As the crisis in Southern Cameroons gets into a critical phase, so too has the Yaoundé crime syndicate decided to step up its clowning efforts.

While the government seeks to give the impression that things are returning to normal in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the reality on the ground points to a more dangerous situation, with fierce separatist forces bringing down some careless army soldiers who seem to believe the lies their government is spreading.

Last week, the minister of special duties at the presidency, Mengot Victor Arrey Nkongho, and the Senator from Manyu Division, George Tabetando, stole themselves into Mamfe where they were received by very few soldiers in order not to attract Amba fighters who have put a price on the heads of those two officials considered by Southern Cameroonians as traitors.

Though suffering from multiple illnesses, especially a bad leg, George Tabetando had to endure the 10-hour trip to Mamfe just to demonstrate that things are returning to normal.

But the CPDM crime syndicate is not deceiving anybody. Many soldiers are being brought down by separatist bullets and this is demoralizing many soldiers who get deployed in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

The situation on the ground is disturbing and not many people serving under the Yaoundé government are happy to serve in Southern Cameroons.

Even Tabetando and Mengot are not happy going to Mamfe in an armored car. They know a simple error on their part could be a death sentence that can never be commuted.

In the Amba court system, death sentences don’t get commuted. Once a person is declared guilty, theirs is the kingdom of death.

For Mengot and Tabetando, their trip to Mamfe was basically for the optics. They did not achieve anything and nothing will change just because they have visited the region.

If anything was achieved, it was just the huge amounts of food and drinks that the two CPDM enablers downed while hiding in their military protected zone as seen in the video attached to this story.

There is already a hike in food prices in Mamfe because of Mengot and Tabetando. The Yaoundé government has been looking for a way to hem in the Manyu population. It has now found a new and innovative way – sending Victor Mengot and Chief Tabetando to eat themselves into obesity and diabetes.

They had a treat from the military that they won’t be forgetting anytime soon. The sumptuous meal of puff puff and beans cooked by the military did only put them to sleep; it also triggered a diarrheal crisis during their return trip to Kumba. Luckily the bushes were happy to serve them and Amba boys were not close by. The story would have been different today.

According to a source close to the military, the arrival of Tabetando and Mengot in Mamfe is bad news to the local population that is really struggling to meet its food needs.

If this ugly situation is to be addressed then the farmers of the region will have to get to work to increase food production.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Between the economic and political capitals of Cameroon, misunderstanding turns into antagonism. Entrepreneurs and civil servants do not share a common vision for the country.

A stopover in Yaoundé? This will inevitably trigger a concert of “tchips” among Cameroonians leaving for abroad. And when the airline makes the opposite journey, those in the cabin also make a face.

Making a stop in Yaoundé does not make the Douala’s happy. The two metropolises cordially hate each other. Economic capital versus political capital, periphery versus centre. Two cities and, in a way, two countries, which do not tolerate their cultural, morphological and even meteorological differences.

Still no motorway!

In Douala, the bad taste of those stilted civil servants in suits and ties is mocked, their nostrils exhaling the omnipresent red dust that makes the capital so ugly… On the other hand, the inhabitants of the city of seven hills wouldn’t go to live in the sticky heat of the coastline for anything in the world.

This rivalry was not so bad when it was just about clichés. It became worse as the country sank into an existential psychodrama, due to political tensions and the Anglophone crisis.

Although separated by a distance of 218km, the two cities have never been so far apart. Since the fatal derailment of a passenger train in Eseka (Centre) in October 2016, the train linking the port to the capital has been carrying only freight.

Handicapped by colossal debt and contested management, Camair-Co, the national airline company, is no longer able to fly its planes. To ensure daily connections between the two cities, it is reduced to chartering a Ukrainian Boeing.

Moving on… Pompously baptised “a major axis”, the asphalt road that connects the two cities has been worn down by truck traffic, It also connects to Chad and the Central African Republic.

It is a silent and insatiable killer. It is a nightmare for Cameroonians, as it has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people annually.

The government has tried to replace this road with a motorway. It turned to China, which agreed to finance the project. However, of the 196km of road, only 60km have been completed. The work, which began in 2014, was supposed to be finished in two years. Seven years later, there is still no motorway.

An unbeatable path

“All these projects are at a standstill because of the corruption that reigns in Yaoundé”, said a journalist based in Douala. “These civil servants do not feel any sense of guilt when they delay our country’s development by taking public money.”

The journalist continued: “Those who have sworn an oath to protect the common good and serve the state only think of getting rich at the expense of the state. In what serious country are tax inspectors richer than business leaders?”

The fault lies with the École Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrature (ENAM). This elite school churns out officials who “serve the President instead of serving the people,” says Joshua Osih, a deputy from Douala. Osih, a member of the opposition Social Democratic Front, has promised to abolish this school if he is elected president.

“With 35.1% of companies based in Cameroon, Douala is the main industrial centre of the country and of the Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale,” said economist Jean-Roger Essombe Edimo.

The early bird catches the worm. A real-estate boom is transforming the city, big hotel chains are opening establishments one after the other and malls are being built.

After studying in Europe, Gabriel Fopa returned to Douala to found an information technology services company. He developed it to the point where he was later able to buy the subsidiary of a multinational company. He loves his city more than anywhere else in the world. “In Douala, we create time. In Yaoundé, we undergo it, we consume it. There, they make young people believe that success comes through the ENAM competition and that the civil service is an unbeatable path. But we are in a capitalist economy. You have to create wealth to really succeed,” he said.

Stormy relations

In the “Doualian” sense, capitalism is a beehive that buzzes from 5am. In the offices on Boulevard de la Liberté, in the Akwa business district, and in the Bonabéri factories, people create and produce keeping the bottom line in mind. Managers bet their entire career on these people’s technical skills. They all sing the praises of technocracy, which is about action, as opposed to politics, which is about words and communication.

The “technos” of Douala have little appreciation for their compatriots in the ministerial district of Yaoundé. “They give you an appointment and then see you two hours late,” says a contractor who works with the government.

The former reproach the latter for being unable to adapt to economic upheavals, not caring about the fragility of companies and for not understanding much about the world. “To bid on a call for tenders, you need about ten signatures. Why isn’t the government doing anything to improve the business climate?” continues the contractor.

The denigration of civil servants and politicians is due to the arrogance of public officials (and vice versa). The stormy relations between business leaders and the tax authorities partly stem from this context.

“The directorate general of taxation has a punitive conception of taxation,” said Celestin Tawamba, recently re-elected president of the Groupement Interpatronal du Cameroun (GICAM) – located in Bonanjo, Douala – which represents more than 1,000 companies.

Instead of taxing based on a company’s turnover, the bosses have been asking, in vain for years, to be taxed on their profits. No one in Yaoundé is listening to them.

Hidden away in his glass and aluminium tower recently inaugurated in downtown Yaoundé, Modeste Mopa Fatoing, the director-general of taxes, “limits contacts so as not to compromise himself,” explain his family and friends. “These officials believe that entrepreneurs are all potential fraudsters,” said a small business owner.

Distrust and territorial stigmatisation have created a division between the political and economic spheres, corresponding to the one between the country’s two largest cities. During the last presidential campaign, no businessman or business leader spoke out in support of any candidate. During the same period, the directorate general of taxation implemented tax audits, a sort of sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Douala bosses who might have ventured to finance the opposition.

Napalm raid

Ever since Chief Rudolph Douala Manga Bell was hanged for high treason in August 1914 by the Germans, Douala has had a reputation as a rebel city. In April 1960, Ahmadou Ahidjo ordered a napalm raid that reduced the Congo market to ashes and silenced his opponents. In the 1990s, President Paul Biya had his opponents beaten up there before discovering the virtues of the fiscal weapon to “control” recalcitrant bosses.

But the latter do not intend to keep quiet. The “Livre Blanc de l’Economie Camerounaise”, published in November 2020, is a “right of interference that Gicam grants itself in the public debate,” said Francis Sanzouango, an executive of the employers’ union.

The country is now embarking on a process of decentralisation. As heir to colonial Jacobinism, the capital wants to maintain control, both over opinion shapers and those who create wealth.

In March 2020 – following the election of municipal councillors – Yaoundé appointed Roger Mbassa Ndine, a crafty politician who will not make waves, the central mayor of Douala. The regional councillors, also elected in this dual election, are waiting for the transfer of powers to get to work. Given the ministries’ resistance, they will have to be patient.

Water hyacinth

The old system is likely to continue. For instance, the decision to build a bridge in Douala was made by the planning ministry in Yaoundé. This is despite the fact that the very invasive water hyacinth is dangerously drying up the bed of the Wouri, the emblematic river of the city, which is also home to the indigenous Sawa people’s deities.

The elites of the two cities disagree over the best way to conduct public affairs. Nevertheless, they find themselves in the same places: funerals sprinkled with champagne, glamorous weddings and business-class flights.

However, this cordiality does not prevent the rivalry between the two cities from degenerating into recurrent deadly riots, as was the case in 2008. Although Douala and Yaoundé might view their differences as a strength, this rivalry could pose a problem to the stability of Cameroon.

Source: Africa Report

The Minister of State-Secretary General at the presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh is known more for his ruthless character as the de facto head of state of Cameroon. The ambitious next-of-kin is slowly but surely purging the Etoudi Palace of his critics and has thrown into the Kondengui prison many of his political opponents and is now teleguiding the bloody war on the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons, contributing to one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent African history.

Minister Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh is not only preoccupied with taking over from President Biya and the war or bloodshed in Southern Cameroons, the so-called President-In-Waiting and his family relations are living large. To be more accurate, Minister Ngoh Ngoh is leading an inconceivable life which Cameroon’s tax payer’s money and revenue from oil and gas have provided him with.

His in-laws and blood relations are reportedly splashing out hundreds of millions of FCFA on cars and private parties. Many are stunned today in Yaoundé as several anonymous investors are purchasing government buildings and shares in state companies.

Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh has the unflinching support of the First Lady Chantal Biya and now controls the members of the ruling Beti Ewondo gang with a huge property empire in France.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the members of the Chantal Biya family who pressed the 88 year-old Biya to publicly announced Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh as next-of-kin are spending outrageous amounts of Cameroon tax payer’s money, typically on really quite outrageous things, including, prostitution, alcohol, gambling, very ostentatious lifestyles that include buying huge houses in France, Belgium and the USA that they never even visit!

An official at the Cameroon embassy in Brussels hinted this reporter that Francophone cabinet ministers are spending tens and tens of millions of Euros to buy properties in France and Belgium and keep them up without actually ever going to stay even one night in those properties or to use them to raise revenue.

Like President Biya, Minister Ngoh Ngoh’s spending is not easily traceable and extensive investigations might just reveal the tip of the iceberg.

A cream of top barons of the Biya regime have regularly been flying models from Ethiopia, South Africa and Madagascar and elsewhere to party in Yaoundé. They arrive and are allegedly tested for HIV/Aids.

Other senior government officials from the Northern regions have also reportedly been travelling with their sea of mistresses to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj throwing huge amounts of money on things which are even against Islamic teachings. All these are going on under the watchful eyes of Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

To be sure, the system of government in Yaoundé as teleguided by Ministers Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Joseph Beti Assomo is the feudal systems that dates back to the dark ages where the ruling families had the power of life and death, over all of their subjects and having the right basically to help themselves to whatever wealth the nation has. That’s La Republique du Cameroun that we know today.

Cameroon’s huge wealth comes from the country’s vast agro-industrial plants including oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves which supposedly belongs to the whole nation but in fact is the Biya family property which now has Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh as its operations manager.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Civil society groups in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon are urging the Vatican to join a Swiss-led peace process, as the security situation in the central African nation deteriorates further. Local activists believe that Pope Francis has more influence over the Cameroon leadership than any other leader or country. Their plea follows a recent visit by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin to Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, and the Anglophone North West and South West.

The International Crisis Group estimates that the Anglophone conflict has claimed 4,000 lives, while local NGOs believe as many as 12,000 civilians have been killed. Attacks by Cameroon armed forces, including the burning of villages, has forcibly displaced an estimated 700,000 people out of an Anglophone population of six million. The violence and a school boycott have kept more than a million children from school for years. The Norwegian Refugee Council has described it as the world’s most neglected conflict for the second year in a row.

Cardinal Parolin met President Biya on January 29th, followed by a visit to the Anglophone region. The Papal envoy celebrated Mass with Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya in the mainly Anglophone Bamenda archdiocese in the North West and South West.

The Cardinal also attended a meeting at which local people described the atrocities being endured by unarmed civilians. He told the audience, “How can the body of Christ be neutral in the midst of injustice?” He conveyed Pope Francis’s concern, offering to mediate negotiations.

Anglophone journalist Mimi Mefo writes, “By this very act, the Holy See has departed from the condemnations made by the international community for the last four years, to take concrete action on the ground.”

The Swiss NGO, Humanitarian Dialogue (Swiss HD), is trying to bring the Yaounde authorities and Anglophone representatives together in peace talks. Initially, Yaounde denied the country was in crisis. More recently, the government has refused to negotiate with armed groups which it labels terrorists. Africa Intelligence reports that officials around Biya continue to believe their military strategy will prevail. Consequently, the government is transferring weapons from the Far North, where Cameroon is fighting Boko Haram, to the Anglophone regions (as reported in Foreign Policy). This policy leaves civilians in the Far North vulnerable to attack by Islamist militants.

Local civil society groups (who must remain anonymous for their own safety) are calling on the Vatican to join and actively support Swiss HD in offering to mediate inclusive peace negotiations. In addition, the Ambazonian Coalition Team has written to the Vatican, urging The Holy See to engage fully with the Swiss HD mediation process.

In 2019, Catholic bishops from around the world lobbied Biya to stop the bloodshed and enter talks. The government has previously declined an offer by local bishops to mediate. According to Anglophone media sources, Christians are no longer free to attend Mass in some mission stations, and all sides are accused of harassing the church and priests. Anglophone priests have been kidnapped, and several have been killed.

Judith Nwana, co-chair of the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations, comments, “The Cameroon government has never committed in good faith the willingness to negotiate. They will only accept international mediation and negotiations if pressured by the international community. The Vatican can leverage its influence within the international, political and diplomatic arena to make that happen because the atrocities being committed on Southern Cameroonians is no other than a genocide. The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations is hopeful that Southern Cameroonians and armed leaders would accept a multilateral mediation initiative led by the Vatican, the United States, and other allies for a negotiated settlement to be reached, one that is credible, without any pre-conditions and addresses the root cause(s) of the civil war.”

Background to the conflict

The Anglophone area is also known as the former British Southern Cameroons, because of the UK’s colonial legacy. The unrest began in 2016 when the Francophone government tried to impose French law on Anglophone courts practicing English common law. Yaounde officials also sent French-speakers to teach a French curriculum in Anglophone schools which traditionally teach a UK curriculum.

However, Anglophone grievances stretch back to independence, when it is alleged that promises to ensure the British Southern Cameroons remained a separate entity were broken. In a subsequent referendum, English speakers were not given the option of forming a sovereign country. In the 1970s, the Francophone government dissolved the federal system, leaving the Anglophone regions (20% of the population) marginalised.

Research by impartial human rights groups confirms that the Cameroon armed forces are implicated in atrocities, including destroying villages, and killing and torturing civilians, while Anglophone militia are accused of intimidating and killing civilians who defy them. Evidence of the mass rape of twenty women in Ebam by government troops has just been published by Human Rights Watch. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reports that state security forces killed nine people, including children and the elderly, in Mautu in SW, and shot dead four teenagers in Meta Bamenda, in January.

The Biya government’s refusal to engage with moderate English-speaking civil society is thought to have contributed to increasingly violent tactics by Anglophone militias fighting for international recognition of a sovereign nation called Ambazonia. UNOCHA reports allegations that a school principal was killed by non-state armed groups in January, and that schools and teachers continue to be attacked and threatened.

In January, the US Senate passed an unprecedented bipartisan resolution condemning the violence and empowering the Biden administration to apply individually-targeted smart sanctions such as asset freezes and travel bans on those on all side who are implicated in human rights abuses. Despite pressure from Lord Alton, among others, the UK has resisted calls to follow the US Senate lead.

Source: Independent Catholic News

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started in 2016 was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of Francophone elites in their territories.

Cameroon has been passing for a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

Not long ago, Hon. Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front could travel the entire South West and North West with Southern Cameroonians rushing to shake his hand and thank him for the responsible leadership he was providing for the SDF party with many wishing that he could take over from Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi.

This was a man whose steady response to the sufferings of the Southern Cameroons people transcended partisan politics in Yaoundé and transformed him into an Ambazonian hero. Like Fru Ndi whose emergence prompted the making of an Achidi Achu, Joshua Osih’s meteoric rise heralded the coming of a Dion Ngute into the Star Building.

Just four years into the crisis in Southern Cameroons, Joshua Osih is in free fall. The past few days on the national stage have left his reputation in tatters, already marked in history for his participation in the recent French Cameroun MPs letter to US President Biden. He now seems unstable and incoherent, contradicting both himself and the SDF party.

Several prominent members of the consortium of crime syndicates in Yaoundé including senior military officials have become millionaires overnight from the fighting in Southern Cameroons among them is this chartered member of the Social Democratic Front party who also moonlights as a Member of Parliament and presidential candidate.

Joshua Nambangi Osih (to use his three names) is the son of Mami Therese and Reuben Osih. The SDF MP’s father died some two years ago and for him to have him buried in his native Ndian Division, he had to pay huge sums of money to Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces, as the Francophone dominated government could not provide the much- needed security in that part of the country.

Mr. Osih’s recent decision to turn his back on the people of Southern Cameroons has triggered a backlash! But there are reasons why he embarked on his last journey of many dangers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the SDF politician recently cornered President Biya via his blood relation Prime Minister Dion Ngute to legalize his security company Camport PLC.  A  Cameroon Presidential Decree No. 2021/074 of 01/04/2021 authorized the company to operate as a private security company with head office in Douala.

Hon. Joshua Osih’s interest in operating a private security company at these challenging times in the nation’s history cannot be termed accidental!! It is indeed deliberate. The timing of the presidential decree too is key as Southern Cameroons and the entire Far North region is host to multiple armed groups and the security challenges facing the country are growing at catastrophic rapidity.

We have reliable information linking Camport PLC to huge Cameroon government military contracts to provide covert security operations in the Southern Cameroons and potentially carryout undercover missions in the Far North to target regime opponents and Southern Cameroon front line members. The company’s objectives are bold and it plans to be merciless on executing them.

Joshua Osih was quoted as saying that “I’d love to become the person that comes up with a solution to the security situation in South West and North West” shortly after he collected a copy of the signed presidential decree. However, the Oroko politician could not adequately secure himself and other members of his family during his own dad’s funeral.

Osih is said to know little about the modus operandi of a private security company. The pot belly SDF MP has, among other things, locked himself out of his own mobile phone after forgetting the password and failing to get it right more than 20 times and now he is using his office and contacts with the ex-convict Minister Paul Atanga Nji to discuss overseas arm deals and a need to raise some few millions of dollars.

Countless reputations name them: Inoni Ephraim, Mendo Ze, Marafa, Amadou Vamouke, have been sacrificed in the fires of Biya worship, but Joshua Oshii’s decline is remarkable given his once-towering stature in Southern Cameroons. So what happened to Osih?  What was he thinking? How did this successful businessman land so far on the wrong side of Southern Cameroons public opinion, history, and possibly Southern Cameroons law? How did he become so completely irrelevant?

The answer is simple: He forgot about Southern Cameroons main political ingredient which is integrity.

By Asu Vera Eyere in London

On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 63 members of La Republique du Cameroun’s National Assembly reportedly described senior US Congress men and women as “a few misguided representatives of the US Congress.”

The so-called Francophone lawmakers were responding to a February 17, 2021 letter from over 40 Democratic members of the US Congress to President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking them to “grant temporary protected status to British Southern Cameroonians living in the U.S. by placing an 18-month break in proceedings on their deportations”.

Temporary protected status is given to people already in the United States from countries devastated by conflict or natural disasters with La Republique du Cameroun being no exception.

The 63 French Cameroun MPs who were all handpicked by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and granted parliamentary portfolios in Yaoundé did maintain a kind of silence of the lamb last year when the Trump administration cut off Cameroon from a trade pact over allegations of human rights violations.

President Donald Trump said the regime in Yaoundé failed to address concerns over its “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” allegedly committed by security forces.

The US also cut more than $17 million in security aid and support to Cameroon in February 2020 over concerns about its human rights record.

AGOA helps sub-Saharan countries improve trade ties with the US. Eligible countries must meet criteria including a good human rights record to benefit from the trade.

The CPDM gang of 63 pointed out that, “The Cameroon they describe and allude to in their correspondence does not exist and we believe it is a figment of the misinformed views of certain individuals who are determined to cause further destabilization in the whole Central African Region.”

“As legislators, we welcome genuine expression of concern and support for the well-being of the vast majority of Cameroonians. We urge the United States Congressmen to be more vigorously engaged in ensuring the respect of international conventions against transnational crime and criminality to which the United States is a signatory and to ensure that their country is not a refuge for criminal perpetrators and financiers of acts of extreme violence and terrorism on the people of Cameroon,” the Francophone MPs furthered.

The President Biya praise singers also noted that they were “appalled by the falsehood, distorted opinion, and the extremely negative characterization” of Cameroon by the members of the US Congress.

“As legislators in Cameroon, we seek not to interfere in the decision-making processes of the Immigration Enforcement System of the United States government in dealing with its challenges, but we reject the views perpetrated by these Congressmen on the prevailing situation in Cameroon,” they said. “We consider these remarks on Cameroon as most unfriendly, derogatory, and smacks of an attempt to tarnish our image, respectability in seeking to mislead public opinion, create confusion to justify the securing of TPS and DED status from some groups defending the rights of immigrants in the USA.”

Reacting to the French Cameroun recent maneuvers’ in the US, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima observed that “The US government remains deeply concerned about persistent gross violations of human rights being committed by the Cameroonian government against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai