Police in Cameroon fired tear gas on Saturday morning as they clashed with residents fighting eviction from a neighbourhood adjacent to Newton Airport in the country’s economic capital Douala.

An official said inhabitants of the informal settlement, known locally as Fret Aeroport, were illegally occupying government land and that they would not be compensated.

Some residents, many of whom have lived next to the airport for decades despite repeated attempts by the authorities to move them, said they were given less than two days to move out.

“This is airport land, the airport has its land title here, and these populations have settled anarchically,” said Hector Eto Fame, a local government representative.

“People who illegally occupy the private domain of the state do not deserve, according to the law, compensation.”

Riot police fought pitched battles with people throwing stones as they went from house to house, creeping through streets choked with furniture, mattresses and tear gas. A barricade of burning tables was seen blocking one road.

Elsewhere, women and children cried as they watched a large excavator tear down buildings amid a wasteland of concrete and crumpled metal roofing.

It’s the second time people have been evicted from the neighbourhood this year. In January almost 200 families were forced out of their homes, according to local rights groups.

The government has said previously more than 100,000 people were living within the airport perimeter, and it was necessary to move them to prevent people crossing the runway and to protect aircraft.

“We were given the formal notice less than a day before the destruction. I’m overwhelmed,” said Daïkolé Mama, a resident.

“We were not told anything about the motivation for the destruction. I have been living in this neighbourhood for 30 years.”

Source: wsau.com

At least 10 soldiers were killed and a police station was raided yesterday in different locations in southwest Cameroon, this comes at a time when the Cameroonian army has just completed the operation called ‘Bui Clean’.

The mission which begun on May 15, aimed at neutralizing the operations of separatists in the area.

The operation was led by the 5th Joint Military Region, consisting nearly 300 soldiers.

“I told them that the mission must continue with discipline, with respect for the principles of commitment and conduct, and with respect for human rights, because the population remains and will remain our center of gravity.” said Gen Nka Valère, 5th Military Region Commander.

Some residents are also accused of conspiring with the rebels. According to the army’s claims, residents, elites, chiefs, and church leaders have embraced the separatist ideology in all areas, making it difficult for them to fight.

However, there are different views on the conduct of these military operations among the people, who believe that the approach of the military has its limits and should be the last option. The military raids have forced the inhabitants to flee to the mountains to find refuge.

“Military operations in our towns and villages will not bring peace in my opinion, because the people are suffering now. And most of the time when people see the military, they think that their son is dead, their father is dead, their daughter is dead because of the military, and they are very afraid. So I don’t think the military option is the best one.” said a resident of Bamenda.

According to the inhabitants, there is a need for another means of resolution other than the use of weapons. In the large cities of the northwest, for example, kidnappings, abuses, extortion and assassinations are the norm. According to analysts, these are the consequences of military raids.

The operation, which is the third of its kind, lasted a whole month. Four soldiers were killed and several injured.

Source: Africa News

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called on the Cameroonian government to lift the ban on providing free, essential medical care in the restive Anglophone North-West region of the country after they were blocked more than six months ago. The government had accused MSF of being too close to separatists in the area.

“That is clearly ungrounded,” says Emmanuel Lampaert, MSF Operations Coordinator for Central Africa, talking about the government’s justification for pulling MSF’s authorization to work in the region.

“Whatever there may be in terms of perceptions or accusations or grievances, what rationale can justify this ongoing suspension and this blow for vital support? Access to care should not be denied,” he tells RFI.

The numbers of people treated in 2020 underlines the importance of their free services to the North-West Region: MSF teams provided more than 42,500 medical consultations, performed nearly 3,300 surgeries, and dealt with at least 4,400 patients who had been referred to MSF’s free, 24/7 ambulance service.

“Our ambulance call center continues to receive emergency requests, which they are forced to decline,” he says.

MSF is one of the few medical NGOs in the region, a conflict zone since late 2017. Described as the “Anglophone crisis”, fighting kicked off after peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in Bamenda, the capital of North-West Cameroon. Demonstrations were violently quashed by Cameroonian security forces.

Protests sparked over anger about the perceived marginalization by the Francophone ruling majority, especially over the use of French in the legal and education systems.

The violent quelling of demonstrations propelled some Anglophone separatists to take up arms against the security forces, later making a self-declaration of independence for so-called Ambazonia. Fighting continues between separatists and government security forces, with civilians caught in the crossfire and accusations of human rights abuses committed by both sides.

Healthcare and medical training impacted

In a conflict zone like North-West Cameroon, the lack of basic health services, such as treatment for diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, and malaria, has contributed to a major health crisis.

Additionally, MSF treated 180 survivors of sexual violence last year, and helped more than 1,000 women with obstetrical emergencies. Many residents are living in the bush, because they fear for their lives, forced to flee their homes. Unsanitary conditions in the bush have also exacerbated health issues.

Part of MSF’s remit in the region is the training and equipping of community health workers, which has also been halted by the government, says Lampaert.

Health workers, both local and foreign, have been subject to attacks, as both the government and separatists accuse people who are trying to provide healthcare of taking sides in the conflict.

“Where is the interest? What justifies all of this?” says Lampaert, exasperated, adding that people in the region describe ongoing harassment.

“It’s continuing, and at moments, it’s increasing with high insecurity, regular attacks and intimidation against medical staff… and meanwhile the humanitarian and health needs have surged during the past years due to this armed violence, so there is a difficult equation there,” he adds.

Lampaert says MSF has made an effort to respond to all accusations of bias and has presented this to the government in Cameroon.

“But in the end, there’s been no clear signal, and access is still denied. At six months, suspension [of MSF’s activities] is ongoing and we ask for it to be lifted,” he says.

Source: RFI

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have attacked a gendarmerie station in Kumba the chief city in Meme Division. According to witnesses, Amba gunmen surrounded the station threw homemade bombs into the station and fired guns into the building.

No Southern Cameroons group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed the pattern of others carried out by Ambazonian fighters, including the use of improvised explosives in Bui and Ndian.

Cameroon Concord News Meme Bureau Chief who contributed to this report said blood could be seen on the floor of the captain’s office. The Ambazonia Restoration Forces were heard chanting anti French Cameroun songs and saying that they would kill any gendarmerie or police officer in Meme.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory from 1843 to 1887. When Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

Cameroon’s weak central government has been unable to stop Ambazonia increasingly bloody attacks.

By Fon Lawrence in Kumba