Headline News

15, October 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: International Criminal Court may investigate ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front, SCACUF has written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) about acts of violence in Southern Cameroons. Their letter dated 12 October 2017, asked the ICC Prosecutor to open an investigation into the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” in British Southern Cameroons.

Their complaint to the ICC concerns Paul Biya (President of the Republic), René Emmanuel Sadi (Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization), Laurent Esso (Minister of Justice), Jacques Fame Ndongo (Minister of Higher Education), Joseph Beti Assomo, Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Martin Belinga Eboutou (Director of the Civil Cabinet), Jean-Baptiste Bokam (Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie Nationale), Adolphe Lélé Lafrique, Goveror of the Bamenda State and Bernard Okalai Bilai (Governor of the Buea State). “These personalities or members of the Government are directly responsible for the killings, torture, rape and kidnappings since October 2016,” the Governing Council said.

The leadership of the Governing Council also pointed in the letter to the ICC that if urgent measures are not taken, genocide and crimes against humanity could intensify. They stressed that the personalities mentioned above had ordered demonstrators who were marching “with tree of peace in hand” to be killed. “More than 250 demonstrators including children have been confirmed dead, scores are still hospitalised and more than 1000 others are missing. Amnesty International recently revealed that more than 500 Southern Cameroonian detainees were suffocating in detentions centres throughout the territory.

By Rita Akana, CCN

15, October 2017

Trump failing to lead, sending matters to Congress to fix ⁰

US Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, has accused President Donald Trump of failing to lead the nation and instead sending matters to Congress.

In a tweet on Saturday, Sen. Schumer cited Trump’s handling of the Iran nuclear deal, health care and hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico as examples of his failures in recent weeks. Trump on Friday announced he would not continue to certify the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The US president kicked a decision over to Congress on whether to re-impose sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear accord.

Trump threatened to terminate the international accord if Congress and American allies failed to amend the agreement. The day before, Trump said he was cutting off subsidies to health insurance companies for low-income patients in the most dramatic action to weaken the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

“If the Democrats were smart, what they’d do is come and negotiate something where people could really get the kind of health care that they deserve,” Trump told reporters.

US President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran deal from the Diplomatic Reception room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The White House is simply “asking the legislative branch to do its job,” Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, told POLITICO. “We have great confidence in their ability to get things done.”

Analysts say Trump’s actions are meant to erase Obama’s achievements on domestic and foreign policy fronts.

“It’s not just a strategy,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “What Obama did is illegal and unconstitutional and these are areas that Congress should solve.”

“The president is returning power to the Congress — they should be happy,” he added.

Trump on Thursday also gave notice to Puerto Rico, warning that government assistance could not continue “forever.” He said it was up to Congress to decide how much federal money to appropriate to the island for its recovery.

By putting Congress in charge, experts say, Trump is taking a high-stakes gamble given the inability of the legislative branch to accomplish much in recent years.

Source: Presstv

15, October 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Mayor Ekema Patrick receives 500 million for “monthly cash bribe scheme” ⁰

Biya regime has paid the sum of 500 million FCFA to mayor Ekema Patrick of the Buea Council as part of a monthly cash “bribes” scheme to raise the Bakweri youth against other Southern Cameroons tribes residing in the Buea municipality. The money was handed to the mayor secretly by the Francophone Minister for Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo.

French Cameroun officials in Yaounde are bankrolling a CPDM government initiative to pay Anglophone elites, traditional rulers and community leaders monthly wages to get them talking to the Biya regime. News of French Cameroun’s involvement to destabilize the revolution came as the Defense Minister, Beti Assomo met Mayor Ekema Patrick during a recent visit to Buea. He then held talks with some elites from Manyu, Ndian and Kupe Manenguba appointed by Prime Minister Philemon Yang likely to be involved.

The new strategy comes amid growing violence across Southern Cameroons caused by the French Cameroun dominated armed forces. The few Southern Cameroonians still militating in the ruling CPDM crime syndicate have accused the Biya administration of “losing the support of Southern Cameroonians”. The bribe scheme is seen as the first step towards winning back influential Southern Cameroons elites and tribal leaders, on a county level.

The elites were handpicked by Prime Minister Philemon Yang after a French Cameroun government auditioning that was carried out by the governors and prefects of the territory and they are expected to earn about two hundred thousand a month for attending up to two meetings. But critics fear the payments, which are about 30 per cent more than civil servants earn, are President Biya’s way of bribing Anglophone elites to deliver support ahead of elections next year.

A senior Cameroon Concord News policy analyst in Yaounde said: “If this is perceived as more political patronage, or bribery, it runs the risk of generating friction and resentment.” The Biya regime is financing a similar initiative in the Bamenda State where thousands of French Cameroun troops have been deployed.

It comes ahead of a major strategy review by the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council which is expected to advocate a major intensification of the ghost town operations. A statement issued by the Chairman of the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho purportedly condemning the so-called visit of Southern Cameroons elites was treated as inconsequential by agents of the Governing Council.

A senior CPDM personality who spoke to us at the time of fling this report but sued for anonymity said existing French Cameroun government strategies had seen the Southern Cameroons Governing Council gain ground: “We don’t want to create militias, but we need to be empowering leaders like Ekema Patrick. Equip them, not just with weapons but with whatever it takes, so they can protect their territories against secessionist influence.”

Mayor Ekema had discussed the plans with the anti-Anglophone Justice Minister Laurent Esso when he visited Douala and got 60 millions FCFA from the Douala City Council and lied to the press that the amount was 13 million. Prime Minister Philemon Yang has promised to increase support for “community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families.” But the plans will meet with a stonewall because of a lack of Southern Cameroonian support.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CCN

14, October 2017

Ivory Coast: 4 killed in French military cargo plane crash ⁰

Four Moldovan citizens were killed and two others were injured when a cargo plane chartered by the French military crashed into the sea near the airport in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, on Saturday, Ivorian and French officials said.

Four French citizens survived the crash but were injured, Ivory Coast’s Security Minister Sidiki Diakite told reporters at the scene. Several Ivorian security sources said French soldiers were among the wounded.

“What we can say for the time being is that this morning around 8:30 (0830 GMT), an Antonov plane crashed…with 10 on board including the crew members,” he said.

The crash occurred during a storm with heavy rain and lightning and rescuers were hampered by rough seas. Though Abidjan’s airport is located in a heavily populated area, it did not appear that anyone was hurt on the ground.

The French military operates a logistics base next to the airport in support of its Barkhane operation, combating extremist militants in West Africa’s Sahel region.

“This was a plane chartered by the French army in the framework of the Barkhane force in order to carry out logistical missions,” French army spokesman Colonel Patrick Steiger said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash, he said, adding that the four injured French citizens were being treated at the French military base adjacent to the airport.

France’s ambassador to Ivory Coast along with French gendarmes and soldiers quickly arrived at the crash site.

French soldiers and rescuers carry a dead body after a propeller-engine cargo plane crashed in the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, October 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Hundreds of residents of the heavily populated neighborhood of Port Bouet, which surrounds the airport, crowded around the crash site. Some of them assisted firefighters and rescue divers who freed the bodies of the dead from the wreckage, which had broken into several large pieces.

French soldiers and Ivorian security forces later sealed off the area and French and Ivorian military vessels patrolled waters surrounding the crash site. The name of the company operating the aircraft was not immediately known.

(Source: Reuters)

14, October 2017

Southern Cameroons: Externalising the souls of our heroes ⁰

The Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the decision by the Catholic Church in the Southern Cameroons to set aside today as a day of prayers for the repose of the soul of the fallen heroes of the Southern Cameroons struggle for freedom. A similar move by the Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Mission are equally applauded. By taking these moves, our Christian Church leaders have fulfilled a divine mandate ordained or commander by Jesus Christ himself, the body of the Church and supreme Guarantor of our Christian faith. As we pray for the soul of the departed and meditate about the cause for which their lives were cut short, let us not forget that with them, part of every Southern Cameroonian’s life was cut short. They died exercising a fundamental search for justice; justice to be recognised and treated as human beings created in the image of God in their ancestral homelands and justice for our individual and collective existence in dignity, peace and progress.

Like most Southern Cameroonians, they were waving peace plants in the mistaken believe that, that symbol of peace was going to be accorded its deserved recognition. Not with the angel of death that colonized Southern Cameroons baying on the blood of its citizens and the rape of its natural resources for self and neo-colonial gratification. Lest French Cameroun and its genocidal leaders rejoice yet. They will know no peace until the blood of these armless Southern Cameroonians is accounted for. They will know no peace by pursuing a scourge earth policy of genocide and systemic criminality intended to subdue the living soul of freedom and liberty of the Southern Cameroons. For French Cameroun to know peace, it must vacate the territory of the Southern Cameroons which deserves to be free and independent pursuant to United Nations Charter, the UN General Assembly Resolutions, the independence on October 1, 1961. French Cameroun was put on notice by the Buea Declaration (1993) and the Bamenda Proclamation (1994) more than twenty years ago, that the Southern Cameroons intended to reassert its independence and sovereignty over its territory and to terminate all forms of colonial rule as such. The patriotic march by the martyrs whose senseless slaughter we celebrate in these religious ceremonies therefore a legitimate forensic justification. We therefore salute their courage, their priceless supreme sacrifice that cements and eternalizes our freedom, forever and ever. Amen.

An ongoing outpouring of administrative, Ministerial and cross-Ministerial Communiques for the prosecution of the ongoing preplanned genocide in which these heroes were slaughtered on the account of their Southern Cameroons cultural and national identity cogently established different layers of criminal responsibility for these crimes. It is significant to note that each of the genocidal communiques states that its source of authority was the Head of State of French Cameroun Paul Biya. The lack of governmental cohesion and discipline is obvious from the fact that Biya is quoted in the communiques as giving orders directly to certain Ministers and Administrators on whom he is relying to prosecute and execute the preplanned genocide of the Southern Cameroons.

This perceptible indiscipline should not obfuscate the fact that the genocide was carefully planned and the structures of its execution put in place long ago. This plan included, the co-opting of genocidal media organs such as television 4, genocide apologists and propagandists such as Eric Owona Nguini, one Obama and Isa Tchiroma among others to popularize, justify and rally support for the genocide. He also directed Laurent Esso his Minister of Justice and a principal ideologue of the genocide, Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji and his Senior Military Commanders, essentially of Beti origin, local governors and divisional administrators of French Cameroun origin to execute the genocide. To succeed in their plans, they required and obtained the support of Southern Cameroonian Iscariots like Achidi Achu, Julius Achu, Tabetando, Mafany Musonge, Patrick Esunge and a host of others to help to identify targets for the slaughter and others to be abducted, tortured and detained.

Paul Biya bypassed the exercise of constitutional power and ministerial/administrative hierarchy because that might have alerted and triggered universal genocide alarm mechanisms that might have intervened in time to slow his diabolic actions. He therefore provided direct superintendence of the extermination of Southern Cameroons armless civilians by these his selected field executors. To facilitate the expeditious execution of the plan of genocide in a scale that will have Southern Cameroonians subdued in humiliating and capitulating blood bath, Paul Biya breached all norms of International Law by ordering his administrative governors to close international borders to allow deployed military units to rape, loot, torture, abduct, exterminate, and torch human settlements and property of Southern Cameroonians.

Considering the reign of terror and bestiality that is ongoing even in Churches and places of worship which are protected by International law. The Christian Church services that have been organized today, have finally confirmed our Church leaders that they can on occasion stand for the cross of justice, human dignity, and freedom. The French Cameroun clergy have elected their camp with Iscariot sagacity. That is their choice. But Iscariot thought humanity that money may meet temporal human needs but will never ever control the soul of humanity which our Lord Jesus Christ purchased with His precious blood.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CCN/CIR

14, October 2017

Biya and Philemon Yang: Going, Going, Gone ⁰

The French Cameroun Prime Minister, Philemon Yang who hails from West Cameroon is fighting for his political survival after Southern Cameroonians abandoned the 56 years old marriage with La Republique du Cameroun in a general uprising that has left the country facing a prolonged period of uncertainty.

President Biya’s outgoing government saw its support slump and eventually disappeared as Southern Cameroonians flocked to Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council, the Anglophone Cameroons new version of the SCNC which has staged a remarkable recovery to become the decisive political grouping in the new Republic of Southern Cameroons.

“Tsunami” was the word used by several Southern Cameroons newspapers recently to describe the outcome of the October 1 Independence Day celebrations that President Biya and Mr Philemon Yang looked certain to dominate just a year ago. But both men’s inability to persuade Southern Cameroonians that Cameroon remains one and indivisible has cost Yang and President Biya their majority following — and perhaps their jobs.

Even with growing calls for Prime Minister Philemon Yang to severe links with Ghogomu Paul Mingo and to open genuine dialogue with the leadership of the Governing Council to either form a federated structure, the unpopular head of government from Oku has kept his man and they are heading to Southern Cameroons to stage a repeat of the one year old comedy and tragedy with the moderate leader of the Consortium and some Bamileke lawyers based in the territory. But this current arrangement would require them to overcome almost a 56 years old Francophone/Anglophone divisions dating from a French teleguided coup against Southern Cameroons in Foumban in the 1960s.

Cameroon Concord News Group and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are focusing instead on a new Cameroon after Biya and the terms of separation no matter how long the process will take. It is time for this new generation of Southern Cameroonians to live up to the greatness and to prove themselves renewed and worthy of a future by staging a massive ghost town operation against Philemon Yang and his gang.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

14, October 2017

EU Foreign Policy Chief says Trump in no position to terminate Iran’s nuclear deal ⁰

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the US president is not in a position to terminate Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Shortly after US President Donald Trump officially announced on Friday that he would not certify the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Mogherini stressed that the 2015 accord reached between Iran and Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China as well as the US “does not belong to any single country”.

“To my knowledge there is not one single country in the world that can terminate a UN Security Council resolution that has been adopted, and adopted unanimously, and implemented, and verified,” she said.

“It is clearly not in the hands of any president of any country in the world to terminate an agreement of this sort. The president of the United States has many powers (but) not this one,” the EU foreign policy chief pointed out.

Mogherini underlined the EU’s determination to abide by the JCPOA, noting that the bloc expects the other parties to the deal to adopt the same stance.

“We cannot afford as an international community, as Europe for sure, to dismantle an agreement that is working and delivering,” she said.

Apart from his refusal to certify the JCPOA, Trump also warned in his strategic review of US policy on Iran that he might ultimately terminate the deal, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory of multilateral diplomacy.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said earlier on Friday that Tehran had a “very broad” range of options for any breach of the JCPOA and would “end all its commitments in this regard if deemed necessary.”

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2017. (Photo by AP)

Trump called on Congress and US allies to address “serious flaws” in the JCPOA, including the deal’s “sunset clauses” that will put an end to restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after a few years as well as the agreement’s “total silence on Iran’s missile programs.”

The US president noted that key Congress leaders are drafting legislation to amend the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which has given Congress some oversight on the JCPOA, prevent Iran from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and make all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program permanent.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani slammed Trump’s speech against the Islamic Republic as nothing more than insults and delirious talk, urging the US president to brush up on his world history and geography to improve his comprehension of international obligations and global ethics, etiquette and conventions.

The Iranian president further rejected Trump’s demand that the 2015 nuclear deal be revised, saying the agreement would remain intact and no article or paragraph would be added or taken away from it.

Rouhani said Iran will only respect its nuclear deal commitments so long as its rights are safeguarded, emphasizing that Tehran has cooperated and would continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has certified Iran’s compliance eight times.

UK, Germany, France back JCPOA

Following Trump’s speech, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement, expressing concern over “the possible implications” of Washington’s decision.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they “stand committed to its full implementation by all sides.”

“The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes,” said the statement released by May’s Downing Street office.

“We encourage the US administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPOA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement.

“Our governments are committed to ensuring the JCPOA is maintained,” the statement pointed out.

The file photo shows French President Emmanuel Macron (L), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) and British Prime Minister Theresa May at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels. (Photo by AFP)

While both the US and the IAEA confirm that Iran is meeting the technical requirements of the nuclear deal, Trump claims that Tehran is in breach of the “spirit” of the agreement because of its expanding influence in the Middle East and the country’s achievements in its conventional missile program.

The three European leaders also expressed concern over Iran’s ballistic missile program, noting that they “stand ready to take further appropriate measures to address these issues.”

The nuclear agreement is solely about Iran’s nuclear activities and it does not incorporate non-nuclear issues.

Russia slams Trump’s policy

In reaction to Trump’s speech, Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced his Iran strategy as one using “aggressive and threatening rhetoric” but said it expected the JCPOA to stay intact.

The ministry’s statement said it expected Trump’s decision “would not have a direct impact on the implementation of the deal” but was “an element of (US) domestic debate.”

Trump’s threat to terminate the nuclear deal comes as the US has a history of quitting international pacts and organizations.

This is not the first time that the international community witnesses efforts by the Trump administration to renege on a multilateral agreement.

Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in June and has ordered the US to withdraw from UNESCO next year.

The US decisions to abandon multilateral agreements is not limited to the Trump administration. In 2002, the administration of former US President George W. Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.

Culled from Presstv

13, October 2017

France’s Audrey Azoulay picked as new UNESCO chief ⁰

UNESCO’s executive board has selected former French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay as the new chief of the United Nations’ cultural agency.

Azoulay, who served as a minister under President Francois Hollande, narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote on Friday.

Azoulay must be approved by UNESCO’s 195 members on November 10.

The 45-year-old Azoulay will succeed Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who has led the body since 2009.

The voting comes a day after the United States announced that it will withdraw from the UN’s cultural organization, accusing it of “anti-Israel bias.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday that Washington would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency.

“In this time of crisis we need more than ever to support, strengthen and reform UNESCO and not leave it,” Azoulay told journalists, saying she would modernize the agency.

“If I’m confirmed…the first thing I will do is to restore its credibility, restore the faith of its members and its efficiency so it can act,” she added.

UNESCO is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria’s Palmyra, the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona and twenty-two sites in Iran.

Source: Presstv

13, October 2017

Race for the Unity Palace: Akéré Muna takes on Issa Tchiroma ⁰

Barrister Akéré Muna has responded to comments reportedly made by one of the 1984 April 6^th coup plotters, Issa Tchiroma Bakary. The French Cameroon political elite who also moonlight as Minister of Communication and Cameroon government spokesman had reacted negatively after Akere Muna announced that he would run for the 2018 presidential elections.

Speaking on Canal 2 International on Thursday about his candidacy in France, Akere lamented especially the hostile reactions to his candidacy from some pro Biya comedians. “We spend our time saying that there is nobody, and when someone comes up, they hit him.”

Without mentioning names, Barrister Muna replied to those who accused him of taking advantage of the Southern Cameroons crisis. “I chose this moment because I am ready. I have served at home and in international institutions. I think that now I am ready to put my knowledge at the service of the nation”.

Akéré Muna promised to have dual citizenship recognised if he was elected President of the Republic. He told Canal 2 International that he was surprised by the enthusiasm of Cameroonians in the Diaspora who seem to be passionate by his approach.

For Akere, the Diaspora must be an integral part of the development of Cameroon. He promised that there would be dual nationality provided that they had a tax residence in Cameroon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CCN

13, October 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Killing an Idea with Guns and Bullets ⁰

The Anglophone crisis that has rocked Cameroon over the last twelve months seems to be heralding the end of an era that has brought pain and suffering to citizens of this country. The government’s reaction to demonstrations on October 1, 2017, has left the world, especially the international community, in great shock. It is alleged that more than one hundred people have been killed across the Anglophone region, with over three hundred missing and some two hundred injured. Today, the entire region has been militarized and the citizens are not allowed to move from one location to the other. Anglophones seem to have been rolled back into the dark ages against their wish. It also seems the government is helping to enforce the ghost towns that have been going on in the Anglophone region for one year.

In Manyu Division, in particular, it is extremely hard for the population to venture out. Many young men have been arrested and taken to unknown destinations and thousands have fled their homes and are now sharing space with dangerous snakes and tigers in the Manyu jungle. Some have headed to Nigeria where they are seeking refuge and waiting for the day they will run into arms to come back to liberate their fatherland from the control of those they consider as an army of occupation. Traveling to Nigeria has become very challenging. Residents of Manyu Division are being compelled to buy a pass just to get to the border with Nigeria and they are being obliged by government troops to pay all types of fees, with the most ridiculous being a development fee that goes into the pockets of the army soldiers who since October 1 have been running amok in that part of the country. It is like Cameroon has gone back to the dark days of apartheid when black South Africans had to obtain passes in order to move from one city to the next.

In border villages and towns like Ekok, Otu, Agborkem German and Nsanarakati, army soldiers are abusing the people, especially women. Many young girls are being abused and raped on a daily bases and the population does not know who to turn to for protection and services that are supposed to be provided by a responsible government. For those who have escaped, the unfortunate thing is that many of them may never return home, especially those who are hiding in the jungle as the conditions out there are not the best, especially with the heavy rains that are making the jungle inhabitable.

Today, Nigeria is home to about half a million Anglophones who are seeking refugee status. With the anger and frustration of having been marginalized and chased out of the country, these young men will surely constitute a strong pool of angry fighters if they lay their hands on weapons. Instead of fighting secession which is an idea with appeasement, the government has decided to kill an idea with bullets and guns and this is unfortunately not producing the desired results. The government has failed to understand that sometimes it is better to catch flies with honey. Using vinegar all the time may not be the best way to approach something that only exists in the mind.

In an environment of tension, it is always advisable to use the right words in order not to cause the situation to further deteriorate. But government actions over the last months leave much to be desired. Even declarations from the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma, are not helping, as his language and choice of words are designed to further upset and alienate Anglophones.

Many Anglophones have been calling for his dismissal for months now. Mr. Tchiroma himself is an ex-convict, as he was among the coup plotters who almost took down Mr. Biya in 1984 in a coup that resulted in the deaths of more than one thousand northerners. Many Cameroonians hold that if the president could pardon Mr. Tchiroma and other coup plotter who almost killed him, why would he not come down his ivory tower to dialogue with Anglophones who are simply expressing their anger and frustration with a system that has robbed them of their dignity? They point out that Mr. Tchiroma has no moral standing to call on soldiers to kill other Cameroonians. They argue that a coup d’etat is more dangerous than a peaceful protest, adding that if the president could give Mr. Tchiroma a second chance to the extent of appointing him a minister, why does he think he has to rejoice when Cameroonians of English expression are being mowed down by soldiers who get paid with taxpayers’ money?

Anglophones have clearly stated their problems. A strike that started with lawyers and teachers was allowed to quickly degenerate into calls for federalism that waspromptly rejected by the government, with the country’s president, Paul Biya, stating that the form of the state could not be discussed. This has put him in a tight spot and, today, he does not know how to eat the giant humble pie he had made for himself. Anglophones are not backing down. The deployment of troops across the region is not synonymous with a return to the old days. While the country has been caught up in unprecedented turbulence, Mr. Biya is in Switzerland battling with cancer that is more dangerous than Anglophones who have robbed him of a good night’s sleep over the last year.

But all hopes are not lost. Mr. Biya’s era is gradually petering out and this is the time for those in leadership positions to start thinking of a new republic; a republic that will be predicated on justice and human rights. Many people have lost their lives in this struggle that will surely continue once the numerous troops in the Anglophone region get withdrawn. The school year has been ruined by the government’s action, but things can be dealt with in a different manner. Brute force will never cause the Anglophone problem to vanish. Anglophones have proven that they can stay the course.

Anglophone lawyers have gone without a salary for one year and the population has suffered a lot of abuse, but their determination to bring about change is still intact. The government has a few more opportunities to spare Cameroon the agony and death that other countries have gone through. The solution to the Anglophone problem is at the negotiating table. The government has to swallow its pride and accept that there is no return to the status quo ante. Cameroon will never be the same again and instead of killing and maiming ordinary citizens, it is time to meet Anglophones halfway so that the new republic’s future can be discussed.

Mr. Biya clearly belongs to the past. If he will be returning home, it will only be to bid farewell to his friends and family. Time and health issues have cut him down to normal human proportions. No matter how hard he tries, he will never reinstate the attractive aura he once had. He has wasted the goodwill Cameroonians had granted him when he came to power in 1982. He has succeeded to transform Cameroon into a vast open air landfill. Cameroon ranks among the most underdeveloped countries on the face of the earth despite its natural and human resources.

Cameroon is bereft of infrastructure. Its hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics. Its roads have consumed more lives than HIV and malaria put together. Cameroonians have lost faith in the government. Years of unemployment have reduced them to sorry spectators of events in their own country. Many have died of preventable illnesses and for many, the shadow of uncertainty is permanently looming large on the horizon. With Boko Haram ruining lives in the North, Central African rebels staging sporadic attacks in the East and Anglophones determined to pick up arms against the Yaounde regime, the government cannot afford to be blind to the importance of dialogue. Dialogue holds a lot of hope. It will prevent bloodshed and it will keep the country together. It will be wrong to miss an historic moment again. This crisis has gone on for one year. One year is too long. Mr. Biya’s men must be courageous enough to kiss him goodbye. His days are over. Like every mortal, he belongs to the ash heap of history. It will be wrong for those around him to spend time trying to save him. It is better to save Cameroon, as each and every Cameroonian will pass away, but Cameroon will be there forever.

The editorial Desk

Cameroon Concord News/ Cameroon Intelligence Report Inc