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5, August 2018

Cameroon cardinal helping organize conference to tackle Anglophone Crisis ⁰

Cameroon religious leaders are coming together to help seek a solution with the country’s ongoing Anglophone Crisis, with Cardinal Christian Tumi leading efforts to ease tensions between the country’s French-speaking majority and an English-speaking minority that says it is being persecuted.

Tumi, the Archbishop emeritus of Douala, joined with Christian and Muslim leaders to call for an Anglophone General Conference to take place Aug. 29-30 in the town of Buea.

The cardinal told Crux the leaders hope to offer a unique “pastoral approach” to tackle the crisis.

The Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon are majority English-speaking, a legacy of the colonial history of the country: Cameroon was originally German, but after World War I the defeated country transferred it to the allies, and it was divided between France and Britain.

At independence, the two parts were reunited, and currently about 20 percent of the country’s nearly 25 million people is anglophone. The Catholic Church is the largest religious group in the country, representing about 40 percent of all Cameroonians.

In October 2016, strikes by lawyers and teachers over perceived attempts by the Francophone administration to assimilate the legal and educational systems practiced in the two English-speaking regions turned violent, and morphed into rising demands by Anglophone Cameroonians for independence.

The government has been accused of razing entire villages and extrajudicial killings in their hunt against separatists, who are calling on the English-speaking areas to form a new country, called ‘Ambazonia.’

Separatists have also been accused of atrocities, and have attacked Cameroonian security forces, and kidnapped opponents for ransom.

“We believe that the moment has come to put an end to the conflict through a frank, inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue on the Anglophone Problem,” the religious leaders said in a statement.

“We recognize that absolute necessity for the people of the Southwest and Northwest Regions to hold a preparatory general conference in order to agree on the issues to be examined at the national dialogue on the Anglophone Problem and to freely designate their representatives at that dialogue,” the statement continued.

“Accepting our moral responsibility to promote peace and harmony among all God’s children, we hereby freely take the initiative to constitute ourselves into a college of conveners for the purpose of summoning the required General Conference of the people of the Southwest and Northwest Regions.”

They said the conference will be broad-based, bringing together representatives of traditional and religious authorities, civil society leaders, professional associations, women and youth groups, trade union organizations, and other members of civil society. The religious leaders said participation in the conference “will be open, and limited to all Cameroonian citizens living in Cameroon or abroad who fall in one of the following two categories”:

Those whose ancestral origins are within the territory that today constitutes the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon; or those whose parents or grandparents, not having their ancestral origins in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, settled permanently in this territory as of Oct. 1, 1961, when the former ‘British Cameroons’ formally joined Cameroon.

Tumi told Crux that because there were already several currents of thought among Anglophones themselves as to what the problem is and how it should be handled; the conference becomes much more necessary.

“There are some calling for secession; others for federalism and others for decentralization. All that we are saying is that anybody who wants to take part in this dialogue should be objective, that is to say – when you come to the dialogue, you must be able to give and take.”

Similar conferences had been held before – one in Buea and the other in Bamenda in the early 1990s, but Tumi believes the one he and other religious authorities in Cameroon want is different.

“We come with a pastoral approach,” the cardinal told Crux.

“We have no arms. We preach love and forgiveness, objectivity and truth. Our insistence will be on those virtues. If intellectually you are convinced that what the other person is saying is true, you are obliged by intellectual honesty to accept,” he said.

The religious leaders said in their statement that such an initiative can only succeed if government releases all those who have been arrested in connection with the crisis, as well as create the conditions necessary for all English speakers to participate, including separatists.

They also called on “the Government of Cameroon and the various armed groups that now operate throughout the territory of the Northwest and Southwest Regions, to declare an immediate end to military hostilities in these two regions and thus create favorable conditions for finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the Anglophone Problem and to ending the Anglophone Crisis in our country through dialogue.”

But the government has raised objections to the proposals, especially the inclusion of separatists in any talks.

“We can’t place the republican army, which today is deployed to fight for the territorial integrity of our nation on the same footing as armed groups, terrorists who kill, slaughter, behead, burn schools, [and] commit despicable crimes,” said Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s communications minister.

Tchiroma also criticized the religious leaders for asking for the release of all those arrested in connection with the crisis.

“You can’t also ask a state that is ruled by law like ours, to release those who have killed, massacred and who are today awaiting trial,” he said.

However, the call of Cameroon’s religious leaders for an end to the military campaign in the Anglophone areas has gotten the support of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

“The World Council of Churches condemns all forms of violence in Cameroon and calls on the government to stop using any force to punish its people in the English-speaking region of Cameroon,” said Isabel Apawo Phiri, the WCC acting general secretary, in an Aug. 2 statement.

“Cameroon authorities must immediately cease the use of disproportionate and deadly force against civilians and protect the human rights of all,” she added.

Meanwhile, 85-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, announced last month he will seek another term in office when national elections take place in Cameroon in October.

Source: Crux

5, August 2018

Congo-Kinshasa: Opposition leader Katumbi blocked from returning home ⁰

Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi has been blocked from entering the country to register as a candidate in December’s long-delayed presidential election, a spokesman said Saturday.

Zambia’s government told Katumbi of the refusal by Congolese authorities, Olivier Kamitatu Etsu said in a post on Twitter, adding: “Have you ever seen a government forbid a so-called fugitive to turn himself in?”

Katumbi had been a leading presidential contender before fleeing Congo in May 2016 as prosecutors announced their intent to try him on charges of hiring mercenaries, which he denied. The legal issues emerged after he resigned from the ruling party in 2015.

Now the former governor of the copper-rich Katanga region is trying to come home ahead of the Aug. 8 deadline for candidates to register. He said on Friday that Congo’s government also had not permitted him to arrive by plane.

“In trying to block me, they want to take away Congolese citizens’ right to real elections,” Katumbi said on Twitter, where his party posted video of crowds running alongside his motorcade at a dusty border post.

Amnesty International has called the blocking of Katumbi’s return a “flagrant violation” of his constitutional rights, and Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth has called it President Joseph Kabila’s “latest ploy to retain power beyond his constitutional term limit.”

Congo’s presidential election has been delayed since late 2016, to the growing frustration of the opposition and international community. The opposition worries that the 47-year-old Kabila, who by law cannot run again, will find a way to hold onto power. He has been president of the turbulent, mineral-rich country since 2001, when his father Laurent was killed in office.

Earlier in the week Katumbi congratulated another rival for the presidency, former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, as he submitted his candidacy. Bemba returned to Congo on Wednesday after more than a decade following his acquittal on war crimes charges by appeals judges at the International Criminal Court in June.

Congo’s constitutional court still has to rule on potential candidates’ eligibility, raising the possibility that Bemba and Katumbi, if manages to return could be barred from running.

Bemba has called on the government to not exclude Katumbi from participating, calling him “a major political player in this country.”

(AP)

5, August 2018

Eto’o leaves Konyaspor by mutual consent ⁰

Former Cameroon captain Samuel Eto’o has left Turkish club Konyaspor by mutual consent.

The club say the former Chelsea and Everton striker, 37, has had his contract, which still had two years to run, cancelled, “on the basis of a previously agreed negotiation”.

Eto’o joined struggling Konyaspor from rivals Antalyaspor in January, scoring six goals in 14 appearances to help the club maintain its top flight status.

“We thank Samuel Eto’o for his contributions to the club and his services on behalf of our colours, and we hope that he will bring beauty, happiness and success to his future plans after a farewell to each other in warm and sincere feelings.” Konyaspor wrote on their website.

The four-time African footballer of the year winner has been widely linked with a move to the French Ligue 1 as well as a possible return to the Spanish league.

Eto’o, a three-time Champions League winner, moved to Antalyaspor in the summer of 2015 as the keystone of the club’s bid to find national and even European success.

Having previously played in Spain, Russia, England and Italy, Eto’o enjoyed much of his club success at Barcelona, where he played from 2004 to 2009.

His trophies there included three La Liga crowns, alongside former Brazil forward Ronaldinho, and two Champions League titles.

He also won the Champions League, under Jose Mourinho, at Inter Milan in 2010, and has an Olympic gold medal, which he won with Cameroon in 2000.

Eto’o is the leading all-time scorer in the Nations Cup with 18 goals and he appeared at four World Cup finals – 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014 – playing in eight matches and scoring three goals.

Cameroon’s all-time leading scorer with 54-goals, he won back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations titles with his country at the 2000 and 2002 editions.

AGENCIES

4, August 2018

An SMS car-tracking app inspired by Cameroon’s internet shutdown is set to spread across Africa ⁰

Hampered by an internet shutdown in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking regions in January 2017, Zuo Bruno, a young ethical hacker, was inspired to develop a car-tracking application using SMS. The application named Zoomed, whose adoption has been fast in Cameroon, is now on the verge of spreading across the continent.

Cameroon has been interrupting internet intermittently in those regions over the last 20 months in an attempt to stifle dissent following mass protests by English-speaking teachers and lawyers which erupted in 2016, first tampered with internet connectivity on Jan. 17, 2017. The internet shutdown lasted 94 days. The internet was again plug off in October same year, taking the duration of the shutdown to a record 230 days, according to Access Now.

The country shut down the internet in the region for 230 days between January 2017 and March 2018 and it has hurt Cameroon’s burgeoning tech ecosystem in Buea, known as “Silicon Mountain”. While few founders and their startups moved out of the hostile environment, others have been able to turn the ordeal into opportunity.

“Following the disconnection, I noticed a lot of cars were being stolen and realized these stolen cars had internet-based tracking solutions installed but the owners still couldn’t locate their cars,” Bruno, founder of Zuoix; an information security start-up said. He says the government’s internet shutdown gave him the incentive to conceive the whole idea.

This is why it was especially ironic in February when Bruno’s innovation earned him the President’s 2018 Grand Prize (Gold) for Excellence in Scientific Research and Innovation in Cameroon. The award has a FCFA 10 million ($ 17,500) prize. Another tech enthusiast, 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah from the same internet-interrupted region managed to emerge champion of the Google Code-in competition in 2017.

The Zoomed app does car-tracking based solely on specific SMS commands which gives it an advantage in a continent where shaky internet connection and low penetration makes internet-based solutions less effective.. Bruno prices it at FCFA 120,000 ($ 212) and takes less than an hour to get the app installed into an auto-mobile.

With a GPS chip installed in the vehicle, a user can locate a car or fleet, with direction, speed and elevation information. The Zoomed app also has features which supports geofencing, immobilization, ignition alert, voice surveillance, two-way calling and SOS alarm with artificial intelligence. No internet connection is required.

Bruno said rather than create an internet-based version, the app will use USSD technology. A user can dial simple USSD code, such as *XYZ*12# and be able to locate their car, immobilize it or other features. Using that technology means there will be no additional costs to the user. USSD, which stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, is typically used by mobile operators, especially in Africa — where the market is primarily prepaid—for their internal applications such as balance checks, top-ups, data bundles and promotions.

Ever since the Zoomed app caught nationwide attention, it has been upgraded to make cars location-aware; enabling the cars to send distress calls based on their current location to police stations, gas stations, hospitals and emergency services.

In Cameroon, the app already has a large client base; with over 50 enterprises, amongst them the country two top companies, making use of the app. “We are moving forward to other countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, and hoping for good results. Our plan is to send this application Africa-wide so that more people can enjoy the services we offer, secure their cars and have a good night rest knowing that their cars are safe.”

Source: Quartz

4, August 2018

Seedorf, Kluivert appointed to guide Cameroon to 2019 AFCON Victory ⁰

Clarence Seedorf and Patrick Kluivert will lead Cameroon to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, after the Country’s Sports Ministry, on Saturday, confirmed their appointments.

Seedorf had previously managed Italian side AC Milan, Shenzhen in the Chinese division one and La Liga club Deportivo La Coruna [but relegated to the Segunda División].

The 42-year-old will be assisted by his former national teammate, Patrick Kluivert when Cameroon hosts the rest of Africa in the continent’s biggest football fiesta in June of 2019.

Kluivert has also cut his teeth as a football Manager since hanging his playing boots. The former Barcelona striker was an assistant Coach under Louis Van Gaal at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The recruitment of the former Dutch stars, ends a long controversy over the succession of Hugo Broos who led Cameroon to the continental title at the 2017 CAN tournament in Gabon. Alexandre Belinga took charge of the team after Broos’ contract was terminated in February of 2018.

Source:Footballlive.ng

4, August 2018

World Council of Churches warns of growing risk of atrocities in Cameroon ⁰

Escalating violence in Cameroon, including graphic violence against women and children, has drawn condemnation from the World Council of Churches (WCC).

“The World Council of Churches condemns all forms of violence in Cameroon and calls on the government to stop using any force to punish its people in the English-speaking region of Cameroon,” said Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC acting general secretary, commenting on the current cycle of violence in the Central African country.

“Cameroon authorities must immediately cease the use of disproportionate and deadly force against civilians and protect the human rights of all,” she added.

The incidents are part of increasing violence against civilians in Cameroon, where, in the last three years, the Cameroonian military has been waging a multifront war against Anglophone separatists, especially in the western part of the country, and against Boko Haram in the north.

Phiri also called for prayers for peace in Cameroon and reaffirmed the WCC’s solidarity with the estimated 160,000 civilians who have been displaced by the fighting.

In recent weeks, a video that appears to show Cameroonian soldiers in the Mayo-Tsanaga region executing two women, a young girl and a baby was widely circulated on social media, bringing to light one of the atrocious aspects of the conflict. Another video was broadcast in June showing soldiers wearing Cameroonian uniforms setting fire to two houses in a village located in the English-speaking region of the country.

The government of Cameroon initially denounced the Mayo-Tsanaga video as “fake news” but has since announced a formal investigation and arrested four soldiers.

Phiri also noted the severe gender injustice going on in Cameroon. “As in most conflict situations worldwide, violence disproportionally affects women, who become especially vulnerable when law and order break down,” she said.

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon in July organized a “Week of Prayer for Cameroon in Times of Crisis,” calling for repentance, a cease fire and a peace plan. The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is planning a solidarity visit to Cameroon.

There is growing concern that upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for 7 October, will lead to further intensification and militarization of the conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982 and announced on 13 July that he will be running for a seventh term.

Source: WCC

4, August 2018

U.S. Prepares to Pullout Troops From Cameroon ⁰

Hundreds of American troops in Africa would be reassigned and the number of Special Operations missions on the continent would be wound down under plans submitted by a top military commander, a response to the Trump administration’s strategy to increasingly focus on threats from China and Russia.

Defense Department officials said they expected most of the troop cuts and scaled-back missions to come from Central and West Africa, where Special Operations missions have focused on training African militaries to combat the growing threat from extremist Islamist militant groups.

The plan by Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the leader of United States Africa Command, follows an ambush in Niger last fall that killed four American soldiers and an attack in southwestern Somalia that killed another in June.

In an interview with The New York Times, General Waldhauser said his plan would help streamline the military’s ability to combat threats around the world — but not retreat from Africa.

“We’re not walking away,” General Waldhauser said at his Germany headquarters last week, adding that the United States would still “reserve the right to unilaterally return” to protect American interests.

Africa has increasingly become an emerging battlefield for the United States in the fight against Islamist militant groups, including the Islamic State, Boko Haram and others across the continent that have sworn loyalty to Al Qaeda.

None of the offshoots of those groups have directly attacked the United States from Africa. But the Pentagon has for years sought to train local forces to deal with Islamist extremists in Africa — in part to distance the United States from any threats brewing on the continent.

Carter F. Ham, a retired Army general who once led Africa Command, said he agreed “in principle” with paying more attention to Russia and China — the notion at the heart of a national defense strategy unveiled in January by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

But, Mr. Ham said, “my concern in Africa is that with an already very modest presence and level of engagement, reducing that will lessen the likelihood for good outcomes across the continent.” Africa receives a small portion of Pentagon investment compared with Germany, South Korea and Japan, for instance.

General Waldhauser said Africa Command was the first to be asked to submit a drawdown plan, as The Times initially reported in June. But he said he expected other American combatant commands around the world to do the same under the defense strategy to better position the United States military against threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

The strategy represented a shift from fighting terrorism to countering state threats. When he announced it in January, Mr. Mattis declared that “we will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists, but great power competition — not terrorism — is now the primary focus of U.S. national security.”

The drawdown in Africa, General Waldhauser said, will include the departure of hundreds of Special Operations troops and their support forces. It will begin in places like Cameroon, where American war planners believe their efforts to train that country’s special operations forces have been largely successful. The United States currently has about 300 troops in Cameroon.

General Waldhauser said Cameroon’s security forces have improved to the point where they no longer need Americans to accompany them on missions.

“They can do it on their own,” he said. “That would be an example of a country where we have worked ourselves out of a job.”

A Defense Department official said that Nigerien forces are also considered to be improving to the point where they may soon not need American help.

Source: NYT

4, August 2018

Eight Southern Cameroonian refugees die in Nigeria ⁰

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Nigeria, has expressed sadness over the death of eight Cameroonian refugees in Ikom, Cross River.

Elizabeth Mpimbiza, Senior External Relations Officer, UNHCR, Nigeria, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

She said that the information communicated to UNCHR in Ikom showed that the refugees died of fumes from a generator in their room.

Ms Mpimbiza quoted Boubacar Bamba, UNHCR Assistant Representative, Operations in Nigeria, as describing the incidence as a “tragedy.”

Mr Bamba said that the UNHCR was saddened by the loss of lives.

“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and it is heart-breaking when it happens to those who are fleeing for safety,” Mr Bamba said.

Ms Mpimbiza said that UNHCR, through its office in Ikom, was working with the authorities to assist those who survived the incident.

The refugees were those fleeing Cameroon in the wake of violence in September 2017 and sought refuge in Nigeria’s Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states.

Ms Mpimbiza said that 21,291 refugees had so far been registered in the four states, adding that women and children accounted for 80 per cent of the refugees.

(NAN)

4, August 2018

Southern Cameroons refugees turn to low paid labour in Nigeria ⁰

Stella Obi wakes every morning in search of odd jobs in Agbokim Waterfalls village in southern Nigeria’s Cross River state.

With a hoe and a machete, the 34-year-old asks locals if they have any work for her on their farms.

She weeds or breaks cocoa pods.

“I get paid between 500 to 1000 naira ($2 to $4) a day,” she tells Al Jazeera as she works the soil in a small vegetable field. “I never tasted this kind of suffering when I was in my village in Cameroon.”

Obi, a mother of six, is among over 180, 000 Cameroonians who fled their homes following a violent crackdown by the Cameroonian government on Anglophone separatists who declared independence from the French-speaking majority on October 1.

More than 21,000 people have crossed the border to Nigeria, according to NGOs, though local emergency officials say the number could be higher, at up to 50,000.

Tensions rose in late 2016 with a strike by barristers and then teachers, both of whom were protesting against the use of French in schools and courts in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

More protests followed in major cities in the regions, with local residents joining rallies.

Stella Obi earns a few dollars a day to weed a small vegetable farm to raise money to feed her six children [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

As calls for either integration or autonomy grew louder, the government stepped in with heavy-handed tactics.

Security forces were deployed to the regions; protests were met with violence, arrests and killings. Hundreds of homes were razed.

The Ambazonia Defence Forces and other rebel groups sprang up and fought back, and armed separatists kidnapped civil servants, torched government buildings, and killed soldiers.

We left everything behind and fled to the forest. My husband tried to go back and gather some things and he was killed.

Most Cameronian refugees settled in Cross River state, which has a border with southwest Cameroon.

In Agbokim Waterfalls village, Obi and thousands of refugees have little or no access to food, medicine, education, clothing, drinking water and sanitation facilities.

“We left everything behind and fled to the forest,” Obi says, beads of sweat gleaming on her forehead. “My husband [a cocoa buyer] tried to go back and gather some things and he was killed.”

The asylum seekers are mostly staying with host families. Some households raised money for rent after doing odd jobs.

The UNHCR has been supporting the refugees, but it is now struggling with a lack of funds.

“I am becoming frustrated here,” says Obi, who is now joined by two of her children at the farm. “We have only received [support] two times, and sometimes it does not get to all of us, [especially] the sick, old and blind.”

Turning twigs into teeth-cleaning sticks

Across the road, another asylum seeker, 43-year-old Janet Obi, clears shrubs growing beneath large maize stalks, working with so much force that she stops regularly to catch her breath.

She is angered by the government’s use of force on protests.

“My [nephew] was playing outside our home when he was shot by a soldier,” she recalls. “He was innocent, he did nothing wrong. Our people are being shot like animals; we are armless civilians.

“I came to this village with my two children and 21 relatives last year. I used to be a businesswoman dealing in cocoa and fashion wears. Now I am doing anything to survive.”

Janet emphasises the word anything.

Janet Obi, a businesswoman before the conflict started, now works on farms to feed her family [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

Some women and children work on building sites, carrying bricks and other materials to make enough money for food.

Others use their income to buy tree branches to make chew sticks – which are used in some parts of Africa to clean teeth – to sell.

Across Agbokim Waterfalls, it is common to see refugees chopping tree branches into twigs.

Most Cameroonian refugees in Agbokim make chew sticks to survive [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

At an unfinished apartment building in the village centre, Mary Obong and a group of nine children are loading piles of twigs into a 100kg sack.

“I have to make chew sticks to feed my seven children and two of my grandchildren who are staying with me,” Obong says, imploring the children to hurry.

Families hosting refugees give Obong the branches and pay her anything from 1,500 to 3,000 naira ($5 to $10) to fill up a bag. The process could last a week or a little less.

Mary Obong is one of thousands of refugees from Cameroon who have fled violence [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

After Francophone Cameroon secured independence in 1960, the UN facilitated a referendum that allowed regions under British mandate to either join Nigeria or the larger French-speaking Cameroon.

Southern Cameroon – the present-day northwest and southwest regions – joined the Republic of Cameroon, but a national referendum in 1972 changed Cameroon into a unitary state.

Current President Paul Biya, who came into office in 1982, changed the country’s name in 1984 to the Republic of Cameroon, the initial Francophone territory name.

A second yellow star on the green stripe of the flag was removed, with the government touting the move as a symbol of unity.

However, a group of five elderly Cameroonian refugees who spoke to Al Jazeera say the second star represented the Anglophone regions, and its removal showed that Cameroon was not “one” or “united”.

The bulk of Cameroon’s industrial output, including its only refinery, is in the [Anglophone] Southwest Region, a fact which may partly explain the central government’s urgency in moving to quell secessionist elements.

CHETA NWANZE, RESEARCHER AT SBM INTELLIGENCE

Cameroon has a population of nearly 24 million people. An estimated 20 percent live in the Anglophone regions.

Eight out of the country’s 10 administrative provinces are Francophone.

Many in the Anglophone community feel marginalised by the French-speaking government in Yaounde, citing a lack of political representation, job opportunities and resources and the imposition of French in schools, official documents and courts.

More than half of Cameroon’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the Anglophone regions, according to estimates.

“The bulk of Cameroon’s industrial output, including its only refinery, is in the [Anglophone] Southwest Region, a fact which may partly explain the central government’s urgency in moving to quell secessionist elements,” says Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy firm, SBM Intelligence.

“What it unintentionally accomplished, however, was to inflame the feeling of discontent and disillusionment among large sections of English-speaking Cameroonians, which has seen the ranks of the separatist fighters increase.”

Ntui Patrick Obi, a former Cameroonian policeman, says many refugees would not go back to live under Paul Biya’s rule again [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

Discontent is common among the refugees.

“Many resources [such as] crude oil, cocoa, palm oil, timber, rubber, and banana come from our side, but after taking them away they forget us and face the Francophone areas,” former Cameroonian policeman Ntui Patrick Obi, 78, tells Al Jazeera.

“Our children will finish school with all their knowledge and the books they know but there is no work,” says Helen Agbor, an 80-year-old refugee.

“Why would Paul Biya want us to remain in Cameroon? He couldn’t even give our children a broom to sweep the road to get money to eat. Some of them are becoming thieves because of no work. We will resist him until the end.”

Cameroonian refugees in Agbokim Waterfall village wait in the sweltering heat outside a centre to receive assistance [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

If President Biya, 85, extends his 35-year rule in upcoming elections, the crisis is expected to deepen, according to analysts.

“Cameroon sits at the crossroads of West and Central Africa, a strategically important position from a geopolitical standpoint,” says Nwanze, the researcher at SBM Intelligence.

“On all of its international boundaries – Boko Haram in Nigeria, ethnic militias in Chad and sectarian fighters in the Central African Republic – instability abounds. A further escalation of the violence into more open and defined conflict will have repercussions that extend beyond its borders.”

Back in Agbokim Waterfalls village, hundreds of refugees pour into an aid centre. More than 1,000 people wait outside, plastic bowls and cups in their hands.

They gather like this whenever food and other items come in from the Anglophone diaspora, or local people and churches.

Inside the centre, there are grains, vegetable oil, salt and tins of tomatoes.

Quarrels simmer over how to ration out the supply.

It is in moments such as this that Stella Obi, the widowed mother of six who works the vegetable fields, remembers home.

“Soldiers burned our homes, clothes, property, bags of cocoa – just everything, so what is the point of returning?” she asks.

“My children ask me ‘where is our father?’ every day.”

Cameroonian refugees gather at an aid centre in Agbokim Waterfalls village to collect food and other items [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

4, August 2018

UN shocked over Nigerian asylum-seeker deaths in Cameroon ⁰

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is shocked to learn of the tragic death of six Nigerian asylum-seekers, among them three children, who were killed in a blast in the far north of Cameroon.

UNHCR has learnt that on 29 July, 12 asylum-seekers were being forcibly returned to Banki, Nigeria, in a Cameroonian army truck which drove over an improvised explosive device that exploded. Six Cameroonian soldiers and six other asylum-seekers were also injured in the incident, which took place in Homaka, Mayo Sava Division.

“This tragic incident is a disappointing testament of continuing forced returns (refoulements) of refugees and asylum-seekers from Cameroon, despite numerous appeals by UNHCR to the Government of Cameroon to respect its obligations,” said Valentin Tapsoba, Director of UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Africa. “The forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law to which the Cameroonian State is party.”

Over 800 Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers in Cameroon have been forcibly returned to Nigeria since the beginning of 2018. UNHCR once again calls upon the government of Cameroon to refrain from carrying out further forced returns of Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers. It also reminds Cameroon of its obligations under international law relating to the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers and the commitments it made by signing the Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon in March 2017. UNHCR reiterates its appeal to authorities to provide Nigerian refugees with unhindered access to asylum and stands ready to support Cameroon to ensure all individuals seeking safety have access to efficient screening, registration and documentation procedures.

Some 96,000 Nigerian refugees have sought safety in the Far North region of the country, with more than 8,000 new refugees registered since the beginning of 2018. Cameroon currently hosts more than 367,000 refugees and asylum- seekers.

Source: The UN