After three days of detention at the Littoral Gendarmerie Legion, the influential 54-year-old entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong was released late Friday afternoon, August 13, 2021.

The renowned Tech entrepreneur made the news official herself through a tweet.

“I am free!!! All charges dropped! We can remove the hashtag #FreeRebecca. I am extremely grateful to all of you for believing in me and supporting me,” she shared on this social network the moment she breathed the air of freedom.

A rather happy ending for Rebecca Enonchong, after three days of detention at the Legion of Gendarmerie of the Littoral, for “contempt of court”, in a case related to a battle of succession deep within the Enonchong family.

The detention of one of the 50 most influential women in Africa prompted negative reactions around the globe and a wave of protests from civil society actors, politicians, artists, and personalities of the diplomatic community.

On Friday, August 13, 2021, the Ambassador of the European Union to Cameroon, Philippe Van Damme, raised a finger against her arrest. Another prominent world leader who condemned the Biya Francophone regime was Tibor Nagy, the former U.S. Undersecretary for African Affairs. Hon. Tibor Nagy compared the regime of Paul Biya to that of Putin, which he considers the most authoritarian in the world.

By Fon Lawrence

Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups targeted by the Cameroon government army say the restrictive deployment measures now being enforced by the French Cameroun military leadership show that their hit and run strategy poses a challenge to the occupational forces, stressing that the opening of numerous military barracks in Southern Cameroons will fail to weaken their resolve to protect the homeland and restore Ambazonian sovereignty.

An audio message aired late yesterday by fighters in both Kupe Muanenguba and Ndian which are both regiments of the popular Ambazonia Restoration Forces said on Tuesday that they would remain impervious to the French Cameroun military and the so-called Atanga Nji Boys.

A week earlier, the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration announced that it had rehabilitated Southern Cameroons fighters in Buea and Bamenda. But Francis Fai Yengo the so-called director of the DDR centers created by the Biya regime for former fighters is yet to comment on the current situation in Southern Cameroons.

The Amba fighters described the war in Southern Cameroons as a battle between right and wrong saying Southern Cameroonians do not expect anything from the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

“Biya and his French Cameroun gang want a poor Southern Cameroons where the youths are jobless” the fighters said.

By Rita Akana

Troops have been deployed to Cameroon’s Far North region after the killing of 12 people on Tuesday in inter-communal violence, the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari said on Thursday.

At least 48 people were also seriously injured and more than 100 houses torched when dispute over water source and land between members of the fishing community of Mousgoum and Arabchoas who are cattle breeders in the town of Kousseri erupted on Tuesday.

“The situation is calm and stable but the tension is still very high. (Military) reinforcement has been mobilised and they (soldiers) are moving there progressively,” Bakari said on phone. “We have been instructed to do everything possible to restore peace.”

State officials, security and local community leaders have agreed to form an investigation committee and visit the communities to defuse tension and reach reconciliation, according to Bakari.

The area which is located in the Logone and Chari division of the region has witnessed several bloody clashes between tribes in the last five years, but Tuesday’s violence was the deadliest, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

At least nine people were killed and several others injured in fighting between rival ethnic communities in Cameroon’s Far North region, local media and officials said on Wednesday.

Jean Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, prefect of Logone and Chari division told local media the feud flared Tuesday night following a land dispute between villagers of Mousgoum and Arabchoas in the small town of Kousseri.

Six Arabchoas villagers and three Mousgoum villagers were killed in the conflict, according to officials.

Calm has returned to the villages following “rapid intervention” by government forces, local journalist Dairou Mohammed told Xinhua on phone.

Land disputes are common in Cameroon’s Far North region.

Source: Xinhuanet

Prominent political figures in the Swiss Federation have in a secret memo called for the 88-year-old President Paul Biya to step down over his failed Southern Cameroons policy, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a reliable source in Geneva.

Biya arrived Geneva in a very bad shape and news filtered recently that it will be a miracle if the ailing president emerges from his multiple and complicated health challenges.

Our source hinted that under directives from French President Emmanuel Macron, a Swiss delegation reportedly told Biya that the time has come for him to step aside.

Our senior political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai says the happenings in Geneva marks a significant increase in pressure on President Biya for sending his Francophone army soldiers against Southern Cameroons protesters four years ago.

Meanwhile, some legal minds deep within the International Criminal Court have said that the use of violence in Southern Cameroons may amount to crimes against humanity and are pushing the UN Human Rights Council to refer the Southern Cameroons crisis to the International Criminal Court.

Human Rights Watch believes about 4,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and thousands arrested since the crisis started as Cameroon government security forces try to quell the Anglophone uprising.

President Biya has promised political reforms but has continued with his military campaign and blaming the unrest on separatists groups.

The future of the two Cameroons must be determined through frank and genuine dialogue but President Biya is standing in the way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering Southern Cameroonians.

By Isong Asu

Cameroonian officials say at least 82 former Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria and Chad, along with their families, have surrendered to authorities in the past week. Authorities say they’re the latest among hundreds of the militant Islamists who have been defecting since May, when the group’s leader was killed. Cameroon plans to deport the former fighters as the influx has overwhelmed rehabilitation centers along the border.

Cameroon’s government on August 10 said its National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration center in Meri, a northern town on the border with Nigeria, has 967 former jihadist militants. A week ago, there were about 700 former Boko Haram fighters and their families in the center.

Among the over 260 who arrived within the past one week are 82 former Boko Haram male fighters. The others are women and children.

Francis Fai Yengo is the director of DDR centers created by the government of Cameroon for former fighters. He says over 200 of ex-militants are Nigerians. He spoke on Monday after President Paul Biya sent him to meet the former militants and to evaluate their needs.

“We came to see the fighters, those young women and men predominantly made of Nigerians flooding out from the Boko Haram camps into our country,” he said. “The numbers are increasing daily. We welcome them, but after we have done the necessary verifications, we will send them back rapidly to their country because of the good relationship that our country [Cameroon] has with our neighboring country to the west [Nigeria].”

Yengo said several of the former militants are Chadians. He said Biya has provided space and funds for a bigger DDR center to be constructed in Meme, another northern town not far from Nigeria. Yengo said the center at Meri was too small to contain the increasing number of fleeing Boko Haram militants.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin that is fighting the jihadist group said the former militants handed themselves to troops around the Sambisa Forest on the Cameroon Nigeria border, an area considered as Boko Haram’s stronghold. The task force is made up of troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.

Borno State and Sambisa Forest

Nigeria has not issued a statement on the militants’ defections. Cameroon says it has voluntarily handed former combatants to Nigeria several times but that the number that surrendered this week is the highest.

This month, Cameroon said since May, when Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was declared dead, the jihadist group Boko Haram and its fighters are weaker and likely to surrender.

Swaibou Issa, a researcher on Boko Haram at the University of Maroua, says  Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad should encourage fighters who are still reluctant to surrender and help to reconstruct their communities. He says rival jihadist groups are carrying out charitable acts around the Lake Chad Basin aimed at luring in Boko Haram militants and having fighters join other terrorist groups.

Issa says within the past two months, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or the ISWAP, a splinter of Boko Haram, is increasingly gaining power and influence. He says ISWAP has been highly active along the Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad border. He says while recognized international aid groups distribute food to populations in need, ISWAP also shares food to gain sympathy and recruit civilians.

Speaking through the messaging platform WhatsApp from Maroua, Issa said it is possible that many militants want to surrender but fear reprisals from jihadist fighters. 

Kalbassou Daniel is the president of Cameroon’s Far North Regional Council, or the CPDM party, created by the government to speed up local development.

 Kalbassou says it is imperative for the governments of Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad to provide jobs for the ex-jihadist militants. He says the former militants who surrender must be encouraged to have self confidence that is needed before they can reintegrate work for development and become productive contributing members of society. 

Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria’s northeast. The fighters began attacks inside Cameroon in 2014.

According to the U.N., 30,000 people have been killed and 1.8 million displaced in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad since 2009 when the fighting deteriorated into an armed conflict with Nigerian government troops. 

Source: VOA

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government says the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the final collapse of the Biya Francophone crime syndicate in French Cameroun is not just an aspiration, but a reality, which will materialize soon and very soon.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in separate meetings on Sunday with members of the Ambazonia war cabinet and heads of Ground Zero operations.

During the meetings, Vice President Yerima congratulated all Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups on their achievements in countering La Republique du Cameroun aggression against the people of Southern Cameroons, saying, “In view of undeniable realities in Ground Zero, the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government believes that Buea is now on sight and the fall of the 88-year-old French Cameroun butcher is imminent.”

Yerima said the balance of power has shifted in favour of Ambazonia Restoration Forces adding that the Amba fighters were now more powerful and will achieve a victory beyond just a military triumph.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites launched a brutal military campaign against Southern Cameroonians four years ago following a peaceful protest against decades of political and economic marginalization.  

According to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, more than thirty-five thousand Southern Cameroonians have been killed in the Francophone dominated army offensive, including women and children. Scores of innocent civilians have also been wounded including the destruction of more than 400 villages.

Elsewhere in his remark, Yerima said only unity can speed up the journey to Buea. He emphasized that strengthening Amba fighters through the Big Rubbergun Project is a strategy that should never be stopped.

By Chi Prudence Asong

At least three soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack in Cameroon’s Far North region, security and local sources said on Monday.

One militant of the terror group was also killed in the overnight attack on a military outpost in Sagme, a locality of the region.

A military official, who requested anonymity, told Xinhua that the terrorists attempted to dislodge troops in the town, located about 343 kilometers south of Maroua, capital of Far North region.

Boko Haram militants had in the pasted attempted to seize Sagme, which sits near the borders with Nigeria and Chad, but they were repelled by government forces.

In July, militants raided a military outpost in the town, killing eight soldiers, according to the Cameroon army.

Source: Xinhaunet

Cameroon National Gendarmerie said Friday its forces have arrested a group of 30 individuals in the capital, Yaoundé for allegedly trafficking illicit drugs.

The suspects were arrested during two raids carried out on July 30 in the Ntaba and Manguiers neighborhoods of the city, according to a statement released Friday afternoon by the gendarmerie.

“(During the raids) 800 grams of cocaine, 2 kg of cannabis, mobile phones and bladed weapons were seized,” the statement said, adding that a notorious 45-year-old drug dealer was also arrested during the operation.

Officials said they will intensify the operation “to cleanse” the capital city of criminals as the country is preparing to host the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), a continental football competition involving 24 African nations, early next year.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroonian army said Thursday that it firmly opposed what it called “outrageous and provocative” report by the U.S.-based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on atrocities committed by its troops in its English-speaking region of Northwest.

The report published on Monday accused government forces of destruction of property, rape, murder and execution of civilians and looting in the region.

“Everything seems to clearly indicate that the multiple positions taken by HRW are intended only to discredit the defence and security forces,” army spokesman Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo said in a statement Thursday evening while stressing that the accusations were “unfounded.”

“This umpteenth trick by Human Rights Watch does not in any way weaken the morale of the defence and security forces,” he added.

Armed separatists fighting for the “independence” of the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest of the Central African nation have been clashing with government forces since 2017.

Source: Xinhaunet