It’s being called the ‘worst crime’ against a Cameroonian journalist in the past decade by rights groups.

The death of Cameroonian journalist Samuel Wazizi in military custody last Friday is being called “the worst crime against a journalist in the past 10 years in Cameroon” by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

It was confirmed on Friday that Wazizi, a broadcast journalist who worked for CMTV covering the country’s separatist movement, was arrested on August 2, 2019 for openly criticizing the government’s response to the movement. He was said to have been tortured and abused during his detainment.

While the news was confirmed by the Cameroonian Ministry of Defense just last week, reports reveal that Wazizi actually died on August 17, 2019—the same month of his arrest. According to a report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the military claimed that Wazizi was not tortured while in custody, but that he had died “as a result of severe sepsis” and had been in touch with his family. However, his sister-in-law Metete Joan Njang informed CPJ that the family had not been able to reach Wazizi since his arrest, and had only learned the news of his death on June 3.

“The Cameroonian government’s cruel treatment of journalist Samuel Wazizi is truly shocking,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator in a statement. “It is unbelievable that authorities covered up his death in custody for 10 months despite repeated inquiries from press freedom advocates and his family, colleagues, friends, and lawyers. An independent autopsy should be conducted immediately, and Cameroon must also launch an independent commission of inquiry so that those responsible for Wazizi’s death are held accountable.”

RSF shared a similar statement and has called on the government to end their silence against the mistreatment of journalists, send Wazizi’s body to his family and launch an independent investigation in order to “establish the chain of responsibility and circumstances leading to this tragedy.”

The Cameroonian government has come under fire from journalist and human rights groups, for its censorship and abuse of citizens and reporters, since the beginning of the separatist movement occurring amongst members of the country’s Anglophone population in Northwest and Southwest. The country ranks 134th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. On several occasions, the government has taken further actions to quell dissent by shutting down the internet.

Several journalists and fellow Cameroonians are calling for #JusticeForWazizi online and are demanding increased freedom of the press.

Source: OkayAfrica

Fellow Ambazonians,

Last night, the Interim Government of Ambazonia through its legal team in Ambazonia and French Cameroun made a formal request to the regime in Yaoundé that it had up to midnight today (8^th June 2020) to make known the whereabouts of Southern Cameroon’s journalist, Kingsley Njoka.

I come today to confirm that the regime in Yaoundé complied with our demand. Earlier this morning at 9:30 am, our legal representatives were invited to the Centrale Des Recherches Judiciare at the Secretariat of Defense (SED) Yaoundé. The Interim Government of Ambazonia can now confirm that Kingsley Njoka has been detained at SED incommunicado since his abduction on the 15^th of May 2020 from his home in Douala.

He is frail, pale and psychologically distressed.

I have instructed our legal representatives to commence without delay a process to secure his release.

We face an enemy that is brutal and has no respect for human rights and international law. An enemy that puts no value on life but our determination as people will guide us to victory.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia will make regular updates on this matter and will continue to keep the international community and our international media partners informed on the progress of this matter.

Thank You,

Dabney Yerima, Vice President, The Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Armed men have killed at least 9 people in attacks in Eshobi village some few kilometers from Mamfe town according to local officials and residents.

According to eyewitnesses, about 50 armed men attacked the village, including Cameroon military post stationed around the Satom Bridge area, shooting residents, and looting and burning homes.

A citizen from Eshobi released three audios on the attack and claimed in his first two declarations that the attacks were carried out by Amba Boys.

However in his third audio, the Eshobi resident blamed the attack on the settler community of Mberere who have been fighting to get the chieftaincy of Eshobi village.

Cameroon Concord News has not been able to establish the motive for the attack and has also not been able to identify those responsible for the killings.

Our correspondent in Mamfe said assailants began shooting people at random in the village while another group engaged the army.

Killings in the Manyu Division have been the work of the Cameroon  army soldiers, Amba Boys and bandits.

Cameroon Concord News Group also gathered that two of the persons killed had betrayed an Ambazonian fighter to the Cameroon army and were targeted for providing information about Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces hiding places to Cameroon government soldiers.

The attacks were staged just a day after the remains of the murdered Mayor of Mamfe, Ashu Prisley Ojong, were laid to rest.  The CPDM Mayor was killed on May 10, 2020, en route to Eshobi village.

 By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

The remains of Mayor Ashu Prisley Ojong were laid to rest in Mamfe on Saturday June 6. The CPDM Mayor was killed on May 10, 2020 en route to Eshobi village. The 35-year-old politician was buried at his residence in Laterite Pit in Mamfe Town after a CPDM ceremony at the Mamfe Grandstand chaired by Hon. Mengot Victor Arrey-Nkongho, Minister in charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic.

The Yaoundé backed member of government called on the people of Manyu to show their commitment to peace and a united Cameroon.

“When things like this happen, then love doesn’t exist. When you love each other, you cannot hurt each other. Today, what do we find in our communities – petty jealousies envy. That is why we need to find that ethos, the ethos of how to love one another,” noted Minister Mengot.

Betraying the CPDM connection to the late mayor’s demise, the Manyu Senior Divisional Officer Um II Joseph said although Mayor Ashu Prisley Ojong has been killed, the government in Yaoundé is “hopeful that his death will be useful for this division, for peace to reign and for unity also to reign.”

Senate Vice President Chief Tabetando showered praises on the deceased, painting the late Ashu Ojong as a grass leader who enjoyed popular grassroot support. “He was elected unanimously by the Mamfe Central community.”

The late mayor was shot and killed around Berore quarters, precisely at Charles Eyongechaw’s Hill, about some 500 meters at the outskirts of Eshobi, his village, on Sunday, May 10, 2020. Priestly Ashu Ojong, was killed in a fake ambush staged by the regime in Yaounde.

It is now an open secret in Mamfe that he was killed by government troops who had been ordered to carry out the execution from Yaoundé. The Yaounde government has been seeking to give Amba boys a bad name and it will stop at nothing when it comes to achieving that goal.

Priestly took a bullet to the forehead, a bullet that bore the hallmarks of the country’s military. The military man sitting in the front passenger seat is suspected to have delivered the blow that took Mayor Priestly Ashu Ojong to his grave. His driver is also suspected to be in the know of what happened to the young and ambitious mayor.

His death was received with shock, forcing the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to sponsor a protest on Saturday, May 16, 2020, pretending to demand justice for the Mayor’s death. The pro Manyu French Cameroun political elites accused a Cameroonian-US based activist, Eric Tataw for being behind the brutal assassination.

The Francophone administrator revealed that Ojong was heading to his village to receive Ambazonian fighters who claimed they had dropped their weapons before he was brutally ambushed and murdered. Born in 1985, Ojong leaves behind an expectant wife and three children to mourn him.

It is vital to include in this report that Minister Mengot and Chief Tabetando including all the so-called Manyu external elites left Mamfe immediately after the burial over security concerns.

By Kingsley Betek

Journalist Njoka Kingsley is missing presumed detained. He’s one of many for whom the Southern Cameroons crisis has led to a political awakening and a demand for free speech. Cameroon Intelligence Report sources in Yaoundé have confirmed that Njoka is in Yaounde undergoing torture.

Now the question arises: where is disappeared journalist Njoka Kingsley Fomonyuy, “taken into custody by plainclothes security officers on May 16, 2020 remains a mystery.  Sources familiar with the incident say he was taken from his house in Douala by armed men who only identified themselves as ‘Surete National’.

 He’s from Kumbo, Bui Division in the North West Region. He studied Journalism and Mass Communication in the University of Zaria in Nigeria, from where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1990.

In Cameroon, the freelance journalist worked with Magic FM and as a senior writer for Popular Catholic biweekly Magazine “L’Effort Camerounais” in Douala. Before whisking Njoka Kingsley away, the armed men ransacked his house apparently searching for possible evidence that could implicate him.  Without finding what they were after, the armed men asked Njoka’s wife to hand his office keys and his identification documents to them. They took an HP laptop from Njoka’s house and then headed to his office which they equally searched thoroughly making away with two laptops marked Lenovo and DELL as well as the sum of over FCFA 50,000.

The unidentified men gave no reason for taking Njoka Kingsley into custody. They also did not say where he was being taken to. It has now been 21 days since he was “kidnapped” without any crime committed and without even being charged.  With the recent declaration of Samuel Wazizi’s death in the hands of the forces of law in Yaoundé, one is tempted to think that anything can happen to Njoka Kingsley Fomonyuy if nothing is done.”

Reported by Inner City Press and Cameroon Intelligence Report

Interim Government of Ambazonia Statement on the abduction of KINGSLEY NJOKA

Fellow Ambazonians,

Accept revolutionary greetings from the Interim Government of Ambazonia.

Last week, as a people we brought pressure to bear on the French Cameroun regime regarding the disappearance and subsequent murder of Samuel Wazizi, a Southern Cameroons journalist.

Last night, the Interim Government of Ambazonia was alerted by the Press and briefed by Ambazonia security services that Kingsley Njoka, a Southern Cameroons freelance journalist was abducted by armed men on the 15^th of May 2020 from his residence in Bonaberi, Douala, French Cameroun.

As matter of national emergency, this morning I communicated with our team of legal representatives in Ambazonia and French Cameroun. Their task is to ascertain without delay his whereabouts. Every Ambazonian life matters and as a government, the safety and security of our people is our foremost concern.

Samuel Wazizi was abducted, tortured and murdered for doing his job of enlightening the world about the crimes of the French Cameroun regime. Kingsley Njoka has been kidnapped for the same reasons.

We face an enemy that is brutal and has no respect for human rights and international law. An enemy that puts no value on life!

The Interim Government of Ambazonia has today notified all international media organizations about the disappearance of Kingsley Njoka.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia has through its legal team informed the regime in Yaoundé that it has until midnight Monday the 8^th of June 2020 to make public whereabouts of Kingsley Njoka. If the regime in Yaoundé fails to comply with this request, they will face severe consequences.

The Interim Government of Ambazoniawill make regular updates on this matter as we gather the facts from our legal team.

Thank You,

God Bless you

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

An imminent UNO State of Cameroon is fiction, both Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office in Nigeria said on Friday.

A Nigerian newspaper had reported the imminent birth of a new African nation, sandwiched between Nigeria and Cameroon.

According to the false report, the new country whose name is UNO State of Cameroon would be proclaimed by the United Nations on 10 July, 2020.

The report said the fantasised new nation will incorporate 24 LGAs from Nigeria and the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

But the AIT.Live quoting a UN source, dismissed the report as false. The UN does not create countries, the source said.

The trashed report was based on a misrepresentation of the Greentree Agreement, between Nigeria and Cameroon.

It was signed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for Nigeria and Paul Biya for Cameroon on 12 June 2006.

The Agreement was the formal treaty which resolved the Cameroon-Nigeria border dispute over the oil and natural gas rich Bakassi peninsula.

The dispute had roots as far back as 1913, 1981, 1994, and 1996 armed clashes between Nigeria and Cameroon took place in Bakassi.

The dispute was referred to the International Court of Justice and on 10 October 2002 the ICJ ruled in favour of Cameroon.

A follow-up committee, composed of representatives from Cameroon, Nigeria, the UN, Germany, the USA, France and the UK, was created to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

On 13 August 2013 the United Nations Security Council stated that it welcomed the peaceful end two days earlier of the special transitional regime in the Bakassi Peninsula.

Source: Pmnewsnigeria

Rights groups in Cameroon have condemned increased attacks on aid workers and hospital staff in the country’s troubled western regions.  The groups blame both government troops and anglophone rebels fighting to create an English-speaking state in majority French-speaking Cameroon.

Ernestine Maika, a 33-year-old nurse, has just arrived in the French-speaking town of Bafoussam. She says she was rescued by Cameroon military in the English-speaking northwestern town of Ndop after separatist fighters seized a vehicle in which she was transporting medical supplies. Maika says it was the third time she has been attacked in three weeks.

“The torment is too much, unbearable,” said Maika. “We are being killed, arrested, kidnapped. It is not fair. I just want to plead because the pain is too much. Humanitarian workers and nurses and medical staff should be allowed to do their work. I just want to plead that they be allowed to go out there and save lives.

The Cameroonian military confirmed that on Wednesday (June 3), four separatist fighters were killed in a gun battle after they attacked health workers in Ndop.

The government said attacks on health workers and humanitarian staff members  have intensified since April, when it launched a $150 million plan to build 115 hospitals, 40 bridges, 400 wells and water taps, 600 kilometers of rural roads, 45 markets and 17,000 private homes destroyed by the separatists.  Human Rights Watch Thursday reported renewed attacks on aid workers.

Iliaria Allegrozzi, senior central Africa researcher for the organization, says aid workers have been victims of kidnapping, killing, kidnapping, extortion and various forms of abuse. She says food and nonfood aid items have been looted or destroyed.

“These attacks do not only impact the lives and well-being of those working at the front line in very challenging conditions but also disrupt the provision of life-saving assistance and services to 2 million people depending on humanitarian assistance and over 600,000 internally displaced,” said Allegrozzi.

Allegrozzi did not immediately confirm the number of health workers attacked but blamed both separatist fighters and the military for the atrocities.

Cameroon government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi speaking on state media CRTV blamed separatists for the atrocities and said the military has remained professional.

 Sadi says the crimes against aid workers are committed by separatist fighters who are determined to destroy government efforts aimed at returning peace to the restive English-speaking regions. He says the country can only count on the military to restore harmony and consolidate the achievements made so far in the peace process.

Separatists have blamed the military for the abuses on social media, but have warned humanitarian or aid workers against offering assistance in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions without obtaining what the separatists call an express authorization from their government.

The United Nations has expressed what it calls grave concern over the interruption of aid delivery to hundreds of thousands of people in need, following the escalating attacks against aid workers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

The unrest has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced over 500,000 according to the United Nations.  Fifty thousand others are seeking asylum in neighboring Nigeria.

Culled from VOA

There has been massive condemnation in Cameroon after the central African state’s military bowed to pressure from rights groups and journalists Friday and issued a statement that missing Cameroonian journalist Samule Ajiekah Wazizi  died in a military hospital 10 months ago.  Wazizi was arrested for collaborating with separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state in the majority-French Cameroon and had not been seen in public since.

Jude Viban, the Yaoundé-based national president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists says he is scandalized that it was only after pressure from journalists, civil society groups and the international community that Cameroon’s military finally issued a statement that journalist Samuel Wazizi had died in a Yaoundé military hospital.

“We are now calling for an independent inquiry, which will involve an autopsy, so that we can know exactly if the cause of death stated by the Ministry of Defense is exact,” Viban said. “Right now, we want to see the corpse of Samuel Wazizi.”

The military said in its statement Friday that Wazizi, who was arrested August 2 in the English-speaking southwestern town of Buea for complicity in acts of terrorism, died on August 17. The statement said when the military transferred Wazizi from Buea to Yaoundé   for further investigation; he became ill and was rushed to the Yaoundé   military hospital, where he died. The statement further indicates that Wazizi, while in detention and before he died, communicated with his family and had access to his lawyers, and that Wazizi’s family was informed of his death.

His lawyers and family said they never heard from him and none of them knew he died 10 months ago.

French Ambassador Christophe Guilhou says after getting conflicting reports about Wazizi’s death, he discussed the matter, which he describes as a human rights issue, with Cameroon’s president. 

He says when he met with Cameroon President Paul Biya Friday (June 5), he discussed human rights concerns the French government had when it learned of Wazizi’s death and Biya promised to order immediate investigations to determine the true causes of his death.

Christopher Ndong, lawyer and rights defender said the military killed Waizizi and that investigations should be opened.  He says Wazizi’s killing is just one of many committed by the military on Anglophones suspected to have links with separatists fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in French-majority Cameroon.

“In fact, it is condemnable,” Ndong said. “We have series and series of killings in Cameroon where the regime is killing and does not look accountable. They do all of that with impunity. We regret. Honestly it is not correct.”

Wazizi worked for Chillen Muzik and TV. English-speaking journalists say his arrest, torture and death and the fact that the military hid his dead body for 10 months without a statement until pressured to do so show how reporters risk their lives in Cameroon.

The military says Wazizi is in a Yaoundé mortuary but Wazizis family members and lawyers say they have not seen the body.

Source: VOA

A senior CPDM Member of Parliament who is upset with the way the country’s president, Paul Biya, is running the nation has called on COVID-19 to visit Mr. Biya who is suffering from multiple health issues.

The Member of Parliament (MP), who called the Cameroon Concord News Group office in the United Kingdom yesterday, said that Mr. Biya and his collaborators had ruined the country, adding that it was time for him to quit the political scene and the planet.

The MP, who elected anonymity, regretted that COVID-19 had not been to the right places since it came to Cameroon. The senior CPDM official said it was wrong for young people to be killed by the invisible virus while those who, in their view, did not have any business on this planet were still hiding at the Unity Palace and other high places.

The MP added that Mr. Biya was the epitome of recklessness and incompetence, stressing that it would take Cameroon more than five decades to recover from the damage the Biya regime had inflicted on the country.

“Our country is going through the most trying times. The government is grossly incompetent and the captain of the boat is more concerned about his old age than about the future of a country he has ruined,” the MP said.

“I thought with the arrival of the virus on our shores, some of the human toxic waste would be swept away. The virus seems to be avoiding the real places it should have been visiting,” the Southwest MP regretted.

“What happened to the Unity Palace, the Senate and the National Assembly where some of the greatest destroyers of our country are hiding?,” the MP quipped.

“Nature is very unfair to Cameroon. Why would it let a bunch incompetent and corrupt dinosaurs to take an entire country hostage?,” the honorable member questioned.

Speaking about the Senate president, Marcel Niat Njifenji, who is currently in France battling for his life, the honorable Member of Parliament said the 86-year-old Senate President was a bag of lazy bones that was always ready to waste taxpayers’ money.

“Why is the state wasting such amounts of money to sustain a man who is, at best, a walking dead? Why would he be airlifted to France at a time when the country is looking for resources to check the spread of the Coronavirus?,” the MP asked.

The CPDM insider also advised that a combined session of the senate and parliament would soon take place to approve a government bill to be submitted for the creation of the post of vice-president in Cameroon.

The MP said he was not so sure about the new government configuration, but was prompt to add that the post of Prime Minister might disappear.

The MP warned that the constitutional amendment might not bring smiles to the faces of many Southern Cameroonians who have been fighting the government for years.

The MP also added that the president’s son, Frank Biya, might be appointed in the days ahead as many government insiders have expressed their concerns about the way things are being run.

The MP urged the Cameroon Concord News Group to use its privileged position to sensitize the world about the calamity that is slowly befalling the country.

“Why would Mr. Biya and his cohorts ever think that what happened in Togo and Gabon must happen in Cameroon? Cameroon is a different terrain and if such a primitive game had to play out in Cameroon, things could go horribly wrong,” the MP said.

“Cameroonians, the MP said, should be on the watch out. Opposition political parties must continue to be vigilant. I know my party and I understand that there is a lot of manipulation taking place within the system,” the MP said.

“As Cameroonians, we should not yield to such injustice. We must fight. I might belong to the ruling party, but I disagree with the mess that is playing out in our country. For some of us, we cannot complain. We have eaten and drunk with the devil and it will hard to say we cannot dance with the dangerous devil. We don’t have a choice, but we will continue to support efforts at ousting this evil regime from behind the scenes,” the MP concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in London