The Ministry of Defense said three soldiers were killed Friday in firing from Southern Cameroons restoration forces as tensions between Yaoundé and the Ambazonia Interim Government persist over reopening of schools.

Yaoundé initially reported four soldiers were killed and one wounded, but later said one of those believed to have died was resuscitated.

The ministry said government positions were hit in Kumbo the chief town in Bui Division.

While confrontations between the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military and Southern Cameroonian fighters are rare today, it cannot be said that the war, which has raged for more than six years is over.

The soldiers have been identified by Cameroon News Agency, a sister publication as Nupoh, Meka, and Njikam.

If the killings have reduced, it is more because government troops have been ordered not to kill like they used to kill in the past.

Their recklessness with their guns is to blame for the streams of blood which have flowed in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Actions by Southern Cameroonian fighters are just acts of retaliation whenever the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy Francophone soldiers went on a killing spree.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a protest by teachers and lawyers in 2016 has sent more than 7,000 Cameroonians to an early grave, with soldiers accounting for 40% of the deaths.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Yaoundé has deployed hundreds of armed soldiers in its 297 km border with Gabon.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources hinted that President Biya directed the Minister Delegate at the presidency in charge of defense Beti Assoumou to order the deployment.

Our source added that there are fears in Yaoundé of a Russian-backed group plotting to oust the 90-year-old President Biya from power.

We gathered that the closure of the border precisely at Kye-Ossi town was to prevent weapons from entering Cameroon from Gabon.

Etoudi has revealed that it would confront the new Gabonese leadership on the security situation in the border towns and villages.

By Miriam Metchane Ewang

As coups continue to spread on the African continent, some leaders are taking proactive steps by reshuffling defense portfolios.

On Wednesday, 90-year old President Paul Biya made major changes to the country’s ministry of defense.

Among the posts reshuffled were the delegation at the presidency in charge of defense, air force staff, navy, and the police. A captain and two army colonels were appointed to head operations in the presidential guard and report directly to the presidency.

The Biya decree also restructured the Secretariat for Defense (SED) and the National Gendarmerie.  Prominent among the new officers appointed by the 90-year-old are Colonel Chimala Jonas and Lieutenant –Colonel Boum Mbadi Louis Charles.

Biya came to power in 1982. His early years on the saddle were marred by reports of oppression and human rights violations.

Although he subsequently allowed multiparty elections in the country, the 90-year-old has remained president since he rode to power.

By Asu Isong with files from The Cable.Ng

Amnesty International has called on the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé to release Muslim scholar, Abdulkarim Ali, who has been detained without trial since August 11, 2023.

Marking the first year in detention for Abdulkarin Ali, who has reportedly been accused of inciting subversion of state power and having strong ties with the leaderships of the Southern Cameroons restoration groups, Karim said he was abducted and not arrested by Francophone army soldiers in Bamenda.

Cameroon Concord News understands Yaoundé reproached him for managing the human rights situation of the war in Southern Cameroons.

Karim has also been the defender of women’s rights ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons and was quoted recently as saying that many women are wailing and suffering as the war in Anglophone regions continues.

In December 2022, Amnesty International called for his release, observing that Mr. Karim was arrested for expressing his views.

“He was arrested only for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” Fabien Offner, Amnesty International’s researcher for West and Central Africa, said.

Anglophone lawyers who successively offered to defend him were previously rejected by the Francophone authorities in Bamenda. The National gendarmerie is also putting pressure on Mr. Karim’s family members particularly his mother to dissuade them from assisting him in detention.

By Fon Lawrence

Retired Justice Bisseck Dagobert has been found dead in his car in Yaoundé the nation’s capital.

His lifeless body was discovered on Saturday August 26, 2023 in the Nkolbison neighborhood.

Early reports suggested that the pro President Biya judge was seen in a hotel at about 2pm and was visited by a young lady. The lady reportedly left the hotel by 7:30pm and the lifeless body of the Magistrate was later discovered at about 9:45pm.

Bisseck Dagobert died aged 74.  He was serving the corrupt regime as a judge at the Chamber of Accounts at the Supreme Court and also moonlighted as president of the judicial Chamber.

Reported by Cameroon News Agency with additional editing from Ewang Miriam Metchane

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says that only unity among all Southern Cameroons restoration groups can guarantee victory against La Republique du Cameroun.

Speaking during a war cabinet meeting on the issue of school resumption in Southern Cameroons on Tuesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima emphasized that unity among all Ambazonia frontline groups and leaders is essential to foster the struggle.

“Getting to Buea can only be possible through collaboration and unity among all stakeholders in the Southern Cameroons conflict,” Yerima said.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader also stressed that the Ambazonia diaspora should go back to its original role of providing resources to the fighters and resistance groups in Ground Zero.

Referring to efforts made at reaching a general consensus on the leadership issue, Vice President Dabney Yerima cited progress in the level of cooperation, communication, and interaction between the Interim Government and many other Southern Cameroons restoration groups.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who has been in pre-trial detention since 4 March 2023 following the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo was recently interrogated by a judge at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal hinted that during the August 21 auditioning, Eko Eko spoke at length to Lieutenant Colonel Aime Florent Sikati II about his own, long acquaintance with corrupt business tycoon Amougou Belinga but much of what he talked about was speculative.

Our Yaoundé city reporter observed that Eko Eko didn’t look like the hero who masterminded the NERA 10 operation against the Southern Cameroons leadership.  “He has grown slim and looks like a pensioner” Rita Akana noted.

Justice Sikati II also spoke to colleagues, bodyguards, current and retired security agents, and even relatives of Léopold Maxime Eko Eko all of whom were arrested for interrogations en masse.

We understand that some of the perpetrators of the Martinez Zogo assassination have been identified and arrested in Yaoundé. But information about this assassination is still being kept like a nuclear secret.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Publishers of English-language newspapers in Cameroon are calling on President Paul Biya to establish a special fund to help them recover from the devastating effects of the Anglophone crisis, which has been felt in the country’s North West and South West regions since 2016.

The separatist war in the two English-speaking regions – which make up 20 percent of Cameroon’s population – has killed at least 6,000 people and forced over one million from their homes over the past seven years.

It has also crippled businesses, including the English-speaking newspaper sector.

“Prior to the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, English-language newspapers used to have advertising jobs from companies like the Cameroon Development Corporation … and other well established private companies,” said Ngah Kristian Mbipgo, CENPA president and publisher of the country’s only English-language daily newspaper, The Guardian Post.

“English language newspapers have, because of the crisis, lost more than 80 percent of their readership in the North West and South West Regions.”

Readership ‘fizzled out of existence’

Yerima Kini Nsom, Yaoundé bureau chief at The Guardian Post said the bulk of the paper’s readers were in the separatist flashpoints of Kumbo and Nkambe, all in Cameroon’s North West region.

The result of all this is that only the very resilient news organisations have been able to stay afloat.

Source: RFI

A French diplomat was found dead at his residence in Nkongmondo located in the Douala first district.

Christian Hue’s body was discovered hanging on a rope by police but it is still unclear and authorities would not give further details.

Police in Douala have not publicly commented on the death, which was reported on Friday18 August 2023.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the French citizen was 66 years old and was listed as Deputy Consul at the Consulate General of France in Douala.

CIR sources in Douala have hinted that he was recently named in a scandal involving the sale of French visas to Nigerian businessmen in Cameroon.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files

At least four militants of Boko Haram were killed when they launched a coordinated attack on a military outpost in Cameroon’s Far North region, military sources said on Friday.

Some of the weapons used by the terror group were also seized during the attack that took place overnight into Friday in Hile Alifa, a locality in Logone and Chari division of the region.

“There were more than 50 of the terrorists. They ambushed and attacked the outpost. Our brave soldiers repelled the attack killing four on the spot and several others escaped with bullet wounds,” a senior military officer who asked not to be named said.

There have been no reports on casualties on the side of government forces.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched attacks in the Far North since 2014, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet