Cameroon will boost production of locally made goods as part of new measures to handle the economic hardships resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, the country’s Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said on Friday.

He said the Made in Cameroon initiative holds the key to the successful economic growth and recovery in the country, which is hit by the pandemic.

“We need to consume what we produce and produce what we consume,” Atangana told reporters in the capital Yaounde a day after the country’s Cabinet Meeting recommended the promotion of local production.

Cameroon needs more investments in food and local manufacturing sectors in a bid to promote domestic production and stimulate local consumption habits, he said.

Government intends to support local companies, accelerate the supply of large irrigated areas, supply improved seeds to smallholder farmers and subsidize fertilizer, Atangana said.

Containment measures against COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon have seen the overall volume of trade in the first half of 2020 dropped by 16 percent, according to the country’s trade ministry.

Source: Xinhuanet

Security situation in Cameroon’s English-speaking region of Southwest that has been ravaged by an armed separatist conflict for over three years is “under control,” a senior military officer said on Saturday.

Commander of the 2nd Joint Military Region Benoit Eba Eba said, there had been “no major” incidents reported in the region for “quite some time now.”

“Currently we have to face only the acts of banditry. The situation is globally under control. I am satisfied,” Eba told reporters in the Southwest regional town of Mamfe after a rare visit to the restive region.

He assured the safety of the local population and thanked them for collaborating with government forces to fight armed separatists.

“I came to reassure them that we are together and the military is their family. We have to be along with the population not only with weapons. We are together for education, health and any other issue,” Eba said.

Separatists have been clashing with government forces since 2017 in a bid to establish an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

Source: Xinhuanet

Buffeted by security and political crises and embarrassed by military blunders, Cameroon’s government has been forced to give ground on human rights under intense pressure from campaigners and the UN and from allies who once chose to overlook its flaws.

NGOs have long denounced abuses in the central African country, from the detention of journalists and arrests of opponents to the killings of civilians by soldiers.

But after a massacre by security forces and the death of a detained journalist, the international outcry has been so loud that President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has been forced to make U-turns.

Three soldiers were charged this month with murder over the February killing of 10 children and three women in western Cameroon. The UN says at least 23 civilians had died.

The military had denied the killings for two months, blaming the deaths on fuel containers that had accidentally exploded during a firefight between security forces and anglophone separatists.

The investigation and prosecution of the soldiers mark an unprecedented step by a regime deaf to such accusations for decades.

From now on, “it will be difficult for the regime to resist international pressure,” said Cameroonian political scientist Ambroise Louison Essomba.

The government “has every interest, for its own survival, to closely study this question of human rights”, said another analyst, Jacques Ebwea.

The pressure is mounting as Cameroon is battered by violence: in the north, where attacks by Boko Haram jihadists are on the rise, and in the west where a three-year separatist revolt rages on, rooted in resentment among the English-speaking minority in the francophone-majority country.

DISMISSED AS FAKE

Violence between anglophone separatists and security forces has claimed more than 3,000 lives and at least 700,000 have fled their homes.

Although rights monitors emphasise that abuses have been committed by both sides, the armed forces have become mired in a series of high-profile atrocities.

“The use of violence has become almost commonplace,” said Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, director of the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC).

Under pressure from NGOs, the United Nations, the United States and France — the country’s former colonial ruler and a close ally — Biya announced an investigation into the February killings, which found that the “uncontrolled” soldiers had tried to hide their crime and falsified their reports.

The United Nations welcomed the “positive step”, but demanded that “all those responsible” for the killing be brought to justice.

“There are more and more convictions, but unfortunately they are slow to produce the desired result, which is to establish a true rule of law,” said Ngo Mbe.

In another high-profile case, seven soldiers are on trial for the execution-style killing of two women and their babies in the Far North, a region abutting Nigeria where Boko Haram jihadists fighters have carried out brutal attacks on civilians.

The atrocity was filmed and shared on social media.

The government had initially dismissed the images as fake before — under international pressure — changing position and arresting the seven.

POLITICAL CRISIS

On top of those conflicts, Cameroon has been experiencing an unprecedented political crisis since Biya — who is 87 years old and has ruled Cameroon since 1982 — was re-elected in 2018.

His challenger and main opponent, Maurice Kamto, and hundreds of his supporters were arrested shortly after the elections.

They spent nine months in prison without trial before being released in October 2019, again after strong international mobilisation.

“The international community’s interventions inconvenience the regime… but very often only at first, and very little over the long term,” said Christophe Bobiokono, a member of the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedom, a government institute.

Local and international NGOs announced in early June that anglophone journalist Samuel Wazizi, who had been arrested ten months earlier, had died in detention at the hands of the military after being tortured.

The army finally acknowledged the death but denied the allegations of torture, claiming that he had died of severe sepsis less than two weeks after he was arrested on a terrorism charge.

Wazizi’s family said they were never informed of his death.

NGOs immediately called for an independent investigation, and hours later the French ambassador announced to the press that Biya would launch a probe after the two had met to discuss the death.

The press watchdog RSF ranks Cameroon 134th out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, three places lower than the previous year.

Source: AFP

The Communist Party of Swaziland supports calls for an end to atrocities being committed by the Cameroonian military in Ambazonia, the former UN Trust territory of Southern Cameroons, also known as English-speaking Cameroon.

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) condemns the continued atrocities committed on the people of Ambazonia by the Cameroonian government and its security forces. A former UN Trust territory Under British administration, the people of Ambazonia have for decades been denied their right to self-determination. The region has been characterised by the systematic burning down of entire villages, targeted kidnapping and killing of human rights activists, the rape and killing of women, men and children, by the Cameroon military. The government has in some instances shut down the internet in attempts to hide the atrocities.

The CPS calls for the working class of the world to unite in the call for the halting of human rights violations in the region. The CPS also supports calls for the United Nations Security Council to mandate an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on this conflict and for the African Union to actively resolve the conflict.

Since September 2016, the Cameroon military has carried out a systematic and ruthless military campaign against the minority Ambazonian communities. Initiated in 2016 to suppress peaceful demonstrations for the rights of the populations in the regions, the campaign has relentlessly violated international human rights law.  These include, among others, the burning down of more than 400 villages by the Cameroon military – along with the burning of the old and the sick in their own homes in some cases. The military has forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria, and also internally displaced close to a million people. In March 2019, the United Nations reported that about 4 million people in the region had been affected by the conflict.

The Cameroonian government and its military have ignored all calls for an end to the atrocities committed by its soldiers in the region, including ignoring a call from the African Union’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights on Cameroon to:

1. Investigate the alleged killings, rapes, inhumane treatment and human rights violations on peaceful protesters by the riot police, elements of the gendarmerie, the military and the BIR in Bamenda, Buea and Kumba;

2. Immediately end the alleged violence against civilians and take necessary steps to ensure that the human rights of its citizens and all its inhabitants are respected;

3. Uphold the right to freedom of expression, assembly,

4. Cease all arbitrary arrests and detention; and

5. Release all individuals unlawfully arrested during the protest.

In the months that followed there were peaceful protests by the people in the region, countered by more vicious persecution of peaceful protesters by the Cameroonian government.

The violent suppression of the voices of Ambazonians is clearly systematic and will not end without united decisive action from all peace-loving people across the world. The Communist Party of Swaziland calls for the African Union to also play a decisive leadership role in the conflict. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has the duty to promote and protect human rights within the African continent. Cameroon is a State Party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Communist Party of Swaziland thus also calls upon the Commission to engage in practical programs of action for these atrocities committed upon the Ambazonian people by the Cameroonian government to end.

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland

Thokozane Kenneth Kunene

General Secretary

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is moving slowly but surely towards approving dual citizenship laws as a move to end the crisis in Southern Cameroons and encourage Cameroonians living in the diaspora to support the so-called one and indivisible political fabrication.

Some docile French Cameroun MPs now say both Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun diaspora are a great partner in economic development whose relocation from their homeland should cease to be seen as a brain drain or loss.

A group of prominent members of parliament from the ruling CPDM crime syndicate have all supported a 421-page document comprising 1,245 articles whose purpose is to reform inter alia, the Civil Code, the Nationality Code and the organization of civil status in Cameroon.

The new law proposed by Biya and his Essingan gang seeks to provide a solution to the problem of dual nationality that was prohibited by the law of 11 June 1968 in Cameroon.

 Cameroon Concord News Group understands dual nationality has always caused tensions and polemics because of its application by the French Cameroun authorities with President Biya, Adolphe Moudiki of SNH, tennis super star Yannick Noah and football legends Samuel Eto’o, Patrick Mboma and Roger Milla allowed to move in and out of the country with European passports.

The predominantly French Cameroun MPs recently opined that Southern Cameroonians and French Cameroun citizens  living abroad can still contribute effectively to the Cameroonian economy without having to leave their foreign adopted countries.

The focus of the divided National Assembly in Yaoundé now is to work and develop modalities on how this engagement can be actualized without putting President Biya and his family at risk of losing power.

A well-placed source deep within the CPDM Central Committee who spoke to Cameroon Concord News but sued for anonymity pointed out that Biya and his acolytes were shifting their thinking after realizing that Cameroonians abroad can help the country immensely while living abroad.

Prime Minister Dion Ngute is expected to appeal to all Cameroonians who lost their citizenship to apply for reinstatement immediately when the new law is promulgated. Chief Dr. Dion Ngute is pushing for a united Cameroon as a nation to have strong bonds with its diaspora citizens who contribute a lot to Cameroon’s economic development.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Vice President Dabney Yerima, the leader of the Southern Cameroons struggle and the Interim Government has said that resistance is the only option left to free the Ambazonia homeland.

“The Biya Beti Ewondo French Cameroun reconstruction plan is a new CPDM crime ploy to keep Southern Cameroonians in perpetual slavery exploiting West Cameroonian land and resources,” Dabney Yerima said.

Comrade Yerima stressed that the people of Southern Cameroons would use all means available to get to Buea, the capital of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

In this week’s war cabinet briefing, the exiled Ambazonia Vice President also described French Cameroun’s decision on reconstruction of Ambazonia as an act of provocation.

The plan, which many political commentators have described as a “Nonsensical Nonsense” denies Southern Cameroonians everything including Federalism and the right to govern their homeland.

Interim Government protest against Special Status

The level of barbarism being perpetuated by the Cameroon government military and pro Biya government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming.

So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 21,000 people have been killed, over 298 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities.

French Cameroun President Biya and his military and private militia will be held accountable for these crimes. While not exonerating Ambazonian self-defense forces, we also know that Mr Biya’s government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy. Only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons and establish the facts.

By Chi Prudence Asong and Isong Asu in London

A Hanoian returning from Cameroon has tested Covid-19 positive, raising the nation’s active cases to 23, the Health Ministry confirmed Friday.

“Patient 353,” 31, is a resident of Hanoi’s Thach That District. He flew in from Cameroon, transiting in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malaysia before arriving June 25 in Ho Chi Minh City on Vietnam Airlines flight VN9674.

He was quarantined upon arrival at the city’s District 7 Hospital and moved to the Cu Chi field hospital in the eponymous district after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

On Friday afternoon, one more patient was announced Covid-19 free at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

This patient, a Vietnamese man repatriated from Russia on May 13, was admitted to the hospital on May 17. He has tested negative for the virus twice and is now in stable condition. He will remain in the hospital for medical monitoring for another 14 days.

With the latest updates, Vietnam has 23 active cases after the recovery of 330 patients. Vietnam has also gone 71 days without community transmission of the Covid-19 virus.

The nation’s most critical patient, a British pilot, has made great progress after being comatose for more than two months, and doctors are preparing to discharge him from HCMC’s Cho Ray Hospital, where he has been treated for other serious health issues after recovering from Covid-19 more than a month ago.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected over 210 countries and territories and around 449,000 deaths have been reported so far.

Source: e.vnexpress.net

Cameroon says the temporary closure of most restaurants and border trade during the COVID-19 pandemic has dropped food prices by up to 70 percent.  While food sellers are suffering the lost income, cheaper prices have helped some of Cameroon’s poorest to cope during the economic disruption.

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced restaurants to close in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, a new way of business emerged to sell the surplus of cheap food. 

Trucks that used to deliver large quantities of food to the city’s eateries and hotels now go from street to street, selling fruit, vegetables, and chicken to the general public.   

But food distributors like Christoph Nanze say the pandemic is destroying their business.  

He says his wholesale buyers have dried up with restaurant closures and the banning of large gatherings and border trade. 

Nanze says they are suffering because vegetable, meat and chicken sellers no longer have access to markets in Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.  Since the neighboring countries sealed their borders to stop the spread of COVID-19, he says, food prices have decreased sharply.  Nanze says the price of a 20-liter bucket of fresh tomatoes has dropped from $15 to only $4, while the price of a chicken that weighs 1.5 to 2 kilograms has fallen from $10 to about $3 to $4.

But in poor neighborhoods, where day laborers and laid off workers have been struggling during the pandemic, the cheap food is a blessing. 

Among the buyers is 39-year-old unemployed single mother of two, Amina Awah.  She says it is the first time in her life that she can afford to buy a few meals of meat per week for her children.  

She says she is very happy that food is now very cheap and poor Cameroonians like her can add chicken to their diet.  Awah says she does not like seeing people infected and dying from COVID-19 but, she wishes for prices to remain low so that the poor can also eat well.

But as the poor like Awah express joy, Cameroon’s farmers trade unions have called on the government to assist them.  

The Cameroon Poultry Trade Union’s Joseph Tchomb says the fall in food prices means members are unable to repay their loans. 

He says farmers are also discouraged from producing and, if no government assistance comes soon, Cameroon may face a food shortage.  

Tchomb says the COVID-19 crisis has exposed Cameroon’s fragile economy.  If the government does not give financial assistance to farmers and food sellers, he says, their businesses will crumble.  Tchomb says banks that gave out loans to traders should renegotiate the terms because so many people cannot afford to pay them back.

Cameroon’s Minister of Finance Louis Paul Motaze says the government is preparing a rescue plan for farmers.  He says the government plans to give farmers tax breaks and subsidies to ensure production.

Motaze says the government and Cameroon’s President Paul Biya are very much aware of the difficulties that traders are going through.  He says they are doing everything possible to assist them.  Although the government is already losing close to $2 billion in revenue due to COVID-19, says Motaze, Biya has removed taxes for food stuffs.

Motaze says the government has vowed not to allow the possibility of any food shortages.

Source: VOA

Cameroonian police are on high alert for dangerous weapons after two improvised devices exploded in the capital, Yaounde, a senior police officer said on Wednesday, according to a news report by Cameroon Online.

Didier Ngah, the police commissioner has said security has been enhanced and counter-terror measures have been put in place to secure the capital after two devices exploded on Sunday in the Central African country.

He did not give details about the explosion but local media reported that two security posts were attacked by gunmen using improvised devices.

Didier Ngah said in an order issued to police in the city that there will be systematic checks of all vehicles and neighborhoods in the capital in view of finding arms, ammunition, and dangerous drugs.

In January, Cameroon police chief, Martin Mbarga Nguelle has warned of possible separatist attacks in the capital, urging the police to adopt a higher level of vigilance in “sensitive posts” and to report any suspicious activities.

Armed separatists want the Northwest and Southwest English-speaking regions to secede from the majority French-speaking Cameroon and form a new country called “Ambazonia.” They have been clashing with government forces since 2017.

Source: Devdiscourse

Cameroon’s Anglophone region remains in the grip of a seemingly never-ending crisis, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. International observers are increasing their calls to cease the violence, following reports of attacks and abductions of health workers.

The crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, now four years old, started in 2016 when lawyers and teachers took to the streets of Buea and Bamenda to protest the domination of French in Anglophone courts and schools.

The strike action quickly gained public sympathy and, on November 21, a popular uprising dubbed “the coffin revolution” took place in Bamenda demanding political reforms.

The situation escalated on October 1, 2017, when militant secessionist groups, led by Julius Sisiku Ayuke Tabe, symbolically proclaimed the independence of a new nation — including the two Anglophone regions — called Ambazonia.

Clashes between the Cameroon military and separatist fighters have led to over 3,000 deaths and many displaced persons.

Peace efforts continue

Cameroon’s prime minister in 2019 organized a national dialogue on behalf of the country’s government to seek solutions to the worsening crisis — yet hostilities have continued, despite a special status being granted to the two Anglophone regions.

The Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, has now joined several organizations in calling for peace in Cameroon. He announced during an April 2019 audience granted by President Paul Biya to Swiss Ambassador to Cameroon Pietro Lazzeri that the Swiss Confederation had expressed its readiness to support national initiatives that can lead to lasting peace in the country.

The proposal was welcomed by the separatists. In a letter dated April 17, the archbishop challenged the warring parties to make the difficult decision to end the conflict, in the best interests of the people. The Catholic Church in Cameroon lost several worshippers and priests in the conflict.

Titled “Now is Time for Peace,” the letter read: “Seeking peace or a ceasefire is not a sign of weakness or cowardice. On the contrary, it shows maturity and proper care for the fatherland and genuine love for others.”

Locals struggle to access food

Separatist fighters in Mamfe in the Southwest region and Bali in the Northwest regions recently set up roadblocks, barring movement of people and goods from the two regions.

Commuters were stranded and goods in transit — especially perishables — quickly spoiled. Some families were forced to bury their loved ones in Mamfe because of the road blocks.

“I bought 50 bunches of plantains from mamfe to sell in Bamenda,” said Susana Timgum who explained how she almost lost her capital.

“They were all tied up in the truck and we were forced to sleep on the way for weeks. The bunches all got ripe. Thank God I was able to sell two weeks after the roads were opened.”

Hanson Song, another victim of the road block, said he missed seeing his son immediately after delivery.

“My wife was due deliveries asked her to relocate to Bamenda because it’s safe. She was delivered of a baby boy and I only get to see my son three weeks after,” he said.

Battles continue

A local mayor was killed in Mamfe in April by suspected separatist fighters who later asked people not to attend his funeral. Six young men were later slaughtered for bypassing the separatist injunction order and attending the funeral. In Kumbo, Northwest region, there are frequent gun battles between the military and separatists fighters.

Last week, 12 separatist fighters were killed in Jackiri and a separatist fighter died in Mbingo. In Mbangolan, Belo, Bafut, Kumba and Mamfe, unending gun battles have continued with fatalities on both sides.

Lockdowns force residents inside

One of the oldest forms of civil disobedience — adopted at the start of the Anglophone crisis — has remained. Ghost town operations and lockdowns force locals in the two regions to close their shops and remain indoors for days and even weeks at a time.

This usually happens every time a government organized event takes place. On Sunday June 21, all diaspora groups leading the separatist fighters on the ground called for a lockdown to disrupt a mobilization tour of the Northwest by Paul Tasong, the head of the government-created commission to reconstruct the two Anglophone regions.

Therese Ntum says she was taken by surprise and now has no food.

“My family is living on boiled corn,” she told DW. “We woke up on Monday to hear the news of the three-day lockdown. We did not buy enough food over the weekend. We do not know how we can survive until Thursday.”

Hardships felt by all

The escalating conflict has brought untold misery to the population, according to Professor Tih Pius Muffi, director of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services (CBCHS).

“Essential drugs have not been able to reach hospitals,” he told DW. “Doctors’ clinics have gone without routine support services and patients can’t access health centers and hospitals. Some of these patients have died in their homes and some have reached the hospital too late.”

Stacy Lawong, who fled from Kumbo to Bamenda, lost all her certificates.

“Our house was burnt down while we were in the bush,” she told DW. “We ran to Bamenda. I can’t find a job. I cant move out because I do not have identification papers. We are surviving thanks to the benevolence of our neighbors and people of goodwill. Doing business in the two Anglophone regions has become difficult.”

Tanwi Godwill survives by selling raw banyans and plantains he buys from the divisions. His business no longer provides for him and his family.

“I always go to the bush market on the weekend to buy [food],” he told DW. “Now time and again, you get to the park just to hear the road is blocked. When you succeed [in buying something], ghost towns and lockdowns won’t allow you to [take the goods]. It is difficult.”

In an effort to sabotage the economy of the two regions, separatists have also started to burn down power transmitters and cut down pylons, leaving the lone power supply company ENEO to ration electricity, further crippling businesses and startups.

No hope for a swift end

President Biya has called on separatist fighters to drop their guns and come out of the bush. But tensions remain high.

He has addressed the nation several times during the crisis, however separatists maintain that he must first call off the war and initiate meaningful dialogue with all sides.

But, despite a call from the UN secretary general at the dawn of the COVID-19 crisis for a ceasefire, nothing has changed in the two Anglophone regions, where gun battles continue unabated.

Culled from Deutsche Welle