Editorial

26, April 2026

Dr Joachim Arrey says Biya should pick Victor Mengot or Philemon Yang as Vice President ⁰

Dr Joachim Arrey of the Global Think Tank for Africa has reflected on selecting a Vice President, noting that Minister Victor Mengot and former Prime Minister Philemon Yang have positive qualities that he thinks they deserve to be appointed. Dr Arrey in this soul-searching conversation with Soter Agbaw-Ebai hinted on their moral conviction and ability to find common ground even amid complex political issues.

Cameroon Concord News: We have not heard from you for a long time, especially after the presidential election. What is your assessment of the country’s political situation?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you, Mr. Editor, for granting me the opportunity to share my political perspective with your audience. Allow me to point out that the pre-election and post-election periods were challenging to our country and despite the pockets of violence which resulted in the destruction of property and loss of life, it can be stated that the people of Cameroon have understood that violence does not address any issues. I hold that political disagreements can be addressed at the negotiating table and not in the battlefield. Yesterday’s adversaries can still be on the same team in a win-win political coalition and partnership. The opposition might have contested the results of the presidential election but once the results were declared, most Cameroonians felt that it was time to move on. The tasks of nation building do not require continuous instability and many Cameroonians have understood that and that partially explains why the post-election violence did not last. Moreover, the government is open to the idea of talking with the opposition to ensure that the country does not get caught up in a circle of violent destruction and killing. Those who do not understand government processes and procedures might think that the government does not want to talk with the opposition. Such discussions always take place out of the spotlight and, since we are talking about the formation of a new government, some opposition leaders could also be brought into government with a view to appeasing the opposition. Such a measure will reduce tensions, and reset our country to the path of economic growth. If this happens, it will not be the first time that the government will be working with opposition leaders. As Cameroonians, we must always pray for peace and security in our country, and we should shun violence as it will only undermine our development efforts.

Cameroon Concord News: Regarding political stability and continuity in the event that there is a vacancy at the highest level of government, who, in your opinion, can be the vice-president following the legislative branch’s adoption of the bill on the appointment of a vice-president?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you, Mr. Editor, for bringing up this issue. As you know, many Cameroonians have, for a long time, expressed their concern about the possibility of violence in case there is a vacancy at the highest level of government. The concerns are legitimate and the legislative branch of government has demonstrated that it understands the people’s plea by adopting the bill on the appointment of a vice president. There were a few contrary opinions which, of course, are normal. As Cameroonians, we do not always have to be on the same wave length. Disagreement is part of the game of democracy and disagreement is as old as man. Sometimes, it helps to enrich the democratic debate, making it exciting and interesting. However, at the end of the long and impassioned debates, our law-makers had to play their role. They were elected to represent us and their vote is final and irreducible.

With regard to who can be the new vice-president, I have a few names in mind and if I could make any recommendations to the powers-that-be, I would do it without hesitation.

First on my list will be Minister Victor Mengot Arrey, not because we share the same name (Arrey) but because he has been in the corridors of power long enough to understand the issues and has the necessary experience to occupy such a position. When you take a look at his temperament, you will figure out that he is a calm, controlled and focused individual. He has been serving the head of state and the country for close to two decades as the Minister in charge of special duties at the Presidency and he has done that without any blemish. He has never been involved in any social or financial scandal, and a person with a clean moral record is a great asset to our country, especially during trying financial and economic times like the one we are currently going through. Cameroon needs a unifier, a team player and a person who understands the issues and has the mental and intellectual capacity to provide much-needed solutions. Mr. Mengot fits that mould and will surely make Cameroonians proud.

Second on my list is former Prime Minister Yang Philemon whose leadership qualities and credentials are unquestionable. As a high commissioner in Ottawa, Canada, Mr. Yang demonstrated that the credibility and reputation of our country were paramount. He facilitated processes at the high commission for all Cameroonians regardless of their statuses. It should be underscored that Mr. Yang was a minister at 28 and even at that age, he rose above all the challenges he had to deal with. From Ottawa, he returned to the presidency as a key collaborator of the president and later served as a Prime Minister. His most recent position was as the President of the UN General Assembly. His performance was exceptional. He is a symbol of efficiency, selflessness and patience.

Cameroon has many wise and efficient resources. Cameroon needs someone who will keep our country out of troubled waters and Mengot and Yang are experienced hands that can deliver the goods.

Cameroon Concord News: I am impressed with your analysis of our country’s politics and your analyses tie in well with what many Cameroonians think. However, I would like to take you to Manyu Division which has recently lost its senator. Senator George Tabetando Ndiepnso is no more and he was the lone senator representing Manyu. What is your assessment of his time at the Senate?

Dr Joachim Arrey: I knew Senator George Tabetando who also doubled as the chief of Bachou-Ntai, his native village, way back in 1975 when he was a young, lean and brilliant lawyer who earned the respect of many. He was a model to some of us who had great admiration for lawyers. His lawyering skills were world-class and I was proud of him in that regard. I also heard he did well at EUROIL, an oil and gas institution which created hundreds of jobs for Cameroonians. Regarding the Senate, I would like to mention that Senator Tabetando has done his fair share at the Senate. For most of his time at the Senate, the two English-speaking regions of the country were caught up in a socio-political crisis which made it hard for most Manyu politicians to demonstrate what they were capable of doing. Also, it should be pointed out that it is very challenging to assess a particular politician as the system cultivates team players and not individual stars. However, I vividly remember how Senator Tabetando went down on his knees in Mamfe town, pleading with the sons and daughters of Manyu Division to come out of the bushes during the socio-political crisis in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon. That action of his spoke of a man who had the interest of his people at heart. It also spoke to his humility. He loved Cameroon and never wanted a divided Cameroon. He believed in unity and felt that political issues could be better addressed at the negotiating table rather than in the battlefield.

Cameroon Concord News: Senator Tabetando is now gone and there is a huge political vacuum in Manyu Division. Do you see any young and dynamic Manyu son and daughter who can step into his shoes?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Again Senator Tabetando was a political asset to his Division. He loved his people and cared about the Division’s future. His death is a big loss to all of us. However, it should be pointed out that Manyu Division is blessed with incredible human resources who can effectively play the role the former senator was playing. There are young, dynamic and competent Manyu men and women who also want to lead the Division politically. They want to leave their mark on the Division and I think the vacancy created by Senator Tabetando’s death is a huge opportunity for some of those men and women to take Manyu Division to a new and different level. Senator Tabetando and those who preceded him in death and office have actually laid a solid political foundation and it will be incumbent upon the young generation to build on that foundation, drawing on their experiences. The young generation has a huge responsibility – that of doing better than those who preceded them.

Cameroon Concord News: 2028 is fast approaching and the people of Manyu do not yet know of anyone who will run in the Senatorial elections. Many people of Manyu descent hold that you are a fit for that position. Can you tell the people of Manyu that you will run in the 2028 Senatorial election, especially as Senator Tabetando is dead?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Mr. Editor, I would like to point out that this is a moment of grief for the people of Manyu Division who have lost their son in the person of George Tabetando. In my view, it will be preposterous of me to trigger a competition at this critical time when we all should be working hand in glove to give Senator Tabetando a befitting burial. However, I would like to indicate that we are still two years away from the senatorial elections and I must point out that Manyu will have the type of representation it deserves at the Senate. Like many other potential candidates, I would like to point out that I have the sound intellect that the position requires. I have profound and unwavering love for the people of Manyu, know that I can do whatever it takes to make Manyu a better place than I met it and I will always bend over backwards for my fellow brothers. I am truly and proudly Manyu. Let me point out that I am weighing my options and I will make my intentions known when the time comes. I hold that if given the rear opportunity to serve my people, I will do it without hesitation. We, the people of Manyu, must be ready and willing to serve our Division. Manyu’s development depends on us the sons and daughters of Manyu. I will never hesitate to pull my fair share of the weight if called upon. Let me indicate that you will be the first to know whether I will be in the race when the right time comes. Always bear in mind that like many others, I have the right credentials for such a position. With more than three decades working in Cameroon’s private sector, Canada’s private sector and having worked for international development finance institutions, I have the ability to work with other sons and daughters of Manyu to bring about sustainable development in our Division. I have sound knowledge of the challenges facing our people and I have a huge capacity to mobilize resources for development purposes. However, I will make my intentions known at the appropriate moment.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Arrey, for your time.

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my views on our country’s current political situation.

22, April 2026

Cameroon PhD nuisance: academic dwarfs and jokes on steroids ⁰

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched a war against Iran. The war was expected to be short and decisive. It has proven to be anything but a cakewalk. Following a two-week ceasefire that ended today, President Trump now finds himself in an awkward strategic predicament. Opposite him stands Iran, a nation subjected to forty-seven years of sanctions, yet one that has nonetheless cultivated a remarkably sophisticated indigenous missile and drone capability. That capability is not an accident; it is the product of sustained domestic investment in technical education. Iran’s success in this conflict is tied to a large cohort of PhDs trained in fields such as science, nuclear physics, mathematics, and engineering. For over four decades, economic isolation was meant to constrain Iran, yet it has instead compelled self-reliance, yielding technological capacities that now present a tangible challenge to US military dominance.

In Iran, the world is witnessing what a strong cohort of PhDs can do for a nation. But by some strange happenstance in Cameroon and deep within the Cameroonian diaspora, PhD has become something of a national embarrassment bordering on farce. The recent anxiety around doctoral inflation prompted the 92-year-old Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces President Paul Biya, to instruct the country’s Minister of Higher Education, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, to clarify that only state universities are authorized to award doctorates.

Minister Fame Ndongo also warned that students enrolling in offshore online programs do so entirely at their own risk. The concern from the head of state is not difficult to understand in a country with weak infrastructure and unreliable internet connectivity. With poor internet connectivity, how can any genuine student conduct credible online doctoral research?

The minister’s intervention reads as an indictment of an industry that has turned the highest academic qualification into a purchasable title. In Cameroon, the doctorate has become a kind of lifestyle accessory like a watch or Smartphone. The flourishing trade in imported and distance-learning PhDs has become a recurring topic in Aghem, Bakweri, Nso, Manyu, Mankon, Metta, Bakossi, Oroko, Lebialem, Bali, Nkwen and Bafaw culture and development meetings, wake-keeps, naming ceremonies and social gatherings stretching from Toronto to Maryland and from London to Amsterdam. The PhD palaver in Cameroon is now a diaspora community fixation. In fact, it is an inside joke that has ceased to be funny.

Gone are the days when Cameroon’s intellectual landscape was defined by scholars whose achievements carried unquestioned weight and global respect, with figures like Dr Ako Defang Mengot, forged in the rigour of Harvard University and Professor Bernard Fonlon, whose doctorate in Literature from Sorbonne University reflected both depth and distinction. Today, we have Professor Carlson Anyangwe of Walter Sisulu University, who is grounded in the scholarly tradition of the University of London. For these giants, a PhD was a culmination of intellectual discipline, sacrifice and original contribution to knowledge. Today, that standard has fallen miserably and what remains is a hollow imitation of excellence, where the appearance of intellect is celebrated but its substance is increasingly rare.

Distance-learning institutions have emerged offering doctorate programs as easy to enrol in as gym memberships. In Cameroon diaspora circles, individuals with a questionable grasp of written or spoken French and English now brandish doctoral titles acquired from mushroom online colleges in the US, Pakistan, India and many obscure parts of the globe. The subjects’ and doctoral theses are often as weightless as the process bearing little relation to serious scholarship aimed at advancing knowledge or improving society.

Now, contrast Cameroon with a country like Iran, where the expansion of doctoral education has been rapid but not frivolous. Iranian universities have, over the past two decades, produced large numbers of PhDs in engineering, medicine and the natural sciences. These are not disciplines one typically completes online while working in care homes in Minnesota or Leicester. Iran faces its own challenges like bureaucratic hurdles and the ever-present tension between academic freedom and state oversight. Yet even critics would concede that a PhD in electrical engineering, nuclear physics, drone technology, or molecular biology is not a vanity exercise. One either knows the material or not as the laws of physics and science remains unimpressed by titles.

This editorial is not suggesting that only STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) deserves doctoral attention. The humanities and social sciences have long produced insights as vital as any laboratory breakthrough. The issue is not the field, but the standard. A rigorous PhD in philosophy or Law from an accredited institution is no less demanding than one in physics. A superficial PhD in any discipline, however, remains precisely superficial.

The purpose of PhDs in Cameroon is not intellectual contribution but to cause people headaches at wake keeps, birthday parties and village meetings where the title “Doctor” is utilized to polish egos. A few years ago, the preferred social currency in Manyu, a constituency in Cameroon, once renowned for academic aptitude, was the title of Sessekou. That of the Nso people was Shey! Today, it is a doctor.

Sadly, in Cameroon circles at home and in the diaspora, a PhD is now a lightweight, portable social accessory. In Iran, it remains closer to what it was always meant to be, a demanding intellectual apprenticeship culminating in a contribution to human knowledge.

President Paul Biya’s intervention is an attempt to restore credibility to doctoral qualifications within the Cameroon community at home and abroad. It is a reminder that a PhD was meant to be difficult, time-consuming, and profitable to society.

In Iran, whatever one thinks of its politics or strategic posture, doctoral education has not been reduced to a public spectacle. It’s PhDs in engineering, physics, mathematics and related fields are not ceremonial titles but functional assets embedded in the architecture of modern warfare. In the ongoing conflict, Iran’s indigenous missile systems, drone swarms, and electronic capabilities are not improvised miracles; they are the downstream product of sustained technical training and research culture. In that sense, the PhD is not a vanity badge but a component of national capability translated from university auditoriums into battlefields. We thank the Head of State for his timely intervention on this matter of national emergency.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

21, April 2026

Senator Chief Tabetando leaves behind not just a record, but a reckoning ⁰

Early this morning, Hon. Victor Mengot, Minister of Special Duties at the presidency of the republic made public the passing into eternity of His Royal Highness Chief Barrister Tabetando CPDM Senator for the Mamfe Central Sub constituency. The late political figure also moonlighted as the traditional ruler of Bachuo-Ntai village.

Minister Victor Mengot posted “Dear Comrades, it is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing into glory of the last standing senior politician of his generation. Senator Nfor Tabetando passed on this night after a protracted illness. May his soul find solace at the bosom of the Lord.”

The journey of Senator Chief Tabetando to the land of his ancestors invites not just mourning, but reflection on a life well spent and a life that seemed to straddle ambition and duty, power and responsibility, legacy and contradiction.

There are prominent Anglophone political and academic figures that pass through the Cameroon political and business spaces like brief weather but there are those like Chief Tabetando who alter the atmosphere itself. Chief Tabetando’s voice hin und zu unyielding, unexpectedly conciliatory but carried across chambers and communities alike. Whether Cameroonians both Francophones and Anglophones agreed with him or not, it was extremely difficult to ignore him!

Ever since his passing, tributes have been flowing with predictable reverence from Manyu citizens at home and in the diaspora. Words like “icon,” “pillar,” and “visionary” appear readily in the public lexicon of grief. However, we of the Cameroon Concord Group think that a more honest remembrance of His Royal Highness Chief Tabetando demands we resist flattening him into something too polished. The Supreme Leader of the Bachou-Ntai people was not carved from marble; he was shaped in the friction of real business and politics, where ideals meet compromise and conviction meets consequence.

As a student of the great Chief Emmanuel Tabi Egbe, His Royal Highness Chief Tabetando rose, as many admired Anglophone leaders do, from circumstances that required resilience. His early struggles so often cited in his speeches were not merely narrative decoration; they informed his instincts, his alliances, the Chief’s sense of what was worth fighting for. This begs the question: Did Chief Tabetando remain anchored to those humble beginnings, or did the machinery of political power in Yaoundé slowly redraw his compass? The answer, depending on whom you ask from both sides of the river Moungo, is both.

Frankly speaking, there were moments when His Royal Highness Chief Tabetando embodied the highest aspirations of public service, championing policies that spoke to equity, advocating for voices long sidelined in both the South West and North West regions. And there were other moments, harder to reconcile, when his silence over the Cameroon government teleguided killings in Southern Cameroons spoke louder than any speech he gave. These contradictions do not diminish Chief Tabetando’s legacy; they define it. To remember Chief Tabetando truthfully is to hold both the light and the shadow.

Death has a way of clarifying what life obscures. It strips away the immediacy of political rivalry and leaves behind a more enduring question: after Chief Tabetando, what remains? Not the headlines, nor the victories, but the imprint on people’s lives including the hundreds of well-paid jobs created in Euroil, medic care for all in his Bachuo-Ntai Kingdom, roads built and the laws passed or blocked during his time in the Senate.

Perhaps the deeper, more uncomfortable reflection is not about His Royal Highness Chief Barrister Tabetando alone, but about the Cameroon political system in Yaoundé that shaped him. Political and business elites do not emerge in isolation; they are products of collective expectations, pressures, and permissions. In examining Chief Tabetando’s life, we are also examining ourselves—what we reward, what we tolerate, what we demand.

There is a great temptation in moments like this to seek closure. To be sure, to wrap a life in a neat conclusion and declare it either triumph or cautionary tale! But His Royal Highness Chief Tabetando resists that simplicity. Chief Tabetando’s story feels unfinished not because of its abrupt end this morning, but because his life story asks questions that outlive him.

What does it mean to serve your people with integrity when compromise is inevitable? How does a great political elite wield power without becoming defined by it?

And when the final reckoning comes—as it does for all—what measure truly matters?

As he passes into eternity, His Royal Highness Chief Tabetando leaves behind not just a record, but a reckoning. Not just memories, but mirrors.

And perhaps that is the most enduring legacy of all.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, April 2026

Pope Leo XIV’s Visit to Bamenda: “A Moral Abdication – Generic Platitudes While Ambazonia Bleeds” ⁰

In the shadow of St Joseph’s Cathedral, where the blood of Ambazonian sons and daughters still stains the soil of the Northern Zone, Pope Leo XIV stood before a carefully staged “Meeting for Peace.” Amba forces, in a unilateral gesture of goodwill and restraint, had announced a three-day temporary cessation of hostilities to ensure the Holy Father’s safety and the dignity of his apostolic journey. Yet what the Vatican delivered in return was not prophetic truth to power, but a masterclass in diplomatic evasion – a torrent of lofty abstractions that left the structural genocide against the people of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) untouched, unnamed, and unaddressed.

The Pope spoke of “peace,” of “fraternity,” and of the dangers of manipulating religion for “military, economic and political gain.” He lamented the “almost decade-long conflict,” acknowledged dusty feet on bloodstained yet fertile land, and urged conversion and neighbourly love. He praised interfaith efforts and a so-called Movement for Peace. Fine words. Empty ones. In the very epicentre of Yaoundé’s scorched-earth war crimes – where La Republique du Cameroun (BIR) occupation forces have, since 2016, carried out extrajudicial executions, systematic village burnings, mass rape, torture, and enforced disappearances – the Successor of Peter uttered not one syllable about the root cause: the criminal annexation of Ambazonia in defiance of UN General Assembly Resolution 1608 (XV) of 21 April 1961.

He never once named the crisis for what it is: the direct, predictable consequence of failed decolonisation. He never invoked the binding legal instruments – the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Banjul Decision on Communication 266/2003, the 2019 Abuja Federal High Court ruling declaring the rendition of Ambazonian leader’s illegal, or the peremptory norm of the right to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter and the 1966 International Covenants.

Not a word was spoken about the over 580,000 internally displaced Ambazonians, the “world’s most neglected displacement crisis” as declared by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Not a whisper about the Nera 10 and thousands of other political prisoners rotting in Yaoundé’s maximum-security dungeons in open defiance of Nigerian and African Commission rulings. No demand for an immediate, verifiable ceasefire monitored by a neutral AU/UN mission. No call for unfettered humanitarian access. No insistence on direct, unconditional negotiations between Yaoundé and legitimate Ambazonian representatives– in a neutral third country, with the full spectrum of outcomes, including total independence, explicitly on the table.

The 16-Point Peace Plan released by Ambazonian representatives in July 2025 – some concrete, staged, monitorable roadmap endorsed by the very legal instruments the Vatican claims to uphold – received zero mention. Not the immediate ceasefire. Not the unconditional release of all prisoners. Not the restoration of meaningful autonomy or explicit negotiation of independence. Not the independent truth and reconciliation commission. Not demilitarisation and international guarantees. Nothing.

Instead, the Pope offered the same toothless, Yaoundé-friendly mantra of “dialogue” and “national unity” that has enabled nine years of atrocious crimes. In his April 15 address to authorities in Yaoundé, he acknowledged “tensions and violence” in the Northwest and Southwest (Ambazonia) without once assigning responsibility to the Biya regime’s militias and or security forces – the same forces documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department as perpetrators of summary executions, house-burnings, and the dumping of civilian bodies. He framed the crisis within Cameroon’s “richness of cultures and languages” – a deliberate linguistic sleight-of-hand that erases Ambazonia’s distinct colonial history and legal personality as a former UN Trust Territory.

This was not pastoral caution. This was political cowardice. While villages in the Northern Zone still smoulder and orphaned children crowd refugee camps in Nigeria, the Holy Father chose photo-ops over prophecy. He legitimised a regime that, just twelve days earlier on 4 April 2026, rammed through constitutional amendments restoring the vice-presidency without any guarantee of Anglophone representation – another cynical cheat exposed by The Guardian Post Cameroon as “Anglophones cheated again!”

The Vatican, which once confronted apartheid and mediated Latin American civil wars, has today chosen silence in the face of what the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect has warned is an imminent risk of atrocity crimes. A generic appeal for “peace” that refuses to confront the unacceptable marginalisation of Southern Cameroonians, the scorched-earth tactics of the occupation forces, or the legal foundations of Ambazonian statehood is not neutrality – it is complicity.

The people of Ambazonia expected courage. They received platitudes. They expected truth. They received diplomacy. They expected a shepherd. They received a politician in white.

The suffering of burned villages, raped women, orphaned children, and exiled leaders demands more than prayers. It demands prophetic denunciation. Today in Bamenda, that denunciation was absent. History will record this visit not as a triumph of peace, but as a shameful photo-op that allowed a genocidal regime to cloak itself in papal legitimacy while its war machines continue their work of annihilation.

About the Author: Dr Larry Ayamba is a former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Ambazonia Governing Council (AGovC). He campaigned relentlessly for the decolonisation of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), represented the AGovC on the world stage, and authored its successful admission to the UNPO in 2018. Dr AYAMBA frames the crisis as a continuation of colonial annexation and continues to demand genuine dialogue – or the explicit restoration of total Ambazonian independence – as the only path to justice.

The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Cameroon Concord News Group

15, April 2026

The Holy Father under the Cameroonian skies: we welcome you with open arms ⁰

Anglophone Roman Catholic Bishops wrote a brilliant letter to the 93-year-old butcher in Yaoundé and suggested possible ways of ending the crisis in Southern Cameroons. Biya spurned disdainfully the Bishops. A francophone Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Bafia was murdered and his body dumped inside a river. Till this day, the Biya regime has not commented on the sad incident.

Today in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital, as the sun rises over the seven hills, Cameroonian Bishops and the Prime Minister and Head of Government Chief Dr Dion Ngute extended a profound and sincere welcome to the Holy Father Pope Leo, whose presence in the divided nation marks a moment of grace, unity and renewed spiritual reflection.

Cameroon, often referred to as Africa in miniature is indeed a land of rich diversity of cultures, languages and traditions living together differently in a poorly concocted national identity. It is within this tapestry that the Cameroonian Bishops from both English and French speaking parts of the country and members of government received the nation’s distinguished guest the Holy Father Pope Leo with confidence that his pastoral mission will resonate deeply with the hopes and faith of the Cameroonian people.

The coming of the Holy Father to a sick nation is more than a ceremonial occasion. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group see it as a spiritual encounter. At a time when Cameroon is facing uncertainty, division and hardship, Pope Leo’s message of compassion, justice and peace carries particular significance. For all the faithful across the nation, Pope Leo’s presence is a reminder of the enduring strength of community, the importance of political reconciliation of both La Republique and Southern Cameroons and the call to serve one another with humility and love.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group trust that the Holy Father’s pastoral trip to Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda will be both meaningful and restorative. May the Holy Father Pope Leo find in our Roman Catholic churches the fervor of our prayers, in our French and English speaking communities the warmth of our Cameroonian hospitality and in our troubled nation the resilience and dignity of a people committed to faith and progress.

As Pope Leo journeys through Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda, may his words inspire genuine dialogue, healing and renewed commitment to the common good of the Cameroonian nation. And may this visit strengthen the bonds between the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the people of Cameroon, leaving a lasting imprint on our shared spiritual journey.

Holy Father Pope Leo, Cameroon welcomes you with open arms. May your stay be peaceful, enriching and filled with the grace you so generously bring to others.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

14, April 2026

Strait of Hormuz: Joint statement by the heads of the International Energy Agency, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank Group ⁰

The Heads of the International Energy Agency, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank Group met today as part of the coordination group they established in early April to maximize their institutions’ response to the energy and economic impacts of the war in the Middle East. At the end of their meeting, they issued the following statement:

“As we noted earlier this month, the impact of the war is substantial, global, and highly asymmetric, disproportionately affecting energy importers, in particular low-income countries. The shock has led to higher oil, gas and fertilizer prices, triggering concerns about food security and job losses as well. Some oil and gas producers in the Middle East have also seen a dramatic loss of export revenue.

The situation remains very uncertain, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is yet to normalize. Even after a resumption of regular shipping flows through the Strait, it will take time for global supplies of key commodities to move back towards their pre-conflict levels—and fuel and fertilizer prices may remain high for a prolonged period given the damage to infrastructure. Due to supply disruptions, shortages of key inputs are likely to have implications for energy, food, and other industries. The war has also forcibly displaced people, impacted jobs, and reduced travel and tourism, which may take time to reverse.

Today, we shared our latest assessments, ahead of the release this Tuesday, April 14, of the IEA’s monthly Oil Market Report and IMF’s World Economic Outlook. We also discussed the situations of the countries most affected by the shock as well as the responses by our institutions. Our teams are working closely, including at country level, to leverage our respective expertise and help countries through tailored policy advice and, in the case of the IMF and World Bank, financial support where needed.

We will continue to monitor closely and assess the impact of the war on energy markets, the global economy and individual countries, and to coordinate our response and support to our member countries—working with, and drawing on, other international organizations’ expertise as needed to lay the foundations for a resilient recovery that delivers stability, growth and jobs.”

2, April 2026

Pope Leo XIV in Cameroon-The “Ambazonia crisis” in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s Northwest Region, which Pope Leo XIV will visit on April 16, is at the heart of the so-called “Anglophone crisis” that has shaken the country since 2016.

The origins of the crisis date back to the colonial era. A former colony of Wilhelmine Germany, Cameroon was divided in two at the end of World War I: one under British mandate and the other under French mandate. The French-speaking part became independent in 1960, while the English-speaking part in 1961. The latter, through a referendum, decided to join French-speaking Cameroon. In 1961, the Federal Republic of Cameroon was proclaimed, uniting territories with different languages and administrative practices. Federalism was abandoned in 1972 in favor of a unitary state. As a result, Cameroon’s English-speaking population felt increasingly marginalized and feared the disappearance of its legal and cultural distinctiveness.

The Anglophone crisis began in 2016 with a strike by lawyers and teachers who opposed the appointment of Francophone judges in Anglophone regions. The demonstrations were repressed by the Cameroonian government and were followed by episodes of violence.

In October 2017, Anglophone separatists proclaimed the Republic of Ambazonia (referring to Ambazonia Bay), thus formalizing their secessionist aspirations.

Since then, a conflict has erupted with a devastating human cost. Both sides in the war are using education as a weapon.

In Cameroon, public education is a prerogative of the state. Therefore, when attacking schools, armed groups are primarily targeting the symbol of a state institution. Schools, in particular, embody the flashpoints of the crisis, especially the language issue. French and English are the two official languages and enjoy equal status. However, French is used far more than English, thus fueling a sense of marginalization among Anglophone Cameroonians. Teaching and educational programs are, in principle, bilingual, even in Anglophone areas, something that is not accepted by the most radical separatists.

Since 2017, more than 700,000 children have been forced to drop out of school. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the Anglophone regions. OCHA also estimates that at least 334,098 people have been internally displaced by the violence in the two regions, while more than 76,493 have sought refuge in Nigeria. Both separatists and government forces have perpetrated targeted attacks against health facilities and humanitarian workers, severely reducing access to medical care and forcing several international humanitarian organizations to suspend their operations.

Furthermore, the conflict has degenerated into a veritable criminal industry based primarily on kidnappings for extortion. Under the pretext of financing the independence cause, criminal gangs abduct ordinary people, demanding sums of money from their families in exchange for their release. But the kidnappings also have a political objective: they are abductions aimed at silencing women in particular, since they often play a crucial role in conflict resolution in Cameroon’s traditional and tribal societies.

The latest available data is from 2024, with 450 kidnapping cases recorded. Among those abducted are also priests. It is worth recalling the kidnapping of the late Cardinal Christian Tumi, Archbishop Emeritus of Douala, in 2020 who had expressed his willingness to mediate between the government and the separatists.

Furthermore, the separatists, known as the “Amba Boys,” have imposed a monthly “revolutionary tax” on the local population: 10,000 CFA francs (15 euros) for men and 5,000 CFA francs (7.50 euros) for women.

In this situation, the Church community continues its work of evangelization despite numerous difficulties, and Catholic institutions and representatives are striving to play a mediating role. In a statement sent to Fides, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, Archbishop of Bamenda, affirmed: “The Church has not taken sides with either the separatists or the government precisely so that it can offer its mediation services. Despite the violence, in the Archdiocese of Bamenda I have not closed any parishes nor have I fled. I engage in dialogue with both the government and the separatists in the constant search for the path to peace.”

Source: Agenzia Fides

1, April 2026

New Testament pastors in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon ⁰

The mess left behind by Rev Dr Samuel Forba Fonki during his time as moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is now amplifying with questions about the public image of protestant clerics becoming increasingly relevant.

Before Samuel Forba Fonki emerged as moderator, the PCC had a very rich tradition that emphasized modesty, humility and spiritual focus. As a prominent and successful failure, Rev. Fonki reportedly left behind a sinful PCC which has prompted Christians and many religious observers to raise concerns about the complete and total shift in how certain pastors from rich congregations of the PCC present themselves especially in matters of dress and outward style.

It is shameful, disgusting and disgraceful for a church like the PCC rooted in reformed theology to allow its pastors to now appear like Sammy Diko and Longue Longue.

The pastor’s role in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is to point beyond themselves—to Christ, to Scripture and to the life of faith. When a pastor’s personal appearance begins to draw disproportionate attention as seen on the photo attached to this editorial, it risks distracting from that central mission. Being a pastor is not a celebrity contest and the pastor is not a performer.

This Cameroon Concord Group editorial is not a call for rigid uniformity or the denial of cultural expression. A pastor’s dress can reflect dignity, context, and even joy. But there is a great distinction between attire that honors the sacred responsibility of God’s ministry and attires that risk blurring the line between spiritual leadership and spectacle. When that holy line becomes unclear, Christians may begin to question whether the focus remains on worship or has subtly shifted toward personality and display.

PCC ministers are all aware that pastoral leadership speaks of restraint, integrity, and a quiet confidence rooted in calling rather than appearance. Correspondingly, pastors deep within the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon should and must not only communicate in words but also in presentation.

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, like other living institutions, must continuously reflect on how its pastors embody its values in a changing political and social landscape. That reflection is healthiest when it is honest, charitable, and anchored in the shared desire to preserve the integrity of the PCC’s mission.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

27, March 2026

World Bank Group statement on the conflict in the Middle East ⁰

A number of the World Bank Group’s clients in emerging markets have reached out to us as the conflict in the Middle East has started to impact commodity prices and logistics. We are working with governments, the private sector, regional partners, and other stakeholders to help them through this new set of challenges.

We are closely monitoring global market developments, and we are in direct contact with the most affected client countries to understand what they are facing on the ground. Shipping route disruptions are increasing costs, and supply risks are spreading from energy into fertilizers and other critical agricultural inputs. Crude oil prices increased by nearly 40 percent between February and March, the price of liquefied natural gas shipments to Asia rose by almost two-thirds, and the prices of nitrogen-based fertilizers increased by nearly 50 percent in March.

The World Bank Group is moving quickly to help client countries to navigate this crisis. We are ready to respond at scale — combining immediate financial relief with policy expertise and private sector support for the recovery of jobs and growth. We will draw on the full range of instruments we have available to support governments, firms, and households. Our aim is to deliver immediate relief by leveraging our active portfolio, our crisis response toolkit, and pre-arranged financing facilities. We will transition progressively to fast-disbursing instruments anchored in sound policies to underpin recovery. Through our private sector arms, we will provide firms with essential liquidity, trade finance, and working capital.

Clearly, this is an evolving situation and we cannot predict the full range of impacts. As everyone has said, the longer this lasts, and the more damage there is to critical infrastructure, the more challenging this will be for our clients. That said, we are determined to be helpful and do all we can to safeguard some of the hard-won economic progress that these countries are making.

26, March 2026

Anglophone Vice President: a deeply counterproductive idea ⁰

The Biya regime’s recent proposal to create an Anglophone Vice President in Cameroon appears to be a very appetizing and conciliatory gesture toward a long-marginalized people. But in reality, this monstrous political suggestion is a deeply counterproductive idea. It is a plan that is designed to entrench divisions, trivialize legitimate Anglophone grievances and above all, substitute symbolism for the substantive reforms that Cameroon as a nation urgently needs.

The crisis in Southern Cameroons known popularly today as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has never been a problem of representation at the very top of the executive hierarchy in Yaoundé. It is rooted in decades of structural inequities including the erosion of the common law system, the marginalization of English in public administration, uneven development and a persistent sense of cultural and political exclusion. For some Anglophone comedians from the South West Region to suggest on social media that appointing an Anglophone Vice President would resolve or even meaningfully address these issues is to misunderstand the nature of the crisis itself. For those who do not know, English speaking Cameroonians need policy positions NOT political positions.

The so called Anglophone Vice President proposal risks reducing a very complicated national question into a matter of identity tokenism. It sends the wrong message to the international community that the concerns of English speaking Cameroonians can be appeased by elevating a single individual, rather than by reforming institutions and policies that affect millions of Southern Cameroonians. This approach has failed in countless contexts. Even the common man on the streets of Southern Cameroons is aware that representation without power, without structural change and without accountability does little more than create the illusion of progress.

A regime that divided the nation again by going back to both the Francophonie and the Commonwealth is now on the path of institutionalizing an explicitly Anglophone vice presidency that would formalize the very linguistic divide that Cameroon should be striving to overcome. By embedding the Anglophone identity into the constitutional architecture of executive power in Yaoundé, the ruling CPDM crime syndicate would be fanning the flames of Francophone-Anglophone divide and by extrapolation acknowledging and perpetuating a binary that fuels mistrust and political fragmentation. Biya and his men should get this straight into their heads: nation-building requires bridging divides, not codifying them into permanent features of governance.

The leaked plan is already creating new tensions rather than resolve existing ones. Questions are already being asked as to what powers would this so called Anglophone Vice President hold? Is the role going to be merely ceremonial like that of the Prime Minister? Who is going to select the officeholder and to whom would he be accountable? From every indication, the position will not have any meaningful authority and will eventually become a political ornament with little real impact on the ground. To be more accurate, it will be an ill disguised scheme fabricated to continue hiding the weak and aging President Biya from the public eye.

The timing of this CPDM proposal is also worrying. In the midst of an ongoing war in Southern Cameroons marked by violence, displacement and deepening resentment, what is needed in Anglophone Cameroon is not a constitutional gimmick but a credible inclusive dialogue process. Progressive forces deep within English speaking Cameroon territories affected by the Ambazonia crisis have repeatedly called for a federal structure or some form of genuine decentralization with respect for legal and educational systems within a united Cameroon. These demands cannot be met through symbolic appointments; they require political courage and systemic reform.

Frankly speaking, a call for an Anglophone Vice President is distracting the nation from more urgent priorities which includes restoring trust in public institutions, ensuring justice and accountability, rebuilding war-torn communities in Southern Cameroons and creating a framework for sustainable peace. We of the Cameroon Concord Group are of the opinion that the Anglophone Vice President is now becoming a convenient talking point for those inside the Unity Palace unwilling to engage with the harder, more consequential work of national reconciliation.

Cameroon as a nation does not need a cosmetic fix. Cameroon badly requires a reimagining of the social contract—one that guarantees equality, respects diversity, and empowers all its citizens through strong, inclusive institutions. Until those foundations are addressed, proposals like an Anglophone Vice President will remain what they are: well-intentioned, perhaps, but ultimately inadequate and counterproductive.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai