Last November, during the swearing-in ceremony that marked the beginning of his seventh term as Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya addressed frustrated voters in the restive Anglophone regions and around the country, calling for unity and insisting he had heard their pleas for change. “I have also understood your desire for greater participation in taking decisions that concern the destiny of our country,” he said.

His critics had good reason to be skeptical, given Biya’s long record of ignoring criticism from the political opposition and the population at large. And in recent days, they appear to have been proved right: A new crackdown on the opposition has sent a strong signal that Biya’s current term will look much like the previous six.

Over the weekend, opposition leaders, who have challenged the credibility of last year’s election results, organized demonstrations in multiple cities, prompting a forceful response from the security forces, who dispersed crowds with tear gas and live ammunition. Among the injured, according to Amnesty International, was Celestin Djamen, a top official in the opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, or MRC.

Then, on Monday, security forces arrested Maurice Kamto, the leader of the MRC who, according to official results, finished second to Biya in the presidential contest. The charges against Kamto include sedition and insurrection. The case against him appears to be part of a coordinated assault on opposition leaders and their supporters; the MRC says more than 200 people have been detained since the weekend protests.

In an in-depth report for WPR last year, Emmanuel Freudenthal described how Biya has used an array of tactics to undermine potential challengers. Some have been co-opted via appointments to government posts, while others have been prosecuted on corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated. The president has been aided by the fact that Western powers see him as a steady ally in a volatile region and are therefore inclined to look the other way when it comes to his handling of domestic affairs.

Yet as he has shown in the past, and as he reiterated this week, Biya is not above using more violent means to keep the opposition quiet. Cameroonians should soon have a better sense of whether the recent violence will turn into sustained repression. The MRC is planning to hold more demonstrations in the coming weeks, and another harsh response by the state could tip the country into a full-fledged crisis.

Rights groups and the United Nations are appealing for restraint. In a statement Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said further violence in Cameroon, which currently holds a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, would be unacceptable.

“The Cameroon government can’t claim to respect human rights while using the standard playbook of abusers to crush opposition and curtail freedom of speech and assembly,” said Ida Sawyer, the group’s deputy Africa director. “Cameroon’s international partners should condemn Biya’s blatant and unwarranted clampdown on the political opposition.”

Source: World Politics Review

Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure that those who assaulted him are swiftly brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Chouta told CPJ yesterday that three unknown men stabbed him with a knife and beat him as he left his Yaoundé home just after 6 a.m. that day. The journalist was treated for stab wounds to his right hand and elbow and bruises to his face. “They didn’t say anything as they started to physically attack me,” said Chouta. “My neighbors came to my rescue and the attackers fled in a black Mercedes that had been waiting for them.”

Chouta and Emmanuel Vitus, the editor-in-chief of Cameroon Web, told CPJ they believe the attack was in retaliation for Chouta’s journalism. Vitus said he suspected the attack may be related to a January 22 Facebook Live interview Chouta did with Paul Eric Kingué, the campaign manager for Cameroon’s jailed opposition leader, Maurice Kamto.

Kamto has been mobilizing dissent against President Paul Biya since losing the October election, which he has described as fraudulent, Al-Jazeera reported.

“We urge Cameroonian authorities to ensure that those who attacked Paul Chouta are identified and punished to the full extent of the law,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. “The government needs to send a message to those who want to silence and intimidate journalists that just because they may disagree with what the press writes or says, they cannot resort to violence and escape accountability.”

Vitus said that Chouta broadcast the interview on his personal Facebook page, which has 54,000 followers, and that Cameroon Web shared it on its platforms. He added, “The attack doesn’t come as a surprise. He consistently receives threats.” Vitus said the journalist received threatening comments on social media.

Chouta reported the attack to the police yesterday. National police spokesperson Joyce Ndjem told CPJ she does not give comment over the phone and that CPJ would need to come to Yaoundé to request comment.

The attack on Chouta came the same week that police arrested Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima from the privately owned daily, Le Jour. Denis Nkwebo, deputy editor-in-chief of Le Jour and president of the Cameroonian journalists’ trade union, told CPJ that the journalists were arrested while covering an opposition meeting in Douala on January 28. The journalists were released without charge, Nkwebo said.

At the time of CPJ’s annual prison census, Cameroon was the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa after Egypt and Eritrea, respectively, with at least seven journalists behind bars for their work as of December 1, 2018.

Source: CPJ.org

Kumbo Town is the second largest town in the North West Region of Cameroon, one of the restive English-speaking regions clamouring for autonomy. In recent times it has become an epicentre in the on-going conflict between Cameroon military forces and restorationist forces of the putative Republic of Ambazonia, often known as the Amba Boys. An unprecedented wave of violence has taken the town captive and is rooted in the New Year’s message of President Paul Biya as he approaches his 86th birthday, to use crude military force to quell the uprising if the terrorist/rebels do not lay down their arms.

In the early hours of January 1st, at 00.05am, to show allegiance to Biya (now in power for over 26 years), there was a deafening and frightful salvo of gunshots in all military facilities in the town causing the inhabitants flee to safety. The war had started.

The Score Board

In this month of January 2019 areas of the town such as Mbev, Ndzenji, Squares, SAC Junction, Mantum, Ber, and Meluf have been deprived of the right to own and live in decent houses. The conflagration of military fire has reduced many houses to ashes and forced many people to flee to unknown destinations, paving the way for mass looting from the forces of lawlessness and disorder. Many doors of houses are standing ajar after their crude acts. Soldiers come in waves and depart with looted material, especially Android appliances and food items. This probably is a well orchestrated and planned tool and strategy in this war of attrition. Target killings, extra-judicial execution, disappearances and abductions have become the hallmark of their presence.

In Mbve on January 18th, a pregnant nurse on her way to resume work at Shisong General Hospital was mercilessly gunned down by soldier from a rooftop.

Two days later an early dawn raid was effected by the military within the premises of Shisong Hospital causing double trauma for the hospital patients as well as the Cardiac Unit. A young Internally Displaced boy of 17 who had never witnessed heavy military presence ran into the house where he was hosted for safety, but was unfortunately pulled out and riddled with bullets beyond recognition. Shisong, which hosted many IDPs, is experiencing a re-displacement, making a bad case worse. There is almost daily military presence and shooting around the hospital in the night and the IDPs plus their hosts have all flocked into the wards. No one can be certain of what is to come. There is an atmosphere of foreboding. Everyone seems resigned to their fate. The military units making their entry from the West Region into Kumbo are leaving behind a trail of destruction of houses beyond imagination. Food stuff for people’s consumption is set ablaze. This is scorched earth policy. The civilians must pay the price.

January 21st a young bike rider at Squares-Kumbo round-about, who had just dropped off a passenger, ran into a military convoy returning from Shisong and was pulled off his bike and slaughtered with impunity. In Tankum Quarter, the story was no different; two young boys in their teens had their throats slit open by the military on allegations of being Amba affiliates. Minutes later military canisters were directed to another quarter, Kongir, setting a house ablaze, killing a two year old child therein, and wounding the sister and mother, who were lying in bed. Also, women have been raped with impunity. Goats and chickens have equally paid a price with their lives for roaming freely in town. They are shot and packed into military vans possibly for consumption. Beer parlours with stocks of beer that have been locked are invaded by these unfriendly visitors who consume the stock to excess and then shatter the remains into bits and pieces, thereby ruining the business of a proprietor.

Kumbo Town which used to be bustling with activity has become a dead town, a ghost town, a town abandoned to fate. About seven out of every ten houses have been abandoned. Frequent electricity black-outs or cuts are alarming. The cost of petrol and diesel has risen to absurd heights. The prices of basic foodstuffs have risen considerably. Getting water for use and consumption has become a Herculean task. Many people die in homes because they cannot afford the means to reach hospital. Many pregnant women have escaped into the bushes and far off villages for safety, disregarding anti-natal checks and clinics.

Commercial activities are at a standstill, with a gross shortage of basic commodities – even those that are available are sold at unbearable prices. Educational facilities are completely shut down and unemployment has soared. Dead IDPs are buried in the absence of relations by people of good will. Houses along the main road in the town are branded with bullet holes. Civilian farms within the precincts of military facilities have been torched and destroyed in order to create a buffer zone. Fugitives and IDPs moving into other regions are not free from harassment and death-threats. In Douala, IDPs are forced to pay a tax before being accommodated. Some are demeaned through innuendo and ethnic slurs. Many people wearing clothing of certain colours have become targets for the military. Wearers of black, the classic icon of tough guys, and red the emblematic insignia of Amba Boys, have become targets for elimination by the military. Bike Riders have not been spared from this fate.

On the other hand, Amba Boys that shoot for restoration forces, though defending and fighting for the marginalised, have equally left their own mark. Government sympathisers and those critical of them are whisked-off to unknown destinations where they are tortured beyond recognition and released only when a ransom is paid. They have frequently interrupted the little attempted commercial activity with death threats. Any Amba critic or sell-out receives the crown of brutality from the Amba Fist of Fury. Transit fees/fares demanded by Amba affiliates are heartbreaking. Moving from one Administrative Division to another is a nightmare with numerous check-points for both Amba and military forces. Having identity papers with a Cameroon Government Logo is nauseating and acrimonious to Amba Boys and a lack of them at Cameroon Government checkpoints is an occasion for arrest, torture, incarceration and death. This is the predicament of the inhabitants of Kumbo.

Reflection: “Actions that are designed for the methodical extermination of an entire people, nation or ethnic minority are always to be condemned as horrendous crimes” (Gaudium et Spes 79). “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation” (Gaudium et Spes 80). The obligation of preventing war lies on all nations. A world organisation that has Supreme legitimacy and authority seem to be the most apt means of preventing war and promoting peace.

Conclusion: Pride which is the spurious feeling of superiority leads to errors of judgement with the consequences of disgrace, destruction, opposition and downfall. There is the need for upgrading the call to the international community to intervene and force the warring parties to the bargaining table in an inclusive dialogue; for the pen is mightier than the sword. If the present trend of events continues unabated, there will surely be a replay of the Rwandan episode, plunging the entire Central African Sub-region into a morass. A stitch in time saves nine! For now, “as wanton boys are to the flies so are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.”

Source: Independent Catholic News

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of two newspaper reporters who were arrested while covering a meeting of members of Cameroon’s opposition at a home in Douala, the economic capital, on the evening of 28 January.

Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue, who work for one of the leading Cameroonian dailies Le Jour and are members of the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists (SNJC), were arrested at a meeting in the home of a close supporter of Maurice Kamto, runner-up to President Paul Biya in last October’s election, in which Biya won a seventh term. The police also arrested Kamto and several of his supporters during their raid on the home.

“Covering opposition activities is not a crime – it is the duty of political reporters,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “By arbitrarily arresting journalists who are just doing their job, the Cameroonian authorities are not providing any answer. Instead they are just helping to deepen the country’s current political crisis. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of these two journalists.”

In a communiqué calling for their release that was sent to RSF , the SNJC said the two journalists were at the meeting as reporters and that the police had “confused” them with the opposition leaders and supporters they arrested. The journalists were transferred to judicial police headquarters in Yaoundé, the political capital, the SNJC added.

Journalists are often arrested in Cameroon. RSF is currently also fighting for the release of Amadou Vamoulké, a former head of state-owned Cameroon Radio & Television (CRTV), who has been held for more than two and a half years and is due to appear before a Special Criminal Court for the 17th time on 1 March. Cameroon is ranked 129th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

Cyprain fled his home when separatist fighters in Cameroon’s Northwest region threatened to kill him after he served government soldiers at his roadside bar. He’s one of a growing number of civilians trapped between the army and roaming gangs of English-speaking insurgents fighting to break away from the majority-Francophone nation.

The conflict has decimated the local economy in the conflict zone, and according to the United Nations, left hundreds of people dead and displaced about 437,000 people. “The military burn houses, destroys, loots property and kills citizens,” Cyprain, 41, said on condition that his surname not be used out fear for his safety during an interview in the port city of Douala, where he now stays with relatives.

“Separatist fighters attack, kidnap and even kill people they suspect are their enemies.” There’s no end in sight to a conflict that started in late 2016 with peaceful protests against the dominance of the French language in schools and courtrooms of the Northwest and Southwest regions, where most people speak English.

President Paul Biya, 85, said on Twitter last week he’ll order the defense forces to “neutralize” all fighters who don’t lay down their weapons, a warning he first gave in his traditional year-end speech. Africa’s second-longest serving head of state, Biya extended his more than three-decade rule in the central African nation by winning disputed presidential elections in October.

Gruesome Images

While the government has blocked journalists from visiting the regions independently, gruesome images appear almost daily on social media. In a recent incident, a photo emerged of the head of a decapitated soldier that was left in the middle of a road in the Northwest’s regional capital, Bamenda, by suspected insurgents.

“The army hasn’t been able to take back control of rural areas, and there’s an increasing rivalry between separatist militia that fight each other over leadership and territory,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup, an analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “The roads are either controlled by separatists or by defense forces. The population is suffering harassment from both sides.”

That’s isolated the area from the rest of oil-dependent Cameroon, which is a key regional hub, with roads and ports that are vital for landlocked neighbours including Chad and Central African Republic.

Agricultural Crisis

Cameroon’s top state-owned agribusiness said this week it has lost 35 billion CFA francs ($61 million) as a result of the crisis and more than half of its 22,000 employees are unable to work. The Cameroon Development Corp.’s three main crops — palm oil, rubber and bananas — have dropped significantly and large swathes of its farmland in the two Anglophone regions have been completely destroyed, General Manager Franklin Njie said.

The roots of the crisis date to the decision by the colonial powers to split the nation after World War I into a French-run zone and a smaller, British-controlled area. Since they were unified in 1961, the English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained they don’t have equal job and educational opportunities as the French speaking majority.

Cameroon’s military has been accused of abuses including summary executions and raiding villages by advocacy groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Separatists have killed more than 160 police and military officials, according to the government, and have filmed themselves on mobile phones torturing village chiefs they accuse of collaborating with the authorities.

Army Abuses

The head of communication of the defense ministry, Didier Badjeck, rejected allegations from residents that the army was responsible for abuses and has dismissed reports that the military has set houses ablaze in the two restive regions as untrue.

“There is a lot of fake news on social media on this crisis,” he said by phone.

While Biya initially ignored the crisis, he has pledged to create a committee to disarm and reintegrate fighters. The decision triggered a spike in violence in the two regions, fueling clashes between separatists and defense forces.

“The government in Yaounde has taken a few measures but it hasn’t fundamentally addressed the root causes of the crisis and remains opposed to an inclusive dialog,” Heungoup said.  The unrest also risks spilling further into Cameroon’s eight French-speaking regions.

About 300 armed men swarmed into the town of Bangourain on Dec. 23 and set houses ablaze in what was the biggest attack in French-speaking territory since the conflict began.

The incident triggered such angry reactions on social media from Cameroonians that the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa issued a statement urging Francophones and Anglophones to “exercise restraint and refrain from hate speech and retaliation against one another.”

Among the thousands of people who’ve recently fled to French-speaking areas is Killian, a 41-year-old carpenter who asked not to be identified by his surname for fear of reprisals. He said he escaped as the military burned down his home and dozens of others in the town of Kumbo in the Northwest.

“I barely escaped with my dear life,” he said. “I hope my wife and my two children are alive.”

Source: Bloomberg