Politics

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.

28, September 2018

Open Letter to Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle ⁰

Dear Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle,

I have been observing you over the last two years since the Southern Cameroons problem made its way to the global arena and I have always felt I should talk to you, but seeing you on TV sharing your party-based theories and perspectives on this conflict, I have advised myself that it will be a waste of time, as you will never quit your greed-and power-driven monolithic thinking.

I understand you have to toe party lines, but I am sometimes taken aback by some of your statements. The Southern Cameroons crisis is a conflict that concerns every Cameroonian, especially those of us who are from that region. If you and I were living in a normal country, our job would be to bring pressure to bear on the government so that an alternative to the military violence could be sought.

As intellectuals, we are supposed to seek ways of getting both parties to the negotiating table so that some of the vexing issues could be addressed amicably. The issues raised by Southern Cameroonians do not have any party or political connotations. These are issues that have been around for decades and have been begging for a solution.

But from your behaviour and statements, it appears human life has no value and the supreme interest of the state must take a back seat to your selfish and egoistic interest.

What shocked me recently was your statement that supporters of your party in the Southwest region should use secret and supernatural powers to have your party’s message across in a region that is witnessing a lot of fighting and despicable violence.

From this statement, I know you have finally completed the process of masturbating intellectualism out of your system. I was even more surprised to hear you call on courageous young men and women to go from village to village to spread the false gospel that has made of you a disrespected professor.

If you so love this country and your party’s political philosophy, why are you not bringing back your own kids from the U.S.A for them to come and help with your efforts at spreading your party’s heresy in such a dangerous region?

Some of you have decided that our country must be ruined before you leave this world. Your greed and hunger for power have transformed you into a buffoon. For years, your likes have been living in a bubble and that bubble has been burst by Southern Cameroonians.

The people of the southwest no longer have faith in you. You are not representing them and be advised that any decisions you and others take on our behalf will be rejected by the people of our region.

Peter Mafany Musonge, Chief Tabetando and you constitute an axis of evil that is spreading pain, suffering and death in the Southwest region. Your acts will come with karmic consequences and I hope you are aware of this. It is not too late to make amends.

As South-westerners, we are a liberal and a forgiving people. We will be welcoming you to the fold the day you shed your greed and understand that life is more interesting when everybody has a smile on their face.

We are not a vindictive people. Change and we will lift the sanctions we have imposed on you. You have been dinning, wining and dancing with the devil for too long. Make that change and live a decent and simple life.

I look forward to seeing a different you.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College, Toronto, Canada. He also studied translation at the Advanced School of translators and Interpreters (ASTI) in Buea, as well as Languages and Linguistics at the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He holds a Ph.D.

28, September 2018

Turkey’s Erdogan tries to turn the page on controversial German visit, but can he succeed? ⁰

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Germany Thursday for a state visit that includes real as well as symbolic attempts to paper over strains in bilateral relations. But it may take more than a few photo-ops to do the job.

What a difference a year, a currency crisis, US tariffs and a standoff with Washington over a detained American pastor can make.

Last year, when German authorities blocked Erdogan from holding campaign rallies in a number of cities, the Turkish president accused his country’s largest EU trading partner of “Nazi practices”. Bilateral relations between the two countries were at an all-time low in the lead-up to the April 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, with Berlin slamming Ankara’s human rights track record and Turkey accusing Germany of “harbouring terrorists” from the Gulen movement accused of plotting a July 2016 coup attempt.

A little over a year later, Erdogan believes it’s time to bury the hatchet. In an op-ed in the leading German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, on Thursday, the Turkish leader said it was time to “set aside our differences of opinion and concentrate on our joint interests”.

There were the usual displays of rapprochement on Thursday, when Erdogan arrived in Berlin for his first formal state visit as president to Germany. The Turkish president was received with military honours at Berlin airport and whisked through a city under security lockdown as protestors gathered at the airport and his hotel near the Brandenburg Gate.

“Erdogan’s visit, a few months after his overwhelming victory in the [June 24] Turkish presidential election, can also mean: ‘I am an undisputed leader in my country, and I want to be recognised as such on the international stage,’” noted Turkish analyst Jana J. Jabbour in an interview with FRANCE 24 (in French). Following his razor-thin win in last year’s controversial constitutional referendum and international criticism of his post-coup attempt “purges”, Erdogan has been “thirsting for recognition, and that has not changed today”, Jabbour added.

For his voters at home and abroad – especially in Germany, which is home to around 3 million people of Turkish origin – perhaps the most symbolic showing of the latest visit is scheduled for Saturday, when Erdogan officially opens a new, multimillion euro, mega mosque in the German cathedral city of Cologne.

Mega mosque turns troubled symbol of unity

With its towering minarets flanking a neo-Ottoman-style dome that appears to open up like a flower-bud, the Cologne Central Mosque is an impressive sight. But while it was conceived as an emblem of integration, the mosque turned into a symbol of discord for nearly a decade following construction delays, rows between its German architect and Turkish builders, spiralling budgets and opposition from anti-immigrant groups.

© Maja Hitij, AFP | A July 2016 photograph of Cologne’s Central Mosque while under construction

Located in the city’s Ehrenfeld district – a diverse neighbourhood that is home to the vibrant Keupstrasse shopping street better known as “Little Istanbul” – the mosque is run by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB).

The powerful DITIB runs more than 900 mosques in Germany and staffs them with imams who do not have to be German citizens and receive their salaries directly from Diyanet, the Turkish government’s religious authority.

Tensions between German authorities and the Turkish religious body have been mounting in recent years with the DITIB accused of serving as the long arm of Erdogan’s government in Germany. Last week, German media reported that the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV), is deciding whether to put the DITIB under surveillance following a series of scandals, including an admission by the religious body that some of its preachers were spying on followers of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey holds responsible for the 2016 coup attempt. Gulen however denies the allegations.

The DITIB has repeatedly maintained it is a non-political group and that “few” individual preachers had provided information about suspected Gulen followers to Ankara.

A vote bank to woo

The DITIB-run Cologne mosque, the largest in Germany with a 1,200 congregation capacity, was finally completed last year and opened to worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in 2017. But it has not been officially inaugurated – a privilege Erdogan will enjoy over the weekend.

The Turkish president’s inauguration of the Cologne mosque symbolises Turkey’s “pan-Islamist policy”, explained Jabbour, noting that “the advent of the 2011 Arab revolutions prompted Erdogan to believe that an alternative was possible to European integration, namely an Islamic statement of Turkish identity in opposition to the Judeo-Christian Western identity”.

Germany’s Turkish community represents an important vote bank for Erdogan. During the controversial 2017 constitutional referendum, more than 51 percent of diaspora Turks approved changing the constitution to grant the Turkish presidency unprecedented powers. With Germany home to the world’s largest Turkish community outside Turkey, the country has witnessed giant Erdogan campaign rallies in the past, when he often calls on German Turks to reject assimilation and invites them to return home to partake in the Turkish economic boom.

A banquet for ‘a criminal’

But that boom, fueled by overspending and artificially low interest rates, has been going to bust over the past few months with the Turkish lira losing nearly 40 percent of its value this year amid increasing inflation and escalating foreign debt.

Turkey’s summer of economic discontent reached boiling point last month, when US President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel imports amid a diplomatic spat over a detained US pastor, Andrew Brunson.

With the economy teetering, Erdogan hopes that his visit to Germany could start a rollback of bilateral tensions that saw Berlin warning German businesses and citizens to avoid Turkey.

But it’s not going to be an easy case for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has faced criticism for inviting Erdogan on a state visit. “It seems as though the German government is gearing up to betray once again all those in Turkey who are longing for a free, democratic and secular society,” said Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist who spent over a year in a Turkish jail, at a media awards ceremony in Potsdam.

Calling the visit “a betrayal”, Yucel noted that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be “hosting a criminal” at a state banquet set for Friday.

Several German opposition politicians are boycotting the banquet, which Merkel herself is not scheduled to attend.

Sensitive to criticisms of Merkel’s inability to stand up to Erdogan due to a migrant deal between Turkey and the EU, German junior foreign minister Michael Roth told a national radio station Thursday that, “We have to talk with each other…There must be no other country outside the European Union with whom relations are so important and yet so difficult.”

The difficulties will be apparent on Saturday, when Erdogan opens the Cologne Central Mosque. German authorities have warned Erdogan against campaigning overtly when he visits Cologne. But that’s a challenge for the consummate Turkish politician who is known to seize every opportunity to turn public events into self-promotional rallies. Against a backdrop of an imposing mosque that took so long to get off the ground, it could present a photo-op that’s hard to resist.

Culled from France 24

28, September 2018

No EU observers for Cameroon presidential election ⁰

The European Union will not deploy observers to Cameroon for next month’s presidential election due to limited resources, the agency confirmed.

The worldwide actor in international election observation has said in a mailed response that it was obliged to prioritise the beneficiary countries.

“An election observation mission of the European Union is indeed not scheduled for Cameroon for the presidential elections on October 7. In general terms, resources are limited,” the EU Delegation to Cameroon confirmed.

However, the EU said it was still ready to deploy observers for subsequent elections should the government invite them on time.

“We remain, of course, available for further discussion [with Cameroon] on electoral issues and on the broader reform process,” the EU said.

An invitation

“Should the Cameroonian authorities issue an invitation, we might be able to consider the possibility of an observation mission or an electoral experts mission for the legislative elections scheduled for 2019,” the EU promised.

An African Union (AU) mission has been assessing the electoral process in Cameroon. The 12-member long-term observation mission arrived on September 5 and will remain in the country until October 19, “to comprehensively assess the electoral process in line with the African Union Long Term Election Observation Methodology,” according an AU statement.

The Long Term Observation Mission, consisting of four core team of analysts and eight Long-Term Observers (LTOs), will be joined by a Short Term Observation Mission close to the polls, from September 28 to October 10.

Nine candidates, including the incumbent President Paul Biya, are in the race after being cleared by the polls agency, ELECAM, out of 28 aspirants.

No movement

The nine candidates and their supporters have been crisscrossing the country since the official launch of campaigns last Saturday to woo potential voters with their various manifestos.

Observers say the failure by the opposition to present a single candidate increased the chances of the incumbent as Cameroon has a one-round election system. A candidate only requires to garner the most votes to be declared winner.

Separatists have threatened to impose a ‘state of emergency’ on the troubled English-peaking Northwest and Southwest regions ahead the vote.

Anglophone separatist activists who have been clamouring for secession and the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia, have warned that they would not allow any election organised by the Yaoundé regime to take place in “their country”.

They have also announced there would be no movement in and out of the territory from September 25 to October 10, but the government has vowed that the election would take place in a serene atmosphere nationwide.

Source: The East African

26, September 2018

France’s ex-PM Manuel Valls declares candidacy for Barcelona mayor ⁰

France’s former prime minister Manuel Valls announced his candidacy for mayor of Barcelona on Tuesday, ending months of speculation over his intentions to enter the race.

Valls – who has dual French and Spanish citizenship – has made regular trips to the Catalonian capital throughout the summer.

On one of his most recent visits, he took part in an event to promote Anatomia del Proces, a book examining the challenges of Catalonian independence that he wrote the preface to. He has also joined the faculty at the city’s ESADE law school for the 2018-2019 academic calendar as a professor of “Migratory Processes and Urban Geography”.

Valls’ growing presence in Barcelona – and his increasingly outspoken views against Catalonian independence – set rumours swirling that he would run in the next mayoral election in May 2019. After months of teasing his interest, Valls officially announced his intention to run on Tuesday.

“Say what you will. But only one thing matters to me, how I will be perceived in Barcelona,” Valls told French newspaper L’Express in early September.

Political woes

Reports that Valls – who served as interior minister and then prime minister under former French president François Hollande – was seeking to reinvent his political career in Barcelona first emerged in April in the Spanish media.

He has watched his political fortunes steadily wane in France ever since resigning as prime minister to run in the country’s 2017 presidential election. After a strong start, he was forced to end his campaign after losing the left-wing primaries to fellow Socialist Benoît Hamon.

Valls, however, refused to endorse Hamon for the presidency. He instead gave his support to independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, who thanked Valls but ruled out bringing him into his future government.

His presidential dreams dashed, Valls mounted a campaign to run in the country’s June 2017 parliamentary elections as a representative for the Essone region, just south of Paris. He quickly sought to join Macron’s Republic on the Move (La République en Marche or LREM) party, which was set to win a sweeping majority.

But he was left humiliated and party-less after LREM ruled that he did not “fit the criteria” to run under its banner. He was eventually allowed to campaign as a LREM “aligned” candidate, narrowly winning his circumscription by 139 votes.

‘I want to give back to Catalonia and Spain’

After a year of bitter disappointment at home, Valls refocused his attention on Spain, wading into the debate on Catalonian independence. He confirmed that he was seriously “studying” the possibility of running for Barcelona mayor in an interview with Spanish television TVE.

“I implicated myself in this debate because I was born in Barcelona,” Valls said. “I want to give back to Catalonia and Spain everything they have given me.”

The same month, he also announced his separation from his wife of eight years, French violinist Anne Gravoin. He has since been photographed with Susana Gallardo, a Catalonia native and heiress to the Almirall pharmaceutical company. The pair recently appeared on the cover of Paris Match, prompting Valls to sue the magazine for invasion of privacy.

Valls will face an uphill battle in his run for Barcelona mayor. Despite being born there he grew up in France and wasn’t naturalised as a Spanish citizen until he was 20. He will have to convince voters that his campaign is more than a last-ditch attempt to save his political career – a point his rivals have already tried to exploit.

“He failed in France so he’s coming here,” incumbent Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau told French newspaper Le Parisien.

France 24

25, September 2018

Trump and Macron seek to smooth over differences ahead of UN General Assembly ⁰

Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump sought common ground on points of contention when they met Monday evening in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, France’s Elysée Palace said.

Meeting for almost an hour, the French and US presidents discussed a range of topics including Syria, Iran and disagreements over trade.

Trump said before the conversation that the two men have had “some very good experiences” but acknowledged, “On occasion not so good, but 99 percent very good.”

With US Vice President Mike Pence and the countries’ respective diplomacy chiefs looking on, the French and American leaders shook hands twice before the cameras, the gestures noticeably less effusive on this occasion than they have been during past encounters between the two presidents.

“We are here to obtain results,” said Macron, citing areas including security, the fight against terrorism and the Middle East.

A source close to the French presidency told Agence France-Presse that there are “differing points of view” between Washington and Paris on certain issues “but more on the approach and the method than on the objectives”. The source noted that “there are no new issues of confrontation” compared to last year’s annual United Nations gathering.

Trump is expected to visit France in November to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I. Macron and Trump will each address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday morning in New York.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

24, September 2018

October 7: Biya facing political amateurs ⁰

Cameroon will head to the polls on October 7, to decide who will captain the country for another 7 years. According to an official list published by Elections Cameroon, 28 candidacy files were received by the commission that was charged with receiving files at the ELECAM headquarters and in Regional Delegations.

The elections governing body, ELECAM, on August 7, 2018 published a list of 9 candidates including the incumbent president, Paul Biya who is seeking another 7 years term to continue his 35 years rule over the country.

This year’s presidential poll seems to be very different from previous elections the country has witnessed considering the reduced number of candidates to take part in the elections and the insecurity which has plagued the country for over two years.

Get to know the Presidential Candidates

Biya will be facing political amateurs in the upcoming elections and an opposition which has failed despite several attempts to present a united front to challenge his candidacy.

Joshua Osih was picked on February 24 as the flag-bearer of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, to replace Ni John Fru Ndi who has over the years been the strongest candidate to face Biya.

Akere Muna, and a host of others; Libii Li Ngue Cabril, Matomba Serge Espoir, Kamto Maurine and Njifor Afamwi will also be testing the waters for the very first time.

Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo

Paul Biya, Cameroonian native who hail from the South was born on 13 February 1933, in the village of Mvomeka’a.

He studied at the Lycée General Leclerc, Yaounde and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris and went on to the Institut des hautes études d’Outre-Mer where he graduated in 1961 with a Higher Education Diploma in Public Law.

He became a bureaucrat in his late 20’s under President Ahmadou Ahidjo.

He was Chargé de Mission at the Presidency of the Republic upon his return from Paris in October 1962 and Director of Cabinet of the Minister of National Education, Youth Affairs and Culture in January 1964.

He was named Director of Cabinet of the Minister of National Education, Youth Affairs and Culture in July 1965 and later Director of the Civil Cabinet of the President in December 1967

While still serving as Director of the Civil Cabinet, Biya was appointed Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Republic in January 1968.

He gained the rank of Minister in August 1968 and the rank of Minister of State in June 1970, while remaining Secretary-General at the Presidency.

Following the creation of a unitary state in 1972, he became Prime Minister of Cameroon on 30 June 1975.

Ahidjo unexpectedly announced his resignation on 4 November 1982, and Biya accordingly succeeded him as President of Cameroon on 6 November.

Joshua Osih

Joshua Osih joined the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in March 1991 in Douala.

In 2002 he was elected regional chairman of the Social Democratic Front for the South West region.

In 2006, he was elected 2nd Vice Chairman of the party.

In 2012 and 2018 he was voted in both instances as 1st Vice Chairman of the party. At the 2018 Extra-ordinary convention of the party that concludes the party’s primaries, he was chosen as the SDF’s presidential candidate for the 2018 presidential election of Cameroon to be held in October 2018.

Osih holds an MBA in Leadership and Sustainability, and has more than 25 years of experience in the aviation industry, notably in operations and management.

His is an established entrepreneur in Cameroon and is the founder and managing director of the notable companies including Camport PLC and Africa Travel Management.

Osih is a Member of the Cameroon Parliament for the Wouri Centre constituency in Douala.

He serves both as Vice President of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, and Special Rapporteur for the National Assembly.

He is Deputy General Rapporteur in charge of state income, Vice Coordinator of the Hope for the Youth caucus, and a member of multiple parliamentary friendship groups.

Born on 9 December 1968, the 49-year-old lawmaker and native of the South West Region is married to Tina Osih with 3 sons.

Akere Muna

Akere Tabeng Muna is a Cameroonian lawyer who was born on August 1952 in the North-West region of Cameroon.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations in 1975 from the American University in Washington, D.C. and later moved to England, where he joined the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.

After he was called to the Bar in England in 1978, he returned to Cameroon, and joined the legal practice of his brother, Bernard Muna. In 1984, the legal practice was converted into a law firm called Muna, Muna & Associates.

In 1997, he assumed the presidency of the Cameroon Bar Association after a landslide victory.

In 2000, Akere Muna founded the Cameroon chapter of the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International.

In 2004, Akere was elected to the Board of Directors of Transparency International and was later designated as the Coordinator of the Coalition of African Chapters of TI.

In 2005, he was elected Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of TI and he stepped down in 2014, after serving the maximum number of terms.

He was thereafter appointed by the Board of Directors of TI as Chair of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) Council.

Akere Muna was a founding member of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), and in July 2005, he was unanimously elected president of the organisation by the heads of the various African bar associations.

In September 2008, Akere Muna was president of ECOSOCC and in 2012, he became a member of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, a body established by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

On February 11, 2013, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved the appointment of Akere Muna as Sanctions Commissioner of the African Development Bank.

Akere Muna is married to Beverly Bird, and a father of two daughters, Lydia Muna and Kandi Muna.

Adamou Ndam Njoya

Adamou Ndam Njoya is a Cameroonian politician, lawyer, author, and professor.

He is the President of the Cameroon Democratic Union (UDC), an opposition party

He served as the Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980, and has been the Mayor of Foumban since 1996.

From 1997 to 2007 he was a Deputy in the National Assembly.

He became Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1969 to 1970 and joined the faculty of law at the University of Yaoundé in 1970.

Njoya worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Cameroon as director of the diplomatic training program from 1970 to 1972.

He was instrumental in the creation of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) where he served as its first director from 1972 to 1975.

He became a member of the Economic and Social Council of Cameroon in 1974, and he was then appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs on 30 June 1975.

In December 1977, Ndam Njoya was appointed Minister of National Education. In July 1980, he was appointed Minister Delegate at the Presidency for General Inspection of State and Administrative Reforms.

Dismissed from government in 1982, Ndam Njoya focused on his writing and teaching as well as donating his time to philanthropic endeavors.

He later served as a member of the Executive Bureau of UNESCO from 1985 to 1989, and was the President of the Jury of the Grand Prix of Literary Associations 2014.

Ndam Njoya was born at Njika, Foumban, West Province, Cameroon, on 8 May 1942.

He is a holder of an MA and a PhD degree in public international law and political science at the University of Paris (Panthéon).

He studied diplomacy at the Institut International d’Administration Publique (IIAP), followed by three internships, with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the French Embassy in London, and with International Organizations at the United Nations European office in Geneva.

Culled from Africa News

24, September 2018

Foreign ministers vow to champion women’s rights at first all-female summit ⁰

Female foreign ministers meeting in Canada for the first summit of its kind vowed on Saturday to bring a “women’s perspective” to foreign policy. The two-day meeting, which began Friday in Montreal and brought together more than half of the world’s top women diplomats, focused on topics such as conflict prevention, democratic growth and eliminating gender-based violence.

“This meeting represented a historic occasion,” said Canada’s top diplomat Chrystia Freeland, who also took the opportunity to announce the creation of Canada’s first ambassador for women, peace and security.

“This is not about creating a pink ghetto. This is quite to the contrary. This is about highlighting the importance and the role and the rights of women and girls in the world,” Freeland said.

“It’s about talking about the ways women in leadership positions can be particularly engaged in championing those rights,” she added.

Feminist foreign policy

The idea of feminist foreign policy was first coined by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, another summit attendee, who published a handbook in August that shares the lessons and examples from her four years in office.

“In a worsening climate where human rights and women’s and girls’ rights are increasingly questioned and threatened, and in a world of shrinking democratic space, a feminist foreign policy is needed more than ever,” said Wallström.

Canada has embraced the policy too. Freeland, appointed by self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has overseen the renaming of Canada’s foreign aid programme in 2017. Now known as the Feminist International Assistance Policy, it “targets the empowerment of women and girls”.

But some civil society leaders haven’t been seduced by the spin. “Don’t just call it feminist – don’t just put the label on it,” said Beth Woroniuk from MATCH International Women’s Fund, one of 10 civil society leaders who met with the foreign ministers during the summit.

“We will be measuring you by your actions, we will be measuring your investments, we will be measuring and monitoring coherence across all areas,” Woroniuk said. “Because it makes no sense to have an initiative with women human rights defenders and then support for a Canadian mining company that makes life difficult for those defenders. It makes no sense to say that we believe in women’s human rights and then sell arms to Saudi Arabia.”

Planting a seed

The ministers will share their takeaways from the event during meetings taking place as part of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in the coming week.

The diplomatic chiefs from 17 countries promised to meet regularly — albeit informally — within the next year. “We planted a seed that will grow into, I believe, a plant with beautiful flowers,” said European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini, who co-led the meeting with Freeland.

In addition to Freeland and Mogherini, the conference brought together ministers from Andorra, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, South Africa and Sweden.

At the end of the summit, a dozen of the participants symbolically placed flowers on headstones erected in a Montreal park to commemorate 14 women killed in 1989 at the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school. The shooting, in which 14 other women were injured, was classified as a hate crime.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

24, September 2018

Understanding Southern Cameroons vicious war of secession ⁰

A vicious war of secession has ravaged the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon since January 2018. Non-state militias warring with the government aim to create an independent Ambazonian state. While central Africa has seen its share of wars of secession (the majority of which culminate in an agreement between the parties), aspects of Cameroon’s secessionists distinguish them, and this war, from others.

To refer to the group in public by the wrong name amidst the wrong strangers could invite a beating or even one’s murder. Therefore, in public civilians refer to secessionists as the Amba, or the Amba Boys. Privately, those who support the secessionists refer to them as freedom fighters, restoration forces, or, the army. Those who oppose them refer to them as the boys, the Ambazonians, and the terrorists.

But Anglophone Cameroonians overwhelmingly view secessionists positively. This is so even when they object to their tactics. For instance, secessionists call for Ghost Towns, or city-wide strikes every Monday. They call, too, for boycotting all primary and secondary schools. A secondary school teacher in the Southwest Anglophone capital region of Buea noted, “I don’t agree with preventing children from going to school, but I support the secessionists’ aims. Therefore, I tolerate it.” Others, like this 35-year-old entrepreneur in Buea, say, “I completely support all actions the freedom fighters take, and I am honored to keep my daughter from school. Students are just pawns of the Cameroonian president.” When asked whether targeting children and teachers was legitimate he added, “Yes, they are supporting the Biya regime.”

This perspective is not limited to the Anglophone regions. Anglophones in Francophone Cameroon like this cab driver in the country’s largest city, Douala, say, “Francophone Cameroonians do not understand the Anglophones’ plight. They assume everything the freedom fighters do is bad. They never listen to us, and cannot be trusted, so, independence is our only option.”

During the first few months of the conflict, the secessionists generally targeted only those who disobeyed their orders, or who they suspected had government affiliations. This has changed drastically in recent months. In villages and cities spanning both Anglophone regions, the secessionists extort, kidnap, and rape civilians. Public opinion seems increasingly impervious to such offenses. The secessionists lack a central command, and so when rape or extortion occurs people are quick to pin it on imposters, not the real secessionists.

Such deflections are not entirely without merit. There are more than 20 secessionist groups fighting in the two Anglophone regions at the time of this writing in September of 2018. The majority of these arose during the summer, correlating directly with the violence spike against civilians. Additionally, the so-called interim Ambazonian government has condemned all attacks and denied all responsibility. Such refutations are near impossible to verify given the informal secessionist structure which often as not is controlled from outside Cameroon.

Interestingly, purported, legitimate secessionists have punished others for abusing civilians. In August, secessionist leaders in Buea apprehended, publicly beat, and disposed of four people. The four were extorting locals supposedly on behalf of the secessionists. At the same time, however, individuals claiming separatist affiliations continue extorting civilians without punishment.

Which brings us to this tale’s central oddity: Anglophone Cameroonians attribute magical powers, or juju, to those who they believe to be legitimate secessionist fighters. They believe secessionist fighters adhere to strict codes of conduct that abhor rape, murder, and extortion. They believe in return for abiding by these rules the secessionists can shapeshift and are impervious to bullets and knives. The Cameroonian military has repeatedly turned its weapons over to secessionist fighters without a fight. Secessionist fighter deaths fail to dispel the illusion. They are proof that the fighters broke the conduct code or were illegitimate secessionists in the first place. As Cameroon’s crisis worsens, understanding the socio-cultural underpinnings of the conflict remains critical.

Source: Modern Ghana

23, September 2018

Cameroon’s first ‘social media election’ ⁰

Activity on Cameroon’s social media space has intensified ahead of the October elections as users share footage of abuses and politicians tweet their every move in a bid to engage voters.

Nine candidates are contesting the October 7 poll, including President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years and is hoping to be re-elected for a sixth time.

But this time, the 85-year-old broke with media tradition by announcing his candidacy on Twitter, a key indicator that social media is taking a central role in this year’s presidential election.

There is much greater potential in terms of reach than when their words are communicated through the written press or the radio.

‘Breaking with protocol’

During the last election in 2011, only a handful of candidates were using social media. Today, almost all of them have a dedicated team to ensure they are very much present online.

One of Biya’s main challengers is Joshua Osih, head of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), who has taken to engaging with voters online.

When he came under fire for “unpresidential behaviour” after posting a picture of himself at the airport in Paris, he hit back immediately on Twitter, saying that was exactly the point.

“I want to break with protocol and everything to do with the myth around the presidency,” he wrote. “I want to be close to the people I rule and not shut up in a palace.”

Why social media?

For candidates, going online offers far greater exposure than traditional forms of campaigning, explains Julie Owono, executive director of Internet Without Borders, an NGO.

“There is much greater potential in terms of reach than when their words are communicated through the written press or the radio,” she said.

For Owono, this increased presence online is the result of a significantly higher rate of internet connectivity in Cameroon.

Figures released earlier this month by the ministry of postal and telecoms services show connectivity jumped from a mere 0.24 percent of the population in 2011 to 35 percent last year. “There has been a fall in the cost of internet access and network quality has also improved,” she said.

Risk of fake news?

Although the official launch of the election campaign is only due to start on Saturday, social media is already highlighting prominent topics, especially the security crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Blighted by armed conflict, the two regions have remained largely inaccessible to the media and NGOs but those involved in the fighting have used social media to expose purported human rights violations by the other side.

Since the conflict began at the end of 2017, footage of alleged abuses involving both anglophone separatists and Cameroonian soldiers have been doing the rounds almost every day on social media.

A military policeman with his head cut off, villages burnt by the army, and even scenes of torture: all these excesses caught on camera are used by both sides to try and discredit the enemy.

Faced with the surge of horrific footage spreading online, the government has called for calm, denouncing the “inappropriate use of the internet”.

Both the increase in hate speech and the proliferation of “fake news” are proving to be “a threat to our right to reliable information, above all in an election period,” said Communications Minister Tchiroma Bakary.

In July, the minister dismissed out of hand a video purportedly showing abuse by Cameroonian soldiers in the country’s Far North Region, where troops are deployed to root out Boko Haram jihadists.

Several weeks later, an investigation was opened and several soldiers were arrested. “The main challenge regarding the use of social networks is disinformation,” said Janvier Ngnoulaye, who heads an NGO called Internet Society Cameroon.

Will gov’t shutdown social media?

With less than three weeks until the vote, Biya’s supporters, who see him as best placed to handle the separatist crisis and the threat posed by Boko Haram, maintain that footage of alleged abuses by the army was put online in order to sabotage his re-election bid.

“It’s all about harming Biya’s image,” a security source told AFP. In fact, the campaign has sparked an online war of images: when one side posts pictures of roads in disrepair, the other responds with photos of huge construction projects, such as the motorway between Yaounde and Douala.

Earlier this month, a misleading rumour began circulating on social networks suggesting that Yaounde was going to shut down internet access during the vote, as happened in Mali in August.

“Fake news,” responded the communications minister. But such fears are not entirely unfounded. In early 2017, as the separatist protests multiplied in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, Yaounde sought to stamp out the unrest by cutting off internet access in the two areas for over three months.

AFP