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UN Emergency Response Plan and Overview of the crisis in Southern Cameroons

30, May 2018

UN Emergency Response Plan and Overview of the crisis in Southern Cameroons 0

The crisis in the South-West and North-West Regions of Cameroon has compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities. Since 2016, political and social instability, exacerbated by sporadic violence, has had a negative impact on the civilian population of Cameroon’s South-West and NorthWest Regions, hosting four million inhabitants (16% of the total population). In November 2017, the sociopolitical crisis progressively translated into insecurity and armed violence. Since then, the escalation of tension and upsurge in hostilities between non-state armed groups and defence and security forces have triggered humanitarian needs across the two regions, linked to significant internal displacement.

In recent months, the epicentre of the crisis moved from Bamenda (North-West) to Mamfe and Kumba (SouthWest). All divisions in the South-West region, host to more than 1.4 million inhabitants, are affected by the crisis.

The number of households forced to flee their villages – or the country – in search of safer areas has rapidly and steadily increased since November 2017. Recent needs assessments report that at least 160,000 people have been internally displaced in the two affected regions and would need humanitarian and protection assistance over the next three months. In addition, more than 21,000 Cameroonians have been registered as refugees in Cross River, Benue and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria.1 This crisis is taking place against a backdrop of several other humanitarian emergencies affecting 3.3 million people across Cameroon.

Most affected areas

The South-West Region has become the hub of the crisis as it is home to more than 90% of the 160,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in need of humanitarian assistance; 135,000 are located in Meme Division and 15,000 in Manyu Division. The remaining 10,000 are displaced in the North-West Region.

Simultaneously, dozens of villages in Mbongue and Konye Subdivision (Meme Division) have been emptied of their populations. The situation is similar in the NorthWest, especially in Boyo Division.

Many villages have suffered significant material damage in Mbongue and Konye Subdivision (Meme Division), and in Eyumodjok and Akwaya Subdivision (Manyu Division). 1 This Response Plan does not include the need of Cameroonian refugees who found refuge in Nigeria Recently, insecurity has spread to new divisions in the South-West (Ndian, Lebialem, Fako) and North-West (Boyo).

Who are the most vulnerable?

Clashes between non-state armed groups and defense and security forces have displaced the civilian population into the surrounding forests and villages – 80% of the displaced population have found refuge in the forest.

The two regions has experienced a deterioration of living conditions – primarily affecting school-age children, women and the elderly – and a collapse of livelihoods as well as heightened abuses.
The crisis and subsequent displacement have prevented people from accessing their fields and markets. For most of the affected population who relied upon agriculture or livestock as their main sources of livelihoods before the crisis, dependency on external assistance will be inevitable in the short-term.


FIFPro Africa Division: Geremi Njitap en route to Zimbabwe

30, May 2018

FIFPro Africa Division: Geremi Njitap en route to Zimbabwe 0

CAMEROON legend Geremi Njitap and CAF deputy secretary-general Anthony Baffoe will headline a host of the game’s former stars who will converge in Victoria Falls for the annual FIFPro Africa Division Congress that bursts into life tomorrow.

In a first for the country, the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe, are hosting this year’s congress of the African Division of the World Footballers Association, which will run from tomorrow to Saturday.

FUZ president Desmond Maringwa revealed yesterday that Njitap and Baffoe will be among the 40 delegates expected to start trooping into the country today for the indaba that is key to the welfare of professional footballers across the continent.

The maiden congress to be staged by FUZ comes following a successful bidding by Maringwa’s leadership.

The former Dynamos and Zimbabwe midfielder has been working tirelessly to ensure the country’s footballers also receive the same kind of attention and treatment in line with current global trends. Maringwa said FUZ had deliberately chosen to stage the congress in Victoria Falls to also market brand Zimbabwe.

Sports Tourism has been on the ascendancy in Zimbabwe with a number of international football and other sporting legends visiting the country’s various resort areas. In the next few days, the spotlight will fall on Zimbabwe in as much as the focus will be on the leaders of player unions around Africa as they gather for their round table.

“The different FIFPro Divisions whether it is Europe, Asia or South America hold these congresses in their respective zones and I am glad that our bid to hold the Africa Division Congress was successful and hence we have 40 delegates coming to Victoria Falls.

“I think it is in recognition of the work that we have been doing of late that we were granted the right to host the congress and we are very happy about it as this also puts the country on the right map.

“We decided to host it in Victoria Falls as part of marketing our country and Africa at large and we believe that after the congress the delegates will be able to go back to their respective countries and talk about Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe as well as return with family and friends to visit our tourist resorts,’’ Maringwa said.

Maringwa also urged local footballers to take FUZ activities seriously and follow the other countries.

“We have come a long way in terms of our governance hence we are now able to host such a congress. I would urge local players to be members of this union and be part of the global village’’.

Maringwa, while not at liberty to reveal much about the topics they will discuss, hinted that “a lot of the key issues are internal but will be centred on player welfare and the strategies that will be used going forward’’.

ZIFA and Premier Soccer League officials are also expected to grace the opening ceremony of the congress tomorrow after which the delegates would go into closed door sessions.

Njitap, who won the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid in 2000 and featured for a number of English clubs including Chelsea and Newcastle, completed a memorable season that year when he captained the Cameroon squad to Olympic gold at the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

He also featured 108 times for the Indomitable Lions while his club football record includes stints in Paraguay and Turkey.

Baffoe, who resisted attempts to lure him to play for Germany and stuck with his native Ghana, has seen his administrative profile grow in leaps and was on November 16, 2017, appointed CAF deputy general-secretary in-charge of football and development.

The former defender was also part of the Black Stars squad that finished second in the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal and played alongside the likes of three-time Africa Player of the Year, Abedi Pele another legendary striker, Anthony Yeboah, and incumbent head coach of Ghana James Kwesi Appiah.

After his playing career, Baffoe used his broad popularity to set up and front a new TV magazine show devoted to youth football.

He was successful on German television in various sport programmes and also acting as host of Viasat One’s UEFA Champions League show in Ghana.

Legendary former Egyptian midfielder Magdi Abdelghani Sayed Ahmed, the first African player to score a penalty kick in the World Cup when helping the Pharaohs to a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands at the 1990 show-piece in Italy, will also be in Victoria Falls.

Source: herald.co.zw


‘This is a genocide’: villages burn as war rages in blood-soaked Cameroon

30, May 2018

‘This is a genocide’: villages burn as war rages in blood-soaked Cameroon 0

As rebel groups combat the clampdown on anglophone activists, civilians are being caught in the crossfire, with reports of many killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes

Villagers from Belo, in Cameroon’s north-west flee the fighting to nearby Bamenda
 Villagers from Belo, in Cameroon’s north-west, flee the fighting, heading for nearby Bamenda. All photographs by Peter Zongo

An hour and a half’s drive from Bamenda, in Cameroon’s north-west, is Belo, a village largely abandoned except for a military checkpoint manned by drunken soldiers.

In the middle of the road is a burnt motorcycle. A little further on, a corpse is sprawled – someone has tried to cover it with a few handfuls of grass.

Two girls pass by with bags on their heads filled with dried fish. “We barely have any food. That’s why we came back to collect the fish,” they say.

A covered corpse at the side of the road near Bamenda
 A covered corpse at the side of the road, near Bamenda

They explain that the corpse belongs to a villager. “There are many more bodies,” they add. “The soldiers burned part of the village.”

Belo is on the frontline of Cameroon’s simmering conflict between anglophone and francophone, an increasingly secessionist struggle that has pitted the French-speaking government in Yaoundé against the recently emerged Anglophone Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) and other rebel groups. According to the UN, the fighting has forced an estimated 20,000 Cameroonians to flee to Nigeria.

Many more people forced from their homes remain in the country. On the main road outside Belo, groups of people are moving, laden with possessions, whole families leaving with everything they can carry.

“We are on our way to Bamenda,” a woman says. Like all the others, she asks not to be named for fear of reprisal.

“There was a fight between the ADF and the army. Beginning in the early morning, I heard heavy gunfire. The army attacked the rebels in the village. The rebels blew up a bridge. So the army got stuck, and the rebels succeeded in killing the soldiers.

“The army sent reinforcements later in the day, and then they started taking their revenge on the villagers. They burned the houses, raped women and executed people at random. Those who had the chance to flee are hiding in the jungle,” she says. She could not tell how many were killed. “Many. This is a genocide.”

The matron at the nearby Mbingo Baptist hospital confirms that on the evening of 5 April “many soldiers” were brought in. About civilian casualties, however, she says she is unaware.

Although French and English are both official languages in the central African country, English speakers complain of policies they say discriminate against them, particularly in the education and judicial systems.

Beginning as an anglophone demand for more say in the government of President Paul Biya, that movement evolved at the end of 2016 into strikes, demonstrations and an uprising.

Then in 2017 the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium began Operation Ghost Town, a call for the shutdown of schools in the English-speaking south-west and north-west provinces.

In response, the government arrested anglophone leaders, blocked the internet for three months and installed a curfew in a series of repressive measures that became deadly when, in September of last year, at least 40 were reportedly killed during massive demonstrations.

That in turn provoked rebellion when in December separatists of the Ambazonian Defence Forces began attacks on state targets, with Biya declaring war on the separatists in places like Belo in retaliation.

In the village of Ambo the scene is similar to Belo. Small groups of soldiers occupy the village centre. The walls of several houses are marked by bullet holes and arson attacks.

The deserted village of Ambo
The deserted village of Ambo

 

An old man is standing in his door. “I could not flee, because my leg is crippled. My grandchild had to stay with me – both her parents are dead. For weeks now, we have survived on bananas.”

He points to a nearby house. “An old woman was shot there. The soldiers killed her in her own house. I also saw two girls hit by bullets in their shoulder.”

And while the fighting in Belo occurred last month, the violence is continuing.

Near the village of Widikum, machine guns rattle. A roadblock – one of the many that are situated every 10km or so – has been attacked by rebels. When travellers are finally permitted to pass, a house is burning further down the road.

Lucas Cho Ayaba is commander in exile of the Ambazonia Governing Council, of which the Ambazonia Defence Forces are the military arm. He sees the government in Yaoundé as an occupying force.

“60% of the GDP of Cameroon is earned in Ambazonia. Oil and wood are exploited by foreign companies, but the profits go to Yaoundé. On the other hand there is allegedly no money to provide for English-speaking teachers,” Ayaba says in an interview by phone.

“Our first aim is to make Ambazonia ungovernable. We must try to raise the cost of the occupation to higher than the profits they get here.”

A local government building in Batibo, destroyed by ADF rebels
 A local government building in Batibo, destroyed

“We cannot stand idly by,” Ayaba adds. “Peaceful protests and civil disobedience in the ghost towns simply do not have any effect against the repression of Yaoundé.”

Despite this, say locals in Bamenda, support for the Amba-boys, as the ADF are locally known, is not always voluntary.

“Those who don’t support the guerrillas with food, petrol or weapons is put away as a traitor,” says the man attacked by the machete.

Culled from The Guardian



Zimbabwe to elect new president, MPs on July 30

30, May 2018

Zimbabwe to elect new president, MPs on July 30 0

Zimbabwe announced on Wednesday it would choose a new president and parliament on July 30, in the country’s first electoral test since the removal of its autocratic former leader Robert Mugabe.

His successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, unveiled the date in the official Zimbabwe Government Gazette.

“Monday, the 30th day of July, 2018 (is) the day of the election to the office of President, the election of members of the National Assembly and election of councilors,” Mnangagwa said in a proclamation.

Once a right-hand man to the 94-year-old Mugabe, Mnangagwa dramatically succeeded the veteran leader in November after nearly four-decades in charge when troops swarmed the streets and briefly seized key sites.

Mnangagwa, 75, will square off against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, now led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in February.

If no candidate receives a simple majority in the first round of the presidential election, a run-off will be held on September 8.

Elections under Mugabe were marred by corruption, intimidation and violence, but Mnangagwa has vowed to hold a free and fair vote.

The election will be the first to be monitored by Western observers in many years.

On Monday Harare and the European Union announced that observers from the bloc would monitor polls in the southern African country for the first time in 16 years.

A prospective voter (L) checks her voter registration details with ZEC officials on May 29 2018 at an inspection center in Harare, ahead of Zimbabwe harmonized 2018 general election, expected for July. (Photo by AFP)

 

The head of the last EU observer mission, Pierre Schori, was thrown out of Zimbabwe in 2002 on the eve of presidential elections that were condemned as flawed.

Following the high-profile spat, Zimbabwe barred the EU and other Western observers from sending further missions to monitor polls in the country as Mugabe grew more and more defiant of foreign criticism up until his downfall.

And in a further sign of Zimbabwe’s growing efforts to mend fences with former foes following Mugabe’s resignation, the country has applied to re-join the Commonwealth, the bloc of former British colonies said Monday.

Harare’s membership was suspended in 2003 over the violent and graft-ridden elections the previous year.

Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth at the height of violent land seizures, when white farmers were evicted in favor of landless black people — a policy that wrecked agriculture and triggered economic collapse.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland confirmed that the organization would also send observers to the elections.

Mugabe sent shockwaves through the ruling ZANU-PF, the party he dominated for decades, when he recently posed with a retired general who will take on the government in this year’s election.

Despite a slew of reformist pledges and announcements it is unclear whether Mnangagwa, who was a vital cog in the ZANU-PF party and helped Mugabe to hold onto power for 37 years, has won the support of ordinary Zimbabweans.

(Source: AFP)


Southern Cameroons: Human Rights Watch warns separatists to quit attacks on education facilities

30, May 2018

Southern Cameroons: Human Rights Watch warns separatists to quit attacks on education facilities 0

International rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) have warned separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions to quit attacks on education facilities and anything that obstructs education.

The group has subsequently called for the safe and immediate release of a female school head who was abducted by suspected separatists late last week.

Madam Georgiana Enanga Sanga of Government High School Bolifamba Mile 16 was abducted along with another head teacher on 25 May in capital of the restive Southwest region, Buea.

According to reports, the taxi they were travelling in was intercepted and they were specifically picked whiles other passengers were allowed to continue their journey.

Her colleague head teacher has since been released with machete wounds, but Ms Sanga has yet to be accounted for. The action of the abductors is believed to be connected with ongoing nationwide examinations – GCE Ordinary and Advance Level Examinations.

“Enanga’s kidnappers should release her immediately, and separatist groups should put a decisive end to all attacks meant to obstruct children’s education,” HRW’s deputy director of global advocacym Philippe Bolopio said .

“Attacks against students, teachers, and schools inflict long-term harm on children, and sully the reputation of those who carry them out.”

Separatists have long used attacks on schools as a measure to ground life in the affected regions. The move is seen as part of a wider plan to put pressure on government in the ongoing fight for secession.

The Catholic Church and the United States have recently expressed disquiet about the attacks on both sides and its effects on lives of people living in the two regions. Abductions are not uncommon as separatists have used it as a means to put pressure on government.

What has become known as the Anglophone crisis affects the North West and South West regions of the Central African country with a section of the English-speaking minority pushing to secede under the so-called Ambazonia Republic.

 

Source: Africa News


Biya’s Continued Stay in Power: Erik Essouse is ELECAM’s new boss

30, May 2018

Biya’s Continued Stay in Power: Erik Essouse is ELECAM’s new boss 0

Erik Essouse was appointed on Monday by President Biya as Chief Electoral Officer of ELECAM, the body in charge of the electoral process in Cameroon. The new so-called general manager replaces Abdoulaye Babale, accused by the electoral council of “gross negligence”.

Prior to his appointment, Erik Essouse was the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer. He had held the position since 2008. His appointment comes about 5 months before the presidential election, which is scheduled to take place between 14 October and 14 September. Abdoul Karimou was appointed Deputy General Manager.

By Rita Akana

 


UN: Antonio Guterres in Mali

30, May 2018

UN: Antonio Guterres in Mali 0

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Mali on Tuesday to show support for UN peacekeepers facing an Islamist insurgency that has killed scores of their colleagues.

Guterres went to the UN’s MINUSMA base for ceremonies marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.

“Today in these four countries, and especially here in Mali, you work in an environment where peace is not assured, you work in a setting where there are terrorist groups that do not respect anything and nobody, a setting where there is drug, human and arms trafficking,” he said.

MINUSMA has 12,500 military and police personnel. It has lost more than 160 people since it deployed in 2013 – a figure that accounts for more than half of UN peacekeeping fatalities over this period.

“The international community must understand that it must provide the G5 Sahel countries with support, assured and guaranteed support to enable the stability of the G5 Sahel force and the effectiveness of its work for peace and security in this region,” Guterres added.

Northern Mali fell into the grip of al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in 2012. MINUSMA was deployed to help stabilise the area but attacks have spilled over to the central and southern parts of the country and into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

 

Source: Africa News


Southern Cameroons: Why the Resistance Needs to Go Beyond Just Resisting

30, May 2018

Southern Cameroons: Why the Resistance Needs to Go Beyond Just Resisting 0

A new greatness awaits the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but Southern Cameroonians must define it. Our top political priority over the next two years of the resistance should be to deny recognition to any Southern Cameroons group that does not take directives from the Interim Government. Clearly, the tables have turned. We now have a US administration coming up with a very different agenda on how to deal with the vicious regime in Yaoundé.

The all-out onslaught by the Trump administration against the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has left Yaoundé reeling, scrambling to protect its leader Paul Biya and people they hold dear. The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces have been resisting with unprecedented levels of energy, and the resistance has been working shockingly well so far.  It is evidently clear that the Biya regime is approaching its end and French Cameroun is going to be on fire.  Southern Cameroonians living in La Republique du Cameroun need to think and rethink things. There is need to change as they can’t keep playing CPDM game: they need to go back to our Anglo-Saxon principles and help in crafting our own, new vision for what the Ambazonian nation should be.

Biya’s incoherent speeches, his disregard for genuine dialogue with the leadership of the Interim Government and his obvious personal flaws has put him at daggers-drawn positions with Europe, Australia and the United States. Biya no longer has the support of the even the Central Committee members of his ruling party to propel him to the Presidency this 2018.

Since the meeting with the US ambassador, the war in Southern Cameroons has gotten worse and Ambazonians recently lost one of their brave commanders Fru Akuma. This was followed by the killing of George Nwangi at Nguti by French Cameroun army soldiers.  Southern Cameroonians have never been more unified on any one topic than its dislike for the one and indivisible Cameroon.  It’s natural at this point in time for every Southern Cameroonians to rally behind the Interim Government and focus on the resistance. Ambazonians should remember that powerful institutions such as the IG are almost always defined by what they are for, not what they are against.

As long as we’re only resisting, we’re waiting for the Biya regime to launch another attack. Not only will we be always on the defensive, we’ll limit our imaginations to a reality within the boundaries of Biya and French Cameroun’s world.  Mindful of the unprecedented levels of participation by the US, Nigeria and above all France, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to effectively resist every move.

Winning this war and securing the Ambazonian territory is not about chasing Biya and his gangs out of Yaounde as the Americans and the French have agreed. That has its own problems. Winning is not about seeing opponents in French Cameroun bleeding. Winning is far grander: channeling unprecedented levels of consolidating and multiplying our territorial gains into an idea for Southern Cameroons that not only combats the corrosive policies we’ve seen in La Republique, but can lead to a permanently better future for all Ambazonians.

It’s not a surprised that no French Cameroun politicians who oppose Biya have come out with clear messages about how to advance a progressive agenda in the current crisis in Southern Cameroons. Perhaps they’re just as taken aback by the Biya assault as the rest of us Ambazonians.

The race to succeed Biya has evoked some powerful discussions about where Ambazonians go next. The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe long made a case for the future of the territory and his favorite articulation stands tall on “My Trip to Buea”. The reality is that every Southern Cameroonian wants to have an independent state. Consequently, the resistance must demonstrate to the world our inclusive, moral, powerful one and togetherness behind our IG that we want to see beyond the struggle for independence. That togetherness will not only carry us through an inevitably difficult war of independence, but well into the future. It’s difficult for misguided Southern Cameroonians such as Cho Ayaba and Boh Herbert to think that way right now, but it has never been more necessary.

By Sessekou Asu Isong, London


Ending the war in Southern Cameroons: Regime change in Yaoundé is the only option

30, May 2018

Ending the war in Southern Cameroons: Regime change in Yaoundé is the only option 0

Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate are under immense pressure at the moment. The West including the United States are now supporting anti-government actions from opposition groups and the civil society. Southern Cameroonians are slamming the Biya regime for plundering the nation’s wealth on his family and tribesmen and have pulled out of the Cameroonian federation.  Will the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime pay attention to the demands of French speaking Cameroonians to end the senseless war in Southern Cameroons? Almost certainly not. For 57 years, the people of Southern Cameroons have been suffering under cruel and callous successive Francophone regimes that use brutality to oppress.

The Biya government will continue to fund state terrorism in Southern Cameroons and it will continue to destabilize the Central African Republic.  It will continue to deplore huge financial resources to get President Buhari elected in Nigeria. It will continue to train, fund and arm numerous other militias in the Central African Republic. It will continue to interfere in the internal affairs of nations such as Chad,Congo-Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea and it will spark conflict where it can like in Gabon. And it will not put the needs of French Cameroonians before any of this.

How do we know this will continue if Biya stays on? Well, quite simply because this is what the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime is based on. It could not survive 35 years without this. For this reason, regime change in Yaoundé is the only option. Internationally, the regime has portrayed itself as having a moderate leader in the person of President Biya.  The regime itself has spoken about dialogue, peace and unity but this is a self-proclaimed label that is based on absolutely nothing. There have been no signs of dialogue ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis began. In fact, quite the opposite. When the teachers and lawyers strike action started, instead of engaging the Consortium leaders for all the concessions they granted the Paul Ghogomu Commission, Yaounde instead criminalized dialogue, arrested the leaders of the Consortium and continued to threaten and provoke Southern Cameroonians.

The consortium of CPDM crime syndicates has a history of crushing anti regime protests, but the current crisis in Southern Cameroons is unlike any before. This time, it is all sectors of the Southern Cameroons society that are calling for recognition of Ambazonia by the international community. Southern Cameroonians are facing execution, arrest, imprisonment and torture, yet they are still risking everything to make their calls for a new nation in Africa heard. It is clear now that regime change is the only way forward for the two Cameroons to live in peace. French Cameroonians too should take advantage of the happenings in Southern Cameroons and endorse regime change as the only way to ensure that their bleak futures have any kind of hope.

Since the Ambazonian uprisings started two years ago, instead of condemning the Biya regime and holding it accountable for the killing and violence towards Southern Cameroonians, the African Union, the EU and the UN have turned their backs on the people and remained silent. However, the US ambassador Peter Barlerin has expressed his support for the people of Cameroon and made it clear that the West wants regime change too. And he has the backing of the majority of the diplomatic community in Yaoundé including the US Congress.

Ambassador Barlerin has sounded a note of caution to Biya that the world was watching. His Excellency Peter Barlerin also reminded Mr. Biya that human rights are an automatic right – not something granted as a gift by an 85 year dictator.

By some strange happenstance, the European Union, on the other hand, is very reluctant to comment on the current situation in Southern Cameroons. It appears to want to ensure that nothing affects Sub Saharan Africa after Biya, so it’s keeping quiet. When will the EU realize that regime change will benefit not just French Cameroun, but the entire sub region?

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Ambazonia’s fading Ellen and Medien Moments and the International Role in any Response

30, May 2018

Ambazonia’s fading Ellen and Medien Moments and the International Role in any Response 0

In its ongoing military campaign to suppress and subjugate an increasing conscious Southern Cameroons population who have since November 2016 been progressively pressuring the francophone dominated government to listen to their legitimate demands, the Biya régime, through its continuous and unabated violence and brutality in the two English speaking regions have crossed the red line.

Thousands of Southern Cameroonians have fled their homes seeking refuge in the bushes and forests as they battle with diseases, snake bites, insect bites and every imaginable risk under such conditions. Some 40,000 have made their way into neighboring Nigeria.  According to the latest UN report, 160.000 Southern Cameroonians have been displaced internally. Cameroon government forces have ever since engaged in burning down entire village communities abandoned by desperate Ambazonians whose voices have been loud but ignored by those who are the watchdog of global security.

In his senseless malicious military campaign against citizens of the former British Cameroons, the young, the old and the weak have been burnt alive as they constitute the vulnerable class of people who are unable to undertake the pernicious and physically challenging adventure in to the forests.

Teenagers like the 11 year old Ellen of Bansoh Bui and the 14 year old Medien of Widikum have suffered life threatening and definitely life changing injuries. Both girls received bullets in their faces and have ever since been receiving medical care thanks to the relentless humanitarian campaign of the Lord Justice Ayah Foundation.

Unlike the young Pakistani girl Malala who survived the Taliban gun attack and who gained international recognition and support, these Malalas of Southern Cameroons have been ignored by the same community and organisations that stood up in support of Malala from Pakistan.  In the face of all these abuses, a lot of tongues have been waging on how many more are going to flee their homes and seek refuge in dangerous habitats before the world stands up to the realities of the crisis? How many more Southern Cameroons youths are going to be slaughtered, tortured to death, and buried in mass graves before the UN will take action?

Southern Cameroonians have been calling for international assistance. They now want the world to protect them against their supposed protectors. The government’s mass murdering tactics and collective punishment have drawn a lot of flak in recent times and even the Trump Administration has been disappointed by the methods the dictatorial government in Yaounde is using to restore order in the two restive English-speaking regions of the country.

Thursday’s Menka murders came on the heels of a scathing criticism of the reckless Yaounde regime by the U.S. Ambassador, Peter Barlerin, who used his audience with the country’s president, Paul Biya, to call for an end to the senseless and targeted killings in the two English-speaking regions.

Mr. Barlerin also used the occasion to call on Mr. Biya to think of his legacy, a coded way of telling the Yaounde dictator not to run in the upcoming presidential election. It should be recalled that the Americans have a way of advising their erstwhile friends to quit power. Mr. Barlerin is simply walking in the steps of other American ambassadors who hold that governments must be accountable to their people.

The international community, and world organizations like the UN, the Commonwealth have all shown solidarity with Biya by their inaction and regular visits including exchange of pleasantries as they wine and dine in the luxurious so-called Unity Palace. The reaction of the UN and the Commonwealth has been all sound without fury, as the Biya régime goes viral with its excesses.

By Ntam Charles Ngeh

Bonn, Germany


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