After being held at the Unity Palace for years because of the Southern Cameroons crisis and the global pandemic (Covid-19), Cameroon’s ailing president, Paul Biya, left Yaoundé today for Washington D.C. to attend the US-African Leaders Summit scheduled to take place from 13-15 December 2022.

As usual, Mr. Biya will be stopping over in Geneva, Switzerland, not to condole with Switzerland following the country’s trouncing in the World Cup, but to undergo a special steroid session which will enable him to operate in the highly demanding conference in the American capital. 

Over the last decade, Mr. Biya has been surviving on steroids given his poor health. He is currently a colony of diseases which require huge consumption of steroids.  According to a source close to the Unity Palace, Mr. has been psychologically depressed in recent times and the trip to the American capital is an opportunity for him to step out of his palace and demonstrate to the world that he is still in charge in Yaoundé.

Before boarding the airplane for Geneva, the Cameroonian dictator made sure that his collaborators had to bow to him like angels do to God. The country’s Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, who is out of favour with the ruling cabal almost prostrated in front Mr. Biya to demonstrate that he was still very loyal to the man who has been anything but effective when it comes to running the country. 

While in Washington, the senile Biya who is suffering from amnesia will meet with the American President in private to seek the North American country’s help in the insurgency which has been playing out in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions for more than six years.

According to some unknown Cameroonian diplomatic enthusiasts like Billy Eko, whose father was arrested with drugs on an airplane more than 35 years ago, Mr. Biya’s ineffective diplomacy seems to be delivering some good results. He based his logic on the indictment of three Southern Cameroonians in the United States on grounds of exporting terror to another country. 

The indictment was deposited by the FBI, but in the United States, an indictment is nothing. The three co-accused are not guilty until proven guilty by a legally constituted court of law in the United States. The US is not a country where the president can just order people to be locked up. The law works in the United States, and it is incumbent upon the FBI to prove its case in court.

Currently, the suspects have already lawyered up and there are more celebrity lawyers lining up to join the team of lawyers who want to prove that the problem in Cameroon is not the suspects but a man whose rank incompetence and corruption have left a once prosperous nation in the depth of abject poverty, creating massive pockets of opposition in the country.

There is also a fundraising campaign in the United States for the three Southern Cameroonians to enable them to hire the best international lawyers who can easily prove that the Yaounde regime clearly belongs to the past and if a regime change is not engineered, more people will be sent to an early grave.

Lawyers in the United States have already gathered lots of video and cable communications evidence between Cameroon’s military officials who intentionally planned a massive genocide in the two English-speaking regions of the country. The lawyers have enough evidence. Videos of Ngarbuh, Kwakwa, and Muyenge as well as multiple reports by the International Crisis Group have been shared with American Senators who are urging Joe Biden not to receive Mr. Biya who is now seen as Cameroon’s “merchant of death”.  

The Senators hold that if the US identifies with a man who has mowed down his own people, it will be calling into question its claim that it is a beacon of hope and democracy. Biya is no democrat! He is an iron fist in a velvet glove. It is hard to weave his name and democracy in the same sentence, an American human rights activist said. 

Currently, there is a massive demonstration being organized to receive the dictator in Washington. Southern Cameroonians want to prove to the Biden Administration that it is having political intercourse with a murderer, a man who has killed many women and children in Southern Cameroons, and still has thousands of Southern Cameroonians in East Cameroonian jails.

Mr. Biya is also being blamed by his fellow compatriots for corruption, financial impropriety, and incompetence. Since coming to power in 1982, Mr. Biya has transformed the country into a one-man show, where his word is the law.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, defied the Biya Francophone regime efforts to declare him irrelevant by addressing the people of Ambazonia via a French Cameroun newspaper, confirming that he is still committed to the liberation struggle of British Southern Cameroons.

In an interview with Le Jour newspaper President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe repeated his earlier position for genuine dialogue between the two Cameroons.

The Supreme Leader of the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia told Le Jour that Yaoundé should demilitarize the entire Southern Cameroons territory and release all English speaking detainees in French Cameroun jails.

Six years into the war in Southern Cameroons, peace is still not back despite several initiatives carried out so far both by the regime in Yaoundé and by the international community.

Speaking exclusively to Le Jour newspaper, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe,reiterated the position of the Ambazonia Interim Government in an article published on Monday, December 5, 2022.  He also set out his conditions for his participation in the holding of a dialogue with the Biya Francophone regime Yaoundé.

“We propose first that Cameroon, which has declared war, declare a ceasefire and demilitarization of the English-speaking regions, the release of all those imprisoned because of this crisis, amnesty for exiled compatriots and international dialogue arbitrated by a neutral country and at a place agreed by both parties. As soon as these conditions are met, we will sit down if the government wants to negotiate, we will negotiate,” the Ambazonia Supreme Leader told Le Jour.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides including Dr. Kimeng Henry, Dr. Kwanga, Professor Che Augustine Awasum, His Majesty Shufai Blaise and Dr. Nfor Ngalla, have been imprisoned at the Kondengui Central Prison for four years, after being arrested in Nigeria in joint military operation by Cameroon and Nigerian secret service officers.

“I am physically in prison, but morally and spiritually I am a free man. Those who put me here are more in prison than I am. I don’t have a problem with anyone, but I remain solidly committed to the struggle that began several years ago. This fight is for the liberation of Southern Cameroons- Ambazonia, from the oppression and misrule that plagues this country,” the Ambazonia leader said.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

Cameroon’s government is praising U.S. authorities for arresting three Cameroonian Americans accused of supporting separatist violence in the country’s western regions. The three, arrested a week ago and indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, allegedly raised funds to abduct persons and use weapons of mass destruction in a foreign country.

Cameroon’s government has for years been urging the U.S. and Europe to crack down on separatists operating outside the country. Government forces have been battling separatist groups for five years.

John Billy Eko, inspector general in Cameroon’s External Relations Ministry, said the arrest of the three Cameroonian-born U.S. citizens indicates the U.S. has come to understand that some people who sponsor the separatist conflict live in America.

“We remain cautious and vigilant because the indictment is perhaps only the first phase of a judicial process which began with our government’s persistence in convincing American authorities to take action [against separatist sponsors],” he said. “So, we await trial and sentencing. There are many, many more unindicted co-conspirators and accomplices in the United States and elsewhere who were not cited in this indictment.”

Cameroonian lawyers in the U.S. say they have filed complaints against 200 Cameroonians and American citizens of Cameroon origin in the U.S. who are suspected accomplices to separatist violence.

Armed groups seeking to separate two predominantly English-speaking regions from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority launched their military campaign in 2017.

Eko said that since then Cameroon has appealed to friendly nations to take actions against separatist supporters working within their national territories.

On November 28, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges against Claude Chi, Lah Nestor Langmi and Francis Chenyi, all Cameroonian-born U.S. citizens in their 40s. The three arrested defendants are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a conspiracy to kidnap persons and use weapons of mass destruction in Cameroon.

The U.S Department of Justice says in addition to more than $350,000 the defendants raised through voluntary donations, the three men conspired with others to kidnap civilians in Cameroon and hold them for ransom.

It says in some instances, U.S. citizens were extorted for ransom payments to secure the release of their kidnapped relatives living in Cameroon, with ransom payments subsequently transferred to separatist fighters to fund their operations.

“We have examined the case filed into court by the United States prosecutor. We had previously condemned kidnapping for ransom and the use of Ambazonia forces for personal benefit,” said Capo Daniel,spokesperson of the Ambazonia Governing Council, one of the chief separatist groups. “This war remains the primary cause of the chaos and the emergence of criminal gangs and cartels that seek to use Ambazonia to legitimize their criminal activity.”

Before last week’s indictment, Christopher John Lamora, U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, had condemned abductions for ransom and attacks on education.

“I have seen a lot of videos where people are calling for violence, where people are suggesting that killing students and preventing them from going to school is somehow a valid approach to resolving social concerns. It isn’t,” said Lamora, speaking to Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV. “The people in the diaspora, be they in the United States or elsewhere, who have been calling over the past several years for violence to stop. There is no question about that.”

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison for the material support charges, up to three years in prison for receiving money from a ransom demand charge and up to 20 years in prison for the money laundering conspiracy charge, according to the U.S Department of Justice.

Source: VOA

Scores of Cameroonians with physical disabilities petitioned the government on Friday for better representation in public office and political parties. Meeting in the capital Yaoundé, ahead of the International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3, activists said parties resist fielding disabled candidates. They also noted that not a single disabled person is in parliament or the president’s office.

Samuel Nyingcho, who has impaired vision, said the opposition Social Democratic Front rejected his request to run for local council in Tubah, an English-speaking northwestern town. Nyingcho said he was told that visual impairment hinders the ability to contribute to development.

“The national chairman of the Social Democratic Front, gave me a test to ascertain whether I was able to read and write and equally able to engage in community work,” he said. “That test I passed and then was given the opportunity to enroll as a councilor.”

But Nyingcho said after he registered, his candidacy was again rejected. Others with visual impairment began street protests and the party finally accepted his candidacy, he said.

The Social Democratic Front said that since his election in 2013, Nyingcho has been an exemplary council member, helping the community to build roads and to provide electricity and water.

Nyingcho is one of only 12 councilors with disabilities in Cameroon, out of some 12,000 nationwide.

Not a single member of parliament’s 280 members has a disability, and only one of the country’s 372 mayors.

Thirty-two leaders of associations of people with disabilities signed the petition presented Friday.

Coco Bertin, the founder of the Club for the Rehabilitated Young Blind People of Cameroon, said he signed because there is no reason qualified and educated people with disabilities should be denied better representation in public office and political parties.

He said more opportunities for those with disabilities would reduce or end the traditional belief that people with disabilities are a curse to their communities or victims of ancestral punishment for wrongdoing. Coco added that Cameroon will not be a country that ensures inclusion and equality of opportunity if people with disabilities are discriminated against.

Cameroon President Paul Biya appointed Douglas Achingale, who walks with crutches, deputy director general of the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities in 2020.

Achingale said the disabled want to see exclusion stopped in schools.

“There are official texts which give children with disabilities some exclusive advantages during their admission in public schools, however, many educational authorities refuse categorically to respect this text,” he said. “The process to render public buildings accessible to persons with disabilities is slow, very slow indeed.”

The government says it has taken note of the plight of people living with disabilities.

Pauline Irene Nguene, Cameroon’s minister of social affairs, said Cameroon considers the fight against all forms of social exclusions as one of its immediate priorities. She said there is an ongoing advocacy with political parties, NGOs and the government for social exclusion to end.

The United Nations proclaimed the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 1992 to mobilize support for the inclusion of persons with disabilities and promote awareness-raising about disability issues.

Source: VOA

Cameroon government forces have killed three Southern Cameroonians during an early morning raid in Banten, a village located in Bui Division in the North West Region in the latest onslaught that has made 2022 the deadliest year of violence ever since the beginning of the Anglophone uprising in 2016.

The fatalities included two Southern Cameroonian brothers, identified by our correspondent in Bui as Faraih, a Douala based mechanic and his brother Walidu, a local bike rider who were reportedly visiting their granny.  Our reporter in Kumbo, the chief town in Bui also stated that the two siblings were fatally shot after the Francophone army soldiers had stormed the residence of a local granddad identified as Pa Kongnyuy and murdered him on his sick bed.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Faraih was shot in the pelvis while his brother Walidu was shot in the chest. A local trader, who had bought two brand new bikes for retail, saw his precious goods burnt completely.  

The Cameroon government troops left their base in Tahkija, Nkum Sub division in Bui and started the raids on Banten as early as 2:00 am on Monday November 28 2022.

A Banten resident contacted by CIR said the French speaking soldiers entered the village centre commonly referred to as Sanheiri breaking into houses and shops “And after looting and spending the day in the court yards feasting on stolen goods and even roasting a pig in front of the Central Mosque, the soldiers then moved through the village centre down into the valley where the local Catholic Church is located. The doors of the Catholic Church Banten were forced open and the sacred tabernacle where the Holy Eucharist is kept was emptied”.

This item is still developing  

By Queen Besumbu Agbaw

Rescue workers in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, are searching for people believed trapped under a landslide that killed at least 14 people and injured scores more Sunday. The victims were attending a funeral when the landslide occurred.

Civilians mourn as they join rescue workers in digging and searching for people they fear are trapped underneath a huge pile of debris.

The soil and stones collapsed Sunday evening on several hundred community members from Cameroon’s west region who had gathered for a funeral of people who died within the past month.

Rosette Ngeufack, 50, is among the mourners. She says she saw the ground collapse on scores of people including her two sons.Ngeufack says she is still searching for her 24-year-old son who was buried by the landslide alongside his motorcycle. She says she left the Yaounde central hospital at 2 a.m. after hospital staff reassured her that her 21-year-old son, also a victim of the landslide, is responding to treatment.

It is a tradition in Cameroon for communities to organize funeral events in towns after burial of their community members in villages.

People who attended the funeral prior to the landslide said they had prayed for the departed and were sharing drinks and food when the unfortunate incident occurred.

Nasseri Paul Bea, governor of Cameroon’s center region where Yaounde is located, visited the disaster site for the second time within 15 hours on Monday morning. He says that investigations carried out by Cameroon police indicate that some civilians are still trapped in the landslide.

Bea says he asked the government for more troops to assist rescue workers who for the past 14 hours have been searching for people. He says bodies removed from the disaster site are identified by the police and taken to the mortuary of the central hospital in Yaounde and then eventually to their family members.

Cameroon’s government says the landslide occurred when an 18-meter-high embankment collapsed on several hundred civilians attending a funeral in a house constructed in a risky area.

Bea said the embankment that gave way was not solid enough to stop the soil from collapsing.

Cameroon’s Housing Ministry Monday asked people living in areas deemed at risk of landslides to immediately to leave or be forced to relocate.

Yaounde, a city of about 3 million people, has had devastating floods caused by heavy rains within the past three months. The government says more than 25 houses constructed in risky areas have collapsed, injuring and killing scores of people.

Source: VOA

The US Justice Department announced charges Monday against three men who allegedly helped fund separatist fighters in Cameroon and supported the 2020 kidnapping of Catholic cardinal Christian Tumi.

The three men, US citizens of Cameroon origin,  are accused of raising $350,000 for arms and bomb-making materials for the separatist Ambazonian Restoration Forces operating in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest region.

The funds also supported kidnappings by the separatists, including of Tumi and Sehm Mbinglo, a traditional chief in the troubled region.

Both were freed within days. Tumi, who died in 2021, had frequently sought to mediate between the government and the separatists in the mainly French-speaking country.

The Justice Department said Claude Chi, 40, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Francis Chenyi, 49, of St. Paul, Minnesota; and Lah Nestor Langmi, 46, of Buffalo, New York, were arrested Monday on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to support kidnappings and use weapons of mass destruction in a foreign country.

Each man held a senior position in an organization that supported and directed the Ambazonian Restoration Forces, according to the Justice Department.

The three “solicited and raised funds for equipment, supplies, weapons and explosive materials to be used in attacks against Cameroonian government personnel, security forces and property, along with other civilians believed to be enabling the government,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

They also conspired with people in Cameroon to kidnap civilians for ransom, it said.

It said they raised the funds from donations by others in the United States and other countries.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions have been gripped by conflict since separatists declared independence in 2017 after decades of grievances at perceived discrimination by the francophone majority.

The conflict has claimed more than 6,000 lives and forced more than a million people to flee their homes, according to the International Crisis Group.

Source: AFP