The trial for the killing of a popular Cameroonian journalist opened on Monday with 17 people in the dock, including an ex-secret service chief, but was immediately adjourned until April 15.

The badly-mutilated body of reporter Arsene Salomon Mbani Zogo, known as “Martinez”, was found a few days after he was abducted in front of a police station outside the capital Yaoundé on January 17 last year.

The 50-year-old ardent anti-corruption and anti-cronyism campaigner had often singled out government officials by name, earning the ire of powerful figures.

Those on trial at Yaounde Military Court include Leopold Maxime Eko Eko, the then-director of Cameroon’s powerful military intelligence service, his head of operations Justin Danwe, and members of a military commando accused of Zogo’s kidnap, torture and murder.

Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a wealthy businessman believed to be close to ministers and officers in the Central African nation, is also amongst the accused.

All are accused of either actively taking part in or complicity in Zogo’s kidnap, torture and murder.

The killing caused an outcry in the country, which has been ruled with an iron fist for more four decades by President Paul Biya, 91.

The defendants showed no signs of any emotion during a three-hour hearing as the charges against them were read out.

The lawyers were then invited to present their initial observations by Colonel Jacques Misse Njone, presiding the session, before he adjourned the case to next month “to respond to all the observations and communicate the lists of witnesses”.

Calvin Job, the Zogo family’s lawyer, complained that “the civil parties have never been asked to participate in the investigation”.

“This is unacceptable. To date, I have not had access to the file,” he added.

The court commissioner promised to rectify that and make the file available.

Source: AFP

Ambazonia fighters have reportedly killed a prominent mayor in the Northwest region on Saturday morning, according to local police.

Solomon Nkwato, the second deputy mayor of Babessi Council of Ngoketunjia Division in the region, was shot dead as he was about to leave his home, police said without elaborating.

Local media reported that the mayor was known for leading peace-building efforts among young people in the region.

An armed separatist conflict has been going on in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017. The separatists want to break away from the majority of French-speaking Cameroon and create an independent nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Njuh Valentine Fombe, a/k/a “Valentine”, age 37, a Cameroonian citizen, formerly residing in Beltsville, Maryland, today to 12 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracies to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and for aggravated identity theft, in connection with a business email compromise fraud scheme with intended losses of more than $2 million.  Based on court documents and evidence presented during Fombe’s sentencing, the Court also found that Fombe engaged in a pandemic-related unemployment fraud scheme while he was a fugitive residing in the United Kingdom.

In addition to prison time, Judge Chasanow ordered Fombe to pay restitution of $325,856.12 and to forfeit $547,310.23.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Chief Russell E. Hamill III of the Laurel Police Department.

According to court documents and evidence presented at today’s sentencing hearing, from at least September 2016 to August 2018, Fombe conspired with others to commit wire fraud by conducting business email compromise (“BEC”) schemes in which Fombe‘s co-conspirators gained unauthorized access to email accounts, personal identifying information, and bank accounts by sending false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts.  Fombe and his co-conspirators then used the illegally obtained personal information to obtain counterfeit checks in the name and information of the victims’ bank accounts.  Victims of the BEC scheme were from California, Tennessee, Michigan, Hawaii and Illinois.  Fombe and his co-conspirators also registered fraudulent shell entities to facilitate the scheme, opening and managing bank accounts in the names of the fraudulent shell entities’, as well as their own names and aliases, to direct and receive proceeds of the BEC and check schemes.

After Fombe’s indictment in 2019, Fombe fled the United States on a fraudulently obtained Honduran passport, ultimately residing in the United Kingdom until his arrest there on June 16, 2022 and subsequent extradition to the United States. 

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended HSI, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Laurel Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly O. Hayes, Christopher M. Sarma, and Bijon Mostoufi, who prosecuted the case.

Source: Justice.gov/usa

At least 13 of the 34 mayors in the North West Region of Cameroon have issued statements emphasizing their commitment to ensuring the free issuance of civil status documents in their respective councils henceforth. They have also expressed their resolve to dismantle “middlemen” networks which often mastermind extortion from those seeking civil registration services.

The announcements come as a response to a campaign led last year by the office of the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) of the region, condemning extortion by council authorities in the issuance of these important documents.

Among the councils that have announced the free issuance of civil status registration documents, according to the office of the PIC, are those of Andek, Balikumbat, Benakuma, Mbengwi, Misaje, Ndop, Ndu, Njinikom, Nkor, Nkum, Zhoa, Bamenda I, Tubah and Wum.

Last year, the office of the PIC launched a region-wide campaign which was aimed at discouraging the practice whereby poor citizens are made to cough out huge sums of money to either obtain birth, death or marriage certificates in many councils across the region.

The PIC, Simon Tamfu Fai, told Biometric Update in an interview at the time that the campaign was to remind council authorities that collecting money from citizens to register births, deaths or marriages is against the law and that all those involved in such illegal practices were exposing themselves to sanctions spelled out by the laws in force.

“This campaign is prompted by the growing and persistent complaints reported to the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) in the North West Region. It is also confirmed by a survey carried out in 2022 which revealed that council administrators collect as much as FACF 15,000 for the issuance of birth certificates and as much as FCFA 100,000 to celebrate marriages,” Fai said then.

Months after the campaign was launched, the PIC reports that many councils in the region are now increasing becoming compliant with the civil status legislation law.

“Following the campaign to promote the free establishment of civil status documents, some mayors have signed municipal orders announcing the free establishment of these documents in their municipalities. The number of press releases signed by mayors in this regard keeps increasing,” the office of the PIC said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.

“The Public Independent Conciliator, Tamfu Simon Fai, encourages mayors who haven’t started issuing civil status documents free of charge in their municipality to do so, and to sign press releases in this light, as other mayors have done,” the statement adds.

It is expected that the move by the office of the PIC will go a long way in increasing the rate of obtaining civil status documents in the crisis-ridden region, and probably serve as a lesson to the rest of the country where access to civil status registration services remains difficult and expensive.

Source: Biometricupdate

Armed separatists in Southern Cameroons have killed over 80 soldiers and police since their insurgency began in September last year, the government said in a report on Wednesday that suggests the conflict is intensifying.

What began in late 2016 as a peaceful movement calling for greater representation of the mostly French-speaking country’s Anglophone minority morphed into conflict after a heavy-handed government response, in which troops shot at civilians from helicopter gunships and burned villages. That bolstered support for some in Anglophone Cameroon who want to form a new state called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The unrest in the oil- and cocoa-producing Southwest and Northwest regions often involves hit-and-run attacks by insurgents on the army. “Statistics as of 11 June 2018 showed that 123 attacks had been carried out claiming 84 lives, including 32 soldiers, 42 gendarmes, seven police officers, two prison warders and one eco-guard,” said the report, presented by Prime Minister Philemon Yang at a news conference in Yaounde.

In February, an army spokesman told Reuters separatists had killed 22 soldiers and policemen in the previous five months. No figures are available for casualties on the separatist side, but its leaders says there have been some. The fighting has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee over the border into Nigeria.

In the report, the government pledged 12.7 billion CFA francs ($21.7 million) over 18 months to help nearly 75,000 people who have been displaced across the two Anglophone regions. President Paul Biya seeks reelection in October polls, after leading the country for more than three decades.

Source: Reuters

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has condemned the latest military deployment in Southern Cameroons by the French Cameroun dictatorship in Yaoundé stressing that the Biya regime’s criminals will never see their pipe dream of the one and indivisible Cameroon come true.

Comrade Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Cameroon Concord News on Saturday in reaction to Cameroon government recent military deployment to Bui Division.

“Such deployments explicitly reveal the sinister intentions of our so called French speaking brothers against our dear Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Southern Cameroonians have been subjected to all forms of crimes against humanity for more than four decades. It, nevertheless, continues its honorable life of resistance more vigorously than ever,” Dabney Yerima said.

Dabney Yerima added that French Cameroun authorities should be reminded that nearly 25,000 Southern Cameroonians have sacrificed their lives over the past 6 years for the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to maintain its independence and strongly safeguard every iota of its territory.

“Those who are fighting with their lives for the glory and sovereignty of Southern Cameroons are men and women who come from all the nooks and crannies of Ambazonia,” Dabney Yerima stated.

“Francophone criminals, who are currently overseeing the massacring of Southern Cameroons women and children in order to compensate for their successful failures in La Republique du Cameroun, will never live to see their pipe dream of defeating Ambazonia fulfilled,” the exiled Southern Cameroons leader emphasized.

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi

The military court in Ebolowa in the South Region has finally made public its verdict on the Franck Derlin Ebanga-Lydienne Taba affair.

Franck Derlin Ebanga, a civil administrator was accused of murdering his partner Lydienne Taba with a pistol he reportedly collected from a gendarmerie officer in his area of command four years ago.

The presiding judge sentenced him on Wednesday and issued a committal order at the hearing. He will also pay the victim’s family FCFA 45 million in damages.

This is the outcome of a case that began on the night of 24-25 July 2020. Franck Derlin Ebanga, then Divisional Officer of Loukoundje in Océan Division spent a tense evening at his home in the town of Kribi with his partner, Lydienne Taba, a student at the University of Douala. The following day, the body of the 23-year-old woman was found lifeless.

The 30-year-old chef de terre as they are known in French speaking Cameroon initially explained that it was an accidental discharge from his service weapon that killed Lydienne Taba. His version was disputed by the victim’s family.

An investigation conducted by the Gendarmerie Legion in Ebolowa led to the conviction of the accused. His new home is now the Ebolowa central prison. Solange Lydienne Taba was laid to rest on August 29, 2020 in Lobathal Mouanko, her native village in the Sanaga-Maritime Division, Littoral region.

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi with files