At the start of June, Cameroonian President Paul Biya ordered the nation’s army to hold an emergency meeting to address a recent resurgence in cross-border attacks by Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (gazettengr.com, June 1). ISWAP, for example, claimed attacks in Gassama, Amchide, and Fotokol in the Far North Region of Cameroon in March. The first ISWAP attack was on the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNTJF), which includes Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria (and Benin, though it does not fight against ISWAP). The latter two attacks, by contrast, targeted the Cameroonian army.

In April and May, ISWAP attacks in northern Cameroon continued. On May 31, ISWAP claimed the killing of two police officers as well as the theft of their weapons. On May 13, ISWAP claimed it had attacked an army base, causing the soldiers there to abandon their positions and flee. Other attacks, such as one on May 11 in Mora, Cameroon, have been thwarted by the MNJTF. In another case, an ISWAP courier was arrested on a camel in N’guigmi, Niger, leading to the MNJTF’s uncovering of several hideouts around Monguno, Nigeria. Notwithstanding the several successful raids, most recent attacks in Cameroon have been relatively small-scale. This compares to previous years, where dozens of Cameroonian as well as Chadian, Nigérien, and Nigerian soldiers have been killed on the shores of Lake Chad.

ISWAP is apparently seeking to pilfer supplies from northern Cameroonian villages in order to replenish stocks in advance of the rainy season—as well as possibly punish civilians for not paying taxes to the group. ISWAP’s claimed attacks and history of operating in northern Cameroon indicate that the group was responsible for many, if not all, of the recent attacks. Meanwhile, the late Abubakar Shekau’s faction—which considers itself part of Islamic State (IS), but is not recognized as such—has also been taxing civilians around Lake Chad, including in northern Cameroon. This was the case both before and after Shekau’s death in an ISWAP-led operation. It is, therefore, possible that Shekau’s loyalists are also conducting some attacks in northern Cameroon, in addition to ISWAP. Shekau’s successor, Bakura, is also pushing the faction’s forces further south from Lake Chad towards Sambisa Forest, which straddles the Nigeria-Cameroon border. This forest was Shekau’s base, but was largely taken over by ISWAP since his death.

The Cameroonian military is being forced into action not only because of ISWAP’s targeting of its soldiers in these disruptive, albeit relatively small-scale, attacks, but also because of the resulting severe economic disruption. Thousands of villagers have been forced to flee their homes due to the looting of markets and farms, sometimes losing hundreds of cows to theft. Indeed, these “pilfering attacks” were a hallmark of the late Shekau, although since his death many of his former loyalists have since reintegrated into ISWAP. These militants may now be employing similar tactics under the ISWAP banner.

Whether ISWAP or the late Shekau’s fighters are behind the incursions into Cameroon, the Cameroonian army’s response may lead to further “retaliatory” attacks by the two groups. Historically, the jihadists have escalated attacks against Nigeria’s neighbors when those countries’ armies increase the tempo of their counter-insurgency efforts. Therefore, despite a lull in attacks around Lake Chad since 2021, it is possible that the area will once again became a major battleground in the conflict going forward.

Source: Jamestown.org

Two separatist commanders surrendered to the Cameroonian army in the country’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest Wednesday, according to the army and local officials.

The militant commanders known as Felix Kibam, alias “general show,” and Benard Kuh, alias “Oga Landlord,” handed themselves over to the gendarmerie in the Fundong locality of the region early Wednesday.

The National Gendarmerie said they were “safe” and “being taken care of.”

Since the beginning of this year, several senior leaders of separatist forces have given up fighting with the government.

In May, 18 separatist fighters surrendered at a blow in Southwest, one of the restive Anglophone regions.

There has been fighting between government forces and separatist fighters in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 after separatists made a bid to create an independent nation in the regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Public Investment Budget (BIP) in Cameroon was executed at 74.56% in 2021, according to the National Committee for Monitoring the Physical and Financial Execution of Public Investment. Compared to 2021, when the rate was 74.99%, this makes a decline of 0.43 pts.

While the execution stagnates, the commitment (contracting) rate for these projects has improved significantly, rising from 81.41% in 2021 to 92.07% in 2022, an increase of more than 10 points. The Committee attributes the slow execution rate to several factors, including delayed project development, abandoned sites due to payment issues, sluggish implementation of jointly-financed projects, inadequate ownership of implementation procedures, and the security crisis in certain regions.

By region, the North and Adamaoua have the highest execution rates, at 91.5% and 87.8% respectively. Despite the security crisis in the Anglophone regions, the execution rate in the Northwest was 87.86%, compared with 73.6% in the Southwest. The worst performer in terms of physical execution remains the Central region, with a rate of 65.76% of project executed by the end of 2022.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Journalists in Cameroon say the government’s indefinite shutdown of a radio station and suspension of four reporters is a sign of a growing crackdown on the country’s news media. The government says it is trying to stop the spread of hate speech, while journalists say officials want to retaliate against criticism of President Paul Biya.

Bruno Bidjang, host of the popular program on Vision 4 TV called “Club d’Elite” has said on his program that he will continue exercising his profession to the best of his ability without fear.

However, Cameroon’s National Communication Council, an organ created by the government to regulate the media, imposed a one-month suspension on Bidjang for hosting guests who the government says used hateful language on his program.

The NCC said Bidjang was warned several times, but he continued inviting such guests on the program.

The council this week also imposed suspensions on a radio station and three other media practitioners for broadcasting offensive or hateful content.

NCC President Joe Chebongkeng Kalabubse said these journalists and media outlets propagated hate speech and xenophobic language.

“We have noticed that we can nip the problem in the bud by encouraging journalists to be more professional,” Kalabubse said. “We want to encourage journalists to be as professional as possible. We will not hesitate to sanction them if they falter.”

Kalabubse said he has informed Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, to make sure that journalists who do not respect the order are punished, and media organizations that continue to broadcast are permanently closed.

Nji said he has instructed police and local government officials to force the journalists to respect the sanctions.

“The media men should know that they have the moral obligation to comply by respecting these decisions taken for the common good,” Nji said. “Because if we are in a state of law and we don’t respect the laws of the republic, then we are walking towards a jungle, and Cameroon is not a jungle. We should use liberty of expression to construct and not to destroy. So, I want to tell the media men that they have the obligation to comply. If they don’t comply, we will accompany them to comply by force.”

But journalists in Cameroon say they are victims of increasing oppression. They say the government clamps down on media that hold contrary opinions to state actions.

The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union said the NCC was set up by Biya to defend his interests and crack down on journalists who oppose his rule.

The trade union said senior state functionaries and military officials who are accused of corrupt practices ask the NCC to suspend reporters — a charge the NCC denies.

The government said hate speech propagated through the media has become rampant since the disputed 2018 presidential election.

In addition, some French-speaking host communities accuse English speakers displaced by the separatist conflict in the west of being separatist fighters or sympathizers.

Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration said local media that do not stop guests in debate programs from asking communities to rise against one another will be punished. Journalists who anchor such programs will also be punished, the government said, though it has not outlined any punishment.

Cameroon has more than 600 newspapers, about 200 radio stations and 60 TV networks, yet producing independent and critical reporting is still challenging, according to Reporters Without Borders.

In its 2023 World Press Freedom Index, the organization said Cameroon is one of Africa’s most dangerous countries for journalists, since they operate in a hostile and precarious environment.

Source: VOA

At least one soldier has been killed after militants of the terror group Boko Haram attacked a military outpost in Cameroon’s Far North Region, according to local and security sources.

The attack took place overnight Sunday in the Kerawa locality of the region that hosts a military outpost.

The militants ambushed and attacked the outpost, which had six soldiers of Cameroon’s elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion, a military source in the region said.

“They were surprised. The terrorists tiptoed and surprised them. The death toll could be more,” the source said.

It was the fifth time the terror group attacked an army outpost in the region in the past two weeks, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Tunisian coastguard on Friday recovered the body of a young child thought to have drowned at sea when two vessels carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean, a journalist working with news agency said.

The child’s body, dressed in a pink jumpsuit and grey woollen cap, was discovered during a patrol off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia’s second city, according to the journalist who was accompanying the coastguard.

The child was likely from Cameroon, as more than 200 Cameroonians had been rescued in the last two days, the coastguard undertaking the operation said.

The child’s mother was believed to have been one of the people missing after the sinking of two boats earlier in the week, they added.

The Cameroonian embassy in Tunis was nonetheless unable to confirm this information when contacted.

Local court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi meanwhile said that two boats carrying migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank off Sfax’s coast on Wednesday.

Six people died and 39 were rescued from the first boat, while 12 people from the second boat were rescued and 41 others are missing, he said.

Tunisia, whose coastline is less than 150 kilometres from the Italian island of Lampedusa, has long been a favoured launching point for migrants attempting the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Europe.

The flow of migrants from Tunisia has intensified since President Kais Saied made a fiery speech on February 21 claiming illegal immigration was a demographic threat to Tunisia.

Source: AFP

According to a recent study released on Thursday by Bénédicte Savoy of the Technische Universität Berlin and Albert Gouaffo of the University of Dschang in Cameroon, German museums that house world cultures have 40,000 Cameroonian artifacts, which is more than the British Museum’s entire African collection, The Art Newspaper reported.

There are roughly 6,000 pieces in the state collections in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. Savoy stated that the majority of the 40,000 pieces in German museums are in depots and not on display, pointing out that this enormous number excludes, among other things, items in natural history museums, archaeological discoveries in prehistory museums, and any items in private collections.

The new study, titled Atlas der Abwesenheit (Atlas of Absence), was backed by 45 German museum curators and took two years to complete. It is now available to the public via open access.

Germany declared Cameroon a colony in 1884, motivated by the desire to increase commercial prospects. Until the First World War, Germany utilized increasingly violent methods to repress significant local resistance. After the war, the region was divided between the French and the British. Over the course of more than 30 years of German control, colonial troops conducted at least 180 “punitive expeditions” to secure land, destroying communities, farms, and cultural landmarks.

Savoy noted that because the brutal robbery on that occasion was carried out by British troops rather than German troops, it may have been simpler for Germany to concentrate first on returning the Benin bronzes to Nigeria. “Confronting one’s own acts of brutality requires more political and psychological work,” she remarked.

Officials from the Cameroonian embassy emphasized the importance of restitution during a panel discussion to unveil the report in Berlin. According to Maryse Nsangou Njikam, a cultural advisor at the Cameroonian embassy in Germany, “Germany is full,” but “Cameroon is empty.”

“We must have these objects back. We need them to build the future. Restitution is the cherry on the cake, the goal we are heading for,” she noted.

A commission for reparation has been established by the Cameroonian government, including members from the foreign, education, and culture ministries, as well as the traditional royal rulers, civil society, and academia.

“It has started work and meets regularly with museum directors in Germany,” she said, adding, “We are still a long way from restitution because several steps have to be taken first,” Nsangou Njikam said.

The artifacts at German museums of world culture include textiles, musical instruments, ceremonial masks, royal treasures like stools and thrones, texts, tools, and weapons — “none of which were conceived as display objects for vitrines,” Savoy claimed.

Some of the items mentioned in the study include a beaded stool from Bagam that was stolen during a punishment exhibition and returned by an army officer and is now in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, in addition to a beaded cap that belongs to a Cameroonian leader, in the Linden Museum, that was one of 237 objects plundered over 2.5 years by a German officer.

The Linden Museum, which has more than 8,000 Cameroonian artifacts, the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, and the Grassi Museum in Leipzig each has more than 5,000. German museums “have a lot of homework to do,” according to Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, director of the Grassi Museum, who stated this during the panel discussion.

Source: English almayadeen.net

A commander of a vigilante group in Cameroon’s Far North Region was killed early Friday by suspected militants of the terror group Boko Haram, according to local and security sources.

The commander of the community defense forces was killed when the militants raided the Amchide locality of the region, said an army official in the region.

The 36-year-old was a high-profile commander in the fight against terrorism, and his death is a big blow, added the official who asked not to be named.

The militants also looted property, including food and clothes, local media reported.

More than 30 vigilante groups have been formed in the region since Boko Haram began operating in 2014, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

Islamic state on Wednesday claimed responsibility for an attack on a security post in northern Cameroon, the group said in a statement on telegram.

Two customs officers, a policeman and a civilian, were killed in the attack that took place on Tuesday at the entrance to the town of Mora in Cameroon’s far north region, about 30 km (20 miles) from the border with Nigeria.

Source: Reuters