Cameroon has banned the sale of arms and ammunition in six regions of the country, including the two English-speaking regions where a deep socio-political crisis has played out for over a year, the authorities announced Thursday.

The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, has decreed “the prohibition, until further notice, of the sale of hunting and protection weapons and their ammunition in the Adamaoua, Central, Littoral, West, North-West and South-West regions”, according to a statement.

“To date, the number of firearms in circulation far exceeds the number of authorizations duly granted by the competent authorities,” the minister said in the text.

To date, the number of firearms in circulation far exceeds the number of authorizations duly granted by the competent authorities.

Cameroon has ten regions. Among these, the two English-speaking regions (Southwest and Northwest) have been at the center of a political crisis since the end of 2016 awhile their neighbouring regions (Littoral, West) are also affected by the ban.

For more than three months, the Anglophone crisis has turned into an armed conflict of low intensity, where an armed branch of the Anglophone separatists, who are agitating for secession from Cameroon and the creation of a new state, “Ambazonia”, is fighting the security forces deployed in numbers by Yaoundé.

English-speaking separatists have killed 28 members of the security forces since late 2017, according to an AFP compilation based on official statements. Other observers in Yaoundé speak of a higher toll.

In addition, the Amadoua region affected by the ban is neighbouring the Central African Republic, where state authority is weak in provinces where armed groups fight for control of resources and influence.

According to the text, the armouries of the six regions concerned will have to be closed and an inventory of the weapons which are there will have to be drawn up.

The minister has asked holders of unauthorized weapons to turn them over to local authorities and those with legally recognized weapons to register.

In November and February, the authorities in the south-west and north-west respectively banned the sale of arms in their regions on a temporary basis.

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held later this year, even as the ruling party Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) won 63 out of the 70 senate seats in local elections held on March 25.

AFP

The Philemon Yang administration has reportedly launched a crusade against the publication of administrative documents on social media. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the so-called head of government took offense at the publication of confidential documents and information from state institutions and public sector bodies.

Some of these documents, some of which are issued by the Francophone dominated security services, often bearing the words “CONFIDENTIAL”, “SECRET” or “VERY SECRET”, are “sensitive”. Philemon Yang was quoted as saying that these publications affect “the effectiveness of public action” and also constitute “serious” attacks on the security of the state, increasingly subject to security threats in many forms.

The Prime Minister gave standing instructions for cabinet ministers to systematically bring before the competent disciplinary bodies the public officials presumed guilty of violating the obligation of professional discretion. Philemon Yang has also ordered the National Agency for Information Technologies (ANTIC) and the National Center for Development of Informatics (CENADI), to be involved.

By Sama Ernest

Basile Atangana Kouna, Cameroon’s former water and energy minister and other top government officials held over an anti-corruption crackdown have been shown in a video commemorating Easter in prison.

Journalists tweeted screengrabs of Basile and others – Nguini Effa, Mendo Ze and Jena Willian Solo – all in suit taking part in mass on the eve of Easter at the Kondengui maximum security prison located in the capital, Yaounde.

The three other detainees are a former Ministry of Public Works official, the head of a state company, and the ex-rector of the University of Douala.

The religious service involved a church set up in the prison with a priest delivering a sermon. The former ministers a joined by other attendees sitting under a tent following proceedings.

It is largely held that the four are being detained as part of an anti-corruption drive known as Operation Sparrowhawk. It remains to be known which particular case Basile is to be charged with.

 VIP prisoners: Basile Atangana Kouna, Nguini effa,Mendo ze and Jean William solo taking part in the mass

 He was arrested and deported from Nigeria in March after President Biya kicked him out of a March 2 cabinet reshuffle. He had already been ordered the previous month not to leave the country.

As a result of its oil wealth, corruption has been widely reported especially in the area of revenues from crude exports. Transparency International ranked it 153 out of 180 countries on its annual corruption perceptions index.

Biya,85, has ruled the Central African nation since taking over from a retiring predecessor in 1982. He won the 1983 polls with 99.98 percent and has since won reelection at every election cycle.

He is expected to again seek re-election in presidential polls later this year. The first of multi-level elections, Senate vote, was held last month. The presidency has yet to announce a date for the presidential and other elections.

Cameroon’s oil-dependent economy has been crippled by low crude prices. And separatists are mounting a guerrilla campaign in the country’s two English-speaking provinces, demanding independence from the majority Francophone Central African nation.

Culled from Africa News

• With no rape, no looting and no extortion tainting their record, this could be the most crimeless war by a very disciplined “army”

In a village along the Kumba-Mamfe-Bamenda road, a curious trial took place one of these past weekends. At a funeral I attended, village youths gathered for grave-digging, witnessed the trial (in my presence) of three young men who the previous day had assaulted two other young men over a negligible social issue. From the brutality of the fight, it looked like a gang fight. Eyewitnesses said the attacking “gangsters” were under the influence of marijuana and Tramadol.

The first among the “gangsters” to be brought to the “dock” and ordered to kneel down, told the “jury’ that their assault was intended to punish the victims for snatching someone else’s girlfriend – she is not the girlfriend of any of the gang members.

The leader of the village youths said he wanted to know in what capacity the three took upon themselves to “discipline” the “woman-snatchers”. The gangster kneeling before the jury said they simply sought to teach the woman-snatchers a lesson as they had warned them repeatedly to leave someone else’s girlfriend alone. But word had gone around the village that the gangsters claimed they were “Amba Boys” seeking to impose order in that capacity and that they were acting under the influence of their newly acquired “Odey Chi” powers. Odey Chi is believed to be a charm that renders its users invincible and provides them protection against machete cuts and bullets.

It turned out that their claim of belonging to the Ambazonia Defence Force (ADF) or its related factions had reached the ears of “authentic” Ambazonia separatist fighters in the bush, otherwise called Amba Boys or Odey Chi Boys. Credible sources say the ADF boys visited the village at night to enquire after claims that “some rascals are using our name to commit atrocities in the village”. The graveside trial was thus staged for the attention of the “authentic Amba Boys”.

The Amba Boys stood right opposite the youth “judges”, behind the litigants and observed quietly as they testified. Someone standing by elbowed me discretely and whispered to me, “Those are the real Amba Boys.” They all carried strange amulets that looked like charms. Confused, I asked, also whispering, “Real Amba Boys how? Who are the fake ones?” Then I was told about the Odey Chi/Amba Boys claim by the gangsters.

As the trial proceeded, the other two gangsters walked to the scene. Ordered to join their “accomplice” in kneeling down, only one of them obeyed. The third resisted, haughtily ranting, boasting and daring anyone with guts to force him to his knees.

I saw one of the “VIP guests” closing in on the ranting young man. Short and stout and looking vexed, the “authentic Amba Boy” grabbed stubborn village youth by the legs, lifted him with ease and flung him to the ground, head first. He pulled out a machete from… his trouser pocket; it seemed and made a gesture like to slaughter the young man he had flung to the ground. At this, the entire “jury”, the rest of the youths present and even his fellow Amba Boys, rose like one man and pounced on his machete.

A village youth who grabbed the machete was left with a bleeding palm from the machete cut. Someone standing by said the wound could be fatal because weapons used by the Odey Chi Boys are always mystically lethal so that a mere wound or scratch from their machetes or bullets was a certain cause of death. No treatment! Minutes later, when I saw the wounded young man, he had a red piece of cloth wrapped on the wrist of his wounded hand. He said the Amba Boys gave him as an antidote.

The graveside scuffle led to a commotion that brought the trial to a premature end. The Amba Boys told the village youths not to bother. They said they would handle the matter their way and left the village.

NO RAPE, NO LOOTING, NO EXTORTION

In another village, young men with guns and machetes riding motorbikes, stopped at a sales point of smuggled fuel and whisked away gallons of fuel. The salesman and onlookers were left dumbfounded. The act looking like looting, they stayed mute, at least thankful they were not hurt. But to their utter surprise, the young men who “seized” their fuel returned the next day and paid for the fuel they took away.

Some bike riders have testified that sometimes the Amba Boys seize their bikes to get away to some location, but once there, they call someone they know to ask them to collect their bikes where they abandoned them before entering the bush, describing the place.

When Amba fighters went on the rampage at Wone village also along the Kumba-Mamfe road, where they burnt down a lugging trailer and had bloody fire-fights with defence and security forces, travelers who ran into their “checkpoints” say the boys asked for money to buy cartridges for their dane guns. Their driver offered 2000FCFA. The boys asked him to throw the money on the ground, explaining that they do not receive money directly to their hands. When they, the passengers, each offered their own share of money, the Amba Boys turned them down and said what the driver had given them was enough. Just 2000FCFA! The Odey Chi Boys only enquired whether there were any soldiers in disguise in their vehicle. After performing a ritual by swinging a machete in front of them, which it is believed, would have turned red or smeared with blood were an “enemy” in their vehicle, they were allowed to drive on.

A driver transporting me to Bamenda on March 29, told me that on his way to Kumba earlier that day he ran into the Amba Boys at Kendem village, just under 40km from Mamfe. He said all they asked from him and his passengers was, “Any Gendarme dey inside dis moto?” (Is there any Gendarme in this vehicle?). They were allowed to drive on. “Some passengers were afraid they would search and seize money and their property, but those boys do not ask for money,” said the driver.

 MY PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION

As well as there are concordant testimonies and reports of neither looting nor extortion by the Amba Boys, there have equally been no reports of rape. These three are the acts of atrocity most commonly reported by guerrilla fighters for obvious reasons: they would rape women because staying in bush hideouts for long could leave them sex-starved; they would loot where they attack and leave people fleeing for their lives; they would extort from frightened persons, taking advantage of their intimidating posture with arms. Besides ransoms reportedly collected from hostage-taking, none of these atrocities have been blamed on the Amba fighters.

Short of my wished opportunity to interview the Amba Boys, one-on-one, it is generally believed that their Odey Chi cult prohibits them to have contact of any kind with women, including sex and even eating food cooked by women. I am yet to confirm that. It is said their cult equally bars them from stealing/extorting or looting. “If they do any of those, they will lose their powers and lose their invincibility,” said someone claiming to be familiar with the dictates of the cult. “That’s why some of them a killed in battle, but on the whole, most of them do not succumb to bullets, reason why they are fearless and have the courage to attack soldiers, without waiting to be attacked.”

If this is true of the Amba Boys, can’t I conclude that their war will be a sane war, one free of atrocities, and thus a Holy War of sorts? Doesn’t that impose a kind of rare discipline on the troops?

By Franklin Sone Bayen

Masked soldiers from French Cameroun reportedly ferried to the Manyu County by CPDM Senator; Chief Tabetando went on a rampage on Wednesday and Thursday in parts of Kendem and Mbeme villages killing several Southern Cameroonians and pushing hundreds to flee their homeland to Mamfe the chief town in Manyu.

Condemning the development, a popular media guru from Kendem, Eric Tataw opined that the presence of hooded military personnel in Kendem in the name of senatorial election security is the making of Chief Tabetando.

We gathered that the Bishop of the Mamfe Diocese, His Lordship Bishop Andrew Nkea has pulled out Revered Fathers Kenede and Blaise from the area as fighting intensified last night. The officers operating in military trucks numbers over two in a convoy, with their faces completely covered.

This item is still developing

By Judith Fon in Mamfe

Flasko was smiling when his abductors with guns rode with him back to the village, but few minutes later they shot him dead in front of a multitude of villages on Market Day.

In the morning of Wednesday, March 14, the Secretary of the Traditional Council of Ayong, a village of the Upper Balong clan in Nguti subdivision, was shot dead in cold blood at his home, in front of a multitude of villagers and people from elsewhere who had converged there for the weekly Market Day.

Mr Akum Zaccheus Nangwe, popularly called Flasko, said to be in his 60s, had been taken away only minutes after dawn by unidentified men, believed to be Ambazonia fighters, some of them with dane guns, who came on five motorbikes and surrounded his house.  They took him away on one of the bikes. His bewildered wife fled to Manyemen, minutes’ drive away, to report what she called the “kidnap” of her husband, to friends and family members and to seek help from who could offer to secure his release.

Thirty minutes to one hour later, two gunmen returned with Flasko on a bike; one riding, the other sitting behind Flasko who was thus sitting between them. Few minutes later, Flasko was shot dead.

Besides his functions as secretary of the Traditional Council, Flasko was also the local Civil Registry Officer. It is not clear why he was targeted but some accounts say the gunmen accused him of being a “blackleg” who identifies and reports local people to government security and defence forces as collaborators of Ambazonia fighters. Some say he had been accused some three months ago of betraying local bush meat dealers who use the Ayong road which is a branch off between Talangaye and Ebanga villages. Witnesses say the seizure of bush meat which means huge losses for local boys, intensified with the present armed skirmishes.

People said to be familiar with the modus operandi of the Ambazonia fighters say when they take their suspects away, they put them through a trial which is a combination of interrogations and mystical verifications to establish their standing with ADF fighters. Those who have witnessed travelling past their road blocks say they wave a machete in front of the suspect and if he is an enemy to their cause, the machete would turn red or get smeared with blood. They believe that is what Flasko was put through that Wednesday morning before he was brought back to the village. His mortal remains were laid to rest on Thursday, March 22.

Below is the testimony of someone (his identity withheld for obvious reasons) who witnessed the execution of Flasko:

I witnessed the execution of Flasko with my own two naked eyes. That Wednesday was the Ayong Market Day. Word was on every lip that Flasko had been taken away by some men with guns who came on motorbikes at about 6.30am.

Incidentally, all the foodstuff I bought that day, I kept them on Flasko’s veranda which is besides the market. Before I could collect my things to leave, we saw two gunmen on one bike riding back with Flasko. There was great relief at the market. Flasko, sitting between the two men carrying dane guns hanging across their shoulders, was even smiling which to us implied an acquittal from the “trial’. People gathered from the market in joy.

The man behind who looked like the man in charge, asked Flasko to go into his house.  Shortly after Flasko went in, the man in charge walked casually to the corner of Flasko’s house. Then he stopped suddenly in his tracks and stepped backwards as if he had seen something dangerous. From the front of Flasko’s house, he called out, “Pa come so, come so.”

When Flasko stepped out, the man motioned him to come to the corner of his house. We were watching. The man pointed at something on the ground, indicating something to Flasko near his room window. We couldn’t see what he was pointing at, but the man then said to Flasko, “Pa just di go so straight and no try for do anything funny.”

At that juncture, the man gave his gun to the other man who was the rider (though he too had a gun) and said to him, “Waste he, waste he.” The other man pointed the gun at Flasko from behind and fired the fatal shot that brought Flasko down and left him dead. At the time the shot went out, Flasko was turning his head to look behind.

I was left confused, with unanswered questions. From hope that all was well because Flasko was smiling when they brought him back, to the sudden order to shoot him dead, I have been wondering what would have happened. What did the gunman see on the ground outside Flasko’s window? Had Flasko flung something out through the window? What was it? By the way, the man didn’t pick up anything from where he was pointing and nothing was found there. Was it something mystical that naked eyes could not see?

When Flasko dropped dead, pandemonium broke loose! Within a couple of minutes, the Ayong market had emptied. Flasko’s body was first taken to the Manyemen hospital and later to the Kumba General Hospital mortuary.

By Franklin Sone Bayen

 Cameroon’s military has arrested several Boko Haram fighters and their 25 female accomplices who were attempting to supply food and weapons through Cameroon to the fighters in Nigeria. Most of the women say their husbands are fighters in Nigeria.

Alban Toupo, commander of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, the Cameroon military unit fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the border town of Kolofata, said 31 people, including 25 women, were arrested while transporting ammunition, food, material to fabricate explosive devices, torches, drugs and medications to Nigeria in small quantities.

The commander said the suspects at times involved their children in the smuggling, claiming that they were either going to visit relatives across the border in Nigeria or were simply going to sell food and buy basic commodities.

He said after Cameroon military had killed fighters who were using force to transport food and military equipment through Cameroon villages to Nigeria, they could not believe women and children, at times accompanied by men, were carrying supplies to the terror group until they received a tip from the population.

He said his troops had protected the women and children without knowing they were either fighters or accomplices.

Alban said they were told the women recruited suicide bombers, planted landmines on border zones with Nigeria and served as informants for hostage takings between Cameroon border town of Kolofata and Nigeria.

Kolofata has suffered from Boko Haram violence with frequent cross-border raids since fighting started four years ago. The town hosts several hundred Nigerian refugees as well as internally displaced persons who have been forced to flee their homes due to persistent fighting.

Tchombai Ibrahi, the most senior Cameroon government official in Kolofata says the suspects have been helping the military in their investigations.

He said they have embarked on a tour to educate the population not to collaborate and not to do business with the criminals who pretend to be farmers and business persons but end up terrorizing villagers.

Soldiers from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger, as part of the multi-national joint task force of the lake Chad Basin Commission, rolled back Boko Haram gains and announced the terrorist group was living its last moments last year, but the insurgency switched to terror attacks and remains a threat.

The conflict that began in northeast Nigeria began eight years ago and has left at least 25,000 people dead and forced more than 2.6 million others to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

A government official was killed and a district administrator wounded on Thursday in an ambush blamed on anglophone separatists in western Cameroon, a human rights activist said. The attack hit a convoy carrying a government official responsible for land ownership issues in part of the Southwest, who was killed.

The area’s prefect survived the attack but was injured, the activist said. The report was confirmed by sources in the security services, but the government in Yaounde would neither confirm nor deny it.

Unrest blamed on armed separatists has increased in recent weeks in the Northwest and the Southwest, two English-speaking territories that became part of the mainly French-speaking country after independence in 1960.

The attack took place ahead of elections to the Senate which are to be held on Sunday, with authorities banning certain types of vehicle on roads in the Southwest and urging people to “remain calm and vigilant”.

Senate elections do not take place by universal suffrage in Cameroon. Municipal councillors across the country vote for 70 members of the upper house, while appointees to the 30 remaining seats are named by President Paul Biya.

On Tuesday, a Tunisian was killed in the Southwest during an operation aimed at freeing four hostages – two Tunisians and two Cameroonians – who were kidnapped by an armed group on March 15, state television reported.

Source: News24

Three Cameroonian public figures, including a former minister, were jailed in Yaoundé for alleged financial malpractice in connection with the anti-corruption operation “Epervier”, a judicial source told AFP on Thursday.

Louis Max Ohandja, former secretary of state to the Minister of Public Works, in charge of roads, Jean William Sollo, former boss of a public corporation and Bruno Bekolo Ebe, former rector of the University of Douala, were placed on Wednesday evening in pre-trial detention in Kondengui, the central prison of Yaoundé, the source said.

“They are accused of financial embezzlement, but the amounts will not be known until the judicial information has been opened,” explained an official of the Special Criminal Court (TCS), the judicial body that indicted them.

William Sollo is reportedly the subject of a proceeding for alleged embezzlement within the Cameroon water utilities corporation (Camwater).

From 2012 to 2016, Sollo managed this public company, which recently took over the running water distribution service from a private company.

Bekelo Ebe and Ohandja are suspected of financial misconduct at Douala University. In 2014, the Budgetary and Financial Disciplinary Board, an official body that investigates governance problems in public administrations and companies, declared Bekolo Ebe a debtor of 2.4 billion FCFA (3.7 million euros).

The former state secretary to the Minister of Public Works, Mr Ohandja, was the director of a vocational school at the University of Douala before being promoted to Minister.

A controversial operation

The judicial operation “Epervier” to fight corruption in Cameroon launched in 2006 affected many former heads of public enterprises and former ministers.

A former Prime Minister, Inoni Ephraim was sentenced in October 2013 to 20 years in prison for “embezzlement of public funds” of more than 1.68 billion FCFA (2.56 million euros).

In Cameroon, “Epervier” is controversial, with many perceiving it as a “political purge” operation.

Former government leaders like Marafa Hamidou Yaya, sentenced to 20 years in prison for “embezzlement of public funds”, believe they are victims of political settling of scores.

Yaya was formerly a powerful minister of territorial administration (Interior) and a former Secretary General to the Presidency.

He was cited as a potential successor to Paul Biya notably in American diplomatic telegrams leaked a few months before his arrest.

Source: Africa News