Starting in January 2020, the United States began its one-year secretariat of the G7++ Friends of Gulf of Guinea Group, with Gabon serving as co-secretariat.  This group coordinates the support of international partners for the maritime security standards agreed upon by West and Central African heads of state at a summit in Yaoundé in 2013.  The G7++ Friends of Gulf of Guinea Group helps secure the Gulf of Guinea against the threats of piracy, armed robbery, and other illicit maritime activities.  By creating the conditions for improved maritime security, this group fosters prosperity and economic growth for all countries along the Gulf of Guinea.

This is only the latest example of U.S. partnership for the security and stability of Cameroon and the subregion.  The United States has made significant contributions to Cameroon’s maritime security.  In 2016, the United States funded the creation of six maritime operations centers in Limbe, Douala, and Kribi that enable naval operations at sea, and we will continue to provide maintenance and training for these centers this year.  Through 2017, the United States provided several Defender class rigid hull boats to the Cameroonian military for maritime patrols.  One of the Defender boats was used in the August 2019 rescue of over 100 shipwreck victims after a boat coming from Nigeria capsized near Limbe.  In 2020, the Cameroonian Navy plans to purchase two 110-foot American patrol boats to greater extend its ability to patrol Cameroon’s economic exclusion zone.

Over the years, the U.S. has provided significant security assistance to Cameroon to achieve our mutual goals in maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, countering violent extremism in the North, and supporting regional security initiatives.  Our partnership remains strong.  While we continue to aid Cameroon in its fight against Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, our role is changing as the threat from these groups evolves and the coordination and capabilities of Cameroon and regional partners mature.  We are proud to support Cameroon and the Gulf of Guinea region this year in our role leading the G7++ Friends of Gulf of Guinea Group.

Source:hstoday.us

Six people were killed and two others injured in Cameroon, reportedly by Boko Haram rebels who recently led an attack in that country’s Far North region.

Security sources said that three military control posts were destroyed in various attacks over the weekend.

The rebels stormed the locality of Ganse in Kolofata in the Mayo Sava Division on Saturday night and killed six people, injured two and took away with them food, as well as other material equipment.

On Friday night, Boko Haram insurgents set ablaze three military control posts in the locality of Hidoua-Touru in the same region, reports said.

On January 13 an international Christian aid agency, reported that seven Christians were killed as gangs of about 300 Boko Haram militants invaded five Christian villages in Far North, Cameroon.

The agency said that the first attacks began late at night on 6 January, claiming the lives of two men and two children kidnapped as heavily armed militants invaded the village of Hitere, Tourou district. Hitawa village, in the same district, was also raided and looted.

In Moudokou village, Moskota district, the agency reported, three Christians were killed in a raid and a ten-year-old boy was kidnapped. Another Christian man was murdered by the Islamists in an attack on Guitsenad village.

On January 7 a seventh Christian was murdered in a Boko Haram assault on the village of Guedjelé in Koza district.

The two church buildings, which the affected communities used, were sabotaged and burnt.

On the same day, a German broadcaster reported that 30 people were killed after a bomb ripped through a crowded market on a bridge connecting the Nigerian town of Gamboru and Cameroon’s Fotokol.

Authorities said more than 35 other people, including Nigerians and Cameroonians, were injured and taken to the local hospital in the wake of the attack, which struck a crowded market on the Nigerian-Cameroonian frontier.

Militant groups have long targeted military and civilian sites in the market town and its surrounding areas.

Source: IOL

After receiving more than a hundred million FCFA of public funds from Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji to lure back some of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces defending the Donga Mantung County, the CPDM I Section President Ngala Gerard Ndombang has instead pocketed the money and is now blaming Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces for the brutal murder of a 7 year old pupil, Blaise Afanyu.

The Southern Cameroons chartered member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate whose residence is now occupied by elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR posted on his Face Book page recently that: “Blaise Afanyu, a young boy of at least 7 years, who began school two weeks ago, has been brutally and mercilessly murdered, and the hand of the mother Belinda Afanyu chopped off by terrorists “Ambazonian” fighters, this Tuesday January 21, 2020 in Mbot village Donga Mantung Division”

The Ambazonia Interim Government has condemned the alleged action by the Donga Mantung agent of the ruling French Cameroun party, terming it “political horse trading carried too far.”  In a show of desperation, the Biya Francophone regime rolled out an enticement package that promised villas to all senior political elites from the Donga Mantung constituency, a Far North West Region to be headquartered in Nkambe and 5 million to any Restoration Force leader who abandons the Southern Cameroons struggle for the One and Indivisible Cameroon. Cameroon Intelligence Report understand that the price tag for staging a peaceful election this coming February in Donga Mantung County is even higher.

The Ambazonia Vice President, Dabney Yerima however, said no amount of inducement would stop the change on the horizon as the long-suffering people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia were ready and eager to get a divorce absolute from French Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Joseph Kum in Nkambe

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé say they have rescued 24 school children held hostage by Ambazania Restoration Forces in Meme County.

The so-called Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) for Meme, Ntou Ndong Chamberlain told state media that the children were kidnapped early on Tuesday from their school in the city of Kumba and “taken to the forest where the camp of the separatists is located.

The Meme SDO added that 2 armed separatists were shot dead during the rescue operation and weapons and ammunitions were found.

The children, aged 5-10, have reportedly been reunited with their families, the SDO added. Reacting to the news, a senior aide to the Southern Cameroons Vice President, Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Kumba that “it is all Minister Atanga Nji kind of drama being staged by highly placed French Cameroun government officials to gain appointments and promotion.”

However, abductions have become rampant in Southern Cameroons as the twin poll announced by the 86 year President Paul Biya draw near.

Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in an attempt to establish an independent nation now known as the Fedral Republic of Ambazonia.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in the UK with files from Kingsley Betek

The trial of seven Cameroonian soldiers accused of participating in the killing of two women and two children has begun behind closed doors, two judicial sources said on Tuesday, after a video of the incident sparked an international outcry.

The soldiers were arrested after the video surfaced on social media in July 2018. The shaky footage showed two women, one with an infant strapped to her back, being led across a patch of dusty scrubland by uniformed men who accused them of belonging to the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

Moments later, two of the men stepped back, leveled their rifles and fired a series of rounds into the victims.

Government and army officials initially dismissed the video as “fake news” meant to tarnish the government’s image, but later announced arrests in the case.

The sources said the trial began on Monday in a court in Yaounde, capital of the West African country.

Six of the soldiers admitted to having participated in the killings but said their commander had given the order to open fire, said the two sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The commander has denied giving the order, the sources said.

It was not clear how long the trial would last.

Cameroon has been battling Boko Haram for years in the country’s far north, as the jihadist group fights to carve out an Islamic caliphate based across the border in Nigeria.

Rights activists, including Amnesty International, have accused government soldiers of repeatedly engaging in torture and extra-judicial killings in the far north. The government denies that there are systematic abuses.

The conflict with Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin has cost more than 30,000 lives and displaced millions more over the past decade, frequently spilling over into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Source: Reuters