Preparations are on the way in Yaoundé to declare 85 years old dictator Paul Biya as the winner of the October 7^th election that took place in La Republique du Cameroun. Even by his own high standards of election rigging, this year’s poll was the most dramatic and by far his most effective election mugging. Today the 22nd of October 2018, there’ll be a theatrical public ceremony in Yaoundé by the Constitutional Council to proclaim his triumph. Cameroon Concord News Group can confirm without any fear of ambiguity that the canopies and other bits and pieces that would be used during this state formality have been ordered and preparations are almost complete. On Friday, the regiment responsible for getting all the ingredients ready for the ritual confiscated the phones of all those working in Etoudi palace.

‘All the legal representations that were made by the opposition parties over the last week challenging the legitimacy of the results of the election were applauded by the old despot’. He welcomed these representations so the world could see that there is a proper free and fair electoral system in the country. Behind the scenes, we were reliably informed that he remained in constant conversation with the main players in the Constitutional Council giving the so-called judges standing instructions on what to do. Our source confirmed that members of the Constitutional Council paid regular visits to the elderly autocrat to receive directives.

Our correspondent in Yaoundé who is also very experience in intelligence gathering hinted that the frail dictator has received absolute assurance from the military that he has their loyalty. Over the last few weeks, Yaounde recorded some under-the-table talk that the military will step in and take power in a coup d’état. These tensions, were real but after many meetings and hush-hush deals it was called off. We gathered from a senior military official that the army had contemplated taking over last week and Biya was genuinely apprehensive but the internal squabbling among the many tribes represented in the army made it impossible for them to agree a deal. ‘The old canny fox stepped in with bags of dollars and bought their loyalty’ our source added.

Whilst infrastructures, institutions and public services in the country continue to dilapidate, Paul Biya who has ruled the nation with an iron fist for thirty-six years is prepared to be sworn in to start another seven year term at the top. Cameroon is one of the poorest nations in the world and Biya has presided over public corruption and embezzlement at a scale never seen since Mobutu Seseko of Zaire. With Boka Haram destabilising the north of the country, the Anglophone zones have declared independence from French Cameroun and created the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The world is watching curiously what solutions the 85 year old will offer to bring his poor and crisis-filled country under control.

By Asu Vera Eyere

Cameroon’s two major cities were tense on Sunday and riot police were on the streets as security forces try to prevent protests before the results of the country’s controversial presidential election are released.

Dozens of riot police, some armed with machine guns, surrounded the activist and politician Kah Walla’s house on Sunday afternoon, preventing her from leaving to attend a peaceful demonstration planned in the centre of Douala, the economic capital.

The election results are due to be released on Monday morning, and are widely expected to show a resounding victory for Paul Biya, the country’s octogenarian president who put himself forward for a seventh term. The protest was billed as a march “to say goodbye to Biya” who, in his 36th year as president, spends a significant amount of his time on holiday in Geneva.

The opposition has said there was widespread fraud and voter intimidation in the 7 October election, and rejected the results early on despite the fact that they had not yet been released. Legal attempts to have the election rerun have failed.

Walla told the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle last week that she was “bent on ousting the Biya regime”, and that the ballot box had been proven not to be a solution.

Anglophone rebels, who have been fighting for secession from the francophone majority in a spiralling conflict, boycotted the election and many English-speakers were unable to vote. Others who had fled to French-speaking regions faced raids and intimidation from the authorities.

Riot police were also posted to major streets and roundabouts in Douala and the capital, Yaoundé, on Sunday afternoon. Many internet users complained that they were unable to access Facebook and WhatsApp because they had been blocked.

A Reuters journalist, Josiane Kouagheu, was arrested while trying to cover the protests, according to Angela Quintal from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Culled from The Guardian

A new UN report says armed men from opposition forces in South Sudan abducted women and girls, as young as 12 years, for commanders to take them as “wives”.

The report said those who were chosen – most of them still being held captive – were repeatedly being raped and abused by other military figures.

The report, the latest by the UN and others that have described civilians being raped, shot, hung, tortured and burned, estimated that 900 people were kidnapped and 24,000 displaced between April and August.

South Sudan, the youngest country in Africa, has been gripped by a bloody civil war since December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and current rebel leader of plotting a coup.

The latest report, which is conducted based on victim and witness accounts, provides new details on abduction of women and girls by opposition forces.

It explains that women and girls were paraded and lined up for commanders to choose as “wives.”

The report has documented attacks on at least 28 villages, a settlement of internally displaced people and a refugee camp, during which the militants carried out serious abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said most of the abducted civilians are still being held captive. Michelle Bachelet called on the armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) to “immediately release them, first and foremost the children.”

“As part of the revitalized peace process, it is also essential that the Government of South Sudan acts to hold the perpetrators of the abuses and violations detailed in this report to account,” she added.

They also abducted young men and boys, forcing them to be fighters, according to the report.

The surge in violence and abuses, according to the report, occurred despite the latest UN peace deal that returned Machar once again to his post as deputy to the president.

The human rights division of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country has identified three opposition commanders “who allegedly had effective command and control of the forces committing these abuses, which may amount to war crimes,” it said.

South Sudan is also the world’s most dangerous country for aid workers. A researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, Nyagoah Pur, described the abuses to the Associated Press as “horrendous.”

Pur said that the abuses reported by the UN “stress the devastating impact that the continued impunity by forces has had on civilians, especially women and girls.”

She also called for the speedy establishment of a long-promised hybrid court in the country to prosecute abuses.

South Sudan plunged into civil war two years after it gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. The brutal conflict has left nearly 400,000 people dead and millions of others displaced, a report said last month.

Source: Presstv

Rumors of a coup d’etat are rife among military personnel in Yaounde after the Constitutional Council completed its job and it is obvious that Mr. Biya will be declared the winner of the October 7 presidential poll. A source close to the military headquarters has indicated that a group of Beti officers and politicians are coming up with a plan B just in case Cameroonians kick Mr. Biya out of power.

The source hinted that some four Beti army generals and some politicians, including the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo and Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o had been meeting secretly to plan a coup in the event that Mr. Biya yielded to the demands of the people. Their objective is to ensure that power does not leave their region, especially as Mr. Biya is showing signs of fragility and is capable of yielding to international pressure.

Our source who elected anonymity said if the coup succeeded, power would be handed to former Defense Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o for him to protect all those who had served under Mr. Biya. Our source added that Mr. Fame Ndongo and his group have already imported arms, using a parallel means to ensure other Cameroonians are kept in the dark.

It is also rumored that the arms found in Foumban and Bangante were part of the Fame Ndongo plot. The source stressed that some Betis wanted to see the country sink into chaos as this would prove that after Biya, there could only be chaos which they want to exploit to hang on to power.

The October 7 presidential poll seems to be bad news to the country. Ever since Prof. Kamto declared that he had won the election, the country has been on edge. Things came to a head when the Constitutional Council on Friday rejected all claims by the opposition that the election had been rigged in favor of the incumbent.  From every indication, Mr. Biya will be announced on Monday as the winner of the poll and that will extend his stay in power by seven years.

It should be recalled that Mr. Biya has been in power for 36 years after taking over power in 1982. While arrangements for his swearing-in are ongoing, the opposition, for its part, is mobilizing the population to ensure the people’s vote is protected.

It is gradually emerging that the hearings at the constitutional Council were simply part of scheme designed by the ruling crime syndicate do deceive the population and the international community. Even before the hearings wound up, an agenda for the proclamation of results had been designed and guests invited for the event had received their invitations about three days ago.

It should be recalled that all the submissions and pleas of the opposition had been rejected and from there, it was clear that the Constitutional Council was determined to declare Paul Biya the winner of the election, though he had not campaigned and so many irregularities had been pointed out by lawyers and eyewitnesses.

Cameroon seems to be heading for tough times. After 36 years in power, Mr. Biya might leave his country in total chaos as the population seeks ways of unseating the sit-tight dictator. The international news must take a second look at Cameroon which is the economic engine of the region. Any chaos in the country might throw the entire sub-region into a tailspin.

By Kingsley Betek