Cameroon

8, December 2021

French Cameroun: At least 19 killed in ethnic clashes in Far North region ⁰

Death toll in clashes between herders and fishers in Cameroon’s Far North region has increased to 19, many hacked to death with machetes, the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari said on Tuesday.

The clashes in the Logone and Chari division of the region began on Sunday between Mousgoum fishermen and Arabchoas cattle ranchers. Bakari said they are fighting over water resources and grazing land to maintain control over their natural habitats.

“This has to stop. (We have come here) to extend our condolences to those who lost their beloved ones and also to those who are injured and who are right now in different hospitals. We are calling each and every one to avoid violence in order to permit development and embrace peace,” Bakari said during a visit to Logone and Chari to diffuse tension.

Villagers have sought refuge in military camps in the region while others have fled across the border into neighboring Chad after the clashes left farms and villages destroyed, authorities said.

On Monday, Bakari told Xinhua by phone that troops have been deployed to the troubled area to maintain peace and order. Cameroon’s Far North has a history of ethnic tensions, but recent clashes are the deadliest, according to local traditional leaders.

In August, 12 people were killed when the two tribes clashed over land and water sources.

Source: Xinhuanet

8, December 2021

Southern Cameroons refugee crisis affecting map of Nigeria ⁰

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on the international community to urgently support over 70,000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.

The UN agency said that nearly 80 per cent of these people are women and children.

“This is not just a number, these are people behind these numbers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, people just like you and I, that have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety and save their lives,” says UNHCR’s Country Representative Chansa Kapaya. “70,000 refugees are 70,000 daughters and sons.”

Their dreams and plans were disrupted by violence in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon where a conflict between secessionist Non-State Armed Groups and the army has been displacing people from their homes since 2017. Recent arrivals and UNHCR’s protection monitoring confirm killings, abductions, forced evictions and other forms of violence, with armed groups attacking schools and hospitals.

Over 8,000 Cameroonian women, men and children have arrived in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River and Taraba States in the past 12 months, many in hard- to -reach rural areas. UNHCR, together with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, registered them. 59 percent found refuge in local communities. The rest live in four settlements which UNHCR helped build on land generously provided by the government.

Nigeria has a progressive open-door approach to refugees, allowing refugee girls and boys to go to school just like nationals and their parents to work where they can. With support from UNHCR, Nigeria provides primary health care to refugees and nationals alike. “UNHCR commends Nigeria because it is on its way to become a champion in implementing the Global Compact on Refugees,” says UNHCR’s Representative Chansa Kapaya, “but Nigeria needs support”. The most pressing needs of Cameroonian refugees are food, shelter, improved health care and education as well as livelihood opportunities.

With rising food prices, the economic hit of COVID-19 and the refugee influx, needs are on the rise with serious risks of gender-based violence and negative copying mechanisms such as begging and survival sex. The amount of support UNHCR can deliver is increasingly falling short. Cash for food, for instance, had to be reduced from 2019 due to insufficient funding.

US$97.7 million is needed to respond to the needs of a total of some 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities and to IDP needs – protection, camp management/coordination, shelter and non-food items such as blankets and jerry cans.

So far, not even half of this amount (45 per cent, as of 23 November) has been received. UNHCR calls on donors and development agencies not to forget Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.

Source: Vanguard

7, December 2021

Cameroon’s albinos threatened by magic and superstition ⁰

Faced with discrimination around the world with their different appearances, albinos livening in Cameroon live under the fear of being killed for ritual purposes.

In some local traditions, it is believed that the limbs of albinos are magical and brings luck and good health to anyone who possesses them.

President of the Association for the Promotion of Albinos in Cameroon, Kakmeni Wembou Raphaël lamented his mother faced a lot of societal pressure to put her at the granary.

“My mother was told to put me in the granary, because when the corn is dried in the granary and she put me there, I will become black afterwards.

“My own family does not visit me. So everything I do, they don’t take into consideration. They have no respect for me … Njoko Kom Sandra added.

Out of 17 000 people worldwide, there is at least one albino, and one in 5,000 in sub-Saharan Africa.

A primary school pupil, Douangni Sandrine, is now an outcast in her own family. According to her, no member of the family cares about her wellbeing due to her skin colour. “Everyone thinks I am cursed. used the expression.

According to her history teacher, although there are no longer abductions and killings as before, the rituals continue.

In addition to the social problems they face, albinos with sensitive skin easily contract skin cancer if they do not protect themselves from the sun.

Statics shows 80 per cent of albinos in sub-Saharan Africa died from cancer.

In Cameroon, many albinos in the country do not have access to sunscreen because of the high prices.

Regular check-ups, access to sunglasses and sunscreen are important for albinos to continue living healthy lives.

Source: Africa News

6, December 2021

Southern Cameroons War: VP Yerima says Francophone army soldiers worn down, weakened ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has said that the people of Ambazonia have managed to wear down the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army and deprive it of the so-called military victory as was anticipated by Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

Vice President Dabney Yerima, during his Sunday presentation to the Ambazonia war cabinet, said the war option against British Southern Cameroonians was made by Mr.Paul Biya thinking that French Cameroun was still dealing with the Muna-Egbe Tabi and Foncha generation in Ambazonia and added that the people of Southern Cameroons with the support of their diaspora citizens have become too powerful to fall victim to French Cameroun aggression.

Yerima stressed that the French Cameroun enemy has instead resorted to using some Southern Cameroonians both in the homeland and in the West against the Ambazonia resistance.

Dabney Yerima further opined that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia today is powerful without even a well organized military and La Republique du Cameroun is now aware that the Ambazonia homeland is no longer occupiable.

His remarks came after a Southern Cameroons Interim Government statement last week blamed the kidnappings in Bamenda on the so-called AGovC/ADF militia.

By Asu Vera Eyere

6, December 2021

Cameroon gov’t troops arrested about 145 Ambazonians, including women and children in October ⁰

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde arrested some 145 Southern Cameroonians, including women and children, in October, a report released recently by the Ambazonia Interim Government says.

In its monthly coverage of the war in Southern Cameroons, the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed today that La Republique du Cameroun violations against the people of British Southern Cameroons had soared considerably.

According to Professor Carlson Anyangwe, Francophone army soldiers arrested 145 Southern Cameroonians, including women in October.

The Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs added that a young cab driver arrested in Mamfe in Manyu Division was rounded up on lame and ridiculous reason that he was financing Amba fighters. Also Cameroon government forces detained 12 bike riders in Kumba in Meme Division.

Cameroon government army soldiers often carry out detention raids against Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero, claiming that they seek to arrest wanted separatists.

More than 3,000 Southern Cameroonians are reportedly held in jails in Buea, Douala, Dschang and Yaounde. Several Southern Cameroonians have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding English speaking Cameroonians inmates without trial or charge. Some Southern Cameroons prisoners of concience have been held in administrative detention for up to five years.

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi

5, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 3 Cameroon gov’t army soldiers killed in Jakiri ⁰

At least three soldiers were killed and others were wounded when a military outpost was attacked in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local and military sources.

Separatist leaders said on social media that their fighters carried out the attack on Friday at 7.25 a.m. local time in Jakiri, a locality in the region.

There was no information on casualties recorded by the separatist militias, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The separatist terrorists ambushed and killed the soldiers who were at the main security outpost inside the Jakiri market. We have launched a hunt to capture the terrorists and criminals,” a military official with knowledge about the attack told Xinhua but asked not to be named.

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest have been experiencing an armed separatist conflict since 2017. The separatists want to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in the regions.

Source: Xinhua new agency

5, December 2021

Kidnapping of Ndopping Roger and breastfeeding wife: Dr. Patrick Ayuk says all evidence points to Cho Ayaba ⁰

A senior Southern Cameroons academic, Dr Patrick Ayuk, has called on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his gang to release Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem, who was kidnapped 29 November 2021 while working for CamWater in Bamenda the chief city in the North West.

Ayaba Cho Lucas, leader of the notorious AGovC/ADF crime syndicate operating in the Southern Cameroons, has blatantly refused to order the release of Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem despite collecting over USD 5000 as an initial ransom payment.

Addressing a group of Southern Cameroonians in Luxembourg via zoom, Dr Patrick Ayuk said, “To conceive that a criminal gang would kidnap a man and a breastfeeding wife is appalling and unacceptable. This crime has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons struggle, and the leader of this criminal entity, Cho Ayaba, should order the release of this man immediately. Kidnap for ransom has no place in Ambazonia”

The Ndopping Roger incident has rightfully invited immense pressure on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his Ambazonia crime syndicate. Our chief correspondent in Bamenda who contributed to this report opined that 97.4% of Southern Cameroonians are against kidnapping for ransom even if the proceeds are for the liberation struggle.

Dr Ayuk furthered, “even if the AGovC/ADF claims that the proceeds of their criminality will be used to buy tools that will eventually liberate Ambazonia, that doesn’t make their actions acceptable. We cannot intentionally punish the people we want to liberate. Cho Ayaba must know that his actions are tantamount to highway robbery and against international law. These actions diminish our struggle in the eyes of our international partners.”

The AGovC/ADF has been one of the many militias operating in Southern Cameroons ever since President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on October 2017. The group says its Defense/Kidnapping Unit is led by a certain Mr Capo Daniel an untrained motor mechanic, who regularly announces kidnappings and ransom demands on social media.

Many Southern Cameroonians have wondered aloud why SDOs and Governors representing the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé are braving the bad roads and the streets of Ambazonia, while private citizens are easy targets for AGovC/ADF.

Elsewhere, Ambazonian leaders at home and in the Diaspora have condemned Ayaba Cho Lucas over his disgraceful kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Ground Zero. They say his militia is taking advantage of the security vacuum and making life unbearable for ordinary citizens.

By Isong Asu in London with files

2, December 2021

Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion in Ambazonia: Yerima moves to block ADF/AGOVC criminal payments ⁰

INTERIM GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON THE ADF/AGovC CRIMINAL KIDNAP OF MR NDOPING for RANSOM

Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

A video is circulating on social media posted by Capo Daniel and the ADF/AGOVC implicating the Interim Government of Ambazonia on a sickening crime scheme. The video is of a kidnapped Mr Ndoping, a manager at CamWater. The criminal perpetrators are asking for a ransom for his release. The Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to put on record that it condemns this action strongly.

After consultations with defence teams on the ground, we were informed that they were under the custody of AGOVC/ADF fighters. The kidnapped family includes a breastfeeding mother! The IG calls for them to be released unharmed without delay!!

Earlier, I called Capo Daniel and asked for the immediate release of these Southern Cameroonians, but he requested to talk directly to the family. I know many people who have reached out to Dr Cho Ayaba to ask for their freedom to no avail.

Fellow Ambazonians, our fight is against the invading army of French Cameroun, not on our people fighting for their livelihoods when there is yet no alternative for them. I am a father, and I can imagine what the children of the kidnapped couple are going through right now.

The IG distances itself from any acts of kidnapping and informs Ambazonians that no agreement has ever been reached between the IG and ADF/ AGOVC regarding any Liberation Tax collection in Ambazonia. We know it’s our collective responsibility to liberate our nation and your IG has strong institutions to attain this objective.

Let me make this as clear as possible: any leader’s mandate in this revolution is to liberate our people, not rule over them. Let’s focus on liberation and stop putting the cart before the horse.

I take this opportunity again to call on the AGOVC/ADF and Capo Daniel to refrain from implicating the Interim Government of Ambazonia in criminal activity. I also call on Dr Cho Ayaba to show leadership by releasing Mr Ndoping immediately.

Thank You, and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Ambazonia Interim Government

1, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen abduct Camwater official ⁰

Separatist fighters in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking region of Northwest said on Tuesday they have abducted an official of Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (Camwater), a public-private company that supplies water in the country.

The official who heads the company in the region was seen pleading for his safety and freedom in a video made public on Tuesday by separatist fighters.

The fighters are heard saying in the video that he will only be released when a ransom of 10 million XAF (about 17,299 dollars) is paid and the company ceases to collect money from people for the use of public taps.

Officials of Camwater contacted by Xinhua have confirmed the abduction and said security forces have launched operations for his safe release.

Abductions are common in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where an armed separatist conflict is underway. The December end-of-year festivities are also usually characterized by kidnapping and violence in the regions, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

1, December 2021

Archbishop Andrew Nkea is Cameroon Concord Person Of The Year ⁰

In December every year Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report decide on persons who generate the most news in the past 12 months and our readers vote to get the winner.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are happy to make public the winner of the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2021. He is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace Archbishop ANDREW NKEA

The senior Roman Catholic cleric received the highest number of votes ever since we started the award in 1999 from a list of renowned personalities comprising Barrister Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, one of the lawyers representing President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the jailed leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government, and several other people arrested in connection with the Southern Cameroons crisis, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, Enow Ngashu, Director General of the National Football Academy and Professor Maurice Kamto of the MRC party.

Cameroon Concord People voted vigorously for His Grace Archbishop Andrew Nkea as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2021 and a cream of them particularly from the diaspora gave explanations for their decision in some soul-searching correspondences sent to Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea is a key player in efforts at seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. As Bishop of the Diocese of Mamfe, Andrew Nkea did all he could to save so many lives. He worked tirelessly to bring supplies to Southern Cameroonians who were internally displaced, going sometimes to areas that even Cameroon government army soldiers could not go.

In Manyu Division, Archbishop Andrew Nkea knew exactly how to negotiate with Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards and in the process; he would appeal to their consciences for them to spare the lives of even their worst enemies.

Even after leaving Mamfe where the Ambazonia war started, the Roman Catholic cleric has remained at the forefront of humanitarian efforts during this crisis that hit the global stage some five years ago and has claimed the lives of some 10,000 Cameroonians, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea’s desire to save lives has taken him to distant lands such as Europe and the United States where he engaged with various Southern Cameroonian communities to raise funds for internally displaced persons and those who are living in Nigeria as refugees.

As recorded for us by the Cameroon Concord News Washington Bureau, Archbishop Andrew Nkea travelled to Baltimore in the USA, in July 2019 for a fundraiser for Southern Cameroons refugees organized by the Manyu Community in the DC, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area where thousands of dollars were raised to help those who had left their homes to seek refuge somewhere else.

The Bamenda Metropolitan Archbishop called out the government in Yaoundé and sounded a note of caution when the military killed a Kenyan Mill Hill Missionary priest working in Kembong in Eyumojock Sub Division. Like a good shepherd, he flew to Kenya and buried the priest and did all he could to console the family members of the deceased priest.

Ever since the Holy Father Pope Francis appointed him as Archbishop of the Bamenda Archdiocese, Archbishop Andrew Nkea has been playing a key role in efforts at finding a lasting solution to the conflict that is still consuming many innocent lives and he is working day and night to ensure that peace returns to the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

The complexity of the Southern Cameroons war required engaged clerics who are full of faith and the Holy Spirit to lead and help prevent the Cameroonian nation from a complete collapse. Archbishop Andrew Nkea fully understood and embraced this mission marketing the sufferings of the English speaking people to the international community and today, the crisis in Southern Cameroons has earned international recognition with many developed democracies including the United States calling for a frank and genuine dialogue to resolve the situation.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea remains the only Roman Catholic cleric who braved the threats coming from Cameroon government officials and visited the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in Yaoundé. And the Metropolitan Archbishop continues to demonstrate the highest level of neutrality in the 5-year-old conflict that has rocked Southern Cameroons.

For over five years, Archbishop Andrew Nkea who reportedly has no interest in supporting the Yaoundé regime has continued his humanitarian operations so that those who have been caught in the crossfire can have access to humanitarian assistance. He recently seek and gotten support from the Cameroon Catholic Community in Mulheim, Germany to equip the Saint John of God Hospital in Mamfe with an X-ray film printer to help many affected by the fighting.

During a trip to the United States, the Archbishop told an American journalist that his cardinal objective is to ensure that both parties in the Southern Cameroons conflict meet in a neutral place to discuss their differences so that peace can return to a country that was once touted for its peace.

Painted by many around the world as a man of peace, Archbishop FUANYA Andre Nkea (to use his three names) has no interest in taking sides in a conflict that should not have started and understands the risks and the need to bring both parties to the negotiating table.

In a strongly worded pastoral letter addressed to President Biya at the very beginning of the crisis, the Bishops of the Bamenda Province demonstrated that they understood there must always be room for a possible negotiation and only spiritual leaders can bring about that window of opportunity and communication. Archbishop Andrew Nkea carried along with him the Archbishop of Yaoundé, Jean Mbarga to begin a peace process with the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders that was torpedoed by hardliners of the Biya Francophone regime including some top Francophone military officials who are making huge profits from the war in Southern Cameroons.

Upon his appointment as Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mamfe on 30, December 2019, Fuanya Andrew Nkea opined in his homily that no war has ever been wrapped up in the battlefield even when the belligents are too powerful; they always understand that real and sustainable peace can only be gotten at the negotiating table. He has maintained that position till this day and he remains a total man of God at the service of the Lord.

The Preaching Bishop as the nation always refers to him is not a politician nor a cleric-politician but a servant of God full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea has met several times with a stone wall in carrying out his Southern Cameroons peace mission but has never relented and as he (himself) rightly puts it: “My faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit guides all my actions during these difficult times in our nation’s history.”

Archbishop Andrew Nkea’s Southern Cameroons peace mission in the fullness of faith and the Holy Spirit is greatly appreciated. We of the Concord Group are proud of his work as a man of God, preaching peace and bringing relief to the suffering people of his archdiocese. We therefore congratulate Archbishop Andrew Nkea for the richly deserved recognition accorded him by a tremendous majority of Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report readers. 2022 will bring more success stories to both French and English speaking Cameroonians.

On behalf of the over daily thirty thousand readers of Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report, we call on the Francophone dominated Biya regime in Yaoundé and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government under the stewardship of Vice President Dabney Yerima to listen to Archbishop Nkea’s peace message in order to end this senseless war currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group