Two Cameroonian men slated for deportation from the United States were pulled off an ICE flight moments before takeoff on Tuesday as part of an investigation into abuse they alleged they endured in U.S. custody, according to an ICE official with direct knowledge of the incident and immigration advocates.

The two men are part of a group of eight Cameroonian asylum seekers who alleged ICE coerced them into signing their deportation documents through force, including the use of pepper spray. Others who alleged abuse were never taken to the airport, their lawyers told NBC News. It is not clear, however, if any of the eight have been deported.

The allegations were detailed in a complaint brought on behalf of the men by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom for Immigrants, the Cameroonian American Council and others and sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties section.

“I can’t see well still from the pepper spray. As a result of the physical violence, they were able to forcibly obtain my fingerprint on the document,” one of the men, who remained anonymous, said in the complaint.

In response to the allegations in the complaint, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox said: “ICE does not comment on specific matters presented to the Office of the Inspector General, which provides independent oversight and accountability within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That said, in general, sensationalist unsubstantiated allegations are irresponsible, and should be treated with the greatest of skepticism.”

He added: “ICE is firmly committed to the safety and welfare of all those in its custody. ICE provides safe, humane, and appropriate conditions of confinement for individuals detained in its custody.”

An ICE official said some of the men were kept back in order to be interviewed by the investigating agencies, but that does not mean they will not be deported at a later date.

Human rights groups say those deported are likely to face grave risks upon their return to Cameroon, including the threat of execution.

“Our government utterly failed to provide these individuals the safety and refuge they came looking for,” said Luz Lopez, senior supervising attorney with Southern Poverty Law Center‘s Immigrant Justice Project. “They fled persecution only to be met with ICE detention and a one way flight back to being in harm’s way.”

Source: NBC News

A group of asylum-seekers from Cameroon facing deportation back to their conflict-ridden country say they were pressured with force by U.S. immigration officers to sign their deportation paperwork, and that they and a slew of others facing an imminent return flight are at risk of persecution and death.

The eight men recounted their experiences in a complaint filed by a number of immigrant advocate groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

“Officers grabbed me, forced me on the ground, and pepper sprayed my eyes. They handcuffed me,” said a man identified in the complaint as C.A., who went on to add that an officer broke his finger.

“I was crying, ‘I need to talk to my attorney,’ and I said, ‘They are going to kill me.'”

The man said his fingerprint was forced onto the paperwork needed for his deportation back to Cameroon. The other men’s stories followed similar lines.

The SPLC provided the man’s full name and identification number, as well as another man’s in the complaint to The Associated Press so that specific queries could be made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bryan Cox, a spokesman for ICE, said the agency “does not comment on specific matters presented to the Office of the Inspector General, which provides independent oversight and accountability within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That said, in general, sensationalist unsubstantiated allegations are irresponsible, and should be treated with the greatest of skepticism.”

The men had been in detention in Mississippi, but they have all since been transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, said Luz Lopez, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC’s Immigration Justice Project.

There, they have joined at least 100 other asylum seekers and potentially up to 200 people for what Lopez said is believed to be a chartered flight, the first in months, that would head to the African nation.

The idea of returning has the asylum seekers, many of whom are saying they face torture or worse in their homeland, very frightened, Lopez said.

“Folks are terrified to go back, they know they’ll either disappear or be murdered,” she said.

It was unclear when the flight would depart, but advocates said the flight may have already left by Tuesday evening, the same day the process of moving people from the detention center to the plane appeared to have started. ICE has not confirmed whether the flight has taken off.

Katie Shepherd of the American Immigration Council said authorities told her that two men, including C.A., had been pulled from the flight on Tuesday afternoon.

ICE does not confirm removals until after they’ve taken place.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Karen Bass of California, both Democrats, sent a letter to ICE on Tuesday.

They urged ICE to investigate the allegations of abuse and other concerns before any action is taken regarding the detained asylum seekers.

Asylum-seeking Cameroonians, who are escaping bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands, are mostly English speakers fleeing torture inflicted by a French-speaking government as well as English-speaking separatists. Many share personal accounts of Cameroonian soldiers burning their villages, shooting indiscriminately and torturing any perceived opponents.

Cameroonians began arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico in large numbers last year. They typically flew to Ecuador and traveled by foot and on bus through eight countries. Many died, were assaulted or got robbed in the Panamanian jungle.

Cameroonians have fared extremely well in U.S. immigration courts, with 80% winning asylum claims in the U.S. government’s 2019 fiscal year, compared to a 29% success rate for all nationalities, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Their success rate fell to 53% for the 11-month period that ended Aug. 31, compared to 26% for all nationalities.

It is unclear why the Cameroonians described in the complaint are being flown home by the U.S. government but many from the African nation have been denied permission to stay in the United States under new policies that have put asylum virtually out of reach.

In June, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., knocked down a cornerstone policy of the Trump administration that denied asylum to people who travel through other countries to reach the U.S. border with Mexico without first seeking protection in those countries. The Justice Department is appealing.

The ruling’s impact was diminished by a pandemic-related measure introduced in March — also being challenged in court — to quickly expel people who cross the border illegally and block asylum-seekers at official crossings. The administration has relied on a little-known public health law designed to prevent the spread of disease.

Source: ABC News

AMBAZONIAN GREAT, GENERAL AYEKE KILLED IN BATTLE

Fellow Ambazonians,

The Interim Government of Ambazonia can now confirm that earlier today, Tuesday 13 October 2020, a great Ambazonian warrior was killed in battle.

General Ayeke was unfortunately killed in the County of Lebialem as he commanded a brave battalion of Ambazonian troops in a fierce battle against the invading, marauding and lawless forces of French Cameroun.

General Ayeke leaves Ambazonia a better place for having lived and fought for our independence and freedom. The Interim Government requests all Ambazonians flags to fly at half-mast today to honor the life of this brave Ambazonian warrior and commander.

On this somber day, the Interim Government of Ambazonia pledges that, for his life and sacrifice to our nation, his dream of a free Ambazonia shall come to pass.

General Ayeke’s death is a timely reminder to our young nation on the dangers faced by our heroic forces in this fight for liberation and independence. As a nation, let this day strengthen our collective resolve for freedom and independence.

God Bless General Ayeke’s soul for he died a fighter and a champion for freedom and independence for mankind.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Thank You,

Dabney Yerima

Two Cameroonian asylum seekers, who fear they were unknowingly subjected to forced sterilizations at Irwin Detention Center in Georgia, are scheduled to be deported on Tuesday.

The women are now imprisoned at Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas. Advocates are demanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement release them on humanitarian grounds.

Source: Democracynow.org

An unemployed Cameroonian who collected GH¢45,900 cedis from a taxi driver under the pretext of providing three folds of the amount but failed, has been arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court.

Nkam Luc, charged with defrauding by false pretenses, has pleaded not guilty.

The Court presided over by Mrs Adelaide Abui Keddey remanded Luc into Police custody to afford the prosecution the opportunity to conduct further investigations into the matter.

It further directed the prosecution to put their house in order in relation to the matter.

Prosecuting, General Sergeant Thomas Sarfo, narrated that the complainant, Mr Ofosu Mark was a resident of Nungua and the accused also resided in the same vicinity.

Sergeant Sarfo said Mr Ofosu picked one Louis who was a Cameroonian and befriended him. Based on the friendship, Prosecution said Louis invited Ofosu to his house and introduced him to a business.

Prosecution said introducing him to the said business, Louis picked up a GH¢10.00 note and two other blank papers in the shape of the GH¢10.00 note and washed the blank pieces of papers with some chemicals when turned into real currency notes.

Prosecution said Louis then convinced the complainant to bring money so that he would give him three folds of the amount produced.

According to the prosecution, Louis later introduced Luc to the complainant as a Lab technician who would produce the money in large quantities.

Sergeant Sarfo said the complainant became convinced and managed to raise GH¢37,600.00 and GH¢3,000 which was to be used for registration and reproduction of the money in triple folds.

The accused, after taking the money, changed same into GH¢200.00 notes and arranged same with pieces of blank pieces of paper, sprinkled some powered substances on them and hand over to the complainant to keep till the following day.

Prosecution said thereafter, Luc and his accomplice (Louis) cunningly stayed away from the complainant for about a week with the excuse that the chemical needed for washing the money was scarce.

Luc and Louis later collected GH¢8,300.00 from the complainant under the pretext of buying the chemicals.

After a week, prosecution said Louis and Luc continued to give excuses and the complainant became suspicious.

Later, when the complainant visited Louis, he (Louis) had packed out of his room.

Prosecution said the complainant managed to lure accused to Nungua Methodist and he was arrested.

When Luc room was searched, Prosecution said pieces of brown envelopes, black and white substances, cotton, A4 sheets 141 pieces of black papers with $100 inscription on them were found.

Again, prosecution said four pieces of white papers with GH¢50 notes inscription on them, 89 pieces of white blank papers also cut in the shape of GH¢50 notes, some white substance and a rule were also found.

Source: GNA

A national protest is widening over the pending deportations of dozens of Cameroon-born immigrants who lawyers and other advocates say were abused in U.S. detention centers and could face death if sent back to their homeland.

The immigrants, many of them asylum-seekers, were transferred in recent days to the civil detention center in Alvarado, about an hour southwest of Dallas. Four detained Camerooonians said in phone interviews from Prairieland Detention Center that they feared they would be tortured or killed if returned to their violence-plagued homeland.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and others have filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security over the alleged abuse of eight Cameroonians, when they were at a Natchez, Miss.-based detention center. The Southern Poverty Law Center alleges eight Cameroonians were abused, beaten and forced to sign their deportation papers at the Natchez detention center. All have since been moved to Prairieland, as have others from detention centers in Louisiana, Georgia and Ohio.

Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which handles deportations, didn’t respond to questions about the civil rights complaint and the pending deportations.

Officials at the Embassy of Cameroon in Washington, D.C., didn’t respond to phone calls and emails about the validity of travel documents to take detainees from the U.S.

Amnesty International has asked that U.S. immigration officials halt deportations to Cameroon, a West African nation of 25 million where violence and armed conflict is peaking.

A U.S. State Department country report from last year warns of significant human rights abuses in Cameroon, including unlawful or arbitrary killings, disappearances by security forces, and torture and armed detention by nonstate armed groups. The report also cited human rights issues involving the Boko Haram extremist group and ISIS-West Africa. A State Department travel advisory from two weeks ago carries a no-travel warning to large portions of the country because of terrorism, kidnappings and armed conflict.

Amnesty International’s Adotei Akwei, the USA deputy director of advocacy and government relations, said that “given the current conditions in the country, it is extremely likely that anyone who is returned to Cameroon will face a high risk of being detained, beaten, disappeared, tortured or possibly even killed.”

A group gathered for a socially distanced car caravan protest outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado. The group said they wanted to show support for black migrants from Cameroon detained at the facility, on Oct. 12, 2020.

In phone interviews from Prairieland, four detainees detailed their fears of deportation and their treatment at other detention centers and arduous journeys from the jungles of Panama, through Central America and into Texas border towns where they asked for asylum.

“We ran from our countries to be protected here,” said Giscard Nkenglefac, a 34-year-old Cameroonian detainee who tried for political asylum. “Now, when they are deporting us, our lives will be at risk.”

Another Cameroonian detainee in Prairieland, Josephine Kinaka, said she fears returning to Cameroon. Kinaka came into the U.S. through Laredo a little more than a year ago. She was later detained at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, before being moved to Prairieland.

“It is so scary to think what is waiting for me back in Cameroon,” Kinaka said by phone.

She said she continues to suffer physically and emotionally from a beating she received back in Cameroon.

Prairieland has had several detainees with COVID-19. It has nine active cases, and there have been a total of 94, according to ICE data. There have been nearly 6,500 cases of COVID-19 in the detention centers nationwide since the pandemic was declared, according to ICE data.

The Prairieland Detention Center opened in 2017 in Alvarado, about an hour southwest of Dallas. It has beds for about 700 detainees.

Another detainee and asylum-seeker, now at Prairieland, said he was infected with the coronavirus at another detention center and recovered.

“The stress is too much,” said Clouvis Chebegwen, who unsuccessfully sought asylum based on political persecution. “This is breaking me down,” he said in a phone call from Prairieland.

The complaint from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the advocacy group Freedom for Immigrants and others calls for an investigation into the allegations of excessive use of force at the Mississippi detention center and for copies of any videos and reports on the incidents there. The complaint details abuse in what the immigrants called the “Zulu” dorm at the Adams County Correctional Center.

Rebecca Cassler, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Monday that she spoke in person with about 10 Cameroonian detainees at Prairieland this past weekend.

“We have screened several scheduled to be on those flights and they would rather stay indefinitely in detention, and they are uniformly terrified for their lives,” Cassler said.

Prairieland, which can hold more than 700 detainees, is now less than half-full at about 310 people. There have been 93 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Source: Dallas News

Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes reportedly left a Catholic church in Paris, France, through a side door to chants of “Southern Cameroons genocide” and “shame on you”.

The French Cameroun Minister of Housing and Urban Development was visiting her kids and extended family members in the French capital and made the unfortunate decision to attend Sunday service at a church but met with a stone wall erected by French Cameroun activists who pressured the presiding priest to kick her out of the vicinity.

Witnesses described the disgraced Celestine Ketcha Courtes being bundled into a taxi by her daughter amid fury from the pushing crowd of French Cameroun anti Biya activists less than five minutes after protests erupted inside the church.

The 55 year old left the church through a side door and was too ashamed to face the congregation, at which point family members had to hold back the angry BAS members, breaking up a scuffle as the so-called minister’s taxi drove off.

Footage shows the French Cameroun woman covering her face with a Covid-19 mask as she left the church.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Swiss and Dutch police have opened a joint investigation into a murder threat against the Ambazonia Vice President, Dabney Yerima as the resistance against French Cameroun regional elections and school resumption heats up. And this was confirmed to Cameroon Concord News Group by an aide to the Vice President, who said he was officially informed of the threat by the Comrade Dabney Yerima.

We understand security has now being increased around the Ambazonian leader. The Vice President was in Switzerland when he started receiving threats from a telephone number he does not recognize. The Ambazonia Interim Government issued a statement late on Sunday stating that threat against the Vice President and any Southern Cameroons public official at this time was a cause for concern.

Reports have been circulating in Europe that the regime in Yaoundé has put a one million dollar “hit” on the head of Southern Cameroons Vice President.

Dabney Yerima told Southern Cameroonians at a recent protest march in Swiss that persons linked to the French Cameroun regime want to have him killed.

“When I’m not under attack from French Cameroun agents who they hire to kill me, I’m under attack from pro Yaounde Southern Cameroonians who they hire to lie about the Interim Government” Yerima added.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Holland

Freedom Now and Dechert LLP filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Cameroonian journalist Thomas Awah, Jr. Freedom Now and Dechert LLP argue that Cameroon’s detention of Awah violates the government’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“The continued detention of Thomas Awah, Jr. is yet another example of Cameroon’s sustained campaign against media freedom,” said Freedom Now Legal Officer Adam Lhedmat. “We are confident that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will conclude Awah’s fundamental human rights have been violated, primarily his right to freedom of expression. Freedom Now calls on the Cameroonian government to abide by its international commitments and immediately release Awah and all other journalists imprisoned in Cameroon.”

Prior to his arrest, Awah worked in the Anglophone region as a correspondent for the privately-owned Afrik 2 Radio, as publisher Aghem Messenger magazine, and communications secretary of the non-violent secessionist Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), a group banned by the government. He had prior encounters with the government due to his journalism and activism and has been detained on several occasions in 2015, though he has never been tried or convicted before.

His most recent arrest occurred on January 2, 2017 when he was seeking to interviewing residents of a town in the Anglophone region of Cameroon. Military officers placed Awah under arrest without a warrant or under any specific charges once he identified himself as a journalist. The officers discovered Awah was carrying SCNC documents when they searched him. Two weeks later, the government banned the SCNC on national security grounds.

After his arrest, Awah was taken to an unknown prison where he was interrogated for four hours about the Anglophone secessionist movement. On the same evening, he was transferred nearly 250 miles away to the capital city, Yaoundé, for pre-trial detention.

In May 2018, Awah was tried before a military tribunal along with two other journalists, Tsi Conrad and Mancho Bibixy, as well as five other Anglophone detainees; despite the men having no apparent relationship. It was here that Awah first learned of the charges against him, which included terrorism, hostility to the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, the spreading of false news, the spreading of false news through electronic means, and contempt for civil authority. After a one-day trial he was found guilty of these charges and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Awah is currently detained in Kondengui Central Prison, where he shares an overcrowded cell with 25 other prisoners, several of whom are forced to sleep on the ground for lack of beds. He suffers from several medical conditions, including tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis, which have been exacerbated by poor prison conditions.

Nodem, who’s from Cameroon, is the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Associate for International Hunger Concerns. Serving in Lima, Peru, Koball is a mission co-worker serving with the Peru Joining Hands Network.

Nodem spoke about colonization and globalization. He said that although Cameroon gained its independence from Great Britain and France 60 years ago, it’s as if colonizers are still present. In part that’s because Cameroon’s natural resources — including oil, timber and coffee — are exported. Value is added in other countries, and the money made by selling those products remains outside Cameroon’s coffers.

He identified three drivers of colonization in Cameroon: gold, God and glory. The first two are fairly well-known: colonizers had a financial interest in extracting natural resources and were also interested in converting people to Christianity. The “glory” part “was about showing your influence,” Nodem said. “What resources did you find there? It was about showing power.”

As a result of the 19th century “Scramble of Africa,” countries were sliced up arbitrarily, he said. “They weren’t thinking about the consequences” of the warfare those practices would help bring about.

“Colonization makes people feel powerless in their own country,” he said. “The system is still strongly governed by foreign powers who robbed countries of a lot of resources. It’s ripped up regions that used to live in peace.”

As a college student in Cameroon, Nodem “was always going to pretty much any demonstration,” he said. “My parents were always upset. They said, ‘Stay out of trouble and don’t do anything.’” Later they told him it’s because they feared for his life.

Source: Presbyterianmission