20, December 2021
Ambazonia Interim Gov’t threatens to attack Africa Cup football teams 0
The leadership of the Ambazonia Interim Government has warned they could target the four football teams – including Tunisia – playing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Group F matches in Southern Cameroons.
Tunisia, Mauritania, Gambia, and Mali will play in the town of Limbe, southern Cameroons, in mid-January, which is a constituency under the control of the Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards.
Earlier this month, Vice President Dabney Yerima threatened the French Cameroun regime saying Amba fighters will carry out attacks against Limbe and Buea – two towns that have stadiums hosting Africa Cup matches.
Dabney Yerima called on the African Football Federation, FIFA and Total Energies to take their responsibilities and prevent the tournament from taking place inside Southern Cameroons territory.
The Ambazonia Interim Government said Amba self defense groups will disrupt the games if the Biya French Cameroun government does not withdraw its army soldiers from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia which separated from the rest of French-speaking Cameroon five years ago through a bloody insurrection that has cost thousands of lives.
The AFCON tournament will run from 9 January to 6 February and gather 24 African soccer teams, officials, and thousands of fans. Cameroon authorities have assured that the tournament will be safe and deployed additional troops to Southern Cameroons to prevent Ambazonia fighters from advancing during the games.
The fate of January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon is now hanging in the balance due to concerns over Biya regime’s readiness to host the tournament as Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe arrived in Yaounde on Monday for talks.
On Sunday, a CAF executive committee meeting resolved to go ahead with the 24-team event only if Motsepe was able to secure guarantees from Cameroon over its readiness.
Several members of the committee called for the tournament to be postponed, insiders hinted local and international media, but the majority voted for Motsepe to make an emergency trip to engage with the corrupt Francophone government officials.
Concerns have been voiced over a lack of organisation, incomplete building work and the threat of coronavirus outbreaks among the large number of players and staff set to descend on the under-resourced country in the next few weeks.
By Chi Prudence Asong with files
21, December 2021
Biya regime arrests hundreds for deadly clashes that displaced 100,000 in the Far North 0
Cameroonian authorities say troops have arrested hundreds of armed men blamed for communal violence in the northeast this month that displaced more than a hundred thousand people — most to neighboring Chad. Authorities say they also seized hundreds of weapons as well as cattle stolen during the conflict over scarce resources.
Cameroonian authorities say the military is conducting an intensive search to find and arrest additional armed men operating in Logone and Chari, along the northern border with Chad.
The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says military raids on hideouts in the area led to the arrests of several hundred men.
Speaking from the region’s capital, Maroua, Bakari said the men were believed responsible for much of the violence this month that displaced more than 100,000 people — most of them across the border to Chad.
He says besides the arrests, the military also seized several hundred weapons that the men were using to attack and kill civilians. Bakari says troops also seized 30 motorcycles that armed men from rival communities were using in attacks. He says more than 200 cattle stolen from ranchers have been recovered and will be handed over after investigations to determine their legitimate owners.
Clashes broke out on December 4 between ranchers and fishers over water resources, leaving scores dead and sending tens of thousands fleeing — most of them women and children.
Arab Choua cattle ranchers and ethnic Mousgoum fishers accuse each other of trespassing and occupying each other’s land.
Bakari says most males who remained in the villages are involved in the fighting.
He would not give details on how many people have been killed in the clashes but said no government troops are among the casualties.
President Paul Biya last week dispatched to the area a delegation of lawmakers, ministers, religious leaders, and traditional rulers to negotiate a peace between the communities.
Retired army colonel Hamad Kalkaba Malboum was part of the delegation.
He says in areas where the clashes have stopped, they are asking villagers to return home.
“The president of the republic of Cameroon sent the mission [delegation] to tell people that they must be calm, the government will give instructions to rebuild what has been destroyed, and we need also to prepare the development of that region, which has also suffered Boko Haram [atrocities],” he said.
Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group from Nigeria, has since 2014 spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, launching attacks that have killed more than 30,000 people and displaced two million.
Cameroon’s government is allocating $300 million to rebuild infrastructure the militants destroyed along the border.
The communal violence this month left several villages and markets burned to the ground.
Cameroonian authorities have asked people in the area who own weapons to hand them over.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports at least 85,000 Cameroonians have fled into neighboring Chad and 15,000 are internally displaced. But it says the real number could be much higher.
Source: VOA