Why are we asking this question now? Because Southern Cameroons declared itself to be the world’s newest country under the leadership of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe some two decades after President Biya’s dissolution of the United Republic of Cameroon – and after a ghastly cavalcade of gruesome atrocities, forced expulsions and a genocide that has killed some 1000 with no international intervention – the people of Southern Cameroons have declared themselves independent and are now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

For 57 years Southern Cameroonians have lived as a French Cameroun protectorate while its citizens rely on remittance from the Diaspora. When talks broke down between the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime, the Southern Cameroons Interim government unilaterally declared independence as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Now the creators of the world’s newest independent country were abducted by the Buhari administration in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and extradited to Yaounde. Before this dubious process the Ambazonian Interim Government had sent hundreds of letters to governments around the world seeking formal recognition of their independence.

What do the Francophones think?

They are very unhappy. They regard Southern Cameroons as the heart of their state since the early 60s, even though both territories have two different political settings and history. French Cameroun political elites have described Ambazonia as a “fake country”.

So who’s on what side?

The Nigerian regions harboring Southern Cameroonian refugees fleeing the conflict have in a way recognized Southern Cameroons as an independent state and the much anticipated departure of President Buhari in 2019 will make matters even clearer.  So will most of the big African nations – Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Morocco  – and the Ecowas countries are moving toward recognising Southern Cameroons, pronouncing developments in line with President Biya’s continued stay in power, the on-going genocide and the Southern Cameroons refugees crisis in Nigeria.

The CEMAC members – Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville and the Central African Republic have said they will not. Other countries opposed to an independent Southern Cameroons include France and the Ivory Coast. European states are also divided. Germany and the UK are maintaining a kind of deliberate silence including Belguim and Italy. Other EU states, like Holland and Norway, want Southern Cameroon’s future be decided at the UN.

Where is the international community?

For almost two years, Southern Cameroons has been reduced into a slaughter house with government troops killing innocent citizens as if they were not human beings. In many parts of Southern Cameroons, many young men, many of whom are innocent and have nothing to do with the ugly fighting that is playing out over there, have been arrested and taking to unknown destinations. Many have been buried alive, while others have been used by the country’s trigger-happy soldiers as shooting targets.

A recent video that has gone viral online speaks to the accusation that the Yaounde government is committing gross human rights violations in the country’s English-speaking regions. The video, which has shocked many across the globe, is being documented as evidence of human rights abuse by many rights groups which have been seeking to draw the world’s attention to the genocide that is unfolding in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

A crisis that started as protests by lawyers, teachers and students in Buea and Bamenda was allowed to spiral out of control due to the government’s firm belief in tough and violent means to address issues. The government’s decision to slaughter hundreds of Southern Cameroonians on October 1, 2017, has turned out to be a very bad mistake. Many Southern Cameroonians who have been victims of the government’s marginalization program simply wanted to express their grievances and frustration. But wont to violence and dictatorial ways of doing things, the government resorted to its legendary violence which has transformed an entire region into a huge killing field.

After October 1, 2017, a date many Southern Cameroonians consider as their independence day, the country has been pushed into a spiral of violence. Southern Cameroonians hold that it behooves them to protect themselves as their protector- the government – has decided to mow them down. Many Southern Cameroonians have unfortunately been sent to an early grave and this is what is making any dialogue or reconciliation impossible.

Today, there are many armed groups in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Over the last four months, many innocent civilians have met their death as the government pursues its policy of collective punishment. Many civilians have seen their homes burnt down by government forces which have opted for a “scotch-earth” policy that is hurting many vulnerable people who have nothing to do with the conflict.

What are the arguments?

The European Union, the African Union and the Commonwealth of Nations believe that genuine dialogue by the French Cameroun political leadership is essential for Cameroon to become stable.  In reality, a negotiated solution will not be possible if Mr. Paul Biya stays on as Head of State.

The French for their own selfish interest have blocked every Southern Cameroons action deep within the African Union and the United Nations and have countered with high-minded arguments about the inviolability of national sovereignty.  The French diplomatic missions in both Nigeria and Cameroon have been quoted as saying that France will not recognize Southern Cameroons because this does not respect international law.

But it is perhaps significant that those countries including Spain, France and Nigeria opposing recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia mostly have problems with their own separatist or secessionist movements. Lawmakers on the tiny French overseas territory of New Caledonia voted recently to hold an independence referendum on November 4 to break from France. Spain is presently in chaos over the crisis in Catalonia and mighty Nigeria is bracing with the Biafra uprising.

There is fear that after South Sudan, Southern Cameroons independence could create an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations and the established global order of sovereign states. But Southern Cameroons is however a unique African situation which deserves a unique response from both the United Nations and the European Union.

What is likely to happen?

There will of course be political upheavals in Nigeria in 2019 and the PDP dominated states and governors will openly support the Ambazonia Interim Government and by extrapolation back Southern Cameroons’s independence. But France and the Fulanis in the APC Buhari administration will not. The CEMAC countries will block all Southern Cameroons moves in the African Union. Chad’s chief diplomat heading the African Union will use all diplomatic means at his disposal to block Southern Cameroon’s recognition – and will probably block Southern Cameroon’s access to the UN and the EU.

The real questions are less glamorous and more profound. Unemployment in Southern Cameroons has reached crisis level, corruption and organized crime orchestrated by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is bad, and more than 40,000 have fled to Nigeria. The troubles are far from over yet.

Is independence for Southern Cameroons a good thing?

Yes...

* 99 per cent of its people are Anglo-Saxon and democratic in nature and should be allowed to determine their own fate

* French Cameroun has effectively lost Southern Cameroons through its own actions in the atrocities and massive killings going on now for two years

* Southern Cameroons independence is the logical working out of the collapse of a failed French policy in Africa

No…

* Southern Cameroons has formed the heart of the state of French Cameroun since independence in 1961

* It sets a dangerous precedent for other parts of Africa such as the Congo and Uganda where rebels want to break away

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The recent unrest in the English-speaking region of Western Cameroon caught the attention of the world media as well as that of the UN, EU and other international agencies. It is threatening to become part of what Wole Soyinka famously termed “the open wound of a continent”. Cameroon is a low-income country with a population of 23.4 million people. It has a GDP of US$30 million and per capita income of US$1,217. It belongs to the Central African Economic Community, one of the weakest in the continent, alongside shambolic countries such as DRC, Central Africa and Chad.

I am often grateful to the ancestors that we were colonised by the British rather than by the French or Portuguese. While they were all bastards, the British were more enlightened bastards. They were more interested in stealing our natural resources while leaving us to our devices; the French, by contrast, were not content to steal our patrimony but also to rob us of our very humanity.

Cameroon was first colonised by the Germans, who ruled from 1884 to 1916. Their historic defeat in what Lenin termed the First Imperialist War forced them to hand-over their colony to the French and the British. The French took the lion-share in the East while the British had a third of the territory in the West. The approaches to colonial administration in both territories sowed the seeds of some of the problems of nationhood that have afflicted modern Cameroon.

The French ruled through the policies of direct rule and assimilation. They introduced a system of forced labour. They also gave preference to catholic missionaries who established schools and clinics. The colonial legal system was anchored on the civil law tradition which limits the prerogatives of judges to what is codified, with more investigative and prosecutorial powers given to the magistracy. Everything was geared to glorify France as the acme of human civilisation. Both the elites and the masses have remained the mental slaves of their French masters. By contrast, the British introduced the indirect rule system in their territory. Protestant missionaries predominated. They also built schools and clinics. British colonial law accorded respect and dignity to the Africans. Forced labour was abolished in preference for wage labour.

Many Africans sought colonial jobs in the plantations and colonial infrastructures as an opportunity for higher income and greater upward mobility. When Cameroon became nominally independent from France on 1st January 1960, a plebiscite was carried out to determine if the Westerners wanted to be in Nigeria or in Cameroon. The north opted to join Nigeria, thanks to the indefatigable campaigns waged by Sir Ahmadu Bello, late premier of the Northern Nigeria. The south, on the other hand, opted to rejoin Cameroon. My Cameroonian friends have told me that their parents recounted to them tales of humiliation and arrogance by the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria. They did not need to be persuaded to rejoin Cameroon. Following the plebiscite Cameroon under its first president Ahmadou Ahidjo adopted a federal constitution in 1972. The new constitutional arrangement accorded a special autonomous status to the English-speaking region. When Paul Biya succeeded Ahidjo in November 1982, he abolished the federal constitution and replaced it with a unitary system; centralising power and revoking the regional autonomy arrangement that the English-speaking region had enjoyed.

The current crisis in Cameroon should not be reduced to an “Anglophone-Francophone” problem. It is far deeper than that. It touches on the anatomy of dictatorship in a corrupt, rapacious, incompetent, extractive neo-colonial apparatus that has treated its citizens with such contumely. The grievances of the English-speaking Cameroonians centre on the fact that they have been deprived of opportunities for advancement while infrastructures and public goods are largely concentrated on the French-speaking East. The two largest cities in Cameroon are Yaoundé, the political capital, and Douala, the commercial capital, in the coast. The main national rail line links Douala and Yaoundé, while the seaports are in Douala, Kribi and Limbé. The bulk of administrative and economic power is thus concentrated on the French-speaking side. While Cameroon is constitutionally a bilingual country, the government has barely tolerated the use of English in preference for French in all matters of public administration.

I recently watched a news clip of English-speaking barristers demonstrating against imposition of French language in the courts. The westerners are gradually being reduced to the status of servitude as “drawers of water and hewers of wood”. I have visited Cameroon several times. I love the country and its people. On the surface, it appears to be a tranquil place. Beneath, there is a seething volcano. Ask the Bamileke who have been hounded and persecuted for decades — ask the intellectuals and professionals who have fled abroad in droves. It is, in reality, a wretched country under the stranglehold of Paul Biya and his French Masonic brethren who have ruled with an iron hand for 35 years.

We are told that the man lives mostly in Switzerland and hardly ever convenes cabinet meetings; an absentee-landlord whose misrule has crippled this great country and its wonderful people. Not too long ago he was alleged to have taken 43 rooms for himself and his entourage at the five-star L’Hérmittage Barrière resort at La Baule in southern France. It was rumoured to cost US$35,000 per night. Recently, English-speaking dissidents unilaterally declared an independent “Ambazonian Republic”. The state responded with such violence that the EU was compelled to plead with the authorities to apply only “proportionate force” as a rule of engagement.

The government also blocked internet accessibility for several months, crippling business and communications. More than 50,000 Cameroonian refugees are in our country. The federal government has been careful not to rock the boat. Cameroon under Ahidjo staunchly stood with the Gowon administration, refusing to aid secessionist Biafra. They helped us win the war. But there has also always been the sticky issue of Bakassi; an international complot to cede off a huge chunk of our coastal territory to sinister French oil and commercial interests. Cameroon, like many so-called “Francophone” countries, is a satellite of a Leviathan that calls itself France-Afrique. France controls their money, their economies, their banking system and their infrastructures and public administration.

When the Bakassi case came up for hearing at the international Court of Justice in The Hague, the fact that the presiding judge was a Frenchman meant we had lost the case ab initio. Under the Green Tree Agreement, the indigenes of Bakassi are supposed to be free to live and pursue their livelihoods as they have done since time immemorial. Alas, the regime in Yaoundé has observed the agreement more in the breach than anything else. The gendarmes have moved in, killing people, pillaging, capsizing boats and extorting humongous amounts for fishing rights. They have shown that it was never theirs in the first place. In a judgement that is unenforceable and whose terms have been violated, we have a duty to revisit it. Winston Churchill warned that borders are never negotiated – they are only defended. It would be rather premature to accord recognition to the soi-disant Republic of Ambazonia, but we should provide humanitarian succour to the people of west Cameroon. Enough is enough. Silence at this stage amounts to complicity in genocide.

We should engage with the regime in Yaoundé and compel them to restore the federal constitution and the autonomy that the westerners had enjoyed hitherto. We should also push for a consociational arrangement that ensures that western Cameroonians are represented at all echelons of leadership, government and the administration. Cameroon is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. If the regime continues to violate the rights of its citizens in such a callous and flagrant manner, we must take steps to ensure that they are expelled from the Commonwealth.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

The UK participated in recent attack on Syria because it was the right thing to do and because US President Donald Trump asked us to, says British Prime Minister Theresa May.

May made the remarks while addressing parliament on Monday, where she stressed that the strikes were carried out to “further prevent the use of chemical weapons.”

“We have not done this because President Trump asked us to do so,” she added.

Early on Saturday, the US, Britain and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical attack against Douma. Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the suspected assault.

The Syrian government has strongly denied the allegation, calling on Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a fact-finding mission for investigations.

‘May accountable to parliament not US’

Meanwhile, UK opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated his stance that British premier is “accountable to the parliament – not to the whims of the US president.”

Corbyn further stressed that the attacks were illegal and violated UN Security Council’s charter.

“There is no more serious issue than the life and death matters of military action,” he added.

“It is right that parliament has the power to support or stop the government from taking planned military action,” he further noted.

Russia rejects evidence tampering claims in Syria

Also on Monday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov rejected accusations that Moscow is tampering with evidence of the alleged chemical attack.

“I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site,” said Lavrov.

He further stressed that no chemical weapons had been used in Douma.

“I cannot be impolite with the heads of other states, but you quoted the leaders of France and the UK and US and, frankly speaking, all the evidence they quoted was based on media reports and social media,” he said.

“What did take place was the staged thing,” he added, while questioning the US,UK , and France over the timing of the strikes which were carried out before Inspectors from the OPCW even arrived in the country.

OPCW to arrive in Douma on Wednesday

Meanwhile, Russian officials have announced that the OPCW team would arrive in Douma on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday) the security services of the United Nations … will test the routes. And on Wednesday is when we plan the arrival of the OPCW experts,” said a senior Russian official.

Source: Presstv

The renowned Ghanaian Islamic cleric who is accredited with his accurate predictions and prophesies on all local and international channels, Mallam Sham Una Ustarz Jibril says former captain of the indomitable Lions Samuel Eto’o would be a candidate for a presidential election in Cameroon.

According to him, the respected footballer will follow the footsteps of Liberia’s President George Opong Weah to lead his country.

In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Mallam Sham Una Ustarz Jibril was emphatic that the former Barcelona striker will end his football career as a politician.  “He [Eto’o] in person does not have a presidential ambition but the youth in Cameroon and the rest in the diaspora will force him to contest the presidential elections,” he said.

Mallam Sham’s prediction comes after some international media platforms have hinted that the Samuel Eto’o would be a candidate for the 2018 presidential election in Cameroon. The soothsayer is however of a view “Samuel Eto’o will be a good leader ever in Cameron”

Source: Peacefmonline

The Cameroon government will not dialogue with separatists elements in the country’s Anglophone region, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji has stressed. Speaking late last week on state-owned Cameroon Radio Television, he reiterated a position he had advanced in late March that Yaounde will deal with persons advancing the continued unity of the nation.

He told host of the political talk show, Actualite Hebdo, that president Paul Biya had placed security as a top priority because without it, Cameroon will not be an ideal investment environment. According to him a thirty day grace period will be opened for separatist elements to lay down their arms, failure to do so, “it is the law that will take its course,” he said.

On the subject of separatists leaders deported from Nigeria to Yaounde early this year, he said they were doing fine in detention, buttressing an earlier position advanced by Information Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary in an interview with RFI.

The Minister has been on a national tour since he was sworn in. He has been to both regions in the Anglophone area – the northwest and southwest, calling on people to support the government’s peace efforts.

Atanga is one of two Anglophones who were handed positions in the government following a cabinet reshuffle in early March 2018. He was handed the Territorial Administration portfolio whiles Dr. Nalova Lyonga was named Minister of Secondary Education.

What has become known as the Anglophone crisis, has riled the country’s two English-speaking regions. A previous cry against discrimination and marginalization from French-majority Cameroon has now taken a violent turn.

Secessionists under the so-called Ambazonia Republic continue to push for a breakaway from Cameroon – a move the government has flatly rejected. After a crackdown on protests in October last year during a planned symbolic independence declaration, the secessionists turned to arms.

They have since attacked and killed over twenty members of government forces – police, soldiers and gendarmes. They have also kidnapped two government officials. A soldier after burning his vehicle and a government official who appeared in a video begging to be rescued.

The call for dialogue has continually been made by several countries and groups but has yet to be seriously pursued. A number of the separatists leaders have been arrested and deported from Nigeria since January but they have yet to appear in court.

The humanitarian crisis arising from the situation has also led to Cameroonians fleeing the Anglophone regions in their thousands. The United Nations refugee agency has openly tasked parties to use dialogue to avoid further escalation of the crisis.

The duties attributed to Minister Atanga Nji from when he was sourced from his serious criminal gang underground world where he was a crime kingpin to join the French Cameroun crime syndicate was that of the Secretary-General of its National Security Council, Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency and a Section President of the CPDM in Mezam County of the Southern Cameroons.  He was strategically placed and provided the resources to zealously advance French Cameroun’s fifty-six-year-old genocide of the Southern Cameroons.  Cameroon Intelligence Report can now state that the appointment of this crime kingpin as Minister of Territorial Administration a position he cumulates with that of Secretary-General of French Cameroun’s Security Council and Section President of the CPDM for Mezam is intended to put a public face to this robot in French Cameroun’s genocide reboot command structure. It is intended also to insulate and prevent Paul Biya and members of his French Cameroun’s crime syndicate from being held criminally responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and multiple international violations within the territory of the Southern Cameroons and Nigeria.

The appointment of Atanga Nji from the shadows of the crime syndicate from where he operated, to the more visible role of Minister of Territorial Administration was not intended to fundamentally change the nature of the duties he has been performing within the crime syndicate. It is intended to enable him to play a commanding public role within the reboot command structure of French Cameroun’s genocide crime syndicate.

Written by Africa News and Cameroon Intelligence Report

The recent airstrikes against Syria were nothing but “political theater” orchestrated to please the Deep State in Washington, which has been trying to remove President Donald Trump from office, says a writer and analyst in Indiana.

“The question here is, what was the mission?” asked Dr. E Michael Jones, editor of Culture Wars magazine.  “The attack on Syria did not change anything on the ground. It was an elaborately orchestrated piece of political theater.”

On Saturday morning, President Trump declared “Mission Accomplished!” in a tweet about the airstrikes he had earlier ordered against Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last week.

“The mission from Donald Trump’s point of view was to stay in office, to protect (himself) from the Deep State which has been trying to remove him for two years now,” Jones said.

“The strategy here is to do everything you can to foster the power of the Israel lobby, and Israel and the Jews in the United States,” he added. “The Jews are Trump’s only hope to stay in office. So that was his mission accomplished.”

The US reportedly notified Israel ahead of the missile strikes in Syria.

“The second part of this was of course the Deep State’s mission which was to keep the United States troops in Syria,” Jones said, adding that this “whole play of political theater” began when Trump said he was going to pull American troops out of Syria.

“This is what provoked the false-flag gas attack” in Douma, he noted. “And now the US troops are going to stay in Syria.”

Late last month, Trump announced that the US would withdraw from Syria “very soon,” just hours after the Pentagon highlighted the need for American troops to remain in the country.

“We will be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” Trump said during a speech in Ohio.

Culled from Presstv

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in 2016 has finally entered a very critical phase. The Yaounde government is in trouble as the two “cubes of sugar” refuse to melt.

According to a source in the military, many army soldiers have lost their lives and hundreds have been wounded in the jungles of Ndian, Manyu and Meme Divisions. The wounded are alive and are today telling their stories and many clearly indicate that there is something mystical in the way the Southern Cameroons fighters conduct themselves.

They are at a loss for words having witnessed the death and destruction the Southern Cameroonian ragtag army has inflicted on the government’s military. Our source adds that the Southern Cameroons crisis has become a business for many high-ranking army officers, especially the generals and colonels who are directly involved in efforts to roll back the advancing Southern Cameroonian army.

Today, many French-speaking Cameroonian soldiers are scared of going to fight in the restive English-speaking regions, having seen the type of wounds some of their colleagues have sustained in the battlefield. It’s now normal for junior officers to bribe their seniors so that they don’t get sent to Southern Cameroons which in the minds of many army soldiers is synonymous with death.

It is also being rumored that the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assoumou, is making a huge fortune from the chaos that is playing out in southern Cameroons. A source close to the presidency has indicated that even the president is gradually questioning the rationale behind the fighting, as there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Cameroon government officials are gradually coming to terms with the fact that the two “cubes of sugar” they thought would easily melt, will unfortunately not be melting anytime soon. The source added that the government was admitting that it had underestimated the role the Southern Cameroons Diaspora would play in the entire process.

Government officials, the source says, are aware that if the crisis has to fizzle out, the Diaspora must be appeased. But for now, they are not sure of who to talk to. The situation has spiralled out of control and it will be hard to stabilize the region without making peace with a Southern Cameroonian Diaspora that numbers well over three million and it is determined to give the government a good run for its money.

The human cost of the conflict is staggering. Soldiers and civilians have been killed in a conflict that could have been avoided. The government has simply stopped announcing the killing of army soldiers, as this may have a huge impact on those who are being sent to the restive English-speaking regions.

Besides, announcing the death of army soldiers could cause the docile Francophones to start asking questions about the essence of a war that was unnecessary. Despite this silence, Francophone Cameroonians are gradually becoming more vocal. The families that have not seen their loved ones or heard from them have begun asking questions about their whereabouts.

“It is unbelievable that I have not heard from my brother since he was sent to Ndian Division in January. I have called his number, but I keep on hearing that it is no longer in service. My brother was very communicative before he got deployed to the Southwest region. I have tried contacting the military, but none of those I have talked to has been able to give a clear-cut answer. I know the military is hiding something from us, but for how long will they do that. I know of a friend who was in the same situation and the top military brass kept telling them that their brother was on mission, until his friends sent them pictures of their brother having been killed by those ruthless Ambazonian fighters. The family has now got closure, but it does no longer trust the Cameroon army,” a relative of a soldier on mission told our correspondent in Yaounde.

While the physical wounds could be easily healed, the psychological wounds might never go away. Many army soldiers are now dealing with mental health issues and many of them have been caught in a nightmare that will not be going away anytime soon. For those who have killed civilians in the process, theirs appears to be the kingdom of tears. Many of them cannot sleep and are having a tough time eating.

Instead of dealing with these cases, the military has simply discharged some of these young men from the military to enable them find lasting solutions to their psychological crisis. But discharging them from the military does not look like a good decision. Some of these psychological cases are clearly exposing the government. They are telling the tales of agony that are coming from the war fronts in the English-speaking regions of the country.

The wounded are letting the world know the truth about the state’s finances. The government clearly lacks the resources to deal with the victims of a war it hastily declared. Many of the families affected by this situation are really questioning the wisdom behind this senseless war.

“Look at how my brother is suffering today. He was healthy before he left for Mamfe to fight those the government said were the enemies of the state. He got scarred both physically and psychologically and today, he has been abandoned by the government that promised to help them in the event of any casualties. He cannot sleep. He has not slept for days and he keeps on saying that he is seeing dead people around him,” the sister of a psychologically scarred army soldier told our correspondent.

But the government’s greatest problem is not the physically and psychologically wounded. It has found a way of ridding itself of this burden. According to the government, it suffices to give the affected family some money and discharging those scarred from the military. Since the system is not organized and data is hardly kept, it is a lot harder for the population to really figure out the truth.

The media is not developed and those who pass off as journalists, do not have the financial and intellectual capacity to conduct investigations that will clearly expose the government. This gives the government the feeling that it is off the hook. But the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International are carefully gathering information in this regard and this will surely embarrass the government when the time comes.

But this appears to be the least of the government’s concerns. Its focus is on its leaky treasury that is spelling hard times for the country’s burgeoning civil service. The country’s financial indicators are trending very low. Government coffers are empty, and many ministries do not have the resources to carry out some of the main projects that had been included in this year’s budget.

Many missions have been canceled and senior civil servants have been urged to reduce cost as much as possible. The Southern Cameroons crisis has hit the government like a ton of bricks. There is panic within government circles, as empty coffers spell huge problems for a government that is yet to recover from the punch it has taken to the liver.

Its image and reputation have been badly battered. Its noise about having one of the best military on the continent has turned out to be a bluff. Ambazonian fighters have put their young and poorly trained troops through their paces. They are simply not a match for these young, determined English-speaking fighters who are determined to take the war to East Cameroon.

The government is simply overwhelmed. It is out of resources and the French who have been supporting its military action are gradually back-pedaling. The French understand that the government has stirred a hornet’s nest and it will take time for it to find the appropriate solution to this problem. Even the government now knows that it is in for a long haul and if it has to successfully prosecute this war, then it must turn to other sources.

The French alone will not provide the much-needed resources to roll back the various armed groups in the English-speaking regions. This is being compounded by the government’s legendary corruption that has become its hallmark. The military generals are making hay while the sun shines, as the government heads abroad, cap in hand, to beg for money to prosecute a warthat was not even necessary.

Mr. Biya’s recent trip to China was designed for him to sweet-talk the Chinese into giving him money so that he could meet his domestic commitments. But the Chinese, noted for their craft and intelligence, carefully steered everything towards business and bilateral cooperation.

They understand the Biya government is a deep dry hole. They are simply not interested in pouring their money in a venture that will never yield any dividends.  Mr. Biya might have been promised lots of things, but he knows that it will be an uphill task for him to get free money from the Chinese who themselves are dealing with some financial headwinds, especially as the global economy is facing some tough challenges.

The Biya government is clearly on the back foot. Its dwindling resources are keeping government officials awake all night. Ambazonian fighters just have to continue pouring pressure on the old and ailing government and it will crack very soon. With its treasury running short of money, it is clear that civil servants will soon be taking to the streets to call for the payment of their salaries. If this happens, even the docile Francophones will join Southern Cameroonians to kiss goodbye to the reckless and inefficient Yaounde government. The writing is clearly on the wall and with elections looming large, the government knows this year may be its last.

It might have held senatorial elections which of course do not represent anything. But parliamentary and presidential elections will surely be a tough test for a government that is cash-strapped. The Ambazonian fighters are prepared to disrupt the elections. The government lacks the military and policing capacity to ensure the elections hold across the entire country. Boko Haram is also messing up things in the north and Central African Republic fighters are sowing chaos in the east. It is clear that the government has a lot on its plate. Its best option, according to political experts, is for it to sue for peace. But will its legendary arrogance let it do the right thing?

Cameroon is treading a dangerous path. The international community can not continue to look the other way while this bomb continues to tick. If the world does not act fast, the bomb might go off and it will bring down the entire Central African region. The ordinary Cameroonian, who is an innocent victim, is calling on the international community to help protect him against his protector – the government – that has been maiming and killing its own people. If the international community does not step in very fast, Cameroon will end up being another basket case in a continent that has had more than its fair share of chaos.

By Kingsley Betek

Cameroon Concord News Group

US President Donald Trump “has the power” to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the so-called Russia probe, the White House says as Republicans warn him not to do so.

“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday. “I know a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice say he has the power to do so.”

This is while Republicans in US Senate are taking measures to insulate Mueller from being dismissed.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis is pushing the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up his legislation aimed at protecting Mueller.

“It’s a good bill that’s going to have enduring value beyond this presidency. I think the president’s frustrated, I may be if I were in the same position,” Tillis said. “But I do think it’s a bill that’s worthy of a mark-up in Judiciary and sending it to the floor.”

Legal experts believe that the president cannot directly fire him Mueller.

Republicans lawmakers are trying to keep Mueller’s probe going after the FBI raided the offices of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Firing Mueller could end Trump’s presidency, Republicans have warned.

Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the only one who has the authority as the department is in charge of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s aides in Russia.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for the expansion of Iran’s economic ties with Senegal, the first destination in his tour of African and Latin American states.

The top Iranian diplomat arrived early Monday in Senegal as part of his four-nation tour, which will also take him to Namibia, Brazil and Uruguay at the head of a high-level political and economic team.

Upon arrival, Zarif said the enhancement of bilateral ties in general, and economic relations in specific, with the destination countries is on the agenda of his tour.

He said Iran has good economic cooperation with Senegal as an important West African nation, adding that his talks in Dakar would focus on trade ties besides political and regional issues.

The Iranian minister highlighted Iran’s active role in Senegal’s automotive sector, expressing hope that the ground be paved during the trip for Tehran to begin exporting non-oil products as well as technical and engineering services to the country.

The Islamic Revolution in 1979 resulted in a fundamental overhaul of Iranian foreign policy, changing its focus from the West to the developing world.

Zarif last toured Africa in October 2017, visiting South Africa, Uganda, and Niger.

He also went on a six-leg Latin America tour a year earlier, traveling to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

Source: Presstv