Roxana Willis has been awarded a grant by the University’s Global Challenges Research Fund for her project ‘Voices from the Civil Conflict in Cameroon: Creating a network and developing a research project to investigate the anglophone crisis’. The grant will go towards funding a full-time researcher to photographs of human rights abuses and reports of state violence are emerging regularly. To date, 530,000 anglophone Cameroonians are estimated to have been displaced by ongoing violence between the state and separatist movements.

Despite the severity of the conflict, limited international attention has been afforded to these events, and many of the human rights abuses occurring are undocumented. Accordingly, we intend to develop a research work on the project.

 Cameroon is in the midst of a civil conflict, which is worryingly under-investigated. Since independence from colonial rule in 1961, the minority anglophone population of Cameroon has been subjected to discriminatory treatment by the francophone majority. This has included several cases of torture confirmed by the United Nations. In 2016, these issues erupted into the current civil conflict. A strike by anglophone teachers and lawyers over the marginalisation of anglophone professionals led to a military response from the Cameroonian government. Since then, activities in the anglophone regions, such as attendance at school, legal hearings, and local markets, have been severely restricted. Harrowing

team and co-develop a project that will impartially investigate the conflict and draw international attention to the events taking place. Barrister Mbinkar Caroline will be involved throughout the lifetime of the project and present in Oxford in Hilary term 2020. The research team will use this pilot project as the basis for developing a larger GCRF bid in 2020.

Source: Law-ox.ac

French Cameroun army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons were behind the “barbaric” murder of a woman in the Momo County, Cameroon Intelligence Report sources in the northern zone have confirmed. The troops loyal to the desperate regime in Yaoundé have carried out several raids in Momo, Menchum and Bui County that have left a host of innocent civilians dead or injured over the past week.

Our chief correspondent in Bamenda, Sama Ernest hinted that a lot of the casualties that are civilians are not a mistake but from decisions that are made in Yaoundé by senior Beti Ewondo military barons.  A Roman Catholic priest serving with the Bamenda Ecclesiastic Province who spoke to us but sued for anonymity observed that there are many situations in which the French Cameroun army soldiers do knowingly target Southern Cameroons civilians.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that Defense Minister Beti Assomo, Minister- Secretary General at the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Minister Paul Atanga Nji are very much in charge of deciding whether or not Yaoundé would stop its troops from killing innocent Southern Cameroons civilians and that President Biya has “no say” since senior military officers are enjoying financial gains from the war in Southern Cameroons.

Speaking to our Yaoundé city reporter on Monday, a senior member of Prof Maurice Kamto’s MRC party who hails from the Centre Region noted that “The elephant in the room not being discussed is the tremendous financial gain that is being made by the military hierarchy in this so-called Anglophone crisis”

Thousands of French Cameroun troops are in Southern Cameroons, allegedly to fight Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

French Cameroun’s fifty-seven year rule over Southern Cameroons came to an end following the declaration of independence by the jailed Ambazonia leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe but three years on, Yaounde is still seeking a military solution to the crisis with the Southern Cameroons Interim Government who still controls large swathes of territory.

The Ambazonia leader including Vice President Dabney Yerima have so far rejected a proposal to lay down arms and instead called on the UN and the African Union to send in an international fact finding mission to end the use of force in Southern Cameroons.  The Ambazonia Interim Government also insists that the so-called Biya national dialogue cannot move ahead until all Southern Cameroonians are released from French Cameroun detention centers and prisons.

According to the United Nations, nearly 3,000 civilians have been killed or wounded and some 50,000 Southern Cameroonians are now refugees in Nigeria.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Rita Akana

In the Human Rights Council, Cameroon has reaffirmed its determination to lead “tireless combat” against Boko Haram extremists.

Addressing the 47-member body in Geneva, Ambassador Mbella Mbella Lejeune also noted that numerous positive steps had been taken for a “durable peace”, following clashes between English-speaking separatists and government forces.

After explaining that President Paul Biya’s decision to hold a “grand” national dialogue with all sectors of Cameroonian society aimed to resolve the conflict, the Ambassador noted that there would be no impunity for those responsible for attacks in the north-west and south-west of the country.

Source: Devdiscourse

Fellow Southern Cameroonians and allies throughout the world,

As many of you know, President Paul Biya of La République du Cameroun addressed his people on Tuesday the 10th of September, 2019 — and in so doing confirmed the widely held perception of his total lack of interest in finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Ambazonia.

For the millions of our people and foreign observers who do not know what to make of the situation — in the face of constant bombardment with sleek, well packaged propaganda driven by thinly veiled neo-colonial interests — I want to tell you today with full confidence: fret not! and do not be confused by the noise from some quarters about this being the end of our revolution.

Here are your two signposts for understanding how these things shall proceed:

1. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and our leaders behind bars are the LEADERS OF OUR NEGOTIATIONS TEAM. If anyone holds consultations about negotiating, mediation, negotiation capacity building, negotiation testing, or whatever else related to negotiation in any way form or shape, they will have to take it up with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his team behind bars or it will amount to NOTHING.
2. The standard framework for building trust to end all modern conflicts is accountability as expressed by the parties allowing for an International Independent Fact Finding Mission, to establish a single set of facts on which the said conflict resolution will be centered. Mr. António Guterres of the UN and Moussa Faki Mahamat of the African Union should promote credible dialogue in this conflict by using their offices to publicly call for the United Nations to establish an International Independent Fact Finding Mission for this conflict.

Anything that ignores these two fundamental pillars for us, as President Sisiku AyukTabe and our leaders behind bars so succinctly put, “is a non-event and a non-starter.”

As far as the Southern Cameroonians – Ambazonian people are concerned, this time it shall be “Total Independence or Resistance Forever!”

God Bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Dabney Yerima Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Tuesday underlined the “important role” of the media and youth in addressing the conflict in the country’s two restive English-speaking regions.

Ngute made the remarks in the capital city of Yaounde during consultative talks with the Cameroon National Youth Council (CNJC) and the Cameroon Union of Journalists (CUJ), which focused on a national dialogue to end the conflict in the restive regions in the southwest and northwest.

“We have expressed the wish to have youth representatives in every stage of this national dialogue. Cameroonian young people from all over the country will be involved, and we are also going to consult the diaspora to be part of this historic event,” Fatimatou Iyawa, CNJC’s president said after the meeting.

“For peace to be sustainable, the media has a very important role to play,” Martin Nkemngu, secretary general of the CUJ noted.

Ngute, who will chair the national dialogue, has been laying the groundwork for the event that is expected to be held by the end of September.

On Tuesday last week, Cameroonian President Paul Biya announced the national dialogue to facilitate a “return to normal life” in the two English-speaking regions.

Crisis has rocked the two regions for over two years after armed separatists declared the “independence” of the regions that constitute a minority in the largely French-speaking country.

Over 530,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Source: Xinhaunet

A Cameroonian refugee simply identified as Claudia, 20, has allegedly sold her nine-month-old baby for N70,000.

According to TheCable, Claudia lives at the Adagom refugee camp in Cross River State and had sold her baby on August 25 to a stranger, who had visited from Calabar.

TheCable, who visited the refugee camp reported that Claudia said she sold her child because of hunger.

It was reported that Claudia had sold her baby in connivance with a barber simply identified as Victor.

One of the refugees at the camp said, “When the police came, (Claudia) said she sold the child because of hardship; that there is no food or anything to feed the child.

“That was just before they paid us for July. Then, everywhere was dry. A lot of us have been selling our things and using them to settle debt.”

While the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, has said she was unaware of the incident, an official of the State Emergency Management Agency confirmed the incident.

Source: The Punch, Nigeria

Six Cameroonian soldiers were killed Friday in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists in the far north of the country, authorities said on Sunday.

Nine other soldiers were injured in the attack carried out on a military post at Soueram near Fotokol in the Lake Chad region by armed men, an army officer and two high-ranking officials in the local administration told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Five soldiers died during the attack and a sixth succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, one of the officials told AFP.

The toll was confirmed by the other official, as well as an army officer, who also said the killers were members of Boko Haram. Soueram is very close to the border with Nigeria in the restive Lake Chad region. On June 10, 17 Cameroonian soldiers were killed in an attack in the same region.

The jihadist uprising which started in 2009 has killed more than 27,000 people, displaced some two million, and spilled over into neighbouring countries, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis.

Source: AFP

An official and a journalist were kidnapped on Saturday in Bamenda, the largest city in Cameroon’s crisis-hit Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local authorities.

Tebeck Mbah, regional manager of state-owned Cameroon Telecommunications, and Pamela Miye, journalist of state media Cameroon Tribune, were abducted by armed separatists, according to security reports.

“They came to our compound well armed, threatened to kill him and took him to unknown destination. We were really frightened,” a family member of Mbah who asked not to be named told Xinhua.

Authorities said the search for the kidnapped was in progress.

Kidnappings have been rampant in the two restive Anglophone regions since an armed conflict started in 2017.

On Sept. 10, Cameroonian President Paul Biya called for a national dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions are English-speaking, while the rest of about 80 percent of the country is French-speaking. Separatists in the two English-speaking regions have been fighting government forces in an effort to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Detained former DR Congo health minister Oly Ilunga has been accused of embezzling $4.3 million of public funds raised to tackle the Ebola epidemic, his defense counsel said Sunday while insisting on his innocence.

“Police accuse him of having siphoned off a total of $4.3 million made available by the treasury to fight Ebola,” lawyers Guy Kabeya and Willy Ngashi said in a statement.

Ilunga, who resigned as health minister in July after being removed as head of the country’s Ebola response team, was arrested Saturday in Kinshasa.

Police have alleged he was planning to flee the country and escape justice, something his lawyers denied.

Kabeya and Ngashi said that “more than $1.9 million of the sum was paid out in a month following Dr Ilunga’s resignation — as such he can in no way be held accountable”.

“As for the remaining $2.4 million… the accounts show that this sum was disbursed exclusively for the purpose of fighting the Ebola virus,” they added in their statement.

Ilunga is due to be referred to a state prosecutor Monday, according to police.

Police spokesman Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu told AFP on Saturday that he is accused of “misdemeanors of the mismanagement of funds allocated to the Ebola response.”

He was questioned in August as part of an inquiry into the management of funds to fight the outbreak, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives since August 2018.

The 59-year-old, who had already been banned from leaving the country, stepped down from his role after criticizing plans by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) to introduce a new, unlicensed vaccine to fight the epidemic.

President Felix Tshisekedi had also stripped him of overall responsibility for tackling the outbreak and handed control to Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research.

The outbreak is the second-worst in history after more than 11,000 people were killed in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2014 and 2016.

(Source: AFP)