Monthly Archives: September 2025

Cameroon, Chad sign defense cooperation deal

25, September 2025

Cameroon, Chad sign defense cooperation deal 0

Cameroon and Chad have signed a military cooperation agreement to strengthen security along their shared border, Cameroon’s Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday.

Cameroonian Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo and his Chadian counterpart Issaka Maloua Djamous signed the deal on Tuesday in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.

The ministry said in a statement that the agreement will enhance joint ground operations and facilitate the sharing of strategic security information between the two countries.

Cameroon and Chad are facing growing border security challenges, including Boko Haram terrorism and illicit cross-border trafficking.

Source: Xinhuanet

Malawi’s ex-president wins election in comeback at age 85

25, September 2025

Malawi’s ex-president wins election in comeback at age 85 0

Malawi’s former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of last week’s elections, in a huge comeback for the 85-year-old.

Official results show that he won 57% of the vote, compared to the 33% of President Lazarus Chakwera, 70.

Chakwera, a pastor before entering politics, conceded defeat ahead of the final result being declared, phoning Mutharika to congratulate him on his “historic win”.

Mutharika, a former professor of law, served as president from 2014 to 2020, when he lost to Chakwera by a wide margin.

He inherits an economy that is in deep crisis, with a severe shortage of fuel and foreign currency in the poor southern African state.

The official inflation rate is close to 30%, with a frozen chicken in a supermarket in the capital, Lilongwe, costing about $20 (£15), in a nation where most people live on $2 a day or less.

Mutharika is due to address the nation later on Thursday.

The election commission said it took the full eight days it was allowed to announce the result because it wanted to check everything carefully and address the complaints first.

The 2019 election, also won by Mutharika, was annulled by the country’s highest court, which found there had been widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to alter results.

Chakwera won the rerun by a huge margin the following year.

This was the pair’s fourth electoral duel.

Mutharika’s older brother Bingu also served as president and died in office in 2012.

Source: BBC

17 countries commit to concrete plans to scale up electricity access as mission 300 expands

24, September 2025

17 countries commit to concrete plans to scale up electricity access as mission 300 expands 0

Seventeen African governments today committed to reforms and actionable plans to expand electricity access as part of Mission 300—an ambitious partnership led by the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group that aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.

At the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum, national Energy Compacts—practical blueprints that guide public spending, trigger reforms, and attract private capital—were endorsed by Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, the Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Principe, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

“Electricity is the bedrock of jobs, opportunity, and economic growth,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga. “That’s why Mission 300 is more than a target—it is forging enduring reforms that slash costs, strengthen utilities, and draw in private investment.”

Since the launch of Mission 300, 30 million people have already been connected, with more than 100 million in the pipeline.

“Reliable, affordable power is the fastest multiplier for small and medium enterprises, agro-processing, digital work, and industrial value-addition,” said African Development Bank Group President Dr. Sidi Ould Tah. “Give a young entrepreneur power, and you’ve given them a paycheck.”

National Energy Compacts are at the core of Mission 300, developed and endorsed by governments with technical support from development partners. Tailored to each country’s context, these practical blueprints integrate three core tracks—infrastructure, financing, and policy.

Earlier this year, Energy Compacts were endorsed by Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia—together pledging to make more than 400 policy actions to strengthen utilities, reduce investor risk, and remove bottlenecks.

The World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group are working with partners including the Rockefeller Foundation, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) trust fund to align efforts in support of powering Africa. Manydevelopment partners and development finance institutions are also supporting Mission 300 projects through co-financing and technical assistance.

Quotes by African Heads of State and Ministers Committing to Mission 300 Energy Compacts today:

Duma Boko
President of Botswana
“This National Compact is our shared pledge to ensure accessible, reliable and affordable energy as a basic human need, to transform our economy and create jobs, and to electrify our journey to an inclusive high-income country.”

Paul Biya
President of the Republic of Cameroon
“The government of the Republic of Cameroon is committed, through its Energy Compact, to a determined transition towards renewable energies, promoting inclusive universal access and sustainable development based on partnerships and ambitious reforms to build a low-carbon future.”

Azali Assoumani
President of the Union of the Comoros
“The Comoros Energy Compact is a call for collective action to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, in order to ensure the country’s emergence in dignity, equity, and shared progress.”

Denis Sassou Nguesso
President of the Republic of Congo
“In addition to abundant sunlight and gas resources capable of generating more electricity, the Republic of Congo has a certified hydroelectric potential of nearly 27,000 MW and more than 100,000 MW currently under study. The Energy Compact will enable Congo to achieve universal access to electricity, supply industries in special economic and mining zones, and export surplus energy to other countries. Harnessing this renewable and sustainable energy will cover more than one-third of Africa’s electricity needs. Since Congo has liberalized the electricity sector, investors are invited, within the framework of Mission 300, to establish themselves and engage in profitable and sustainable business.”

Taye Atske Selassie
President of Ethiopia
“Our National Energy Compact exemplifies Ethiopia’s unwavering dedication to ensuring universal, affordable, and sustainable energy access for all. By unlocking our vast renewable resources, strengthening regional interconnections, we aim to foster inclusive growth domestically and propel Africa’s collective momentum toward ending energy poverty. Together, we are committed to building a resilient, equitable, and sustainable energy future for generations to come.”

Adama Barrow
President of The Republic of The Gambia
“The Gambia’s Energy Compact reaffirms our commitment to universal electricity access by 2030, scaling renewables, strengthening infrastructure, integrating the private sector and improving sector governance. Through partnerships, it aims to transform power supply – ensuring reliability, affordability, and sustainability for all citizens.”

John Dramani Mahama
President of the Republic of Ghana
“Ghana believes universal energy access is key to empowering businesses, reducing poverty, and creating equal opportunities. This goal can only be achieved through strong government–private sector partnerships, supported by an enabling environment for sustainable investment.”

Mamadi Doumbouya
President of the Republic of Guinea
“The Republic of Guinea reaffirms its commitment to guaranteeing, by 2030, universal access to reliable, clean, and affordable electricity, while providing sufficient capacity to support national industrialization, particularly in the mining sector, through a transparent and constructive partnership with the private sector.”

William Ruto
President of the Republic of Kenya
“Energy is a key enabler under the infrastructure component of Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. The Energy Compact anchors our commitment to achieve universal access to electricity and clean cooking and transition our grid to full reliance on clean energy by 2030.”

Sam Matekane
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho
“Mountain winds blow, waters flow, the sun shines brightest – Lesotho, the kingdom in the sky. Universal access to renewable energy is our proud imperative. Experience elevation with agility and scale. Be part of our journey and pride. Invest in Lesotho.”

Daniel Chapo
President of Mozambique
“Mozambique is on track to achieve Mission 300 targets and consolidate our role as a regional powerhouse through export of our abundant, affordable and clean energy. We welcome support from partners to achieve universal access, promote economic growth and green industrialization, and increase regional trade and integration.”

Julius Maada Bio
President of Sierra Leone
“Our M300 Compact is the most ambitious and comprehensive energy infrastructure initiative ever developed for Sierra Leone. Powered by evidence-based solutions and data, this single plan for Sierra Leone’s energy transformation holds the greatest promise for unlocking sustainable and inclusive development for our people.”

Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé
President of the Togolese Republic
“We guarantee reliable, affordable and clean electricity for all, and access to clean cooking. This Compact massively mobilizes the private sector to accelerate our industrialization and make Togo a competitive energy hub.”

Américo d’Oliveira dos Ramos
Prime Minister, São Tomé and Principe
“Our Compact provides a forward-thinking framework to fuel a sustainable and inclusive model of economic growth for Saotomeans. We are enacting strong reforms and developing innovative business models to raise US$190 million from the private sector to finance this objective.”

Edouard Bizimana
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Burundi
“The Republic of Burundi has set ambitious targets for access to electricity and clean cooking to improve the economic and social development of its population. Private sector participation is crucial to achieving these goals.”

Manyu Solidarity Group UK: Leader meets with Nfon Ekoko Mukete

24, September 2025

Manyu Solidarity Group UK: Leader meets with Nfon Ekoko Mukete 0

The leader of the Manyu Solidarity Group Prince Julian Ebai recently met with the Paramount ruler of the Bafaw Kingdom Nfon Ekoko Mukete in London and there was quite a lot to talk about.

Cameroonian royals often meet up with each other, sometimes at big cultural festivals back home and abroad or formal meetings like this one in London.

Meetings held by Cameroonian royals don’t always get a lot of media attention with photos and speeches, but what happened when Prince Julian Ebai presented the Manyu inaugural magazine to His Royal Highness Nfon Ekoko Mukeke revealed arts of managing relationships between Bantus and Semi-Bantus.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai is a long standing Cameroonian journalist who has been at hundreds of royal meetings and trips all over Cameroon and in Europe so he is the perfect person to tell our readers everything we need to know about how the meeting between Nfon Ekoko Mukete and Prince Julian Ebai works, and why such meetings are so important.

“In English speaking Cameroon, each community is trying to convince the other to give them support. It might be support to help the needy in villages; it might be to support a candidate in an election or an issue that requires the entire region to speak with one voice. But the Nfon Ekoko Mukete–Prince Juilan Ebai meeting is about persuading the leadership of a great traditional kingdom and its people to help Manyu – to support Manyu.”

“As someone who covered the late Fon Angwafor, the late Chief Endeley including the late Chief V.E.Mukete, I can tell you that when royals meet, because they are face to face, they can get a better sense of what each other thinks about something,” Soter Agbaw-Ebai observed, “and that means they can work out what support areas are possible.

“I think it was indeed a good thing for the leader of the Manyu Solidarity Group UK to have made the trip to London immediately after the festivities in Birmingham to present His Royal Highness Chief Ekoko Mukete the Manyu brochure. Both men-one in authority and the other in waiting looked at each other across the table and may have agreed to work out what’s possible and that meeting can shape developmental policies that will be good for Manyu.”

“And whether that helps the Manyu Solidarity Group’s Mamfe General Hospital Project is not important. What is very important is that His Royal Highness Chief Ekoko Mukete is now involved in a conversation with the Manyu Diaspora in Great Britain.”

By Seseskou Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Southern Cameroons Crisis: CDC secures CFA4.6 bln loan to modernize processing plants

23, September 2025

Southern Cameroons Crisis: CDC secures CFA4.6 bln loan to modernize processing plants 0

The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) is set to receive fresh financial support just days after reaching an agreement to clear part of its wage arrears. The Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development has been authorized to sign a €7.1 million ($7.6 million) commercial loan with Standard Chartered Bank in London, equal to about CFA4.6 billion.

The funding will cover the supply and installation of processing plants for palm oil, margarine and rubber, sectors considered strategic for diversifying and modernizing the operations of the state-owned company.

Clearing part of wage debt

The loan follows a broader financial recovery effort that included settling part of the company’s salary arrears. On September 17, 2025, the government signed a deal with FedhEn Capital, Société Générale Capital Securities Central Africa (arranger), Société Générale Cameroun, CCA Bank and AFG Bank. The operation cleared CFA15.7 billion in back pay owed to nearly 20,000 workers, as part of a plan to address a total salary debt of CFA35.7 billion accumulated between 2018 and 2022.

Company weakened by Anglophone crisis

CDC, the largest agribusiness in Cameroon and the country’s second-largest employer after the state, has been heavily affected by the sociopolitical crisis in the Anglophone regions. Between 2019 and 2021, it posted losses of CFA38.7 billion and saw its workforce shrink from 22,000 to around 15,000, according to the Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises (CTR).

With financial support from Standard Chartered Bank, the government aims to strengthen CDC’s competitiveness and production capacity. The installation of new factories is expected to add value to its output, reduce reliance on imports, and support jobs in a region hit hard by the crisis. Between debt relief and industrial revival, the state-owned firm now appears to be moving toward stabilization.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Yaoundé: Divided opposition seeks to stop the world’s oldest leader after 43 years in power

23, September 2025

Yaoundé: Divided opposition seeks to stop the world’s oldest leader after 43 years in power 0

With weeks to go until an election that could extend the world’s oldest president’s 43 years in power, Cameroon‘s opposition is struggling. Its most popular figure has been barred from running, and the 11 candidates remaining are likely to divide the vote.

At 92, Paul Biya has spent nearly half his years on earth as president and is Africa’s second-longest serving leader, behind only Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. If he wins an eighth seven-year term in the Oct. 12 vote, he could govern until he’s nearly 100.

During his decades in power, the Central African nation of nearly 30 million people has struggled with challenges from a deadly secessionist movement to chronic corruption that has stifled development despite rich natural resources like oil and minerals. At least 43% of the country’s citizens live in poverty as measured by core living standards such as income, education and health, according to U.N. estimates.

Biya is rarely seen in public and critics say his capacity to govern has been severely limited by his age.

Still, he’s likely to prevail over the 11 other candidates in the race, especially after Biya’s most threatening rival, Maurice Kamto, was barred from running. Katmo ran against Biya in 2018 and won 14% of the vote.

The election commission said it disqualified Kamto from the race because the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party that sponsored him was also sponsoring another candidate. Kamto’s lawyers and the party’s president denied the claim, calling the decision politically motivated.

Most of Cameroon’s past elections have faced questions of credibility, with election authorities often accused of working in favor of Biya. Some of the election officers previously served in other roles in Biya’s government. A two-term presidential limit was removed through a parliamentary vote in 2008.

In the nation’s capital, Yaounde, Elvis Nghobo, a food vendor, said the election has ended even before it started. “It is needless voting when it is clear that Paul Biya will always be declared winner,” said Nghobo, 34.

Still, a united opposition could have a chance to defeat Biya, analysts say.

The opposition is divided

After a record 83 candidates applied to run, election authorities approved 12, including Biya, to appear on the ballot.

All 11 opposition candidates agree on the need to unite behind a single leader, but they’re struggling to agree on who that should be, with formal campaigning due to start on Sept. 27..

In a recent post on X, Kamto likened the election to a penalty shootout in a soccer match and urged the candidates to find the best kicker.

“Choose from among yourselves, or at least from among the most experienced, the kicker who has the best chance of scoring the liberating goal,” Kamto said.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a long-time Biya ally who quit his government post earlier this year to run in the election, was designated as a consensus candidate by the Union for Change 2025, an alliance of at least 20 political parties and several civil society groups.

However, the other candidates have so far either rebuffed or ignored the move.

“We have only one objective: To liberate Cameroon from the system that has strangled it for more than 40 years,” Bakary said at the time.

Tomaino Ndam Njoya, a mayor and only woman in the race, said in a recent statement that she is open to backing a consensus candidate. That would be “the price to pay to finally offer the Cameroonian people the change they expect and deserve,” she said.

Analysts say the opposition is still weak

The candidates appear to be more concerned with “individual political survival than with driving meaningful collective change,” said Munjah Vitalis Fagha, a senior politics lecturer at Cameroon’s University of Buea.

The lack of a key challenger for Biya shows how weak the opposition has been over the years in Cameroon, said Wilson Tamfuh, professor of public and international law at Cameroon’s University of Dschang.

“There would be no need for an opposition consensus if an opposition party had become strong enough in its own right to overcome the ruling party,” Tamfuh said.

Source: AP

Martinez Zogo Affair: Witness testimony revives scrutiny of secret service involvement

23, September 2025

Martinez Zogo Affair: Witness testimony revives scrutiny of secret service involvement 0

A key moment during the September 22 hearing at the Yaoundé military tribunal was the testimony of prosecution witness Legrand Gastien Ngamby Kwimang, a sub-lieutenant who commanded the central post brigade at the time of journalist Martinez Zogo’s abduction, torture, and killing. Zogo was allegedly targeted by a commando linked to Cameroon’s external intelligence service (DGRE).

Questioned for nearly six hours, Ngamby detailed his interactions with Lieutenant Colonel Justin Danwe, then director of operations at the DGRE and considered a key defendant.

“Give him a good lesson”

Ngamby said that in late December 2022, Danwe visited his office and told him: “There is a man speaking badly about my boss. I want him to be given a good lesson.” When Ngamby asked who it was, Danwe replied: “It is Martinez Zogo.”

Although he did not see Danwe again, the two continued communicating via WhatsApp.

Orders by message

On January 3, 2023, Danwe allegedly instructed him to ensure “absolute discretion” and avoid sharing details with the men he would mobilize, adding that the “target lives in Tsinga village.” Ngamby said he did not act on these instructions.

Two weeks later, on January 17, Danwe messaged again: “The case I told you about does not interest you. The police have taken over. Delete all messages.”

After Zogo’s disappearance on January 18, Danwe told him: “Given how things are turning out, say nothing to anyone. It seems the police are after him.”

Ngamby says he did not delete the exchanges and reported them on January 19 to his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Parfait Arnaud Ayissi Nanga. Days later, Zogo’s mutilated body was discovered outside Yaoundé, prompting the head of state to order a joint police-gendarmerie inquiry.

On January 25, Danwe contacted Ngamby again, asking: “Are you in the Martinez Zogo inquiry commission? What is happening? I heard the police have some videos.”

Contradictions highlighted

Defense lawyers pointed out contradictions in Ngamby’s testimony compared to his February 2023 statement. Promoted a year later to sub-lieutenant, he now denied ever being threatened, despite telling investigators he had feared for his life and his family’s.

With several inconsistencies still unresolved, the tribunal adjourned proceedings to September 23.

Source: Sbbc

Amnesty International says Yaoundé must release 36 protesters arbitrarily detained for five years

23, September 2025

Amnesty International says Yaoundé must release 36 protesters arbitrarily detained for five years 0

The Cameroonian authorities must immediately release 36 opposition supporters arbitrarily detained for five years for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and put an end to arbitrary detention in the country, Amnesty International said on the fifth anniversary of their arrest.

On 22 September 2020, over 500 people were arbitrarily arrested for participating in peaceful protests organized by the opposition party ‘Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon’ (MRC) in several cities across the country. Of the protesters arrested 36 remain in detention, languishing in Kondengui prison in Yaoundé after being sentenced by a military court to between five- and seven-years’ imprisonment.

“The Cameroonian authorities must immediately release these individuals, who have committed no crime other than to express their opinion,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

We are deeply disappointed that the authorities have failed to recognize the arbitrary nature of the ongoing detention of these protesters.

“The authorities must address these concerns and ensure that no person is arbitrarily arrested or detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The authorities must also refrain from trying civilians in military courts, as it is incompatible with the right to a fair trial and therefore in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”

By the end of September, 24 of those imprisoned will have served their five-year sentences. Among them, one has suffered three strokes but has not been released on medical grounds despite their requests, according to the lawyer Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang, coordinator of a collective defending detained opposition supporters.

“Thirty-six appeals have been lodged since 2022 with the Supreme Court of Cameroon, which has not yet ruled on any of them. The delays are unreasonable. One might think that judiciary drag things out so that the sentences handed down will be carried out” said Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang.

On 4 November 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention published an opinion which found that the detention of 15 of the MRC leaders and activists was arbitrary. 

“We are deeply disappointed that the authorities have failed to recognize the arbitrary nature of the ongoing detention of these protesters,” said Marceau Sivieude.

Increasing wrongful arrests and detentions ahead of presidential election

A few weeks ahead of the presidential election in which President Paul Biya runs for an eighth term, restrictions on civic and democratic space are worsening, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on 2 September.

This travesty of justice must end.

On 4 August, at least 54 MRC supporters were arrested next to the Constitutional Council in Yaoundé during pre-election dispute hearings, according to Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang. All of them are now on bail. Twenty-three are facing prosecution for allegedly inciting revolt and disturbing public order, and if convicted face several years in prison.

On 9 August, a man who posted videos calling for demonstrations against the rejection of the candidacy of MRC leader Maurice Kamto was arrested and has been held at New Bell prison in Douala on the orders of the Douala military court. According to his lawyers, he is being prosecuted for ‘publicly condoning the crime of undermining the internal security of the state’.

“These opposition supporters should never have been arrested in the first place. The fact that they were arrested points to the alarming crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Cameroon. The charges against those who are prosecuted for exercising their human rights must be dropped,” said Marceau Sivieude.

“In recent years, anyone who dares criticize the authorities, whether a human rights defender, a journalist, a political activist or a protester, runs the risk of being arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and tried by military courts. Unfortunately, this trend increases as the presidential election approaches. This travesty of justice must end.”

“The authorities must uphold the country’s international human rights obligations including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Cameroon is a state party.”

President Paul Biya, 92, who has been in power in Cameroon for nearly 43 years, will face 11 other candidates in his bid for a new seven-year term on 12 October.

A nation in agony, a president in absentia: Biya’s Swiss retreat amidst electoral farce and genocide

22, September 2025

A nation in agony, a president in absentia: Biya’s Swiss retreat amidst electoral farce and genocide 0

In a move that epitomises a reign defined by staggering detachment and brutal repression, Cameroon’s octogenarian dictator, Paul Biya, is preparing to abscond to the luxurious confines of a Swiss palace, a mere three weeks before a presidential election engineered to grant him an eighth term. This trip, a private vacation to Geneva’s Intercontinental Hotel, is a slap in the face to a nation buckling under the weight of his nearly four decades of misrule, a bloody conflict, and a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Biya, a leader often criticised as a reclusive and out-of-touch figure, submitted his candidacy on August 25th for an election he has no intention of contesting fairly. Instead of engaging with the electorate, he is scheduled for a ten-day sojourn in Switzerland, a country where historical records from Le Temps newspaper show he has squandered over 55 million Swiss Francs (approximately 34 billion CFA francs) of state funds on extended stays between 1982 and 2009. His return, just days before the campaign’s start on September 22nd, reveals a man confident that the electoral process is a mere formality, to be rigged by his stooges and clansmen while he enjoys European luxury.

A Dirty War and a Daughter’s Damning Indictment

As Biya packs for Switzerland, the military force he commands continues a brutal campaign in the Anglophone regions of Ambazonia, a conflict accurately described as a “dirty war.” As reported by HumAngle Media, this brutal fratricidal conflict has thrown victims into a vortex of trauma, with widespread atrocities, disappearances, and killings occurring under the silent and complicit gaze of the international community. This is not a war but a genocide, state-sponsored terror aimed at subduing a population seeking autonomy.

The damning condemnation of this regime comes not just from external observers but from within the dictator’s own household. His daughter, Brenda Biya, recently broke ranks in a stunning act of defiance, urging Cameroonians to reject her father. “My Father has made a whole nation suffer, don’t vote for him,” she declared, a truth that echoes through the bullet-riddled villages of Ambazonia and the impoverished neighbourhoods of Yaoundé and Douala.

A Nation on the Brink

The security situation remains volatile. Recent attacks, including a deadly roadside ambush claimed by separatists that killed seven soldiers, as reported by CTV News, highlight a conflict with no end in sight. There is a palpable fear that Biya’s absence could trigger a violent power struggle or even a military coup, exposing the fragile and fear-based foundation of his rule. The nation is a tinderbox, and its absent president is playing with matches from a safe distance of 4,000 miles.

A Call to Action: For Justice and Liberation

This cannot stand. The international community, particularly Switzerland and signatories to the Geneva Conventions, must no longer be a haven for a man whose treasury-draining vacations are funded by the misery of his people. We call for the immediate arrest of Paul Biya for crimes against humanity and genocide upon his arrival on Swiss soil. The principle of universal jurisdiction must be invoked to hold this tyrant accountable for the blood spilled in the Cameroons.

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Cho AYABA held in Norway, Mr Benedict NwanaKuah and Pascal Kikishy Wongbi, held in the United States and all Ambazonian political prisoners held in Cameroonian detention facilities, where torture and inhumane conditions are rampant.

To the brave fighters of the Ambazonia Defenceforces (ADf), we say: Continue your righteous struggle. Continue to protect the citizens of Ambazonia from the genocidal attacks of the Cameroonian military. Continue to inflict painful and heavy losses on the invading forces, particularly the notorious BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion), the brutal spearhead of Biya’s repression. Your resilience in the face of a monstrous regime is the only shield our people have.

The world must open its eyes to the suffering in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia). The time for silent complicity is over. The time for justice, accountability, and the liberation of Ambazonia is now.

By: Dr. Larry AYAMBA,

Kupe-Muanenguba: Maiden Upper Balong Youth Festival Revives Culture, Boosts Sports

21, September 2025

Kupe-Muanenguba: Maiden Upper Balong Youth Festival Revives Culture, Boosts Sports 0

The first edition of the Upper Balong Youth Festival ran from 20 July to 17 August in Manyemen. It was organized with funds donated by Upper Balong elites in the country and abroad.

The organizing committee co-chaired by Ta Ndumbe Martin Ayuk of Talangaye and Ta Ebune Philip Ayuk of Baro, included representatives of the eight Upper Balong villages, that is Ayong, Baro, Betock, Ebanga, Manyemen, Oserayip, Sikam and Talangaye. The General Coordination and Chief Operations Officer of the youth festival was Ta Sone Bayen, a notable of Manyemen, who conceived the idea for the festival.

Activities included football for boys and girls, marathon, Miss Upper Balong, teaching youths how to cook traditional meals, speak the local language and sing and dance traditional songs.

Music by Upper Balong pop musicians Ebeny Amstrong in the United States and Tina Tong in Germany was played abundantly during the festival and Chu Bikeng Lato who is resident in the country, performed live during major activities of the festival.

The football tournament of the festival was won by Manyemen for the boys and Ebanga for the girls.

Free Calculators and Math Sets donated by Upper Balong elites were distributed to school children by the President of Upper Balong Teachers’ Association (UBTA), Dr Basua A.A.  Emmanuel.

Another high point of the Upper Balong Youth Festival was the Presentation of Ekatih Eyong-Etok, a new book on how to speak and write Kitchui, the Upper Balong language authored by Dr Tabi Elias Mbi, a director at the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency in Yaounde.

By Franklin Sone Bayen

< 1 2 3 4 5 >»
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.