At least four soldiers of Cameroon elite unit, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) have been killed by flash flooding that swept through a remote part of the Far North Region of the country, local authorities said on Friday.

Officials said their vehicle was “washed away” Thursday night after a sudden torrential rain storm in Moskota of the region.

It is unclear if civilians were also affected by the floods. The bodies of the soldiers have already been recovered by rescuers.

Floods have displaced thousands of people in the region since rains started falling in February, local authorities said.

Weather experts have warned that more deadly floods are expected to hit the region before the end of the rainy season in October.

Source: Xinhuanet

At least 250 widows from across western Cameroon are staging protests to call for an end to cleansing rituals and other cultural practices they say they have been forced to undergo following their husbands’ deaths. The widows gathered to demonstrate in the western town of Bafoussam.

Forty-seven-year-old Amede Djoulde is a member of the Association of Widows, based in the nearby town of Foumban. She says the demonstrations began when a mother of five children was chased from her marital home after her husband died recently.

She says widows are suffering enormously in their community. Women are always accused of killing their husbands and no one seems to consider the pain they go through after losing their life partners.

Amina Nji says her family home is now illegally occupied by her late husband’s older brother. 

She says she should be the owner of their matrimonial home because she constructed it with her husband. She says her in-laws did not take into consideration that she and her five children need a home. She says she now lives in her oldest daughter’s house but wants to return to her home.

The women say they oppose practices that include the ritual of being forced to drink water used to bathe their late husband’s body as a sign they did not kill their spouse. The women also say the practice of having to stay with their in-laws for about a year after their husbands die is cruel.

Njingum Ngemnye, a public figure in the village of Koutoupit, says the practices are to cleanse the women of evil spirits brought about by the death of their spouses.

He says tradition gives authority to particular notables to cleanse a woman by shaving her head immediately after the burial of her husband. He says the female siblings of the late husband must accompany the widow to her farm, fetch water and watch over her by accompanying her everywhere she goes.

Seidou Tonta, also a notable (public figure) in Koutoupit, says he is surprised that the women want to abandon traditions intended to protect them.

He says their tradition states that a widow, for her safety and fear of being cursed by her late husband, must avoid having sexual relations and wear only black dresses for up to a year after her husband dies. He says he is upset that many people now believe in the doctrine of Christian churches that says God is against such practices. He says their traditions must also be respected by people who preach Christianity.

Ernestine Essah, the highest ranking official in Noun, an administrative unit where Foumban is located, says the government has been educating communities in order to avoid such practices.

She says the most disturbing issue she has observed in western Cameroon is the inhumane way women are treated when they lose their husbands. She says she has organized several talks and conferences to propagate the rights of women. She says she has asked those who still practice harmful widowhood rights to stop it because it is against the dignity of women and the government forbids such rites.

The government of Cameroon says its western region still has some of the worst forms of cultural practices that undermine the rights of women.

Source: VOA

The arrest and extradition of the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides by Nigeria and French Cameroun agents in Abuja was an act of war against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, senior Southern Cameroons elite in South Africa has said.

In January 2018, the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was arrested with 46 Southern Cameroonians in NERA hotel in the Nigerian capital, Abuja by Nigerian Special Forces. They were then handed over to the Biya Francophone regime in French Cameroun – a move that was ruled illegal by a Nigerian court in March this year.

Southern Cameroonians responded to the arrest by striking French Cameroun administrative and military installations in their homeland.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News on Thursday, Dr Patrick Ayuk said, “Extraditing President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe by the Buhari administration was an act of war.”

“Buhari has made the giant of Africa appear like a shithole country! Abuja is trying to make up all kinds of mumbo-jumbo justification. But mighty Nigeria has no justification whatsoever” Dr Patrick Ayuk added.

By Chi Prudence Asong

As the end of the Biya government draws to a catastrophic end, members of the crime syndicates inner circle are gradually erasing any incriminating evidence through massive destruction of files and electronic systems.

After having siphoned off millions of taxpayers’ money abroad for personal purposes, the Betis Mafia that has lots of skeletons in its cupboard has resorted to burning down institutions that will clearly reveal the scope and depth of the corruption that has characterised the Biya regime for close to 40 years.

The national treasury, which has become Mr. Biya’s ATM, has been set ablaze on Friday, July 24, 2020 at an ungodly hour to ensure that even firefighters do not intervene to put out the fire.

The inferno has affected mostly the floors that host IT equipment and key files that contain information on the financial corruption that has transformed the country into an Augean Stable.

A source in the country’s Treasury and the Ministry of Finance has just informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that many Cameroonians of Beti extraction have been expressing grave concerns about their future when Mr. Biya, the architect of the massive corruption in the country, would be dead and gone.

The source added that the pressure and tension are palpable and many Cameroonians are concerned about the country’s future, especially as it is becoming obvious that civil servants might soon go without a salary for months.

“A lot of financial malfeasance has taken place in the country, but the mess playing out in the ministry of finance and the national treasury will take decades to be cleaned out,” the source said.

“The country’s wealth and riches are in the hands of a few people who are either members of Mr. Biya’s ethnic group or members of the ruling CPDM which is holding the country’s treasury under its armpit,” the source added.

“Cameroonians have been reduced to beggars in their own country by a bunch of people who have placed their interest above national interest,” he regretted.

“When you see Cameroonians gravitating towards the CPDM, it is not because the party has a good ideology that can result in any development. The CPDM is keeping the National Treasury and all Cameroonians are hungry. If they must eat, then they must praise Mr. Biya and his crime syndicate. These folks have been sharing our money to Cameroonians as if they are distributing candy to children,” he lamented.

“The way the country has been run over the last 40 years really leaves much to be desired. There is no difference between the ruling party and the state. Cameroonians have been dehumanized. From every indication, it is clear that the ruling party’s objective is to pauperize the population in order to bring it under control,” our source added.

“The most painful thing is that this fire will only trigger the creation of multiple commissions for the investigation of what has happened and after those investigations, no heads will roll and it will be business as usual. This is the most outrageous way of ruling a country,” the source lamented.

“I am certain that this fire is the handiwork work of people who have something to hide. Once the dust will settle, most of them will be given promotions and very soon, you will see them on TV praising the president for his great leadership and vision,” the source said.

“This has been their modus operandi for decades and those praises seem to be music to Mr. Biya’s ears. He hardly sanctions anybody and this has created impunity in the country. If he sanctions anybody, know that the person has been set up by another group because at this time, there are lots of succession battles taking place in Yaounde. His era is coming to an end, so many people are flexing their muscles to take over. However, those who have openly demonstrated their ambition have ended up at the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison known as Kondengui,” the source said.

“This country needs change. Cameroon needs divine intervention. Everything is going down the drain. This government has set the country back by at least a century. Cameroonians are helpless. Poverty has emasculated them. Many have lost their voices. Besides, the intimidation from government officials and their surrogates has robbed the population of its voice and dignity. We all are really looking forward to the day that change will come,” he concluded.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde