Cameroonians in East London in the United Kingdom paid a poignant tribute on Saturday the 24^th of November 2018 to Ma Lay who recently travelled to the land of our ancestors. Ma Lay who migrated to the UK from Cameroon more than forty-five years ago, passed away on the 7th of September 2018 after a brief illness.

The vibrancy of her funeral rites was a testament to the life she lived in the UK as every Cameroonian tribal extraction in London was impressively represented.  Cameroon Concord News had a chat with many in attendance and the general feeling was that she was a woman who unified the Cameroonian community in Great Britain.

“She opened her heart and home to all who came in contact with her during the freezing winter,” Ma Gla who spoke on behalf of the Cameroonian community noted. The colourfulness of the wake keep and the nonstop singing for more than seven hours has never been experienced by the Cameroonian community in the UK.

“It was a perfect occasion to say Thank You and Good-bye to a great woman. She lived a life of laughter and had a great sense of humour” said Dr Mrs Patience Abangma.

Ma Lay leaves behind four children and eight grandchildren to mourn her. She will be laid to rest in the City of London Cemetery tomorrow Monday the 26th of November 2018.

By Sessekou Asu Isong

The French and the United States governments including the Roman Catholic Church should pressure President Biya and his small group of Francophone political elites to stop the war in Southern Cameroons, says an academic and chairman of the Manyu Global Forum Seseskou Dr. Peter Ako adding that the situation in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is now deplorable.

In a telephone conversation with our senior political man, Soter Agbaw-Ebai late yesterday, Sesekou Dr Ako Peter revealed that the Ambazonian Interim Government (IG) and the Ambazonia Security Council (ASC) were developing a new self defense strategy that will be implemented on Ground Zero soon.  He showered praises on the Lebialem Dragons and hinted that there was an urgent need for the IG to order a tactical withdrawal of Restoration Forces in Bali, Batibo including parts of Menchum and Mezam until the new ASC policy goes operational.

“The situation in Nkambe, Bali, Kembong, Ekok and Wum is very volatile. This is nothing new. The French Cameroun government is carrying out raids in these localities in a very brutal manner. I think there is an urgent need for a kind of tactical withdrawal of Restoration Forces. I have endorsed that already in Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies in the Manyu County,” said Sesekou Dr Ako Peter.

“I am not allowed to comment on self defense issues particularly with people of the press. But I want to assure Southern Cameroonians that an inquiry took place on the happenings in Nkambe that was ordered by Acting President Ikome Sako which established the use of helicopters and machine guns by French Cameroun security forces,” Sesekou Dr Ako Peter told Cameroon Concord News Group.

The former MECA USA Chairman also observed that “Whilst the French Cameroun regime is calling these genocidal campaigns a war against separatists, the killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians including Christian Missionaries should be condemned internationally and there should be pressure put on the French Cameroun regime to dialogue with the Ambazonian Interim Government.”

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

The Biya regime reportedly arrested several Southern Cameroonians in the cities of Douala and Yaounde in what seems to be part of a widened crackdown on English speaking Cameroonians after the rigged presidential elections. Biya’s kinsmen in both the army and the gendarmerie have said that the individuals were planning attacks deep inside French Cameroun territory.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from a police source in Douala that many of the Southern Cameroonians are being detained after calling for a boycott of the October 7 polls in Anglophone Cameroon and took to the streets celebrating when Prof Maurice Kamto declared himself winner of the elections. A sea of bloggers have also been arrested for posting what the regime in Yaoundé described as fake news on the behaviour of the ruling CPDM candidate. At the Obili neighbourhood in Yaounde, some 4 Southern Cameroons teenagers were arrested for destroying CPDM campaign posters. The 4 recently rejected the charges.

Meanwhile, the military tribunal in Yaounde held a secret session late yesterday in a bid to sentence the leader of the Ambazonian nation, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of his cabinet who were abducted and forcefully repatriated from Abuja, Nigeria to Cameroon. The Southern Cameroons Interim Head of State and some of his close aides have been moved to the Kondengui High Security prison.

The legitimacy of Mr. Paul Biya’s 7^th term has been widely questioned by the international community. Yaoundé has banned all opposition rallies and militarised opposition strong holds in French Cameroun. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Douala Diocese, Samuel Kleda pointed out last week that the Biya administration failed to provide conditions for fair and free voting and that the results were arranged even before the elections that took place in a repressive political environment.

Earlier on, a Yaoundé High court sentenced Bibixy Mancho, including several Southern Cameroons activists in what Amnesty International called a “travesty of justice.” Bibixy Mancho who headed the coffin revolution was arrested in Bamenda. The International Crisis Group including many Human rights groups have frequently said cases against Southern Cameroons activists in French Cameroun courts fail to meet the basic standards of fair trials.

Thousands of Ambazonians protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Southern Cameroons on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began to end French Cameroun control of the territory. They are demanding that the United Nations recognise the Federal Republic of Ambazonia as an independent state with headquarters in Buea representing all Southern Cameroonians.

Biya and the Francophone dominated army have gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested in a widespread French Cameroun regime crackdown.

By Sama Ernest and Rita Akana in Yaounde

Two Cameroonian nationals who wanted to join their families in France were intercepted at the Mumbai airport on Friday after attempting to fly out using forged Guatemalan passports.

Alvine Nokam and Ololie Konhawo, who live in the Central African country, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Friday night to board a Jet Airways flight to Paris, the police said.

At the immigration counter, they furnished passports issued this year by Guatemala’s Director of Migration, and which identified them as nationals of Cameroon. However, a routine inspection by an immigration official of their passports under a scanner’s ultra-violet lights revealed that the bio-pages of both documents, which contained their names, ages, dates of birth, passport number and expiration date, were forged.

Upon being questioned by a senior Bureau of Immigration official, the women admitted that they were from Cameroon, who planned to move to Paris to be with their families and in search of better financial prospects, the police said. An official at Sahar police station said earlier this year, the women had contacted a travel agent in their native country on Facebook. “Both the women paid the agent 2000 Euros each for a fake Guatemalan passport,” the official added.

Source: Indian Express

Cameroon government forces have shot and killed more than 233 Southern Cameroonian children in Boyo, Mezam, Menchum, Ndian, Kupe Muanenguba, Bui, Lebialem and Manyu in the last three months. A Roman Catholic priest in Bamenda told Cameroon Concord News on Monday that 233 Southern Cameroonian children lost their lives due to live fire from soldiers serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR).

The clergy who spoke to us on condition of anonymity said a group of religious leaders will be making public a detail report of teenagers killed by Francophone soldiers. According to the man of God, majority of the children were either shot in the head, chest or belly.

Figures from the Ambazonian Interim Government show that more than 4000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and over 165,000 internally displaced. The UN says it has registered more than twenty-thousand as refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with many of those fleeing wounded by Cameroon army live bullets since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis.

The UN and the EU are yet to make calls for the arrest of Cameroon government troops, who kill or maim Southern Cameroons children in clear violation of international law. The French government of President Macron supporting the Francophone regime in Yaoundé has reportedly blocked all diplomatic channels at the United Nations General Assembly and the African Union aimed at condemning the Biya Francophone regime for Ambazonian civilian deaths.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appealed for inclusive dialogue-a move rejected by the 85 year old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya.

By Rita Akana

A senior Cameroon military officer has revealed that the Ambazonian Restoration Forces are not losing in the Southern Cameroons war and that the Unity Palace needs a new occupant to bring peace to the divided nation. Speaking on Monday to our undercover reporter in Yaoundé, the military baron who hails from the Far North region and whose name we are withholding noted that relatively speaking nothing changed ever since troops were deployed to crush the Anglophone uprising.

Citing former French President Jacques Chirac, the top military officer said “No one ever wins a war and I can sincerely tell you that there is no military solution to the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon.”

“The Head of State should engage the leadership of the Anglophones in the Diaspora and convince them that it was time to come to the negotiation table,” he added. Without going into some military details, the French Cameroun soldier further pointed out that Biya is currently making the path to reconcile the nation rockier. “I believe and fervently too that the key to solving the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon is to bring in the United States government to incentivize the Ambazonian Interim government to negotiate.” He said.

The Francophone army commander said the Abuja action against the Anglophone leadership was a costly mistake and a diplomatic blunder that has made reconciliation between Francophones and Anglophones too far-fetched. He claimed that a majority of Francophone political elites sees no military solution to the Anglophone crisis.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo has placed a ban on media houses shedding fresh light on Cameroon military’s failure to contain the Ambazonian Liberation Forces and stabilize the territory. There are fears that with presidential elections just three months away in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, separatist fighters may gain strength as the Biya regime   in Yaounde struggles to monitor not only Southern Cameroonians but also the Bamilekes who are reportedly behind Prof Maurice Kamto.

We understand that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government decreed a county-by-county policing of the Ambazonian territory and this has cemented the position of fighters under the Ambazonia Security Council (ASC) who are now taking control over larger chunks of the rural areas while the Biya government had seen its control shrink. The Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) has failed to secure Southern Cameroons and have also suffered a high number of casualties in their battle against the Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

By Asu Vera Eyere and Sama Ernest

The conveners of the Anglophone General Conference that was scheduled to hold in Buea on the 21^st and 22^nd of November have called off the planned Southern Cameroons forum amid reports of a Biya regime plot to assassinate Cardinal Tumi.

A spokesperson for the group said in a press release that the government in Yaoundé had not formally approved the application for the holding of the conference and added that international mediation could solve the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

The pro Yaoundé Anglophone General Conference has been moved to a future date. East of the Moungo, French Cameroonians say they have been cheated by their political leaders in a presidential poll reportedly won by Prof Maurice Kamto.

The Ambazonian Interim Government now says that 4000 people have died in French Cameroun military violence in the territory. Some 162,000 Southern Cameroonians have fled their homes in clashes between the Francophone dominated army and Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces and thousands are still in the bushes due to the fighting.

In Yaounde, some French Cameroun political elites have called for the 85 year old President Biya to step down, saying the October 7 election was not credible and the announcement of Biya as a winner “unacceptable”.

By Chi Prudence Asong

At least seven people were killed in Cameroon’s commercial city of Douala early Saturday after the brake of an oil tanker failed along the main road of a neighborhood called “Village,” police sources told Xinhua.

“Many of those who died were commercial motorcyclists who parked along the road waiting for passengers. They were all hit by the tanker,” the source said, adding that a woman and baby were among the victims of the accident.

A witness, 45-year-old Jean Ekoka, said several people who were discussing along the road were injured and some were rushed to the hospital.

“The tanker came from nowhere on full speed rolling over motorcycles and people. Luckily the tanker that was carrying oil did not explode,” Ekoka said.

Source: Xinhua