The President of the Republic has appointed Chi Asafor Cornelius as pioneer Secretary General of the National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. His was appointed 48 hours to the official installation of members of the National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, a ceremony to take place today Thursday, 27th April 2017.

Shortly after his appointment, the new Secretary General expressed profound gratitude to the Head of State for the confidence bestowed. He vowed to use his over 30 years experience at the public service and university to foster bilingualism and multiculturalism in the country.

In a CPDM-style declaration, Chi Asafor advised all to be hardworking because “The President never forgets hard workers in this country. By making it possible for me to be part of an important organ like commission to help promote togetherness, to help bring peace in the country is something I have to formally thank him for”.

The 15 commission members appointed on 15th March 2017 will be installed by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, and Philemon Yang. The commission is headed by Peter Mafany Musonge, a common politician and former Prime Minister and Senator.

State radio and television noted that each of the members of the commission is experienced. They are expected to use their knowledge to build a stronger cohesion among Cameroonians while promoting the effective use of the two official languages and the valorisaration of Cameroon’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.

Southern Cameroonians are justified in holding firmly that with the collapse of the purported federation, the bilingual, bijural and bicultural character of the country, and a return in 1984 of East Cameroon to its name and identity at independence on January 1960, the putative union was dead.  They were entitled as a matter of international law, to regain their own identity at independence on October 1, 1961.

The actions by Paul Biya in disbanding the Consortium, kidnapping its leaders and other significant Southern Cameroon leaders and charging them on spurious politically motivated charges before a Francophone court-martial for presenting the very grievances which he has trivialized by decreeing a so-called National Commission on Bilingualism are to say the least infantile and laughable.

Not only are the Consortium Leaders, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr Neba Fontem along with Mancho Bibixy, Hon Justice Chief Paul Ayah, Mola Njoh Litumbe and hundreds of Southern Cameroonians still in detention, the perpetration of  widespread and systemic crimes against humanity and genocide of the Southern Cameroons is ongoing with impunity.

By Rita Akana

Prime Minister Philemon Yang has chaired the April 2017 Cabinet Meeting. During the session on the 26^th of April 2017, three Cabinet members took turns to brief the Head of Government on different measures put in place to meet French Cameroon’s objectives. The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Jean Claude Mbwentchou presented a CPDM program for urban renovation in the country.

The Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Dr Taiga spoke of the regime’s initiatives in the development of livestock, animal industries and aquaculture sectors. He also discussed projects put in place to train producers.

For his part, the Delegate General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguelle, enlightened the forum on the implementation of the new identification system. After deliberations, Prime Minister Philemon Yang exhorted the Ministers to keep up with the good work.

He gave specific instructions to all three Cabinet members who did presentations and he recommended that a strategy to stop the importation of aquaculture products by 2020, be elaborated. The Anglophone premier declared his supports for local authorities in designing community plans for urban renewal and authorized the harmonious implementation of the new identification system.

President Biya signed a decree on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, which terminated the functions of Samuel Fonkam Azu’u at the head of Elections Cameroon (Elecam).

Samuel Fonkam served as President of Elecam for 8 years. The new decree of the Head of State appointed Enow Egbe Abrams as new board chairman.

Three other decrees were signed appointing a vice-president and members of Elecam and their mandates extended for another two year period.

Former Governor Enow Abrams Egbe now has the job of guaranteeing Biya continued stay in power.

By Rita Akana

The Biya Francophone government has announced that it will use the internet as a political weapon against Southern Cameroonians. The statement was made public by the Francophone Minister of Communication and so-called government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

In a release read over state radio and television, the regime in Yaounde threatened to disconnect internet in Southern Cameroons “if individuals use it to create public disorder or preach hatred.” The communiqué also did inform West Cameroonians that the Francophone Government reserves the right and duty to take appropriate measures and when necessary to block any form of internet misuse in Anglophone Cameroon.

The 84 year old Paul Biya on Thursday ordered the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications to inform the various Telecommunication companies to reinstate internet in the two English Speaking regions of the Country. Biya whose Beti Ewondo tribes uses the internet and state television to promote pornography and immorality in the country further stated that the people of North West and South West regions should use the internet for appropriate reasons and should avoid being lured by secessionist messages, propagation of false information and other practices which could put the State in danger.

By Sama Ernest

Cameroon Concord News Group

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Rt. Rev Fonki Samuel has been summoned to appear at the Buea High Court on Monday April 24, 2017 to answer charges which at Press time have not been mentioned. However, local media sources say the issue is related to the so-called Consortium of Parents created by the Biya Francophone regime and headed by senior army officers.

The Information has been confirmed by a close aid of the Moderator and by the Communication Secretary of the PCC, Rev.MOKOKO Mbue Thomas who however said he has not yet read the summons but was aware that his Superior will appear in Court next week.

The Moderator reportedly posted a message to Christians in which he observed, “Dear all, I have been summoned at the Buea High Court on Monday 24th of April 2017.The summons is in my name. We need your prayers. Moderator PCC.”

Last week some Christians had dispelled rumors that the Moderator had been ordered to appear in court.  A sister publication, Cameroun Info.Net reported that observers hold the affair may be connected with the non resumption of classes by Presbyterian Schools.

The summons comes barely one week after Roman Catholic Bishops in Bamenda received a ‘Direct Summon’ form from the CPDM Consortium of Parents claiming damages amounting to the sum of 150.000.000 FCFA.

The Minister of Communication and governments spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary says the 2015 deadline set aside for the effective transfer of competence and resources to councils has been met successfully. In a statement to the press, Tchiroma revealed that 97% of the competences listed in the law applicable to councils were honored as planned. However, Cameroon Concord News understands nothing seems to be happening deep within the councils.

The Minister said, “The process of decentralization has not been static in the last 20 years. Much effort has been made so far, I would even say that most of the path has already been covered and this process will continue and be accelerated. It is not only a constitutional prescription but also a permanent and irreversible willingness of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya. It is an essential component of his political project for the people of Cameroon of which it embodies sovereignty.”

Tchiroma blatantly refused to take questions from journalists who wondered aloud that the decentralization process has been plain fiction and the so-called success of the decentralization process as painted by the Minister was absurd.

By Sama Ernest

The March session of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament in La Republique du Cameroun have officially ended. The closing ritual at the Lower House took place on Tuesday the 11^th of April 2017 in Yaoundé amid confusing declarations from National Assembly Speaker, Cavaye Djibril.

Speaking during the closing ceremony at the National Assembly, the Speaker of the House, Cavaye Yegieu Djibril appealed to the Biya government to be proactive in handling the socio- political issues in the country. Hon. Cavaye stressed on the need to avoid situations that can push the country into an endless cycle of professional demands that cannot be handled.  The Speaker then made a u-turn at the tail-end of his speech and saluted what he described as the different measures taken by President Biya to improve on the working conditions of Cameroonians.

A beaming Cavaye emphasized the need for dialogue and a climate of peace to be maintained hoping the situations in the North West and South West Regions returns to normal. Present during the closing ceremony were Members of the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, Members of Government led by the Prime Minister Philemon Yang and the Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji.

It is vital to include in this report that the March session did not deliberate on the current Southern Cameroons crisis which has culminated to numerous rapes, extra judicial killings and massive arrests including many abductions in West Cameroon.

By Rita Akana

Having failed in the fulfillment of its many promises, the Biya Francophone government has again announced another move to ease the tension in Southern Cameroons. In a statement issued yesterday Thursday (April 06, 2017), the Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reform made public the launching of a special recruitment of Anglophones in to serve in the courts in the South West and North West.

As it is always the case with a dubious regime, the date of this special operation was not specified.  The Francophone Minister, Michel Ange Angouing simply indicated in his press release that the recruitment will take place from 2017 to 2020 through an ad hoc committee made up of several representatives of administrations.

These massive enrollments and those earlier revealed by the Francophone Justice Minister, Laurent Esso are part of the fake measures taken by the Francophone government to induce Southern Cameroon lawyers to put an end to their strike action that has lasted for over six months.

Southern Cameroon lawyers have boycotted court sessions in the Buea and Bamenda provinces ever since they launched their strike to denounce their poor condition and marginalization by the essentially francophone central government.

By Sonne Peter

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has rejected the fake policy of appeasement presented by the Biya Francophone regime and has announced the intensification of the civil disobedience campaign if the detained leaders and the hundreds of Southern Cameroon youths arrested are not freed.

Inside sources within the Consortium hinted Cameroon Concord News that the exit door to the Southern Cameroons political crisis is not in East Cameroun. Recently, a gang of Francophone cabinet members headed by the Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso in a scantily attended press conference made public measures which they claimed had been taken by the 84 year-old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya to address the concerns of Southern Cameroon lawyers.

The Francophone ministers said the decision included the creation of a Commission to accelerate the promotion of bilingualism and multiculturalism, the publication of the English version by OHADA of its treaty and other texts, the creation of a Common Law Section at the Supreme Court which will hold its sessions in English in accordance with the Common Law and handle all cases from the Courts of ‘Appeal in the Anglophone regions, the creation of a Common Law Section at ENAM and the creation of the departments of English Law in the Universities of Douala, Maroua, Ngaoundere and Dschang. Biya as Head of State has not committed to any of the above stipulations.

The Biya Francophone regime has also been making a mockery of the General Certificate of Education, GCE, by postponing the deadline for enrollment in the examinations. The Francophone ministers responsible for Secondary and Basic Education have been regularly announcing funny adjustments in the Southern Cameroons school calendar.

Biya and his French speaking political elites are still trading with the idea of federalism which is no longer a demand of the Consortium.  The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has reached a point of no return and have grafted the immediate and unconditional release of their leaders whose trial is held at the Yaoundé military tribunal.

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Afortekaa Neba, the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, abbreviated CACSC, whose trial opened on February 13 at the Yaoundé military court, are prosecuted for acts of terrorism, hostility against the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, outrage to the 84 year old evil butcher of Yaoundé, insult to organized bodies and civil servants, group rebellion, civil war and propagation of false news.

The regime in Yaoundé has told the world that the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium risk the death penalty if they are convicted of acts of terrorism in accordance with article 2 of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 December 2014 on the punishment of acts of terrorism. Yet, day by day, the Francophone leadership keeps accepting what the Consortium and the detained leaders had earlier said. Ghost towns will continue, schools will remain closed and an economic embargo will be placed soon on Francophone businesses operating in Southern Cameroons.

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Prof. Maurice Kamto, leader of the MRC party has said that the peaceful resolution of the Southern Cameroons problem is a political test for living together in Cameroon. The former cabinet minister added that the Anglophone problem is one of the urgent political problems demanding quick solutions for a soothed united Cameroon.

Speaking on Monday in Yaoundé, the much respected Francophone political elite revealed that there was the existence of a “black cabinet” created by the Yaoundé regime to neutralize him. “Since my departure from the cabinet and my accession, for the first time in my life, to a political party, the MRC, there is at the heart of power a Black Cabinet that works with determination for my exclusion from political competition by all means. I say by all means! “.

Maurice Kamto continued “This black cabinet has long searched, but in vain, in my management of public affairs and embarked on a scandalous affair on my scientific reputation and has mounted and maintained in public opinion a smoky public procurement case worth 14 billion CFA francs.”

During the Monday press conference, Maurice Kamto strongly criticized the international community, which, according to him, “does not care of the fate of the Anglophone Cameroonians being many of whom have been raped and killed and hundreds abducted and detained in Francophone jails.”

“Cameroonians no longer trust the international community with its electoral observers who have never helped the establishment of the electoral truth in Cameroon and whose conclusions are known in advance, because they are always the same: the elections were generally satisfactory, we are told each time, “says Kamto.

The MRC leader pointed out that the method applied by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government in the management of the Anglophone crisis – made up of repression, mass arrests and arbitrary detention, militarization of disputed areas, the use of unbridled anti-terrorist law against unarmed citizens – is a “break-in” and a general rehearsal of what will be implemented in 2018 presidential elections.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai