Separatists in Cameroon’s restive English speaking regions staged a prison break leading to the escape of about 70 prisoners, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

The incident took place in Wum, a town located north of the regional capital Bamenda. Witnesses say the preceding the prison break was exchange of gunfire at the town’s prison lasting several hours.

They added that the mastermind of the attack sustained gunshot wounds but was carried away by members of his team.

This becomes the second such incident in under two months. In late July 2018, over 160 inmates in the Ndop prisons were released after an attack by separatists.

The attackers who “fired from everywhere”, were able to “break the gates of the prison” before “setting fire to all the buildings,”he added, …

At the time, William Benedict Emvoutu Mbita, head of the department of Ngoketunjia where Ndop is located confirmed that some escapees had voluntarily returned and were due to be transferred to the regional capital, Bamenda.

The attackers who “fired from everywhere”, were able to “break the gates of the prison” before “setting fire to all the buildings,“he added, stressing that they had brought fuel to cause the fire.

Armed separatists since October last year have faced off with state security forces in an increasingly deteriorating security situation in the Anglophone regions – the North-West and South-West.

Source: Africa News

Three teenagers, including 6 women, were killed in a Cameroon government attack on Fako County in Southern Cameroons, witnesses told Cameroon Concord News on Monday. A council worker at the local mortuary in Buea reported seeing 14 dead bodies, including the three young boys and six women.

Several Southern Cameroonians were injured in the attack as forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaounde continued to massacre innocent Ambazonian civilians. The Fako County is under siege from the Cameroon government forces blamed for thousands of civilian deaths over the past 2 years.

The Francophone dominated army surprise attack happened in the streets of Buea. The three teenagers were killed while traveling from their car wash. According to several witness accounts, the attack started when the ruling CPDM crime syndicate announced that the 85 year-old President Biya will kick off his campaign in Buea. Heavy and light caliber gunfire was heard for several hours.

The French Cameroun military targeted areas near the University of Buea and Mile 17 in Muea that is the trading settlement of several hundred Southern Cameroons inhabitants.

By Asu Vera Eyere and Sama Ernest

Scores of French Cameroun soldiers were killed and many others injured in an overnight attack by Ambazonian Restoration Forces in Bafut. Our chief intelligence officer in Bamenda reported that the onslaught against the Francophone government army soldiers was staged by Bafut 7 Kata Boys on Thursday.

A Cameroon government provincial security source who confirmed the news to us but sued for anonymity observed that troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde were returning from the Menchum County when the convoy of 8 trucks, an armoured vehicle and a caterpillar were ambushed at Mile 24.

We gathered that fierce clashes erupted when the Southern Cameroons militants attacked the army convoy. Late night reinforcement troops arrived the area but could go across as the Bafut 7 Kata Boys had destroyed the main bridge seen here on photo attached to this report.

The soldiers attempted to repel the attack and wounded some of the attackers, but their number is not known as the militants evacuated their casualties when they withdrew from the scene.

The rugged area leading to Wum has long been a hot bed for Southern Cameroons Resistance forces despite repeated operations by the French Cameroun security forces to hunt them down. Major Key settlements in Southern Cameroons are now without administrative heads.

By Asu Vera Eyere

Violence in Cameroon between English-speaking militants and the security forces of the francophone-led country is threatening to spiral out of control ahead of October elections.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the past year by bloody clashes between Cameroonian soldiers and armed separatists calling for independence for roughly 5m citizens in the country’s English-speaking regions.

The violence across the country’s linguistic divide — which has its roots in colonialism — has turned into the greatest challenge faced by President Paul Biya, who hails from Cameroon’s francophone majority and has been in power for 36 years.

Hans De Marie Heungoup, central Africa senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, said: “We are not yet in a civil war, but all the ingredients for a potential civil war are already assembled.”

He cited the targeting of civilians, the administration’s efforts to encourage pro-government militias and the emergence of criminal gangs.

The election due on October 7, when 85-year old Mr Biya is seeking his seventh term in office, comes days after the anniversary of a government crackdown that left dozens of protesters dead last October, when secessionists symbolically proclaimed the independence of Ambazonia, as the envisioned anglophone state is called.

The crisis began in 2016 as the Biya administration accelerated policies that have marginalised English speakers and cracked down violently on peaceful protests against demands that French be spoken in schools and courts in anglophone regions.

Agbor Nkongho, a leader of the protest marches who was jailed for eight months, said: “After we were arrested, the movement went into the hands of radicals who were clamouring for a separate state. The situation has changed drastically . . . and tensions will only get worse as we approach October 7.”

Mr Ngongho said more English speakers had been persuaded to support what had been a minority secessionist movement because of extrajudicial killings, the arbitrary arrest and torture of journalists and civilians, and the blocking of internet access in anglophone regions last year.

The ICG estimates that soldiers have burnt at least 100 anglophone villages to the ground — part of a crackdown that has forced more than 21,000 people to flee into neighbouring Nigeria.

In the past year, the anglophone armed groups, directed from abroad by exiled Cameroonians in Europe and the US, have grown more brazen and violent, said Mr De Marie Heungoup. They are made up of between 1,000 and 3,000 men, most armed with rudimentary weapons such as machetes and hunting rifles, according to ICG.

Amnesty International said this week that around 400 civilians have been killed this year in the crisis, while at least 160 soldiers have died since 2016. The human rights group also said it had authenticated two videos showing someone who identified himself as a separatist holding the decapitated head of a Cameroonian officer.

“The situation is going to deteriorate further because [anglophone separatists] are going to use all means possible to prevent elections from taking place” in their region, says Elie Smith, a Cameroonian journalist. “And in retaliation the military will use brutal force.”

Jean de Dieu Momo, a Biya supporter and head of Les Patriotes Démocrates pour le Développement du Cameroun political party, said that anglophone grievances about marginalisation are legitimate, but added that so were those of pygmy tribesmen in the bush who were not taking up arms.

Mr de Dieu Momo said he supported anglophone efforts at reform within the Cameroonian state. But the men who took up arms for a separate state “are not political fighters fighting for the change of the state to federalism — they are terrorists”, he said. “They are taking money from the population, they are raping the women [and forcing] people to put the flag of Ambazonia on their door.”

In 1961 French Cameroun and the former British Southern Cameroons were unified, uneasily, in a federation that gave the anglophone regions autonomy. In 1972, Cameroon was “united”, effectively giving the francophone majority complete control. Since then, Anglophones have complained of being marginalised and oppressed.

Julius Nyugap, a member of Ambazonia’s self-proclaimed government, says the international organisations accusing separatists of human rights violations have bought “the narrative of the government”, which wants to paint them as terrorists. “Why would we kill the very people we are fighting for?” he says.

Mr Biya rules by decree, and has instituted anti-democratic policies abolishing term limits while allowing a façade of multi-party democracy that, critics charge, provides him cover with the international community, which has largely been silent about the anglophone crisis.

Cameroon is “an ‘electoral dictatorship’. . . so you will get the impression of a country where there are democratic freedoms”, says Kaw Wallah, an opposition politician who has called for an end to Mr Biya’s rule. But “any time the Biya regime feels threatened in any way . . . you can be arrested either as a journalist, as an opposition member, or as a civil society activist.”

Source: Financial Times

French Cameroun government officials say an estimated 400 civilians and 160 state security personnel have been killed in the protests in Southern Cameroons over the past two years. A figure highly contested by the Ambazonian Interim Government. The latest indication of worsening brutality is a video of separatists showing a security man’s decapitated head.

The activists in Southern Cameroons are demanding independence from Cameroon alleging marginalisation by the government of Paul Biya, which is largely French-speaking. English speakers constitute 20 percent of the 24 million-population.

“The situation in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is becoming increasingly desperate with no one spared from the violence which is spiralling out of control,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for West and Central Africa.

Daoud said perpetrators from both sides had attacked and killed people or destroyed their properties but continue walking free. Early this month, armed separatists kidnapped seven students and the head of the Presbyterian Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Bafut. They were released days later.

Last week, the militants attacked positions of soldiers stationed near the town of Buea, causing an intense exchange of fire between them and the security forces.

It is feared violence will worsen with the upcoming elections in Cameroon.

“We may well see an escalation in the number of security incidents and increased activity by armed separatists threatening to disrupt the electoral process at all costs,” Daoud said.

Polls are set for October 7.

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), the leading human rights organization working to realize human rights in Cameroon,  strongly condemns the decision by the government of President Paul Biya through its Regional Delegate of Transport in the Northwest Region, to issue a travel restriction among Anglophones in the North west region.

This policy amounts to nothing less than a xenophobic and counterproductive action by the government and it should be repealed immediately.

This tragic decision by the government violates the best traditions of Cameroon’s constitution as well as in direct contravention of international humanitarian and human rights laws. We implore President Paul Biya, and those around him, to consider the ramifications of the travel restrictions on Anglophones.

In a time when the country is faced with its worst crisis since independence many citizens and law enforcement officers are losing their lives, Cameroonians are looking to their government for many things including leadership, all-inclusive dialogue, guaranteeing their rights and ending the violence.

These kinds of action not only harm the future prospects of individuals and peace, but also diminish our own reputation and performance as an outward-looking community.

This policy by the government does not make Anglophone and Francophones safe; rather, it makes us less safe by breeding negative sentiments around the country, stifling opportunities, escalating violence, interfering with cross-cultural relationship building, and making it more difficult to provide assistance and protection to those who need it most especially the refugees I visited in Nigeria and Internally displace persons CHRDA tries to assist on a daily basis.

In the midst of an escalating war in the country, this is a significant setback for those who are obviously in need of protection and those who are finding peaceful solution to the crisis. The Cameroon government must live up to its international obligations and provide protection for those fleeing persecution and conflicts in the Anglophone region and not restrict travel.

We call on all Anglophones and Francophones in Cameroon and the international community to join us in speaking out against this hateful policy, which sends an official message of intolerance, undermines the Cameroonian people, and threatens the lives of thousands of people who desperately and urgently need sanctuary in our country—while doing nothing to bring peace to the Anglophone region.

Authorities in Cameroon’s North West region say they will not allow people without legitimate reasons to leave the area. A communique dated September 18 and signed by a regional delegate said the decision had been taken with stakeholders in the transport sector.

“I have the honour to inform the general public that as a measure to secure and protect those persons travelling out of the region, that henceforth, they will be required to provide additional information at their points of departure.

“In effect, they shall state the reason for their departure, the name of the receiver and his or her contact. Anybody who will not comply with this order shall have his or her journey cancelled, the statement added.

People in their hundreds were reported to be quitting the region as the Anglophone crisis continued to take a toll on lives and properties across the region.

The region together with the SouthWest constitutes the country’s minority Anglophone region which has been suffering a security crisis since last year.

Separatist groups are seeking independence from French-majority Cameroon after a series of peaceful protests against marginalization was clamped down by government forces. The separatists are seeking to establish the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Reported by Africa News

The deteriorating health condition of a Anglophone journalist jailed at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde has provoked anger and outrage among media men and women and the online community in Cameroon.

Pictures of Dzenyagha Thomas Awah Junior in his Kondengui cell emerged over the weekend showing the journalist in a dire condition which provoked widespread condemnation with some journalists launching the hashtag #FreeThomasAwah.

Arrested in Bamenda in January 2017, Thomas Awah, Publisher of the Aghem Voice was slammed an 11-year jail term for secession, amongst other charges on May 25, 2018.

The journalist who has a well-documented brain problem that has seen him undergo surgery on several occasions has always denied the charges and maintained he was arrested in the line on duty.

Several applications filed by his lawyer for a bail so he could undergo proper treatment have all been rejected as he languished in his cell.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

 Media in Cameroon have accused the country’s National Communication Council (NCC) of censorship ahead of October’s presidential election after it issued a stern warning accusing the media of propagating hate language that can deepen fighting in the central African state.

One supposed offenders – Amplitude FM, a radio station in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, which told potential voters to be ready for carnage that will spread all over the central African state should its president, Paul Biya, be reelected October 7. The broadcaster says that after 36 years as head of state, Biya should peacefully hand over power – and if he doesn’t – be forced to do so.

The radio station’s program in question is called Polimetre. Less than a month ago, its host, Dieudonne Mbah, anchored another political program called Polifocus that was suspended by Cameroon’s NCC, the country’s media regulator, for spreading hate language. He simply changed the name of the program.

Mbah says his program, like 12 others, was targeted because it takes a strong stance against Biya’s long stay in power. He says if he should be punished for asking people to vote for change, so, too, should other journalists for asking potential voters to take a tougher stand against those who oppose Biya.

“Some media houses like the state-run CRTV, television stations which are owned or backed by government ministers, seem untouched even when their journalists are known to have broken the same rules which other journalists and other media organs have been punished for, but they go unpunished. So I think that the NCC still needs to rise to that occasion where they can discipline any media houses irrespective of the name or irrespective of who owns it,” Mbah said.

Jude Kiven, president of the Yaounde chapter of the Association of English-Speaking Journalists, says politicians have manipulated many journalists who now no longer practice their profession, but take sides with some candidates. Jude says many producers of programs suspended by the NCC simply change their names or the names of the media organ.

“It is important for the National Communication Council to sanction anyone or any media house that is guilty of hate speech, yet the National Communication Council can take decisions and sanctions that can be ignored by the journalist or the media house. Government did not give the National Communication Council enough powers to be able to enforce their decisions,” Kiven said.

Last month, a court in Yaounde asked the president of the NCC, Peter Essoka, to pay a fine of $30,000 as damages to Vision 4, a TV station in Cameroon. Essoka had suspended some of the station’s programs, saying they could be compared with those of Radio Mille-Collines, the media outlet that was at the heart of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Essoka acted after journalists from from Vision 4 said all English speakers in the bilingual country where French also is an official language should be held responsible and punished for the crisis rocking the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

Private media outlets in Cameroon also defied a ban on political programs imposed by the National Communication Council, which insisted political debates may cause conflict ahead of senatorial elections on March 25.

In 2017, the NCC suspended 35 journalists and media outlets, accusing them of failing to respect professional norms and ethics. Some of those punished had criticized the government’s handling of the crisis in the English-speaking regions. Others criticized senior state functionaries about the use of public funds.

“It has been so insulting, abusive; it is becoming rampant, developing into a hate society,” Essoka said. “We cannot permit that some people destroy the state of the nation under the pretext that they are free. Freedom or liberty has its limits, and we shall insist on that limit. Part of the crisis in our country is based on the things that people say.”

Essoka said the NCC is committed to cleaning up the media landscape in Cameroon, but it doesn’t not have a way to enforce decisions and must rely on administrative and security officials who very often refuse to collaborate.

Essoka said he regrets that media rights group Reporters Without Borders thinks the NCC is taking a tougher line toward journalists and media.

Cameroon was ranked 126 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2016 World Press Freedom Index.

Cameroon has more than 500 newspapers and 100 radio and TV stations which express divergent views about the presidential election.

VOA