The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says the 40-year-old French Cameroun far-right regime’s insistence on pushing ahead with its war in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia has put Yaoundé on the path to collapse.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a Sunday conversation with Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Asu Isong after the 90-year-old President Biya posthumously elevated on Saturday the late SDF Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi to the rank of Grand Cordon of Merit.

“Granting Fru Ndi that honour in a very dusty Southern Cameroons village has been the worst day in the history of the Yaoundé regime,” Yerima said, adding, “This is what puts Biya and his Francophone regime on the path of collapse, fragmentation, and disappearance.”

Dabney Yerima noted that ever since Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons, some 6,000 Cameroon government army soldiers have been killed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces and that the notion of the Biya regime’s invincibility with French support has started to change in French Cameroun.

“La Republique and its backers are now facing a cascade of crises and they are all over Europe begging for money to sustain their criminality, we see that it is on the path toward collapse,” Yerima furthered.

Biya went to Russia to beg as usual, using the Russia-Africa Summit as an excuse or a pretext but left the Russian capital, Moscow, with a bloodshot eye.

Russia may be in need of allies but it does not have money to give to irresponsible governments like the Yaoundé government which has been on a begging spree for decades.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane

Hundreds of women and activists marched in the capital of Cameroon Monday, calling for an end to the country’s separatist crisis and for the government to provide more help to reduce the high cost of living. The march coincides with the observance of Pan African Women’s Day.

Several hundred women at a courtyard in the neighborhood of Tsinga listen or sing along with the song “Family Love” by singer Kareyce Fotso.

The song urges families to sincerely love each other and be united as they try to overcome difficulties caused by several crises Cameroon is experiencing.

Anne Anaba, one of the coordinators of Monday’s march, says the women assembled at the courtyard afterward to demand an end to the separatist war in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions.

The war has killed about 6,000 people and displaced 700,000 others.

The march was also part of activities marking the annual observance of Pan African Women’s Day. The holiday, declared by the African Union, is observed every July 31.

Anaba says poverty and hardships triggered by armed conflicts and unprecedented spikes in commodity prices have impacted families from building foundation stones for solid African societies. She says conflicts kill or displace men from communities and women spend time running for safety instead of teaching children to love, live together in peace and socially develop their communities.

She said women are the most affected by Cameroon’s separatist crisis.

Women and children are also deeply affected by food insecurity along the northern borders with Chad and Nigeria where an Islamist insurgency has left more than 36,000 people dead, and 3 million displaced.

Cameroon women say besides the armed conflicts, they are finding it extremely difficult to cope with the rising prices of goods— which they blame on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The government says since the Russian war began in February 2022, prices of rice, wheat, fuel and fertilizer have increased by between 40 to 60%.

Kiven Juliet, the president of Wheat Farmers in Cameroon’s Center region, says she followed the Russia-Africa summit on July 27 when Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will begin free deliveries of 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain to some African countries.

But Kiven says Cameroon can ensure sufficiency by growing its food at home.

“I heard during the Russia-Africa summit that Russia will be giving wheat to African countries free of charge, but that is not what we want. Our governments should give subsidies for farmers to buy fertilizers and produce the wheat themselves,” she said.

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment, says in 2022, President Paul Biya ordered the disbursement of over $15 million to grow wheat in the central African state. She says women who apply will have funding for fertilizer, wheat and rice seeds.

“Women represent an essential agricultural workforce and undeniably contribute to [the] fight against hunger and poverty,” she said. “Women contribute significantly to the stability of life in the countryside and reduce the scale of rural exodus. They take care of their children, are involved in domestic and agricultural works to ensure food and nutrition for families and communities. They are also known for their support of movements for democracy, human rights and peace.”

Biya was among the African leaders who attended the summit in St. Petersburg. He asked Putin to help Africa by increasing investment and canceling debt from loans.

Source: VOA

John Fru Ndi, the founder of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) was posthumously elevated on Saturday to the rank of Cameroonian Grand Cordon of Merit. This is the highest distinction in the Cameroonian Order of Merit.

The pro French Cameroun Anglophone politician, who passed away on June 12 in Yaoundé, began his final trip on Thursday July 27 and was buried on Saturday in Babba II, his native village near Bamenda.

Great cordon of Cameroonian merit as an honorary distinction was posthumously bestowed upon the Chairman of the SDF. The attributes of this mark of recognition of the Nation were laid on his coffin by Jean Nkuete, personal representative of the Head of State.

Fru Ndi’s funeral was reportedly attended by senior members of the Biya regime including representatives of the diplomatic corps and the business community.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files from Fon Lawrence

As Amadou Vamoulké, the former director-general of Cameroon’s national radio and TV broadcaster CRTV, completes his seventh year in arbitrary detention today (29 July), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voices concern about his failing health and calls on the Cameroonian authorities to allow him access to appropriate medical care, quash his conviction and free him.

An appeal by one of Vamoulké’s lawyers against the rejection of a habeas corpus petition is due to be heard on 1 August, four days into his eighth year in arbitrary detention.

“I have contracted several illnesses in prison,” reports Vamoulké, whose detention has “no legal basis” and whose state of health is the subject of “deep concern,” the United Nations said in 2020 in response to a referral by RSF. His health has continued to decline since the authorities sentenced him to 12 years in prison in December 2022 on a trumped-up charge of “misusing public funds” while running the state-owned national broadcaster.

“Amadou Vamoulké is the victim of a particularly alarming case of judicial persecution. It is absolutely intolerable that a journalist – one of Cameroon’s leading media figures – is still in prison and is being denied appropriate medical care despite having serious health problems. He has been held for seven years on spurious charges unsupported by any tangible evidence. We appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to release this journalist at once. His situation must be reviewed during the appeal hearing on 1 August in the habeas corpus proceedings initiated by his lawyers.”

Now aged 73, Vamoulké suffers from a neurological condition described as “severe” by two neurologists who have examined his medical file. He contracted the condition, which he says is “extremely painful,” after being jailed in Kondengui prison, in the capital Yaoundé. He developed other conditions there, including asthma, which was aggravated by “the very unhealthy air you breathe in the prison.” And he suffers from dental problems, glaucoma, high blood pressure and prostatitis that need costly treatment.

Vamoulké’s neurological condition requires tests and treatment that would be “difficult to provide in Cameroon,” according to one of the neurologists who has studied his case, the Paris-based professor of neurology Hervé Taillia, who already recommended “hospitalisation in France” back in 2019. But all of Vamoulké’s requests for a provisional release for the purpose of medical tests have been rejected, as have all of his other judicial petitions and appeals.

Absurd conviction

Vamoulké has been held ever since his arrest on 29 July 2016 on the absurd charge of “misusing public funds” – not for his personal benefit but for the benefit of CRTV, the public broadcaster he ran from 2005 to 2016. After six and a half years in provisional detention and a trial before a special criminal court that was adjourned 150 times, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a fine of 47 million CFA francs (70,000 euros). After his appeal, the court ordered him to pay an additional 390,000 CFA francs (600 euros) for “photocopying case file costs.”

Vamoulké is manifestly the victim of “false imprisonment,” one of his lawyers, Guy Gueyo Kamga, told RSF. He said his client was arrested “on the basis of an illegal provisional detention warrant” and his detention ever since has been clearly arbitrary and political in nature. The prosecution produced no serious evidence or testimony during the trial, which was conducted in a manner that violated both national and international law. The judges were legally required to deliver a verdict within nine months and Cameroon’s criminal code places an 18-month limit on provisional detention, while Vamoulké’s lasted nearly six and a half years.

Kamga filed a habeas corpus petition in April 2023 calling for Vamoulké’s release on the grounds of the arbitrary nature of his detention. The petition was rejected at the end of June but Kamga appealed this decision and the next hearing is scheduled for 1 August. To support the petition, Vamoulké wrote to President Paul Biya on 9 June asking him to intercede on his behalf. The letter remains unanswered.

Cameroon fell 20 places in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index and is now ranked 138th out of 180 countries.

Culled from Reporters Without Borders

90-year-old President Biya is unable to walk because of ill health.

Biya left the nation’s capital Yaoundé today, accompanied by his wife, Chantal and a sea of cabinet ministers to attend the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in Saint-Petersburg.

The Cameroonian dictator is making headline news in Moscow for the wrong reasons and has come to be regarded as something of a joke and a global laughing stock.

In an incident in Saint-Petersburg captured on camera despite the best efforts of his wife Chantal Biya, the 90-year-old president was making his way to shake hands with President Putin but could hardly move and the Russian leader had his first laugh since the beginning of the Ukraine counteroffensive.

It is likely that Biya is the most parodied politician alive today.

His wife was quick to step in and helped Biya the rest of the way to the conference hall.  He is now too old and unable to walk.

Cameroon, a once-prosperous nation of 25 million people in Sub Saharan Africa, has struggled ever since Biya came to power.

Biya is accused of using widespread violence to win several disputed elections, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The country is suffering hyperinflation and facing a powerful secessionist movement in the English speaking regions known as the Ambazonia Interim Government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Biya left Yaoundé today, accompanied by his wife, Chantal and a sea of cabinet ministers to attend the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit which will be held in Saint-Petersburg from 26 to 30 July 2023.

The official delegation of the 90-year-old includes Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA, Minister of External Relations, Samuel MVONDO AYOLO, Minister, Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic, Joseph BETI ASSOMO, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Louis Paul MOTAZE, Minister of Finance, Emmanuel NGANOU DJOUMESSI, Minister of Public Works,  Luc Magloire MBARGA ATANGANA, Minister of Trade, MENGOT Victor ARREY-NKONGHO, Minister in charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic,  Alamine OUSMANE MEY, Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development,  Vice-Admiral Joseph FOUDA, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic, MAHAMAT PABA SALE, Ambassador of Cameroon to Russia and Simon Pierre BIKELE, Chief of State Protocol.

The trip, which will be one of the most closely watched visits to Russia in decades, comes at a time when the Russian unprovoked attack on Ukraine is developing into a hydra-headed conflict.

The Cameroonian dictator is making the trip less than 48 hours after his return from Geneva, Switzerland.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon government officials do not know how many people were inside a building in Ngaoundere, Adamawa region when it collapsed.

At least four people have now been confirmed dead after the lifeless bodies of a woman, her two children and her younger sister were pulled from the rubble of a four-storey uncompleted building on Tuesday July 25, 2023, in the Côte D’Azur vicinity in Baladji, Ngaoundere, Adamawa Region.

Cameroon Concord News understands authorities are still searching for 42 unaccounted people.

A huge section of the building was reduced to rubble when it crashed to the ground on Tuesday.

The number of fatalities and people unaccounted for has not been updated by the Francophone dominated police and gendarmerie force.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Cameroon government spokesman Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said that councils have been given firm instructions to control and stop building constructions that do not comply with norms in their municipalities.

Rene Sadi’s empty press release was in reaction to the 4-storey building collapse in Douala on Sunday, July 23 that killed more than 37 people.

The Governor of Adamawa Region, Kildadi Taguieke Bouka visited the scene of the incident and told reporters that search will continue for survivors.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana

Cameroonian authorities have been urged to stop the killings, torture, rape, house burnings and other atrocities committed in the English-speaking regions.

The call follows the release of a new report detailing widespread human rights violations and other crimes under national law committed by various parties.

Amnesty International released the report, entitled “With or against us. The population is caught between the army, armed separatists and militias in the North West region of Cameroon.”

It exposes the crimes committed, mainly since 2020, by armed separatists, militias and members of the defense and security forces.

Amnesty called on authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these acts, in fair trials before independent, impartial and competent courts.

“Victims of these crimes and violations have a right to justice and reparation,” said Samira Daoud, the human rights group’s director for West and Central Africa.

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon stems from the crackdown on largely peaceful protests that took place in 2016 and 2017, demanding an end to the marginalization of the minorities that occupy regions populated by English speakers.

The North-West and South-West regions are the epicentre.

Locals accuse the government of President Paul Biya (aged 90), which is dominated by French-speaking Cameroonians, of marginalising them.

He has been in power since 1982.

Critics accuse him of vote rigging and repression to maintain power in the Central African country of 28 million.

Source: CAJ News

The death toll from a weekend building collapse in Cameroon’s commercial hub Douala has risen to 34 from an earlier estimate of 12, the housing and urban development minister said on Monday.

The four-storey building collapsed on Sunday, destroying a nearby building and injuring scores of residents.

“The building in question unfortunately had no building permit,” Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes said, adding that an investigation had been launched.

She said rescue efforts were ongoing on Monday to make sure no one was still trapped in the rubble, despite difficult access conditions.

It remained unclear how many occupants were in the building at the time it collapsed. Residents said the building had shown signs of dilapidation with exposed and rusted steel reinforcement rods.

Source: Reuters

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have ambushed a military convoy in Ekok, Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu, on Monday, killing at least three soldiers.

The attack would be the second against the military within a week as last Friday; one gendarmerie officer was killed in Otu a border settlement not far away from Eyumojock town.

According to Cameroon Concord News sources in Mamfe, Monday attack was targeted at a BIR convoy travelling between Eyumojock and Ekok.

Quoting a senior military officer, our correspondent reported, “We lost three soldiers in the ambush by Ambazonia terrorists. The Amba Boys, in their large number, opened fire on the convoy and killed two police officers and a gendarme.”

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the arrival of reinforcements forced the Amba fighters to retreat.

Corroborating the officer’s account, a commercial driver who was almost caught in the ambush told Cameroon Concord News that he was trailing behind the military convoy when the Amba Boys opened fire. A three-star Police Inspector has been identified as one of the victims.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files from Kingsley Betek