HIGHLIGHTS

Seven attacks on healthcare were reported, two in the North-West (NW) and five in the South-West (SW).

Two ambulance staff of an international medical NGO have been detained by State security forces following patient’s transfer duties.

NSAGs perpetrated 11 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) incidents in the NWSW, including two in Buea town in the SW, targeting communities.

The cholera outbreak in the South-West region continues to spread. As of 31 December, four health districts have confirmed cases, with 521 cases and 18 deaths.

SITUATION REPORT

Fighting continues between State security forces (SSFs) and non-State armed groups (NSAGs). The population in the NWSW continues to suffer the impact of armed clashes and insecurity, ranging from exposure to crossfire and abductions to explosions from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) reported 11 IEDs incidents in December; four in the NW and seven in the SW. While most incidents had SSFs as target, three incidents reported in the Fako division directly targeted populations. On 6 December, allegedly NSAG fighters detonated an IED at Soppo market. A second IED was discovered at the market and deactivated by SSFs. On 13 December, an IED explosion was reported at a trade fair at Bongo Square in Clerks Quarter neighbourhood. An unspecified number of people were injured. These attacks and others reported in Buea in the past months targeting civilians are instilling fear among the population. Imposed Monday ghost town rule declared by NSAG are still in place.

The cholera outbreak in Ndian division, South-West, is aggravating. As of 31 December, 521 cases, including 18 deaths, were reported. This is an important increase in comparison to 105 reported cases at the end of November. Humanitarian actors continue to support Ekondo Titi and Bakassi health districts in Ndian division. Access is worsened by poor roads while maritime access is challenging with the presence of pirates and limited resources to reach affected areas. The sea route was considered the safest means of access to the Ekondo-Titi subdivision, used by humanitarian organizations operating in Bamusso as an alternative to roads where there is a high number of NSAG attacks. The presence of pirates on this route has increased security risks for partners and will most likely hinder rapid and safe humanitarian access and the ability to implement activities, especially cholera outbreak related ones.

Attacks on healthcare continued in the NWSW. On 5 December, SSFs reportedly made an incursion into St Mary Soledad hospital in Alakuma- Mankon, NW. During this incident, wards were searched, Patients were harassed and two suspected NSAG fighters who were receiving treatment were arrested. On 26 December, SSFs stopped an international medical NGO ambulance at Nguti checkpoint, Kupe-Muanenguba, transporting an injured man from Ashum village in Tinto subdivision, Manyu division to a hospital in Mutengene, in Tiko subdivision. Security forces retrieved the patient and ordered the NGO team to go back to Mamfe, Manyu division. The ambulance driver and the nurse were arrested and detained for investigation. Seven attacks on healthcare were reported in the NWSW. These incidents remain a serious threat to the availability of timely and equitable healthcare in the restive regions.

Displacement continues due to insecurity and violence. Protection continues to be a major concern as civilians continue to be arbitrarily arrested, assaulted, abducted for ransom, and denied access to basic services. Over 2,490 individuals were reportedly displaced in the NWSW in December, following armed confrontations between SSFs and NSAGs, or as a preventive measure for fear of being attacked. Emergency assessments were conducted to identify priority needs of the affected population. Most of them intended to go back to their locations of origin once the situation allows, due to poor living conditions in the bush settlements and limited access to services in host communities.

Culled from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Summary of the profile of the NERA 10

1.            Julius AyukTabe: Information Technology expert, Vice President of the American University of Nigeria.

2.            Augustine ChehAwasum: Professorof Veterinary Surgery and Diagnostic Imaging, Ahmadu Bello University.

3.            Blaise BerinyuySevidzem: Barrister-at-Law, human rights advocate, solicitor and notary public.

4.            Cornelius NjikimbiKwanga: PhD in Economics and Senior Lecturer, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University.

5.            Egbe OgorkNtui: PhD in Engineering and Associate Professor of Structural Engineering in Bayero University

6.            Elias EbaiEyambe: Barrister-at-Law, advocate, solicitor and notary public.

7.            Fidelis Ndeh-Che: PhD in Engineering and Senior Lecturer in Engineering at the American University of Nigeria.

8.            Henry Tata Kimeng: PhD in Engineering and Architecture and Associate Professor of Engineering and Architecture, Ahmadu Bello University.

9.            Nfor Ngala Nfor: Political scientist and author.

10.Wilfred FombangTassang: Secondary School teacher and trade union leader.

The standing of the ten gentlemen

These are highly educated gentlemen with careers in significant niche areas. Most of them are University professors with distinguished academic credentials in disciplines such as veterinary surgery, structural engineering, architecture, and ICT. They have a track record of significant contribution in knowledge generation and in community engagement. These political prisoners also include two barristers-at-law and human rights activists, one teacher, and one political scientist. These prisoners of conscience are all, but for one, below sixty years of age. They are all married and have children. Their wives and children are under severe physical and emotional trauma and pain on account of the incarcerationof their husbands and fathers for no just cause. Finally, these gentlemen are all legally resident in Nigeria. Some are University professors for years. Some have refugee status. Others are registered asylum seeks.

The law

The kidnap and hostage-holding of the NERA 10 contravenes provisions of the Nigerian and Cameroun constitutions. Both constitutions provide for freedom of association, assembly and speech.The law in both countries sets out procedures for arrest and detention. The law in both countries does not authorise arbitrary arrest and detention. It does not authorise kidnapping and hostage-taking. It does not authorise torture. The kidnapping, smuggling and incommunicado detention of the Nera 10 is not sanctioned by any judicial process. The law has been trampled on.The NERA 10 were simply kidnapped, held incommunicado for weeks, forcibly repatriated to Yaoundé at night under armed terror. While in Yaoundé they are further held incommunicado and without access to sunlight for over six months before being dumped in the insalubrious, squalid and cramped Kondengui prison.

The Nigerian and Cameroun authorities violated relevant fundamental human rights. These rights are enshrined in the Constitution of each country. They are also enshrinedinvarious international instruments duly ratified by each country, including the 1951 Refugees Convention and the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, 1969/1974. The deprivation of the liberty of these gentlemen and their systematic torture arein violation of their rights and freedoms guaranteed underinternational law. In particular, they are in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa.

Cameroun and Nigeria are parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. That Convention prohibits torture in all its forms. It further prohibits the deportation or extradition of persons to countries where there are good grounds for believing that they would be in danger of suffering it. Cameroun Republic has precisely such a lugubrious reputation.

The NERA 10 are all civilians. In violation of international law, they are put through the motion of a trial in a military tribunal and in a language (French) and legal system (French) the hostages do not understand.That tribunal acknowledged the protected status of the NERA 10 as refugees and asylum seekers legally resident in Nigeria. It acknowledged that the NERA 10 had committed no crime either in Cameroun or in Nigeria.The kidnapping and hostage-keeping of the Nera 10 is a matter with international dimensions. The tribunal nevertheless purported to assume jurisdiction to try them and went ahead to subject them to a pretended ‘trial’. French Cameroun’s apex court has maintained a studied and suspect silence over the appeal lodged in September 2019 by the NERA 10 against their ‘conviction’ and ‘sentence’. Even complaints filed with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in June 2019 remain unanswered to this day.

In Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/85/2018 of 1March 2018, the Federal High Court of Nigeria held that the arrest and detention of the NERA 10 and their forced repatriation (‘refoulement’) to Cameroun constitutes gross violations of their fundamental human rights. The Court ordered the State of Nigeria to pay compensation to each of them in the sum of 5 million Naira each. It alsogranted a perpetual injunction against any further violations of their rights. Inthe related case ofSisikuAyukTabe and others v. National Security Adviser and Attorney General of the Federation of Nigeria(Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/147/2018) the Nigerian Federal High Court at Abuja adjudged and declared:that the NERA 10 are legal residents in Nigeria, some of who have refugee status and others are registered asylum seekers; that their fundamental rights have been violated; that their forced repatriation to Cameroun is illegal; and that the Nigerian authorities are under legal obligation “to bring back the Applicants from Cameroun to Nigeria forthwith”. The Court went further to grant a perpetual injunction against any further violation of the fundamental rights of the Applicants, and to rule that the NERA 10 be paid damages, the amount of which the Court quantified. These two judgmentshave not yet been executed.

Risk of being murdered

There is well-founded fear of a plot to murder the NERA 10 in prison.In 2020, Kondegui prison officials brought unidentified persons into the prison to trail the NERA 10 political prisoners. In March of that year the said individuals broke into the cell-room of 3 of the Nera 10. They stole money and contaminated their food. The Nera 10 called for an investigation and for forensic analysis of the food samples for poisons. The prison authorities ignored and continue to ignore this request.Recently, over 75% of the inmates, including Barrister Shufai Blaise, complained of generalised malaise, lethargy, fever, sore throat, coughing, chest and abdominal pains. Shufai Blaise’s condition became severe and he collapsed. He was comatose throughout the last half of the night and was rushed to the military hospital. There, while on intravenous medications, he was forcibly restrained with both hands chained in a crucifying position and left to the nuisance of biting insects for days. Till date no one has bothered to test inmates for corona virus or give them appropriate treatment for any ailment.

Prisoners’ property still in the possession of Nigerian and Cameroun authorities

The moveable property of the NERA 10 is still under the control and possession of the Nigerian and Cameroun authorities.These include clothes, belts, shoes, caps, hats, inner wears, gold necklaces, bracelets, wrist-watch,writing pens, purses with money, documents, and house keys. They also include briefcases, bags of shoes, laptop bags, laptops, motorcars, money, documents, students’ theses and dissertations, computer external hard drives and accessories, bank cards, cell phones and other contents.

SED, Cameroun’s Auschwitz manned by its Gestapo

Detainees at SED are denied access to sunlight. They are locked up 24 hours a day. Detainees include children. Mistreatment is systematic.There is no soap for washing or taking a shower. Washing is a luxury.Detainees do not get proper food. They are under-fed. They are flagellated and otherwise systematically tortured in and out of the torture facility at that place. The SED gendarmes who carry out these bestial tortures have earned the dubious distinction of being Cameroun’s Gestapo.

Kondengui, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions

The NERA 10 are held in Kondengui prison’scrowded, cramped and makeshift cells. That prison is overflowing with inmates. It holds more than ten times its original capacity. The conditions there are inhuman and worse than a nightmare. Inmates have something to eat only if family, friends or some charitable organisation brings them food. There is no regular drinking water, no washing facilities, and no medical care. The conditions are shocking. Some inmates have been there for years without trial. Some others have been reduced to just skin and bone. That prison is generally often dark. It is cramped, airless, disease-ridden, and provides wretched ‘food’. It is an extremely dreadful place. The prison conditions are miserable; in fact, horrible. They amount to general barbarous treatment and the degradation of inmates.

The tribunal militaire, an instrument of tyranny, repression and oppression

The Nera 10, kidnapped and taken hostage in Abuja at night using military force and smuggled into Yaoundé at night using military force, are persons of high standing in their communities and various professional fields. They are subjected to a pretended trial by French Cameroun’s infamoustribunal militaire.Since the 1960s, this political tribunal ‘tries’ even civilians – civilians accused of political and non-political offences. It is, has been, and continues to be,Yaoundé’s handy instrument of despotism, political vendetta and repression. This is done in defiance of repeated rulings by the Human Rights Committee and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights declaring as contrary to international law the systematic use of the military tribunal to try civilians. As early as 1964, the International Commission of Jurists had called on Cameroun to disseise or remove the jurisdiction of its miliary tribunal over civilians. (International Commission of Jurists, “Emergency Laws in the Federal republic of Cameroon,” 20 Bulletin of the International Commission of Jurists, September 1964, p.7). The NERA 10 have been given a sentence of life imprisonment. This sentence wasprescribedby the Yaoundé regime even before their ‘trial’. The life sentence in effect means a sentence to slow death given the disease-ridden and insalubrious conditions of Kondengui Prison.The NERA 10 are languishing and pinning away in that dreadful prison.The additional sentence to a fine is scandalous, all the more so as the amount exceeds even the annual budget of Cameroun.

Urgent appeal to the conscientious world: immediate and unconditional release of the political prisoners

We appeal to the conscientious world to use its best endeavours, individually and collectively, to secure the release of the NERA 10 (and other political prisoners arbitrarily seized and held by the Yaoundé regime). The Nera 10 are fine and highly educated gentlemen who have been kidnapped and severely tortured and are being held hostage for no just reason. They deserve to be released unconditionally without further delay. Their release is warranted on grounds of international law, justice, human rights, and humanitarian considerations.

By Professor Carlson Anyangwe

On Monday morning, 17 January, Samuel Eto’o officially began a new job.

At the age of 40, Cameroon’s most famous son has already completed one glittering career. His magical right foot took him all the way from Ngambé, a small village in the Littoral region, into a starring role at some of the world’s biggest football clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter Milan. At Barcelona he was part of arguably the greatest club team ever assembled, playing alongside Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho and winning two Champions Leagues and three La Liga titles in the process.

He is perhaps the greatest African footballer of all time. He won his first cap for the Indomitable Lions the day before his 16th birthday, and went on to lead the team to two Africa Cup of Nations trophies and Cameroon’s first ever Olympic gold medal.

After retiring from football in 2019, he could be forgiven if he were to sit back in one of his four houses – he splits his time between Paris, Milan, Abidjan and Douala’s New-Bell neighbourhood – and admiring his many, many trophies.

Instead, the world-famous striker threw himself into the messy politics of Fecafoot, Cameroon’s football federation – and, with tactical acumen reminiscent of his brilliance on the pitch, emerged on top. As of this week, he is officially the federation’s new president.

But few believe that Eto’o’s political ambitions will stop there.

The Continent reached out to Eto’o for comment via his foundation, Fecafoot, and a close friend, but received no response.

A natural politician

Despite his sporting pedigree, and his enormous popularity within Cameroon, no one thought Eto’o stood a chance when he first announced that he was running for the Fecafoot presidency. Except Eto’o himself, that is. “I will be the next president of the federation despite all the cheating,” he said as he filed his nomination papers in November.

One obstacle in his way was his dual citizenship. Having acquired a Spanish passport during his Barcelona days, Eto’o was initially ineligible to take part. But this rule was later thrown out in court.

Another hurdle was that the position was already occupied by a powerful member of the country’s ruling elite. Seidou Mbombo Njoya is royalty: a son of the Bamum Kingdom in western Cameroon, which wields enormous political and cultural power. Having assumed the position in 2018, Mbombo Njoya had no intention of relinquishing it, and enjoyed strong support from both the Confederation of African Football and Fifa, the sport’s global ruling body – neither of which welcomed Eto’o’s promise to clean up Cameroonian football.

But Eto’o outmanoeuvred the incumbent at every turn. He did it by running a sophisticated political campaign that would not have been out of place in a presidential election. Instead of focusing his attention on the 76 delegates who actually vote, he criss-crossed all of Cameroon’s ten districts visiting schools, community centres and army bases, charming local authorities and traditional leaders as he did so. Every moment was documented on social media. He forged alliances with prominent businessmen and key power brokers like the new lamido (Fulani ruler) of Garoua, Ibrahim el Rachidine, who helped sway delegates to his side. And he appointed the services of a top PR consultant, who carefully framed Eto’o as a champion of the people.

“People were asking themselves: Is this guy paving his way to become Fecafoot president or the president of the republic?” said one journalist who followed the campaign closely, speaking to The Continent on condition of anonymity. In Cameroon, where President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982, it can be dangerous to even speculate about who might come next.

More curious still was Eto’o’s energetic courting of regional leaders, who could have no influence on the Fecafoot vote. In 2021, he met with the presidents of Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritania and Togo; the prime minister of Côte d’Ivoire; and even Assimi Goïta, the colonel who orchestrated Mali’s military coup – an itinerary more typically associated with statesmen than footballers.

Seeking Biya’s blessing

On 11 December, with 11-million people watching on TV – the first televised election in Cameroon’s history – Samuel Eto’o was elected as president of Fecafoot. Thousands of young Cameroonians gathered outside the Fecafoot headquarters in Yaoundé to cheer him on. In Eto’o, they saw hope for change.

When it comes to Cameroonian politics, and the country’s octogenarian president, change is a commodity that is in short supply.

But Eto’o has close links with Cameroon’s presidency – so close that online publication Africa Is A Country once described him as a “PR pawn for the protracted rule of the country’s ageing and hard-line head of state”. In 2011, in the run-up to the national election, he was among the guests invited to party with Biya and his wife at the president’s residence in Mvomeka. In 2018, Eto’o enthusiastically endorsed Biya’s bid for a seventh consecutive term in office, saying that he would be voting for Biya and that “the most important thing is that my brothers do like me”.

(Eto’o is not the only footballer to shill for the regime. Roger Milla, hero of the 1990 World Cup, is the president’s “special goodwill ambassador”. Rigobert Song, the former Indomitable Lions captain, also parties in Mvomeka and wears ruling party attire.)

Before launching his bid for the Fecafoot presidency, Eto’o sought the blessing of Biya, whom he refers to as his “father”. Biya gave it, but attached one condition, according to the magazine The Africa Report: Eto’o’s political ambitions must go no further. Biya is thought to be grooming his son, Franck Biya, to succeed him, and does not need a wildly popular football star to get in the way.

A shiny distraction

Earlier this month, the Africa Cup of Nations kicked off at Yaoundé’s shiny new $326-million Olembe Stadium (also known as the Paul Biya Stadium). Cameroon’s hosting of the tournament is three years late, delayed first due to security concerns and then because of the pandemic. Finally, however, President Biya got his moment in the international limelight, waving regally to his subjects as the presidential motorcade did laps around the pitch.

It was easy to forget, amid all the exuberance and flag-waving, that this is a nation at war with itself. For the last five years, a bitter conflict has raged between Biya’s security forces and separatists from Cameroon’s Anglophone regions (English speakers make up about 20% of the country’s population, and have been historically marginalised). At least 4 000 people have been killed, and a million more forced from their homes. A generation of children have been denied access to education. Both sides have been accused of war crimes including extrajudicial killings and sexual assault.

The separatists have pledged to disrupt the tournament, and have made good on that promise: shots were fired to disrupt a Malian team practice, while Gambia’s team bus was near the scene when a homemade bomb went off in the town of Buea, injuring three police officers. “Do not put football fans’ lives at risk thinking Africa’s most corrupt regime will guarantee security,” said a spokesperson for the rebels.

Samuel Eto’o has carefully steered clear of the conflict – pretending, for the most part, that it doesn’t exist. In 2018, he announced a plan to tour schools in the conflict-affected areas, but was forced to cancel after a public outcry from Anglophone leaders who saw it as an endorsement of the regime’s brutal approach.

But a clearer endorsement came in January last year when Eto’o visited a battalion of the Rapid Intervention Brigade, or BIR – the elite military unit that reports directly to Biya himself. The BIR is one of the key ways that Biya keeps himself in power, and it has been repeatedly implicated in human rights abuses including torture, assault and the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Eto’o is a fan. “Had the pleasure of spending time in Maroua with my brothers and sisters in the army and witnessed their discipline, professionalism and selfless commitment to putting their lives on the line for our country,” he tweeted. “Good luck to the BIR and to those who fight for the honor of 237!” (+237 is Cameroon’s dialling code).

Monsieur le Président

As the crowds cheered Biya on Afcon’s opening day, Eto’o was conspicuously absent from both the ceremony and the television coverage. He was spotted walking alone in a tunnel into the stadium, without any escort or protocol. Later, a video emerged of him speaking to his long-time friend Fally Ipupa, the Congolese singer who performed at the ceremony. Fally said he was going to give Eto’o a shout-out on stage, but Eto’o told him not to. “No, please, I don’t want any problem. There’s just one president and he’s here today.”

But not everyone is so circumspect. “Wherever Samuel Eto’o goes these days, everyone calls him president. We don’t know whether they are referring to him as Fecafoot president or president of the republic,” said the veteran journalist.

Either way, and no matter how loudly Eto’o affirms his loyalty, Paul Biya will be watching his back very closely indeed. If Samuel Eto’o is as skilled at politics as he is at football – and the early signs suggest that he is – then the president might just have something to worry about.

Culled from The Continent

The beautiful game. These three words are among the most dangerously abused words in the English language. The romanticisation of football has given the sport so much power that it can get away with anything, even responsibility for the deaths of people who merely wanted to watch their team play.

It’s this romanticism that makes us turn the other way when the sport, its players and fans are exploited for our entertainment. It’s because of this power that vile, murderous and authoritarian regimes are celebrated when they use their vast financial resources, some of which are obtained through the abuse of human rights, to help a football club win trophies.

It’s because of this power that Gianni Infantino, president of world football governing body Fifa, can say with a straight face that should the World Cup be played every two years instead of the current four, fewer African migrants would die in the Mediterranean Sea trying to make their way to Europe and a better life. His campaign for a biennial global tournament has been heavily criticised as a money-making scheme that puts neither the game nor players’ interests at heart.

Infantino is among many men, including generals and dictators, who have abused the beautiful game for their own wealth and to improve their image. Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is among those men. The 88-year-old has ruled the Central African nation since 1982. Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe is assumed to have had Biya, and others like him, in mind when he wrote of a rapacious political caste for whom a “violent quest for grandeur makes vulgarity and wrongdoing its main mode of existence”. Biya is now under immense pressure from his people to step down, with the country’s economy tanking and a political crisis that has been raging for five years.

The president who promised to be a leader for all Cameroonians has led a regime that has marginalised the English-speaking minority. Instead of listening to their pleas, the government has reacted with force to the protests organised to shine a light on the suffering that the minority group has endured in Cameroon. More than 4 000 people have been killed and half a million displaced in what has come to be known as the Anglophone crisis.

Sleight of hand                                                                                                                                                                                

The continent has been largely silent about this crisis. It is likely why there hasn’t been vociferous criticism of Cameroon hosting the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). The tournament is part of Biya’s grand plan to win over the youth and paper over the cracks in his regime: a month-long party for the football-obsessed country focuses their attention on the great talent on display rather than his failings.  

So far it has worked. Even after the stampede at Olembé Stadium that claimed eight lives, the country’s appetite for the competition remains high. It’s ironic that the stampede happened at the stadium Biya controversially named after himself and spent millions of dollars on, a vanity project to keep his name eternal and help boost his dwindling support. Now, when you search for the stadium online, the uppermost results are reports about the stampede deaths and not its beauty, extravagance, or even the man himself. The state reportedly spent $700 million (R10.8 billion) to build stadiums and improve roads for the Afcon in an extremely expensive public relations exercise.

The stampede removed the plaster Biya was trying to put over a broken bone. Attendance has generally been poor because of high ticket prices that many Cameroonians cannot afford owing to the meagre wages they earn. The low vaccination rate, with only an estimated 3% of the population having been jabbed, has not helped with Covid-19 safety protocols. Only those who are fully vaccinated and can produce a negative polymerase chain reaction test can attend the games.

The Anglophone crisis has also loomed large during the tournament. To avoid embarrassment, the government has limited movement in the English-speaking regions and installed a heavy police and army presence. The situation is so volatile that during the promotion of the Afcon in the region, Mola the mascot wore a bulletproof vest.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe used the tired line about football having the power to unite people when asked about the threats the Anglophone crisis posed, and more recently when asked if the Afcon should continue after the death of eight people at a stadium.

Lack of safety

As news of the stampede spread during Cameroon’s 2-1 win over Comoros on 24 January, the show went on inside Olembé Stadium – while people were dying. Some called for the Afcon to be called off, questioning the callousness of continuing. But halting the tournament is a no-go for cash-strapped CAF, which wouldn’t dare touch the goose that lays golden eggs, regardless of how many lives are lost. 

A thorough investigation into the cause of the stampede is necessary, and those responsible must be held accountable. Some survivors have already shared their stories. The common thread is that access was delayed because of blocked entrances and when spectators tried to enter through gate S, after a long wait, it was locked. This resulted in a deadly surge when the crowd forced its way into the stadium. Some of those pushing their way in allegedly didn’t have tickets. And a six-year-old boy, among others, died because of this.

This stampede should serve as a reminder to Cameroon to not only focus on policing the stadiums, but also on creating a safe and secure environment. This is the biggest problem with most authoritarian states on the continent: more resources are spent on policing and instilling fear than on public safety.

The power football holds could be harnessed to bring about social change in Cameroon. In Egypt and Algeria, fanatical and organised groups of supporters known as ultras played a key role in the removal of Hosni Mubarak and Abdelaziz Bouteflika. “Football is intrinsically political. Under the right circumstances, it can contribute to radical change,” writes Gabriel Kuhn in Soccer vs. the State.

Kuhn says “football stadiums can also be sites for expressing dissatisfaction with authoritarian regimes. A defeat in football can also become a defeat for an authoritarian ruler. The football stadiums of Africa – like those of other continents – are locations of opposition or counterpower. Football is a medium to execute and resist power.”

Advantage and opportunity

Opportunists have selfishly used the sport to their advantage. It’s time that the true owners of the game reclaim it, reshape it into something more palatable and use the power football has to bring about change. Football cannot and will never change the world on its own; that’s another romantic notion of followers of the game. But in the right hands it can be a vehicle to bring about social change. That, however, would only be a start. Serious work outside the pitch would be needed to ensure that the change lasts.  

“At the end of the 1994 World Cup, every child born in Brazil was named Romario, and the turf of the stadium in Los Angeles was sold off like pizza, at $20 a slice. A bit of insanity worthy of a better cause? A primitive and vulgar business? A bag of tricks manipulated by the owners? I’m one of those who believe that football might be all that, but it is also much more: a feast of the eyes that watch it and a joy for the body that plays it,” writes one of the biggest football romantics and critics, Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, in Football In Sun and Shadow.

Culled from New Frame

It has often been said that helping to promote human rights globally has always had a political dimension. The so-called world powers often press these issues in the case of those countries of which they disapprove and ignore or downplay transgressions by friendly countries.

The recent decision by French energy giant Total Energies to withdraw from Myanmar over what the company described as “worsening human rights abuses” and Total Energies continued financial support and investment in the current Africa Cup of Nations holding in Cameroon-a nation with the worse human rights record in Africa has finally justified the assertion that the use of human rights as a policy tool, and hence the politicization of the human rights issue, has attained new heights.

French oil giant Total Energies on Friday said it would withdraw from Myanmar over “worsening” human rights abuses committed since the country’s military took power in a February 2021 coup.

Total Energies said “The situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which have kept worsening in Myanmar… has led us to reassess the situation and no longer allows TotalEnergies to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country.”

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the French energy giant will withdraw from its Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea, which provides electricity to the local Burmese and Thai population, six months at the latest after the expiry of its contractual period.

The company also said it had not identified any means to sanction the military junta without avoiding stopping gas production and ensuing payments to the military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

However, for such Total Energies measures to be effective, they must apply to all countries in an equal fashion. Yet this has never been the case. Several countries in Africa including Cameroon have contravened international standards of human rights, and yet they have received very different treatment.

It will soon be five years since the government of Cameroon made a huge and costly mistake by thinking that all political issues must only be addressed through repression and oppression. After close to five years of fighting, the President Paul Biya regime has transformed the English-speaking part of the country into a massive killing field.

The madness has lasted for too long and Total Energies is yet to see that it is time for common-sense and wisdom to prevail. The reckless killing of English speaking Cameroonians by soldiers militarily equip with money provided from business transactions with Total Energies  only underscores the fact the French energy giant is interested in giving a slap on the wrist to the 40-year old Biya regime in Yaoundé.   

This special treatment of the Francophone dominated Biya regime in Yaoundé by the French administration and French multinationals has served neither that country nor French interest well. It has emboldened Cameroon under the 88-year old President Biya to continue its disregard for human rights and support for international crime groups without fear of any retaliation.

The story of the armed kidnapping of 10 Anglophone Cameroon academics now known as the NERA 10 in Abuja and armed smuggling to Yaoundé under cover of darkness; the story of their incommunicado detention at DIA in Nigeria and later at SED in Cameroun; and the story of their nocturnal ‘trial’,‘ conviction’ and ‘sentence’ to life by Cameroun’s Tribunal Militaire – all this was shrouded in complete mystery and illegality. The Nera 10 were kidnapped by plain clothes Nigerian military in a joint operation with members of Cameroun’s military. It is now known that they were smuggled out to Yaoundé by members of the armed forces of Cameroun with the complicity of Nigeria’s military. The illegality of their seizure has further compounded the illegal refoulement of all ten of them, refugees and certified asylees, back to Cameroun, back to the regime and country from which they are escaping persecution and possible death. Upon arrival in Yaoundé and after about a year of detention at SED under atrocious conditions, the Nera 10 were moved to the cramped and insalubrious life-threatening Kondengui prison, and then arraigned before the Tribunal Militaire, Yaoundé- a terror agency of the Yaoundé regime. After more than a year and a half of detention, the Nera 10 were hurriedly brought before that tribunal on a certain night and put through the motion of a ‘trial’ under cover of darkness. They are denied access to counsel. They are not given the opportunity to be heard. They are ‘convicted’, and ‘sentenced’ to life imprisonment and a fine of more than US$525 million each.

For 5 years and counting, the Cameroon government Francophone dominated military and their private militias have been committing genocide in English speaking Cameroon. More than 32,500+ civilians have been killed; over a million children are out of school; 550+ villages have been razed down, 3,000+ are presently in detention centers and prisons; hundreds of our women and girls have been raped; thousands of our loved ones are missing. The Norwegian Refugees Commission (NRC) has stated two years in a roll that this is the world’s most under-reported crisis – obviously because French multinationals such as Total Energies are helping the Biya regime to block access to the international community and are shielding and trying to clean up the crimes they are committing in English speaking Cameroons.

The special treatment of Francophone African dictators has undermined the cause of human rights throughout the sub Saharan region and has led to growing cynicism regarding the international community’s commitment to upholding human rights-the aftermath being that coups are being celebrated in countries such as Mali and Guinea. Like peace and security, human rights are indivisible. Either the same standards and principles are applied to all and transgressors are punished equally or the defense of human rights will be reduced to mere rhetoric that convinces no one.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nobody ever imagined that the Southern Cameroons revolution which shook the Yaounde government to its core when it all started to play out in almost all the towns and villages of the country’s two English-speaking regions would one day flounder given the determination with which Southern Cameroonians engaged in battle with the Yaounde government. 

A simple and peaceful protest by teachers and lawyers was mismanaged and was allowed to spiral out of control by a government that was not wont to hearing contrary views.

The protest by teachers and lawyers was a way Southern Cameroonians wanted the government to listen to their grievances and seek solutions which could douse the fire that was burning out of control in many their minds.

Years of political and economic marginalization had sown a violent storm in many minds in Southern Cameroons. The region was, indeed, a tinder box and the illegal arrest and incarceration of Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla and Dr. Fontem Neba was the fire that was to bring down an entire nation.

Southern Cameroonians across the world stood up as one man and promised to make their frustration with a government that only understood a strong language and an iron fist known to the world. 

A protest that was supposed to lead to a peaceful resolution of grievances finally got exported abroad, with the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora stepping in to provide the much-needed leadership when leaders of the consortium were hastily bundled to Yaounde in total disregard of the country’s law on human rights and freedoms.

It was on that basis that Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, who was enjoying life out of the country, agreed to assume the mantle of leadership. As a mild mannered and honest person, Julius Ayuk Tabe has never been a warmonger and he holds that speaking with the Yaounde government, especially on “divorce” issues, is the best thing that will help both parties avoid bloodshed. 

His notion of leadership is based on Plato’s principle that “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” Corruption and dictatorship were not things he admired. He believed in the collective management of affairs and dialogue as a way out of an impasse.  

Southern Cameroonians believed in him and still do, and millions willfully believed that they had to pull their fair share of the weight if Southern Cameroons had to be independent.  The Yaounde government has been a huge psychological, economic, and political burden on Southern Cameroonians, and they were prepared to demonstrate that. Those who could not be on “Ground Zero” willfully provided financial resources to those who had opted to take up arms.

Rather than negotiate, the government resorted to military violence, killing and maiming innocent civilians.  The old and disabled were roasted to death in their homes. The government was instead killing those it was supposed to protect.

By its actions, it had demonstrated that negotiations and dialogue were not on its agenda. The world was shocked by the horror triggered by a government which was supposed to be democratic and a believer in the peaceful resolution of differences. Unleashing the full spectrum of its military might on its own people only radicalized Southern Cameroonians. 

In their desperation, Southern Cameroonians picked up anything that could help them defend themselves against a brutal military that was in no mood to spare anybody. Southern Cameroonians started with sticks and hunting rifles, and over time, they have morphed into a formidable force that has sent thousands of army soldiers to an early grave.  

Even the Yaounde government has quietly acknowledged that though untrained, Southern Cameroonian fighters have proven that they are a force to reckon with. The country’s military is still not believing that a ragtag military could bring such destruction to a trained military. 

Today, instead of using conventional methods, Southern Cameroonian fighters are employing explosive devices which are wreaking havoc on government military equipment and on army soldiers. A small disagreement between citizens of a country has been allowed to snowball, ruining the country’s economy and making secession a possibility. Southern Cameroonians have lost the love they once had for a country they once called theirs.  

The success scored by the fighters in Ground Zero could also be attributed to the leadership structure which Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his collaborators had left behind following his arrest and repatriation to Yaounde in circumstances which clearly defied international law.

His arrest triggered great unity of purpose among Southern Cameroonians who felt they must walk away from a union that was doomed to failure on the same day it was manufactured. In response to the arrest of their leader, money was poured into accounts which had been set up in many parts of the world to support efforts by the fighters to rob army soldiers of their illusion that they could unleash a reign of terror on the population without consequences. 

The Diaspora was dragged into the conflict, and it became a key element in the revolution which would test the government’s ability to deal with a crisis of a global scale. 

The more the money poured in, the more those who had taken over from Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe became wayward, irresponsible, and undisciplined. Poverty hardly breeds virtue and those who took over from Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe have clearly demonstrated this. 

Most of them had used the Bible to blindfold Southern Cameroonians who were delivering millions of dollars for war purposes. Pastors became leaders and instead of providing the much-needed leadership and character, they carefully called for the dismissal of Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe on the grounds that he was no longer capable of running the affairs of a state that only existed in their warped minds. 

Once they got the safeguards out of the way, they carefully transformed Southern Cameroonians into their personal piggy banks. Dr. Samuel Sako Ikome, who was chosen to lead the interim with the assistance of Mr. Chris Anu, formed a formidable duo, but not to fight the intimidated Yaounde regime, but to line their pockets. 

Both were pastors, who many think, were struggling financially when they took the reins of power but now own massive multi-million-dollar homes in the United States and are living a life they could only dream of before the struggle.   

Religion, the oldest tool of deceit, has once more been used to derail a revolution that was on course to deliver spectacular results. As the sages will always advise, money will hardly be a binding force when those managing it are smart little devils who have made greed their hallmark.

After having plotted against Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and all those who stood for probity and accountability, Samuel Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are today at daggers drawn. Their relationship which seemed to have been made in Heaven has actually turned out to be forged in a crucible of war.

They are trading accusations and are using their surrogates to sling mud at each other. A lot of money is missing and none of them is capable of accounting for the money, though they have been happily running the accounts. The mere mention of the word “audit” irritates them. These are the people who want to rule a new country. 

According to many sources in Southern Cameroons, the actions of these “men of God” are putting the lives of thousands of young men and woman who have opted to fight for an independent Southern Cameroons at risk. 

Leadership requires discipline, selflessness, a sense of what is wrong and right, as well as transparency. The current leadership of the Southern Cameroons struggle seems to be morally bankrupt and totally bereft of those features which make a good leader.

The revolution may still be playing out, but it seems to be on its last leg. The misconduct of a few has caused Southern Cameroonians to keep their money instead of giving it to people who will only use it to feather their own nests. Leadership is a real issue in the struggle and if this is not sorted out, the revolution will die a natural death.

By Joachim Arrey, Ph.D

The killing this week of a prominent senator from Cameroon’s anglophone western region, while the country hosts the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, has put a spotlight on a conflict the government has tried to paper over. While President Paul Biya hails the tournament as a symbol of unity, his government’s policies have exacerbated deadly divides.

On Tuesday night, hours before the coastal city of Limbé hosted its first match of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON, or CAN as it is called in French), Senator Henry Kemende left his house in Bamenda, a city further inland in the troubled English-speaking region in the country’s west.

He never returned home.

Hours later, the opposition politician’s body was found in his native Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s war-torn Northwest Region, his chest riddled with bullets.

Kemende, a lawyer and lawmaker for the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties, was an outspoken human rights defender. He was also a leading representative of the country’s marignalised anglophone minority, who constitute around 20 percent of the country’s 28 million population.

His killing came as international sports journalists were making their way to Limbé for Wednesday’s match between Tunisia and Mali at the Omnisport stadium. The AFCON has seen the usual displays of national pride accompanied by choruses of buzzing vuvuzelas.The tournament kicked off on Sunday with the hosts beating Burkina Faso, setting of a burst of rapturous joy among Cameroonian football fans, many emblazoned in the green, red and yellow colours of the national flag.

But Africa’s premier football tournament this year has been overshadowed by serious security concerns.

Militants from a motley mix of armed groups fighting for a separate state – called “Ambazonia” – in the anglophone west have threatened to disrupt the games. Confronting a separatist insurgency in the west, a jihadist threat in the north and a pandemic across the world, the government nevertheless responded with a confident motto: “Safety will be guaranteed”.

But the Cameroonian state – led by 88-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for four decades – has not been able to guarantee the security of its citizens in the western provinces over the past few years. The anglophone insurgency has claimed more than 3,000 lives and displaced nearly a million people over the past five years, with both sides accused of committing atrocities and abuses.

No one has claimed responsibility for Kemende’s killing so far. The Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), one of the main anglophone separatist groups, has denied responsibility.

The group did however claim an attack on Wednesday, which killed a Cameroonian soldier in Buéa, a western city around 20 kilometres north of Limbé, where four Group F national teams – Mali, Gambia, Tunisia and Mauritania – are based.

The slaying of a prominent parliamentarian in the Northwest Region followed by a deadly attack in the Southwest Region has put a spotlight on a conflict the Cameroonian government has attempted to shield from the international community.

The hosting of the AFCON – which was postponed from 2021 due to the pandemic – has also raised questions over the use of major sports events by authoritarian leaders to project national unity while their policies exacerbate divisions – with deadly consequences.

A new killing, an old colonial problem

Kemende’s killing has exposed the intractable nature of a crisis amid fears that the moderate anglophone politician could have been assassinated by extremist Ambazonia militants, locally known as “Amba boys”.

With his legal background defending the rights of his constituents and his ability to speak truth to power, Kemende was a firebrand parliamentarian and a familiar figure on Cameroon’s English language TV stations.

For the many people who knew the SDF senator and worked with him, Kemende’s killing is both unfathomable and tragic.

“It’s a huge loss,” mourned Christopher Fomunyoh, senior associate for Africa at the Washington DC-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), in an interview with FRANCE 24.

“It’s a huge loss for his family of course. It’s a huge loss for the legal profession, given the role lawyers played in the beginning of this crisis and the role they stand to play in resolving the crisis. Nationally, it’s an enormous loss: A member of the Senate, a constitutional body, has been assassinated. And it’s a huge loss as the conflict continues and the gap between the anglophone population and the state widens.”

The crisis in Cameroon’s anglophone western region was sparked in October 2016, when lawyers took to the streets in Bamenda to protest the exclusive use of French in court and other state institutions.

The roots of the problem date back to the colonial era, when the central African region once colonised by Germany was split between Britain and France after World War I. With the withdrawal of the colonial powers, Cameroon became a federation under a 1961 constitution, with English and French designated official languages. Buéa became the capital of West Cameroom while Yaounde doubled as the federal capital as well as the capital of francophone East Cameroon.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions are former British colonies while the rest of the country was colonised by France.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions are former British colonies while the rest of the country was colonised by France. © Studio Graphique France Médias Monde

But English-speaking Cameroonians have long complained of discrimination, noting that the country’s top positions in government, as well as in the oil sector, have always been held by French speakers. Anglophone Cameroonians also complained that government documents were published only in French, enabling their exclusion from top civil service jobs.

The grievances were familiar and the protests peaceful – until a ferocious security crackdown fuelled support for separatism and the emergence of several separatist militias calling for a new state of Ambazonia.

The emergence of militias has plunged the already marginalised western region in a cycle of violence with dismaying familiarity. A militarised state response has seen hundreds of opposition party members and activists jailed and a populace living in fear of arbitrary arrests and crackdowns.

Meanwhile Ambazonia militants routinely target civilians accused of “collaborating” with the government in Yaounde and have enforced a school boycott, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of their education.

“It’s always the civilians, the ordinary people caught in the middle, who suffer,” said Rebecca Tinsley, a London-based activist with The Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon. “The violence is just getting worse. In 2021, there were more than 80 IED [improvised explosive device] attacks in the anglophone region alone. Because of the violence, nearly a million children are not able to go to school and there’s very little security, making the lives of ordinary people very difficult.”

‘Just five days’ for talks

Two years after militants declared an independent Ambazonia in 2017, Swiss negotiators agreed to mediate talks between Cameroonian authorities and separatists in a bid to end the escalating violence.

The Swiss peace proposals however received no follow-up and the Cameroonian government instead launched a National Dialogue from September 30 to October 4, 2019, with much fanfare.

Following the talks in Yaounde, the government announced new measures, including the release of some political prisoners, the creation of regional assemblies and councils, as well as a $163 million special fund for the reconstruction of the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

But a year later, the western regions were still ungovernable and the violence had increased. While the special fund had received 10 percent of the promised $163 million, fighting had slowed the first phase of the reconstruction exercise.

“The National Dialogue was a piece of theatre for the benefit of the international community,” dismissed Tinsley. “It had no credibility because most of the anglophones were either not invited or afraid to go [to Yaounde] in case they got arrested.”

Most analysts agree the talks, which brought together representatives from Cameroon’s 10 provinces instead of concentrating on the aggrieved region, were a failure. “The National Dialogue was held for just five days – you can’t deal with grievances of over 50 years, diagnose the problems, find solutions, seek consensus and address implementation in five days,” said Fomunyoh. “They continue to insist this is an internal problem. They think they can just shoot their way out of the conflict or the crisis will burn itself out,” he dismissed.

Tournament will end, but ‘problems remain’

The hosting of the Africa Cup of Nations could have provided an opportunity to either reinvigorate a moribund peace process or better, evaluate failures and start afresh.

Football is politics in Cameroon, with the sport playing an important role in public life. Domestically, the sport “serves as a diversionary element in the country’s tightly controlled political system, whilst internationally, successful sports performance compensates for the country’s weak influence on other aspects of continental and global politics,” noted Joanne Clarke and John Sunday Ojo in their report, “Sport Policy in Cameroon”.

The Cameroonian president – with his advanced age, health problems and protracted stays in his Swiss luxury getaway – is the subject of private jokes and speculations about his mental agility. But even at 88, Biya has proved he instinctively understands the power of the game in his football-mad nation when he declared AFCON “a great moment of brotherhood” that would provide Cameroonians an opportunity to display “the rich cultural diversity that has earned our country the nickname, ‘Africa in miniature’”.

But aside from the spectacle of declarations, the Biya administration missed the moment to include all Cameroonians in a brotherhood that enables the inclusion of the country’s diversity in all political and economic sectors.

Fomunyoh lists four conditions for the resumption of an anglophone peace process based on established negotiation norms. These include the declaration of an immediate ceasefire to stop the cycle of violence, the release of political prisoners, the use of non-Cameroonian negotiators to facilitate dialogue between opposing sides, and finally, to “accept that the mediations should be held in another country outside Cameroon”.

None of the proposals were heeded, leaving Fomunyoh to view the current football circus as a metaphor for the country’s leadership style. “I feel this tournament and the debate around it captures how this government tackles issues. They’re so focused on the here and now, they don’t seem to be able to project into the middle or long term,” he noted. “In a few weeks, the tournament will be over, but the problems remain.”

The anglophone crisis, experts agree, requires a political – not military – solution. But for Cameroonians invested in a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Kemende’s killing leaves a deep vacuum. “He was one of the few anglophone elites who spoke out and who could talk to both sides,” mourned Fomunyoh. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any confidence that there will be a thorough investigation, that the perpetrators are found and put to trial, and that justice will be served.”

Source: France 24

1. SISIKU JULIUS AYUKTABE

Vice President, American University of Nigeria; Information Technology Expert

Sisiku Julius AyukTabe was born on the 2^nd May 1965 (55 years) in Ewelle village, Eyumojock in Manyu. He is the son of Ayuk Elias and Ojong Paulina (both deceased). He is married with 4 children.

He is the pioneer Chief Information Officer (CIO) and successively Assistant Vice President in-charge of Digital Services and Marketing & Recruitment at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. He worked extensively with SONEL (Electricity Distribution Company) in Cameroun where he improved energy efficiency in the Adamaoua Region by 16%, as Regional Delegate. Earlier in his career as the company’s Computer Analyst/programmer, he deployed a Customer-Management application for the company. As an IT expert he voluntarily designed, developed and deployed an application, for the Cameroon GCE Board, for the automation of operations of the General and Commercial Examinations at both the Ordinary and Advanced levels. He also worked with Cisco Systems as the Academy Manager for the 23 countries of West &Central Africa, until he joined the American University of Nigeria. Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is a Motivational Speaker and has spoken at many conferences across the globe. He and his wife Lilian Ayuk Tabe founded the AyukTabeAgborBakia (ATAB) Foundation that empowers the poor in his community in Eyumojock, Manyu County in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia). They have developed a 60-hectare farm known as ATAB Farms along the Eyumojock – Ekok road employing 28 workers. On the 29^th of September 2017, the workers were driven out of the farm by Cameroun troops. The farm has since been abandoned because those troops still ensure that no one goes anywhere close to it.

Sisiku Julius AyukTabe is also a member of the Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative (API) that supports IDPs in Northern Nigeria. His brainchild Cisco networking Academy at the Budumbura refugee camp in Ghana won the International Academy Awards “Against all Odds”in Europe. He was the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Southern Cameroons Consortium United Front (SCACUF) and was later entrusted with the heavy responsibilities of President of the exiled Interim Government of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. He and 11 other leaders of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonian) were kidnapped in NERA Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria, on the 5^th January 2018 by a combined Nigeria/Cameroun military squad. On the 25^th January 2018 he and with nine of those leaders were forcibly repatriated under armed military terror to Yaoundé, Cameroun. They were held at SED for 11 months, six of those months incommunicado and later at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison, Yaoundé, where they are still languishing. On the 10th January 2019, they were arraigned before the Yaoundé Military Tribunal on trumped up charges of so-called secession, terrorism, treason, non-possession of the Cameroun identity card, etc. On the night of the 19^th breaking 20th August 2019, Sisiku alongside his nine compatriots were put through the motion of a ‘trial’and nonsensically sentenced to life imprisonment and a fined of $525 million each.

2. Mr NFOR NGALA NFOR

Political scientist and author

Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor was born on December 31, 1952 (68 years) in Kup, Nkambe in Donga Mantung County in what was then the UN Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons. He was born into the family of His Royal Highness Ta Nfor Ngala Tarndap (late) and Ma Winto Mbebu.He obtained a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria in 1980. He was employed in the Registry of the University and rose to the rank of Senior Assistant Registrar. In 1986 he resigned and returned to Cameroon. He worked in the Ministry of Territorial Administration until 1992. In 1998 he served as Secretary at the UN Habitat Afrique Conference hosted by A.B.U Zaria.The late Prof Shuetfegua was the Conference Chairman and General Mohammed Buhari (rtd) was Patron.

He was at the launching of the opposition party,the Social Democratic Front (SDF), in Bamenda, Cameroons, on May 26, 1990. He served the party in various capacities including being Chairman of the Constitutional and Political Affairs Committee up to 1999. Thereafter he has dedicated his entire life and service to the pursuit of the restoration of his country, the Southern Cameroons from annexation by the foreign state of French Cameroun. His engagements in this regard have been within the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) of which he was the National Vice Chairman from 2000 to 2014 and then Chairman from 2014 to date. He was the SCNC Representative in the Unrepresented Peoples’ Organisation (UNPO)and served two mandates on the Presidency of the Organisation.

He is author of many educative pamphlets and books on the Southern Cameroons, prominent among which are‘In Chains for my Country’,‘Died not Dead’,‘The two Cameroons: Southern Cameroons for Southern Cameroonians’, and ‘The Southern Cameroons: The Truth of the Matter’. In his service to liberate the Southern Cameroons from annexation and subjugation, he has been arbitrarily arrested, tortured, detained and tried on several occasions. Following the banning of the SCNC in January 2017 alongside the Consortium, he fled to Nigeria where he sought and obtained UNHCR protection as a refugee. He and 11 others were abducted in Abuja Nigeria in January 5, 2018 and 10 of them repatriated to Yaoundé in French Cameroon. After eleven months of solitary confinement at SED, he was transferred to Kondengui Prison. He was arraigned before the Cameroun’s Military Tribunal on 10 January 2019, on charges of ‘terrorism’, ‘secession’, ‘treason’, etc. After a summary pretended ‘trial’ on 20 August 2019, he alongside his nine compatriots were given the pre-determined sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of $525 million. Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor is married and has children.

3. Professor CHEH AUGUSTINE AWASUM

Professor of Surgery, Consultant Surgeon, and Fellow of the Nigerian College of Veterinary Surgeons

Professor Cheh Augustine Awasum was born on 4th May 1968 (52 years) in Bamenda, Mezam County in the Southern Cameroons, into the family of Camillus NdanjiAwasum (late) and Anastasia Ngwe Awasum. In addition to holding a PhD in Surgery on defective kidney ureteral reconstruction by Monti mathematical model (ileoureterplasty), he also holds a Masters in Surgery and, additionally, a Master’s degree in: International Affairs, Diplomacy, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Curriculum Foundation and Psychology). He holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM). He has taught and graduated over a thousand Doctorates of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), taught and supervised several Masters and PH.Ds in Surgery. He has conducted extensive research in surgery and imaging. Some innovations included the composition of 4 crystallord solutions used in washing harvested organs intended for transplant.

Professor Awasum is a scholar, researcher, and Professor of Surgery in the Department of Veterinary Surgery and Diagnostic Imaging at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Nigeria. He is Head of Surgery Unit of the Department at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University. He is the Postgraduate Coordinator of the Department and Member of the University Senate. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian College of Surgeons. In professional practice he rose through the ranks from registrar, Consultant, Senior Consultant to Principal Consultant Surgeon in 2012. He is visiting scholar and chief external examiner to several universities national and international. He is also an instructor in the College of Veterinary Surgeons, Nigeria. He is a member of several departmental, faculty, university and national Research Committees including the World Bank-sponsored research on neglected tropical diseases. He is also member of ABU Animal Use and Care – Ethics, ABU Kidney Transplant Group, HIV/AIDS awareness, Clinical Library Implementation, University Freshmen Orientation, ABU and Veterinary Council of Nigeria Examination Monitoring, African Liaison to the USA based African (Nduaka) Education Initiative (AEI) and Principal Consultant Surgeon to Nigerian Police Security Dogs and, ABU Guard Dogs, Justice.

He has contributed over 110 articles in peer-reviewed journals, conferences proceedings and seminars at both national and international levels. He has co-authored several chapters in books/manuals in surgery. For his achievements in kidney transplants, he received commendations from President Buhari the then Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Petroleum Trust Funds (PTF); General Yakubu Gowon,former Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Also, he was cited in 2002 in WHO-IS-WHO in Veterinary Surgery from across the continents. He is making research breakthroughs in the areas to elucidate animals as the forgotten victims of Boko Haram insurgency. He is a recipient of several awards from Civil Societies, NGOs, and Governments. He is also a community servant especially in the aspects of environmental health, public health, and Philanthropy, Justice, Development and Peace Commission Nigeria, and St Vincent De Paul Society.

 As an activist right from the age of 17, he has been involved in party politics and the struggle for the emancipation of the Southern Cameroons. He has been President and leader of several socio-political and human rights advocacy groups, student unions and civil societies. Alongside 11 others, he was abducted and detained at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Nigeria, 10 of who were forcibly repatriated to French Cameroun and held in solitary confinement at the infamous gendarme torture known as‘SED’ and on November 22nd, 2018 moved to the equally notorious Kondengui maximum security prison, Yaoundé. On January 10th, he was arraigned before Cameroun’s military tribunal and on 20 August 2021 he, together with the other NERA abductees, were put through the motion of a ‘trial’ and given the pre-determined absurd sentence of life imprisonmentand a fine of$525 million.

Professor Augustine Awasum is a registered asylum seeker with UNHCR in Nigeria. He is married, father of two, and head of the Ndanji Awasum family, a notable of the Nda Community of the Mbatu Kingdom of Mezam County.

4. Dr CORNELIUS NJIKIMBI KWANGA

Economist, banker, and University Senior Lecturer

Dr Cornelius Njikimbi Kwanga is from Bum in Boyo County, of Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia. He was born on March 22, 1970 (50 years) the 3rd of 10 children of Kwanga Samuel Nkan and Kwanga Priscilla Mbong.

Dr Kwanga is a Researcher and Senior Lecturer of the Department of Economics, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University (UMYU) Katsina. He joined UMYU from Yobe State University (YSU), Damaturu, Yobe State Nigeria. In YSU, he was one-time Acting Head of Department of Economics and later on appointed Coordinator of Research and Innovation (R&I) Unit of the University. He has taught various courses in Economics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Before engaging in full time lecturing, he was one of the pioneer staff of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Cameroon and served the bank in various capacities. He served Polyclinic Bonanjo as the Human Resources Officer for three years. He is the Founder and Promoter of Global Association for Sustainable Development (GASD), a rural based CSO that fights rural poverty.

Cornelius is an effective coordinator and organizer. He is also an advocate for the restoration of the independence of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons. Apart from being a legal resident in Nigeria, he is also UNHCR registered asylum seeker in Nigeria. On January 5, 2018 Cornelius and 11 others were abducted at gun point from NERA Hotel, Alex Ekwueme Way, Abuja, Nigeria for no crime committed and subsequently 10 of them were forcibly repatriated to French Cameroun on January 25, 2018. On August 20 2019, Cornelius and his nine compatriots were given a pre-determined sentence of imprisonment for life and fined $525 million. Currently, Cornelius and 9 of his compatriots are detained in the Kondenguimaximum security prison in Yaoundé. Dr Kwangais married with 3 children.

5. Dr EGBE OGORK

Civil Engineer, Associate Professor of Structural Engineering

Dr Egbe Ogork was born on March 3, 1964 (56 years) to the family of Pa Samuel Ntui Ogork and Mrs Lucy Ntoh Ogork (both deceased) at Ewelle village, Eyumojock LGA, in Manyu County of the Southern Cameroons.

Dr. Egbe Ogork Ntui is Associate Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering, Bayero University Kano Nigeria. He has trained and graduated many students at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. He was the Departmental Postgraduate Coordinator for three years before his abduction on January 5, 2018. He has also held other positions in the department and in the Faculty of Engineering. He is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (MNSE) and also a member of Materials Society of Nigeria (MMSN). He is the President and Patron of many Associations including, the Southern Cameroons Community in Nigeria Kano Chapter. He is also an adviser for Justice and Peace Committee of St. Peter Catholic Church Janguza military Barracks Kano, Nigeria. He is an Advocate for the Self- determination of the Southern Cameroons. Following a pretended trial in the night in French Cameroun’s military tribunal, on August 20 2019, Dr Ogork and his nine compatriots were given the ‘sentence’, pre-determined, oflife imprisonment and fined $525 million.Dr Ogork is married to Chinyere Ogork and they have one child.

6. Dr FIDELIS NDEH-CHE

Electrical/Electronic Engineer, Entrepreneur, Assistant Professor

Dr Ndeh-Che earned his Doctorate Degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from the City University, London in 1996 when he was 25 years old. In the same year he joined an IT consulting firm in California and worked there for 5 years during which time he was engaged in over 30 projects across the US, Asia and Africa in various capacities as Principal Consultant, Project Manager and Project Director. In 1999, he founded Quanteq Technology Services Ltd and grew it to a leading ICT Consulting and Systems Integration firm in Nigeria with over 150 employees and annual revenue in excess of $3m. In 2012, he joined the American University of Nigeria (AUN) where he served in various capacities, including as Assistant Professor, Program Chair, Chief of Staff to the President, Executive Director Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Executive Manager Projects and Proposals, and Vice Chair Institutional Review Board. At AUN, he taught Undergraduate, Graduate, MBA and PhD courses in computer science, software engineering, information systems and ICT for Development.

Dr.Ndeh-Che was a member of the Adamawa Peace initiative (API) supporting over 270,000 IDPs,displaced by the Boko Haram conflict between 2012 and 2016 through feeding, agriculture, sports, psychological interactions and other intervention programs. He also introduced community intervention programs that impacted the lives of over 15,000beneficiaries in vulnerable and underserved communities in Yola and Jimeta Adamawa state, Nigeria, including JAMB Tutoring, and Adult Literacy. For over 8 years between 2009 and 2018, Dr Ndeh-Che was a member of Board of the Directors of PRAWA, a leading NGO in Nigeria involved in justice sector reform, speeding up access to justice, reducing recidivism and training police and security agencies on Human Rights and torture prevention and redress.

Dr Ndeh-Che is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afrinvest West Africa, a leading financial services firm providing independent financial advisory, wealth management, brokerage and investment banking. He is a registered asylum seeker in Nigeria, with the UNHCR. He was abducted at the Nera Hotel, Alex Ekwueme Way, Abuja, held incommunicado for three weeks at the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and for over six months at French Cameroun’s infamous torture facility known as SED. Following a pretended ‘trial’ conducted summarily under cover of darkness on August 20 2019, he and his nine compatriots were given a predetermined lifesentence and fined $525 million.  Dr Ndeh-Che is 49 years old.

7. Mr TASSANG WILFRED FOMBANG

High School teacher and leading trade unionists in the education sector

Tassang was born on February 2, 1970 (50 years) in Bamenda in the Southern Cameroons to TASSANG Isaiah and Alice AKWI. He is a college teacher and former Executive Secretary General of the Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union (CATTU). He was also the Programmes Director of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), aka the Consortium at the time the degeneration of the strikes declared by Common Law Lawyers and Teachers’ Trade Unions. He was the lead negotiator and spokesperson for Anglophone Universities, Secondary and Basic Education, Parents and teachers’ unions (public and private) within the framework of the Education Ad-hoc Committee set up to proffer solutions to problems plaguing the English system of education as raised by the teachers’ unions.

Tassang miraculously survived two assassination attempts on January 13 and 17, 2017. He escaped to Nigeria in February 2017 from where he firmly endorsed the movement for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons. He was unanimously elected Secretary General of the Southern Cameroons Consortium United Front (SCACUF), and later, Vice Chair of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council. Secretary for Education in the Interim Government, Deacon Tassang was abducted from the NERA Hotel gardens in Abuja Nigeria, on January 5, 2018 and handed over to the Yaoundé junta on January 25, 2018 alongside nine others. He has been charged before Yaoundé’s Military Tribunal for alleged terrorism, secession etc. Following an abusive court hearing that violated all their rights to a fair trial, on August 20 2019, Tassang and his nine compatriots were illegally sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $525 million. Tassang is a registered refugee in Nigeria. He is married with kids.

8. Barrister SHUFAI BLAISE SEVIDZEM BERINYUY

Barrister-at-law, a traditional ruler, human rights activists, and legal adviser to human rights NGOs

His Royal Highness (HRH) Barrister Shufai Blaise Sevidzem BERINYUY is the Traditional Ruler of Mbuh (Baforchu) village and Tobin-Nso Bui County in the Southern Cameroons. He was born on April 25, 1967 (53 years) at Kumbo-Nso to Sebastian LAWONG BERINYUY (deceased) and Benedicta SHIYGHAN BERINYUY.

He is Barrister-at-law,member of the Cameroon Bar Association, and a frontline human rights lawyer. He has been legal adviser to many human rights organisations, including the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Dioceses of Buea and Kumbo, the Human Rights Defense Group (HRDG), Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT), and the Cameroon Association for Rights of the Child (CARC). He is the founder President of Advocates for Human Rights and Environmental Conservation (ADHREC) and Founder of BOD Chair of Berinyuy Women Development Cooperative Society (BERWODEVCOOPS).

Shufai Blaise is a World Basketball Federation (FIBA) Level 2 Basketball Coach and former long serving Vice President of the Buea-based Regional League of Basketballand President of Volcanic Warriors Basketball Club, Buea. In the struggle for the Restoration of Southern Cameroons Statehood,Shufai Blaise has been a household name since 1992 especially in the area of law. Shufai Blaise is a registered refugee in Nigeria. He was abducted along with 11 of his fellow compatriots at NERA Hotel, Alex Ekwueme Way, Abuja on January 5th2018. He was forcibly repatriated to French Cameroun on the 25thJanuary and held incommunicado for seven months before being transferred to the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaoundé. He was court marshalled before French Cameroun’s Military Tribunal, charged with terrorism, secession, non-possession of French Cameroun Identity Card, treason etc. Following an abusive court hearing that violated all their rights to a fair trial, on August 20 2019, Barrister Shufai Blaise and his nine compatriots were illegally sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $525 million. Barrister ShufaiBalise is a Catholic. He is married to WiybaaNyuydine Jacqueline Banfogha and they have 4 children.

9. Barrister EYAMBE ELIAS EBAI

Barrister-at-law and human rights advocate

Barrister Eyambe Elias Ebai is a Barrister-at-law and member of the Cameroon Bar Association since 1996 with keen interest in human rights advocacy. He was born on June 19, 1969 (51 years) in Manyemen to Nzonguty Joseph (Deceased) and of Nzonguty Ann Babi.

He was the President of the Meme Lawyers Association (MELA), and the Vice Secretary of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (Consortium). Persecuted by the government of French Cameroun for his political opinion in support of self-determination for the people of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), he took refuge in Nigeria in 2017 where he sought and was granted Refugee status by UNHCR in Nigeria. He was the Ambassador to the African Union (AU) of Southern Cameroons Governing Council (SCACUF). He was also appointed Ambassador to the AU and Africa by the exiled Interim Government Southern Cameroons.

He was abducted from NERA Hotel Abuja alongside 11 others on January 5, 2018. Following an abusive court hearing that violated all their rights to a fair trial, on August 20, 2019, he and his nine compatriots were illegally sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $525 million. He is presently languishing in jail in the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaoundé. He is married with 5 children.

10. Dr HENRY TATA KIMENG

Civil Engineer, Associate Professor, and philanthropist

Dr Henry Tata Kimeng is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria.

He was born on the 12th of July 1967 (53 years) at Alabukam Mankon to Mrs Agnes GijeKimeng (late) and late Ta Fai Ngakonfor (nee Kimeng Jonas Ndi) who was a sub chief in Mbaa, Nwangri village in Donga/Mantung County inthe Southern Cameroons. He is married to Dr Florence AzieMbuh who holds a PhD in Microbiology from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Windsor University School of Medicine St. Kitts. They are blessed with a 19-year-old son Brian T. Kimeng a final year student in the Department of Architecture ABU, Zaria.

Dr.Kimeng is a scholar and teacher. He has published several papers in local and international journals and conference proceedings. He has also won several prizes and awards for his research work. In 2011, Holcim International Switzerland awarded him and his research team a prize for their research work on recycled agricultural waste for producing particle boards. In 2012, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria recognised him as one of its outstanding researchers in the past 50 years during the Golden Jubilee celebration of the University.As a Consultant Engineer, he has consulted for several organisations and designed and built large buildings, cities and roads all over Nigeria. He has also consulted for National Space Research and Development Agency Abuja Nigeria, Abucons Zaria, and Gamji Nigeria Ltd, among other firms.

As a philanthropist, Dr Kimeng has provided scholarships, financial assistance and help to many students from the Southern Cameroons, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Liberia and other countries. He also led the campaign in 2017 to create awareness for the Southern Cameroonians who were plundered, robbed and chased from their homeland into exile in neighbouring Nigeria by the brutal French Cameroun regime. He provided financial assistance, accommodation, and food to those he visited in the refugee camps. In 2017 he was nominated the Coordinator of Southern Cameroons Refugees in Nigeria. Together with the Health and Social Services team, he carried out the assignment diligently and faithfully.

He was abducted together with 11 other compatriots from the Southern Cameroonian on January 5th 2018 by a group of armed men at Nera Hotel Abuja Nigeria and detained in a bunker at Defence Information Agency (D.I.A) Abuja. Dr Kimeng and nine others were later forcibly repatriatedFrench Cameroun by night in a military cargo plane and held incommunicado for 6 months without access to sunlight. Following an abusive so-called trial in the night on August 20 2019 in French Cameroun’s Military Tribunal, a ‘trial’ that violated all their rights to a fair trial, Dr Kimeng and his nine compatriots were illegally sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $525 million.

Written by  Professor Carlson Anyangwe

Sisiku Julius AyukTabe returns to Nigeria on 3 January 2018 from a visit to the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He invites some close friends for a meeting to discuss a humanitarian initiative initiated by him while abroad and also the crisis that erupted in September 2016 in their homeland, the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. That crisis involves the territory of the Southern Cameroons invaded and occupied by the military forces of the Yaoundé regime. The invasion has displaced hundreds of thousands of persons as IDPs and as refugees fleeing into Nigeria and other countries. The meeting is to explore ways and means of handling this endless flow of refugees. The invitation is sent out through Whatsapp. The meeting is scheduled for 5th January 2018. The venue is the NERA Hotel, Alex Ekweme Avenue, Abuja, Nigeria.

Twelve persons, one lady and eleven gentlemen, honour the invitation and are present at the NERA Hotel for the meeting. They are: Barrister Nalowa Bih, Barrister Shufai Blaise Berinyuy, Dr. Ojong Okongho, Dr. Cornelius Njikimbi Kwanga, Dr. Professor Egbe Ogork Ntui, Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor, Dr. Professor Kimeng Henry, Dr. Professor Augustine Awasum, Dr Fidelis Ndeh-Che, Barrister Eyambe Ebai, and Mr Tassang Wilfred.

The kidnaping

It is about 7:30 pm and the meeting has barely started when there was heard a loud shout: “LIE DOWN! LIE DOWN!” The attendees look up. They notice that the order is coming from about 20 heavily armed and hooded men with automatic guns pointing at the attendees. It is a mixed squad, some in army uniform, some in police uniform, and others in mufti. The attendees are ordered to lie face down. No resistance is offered. The attendees are confused and terrified. They comply with the order. The terror spectacle is taking place in the presence of some five hundred guests of the hotel. There are other hotel guests occupying tables next to those of the attendees. The tension and panic caused by the gunmen forces these other guests to lie down even though the command is not directed at them. The attendees hear people running away and screaming. They are shackled in pairs with their hands to the back. They are marched outside to the front of the hotel entrance. There, they are blindfolded and shoved into four waiting cars.

The four cars are accompanied by others, all driving in a convoy. They go around Abuja at breakneck speed. The kidnappers drive for over an hour and then stop at an isolated location. The drivers step out and discuss for about two hours. The kidnapped persons (hostages) remain blindfolded inside the cars, the windows of which are wound up and the air conditioning turned off. Later, the cars are driven off by a different set of drivers at the wheels. This nocturnal, apparently aimless drive around Abuja, continues for another 30 minutes or so. The hostages are taken to a building later identified as the headquarters of the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). Still hooded and handcuffed the hostages are pulled out from the cars and led into a small hall. There, each of them, including the lady amongst them, is thoroughly searched and stripped naked. All their belongings are confiscated. The shackles are taken off but not the blindfold. The hostages are led down a very steep stair-case, three floors underground. Barrister Nalowa being a woman, is locked up on the ground floor.  The stairs leading down to the lower levels have heavy metal doors that open up into cell-rooms.

The heavy metal doors are un-padlocked and opened. The hostages are caged in different cell-rooms. These underground cell-rooms are cold, grave-like, and divided into two sections. Barrister Eyembe Elias, Mr Tassang Wilfred, Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor, Barrister Shufai Blaise Berinyuy and Dr Cornelius Kwanga are caged in one section. Sisiku AyukTabe, Dr Fidelis Ndeh Che, Professor Augustine Awasum, Dr Ojong Okongho, Dr Kimeng Henry and Dr Egbe Ogork are caged in the other section. Each of these cell-rooms already has detainees. It later transpires that these early detainees are members of Boko Haram and the Niger Delta militia.

Neither at the time of their kidnapping in the NERA Hotel nor throughout the detention in the DIA, is a warrant of arrest presented to the hostages. No reason whatsoever is given for their abduction and detention at the DIA. They are nevertheless held incommunicado throughout the three-week duration of their detention at the DIA. They are denied access to counsel, doctor and family. They are prevented from contact and communication with each other across the sections. Each hostage is put through the third degree by plain clothes military men, some of who eventually confess they are not aware of the reason for the captivity. Some of the questions that are asked seek to elicit information about some individuals including Lucas Cho Ayaba, Ebenezer Akwanga, and a certain Nkongho Success. On January 15, the hostages caged in the section with Barrister Eyembe go on a hunger strike. The hunger strike is called off two days later when Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor collapses from exhaustion.

News of the kidnapping and detention at DIA appears to have trickled out. This prompts the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abuja to visit the hostages on 18 January 2018 after a two-day fruitless effort to locate their whereabouts. Most of the hostages are registered refugees in Nigeria. The visit takes place in the presence of an official of the DIA and a general in the Nigerian army. During the visit, those of the hostages without refugee status inform the UNHCR that they seek asylum. They are then registered as asylum seekers. Before the meeting rises, UNHCR gives the assurance that under no circumstance would the hostages be deported to French Cameroun(Cameroun Republic) given the well-wounded fear of persecution and assassination by that country were the hostages to be taken there. UNHCR advises DIA officials to move the hostages from the extremely low-temperature cell-rooms to some other cells. Days later, they are moved without mattresses to ground-level and locked up in a cell-room.

The smuggling out

To the utter consternation of the hostages, and contrary to the assurances given by the UNHCR, on the night of 25 January 2018 the hostages are again blindfolded. Some of their personal effects are returned to them. They are led into a waiting bus. The bus drives at breakneck speed in a heavily militarised military convoy. It stops at the military section of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. While there, Barrister Nalowa Bih and Dr Ojong Okongho are identified as holders of Nigerian citizenship and are taken back to DIA.  The hostages are now ten.

They are made to remain seated inside the bus for an hour. The commander of the military convoy, with two assistants, walks over to two armed soldiers in black. The group has a lengthy discussion. Some voluminous documents and several black bags are produced and signed. The kidnappers happily hand the hostages over to the soldiers in black military fatigue. The soldier-driver of the bus with the hostages is ordered to move the bus to the tail of a waiting cargo aircraft at the airport. The hostages later identify the aircraft as an old, rusty, dented and faded green-coloured military cargo plane belonging to French Cameroun. It is rickety and barely airworthy.

In preparation for the transfer or, better, being ‘loaded’ into this plane, armed soldiers are made to stand in a formation of two paralleled lines from the bus to the tail of the waiting aircraft. The door of the bus is opened. The hostages are ordered out. They step out clumsily as they are still hooded and shackled. They are led through the passage way created by the parallel lines formed by the armed soldiers. When they get to the tail of the aircraft, each one is physically manhandled. Hefty men grab the collar of each person’s shirt, lift and dump him in the rusty cargo plane. Inside the plane, another group of armed soldiers concentrate on assigning each hostage to a makeshift netted-meshed seat with no seat belts or other safety device. The loading is completed. The hostages remain hooded with their hands handcuffed to the back. As soon as the tail of the cargo plane is shut, the temperature inside immediately rises! It is hot. The hostages begin to sweat. The plane taxies along the taxiway towards the run-way in preparation for take-off. Each hostage struggles to gain balance. A white pilot is in the cockpit. A colonel supervises the operation from ‘loading’ to take-off.

When the plane takes off the soldiers on board, all of them armed with automatic guns, inform the hostages that their end is at hand and that each one should say his last prayer. Two soldiers stand over each person’s head as if ready to grab him and throw out of the cargo plane. Each hostage says his last prayer in silence resigns himself to death at any moment either by bullet in the head or by simply being thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean to feed the fishes. After about two hours of flight time the cargo plane lands at the Nsimalen Airport, Yaoundé. The airport lights are all promptly turned off. There is a crowd of soldiers waiting.

The tail of the cargo plane is opened. The hostages, the precious cargo, are offloaded from the cargo plane. There are white buses sandwiched between military trucks wrapped in perforated military camouflages. There are also armoured cars, machine gun carriers and other military hardware. The crowd of military men at the airport is about a hundred and fifty. The hostages are hurriedly pushed at gun point into a waiting bus. They remain hooded and shackled. A long convoy of over 20 military vehicles takes off at high speed. It first stops at the Cameroun Defence Ministry. Next, it stops at the infamous Gendarmerie headquarters known in French as the ‘Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défence’ (SED). The gendarmerie is a branch of the French Cameroun military. It is generally likened to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or Nicolae Ceausescu’s Securitate in Socialist Romania, with their torture methods. SED, now presided over by a certain infamous Col. Emile Bankoui, has therefore for decades acquired the dubious distinction of being the torture facility of the Yaoundé regime. It operates much like Auschwitz.

SED, Cameroun’s Auschwitz

At SED, the hoods and shackles are taken off. The hostages notice that they are surrounded by sinister and fierce-looking gendarmes under the authority of a certain Lt Col Serge Kaole. The gendarmes strip the hostages naked and carry out what they call ‘total body inspection’. This includes anal inspection. Thereafter, each hostage is issued a jogging outfit. This would be their daily wear and night pajamas for the next 44 days before a second one is issued. Each person is issued a small-size dirty bed sheet, a dusty and smelling mattress, and a pillow heavily stained with blood from people either beaten and wounded or dead.  Each hostage is shoved into a small 2x3m² cell heavily infested with mosquitoes, cockroaches, spider web, ants, lizards, and rodents. The gendarmes make a show of attempting to control pests, rodents, and biting insects. They use rodenticides and insecticides solutions to spray the cells, often with the hostages forced to remain in the cells. On the few occasions that the hostages are herd out, the cells are sprayed and the hostages hurriedly brought back and locked up in the cells without allowing enough time for the spray to diffuse. 

The hostages’ first night in SED is dreadful. But they somehow manage to sleep off for a few hours out of sheer tiredness and exhaustion from the terrifying cargo-plane flight from Abuja. Their minds seemed at peace as they ask God to take control. Early the following morning, 26th January 2018, they are given a meal of sorts. A medical team is brought into assess the state of health of each hostage. The team recommends that the hostages be provided with bottled drinking water. The director of SED and his gendarmes do everything to thwart the efforts of the medical team to attend to the hostages and to provide them the medication they each need. The SED people demonise the hostages as ‘terrorists.’ They berate the doctors saying they are too humane. They declare that government does not provide medical treatment to ‘terrorists’. Each time the hostages are given medication to treat some ailment, a certain Chi Tita and his fellow gendarmes search their cells and confiscate the medication. The gendarmes even refuse calling for emergency assistance during health crises.

For most of the time, the hostages are provided a single meal as lunch and super. On weekends, each person is provided a single meal as breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food is served on plates without any cover. The hostages have no access to a refrigerator or to a safe shelf to store away part of the food for the next meal time. After swallowing part of the food, the rest is covered with a patch of polythene material to be eaten at the next meal time. The covering is flimsy but at least it denies flies, lizards, ants, mosquitoes, and cats that often enter the cells, access to the food. The hostages are provided bottled drinking water as recommended by the visiting medical team. But this is discontinued after the first three months of incarceration at SED. The hostages are thenceforth required to drink tap water. The tap water contains metallic iron It is reddish in colour. It proves dangerous to the health of the hostages, compounding the very harsh conditions of their incarceration at SED. The hostages soon contract diseases like blurred vision, pilation, dental degeneration and cavitations, persistent rhinitis, coughing, laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, dermatitis, scabies, abscession, orchitis, osteopathy, rheumatism, anaemia, malaria, gastritis, persistent myalgia, and high blood pressure. Generalised high blood becomes common among the hostages who hitherto did not suffer from that ailment. The hostages raise concerns that death might ensue should they be required to continue to drink the bad tap water. Later, glass-box water filters are provided and the hostages are then able to drink filtered water.

The hostages get some medical attention. But this is adhoc, perfunctory and strictly ambulatory.  They have no access to hospital treatment. Whenever one of the hostages falls ill, the gendarmes refuse to call for a doctor or to send him to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. For instance, there is this occasion when Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor suffers a diabetic crisis. It is only with the greatest reluctance that the detaining authority at SED accepts, after many hours; to convey him to a local infirmary. The delay could have cost his life. The gendarmes at SED verbally abuse the hostages ever so often. They call them all kinds of hate names, saying they are “worse than slaves” and deserve no mercy.

Most of the gendarmes at SED are extremely wicked and callous as if drained of anything human in them. The hate speech they use includes calling the hostages: ‘terrorists’, ‘worst then slaves’, ‘beasts’, ‘savages’, ‘Anglofools’, ‘Nigerians’, ‘Biafrans’, ‘people abandoned by the English’, ‘pest’, ‘rats’, ‘dogs’ etc. The gendarmes even prevent the hostages from praying be it individually. They train their guns on each hostage whenever he tries to pray. Searches are conducted at least twice a week. Each hostage is stripped naked on every search occasion. During a search, the hostages are abused, humiliated, insulted, and treated contemptibly and with indignity. The gendarmes walk into the cells with muddy feet, overturn the mattresses, and pull off the smelly bed sheet. Every night they play martial music. They mask themselves, bear heavy automatic weapons, and keep guard at the cell doors like ghosts. They refuse to provide the hostages with bathing soap and detergent for washing the jogging outfit and the smelly blood-stained sheets which are then ‘washed’ without soap. The hostages are constrained to sleep in the wet jogging outfit and on the wet sheet. They sleep on broken, pricking metal-spring mattresses with thick caked blood stains all over.

For the first six months, the hostages’ are caged in cells all day long, every week and every month. The cell doors are opened sparingly. The only ventilation into the cells is apertures at the large heavy metallic doors. These doors initially had fenestrated airspace of 60cm by 60cm but are now reduced to 60 cm by 30cmusing welded and painted machine-trimmed metallic sheets. This mischievous piece of work is carried while the hostages are compelled to remain in the cells. The pneumonic disturbances and the inhalation of toxic smelly paints mean nothing to the gendarmes. The outer walls of the cells are reconstructed by doubling from bottom to top with concrete 30cm thick in width. The design and purpose appear to be to induce a coffin-like or a buried-alive phobia, a satanic form of torture. Throughout the duration of that piece of work, the hostages are daily subjected to severe pneumonic disturbances from 7 a.m. till 6 p.m.

At SED, each hostage is taken out in turn for prolonged interrogation. The interrogation is always at midnight. Each person is blindfolded and dragged for over fifteen minutes through narrow, muddy and bushy paths that lead to a dirty storage facility for old military odds and ends. In the process of being dragged on the ground, the supplied jogging outfit becomes dirtier and filthier.  The dilapidated storage place is fitted with very bright floodlights, overhead studio cameras, and old dusty desktop computers. There are also smelling boots and torn clothing lying about. The hostage is ordered to sit on a broken wooden chair placed facing the floodlights and cameras. Two plain-clothes gendarmes conduct the interrogation in the presence of heavily armed, hooded gendarmes. The interrogation session usually takes two to three hours. Each hostage is subjected to at least four nocturnal interrogations per week. During the first six months the hostages are caged in their cells and denied even access to sunlight. On the very rare occasions when access to sunlight was allowed, each exposure to sunlight lasts no more than15 minutes. On each of those occasions, the hostages are accompanied by over 15 heavily armed gendarmes, each with a hood over his head and hands in black gloves.

Daily flagellation of the Taraba 37 and the Calabar 11

The gendarmes at SED are gloomy and pitiful specialists in physical, mental, and psychological torture. The director of SED oversees the torture sessions. At SED there are also other shackled hostages, citizens of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia). These compatriots are known as the Taraba37 and the Calabar11, making 48 in number. They were kidnapped in Taraba and Calabar in Nigeria, hence the name Taraba 37 and Calabar 11. Day in day out the 48 suffer merciless flagellation at the hands of the SED gendarmes who clearly derive sadistic pleasure and satisfaction in inflicting pain, cruelty and suffering on others. The gendarmes get in the air-tight cells of the 48, flagellate them and then pour sewage water on them. Every day the 48 are taken out for torture, cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment. They are chained, blindfolded, and further restrained using slave-type shackles. They are then led to a place the gendarmes at SED gruesomely name with satanic relish as the ‘slaughter house’ or the ‘point of no return’. They are dragged through the narrow corridors, their heads bumping against the walls.

In the ‘slaughter house’, the 48areflagellated from 9 p.m. to about 4 or 5a.m. while still shackled and blindfolded. The flagellation objects include clubs, high-tension electricity cables, and metal pipes. When each victim succumbs to these beastly beatings, he is hung on ropes fastened to their arms, waists and ankles. A 50kg cement bag or a pile of bricks is then placed on his back. The gendarmes keep him in that position until he becomes completely dehydrated. The gendarmes on the next shift of duty at SED signal their arrival by sadistically flagellating the 48 for an hour, from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. and are then taken back to their cells, bleeding profusely. During these cruel torture sessions, they cry out continuously until they lose their voices and pass out. The SED gendarmes torture their victims in this manner for over 5 continuous months. The torture is also meant to inflict collective pain by association and to cause psychological trauma and depression in all the Southern Cameroons hostages.

15 months’ old baby detained in SED

A particularly barbarous case of torture is that of 15 months’ old baby Moses Ndokia (real name withheld). He is always restless due to the conditions at SED. He is ever hungry because he is ill-fed. He continually cries for food. This baby was abducted in Calabar together with his mother and father. He is in SED since March 2018. This is particularly traumatizing. For over four months Baby Moses is subjected to humiliating and inhuman treatment. Mercifully, mother and child (but not the father) are subsequently released when news filters out that a 15 months’ old baby is being detained and tortured at SED.

Family visits after six months of incommunicado detention

The Nera 10 hostages are held incommunicado at DIA, Abuja, Nigeria, for three weeks, from January 5th to January 25th. At SED, Yaoundé, they are also held incommunicado, this time for six months, from the 25th January 2018 to the end of June 2018. Only after this period are family visits allowed. Visiting time practically lasts only 15 minutes. Only one visitor per visiting period is permitted. Most times the gendarmes refuse to unlock the doors of the cells for hostages to meet their visitors. On several occasions family members who have travelled long distances to visit get to SED only to be turned back saying all visits are cancelled. Each visitor is required to speak only to the family member he has come to visit, to the hearing of the gendarme on duty and in no local language. Physical contact with visitors is not allowed. Often the hostages are forced to speak to their visitors behind transparent glass screens. Protest against this treatment is given short shrift.

The belongings of the hostages – cloths, belts, shoes, caps, hats, inner wears, gold necklaces, bracelets, watches, pens, purses with moneys, documents, and house keys – confiscated upon arrival in Yaoundé have until date not been returned to them. Similarly, other personal effects such briefcases, bags of shoes, laptop bags, laptops, external hard drives and other computer accessories, money, documents, students’ theses/dissertations, bank cards, telephones, and so on are still in the keeping of SED.

Kondengui, Cameroun’s Bastille

On the 22nd of November, 2018 the Nera 10 hostages are moved to the equally notorious Kondengui incarceration facility. This is a maximum security ‘prison’ located some ten km at the other side of Yaoundé. Here too, conditions are no better. They are generally horrible. The living space is a small 12 m² accommodating a minimum of 12 inmates. The rooms are poorly ventilated. The smell from the toilets is appalling, especially when there is no water which happens every week. The sleeping spaces are infested with vermin: rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes, lice, bedbugs and other noxious biting insects, most of which suck blood and leave behind deep wounds and scars. The environment itself is a playground for rodents and roaches. Nearby smelling heaps of rubbish take days to clear! The daily stench from there is horrible.

The ‘food’ is not fit for human consumption and is provided only once a day. Medical care is practically non-existent. In May 2020, there was an outbreak of Covid-19 in the prison. Over 60% of the inmates’ fall ill at the same time. There is a brief riot that compels the administration to put everyone on Covid-19 ‘treatment’ plan for 7 days. With the assistance of family, friends and others, sanitation, health and feeding situation has improved.

The hostages arrive Kondegui prison on the 22ndNovember 2018 at about 6 pm after having been taken to an official said to be the presiding officer of the tribunal militaire, Yaoundé. He records the names of each hostage and such other particulars as he is minded to request. Beddings and medication belonging to the hostages are in polythene bags.  These are ordered to be handed over to the prison warders at the warder post for security screening. The warders also do a body search on the hostages. The prison discipline officer then takes them into his office for briefing on prison rules and regulations and payment of what he calls ‘new man tax’ (a ‘tax’ payable by a new inmate). From there each hostage is allocated a cell-room in which there were already other prisoners and detainees. There, the chief of the cell-room briefs the newcomers and demands payment of ‘new man tax’. Then beds are allocated. The minimum number of inmates per cell-room is 13 persons cramped into these small-size rooms of about 4 m x 7 m x 9.  The bunk beds are 3 or 4 bed levels high and usually with someone lying directly on the floor. The toilet space is 2 m x 2 m for a shallow pit toilet and an overhead shower in the same place. The inmates in the cell rooms are forced to smell and inhale the odour from the toilet 24/7.The prison has a court yard where inmates interact with each from 7.30 am to 6.30 pm daily. It is there also that inmates have morning devotion, eat at meal times, and manage to play some games of sort and perform other exercises. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that is also where visitors were received.

The story of the armed kidnapping of the Nera 10 in Abuja and armed smuggling to Yaoundé under cover of darkness; the story of their incommunicado detention at DIA and later at SED; and the story of their nocturnal ‘trial’,‘ conviction’ and ‘sentence’ to life by French Cameroun’s Tribunal Militaire – all this is shrouded in complete mystery and illegality. It is now known that the Nera 10 were kidnapped by plain clothes Nigerian military in a joint operation with members of French Cameroun’s military. It is now known that they were smuggled out to Yaoundé by members of the armed forces of French Cameroun with the complicity of Nigeria’s military. The illegality of their seizure has further compounded the illegal refoulement of all ten of them, refugees and certified asylees, back to French Cameroun, back to the regime and country from which they are escaping persecution and possible death. Upon arrival in Yaoundé and after about a year of detention at SED under atrocious conditions the Nera 10 are moved to the cramped and insalubrious life-threatening Kondengui prison, and then arraigned before the Tribunal Militaire, Yaoundé- a terror agency of the Yaoundé regime. After more than a year and a half of detention, the Nera 10 are hurriedly brought before that tribunal on a certain night and put through the motion of a ‘trial’ under cover of darkness. They are denied access to counsel. They are not given the opportunity to be heard. They are ‘convicted’, and ‘sentenced’ to life imprisonment and a fine of more than US$525 million each.

By Professor Carlson Anyangwe

[NB. This poignant narrative has been put in the historic present tense. This style puts the reader inside the situation being described and gives him the feel of being right there. It enhances the sad drama and its readability.]