Cameroon has slammed a one-month ban on a private television station that falsely announced the death of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Odimba while he was in a Saudi hospital. Cameroon Media watchdog, the National Communication Council (NCC), said the Yaoundé-based Vision 4 television aired an “unfounded declaration” on its prime time newscast of October 27.

The council said the broadcast was a gross disrespect of “professional requirements of investigation and crosschecking of information delivered to the public”. Gabonese authorities had in October banned the TV channel on its territory for six months for the same reason.

Latest prohibitions

NCC also imposed a one month ban on journalist and Vision 4 TV director Ernest Oboma “for inciting tribal hatred and violence” on television. Officials of the channel have snubbed similar decisions against them by the watchdog previously and it was not clear whether they would respect the latest prohibitions.

Besides Vision 4 TV and its director, the Cameroon media regulator also sanctioned four other media organs and about 20 local journalists for allegedly flouting professional ethics.

Pre-trial detention

The council said it had prohibited Ms Mireille Flore, a journalist with Canal 2 International television, from practising in the country following a complaints against her by a bicycle repairer who she presented in a report, “without proof”, as a paedophile. Mr Dom Pipelassi Michael Dopass, a journalist and presenter of the radio programme, Sports and Investigation, was slammed a two-month ban following the broadcast of “unfounded claims” against football legend Samuel Eto’o, the NCC said.

The council also suspended the Sports and Investigation programme for same reason and same duration. The journalist who works for the Yaoundé-based Soleil FM is in pre-trial detention in the Cameroon capital for same crime. The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union (SNJC) was yet to comment on the latest sanctions by the regulator, but had described previous suspensions by the watchdog as attempts by government to muzzle the already gagged press.

Culled from The East African

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia expresses total disappointment in regards to the deceitful and unjust decree issued on Thursday, 13th December 2018, by French Cameroun President, Paul Biya. The decree ordered the discontinuance of some pending cases at their military tribunal in relation to 289 Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians unjustly abducted since the beginning of the ongoing conflict in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

The Interim Government considers the decree as a sign of confusion within the Yaoundé regime, and a big provocation to the peaceful people of Ambazonia, considering that there are more than 3,000 citizens from Ambazonia in different detention centers and prisons across French Cameroun and within the occupied territory of Ambazonia. Some of these victims have already been convicted and imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

The Interim Government has observed that the obnoxious decree talked of releasing some people who committed misdemeanors (minor offences), whereas the Yaoundé regime is not holding any Ambazonian for charges less than treason and acts of terrorism with death penalties hanging over their heads. Moreover, after reviewing the lists of purported detainees released by French Cameroun, the following irregularities were observed:

1. Names of deceased Ambazonians who died in prison as a result of the inhumane treatment meted on them by French Cameroun were on the list.

41 – Wolen Vitalis

43 – Wirsiy Frederic

1. According to family sources, some detainees who were supposedly released precisely from the Bafoussam Central Prison were never abducted or jailed.
2. Achankeng Fidelis
3. Ninju Felix
4. A sizeable number of the supposed detainees released are citizens from French Cameroun not Ambazonians and definitely had no connection with the ongoing conflict.
5. At the Yaoundé Central Prison (Kondengui), of the 82 detainees enlisted for release, only 63 were actually released.

The Interim Government hereby concludes that the decree is a covert, conceived manipulative plan, aimed at deceiving the international community that the brutal dictator Mr. Paul Biya is taking measures to end the war he declared on the people of Ambazonia over a year ago. His soldiers still continue to kill unarmed Ambazonia civilians indiscriminately and burn down entire villages.

Hon. Chris Anu

A senior aide to President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says the French Cameroun regime is attempting to create division in the Ambazonian revolutionary structure both at home and abroad using ego/power-seeking profiteers, opportunists, activists and clueless self-seekers. In a telephone conversation with our London Bureau Chief, Chi Prudence Asong from an undisclosed location in Nigeria, the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe senior adviser whose name we are withholding also pointed out that the sovereign people of Ambazonia should be more vigilant during these difficult times.

“Disunity is slowly but surely bringing its ugly head deep within structures that are the very foundation of the Southern Cameroons resistance and this may push Ambazonians back to that nasty past known as North West/South West Divide” he opined and added that the Biya Francophone regime intends to split Southern Cameroonians along tribal fault lines and the activities of some so-called front line leaders are helping the Yaoundé government to put together a sectarian puzzle among Southern Cameroons institutions such as the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council, the Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Interim Government.

He also reminded Southern Cameroonians of the immortal words of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that “No individual is bigger than the revolution” and described the French Cameroun regime under the 85 year old Biya as a threat to Ambazonia’s sovereignty and blamed the French Cameroun army for continuously violating Southern Cameroons rights.

Elsewhere, Acting President Ikome Sako has urged the UN Security Council to recognize Southern Cameroons as an independent state and to ensure the safe return of Southern Cameroons refugees to their homeland from French Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Ambazonian Acting President reiterated that the Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against La Republique du Cameroun, does not go out of its way to target civilians. Dr Sako also dismissed allegations that ASC/RF is at daggers-drawn positions with the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s military says it has killed seven suspected English-speaking separatist rebels in Bamenda in the North West region.Four soldiers were rushed to the local hospital, said a health worker, but the military has not reported any dead.The region’s army commander, Gen. Agha Robinson, said the military is finding it difficult to battle the rebels because they hide among civilians.

The fighting started Monday evening and continued throughout the night, as civilians fled their neighborhoods amid sporadic gunfire. A local student, Stanley Fru, 23, said he saw a stray bullet shatter the leg of an elderly woman who was going to the market early Tuesday morning.”The military was chasing fighters,” he said. “All of them were shooting indiscriminately.”

The fighting in Cameroon’s restive region erupted just days after President Paul Biya freed 289 suspected separatists, many of whom later urged the government to release their leaders who remain in jail.”We are urging the fighters to drop their guns,” said Deben Tchoffo, the governor of the North West region. He said that the release of the suspected terrorists should be taken as an indication that Biya “wanted peace to return” and pledged to “take care of them and reintegrate them socially and economically.”

Cameroon’s English-speaking separatists have been protesting since 2016 against what they claim is discrimination by the French-speaking majority. Initially the protests by teachers in the country’s English-speaking region were peaceful, but in response to a government crackdown some separatists have begun waging a violent campaign.

The Cameroonian government said that at least 1,200 people have died in the violence since January, which started after Nigeria detained and extradited separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe and 46 other alleged separatists to Cameroon.

Several of the recently released suspected separatists said that there will not be peace until Tabe and the others are also freed.The separatists, largely members of the Anglophone population, which accounts for about one-fifth of the largely French-speaking country’s 25 million people, have vowed to destabilize the region.

Source: Waff.com

Yaounde has been placed on a perimeter lockdown ever since the swearing in of President Biya on November 6, 2018. Attention is now focused on the next government. Tension is also mounting as cabinet ministers have indulged in media wars settling scores over the 2019 African Cup of Nations fiasco.

The Monarch is reportedly angry after the withdrawal of hosting rights from his country. We gathered from intelligence sources in Yaoundé that Biya had formed a government and ordered the state owned media, CRTV to make it public on November the 30^th.

Our source hinted that the 85 year old stopped the reading of the decree naming a new government some few minutes before the 7 pm news on November 30^th. We understand Biya made that last minute decision following happenings in the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) meeting that was holding in Accra Ghana.

Several members of the Prime Minister Yang Philemon administration including the current Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic are suspected of embezzlement in the context of the Africa Cup of Nations 2019. A well-placed source at the presidency revealed to Cameroon Concord News that a vast financial scandal with serious implications at several levels has rocked the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Several senior government officials involved in the management of the Africa Cup of Nations 2019 budget are also under investigation. Some of the cabinet ministers even have matters pending at the Special Criminal Court.  A journalist with our sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report who contributed to this news item opined that some ministers have been banned from leaving the country. For now, the Monarch is quiet.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Scores of Ambazonians have been arrested in a stepped-up Biya regime crackdown in the northern zone and Southern zone of Southern Cameroons amid fears that support for the exiled Ambazonian Interim Government is rising. Francophone civil administrators with the support of pro Yaoundé militia groups are in control of Bamenda, Bali, Wum, Batibo and Ndop but these localities have witnessed the worst clashes between Cameroon government forces and Ambazonia Restoration Fighters over the week.

Recently, Batibo experienced Cameroon government military raids of extraordinary proportions. Our chief intelligence officer in Widikum who contributed to this report revealed that the onslaught on Batibo was done with intelligence gathered from a Southern Cameroons armed group headed by Cho Ayaba. The Francophone army fired and beat demonstrators after innocent civilians raised an Ambazonian flag.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the image of Cho Ayaba has been established in Batibo as the subcontractor of the French Cameroun occupation forces with his criminal gang working in the shadow of French Cameroun troops and disappearing whenever French Cameroun soldiers raid neighbourhoods in Batibo.

Cameroon government troops arrested 35 Southern Cameroonians today at the Hospital Round About in Bamenda, taking the total number of those detained in to more than 165, Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Bamenda Sama Ernest reported.

A dramatic video shows French Cameroun government troops blowing up houses in Belo, Kendem, Batibo and Weh recently. The Ambazonia Communications Secretary, Chris Anu has condemned the French Cameroun government atrocities and also sounded a note of caution to members of an obscure organization headed by Cho Ayaba committing crimes in Southern Cameroons.

By Rita Akana

Barely 24 hours after being released from detention centers, some of the people accused of fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in Cameroon have called for the movement’s leaders to be released if President Paul Biya wants peace in the country.

The detainees’ release last week came after Biya ordered charges against them dropped. Evelyn Ako, a mother of four, says she spent the night with her husband for the first time in 22 months. She says he was arrested in the English-speaking Southwest town of Mamfe and taken to Yaounde.

“With him besides me, we can work harder,” she said. “He used to give me money to support my children but this year, they are in the house. They have not gone to school because of [his absence]. So this thing has disturbed us a lot. It has disturbed even our family because any money that we gather, we used it to buy foodstuff to go and give him. We use it to buy medicines, dresses.”

Evelyn Ako relocated to Yaounde to help her husband and says they will only return to Mamfe when the crisis is over.

Joseph Cho, the spokesperson for the 120 people released from detention camps, said they are pleading with Biya to free their leaders.

“We have leaders. If these people are released, things will be better,” Cho said. “Like Sissiku … who [was] arrested because of this. We expected this decision long ago. Things would not have been the way it is now.”

Sissiku is the name given to the leader of the Ambazonia separatist movement, Julius Ayuk Tabe. He was arrested in Abuja, Nigeria, with 46 of his collaborators and extradited last January to Cameroon. They face a possible death penalty on charges of secession, terrorism and attempting to destabilize Cameroon.

‘Frank dialogue’ needed

University of Yaounde political analyst Willibroad Ze Ngwa says if Biya frees the Anglophone leaders, peace likely will return to Cameroon.

“The most important should be releasing the leaders and engaging in frank dialogue with these people. I pray the head of state [president] should move us into 2019 with some sort of general amnesty so that Cameroonians should be able to live in total concord and harmony,” Ngwa said.

Governor of the English-speaking Northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, says the government is open for dialogue and the separatists should disarm.

“Use all means at your level to convince your other mates to lay down their guns and to come back to normal civil life,” Tchoffo said. “They will be well taken care of, they will be well treated, trained and even supported to ease their coming back to civil life.”

Separatist insurgency

The separatist insurgency gained pace in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests by Anglophones, who complain of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

Biya was re-elected to a seventh term in October, and since then there has been pressure from the international community to start sincere dialogue with the separatists.

Last Thursday, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the U.N. Security Council that conditions in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions had highly deteriorated, and the United States wants an immediate end to violence and a speedy start to talks between the government and separatists.

Culled from the VOA

A Cameroon official says two female suicide bombers have died after detonating in a northern town near the Nigerian border. The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says the attack in Kolofata town occurred Friday night and wounded a woman and a 12-year-old girl.

 The governor says the attackers came from Nigeria, adding that “you know that the borders are very porous.”He says the bombers targeted a home where women had gathered to prepare for a weekly market.

It was the third suicide bombing in Kolofata in less than a week. The governor says the military has been deployed “to search everywhere” for further threats ahead of the holidays.

Cameroon has been fighting the Boko Haram extremist insurgency based in Nigeria for five years.

Following the decision to pardon and release 289 people arrested in connection with the unrest in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, Marie Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director said:

“Cameroon President’s decision to pardon and release nearly 300 people arrested in connection with the unrest in the Anglophone regions is a welcome step and a catalyst for human rights change.

The release must not be the last in a country where many more people are languishing in jail simply for exercising their freedom of expression. We call on authorities to release them, including students Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob sentenced to 10 years for sharing a sarcastic joke on Boko Haram.

“Those released include human rights journalist Michel Biem Tong who will finally be reunited with his loved ones for the first time after nearly two months in detention.

“The release must not be the last in a country where many more people are languishing in jail simply for exercising their freedom of expression. We call on authorities to release them, including students Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob sentenced to 10 years for sharing a sarcastic joke on Boko Haram.

“Authorities should lay out clear steps to protect and respect human rights while guaranteeing that any wrongful detentions do not continue to take place.”

Background

On 13 December, Cameroon’s Defense Minister issued a statement announcing that 289 people who have been arrested for offences claimed to have been committed during the Anglophone crisis will be released, after being pardoned by the President.

This clemency is granted to people whose cases are pending in military courts and who have been arrested for offences claimed to have been committed during the Anglophone crisis. The Minister indicates that it would be granted where the military authorities had taken into account “the relative gravity of the charges”.

The document also states that it would neither be extended “to criminals, murderers or other dangerous terrorists” nor to “those involved in commanding or planning the damaging security crisis which is currently happening in the Northwest and Southwest regions”.

While welcoming by all means the release, Amnesty International is calling on authorities to also release all those people who are languishing in jail only for exercising their freedom of expression including Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob who were jailed to 10 years based solely on the text of an SMS joke on Boko Haram. The High Court of Yaoundé found the three students guilty of “non-denunciation of terrorism related information”. The three young men remain in prison while over 310,000 people across the globe wrote to President Paul Biya asking him to free them.