Elements of the national gendarmerie from the Douala 2 brigade have intercepted and arrested five men of the underworld suspected to be one of the gangs instilling fear through underground operations in the city. The group was dismantled on Saturday 27 August 2016 thanks to a mission led by the commanding officer and some elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR.

Reports indicated that the notorious gang was uncovered at a club at the Akwa neighbourhood feasting after one its fruitful missions. Accordingly, their location was disclosed to the forces of law and order by a young girl believed to be one of the many victims to these wrongdoers. The girl immediately alerted the gendarmerie unit after discovering a clandestine transport car used by the five for their operations.

With this information at hand, elements of the Mobile intervention unit (GMI) in Douala 2 were immediately deployed leading to the subsequent arrest of the suspects. The members of the gang are presently behind bars at the Littoral Judicial Police Unit.

CRTV

Captain Hamadjam Hamadjam, commander of the gendarmerie company post in the Mayo-Tsanaga division was relieved of his duties and arrested late on Wednesday the 25^th of August in an operation staged by the military high command of the Far North legion.

Captain Hamadjam is currently being held at the Maroua Central Prison. A journalist with a sister publication Cameroon Intelligence Report observed that the military officer is suspected to be the leader of a criminal gang to which is attributed several armed robberies including assassinations in the Far North region.

Cameroon Concord News understands six other security officers arrested by elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion are right now on trial. They are all believed to be part of the Captain Hamadjam gang.

By Rita Akana

President Paul Biya for several years has traveled on hired planes paid by the Cameroonian tax payer. He left Yaounde on Wednesday for a “short stay” in Europe using a lease transaction VIP aircraft that reportedly cost a fortune.

The state of Cameroon has paid a whopping sum for the hiring of air crafts for President Biya and his family.  The exorbitant cost charged reflects the VIP airplanes required by the Cameroonian chief executive.

Biya who is fond of Airbus, especially the Boeing 777-200, 767-200 and 757-200, which are among the largest commercial aircraft in the world, with special facilities including a main bedroom, suite bathroom, a presidential office, a dining / meeting room, seats in business class (50 to 60 seats), a communications center, a rest area for the crew as well as ice cream, spends billions of FCFA every year for his unproductive numerous journeys to Europe.

If we add the cost of regularly leasing of an Airbus aircraft to the subsistence cost of the presidential delegation at the Continental Hotel in Swiss- presented as the customary destination for Mr. Biya during his private visits to Europe, the expenditure for each presidential trip does not only call for anger but also hatred for the presidential couple.

By Sama Ernest with files from Cameroon-info.net

300 demands for the new national identity cards are recorded daily at the Yaounde 10^th District Public Security Station; one of the four pilot identification posts set up in the capital city to issue national identity cards under the new identification system set up by the service provider, GEMALTO.

At 10.00 am yesterday, August 22, 2016, crowds of citizens requesting new national identity cards could be seen lined up in the courtyard of the 10^th District Public Security Station in the Bastos neighbourhood. Guided each day by officers and men of the station as from 4:00 am, those seeking the national identity card for the first time or after the loss of the former, go through stages that involve writing their names on lists as they come, submitting their documents in the secretariat and proceeding to the identification posts where two computers integrated with cameras, electronic fingerprints and signature pads as well scanner-printers record details before a receipt is delivered. Notices outlining requirements and costs are pasted on walls to guide users.

“It takes just 10 minutes when the Internet connection is at its best. Out of 300 demands recorded daily, we issue at least 60 receipts,” stated the Head of the Police Station, Senior Superintendent of Police Ze née Fouda Isabelle. Despite the huge number of requests, she said operations were going on normally since the day after the August 9 2016 launch of the new system. Besides the cost per card that stands at FCFA 2,800, instead of FCFA 5,000 under the old system, users say the procedure is shorter and police officers more welcoming. “I am very satisfied,” Bogni Brondon Richard, a high school leaver from the West Region told Cameroon Tribune after receiving his receipt for his first ever identity card.

“We no longer do fingerprints with ink but use electronic machines instead. This new system will limit fraud,” said Fridoline Elomo Mvogo, a Yaounde resident who received a receipt for a new identity card after she lost the first. According to Senior Superintendent Ze Isabelle, challenges recorded so far include users’ ignorance of requirements and influence-peddling by some personalities for their acquaintances or “protégés” to be given preferential treatment.

Cameroon Tribune

Boko Haram militants have struck Cameroon again. The suicide attack took place today Sunday, August 21, 2016, in the town of Mora, capital of Mayo-Sava Division, located just over 80 km from Maroua, the chief city in the Far North region.

Our chief correspondent in the Far North say at least 5 people including the bomber have been pronounced dead. We also gathered that 25 people have life threatening injuries from the blast and a dozen more were seriously affected.

The death toll is expected to rise in the coming hours as first aid did not arrive on time. The kamikaze attack took place not far from the entrance of the main market of the city, where traders had gathered to buy cargoes of onions. The suicide bomber detonated his device near a group of traders.

The attack comes at a time when the Cameroon army recently announced the weakening of Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the organization of the Islamic state and is now called Islamic state in Africa.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest

The national flag was handed over to the deputy commander of the troops projected on a peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic. The Cameroonian contingent is part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission to the Central African Republic, MINUSCA.

The ceremony at the Military Headquarters was the first of its kind for Cameroonian soldiers going on an international assignment. The Minister Delegate at the Presidency, Joseph Beti Assomo said the tradition has been instituted by the Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces; a farewell and a welcome ceremony will, henceforth, be organised for soldiers before departure and upon return from international missions.

Joseph Beti Assomo indicated that the innovation was among other measures taken by the Head of State to render the soldiers more efficient and effective in preserving and promoting Cameroon’s diplomacy of peace. Prior to the send-off ceremony, the soldiers of the peacekeeping force and gendarmes of the Formed Police Units took part in pre-deployment refresher courses in Douala and Yaoundé on the notion of peacekeeping. They also signed individual contracts and their mission bonuses had an increment of two hundred thousand CFA Francs per month per person.

The Minister insisted on the respect of military discipline within the ranks expressing outrage at the strike action staged by some previous MINUSCA contingent. He added that their mission should reflect Cameroon’s foreign policy of peace and her efforts to provide sustainable peace and security in neighboring Central African Republic.  In a bid to reinforce discipline, a senior officer in charge of discipline will be deployed and the military security unit will be beefed up, security and health units will also be reinforced.

The soldiers are expected to remain professional and respect UN procedures in the execution of their mission in the Central African Republic during their one year stay in the CAR. A military parade with stamina, courage and enthusiasm reminiscent of Cameroon’s military prowess marked the end of the first part of the ceremony. The soldiers and their close relatives later wined and dined with the Minister Delegate at the presidency in charge of Defence before their take off.

CRTV

The 19th Session of the Bakassi Projects Follow-Up Committee held in the Prime Minister’s Office on August 18, 2016 reported Cameroon Tribune.

Three years after the establishment of Cameroon’s total sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula following the June 12, 2006 Green Tree Accord, barons of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate are reportedly expressing a kind of satisfaction in government circles for what they claim is the effective implementation of social, economic, security and administrative projects in the zone handed over by the Federal Republic of Nigeria after the October 10, 2002 International Court of Justice ruling.

The Biya regime and its propaganda machinery revealed in 2015 that over FCFA 30 billion had been invested in the area since 2008. They added that more investments worth over FCFA 722 million have since been added in 2016. However, this photo attached to this report as recorded for us by Cameroon Tribune does not showcase a constituency that has received huge amount of government funding.

While chairing the 19^th Session of the Coordination and Follow-up Committee for the Implementation of Priority Projects in the Bakassi Zone, on August 18, 2016, the committee’s Chairperson and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister, Bertha Ndoh Bakata, said that much indeed had been accomplished through the yearly Public Investment Budget and the FCFA 5.6 billion Special Mini Development Programme.

Bertha Ndoh Bakata who has the luxury of living in the capital city of Yaounde gave a run-down of the projects executed citing the construction of rest houses, classrooms, youth centres, fishermen’s houses, health structures, customs posts, roads and community halls, among others, in localities such as Isangele, Akwa, Idabato, Mbengmong, New Beach and Kombo-Abedimo.

She hinted that Prime Minister Philemon Yang authorised a trip of a team of five to the area in April 2016 to identify emergency projects which a Douala-based company and some Canadian investors were interested in executing.  But the images emerging from Bakassi indicates Bertha Ndoh Bakata and her mentor, Minister and Chief Dion Ngute are simply playing the CPDM game.

CPDM Beltha Ndoh Bakata betrayed herself at the tail end of her submission during the August 18 meeting by urging participants to address persistent problems such as insufficient potable water, electricity, telecommunication and roads. If 30 billion already invested in this area cannot tackle Beltha Ndoh Bakata “persistent problems” who now is fooling who here?

CPDM Beltha Ndoh Bakata called for more commitment by ministries in the implementation of the projects and the early disbursement of earmarked funds, especially as the long rainy season acts as a major impediment.

By Sama Ernest with files from Cameroon Tribune

9 Boko Haram fighters (7 Cameroonians and 2 Nigerians) were arrested late today Wednesday the 17^th of August 2016 at Kouyapé by Cameroon Special Forces. Cameroon Concord News learned that the militants have been taken to Nguetchewé and remanded in custody. The seven Cameroonian Boko Haram members were recruited from Zenemé, Sanda-Wadjiri, Souledé and Roua-Wara villages in the Far North region.

 The Governor of the Far North Region, Midjiyawa Bakari,has been working hand-in-gloves with the  vigilance committee groups  whose role alongside the army is more than ever crucial for intelligence. Their bravery is rewarded every day by President Paul Biya who recently decorated four non-state policing actors with the medal of knight of the Cameroon order of merit.

By Rita Akana

Land management experts are meeting in Yaounde to seek solutions to land related problems and design ways of educating people on the procedures to acquire land.

The Minister of State Property, Surveys and Land Tenure, Jacqueline Koung à Besike opened the two-day conclave today the 17th of August 2016 in Yaounde.

The Minister amongst other things, called on the experts to make tangible contributions to the on-going land reform in Cameroon.

To the experts, the misinterpretation of laws on land in the country by actors account for the multiplicity of land disputes in Cameroon.

CRTV

Ubango Helly, CPDM Section President for Ngie, near Bamenda has been arrested and charged for corruption.  The so-called chartered member of the ruling party was picked up on August 10, 2016 and he is currently being held at the premises of the Criminal Investigation Directorate (DPJ) Bamenda.

Ubnago Helly, Chairman and CEO of Relax UB Company, a transportation agency and who also owns a chain of small enterprises is involved in a vast network of corruption over the past fifteen years, which was recently dismantled by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

An acolyte of Minister Atanga Njie, Cameroon Concord News learned that elites, traditional leaders and Senators have been holding meetings with him at the DPJ Bamenda.  Our senior political correspondent in the North West region opined that the arrest will bring down many other CPDM heavyweights.

 Ubango Helly is accused of operating a network that allows certain state officials to receive up to 12 months of their salaries in advance, an act that is forbidden in Cameroon. The Ubango Helly crime syndicate takes only three days and civil servants are paid up to 50% of their salaries depending on the amount requested by the needy person. He has also been indicted for fraud in pensions, death, retirement and others public service schemes.

Correspondingly, Ubango Helly is not only the CPDM boss of Ngie in Momo Division but he is also the Secretary General of the Circle of Friends of President Biya. A teacher by profession, his salary was suspended by former North West Governor, Abakar Ahamat because he was never in the classroom to teach courses. Curiously, he received an early retirement on that same year.

He pretended to his followers that he was fighting corruption by posting messages such as this one on his face book page “CPDM Militants of the Momo West Section,Ngie construct a temporary bridge at Ngwokwong on the Acha-Andek road following the collapse of the permanent bridge. The contractor who won to construct the permanent bridge long abandoned the job, placing Ngie people at the risk of flooding waters”.

By Rita Akana