Headline News

10, February 2017

Ghost town in Mamfe: Angry youths burn down mayor’s car ³

Some angry Southern Cameroon youths in Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu Division have reportedly burnt down a vehicle belonging to the mayor, John Ayuk Takunchong. The youth were protesting against the mayor’s hostile stance towards the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Sources in Manyu say the mayor drove out early this morning with a gang of pro CPDM militants to prepare the grand stand for the outlawed 11 February celebrations when the population decided that they had gotten enough of his provocative actions.

We gathered that Ayuk Takuchong had long been cautioned and told to listen only to the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The mayor who himself had been a victim of Francophone marginalization following three attempts at joining the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun but was rejected on grounds that he lacked a mastery of the French language remains an ally of one popular Manyu traditional ruler, Chief Tabetando of Bachuo Ntai on whose command he is sabotaging the people’s revolution.

The angry youth are threatening to set his house and office ablaze after torching his car. The Manyu administration has however not conformed the news.

By Ebai Kenneth

10, February 2017

Trial of Consortium leaders to be met with massive ghost town in Southern Cameroons ¹

Various Southern Cameroons grassroots groups and prominent Anglophone activists are preparing for a massive ghost town operation on the 13^th of February 2017 to signal West Cameroonians disapproval of the arrest and trial of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The trial of Barrister Agbor Nkongho Felix and Dr Fontem Neba will be met with a massive civil disobedience campaign, Cameroon Concord News has learnt.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime may have won a battle by arresting and torturing hundreds of Southern Cameroonians, but if the throngs of demonstrators across the Anglophone regions who oppose any dealing with La Republique du Cameroun have their way, Cameroon will be partitioned. Southern Cameroons has been fraught with disruption and massive civil unrest with the regime in Yaounde maintaining a kind of deliberate silence.

Working under the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, many grass root groups are already planning on a series of decentralized direct actions that will shut down the entire La Republique system in West Cameroon and paralyze Yaoundé itself. According to their call-to-action, ghost town operations will be observed today and tomorrow the 11^th of February 2017. The interim leaders of the Consortium have announced that the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will no longer tolerate betrayals from any Southern Cameroon citizen.

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, Ni John Fru Ndi recently observed that the Biya administration handling of the Anglophone crisis has been a disaster. Day-by-day, the resistance is growing from strength to strength and Southern Cameroonians are taking to the streets and protesting. In areas such as Ndop, Kembong in Eyumojock Sub Division and Ekodo Titi, Southern Cameroonians have blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and made more noise and good trouble than the Biya Francophone establishment can bear. Slowly but surely, the Anglophone uprising is delegitimizing President Biya and all his administrative authorities.

An operations manager of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium noted to our Muyuka informant that “We don’t ask permission from any Francophone SDO or DO or put our faith in the CPDM political elites from the South West or North West, instead, we use our bodies to stop the smooth operation of the system we oppose.” Another coordinator of the Consortium in Kumbo was quoted as saying “If there is going to be a positive change in the Southern Cameroons society, we have to make it ourselves, together, through direct action.”

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

10, February 2017

Consortium makes public conditions for dialogue with Archbishop Samuel Kleda ⁴

The President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya addresses the youths today. The Consortium has received a tip-off that he may acknowledge mistakes in the handling of our struggle. We are told the acknowledgement would not be sincere, but meant to fool us once more; a thing we should have become used to by now.

Secondly, we have read from the French Language Daily- “Le Messager” that the President has designated the Archbishop of Douala, His Grace Samuel Kleda as mediator in this struggle. We respect the man of God, who has demonstrated always that he is honest and has a personable character. But we must point out that in as much as we are ready for dialogue at any time, we abhor diversion.

Let it be known that all those leaders the people of Southern Cameroons put their trust in to negotiate on their behalf are either in jail or on the run. They must be found and brought to pilot any negotiations that shall engage the responsibility of the people; no government appointee shall speak for us, the people of the two regions have very resoundingly rejected those regime stooges.

Furthermore, the Consortium re-iterates that any discussions with government that shall not be based on one agenda only; the practical modalities for the putting in place of a two-state federation, and in the presence of representatives of the United Nations, and the UK shall be a waste of time.

While we maintain our struggle as a non violent movement for the liberation of our people, we want to strongly condemn the continuous provocation by forces of law and order against peaceful and unarmed citizens. We particularly deplore the actions of gendarmes who raped students in a boarding school in Kumba last Wednesday night; reason we keep asking parents to keep their children at home.

The excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, kidnappings and torture on our people is pushing many to begin wondering whether federalism is even an option anymore!

God is with us!

On behalf of the Consortium,

Tassang Wilfred, Tapang Ivo, Mark Bara

10, February 2017

Biya’s French acolyte to face trial over fraud ⁰

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been summoned to stand trial over allegations of illegally financing his doomed 2012 re-election campaign. The prosecution case against Sarkozy claims that the former president extensively exceeded a spending limit of $24 million by using false billing from a public relations company named Bygmalion, an informed source told AFP on Tuesday.

On February 3, Serge Tournaire, one of two judges in charge of the case, referred the case to the court after Sarkozy’s legal efforts to refute the allegations failed in December, the source said. Instead of billing Sarkozy himself, Bygmalion is said to have charged $19.7 to the former president’s right wing Republican Party – called UMP at the time. The trial will focus on whether Sarkozy himself was aware of the fraud, as Bygmalion’s executives have already acknowledged the existence of fraud and false accounting.

During a questioning session by the police in September 2015, Sarkozy passed the entire blame on Bygmalion and the UMP and slammed the allegations against himself as a “farce.” He claims that he did not remember ever being warned about the accounting. Apart from the Bygmalion case, Sarkozy has been fighting several other legal challenges since losing the 2012 polls to President Francois Hollande.

After a period of retirement, Sarkozy returned to politics to take the helm of the Republicans and sought the nomination to run for president in the upcoming elections in April and May 2017. However, he lost the nomination to his rivals in the Republican Party, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe and ultimate winner Francois Fillon, in November.

Presstv

10, February 2017

Bank of Central African States: New management takes command ⁰

A new management team has taken over the administration of the Bank of Central African States, BEAC. Abbas Mahamat Tolli from Chad and Dieudonné Evou Mekou from Cameroon who were appointed at the 27th Special Session of Heads State of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) in Malabo late last year assumed duty in Yaoundé on Monday.

Other officials of the Mahamat Tolli-led management include the secretary general Désiré Guedon from Gabon, the Director General of Operations Cedric Ondaye Ebauh from the Republic of Congo and the Director General of general control Bienvenu Marius Roosevelt Feimonanzoui from the Central African Republic.

Meanwhile, the former governor of the bank, Lucas Abaga Nchama from Equatorial Guinea who managed the financial institution since February 2010 left Cameroon on Tuesday. During a farewell ceremony at the Star Building, the Prime Minister and head of government, Philemon Yang knighted the former governor with the medal of Commander of the Cameroon National Order of Valour on behalf of President Paul Biya.

“Beyond managing the central bank, I learnt a lot in Cameroon” Lucas Abaga Nchama told the press shortly before leaving Yaoundé. “Cameroon is a country that ensures leadership in economics and other domains in the sub region.”

BEAC serves as the central bank of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. “The bank is doing well considering the current economic trend. If appropriate measures were not taken, it would have had an impact on the stability of the currency,” Lucas Abaga Nchama said.

Cameroun Info.Net

10, February 2017

Hon. Joseph Wirba endorses the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium ⁰

I want to thank you all for the kind words, encouragement and prayers. I might not be able to respond to all your messages because of the present circumstance, but I am well and we are together. We will use this platform to give an unmatched impetus to the people’s Consortium.

This is a historic moment in West Cameroon. Despite the unlawful arrest of our people, extra-judicially killings, rape, torture, intimidation, harassment, internet blackout, bribery, divide and rule tactics (not exclusively), we are taking our destiny into our hands.

The colonial government of La Republique is desperate and slowly running out of options. The time is now for us to stand up more than ever before to this reign of terror over our people! With or without telephone networks Ghost towns continue on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th. Do not believe any news from the colonial propaganda machinery CRTV.

West Cameroon will be on trial on the 13^th of February!! To honour Barrister AGBOR BALLA & ALL OUR BROTHERS ON TRIAL, GHOST TOWN will be stage on MONDAY the 13^th Starting 4am! They stood for us!! LETS STAND FOR THEM UNTIL THEY’RE SET FREE!

9, February 2017

Fru Ndi urges Biya to get involved in the management of the Anglophone crisis ⁰

The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, NI John FRU NDI has urged the 83 year-old Paul Biya to intervene in the ongoing crisis rocking the two English Speaking regions of Cameroon.

Fru Ndi who was invited at the Unity Palace Wednesday February 8, 2017 in the reception ceremony for the Lions after their brilliant performance at the just ended African Cup of Nation, said it was time for the president to act fast and wisely by resolving the problem once and for all.

Asked what he discussed with Paul Biya during the handshake, John Fru NDI said, “I told Mr Biya, please can you step in and take a position yourself on what is happening.”

According to the Chairman, there are cases of gross human rights violation in the two regions with arbitrary arrest and torture, “The Lions age mates are being shot in the North West and North West. Teachers are being caught and locked up. They are arresting people and extorting money out of them. Ninjas have come with Camouflage and they are going around arresting people and intimidating them.”

The firebrand Chairman also met with some Government Ministers at the Unity Palace and without mincing words said, “I talked to Issa Tchiroma Bakary over there and told him that he should not talk about things he does not know, he cannot stand to say that there is no Anglophone problem and he cannot be saying anyone who talks about Federation will be arrested and locked up.”

Cameroun Info.Net

9, February 2017

UK: House of Commons gives green light to Brexit ⁰

British MPs pass a bill that allows Prime Minister Theresa May to start negotiations on Brexit. Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 494 by 122 Wednesday for a law that enables May to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start formal negotiations on leaving the European Union.The article would initiate two years of talks between London and the 28-nation bloc.

May attempted to get the article 50 bill through the House of Commons without any change, hoping for initiation of negotiations before the end of March, while MPs made efforts to have more say in the process but to no avail. “This, elementally, is a straightforward bill which serves only to give the prime minister the power to trigger Article 50 and thereby respect the result of the referendum,” said Brexit Secretary David Jones.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the shadow business secretary, Clive Lewis, resigned from his post, arguing that he will not “vote for something I believe will ultimately harm the city I have the honor to represent, love and call home.”

“I will continue to support our party and our leader from the back benches to the very best of my ability,” he said. Last year, nearly 52 percent of Britons voted to end their country’s decades-long membership in the 28-nation bloc. Ahead of the June referendum, two third of the MPs had campaigned for staying in the EU. The bill should now move to the House of Lords, where the prime minister’s Conservative party does not enjoy a majority.

Presstv

9, February 2017

Fru Ndi’s praise of goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa is really a slam at Biya ⁰

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Front has said that the victory of the indomitable Lions should not be politicized. Fru Ndi made the declaration inside the Unity Palace during the presentation ceremony of the 2017 African Cup of Nations trophy to the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

The SDF Chairman dwelled on the Anglophone problem rather than the ceremony and showered praises on goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Anglophone community. “I came to tell Mr Biya that he should step and say something about the North West and South West. I had to come here to congratulate Ondoa who understood the problem. He said he is Bamenda. Football should not be politicized. In the North West and South West, anybody talking about federalism is locked up, arrested … they continue to arrest, kill “.

It should be recalled that a few hours after the Cameroon – Egypt encounter, Fabrice Ondoa made a video in which he dedicated the trophy to Anglophone Cameroonians. He said he was wholeheartedly with them and pronounced the famous phrase “I am Bamenda”.

By Rita Akana

9, February 2017

Buea Catholic Education Secretary, the Bishops and the strike: Love the sinner, hate the sin approach ²

If “actions speak louder than words,” as the saying goes, the message from the Anglophone Roman Catholic Bishops on reopening of schools is increasingly confusing. On the one hand, the Bishops had reiterated the Church’s stance on the Anglophone problem and even repeatedly condemned the rapes, killings and arbitrary arrest going on in Southern Cameroons. However both in their recent deeds – most notably the press release from the Catholic Education Secretary in Buea, have left an impression in many minds that the Roman Catholic Church in Anglophone Cameroon is badly in need of new leadership.

It is not only the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and their majority following who have observed these mixed signals but the entire nation including even Francophone political elites. The statement from the Catholic Education Secretary in the Dioceses of Buea has also raised the issue of legitimate authority.

Roman Catholic schools and colleges belong to the Bishops and only the Bishops have legitimate authority to open or close those institutions. For an Education Secretary to have come out strong during this difficult period in Southern Cameroons history is very disturbing. Many Roman Catholics can’t help but suspect that the recent shift in position has been orchestrated from the presidency of the republic via its brutal Secret Service. It will be hard for West Cameroonians to uphold Catholic traditions if the Bishops fail to come out clean.

This editorial is presented with love and respect for the Bishops in answer to their call for open dialogue to resolve the Anglophone problem. President Biya has chosen to remain silent at key intervals, most especially in the aftermath of the historic memorandum sent to him by the Anglophone Bishops. This significant shift in the earlier position regarding the Anglophone problem is completely unacceptable to both the detained and interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Although the Consortium has not asked for comment from the Episcopal Conclave, we of this publication think that it would be proper for the Bishops to clarify their current decision. But if it is true that the Anglophone Bishops have ordered Roman Catholic academic establishments in Southern Cameroons to reopen their doors, then it is indeed a defeat for humanity.

The Anglophone Roman Catholic Bishops may as well be following the Holy Father Pope Francis “who am I to judge” comment leaving Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to ride over Southern Cameroonians. Equally concerning is the fact that the Bishops of Cameroon Conference that recently held in Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu Division failed to condemn the rapes, extra judicial killings and arbitrary arrest going on in Southern Cameroons. This is the “love the sinner, hate the sin” approach.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai