A Southern Cameroon Roman Catholic priest serving with the Mamfe Diocese at Nguti was found dead today Wednesday in his room. Father Augustine Ndi was onetime Parish priest at the Saint Joseph Parish in Mamfe in the late 80s and early 1990s.  He also had a spell in Akwaya and reportedly fell out of favour with Bishop Emeritus Francis Lysinge. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that police were treating his death as suspicious.

We also gathered that the late Augustine Ndi had openly backed the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and in many of his homilies advocated for the restoration of Southern Cameroon independence. Medics say his body showed no sign of fatigue or illness. The cataclysm continues within the Catholic Church.

We still do not know how and who killed Father Abbé DJAMA who was also found dead in his room like Augustine NDI and Bishop Jean Marie BALLA whose body was discovered in the waters of river Sanaga. The Holy Roman Catholic Church including CPDM government officials are maintaining a kind of deliberate silence. According to leaks of the results of the autopsy, the genital organs of Bishop BALLA were mutilated. His left arm was broken. No drop of water was found in his lungs. Signs of torture were visible on his body. His sandals were worn upside down leading to the conclusion that it was not a natural death, nor was it a suicide by drowning.

At the height of ambivalent skepticism, a Rear Admiral of the Cameroonian Navy said that his team had recovered the body of the Bishop, while a Malian fisherman announced that it was he who discovered the body floating above the water and tied it to the foot of a tree before alerting the rescue teams. The Vatican has removed hits ambassador Monsignor Pioro PIOPPO from Yaoundé to a new post in Indonesia.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

A hotel in Bamenda, North West region has been ravaged by fire.  There was consternation and panic at the Top Star hotel premises as workers ran from one end to another struggling to put off the fire. Police preliminary findings say the incident occurred as a result of a gas leakage from the bakery department.

Chunks of smoke accompanied by wild fire were seen all over the building. The forces of law and order who arrived the scene managed to prevent the local population from looting.

Some reports have suggested that the incident was the handiwork of the Southern Cameroons Defense Force. The hotel management reportedly subbed the ghost town operations going on in Southern Cameroon.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Cameroon has arrested nearly 30 soldiers fighting the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram in the wake of their protest against their conditions that also demanded the payment of bonuses. The soldiers on Sunday “set about stopping traffic with barricades on national route number one,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement broadcast on state radio on Monday.

The men were demanding that they be immediately relieved from duty, as well as “the payment of bonuses for ‘international soldiers’ in line with those granted to their comrades from UN peace keeping missions,” the statement said. The soldiers were transferred from the Zigue area in the far north to capital Yaounde where they were placed under arrest and a judicial investigation was opened, the ministry said.

Traffic along the northern route was restored. Cameroonian soldiers engaged in the fight against Boko Haram often complain about their conditions, but this is the first time a group have demonstrated for leave or greater pay.

Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, the Daesh-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting the formation of a 10,000-strong regional force to fight back. Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the far north region near Nigeria have left their villages in fear of the violence.

(Source: AFP)

The members of the fishing community who were called to help in the search for the remains of the late Bishop of Bafia, His Lordship Jean Marie Beniot Balla say they have been forgotten by the CPDM regime. To be sure, the body of the late prelate was found dead on May the 2^nd, an autopsy conducted and the corps handed over to the Roman Catholic Church and family.

To find the missing prelate on May 31, 2017, fourteen local divers were recruited by the CPDM leadership in Ebebda. Once the body was discovered, the divers in a typical CPDM pattern were abandoned by the administrative authorities, who had promised them some form of compensation.

For three days, the divers left their families to try to find the bishop and today no one is looking at them. The so-called Anglophone governor of the Central region and the political elites of Bafia have all left and the divers do not know who to confront.

For 72 hours, these men actively participated in the search for the late Man of God but promises made to them have not been kept. The mayor of Ebebda,  Syrinus Awono, had assured the divers  from the beginning of this story that President Biya had put everything at his disposal so that the search operation was well conducted. Unfortunately, at the end of the operation, the mayor only gave the divers a fufu and eru meal worth 500 FCFA and a bottle of beer.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

The lead counsel for the detained leaders of the Cameron Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Ben Muna has said that the much talk about independence of Southern Cameroon is not realistic and cannot be achieved even after 100 years.

Barrister Bernard Muna in an exclusive interview with The Guardian Post Newspaper said independence can only be obtained if the people of former Southern Cameroon wage war against La Republique but he quickly says that cannot happen because they lack weapons, army and resources.

According to Barrister Bernard Muna, only Federalism can be achieved and can only be gotten if the testis of the Biya regime is held firmly. He also said there could be a court decision Wednesday June 7, 2017 which will see leaders of the Consortium released bu the said, “ I urge the court not to follow the logic of military prosecutor who seems to be saying that bail might be granted only to Agbor Balla and Dr Fontem. All 28 accused persons should be treated equally especially as they are being tried jointly.”

But Barrister Ben Muna said anybody who does not want the two leaders to accept conditional bail until all others are released is just using them as fodder to achieve their own ambitions.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Two years after the revolt staged by a regiment of the Cameroonian army who served with the UN in the Central African Republic over unpaid bonuses, Cameroon Concord News has gathered that a regiment of the Rapid Intervention Battalion combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the Far North region started a massive anti government demonstration on Saturday 03 June 2017.

Our source in Maroua hinted that the soldiers blocked the Kousséri-Maroua road and were heard complaining about their conditions and firing shots in the air. Many people had to escape the scene. We have not been able to confirm the number of soldiers who participated in the revolt. However what we do know is that the troops barricaded the road for a little while but were brought back to the barracks by the high command.

The situation is reportedly calm and a statement is expected soon from Colonel Didier Badjeck, the Head of the Communication Division of the Ministry of Defense.  The incident prompted Joseph Beti Assomo, the Minister of Defense who was out of the country to return on Sunday, June 04, 2017.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News