Headline News

26, May 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: A priest gets kidnapped ⁰

A priest of the diocese of Mamfe in the Southwest region of Cameroon has been kidnapped as the fighting in Southern Cameroons rages on and enters a critical phase.

Father Christopher Eboka was taken away by unknown gunmen on Friday, May 21, 2021 who have requested a huge ransom from the diocese. The kidnapping of members of the clergy is unfortunate and this underscores the need for all the factions involved in the conflict to seek ways of reaching a peaceful resolution.

The Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Mbonge has spoken with Father Christopher’s mother who is very devastated and is urging those responsible for the priest’s kidnapping to release him so that he can continue with the great job he has been doing.

Kidnapping a priest is not only despicable, it is the height of irresponsibility and the Cameroon Concord News Group is joining its voice to that of the mother of father Christopher Eboka to urge the kidnappers to release the man of God.

Those who kidnap men of God are crossing a dangerous red line and this must be condemned by all god-fearing Cameroonians.

The clergy in the two English-speaking regions of the country has been playing a significant role since the Southern Cameroons crisis started in 2016 with the objective of engineering a lasting peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country and to help alleviate the suffering of the population.

Over the last two weeks, the fighting in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of the country had escalated, with army soldiers taking huge casualties.

Southern Cameroonian fighters who started out with dane guns have morphed into manufacturers of effective Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which are sending many army soldiers to an early grave.

While the army soldiers have been brutal and successful in outgunning Southern Cameroonian fighters due to their superior weaponry, the use of IEDs by Southern Cameroonian fighters over the last year has left the government in an unfortunate quandary.

In the country’s northwest region where the fighting is escalating on a daily basis, the IEDs have been going off every day and many uniformed officers have not had the luck to return to their families.

The military has lost many of its fighting equipment and these new strategy developed by the Southern Cameroonian fighters has left many army soldiers with tones of butterflies in their stomachs.

The morale among the soldiers is down and many of them, especially those who have been to the battlefield, understand that this war will never be won on the battlefield, as Southern Cameroonian fighters have become deadlier and more determined to push the military out of Southern Cameroons.

Many of the young soldiers are from poor backgrounds and they need the salary from the military, but their belief in a conclusive military victory is diminishing on a daily basis as news of their wounded and dead colleagues spreads across the country like wildlife.

Many of those army soldiers would jump at any opportunity that would get them out of the military, but Cameroon is a country that is bereft of jobs and opportunities. The young soldiers are now caught between the rock and a hard place.

If they refuse to go to Southern Cameroons where Southern Cameroonian fighters are delivering death to many soldiers for free, they will end up in jail for a long time. If they head to Southern Cameroons, they are sure they will not be coming back to East Cameroon, or if they must return, it will either be in a body bag or with debilitating injuries that will make entirely dependent on their family members.

The situation in Southern Cameroons is dire. The world has to wake up from its sleep. The fighting in that part of the country has escalated and very many young Cameroonians are losing their lives because a government ruled by old and ailing leaders is still seeing negotiations as a weakness.

If the world does not stand up against the brutality playing out in Southern Cameroons now, it will one day regret its decision, as many young lives are being wasted due to the inflated ego of people who have prioritized war over peace.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

25, May 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cameroon army is so broken; its soldiers are refusing to fight ⁰

As Cameroon government army soldiers battled Ambazonia Restoration Forces over the past four years, dozens of soldiers are now refusing to fight and their cases have opened a rare window into the much respected Cameroon military, once one of the strongest in Sub Saharan Africa but now struggling to combat an ill-equip Southern Cameroons Self Defense Force of not even 2000 fighters.

Cameroon Concord News undercover reporter in the South West shared a conversation today with Cameroon government army soldiers who are petrified of their next assignment. Military commanders have told the soldiers that they will be deployed to Lebialem, Manyu, and Ndian constituencies in the South West over the next few days.

Five of the soldiers (names withheld) said they have lost weight from sleepless nights and disproportionate thoughts over the last few days. Three of the men were visibly troubled after being told that they would be assigned to patrol the dangerous landscapes of Akwaya in Manyu over the next four months. One of the soldiers said, “My son is six, and my daughter is two, and there is a good chance I’ll never see them again. I don’t want to go there as two of my colleagues were brutally murdered by ruthless Amba boys in 2019”.

The young soldiers would either go to the warfront or face the military courts for sedition and rebellion. One of them said that many of his colleagues were bribing superiors to evade being posted to the treacherous jungles of the Southern Cameroons. A corporal, who has been assigned to Lebialem Division told Cameroon Concord News that “Tomorrow, I will faint and pretend that I am unwell as I have no money to bribe my way out of this. If I am declared medically unfit, they will not send me to an early grave. Even within the military, we all know that we cannot win this war, but we must fight because our bosses are making money from it.”

The prevailing situation deep within the Cameroon government military as painted for us by a 25-year-old soldier is even more pathetic. He said he has been around Buea to learn how to say some few words in English and pidgin as being a Francophone in Akwaya Sub Division will be a death sentence on his head. He furthered that he now knows how to say good morning, which may help him stay alive.

Since 2016, Southern Cameroons pro-independence fighters have been engaged in a fierce war against the government of Cameroun. The conflict has claimed over 40,000 civilian lives and more than 2000 Cameroon government soldiers.

The regime in Yaoundé, led by 88-year-old octogenarian, Paul Biya has ignored all calls for inclusive dialogue despite wise counseling from the international community and experts to negotiate with the pro-independence movements and forces.

At the time of filing this report, 13 Cameroon government army soldiers were on drip at the Regional hospital in Buea pretending to be very ill but at night they will be in the bars drinking beer. A soldier from the South Region pretended that he had collapsed by putting his tongue outside faking illness when his name was called that he had been deployed to Eyumojock.

Some of the Francophone army soldiers have two national identities-one bearing Manyu names to hide their Francophoneness. Another soldier successfully got himself out of the Manyu and Lebialem deployment by producing a fake death certificate and funeral programme of his mother who our sources hinted passed away nine years ago.

By Asu Vere Eyere with Intelligence Files

25, May 2021

Biafra-Ambazonia Alliance: IPOB leaders say Cho Ayaba, others are impostors ⁰

Barely a month after leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and one of Cameroon’s separatist groups led by Ayaba Cho formed a so-called alliance; internal crisis in both camps is threatening the union.

The Biafran and the Cho Ayaba group are both fractured, and not all factions support the alliance and rising violence.

Spokespeople from the self-proclaimed Interim Government of Ambazonia, the other major Anglophone separatist group, and the Customary Government of IPOB have denounced the alliance and proclaimed that the leaders involved are “impostors.”

The alliance which experts say could ignite more violence and instability in Nigeria, Cameroon and across the West and Central African regions, was formed last month, United States-based Foreign Policy reported.

The move is coming just as violent extremist organisations affiliated with the Islamic State and al Qaeda are establishing a strong foothold in the regions. Cameroon armed separatist groups are fighting to carve out Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions into a breakaway state called Ambazonia, while IPOB is fighting to create Biafra Republic from Nigeria. Grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians date back to 1961, when the region was granted independence from Britain.

Source: Sunnewsonline with additional editing from Camcordnews

25, May 2021

Amba fighters have killed more Cameroon gov’t troops than previously known ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has been reliably informed that the Ministry of Defense is secretly upping the Biya regime estimate on the number of Cameroon government soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons who were killed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

Military officials in Yaoundé recently opined that Amba fighters in all the divisions in Southern Cameroons were linked to the deaths of hundreds of Cameroon government troops.

“That means all Cameroon military combat fatalities in the North West and South West has been attributable to the Ambazonia Interim Government” our source added.

“Ever since the separatists launched what they call Big Rubbergun, our command centers assessed that at least 247 army soldier deaths in the North West alone were from improvised explosive devices,” a senior military officer said in an email to the Minister for Defense.

CIR’s Yaoundé city reporter has gained access to the new report which has to be independently assessed. We understand the new assessment will be given to President Biya but will not be reported to the press.

Most of the deaths occurred during Cameroon government military operations in the rural areas in Southern Cameroons.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Rita Akana in Yaoundé

25, May 2021

Former Formula One racing boss Max Mosley dies at 81 ⁰

Max Mosley, the former head of Formula One’s governing body, has died at the age of 81 after suffering from cancer, his family said on Monday.

“The family of Max Mosley can confirm that he died last night after a long battle with cancer. They ask to be allowed to grieve in private,” a family statement said.

His old friend and ally in the world of motor sport Bernie Ecclestone paid tribute.

“We were like brothers for 50 odd years,” Ecclestone, 90, told Reuters by telephone from Ibiza. “Better he’s gone than suffer the way he was suffering.”

The youngest son of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascist movement in the 1930s, Mosley was a racing driver, team owner and lawyer before becoming president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in 1993.

He won a high-profile privacy case against the News of the World newspaper in 2008 after it said he had taken part in a “sick Nazi orgy”.

He later gave financial backing to the court costs of claimants in newspaper phone hacking cases.

The Oxford-educated Mosley and Ecclestone, who was the son of a trawlerman, forged a close alliance.

Together they formed a double act in running the sport as it grew from amateurish beginnings into a $1 billion business, while also pushing through much-needed safety measures.

“We had differences of opinions but we could talk to each other about them and sort them out, whatever they were,” said Ecclestone.

“He was a very straightforward guy, Max. Did a lot for the sport, did a lot for the general industry to make sure people were complying with the right regulations when they built road cars,” he said.

“If he thought something needed to be done, and someone needed to be punished, Max was the guy to do it.”

Such punishment famously included a $100 million fine for McLaren, who also lost all their constructors’ championship points, in a 2007 spying controversy involving Ferrari data.

Source: REUTERS

25, May 2021

Political turmoil in Mali: UN urges immediate release of detained president, premier ⁰

The West African country of Mali seems to be in the grip of a fresh political unrest, with the country’s military reported to have arrested the president and prime minister. The development has prompted calls from the United Nations for calm as well as the “immediate and unconditional” release of the detained leaders

The move has stirred fears of a new coup.

“We call for calm and demand the immediate and unconditional release of the President and Prime Minister. Those who are holding them will be held accountable,” the United Nations’ mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a tweet on Tuesday.

Interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were taken by soldiers to the Kati military camp on the outskirts of the capital Bamako, AFP cited two senior officials, who declined to be named.

Just before being taken away by the military officers and before his line was cut, Ouane managed to tell AFP in a phone call on Monday that soldiers had “come to get him.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed concern over the detentions and called for calm.

Reports suggest that Defense Minister Souleymane Doucoure is also under arrest.

The detentions have drawn condemnation from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, the UK and the US. They urged for the unconditional release of Mali’s top politicians in a joint statement which was also signed by the UN.

The detentions came just hours after a government reshuffle, which aimed to appease critics of the interim government amid anger at the military’s dominance in the transitional government and the slow pace of promised reforms. The reshuffle saw ex-defense minister Sadio Camara and ex-security minister Colonel Modibo Kone, who took part in last year’s coup, replaced.

The arrests raised fears of a second coup after a putsch in August ousted president Ibrahim Boubakar Keita following weeks of protests against his handling of the Takfiri insurgency and perceived government corruption.

The caretaker government was installed after the 15-nation West Africa bloc ECOWAS threatened sanctions on the country.

Source: Presstv

24, May 2021

Biya is about to fall ⁰

The international community is not watching, Cameroon under the 88-year-old President Biya has edged toward collapse, and the Chairman of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is in his weakest position ever. France and its youthful President Emmanuel Macron now have a narrow chance to prevent a catastrophe in the CEMAC region.

Southern Cameroons Interim Government promised to keep its struggle for an independent state peaceful … but President Biya and his French Cameroun political elites said they wanted bullets, they are now getting them.

The War in Southern Cameroons has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

But it is not only Southern Cameroons that is going through such an apocalypse. The northern part of the country has been the theater of violent confrontations between government troops and Boko Haram fighters who have bombed many civilians into an early grave.

While the government has been active in the North hoping that it could roll back Boko Haram fighters who are believed to come from Nigeria, government forces have succeeded to alienate the Northerners due to massive and bloody killings and abuse of the civilian population which now sympathizes with Boko Haram fighters who are sometimes viewed as liberators.

As remarkable as they are, the war in Southern Cameroons and the Boko Haram security crisis unfolding are merely a symptom of a far greater crisis striking at the heart of the Biya regime and its prospects for survival. Reckless politicking on the part of France in Bangui has brought mighty Russia into the Central African Republic and there is panic all over the CEMAC region. President Ali Bongo of Gabon recently staggered to 10 Downing Street to raise a finger against the Russians while Sassou Nguesso attempted to placate the Congolese people by saying that his current term will be his last. Biya is now walking on broken bottles!

Biya may have crushed the SDF and MRC opposition parties over the years but every single root cause of the Anglophone uprising is not just still in place, but has worsened. Added to this difficult situation is the emergence of multiple armed groups in the Far North bordering the Republic Chad-the odd man in the CEMAC region.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that the challenges to Biya regime’s prosperity, credibility or survival remain in place in every corner of Cameroon including the East region where rebels fighting the government in the Central Africa Republic have made it their base. For the first time in nearly 40 years, French speaking Cameroonians from the Centre-South regions which is the home constituency of Biya and his ruling elites who outwardly support Biya or who have remained quietly loyal to his rule have begun to share whispers of their own exasperation. In holding on to power which is typical of French speaking African leaders, Paul Biya has effectively—and purposely—destroyed his own country.

With the establishment of a KGB base in Bangui, Russia has indirectly offered a new and almost unprecedented opportunity to the Americans. Although it seems like the US paid little attention to Sub Saharan Africa, it has a justification now to be fully present. If the US fails to get involved, the French policy of Son-Succeeding-Their Dads like in Gabon, Togo and of recent Chad will push French speaking Africans towards Russia and China. So, getting rid of Biya as quickly as possible will usher in real and long-overdue changes to the Sub Saharan region that could otherwise become a global tinderbox.

Cameroon as a nation has already taken a truly unprecedented turn for the worse and it has crashed into a debilitating crisis that has shattered every fiber of the so-called bilingual country, leaving greater levels of destitution, famine, and worsening criminality and predatory behavior in both French and English speaking sections of the country. If something is not done and done in a hurry, the giant of the CEMAC region which is currently a human-rights disaster will become a breeding ground for dangerous extremists and regional instability.

The name Franck Biya is now being mentioned as a possible replacement but that Biya family path for Cameroon may emerge as so deeply distasteful for so many Cameroonians that instability, anger, disenchantment and perhaps a Russian-Bangui push might end up unseating the entire Beti Ewondo clan.

The crisis in Southern Cameroons is already of grave concern to France, which along with the European Union is the primary source of President Biya’s external support.

Tribalism and nepotism are really tearing the country apart also as most senior government positions are only occupied by Biya’s tribesmen and those loyal to him and his ruling crime syndicate.

However, it is not the government’s nepotism that is the issue but the results it has posted over the last four decades. Cameroonians would not be bothered if those occupying those strategic positions were really delivering desired results.

While across Cameroon the unemployment rate is high, it is a lot higher in Southern Cameroons and in the northern regions where there are no companies, no roads, no hospitals and no social services and financial assistance that can even cushion the impact of the economic hardship.

The frustrations in the North are legion and the pain is excruciating. The North has lost almost everything it had during the Amadou Ahidjo days and this is really painful.

Northerners have grudges and they want to get their pound of flesh sooner rather than later. The Biya regime had killed thousands of Northerners, especially senior northern military officials, following a coup d’état in 1984 that led to the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, fleeing to Senegal where he died and is currently lying in an unmarked grave.

This bitterness and the corruption which have robbed the northern population of many services has pushed the frustrated northern population to set up a militia which is now armed and willing to fight the Yaoundé government that has never incorporated dialogue into its national development and integration strategy.

France leverage in Cameroon is presently suffering from irrational and unpredictable decision-making in Champs-Élysées, but Paris still matters in the Sub Saharan region and has a chance to shape the outcome. To be sure, the death of Chadian President Idriss Deby-an ally of Biya and Biya’s current weakness provides more meaningful opportunities than we have seen over the years.

Cameroon is falling apart and so too is the ruling CPDM party and the way things are shaping up, if care is not taken, it might end up like Zaire, currently the Democratic Republic of Congo, where since its brutal dictator, Mobutu Seseseko, fell in 1994, the country has been unstable and the number of militia has grown by leaps and bounds and the country has become the epitome of political chaos.

The international community must stop looking the other way as Cameroon continues its unfortunate but sure descent to the bottom of the abyss of chaos and corruption.

With new armed groups cropping up on a daily basis, it is obvious that the country which is now on life support may one day implode and the consequences could linger for a very long time.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

24, May 2021

Football: Aguero close to Barcelona deal, says Man City boss Guardiola ⁰

Sergio Aguero is close to agreeing a move to Barcelona that would unite him with fellow Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

City’s record goalscorer, who has spent a decade at the Etihad, scored a quickfire double in the champions’ 5-0 win over Everton in his final Premier League appearance for the club on Sunday.

The goals took his Premier League tally to 184 — the most by any player for a single club.

The 32-year-old forward is set to leave the Etihad as a free agent after Saturday’s Champions League final against Chelsea.

“Maybe I reveal a secret,” Guardiola told the BBC. “Maybe he is close to agreeing a deal for the club of my heart — for Barcelona.

“He is going to be playing alongside the best player of all time, Messi.”

If the move goes ahead it would be Aguero’s second spell in Spain — he made his name at Atletico Madrid before the move to Manchester in 2011.

Aguero’s final season at City was dogged by injury and a coronavirus infection but Guardiola believes the striker has a lot to offer the Catalan giants.

Barcelona had a disappointing season, finishing third in La Liga and falling in the last 16 of the Champions League.

“I’m pretty sure he is going to enjoy,” said Guardiola. “And maybe Barcelona are stronger and stronger with him on the pitch.”

Source: AFP

23, May 2021

Canadian mother of three trying to raise money to send her Cameroonian husband’s body back home after he was killed in a car crash ⁰

A mother of three young children is trying to raise money to send her husband’s body back to Cameroon after he was killed earlier this month in a car crash in Arnprior, Ont.

Franck Nana Ngassa, 32, died in hospital after rolling his car near Baskin Drive West on May 13, according to Ontario Provincial Police.

“He was a good father,” said Josie Pichette, his wife. “His kids loved him so much. Everybody, anybody that met him, loved him. He just had one of those personalities.”

The family is trying to raise about $19,000 to send Nana Ngassa’s body home to his central African homeland, so that his family can bury him according to local customs.

Pichette said she’d discussed with her husband his strong desire to be buried in Cameroon if anything were to happen.

“All of his ancestors are buried in the same place,” she said. “And that’s where he needs to go.”

‘I couldn’t breathe’

The two met in a grocery store in 2013.

Pichette said Nana Ngassa, a software engineer who moved to Canada to study at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, won her over with his bubbly personality and landed her phone number.

They were married nine months later.

A lover of cars, Nana Ngassa had bought one of his dream models, a E550 Mercedes-Benz, two months before the May 13 crash.

He had purchased the specific make and model for its safety features, Pichette said, but with that car in the shop, he’d taken a loaner out for a spin after she had gone to bed.

Pichette awoke to police knocking on her door at 1 a.m.

“I couldn’t breathe. I really could not breathe,” she said.

Pichette said it’s been difficult for their three children, Isaac, 6, Ethan, 3 and 11-month-old Makeba, who keep asking where their father is and calling his phone.

She said she’s been warmed by the Arnprior community’s outreach following her husband’s death, hearing from people she wasn’t aware knew Nana Ngassa.

That love, she said, is especially appreciated as people struggle with their own difficulties due to COVID-19.

Outpouring of support

Pichette is now determined to get her husband home.

While she may not fully understand the burial customs of Cameroon or the Banapeople he belonged to, Pichette said she knows her husband’s family wants to wash the body and prepare him for the afterlife.

With $3,000 raised so far, Pichette said she’s looking at remortgaging her house. She’s also sold some of her possessions, like the treadmill he gave her for Christmas, and said family overseas have also been raising funds to bring him home.

“It’s his last dying wish. That’s what he wanted,” she said. “I can’t not give that to him.”

Source: CBC.CA

23, May 2021

Cameroonians still adamant in getting Covid-19 vaccines ⁰

At a local Covid-19 vaccination center in Yaoundé, Cameroon just a few people have come to get the jab. Among them is Menan Germain an expatriate.

After learning about the procedure, he is ready to be injected with the Chinese dose, called Sinopharm. For him, taking this vaccine is a matter of trust.

Despite the struggle to get an appointment, Germain finally got through.

“We can’t destroy a whole population, so I’m confident about the vaccine. I tell myself that it is a safe product, otherwise it would not be put it on the market”, Germain said.

Like him, other Chinese expatriates have been jabbed here. Unfortunately, no Cameroonian in sight. 90% of those who come for the vaccines are non-citizens.

Chinese and the nationals of other countries were counted among those who received their dose during this first vaccination campaign, and according to a source at this regional vaccination center, Cameroonians were in the minority of those who took the vaccine.

For the few Cameroonians who come to be vaccinated, it’s only for travel reasons. As a result, out of the 700,000 doses that the country has received, only 45,000 people have been inoculated.

Dr. Shalom Tchokfe Ndoula is Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program of Immunization of Cameroon (EPI).

“We vaccinated more than 45,000 people in Cameroon for the first phase of our vaccination campaign. In reality, this did not reach our maximum capacity to offer services, which means that we could have vaccinated more for the same period”, Dr. Tchokfe Ndoula said.

He said they’ve hardly reached the 10% of the expected numbers for this first month of vaccination. According to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the low number of vaccination centers in the country, is due to the fact that social media users have managed to make Cameroonians believe that the Covid-19 vaccine is dangerous for people of color.

As a result, vaccination centers are empty and on the street, Cameroonians openly express their opposition to this vaccine. This is the case of Guillaume Paul Mouté, a believer in medicinal herbs.

‘’I find the vaccine very controversial. Because for most of the time for a vaccine there should be time, there is not enough time and barely 6 months we start to vaccinate people. When you go to the hospital you don’t find BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin, a vaccine for Tuberclosis disease), nor any other vaccine, but you find this one. Why do we give it so much importance?”, Paul Mouté queried.

Mass sensitization campaign

In addition to these poor results, an internal EPI survey revealed that 37% of doctors and medical staff are unwilling to receive any vaccine, casting doubt on its reliability.

The situation has prompted the EPI to review its strategy through a mass sensitization campaign, even if it means employing door- to- door campaign to explain to the population about the safety of the vaccines.

The campaign comes at a time when a report of the Cameroonian Chamber of Commerce has found authorities and ministers guilty for dubiously mismanaging funds intended for the fight against Covid -19 in this Central African nation.

While the country awaits a third shipment of vaccines to arrive, the program is concerned about what will happen if the first tranche is not utilized.

Source: Africa News