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Southern Cameroons War: Muyuka CPDM councillor bows to Interim Gov’t pressure, pulls out of February elections

23, January 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Muyuka CPDM councillor bows to Interim Gov’t pressure, pulls out of February elections 0

Barrister Ndille Ngwese Joseph, a prominent councilor in the Muyuka municipality has reportedly pulled out of the February 9, 2020 elections citing threats from Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

The ruling CPDM militant made his decision not to participate in the so-called twin poll during a conversation with the Buea based HiTV, Cameroon Info.Net reported.

The Ambazonia Interim Government banned all French Cameroun teleguided elections in the Southern Cameroons territory and Vice President Dabney Yerima ordered a lockdown in a televise address to the people of Ambazonia.

Councillor Ndille Ngwese said: “I think the benefits of becoming a councillor and the benefits of what I have acquired throughout my life – my family and my property far outweighs. I think I prefer staying, not being a councillor, than to lose my properties. Because the amount of threats I have, I can’t bear them.

“And I think it is good and time enough for me to say I cannot continue to allow my name to be on that list as a councillor. So, I better drop. I think if I want to be a politician anymore, might be I will give some time. Not now, at this time when my life and my properties are at stake.”

Ndille Ngwese revealed that his letter of resignation has been sent to the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development. Ndille Ngwese is former YCPDM Section President for Fako II, Muyuka.

By Rita Akana with files from CIN

Yaounde to receive the sixth US$76.1 million disbursement from the IMF

23, January 2020

Yaounde to receive the sixth US$76.1 million disbursement from the IMF 0

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the fifth review of the arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Cameroon. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of SDR55.2 million (about US$76.1 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR427.8 million (about US$590 million).

The Executive Board also approved the authorities’ request for a waiver of nonobservance of the continuous performance criteria on the non-accumulation of new external payments arrears, based on the corrective actions taken by the authorities.

Cameroon’s three-year arrangement was approved on June 26, 2017 for SDR 483 million (about US$666.1 million, or 175 percent of Cameroon’s quota— The arrangement aims at supporting the country’s efforts to restore external and fiscal sustainability and to lay the foundations for a more sustainable, inclusive and private sector-led growth.

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, made the following statement:

“Cameroon’s performance under the ECF-supported program has been mixed. All end-June 2019 performance criteria have been met but four out of the five indicative targets for end-June were missed. Structural reforms are advancing but with delays.

“Cameroon is supporting the CEMAC’s regional external and financial stability through fiscal consolidation and enforcement of foreign exchange regulations. It will be important to also fully align the new Petroleum Code with the BEAC’s foreign exchange regulation.

“Staying the course on fiscal consolidation is essential for building fiscal and external buffers. The authorities are encouraged to broaden the non-oil revenue base, reduce discretionary tax exemptions, combat tax fraud and evasion, and enhance tax and customs administration. Completion of the Treasury Single Account reform and reduced recourse to direct interventions and exceptional spending procedures will help improve cash management and budget execution and strengthen fiscal transparency and budget credibility.

“Urgently addressing financial and fiscal risks associated with the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) is critical. SONARA’s corporate restructuring should be based on a thorough cost-benefit analysis of all available options. The planned audits of four large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the clearance of government cross-debts with state-owned enterprises and of government arrears will help mitigate contingent risks.

“Cameroon is at high risk of debt distress. To safeguard debt sustainability, it is important to strictly adhere to the disbursement plan for contracted-but-undisbursed loans and to limit nonconcessional borrowing to macrocritical projects for which concessional financing is not available.

“Enhancing the business climate and governance is key to promoting private sector-led and inclusive growth. Bold actions must be taken to strengthen contract enforcement, improve compliance with the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) recommendations and AML/CFT standards, reduce nonperforming loans, and resolve ailing banks. Further steps to diversify the export base and enhance investment efficiency remain essential to unlock Cameroon’s growth potential.

“Cameroon’s program continues to be supported by policies and reforms by the regional institutions in the areas of foreign exchange regulation and monetary policy and a recovery in regional net foreign assets that is critical to the program’s success.”

IMF Communications Department
Biya regime claims US contribution to Gulf of Guinea Maritime Security broadens military cooperation with Cameroon

23, January 2020

Biya regime claims US contribution to Gulf of Guinea Maritime Security broadens military cooperation with Cameroon 0

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

Elections aggravate deadly violence in Cameroon

23, January 2020

Elections aggravate deadly violence in Cameroon 0

Parliamentary and municipal elections scheduled for next month have escalated the crisis in English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Separatists are running serious battles with security forces. Violence has characterised the run up to the polls scheduled for February 9.

Tensions started last month (December 2019) after separatists attempted to shoot down a commercial plane landing in the Northwest and the subsequent abduction of about 40 candidates of the parliamentary and municipal elections in the West.

Communities in the regions are opposed to the elections. To reiterate their stance, the Ambazonian separatist group recently burned down the Elections Cameroon office in Misaje in the Northwest region.

The nongovernmental Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) said the decision not to participate in the elections and subsequent attacks had heightened tensions in the Northwest and Southwest regions, increasing protection and displacement risks for people living in these regions.

The government has in response instituted a six-day lockdown beginning on February 6. This will include a 24-hour restriction on movement, closure of schools, markets, and businesses.

ACAPS bemoaned the lockdown has led to residents of the area stocking up on food, water and medical supplies.

Government has deployed 700 officers to affected regions to ensure security before, during, and after the elections.

“Troops presence is likely to agitate separatists who do not want the elections to take place,” ACAPS warned.

Hundreds of people have been killed during clashes featuring security forces and separatists in the said regions.

Separatists in the English-speaking region are demanding the creation of a new country – the proposed Ambazonia – alleging marginalisation by the government dominated by French speakers.

Source:  CAJ News

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills six, destroy military control posts

23, January 2020

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills six, destroy military control posts 0

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

Angola’s ex first daughter Isabel dos Santos charged with fraud

23, January 2020

Angola’s ex first daughter Isabel dos Santos charged with fraud 0

Angola’s billionaire former first daughter Isabel dos Santos has been charged with money laundering and mismanagement during her stewardship of state-owned oil firm Sonangol.

Documents leaked this week alleged the daughter of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, plundered state coffers to build her fortune, estimated at $2.1 billion (1.82 billion euros).

“Isabel dos Santos is accused of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds during her tenure at Sonangol and is thus charged in the first instance with the crimes of money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management … forgery of documents, among other economic crimes,” prosecutor general Helder Pitta Gros told a news conference late Wednesday.

Investigations into Isabel dos Santos’s 18-month tenure as Sonangol head from June 2016 were opened after her successor Carlos Saturnino raised the alarm about “irregular money transfers” and other dodgy procedures.

Dubbed Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos is accused of using her father’s backing to plunder state funds from the oil-rich but poor southern African country and moving the money abroad with the help of Western firms.

She stopped living in Angola after her father, who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly 40 years, stepped down in 2017 for his anointed successor Joao Lourenco.

Gros said dos Santos was among five suspects, all of whom were currently residing abroad. “At the moment, the concern is to notify and get them to voluntarily come to justice,” said Gros.

Source:  AFP

Southern Cameroons War: CPDM bribing Donga Mantung political elites with millions of FCFA, a Far North West Region to stifle the resistance

22, January 2020

Southern Cameroons War: CPDM bribing Donga Mantung political elites with millions of FCFA, a Far North West Region to stifle the resistance 0

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

Kumba Abducted School Kids: Vice President Yerima’s aide says “Its all Minister Atanga Nji Drama”

22, January 2020

Kumba Abducted School Kids: Vice President Yerima’s aide says “Its all Minister Atanga Nji Drama” 0

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

Liverpool defender Matip sends gift to Cameroon Sports Minister

22, January 2020

Liverpool defender Matip sends gift to Cameroon Sports Minister 0

The dad of the Reds centre-back met with the head of the sports ministry in Yaounde

Liverpool defender Joel Matip sent an autographed ball to Cameroon’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Professor Narcisse Mouelle Kombi through his father, Jean.

Matip recently recovered from a knee injury that has kept him out of action since October and was an unused substitute as Jurgen Klopp’s men stretched their lead in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday.

The 28-year-old has not played for the Indomitable Lions since he snubbed an invite to the country’s victorious campaign at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and his last international outing dates back to the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

In response to the gesture, Kombi congratulated Matip on his success with Liverpool last year when they won the Uefa Champions League, Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa World Club Cup.

“I received yesterday in audience, Mr. Jean Matip, father of international footballers Joel and Marvin Matip, who handed me a symbolic gift sent by his son Joel Matip, a ball autographed and signed by the player,” Kombi wrote on Facebook.

“In return, I addressed him my congratulations for his remarkable performances in his club, Liverpool FC with whom he became the 2019 European Champion.

“Finally, I also recalled him the love and hope all Cameroonians put on his son Joel Matip as an Indomitable Lion.”

Matip’s father, Jean was a former Cameroonian footballer and his elder brother Marvin also played for the Central African nation and made three international appearances despite playing for Germany’s youth teams in his early career.

As a reward for his fine defensive contributions, the Liverpool defender was named in the Caf Team of the Year for 2019 and Cameroon will be hoping he rescinds his retirement decision before hosting the continent for the 2021 Afcon, and as they battle Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Malawi in Group D of Africa’s qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Source: Goal.com

French Cameroun: Opposition party says country will not have free and fair elections

22, January 2020

French Cameroun: Opposition party says country will not have free and fair elections 0

There are concerns about the fairness of Cameroon’s legislative and municipal elections to be held next month amid a security crisis in the country’s English-speaking northwestern and southwestern regions, Turkey-based Anadolu Agency reported.

Njong Evaristus Ndim, a member of the main opposition Social Democratic Front, told the news agency that the February 9 vote would not have free and fair. In the country’s northwestern regions, the offices of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) which is in charge of running the ballot were not functional, he said.

Last week, separatists vowed to disrupt the polls, but the Cameroon government has promised to deal with troublemakers.

Armed separatist groups have threatened security in the country for more than three years.

Anadolu Agency reported that in the weeks leading to the elections, the group had been trying to ban people from casting their votes.

Evaristus Ndim said his fellow legislators from the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement were also unable to reach the areas they represented in the conflict zones.

Last October last year, soldiers were deployed to secure the perimeter of a polling station near Buea in southwestern Cameroon, during the presidential election. This month about 350 security forces have arrived in Buea, the East African reported.

The publication said the security forces would be re-deployed to the six administrative divisions of the region to ensure security before, during and after the elections.

Source: African News Agency (ANA)

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