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28, March 2018

Atanga Nji in Southern Cameroons: But is anyone actually listening to him? ⁰

The government of Cameroon will accept dialogue as part of measures to end the Anglophone crisis, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji is reported to have said.

He however stresses that the sole condition to the dialogue being that it will be held with persons who are advancing the unity of Cameroon as a nation.

His view effectively means that the Central African country is not going to engage armed separatists whose activities continue to threaten members of the security forces and disrupt life in the Northwest and Southwest of the country – the Anglophone regions.

“We can still solve the problem without burning, looting, raping, destroying. The government is ready to dialogue with those who seek the oneness of Cameroon,” the Minister said in a visit to Buea, capital of the Southwest region on Tuesday.

Atanga is one of two Anglophones who were handed positions in the government following a cabinet reshuffle carried out by long-serving leader, Paul Biya.

What has become known as the Anglophone crisis, has riled the country’s two English-speaking regions. A previous cry against discrimination and marginalization from French-majority Cameroon has now taken a violent turn.

Secessionists under the so-called Ambazonia Republic continue to push for a breakaway from Cameroon – a move the government has flatly rejected. After a crackdown on protests in October last year during a planned symbolic independence declaration, the secessionists turned to arms.

They have since attacked and killed over twenty members of government forces – police, soldiers and gendarmes. They have also kidnapped two government officials. A soldier after burning his vehicle and a government official who appeared in a video begging to be rescued.

The call for dialogue has continually been made by several countries and groups but has yet to be seriously pursued. A number of the separatists leaders have been arrested and deported from Nigeria since January but they have yet to appear in court.

The humanitarian crisis arising from the situation has also led to Cameroonians fleeing the Anglophone regions in their thousands. The United Nations refugee agency has openly tasked parties to use dialogue to avoid further escalation of the crisis.

Source: Africa News

28, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Sisiku Ayuk Tabe showing no signs of surrender ⁰

A well-placed source in Yaoundé has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia who was abducted alongside members of his government in Nigeria and forcefully extradited to French Cameroun, Sisisku Ayuk Tabe has no intention of giving up his struggle for the independence of Southern Cameroons.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is currently being held in a presidential bunker in Yaoundé and has been refused contacts with legal representation hired by the Interim Government. Our source indicated that the Ambazonian chief executive has been questioned by French Cameroun Secret Service officials a couple of times but he would never surrender in the face of pressure on him to give up his push for independence of Southern Cameroons.

We gathered that the Sisiku was recently allocated 15 minutes daily by the Biya regime to sit outside and get some sun shine. Our informant further pointed out that “he looks like a man who will continue fighting and is aware that this is going to be a long fight but it will be a fight that Southern Cameroonians will win.”

The Yaoundé regime is preparing a case against the former Minister of Transport, Edgard Alain Mebo Ngo’o and other CIR sources have revealed that documents are being concocted to paint a political link between the former baron of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and President Ayuk Julius Tabe.

Moderates within the Biya government are reportedly saying that the war on the people of Southern Cameroons was ill-advised and that Southern Cameroonians have the right to express their willingness for independence and a republic in West Cameroon.

Lawyers representing the abducted leaders in the Federal Republic of Nigeria received an objection from the Cameroun embassy in Abuja to travel to Yaoundé and meet their clients who were extradited without any legal process.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was abducted in Abuja, Nigeria by a joint French Cameroun and Nigeria operation after the French Cameroun army launched a sweeping crackdown to block his declaration of independence for Southern Cameroons. He has mostly been based in Nigeria and has managed to get re-elected in snap elections staged by the various legitimate groups fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. Yaoundé is expected to charge him, along 46 others for sedition and rebellion. We also got intelligence that 20 of the young Southern Cameroonians arrested in Taraba in Nigeria and sent back to French Cameroun were killed recently.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

28, March 2018

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu rushed to hospital ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been rushed to hospital, say Israeli media sources.

According to several media sources on Tuesday, Netanyahu was transported to Haddassah Hospital in Jerusalem al-Quds after suffering from a high fever and severe coughing.

His personal physician has said that Netanyahu is suffering from lack of rest following an illness he contracted around two weeks ago.

“The prime minister is suffering from a high fever and is coughing,” confirmed his spokesman.

Source: Presstv

27, March 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Interim Gov’t says La Republique Forces Burnt St. Benedict’s Comprehensive College ⁰

Soldiers from La Republique du Cameroun regular army, its elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide, BIR) have burned St. Benedict’s Comprehensive College (SABECC) alongside a nearby Government Technical School in the territory of Ambazoania on Monday, 26 March 2018, sources close the school administration have confirmed.

His Grace, Mgr. Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua, Bamenda Archdiocese is the proprietor of St. Benedict Comprehensive College, within the St. Mathias parish in Widikum Local Government Area, Momo County, Northern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Since February, BIR soldiers were using the campus and classrooms as their military base from where they planned attacks, kidnapped unarmed civilians, confined civilians in dark rooms doe days without food, ferried many blindfolded civilians to Yaounde under the cover of darkness and released others after payment of ransom ranging from 500,000 – 1,000,000 Frs CFA.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Ambazonia self-defence forces in Widikum carried out operation “flush out” of the campus that resulted on the dead of fifteen (15) BIR soldiers. During the exchange of fire power, unfortunately, we lost one student who was in the custody of the BIR soldiers. The surviving few BIR soldiers burned the campus and their whereabout is still unknown.

By the Communications Secretary

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

27, March 2018

German court keeps exiled Catalan leader Puigdemont in custody ⁰

A German court said on Monday it was likely to take several days to decide whether to extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face rebellion charges over the region’s campaign for independence.

Puigdemont appeared on Monday before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster, which extended his detention pending a decision on extradition.

Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain’s request. The court is unlikely to make a final decision on Puigdemont’s extradition before Easter, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said.

He had entered Germany from Denmark on Friday after leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference and was caught off-guard by the Spanish Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to reactivate his arrest warrant.

Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid, faces charges of rebellion that could lead to 25 years in prison.

(Source: Reuters)

27, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Things are falling apart ⁰

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started like a joke in 2016 is gradually producing one of the least expected consequences. When it all started playing out, the Cameroon government thought it could address the issue through military violence. In its view, killing a few demonstrators would send the others home and things would return to normal. But this strategy that has worked for years has turned out to be the government’s worst mistake.

Instead of sending the other demonstrators home after manhandling lawyers and Buea university students, things have instead snowballed and a small problem that could have been nipped in the bud through constructive and inclusive dialogue has metamorphosed into a full-blown conflict that has already consumed more than 1,000 lives. Despite this unfortunate picture, the government still holds that this unconventional war can only be won through conventional methods. It has declared war on the people it is supposed to protect and instead of using the population to gather intelligence so as to gain a better understanding of things, it has resorted to collective punishment which has only pushed the innocent and desperate population into the waiting arms of the secessionists.

Government measures have been anything but effective. Its arrogance has surprised the international community. Its financiers are gradually questioning its management effectiveness and this is gradually manifesting itself through dwindling resources. Pride goes before a fall, so say the wise. And this is gradually coming to pass in Cameroon where a government that has been at grips with a rebellion in the English-speaking part of the country and an endless insurgency in the north is dealing with empty coffers. The arrogance with which the government declared war on Southern Cameroonians a few months back is gradually fizzling out.

Mr. Joseph Beti Assoumou, the government’s defense minister, had declared that his troops would implement the president’s decision without batting an eyelid, but it turned out that Southern Cameroonian fighters, most of whom are ill-equipped, have killed so many army soldiers without batting an eyelid; a situation that has caused the docile Francophone population to start questioning the rationale behind the declaration of a war on fellow citizens as if they were some foreign fighters.

The violence escalated following the extradition of the Ambazonia President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, on Monday, January 26, 2018, to Yaoundé and this has continued for many weeks. Many young Southern Cameroonians have stepped up attacks on soldiers and gendarmes in a bid to express their frustration and anger. Many cities have been the theater of intense fighting for months with Manyu Division being the epicenter and this is costing the government a pretty penny. The government is facing a tough financial situation. Declining oil production and falling commodity prices are hurting a government that has spent more time wasting money on fake elections than on real and sustainable development projects.

The increasing attacks had been predicted by many analysts and politicians who had posited that the arrest and extradition of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe would only exacerbate things as more people would be radicalized. Most analysts based their thesis on the fact that the arrest of Mr. Mancho Bibixy, Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla and Dr. Neba Fontem in January 2017 had only made matters worse and their predictions have been perfect. The Southern Cameroons crisis will not be over anytime soon. Ambazonian fighters are determined and the existence of many armed groups is giving the government much food for thought. It is today fighting an expensive war on many fronts with very limited resources. This is a huge challenge, but due to its legendary arrogance, it prefers to avoid the negotiating table. But this might not continue for a long time. Its Western backers are already skeptical about its ability to win this war.

Despite this, the violence continues. The government is wont to using violence as its weapon of choice to address even the least disagreement with its population. It still believes that it could use the same means to suppress a more determined Southern Cameroonian population that is receiving significant amount of help from abroad. Arms have been shipped into the country and there is a huge pool of willing fighters that is currently giving the government a run for its money. The stiff resistance is causing the government to lose sleep, while its expenses are increasing by the day, with government officials involved in the management of the war effort doing their best to line their pockets.

Despite the poker face that the country’s leaders have been spotting for some time, it is clear that the pride is gradually dwindling, as the country’s limited financial resources head south. The government is cash-strapped and it is in search of money to prosecute a war in the English-speaking regions that will surely last for years. It is also seeking to roll back a Boko Haram insurgency that has killed thousands in the north, including army soldiers who are poorly trained to deal with such a violent and radical insurgency.

The government has been drumming up support for its efforts to stem the tide of Boko Haram attacks in the north, but its efforts are not good enough. Years of neglect of that part of the country have created a vacuum that is being filled by Boko Haram. Years of unemployment among the youths have caused these youths to turn to other sources for help and Boko Haram has used this failure by the government to endear itself to the people.

Decades of corruption and recklessness have begun having an impact on a regime that has been anything but prudent in its financial management. Many former government officials are currently in jail for using state funds to feather their nests, although there are rumors that many of them ended there because they had the ambition of taking over from the country’s long-ruling president, Paul Biya. The country’s maximum security prison in Yaounde is today harboring distinguished personalities who had served in Mr. Biya’s government. A former prime minister, former Secretaries General at the presidency, a former minister of health, and a former minister of finance have all been roped in by anti-corruption campaign that is no longer inspiring fear. Government officials know that Mr. Biya’s time is almost up and given that they have participated in the mess, many of them are using unorthodox means to secure a good future for themselves.

A recent case is that of Basile Atanagana Kouna (BAK) who has simply underscored that there is nothing to write home about the government’s security system. BAK, as he is popularly known, was until early March, the powerful minister of water and energy who had transformed himself into a weapon of mass destruction for young jobless Cameroonian boys, many of whom have been condemned to wearing diapers for the rest of their lives. During his time at CAMWATER and the ministry of water and energy, if any young man had to dream of securing a job or having a promotion, then he had to think of bending over forward. BAK has left behind a trail of destruction and corruption wherever he has been to. At CAMWATER, the mess he left behind is still flowing and it has made its way to many neighborhoods. Even in Yaounde, the nation’s capital, there are many neighborhoods without water and electricity and this has gone on for years. BAK had decided to line his pocket instead of using the money for the purpose for which it was intended.

But BAK is not alone. There is still a long list of people to be arrested and taken to the Yaounde Maximum Prison that is already bursting at the seams. Adolphe Minkoa She, Magloire Ondoa, Jean Parfait Koe, Stanislas Victor Atangana, Rene Martin Mbida and Fidele Solange Ngono are among the people who are being watched closely. The country’s secret services are already on their trail. While in China with a begging bowl in search of financial resources, the country’s dictator had issued instructions that none of the people on the long list of suspects should be allowed to leave the country. He did not want a repeat of Basile Atanagana Kouna’s drama. His instructions were clear and firm and the country’s secret services want to prove that Basile Atanagana Kouna’s drama is just a flash in the pan.

Some of these people are already sick. Enow Agbor Kenneth, a native of Manyu Division, who has made this list of shame, has been suffering from diarrhea ever since he was informed of this decision. A source close to Benjamin Amenguele says his heart is already failing him ever since the country’s secret services summoned him to one of their many offices. Mr. Biya seems to have put all his collaborators on a diet. Many of them are losing weight, but this is against their wish. They know sooner or later, they will be at Kondengui and this is not a place a rich person should end up. Many of them are having violent nightmares and this is already impacting their health.

Biya has failed his people. He has disappointed his financiers. And this is hurting him, big time. With very limited financial opportunities, he is bound to look eastward. In this quest for more resources, China is gradually becoming a good friend. But there are many questions popping up regarding the viability of the corrupt system Mr. Biya has put in place in Cameroon. Even the Chinese have questions, but out of courtesy, they had to spare their host a lot of embarrassment. Mr. Biya has already been to China seven times. None of those visits seems to be producing the desired results.

Chinese are business people and they won’t be doling out money to a man who has run his own economy aground. Like in previous visits, many cooperation agreements were signed, but coughing up the money that will oil that cooperation, will be the hardest part of the agreements. Chinese have worked hard to earn their beautiful spot and respect under the sun. They are surely not going to be throwing their money down a dark and dry hole. If Mr. Biya’s Western backers are reluctant to give him vast financial resources, why would China do so when it knows the West will never allow it to take full control of Cameroon’s economy. China knows Cameroon is simply a fair weather friend. It will therefore not be fooled by Mr. Biya’s vain seduction. Things are clearly falling apart for the Yaoundé government. No matter how it pretends, the world is aware of what is happening.

The government of Cameroon had declared that it would never negotiate with English-speaking Cameroonians who have been demonstrating their frustration with the government for almost two years. This frustrated English-speaking minority has shown a lot of resilience. Its fighters are determined and their determination is something the government has not succeeded to understand. The fighters’ strategies have been evolving and this has produced some unexpected outcomes. They have moved from organizing ghost town operations to kidnapping senior administrative officers and this is spreading fear across the entire nation.

Civil servants sent to the two English-speaking regions now move around with lots of butterflies in their stomachs. The dangerous fighters have a nasty habit of surprising their targets. Even the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji, knows that he is in their cross hairs. His out of control rhetoric is not making things better. The country is going through one of its most challenging moments and many people hold that only genuine dialogue can spare the once prosperous nation the pain it is seeking to inflict on itself. Analysts around the world are thinking that with dwindling resources, the government might soon have to eat its own words. It might soon be holding a peace plant and an invitation for an inclusive dialogue. The world is watching and it is really looking forward to that dialogue. Without inclusive dialogue, things will continue to fall apart. Fake elections and presidential decrees will not address the issues.

By Kingsley Betek and Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News Group

Yaounde

27, March 2018

Nigeria uncovers over 80,000 ‘ghost’ policemen on govt payroll ⁰

There are over 80,000 ghost police officers on Nigeria, data from the office of the Accountant -General of the Federation has revealed.

According to local media reports, the disclosure came after staff count and full integration of payrolls across the country’s 42 police commands and formations into a federal information structure.

The federal government had instituted the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) last February. After its implementation, the formerly known 371,800 figure of police officers fell to 291,685.

The revelation means that an estimated 80,115 police officers have until now continually drawn salaries and benefits running into billions of naira. The government did not disclosed exactly how much money had been saved by the measure.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation continues to operate a federal police structure with all police officers deployed by central government. Some states have pushed for state police but the idea has repeatedly been shot down.

The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, is on record to have disclosed that staff count under the IPPIS has also revealed similar ghost workers in other para-military agencies like the Immigration Service, the Prison service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps.

There were series of protests in the capital Abuja and southeastern Port Harcourt State when government announced the move to implement IPPIS, the protest was hinged on the fact that integration will lead to delays in payment of salaries.

The government through the Finance Ministry insisted on going ahead with the move leading to the disclosure. Nigeria has also been dogged with a corruption problem across its public and private sectors.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 with the promise to restore security, fight corruption and to rescue an ailing economy.

Culled from the Africa News

27, March 2018

Southern Cameroons no-go area – France warns citizens ⁰

The French government has declared Cameroon’s Anglophone regions a ‘no-go’ area for its nationals resident in the Central African country.

In its latest travel advisory dated March 22, the government also warned against all but essential travel to areas like the far north region notorious for Boko Haram attacks and the area along the border with Central African Republic and Chad.

French Ambassador to Cameroon, Gilles Thibault, on Monday tweeted that travel to the Northwest and Southwest (Anglophone regions) is now discouraged for travelers, except for imperative reasons.

His tweet included a link to the French government’s Foreign Ministry website which had a detailed security alert on Cameroon. Except the southern border with Gabon and Congo republic, all other borders were classified no-go areas.

The Anglophone regions of the country have been volatile since October 2017 following a secessionist plan to declare independence under the so-called Ambazonia Republic.

The separatist group under the Ambazonia Defence Force (ADF) has launched guerilla style attacks on members of the security forces killing over twenty of them – soldiers, police, gendarmes.

The government has increased its security operations in the region including the recent creation of a military region to be based in the capital of the northwest region, Bamenda.

The separatists have also adopted the use of kidnappings in recent past. They have kidnapped a soldier and another top government official. Countries like the United States and Britain have all issued travel advisories in the past with respect to the two regions.

Despite multiple calls for dialogue to end the clashes, there has yet to be concrete efforts in that regard. Meanwhile Cameroonians continue to flee the region into neighbouring Nigeria. At the last count, the UN said over 20,000 Cameroonians had sought asylum in Nigeria.

Source: Africa News

27, March 2018

The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE: Cameroon sinking to rise no more ⁰

Keeping them Honest:

Don’t step foot in Ambazonia, France warns its citizens. After the US embassy issued a travel advisory warning its citizens against travelling to the Anglophone regions because of the degenerating security situation, the French ambassador to Yde, Gilles Thibault has issued a travel ban on the embassy website, advising French citizens to avoid any travel to Ambazonia, saying they are potential kidnap targets.

Now that France has come to realize the obvious; would the French pressure Biya to come to the negotiation table?

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

26, March 2018

President Buhari: The political and financial motivations for the Abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the negotiations with Boko Haram ⁰

Yesterday, Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report both published a news item in which the Nigeria Information Minister Lai Mohammed admitted that the Government of President Buhari was negotiating a cessation of hostilities and ceasefire with Boko Haram. This admission came in the heels of the report by Cameroon Concord News Group that the Buhari Government had paid colossal amounts of money in ransom to Boko Haram for the release of some Chibok School Girls and very recently that of the Dapchi School Girls. We of this group had in the past alleged that the links between Buhari and Boko Haram are deep rooted in their shared membership of Political Islam and that the former was indeed the god father of the later.

Following from the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government on the orders of President Buhari in one of the most scandalous corruption deals in sub-regional history, Cameroon Concord News Group wondered where the moral compass placed President Buhari in his presumptuous lamentation over the abduction of the Dapchi School Girls which by every indication was arranged to occur by him to fulfill carefully calculated political goals. Cameroon Concord News alerted its readers that payments to Boko Haram whose leaders President Buhari and his entourage and fellow members of Political Islam knew so well were imminent, relying on the arranged abduction and payment to fulfill a commercial and political objective. The announcement by Information Minister Lai Mohammed about the negotiations between Buhari and Boko Haram has come to confirm the stories published in this media since Buhari came to power establishing a relationship between Mr. Buhari and Boko Haram. The connections between Political Islam, Boko Haram and the Government of French Cameroun have been widely affirmed by the Speaker of the National Assembly of French Cameroun Cavaye Djibril and by the extensive contact between the criminal organization with Ahmadou Ali the Vice Prime Minister of French Cameroun and Issa Tchiroma the Minister of Communication of the said government.

The abduction and ransom for the freedom of some 110 Dapchi School Girls North East Nigeria and that of the Chibok School girls before, shades more light on the operational dynamics of Political Islam in Nigeria and some countries in the sub-region, particularly French Cameroun. Cameroon Concord News shed the spotlight on this critical international security issue when then presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari came out in support of Boko Haram and accused then President Good Luck Jonathan of deploying soldiers led by General Iherijiaka an international acclaimed General of Ibo origin in Eastern Nigeria to massacre innocent Northern Youth under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Shortly thereafter the Chibok School Girls were abducted and a political movement routing for candidate Buhari so-called “Bring back our Girls” mobilized nationally and worldwide to pressure and highlight the weaknesses of the Good Luck Jonathan Government in searching and rescuing the girls.

Jonathan was pressured to fire General Iherijiaka who was replaced by a pliable, gullible and malleable Air Force General with an alarming corruption baggage from his tenue as the Chief of Air Force Staff. The security situation degraded and the military advantages obtained under Iherijiaka were reversed. The United States and European Union countries who disdained the audacity of Good Luck Jonathan’s politics of economic sovereignty that made Nigeria one of the fastest growing economies in the Africa and the world, took concerted action to obstruct the purchase of arms by Nigeria to fight the Boko Haram terrorist organization. This move aimed at providing tacit support for Mohammadu Buhari whose visionless economic and political platforms were illusory making it possible for these countries to manipulate their way back to controlling Nigeria’s oil and maritime economy. Buhari hoped to compensate his visionless and unrealistic economic agenda that favoured the rolling back the gains attained under Good luck Jonathan by floating more than one hundred unattainable objectives and declaring a corruption witch hunt aimed and destroying his political opponents. It is ironic that the political campaign of Mohammadu Buhari was bankrolled by some of the most corrupt politicians in Nigeria, among them Asiwaju Tinibu an erstwhile Governor of Lagos State and a politics for profit political godfather. Meanwhile Buhari is the undisputed leader of the Northern political platform founded on a Political Islam agenda. Boko Haram was founded or coopted as a violent extremist militant group to enforce the Political Islam political agenda of Buhari and his cohorts. Pursuing a complex war with sophisticated weaponry by Boko Haram required a sophisticated network and enormous amount of resources. These elaborate resources were laundered through Political Islam political structures in Northern Nigeria, Northern French Cameroun and some countries of the African Sahel.

Opposition candidate Buhari came to power promising to end the Boko Haram insurgency within his first one hundred days in power. On attaining power, he opted for a negotiated solution to the release of the Chibok girls and indeed allegedly negotiated and paid a ransom for the release of some of the girls. For Buhari to have negotiated and paid a ransom, he must have known in intimate detail the leaders of Boko Haram. Hoping to protect his presidential image, Buhari opted to maintain an ambiguous relationship with Boko Haram. Not only did Buhari not tackle the war against Boko Haram as vigorously as he promised, he has through his silence and non-action encouraged the slaughter of hundreds and even thousands of Nigerians in the Middle Belt and other parts of the country by his cattlemen of his Hausa/Fulani ethnicity.

Since coming to power, President Buhari has not realized a cognizable major development or economic project. Nepotism is the hallmark of his administration. He has surrounded himself with dubious corrupt persons of his ethnicity. These are the people whose mandate appears to include the cutting of clandestine corrupt deals like the abduction of Ambazonia’s leaders in Abuja on January 5 2018.

To embellish his national security credentials, he turned to his Political Islam base to arrange the abduction and release of the Dapchi School girls through an alleged negotiation and the payment of a ransom. Information Minister went further to announce the ongoing negotiations of cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire with Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News Group cannot independently confirm if Nigeria briefed or associated the Multilateral Force about its negotiations and deals with Boko Haram whom they are jointly fighting. With the admitted collaboration of French Cameroun with Boko Haram to which it has paid ransom several times on engineering the abduction of foreign nationals, Nigeria, a close ally in this game, needed not formally informed French Cameroun. Through abductions, key political leaders in Nigeria and French Cameroun make huge amounts of money to manipulate the political institutions within these countries to their political advantage. Let no one be duped, the ongoing negotiations between the Buhari Government with Boko Haram and the collaborative actions of French Cameroun towards Boko Haram highlights the dilemma facing the international community which is cooperating with Boko Haram sponsors to search for Boko Haram in the wrong places.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group