Rep. Sani Zorro, Chairman, House Committee on IDPs, Refugees and North-East Initiatives, on Monday, decried the forceful repatriation of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon. Zorro said this when Volker Turk, the United Nation Humanitarian Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, visited the Minister of Interior in Abuja. He said that Nigerians returning back from Cameroon were facing double displacement because they were presently staying at the internally displaced camps.

Zorro urged the UNHCR to investigate the reasons why the Nigerian refugees in Cameroon were repatriated back home and make this public and to make sure that Cameroon implemented the tripartite agreement. He, however, said that the national assembly was ready to support the commission and the ministry in making sure that the present challenge was resolved. “As you are aware, our refugees from Cameroon that are coming back to Nigeria continued to suffer double displacement. “In the first instance, they were displaced and dispersed when they crossed over the border and upon their return they have found themselves again in internally displaced camps.

“This calls for very urgent humanitarian protection and assistance which the UNHCR always provide the expertise to manage such situation. “We at the national assembly level, are always ready, willing and cannot wait to complement the efforts of the executive arms of government and UNHCR to resolve this case’’. The chairman, however, commended the minister and the commissioner for their efforts in bringing a lasting solution towards the issue s of refugees and IDPs in the country. “I commend the minister for hosting this session that is very crucial towards finding solutions to the refugees’ situation both in Nigeria and Cameroon. “ I also commend the efforts of UNHCR who have continued to come to this region in other to explore lasting solution toward refugees and internally displaced persons. “

Also speaking, Hajiya Saiya Farouq, Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) appealed to UNCHR to find out what was happening in Cameroon. She said that Nigeria had a signed agreement with the Cameroon government and has kept its part of the agreement, tasking Cameroon to implement their own part. Farouq said that she hoped that the visit of the commissioner to Cameroon would bring a lasting solution to the present challenges.

“What is happening to our people in Cameroon and why they are flying back to Nigeria, as we have signed the agreement? “We expect that the principle of the agreement should be respected by both parties; on our own part we have a capable leader. “We are very disturbed by the situation and we hope that by your visit there, we will see some kind of improvement on the part of the Cameroon, “ she said. A total of 19,257 Nigerians have returned from Cameroon.

Source: Vanguard

About 887 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon on Tuesday arrived in Banki, Borno State following a request from the Cameroonian government to Nigeria to facilitate their return. Hanson Tamfu, the External Relations Officer, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, Nigeria, made this known in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

Mr. Tamfu said that the request was prompted by fear and suspicions of the Cameroonian authorities that among the refugees might include some elements of Boko Haram. “The returnees arrived in six trucks sent by Nigerian authorities following the meeting with the governor of the far north region of Cameroon on June 19.

“During the meeting, Nigeria was requested to cause the return of refugees, which the Cameroonian authority suspects may also compromise some elements of Boko Haram whose activities have increased tremendously in recent times. “Consequently, the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on June 26 dispatched the buses to transport the refugees,’’ Tamfu said.

Mr. Tamfu said that the latest group of returnees comprises 233 females, 187 males, 236 girls, and 231 boys who were living in host communities in Kolofata, a far north region of Cameroon. He said it was reported that most of them do not have much in terms of personal effects but a few items in plastic sacks while some returned completely empty handed.

Mr. Tamfu said that UNHCR responded immediately by providing wet feeding, adding that it also would contact the National Emergency Management Agency and the Borno SEMA to continue with food provision. He said that more returnees had indicated interest to leave Minawowa Camp in Cameroon, adding that they were anxious to return following the media reports about improved security back home.

He said they were also eager to return on hearing the government’s decision to distribute food to all the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the official registered returnees from Cameroon through Banki now stood at 19,257.

Source: Premium Times

Two suicide bombers died in Mora, in the Mayo-Sava Division on Friday morning during prayers in the Guirbala district, at the entrance to the city. The two suicide bombers blew themselves up by making two light casualties. Another kamikaze was killed in Kolofata, an important locality of Mayo-Sava.

Cameroon Concord News learnt that the kamikaze woman was shot by elements of the defense forces some few seconds before she set off her bomb. The missed attack followed that of June 22nd in Kolofata, where some 8 people were killed and 4 others seriously wounded in a double explosion.

Cameroon is facing a resurgence of attacks attributed to the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which has allegedly pledged allegiance to the Organization of the Islamic State and is now called the Province of the Islamic State in Africa.

The Nigerian sect, although militarily weakened by the Joint Multinational Force, continues to stage regular attacks deep inside the Lake Chad region. In its recent annual report on Central Africa, the UN, acknowledged that Boko Haram, “remains a threat to the countries of Lake Chad and their people”.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

The Action Group Against Money Laundering in Central Africa (GABAC) has revealed in its April 2017 report that the Biya regime paid a ransom for the release in 2013 of the seven members of the French family Moulin- Fournier. Cameroon paid the sum of 3.5 million dollars (about 2 billion FCFA) to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

It was in April 2013 when the Nigerian Islamic sect abducted seven members of a French family Tanguy Moulin-Fournier. Gabac in its report cited a confidential file from the Nigerian government that says “Boko Haram received about $ 3.5 million from the French and Cameroonian negotiators in exchange for the hostages.”

Cameroon Concord News understands a certain Alhaji Abdallah, a Cameroonian financial agent and an exporter of vehicles based in Amchide was the intermediary who played a major role in the Boko Haram deal. In February 2013 and in exchange for the release of the French citizens, the government paid $ 3.5 million and did release some Boko Haram prisoners of war in April 2013.

Alhaji Abdallah was subsequently arrested by Cameroon security agents including all members of his team that took part in the Boko Haram negotiations. Seven French tourists, including four children, were kidnapped on a Tuesday (February 19th 2013) in the Far North region of Cameroon on the border with Nigeria.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

Cameroon custom officers in the Far North region serving at the Fotokol checkpoint have seized 200 kg of drug destined for the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.  A leading security source operating on-site on behalf of the Joint Multinational Force (FMM) who spoke to us but sued for anonymity, revealed that some 3,000 packages, consisting mainly of Tramadol was intercepted by the Customs officers stationed at Fotokol on the border with Nigeria.

In addition to the Tramadol, the officers also seized Indian hemp that was channeled to Boko Haram fighters in the Lake Chad basin.  Boko Haram has allegedly pledged allegiance to the Organization of the Islamic State and has been staging armed incursions deep inside Cameroon territory. These narcotics, transported by the local networks of the sect, were concealed in cans, bags and cartons.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and nine former African presidents have warned that the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in “grave danger” due to the failure to organize an election to replace President Joseph Kabila.

Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December, adding to uncertainty in the vast, mineral-rich Central African nation, where regional wars from 1996-2003 killed millions of people.

An agreement between Kabila’s ruling coalition and opposition leaders calls for the presidential election to take place by the end of this year, but delays in registering voters and mobilizing financing make that increasingly unlikely.

“The failure to organize elections in late 2016, in conformity with the constitution of the DRC, has created an acute political crisis,” Annan and the former presidents, including South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo, said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

“We feel obliged to sound the alarm before it is too late,” it added.

Dozens died last year in violent anti-government protests in major cities, and an insurrection in the center of the country has killed hundreds and displaced 1.3 million since last August.

(Source: Reuters)

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants have taken at least 20 people hostage in a restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu after ramming an explosive-laden car into a hotel next door, claiming the lives of 11 people.

Security officials said the militants first rammed the car into the entrance of the Posh Hotel in the capital on Wednesday and then stormed the Pizza House restaurant, which is adjacent to the hotel and a popular venue for young citizens, according to Reuters.

The gunmen cut off electricity to complicate security forces’ efforts to end the siege, according to officials. Heavy gunfire was also heard. “The fighters are still inside Pizza House and they hold inside over 20 people. We do not know how many of those are dead or alive,” said Ibrahim Hussein, a police major.

Witnesses said security forces cordoned off the whole district surrounding the site of the incidents, and that the people inside the hotel had been safely evacuated. Other sources put the number of fatalities from car bomb attack on the hotel at 17. Somalia has been a scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.

The al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-aligned militant group, was forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military and civilian targets seemingly at will in Mogadishu and regional towns.

A particularly deadly Shabab strike on a busy market left 39 people dead in February, while a twin car bomb attack by the group on a popular Mogadishu hotel left 28 dead in January.

The Takfiri militant group is just one of the challenges facing the new Somali government, which is still struggling to expand its authority beyond the capital and other selected areas.

Source: Presstv

The civil disobedience campaign that was staged today Monday the 12^th of June across the thirteen counties in Southern Cameroon has reportedly been a huge success. Cameroon Concord News sources say ghost town operations frustrated the political GCE currently going on in West Cameroon. There were more soldiers and police officers on the streets today than students writing the General Certificate of Education examination.

Our correspondent in the Fako constituency hinted that not a single student took part in the GCE in Muyuka. We also gathered that some few Francophone students who showed up at the GBHS and CCAS Kumba centers were given snake beatings by members of a group calling for an independent state of Ambazonia. Our Kumba informant revealed that some 100 students guarded by approximately 200 soldiers participated in today’s GCE in Meme Division.

In Mamfe the chief town in Manyu Division, troops were deployed by the controversial SDO to the GBHS campus to provide security for some 40 Francophone students. There was also a huge police presence in GBHS Muea and Lycee Molyko for some few Francophones students. Many Francophone GCE candidates deserted GHS Buea campus for fear of a second bee attack.

By Sama Ernest

Cameroon Concord News

Eleven people were killed and more than 900 inmates escaped Sunday after unidentified assailants attacked a jail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s restive east, an official said. “The Kangwayi prison in Beni was attacked at 3:30 pm (1330 GMT) by assailants whose identity is not yet known,” Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu Province, told reporters.

“In the exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers, authorities have (counted) 11 dead including eight members of the security forces,” Paluku said, adding, “For the moment, out of 966 prisoners, there are only 30 left in the prison.” Paluku said the Beni area and the neighboring town of Butembo had been put under curfew from 6:30 pm. “Only police officers and soldiers should be out from this time,” he said.

The attack came a day after the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked a police station and a prosecutor’s office in the capital, Kinshasa, killing a police officer and seriously injuring four others after a series of similar strikes over the past three weeks. It also comes after two jailbreaks in the vast, unstable central African nation in the past month.

The violence has erupted as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is mired in a deep political crisis tied to President Joseph Kabila’s hold on power. Tension has been mounting across the vast mineral-rich nation of 71 million people since December last year, when Kabila’s second and final term officially ended.

Under a power-sharing agreement brokered by the influential Catholic Church on New Year’s Eve, Kabila is due to remain in office until elections at the end of 2017. However, Kabila earlier this month seemed to back away from the deal to hold a vote this year.

“I have not promised anything at all,” he told the German weekly Der Spiegel in a rare media interview. “I wish to organize elections as soon as possible.”

(Source: AFP)

At least eight refugees have drowned when their Europe-bound boat sank off Libya’s coast, a coastguard official says. The eight bodies were on an inflatable craft that can carry up to 120 passengers, said Colonel Fathi al-Rayani, head of the coastguard in Garabulli, 60 kilometers east of Tripoli.

He estimated that “at least 100” refugees were missing. The boat was spotted deflated off Garabulli, and the coastguard found the bodies inside, AFP reported. Conflict-ravaged Libya has long been a stepping stone for refugees seeking a better life in Europe.

The UN says around 61,250 refugees have reached Italy since the start of the year after crossing the Mediterranean, while 1,778 more are dead or missing. The Italian coastguard has said that more than 900 refugees were rescued off Libya on Thursday and Friday.

Libyan navy spokesman, General Ayoub Qassem, meanwhile told AFP that coastguards patrolling off Zawiya west of Tripoli on Friday intercepted five inflatables and two wooden boats with more than 570 refugees on board.

He said the boats were being escorted by five Libyans on a jet ski and two outboards, and that three of the men were apprehended. “The migrants are Africans, Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Moroccans … and were delivered to the detention center in Zawia,” Qassem said.

Intercepted or rescued refugees are often held in detention centers before being repatriated. People traffickers have exploited the chaos in Libya since the 2011 uprising deposed and killed former dictator Muammar Ghaddafi to boost their lucrative but deadly trade.

(Source: AFP)