Politics

19, February 2021

Cameroon: Corruption is a cancer ⁰

Corruption has given Cameroon a bad name for more than three decades, but for years, many people have been thinking that this cankerworm will not reach certain institutions of the country like the Presidency of the Republic.

A country’s presidency is supposed to be a well respected institution and those who work there are supposed to be seen as reincarnations of decency and discipline.

But this image associated with the country’s highest institution has been slowly crumbling, especially as the country’s president, Paul Biya, and his wife, Chantal Biya who is noted for her flaming red hair, have engaged in many acts of corruption and dishonesty on many occasions.

Embezzling money is not an act of decency. Misusing taxpayers’ money cannot be considered as an act of responsibility even among lower animals. Rigging elections will never give anybody a good name and Biya has been charged with this crime on many occasions and he is guilty as charged.

If a leader sees corruption as the only means for him to sustain himself in power, then he has simply institutionalized this cancer and it will spread like wildfire.

And financial and moral cancer can affect anybody, especially when the victim lacks a will and discipline of steel and is financially insecure.

This explains why corruption has taken over the Presidency of the Republic. Poverty, especially moral poverty, can disarm even the strongest military in the world and this explains why workers at the Unity Palace have clearly lost their moral compass.

Sometimes, financial poverty might be to blame, but in many cases, moral recklessness and indiscipline may be the drivers.

Cameroon really needs help but there is no help on the way. When the core is rotten, the body polity will slowly crumble and this is the disease that has affected many if not all the employees of the Presidency of the Republic who are using indecent and irresponsible methods to line their pockets.

They have successful established and maintained an important smuggling network of alcoholic beverages from the presidential cellar which is causing a lot of sensation in the highest institution of the land.

For years, champagne has been the Presidency’s flagship “poison” which is clearly beyond the reach of the ordinary taxpayer and the ordinary Cameroonian will be happy to have a taste of the chemicals which have quietly transformed the country’s president into a false ‘chemist’ because of his penchant for mixing liquors before drinking.

Normally, whenever the presidential palace needs to stock up on this ‘elite poisons’, those involved in the procurement process take advantage of the opportunity to divert hundreds of boxes of these precious liquids which they then sell on the black market for peanuts.

These agents and angels of corruption have been in their dubious trade for so long that they no longer worry about being caught.

The entire country has been dragged into the mess and even those who are supposed to check such excesses now look the other way while these presidential smugglers ply their trade.

The mess is all over the place and since almost everybody has tasted the benefits of corruption, very few people get shocked when such operations play out in plain sight.

Today, it is common to see wines and liquors imported for the presidency on the streets in cities such as Yaounde, Douala, Ebolowa and Sangmelima.

Worst of all, the criminals have been emboldened by the massive corruption and its acceptance by the public to the point where they no longer even take the time to remove the stamps of the Presidency of the Republic when they go to resell their fraudulently acquired products.

In Bastos, the chic and glamorous corner of Cameroon’s political capital where a large majority of luxury shopping areas are concentrated, a tour of the shelves of the cellar of these wine shops clearly reveals the different flavours of kings – Billecart Salomon brut rosé, brut blanc, brut reserve and brut sous-bois – most of which have been imported with the taxpayer’s hard-earned money.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group source, the 75 cl bottle of Billecart Salomon brut rosé delivered by elements of the presidential guard is resold for CFAF 45,000.

Questioned by a Cameroon Concord News Group undercover agent in Yaounde, most of the sellers tactically and carefully dodged the question about the origin of these products, but ended up revealing after insistence that those products were actually being delivered by the presidential guards.

Furthermore, the sales agents refused to give the Cameroon Concord News Group agent the prices at which the Etoudi guards were delivering those wines and liquors to them.

Though they tried to justify their business plan and model, they made sure they did not give away any information related to the vast and unholy profits they were making because of the unfair practices they were employing to sustain themselves in business.

But a little research on the website of the French-based company, Billecart Salmon, which produces this brand of champagnes, lifted the veil on the prices of these liquids that have gone a long way in ruining Mr. Biya’s health.

The prices vary from EUR 43 to EUR 64 depending on the flavour, that is, CFAF 41,700 and CFAF 28,071 respectively for a 75 cl bottle.

This illicit trade must be particularly juicy, especially as it has been reported that in 2019, Cameroon imported 170,297 bottles of wine and champagne of 75 cl, for a total of CFAF 2.9 billion.

If the Presidency is decay, how will the national treasury, the ministry of finance, the customs department, the taxation office and other government institutions look like?

For many years, the government has given the impression that it is fighting corruption, but the results on the ground speak to the government’s total indifference and wilful participation in this game that is robbing the country of its precious financial resources.

The greatest frustration and annoyance comes from the fact that those who get appointed to fight corruption are exactly those who are stoking corruption in government departments and services.

Cameroon has been caught between a rock and a hard place. The country is run by a bareface crime syndicate that is hellbent on ruining the country.

Though members of the crime syndicate are almost dying, they are not repentant and are determined to take the country down with them. As long as they are in power, corruption – that which blights the lives of the vulnerable and enriches members of the crime syndicate – will continue to take root and make Cameroon unattractive to genuine and sustainable foreign investments.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

19, February 2021

US says it is ready to join talks with Iran, Europe to restore nuclear deal ⁰

The Biden administration said Thursday it’s ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal. It’s also reversed the Trump administration’s determination that all U.N. sanctions against Iran had been restored and eased stringent restrictions on the domestic U.S. travel of Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations.

The State Department said the U.S. would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants in the original agreement. The U.S. has not participated in a meeting of those participants since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.

“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Such an invitation has not yet been issued but one is expected shortly, following discussions earlier Thursday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the administration notified the Security Council that it had withdrawn Trump’s September 2020 invocation of the so-called “snapback” mechanism under which it maintained that all U.N. sanctions against Iran had been re-imposed. That determination had been vigorously disputed by nearly all other U.N. members and had left the U.S. isolated at the world body.

In another move, officials said the administration has eased extremely strict limits on the travel of Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations. The Trump administration had imposed the severe restrictions, which essentially confined them to their U.N. mission and the U.N. headquarters building in New York.

Earlier Thursday, Blinken and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France urged Iran to allow continued United Nations nuclear inspections and stop nuclear activities that have no credible civilian use. They warned that Iran’s actions could threaten delicate efforts to bring the U.S. back into the 2015 deal and end sanctions damaging Iran’s economy.

Iran is “playing with fire,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who took part in the talks Thursday in Paris with his British and French counterparts. Blinken had joined via videoconference.

Iran has said it will stop part of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear facilities next week if the West doesn’t implement its own commitments under the 2015 deal. The accord has been unraveling since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement.

Blinken reiterated that “if Iran comes back into strict compliance with its commitments … the United States will do the same,” according to a joint statement after Thursday’s meeting that reflected closer trans-Atlantic positions on Iran since President Joe Biden took office.

The diplomats noted “the dangerous nature of a decision to limit IAEA access, and urge Iran to consider the consequences of such grave action, particularly at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity.”

They said Iran’s decision to produce uranium enriched up to 20% and uranium metal has “no credible” civilian use.

The 2015 accord is aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Tehran denies it is seeking such an arsenal.

“We are the ones who have kept this agreement alive in recent years, and now it’s about supporting the United States in taking the road back into the agreement,” Maas told reporters in Paris.

“The measures that have been taken in Tehran and may be taken in the coming days are anything but helpful. They endanger the Americans’ path back into this agreement. The more pressure that is exerted, the more politically difficult it will be to find a solution,” he said.

Iran’s threats are “very worrying,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, stressing the need “to re-engage diplomatically in order to restrain Iran, but also bring it back into compliance.”

The diplomats also expressed concern about human rights violations in Iran and its ballistic missile program.

In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani expressed hope Thursday that the Biden administration will rejoin the accord and lift the U.S. sanctions that Washington re-imposed under Trump, according to state television.

Tehran has been using its violations of the nuclear deal to put pressure on the remaining signatories — France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China — to provide more incentives to Iran to offset the crippling sanctions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the European Council spoke with Rouhani this week to try to end the diplomatic standoff. The head of the IAEA is scheduled to travel to Iran this weekend to find a solution that allows the agency to continue inspections.

(AP)

17, February 2021

US: Biden plans to ‘recalibrate’ relations with Saudi Arabia and downgrade MBS ⁰

President Joe Biden plans to shift U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and will conduct diplomacy through Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz rather than his powerful son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the White House said on Tuesday.

The announcement by White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki was an abrupt reversal in U.S. policy from Biden’s Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, whose son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner maintained steady contact with the crown prince.

“We’ve made clear from the beginning that we are going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Psaki told reporters.

While her comments about the crown prince were likely to be seen as a snub, Psaki moved to clear the air on another controversy in the region, saying Biden would soon have his first phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The crown prince, widely referred to as MbS, is considered by many to be the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia and next in line to the throne held by the 85-year-old King Salman.

His prestige suffered a blow after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the hands of Saudi security personnel seen as close to the crown prince.

The Biden White House has been pressuring Saudi Arabia to improve its record on human rights, including the release of political prisoners such as women’s rights advocates from jails.

The Trump White House had found MbS the leader to deal with in Saudi Arabia and worked with him on a variety of areas, such as resolving a rift between Qatar and other Gulf nations.

As for questions about whether Biden would speak to the crown prince, Psaki said Biden is returning to “counterpart to counterpart” engagement.

“The president’s counterpart is King Salman and I expect at an appropriate time he will have a conversation with him. I don’t have a prediction on the timeline for that,” she said.

Psaki said Saudi Arabia has critical self-defense needs and the United States will work with the Saudis on this “even as we make clear areas where we have disagreements and where we have concerns. And that certainly is a shift from the prior administration.”

Trump was a close ally of Netanyahu and moved U.S. relations to a strong pro-Israel position with little to no contact with the Palestinians.

Psaki said Biden’s first call with a leader in the region will be with Netanyahu and it will be soon. Critics had accused Biden, a Democrat, of snubbing Netanyahu by not having spoken to the leader of the top U.S. ally in the Middle East.

“Israel is of course an ally. Israel is a country where we have an important strategic security relationship, and our team is fully engaged, not at the head of state level quite yet but very soon,” she said.

(REUTERS)

16, February 2021

US Vice President Harris vows to strengthen ties with France ⁰

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, expressing her commitment to strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries, her office said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, a former vice president himself under Barack Obama, has had Harris at his side for multiple events during his early White House tenure, indicating he wants her to have a key role in implementing his political and policy agenda.

The call with Macron, leader of a G7 nation, shows Harris is taking a role in foreign policy as well, an area in which the former U.S. senator from California has significantly less experience than Biden.

“Vice President Harris and President Macron agreed on the need for close bilateral and multilateral cooperation to address COVID-19, climate change, and support democracy at home and around the world,” the vice president’s office said in a statement.

“They also discussed numerous regional challenges, including those in the Middle East and Africa, and the need to confront them together,” the statement said.

Harris also spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month in her first call as vice president with a foreign leader.

Biden, a Democrat who took over from Republican former President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, has sought to re-engage with allies and with global institutions after four years of his predecessor’s “America First” mantra.

Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord and largely scoffed at multilateral organizations and groups.

Biden had previously spoken with both Trudeau and Macron in January.

(REUTERS)

15, February 2021

Macron meets G5 Sahel leaders amid questions over France’s strategy ⁰

Leaders of France and five Sahel countries on Monday begin a two-day summit to discuss the G5-Sahel grouping’s anti-insurgency operations amid mounting local dissatisfaction over the military-heavy approach that has failed to stabilise the poorly administered region.

Leaders of the so-called G5 Sahel – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – are attending the two-day summit in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, with French President Emmanuel Macron joining via videolink.

The meeting comes a year after France boosted its Sahel deployment, seeking to wrench back momentum in the brutal, long-running battle.

But despite touted military successes, jihadists remain in control of vast swathes of territory and attacks are unrelenting.

Six UN peacekeepers have been killed in Mali this year alone, and France has lost five soldiers since December.

Islamist fighters in the Sahel first emerged in northern Mali in 2012, during a rebellion by ethnic Touareg separatists which was later overtaken by the jihadists.

France intervened to rout the insurgents, but the jihadists scattered, taking their campaign into the ethnic powder keg of central Mali and then into Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, according to the UN, while more than two million people have fled their homes.

Calls for a course correction strategy

The crushing toll has fuelled perceptions that the jihadists cannot be defeated by military means alone.

At a summit in the French city of Pau last year, G5 Sahel leaders agreed to step up military cooperation to tackle the threat. “We have no choice. We need results,” said Macron at the end of the January 2020 summit.

But some experts believe there is a choice between focusing on a solely military strategy or viewing it as a component of a strategy that includes governance, political representation, fiscal reforms, anti-corruption as well as human rights issues.

In a report published February 1, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) called on G5 Sahel leaders to “reorient their approach to one rooted in efforts to prioritise governance, notably by soothing the escalating tensions among communities and between communities and the state in rural areas, which jihadists exploit, and by improving governments’ delivery of basic services to citizens”.

Jean-Herve Jezequel, the ICG’s Sahel director, said conventional military engagement had failed to deliver a knockout blow.

The jihadists “are capable of turning their backs, bypassing the system, and continuing,” he said.

Last Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a “diplomatic, political and development surge” to respond to the situation.

Last year, France upped its Barkhane mission in the Sahel from 4,500 troops to 5,100 – a move that precipitated a string of apparent military successes.

French forces killed the leader of the notorious Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droukdel, as well as a military chief of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

Troop drawdown?

But the latest attacks have also brought the number of French combat deaths in Mali to 50, prompting soul-searching at home about Barkhane’s cost and usefulness.

Macron last month opened the door to a drawdown, suggesting France may “adjust” its military commitment.

Despite persistent rumours, France is not expected to announce any troop withdrawal at N’Djamena.

Instead, to lighten the load, France is hoping for more military support from its European partners through the Takuba Task Force which assists Mali in its fight against jihadists.

The Sahel armies, for their part, are unable to pick up the slack.

In 2017, the five countries initiated a planned 5,000-man pooled force, but it remains hobbled by lack of funds, poor equipment and inadequate training.

Chad, which reputedly has the best armed forces among the five, promised a year ago to send a battalion to the “three border” flashpoint where the frontiers of Mali, Niger and Burkina converge. The deployment has still not happened.

Paris also hopes last year’s successes can strengthen political reform in the Sahel states, where weak governance has fuelled frustration and instability.

In Mali, the epicentre of the Sahel crisis, army officers overthrew president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last August after weeks of protests over perceived corruption and his failure to end the jihadist conflict.

The interim government has pledged to reform the constitution and stage national elections, but critics say the pace of change is slow.

A 2015 regional deal between Mali’s government and northern rebel groups has also barely advanced, yet it is one of the country’s few options for escaping the violence.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

14, February 2021

French Cameroun: Fru Ndi to quit as SDF Chairman ⁰

John Fru Ndi, the so-called charismatic leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) will no longer be chairman of the party he created in 1990.

At almost 80 years old, the Biya French Cameroun acolyte announced Thursday, February 11, 2021, his intention to no longer preside over the destiny of the SDF after 30 years at the head of the party.

As National Chairman and presidential candidate of the SDF since its creation on 26 May 1990, John Fru Ndi was for several decades passing as the main opponent of Paul Biya, Chairman and president of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Fru Ndi was candidate in the presidential elections of 1992, 2004 and 2011 and was ranked second many times in his quest to occupy the Etoudi Palace.

In 1997, John Fru Ndi boycotted the presidential elections after secretly collected hundreds of millions of FCFA from the Biya regime in a channel that had the late John Ebong Ngole and former governor Enoh Abrahams as agents.

His performance in the 1992 presidential election against Biya remains his best result so far and in 2018 he handed over the right to contest presidential elections in his party to one Joshua Osih who reportedly obtained 3.5% and was ranked 4^th.

So much goodwill was wasted on the SDF leader by both French and British Southern Cameroonians. From 43 Members of Parliament in 1997, 22 in 2002, 16 in 2007, and 18 in 2013, the SDF only got 5 seats in the French Cameroun dominated National Assembly in 2020.

John Fru Ndi is leaving to join the list of Southern Cameroons unpopular leaders such as Muna, Foncha, Achidi Achi, Fonka Shang and Peter Musonge while his party is in a sharp decline and on the verge of extinction.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

14, February 2021

Spain’s Catalonia holds regional election, testing separatists’ strength ⁰

Catalonia goes to the polls Sunday for an election Madrid hopes will unseat the region’s ruling separatists more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain.

But the vote could see a high level of abstentions as Spain battles a third wave of the pandemic.

Regional authorities ramped up restrictions to slow soaring case numbers after the Christmas holidays and while the situation has slightly improved, the figures are still high.

When the polls open at 0800 GMT on Sunday, about 5.5 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballots.

But 35,600 of the 82,000 people assigned to help staff polling stations on the day have asked to be recused, despite pledges they will receive full protective suits.

The regional government has insisted that all necessary health and security measures are in place, providing antigen tests for election workers, as well as spacious, well-ventilated polling stations.

It has accepted only 23,300 of the requests.

Separatists eye majority

Turnout for the vote is not expected to exceed 60 percent — and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote has been overshadowed by a bitter split between the separatist factions following the failed 2017 independence bid that sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

The Catalan government has been dominated by separatists since 2015, but Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is hoping this election, the fifth in a decade, could end their rule.

He himself came to lead Spain’s government in 2018 thanks in part to support from Catalan separatists. Even today, his minority government relies on them to pass legislation.

But Sanchez has not hidden his desire to remove them from power.

To that end, former health minister Salvador Illa is spearheading the Socialists’ bid to unseat the separatists in Sunday’s election. Sanchez has even taken part in some electoral meetings himself.

The polls put his PSC (Socialist Party of Catalonia) neck-and-neck with the pro-independence parties.

Post-election deal-making

Even if the PSC comes out on top however, polls suggest none of the parties will win an outright majority of 68 in the 135-seat regional parliament.

And that means the eventual outcome will depend on deal-making.

Forming a government “will probably be quite challenging” and prospects of a repeat election cannot be ruled out, says Antonio Barroso, an analyst at political consultancy Teneo.

And while the separatist parties remain deeply divided, polls suggest the hardline JxC — “Together for Catalonia” — and the more moderate ERC could once again cobble together a ruling majority.

Both this week formally ruled out a coalition with the socialists.

The main question then is which of the two will come out stronger.

In the previous election in December 2017, JxC was ahead, forming a 70-seat coalition with ERC.

Should the tables be turned in ERC’s favour, it would likely ease tensions and help the tentative reconciliation Sanchez’s government has sought to broker since coming to power.

“An ERC executive would maintain the current ambiguous approach of criticising Madrid rhetorically but not adopting any unilateral measures,” said Barroso.

“In contrast, a government headed by JxC would probably lead to a more confrontational stance.”

(AFP)

11, February 2021

US: Disillusioned Republicans plan to form anti-Trump third party ⁰

Dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to former President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine US democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions told Reuters.

The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved say.

More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of “principled conservatism,” including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law – ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump.

The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse center-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents or Democrats, the people say.

Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters that he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump’s grip on Republicans and the nativist turn the party has taken.

Three other people confirmed to Reuters the call and the discussions for a potential splinter party, but asked not to be identified.

Among the call participants were John Mitnick, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; former Republican congressman Charlie Dent; Elizabeth Neumann, deputy chief of staff in the Homeland Security Department under Trump; and Miles Taylor, another former Trump homeland security official.

The talks highlight the wide intraparty rift over Trump’s false claims of election fraud and the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Most Republicans remain fiercely loyal to the former president, but others seek a new direction for the party.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump on Jan. 13 on a charge of inciting an insurrection by exhorting thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol on the day Congress was gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

Call participants said they were particularly dismayed by the fact that more than half of the Republicans in Congress – eight senators and 139 House representatives – voted to block certification of Biden’s election victory just hours after the Capitol siege.

Most Republican senators have also indicated they will not support the conviction of Trump in this week’s Senate impeachment trial.

“Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening American democracy,” McMullin told Reuters. “The party needs to recommit to truth, reason and founding ideals or there clearly needs to be something new.”

‘These losers’

Asked about the discussions for a third party, Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, said: “These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden.”

A representative for the Republican National Committee referred to a recent statement from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

“If we continue to attack each other and focus on attacking on fellow Republicans, if we have disagreements within our party, then we are losing sight of 2022 (elections),” McDaniel said on Fox News last month.

“The only way we’re going to win is if we come together,” she said.

The Biden White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McMullin said just over 40% of those on last week’s Zoom call backed the idea of a breakaway, national third party. Another option under discussion is to form a “faction” that would operate either inside the current Republican Party or outside it.

Names under consideration for a new party include the Integrity Party and the Center Right Party. If it is decided instead to form a faction, one name under discussion is the Center Right Republicans.

Members are aware that the US political landscape is littered with the remains of previous failed attempts at national third parties.

“But there is a far greater hunger for a new political party out there than I have ever experienced in my lifetime,” one participant said.

(Source: Reuters)

11, February 2021

The Killings in Batibo Must Galvanize Southern Cameroonians ⁰

The last time the gruesome killing of a Southern Cameroonian shook me to the core was the Ngarbuh Massacre, which I’m pretty sure or at least hope we still remember. When Ngarbuh occurred, there was this same social media outcry, great shows of indignation, solidarity etc etc etc. “We are Ngarbuh”…”I stand with the people of Ngarbuh”… “Enough is enough”…”God where are you?”….

Then, a demonstration was called at a major news media outlet in Downtown DC. Not wanting to deal with DC parking headaches, I took an Uber from Laurel, Maryland to the Downtown DC location of the demo. For those who know the general DC Metro Area, that’s not a short distance. Throughout the drive into DC, I was yapping to the Uber driver about the atrocities that were being committed against my people in my homeland. How the worst had just happened in a locality called Ngarbuh. Women and children killed…burnt alive in their homes. I told him how we, immigrants from Southern Cameroons, were going to have this massive demonstration in front of the news media outlet. Paint the whole place blue & white! A demonstration that had never been seen before and that would force the outlet to tell our story to the world. The Uber driver himself got caught up in my frenzy.

As we approached the location, I almost thought we were at the wrong address. But, I know that part of DC and had driven right by the news media outlet myself several times. The driver, who had been excitedly looking forward to seeing my massive crowd inquired if the address was correct. I was confused and embarrassed. I opened my eyes wider and looked around. Then, as we got closer, I saw some specs of blue & white Southern Cameroons flags. Then a handful of familiar faces. The same faces I’d been seeing at protests and demonstrations in DC, Maryland and New York since 2016. That was it. No massive crowd.

In my embarrassment, I quickly jumped out of the Uber, avoiding any eye contact with the driver, who clearly had many questions for me. Most probably wondering what kind of liar or drama queen I was. To tell such an exaggeratedly false story. I, nevertheless, joined the pitifully small group of Southern Cameroonians who had dropped everything on that day, to come out and tell the Ngarbuh story on the streets of DC. As I approached folks on the street handing out pamphlets to them and telling them what had just happened in our homeland, the realization hit me, that no matter what we say, how much we decry and manifest anger when pictures of these gruesome events are shared and circulated in our social media groupings, truth is, we have normalized these acts. They no longer shake our cores as they should. Truth is, we forget them just as quickly as we forget what we had for breakfast by lunchtime. Truly sad!

These images don’t shake me to the core anymore. They just leave me sad and wondering what it is that needs to happen to bring back that real fire and rational commitment…take us back to where we were at the beginning. So we can get this shit right (excuse my choice of words). So that innocent men, women, children can stop dying…not for anything they’ve done but simply for who they are.

How many more gruesome pictures/videos do we need to see. Or perhaps the question is, do we even need to see them anymore?

Syh Aji-Mvo Ambe

Article published with the consent of Dr. Ebini Christmas

11, February 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Ambazonia Communications Secretary says “two-state solution” only option ⁰

Southern Cameroons Interim Government spokesman, Milton Taka has ruled out discussing the so-called Special Status with the regime in Yaoundé, stressing that the only way to resolve 59 years of marginalization and assimilation dispute in the two Cameroons is for the United Nations and the European Union including the AU to recognize the two states.

In a Wednesday telephone conversation with Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief, Isong Asu Secretary Milton Taka said decentralization and regional autonomy favored by the French government of Emmanuel Macron and being teleguided by the French Cameroun regime would not be on the agenda whenever Yaoundé decides to sit down with the people of Southern Cameroons and talk.

Hon. Milton Taka observed that there is no longer any solution but for the international community to recognize both British and French Cameroun as two independent states. “Whether La Republique du Cameroun accept it or not, there is no decentralization or federation anymore,” the Ambazonia Communication Secretary told Cameroon Concord News Group. “Everyone should go their own way” he added.

Comrade Milton Taka also stated that “There is no point in discussing old solution formulas… which disregarded basic human rights to the people of British Southern Cameroons. That business is finished now.”

At the heart of the 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 French speakers in their territories. Cameroon is 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.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Isong Asu in London