A celebrated Indian nun who rescues Cameroonian women from slavery in the Middle East has called for greater support for victims to help them recover from the horrors of being drugged, raped and abused. Sister Vanaja Jasphine says she has identified more than 200 women who have been trafficked from the central African nation and enslaved in the Middle East in recent years.

The 39-year-old nun last year helped to bring home 14 trafficking victims, whom she refers to as Cameroon’s “children”. A rising number of African women are heading to the Middle East for domestic work, driven abroad by the lack of jobs at home, rights activists say. Yet many have their passports confiscated and end up trapped in modern-day slavery.

“One woman was thrown from the balcony of a two-storey building by her employer after she accidentally burnt her boss’s shirt whilst ironing,” Jasphine said of a victim in Kuwait. Others are drugged and turned into sex slaves – being raped multiple times a day and even forced to have sex with animals.

“They come home with a lot of trauma,” Jasphine, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of Kumbo, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a seminary in the capital Yaounde. “Sometimes, a (woman forced to be a) sex worker can be exploited 15 times a day – physically, mentally, she’s drained … she’s gone,” added the nun, who moved to northwest Cameroon almost a decade ago to work with the country’s poorest.

“In the end, she doesn’t have anything. She comes back in the same dress she left in.” Jasphine was hailed in June as one of eight global heroes in the fight against trafficking at the launch of the United States’ annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which grades countries on their efforts to stamp out modern-day slavery. But Jasphine has no time for celebrations. She is too busy seeking funding, counselling and support for victims left traumatised by their ordeal abroad.

Jasphine says she identifies trafficking victims by working with activists, community leaders and civil society groups. To raise awareness about their plight, she has helped organise demonstrations, where women have marched with placards reading: ‘Bring back our suffering daughters’. “We got a lot of support from the people,” said Jasphine.

“It touches every heart because they (the people) feel: ‘It’s my own child who is affected, who is exploited’.” She has also lobbied government officials, all the way to the country’s prime minister, to do more to help the women.
Cameroon has made strides towards meeting the U.S. minimum standards to end trafficking, having provided services to some victims and sent a delegation to the Middle East to discuss Cameroonian workers’ rights, the 2017 TIP report said.

Yet the state has not funded repatriation for slavery victims stranded in the Middle East, and continues to rely on civil society groups to bring trafficking cases to its attention and provide most services for victims, the report said.

The government has tried to crack down on Cameroonians travelling to the Middle East, but traffickers have changed tactics, and are instead flying women via Nigeria, Jasphine said. She said the government must now do more to help those coming home.

Although her organisation and other groups try to help victims get back on their feet, take them to hospital and provide counselling, it is simply not enough, the nun warned. “It is very disheartening,” Jasphine said, showing a series of distressed text messages from one of the women she helped to rescue from Kuwait, who is now struggling financially.
“Much more needs to be done.”

Culled from Thomson Reuters Foundation

Amadou Vamoulke, the former general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), has been questioned at the Special Criminal Court in a new case just three days after the start of his trial in the Gervais Mendo Ze affair. The so-called new case relates to his management of the Cameroon radio and television (CRTV).

Cameroon Concord News sources revealed that this new file which could open comes after an audit report commissioned by Charles Ndongo the current general manager of CRTV on the management of his predecessor. For more than four hours on the 3rd of August, Amadou Vamoulke was interrogated at the Special Criminal Court.

Amadou Vamoulke who is incarcerated in the Kondengui Central prison in Yaoundé, was called to explain the purchase without tender the rights of re transmissions of certain major football competitions. Charles Ndongo alleges that Vamoulke violated the procurement procedure in connection with the purchase of these rights.

We understand the prosecutors at the Special Criminal Court and French Cameroun financial crime experts did not find any evidence against Amadou Vamoulke in the audiovisual (TV tax) scandal estimated at 3.9 billion FCFA. For instance, Amadou Vamoulke could not have been able to falsify an account operated by the treasury department in Yaoundé.

Alice Nkom one of the lawyers of the former GM of CRTV was quoted as saying that “Amadou Vamoulke is a victim of political and judicial fury. In the first case the judges were put under pressure to charge a citizen who did not steal anything. The Special Criminal Court hired experts who in their reports proved that the former General Manager of CRTV did not commit any crime, but in spite of these conclusions from the experts, our client is still in jail.”

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have declared support for the non resumption of schools in Southern Cameroons and extended ghost town operations. In a press release signed by the Deputy Secretary General of the Consortium, Barrister Eyambe Ellias and Tassang Wilfred, the Programme Coordinator, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium stated that as from August the 14th, ghost towns will be staged from Mondays to Wednesdays.

The Consortium also called for a strict boycott of Francophone businesses operating in Southern Cameroons territory. The leadership of the Consortium further pointed out that the new ghost town policy is to enable the Southern Cameroons people to engage in civil obedience to resist recent anti Anglophone moves adopted by the Biya Francophone government.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium also appealed to the peace loving people of Southern Cameroons to avoid during ghost towns marketplaces, transportation stations, churches and mosques.

The Consortium decision came just days after the interim leader of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council noted that Southern Cameroons was at war with La Republique du Cameroun. The extension of the ghost town operation represents the beginning of the end for the regime that governed the Southern Cameroons by the force of arms destroyed its resources and looted its bounties.

Our senior political commentator opined at the time of filing this report that August the 14th must be the beginning, not the end of resistance and we must organize ourselves at all levels in order to cause a complete paralysis at all La Republque’s facilities. Other Southern Cameroons groups have supported the Consortium and said the call for intensive ghost town comes in line with its efforts to free British Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora communities in South Africa, Nigeria, UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany, the US including Canada have all praised the decision to extend the ghost town and considers it unrivaled success and an initiative worthy of support and have accepted to work with Southern Cameroonians back home to ensure the success of this giant move in order to gain freedom and self determination.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium communiqué described the ghost town as an effective tool to resist the totalitarian Yaounde regime, saying the Southern Cameroons people have used it during the 1953 Eastern Regional Crisis at Enugu, Nigeria.

Since last week French Cameroun government ministers had downplayed the call for ghost town, expecting it would fail and are in missions abroad claiming to explain measures taken by the Biya Francophone regime to resolve the Southern Cameroons crisis.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

Another Francophone CPDM delegation is expected in Canada despite stiff opposition demonstrated by Southern Cameroonians against the political move by President Biya.

Since the end of last week, several members of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government have been on mission to Europe, Nigeria, the Republic of South Africa and the US claiming to inform West Cameroonians of the Diaspora about the situation in Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora communities have acted angrily against the action to send these Francophone surrogates abroad. The anti-Anglophone Minister for Justice, Laurent Esso and a certain Paul Ghogomu were jeered and booed in Brussels and Washington.

In a press release made public by the High Commissioner of La Republique du Cameroun in Canada, the members of the Francophone CPDM delegation will be meeting the Diaspora on Thursday the 10th of August, 2017.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

8 civilians were reportedly killed and 4 people seriously injured in an alleged Saturday attack by Boko Haram in the locality of Ouro-Kessoum, Mayo Sava Division, some few kilometers from Amchide, a neighboring town close to Nigeria.

A securing source in the Far North region that confirmed the Boko Haram suicide bombing, also said one Cameroonian service man was killed in the incident. A Cameroon military source also hinted of another suicide bomb attack carried out by suspected Boko Haram militants still on Saturday, August 5, 2017 at Waza in the Logon and Chari division that left the suicide bomber dead and 5 other civilians seriously injured.

The Far North Region of Cameroon, especially areas along the border with Nigeria, regularly experience significant violence, attributed to Boko Haram militants. While Boko Haram’s main stronghold is in Nigeria, the group has increase its attack along the Logon and Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo Tsanaga Divisions of the Far North.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Former senior football commentator, Zacharie Nkwo has been buried in a strict family ceremony in the Buea County in Southern Cameroons. His final funeral rites were staged at the mortuary of the Regional Hospital in Buea on Saturday, the 5th of August 2017 in the presence of a crowd of relatives, friends and fans of deceased including Mister Isaac Sinkot, a former indomitable lion and friend of the deceased.

After a brief stop at the family home, the long funeral procession went to the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Molyko for a requiem mass. In his homily, the Bishop of Mamfé, Monsignor Andrew Nkea, exhorted the audience to seek more the kingdom of heaven. For his part, veteran journalist, Gregory Allen, a comrade of the deceased, noted that the career of Zacharie Nkwo was rich in positivity and love for his country.

Some, like Jules Mbende, a journalist, still remembers some of the performances of the late sports chronicler, which he mimed in the ceremony before the emotional audience. Zacharie Nkwo graduated from the Yaounde School of Journalism (ESJY) in 1975 and worked at Radio Cameroon, Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) until his retirement in 2003.

He died on the 4th of June from an illness at the age of 68. With Abel Mbengue, Zacharie Nkwo whom many recognize as the precursors of this trade in our country formed a tandem of anthology. Two powerful voices (French and English) who made the glorious days of the sports desk in the 80s and 90s on the antennas of Radio Cameroun now national post of the CRTV.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

Major Darrel Efu Egbe, 41, has taken over from another woman, Col. Dr Nga Owona Nkounou as Commander of the Command and Support Battalion. She was commissioned during a ceremony at the court yard of the headquarters of the First Joint Military region in Yaoundé.

The Military Region that covers the Centre, South and East Regions is in charge of protecting the administrative units of its zone of command. During the brief military ceremony void of speeches, the new commander was presented to the troops of the Command and Support Battalion with instructions to obey her orders in the line of duty, the execution of military orders and in respect of Cameroonian law.

Brigadier General Simon Ezo’o Mvondo, Commander of the First Joint Military region told the newly installed to revive the command and support battalion.

The senior military officer is a wife and mother of three. She holds a War College Diploma obtained in Jaji Kadouna in Nigeria. She is also holder of a Higher Diploma in International relations. She began her military career in 1988 in the Combine Service Military Academy. She graduated as a lieutenant as part of the Captain Lissia Matna batch.

Source: CRTV

The Francophone Governor of the Bamenda County in Southern Cameroons, Adolphe LELE L’Afrique has been holding series of security meetings regarding the arrest of a group of seven heavily armed persons in Mbengwi, the chief town in Momo Division.

Local media report says the 6 unidentified men and a woman were neutralized in the Mbengwi County by elements of the Francophone dominated elite force known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR.

Nothing has so far filtered from police interrogation. However, reliable sources deep within the Mbengwi colonial administration hinted that their intention was to wreck havoc with explosives they carried on them.

The 7 reportedly dressed themselves up as United Nations personnel wearing cloths inscribed with the UN Logo. It is still not clear whether they are workers with the United Nations or impostors.

The arrest was made at about 4 a.m on Thursday and it has caused general panic in the entire Southern Cameroons territory.

Culled from Cameroon Info.Net

The funeral procession carrying the body of the late Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bafia, to the eponymous city was involved in a serious road accident.

According to information provided by concordant community and security sources, a motorcyclist charged with securing the convoy of transporting the remains to Bafia violently hit a Toyota Corolla vehicle that approached the procession from Efok.

The injured in the vehicle were taken to the emergency ward of the Obala hospital while the rider of the motorcycle who was seriously injured, was driven urgently to the general hospital in Yaoundé from where he was pronounced dead.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News Group

To counter the Southern Cameroons resistance movement that is gaining more and more grounds at home and abroad, the French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya has launched a major offensive in the countries that are hosting powerful international organizations.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has decided to send a ministerial delegation to Belgium, precisely in Brussels, the capital of the European Union (EU), to meet on Saturday 05 August 2017 from 3pm in the ACP Secretariat room At 451 Avenue Georges Henri, 1200 Brussels, the Cameroonian Community residing in Belgium.

According to a press release published by the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in Brussels, to provide the Cameroonian community with clarifications on the situation in Southern Cameroons, a delegation will leave Yaoundé and is made up of three personalities namely Tanyitiku Enoh Achuo, attaché in the services of the Prime Minister, Lejeune Mbella Mbella Minister of External Relations and Laurent Esso the Minister of Justice who has also been appointed as head of the mission.

This delegation is the second that the Biya regime, in power for more than three decades has sent out of the country for the same mission. The first, headed by a pro Biya comedian, Paul Mingo Ghogomu, is scheduled to meet today Thursday, August 03 in New York, USA at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN).

For a week in Uncle Sam’s country, this delegation will try to present the Francophone government’s version of the Southern Cameroons revolution and the measures taken by the CPDM authorities to put an end to the demands of their Anglophone compatriots.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News Group