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Cameroon: Political crisis deepens as Prof. Kamto gets arrested

29, January 2019

Cameroon: Political crisis deepens as Prof. Kamto gets arrested 0

Cameroon’s political crisis has taken a turn for the worse as government forces have arrested the winner of last year’s presidential election, Professor Maurice Kamto, a prominent law professor who has vowed that the people’s victory must be returned, or the country will be made ungovernable.

Arrested along with Prof. Kamto was Mr. Albert Dzongang who was with Mr. Kamto at the time the police arrived. Mr. Kamto was at Mr. Dzongang’s home where they were strategizing on the next move in their bid to reclaim their stolen victory.

But the arrest of the learned lawyer was not that easy. As the police arrived Mr. Dzongang’s home, the population came out to ensure their leaders were not arrested. With the crowd increasing, the security forces decided that it was better to negotiate, but when the population was adamant, the forces decided to use tear gas and fired at the crowd, wounding several supporters of Maurice Kamto. Mr. Kamto and several of his supporters have been taken to Yaounde where they will be charged with all the crimes and sins in the world.

In a related story, another senior opposition politician, Celestin Djamen, was picked up from his hospital bed and taken to an unknown destination. Mr. Djamen had been shot on Saturday, January 26, 2019, within the framework of the demonstrations organized by Mr. Kamto and his MRC party. Mr. Djamen was whisked off to an unknown destination with five other persons who had been shot by the police on Saturday.

Prof. Kamto’s arrest only deepens the country’s political crisis that has brought its economy to its knees. Under Mr. Paul Biya, the country’s president, Cameroon has witnessed serious and several political and economic crises and this has fragilized the entire sub-region.

Mr. Biya’s rulership which is predicated upon corruption and nepotism has created huge divisions within the country, with many Cameroonians holding that merit has no place in the country. With Mr. Kamto’s arrest, the government has opened another front in its struggle to stay in power. Cameroon has been dealing with many military challenges in recent times. In the north, it is facing a tough Boko Haram insurgency that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

In a bid to turn tables on Boko Haram, government forces have been committing violent crimes in the north, making it hard to win hearts and minds in the region. On many occasions, government troops have been caught on video in flagrant acts of human rights violation. The shooting of a woman and her daughter as well as the killing of some young unarmed boys in a village in the north were the incidents that shocked the world the most.

To hide its crimes, the government alleged that the heartless killing of a lady and her children occurred in Mali, a situation that prompted Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group to investigate and the investigations revealed that the incidents actually occurred in the northern part of Cameroon.

In the East, armed groups from the Central African Republic (CAR) remain a dangerous menace to the local population and the military. The armed groups have been carrying out incursions on towns and villages in Cameroon’s eastern region.

But it is the Southern Cameroons crisis that has become a millstone around the government’s neck. A crisis that started as a simple strike by teachers and lawyers in October 2016 is gradually making the independence of the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon a certainty, especially as there are targeted killings and huge refugee movements in and out of the country.

Ever since the crisis started, the country’s president also known as the “monarch”, has refused to listen to many respectable people across the world. The Pope has had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Biya. Leaders of Western Countries have advised him to pursue dialogue as a sure means out of the impasse. But all the advice has fallen on deaf ears.

Cameroon, a once peaceful nation, has been gripped by the ‘dictator’s disease’; a disease that attacks African countries that have been ruled by sit-tight dictators. The Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Somalia are some of the African countries that have been victims of this devastating disease.

Many African dictators always bequeath civil wars and political chaos to future generations when they leave power. In many cases, they leave power forcefully or through a civil war. Cameroon is on its way to joining this unfortunate club as Mr. Biya and his collaborators hold that the best way to address political issues is to unleash a reign of terror on the people they are supposed to govern and protect.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which could have been addressed through an inclusive dialogue has today become a civil war wherein government soldiers are shooting and killing many innocent civilians, as they cannot fully engage the Southern Cameroons fighters who are lurking in the jungles. The fighters, for their part, are using rudimentary weapons to protect themselves and this is adding to the chaos that has made life unbearable in the English-speaking regions.

The fighting is unfortunately consuming many young soldiers who have been pushed by the government to go and kill Southern Cameroonians whose initial objective was to put their grievances to the government. The government’s violent response caused the demands of Southern Cameroonians to mutate and, today, almost all Southern Cameroonians, even those in government, are in support of secession.

In many towns and villages in the two English-speaking regions, corpses of young innocent civilians are being discovered at roadsides and the government seems to be padding itself on the back for accomplishing such a feat. It is a really tough to know that government officials of Beti extraction are really celebrating when their fellow compatriots are being shot down point blank. It is even more baffling to know that the same authorities have kept on talking about one and indivisible Cameroon when their brutality is slowly dividing the country.

To defend themselves, many young Southern Cameroonians have taken to the jungle and many are now using whatever means that are available to them to fight a government they believe is intent on killing all the young men in the region. The fighting clearly indicates that Cameroon will never be the same again. Holding a country together clearly goes beyond political sloganeering and brinkmanship.

From every indication, the crisis has entered a very critical stage with the government holding that the more people it kills, the greater its chances of keeping the country one and indivisible. The government is gradually losing Southern Cameroons. Its high-handedness is dividing the country. In a bid to keep the country one and indivisible through force, it is only succeeding to tear it apart.

Time is gradually running out. It is time to make necessary changes. The government has to abandon its legendary high-handedness if it wants to keep Cameroon one and indivisible. Terrorizing its people and intimidating political opponents will not keep Cameroon one and indivisible. The government must seek to meet Southern Cameroonians halfway if it really wants to keep the country united. The ball is in its court. The world is watching. The country’s president has refused all useful advice and this will surely turn out to be his Achilles heels. Arresting Prof. Kamto might be that mistake the government might regret for a long time.

By Chi Prudence Asong on special assignment in Yaounde

28, January 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Revenge in the air 0

A senior Southern Cameroonian fighter has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that the Betis must be slaughtered and chased out of Cameroon because of the atrocities they are committing in Southern Cameroons and in other non-Beti regions of the country.

The fighter, who contacted Cameroon Concord News Group’s global headquarters in the United Kingdom said that the Ministers of Defense and Higher Education had ordered a genocide in the two English-speaking regions of the country to ensure that Southern Cameroonians never think of rising up against the government in the future.

The fighter, who elected anonymity, said the atrocities in Southern Cameroons had been stepped up since Saturday following the Cameroon embassy invasions in Paris, Berlin, London and Brussels, and the demonstrations that took place in many cities across the country.

“We have been reliably informed by our sources in the defense ministry in Yaounde that the Yaounde government has carefully designed a plan to kill as many Southern Cameroonians as possible to ensure that they never raise their fingers against the regime again,” the Southern Cameroonian fighter who was calling from the northwest regional headquarters of Bamenda said.

“We have our sources. Not all the senior military officers are in favor of this war. Those who are encouraging the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians are military officials of Beti descent who erroneously think that the country belongs to them. They have carefully designed a genocide, but they must understand that we will not surrender. They will have to kill everybody for them to take over the two English-speaking regions,” he pointed out.

“We know there are cracks within the military which the government is simply ignoring. With Francophones gradually stirring up problems in East Cameroon, it is clear that the government will soon be dispersing its military resources and this will give us a greater chance of striking the enemy where it hurts the most,” he added.

“The government should be prepared to fight a war on many fronts. The Brigade Anti Sardinard (B.A.S) which is causing the government to lose sleep is finally looking at how to establish relations with us. We are also exploring ways of supporting them so that they can achieve their goal,” he warned.

“We are moving into a higher gear in the coming weeks. The government has stepped up its attacks on our people. We must also start hitting the Betis so that they can understand a few things. Nobody will be spared. Markets, churches, mosque, bars, night clubs, and any places where there are huge crowds will be our targets. We are prepared to use suicide bombers to create as much damage as possible in East Cameroon. We want to make a clear statement for the international community to figure out why it must step in,” he said.

“The preliminary phases of our strategy have been very successful. We have succeeded to move huge crowds of people to Yaounde and Douala and this has triggered inflation and a housing crisis. Even Francophones who thought the issue was an Anglophone issue has begun feeling the pinch. Food prices have escalated and housing prices are gradually producing a bunch of homeless people in Yaounde and Douala. These people are hungry and desperate and they have begun asking questions. It is clear that before long they will be looking for ways to commit crimes and to fight the government. When people are hungry, they will fight back,” he stressed.

“It is in the interest of civilians to avoid places like markets in cities like Yaounde and Douala and other crowded locations, as our explosives will not discriminate. We think we should advise ordinary Cameroonians. Those who have ears should listen carefully. If we don’t resort to other means, the government and the international community will never take us seriously,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Cameroon’s embassies in Berlin, Paris and London have been closed following the demonstrations which took place on Saturday. The country’s Diaspora is hell-bent on inflicting maximum damage on a government that is noted for corruption and inefficiency. Cameroon is bursting at the seams and it is obvious there is more trouble in the offing for the beleaguered government.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been going on now for two years is finally spreading to the entire country. Since its commencement in 2016, the Yaounde government has been struggling to contain it to the two English-speaking regions of the country. Its initial attempt to pit Anglophones against Francophones fell flat on its face as Anglophones quickly checked any acts of violence against ordinary Francophones who have peacefully co-habited with their Anglophones compatriots for decades.

But with the killings spiraling out of control, the situation could deteriorate very fast. As government troops insist on obtaining a military solution, they are hitting more soft targets than the fighters who are lurking in the bushes. Recent killings in the two regions have reignited tensions, as Southern Cameroonian fighters are vowing to revenge. Early on Saturday, it was reported that soldiers and administrative officers who are easy targets for the fighters had been spotted leaving the towns where the killing have taken place for fear that they could be attacked by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

It has also been reported that Southern Cameroonian fighters in Muyenge, a village on the foot of Mount Cameroon, have decided to join forces with those in Mpondo Balong and Muyuka to give army soldiers a run for their money. It is obvious that more lives will be lost and, from every indication, the southern Cameroons crisis still has many more scenes which will be playing out in a manner that will be far from being pleasant.

In the Northwest like in the southwest, the fighting is still going on, and many more lives have been lost today, January 28, 2019, especially in the towns surrounding Bambili. Over the last two weeks, government forces have been shooting down anything that crosses their path. Nurses, teachers and civil servants have all been targeted by the trigger-happy soldiers who want to let their masters in Yaounde know that they are doing a good job.  Nobody in the region is safe, even children are being targeted by soldiers and many of them are quick to brand even 3-year-old children as terrorists. The military’s killing of a baby last week in Kumbo has left many people wondering about the government’s real objective.

According to an audio clip sent to the Cameroon Concord News Group chairman, a new armed group has been born in the Muyenge-Muyuka-Kumba area. The Southern Cameroons Liberation Organization (SCLO) has clearly indicated that it would use some of the worst methods to make its presence known in the region. Its objective is to fight for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons and it holds that all is fair in love and war.

Also speaking over the phone with the Cameroon Concord New Group Chairman in the United Kingdom on Saturday, January 26, the military commander of the SCLO said his group would use the most gruesome methods to send Yaounde army soldiers packing from the region.

“We are in the business of war to kill and we will stop at nothing to prove that Southern Cameroons belongs to us. Our method of choice will be the beheading of soldiers and traitors and these shows will be captured on video. The world should therefore be prepared to watch the newest show in town. Our brothers have been slaughtered by soldiers like animals. We are prepared to bring death and pain to them and their families. We have nothing to lose. We have been robbed of our happiness, our oil and our land. Our fate is worse than death. Dying will therefore be a better condition for many of us. Our fighters, who are God’s fighters, will be carrying bombs and other destructive explosives to cause maximum damage. We now have the potential to develop dangerous explosives and there are volunteers willing to take death and destruction to East Cameroon so that those who have been indifferent to our plight can also have a taste of what we have been going through for two years,” he said.

The 31-year-old SCLO commander who elected anonymity, urged the Southern Cameroons Diaspora to stay united. He said “unity will take us closer to our goal and we will be able to defeat the enemy who has beaten our dust many times. The enemy may be well equipped, but its equipment alone will not give it the victory it needs. We are prepared to put our lives on the line and we hope that our brothers in the Diaspora will keep on encouraging us by providing bullets and guns. We need those dangerous weapons to teach Biya and his people that we are not scared. They might have killed some of our people, but we will never surrender. Their strategy will fail. They thought they could strike fear into us, but they are mistaken.”

“We know the French are supporting the enemy. We are therefore determined to ruin French business interest in Cameroon. The French are backing the wrong horse and we are prepared to kill that horse. The French have just lost Congo and it is clear that they will soon lose Southern Cameroons and La Republique as they continue to support a dying horse,” he pointed out.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started as a joke some two years ago has finally become a millstone around the government’s neck. For many decades, Southern Cameroonians have been complaining about marginalization with a view to seeking a peaceful resolution of the issues facing them. But the Yaounde government has been ignoring them, holding that the country’s minority could be easily brought under control.

The conflict which has been confined for two years to the two English-speaking regions of the country and which has resulted in the death of some 5,000 Cameroonians, including more than 2,000 soldiers, is gradually rippling out into East Cameroon. The economic and political frustrations generated by the ailing and crumbling Yaounde government have finally pitted the French-speaking majority against the government.

If the international community thinks the Yaounde government can address this issue without outside support, then it is mistaken. Most of those in the Yaounde government are graduates of a school of thought that holds that the people must be oppressed and that dialogue is a governance tool for the weak.

However, after having succeeded in other regions of the country, they have clearly found out that Southern Cameroonians are a different breed and they are prepared to fight to the last person. They might have defeated the Bassas and Bamilekes in the 1960s because there was no social media and the fighters were limited financially. They have also succeeded to kill thousands of northerners because they do not have a huge Diaspora and a critical mass of educated people, but in Southern Cameroons the odds are against the government.

The Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is not relenting. It believes the issues must be addressed now or never. The Diaspora is rich and there is a huge pool of hard core fighters on the ground. Social media is also playing in favour of Southern Cameroonians as they are using it to expose government atrocities and this is eroding whatever little credibility the government has. The ball is in the government’s court and the Betis must understand that they have transformed themselves into targets as they continue to blindly support a government that is killing other Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom with contributions from Kingsley Betek in Paris

28, January 2019

Yaounde Struggles to Secure Neighbours, Its Own Territory 0

While Sudan hosted a new round of Central African Republic (C.A.R.) peace talks this week (Thursday, Jan. 24), Cameroon’s military was announcing new troop deployments to contain spillover from fighting inside C.A.R.’s border.

In Bossangoa, the capital of Ouham, more than 200 people came to hear Gaston Guella, an official of the Bossangoa council in the Ouham prefecture in western C.A.R., assure them in the Sango language that forces of the Multi-Dimensional United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Central Africa (MINUSCA) would track down a group of armed men that attacked their city Friday night.

Bossangoa Mayor Pierre Denamge said Friday’s attack, which residents said left six people wounded and caused many to flee their homes for safety, indicates the population and peacekeeping forces should remain on high alert. The town has not had an attack in the past six weeks, and Denamge credited Cameroonian troops, who constitute the bulk of the U.N. peacekeeping force, saying they are doing a good job.

Cameroon troops at the U.N. MINUSCA base in Bossangoa, Central African Republic, Dec. 27, 2018. Cameroon has announced new troop deployments to keep fighting in C.A.R. from spilling across the border.
Cameroon troops at the U.N. MINUSCA base in Bossangoa, Central African Republic, Dec. 27, 2018. Cameroon has announced new troop deployments to keep fighting in C.A.R. from spilling across the border.

He says the people of C.A.R. are satisfied with the work done by the Cameroon military, especially as villagers can continue farming, fishing and hunting without fear of harassment, and traders can go to their shops because they know they have protection from the troops under the U.N. peacekeeping mission. He said everyone is happy that peace is returning and chaos is being reduced.

However, 40-year-old cattle rancher Ahmed Mahmoudou said the magnitude of the attack indicates the armed rebels are not ready to lay down their weapons.

He says the population was helpless and running in all directions when indiscriminate and heavy shooting began at the village’s Catholic church. He says members of his self-defense group decided to withdraw and alert the military because they could tell the attackers were more heavily armed.

Many people have fled the area since 2013, and deserted streets and burned roofs are a stark reminder of the violence the Central African town had witnessed before the arrival of the U.N. troops.

Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.'s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA in Bangui, C.A.R., Dec. 27, 2018, said that if the stability of the last year holds, displaced persons can return to the western part of the country.
Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.’s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA in Bangui, C.A.R., Dec. 27, 2018, said that if the stability of the last year holds, displaced persons can return to the western part of the country.

U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.’s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA, says if the stability that has been established since last year continues, refugees and internally displaced persons can start to return to the western part of the country.

“This is exactly the part the country where we have seen the greatest progress toward peace and stability, and in great part because of the efforts of the Cameroonian soldiers and officers and policemen,” Gluck said. “We see in the west of the country a real progress toward stabilization, which should allow during 2019 the gradual return of refugees and displaced persons.”

Since 2013, thousands have been killed in C.A.R., and a quarter of the population of 4.5 million people has fled their homes.

Peace talks in Khartoum

Last Thursday, peace talks to end chronic violence in the Central African Republic began in Khartoum, with representatives of the government and 14 armed groups in attendance, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the C.A.R.

The U.N. peace mission is made up of more than 13,000 troops and police, and Cameroon contributes more than 1,000 troops.

Other pockets around the country are held by militias who say they are defenders of a particular community or religious group, but they often fight over mineral wealth.

The conflict began in 2013 when a mainly Muslim rebel movement called the Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize, a Christian. That move triggered the rise of a predominantly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.

Border deployment

Cameroon’s military sings as it also deploys to Garoua Boulay, the border town with C.A.R. The soldiers say that besides fighting to bring peace to C.A.R., they also must fight to stop the spillover of the crisis from neighboring countries, including the robberies and kidnappings that are on the rise. Armed groups from the C.A.R. have been stealing supplies and taking dozens of people hostage for ransom.

Cameroon also is mobilizing troops along the country’s northern border with Nigeria to fight Boko Haram terrorists, and in the western English-speaking regions where separatists have been fighting to create an English-speaking state. The military has not given any official announcement, but it is believed both their resources and military are already stretched.

VOA

28, January 2019

UN urges Myanmar to enact late Kofi Annan’s counsel on Rohingya 0

The United Nations (UN) has urged Myanmar to implement the recommendations of a panel on the Rohingya crisis that was led by a former UN head, the late Kofi Annan, including ensuring freedom of movement and access to education for children from the persecuted Muslim minority.

Speaking at a forum in the Myanmarese capital, Naypyidaw, on Monday, the head of the UN’s Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, gave a bleak assessment of the outlook for Rohingya children in Myanmar and the larger number of them who have fled with their families to neighboring Bangladesh.

Fore said the refugees, who have fled state-sponsored violence in Myanmar, faced risks and those still in Myanmar lacked access to proper education.

She said the Rohingya children were living “a precarious and an almost hopeless existence” in camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar, she said, was yet to create the right conditions for the return of the refugees from Bangladesh.

“We urge that the necessary steps are taken to enable their safe, voluntary, and dignified return back to their homes, where their rights are respected and they can once again live peaceably with their neighbors,” said Fore, adding, “Taking these steps will also go a long way towards creating the right conditions for the return of refugees from Bangladesh.”

In August last year, UNICEF said thousands of Rohingya Muslim children lacked proper education both in Myanmar and in the border camps in Bangladesh, warning that the Myanmarese kids could become “a lost generation.”

PressTV-UN warns of ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya children

The Annan commission was created in 2016 to find long-term solutions to the deep-seated ethnic and religious divisions in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, where most of the minority Rohingya Muslims were concentrated before state-sponsored violence began against them in November 2016. Annan died in August last year.

The commission’s recommendations included points urging the government to “immediately expand primary education to the communities in… Rakhine…, and intensify efforts to ensure that teachers assigned to Muslim villages resume their work, including by providing adequate security when necessary.” It also called on authorities to “ensure that all children in the state have access to education in Myanmar language” and that the tertiary education access is expanded.

But the implementation of the recommendations has been impeded, not just because most of the minority Muslim children are out of the country but also because their home villages — and schools — have been razed by the Myanmarese government to make room for Buddhists who have been shuttled by the government to repopulate the area and change its demography.

PressTV-'25% of Rohingya refugee kids acutely malnourished'

The violence against the Rohingya — carried out by military soldiers and Buddhist mobs — intensified in August 2017. Thousands of Muslims were killed, and more than 700,000 others survived only by fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

In October 2018, Bangladeshi and Myanmarese government officials announced that they had struck a “very concrete” repatriation deal for the return of the Rohingya Muslims. The refugees, and rights activists, however, fear that violence awaits them back home.

The UN has appointed a special envoy for Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, who said on Friday that for the repatriation to happen, “the perpetrators [of the crimes against the Rohingya] must be held to account.”

Source: Presstv

Boko Haram strikes 2 Nigerian army bases near border with Cameroon

28, January 2019

Boko Haram strikes 2 Nigerian army bases near border with Cameroon 0

Boko Haram militants attacked two military bases in northeast Nigeria’s Borno State, near the border with Cameroon, injuring six soldiers, two military sources told AFP on Sunday.

The attacks were the latest against military targets in the region, with security becoming a major campaign issue ahead of presidential and legislative elections next month.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 on a pledge to end the militancy, is seeking re-election in the February 16 polls.

Early on Sunday, troops fought off an attack by militants believed to be from the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram in the town of Pulka, along the border with Cameroon.

“The terrorists attacked around 1:15 am (0015 GMT) and soldiers engaged them in a 30-minute fight, forcing them to withdraw,” a military officer said in an account confirmed by another officer.

The militants’ intention was to attack and loot the town after overrunning the base, said the officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Late on Saturday, militants from the same faction attacked another base in Logomani Village near the town of Gamboru, leading to a fight that left six soldiers injured.

“Troops came under attack by Boko Haram terrorists who came in four gun trucks around 6:30 pm (1730 GMT),” the second officer told AFP.

“Six soldiers were wounded from bomb fragments,” he said.

Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in the region over the past several months.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the militants attacked three bases in Borno and neighboring Yobe State, stealing weapons and burning the bases.

Boko Haram’s militancy in northeast Nigeria has claimed 27,000 lives since 2009.

More than two million people have also been forced to flee their homes, triggering a humanitarian crisis in the region.

(Source: Agencies)

28, January 2019

Cameroonian league season in turmoil after clubs boycott opening games 0

Cameroon’s 2019 top tier domestic championship failed to get underway on Saturday after teams staged a boycott of the opening game at the Yaoundé Military Stadium.

The 2018 Cup of Cameroon winners Eding Sports of Lekie were set to play Yong Sports Academy of Bamenda.

They stayed away following a call from the syndicate of elite clubs (SYCEC) to boycott the competition amidst a dispute with the head of Cameroon’s Professional Football League (LFPC), Pierre Semengue.

“In solidarity with the trade union of elite clubs, we wouldn’t travel to Yaoundé to kick off the championship. The decision was taken solely in the interest of our football and in all integrity,” Yong Sports chairman, Jacques Yong, said in a club statement.

“The decision has been taken because last minute attempts to solve the problems plaguing our elite football have failed,” he added.

SYCEC, led by Union of Douala president Frank Happi, say they are unhappy with how league football is managed in Cameroon.

“It’s outrageous to imagine that the league president wants the first and second division tournaments to start when clubs aren’t aware of the amount they will receive as subvention,” Happi told BBC Sport.

“Clubs weren’t sure when the championship was supposed to start and so most of them kept their teams together, paying out training bonuses regularly.

“It’s only fair for them to know how much they will get before stepping on the pitch. The teams are ready and want to play football but everything isn’t right for the league to start.

“Most of the country’s top stadiums are being renovated or constructed and the question as to where games will be staged has remained unanswered.

“These uncertainties make us think it’s not reasonable starting the championship now,” said Happi.

The clubs’ heads say they are concerned about a lack of consultation over key decisions taken by 83-year-old LFPC boss, Pierre Semengue.

These decisions include increasing Cameroon’s Elite 1 championship from 18 to 20 amidst financial difficulties and a move to split the championship into a two-pool tournament where only one outfit would be relegated.

Hopes were high that both opposing camps could come to a compromise following a meeting with Cameroon’s Sports minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi and Fecafoot president Seidou Mbombo Njoya.

But failure to find concrete solutions to the current crisis means most, if not all of the teams in the country’s top football league, will not play this weekend.

SYSEC, currently made up of 27 teams in the top two divisions, has called on league authorities to respect the agreements of a meeting between the syndicate, the Cameroon football federation (Fecafoot) and the league president as well as an article of the league’s blueprint which called for the convening of a general assembly before the start of the championship.

The President of Cameroon’s Professional football league, Pierre Semengue has described the syndicate as an illegal institution and has said clubs that fail to show up for games will be relegated to the country’s third tier leagues, as per league statutes.

BBC

28, January 2019

CPDM Management: Coach Joseph Ndoko fired five months before Women’s World Cup 0

After leading the Indomitable Lionesses to their second World Cup appearance, the gaffer has been fired from his post  

Cameroon Football Federation has shockingly sacked Joseph Ndoko from his role as head coach five months to their campaign at this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France.

The surprise development is coming a week after Australia parted ways with  Alen Stajcic and Ndoko now becomes the second France bound coach to be sacked from his role.

Ndoko, who replaced 13-year long serving Enow Ngachu in July 2017, guided the Indomitable Lionesses to a third-place finish at the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations and subsequently secured them a qualification ticket to this year’s global showpiece.

Source: Goal.com

The West Divided Cameroon, Forced a Weak Unity but Now Watches As Despotic Biya Kills Citizens

28, January 2019

The West Divided Cameroon, Forced a Weak Unity but Now Watches As Despotic Biya Kills Citizens 0

  • The Cameroonian Anglophone problem is a conflict of the West’s making being exploited by an unhinged despot. The West cannot pretend nothing is happening yet it planted the seeds of this harvest of thorns.
  • Paul Biya is Africa’s longest-serving President and one would think he has an idea when it comes to responsible leadership but the years have only cemented his ineptitude. His response to the Cameroonian Anglophone region’s secession demands has been heavy-handed and unnecessary but for a man who never gets questioned, it is to be expected. Social media is awash with atrocity after atrocity that the Cameroonian army is committing against its own people which unfortunately justifies their demands for independence. If their army is going to treat them like foreigners, then maybe they are foreigners.
  •   The world seems to be waking up from its slumber and paying more attention to Cameroon but 200 soldiers, gendarmes, and police officers, 600 separatists and at least 500 civilians have died in the violence. 30,000 Anglophone refugees are in Nigeria while 437,000 have been internally displaced in Cameroon. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Cameroon, Ms. Allegra Baiocchi has said, “attacks against civilians have increased and many conflict-affected people are surviving in harsh conditions without humanitarian assistance due to the dramatic underfunding of the response
  • . Cameroon today can no longer be a forgotten crisis; it needs to be high on our agenda.” However, as the world drags its feet, civilians are being killed in Cameroon. Paul Biya is unhinged. The separatists are unhinged. The common citizenry bears the brunt of the fire. The United Nations estimates that around 4.3 million people in Cameroon – one in six people and mostly women and children – require lifesaving assistance. The conflict is rooted in the arbitrary borders imposed by imperialists.
  • In 1961, Britain’s Cameroons colonies were divided between Nigeria and Cameroon after a referendum. Becoming an independent state was simply not on the table. “Logically, I would have expected the UN to give them the option of gaining independence and stand on their own,” Henry Baaboh, a legal expert told DW before adding, “I think it is that third option which is disturbing Southern Cameroonians up to this day.” That the crisis is called the “Anglophone problem” is telling as to the nature of the issue: it is a problem imported from the West.
  •  Jürgen Zimmerer of the University of Hamburg identifies the elephant in the room quite aptly, “The problem is that when European powers partitioned Africa, they split up families, relatives, and communities that got along very well, whereas in some cases, communities that were enemies or competed against each other were bundled together into one territory.” Now that one country is made up of people on two different ends of the spectrum, people are dying.
  • The murderous regime of Biya cannot be exonerated as it has been instrumental in the violence but the West is just as culpable. This is a conflict of the West’s making being exploited by an unhinged despot. It is quite arrogant for the West to pretend nothing is happening, and wait for the body-count to reach a certain threshold yet it planted the seeds of this harvest of thorns. The practice of pretending loss of African lives does not warrant swift action must come to an end. This is the 21st century!

Source: The African Exponent

Chaos in French Cameroun: Police Arrest More Than 100 in Anti-Biya Protests

28, January 2019

Chaos in French Cameroun: Police Arrest More Than 100 in Anti-Biya Protests 0

Cameroon says its police shot and wounded seven people and arrested 117 in several towns where protests of what organizers call an “electoral hold up” were organized on Saturday. The demonstrations were led by Maurice Kamto, the man who claims he won the October 7 presidential poll in Cameroon.

Sixty people, a majority of them youths, shout as they march through the streets of Cameroon political capital Yaounde, banging spoons and dishes and calling for the unconditional release of everyone arrested during Saturday’s demonstrations.

Cameroon’s minister of communication and government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says the economic capital Douala, the capital Yaounde, and the western town of Mbounda were the scene of protests organized by Maurice Kamto and his Cameroon Renaissance Movement party.

“The CRM intended as usual to push our compatriots at home and abroad to defy the republican order with slogans of rebellion and insurgency against legal and legitimate institutions,” he said. “The government strongly condemns this unacceptable maneuver to destabilize Cameroon under the false pretext of an alleged electoral hold up.”

Incumbent President Paul Biya was declared the winner of the October 7 presidential election by Cameroon’s constitutional council after the results giving him a landslide victory were challenged by Kamto. Kamto then announced what he called a national resistance program until Biya steps down. The first protests organized by the CRM in late October were put down by police and the party said 42 people, including some of its officials, had been arrested and detained. They were later freed.

Michele Ndoki, a lawyer who defended Kamto at the constitutional council, where they alleged massive fraud and ballot-stuffing in favor of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), was one of those arrested during the October 27 and 28 protests. In this Saturday’s demonstration Ndoki was shot in the leg, one of seven wounded, including Celestin Djamen another CRM official. Ndoki says police used live bullets against the protesters.

Cameroon minister of territorial administration Paul Atanga Nji says riot police did their jobs professionally after they were provoked by the demonstrators. He says Kamto defied a ban on the protest because he wants to destabilize Cameroon.

“The forces of law and order did not use any firearms to maintain peace and order. Any contrary information is fake news,” he said. “The CRM political party and their leaders should not take the leniency of the government as a sign of weakness. As from now henceforth, they will taste the bitterness of our laws which will be applied scrupulously.”

Atanga Nji said similar protests took place in Cameroon embassies abroad.

In a telephone interview with VOA, Sylvester Onana, spokesperson for the Cameroon Embassy in Paris, says they had to call in the police after the protest went violent.

He says they are still evaluating the damage, but everything in the embassy was completely ransacked by a group of about a hundred Cameroonians singing anti-Cameroon government slogans. He says the French police had to intervene to stop the youths from further destruction.

Maurice Kamto says he will continue with the demonstrations against what he says is election fraud, as well as against the government’s failure to resolve the separatist crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country until Biya leaves office and a solution is found.

Biya has been in power for 36 years and is now the second-oldest president in sub-Saharan Africa after his neighbor Theodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. When his new term is finished, he will be 93 years old.

VOA

France: Anti-Paul Biya protesters invade Cameroon embassy in Paris

28, January 2019

France: Anti-Paul Biya protesters invade Cameroon embassy in Paris 0

Some 50 protesters opposed to Cameroon’s President Paul Biya broke into the country’s Paris embassy, vandalising portraits of him, witnesses said Sunday.

The demonstrators filmed themselves invading the empty offices in the French capital’s chic 16th district around 7pm (1800 GMT) on Saturday, broadcasting the protest live on Facebook.

Police forced them out of the building two hours later and onto the street, where they continued their protest outside the embassy.

A local resident who witnessed the protest told AFP the protesters had “jumped over the railings and smashed the door open”.

“They are taking Cameroonians for idiots,” protester Daniel Essissima said in the Facebook video.

“They cannot bring people to rock-bottom like this. In the anglophone regions the army is killing people; in Douala, they are firing with real bullets,” he charged.

LOCAL DEMOS

At least three people were shot in Cameroon’s southern city of Douala on Saturday at a protest by the opposition Members of the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), according to party activists.

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi insisted that “no real bullets were fired” at the protest.

The Cameroon government said Sunday that 117 people had been arrested Saturday for breach of order at opposition protests in the capital Yaounde as well as the cities of Bafoussam and Mbouda.

MRC leader Maurice Kamto continues to claim he was the rightful winner of last October’s presidential election.

The 85-year-old Biya, in power for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in an election blasted by the MRC as an “electoral hold-up”.

Cameroon has been shaken over the past year by an armed revolt among fringe separatists in anglophone regions demanding independence from the majority French-speaking country.

Armed men have carried out a wave of kidnappings of officials, soldiers and police officers as well as civilians in the anglophone Southwest and Northwest regions. Armed separatists have been clashing with the Cameroonian military almost daily in the country’s equatorial forest.

Source: Daily Nation

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