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Southern Cameroons refugees desert Ogoja camp over reduction of allowance

14, March 2022

Southern Cameroons refugees desert Ogoja camp over reduction of allowance 0

A large number of Ambazonians who took refuge in the Ogoja refugees camp in Cross River State have since deserted it.

It is suspected that the abandonment of the camp may be a result of the reported drastic reduction in their monthly stipend.

Findings confirmed that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, (UNHCR), which took special care of the Cameroonian refugees, recently reduced its cash-based intervention from N7,200 per head to paltry N2,600.

On enquiries, it was discovered that refugees whose villages were not directly affected in the ongoing Cameroon arms insurrection by separatist Ambazonian fighters against President Paul Biya’s government, went back to their homes and farms.

One of the refugees who was in the camp but has now returned to one of the borderline communities, Obengo Nru said the camp is virtually empty now, claiming he could not fold his hands in the camp and receive the paltry sum.

“I still have my papers entitling me to enjoy the monthly stipend intact so that whenever the UN people call us, we just run to Ogoja and collect the sum, and return to our villages.”

“Most of us merely left the villages and joined in ‘sympathy movement’ to Nigeria”, he said.

An official of the Cameroonian Consulate in Calabar who said he is an information officer claimed he could not give any good reasons why the number was reducing.

But the Director-General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Princewill Ayim said it was not true that the camp has been deserted.

Source: DAILY POST

Yaoundé: Foreign football team wins Championship

14, March 2022

Yaoundé: Foreign football team wins Championship 0

It was all happiness when PWD Bamenda won yesterday’s final to clench the trophy that has eluded it for 43 years.

The happiness following the victory did not leave many analysts indifferent. PWD Bamenda is a team in the newly minted country of Ambazonia and for more than five years, there have been bloody fighting and killings in the two English-speaking regions of the country which had declared their independence some five years ago.

The comedy was all the more comic when natives of the new country showed up with placards bearing the most irrational demands.

“We need a stadium in Bamenda,” some of the placards read. It was like a child demonstrating in front of a neighbor’s house for school fees when the child had clearly told the neighbor he had nothing in common with the neighbor.

Maybe the message was for Ambazonian leaders who all live abroad.  Bringing that message to Yaoundé is like addressing the wrong audience and PWD Bamenda supporters were clearly wearing Ambazonian colors as if they had a plan to provoke the Yaoundé government.

If the people of Bamenda really need a stadium, will it not be appropriate for them to send that message to Dr. Sako Ikome and the multitude of Ambazonian generals who are living out of their own country?

It is obvious that Yaoundé will just be smiling. The people of Bamenda who have seen the worst violence over the last five years are simply tired of the violence that has been brought to them by their own people.

They seem to have counted on a Washington-based government that simply includes the poorest and most crooked pastors God has ever put on the face of the earth.

The PWD victory and the messages taken to Yaoundé might just be heralding the end of a violent struggle which is currently struggling.

If the messages were actually intended for the Yaoundé government, then the people of Bamenda are clearly flogging a dead horse as the Biya government has not got any appetite to develop infrastructure in a part of the world where the people have a mercurial temperament and can ruin everything in a feat of anger.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

As Russian forces edge closer to Ukrainian capital- here is the latest

14, March 2022

As Russian forces edge closer to Ukrainian capital- here is the latest 0

At least two people were killed and 12 wounded when a shell hit a residential building in Kyiv on Monday, according to emergency services.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country or see its member states attacked by Russia, in a new video address.

Russia and Ukraine are set for a fourth round of talks on Monday.

Moscow has asked Beijing for military supplies and economic aid, US officials told media outlets. The US has warned that China will face “severe consequences” if it helps Russia dodge sanctions.

Russian naval forces had established a blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday, isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade.

A Russian missile attack struck a Ukrainian military facility in Yavoriv near the Polish border on Sunday, killing 35 people, according to Lviv’s regional governor. Ukraine held most of its drills with NATO countries at the base, one of Ukraine’s largest, before the invasion.

The American journalist Brent Renaud was shot and killed and a colleague was wounded in Irpin northwest of Kyiv on Sunday. Media reports said that a third Ukrainian colleague was also wounded in the incident.

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova accused Russia of using banned phosphorus weapons in an attack in the Luhansk region. Her claims could not be independently verified. Asked about the allegations on Sunday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated that if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, “they will pay a severe price”.

The human toll of the Russian invasion is rising: Kyiv on Saturday said “around 1,300” Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. Moscow’s official death toll has not changed since the March 2 figure of 498 Russian troops killed. On the civilian side, at least 596 people have died, according to a verified UN count. The real figure is likely to be much higher.

The UN said the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 has surged past 2.6 million.

Source: France 24

Cup of Cameroon: PWD Bamenda 1-0 Astres FC de Douala

14, March 2022

Cup of Cameroon: PWD Bamenda 1-0 Astres FC de Douala 0

Cameroon football season came to a close on Sunday, March 13, 2022 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Sports stadium in Yaoundé in a ceremony chaired by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

The climax of the event was the final of the Cameroon Football Cup that pitted Astres FC of Douala (French Cameroun) against PWD of Bamenda from Southern Cameroons.

The two teams have never won a Cameroon Cup.  The “Brazilians of Bapanda” were playing their fourth final while the Abakwa Boys of Southern Cameroons were in their third attempt.

In a scantily attended final, the two teams gave everything to ward off the bad luck that had prevented them for several years from winning the coveted trophy.  At the final whistle of referee Elouga Bikim, PWD of Bamenda after failing in 1967 against Canon of Yaoundé, 1979 in front of Dynamo of Douala, emerged victorious beating Astres of Douala one goal to nil.

PWD Bamenda

Hubert Mbunwe Che scored the goal from a dead ball in the 15th minute via a free kick on the edge of the area beating goalkeeper Jourdain Mbaynassem.

Speaking to state radio and television immediately after the game, the manager of Astres de Douala, Anicet Mbarga said “We had a penalty that could have allowed my team to get the game back on track. Unfortunately, the referee did not blow the whistle. However, I congratulate the opposing team who deserved their victory.”

For his part, David Pagou the coach of PWD Bamenda opined that “We gave our all to win this game! I dedicate our victory to the people of the North-West who are now living in difficult conditions.”

 By Rita Akana

Football: PSG fans whistle their players, with exception of Mbappe

13, March 2022

Football: PSG fans whistle their players, with exception of Mbappe 0

Lionel Messi and Neymar received the loudest abuse as Paris Saint-Germain fans whistled as their players were introduced before the home game with Bordeaux on Sunday.

As the announcer read out the team sheet before kick off supporters at Parc des Princes made clear their feelings about the club’s latest Champions League disappointment.

All but one name was greeted with whistles.

The exception was Kylian Mbappe. The volume rose for the names of Neymar and Messi. Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s name as also whistled.

For the fourth time in six seasons PSG crashed out in the last 16, self-destructing against Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Mbappe scored the goals that put PSG two up with less than 30 minutes to play in Madrid. Then the French club collapsed again, letting in three goals in 17 minutes.

Fans chanted Mbappe’s name when it was read out. They also adapted one of their more popular chants to the tune of “Go West” to tell the players to “go stuff themselves”.

On Saturday, the club’s ultra fans promised they would show “our dissatisfaction… without violence” during Sunday’s match.

Source: AFP

Football: Joel Matip is the first Cameroonian to win Premier League’s monthly award

13, March 2022

Football: Joel Matip is the first Cameroonian to win Premier League’s monthly award 0

Joel Matip has become the first Cameroonian to win the Premier League’s player of the month award.

The centre-back played every minute as Liverpool won all four of their matches in February, conceding only one goal.

He scored in the 6-0 win over Leeds, as well as assisting Diogo Jota as the Reds beat Leicester.

Matip won the February award in front of Che Adams, Ryan Fraser, Harry Kane, Ben Mee and Wilfried Zaha.

The 31-year-old has not played for Cameroon since 2015 after becoming upset with the way the country’s football association ran the sport.

He has 27 caps for the Indomitable Lions, including playing at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and several coaches in recent years have unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to make a comeback.

Source: BBC

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bishop Michael Bibi tells story of being kidnapped twice over 48 hours

13, March 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bishop Michael Bibi tells story of being kidnapped twice over 48 hours 0

Even with sophisticated weaponry, the Cameroon military finds it hard getting to parts of Cameroon’s English-speaking regions where separatist militants operate.

It’s even harder for government officials and anyone who doesn’t adhere to the separatist agenda – an agenda that foresees the English-speaking regions separating from the rest of the country to form a new nation they call Ambazonia. English speakers make up about 20 percent of the population, while the rest of the country is predominantly French speaking.

Since the Anglophone Crisis exploded in 2016, at least 4,000 people have been killed and over a million forced to flee from their homes, with about 70,000 seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria.

However, Bishop Michael Bibi of the Diocese of Buea in the troubled South West Region, braves the danger while visiting his flock.

“I go out for pastoral visits, and I go to places where government officials cannot go without the military, and if I were to go with the military, there would be fire exchange,” Bibi told Crux.

On some of those pastoral visits, the prelate has faced life-threatening situations, including once being kidnapped twice in a 48-hour time span.

The first time was when he was on his way to Kumba and gunmen stopped him.

“As I passed Batibo town, these gentlemen came out of the forest; they surrounded me, entered my car – two of them with guns,” Bibi recalled.

“They seized my phone and took me into the forest. There were several other cars there and other people who had been kidnapped. They asked us to give our identity cards. Their commander was there and as I came out of the car, the two men all pointing their guns at me, one woman, one of our Christians – who was also kidnapped – just ran to me crying ‘Bishop bless me, bless me!’  I said a prayer, and I blessed her, and their commander asked her whether she knew me. And she responded: ‘He is our bishop.’ So the commander asked that my phones and ID card be returned and that I should go. I asked him what happens to the other people who were held there, and he brandished the gun: I had no right to ask any questions. So I left, went to Kumba, celebrated the Mass and towards the end of the Mass, I was told that some Reverend Sisters had been harassed, their wind screens were shattered. And I had to return because the next day I had to celebrate Mass in Dchang. The general feeling was that I should not travel, so I decided to take an alternative road to Bamenda,” he said, referring to the capital of the North West Region.

Yet on this alternative route, the bishop met another group of fighters at a locality called Bako-Bakundu.

“These boys [the separatists are known as the Amba Boys] just came out of the bush, surrounded us and asked us to follow them. When we got to wherever they took us on a road to the forest, they started interrogating me. They said we were supporting the government and I said, the church is for everybody. We talk with government people, and we talk with separatists and we as a church are out for justice. They said they were going to shoot us, and burn the car and I said, ‘you people are free to do anything, but allow these two young men [the driver and his brother] to go’,” Bibi said.

“Their leader said he had been an altar boy. I was stunned. I asked him if he was Catholic, and he said yes. I asked him whether he prays the rosary. He said he hadn’t got one. I asked him if I should give them some. He said yes. I went to the car, took some rosaries, blessed them, and gave them to them. One wore his rosary, another said no; don’t put that thing on your neck because it can kill all your powers,” the bishop remembered.

He said while the others were still calling for separatists to burn the car and kill them, the former altar boy ordered that no harm should be inflicted on the bishop, because, as he put it, “this man is an innocent man. We have examined him from beginning to end; we don’t see anything he has done that should make us treat him badly.”

The prelate was released, but warned to stay in the nearby village and proceed the next day, because the next group of fighters might not be so kind.

“The leader of the group approached me and said he wanted me to forgive him. I said I didn’t hold them in my heart, because at least I was able to explain to them whet the church has been doing and will continue to do as far as the crisis is concerned,” Bibi said.

He said, out of his own volition he gave the separatist some $65. “It was all I had.”

“When I finally came out of the forest and met the villagers, everybody was happy, and there were Catholics coming and crying and asking for blessings. One Christian offered to give us accommodation. We went there and the man’s wife prepared us some good chicken and Irish potatoes,” the bishop recounted.

Bibi also recalled another incident when he traveled to Munyenge, about a two-hour drive from Buea. He was celebrating Mass when he heard gunshots outside.

“I was actually giving the homily; there were about five gunshots outside. I just said, wow, my brothers are welcoming me,” he said.

He said the dire security situation notwithstanding, he as bishop as well as his priests have a duty to keep preaching the Gospel of Christ.

“One of the things we have done is all the bishops have made sure that we don’t close down any parish. No matter how difficult it is, the priests are on their seat. And I really want to use this opportunity to really thank the priests, because in every area where people have fled, the poor priest is there,” he said.

Source: Crux

Cameroon Web reporter Paul Chouta assaulted again in Yaoundé by Secret Service agents

13, March 2022

Cameroon Web reporter Paul Chouta assaulted again in Yaoundé by Secret Service agents 0

Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure those who assaulted him are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On Wednesday evening, Chouta was watching the UEFA Champions League soccer game between Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain with friends in a snack bar in the Damas district of the capital Yaoundé when three unidentified men in a green pick-up truck abducted the journalist, drove him to the outskirts of the city, and viciously kicked and beat him with stones, bricks, a baton and a whip, according to a statement by his employer reviewed by CPJ, media reports, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

In the statement, Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus was unable to say what report may have prompted the latest attack; he told CPJ via messaging app that this was not the first time that Chouta was attacked for his journalism and that the reporter, and his family should be placed under police protection while the assault was investigated. Vitus described the assault as “an attack on freedom of the press and on democracy,” adding that Chouta was a “courageous journalist and whistleblower.”

“Cameroonian police must thoroughly investigate the latest attack on Paul Chouta, a journalist and outspoken critic of the government, and bring swift justice to those responsible,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Failure to act will reinforce perceptions that impunity for crimes against journalists is the order of the day in Cameroon and that journalists like Paul Chouta are simply not safe in their own country.”

Chouta went outside during half-time and was accosted by men wearing civilian clothes, who carried him across the road and threw him in the vehicle, the journalist told CPJ. Chouta shouted for help, but his attackers pushed him into the pick-up truck and used his shirt to blindfold him, he said. Chouta said he believed he had been tailed and that a few miles down the road the men stopped the car and picked up a fourth man.

The men drove Chouta to the outskirts of the city, near the airport, where he was told to kneel and was severely beaten and kicked for about four minutes before he fell unconscious, he told CPJ. “They told me that I’m stubborn and that I never learn a lesson,” Chouta said. “They said this time they will kill me, as I wanted to show that I was a hero.”

Chouta said he was left for dead. When he regained consciousness, he said he had been stripped naked; his wallet, identity, and bank cards had been taken; and he was unable to see out of his left eye, had a swollen face and ear, and was in great pain. 

The journalist walked naked and barefoot for about two miles (three kilometers) before he was helped by strangers. He was able to remember his girlfriend’s telephone number and they called her to take him to the hospital, Chouta said.

Chouta spent Thursday night in the hospital and is expected to be discharged today to seek treatment at another medical facility, according to the reporter and his editor.

Chouta told CPJ that he had been interviewed at the hospital by police this morning and was told that a knife had been found where he was attacked. Video footage from the snack bar’s closed-circuit camera was also taken by police, he said.

Police spokeswoman Joyce Ndem replied to CPJ’s request for comment by saying it should send a representative to talk to her in her office in Yaounde. She did not reply to a subsequent text via messaging app.

In February 2019, Chouta was attacked outside his home following political coverage, as CPJ documented at the time. Four months later, he was arrested on charges believed to be politically motivated. He was jailed for nearly two years until a court in May 2021 found him guilty and sentenced him to 23 months, which he had already served, and released him.

Culled from Committee to Protect Journalists

Appointment of a Vice President: It’s all about power struggle among Beti-Ewondo political elite

12, March 2022

Appointment of a Vice President: It’s all about power struggle among Beti-Ewondo political elite 0

The Francophone dominated political system in Yaoundé is in the throes of another agonized constitutional reform.  But this time around the proponents of the new push for amendments deep within government circles are barons of the ruling CPDM party.

Biya and his gang have tabled a bill at the National Assembly calling for the appointment of a Vice President of the Republic. Some of the hardliners contacted by Cameroon Concord News Group noted that the time is right to cure deficiencies created by President Biya’s poor health and his ill-equipped Minister-Secretary General at the Presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

A look back in history since President Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned helps us understand Cameroon’s perennial quest for constitutional change and the appointment of a Vice President.

Constitutional power play in Yaoundé has remained a Francophone affair for more than 5 decades with French Cameroun local power brokers in the Grand North, Centre and South regions competing against one another. 

President Biya and his power-hungry French Cameroun political elites have faulted existing structures for over 40 years and many now say the current push for the appointment of a Vice President is all about competition to replace the frail Biya as head of state.

Ever since President Biya began ailing, rival political elites from his tribal setting have been engaging in regular mischief as they schemed to identify a suitable successor. Some have reportedly used the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé to sideline party-mates such as Titus Edzoa, Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara, Chief Inoni Ephraim, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Mebe Ngo’o in the succession line up.

President Biya’s acolytes including several CPDM party honchos from the Beti-Ewondo tribal extractions have turned to infighting pushing Franck Biya-President Biya’s eldest son to start to see how he can use the wrangling to ascend to the presidency.

The current law stipulates that in the event the president dies, the president of the so-called senate which is the upper house would take office for 90 days and then call an election.

Biya has been in power for 40 years and has engineered uncountable constitutional amendments just to secure power for himself and his Francophone political family.

At 89, President Biya and his ruling CPDM party are still in control of the National Assembly. However, the recent introduction of a bill at the National Assembly demanding the head of state to appoint a Vice President is indeed a far reaching step.

Biya has won every election and repealed the two-term limit he and his criminal syndicate had previously imposed on the Cameroonian electorate. With age telling on him, the butcher of Yaoundé is now left with nothing and maybe approaching his last journey of many dangers.

What would finally emerge with the appointment of a Vice President will be a co-presidency with a Francophone and an Anglophone occupying some new positions that will be concocted somewhere in Paris.

The current drive for change is happening not in the best interest of the already divided nation and it is also being driven by a very bias Francophone political power agenda.

The changes that are likely to be effected will, therefore, not be the last because there always will be a military coup in every African country with French connection.

The appointment of a Vice President soonest will not resolve the political crisis in both French and Southern Cameroons. Instead, groups or individuals will question the new power structure and those interested in grabbing power will do so via the blood relations in the army.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Thousands of Southern  Cameroonians fleeing to Cross River State in Nigeria

11, March 2022

Thousands of Southern  Cameroonians fleeing to Cross River State in Nigeria 0

The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that 40,791 Cameroonians are taking refuge in the state following the crisis in southwest Cameroon.

SEMA Director-General, Princewill Ayim, said on Tuesday in Calabar that the UN High Commission released the latest figure for Refugees (UNHCR) in January.

“The latest figure released by the UNHCR in January 2022 shows that Cross River is now accommodating 40,791 Cameroonian refugees,” Mr Ayim said.

Mr Ayim said that due to the closeness of some communities to the borders, the state had to accommodate the “persons of concern’’ and abide by the 1951 Refugee Convention, which Nigeria is a signatory.

He said the refugees were scattered across nine local government areas of the state – Calabar Municipality, Calabar South, Bakassi, Akamkpa, Etung, Ikom, Boki, Ogoja and Obanliku.

“Already, we have over 104,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) spread across Abi, Biase, Bakassi, Odukpani, Obanliku and Ogoja Local Government Areas due to the communal crisis, flood and border issues,” he said.

He added that the refugees were predominantly from southwest Cameroon and were displaced due to the crisis between the Ambazonia separatists and the country’s military.

He recalled that in February, an inter-ministerial team visited all the host communities and refugee settlements across the state.

Mr Ayim stated that the visit also allowed the team to see how they could implement the comprehensive refugees’ response framework in the state.

“Our schools and health facilities are overstretched due to the increasing number of refugees,’’ added the official.

Source: NAN

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