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20, September 2018

Congo-Kinshasa: Kabila Candidate Faces Challenges in Election ⁰

Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will face a credible election challenge in December from two opposition leaders, the final list of candidates published Wednesday
showed.

Kabila has ruled since his father’s assassination in 2001. He agreed last month not to defy term limits and stand for re-election, opening the door to the Central African nation’s first democratic transfer of power.

His announcement calmed tensions that have seen dozens of anti-Kabila demonstrators killed by security forces since he refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December 2016.

Kabila is backing Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary in the long-delayed Dec. 23 election. His biggest challengers are likely to be Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo’s largest opposition party, and Vital Kamerhe, who placed third in the last election in 2011.

But in all, 21 candidates have been approved for the single-round contest, including several other prominent Kabila critics, which risks diluting the opposition vote and boosting Ramazani’s chances.

Fairness questions

The authorities’ exclusion from the race of other leading opposition figures, including former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and ex-provincial Governor Moise Katumbi, has also raised questions about the election’s fairness.

The opposition accuses Kabila’s camp of plotting to rig the elections with untested electronic voting machines, a charge the ruling coalition rejects.

In a rare opinion poll in July, Katumbi and Tshisekedi each received 19 percent support. Bemba received 17 percent and Kamerhe got 9 percent.

Ramazani did not receive enough votes to figure in the results but is expected to now benefit from the ruling coalition’s financial and institutional muscle.

Opposition leaders have repeatedly said they intend to coalesce behind a single candidate but have traditionally struggled to present a united front. In 2011, Kabila won with 49 percent of ballots cast as the opposition vote split.

The final candidate list also includes former Prime Minister Samy Badibanga and longtime Kabila ally Tryphon Kin-Kiey.

Bemba was disqualified by the constitutional court earlier this month over a witness-tampering conviction, while Katumbi was prevented from re-entering the country last month to register his candidacy after two years in exile.

The electoral commission also validated more than 15,000 candidacies for parliamentary elections due to take place the same day.

Reuters

20, September 2018

October Presidential Election: Candidates avoiding Southern Cameroons ⁰

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

20, September 2018

Liberia $104m cash scandal: Former President’s son, officials banned from travelling ⁰

Liberia’s government has released a list of people that are barred from leaving the country including the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as investigations into the whereabouts of $104 million in missing cash intended for the central bank intensify.

A series of shipments of notes ordered by Liberia’s central bank from printers overseas have disappeared since last year after passing through the country’s main ports, Liberia’s information minister Eugene Nagbe told local radio on Tuesday.

The missing amount is the equivalent of nearly 5 percent of the West African country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications.

Officials under investigation

Charles Sirleaf, the son of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former central bank governor, Milton Weeks, are among those barred from travel as part of the investigation, said a Ministry of Information statement released late on Tuesday. “The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications,” it said.

Weeks told Reuters he had “no involvement in this matter” and was cooperating with investigators. Sirleaf was not immediately reachable for comment. Central Bank officials also did not respond to requests for comment.

Investigators are still trying to ascertain how much money was ordered, where it was printed, how much of it eventually arrived in the country, and where it is now. The money was ordered when Sirleaf was still in power, before President George Weah took over this year.

Sirleaf was lauded for cementing peace during her 12-year presidency but was criticised for failing to rein in high-level corruption.

Charles Sirleaf, one of three of her sons appointed to government posts, was suspended from his position as Deputy Central Bank Governor in 2012 during an anti-corruption investigation. But he was re-appointed interim central bank chief in February 2016, drawing accusations of nepotism.

Investigations

Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean said Sirleaf’s administration had not informed Liberia’s current government of the initial order and that an investigation had begun once Weah became aware of it in August.

Information minister Nagabe told Voice of America on Tuesday there were no records of the containers being collected from the ports, despite several bank staff employees having written a request for pick-up on March 31. The containers were recorded as having arrived in November 2017 and August 2018.

Liberia does not have its own mint, and the central bank is the only body with the power to order new currency. Liberia’s government last approved the printing of new notes in August 2016, as the country recovered from a devastating Ebola epidemic.

The missing cash comes as an unexpected blow to Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries that suffered two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. Ebola struck in 2013, killing thousands over the following three years.

REUTERS

20, September 2018

Nigeria: Davido campaigns for opposition PDP ⁰

Nigeria’s Afropop sensation, Davido is causing political shockwaves in home state of Osun where he is campaigning for the candidate of the opposition People’s Development Party (PDP) in the race to be governor.

The multi-millionaire singer-songwriter and record producer, has been posting pictures and videos on his social media, endorsing his uncle, Ademola Adeleke who is running on the PDP ticket.

Billboards in the state also show pictures of the singer in traditional dress, leaning on an empty black leather chair next to the Nigerian flag.

“I, Davido, support Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun State,” the roadside advertisements read.

Adeleke, dubbed “the dancing senator” because of his penchant for dancing in public, must be hoping his high-profile nephew can win him as many voters as he has music fans.

The 58-year-old politician is running for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Gboyega Oyetola of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Candidates from no fewer than 48 parties are vying to replace APC Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who is stepping down after a maximum of two four-year terms.

Saturday’s poll is the final major electoral test before Nigerians vote for a new president, parliament, governors and state legislatures in February and March next year.

Davido the politician?

Davido, real name David Adedeji Adeleke, recently signed up for the yearlong compulsory national service, and entertained his colleagues at the swearing-in event.

While Davido may be better known as one of Nigeria’s most successful musical exports, Davido also comes from a well-known political dynasty.

His grandfather, Raji Ayoola Adeleke,was a senator between 1979 and 1983 while another uncle, Isiaka Adeleke, was Osun’s first civilian governor from January 1992 to November 1993.

The performer’s father, Adedeji Adeleke, is a wealthy businessman with interests in banking, property, education, shipping, haulage and oil and gas.

Some people see a political future for Davido.

Source: Africa News

20, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Unknown Militants Behead Francophone Security Official ⁰

French Cameroun government officials say an estimated 400 civilians and 160 state security personnel have been killed in the protests in Southern Cameroons over the past two years. A figure highly contested by the Ambazonian Interim Government. The latest indication of worsening brutality is a video of separatists showing a security man’s decapitated head.

The activists in Southern Cameroons are demanding independence from Cameroon alleging marginalisation by the government of Paul Biya, which is largely French-speaking. English speakers constitute 20 percent of the 24 million-population.

“The situation in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is becoming increasingly desperate with no one spared from the violence which is spiralling out of control,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for West and Central Africa.

Daoud said perpetrators from both sides had attacked and killed people or destroyed their properties but continue walking free. Early this month, armed separatists kidnapped seven students and the head of the Presbyterian Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Bafut. They were released days later.

Last week, the militants attacked positions of soldiers stationed near the town of Buea, causing an intense exchange of fire between them and the security forces.

It is feared violence will worsen with the upcoming elections in Cameroon.

“We may well see an escalation in the number of security incidents and increased activity by armed separatists threatening to disrupt the electoral process at all costs,” Daoud said.

Polls are set for October 7.

20, September 2018

UK minister suggests second Brexit referendum is quite possible ⁰

A junior minister in the government of UK Prime Minister Theresa May has suggested that a second referendum on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union would be a possibility if May’s Brexit strategy is rejected by the UK Parliament.

Mel Stride, a junior minister in the British Treasury, said Wednesday that if May fails to go through with her plan for Brexit in the House of Commons, the ruling Conservative Party would be forced to accept a second Brexit referendum.

“There is a danger of that happening,” said Stride. “Those to the right of the party – the pro-Brexit wing – will be very concerned that if that deal doesn’t prevail, they’ll end up in the situation where we could have a second referendum and we could end up not leaving the EU altogether.”

Less than seven months before Britain is due to officially leave the EU, May has been struggling to win support for her Brexit strategy both in the country and in Brussels.

She has faced criticism from the Tories who believe her so-called Chequers plan, which was announced in July, would make the UK even more dependent on the EU after it leaves the bloc in March.

The opposition Labour Party has also announced that it will reject a deal that would come out of Chequers.

The comments make Stride the first government minister to admit that a new Brexit referendum is possible if the prime minister’s deal is thrown out. They appeared to be an attempt to put pressure on pro-Brexit Tories to accept the Chequers proposals, or risk seeing their dream of leaving the EU disappear completely.

Senior Labour politicians, including London mayor Sadiq Khan, have been advocating the idea of a second referendum. Khan said earlier this week that people should have a final say on Brexit as May’s negotiations with the EU will either end in no deal or a bad deal.

Most EU diplomats and officials are convinced that a no-deal Brexit would “be bad for everyone, but it would be so much worse for Britain.”

“The Brexit elite are desperate to deny the people a voice on Brexit, but there is no stopping an idea whose time has come,” said Labour Party MP Alison McGovern.

Source: Presstv

19, September 2018

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Frontline leaders? Ambazonians beware ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group has consistently warned Ambazonians to critically scrutinize the intention of individuals laying claims to leadership to the Ambazonia liberation struggle before investing their trust in such leaders. A critical test of leadership rests on the ability of a presumptive leader to selflessly champion the defense of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who are victims of the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Such a leader must make a public and unimpeachable commitment to Ambazonia’s individual and collective self-defense until the invading enemy is chased out of the territory and every death suffered in the hands of the enemy accounted for and avenged. The leader must not be a gullible power seeker, money-monger and a ruthless war lord. War lords do not lead wars of liberation. War lords lead internal revolutions for political change. The reason is obvious; war lords do not emerge by the will of the people, and do not seek the mandate of the people for the realization of their objectives. War lords concentrate power in their hands, administer ruthless justice without due process, do not respect the laws and customs of war and mercilessly execute their own people who dare challenge their personal power with sadistic arrogance.

Cameroon Concord News Group in its cautionary editorials in the past anticipated the possibility of some opportunists claiming leadership of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia struggle not for the public interest but for their selfish interest. Cameroon Concord News Group ventured to mention names of some of such opportunists. Ambazonians did not take the cautionary postings serious enough to take precautionary measures to abate the prejudice caused by these individuals. Among the persons mentioned by Cameroon Concord News Group, was Ayaba Cho Lucas.

Cameroon Concord News Group authoritatively cautioned Ambazonians about this individual because a cross section of our cream of intelligence reporters serving with Cameroon Intelligence Report observed him from proximity for over a decade. His acts and conduct, his war lord proclivities, his avaricious greed, his intermittent unstable miens, his unguarded flippancy and his reckless disregard for collective leadership, have a potential to imperil the self-defense war of liberation. Time has proved Cameroon Concord News Group right. His penchant for ordering the attack of self defense units fighting for the freedom of Ambazonia for refusing to submit to his command is treacherous.

Batibo was virtually freed by the self- defense forces of Ambazonia when he laid ambush and abducted not the enemy who are torching our towns and villages, raping our girls and women, executing the genocide of our people but the heroic Ambazonian liberation forces who had routed the enemy from that local government area of Ambazonia. The immediate fallout of this treacherous attack which deprived our fighting forces of their fighters and weapons was that the enemy returned to Batibo which was virtually liberated and continued to slaughter our armless civilian population virtually unchallenged.

Cameroon Concord News Group today saw a video on social media where some Ambazonians confronted Cho Ayaba in London where he went hoping to sign an oil deal over Ambazonian oil resources with a British Firm. This encounter exposes the gullibility, vulnerability and greed by Ayaba Cho Lucas who purports to be a commander-in-chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces. Because he is blinded by greed, self-interest, power-mongering, his sense of discernment and security are blighted. He is not a risk worth relying on for leadership. The cost of gratifying and worshipping a warlord can be costly unless promptly unchecked. Ambazonians beware!

Sacrifices made by Ambazonians at home and abroad must not be taken for granted by power and pecuniary interests of a single individual. This struggle is not about power. It is about the individual and collective survival of the people. It is about defending the total independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the charismatic President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia cautioned Ambazonians that the Ambazonia liberation struggle was more than any single Ambazonian. That must be the threshold on which we must judge our leaders.

Cameroon Concord News Group, at the threshold of a so-called “reboot conference” called in Washington DC shortly after the abduction of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the interim government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, made an urgent call for Ambazonians to reboot the reboot conference. The intention of that conference was evil. It was not for the good of the self-defense of the people of Ambazonia against the ongoing genocide by French Cameroon. It was intended to quickly kill the interim government which an overwhelming majority of the people of Ambazonia craved for and put in place under the leadership of His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

Cameroon Concord News Group pointed to the fact that the said conference was initiated by a consortium of strange bed-fellows, united only by their hatred for the interim government and their greed to exploit Ambazonians for money. The gravamen of their hatred was that the interim government had deprived them the legitimacy to raise money from the Ambazonia Diaspora using the liberation struggle as opposed to their self-interest. Prior to that and now, Boh Hebert has never ever given an account of the money raised using Morrisc, Cho Ayaba with a war lord mentality has never been accountable to anyone. Ebenezer Akwanga has suffered so much in the liberation quest and no one can doubt his commitment to the cause. However, he might have been railroaded to that conference because he wrongly believed the interim government might inhibit his ability to prosecute the self-defense war independently. But that was only part of the story. He might not have known the pecuniary motivation for the conference and the potential of Paul Atanga Nji infiltrating it through the gullible instincts of some of the participants.

The most serious affront to the people of Ambazonia is the fact that the so-called conference was called shortly after His Excellency the President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the interim government were abducted and French Cameroun with the support of Mohammadu Buhari intensified the abduction, slaughter and genocide of Ambazonia. In the conference resolutions, nothing was said about these critical issues that concerned the individual and collective survival of Ambazonians. The meeting was indeed a front for racketeering and scamming on the blood of Ambazonians. Neither Boh Herbert, Mbah Akuro nor Edwin Ngang endorsed the self-defense option taken by Ambazonians worldwide, home and abroad and the interim government for the collective survival and the liberation of the fatherland. Boh Herbert issued a press statement denouncing the self-defense option and tacitly placing the blame for the war on its Ambazonian victims.

The revolution was saved by Chris Anu, who despite the risks flew to Nigeria to confront the Buhari accomplices of the abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the genocide against Ambazonia in their own territory. Chris Anu provided Ambazonia and the interim government, a platform and a voice to denounce the abduction of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the interim government members of Ambazonia. He addressed press conferences, forced the UN to issue a public statement condemning the abductions and stating that there abductees were under the protection of international law when they were abducted. That statement from a UN department that claimed jurisdiction over the abducted Ambazonia leaders provided a strong legal backing to the Ambazonia cause, its interim government and the potential bases for accountability for the international crimes committed in and out of Ambazonia against Ambazonian citizens. The Rohingya decision at the ICC recently has critically put the perpetrators of these crimes on notice.

Thanks to Chris Anu, the interim government survived a coup mounted by French enemies of Ambazonia and from within by greedy power and money mongers. This is the main reason for their passionate hatred of the Secretary of Communication the Right Hon. Chris Anu.

The interim government of Ambazonia is the best thing that ever happened in this war of liberation and self-defense. When Ambazonians selected His Excellency Samuel Sako as the acting president of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, they were guided by the charisma, humility, dedication, patriotism and commitment to the collective good of the people that His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe embodied. They were looking for an Ayuk Tabe in our interim leader. The sense of collective leadership and humility are some of the strongest Ambazonia values that distinguishes Ambazonia from French Cameroun. Also, following on the footsteps of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, His Excellency Samuel Sako has buried for good the divide and rule tactics of the enemy, French Cameroun. He has kept faith with the trust placed on him by a majority of Ambazonians despite the tactics of greedy power and money-mongers to derail his focus. Remain focused sir! Ground zero needs your undivided attention now than ever.

Cameroon Concord News Group was dismayed about the so-called collaborative conference which took place in Washington DC among the so-called front-line leaders. Cameroon Concord News warned swiftly that the conference was a strategic mistake. Cameroon Concord News Group cautioned against calling persons who do not believe in self-defense, are not committed to assisting our refugees abroad and at home and have not fully committed to the defense of the Ambazonia homeland as front-line leaders. It came as no surprise that their participation was motivated by the possibility that money was going to be raised to support the ground forces engaged in the Ambazonia self-defense war of liberation which they hoped to blackmail the interim government to share among them. The refusal of the interim government to fall into this scam is a vote of confidence to the interim government for defending the public trust and standing by our fighting forces for which the contributions were intended. That is what leadership is about.

Cameroon Concord News Group once more calls on Ambazonians and the interim government to exercise caution when characterizing persons and organizations that are not in support of the self-defense of Ambazonia, are not assisting the refugees and are not strongly committed to supporting and assisting the fighting forces as frontline leaders. Inviting them to strategic meetings concerning the self-defense and refugees support efforts of Ambazonia is nothing short of placing a poisoned chalice on the lips of a determined Ambazonia liberation struggle and its interim government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

19, September 2018

Cameroon bride and Chinese husband find fame online in China ⁰

Sandra Made and Zou Qianshun are, in many ways, like millions of newly married couples around the world. Made, 27, is a housewife who looks after their 10-month-old baby, while Zou, 43, is a fishing captain and the family breadwinner. But in China, they have become an online sensation.

Weddings and engagements

The couple began live-streaming funny skits of their home life on Chinese social media platform, Kuaishou, in February. They now have 120,000 followers. Made says their videos are popular because people are not used to seeing an African woman with a Chinese man.

“Everyone loves Sandra and thinks she’s outgoing,” says Zou. The couple makes about 5,000 yuan ($727) a month through virtual gifts donated by fans on the site, which can be exchanged for money, he adds.

They met three years ago when Zou was working in Cameroon, where Made ran a hair salon. A year later, Zou proposed and the couple married in March 2017. Soon after, they relocated to Zou’s hometown near Dandong, Liaoning province, in northeast China.

In 2016, there were just 1,700 mixed marriages in Liaoning, which is home to 43.7 million people, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. But Zou says there are five other Chinese men in his town with African wives. “They all met in Africa,” he adds.

A love affair

Earlier this month, Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged to invest $60 billion in Africa over the next three years at the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. It was symbolic of how China’s ties with the continent have deepened over the past two decades.

About 10,000 Chinese-owned firms operate in Africa today, according to American research firm McKinsey, and a significant number of Africans have moved to China. Their main base is the southern manufacturing city of Guangzhou, where about 20,000 African migrants live, according to Gordon Matthews, a professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and author of “The World in Guangzhou: Africans and Other Foreigners in South China.”

In Guangzhou, romances between Africans and Chinese people are not uncommon. But they mostly involve a Chinese woman and an African man, according to Matthews. That’s partly because there are more male African traders in Guangzhou than female, he says.

“But Chinese women are also more socially adept, socially skilled and speak better English (than Chinese men),” he adds. “So they are more likely to marry foreigners than Chinese men.”

Racism in China

The most-viewed video on Made’s feed is a comedy sketch of her pretending to feed her baby, Daniel, but instead putting all the food into her mouth.

Reactions on Kuaishou to the couple’s humorous skits include “666,” which means cool, and “Sandra! You’re so beautiful,” “Pretty eyes,” and “You speak good Dandong dialect!” Made says she improves her Putonghua by talking with fans online.

But not everyone’s reaction has been so positive. Initially, Zou’s mother, Zhao Fu Qing, was against their union. “How can a Chinese marry a black woman? She can leave at any time. That’s why at the beginning, both my husband and I said NO to this marriage,” she told Al Jazeera. The couple say Zhao has since become fond of her daughter-in-law.

Chinese racism towards Africans, however, is a sensitive issue. Last year, a skit on China’s biggest Lunar New Year TV show sparked outrage when an Asian actress appeared with blackface and enlarged bottom. Meanwhile, earlier this month a Chinese man was deported from Kenya for posting a video making racist remarks about Kenyans online.

“We haven’t encountered any racist prejudices yet, apart from people’s concerns about cultural differences,” says Qianshun. “But I always tell those people that love has no boundaries.” Matthews says that while racism in China “undoubtedly exists,” extreme cases such as people rubbing Africans’ skin to see if their color will come off are no longer an “everyday thing.”

As the China-Africa economic relationship yields more unions like that of Made and Zou, Matthews hopes the public will gain a better understanding of race. “The more international marriages we have the quicker we can end racism,” he says.

Source: Action News Now

19, September 2018

Southern Cameroonian writers must remain engaged! ⁰

Silence in the face of injustice and massacre is tantamount to acquiescence. The world needs to know what is happening in Southern Cameroons, and bringing this information to the world is the work of journalists and writers.

For many weeks now, Southern Cameroonian activists, writers and journalists have been very quiet about what is happening in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

This is no good news for those who have been trapped in those parts of the country. As the fighting between government forces and separatists rages on, the world needs to be aware of the atrocities committed by both camps.

This is the job of people who have made it a duty to deliver information to the less informed. But over the last weeks, not much information is filtering out of the region and this is concerning.

With many people fleeing in different directions, it is clear that the level of atrocities could be very high. Now that the field is empty, it is clear only soldiers are walking the streets and there will be nobody to question their actions.

These soldiers have been known to burn homes and even roast occupants of many homes to death. Children have been killed and grandmothers have been left to feign for themselves. The world needs to know all of these stories.

Regarding separatist fighters, they too have been accused, time without number, of committing gruesome atrocities. Many people suspected of working with the government have been shot point blank by these fighters. Many people have been kidnapped and huge ransoms have been demanded.

Rights groups like the International Crisis Groups and Amnesty International have documented some of these atrocities unfolding in cities, but what is happening in the villages and small towns of Southern Cameroons will remain unknown to the outside world as there are no journalists and writers to bring the gory images to the world.

With millions out of their homes in Southern Cameroons, thieves will be having a field day. Even soldiers will use the occasion offered to them by the upcoming elections to ransack homes and make away with valuables such television sets, musical sets and mattresses.

The private media and freelance journalists have to make their presence on the ground heard. They need to investigate those atrocities that are taking place behind the cameras.

Yesterday, soldiers carried out a house-to-house search in Nnoko Street in Kumba and there are no reports about this. Even government officials have not been able to inform the public of what is happening. The few people still living in the city are all in fear of the worst.

The world is concerned. And it is on this basis that the Chairman of Cameroon Concord News Group, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, is looking for investigative journalists to head to those towns to find out what is happening after most of the people have left.

Many residents of Mamfe, Kembong, Agborkem German, Ewelle, Dadi and other towns have simply crossed the border to Nigeria, while those living in Buea, Kumba, Limbe, Muyuka, Ekona and other cities have escaped the violence to Douala, Dschang, Bafoussam and Yaounde. Most East Cameroonian cities have become congested as a result of this mass movement.

I personally hail this initiative by the Cameroon Concord News Group. I am even happier to know that the salaries for those journalists who will undertake such missions will be close to USD 2,000 a month. Good job Cameroon Concord News Group. Your lead and role in the crisis that is ruining Cameroon is being appreciated by all. With limited resources, you are delivering the truth to the world.

I was wondering why these stories have been left unreported. With your initiative, the world will be able to have a balanced perspective of what is going on in the northwest and southwest regions after the people fled their homeland.

I know a lot is happening there. I know the government is not saying anything. I know the fighters are spitting fire. But I think once the world gets a good picture of the reality, there will be some international efforts to end the genocide that is playing out in the region. I am just thinking aloud again!

19, September 2018

October 7: Insecurity poses a major constraint ⁰

As Cameroon prepares to go to the polls on October 7, 2018, insecurity in the country poses a major constraint which may hamper the smooth conduct of the polls.

The country now faces violence in three regions: the Far North, where Boko Haram continues to mount attacks, as well as the Northwest and Southwest, where an Anglophone insurgency emerged in 2017.

The crisis in the Anglophone regions is rapidly developing into full armed insurgency, following the Cameroonian security forces’ violent repression on 22 September and 1 October, 2017.

Several small “self-defence” groups (the Tigers, Ambaland forces and Vipers,) now operate alongside two armed militias: the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) and the Southern Cameroons Defence Forces.

Pro-independence fighters, who had earlier declared the elections banned in these regions recently called for a total shutdown from September 20 to October 10 in a bid to completely frustrate efforts by the government to carry out elections in the troubled regions.

According to messages allegedly from the fighters, people have been urged to stock their houses with basic items which can sustain them throughout the no circulation period. The message constraints movement only within the English speaking areas while inter-urban movements to and from other French parts of the country were prohibited.

Gripped with fear and amidst the growing uncertainty, denizens in the regions are now fleeing to neighboring towns for safety. The massive exodus has forced the government to take stringent measures to restrict movement out of the regions. A communique signed by the regional delegate of the North West region on September 18 indicated that people without valid reasons will not be allowed to leave the town.

Yaounde took a hard line, rejecting demands made by the fighters in the early phase of the conflict and ordered a complete crackdown after the separatists issued a symbolic declaration of independence last October 1.

The elections governing body has however assured that elections will take place in these regions while noting that the issue of security for all stakeholders in the process was the responsibility of the government.

Culled from Africa News