Suspected militants from the terror group Boko Haram killed at least two people and wounded four others overnight into Saturday in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to local and security sources.

The assailants raided Cheripouri village of the region when the villagers were asleep, shooting indiscriminately and vandalizing property, a security official who asked not to be named told Xinhua quoting the villagers.

Security has been beefed up in the locality and government forces are in pursuit of the militants, the source said.

Boko Haram group has been active in Cameroon’s Far North region since 2014, posing enormous humanitarian and governance challenges.

Source: Xinhuanet

Building collapses have become rampant in Cameroon’s cities. Shoddy materials are only partly to blame.

Buildings are crumbling in Cameroon. Private and commercial buildings regularly collapse. People are fleeing the countryside for cities. This booming demand puts pressure on developers to build as fast and as cheaply as they can.

Collapses have become common in Cameroon’s cities. Contractors use sub-standard construction materials. The push for bigger profits plus a lack of supervision jeopardizes the quality of building projects.

The vast majority of buildings lack permits. They are erected without plans and often built by untrained workers. All reasons why Cameroon’s buildings often fail.

Culled from DW

A senior Southern Cameroons academic Professor Carlson Anyangwe has warned about the Biya French Cameroun ongoing efforts to sow disunity in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Speaking to our correspondent in Toronto, Canada on the sidelines of the Southern Cameroons Retreat, the renowned man of law said that over the past 5 years, the Southern Cameroons have witnessed immense diabolic harsh plots both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora to stifle the Ambazonia quest for an independent state of Southern Cameroons.

Carlson Anyangwe was in Toronto, Canada and reportedly  addressed the opening ceremony of the Southern Cameroons International  Retreat that was organized by the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiation (CDN)- A United States based international Non-Government Organization whose goal is to facilitate dialogue and seek a negotiated resolution and an end to the conflict in the Southern Cameroons.

Professor Anyangwe noted that the people of Southern Cameroons have survived the divisive attempts by Biya and his French Cameroun political elites thanks to efforts at preserving its unity.

“These efforts date back to the unifying push that emerged with the formation of the Ambazonia Interim Government in the Federal Republic of Nigeria” Anyangwe furthered.

The Southern Cameroons front line leader appealed to the Cameroon Concord News Group to continue to make public slogans and ideas promoting unity among Southern Cameroons restoration groups that will strengthen unity among Ambazonians, and bring about much convergence among the people of Southern Cameroons.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either  internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Chi Prudence Asong

A senior Cameroon government official has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that concerns surrounding the 88-year-old President Paul Biya’s health are credible.

The Francophone dictator is apparently battling for his life, an Etoudi source with direct knowledge told our Yaoundé city reporter late on Sunday. It should be noted that Biya has not been seen in any public or private family celebration both in the nation’s capital and in his native Mvomeka’a for some time now and it has raised rumours about the leader’s health condition.

On Monday, a Cameroon government official told Cameroon Intelligence Report that rumours regarding President Biya’s health condition were credible, but was still clueless about the severity of his illness.

As per a conversation we had with a top baron of the regime at the time of filing this report, Biya is indeed suffering from Covid-19 complications and this is the reason why he has been conspicuously absent from the political scene. We gathered that the Cameroonian leader is currently receiving treatment in his Mvomeka’a villa.

Are these reports credible?

“Over the last decade, there have been a number of false health rumours about President Biya. We’ll have to wait and see,” said Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, Cameroon Concord News Group senior political man who is also very experienced in intelligence gathering.

By Asu Vera Eyere

There was more macabre violence in Southern Cameroons this week as two armed Cameroon government soldiers in Ekondo Titi were seized, beaten and finally shot to death.

Their bloody bodies were reportedly discovered a short while later in a garbage patch and were identified as Corporals Koum and Mohamed Mbouombouo.

The two were arrested by Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards trying to flee quickly when challenged by an Ekondo Titi Amba security watch, according to Cameroon Concord News sources.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either  internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Rita Akana and Eyere Asu

Gunmen have kidnapped Manfred Likine Mbua, a government official in Cameroon’s Anglophone region of Northwest, officials said on Tuesday.

Manfred Likine Mbua, a trained journalist and government chief of communication in Ngoketunjia, a division of the region was kidnapped by gunmen in late October but news about his abduction was only announced to reporters early Tuesday.

His whereabouts is still unknown and the kidnappers are demanding a “huge” amount of money as ransom, according to police in Bamenda, chief town of the region.

The army and police have launched an operation to secure his safe release, the police said.

Abductions are common in the region where the army and armed separatists have been clashing since 2017.

The separatists want to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Source: PMNEWS Nigeria

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has insisted on the legitimacy of self defense against French Cameroun occupational forces.

In a press briefing on Monday in Toronto, Canada, Vice President Dabney Yerima stressed that the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé no longer have legitimate authority in the internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and that the independence of Southern Cameroons cannot be waived or bargained over.

The Dabney Yerima statement emphasized that self defense in all its forms, from “kontry Sunday” to armed resistance including lockdowns would remain an Ambazonian legitimate option, which has proved its utility until the British Southern Cameroons nation is restored and the French backed French Cameroun occupation ends.

Referring to French President Emmanuel Macron’s continued support for the ruling crime syndicate in French Cameroun, Vice President Dabney Yerima pointed out in the statement that France bears the guilt of the genocide in Southern Cameroons.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Isong Asu on special assignment

Jean-Louis Beh Mengue, former general manager of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART), was sentenced Monday, November 1, 2021, to 20 years in prison by the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde.

The Beti-Ewondo French Cameroun political elite was prosecuted for misappropriation of public funds of nearly CFAF 400 million during his time at ART.

Claiming his innocence before the President Biya’s court, the former baron of the regime reportedly pleaded not guilty.

On October 8, his lawyers denounced the fact that the prosecution, based solely on the report of the control mission of the Supreme State Council.

Sacked in 2017, Jean-Louis Beh Mengue was placed in detention in the Kondengui Maximum Security prison on August 8, 2019.

With his conviction, he joins and extends the long and endless list of former strongmen of the Biya regime now incarcerated for embezzlement and or corruption.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report call it President Biya’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit.

 An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt country in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.

Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty-eight years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war in Southern Cameroons and the Boko Haram crisis, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to eternalize power purportedly to direct the war against so-called terror and the war against corruption.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained late Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat.  Prof Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefitted from a purported presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail.

The fear of a presidential referral to the Special Criminal Court on additional charges of corruption under a practice devolved under the supervision of Paul Biya called “rouleur compresseur” pushed Titus Edzoa   to rejoin the CPDM Party without a public resignation or repudiation of his membership of the party on which he intended to contest presidential elections prior to his incarceration.  Edzoa was a victim of this system of presidential justice when new charges were brought against him when his first imprisonment was about to end in other to maintain him in prison.

Cameroonians want the rule of law to be the guarding principle on which justice is administered in the name of the people.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Toronto meeting is finally over, with warring factions and stakeholders agreeing on key issues and the way forward.

The meeting, which brought together representatives of various groups in the Diaspora and on Ground Zero, has ended its deliberations and will be releasing an end of event press release very soon.

Be the first to know as our correspondents at the event will be offering you insightful analyses and perspectives.

Cameroonians across the globe have been scanning the horizon for five good years in search of hope and the Toronto meeting seems to be that bright spot the people of Cameroon have been searching.

After a few days of deliberations, the various factions are gradually inching towards meaningful agreements which might change the situation in Southern Cameroons.

Many factions present at the august meeting now hold that dialogue is the ideal way forward and key actors are gradually gyrating towards a federal system that will be similar to what obtains in Canada.

Speaking at one of the major sessions, Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla made a strong case for federalism, arguing that Cameroon could still be united within a solid federal structure patterned on the Canadian system which has brought peace to Canada, a country that has had a history of dealing with linguistic minorities.

Participants at the Toronto meeting are narrowing their differences and now understand that fighting alone will not deliver the results they want and that the international community has little or no appetite for secession, especially those based on language.

The participants were carefully chosen and the civil society was invited and Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla who is known worldwide is a symbol of those who hold that Cameroon could be federally united and indivisible and his involvement in human right activities and legal justice make him a key player in the negotiations.

Conspicuously absent at the meeting are key members of the Sako faction which is currently embroiled in a bitter internecine fighting.

The fight between Dr. Sako Ikome, whose faction has been losing clout for sometime now, and Secretary Chris Anu has kept their faction from any preliminary talks.

A source at the Toronto meeting has hinted Cameroon Concord News Group that Dr. Sako who was once popular after the arrest of Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe is gradually being dumped on the ash heap  of history because of his extremist views.

The organizers of the conference which include the US State Department, the Vatican, Canada and Greenclee which negotiated the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland are hopeful that the meeting will deliver hope to a people who have been hopeless for more than four years.

“The objective of the meeting is to help all the factions to strike a good understanding of the situation and ensure that the message of peace being promoted by the Swiss team and other stakeholders is clearly and fully being understood by all the participants, including the Cameroon government which is using back channels to call for peace through talks,” a meeting participant who elected anonymity said on the sidelines of the meeting.

“All of us attending the meeting are gradually coming to terms with the fact that a military victory is impossible in Southern Cameroons. If we need peace, we must talk. We have to rise above our egos in order to bring peace to our people who have been suffering over the last five years because of a disagreement that could have been easily addressed,” the source added.

“We can never thank the organizers of this meeting enough. We are hoping that the government which has been using diplomatic means to pressure the various factions, will accept the proposals which will be submitted to it at the end of this important meeting,” the source stressed.

“The government must come to terms with the fact that Cameroon has changed for good. The current crisis is a clear indication that the country’s current political configuration needs an overhaul and that must come sooner rather than later. A new page of our history is being written in Toronto, Canada, and I hope future generations will be pleased with this major step that will help us put an end to the scourge of war that has killed many Cameroonians,” the source underscored.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either  internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

The Toronto meeting is not a panacea and it is not designed to sweep key issues under the carpet. It is indeed an opportunity that will lead to other meetings which will be attended by most of the warring factions.

According to another participant who also elected anonymity, the meeting actually brought in many stakeholders, including  observers from the USA, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Norway, and Canada.

 Additionally, there were presentations by Canadian Professors and discussions on the Irish experience regarding the liberation war against the British, which also involved the IRA and Sein Fein.

The Toronto meeting has succeeded in its overall objective of bringing together the significant Southern Cameroonian groups in the Diaspora and Ground Zero.

Meeting participants resolved to work in synergy in the critical aspects of the struggle for decolonization.

They also resolved to begin discussions on working together as a cohesive visible movement with a clear and articulate agenda moving forward, in the key areas of the fight for freedom and humanitarian work.

The meeting, according to other participants, was just the first of many which will be held out of Cameroon, with each having a clear agenda, action points and time lines.

Cameroonians have a reason to be hopeful and both the participants and organizer of the Toronto 2021 meeting are relieved  that the very first step forward has been taken.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with correspondent reports