About soter

Posts by :

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

3, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The frustration is manifest ⁰

In less than two months, the Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons will be two years old and despite criticism by the international community, the Yaounde government’s ferocious brutality is still going on. Indeed, there is no sign that the government is thinking of any other solution that can result in a peaceful resolution of the conflict that has already killed some 3,000 civilians and about 1,000 military men.

Despite the government’s radio silence over what is happening in the two English-speaking regions of the country, there are indications that the government is losing sleep over the situation. Instead of seeking peace, the government is still prepared to take military action that might only make matters worse. The government’s arrogance and greed are to blame for the deterioration of the situation in the English-speaking regions of the country and it has been working hard to disguise its frustration.

But it is always challenging to hide frustrations and issues. Speaking recently during a press conference in Yaounde, the country’s communication minister, Issa Tchiroma, struck a different note. While insisting that Cameroon was one and indivisible, he urged Cameroonians – Anglophones and Francophones – to remain united so as to face an imaginary foreign attack.

Mr. Tchiroma who has been very uncompromising when it comes to the Southern Cameroons crisis, insinuated that the ugly fighting playing out in the North West and South West regions of the country was the handiwork of foreign countries and agents whose sole interest is to have a grip on the country’s gold, oil, diamond and other natural resources.

But his message is not getting through. It is clearly falling on deaf ears. Southern Cameroonians will surely not be listening to those stories from a man who has worked so hard to ensure Southern Cameroonians get killed for their resources. The South West region, in particular, is a receptacle of God’s blessings for the country. The country’s oilfields are located in Ndian Division and there are huge gold deposits in Mbonge. Manyu Division has huge expanse of forest that is the envy of the world and it is alleged that this division, noted for its learned people, is sitting on huge oil deposits. There was some exploratory work in the region before the conflict broke out. This will surely continue when the guns stop spreading death.

The region’s waters are also home to large fish stocks. Its forest is home to unimaginable fauna and flora and it is not in error that the world also knows the country because of the Korup National Park which straddles Manyu and Indian Divisions. The South West region is also known for its fertile volcanic soil and this explains why agriculture is one of the many activities that have been yielding huge foreign earnings to the country. Many of the country’s neighbors have their food supply from the south west region.

Unfortunately, this region is one of the poorest in the country. Its people are still living in abject poverty and what passes for medical, school and road infrastructure clearly belongs to another epoch. The South West deserves better, but years of marginalization have left the region in dehumanizing poverty.

While the country has been raking in millions of dollars from the region’s oil, the residents of the region have been tied up in degrading poverty. The country’s lone refinery (SONARA) is located in Southern Cameroon, precisely in the Southwest port city of Limbe formerly known as Victoria, but the natives of the region have been reduced to sorry spectators of events in their own region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis is also born of this injustice. More than 90% of the refinery staff are Francophones and to add insults to injury, staff of the refinery have their own neighborhoods that are well designed and very clean. Besides, petroleum products are more expensive in the South West region than in any other region of the country.

This economic apartheid that has been around since 1977 when oil was discovered in Ndian Division is one of the many reasons why Southern Cameroonians hold that a clear break with East Cameroon will be the ideal solution and they are willing to sacrifice their lives so that future generations will not have to deal with the same issues.

They want to walk away from this ‘political marriage’ that has brought them more pain than gain. Though it will take time to achieve such an outcome, Southern Cameroonians back home, now known as Ground Zero, hold that it better to die trying than to sit and watch other people enjoy their God-given wealth.

If they succeed to walk away, then Cameroon will be losing about 60% of its wealth. Southern Cameroons is blessed with enormous wealth and the Yaounde government holds that it is by terrorizing the people that it will succeed to keep them in the dark of what is happening to their resources.

For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary in the South West region has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil. Since 2014, Cameroon has exported more than US$5.88 billion worth of products, of which more than US$2.65 billion, about CFAF 1,650 billion, has been from crude oil alone. This is a significant amount of money and the Yaounde government cannot afford to lose such revenues.

The government is not only frustrated, it is scared, as the possibility of secession is there. All its efforts to lay the matter to rest have been futile. Its divide-and-rule strategy has simply fallen apart as North westerners and South westerners clearly understand that they are united for a cause that will bring them happiness and prosperity. Not even the government’s military violence has succeeded to take the wind out the fighters’ sail. The more the government kills, the more determined the fighters become.

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.

And they are 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 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 into 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.

Cameroon seems to have been caught up in a terrible mess. 2018 may be the year the country might implode. With presidential elections scheduled for October, it is clear that things might spiral out of control, especially as the country’s ailing and aging president, Paul Biya, is running in an election, many observers say, will never be free and fair.

Mr. Biya has ruled the country for 36 years and he has nothing to show for the time he has led the country. The country’s roads have become death traps, its hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics, its schools clearly belong to another era and its people are suffering from all types of ailments. Today, the country is beset by many diseases that have been eliminated in other parts of the world. Cholera is killing many people in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, due to poor water supply and sanitation. The roads in the city are clearly begging for an extreme makeover, but the government has clearly run out of money.

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.

The government is gradually recognizing that declaring a war on its own people was 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.

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 and the frustration is now manifest.

While the government is putting on a brave face in public, it is indeed worried that Southern Cameroonians might walk away from the union that was stitched together in 1972 between West and East Cameroon. Southern Cameroonians hold that the union has been predicated upon lies right from the beginning and that a review of the system is long overdue.

Reports from international rights groups such as Transparency International, Amnesty International (AI) and The International Crisis Group (ICG) have clearly indicted the Yaounde government and this is already hurting. The government has always been very critical of Amnesty International and the ICG, but this week, its spokesperson and communication minister, Issa Tchiroma, revealed that The International Crisis Group will never be allowed to set foot in the country. This is prove of its frustration and guilt. Instead of seeking to get it right, the government seems to be chasing the wrong shadows.

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.

The world has to jump in right now. There is still time to fix a few things. If Mr. Biya stays in power, the country will never be stable. If he dies in power, Cameroon will never be a peaceful country again, as there will be revenge killings all over the country. The world cannot be blind to this unfortunate situation that has reduced the country into a ticking time bomb. There is still time to defuse this bomb. The world will have itself to blame if things really fall apart in Cameroon.

By Kingsley Betek and Irene Nanyongo

3, August 2018

Southern Cameroons War: IG condemns Biya-Ekema Patrick-led carnage ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has strongly condemned recent killings by the Francophone army in Buea, Mamfe, Ekona, Ndop and Muea. A Cameroon government military attack ordered by defense minister Beti Assomo killed scores of people throughout Southern Cameroons. The Ambazonian Secretary of Communications, Hon. Chris Anu described the killings by French Cameroun troops as a continuation of French Cameroun’s horrifying genocide against the people of Southern Cameroons.

French Cameroun soldiers are slaughtering on a daily basis dozens of innocent Southern Cameroons citizens including several members of Igbo extraction from Nigeria who are part of the business community in Southern Cameroons by attacking civilian targets to make up for Yaoundé frustration and defeats on the battleground. Chief Barrister Charles Taku of the International Criminal Court says the killings in Southern Cameroons orchestrated by the Biya regime is a serious war crime.

The leadership of the Christian churches including the Holy Roman Catholic Church is maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb. However, the continuation of the atrocities of the Francophone army in the face of the silence of the international community has worryingly aggravated the situation in Southern Cameroonians.

The Francophone dominated army has been attacking Southern Cameroons towns and villages since 2017. The Southern Cameroons war has killed more than a thousand, and placed the country on the edge of outright civil war.

By Chi Prudence Asong