Politics

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Yaoundé Military Tribunal: give a dog a bad name and hang him

6, June 2020

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Yaoundé Military Tribunal: give a dog a bad name and hang him 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has received the English version of the Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict on the NERA 10. The document revealed in details how the Biya Francophone regime changed the Nigerian government’s dossier on the Southern Cameroons jailed leaders to make it sexier for the French Cameroun administration.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon

The Yaoundé Military Tribunal observed that the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was arrested at the Abuja Nera Hotel  in possession of “96 war munitions of type 7.60; 151 calibre-12 munitions, 03 barrels; 18 ammunition boxes, 03 detonating cords, 02 grenades, tear gas grenades, 06 Ambazonian flags; 04 American camouflage uniforms, one ARA helmet; camouflaged uniforms and sergeant grades, 03 artisan crafted mobile units; 02 army green pants; one army green vest; 02 packets of Naira; USB flash drives;  on mini-taptop (tablet).”

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon

The Military Tribunal revelation that necessitated the life sentence undermined the credibility of well documented Nigerian police information provided by the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs to the UN Assistant Secretary General that the Southern Cameroons leaders were arrested inside the conference hall of NERA Hotel in Abuja.

The Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict also raised a host of tough questions and has greatly altered the narrative around the fairness of the Francophone justice system including strengthening the case for independence or resistance forever. The trial process itself was marred by loose use of the French language and lack of judgment. To be sure, Yaoundé simply gave a dog a bad name and hang him with concocted evidence to make a case for continues detention of the Ambazonian leaders.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon

A senior French Cameroun intelligence officer was quoted as saying that President Biya personally participated in fabricating the dodgy dossier against the Southern Cameroons leaders and during the tail end of the trial process Biya wrote to the presiding judge and those involved and gave them directives.

The Yaoundé Military Tribunal’s demonstration of how the French Cameroun judiciary spun intelligence to fit the case for a life sentence has now finally been released to the people of Southern Cameroons. The Ngarbuh Massacre and the journalist Samuel Wazizi affair signals a continuation of a well teleguided French Cameroun criminal policy designed to deceive the international community.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said the military tribunal decision remains very dodgy and was deliberately designed to stifle the Ambazonian revolution based on false pretences.  The fraudulent court decision is the single most serious salvo fired against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

French Cameroun judges are appointed to make the toughest calls in favour of the Biya regime. But in this case, the Southern Cameroons leaders are indeed men sinned against than sinning.

By Chi Prudence Asong

George Floyd killing: A propaganda victory for America’s adversaries?

4, June 2020

George Floyd killing: A propaganda victory for America’s adversaries? 0

The killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25 has sparked global criticism not only from America’s allies but also its many political adversaries, for whom American police brutality and racial injustice could be a valuable propaganda tool.

“They want to suffocate us as they suffocated this young African American,” said Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, on Monday. “They want to suffocate us here in the jugular,” he added in a national televised address as he pointed to his neck.

The same day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi joined the chorus of condemnation, pointedly making his remarks in English.

“To the American people, the world has heard your outcry over this state oppression, the world is standing with you. The American regime is pursuing violence and bullying at home and abroad,” he said.

Both countries have fractious relations with the US and Donald Trump’s administration in particular while also having been the subject of American criticism because of their own human rights records.

“America’s adversaries are having a field day with developments in the United States. I think they have taken advantage of this and the Trump administration is vulnerable to the criticism,” Peter Trubowitz, director of the United States Centre at the London School of Economics, told FRANCE 24.

“Clearly the focus is not on a domestic audience but rather this is an opportunity to score points internationally to highlight what they believe is hypocrisy in the American position.”

Trump’s reaction to the protests, which has included controversial tweets and threats to deploy the army, has been the focus of much of the international condemnation.

On Monday China, which has been criticised by the US and others over the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, accused the US and Trump of double standards.

“Why is the US depicting the so-called Hong Kong independence movement and violence as beautiful and heroic while calling its own people who are protesting against racial discrimination ‘rioters’?” Said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

“Why is the US making groundless accusations against the Hong Kong police, who exercise restraint and civilised law enforcement, while threatening to shoot and even use the national guard against protesters in the US? This action by the US is the most typical example of double standards.”

But are such statements merely political point scoring or could they have a real impact on US foreign policy goals in China and elsewhere?

“I think the administration is going to find itself in a very difficult position. It is the anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square and normally the US is in a position to really make… and I think it will, it will remind international audiences of what happened then, especially in light of what’s going on in Hong Kong right now,” said Trubowitz.

“But the problem is that given Trump’s own language and responses at home in the United States, they don’t ring true, for many people they won’t have the same kind of credibility.

“Can Trump lead in a very kind of commanding way on these issues? Let’s just put it this way: he can’t lead as forcefully today as he could have say maybe a week ago.”

Source: France 24

Former Pentagon chief Jim Mattis says Trump trying to ‘divide’ America

4, June 2020

Former Pentagon chief Jim Mattis says Trump trying to ‘divide’ America 0

After long refusing to explicitly criticize a sitting president, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of trying to divide America and roundly denounced a militarization of the U.S. response to civil unrest.

Protests have erupted around the United States since the death on May 25 of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis, who resigned as Trump’s defense secretary in 2018, wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic.

“Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”

He drew a comparison to the U.S. war against Nazi Germany, saying U.S. troops were reminded before the Normandy invasion: ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was ‘Divide and Conquer.'”

Mattis, a retired Marine general who denies political ambitions, also took a swipe at current U.S. military leadership for participating in a Monday photo-op led by Trump after law enforcement — including National Guard — cleared away peaceful protesters.

He criticized use of the word “battlespace” by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to describe protest sites in the United States.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace,'” Mattis wrote.

Trump’s threats to deploy active duty troops — even in states that oppose their use — has stirred alarm within the U.S. military and in Congress, where a top Republican warned it could make troops “political pawns.”

“Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society,” Mattis wrote.

Source: REUTERS

Yaounde: In two months, MPs have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs each

2, June 2020

Yaounde: In two months, MPs have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs each 0

The Biya regime has disbursed more than 5 billion FCFA to the so-called newly elected members of the one and indivisible Cameroon national assembly in Yaounde.

The 180 representatives of the 10th legislature, who have only been in office for two months, to be more accurate between the election in February and May 31, 2020 have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs.

Here is breakdown of what the ruling CPDM crime syndicate paid to the MPs:

– Transport for the full session: 86 000 FCFA

– Telephone and fuel for the full session: 1 075 000 FCFA

-Participation Fee: 2 250 000 FCFA.

– Transport for the March session: 86 000 FCFA

– Telephone + fuel for March: 1 075 000 FCFA

– March session participation fee: 2 250 000 FCFA

– March salary: 1 225 000 FCFA

– April salary: 1 225 000 FCFA

– May salary 1 225 000 FCFA

– Microprojects: 8 000 000 FCFA

– Vehicle purchase premium: 10 000 000 FCFA (not yet paid, but budgeted).

The total sum amounts to more than 5.1 billion FCFA already paid to the representatives in a country that is seeking help from international donors to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands the MPs will be voting soonest on a diabolic project to prepare the stage for Franck Biya to succeed the father as head of state.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde with files Cameroon Info.Net

The Biya Family Crisis: What it means for his legacy

1, June 2020

The Biya Family Crisis: What it means for his legacy 0

Biya will not die in peace. That’s what many in his entourage and extended family are now saying! A handful of his Beti Ewondo supporters are now clamoring for his son, Franck Biya to take over leadership. This position is not going down well in all the gangs that constitute the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.

Biya is looking frailer and the Cameroon political wind continues to bat him from side to side as he walks towards a shameful and disgusting exit.

Biya stubbornly insisted upon walking unaided inside the presidency and has been struggling lately to stay upright on his own. He now tells his political story even to cleaners in Etoudi as his children are all deserting him and revealing sensitive information on the running of the family on social media.

He recently ordered the Cameroon embassy in Dakar, Senegal to issue a passport to the wife of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Madam Ahidjo had her passport confiscated immediately after the April 6th coup in 1984.

The issuing of a Cameroonian passport to the late president’s wife has indeed signaled the closing of a circle for Biya and hints of a man who wants to die in peace.

But as our London Bureau Chief, Asu Isong will reveal to us today, Biya has been caught in the pangs of a monster he (himself) created.

Stay with Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News and be the first to know!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s tears a sign of Ambazonia respect for Mola Njoh Litumbe

29, May 2020

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s tears a sign of Ambazonia respect for Mola Njoh Litumbe 0

The Southern Cameroons chief executive President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe displayed emotion from his cell at the Kondengui High Security prison in French Cameroun when news got to him that the veteran patriotic Ambazonian soldier Mola Njoh Litumbe had passed to eternity.

Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé city reporter who met the jailed Ambazonian leaders in Kondengui revealed that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe described Mola Njoh Litumbe as his most important Ambazonia leader and commander with whom he shared a deep bond.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s voice cracked as he said a prayer and chanted the Ambazonian national anthem to honour the late Southern Cameroons veteran.  President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s display of intense grief also signaled deep respect for the great Mola Njoh Litumbe.

Mola Njoh Litumbe the Southern Cameroons leader who passionately sought a free Ambazonia homeland for the people of British Southern Cameroons died on Tuesday 26th of May 2020 at Muna’s clinic in Douala, French Cameroun.

In a statement to the people of Southern Cameroons, exiled Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima noted that “Mola Njoh Litumbe will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its true intellectual and revolutionary giants. On this solemn day, his courage and purpose will be celebrated with all Ambazonian flags at home and abroad flying at half-mast.”

The late Mola Njoh Litumbe will be lionized as an Ambazonian figure that embodied Southern Cameroons’s lethal reach in the face of a vicious French Cameroun genocidal campaign against the people of Southern Cameroons.

Mola Litumbe was a committed leader who conferred with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe often and cemented the dream of getting to Buea soonest and helped to preserve and advance the principles of the Southern Cameroons four years revolution.

The relationship between the great Mola Njoh Litumbe and President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was so close that during a trip to the USA, Mola Njoh Litumbe was photographed thrice embracing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in ways that are customary in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for dads and their beloved sons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nigeria: Buhari, Tinubu, and the Macbeth in us all

28, May 2020

Nigeria: Buhari, Tinubu, and the Macbeth in us all 0

“Owe ni Ifa npa, Omoran ni imo”

Ifa’s revelation is always in parables; only the wise can understand their meanings.

In his analysis of the Shakespearean Tragedy “Macbeth” Michael Stratford argues that the essence of human pride was covered in three dimensions by this work. He asserted in supports of the works of Majorie Garber on the play which concluded that Macbeth’s confrontation with morality at the end of the play portrayed “real recovery” and completed the depiction of the phases of pride in men. He went further to outline these stages as: The hubris that hurls a man into sin and error, the false pride that secure and justifies all and perpetuates us in evil acts, and the final realization of our immortality and futility of all things. 

The play Macbeth has been analyzed by many due to its relevance in everyday human progression. Macbeth was a young and virile soldier honored for his love of Scotland and bravery at war by King Duncan. He was at the zenith of his profession as a soldier and revered titled gentleman in Scotland when the story started. A chance meeting with the “three witches”, their predictions of Macbeth as the King of Scotland, transported this gentleman into a murderer, a wicked usurper and finally, his death.

Given the level of public exposure to education against current public discourse about the rulers in Nigeria which pulls towards a group suspected of inadequacies in formal education, maybe this narrative could be brought home. Recent curiosity made me look into the Ifa esoteric  and cosmogony and I was amazed at the level of sophistication of the Odu Ifa in explaining and predicting main pattern of human conscious, and unconscious acts; going even further to reveal the purpose and destinies of humans on earth. I was further impressed by the manner with which knowledge and wisdom for managing pride and power were expressively itemized thorough the use of parables.

For noninitiates, the Ifa divinity comprises of sixteen major quadrant of ancient Yoruba Ifa cult, which was subdivided into 256 distinct sub-heads detailing all areas of human: wisdom for proper interrelations, truth and moralities, science, cosmology, metaphysics, medicine and other established norms of the Yoruba People of Southwest Nigeria as established by Orunmila. Orunmila the first Ifa priest was reputed to have started the accumulation of this knowledge base, handing it over to his sixteen children, who continued to practice and develop the Ifa practice.

The Odi Isa, noted amongst the Odu Ifa tried to balance power and pride; it depicts the travail of the Tiger, the king of the jungle when the entire animal challenged him to battle. The tiger despite his overwhelming power, applied wisdom and appealed to the elders for help. The elders asked the Tiger to perform a sacrifice and in respect to the words of the elders, the Tiger performed all necessary rites. And to this day, no animal was able to conquer the tiger.

Tiger’s power though vast and reputed never for once doubted that the whole animal kingdom could overrun him and take over his kingdom. When faced with adversities, he went begging the elders for advice. Instead of ruin and death as in Macbeth case, the tiger excel and its kingdom expanded.

Many writers in the pre-2015 era had lauded the achievements of the new progressives led by General Mohamadu Buhari and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The duo in conjunction with other heavy weights in Nigerian politics had performed the first presidential election upset in Nigerian history; the defeat of a sitting president in a general election. The global press was agog in the spirit of the wave of change coming to Nigeria politics. The emergence of Buhari as the new government leader was heralded as a milestone in Nigerian political arena.

Given sixteen years politicking before his emergence as the president, people were thoroughly misled that the “Buhari presidential dream” was driven by passionate goals for real change, when the new government started showing signs of unpreparedness to rule and obvious lack of cohesion in policy in its first few years in office. Nigerian people still believed and attributed this to huge challenges emanating from long period of institutionalized corruption by previous governments. Nigerian new government was later revealed to have been distracted by huge amount of propaganda, vain retribution, illegal and unnecessary arrests and prosecutions in its first year in power. Apparently, governance and economy finally start to show negative growth. Before the end of the second year, the country which was previously reputed as one of the ten growing global economies was in recession.

Economic indicator aside, the failing security architecture has been witnessed in all theaters of operation. Conflict escalations in most areas were being witnessed. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) continued to rise as repetitive conflicts engulfs the state. Youth and elites migration have more than doubled within three years, and statistics on youth unemployment is reading above one third of population. The national currency’s value in international trade fell by over 200 percent in the first year of this government and it took direct intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria to shore up the Naira to its current 360 to one dollar status. Failed economy, repetitive conflicts, insurrections, low school attendance, thriving illicit economies, and high youth emigration, according to Mary Kaldor are signs of failing states.  

The constant stay outside the country by the president was a minor issue until the whole world was treated to the caricature of Nigerian President’s show of shame in faraway Poland on the Saturday Night Show recently. The lack of grace and charisma that goes with the esteemed office of the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria, the representative of over 200millon people, and  one of the fastest growing states globally by apparent lack of charisma displayed by the president and his minders. Most posits that the posture reflects apparent lack of understanding of the power and privileges garnered over the years by the Nigerian State in global politics.

Tinubu rise to stardom in Nigerian politics was midwifed by the NADECO movement against military rule in the late eighties and early nineties. The movement which led to the emergence of this ongoing republic equally blessed BAT with the governorship of the most priced state in Nigeria, Lagos. Lagos represents the hub of commerce and economy of Nigeria controlling over 25% of Nigeria economy and the claim of Nigeria as the giant in Africa business resides in the economic performance of Lagos State. Eight years direct rule, twelve years of his protégés ruling, characterized by unashamed plundering of Lagos state’s resources has created a new  “Czar” in Lagos. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the political czar of Southwest Nigeria was born.

By 2014, Tinubu had in his control a war-chest big enough to start and prosecute any political war in Nigeria against any opposition. When Tinubu pitched his tent against President Goodluck Jonathan. He midwifed an impossible coalition of unlike minds from several parties to form the All Peoples’ Congress (APC)  in supports of Buhari. The die was cast, Tinubu’s prowess and political machinery was founded on the Lagos State dynasty. This base he has always controlled since 1999. Experts have posited that the loss of Lagos by the Tinubu gang will surely sound the kernel of his political demise.

Recent happenings have shown the arrival of the new Tinubu. Four month to the 2019 general elections, Tinubu unilaterally influenced the removal of the name of the incumbent governor of Lagos State from the ballot and imposed a new man as the party representative. A move that reportedly irked some locals and party faithful. Obviously, Tinubu’s power as sole godfather and power broker in Lagos politics was on test during the 2019 February elections looms.

Buhari’s reign and reelections as president was supported by the Tinubu’s camp. The alliance many agreed was based on the pact to return Tinubu as president in 2023. This ambition has fueled the unalloyed support from Lagos APC for Buhari’s return. It’s a big gamble on the path of Tinubu and Buhari. Like the proverbial fly, Buhari has tasted the wine and is ready and willing to die in the same cup of wine. Tinubu ambition might also turn him to the fly that refused to heed the warnings of the elders and has decided to follow the corpse into the earth.

Ambition is necessary to achieve and progress in life, yet ambitions should be ethically based, no normal leader will continue to aspire to hold and office in which he does not have capacity for managing, and no normal human being will sacrifice the future of his people, merely for his sole selfish ambition.

Ambition contaminated by acute pride surely begets disaster. Macbeth ambition was fueled by greed and selfish ambition to rule Scotland, never because he was a pushed by a need to work out a better society for his people. His endgame led to war and carnage pushing Scotland which was growing as a nation into complete recession and pillage by ravaging armies.

Tinubu contesting the presidential elections in 2023, might be met with high resistance by Lagos and the people of Western Nigeria, given current apathy and political inequalities current leaders have imposed on the public. Unlike, the Tiger, Tinubu might probably resort to the use of might against his enemies with the Federal might behind him,  but he should remember Macbeth, won the seat of King of Scotland but lost the heart of its homeland to civil wars and marauders.

Wisdom and respect for the animals led the Tiger to the elders. Tinubu and Buhari have achieved the impossible in Nigerian politics; plundered its commonwealth shamelessly, many would say; “the time has come for them to both respect the people and leave the scene for others in 2023”. But if they refuse, remind them of Macbeth: Unrestrained pride and ambition, the elders say always lead to death and destruction.

By Don Michael Adeniji is a Contributing Editor for Cameroon Concord News Group and an expert in Terrorism, International Crime and Global Security

Burundi expected to announce Ndayishimiye next president

25, May 2020

Burundi expected to announce Ndayishimiye next president 0

Burundi’s election commission is expected Monday to declare Evariste Ndayishimiye the country’s next president, with all signs showing the ruling party’s candidate on track for victory following last week’s poll.

The National Independent Electoral Commission will unveil the outcome of the presidential and legislative races at 1200 GMT.

Local government results are also expected Monday.

Partial results already announced on state media indicate that Ndayishimiye, an army general from the governing CNDD-FDD who was hand-picked to succeed outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, has an insurmountable lead over his opponents.

Agathon Rwasa, the main opposition leader, has alleged foul play, saying early numbers showing his CNL party heading for a bruising defeat are a “fantasy”.

According to a tally by AFP covering 105 of 119 municipalities, Ndayishimiye won an outright majority in 101, and in at least one secured 99.9 percent of the vote.

In the four communes where he was defeated, Ndayishimiye attracted a support rate of no less than 43 percent.

Rwasa and his CNL, meanwhile, managed just 24.6 percent in Kabezi, a historic stronghold in western Bujumbura for the opposition party, which says some of its officials were harassed and detained on voting day.

The veteran politician attracted large crowds throughout his campaign, as did the ruling party, despite concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

– Results questions –

Analysts predicted the presidential race would come down to a contest between Rwasa and Ndayishimiye, the strongest of seven candidates.

A foreign diplomat in Burundi, speaking anonymously, expressed strong doubts about the official result but said it was not surprising.

“We were expecting it to happen like this. Nobody could imagine for a second that the CNDD-FDD and its generals would cede power in any way,” the diplomat said.

Burundi, which the World Bank ranks among the world’s three poorest countries, has been under sanctions from its major donors since 2015, when Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term as president triggered violent unrest and political chaos.

At least 1,200 people have died and 400,000 have fled the country in violence that continues to this day.

So far this year’s election has not seen a repeat of that violence.

Rwasa has already hinted he would not take to the streets in protest and would appeal to the Constitutional Court, though he considers the process imperfect.

Tensions were high during the campaign and on voting day, when both sides accused the other of fraud and several CNL officials were arrested.

Burundi is tightly controlled by the ruling party and its youth wing, the Imbonerakure, have been accused of a forceful crackdown against the government’s critics in the aftermath of 2015.

If the election commission announces Ndayishimiye the winner as expected, he will be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August, when Nkurunziza’s term ends.

It is unclear whether Ndayishimiye would be able to rule free from interference by Nkurunziza, who in February was elevated by parliament to the rank of “supreme guide for patriotism” and will remain chairman of the party’s highly influential council of elders.

The final election results will be declared by the Constitutional Court on June 4.

Source: AFP

Confirmed COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing in Cameroon, Biya revealing some of his movements

20, May 2020

Confirmed COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing in Cameroon, Biya revealing some of his movements 0

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, many national leaders have become more present in their citizens’ lives. They announce new emergency measures, hold regular press briefings and attempt to reassure the population. Not so in Cameroon.

President Paul Biya only addressed the public since the first confirmed coronavirus case in early March yesterday the 19th of May in a speech described by many commentators as “empty”. The outbreak is spreading, lockdown restrictions have been announced and then eased but the 87-year-old leader has only been notable for his absence. Amid rumours of his death, Cameroonians have taken to twitter with hashtags such as #WhereisBiya and #LetsFindBiya.

The president has revealed some of his movements. On 16 April, he posted a picture of his meeting with the French Ambassador to Cameroon at the presidential palace in Yaoundé. A month later, he tweeted similar photos with UN Special Representative François Louncény Fall.

Despite speculation they were photoshopped, these images and yesterday’s televised address seem to confirm that Biya is well and in the capital. Nonetheless, they have done little to allay frustrations at his lack of public presence.

“If Biya can receive the French Ambassador why can’t he address the people?” asked Cameroon’s main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, speaking to African Arguments. “Why can’t he say a few words to Cameroonians?”

Containing the coronavirus

The government has taken various measures to reduce the spread of the virus, with most official messages coming from Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Health Minister Malachie Manaouda. On 18 March, Cameroon closed its borders, shut down schools, and ordered restaurants and bars to cease operations after 6pm. It increased testing, banned large gatherings and non-essential travel, and required people to wear face masks in public.

While these measures may have helped reduce the disease’s spread, Cameroon has become one of the worst affected countries in Africa. To date, it has recorded 3,529 cases and 140 deaths. Moreover, a Reuters survey found that Cameroon has just 40 ventilators, a tiny fraction of the 2,422 that might be needed if the virus peaks according to estimates by Imperial College of London.

Despite the worsening crisis, however, the government eased some restrictions in early May, including allowing eateries to remain open past 6pm. This may have reduced the economic impact on many Cameroonians, some eight million of whom live in poverty, but has drawn criticism from the opposition.

“It’s extremely confusing,” says Kah Walla, President of the Cameroon People’s Party. “What is the government strategy? What are they trying to achieve with this and why would they expose the population to that degree?”

Neither the Minister of Health nor the Prime Minister’s Office responded to African Argument’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, a coronavirus fundraising initiative led by Kamto has been blocked by authorities, with its bank account shuttered and funds frozen. Last week, six of its activists were arrested for distributing face masks and sanitiser. They face charges of rebellion and could spend four years in prison if convicted.

Conflict in Cameroon

So far, most confirmed cases have been in urban areas, but many fear that the coronavirus could be particularly devastating if it spreads to areas facing insecurity. In the Far North, Boko Haram continues to operate. Meanwhile, in the country’s two Anglophone regions, a conflict between English-speaking separatists and government soldiers has claimed at least 3,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people since 2017.

Only one of the warring parties – which includes about fifteen separatist groups and government forces – has heeded the UN’s call for a global ceasefire. And while there was a brief lull in early March, fighting has resumed with abuses recorded in recent weeks on both sides. Some 115 hospitals in the two regions have been demolished in the conflict, while all humanitarian flights were grounded in March.

“How can you prepare a pandemic response in an area where violence is rife?” asks Ilaria Allegrozi, a senior central Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch. The organisation has urged Cameroonian officials to allow aid missions to continue unimpeded.  According to Allegrozzi, some flights to the Far North have resumed, but not to the two Anglophone regions.

“[The pandemic] adds another layer of complexity to an already intractable civil war,” says Billy Burton from the Anglophone Crisis Monitoring Project. “It has increased the risk to vulnerable, displaced populations – both outside and inside the Anglophone regions – and it makes it even harder for humanitarians trying to get aid in.”

A lack of accountable leadership

As Cameroon faces this set of complex crises, the president remains out of sight. This is keeping with his usual patterns of governance. A 2018 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Biya, who came to office in 1982, spends as much as a third of his time abroad some years, much of it at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.

“It’s long been part of Biya’s playbook not to get down in the mud or the daily details of governing,” says Yonatan Morse, author of How Autocrats Compete: Parties, Patrons, and Unfair Elections in Africa.

According to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of the pro-democracy non-profit Vanguard Africa, this ruling style is indicative of a much deeper problem in Cameroon’s governance.

“The coronavirus pandemic is only the most recent example of Biya’s absence and lack of accountability,” he says. “We have the tendency to highlight the symptoms of these crises, be they public health or humanitarian, rather than the cause, which is a lack of accountable and democratic leadership.”

Wherever he is, cases of COVID-19 in Cameroon continue to rise.

Culled from The African Arguments with additional editing from Camcordnews

Defections rob France’s Macron party of parliamentary majority

19, May 2020

Defections rob France’s Macron party of parliamentary majority 0

Left-leaning lawmakers defected Tuesday to rob President Emmanuel Macron’s party of its outright majority in France’s National Assembly in a symbolic but non-paralyzing setback for the embattled reformist leader.

Seventeen members of Macron’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) party said they had formed a new political grouping named “Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity” (EDS) to pursue greener policies, “modernize” the political system, and reduce social inequalities.

“After COVID-19, nothing will be like before,” they said in a statement. “We can do more and better in the National Assembly.”

The 577-member assembly is the lower house of parliament, but has the final say on most legislation over the upper house or Senate.

Macron’s then-brand-new LREM took 308 seats in 2017 elections that saw the centrist leader sweep to power from relative obscurity.

Lawmakers have quit the party at a trickle since then, and it was finally left with 288 seats on Tuesday — one fewer than the 289 required for an outright majority.

The governing party insisted that Tuesday’s loss was not “cataclysmic,” as it could continue to rely on smaller, allied parties for a voting majority in the assembly.

Macron’s popularity has zigzagged as he has fought a succession of political battles starting with the so-called “yellow vest” rebellion of 2018-2019 that was sparked by widespread anger against a leader seen by critics as the president of the rich and out of touch with ordinary people.

That was followed early this year by France’s longest continuous transport strike over the former investment banker’s plans to reform the country’s pension system.

This month, an opinion poll showed only about a third of French people had confidence in Macron to manage the country’s problems.

This came as the country looked to Macron to spearhead the fight against the coronavirus outbreak that has seen the economy tank in spite of several billions of euros in government interventions to prop up businesses and save jobs.

One of the vice-presidents of the new EDS grouping is Cedric Villani, who opted to stand as an independent candidate for Paris mayor in the March local elections after Macron chose someone else to represent the party.

Villani denied Tuesday that any “rebellion” was at play.

In its declaration, the EDS listed 15 priorities that included “industrializing” the economy, seeking “real transparency” in politics, and boosting a public health system caught ill-prepared for the coronavirus crisis.

Two-thirds of the group’s members are women.

(Source: AFP)

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