The United States says it remains an impartial party to Cameroon’s electoral process and calls on citizens to patiently await the officially declaration of results from the election body, ELECAM.

The embassy in Yaounde in a Facebook post said they supported Cameroonian voters’ decision to use the polls to make their voices heard.

The statement read as follows: “The U.S. Embassy congratulates all Cameroonians who voted on October 7. Before the election, many stated the long-held view that in a single round election with multiple parties, coalitions improve the likelihood of electoral competition.

“We reiterate our neutrality with respect to the outcome and strongly support the right of the Cameroonian people to choose their leader through the democratic process.

“We call on all parties to wait until the official results are announced before making pronouncements about the supposed winner, and to resolve peacefully any grievances through established legal channels.”

The statement came barely hours after an opposition aspirant, Maurice Kamto, announced that he had earned a decisive victory. Kamto, a former minister of the Paul Biya administration did not give any figures or basis for his declaration.

The government through the Information Minister chided Kamto’s irresponsible illegal declaration, stressing that it was only the Constitutional Council that had the right to declare results.

A Kamto spokesperson justified his announcement with the excuse that he had only made a projection and not usurped the work of any body.

“Maurice Kamto did not proclaim himself president, he claimed victory, it’s not the same thing,” Olivier Nissack reportedly said.

Source: Africa News

Many Cameroonians face being unable to vote in the country’s election on Sunday because of insecurity and fear driven by worsening violence in its anglophone regions.

Paul Biya, the 85-year-old who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, looks set to capitalise on a divided opposition to easily win his fifth election since reluctantly adopting a multiparty system in 1992.

Separatists in the English-speaking regions have announced a boycott of the poll, and many voters there have said they are too scared to go to the polls. At least 400 civilians have been killed in unrest in the past year, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

“Who can vote when our brothers are dying? How can we even vote, when you don’t know how safe it will be?” asked Chimene Ngum, a 23-year-old student in Bamenda, capital of the anglophone Northwest region.

The rebellion that erupted in the country’s two anglophone regions was triggered by the violent repression of a peaceful protest a year ago, after lawyers complained that magistrates were being appointed to their courts despite their poor English. It spread to the regions’ teachers and students, then activists symbolically declared the two anglophone regions the independent republic of Ambazonia.

Biya’s government responded with a wave of arrests and killings.

For years, anglophones have felt deliberately sidelined and neglected, their infrastructure left to crumble. Last year, for instance, Biya’s home region was allocated almost twice the money that the anglophone regions got combined, the public investment budget shows, despite their vital importance to Cameroon’s economy. Much of the country’s oil production is off the coast of the Southwest region, and onshore are its biggest cocoa-growing areas.

Biya was due to visit Buea, the Southwest regional capital, on Wednesday for a rally, but called off his trip at the last minute after the “Amba boys”, as the forces of the Ambazonian separatists are known, issued more threats. It would have been the first trip he has made to the anglophone regions since 2014, in which time he has spent at least 260 days on private trips abroad, many to Geneva.

Teachers who were bussed into a heavily securitised Buea to participate in the ruling party’s rally said they were threatened that there would be consequences if they did not attend. Meanwhile, gunfights broke out between Ambazonian and Cameroonian forces in villages near the city.

It is unclear how many of the 4000 polling stations due to open in the anglophone regions will function on Sunday, though some are determined to cast their ballots.

“I am going to the polls this Sunday, despite the fact that our brothers don’t want us to. They should understand that this is the only way we can get the change we want,” said Judith Mafor, a supporter of the main opposition party. “We have tried with guns and this has taken us to the graves and to the bushes.”

Others said they would not risk voting and described feeling powerless.

“We vote all the time and the outcome remains the same,” said Josephine Ngum, a tailor from Bamenda. “Why do I have to vote again? In a country where real democracy is instituted, when someone’s term of office is over, he steps down for another person to take over. This is not the case with Cameroon.”

Chimene Ngum said she didn’t even have a voter’s card. “Even if I had one, I wouldn’t vote because the results would still be the same. Paul Biya always wins,” she said.

After Robert Mugabe’s fall from power last year, Biya took up the mantle of being Africa’s oldest president, making Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, 74, and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, 75, seem young.

Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, 76, currently holds the title for the longest-serving president in Africa, having ousted his uncle in a military coup in 1979. Biya, who rules his cocoa and oil-producing country essentially by decree, is second.

Culled from The Guardian

Eight candidates representing a string of opposition parties are vying to oust 85-year-old incumbent President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and is also seeking a seventh term. But unrest in most parts of the country has triggered a serious refugee crisis, forcing thousands of residents to flee to neighboring Nigeria.

On Thursday, President Paul Biya’s campaign team came under gun fire as their convoy was driving top speed through the main highway into Buea, capital of the English-speaking southwest region.

Several supporters of the ruling CPDM party were injured in the gunfire exchange between government troops and armed separatists. Biya himself was not part of the Buea campaign convoy. One of Biya’s party official Gerald Ngalla told DW that “the president was worried that his presence in Buea could lead to further bloodshed.”

Credible elections “impossible”

Prince Ekosso, head of the United Socialist Democratic Party, believes the election will be flawed. “It is impossible for credible elections to take place in the northwest and the southwest,” Ekosso said.

Ekosso’s party, which had maintained a traditional support base in the south, could not hold any rally in the restive region, due to threats by the separatists, who have vowed to stop the elections in the Anglophone areas. “As a matter of fact, the towns and cities of the northwest and the southwest have been deserted,” Ekosso said.

He added that: “It’s already late now for anything to be done for free and fair elections to take place in the two regions.”

Opposition candidates have also been avoiding the restive regions too. FDP candidate Akere Muna was travelling through the English-speaking town of Mutengene and was chased by angry protesters. Four civilians were killed.

Last week, eight CPDM supporters who were planning a campaign rally in Bamenda were kidnapped from a hotel and have not been seen since then.

“They want to provide the solution through their political lenses,” said civil society leader, Willibroad Ze Ngwa urging the ruling CPDM party to call for peace. He said the party should stop giving the impression that it can solve the crisis through war.

“It is only their political party that should be able to provide the solution to the problem and we say no. We are saying that Cameroonians from all works of life should get to the field and talk to the people in a tone of appeasement, keeping their political jackets by the side.”

However, Enow Abrams Egbe, chairman of the electoral commission Elecam, believes otherwise. “I am just coming from the northwest and the southwest, the situation is perturbed but serene in a way that all the material is on the ground,” he told DW.

“The security is working hard, leaving no stone unturned to make sure that voters go to the poll free and fair. I am only assuring them that there will be no fright,” Egbe said.

6.6 million voters will be expected to cast their ballots at 25,000 polling stations all over Cameroon on October 7 to vote their new president. The divided opposition has failed to present a single candidate.

Opposition parties defy separatists

Presidential candidates have been encouraging voters to cast their ballots. Prophet Frank Ndifor Afanui, a candidate for the opposition Cameroon National Citizenship Movement, is the only one to travel to the restive southwest region so far, with a visit to Mutengene.

In Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) candidate Maurice Kamto suggests the separatists should allow people to vote as the only way to change the system they have been fighting.

“They will not win the war, so why continue fighting that war? Is it a solution for a country in crisis just to split into two parts just because we maybe have a government which is not listening to them? Go and vote because it is the only solution. We do not have to sacrifice our people,” Kamto said.

Social Democratic Front (SDF) candidate Joshua Osih said he sees a solution to the conflict.

“The problem is not the secession. The problem is the marginalization and injustices that lead to that secession. The secession will not necessarily solve that problem,” said Osih.

Displaced voters

Elecam has vowed that those who have been “displaced will be able to vote,” according to the organizing body’s regional director Amadou Ali. “They’re not just displaced people – they are voters. The fact that they’ve been displaced will not have any impact on the election.” He added that people without their documents will be able to register to vote in the towns where they have sought refuge.

“It’s not true, I wasn’t able to get a voting card,” retorted Yagana, as she rested on a mat. “I’ve requested it but a local official asked me for 40,000 CFA francs ($70, €60).”

But Cameroonian analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG), Hans de Marie Heungoup, believes only “one-third of those displaced in the far north are registered on the voters’ roll.” The region is Cameroon’s most populous and it’s poorest and has previously voted overwhelmingly for President Paul Biya.

Army policing polls    

The army has been deployed to the two restive regions to battle separatist fighters since the end of 2017. According to the ICG, the secessionists control “a significant proportion of rural areas and main roads” in the regions. Skirmishes are violent and occur frequently, displacing thousands of local residents.

Around 246,000 people have been displaced in the southwest, according to the UN, while no estimate exists for the northwest region which is largely inaccessible to aid groups and journalists. Some 25,000 others are sheltering in neighboring Nigeria, according to the UN. In the face of continuing clashes, a surge of troops is planned, according to a senior official.

Elecam has also said that some polling stations will be “relocated” in the Anglophone region which has traditionally been a reliable well of votes for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) whose candidate is Joshua Osih. He has described the planned “relocations” in interviews as “an illegal measure” that could damage his chances.

Source: Deutschwelle

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

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

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

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

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

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

– ‘Isn’t a day without an attack’ –

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

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

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

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

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

– ‘More pressing problems’ –

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

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

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

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

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

AFP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

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

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

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

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

Feminist foreign policy

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

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

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

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

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

Planting a seed

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

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

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

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Since the end of 2016, Cameroonian citizens in the country’s English-speaking regions have been calling for more equitable representation in government and more respect for English—one of the country’s two official languages—in courts and schools. English has been increasingly marginalized, creating a society where knowledge of French is a necessity to attend the country’s top schools, receive government appointments, or conduct business.

Anglophones are also protesting the fact that more government resources are allocated to Francophone regions. In 2017, the two Anglophone regions were allocated a combined $153 million of the country’s Public Investment Budget, while the country’s south—the home region of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than three decades—was allocated more than $225 million, despite having a far smaller population, according to 2012 data.

What began as peaceful protests by lawyers, teachers, and everyday citizens has devolved into a near-civil war.

The hands of those fighting back are certainly not clean—there are credible reports of ambushes on military and police officers, kidnapping of local officials, and extortion of businesses for financial support—but what has allegedly happened at the hands of Cameroon’s most elite military force, and members of the country’s other armed forces, is far more alarming.

Hard reporting has been difficult to come by and sporadic given the government’s grip on power and its tendency to cut off internet access in Anglophone regions for prolonged periods—150 days in 2017 alone.

But for months, there have been widely circulated videos of individuals in military uniforms—both those of the Cameroonian army and those of the government’s elite military guard, the Battalion d’Intervention Rapide (BIR)—committing a vast array of violent acts against civilians, including burning dozens of villages in Anglophone regions, torture, and indiscriminate killing.

In one video, men in military fatigues can be seen setting village houses ablaze before walking away to let them burn to the ground.

In one video, men in military fatigues can be seen setting village houses ablaze before walking away to let them burn to the ground.

Another shows individuals in BIR uniforms beating a man with a two-by-four. And in July, videos surfaced showing military officers executing women and children.

After initial cries of “fake news,” the government ultimately acknowledged its veracity. Sadly, these are not anecdotes; there is a vast library of documented atrocities—and with presidential elections less than a month away, the violence is likely to get worse.

The conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is rooted in the country’s colonial past and path to independence, and it cannot necessarily be resolved by outside powers. But the U.S. government could put a unique type of pressure on Cameroon’s leaders simply by enforcing U.S. laws already on the books.

The so-called Leahy Law, passed in 1997 and named for its chief advocate, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, essentially bars the Departments of State and Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security forces that have credible accusations of human rights violations made against them. From a growing number of press reports, firsthand accounts, and on-the-ground videos, it’s clear that the BIR and the military more broadly are violating Cameroonians’ human rights.

From a growing number of press reports, firsthand accounts, and on-the-ground videos, it’s clear that the BIR and the military more broadly are violating Cameroonians’ human rights.

These are exactly the types of forces the Leahy Law was designed to target. The BIR has always been a bit of an outlier when compared with its counterparts from other branches of the armed forces: It’s well funded, receives training from the United States, and is led by a retired Israeli military officer. The BIR doesn’t even report to the country’s defense minister, taking orders instead directly from Biya.
Source: Foreignpolicy.com

Candidates for Cameroon’s October 7th presidential election have largely avoided traveling to the restive English-speaking regions where armed separatists have vowed the vote will not take place. But all of them are proposing solutions to the problems that have crippled the English-speaking regions for two years now, leaving at least 300 dead.

The only presidential candidate in Cameroon who has visited an English-speaking town is Frankline Ndifor Afanwi, the flag-bearer of the Cameroon National Citizenship Movement. Afanwi said he mustered the courage to visit Mutengene when his supporters assured him there was calm after the military chased armed separatists from the southwestern town last week.

Afanwi said he is pleading with fighters to drop their guns.

“Let all those who are fighting stop the fighting. The insecurity is coming up because many people are acting out of grievances. Let them not be filled with grievances anymore. We are going to bring in what will satisfy the hearts of Cameroonians,” he said.

Although the eight other candidates, including incumbent Paul Biya, have not been to the restive regions, they are proposing solutions to the crisis.

Main opposition candidate Joshua Osih, of the SDF, who is from the English-speaking southwest region, wants to adopt a federal republic granting each region greater autonomy.

“The problem is not the secession. The problem is the marginalization and injustices that led to that secession. Guess what, the secession will not necessarily solve that problem. When you have a president of the republic who understands these issue, the first thing that has to happen is to solve the problem of marginalization,” said Osih.

Candidate Garga Haman Adji of the ADD party is from the French speaking far north region. He also thinks it is worth considering a more decentralized government and wants to see more English speakers appointed to ministerial positions.

“What is remaining is a joint commission to discuss the anglophone problem. They are my brothers and sisters. I want this problem to be solved,” he said.

The candidates say their security is not assured in the English-speaking regions, where kidnappings, killings and burning of public property have occurred.

President Paul Biya is running to extend his 36 years in power. He said he is ready for dialogue, but opposes any discussion on changing the form of the state.

There are doubts the election will be held in Anglophone regions, where two years ago, residents began to press for more autonomy, complaining of the dominant use of the French language in the bilingual country.

Separatists took over the movement. Last year, they declared a new English-speaking state called Ambazonia had been born in Cameroon. The government responded by declaring war on them.

The separatists have vowed on social media that no election will take place and intensified attacks on towns and villages, provoking an exodus of people.

The country’s elections management body ELECAM says it has adopted security measures so the vote can take place.

The United Nations says 200,000 Cameroonians have been internally displaced and 40,000 have sought refuge in Nigeria.

Culled from the VOA