Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly gave no explanation Tuesday for Cameroon claiming it had never sought Canada’s help in peace talks, but said Ottawa still wants to broker a deal.

“Peace processes are always messy and take time, and this is a conflict that has been going for 40 years,” Joly told reporters on the sideline of a cabinet retreat in Hamilton.

“Our goal is to be patient and to take a deep breath.”

Ottawa announced last Friday that it has been leading discussions between the government of Cameroon and separatist groups, who have been in a conflict that has violently escalated in recent years. Joly’s office says there were already three meetings that took place in Ontario and Quebec.

“We were approached by the Cameroon government, and we also had a UN representative present during the mediation,” Joly said Tuesday.

Yet the Cameroon government said on Monday that it had never sought any external mediator.

René Sadi, Cameroon’s minister of communication, wrote in a news release that Cameroon “has not entrusted any foreign country or external entity with any role of mediator or facilitator to settle the crisis.”

Cameroon’s High Commission in Ottawa did not respond to a Tuesday interview request.

Years of fighting and strife have displaced nearly 800,000 people in the country, in a conflict over how the largely English-speaking western region of the largely francophone country should be governed.

Colonial powers carved out the borders of west-central Africa, delineating Nigeria and Cameroon and rejecting local demands to form an independent state, known as Ambazonia.

The ongoing civil war has displaced nearly 800,000 people in the country, killing more than 6,000 people since 2017 and leaving 600,000 children without full access to an education.

According to the United Nations, there has been continued fighting between state security forces and armed groups that has led to the killing and displacement of civilians, including attacks on schools and children.

Switzerland attempted mediation to end what’s known as the Anglophone Crisis in 2019, but Joly said those efforts failed.

She said Ottawa remains committed to helping the country reach a peace deal.

“Our sole interest in this is to make sure that parties are at the table,” she said.

A spokesman for Joly said Ottawa was in touch Tuesday with officials from the Cameroonian government.

Cameroon has been ruled by President Paul Biya for 40 years, and Human Rights Watch says his government has limited freedom of expression and association for opposition parties.

Aid groups have decried atrocities committed by both government and opposition forces.

Culled from The Canadian Press by staff lady Besong Eunice Nchong

The remains found in a field are those of the host of the popular program “Embouteillages” on Amplitude FM journalist Martinez Zogo, police have confirmed.

A gruesome discovery, in the middle of a bare field, a naked corpse showed traces of blood, suggesting that the victim had suffered a long period of physical pain before his death.

Zogo, was first reported missing on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 in Yaoundé and was found dead on Sunday, January 22.

His family, friends and colleagues are convinced that Zogo was murdered by Cameroon government agents following his continued coverage of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by the regime in Yaoundé.

In a statement issued Friday, January 20, about the disappearance of the Cameroonian whistleblower, the Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Rene Sadi said that “Instructions have been given so that all light is shed on the disappearance of Mr. Zogo Martinez”

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

Cameroon’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development died on Saturday out of an undisclosed illness.

Two government sources hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that he chaired a crucial meeting and received the Italian ambassador a day before he was rushed to the CNPS hospital where he died shortly after despite the so-called specialist treatment.

Gabriel Dodo Ndoke, a native of Kady in the East Region made his entry into the Biya government in January 2019 aged 48 and was painted as the youngest cabinet minister in the Ndion Ngute administration.

By Rita Akana

In response to news reports that unidentified individuals kidnapped Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement calling for a fast and thorough investigation into his whereabouts:

“The recent abduction of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo is deeply concerning, and authorities must do everything in their power to find him at once,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities must take this case very seriously given Zogo’s recent investigative reporting, and ensure that those responsible for his disappearance are brought to justice.”

At about 8 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, unidentified men abducted Zogo, editor-in-chief of the privately owned radio broadcaster Amplitude FM, near his home in the capital city of Yaoundé, according to those reports and Aristide Ekambi, the secretary-general of the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Zogo’s car was found ransacked and abandoned, according to those sources.

Neighbors had seen unidentified men outside Zogo’s home several nights before his abduction, and the brakes on the journalist’s wife’s vehicle were recently tampered with, according to those reports, which said she was in an accident two days before her husband’s disappearance.

Zogo hosts a popular daily show on Amplitude FM, where he recently commented on alleged embezzlement in public-sector procurement that benefitted a prominent businessman. He also sent a dossier to several institutions and media outlets about those allegations, according to those sources.

Zogo served a two-month prison sentence for criminal defamation in 2020, as CPJ documented at the time.

Culled from CPJ

Cameroon’s government deployed at least 100 troops Wednesday to Gayama, a village on the border with Nigeria, after clashes between Cameroonian separatists and Nigerian herders left at least 12 people dead.

Cameroonian officials say the fighting broke out six days ago, after herders who crossed the border in search of food for their cattle refused to pay taxes the rebels demanded.

Abdoulahi Aliou, the highest-ranking government official in Menchum, the administrative unit in charge of Gayama, said the rebels killed two herders immediately upon their refusal to pay. The surviving herders, who are ethnic Fulani from Taraba and Benue states, returned home and organized a counterattack.

Aliou said the herders came back in huge numbers, attacked separatist camps, and killed at least four fighters. Six civilians, including the traditional ruler of Munkep village and his son, were also killed in the clashes.

Authorities say at least 20 civilians were injured, scores of cattle were killed, and homes were torched.

The Roman Catholic Church in Menchum says many civilians fled Gayama and neighboring villages to avoid getting caught in clashes between separatists and the arriving troops.

The governor of Cameroon’s Northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, said civilians should not fear the military. Speaking by telephone from the region’s capital, Bamenda, he said villagers should help the troops by denouncing rebels hiding in their communities.

“The future is bright, provided we are united against the agents of chaos that are trying to hijack our youths,” Tchoffo said. “The armed forces are bringing themselves close to the population. That is the reason why, compared to last year, things are becoming more and more normal in the Northwest region, even if we still have some hotspots.”

Tchoffo said Cameroon’s military would protect civilians in all border villages.

Separatists on social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook, acknowledged they have been battling Nigerian herders, who they say should respect their orders.

This is not the first time Cameroon’s anglophone separatists have attacked Nigerians along the border.

Last June, villagers in western Akwaya town said armed men believed to be rebels carried out a series of attacks that killed at least 30 people, including five Nigerian merchants.

The separatists have been fighting since 2017 to carve out an English-speaking state from French-speaking majority Cameroon.

The U.N. says the conflict has left more than 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.

Source: VOA

The Cameroonian government plans to spend CFA2 billion on 57 technical studies for roads, freeways, expressways, and engineering works throughout FY2023. The information was reported in a recent statement by the Ministry of Public Works.

In detail, 11 studies concern the control of works and the remaining 46 are construction and rehabilitation studies. The Ministry specified that 24 studies are underway, 20 others involving contracts are in the process of being closed or terminated, and 2 others are force account works.

For the specific case of studies whose contracts are in the process of being closed or terminated, we learned, there are four studies of freeways and expressways, six road construction studies, four studies of the construction of engineering infrastructures, and six studies of rehabilitation of roads and engineering infrastructures.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Quebec provincial police say they are investigating the death last week of a health-care worker from Cameroon as a homicide.

The body of Nadine Flora Alinanyinyi, 34, was found Thursday in her apartment in Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., about 40 kilometres east of Montreal.

A two-month-old baby was found unharmed inside the apartment.

Alinanyinyi had been recruited to Quebec from Cameroon in 2020 and was employed at Le Quartier Saint-Hilaire seniors residence as a personal support worker.

Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau says authorities have met with the baby’s father but do not consider him a suspect.

Her employer said in a statement last week that Alinanyinyi was appreciated by her peers and had been on maternity leave.

Source: Global News

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril shocked the nation when he made a complaint recently at the Tokombéré gendarmerie post how some thieves broke into his home and stole huge sums of money.

Cameroon Concord News understands the President of the National Assembly made the matter public on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 and added that the criminals made away with 85 million CFA francs.

The so-called Right Honourable Cavaye Yeguié Djibril, who hails from Tokombéré, Mayo-Sava Division, Far North region has a history of always accusing his relatives of theft and enjoys detaining them at the local gendarmerie station. His younger brother Talba Cavaye who also moonlights as a notable of the chiefdom of Mada is already in police drag-net.

This is not the first time that cash is stolen from Cavaye Yeguié Djibril. In 2015, he dragged his bodyguard, Captain Bouba Simala, to the military court in Yaoundé, for “attempted kidnapping, terrorism and incitement to robbery,” accusing him of stealing 5 million CFA francs.

By Rita Akana

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French abbreviation MSF, welcomed Cameroon’s release of five members of its staff detained for a year on charges of helping separatists. MSF maintains it helps anyone who needs medical care and says it will only resume work in separatist areas with government security guarantees.

The group this week welcomed the military tribunal’s December 29 acquittal of the five workers – four of them Cameroonians and one Indian.

The military arrested two of the staff in December 2021 in Nguti, a southwestern town on the border with Nigeria, while they were transporting a patient with a gunshot wound to a hospital.

The military said the patient was a separatist and the next month arrested two more MSF staff members, accusing them of collaboration.

The French aid group said they abide by medical ethics of helping all in need but could not continue in the area under the threat of arrest.

In May, MSF suspended operations in Cameroon’s southwest.

Despite the dropped charges, MSF’s Operations Manager for Central Africa Sylvain Groulx said they cannot yet resume the needed aid work.

“We are obviously waiting to try to engage with the government so that we may resume our activity and we hope that they [the government] will be willing to sit down and discuss with us because these are lifesaving activities that we had to stop. It is very difficult for ministry of health ambulances to access certain areas. We were able to negotiate our access with all the actors and we were exceptionally allowed to do that, saving many lives,” said Groulx.

Paul Atanga Nji is Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration. While not specifically mentioning MSF, he told state broadcaster CRTV Tuesday that any aid groups helping rebels would be charged in court.

He said they will not allow aid groups that are believed to be separatist accomplices to operate in Cameroon. Nji said Cameroon’s military is working hard to bring order in the restive western regions. He said government hospitals have proven they have all that it takes to save the lives of people who need assistance.

Hospitals in Cameroon’s conflict areas have struggled to maintain services and staff, who say they have been victims of both military and separatists.

Nineteen-year-old University of Buea student Benedict Luma said MSF saved his uncle’s life in 2020.

“My uncle bled excessively when he was shot in the leg. Everyone was afraid he would die because there was no hospital around. Our neighbors advised us to call Doctors Without Borders on the phone, and in less than an hour, their ambulance came to save my uncle’s life,” he said.

Doctors Without Borders has provided medical aid in Cameroon to victims of Boko Haram Islamist militants along the northern border with Nigeria since 1984.

Until last May it also provided surgical care and malaria and COVID-19 treatment in Cameroon’s restive South-West region.

The aid group says it treated more than 1 million patients in Cameroon in 2020 alone.

Cameroon’s English-speaking separatists are fighting to break away from the French-speaking majority that it says treats them as second-class citizens.

Since the conflict broke out in 2017, the UN says more than 3,500 people have been killed and 750,000 displaced.

Source: VOA

There is a general belief that things are getting better in the country’s two English-speaking regions as some calm has returned but it is obvious that it will take time for genuine and sustainable peace to return to the two restless regions.

The new-found peace may still be hiding some dangers and it will not be out of place to see some destruction and killings in many parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country.

In Kumba, a police officer was brought down yesterday by people suspected of being Amba fighters and this incident is a sordid reminder of a past when it was a death sentence to be a uniformed officer in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.

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

Today, many cars can go to Mamfe, Ekondo-titi and many towns in the two English-speaking regions, but the fear of being caught up in crossfire is still there as the issues which triggered the Southern Cameroons crisis have not yet been addressed.

More killings have also been taking place in the Northwest region. Two soldiers were also sent to an early grave this week and this underscores the fact that until genuine dialogue takes place, Cameroon might never come out of its madness of killings.

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 were just acts of retaliation whenever the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy 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.

The number of soldiers and civilians living with mental, physical and psychological scars will never be known as the Yaoundé government is not in the business of keeping statistics and when it even tries its hands at that, its old habit of lying always stands in the way, making it hard for any reasonable person to trust its data.

Economically, the conflict has driven the sick economy to the bottom of the abyss. Government corporations like the CDC, PAMOL and others are still struggling and the government is too cash-strapped to engineer any sustainable solutions for these ailing corporations.

The road to economic recovery is tortuous and replete with bumps. The government is desperate and has resorted to tough financial and fiscal measures to refill its empty coffers, measures which are leaving many desperate and poor.

Over the last few weeks, the cost of government services to the citizens has gone up. Fuel prices have gone up and a bottle of gas now costs CFAF 10,000, well beyond the reach of many families.

The rationing of fuel is now a daily occurrence even in the country’s capital, Yaoundé. The Biya government is out of cash and it is using even unorthodox means to sustain itself in power.

It is being rumored that school fees in government universities will soon rise from CFAF 50,000 to CFAF 300,000 and this will be beyond the reach of many desperate and helpless families which view their children’s education as a visa out of grinding poverty.

Cameroon is going through a lot and it is becoming clearer by the day that Biya, the man many thought would take the country to the land of promise, has driven the country into a rabbit hole which will keep generations of Cameroonians in desperation for a long time.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai