At least nine soldiers and four separatist fighters were killed in weekend clashes in Southern Cameroons that has been ravaged by a four-year armed separatist conflict, security and local sources said on Monday.

Seven soldiers were killed and four others seriously injured on Sunday when separatist fighters detonated a roadside improvised explosive device in Kikaikilaki, a locality in the region, an army official who asked not to be named revealed.

The soldiers were transporting corpses of two other soldiers who were ambushed and killed on Saturday while they were patrolling the Chounghi village in the region, the official said.

Early Monday, the army displayed corpses of four armed separatist fighters on the street of Bamenda, chief town of the region whom they said were killed in overnight clashes in the town. A civilian was also killed in the clashes, according to the army. There were no reports of casualties on the part of government forces.

There have been renewed clashes in the region over the past one week after separatist fighters threatened to disrupt schools, according to security reports.

Since 2017, government forces have been clashing with separatist fighters in the Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest of the Central African nation where separatists want to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia”.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has urged the international community to follow up on the conditions of Southern Cameroons political detainees and prisoners of conscience held in French Cameroun controlled jails and detention centers, after it was revealed they are going through the harshest treatment in the Buea prison.

Dabney Yerima informed members of the Ambazonia war cabinet that “In Buea the prison cells are opened at 11:00am and closed at 4:00pm. This means that our people get 5hours outside their cramped cells. Within those cells are very poor sewage systems and the smell is constant.”

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader noted that the situation is worse with Southern Cameroons detainees in Kumba, Bamenda, and Bafoussam.

The Southern Cameroons Vice President made the revelation during the Amba weekly cabinet meeting on Monday, demanding that international players make sure the inmates are not subjected to torture and abuse, and compel the French Cameroun regime to implement the Third Geneva Convention related to the treatment of prisoners.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Every young person in West and Central Africa knows that there are only two seasons in a year – the dry and rainy seasons. The rainy season is just wrapping up while most people expect the dry season to kick in. But in Cameroon, another season will succeed the rainy season and the dry season might only come later. 

Cameroon is a land of wonders and there is always something new and negative emerging from there. This year, the dry season might have to wait a little longer. A new season – evacuation – has started in earnest and it might take longer than expected.

Cameroon’s government of the old is finally falling apart. The sick and elderly leaders are grudgingly yielding to the dictates of time. The number of evacuations is on the rise and the old and tired are gradually falling apart. First it was the country’s minister of finance, Louis-Paul Motaze, who was rushed to Switzerland where he is currently fighting for his dear life after a massive attack by COVID-19. 

Though relatively younger than most of his peers, the finance minister has almost all of the known lifestyle diseases. Rumor burst out yesterday, indicating that the man who still has some sense of decorum had died. But a source close to the Motaze family has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that he is still alive but in very bad shape.

The virus has pinned him down and is delivering some of the deadliest punches to a man who has never been athletic. His family members are currently biting their finger nails given that they know that Motaze is immuno-compromised and does not stand a chance. 

Many Cameroonians thought Motaze’s case was just a one-off, but it has simply turned out to be the beginning of a long and disturbing season. The floodgates have been opened. While the government was hoping that other cases would not emerge, the 87-year-old Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, has relapsed. He had been patched up in France a few months ago, but things are really falling apart for a man who is simply a bundle of diseases. 

Besides the lifestyle diseases, Niat is hosting other ailments that will not let him have a good night’s sleep. He is permanently feeling like peeing and since his caregivers cannot keep up, he has been placed in a diaper which gets too wet every thirty minutes. 

Other people have joined the evacuation club and this time around, it is the 84-year-old Sultan of Foumban, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya. The Sultan’s body has been ravaged by diabetes and a heart problem, and COVID-19 has shown up just to serve as a finisher.  COVID-19 is not a respecter of persons and the Sultan’s family is fully aware of that. His family members are down on their knees knocking their heads to the ground in prayer in the fervent hope that the virus will grant the Sultan clemency for all the sins and crimes he has committed.  

While new members are joining the club, old ones are still out there in France enjoying some reprieve. Inoni Ephraim, the country’s one-time Prime Minister, is still in France trying to have his damaged health repaired. The country’s bad politics and years in solitary confinement have reduced the former prime minister to a shadow of his former self. 

As the Cameroon Concord News Group writes this article, a source at the Presidency of the Republic has just called to advise that another bad case is already getting worse. The country’s president, Paul Biya, will likely be evacuated to Switzerland again as his health is still a concern. Mr. Biya, who has been a host of multiple diseases, is having a tough time eating and sleeping, the source said, adding that for the moment, his is the Kingdom of sleeping pills which he happily eats like peanuts.

The Swiss did a good job to put him back together, but like everything artificial, the decorations are already falling apart and the 88-year-old Biya is losing weight and muscles at a very fast rate. He has lost appetite and the fear of death has plunged him into delirium which is an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention usually accompanied by disordered speech and hallucinations. 

The evacuations are costing the Cameroonian taxpayer a pretty penny.  President Biya and his collaborators thought they would be young forever. They disregarded the health sector and never thought there will be a day when they themselves would be scrambling for solutions to their health issues. A modern state-of-the-art health facility in Yaoundé could have reduced the number of evacuations and health spending if the greed that has become the hallmark of the government had been cast off. 

The time has come, and aging is a process nobody can reverse. Old age is a disease, and it must be taken seriously like any of the age-related diseases. Having a modern and well-equipped hospital will allay everybody’s fears, including that of those who erroneously think they are eternal. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ambazonia Restoration Forces attacked several Cameroon government military positions late on Sunday September 12, 2021 in the North West.

At least seven Cameroon government army soldiers were killed by the fighters, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from military sources in Bamenda.

A source in the governor’s office hinted CIR that the attacks were carried out simultaneously on several military posts in the North West region.

We understand a total of three army posts were targeted, notably in the localities of Nkambe, Noni and Ndu. The seven soldiers killed have been identified as Corporal Betsou, Tetang Amade, Alima Ngono, Beldou Dankreo and Koyang Paul.

On Friday, two other soldiers were killed in a similar attack in the locality of Chouame. Yaoundé is maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb as all focus is now on the Africa Cup of Nations.

Since the beginning of the conflict, official figures indicate that some 1,200 soldiers have died in Southern Cameroons. But independent sources put the figure at 3000. The conflict has also cost the lives of more than 35,500 people and forced more than 700,000 others to flee their homes.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government says the 88-year-old Biya and the French Cameroun military will never be able to break the will of the Ambazonian people by intensifying aggression and destruction of British Southern Cameroons towns and villages.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said in a statement on Sunday that the regime in La Republique du Cameroun is neither able to shatter the will of Southern Cameroonians nor capable of weakening the Ambazonian resistance fighters across Southern Cameroons towns and villages by committing crimes and acts of aggression.

“The escalation of Biya regime attacks on both the Catholic and Presbyterian Churches is part of Yaounde’s continued aggression against the Southern Cameroons people and a desperate attempt to divert attention from the internal political crises in French Cameroun” Dabney Yerima said in the Sunday statement.

Why the people of Ambazonia are fighting

Self-determination under international law: The people of Ambazonia are fighting to vindicate their unquestionable and inalienable right of self-determination. They will continue to fight until self-determination is achieved. The right of self-determination is a norm of jus cogens. It is fortified by the internationally-secured territorial framework of the territory of Ambazonia, a framework standing firmly on two territorial treaty-based pillars.

Legitimate rejection of colonialism in any form, shape or manifestation: The fight of the people of Ambazonia also represents a strong and unyielding rejection of colonialism in any form, shape or manifestation. The rejection is consistent with international law which gives colonized people struggling for their liberation the right to the assistance of third parties.

Territory secured by boundary treaties: The territory of Ambazonia is safeguarded by international treaties. Ambazonia’s international boundary to the north and to the west down to the Bakassi Peninsula is well defined by, and is now demarcated on the basis of, the Anglo-German treaty of 1913 specifying the boundary between the British territory of Nigeria and the German territory of Kamerun. Ambazonia’s international boundary to the east is defined and demarcated on the basis ofthe Anglo-French treaty of 1916. The boundary alignment wasendorsed in 1919 at the Treaties of Versailles, confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922, and reconfirmed by the Anglo-French treaty of 1931 respecting the boundary between the British Cameroons and French Cameroun. The territorial integrity of Ambazonia is thus firmly secured under international law.

Title to territory and the principle of utipossidetisjuris: Sovereign title to the territory of Ambazonia belongs to the people of Ambazonia, and not to any other people. The people of Ambazonia are entitled to the integrity of their territory. And this means Republique du Cameroun, which achieved its independence from France on 1 January 1960, must respect the integrity of its own territory, respect the AU core principle of intangibility of African borders as obtained on the day of achievement of independence, and abandons its pursuit of the internationally wrongful conduct of territorial expansionism.

Historical parallels

There are illustrative historical parallels to the darkness that has befallen Ambazonia. The parallels are: Morocco’s occupation and attempt to annex the Western Sahara; Imperial Ethiopia’s occupation and attempt to annex Eritrea; Indonesia’s occupation and attempt to annex East Timor; and apartheid South Africa’s occupation, refusal to leave Namibia and attempt to annex it. Predictably, all these cases led to wars of national liberation. And in all of them each latter-day colonial occupier/oppressor lost.

By Isong Asu with additional reporting from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

It has snowed in the western part of Cameroon, according to media reports.

According to the CRTV broadcaster, the hail and snow were registered in the settlements of Bana and Bakou.

The snow damaged several roofs and plantations, as well as disrupted the traffic.

According to the mayor of Bana, the snow, which is a highly rare phenomenon for this part of Africa, is a sign of climate change.

Source: UrduPoint News

Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji has condemned a wave of violent attacks on police officers by civilians in the central African nation.

“Insulting or assaulting a police officer on duty or refusing to obey instructions is unacceptable,” Nji told a press conference in the capital, Yaounde on Friday.

His remarks came after videos of civilians brawling with police officers because of misunderstanding at police check points and other places in various parts of the country went viral.

The minister said the police are the backbone of the force safeguarding public security and rule of law.

“Irresponsible” citizens who disrespect or attack security officers shall be sanctioned as provided for by the law, Nji said, adding that the punishment ranges from one year imprisonment to death sentence depending on the offence.

Source: Xinhuanet

A group of lawyers in Cameroon said on Thursday they won’t mount a defence for around 100 detained opposition members, charging that they would face “arbitrary” justice.

The supporters of main opposition figure Maurice Kamto – Head of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) and runner-up to in a 2018 presidential election – have been held for nearly a year.

They were taking part, along with members of other opposition parties, in demonstrations calling for the resignation of long-ruling President Paul Biya.

Biya, 88, has ruled the central African country with an iron fist for nearly 40 years.

More than 500 members of Kamto’s party were arrested in a crackdown on September 22 last year.

Many were released, but 124 remain in detention, according to the MRC.

On Thursday, a group of around 50 lawyers who were defending them said they were abandoning the effort.

“The collective said it cannot associate itself with arbitrariness and illegality, taking the heavy and delicate decision of withdrawing from the (legal) procedures that are under way,” they said in a statement.

They said they could not count on “fair justice from an impartial and independent court”.

Source: AFP

Minister Louis Paul Motaze has just been evacuated to Switzerland after five days in the VIP pavilion of the Yaoundé Central Hospital.

According to credible sources, the health of Louis Paul Motaze deteriorated on September 4 and the Minister of Finance was then hospitalized and placed on respiratory assistance.

President Biya reportedly ordered an evacuation of his nephew who also moonlights as Finance Minister on September 7, but it was then rescheduled.

Minister Motaze who headed the National Social Insurance Fund left Yaoundé on board a medical plane yesterday at 6:30 am, bound for Switzerland.

By Rita Akana

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has decried the vicious and malicious measures adopted by French Cameroun prison authorities against Southern Cameroons detainees currently being held in detention centers in Douala, Yaoundé and Dschang.

In a statement on Tuesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima warned against Biya regime’s use of excessive force and torture against Southern Cameroons detainees and prisoners of conscience, holding the 88-year-old French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya responsible for the consequences of these dangerous policies.

Yerima hailed President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides, describing them as genuine, courageous and heroic restoration leaders who are inspiring for all freedom seekers in British Southern Cameroons.

Vice President Dabney Yerima also urged international organizations and rights groups to stop the Francophone police and army violations against the rights of Southern Cameroons prisoners.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader noted that the IG’s department of foreign affairs has raised the alarm over Southern Cameroons detainees with the EU and the UN.

“La Republique du Cameroun attacks have killed several young Southern Cameroonians. The blood of our martyrs killed at the hands of the Biya Francophone regime will not be forgotten,” Yerima furthered.

He added, “The hostility of the French Cameroun regime is continuing, and it is responsible for the destruction of Southern Cameroons.”

By Chi Prudence Asong