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7, August 2018

French Cameroun Politics: ELECAM clears Biya, eight others for October 7 polls ⁰

Cameroon’s electoral body, ELECAM, on Tuesday cleared nine candidates to run for the presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018. Incumbent Paul Biya is seeking to extend his 36 years in power by a fresh seven-year mandate.

The nine include Biya who leads the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM). His main challengers will be Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and lawyer Akere Muna – a former head of the country’s bar association.

The other candidates to be present on the ballot paper include: Serge Espoir Matomba, Cabral Libii, Njifor Franklin, Maurice Kamto, Garga Haman and Ndam Njoya.

Over twenty candidates filed their candidacy to contest for the highest political seat of the land. ELECAM disqualified all but the nine above whiles one candidate is said to have withdrawn his candidacy.

The October 7 vote is seen as a stern test for the incumbent who has often won elections with huge margins. A current security crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions have continually affected Biya’s popularity.

Pro-independence groups under the banner of so called Ambazonia Republic continue to wage guerilla-style attacks on members of the security forces across the South-West and North-West – Anglophone regions.

Political watchers are projecting that for the opposition to effectively tackle Biya, there would need to be an alliance to back a common candidate but it remains to be seen in the next two months if they can pull off such a move.

Source: Africa News

7, August 2018

Ivory Coast announces amnesty for former first lady Simone Gbagbo ⁰

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Monday announced amnesties for around 800 people, including former first lady Simone Gbagbo who is currently behind bars, in the name of national reconciliation. Last week Ivory Coast’s Supreme Court overturned an earlier acquittal granted to Gbagbo for crimes against humanity.

The wife of former president Laurent Gbagbo, in power from 2000 to 2010, will “soon be freed,” Ouattara said during a televised address to the West African nation on the eve of the country’s independence day.

Simone Gbagbo has been serving a 20-year sentence handed to her in 2015 for “endangering state security”. Laurent Gbagbo has been in detention at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for seven years. Since 2016, he has been tried for alleged crimes against humanity during post-election unrest in 2010.

Among the others granted amnesties by Ouattara on Monday were former defence minister Lida Kouassi — a key ally of Laurent Gbagbo — who was sentenced this year to 15 years for conspiracy, and former construction minister Assoa Adou, jailed in 2017 for four years.

“On Monday I signed an amnesty order that will benefit about 800 citizens prosecuted or sentenced for offences related to the post-election crisis of 2010 or state security offences committed after May 21, 2011, (the date of Ouattara’s inauguration),” the president said in his address.

Around 500 of those named have already been released provisionally from detention, he added. They will have their criminal records erased.

The other 300 will be released “soon”, he added, without giving any dates.

The question of national reconciliation in Ivory Coast, or the lack of it, has been seen by observers as a black mark against Ouattara.

About 3,000 people died in the turmoil that swept Abidjan — once one of Africa’s most cosmopolitan cities — in the aftermath of the November 2010 presidential polls when Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to bitter rival Ouattara.

(AFP)

7, August 2018

Kenya re-arrests ‘dangerous’ Cameroonian despite court order ⁰

Directorate of Criminal Investigations director George Kinoti has ignored a court order and rearrested a Cameroonian national who was deported from the country last year but managed to find his way back.

Doctta Peter Longa, who was deported last year and declared persona non grata in Kenya was arrested two weeks ago in Nairobi and released on a Ksh.50,000 cash bail by a Nairobi court.

Mr. Kinoti, who says Longa is linked to a spate of criminal activities including; gun running, human trafficking and money laundering ordered for his re-arrest and deportation.

“We are not going to allow criminals to operate in Kenya, Longa has been involved in a series of criminal activities in various countries,” Kinoti said.

The spy boss says Longa was arrested two weeks ago after detectives intercepted him on Enterprise Road in Nairobi.

“We got information that the suspect had sneaked into Kenya through panya routes and immediately began tracking him down. On July 20, 2018, my undercover detectives intercepted Longa in Nairobi,” Kinoti added.

Longa was taken to court and charged with being in Kenya illegally and engaging in criminal activities. He denied the charges and was released on a cash bail of Ksh.50,000.

Last year, Longa was arrested in his Karen home where police seized fake US dollars worth over Ksh.1 billion. “How can court release such a dangerous character with Ksh.50,000 cash bail? This person was declared persona non grata in 2017 and deported to Duala, Cameroon. We will not allow him to commit crimes in Kenya,” added Kinoti.

The DCI boss insists Longa will remain in police custody as preparations to deport him are concluded.

Source: Citizentv

7, August 2018

Five police killed in strife-torn Southern Cameroons ⁰

Five police have been killed in fresh violence in western Cameroon, where English-speaking separatists have declared an independent state, security sources and witnesses said on Monday.

Four gendarmes were killed in Esu, a village near the town of Wum in Northwest Region, when their unit came under attack on Sunday, a source close to the regional security services said.

“The attack happened in the morning – they were new recruits who were caught off-guard,” the source said, adding that there also were wounded.

The inhabitants of Esu fled after the attack, one of them said. “Many people were so afraid that they went off into the bush – others are trying to get to Bamenda,” the capital of Northwest Region, the source said.

In neighbouring Southwest Region, a police officer named Ekah Njume was killed on Sunday at his home in Mutengene, near the capital Buea, by unidentified assailants, witnesses and local press reports said on Monday.

The two regions are predominantly home to English-speakers, a minority comprising about a fifth of the 22 million people in Cameroon, a largely French-speaking West African state.

Years of resentment among anglophones at perceived discrimination fuelled demands in 2016 for a return to the country’s federal structure.

President Paul Biya, 85, took a hard line, ruling out any concessions. As the situation polarised, anglophone militants last October 1 made a symbolic declaration of independence that met with a government crackdown.

Since then, the two regions have been hit by almost daily acts of violence and retribution. Scores of police and troops have been killed, as well as more than 100 civilians, according to a government report in July.

According to UN data, the violence has caused more than 21 000 people to flee to neighbouring countries, while 160 000 have been internally displaced, with many reportedly hiding in forests. Cameroon’s large English-speaking minority is a legacy of the colonial period.

The former German colony was divided between Britain and France after World War I. In 1960, the French colony gained independence, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons were amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Source: AFP

6, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Talking tough will not help matters ⁰

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has given the country a bad name is gradually getting into a critical phase. The country’s minister of territorial administration is not displaying the maturity leadership imposes on people. He is still talking tough and this is hurting any chances for peace.

If talking tough could address many issues, the Southern Cameroons crisis that has given the country a very bad name, could have been addressed. As the situation deteriorates, it will be wise for both parties to keep it low. Tough language has never really resolved any issue, but people like Atanga Nji are yet to understand that. Words are like bullets. Once they are out of the mouth, they cannot be recalled and they have the potential to ruin any efforts at bringing back peace to a people.

Atanga Nji displayed this primitive tendency a few days ago while receiving some Fako chiefs who had been released by Southern Cameroonian fighters after protracted negotiations. For Atanga Nji, the country’s territorial administration minister, who received the chiefs in Yaounde, he used the occasion to provoke Southern Cameroonian fighters.

He promised tracking down all the fighters who are in the jungle, adding that they and their progeny would be made to pay for their crimes if they did not come out of the jungle that has been serving as a five-star hotel to them and a green jail to all those arrested.

Mr. Atanga Nji who is not a respected minister in Cameroon, failed to understand that if it was easy to arrest the fighters in the thick equatorial jungle of the Southwest region, that would have been done a long time ago. His constant use of unfriendly language has unfortunately led to the killing of many uniformed officers.

Over the last few days, not less than 8 uniformed officers have been killed in Southern Cameroons and this has resulted in renewed violence, with the ordinary civilian suffering for something he knows nothing about.

Mr. Atanga Nji and his Yaounde masters should figure out that there will never be a total military solution to this issue. Southern Cameroonians are determined to stay the course, and only genuine and sincere dialogue will stop tempers from flaring.

The fighters on the ground are people who hold that they have nothing to lose. They have already lost everything. Their dignity is gone. Their future has been ruined. And some have lost their families to this unnecessary war.

However, it is also important to mention that arresting chiefs and Fons, does not give the revolution a good name. South West chiefs just like their North West counterparts are not against the revolution. They cannot openly state their disagreement with what the government is doing.

It is therefore absurd to kidnap them. They are Southern Cameroonians to the core. However, they must always do their job. They are public servants and they must pay allegiance to the government that pays them.

For the government, it has a lot to gain. A restoration of peace across the country will enable it to have total control of its territory and resources. The existence of armed groups robs it of its revenue sources.

The Southern Cameroons crisis has hit the Yaounde government like a ton of bricks. The country’s economy is suffering. Its Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) seem to be out of service. State corporations located in Southern Cameroons are already feeling the heat.

Pamol, a palm oil production corporation located in Lobe, a small town in Ndian Division, has finally shut its doors as the fighting between Southern Cameroonian fighters and army soldiers takes a turn for the worse. This revenue stream has stopped flowing and Yaounde is really ill-at-ease.

Pamol’s closure is bad news for the government. More than three thousand Pamol workers are today unemployed and living in permanent fear, as the fighting between the warring factions rages on.

Schools and courts in the region have been closed for almost two years and it is increasingly obvious that the Yaoundé government has lost control of certain parts of the two English-speaking regions.

But it is not only Pamol’s closure that is causing the government nightmares. The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), one of the country’s major employers, is also going through a rough patch.

Some of its factories have closed shop, while the fighters have deliberately set some of its infrastructure ablaze as part of their economic sabotage campaign. Malende, a small town located some 6 km from Muyuka, has witnessed huge unemployment rates. The corporation’s rubber factory was set ablaze sometime last month by some unidentified men and this has hit CDC like a ton of bricks.

In other plantations, many workers have simply deserted. The fighting is disrupting economic activities in those plantations and many workers hold that it is better to quit than be caught up between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The fighting, coupled with the derisory salaries the corporation pays to its workers, has made CDC unattractive and this is gradually eroding the government’s tax base.

Similarly, government revenue has taken a nosedive, as the national oil refinery located in the Southwest region is also facing some major challenges. While falling global oil prices are spreading pain and suffering among oil exporters, the declining oil output and constant attempts by Southern Cameroonian fighters to bring down the country’s lone oil refinery are leaving the government in a huge messy economic quandary.

The crisis is a true nightmare to this once-upon-a-time oasis of peace. It is, indeed, a millstone around the government’s neck. Things might soon spiral out of control as the fighters threaten to attack SONARA at the slightest opportunity. They argue that they have never gained from the oil and that it will be better for everybody to suffer the consequences of the government’s recklessness.

These planned acts of sabotage do not augur well for a government that is already on its knees. It is already having a tough time paying civil servants and this is causing fear among the civil servants, especially the military, many of whom want to desert and seek a better life for their families abroad.

The government has a bigger crisis on its hands. It had not properly analyzed its decision before implementing it. It is gradually recognizing that declaring war on its own people is a big mistake, as the impact of the war is spreading into East Cameroon. With a large influx of internally displaced people into East Cameroon, housing and food have become very expensive in those cities receiving the internally displaced.

Douala and Yaounde have been home to most of this internally displaced people and these two cities lack the proper infrastructure to handle such situations. And the situation is declining very fast.

Declining oil revenues and falling production of some of the country’s major employers like CDC and Pamol implies that the government is heading for a financial squeeze. This is exactly what is causing frustration within the government. Many development projects have been suspended due to lack of resources.

Cameroon is indeed at the crossroads. With elections around the corner and the fighting in the English-speaking regions raging on, it is clear that a disaster is lurking somewhere and before long the country could be transformed into an inferno.

The frustration in East Cameroon is also mounting, as many people fall into abject poverty. It is becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Biya is not the man to lead the country to the land of promise. His time is up and there is a consensus around the world that he has overstayed his welcome.

It is time for him to bow out if he does not want the country to sink into a bitter civil war; the type that has destroyed many African countries ruled by dictators. The scourge of war seems to be advancing towards Cameroon and many people around the world are worried that if the Sword of Damocles descends on Cameroon, the entire sub-region might be pushed into unprecedented chaos.

Tempers are already flaring in the country. For 36 years, Mr. Biya has only favored people from his own region. Though the center and south regions constitute less than 10% of the country’s population, they make up 80% of the country’s government; a situation that is hurting many Cameroonians from other regions of the country.

It is therefore in the government’s interest to change its language. Speaking the language of peace is not a sign of weakness. Atanga Nji must understand that he will never win this war. If he thinks that he will be going to Washington, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, London, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and other cities around the world to kidnap Southern Cameroonians living there, then he has not yet figured out the full extent of the government’s previous mistakes.

The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora has a huge war chest and it is ready and willing to make the Yaounde government pay for its mistakes. Southern Cameroonians have dollar millionaires who are capable of keeping the government in this pretty military mess for many decades.

The government had underestimated the will of the people of Southern Cameroons to right the wrongs of the past. For many of them, their fate is worse than death and they have very little time to be around this planet. They want to establish their own country and even ensure that future generations do not deal with such time-consuming and energy-sapping challenges.

The fighters are, of course, receiving huge support from the Diaspora that has transformed this issue into an opportunity for its strength and influence to be felt. With some 4 million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is likely that more money will be flowing to Cameroon to feed the war that has rushed many young men and soldiers to an early grave.

The government had never thought that the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora could be this influential. It had also underestimated the anger of those living abroad. Southern Cameroonians started living the country as far back as 1965 when the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, displayed his huge appetite for dictatorship. For many Southern Cameroonians, it was better to live abroad a free man than to live at home in invisible chains.

Today, that Diaspora has reduced the Yaounde government to a symbol of mockery. The Diaspora is financing the war in the country and it is willing to bring down the entire country. Gradually, the Francophone Diaspora is also joining in. Francophones now know that if the current system is not brought down, their own children will be caught up in a pretty mess, as Southern Cameroonians already have a foot out of the fake union that was put together by Ahidjo, Foncha and Muna who are all dead and gone.

If the government wants to address this issue, then it has to change its language. The current language is not delivering the desired results. It must also understand that it must make lots of concessions if it wants peace to return to the country. There are many lessons for the government to learn. This situation should leave it a sadder, but a wiser government.

It must never underestimate the power and will of the Diaspora. The Diaspora will continue to destabilize the country if the government does not seek genuine reconciliation through inclusive dialogue. The ball is in the government’s court. The Diaspora holds the trump card. Its vast resources and influence over the fighters make it a partner in any negotiations. The government has to meet the Diaspora halfway if it is thinking of peace.

Any Dialogue will not take place in Cameroon. The Diaspora holds that the government is not worthy of its confidence. Washington or Ottawa have therefore been chosen as the place for any talks. The Canadian government, in particular, will be willing to mediate.

Canada is noted for its peace-keeping and peace-building initiatives across the globe. It is therefore the right peace-broker in this situation. It has lots of lessons for Cameroon as it has once dealt with a similar situation. The government must come out of its current position. Grand-standing and posturing will not make things better. Humility and recognition of its mistakes will calm down tempers.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

6, August 2018

BBC turns its focus on the unseen civil war ongoing in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Rumours of a silent war ongoing in the anglophone part of Cameroon have been filtering through for months.

It was reported in October 2017 that the internet was shut off in that part of the country to quiet dissenters from spreading the news.

State-sanctioned kills have also been reported, with soldiers accused of shooting people.

The BBC Africa Eye has collated and analysed the videos from the killings. Their analysis is a saddening and heartbreaking one, revealing a civil war in the country, with too many killings.

Source: Bellanaija.com

6, August 2018

Congolese Refugees Risk Infecting Neighboring Countries with Ebola ⁰

U.N. officials warn the deadly Ebola virus could be spread by refugees leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province. Officials are urging neighboring countries to increase surveillance at border crossings.

The number of confirmed cases in Congo’s new outbreak of the virus has risen to 13, including three deaths, the nation’s health ministry said late Saturday.

This latest outbreak was announced Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after the previous outbreak in DRC’s northwest had been declared over, having killed 33 people. It was not clear whether the new outbreak, more than 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) away, was related.

More than 100 armed groups are involved in long-standing conflicts in DRC’s North Kivu province. Ongoing fighting and instability in the region are adding layers of complexity and difficulty to international efforts to combat an Ebola outbreak in the region.

At least two decades of conflict has displaced more than 1 million of the province’s 8 million inhabitants. Peter Salama, World Health Organization emergency response chief, told VOA an additional threat was posed by refugees. He warned that some of those fleeing into neighboring Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi might be taking the infection with them.

“So, not only do you have the problem of tracking that internal displacement, but then you have the potential exportation of infection across borders,” Salama said. “And, that is why we are already working with the government of Uganda, particularly, but also Rwanda, which shares a border as well with northern Kivu, to be fully prepared for any eventualities across the border.”

The U.N. refugee agency is lending its expertise to this situation. It is preparing shelters for at least 1,000 vulnerable internally displaced persons and other extremely vulnerable people in the Ebola-affected Beni area. It also is undertaking protection and monitoring activities.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said his agency’s staff in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania were on Ebola alert.

“Specifically, in Uganda, we have a continuous influx from the DRC. Our operation has intensified the awareness-raising among the refugee and host communities. We have also increased the infection control and outbreak preparedness measures,” Mahecic said. “And, we also are preparing for entry screening. That could be the temperature checks for arriving Congolese refugees at the borders.”

Mahecic said around 92,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Uganda so far this year. He said they are continuing to arrive at an average rate of between 100 and 200 a day.

Source: VOA

6, August 2018

Japan marks 73rd anniversary of US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima ⁰

Japan is marking 73 years since the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, with tens of thousands of people taking part in a solemn and emotional ceremony to honor the victims of the world’s first ever atomic attack.

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped its atomic payload over the port city at 8:15 a.m. local time, ultimately killing 140,000 people.

The bombing utterly destroyed almost everything within 10 square kilometers in the downtown area.

Many died immediately while others succumbed to their injuries or radiation-related illnesses weeks, months, and years later.

Three days later, a second nuclear attack on Nagasaki killed another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, and brought the hostilities of the World War II to an end. It was, however, a beginning to the nuclear age.

On Monday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima, located about 700 hundred kilometers west of Tokyo, to mark the occasion, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in attendance.

The participants – among them survivors and representatives from 80 countries — observed a minute’s silence at 8:15 a.m., the moment the Hiroshima tragedy occurred.

A mushroom cloud over the city of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui addressed the crowd at the ceremony, recounting the scene of the tragedy on the day of the bombing. He asked the audience to listen “as if you and your loved ones were there.”

“If the human family forgets history or stops confronting it, we could again commit a terrible error,” Matsui said.

Calling nuclear deterrents and umbrellas “inherently unstable and extremely dangerous,” Matsui urged world leaders to negotiate in good faith to eliminate their atomic weapons.

He also called for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, saying, “We in civil society fervently hope that the easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula will proceed through peaceable dialogue.”

Matsui further urged the prime minister to help the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — also known as the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty — take effect.

Doves fly over the Peace Memorial Park at 73rd anniversary of Hiroshima atomic attack, in the city on August 6, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Abe also addressed the crowd, repeating the vow to lead efforts for a nuclear-free world.

In order to promote cooperation for having a world free of nuclear arsenal, Abe said, world leaders must understand “the reality of the tragedy of nuclear attacks.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who also attended the event, in turn, warned about rising tensions between nuclear-armed states, saying “Nuclear arsenals are being modernized and, in some cases, expanded.”

“What occurred in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 cannot and must not ever happen again,” he said.

Japan, now a US ally, falls under the protection of America’s nuclear umbrella and has so far refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted in July 2017.

Source: Presstv

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)