Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure those who assaulted him are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On Wednesday evening, Chouta was watching the UEFA Champions League soccer game between Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain with friends in a snack bar in the Damas district of the capital Yaoundé when three unidentified men in a green pick-up truck abducted the journalist, drove him to the outskirts of the city, and viciously kicked and beat him with stones, bricks, a baton and a whip, according to a statement by his employer reviewed by CPJ, media reports, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

In the statement, Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus was unable to say what report may have prompted the latest attack; he told CPJ via messaging app that this was not the first time that Chouta was attacked for his journalism and that the reporter, and his family should be placed under police protection while the assault was investigated. Vitus described the assault as “an attack on freedom of the press and on democracy,” adding that Chouta was a “courageous journalist and whistleblower.”

“Cameroonian police must thoroughly investigate the latest attack on Paul Chouta, a journalist and outspoken critic of the government, and bring swift justice to those responsible,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Failure to act will reinforce perceptions that impunity for crimes against journalists is the order of the day in Cameroon and that journalists like Paul Chouta are simply not safe in their own country.”

Chouta went outside during half-time and was accosted by men wearing civilian clothes, who carried him across the road and threw him in the vehicle, the journalist told CPJ. Chouta shouted for help, but his attackers pushed him into the pick-up truck and used his shirt to blindfold him, he said. Chouta said he believed he had been tailed and that a few miles down the road the men stopped the car and picked up a fourth man.

The men drove Chouta to the outskirts of the city, near the airport, where he was told to kneel and was severely beaten and kicked for about four minutes before he fell unconscious, he told CPJ. “They told me that I’m stubborn and that I never learn a lesson,” Chouta said. “They said this time they will kill me, as I wanted to show that I was a hero.”

Chouta said he was left for dead. When he regained consciousness, he said he had been stripped naked; his wallet, identity, and bank cards had been taken; and he was unable to see out of his left eye, had a swollen face and ear, and was in great pain. 

The journalist walked naked and barefoot for about two miles (three kilometers) before he was helped by strangers. He was able to remember his girlfriend’s telephone number and they called her to take him to the hospital, Chouta said.

Chouta spent Thursday night in the hospital and is expected to be discharged today to seek treatment at another medical facility, according to the reporter and his editor.

Chouta told CPJ that he had been interviewed at the hospital by police this morning and was told that a knife had been found where he was attacked. Video footage from the snack bar’s closed-circuit camera was also taken by police, he said.

Police spokeswoman Joyce Ndem replied to CPJ’s request for comment by saying it should send a representative to talk to her in her office in Yaounde. She did not reply to a subsequent text via messaging app.

In February 2019, Chouta was attacked outside his home following political coverage, as CPJ documented at the time. Four months later, he was arrested on charges believed to be politically motivated. He was jailed for nearly two years until a court in May 2021 found him guilty and sentenced him to 23 months, which he had already served, and released him.

Culled from Committee to Protect Journalists

The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that 40,791 Cameroonians are taking refuge in the state following the crisis in southwest Cameroon.

SEMA Director-General, Princewill Ayim, said on Tuesday in Calabar that the UN High Commission released the latest figure for Refugees (UNHCR) in January.

“The latest figure released by the UNHCR in January 2022 shows that Cross River is now accommodating 40,791 Cameroonian refugees,” Mr Ayim said.

Mr Ayim said that due to the closeness of some communities to the borders, the state had to accommodate the “persons of concern’’ and abide by the 1951 Refugee Convention, which Nigeria is a signatory.

He said the refugees were scattered across nine local government areas of the state – Calabar Municipality, Calabar South, Bakassi, Akamkpa, Etung, Ikom, Boki, Ogoja and Obanliku.

“Already, we have over 104,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) spread across Abi, Biase, Bakassi, Odukpani, Obanliku and Ogoja Local Government Areas due to the communal crisis, flood and border issues,” he said.

He added that the refugees were predominantly from southwest Cameroon and were displaced due to the crisis between the Ambazonia separatists and the country’s military.

He recalled that in February, an inter-ministerial team visited all the host communities and refugee settlements across the state.

Mr Ayim stated that the visit also allowed the team to see how they could implement the comprehensive refugees’ response framework in the state.

“Our schools and health facilities are overstretched due to the increasing number of refugees,’’ added the official.

Source: NAN

The cholera outbreak in the South-West region continues to spread. Five health districts are affected with 967 cumulative confirmed cases and 23 deaths as of 31 January

Two attacks on education were reported in the NorthWest, and eight teachers were abducted

More than 3,200 schools remain non-functional in the North-West and South-West because of the ongoing crisis

One attack on healthcare in the North-West resulted in the death of a patient

Situation Overview

The situation in the North-West and South-West regions (NWSW) remains tense with continued violence and targeted attacks. The civilian population, as well as health and education providers, continue to face high risks when accessing facilities or when delivering health care and education services. They are continuously facing threats, direct attacks and armed incursions.

Attacks against school staff and educational premises continued. On 19 January, NSAG fighters intruded into the premises of the Government high school of Weh in Menchum division in the NW and abducted five teachers. The incident caused the closure of other schools in Weh. On 26 January, NSAG fighters abducted three teachers at a Government technical college in Keyon, Oku subdivision in the NW.

Some of the violence against civilians in the Fako division happened during the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament that took place between 9 January and 6 February with some teams based in Buea and playing in Limbe in the South-West.

Non-State armed groups (NSAGs) made public statements vowing to disrupt the competition. The most serious incidents took place in the Bwitingi village and the Molyko neighborhood in Buea, both on 12 January. At least two civilians were killed.

The population continued to bear the brunt of violent incidents either targeted directly or being affected by the consequences of IEDs or crossfire. In January, over 3,269 people were forced to flee their homes to seek shelter and safety in nearby bushes, villages and towns. The most affected divisions include Manyu and Meme in the SW, and Donga-Mantung in the NW. These movements are often temporary and displaced persons usually return to their homes once the security situation allows, especially for those who flee to bushes and nearby villages. Also, partners recorded over 750 returnees from Nigeria to Manyu and Bui divisions. According to the returnees, poor living conditions in their host communities led them to return.

The cholera outbreak, first announced in the Ekondo-Titi health district in October 2021, has continued to spread to five health districts. Over 967 cases with 23 deaths have been reported. The response to the outbreak has been limited due to insecurity and limited and often defective road infrastructure. Areas affected by the cholera outbreak in the Ndian division can only be reached by boat.

Humanitarian actors continued to operate under numerous constraints. Demands for illegal payments by both State and nonState actors, repeated lockdowns announced by NSAGs, diversion of humanitarian aid, and the sustained use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by NSAGs in public spaces and main roads frequently used by humanitarians in both urban and rural areas, made delivery of humanitarian assistance and programming very challenging. Insecurity and bureaucratic impediments continue to be major access constraints for humanitarian organizations in the NWSW. On 8 January, a truck with food assistance on board for beneficiaries in Wum, Menchum division was diverted by an NSAG in Bamenda, NW. Also in Bamenda, on 12 January, a NSAG stole a pickup vehicle of an NGO and abducted its staff member. The abducted NGO staff was released the following day and the car was abandoned in Bamenda two days later. Two staff members of a medical NGO remain in custody and under investigation in relation to an incident at a gendarmerie checkpoint in Nguti, SW, in December. Two other staff members were detained in January and potential charges have not yet been specified.

Culled from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Three United States (U.S.) members of Congress – Ilhan Omar, Karen Bass and Sara Jacobs – have raised an alarm over alleged ongoing campaign of state-sponsored violence and rights violation by Cameroonian security forces in the country’s Anglophone region.

In an oversight letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the three lawmakers were particularly concerned about whether U.S. security assistance to Cameroonian security agencies might have been used to commit “serious human rights abuses” in the East African country.

In the letter made available to The Nation by diplomatic sources, the lawmakers expressed concerns over U.S. support for the Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) – some elements of which have been accused by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, as having been directly implicated in atrocities in the Anglophone region.

The American lawmakers’ alarm is coming few hours after Community Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also expressed concern over reported genocide in Southern Cameroon by President Paul Biya’s security forces.

Reacting to a document titled, “Genocide Alert in Ambazonia, Southern Cameroon”, from a group, “United Support for Peace”, Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Mohamed Tunis, said the letter made him deeply concerned about conflicts and the human rights situation in Cameroon’s minority Anglophone region.

But, the American lawmakers’ oversight letter reads: “As you are aware, the State Department has reprogrammed some security assistance since 2019, but our understanding is that other assistance – including to the BIR – continues.

“We also have serious questions about the efficacy of existing laws in preventing U.S. security assistance from reaching human rights violators. In 2020, the State Department Inspector General found that nearly 80% of Leahy vetting requests submitted by Embassy Yaoundé between late 2018 and late 2019 ‘were submitted to Washington too late to allow for sufficient processing time’ and that ‘as a result, Washington had an average of four days to process the requests, instead of the 10 working days stipulated in the Department’s 2017 Leahy Vetting Guide’.”

The lawmakers stated that they shared the President Joe Biden’s administration’s desire to put human rights at the centre of the country’s foreign policy. The lawmakers noted that they also recognised the need for a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to combating transnational terrorist threats that includes a security component.

“Our concern in Cameroon and elsewhere is with the potential diversion of U.S. security assistance and, more broadly, that support for security forces that commit human rights violations — apart from being incompatible with American values and illegal under U.S. law — is counterproductive to the very aims of counterterrorism,” the oversight letter stated.

The lawmakers quoted a United Nations Development Programme, which found in a 2017 report that 71% people who joined extremist groups in Africa, including Boko Haram, were triggered to join by state violence and human rights violations.

Source: The Nation

Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala claims Cameroon is being “stripped” of its natural resources by corrupt officials.

“Our country is being badly beaten, stripped of its wealth, its dignity, its honor, its human and natural resources, and is in agony, because of the bad governance organized by its own sons and daughters,” the cleric said in a March 2 pastoral letter.

“At the source of most of the ills that are plaguing Cameroon today, is bad governance with the normalization, legalization and even institutionalization of corruption in the management of the country,” the archbishop said.

The prelate said “Irresponsible, selfish, corrupt and unpatriotic kleptocrats parading as leaders” have removed the people and the public welfare from the center of their concerns.

Rather he said, the emphasis is “on the individual, the group, the clan, the ethnic group, the lobby, which sacrifices the majority of the population, thus pushing it inexorably towards impoverishment and misery.”

“Bad governance disrupts political life and hinders the social, economic and even religious growth of our country. It destroys the achievements, compromises the legitimate aspirations of the citizens, and jeopardizes the trust between the people and the rulers,” Kleda said.

“Corruption not only leads to the plundering and wasting of public resources, but also paralyzes the functioning of the state, creates injustice and inequality among the population and plunges the whole society into despair in the face of an uncertain and mortgaged, even bleak, future,” the archbishop continued.

Kleda’s comments come in the wake of a stream of reports that funds meant for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic had been stolen.

Church groups, human rights organizations, and opposition political parties have been pressuring the government to publish its findings after reports that most of the $335 million borrowed from the International Monetary Fund to deal with the pandemic was siphoned off by officials and their cronies.

There have also been news reports of corruption and embezzlement during the construction of the Olembe stadium that hosted some of the matches of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament earlier this year.

“Do we have the right to remain silent? Will our citizen and Christian conscience not place us before the court of history for having been accomplices, direct or indirect, passive or active supporters of a plot that has contributed to the destruction of Cameroon and mortgaged the future of millions of people, especially the youth, of this Africa in miniature?” Kleda said. “In the present day of our history, can we stand before the Creator and affirm that we are managing this country so rich with so many resources that He has entrusted to us and that we have inherited from our ancestors?”

The prelate said it was time every Cameroonian rediscovered the fundamental values on which any society that respects itself should be based, namely respect for the dignity of every life, truth, justice, honesty, responsibility, freedom, love, equity, and loyalty.

“Above all, let each one have the courage to renounce the sin that makes him complicit in the drift of our country. Let each one of us contribute to the fight against the ‘structures of sin’, which paralyze and destroy Cameroon, its development, its growth and the well-being of its people,” Kleda said.

He said it was not a utopian idea for Cameroon to be able to build a society rooted in good governance, and insisted the way forward is simply to stand up to bad governance. He said it was indeed possible to “build a strong, prosperous, stable country, a true haven of peace where it is good to live as brothers.”

Cameroonians “must overcome the appetite for possession and illicit enrichment which are at the origin of these evils that undermine our country and operate a change of mentality and a radical and profound conversion,” the archbishop said.

“Let every Cameroonian, wherever he or she is and according to his or her activity, commit himself or herself in an honest and responsible way to the transformation of our country according to the values of the Gospel,” he explained.

The prelate also called for prayer and penance, noting that they are “the weapons that will enable those who lead us to govern our country well, and all of us to strive to eradicate these scourges that, like a fearsome demon, threaten our country dangerously.”

Source: Crux

Cameroon has deployed troops to a village in the west of the country after clashes between two ethnic groups, the Esu and the Mbororo. Authorities say members of the Esu burned scores of homes and buildings after armed Mbororo killed the Esu’s traditional ruler Wednesday for failing to stop Esu youth from joining anglophone separatists.

The Cameroon government says armed men on Wednesday night attacked and killed Kum Achou Albert, the traditional ruler of the Esu. Esu is a village in Menchum, in the English-speaking North West region on the border with Nigeria.

The government said Achou was returning from Wum, capital of the Menchum division, where he had been since March 5.

The government said while in Wum, Achou asked civilians to reconcile for peace and return to the western regions, where separatists have waged a battle against the government since 2017.

Abdullahi Aliou, the highest government official in Menchum, said armed men shot indiscriminately in the air, forcing the traditional ruler’s car to stop, then opened fire on the car’s occupants.

Ndzo Augustine Kum, the president of the Esu Cultural and Development Association, said the traditional ruler, known as the fon, was killed alongside his wife.

“As his royal highness the Fon of Esu was returning to his fondom he was waylaid and some yet to be identified gunmen bullet his car, thereby killing our fon and the wife. Others inside the car were wounded,” said Kum. “Honestly, Esu is in sorrow.”

Kum said Achou’s second wife sustained life threatening injuries from gunshots and was rushed to a hospital in Wum.

Cameroon’s military on Thursday said the armed men are suspected Mbororo youths who accuse the Esu traditional ruler of doing too little to stop his people from joining separatists and attacking the Mbororo.

Penn Elvis, a local humanitarian worker, said after the murders, Esu youths torched dozens of homes, farms and property belonging to Mbororos.

“At night the villagers stormed at the houses of the Mbororo and even the mosque was set ablaze because of the anger that came as a result of the death of their fon,” said Penn. “The security forces, that is the military, had to visit the place very early this morning to carry out investigations to maintain peace and serenity.”

Six people were injured in the attacks. The military said it deployed troops to Esu and surrounding villages but did not say how many troops were deployed.

Civilians say many Mbororo and non-Mbororo youths have been arrested.

The Mbororo ethnic group has always complained that it is the biggest casualty of Cameroons separatist crisis. Group members say separatist fighters have stolen and either slaughtered or sold thousands of cattle belonging to Mbororos. They say hundreds of Mbororos fled their ranches and are living in deplorable conditions in Cameroon’s French-speaking areas.

Mbororos say they are victims of fighter attacks because they have never supported separatists struggling to carve out an independent English-speaking state from French-majority Cameroon.

Jaji Manu Guidado, honorary president of a Mbororo cultural and development association, said Mbororos are disgruntled but added investigations should be carried out to ascertain if the traditional ruler of Esu and his wife were killed by Mbororo youths.

Source: VOA