With the number of people fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon for Nigeria growing, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is increasingly concerned at the plight of women and children among them.

Women and children represent about 80 per cent of the approximately 10,000 refugees registered so far in eastern Nigeria’s Cross River state. Thousands more are among the population of unregistered Cameroonians in neighbouring states.

Some of these are boys and girls who fled to Nigeria alone. Unaccompanied and separated children are particularly affected by difficult access to food and the lack of subsistence opportunities.

UNHCR staff have received numerous reports that children have to work or beg to survive or to help their families. Many children are unable to attend school, as they lack both the time and funds for education. Although schooling in Nigeria is free, there are still some basic costs, such as those for school materials.

UNHCR is working with the Nigerian authorities to assist with the reunification of separated children with their families, to provide unaccompanied children with protection services and to restore the basic right of all children to education. Some children arriving to Nigeria reported to UNHCR that they had been out of school in Cameroon for the whole of the past academic year.

For women, the lack of work combined with the over-stretched reception facilities, creates a higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly from survival sex. So far, only a limited number of such cases have been recorded, mainly in the Amana community of Cross River state. However, UNHCR is concerned that many more incidents go unreported or are referred only to community elders. Incidents of domestic violence, as well as cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls as young as 14, have also been reported.

In Nigeria’s Benue state, where two school buildings have been reserved by authorities to serve as temporary refugee hosting accommodation, women and their families are forced to sleep inside communal school halls, deprived of private space and the right to family dignity. For them – and for the rest of the population living in temporary tents hastily built next to local residences – sufficient and appropriate shelter is key to ensure adequate registration, systematic aid distribution and reduced protection risks.

UNHCR is currently working with the Nigerian authorities to identify sites away from the border, where the refugees can be hosted according to international standards. We are also establishing offices in the towns of Calabar and Adikpo to better provide assistance and protection to the women and children. Our support includes food, basic relief items, health, and water and sanitation facilities.

UNHCR recognizes the enormous generosity of the Nigerian border communities, opening their doors to Cameroonian refugees. Almost all of those registered reported that they had left their homes because of insecurity and that they would go back only when it’s safe to do so.

Source: The UN Refugee Agency

URGENT PRESS RELEASE

Sons and daughters of Manyu, you might have heard an announcement on CRTV and your local radio stations about
a Manyu Solidarity Initiative in Mamfe on Saturday, January 20th, 2018 launched by Victor Mengot and other
Manyu CPDM sell outs serving in the Gangster regime of Paul Biya. We are strongly outraged, and believe those who have lost their loved ones should feel more outraged.

Here are some questions that should really outrage you:

Where was Victor Mengot and his Solidarity Initiative towards the sons and daughters of Manyu when Paul Biya sent his soldiers to kill our people?

Where was Victor Mengot and his hypocritical love towards the peoples of Kembong, Agborkem, Akwaya, Kajifu and
Eyumojock when the Soldiers of Paul Biya killed and forced them go on exile to Nigeria?
Was Victor Mengot ignorant about the evil plans to kill Manyu people? Why didn’t Victor Mengot warn his Manyu People or even tell Paul Biya to leave Manyu alone?

We have not forgotten the Press Release put out by the SDO of Manyu warning our people to flee from their villages
or be killed.

We have not forgotten how the Governor of the South West Region tricked our Manyu people by sending another
Press Release telling our people not to run into hiding.

We have not forgotten that the assurances from the criminal Governor proved to be a death sentence for our people
who did not run away. Those who stayed were brutally killed by the soldiers of Paul Biya.

Now that they do not see more of our people to kill for their blood rituals, Paul Biya has sent Victor Mengot to come
and deceive our people who escaped to return home, just as the Governor deceived those who ended up dead. Victor
Mengot is preparing the ground to get our people killed, so that the living witnesses of the evil carried out by Paul
Biya through the corrupt silence of people like Victor Mengot and other Manyu CPDM conspirators can be hidden
forever.

Therefore, we write to warn you not to fall for this trap. Victor Mengot and his CPDM friends are snakes. The blood
of our Manyu sons and daughters rest on the heads of Mengot and his CPDM DEVILS who turned their backs on
Manyu while Paul Biya slaughtered them.

We call on our brave brothers and sisters who are still around Mamfe to do everything within your power to Disrupt
and Boycott the holding of any such event in Mamfe on the 20th of January.

This bunch of murderers and blood suckers do not speak or represent the People of Manyu. Victor Mengot and the
corrupt Manyu CPDM gang do not own Manyu. The young people whose petrol was destroyed by the Mengot/ Biya
soldiers are the real heroes of Manyu. Their lives cannot be destroyed for the likes of the Mengots and Tabetandos to
reap political gains.

Sincerely
The Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee

According to the Wum Gendarmerie Company Commander in Menchum Division in Southern Cameroons, a Credit Union Microfinance Bank located at Weh village market some 7 km from Wum, the chief town in Menchum on the Nyos axis was attacked on the 16^th of January 2018 by unidentified men.

Two of the five gendarmes guarding the premises of the bank were killed.  The Wum Gendarmerie Company identified the two as Constable Ndjameya Jean-Bosco (Class of 2013) and Peloton 905.

The Francophone dominated gendarmerie force also revealed that two other gendarmes were wounded during the aggression and one is in “a serious condition”.  Cameroon Intelligence Report was reliably informed that the weapons of the officers killed were carried away by the thugs.

Since the outbreak of the socio-political crisis in Southern Cameroons, security forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have been frequently attacked by Ambazonian militants in these areas.

www.cameroonintelligencereport.com

The National Executive Committee of the SDF has authorized Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi to visit Ambazonian refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cameroon Concord News has learned from SDF sources.

We gathered that it was one of the resolutions taken at the National Executive Committee meeting that held in Bamenda last weekend.  SDF executive members also resolved to appeal for the establishment of parliamentary commission of inquiry on the Southern Cameroons crisis and the release of those still detained by the francophone dominated army.

Discussions during the NEC forum also focused on the future of the current leader John Fru Ndi who has been at the helm of the party since its creation in May 1990. A majority of SDF militants and sympathizers have been calling on the Chairman to step down.

Information has filtered that contrary to what was reported by some Cameroonian media houses, Fru Ndi has indicated his willingness to seek a new term as the head of the party during the February 22nd convention.

By Rita Akana

The governor of the West region  says at least 21 people have been killed and at least 38 injured when a bus veered off a road and crashed into a tree in a ravine.

West Region Gov. Awah Fonka said Sunday that the death toll from the accident late Saturday is likely to increase. He said the bus driver and at least four others were uninjured.

The Cameroon government said the 70-passenger unregistered vehicle was headed from Dschang to Douala in the West Region.

Fonka said it’s still too early to determine the cause of the accident. He says the people injured are being treated at a local hospital.

Source: Fox News

Cameroon Concord News has learned that a bloody clash has been averted in Buea following an attack on a school in Muea today.  According to the report, unknown gunmen burnt down a school in Muea and were heading to Buea forcing parents to rush to get their kids from schools in the South West regional capital.

The scenario started with the killing of an officer in Mbonge and later moved to Muea. Our reporter in Buea revealed that even businessmen and women including passers bye had to scamper to safety. We gathered that Buea has not been respecting ghost town operations ever since the arrest of the Ambazonian leaders in Abuja, Nigeria.

Military trucks have been seen descending to Muea.  Elsewhere a report reaching us from Kumba says gun shots were heard throughout the night. Shops in Bamenda have also been closed down following an alleged attack by ADF militants in Widikum.

By Ojong Ojong Joseph

Cameroon military sources say an officer deployed to Ekondo Titi was murdered by the members of the Ambazonian Defense Force on Sunday, January 14, 2018.  The department of the South West Gendarmerie Legion identified the soldier as Chief Warrant Officer Endaman.

“We were alerted in the morning of January 14th of the kidnapping of our comrade. After this announcement, a research was launched and in the evening we found his lifeless body, “noted a spokesperson for the Cameroon army.

Since President Biya declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons, more than fifteen soldiers have been murdered in Ambazonia. In his address to Cameroonians on December 31, 2017, President Paul Biya once again made the matter more intractable:

“I have instructed that all those who have taken up arms, who practice violence or who incite violence, be fought relentlessly and answer for their crimes in court.”

By Sama Ernest

Four people were killed and two others kidnapped in separate overnight attacks in the far north of Cameroon, blamed on the Islamist group Boko Haram, sources told AFP on Thursday. Three of the victims were “slaughtered” in Kolofata, a town which borders Nigeria and that has seen a spate of attacks blamed on the jihadists, said a source close to the security services.

A security officer in the region confirmed the information to AFP, and that two people were also abducted. In a second overnight attack, Boko Haram fighters are believed to have killed one person and injured another in nearby Ashigashiya, also by the Nigerian border, said the security officer. The jihadists also burned some 60 boxes of grain and motorcycles, he added. The attacks come after Cameroon and three other West African states launched a major offensive against the jihadist group in Borno state, in north east Nigeria this week.

Cameroon soldiers, along with troops from Chad, Nigeria and Niger, are targeting a Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa Forest, and another led by Mamman Nur, on and around Lake Chad.

According to the Nigerian military, scores of jihadists have been killed and hundreds of others have been forced to surrender in recent days. Boko Haram began its bloody insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in the country. The militants began cross-border attacks in 2014, and have regularly carried out raids in Cameroon, killing, looting and kidnapping villagers.

Since 2014, Cameroon has been fighting a military campaign against the group, including cross-border operations with Nigerian troops. But the group is estimated to have killed some 2,000 civilians and soldiers, and abducted more than a thousand people, in the last four years. Across the region, violence committed by Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 and displaced more than 2.6 million people.

Source:AFP

Cameroon President Paul Biya says he will destroy all terrorists whom he says are fighting to separate his country or using it as a hiding place for armed attacks on neighboring states. In a message, Biya reiterated he was open for dialogue with the disgruntled English speaking minority in the bilingual country but that his military would deal with armed separatists fighting for the independence of the English speaking regions.

FILE – A still image taken from a video shot on Oct. 1, 2017, shows protesters waving Ambazonian flags in front of a road block in the English-speaking city of Bamenda, Cameroon.

President Paul Biya says it is his duty to ensure public order, social peace, the unity of the nation and Cameroon’s integrity, and so he has issued instructions that all those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes before the courts of law.

“It is my firm belief that fast-tracking our decentralization process will enhance the development of our Regions,” he said. “To that end, I have ordered the implementation of the necessary measures to speedily give effect to this major reform. We will contribute towards consolidating the rule of law and open a new page in our democratic process.”

Many Cameroonians had expected Biya to be lenient towards armed insurgents and invite them to the negotiation table.

FILE – Soldiers patrol in Bafut, in the northwest English-speaking region of Cameroon, Nov. 15, 2017.

Biya said he requested the government engage in constructive dialogue with English speakers to seek solutions to their demands. But he added that he will destroy all those who have taken arms against the state, which he reiterated will remain one and indivisible.

He however pledged to make Cameroon a decentralized unitary state by implementing decentralization as spelled out in the country’s constitution.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration and decentralization, says the decentralization Biya spoke about encounters many challenges.

“We started implementing this process effectively since 2010, but of course we can ascertain the fact that the there are still some difficulties, there are still some problems,” he said. “The councils complain that the resources put at their disposal do not allow them to respond to the needs of the populations and to the implementation of their projects.”

FILE – In this photo taken Feb. 19, 2015, Cameroon soldiers check a truck on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria as they combat regional Islamic extremists force’s including Boko Haram.

Until a few years ago, Cameroon was referred to as a peace haven because it had never experienced major challenges. But the Boko Haram insurgency on its northern border with Nigeria that started four years ago has killed more than 25,000 people, and displaced millions of people in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger according to the United Nations.

FILE – Refugees sit at the door of their home at the Minawao Refugee Camp in northern Cameroon.

The spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic (CAR) is also felt on the central African state’s border with CAR with repeated cases of kidnappings for ransom and attacks by armed men.

Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English speaking north west region, says he supports Paul Biya’s determination to eliminate the armed separatists so that schools can reopen and businesses pick up in the English speaking areas of Cameroon more than one year after they were hampered by the crisis.

“We are begging for peace and we are leaving no stone on turned to maintain long lasting security, securing the population, asking the population to mobilize themselves to support government to make sure the economic activity, the social activity in the region comes back to normalcy,” he said.

Biya said Cameroonians desire greater participation in managing their affairs, especially at the local level and as such he will make sure the constitution is respected fully.

Cameroon will hold local council, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018. Many hope the polls will be transparent. Biya has been president for 35 years, winning in elections opposition political parties say are always rigged to favor him.

Source: VOA

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in a cafe in Cameroon’s far north region Sunday, killing at least one person and wounding 28 others, witnesses told AFP.

Witnesses said the woman entered the cafe at around 7:00 am (0600 GMT) before detonating her explosive vest in Bia, a village close to the border with Nigeria. The area has seen frequent attacks by the Boko Haram jihadist group in recent years. Those hurt in the blast were taken to a nearby hospital, witnesses said.

Since 2014, when Cameroon began its fight against Boko Haram, the group has killed at least 2,000 civilians and military personnel and kidnapped a thousand more in the country’s far north, according to the International Crisis Group.

Since the group emerged eight years ago, it has launched attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad — the nations bordering Lake Chad — and caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.6 million.