The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiation(CDN), has concluded consultations with Washington D.C. local health officials and George Washington University event management team about the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the prospect of holding the three (3) day “International Conference on the Armed Conflict in the Southern Cameroons” at the George Washington University from March 19-21, 2020.Putting the safety of all participants first, the Coalition hereby announces its decision to postpone the conference to June 18-20, 2020 at the same venue. During this time the Working Groups will continue to meet and deliberate.

 The Coalition also assessed current measures, including online classes and work from home options, taken by different universities and corporate institutions in the U.S. and worldwide, limiting travel by staff and in some cases their families. These life saving measures impact the ability of many conference participants to travel within the U.S. and from around the world to the U.S. As we closely monitor the evolution of actions taken by the U.S. and other governments, we will continue to build momentum for the conference as well as maintain pressure for the international community to engage forcefully to end the ongoing armed conflict in the Southern Cameroons.

Continued fighting in the Southern Cameroons has since 2017 reportedly resulted in more than 12,000 deaths, arbitrary arrests, and imprisonment of Southern Cameroonians. The government of Cameroon reported the killing of at least 700 of its security forces and administrative personnel. Over 300 villages have been razed forcing the displacement of more than 900,000 and over 60,000 seeking refuge in other countries including Nigeria and the United States. An estimated one million children have been unable to attend school for the past three years, and approximately 1.9 million face severe hunger. Several attempts of the government of Cameroon to quench the armed conflict without addressing the root causes have continue to fail.

 The Coalition will keep you updated with every new information pertaining to this armed conflict and the international conference. The conference website https://aic.coalitionfdn.org/will also be updated regularly.Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you in June 2020. We are deeply sorry for the inconveniences this postponement may cause you.

 Sincerely,

For the Steering Committee,

Dozens of reporters in Cameroon are calling for help after losing their jobs and, in some cases, their homes because of the war between separatist forces and the government. The reporters say they are constantly attacked or kidnapped for refusing to be propaganda tools for one side or the other.

Thirty Cameroonian journalists, most of them women from the volatile North West region, have gathered in the capital city Yaounde to discuss the difficulties of reporting from Cameroon’s crisis zones.

Comy Mussa, coordinator of Sisters Speak 237, an NGO that convened the meeting, says she invited the reporters because they need help to continue practicing their profession.

“They do not have the kind of editorial support they need to tell a good story. We have a space where we provide this type of support and we also help them with sourcing for grants. Occasionally, we help with maybe transportation to go to an area and get a story that needs to be told,” she said.

Mussa said the reporters are victims of brutality and violence and most of them are now poor because they are either out of their job or can no longer work in an environment which is increasingly hostile.

It’s not just female journalists who are experiencing problems. Gilles Yumo of the Guardian Post newspaper said that in February his equipment and other items seized by armed men. He said he cannot even apply for a job because his academic certificates were among the things taken from him.

“I have had several calls, threats, intimidation from separatist fighters because it is in such a way that nobody wants to see you reporting what is not in their favor, so when they got my documents what they told me is that they are going to get rid of them by burning [them],” Yumo said.

Freelance journalist Mary Ngwa says she moved from Bamenda to Yaounde due to threats from separatists.

“I reported on the soldiers. That’s when I received the big threat on my life. I started receiving phone calls. The guys were asking me, why did you not report about the other people that were killed. Why did you only report about the military?” Ngwa said.

Since the separatist crisis started in 2017, journalists have complained of abuses by both the government and separatists fighting for the independence of the English-speaking areas from the majority French-speaking country. More than two dozen said they have been arrested or threatened.

Jude Viban, president of the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists, says the military and separatists should know that reporters are not propaganda tools.

“We denounce each time [when a] journalist is attacked and then, equally, what we are trying to do is to provide some material like bullet proof jackets to help the journalist work in those areas. We are opening a lot of discussions for government forces to understand that journalists are not in any way the enemy. They are just doing their job,” Viban said.

The Cameroon government insists that it does not exert pressure on reporters and the military has always said they do not harass reporters.

Separatist groups, meanwhile, have said they will not allow anyone to stand in their path toward self-determination.

Source: VOA

There is an uneasy calm in Cameroon’s French-speaking towns and villages that share a border with the English-speaking regions after separatist fighters supporting the creation of an English-speaking state crossed into the French-speaking regions last weekend, killed government troops and left with huge consignments of weapons and ammunition. Civilians say they are not sure the military can protect them from the wrath of the separatists as the government claims.

Alima Matembompo, a 33-year-old farmer, cries as her husband is buried in Cameroon’s western French-speaking village of Galim on the border with the English-speaking northwest region.

Her husband, a cattle rancher who was returning from selling cattle in their village market, was killed Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Among the nearly 20 people who have come out to bury the man is 47-year-old cattle feed supplier John Tatah, who says that since the attack took place, the village market has been closed.

“Most of us that we are doing businesses, all the businesses are grounded, so we pray for a solution to this crisis,” he said.

Tatah said most businesspeople who were about to leave the village when the attack occurred, escaped to the surrounding hills and bushes and have not been seen since.

Many villagers have also escaped to safer localities out of their village, especially to the neighboring French-speaking town of Mbouda.

Daniel Eyoum, the most senior government official in Galim, an administrative unit in the French-speaking western region of Cameroon, said more than 60 armed separatist fighters crossed from the English-speaking region, shooting indiscriminately and creating panic. He says they interrupted the power supply and plunged the village into darkness before attacking military positions for supplies.

Eyoum said the simultaneous attacks on the military and police stations in Galim lasted for more than an hour and a half, and peace started returning only when the separatist fighters had crossed back to the English-speaking northwest region where they came from. He said four civilains, two policemen and two gendarme officers were killed. He said locals should remain vigilant and trust their military that has been deployed to protect them.

Eyoum said the separatists left with weapons and ammunition the seized from government depots. The Cameroon military confirmed the seizure but said that it had deployed additional troops to protect civilians and arrest or kill the attackers.

A video shared by the separatists on social media showed their fighters displaying at least 30 military rifles, huge quantities of ammunition and a motorcycle with a Cameroon police registration number plate they claim they also seized during the attack. In the video, the separatists say they will continue attacking the Cameroon military for supplies.

Separatist spokesperson Tapang Ivo Tanku, who is based in the United States, said in a video that their troops attacked Galim and the video they shared is that of the weapons seized from the Cameroon army. Tanku said a bomb attack was carried out by their forces in Bamenda against women who had defied their instructions not to commemorate International Women’s Day Sunday.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the English-speaking northwest region, said a soldier was killed and eight people were wounded in the blast. He urged locals to be calm as the military has been instructed to find the culprits and protect civilians.

“We are appealing to the population to rally behind our patriotic citizens and armed forces, and I am giving my word here that measures will be taken to sanction them (the attackers), to punish them so that it should not occur any more here in Bamenda,” Tchoffo said.

The locally made explosive planted along a commercial avenue in Bamenda by the suspected separatists who had vowed to disrupt International Women’s Day activities was the largest since the separatist violence started.

At Galim, it was the fourth time the attackers had operated there. They have also been crossing over and attacking markets, schools and military positions in the neighboring French-speaking west region.

Cameroon’s anglophone rebels have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking country’s western regions.

The U.N. says the conflict has cost more than 3,000 lives and forced half a million people to flee to French-speaking regions of Cameroon or into neighboring Nigeria.

Source: VOA