Thirty-six passengers have been released one day after they were abducted by gunmen on Tuesday along the Buea-Kumba highway in Cameroon’s southwest, one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions, according to local authorities.

“They (kidnappers) took us somewhere and collected money, phones and other belongings from us and released us after. They asked us to trek to our various destinations.” said Divine Asong, one of the kidnapped passengers. “We trekked for a long distance. It was a sad experience,” he added.

After the release, locals held an emergency meeting with senior government officials in Kumba, one of the commercial towns in Cameroon Anglophone, to discuss ways of curbing the rampant kidnappings in the troubled region.

“We asked that government should put in place urgent measures to restore peace in the area. Among other things, we asked that detained separatist leaders should be released and the region demilitarize to appease the people,” a local who attended the meeting told Xinhua.

The abduction came about two months after a group of 79 school children were kidnapped in Bamenda, the most populous city of Cameroon’s Northwest, another English-speaking region. The local government has blamed armed separatists for the abductions, yet the separatists claimed that the government staged the kidnappings to tarnish their image internationally.

Source: Xinhua

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense In Charge of the National Gendarmerie, Yves Galax Landry Etoga rounded off a one day inspection visit on January 14, 2019 in Buea headquarter of the South West Region. His visit took him to the Gendarmerie Legion South West Region, Squadron No 80, Gendarmerie Post in Bonjongo, Brigade Buea and Motorised Brigade Buea. In these places, he went office by office inspecting equipment and working conditions.

At the Military Hospital Buea and the Buea General Hospital, he visited some injured military personnel and wished them a quick recovery. Following the Head of State’s end of year speech on December 31, 2018, President Paul Biya reiterated to warmongers in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon to drop their arms. The Gendarmerie boss was therefore in the South West Region to see how effective warmongers have laid down their arms. It was also a moment for him to get first hand information on the security situation on the region.

He held in-camera meetings with administrative and military personnel certainly on how to strategies in continuing to protect civilians and their property in the face of ceaseless attacks from unknown gun men. South West Legion Commander, Colonel Tchinda Mbouzikeu Henri said that the visit of the Secre tary of State was meant to inspect their working conditions. He said it boasted the morale of South West Gendarmerie personnel. He indicated that directives were handed down to them on what hierarchy expects.

Colonel Tchinda saluted the determination of the Gendarmerie in protecting civilian and their property. The Secretary of State, Landry Etoga was accompanied to the South West Region by General Sali Mohamadou, Commander of the Second Combined Military Region and General Toungue Elias, Commander of the Second Gendarmerie Legion.

At hand to receive them in the South West Region were the Secretary General at the South West Governor Office, Dr. Mohamadou and the South West Regional Coordinator for the National Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintergration Committee, Fonju Njukang Bernard.

Source: Cameroon Tribune

Cameroon government security officials have confirmed the deaths of two of its servicemen reportedly tortured and killed by unknown Ambazonian militants.  In a recent video circulated by some Southern Cameroons activists on social networks, armed separatists tortured and beheaded two Cameroon government army soldiers.

We gathered that one of the soldiers killed was serving with the firefighter’s brigade in Bamenda in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Security sources confirmed that “One of the young soldiers was kidnapped Monday, then tortured, before being executed,” a security source at the Ministry of Defense who requested anonymity hinted Cameroon Concord News. Yesterday, 36 people were briefly kidnapped before being released.

By Sama Ernest in Yaounde

At least 30 people have been abducted by suspected criminals operating under the direct supervision of the ADF headed by one Cho Ayaba, local sources said on Wednesday. “More than 30 people were kidnapped yesterday on the road between Buea and Kumba” in the Southern Zone of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, a French Cameroun source close to the Francophone authorities there said, confirming an account by a local NGO.

Since October 2017, Southern Cameroons have been in the grip of an armed revolt by Ambazonians demanding independence from the majority French-speaking country. The people were kidnapped after the gang attacked buses plying the highway, one of the most dangerous roads in the country, one of the sources said.

Ransom kidnappings and extortion have proliferated in the territory, along with attacks on troops and police, plus arson assaults on public buildings and schools. The government has responded with a crackdown, deploying thousands of soldiers.

More than 800 members of the security forces and at least 4000 civilians have been killed since, according to the Ambazonian Interim Government. According to UN estimates, more than 437,000 people have fled their homes. The territory known as Southern Cameroons was previously ruled by Britain firstly as an integral part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria and later as an independent state.

They became incorporated into French Cameroun in October 1961, 22 months after France granted the country independence. Over the years, Southern Cameroonians have chafed at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in law, education and economic opportunities.

Demands for greater autonomy or a return to Cameroon’s federal structure were rejected by the President Francophone central government in Yaounde. Hardliners became ascendant in the Anglophone movement, leading to the declaration of the self-described Republic of Ambazonia on October 1, 2017, which is yet to be recognised internationally.

Reported by AFP and CIR

The Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides will again appear in the French Cameroun Yaounde Military Tribunal on the 7^th of February.  The case has been in court for close to a year and now.

The Ambazonian chief executive and members of his cabinet are facing lame and ridiculous charges of terrorism, secession and civil war. Ever since their first appearance in court, Southern Cameroons territory has been rocked by ghost towns and intense fighting is currently going on.

The regime in Yaounde has never been this weak. Those who have been propping the government such as Minister Amadou Ali are gradually showing signs of fatigue.  The shocking death of Foumane Akame-a senior Biya acolyte recently in Geneva also indicates that years of lying and defrauding the state are clearly taking a toll on the health of these key actors.

The French Cameroun economy is crumbling; the population has lost hope in the country. The government’s mismanagement of the country and its determination to hang on to power despite losing many elections has pushed the population into the worst form of despair.

This situation has been made all the more desperate by tribalism and nepotism which have become the government’s tools of administration par excellence. Tribalism that had very little space in Cameroon’s politics under the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo has become a key component of the country’s politics.

A baron of the regime was heard murmuring privately in Yaounde that the trial of the Ambazonian leader is like playing with fire at a petrol station and that their appearance in the Yaounde military court is fanning the flames of the crisis in Southern Cameroons which has resulted to various incessant clashes between French Cameroun security forces and the Ambazonian Restoration fighters.

By Sama Ernest and Kingsley Betek

Autocratic leaders in Africa are increasingly relying on internet blackouts to silence young people who use social media to mobilise against post-colonial political structures across the continent.

Imagine being charged for every tweet or having no access to the internet for months on end. These are just some of the challenges that millions of young Africans face regularly.

Authoritarian leaders from every part of the continent have realised it is not enough to blacken TV screens or hand in headlines to the press anymore. They also need to shut down social media – where young people engage with the world and express anti-establishment views.

Berhan Taye, leading the #KeepItOn campaign from Access Now, an advocacy group which defends the digital rights of users, believes internet shutdowns are an extension of traditional censorship.

“With a few exceptions, many countries that shut down the internet restrict the free press and violate human rights,” Taye told TRT World, “So the internet and social media shutdowns are an extension of these traditional means of censorship.”

Cameroon tops the list for internet disruptions in Facebook’s 2018 Transparency report and holds the record for Africa’s longest internet shutdown. Following protests in the Anglophone southwest and northwest regions against systematic social, political and economic discrimination, the Francophone-dominated government either completely shut down, or significantly slowed down, the internet to silence dissidents.

To maintain his 37-year-old regime Cameroonian president Paul Biya shut down the internet for more than 40 weeks, intermittently, between January 2017 and June 2018.

“This is the first crisis in Cameroon wherein the internet has played a major role. The youths who mostly use the internet have raised awareness… brought the attention of the international community to the situation in Cameroon,” barrister Agbor Nkongho, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), told TRT World.

Recently in Sudan, when the rise in bread and fuel prices triggered nationwide protests across the country, 75-year-old Omar Al Bashir blocked access to popular social media platforms used to organise anti-government protests to protect his 29-year rule.

In a country where the state tightly controls traditional media, the internet has become a key information battleground for the Sudanese youth. Of Sudan’s 40 million people, some 13 million frequently use the internet and more than 28 million own mobile phones.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, outgoing President Joseph Kabila—who delayed elections for two years to stay in power—has frequently used the shutdown of internet and SMS services as a tool to suppress anti-government protests.

Last May, Uganda implemented a tax on 58 different social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Skype. The tax is designed to charge Ugandans 200 shillings ($0.05) per day, a significant amount of money in a country where 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty line ($1.25 a day, or around 4,500 shillings).

The ban was the latest attempt by 74-year-old President Yoweri Museveni, who defended the tax saying “social media use is definitely a luxury item”.

But it backfired, and the backlash was fierce. Young Ugandans, who organised online under #NoSocialMediaTax and #ThisTaxMustGo hashtags, poured into the streets of the capital city Kampala to express their anger against the government. Following the public outcry, the government announced its decision to review the tax in July last year. People are currently still being charged the tax.

However, the social media tax controversy shed light on the deep clash of generations between the old authoritarian rulers and the younger generation.

Generational clash

Uganda is one of the youngest nations in the world, where 78 percent of its population is under 30. For most Ugandans, Museveni is the only president they’ve ever known. This vast group of young people, suffering from high unemployment and political exclusion, see a government that does not represent them nor understand the challenges they face.

As a result, instead of consuming traditional media, such as state-controlled TV or newspapers, they turn to the internet and social media to grow their businesses, get educated and informed about the latest trends, and express their frustration with the government.

The clash of generations in Uganda is a microcosm of what has been happening across the world’s youngest continent, where 60 percent of the population is under 25 years old.

Africa’s largest country, Nigeria, ruled by the 75-year-old Muhammadu Buhari, has a median age of just 18.4 years, while 84-year-old Paul Biya has been ruling Cameroon for 36 years, where the median age is 18.5 years old, meaning a gap of 65.5 years.

Tradition and technology is not a zero-sum game

Far from being understood and having their socio-economic struggles recognised by the state as a priority, young Africans raise their critical voices online and form anti-establishment political movements over the internet.

By demanding more comprehensive democratic reforms, inclusive economic models and quality education and infrastructure, they challenge old-fashioned, elite-controlled, post-colonial political systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taye said: “In countries where censorship is extreme, the internet and social media have given many young people that are fighting injustice the ability to reach many people and rally folks for change.”

She continued: “Even though traditional media houses were heavily censored, many used social media to show the world the injustice perpetrated by federal and regional forces, and provide momentum when the movement was fading from the international press.”

The pop-star-turned-parliamentarian Bobi Wine raises his anti-establishment voice in the Ugandan parliament and his digital activism also has an enormous impact on young Ugandans.

Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan human rights activist, rising from the digital world, has been a critical voice against police brutality and post-election violence in Kenya. In Nigeria, the collective youth movement #NotTooYoungToRun aims to change the age-dominated political scene and push for an inclusive political structure for young people.

Taye said: “Young activists… are the vanguards that are using social media to challenge the structures that have instilled fear, injustice, and poverty in the African continent. And they are a threat to the all that want to continue to perpetuate fear and injustice.”

Many autocrats on the continent have witnessed what youth movements, which mobilise and organise on social media, are capable of. Their extensive use of the internet and frustration toward established political structures have brought considerable changes over the past years in West Africa.

When then-president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore – who had ruled the country since 1987 – decided to run for the 2015 general elections, despite the constitutional two-term limit, no one could have guessed that his decision would trigger a massive protest movement that eventually led to the “Burkinabe Spring”.

Huge protests spread across the country and put an end to the 27 years of Compaore rule. Behind the nationwide protests that overthrew Compaore, lay a youth movement, Balai Citoyen (English: Citizens Broom), which was founded by a few musicians and grew through social media, driving thousands of young people to the streets.

When Gambia ’s then-president Yahya Jammeh did not recognise election results and refused to hand over power in 2016, a hashtag campaign #GambiaHasDecided spread and brought regional and international attention to the brutal 22-year regime in the Gambia.

“Social media has forever changed the dynamics of politics in Africa,” said Raffie Diab, one of the founding leaders of the #GambiaHasDecided movement.

Leaders like Museveni strictly control and censor the internet in a bid to stop any possible opposition through social media. However, autocrats across the continent have seen that the strategy can backfire – and as the internet continues to empower African youth, leaders will need to find new strategies to win them over, or risk losing their grip on power.

Culled from Trtworld.com