing the nation, Biya has drawn upon a vast network of support to ensure the ubiquity of his campaign.

Towns across the country are dotted with billboards emblazoned with Biya’s face, proclaiming him to be the “force of experience”.

At his first and so far only campaign stop, in Maroua in the far north at the weekend, Biya was feted by ministers, party flunkies and traditional leaders. His supporters appear on television daily to proclaim his accomplishments and to defend his record.

Biya’s vision for Cameroon, first published in book form in 1987, was reissued in September in time for the polls. Biya, who typically keeps a low profile, said at the Maroua campaign meeting that he would use “a firm hand and dialogue” to resolve the crisis in the anglophone region.

Eight opposition candidates will face off against Biya on Sunday – but all will confront an uphill struggle with at least one candidate accusing the incumbent of having an unfair advantage.

Unlike the three previous elections where veteran opposition chief Ni John Fru Ndi stood, the field of opposing candidates this year is wide open.

Dislodge ‘the Sphinx’

“It’s the first time in Cameroon’s history that there are opposition candidates with such clearly differentiated, truly different policies,” said Fred Eboko, a Cameroonian analyst at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD).

The candidate for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party Joshua Osih is the contender carrying the torch for Ndi. Maurice Kamto is the insurgent candidate who has never before sought elected office and could benefit if the SDF struggles to mobilise its largely anglophone base in the conflict torn English-speaking regions.

Akere Muna, a renowned lawyer, benefits from strong overseas contacts and could benefit from protest votes cast against his better-known rivals.

No opposition coalition emerged ahead of campaigning for Sunday’s polls meaning that each of the eight challengers to Biya’s 35-year rule will have a herculean task to secure the numbers required to dislodge the leader known as “the Sphinx”.

As in 2011, an opposition upset victory looks highly unlikely. In that vote, Biya won 77.98% with both Washington and Paris warning that there were “numerous irregularities” in the conduct of the polls. The opposition, the Catholic church and a number of action groups have said they will deploy observers to deter and detect vote fraud.

Whoever wins at the ballot box, the victor will face immense challenges. Just 10% of working age people are in formal employment, one-third of Cameroonians live on less than $2.30 a day, and three in four people have only known Biya as their leader.

Source: News 24

2, October 2018

The Situation in Southern Cameroons is only going to get worse and here’s why ⁰

When school teachers took to the streets of Bamenda, a city in northwestern Cameroon, with thousands of others in November 2016, at least two people were killed by security forces that responded violently.

That event has become the rallying point for a crisis that has snowballed into an agitation for secession by the only two English-speaking regions in the country.

The North West and South West provinces, Cameroon’s only English-speaking regions, had long protested against perceived marginalisation by the political class accused of deliberately under-developing the regions.

The regions had merged with French-speaking Cameroon in 1961 through a referendum, decades after Cameroon, a German colony before World War I (1914-1918), was split into two and separately put under the control of France and Britain.

Even though federalism was established in the country in 1961, it was scrapped in 1972 by then-president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. Now, the North West and South West regions only make up two of Cameroon’s 10 semi-autonomous administrative regions.

Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions and their capitals

With the two regions being in the minority, it has long accused the central government of implementing policies deemed to be discriminatory to English-speakers, particularly in the education and judicial systems.

The teachers’ protest had happened just a month after the regions’ lawyers staged a similar protest to demand reforms that’ll address what was described as the overbearing use of French in the bilingual country.

While teachers complained that the education system in the English-speaking regions is too French-oriented to the detriment of English-speaking students, lawyers revolted against the increasing presence of Francophone magistrates and a French civil law system.

This scrutiny extended into other sectors of the country especially in politics where the important positions are believed to also be taken by more French speakers.

With the events that have transpired since 2016, separatist groups have now taken over the agitation to demand an independent new state called “Ambazonia”.

The government has massively cracked down on the regions over the past two years, leading to violent clashes between anti-government separatists and the country’s security forces.

Government soldiers patrol in the streets of Buea

When several negotiations between the government and leaders of the regions failed, they were arrested and thrown behind bars, further making the situation worse.

In their bid to force the government’s hands, Anglophone leaders instituted “Operation Ghost Town”, mandating citizens in the affected regions to stay at home with all institutions closed.

This resulted in one of the high points of the crisis when, in January 2017, the nation’s long-serving president, Paul Biya, shut down internet services in the Anglophone regions. The internet blackout was not lifted until April 2017, after 92 days which didn’t help to ease tensions in the troubled regions. The internet blackout was widely condemned for damaging the local economy and suppressing free speech.

President Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon for 35 years

Despite the government’s violent crackdown and meeting room diplomacy, the agitations refused to die down and further came to a head when security forces killed at least 40 people during the brutal suppression of protests across major towns and villages in the Northwest and Southwest in September 2017.

Separatists were soon getting bolder and started carrying out attacks just months later in November, killing at least six security officers. With bomb explosions also going off in Bamenda, Biya was compelled to declare war against the separatists in December 2017.

“I think that things are becoming clearer to everyone now that Cameroon is victim to repeated terrorist attacks from a secessionist group.

“In the face of such repeated aggression, I’ll like to assure Cameroonians that measures have been taken to eliminate these criminals and bring back peace throughout the national territory,”he declared.

Soldiers patrol in Bamenda

Some of Biya’s attempts to end the crisis includes the creation of a Common Law department at the Supreme Court and the School of Administration and Magistracy.

In January 2017, he also created a National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism as part of a response to address grievances of the regions.

His attempts have been deemed to be too insignificant or coming too late by the leaders agitating for the affected regions.

Fighters are now persistently locked in bloody battles with security forces in a conflict that’s believed to have claimed at least 400 lives.

This has resulted in a massive exodus of civilians with thousands of them fleeing from the violence in the troubled regions, as recently reported by the New York Times.

A common scene at the Buea bus terminal. The UN estimates that 246,000 people have fled their homes in the southwest for other parts of Cameroon

While many leave the regions to seek refuge in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, tens of thousands are also holed up in refugee camps in neighbouring Nigeria.

In May, 2018, as a direct consequence of the crisis in the Anglophone regions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) announced the registration of 21,291 Cameroonian refugees in 40 different locations across four states of Nigeria including Cross River, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Taraba. This massive influx happened in just seven months with the number projected to rise even higher to around 40,000.

With the nation’s presidential election scheduled to hold on October 7, 2018, the mass exodus of people from the Anglophone regions is set to pose a problem for Biya as he seeks a seventh term in office after already governing for 35 years.

Supporters of Cameroonian President Paul Biya gather at a stadium in Maroua for a campaign rally

Separatists have already placed a ban on voting in the troubled regions and electoral officers and government officials are among the hordes of people that have already taken flight.

It remains to be seen how this will eventually factor into the election, but the crisis has already cost the Central African nation too many lives and put so many more on hold.

Culled from the Pulse.ng

2, October 2018

Cameroon’s 2018 presidential poll: The electoral, voting process ⁰

Cameroonians prepare to go to the polls on Sunday, October 7, 2018; as campaigns among the various presidential aspirants intensify throughout the national territory.

Elections were conducted in the past by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, elsewhere the Ministry of Interior until the setting up in December 2006 of an independent body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), to take over the organization, management and the supervision of elections.

During the more than two decades of one-party rule, elections were considered a mere formality due to the fact that voters were not offered a choice between different political parties.

However, the situation changed radically with the return to political pluralism. Elections became hotly contested with uncertain outcomes and looming threats of violence as it was alleged that election management procedures favored the ruling party coupled with numerous irregularities.

The Electoral System

The President of the Republic is elected for a seven-year term by universal suffrage and by direct, equal and secret ballot.

According to the Cameroon electoral code, the president is elected by a single-round majority ballot and the candidate having obtained the majority of the votes cast shall be declared elected.

It also states that election will not be complete until Cameroon’s Supreme Court rules on requests for annulment and announces the results.

According to ELECAM guidelines, every person of Cameroonian nationality of either sex, who has reached the age of 20 years, is registered and is free from all cases of disqualification provided for by law, is entitled to vote.

Candidates for the office of President of the Republic are expected to be in full possession of their civic and political rights and must be aged 35 years and above by the date of election and will have to show proof of having resided in Cameroon for an uninterrupted period of at least 12 (twelve) months.

The Voting process

The biometric registration of voters is carried out by the country’s election governing body, Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, prior to the elections. Polling is usually organized on a Sunday or a day declared a public holiday and lasts a single day.

The electoral code provides that one polling station is set up for a maximum of 500 electors and every polling station shall be located in public premises or in premises open to the public.

Each voter is allowed into the polling station after presenting their voter’s card and proving their identity by producing their national identity card.

Source: Africa News

2, October 2018

October 7: The Challenges facing Biya and Akere Muna ⁰

The Nkafu Policy Institute, are pleased to release a scientific, nationwide opinion pollof adult Cameroonians on the state of the economy, perceptions on governance and the democratic process, and voter preferences for the 9 presidential candidates. This survey, conducted with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy, interviewed 2,024 adult Cameroonians in all ten regions.

Interviews were conducted in 54 urban centers and 25 rural localities from September 10 to September 20, 2018. All interviews were conducted before the official start of presidential campaigns. This representative sample has a margin of error of +/- 3%.

The findings reveal a country in free fall. 79.1 percent of Cameroonians believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction. The poverty level is alarming. Less than 17.65% percent of Cameroonian adults earn more than 200,000 FCFA (~$400) dollars a month. Cameroonians are mostly concerned about the state of infrastructure in the country: electricity, water, bridges, roads, railways and sea ports.

Today, 90 percent of Cameroonians believe the road infrastructure is bad or very bad. A large majority of Cameroonians (82.17 %) want local administrators such as Governors to be elected by the people.

Cameroonians have very little confidence in the legislature (only 16.31 % support the work done at the national assembly and 14.48 at the senate); supreme court (only 18.15 % of support), central government (16.93 % of support); constitutional council (16.40 % of support).

The vast majority of Cameroonians (65.04%) believe the Anglophone conflict is the greatest threat to the security of the country and most do not support the government’s war in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Only 7.84 % percent of Cameroonians support the use of force while 85.49 % percent believe dialogue or negotiation should be the way forward. Not surprising, the incumbent president, Paul Biya, is deeply unpopular after 36 years in power, managing only 29.82%percent of support.

Three opposition candidates stand out with the young 38-year Cabral Libii among the group with 11.24 percent. The other top two candidates being Mr. Maurice Kamto(12.65 percent) of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement and Mr. Joshua Osih(13.10 percent) of the Social Democratic Front.

The top three candidates were all within the margin of error. Mr. Libii’s is mostly supported among Francophone youths where he commands 19.37 percent support among those less than 35 years old. The biggest surprise is the very poor showing from Mr. Akere Muna, with a support of only 2.12 percent.

It is very clear today that if Cameroon’s opposition parties are seriously interested in winning the single-round presidential elections scheduled for October 7, 2018, coalescing between Mr. Libii, Mr. Kamto and Mr. Osih, or only two of the three would greatly increase their chances.

One must be worried as 49.65 percent of Cameroonians are concerned of the risk of post-electoral violence.

This survey, in very simplistic terms, shows a society in deep decay, with no sense of direction and very little agreement on the most basic processes. There is great concern that at the current pace the growing tensions between communities and various political actors may degenerate into popular uprisings as societal norms continue to be eroded.

There is great need, in the lead up to this presidential election, for a stronger involvement of the international community. It would be deeply unfortunate should the October 7 presidential elections further plunge the country deeper in crises. Strong actions must be taken to avert this real possibility. There is great yearning for a new consensus among Cameroonians, for a new beginning.

Source: Nkafu Policy Institute

1, October 2018

Southern Cameroons conflict, rooted 100 years ago ⁰

Cameroon elects its president on October 7 against the backdrop of bloody violence in its two separatist English-speaking regions, which have vowed to not let voting take place.

Tensions can be traced back to events a century ago when Britain and France occupied Cameroon, taking over Germany’s major colony in West Africa.

Some background:

World War I split

Cameroon was a German colony until 1916, when British and French troops forced the Germans out.

The two countries divided it into separate spheres of influence that were later formalised by the League of Nations, the forerunner to the UN.

The much larger French colony gained independence in 1960.

A year later, the British colony also gained independence. Some of the English-speaking areas chose to join newly formed Nigeria, others to become part of the federation of Cameroon.

In 1972 the Cameroon’s federal structure was scrapped and it became one state.

English-speaking minority

Cameroon’s two mainly English-speaking southern provinces are home to around a fifth of its 23 million population.

Named the Northwest Region and Southwest Region, they jut into southeastern Nigeria.

The English-speaking areas are allowed some self-governance and national authorities have made concessions to their language, for example opening bilingual schools.

But many English speakers complain of discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority in education, the justice system and the economy.

Disputed ‘unity’

Calls for a breakaway English-speaking state mounted in the 1990s, with demands for a referendum on independence accompanied by low-level unrest.

In 2001 banned protest rallies turned violent. Several people were killed when security forces moved in and secessionist leaders were arrested.

The separatist Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) set up a “government” in Britain and leaders moved into exile.

2016 flare-up

There was a new outbreak of tensions in November 2016.

Lawyers in two regions, which are also strongholds for the political opposition, went on strike to demand the right to use Anglo-Saxon common law.

Teachers followed, protesting at the appointment of francophones in the regions’ education system.

The following month the national flag was torched at protests and a separatist version hoisted.

Demands for greater autonomy were rejected by President Paul Biya, in power for more than 35 years, leading to an escalation.

In 2017 anglophone separatists took up arms, attacking security forces and torching symbols of the administration, such as schools.

They kidnapped police officers, civil servants and businessmen, sometimes foreigners.

Biya branded the secessionists “a band of terrorists” and ordered a crackdown with curfews, raids and other restrictions.

In January 2017 senior secessionist activists were arrested and charged with terrorism and rebellion.

In an apparent effort to calm the situation Biya halted the secessionists’ trials in August.

In October separatists made a symbolic declaration of independence. “We are no longer slaves of Cameroon,” said Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the self-declared “president” of a new republic called “Ambazonia”.

2018: election threat

The standoff has escalated into daily acts of violence.

It had degenerated into a “civil war”, the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) said in April.

The International Crisis Group said in September that at least 400 civilians and 170 members of the security forces had been killed in a year.

The government says that 109 members of the police and security forces have been killed. The separatists have not issued a reliable toll.

Around 200,000 people have fled their homes.

Amnesty International has condemned a “horrific escalation of violence” and called for an investigation into crimes by both sides.

Hundreds of families have been fleeing the regions in advance of the October 7 vote, fearing an upsurge in violence.

Source: AFP

29, September 2018

CPDM: Protective gear for criminals ⁰

Campaigns for the upcoming presidential elections are well underway and the CPDM presidential candidate who has not been campaigning travelled to Maroua to urge the northern population to grant him their votes.

While other presidential candidates have been all over the place highlighting what they will do if they are given power, Paul Biya, the man who has led the country for 36 years is counting more on a rigging machinery he has deployed.

The constitutional council, the body the publishes election results is replete with people loyal to him. ELECAM, the body that organizes elections, has already done its job and it has made sure that fewer opposition supporters have actually received their voter’s cards. While Mr. Biya was absent in the field, his surrogates have been doing their best to convince an electorate that is already aware of the ruling party’s dismal economic and political performance.

As the campaign progresses, it is clear that the English-speaking regions will not be part of the process. The heat is particularly on the CPDM, but hard core CPDM criminals are not backing off despite the threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters. They have huge skeletons in their cupboards and those skeletons may be exposed if they stop working for their party even in war-torn areas.

Like most people have said, the CPDM is a crime syndicate and its militants are using it for personal purposes. Chief Moses Obenofunde and Mr Abey Napoleon Ntui seen here wearing military protective gear to campaign in Mamfe have once served as PAMOL’s general manager and Principal of Sar Ndekwai respectively. During their time at the various institutions, huge chunks of money cannot be accounted for. Internal audits have been conducted and there is evidence that Chief. Obenofunde and Mr. Abey Napoleon Ntui are honest men when money is not involved.

To avoid jail time, they are using party loyalty as a shield against the law, but some party insiders who are not happy seeing these two men around the party are working underground for their arrest. It is obvious that after the election, they might be among those who would be appointed to a high position at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

29, September 2018

Cameroon lurches toward election amid separatist conflict ⁰

John Nlom has five children and wants to keep them alive. When machete-wielding men attacked a nearby school this month in a suspected strike against the teaching of French, wounded students were rushed to hospitals while frightened parents decided to flee.

Nlom and his family piled onto one of the dozens of buses now leaving daily from the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest Region, joining thousands of civilians escaping bloody fighting between the government and Anglophone separatists who vow to disrupt next month’s presidential elections.

The government of the largely French-speaking country insists the Oct. 7 vote will be peaceful, even in the troubled English-speaking southwest and northwest where nearly 400 people have died. Nlom, a teacher, could not take that chance.

“The governor himself who is saying that people should stay back, that they are protected, he is moving around with soldiers protecting him,” Nlom said. “Will the soldiers protect all the people? That is the reason why I cannot stay.” He and his family, like many, have taken refuge in the French-speaking city of Douala.

President Paul Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders since taking power since 1982, vows to hold the country together.

The separatists, with support from some in the diaspora in the United States and elsewhere, are fighting to create an independent state they call “Ambazonia” in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

Their movement grew out of dissatisfaction with what some English speakers, who make up about 20 percent of the country’s population, have called marginalization in the officially bilingual country. The blocking of the internet in English-speaking regions for months last year fed the frustrations.

The government describes the fighters as terrorists.

Weary civilians caught in the fighting have pleaded for peace. Women, saying they can no longer remain silent, have gathered for protests, saying the violence keeps children from their studies. At least 70 schools have been burned.

Last week, Muslim and Christian clerics announced they are afraid a wave of carnage could occur if peace is not found before the election. “We call on the diaspora to stop the hate speech communication that promotes violence, suspicion and fear among the people of Cameroon,” their declaration said.

The clerics asked both the military and armed groups to drop their guns and stop the killing, looting and burning that have sent nearly 200,000 civilians fleeing. The government, however, replied that only the separatists should drop their guns.

Attacks were reported in at least 20 towns and villages over the weekend, according to the country’s minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji. Casualty figures were not yet available, he said.

“We are happy that some of the terrorists have willfully handed their guns to the military and we have forgiven them,” he said. “I call on all those who are still in the bushes to drop their arms and make use of the ballot if they want a change.”

Human rights groups have accused both sides of abuses. Separatists have burned and crushed buses and used construction equipment to dig up roads in efforts to stop people from fleeing. Some people leaving English-speaking regions have said the military conducts searches on those trying to leave.

With the elections approaching, the tensions have grown. Separatists on Friday blew up a key bridge to stop campaign teams from reaching communities, authorities said.

“The only bridge linking the northwest regional capital, Bamenda, with other localities like Bui and Donga was destroyed by the terrorists,” said Lele L’Afrique Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest Region. Thousands of passengers were stranded, he said.

In response, the military killed at least a dozen separatists near the northwestern town of Mbiame as they planted explosives to blow up another bridge, the governor said.

People who have fled the English-speaking regions will not be able to vote if they don’t return to the polling centers where they are registered, he warned.

In Cameroon’s French-speaking areas, campaign rallies kicked off over the weekend in defiance of the separatist threat.

“We should not fear them. We should brave the situation and go about campaigning. The government has deployed troops to protect everyone,” Prime Minister Philemon Yang told supporters in Bamenda while campaigning for the longtime president.

Biya is favored to win another seven-year term, as opposition parties did not succeed in negotiations to back a single candidate. Cameroon’s government has vowed that voting will take place nationwide.

“We have … created polling centers where voters can assemble and vote under the protection of the military,” said the chairman of the country’s electoral board, Enow Abrams Egbe.