This Friday, July 29, 2022, the former General Manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), Amadou Vamoulke, will have spent six years in the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison, still awaiting trial despite incessant calls from Reporters Without Borders for his release.

The veteran French Cameroun journalist was arrested for alleged misappropriation of public funds, during his time as head of CRTV from 2005 to 2016. He is also accused of embezzling TV tax money known in Cameroon as audio-visual fee.

His trial has witnessed several postponements and adjournments with no end in sight and the much respected international NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) now believes that Vamoulke is being arbitrarily detained by the Cameroonian justice system for political reasons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that there have been 127 hearings and this great journalist has still not been found guilty of all the charges brought against him. The reason is very simple noted Reporters Without Borders “The prosecution has been unable to demonstrate with the slightest evidence and testimony the facts of embezzlement that it accuses Mr. Vamoulké of. The arbitrary nature of this detention was recognized by the UN, which recommended that the Cameroonian authorities release Vamoulké. This journalist has already lost six years of his life. He is 72 years old. We hope that the goal is not to silence him forever. His release is no longer just an issue,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of Reporters Without Borders for Africa

A committee for the rehabilitation and release of Vamoulké has even been set up to put pressure on the Biya regime to demand the release of Amadou Vamoulke, and includes personalities from the audiovisual sector and also several organizations for the defense and protection of journalists and human rights organizations. The said committee has initiated since 2019, the signing of  petitions and to date, it has already collected thousands of signatures and the signatories are from 42 countries.

By Fon Lawrence

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have killed a top Cameroon government serviceman in Kumba, the chief city in Meme Division.

The soldier identified as Commander Essama Eyenga reportedly led the so-called Raid Intervention Battalion (BIR) deployed to Kumba by the 89-year-old Cameroonian dictator.

Yaoundé has maintained a kind of deliberate silence ever since the demise of Commander Essama Eyenga was made public. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the late senior officer was the son of another prominent Cameroonian soldier, Colonel Nsom Eyenga and this reveals how the Beti Ewondo gangs have tribalized even the Cameroonian military.

The attack on BIR forces in Kumba and the death of the senior military officer came in the middle of the visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Cameroon.

France has always been the master and Cameroon has always been the plantation while Cameroonians are the plantation workers.

By Rita Akana

A senior Southern Cameroons official with the Ambazonia Interim Government has slammed as treasonous all West Cameroonians serving with the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

“Serving the interest of the French Cameroun regime is treason, and resistance and the use of weapons and the Big Rubbergun will continue until the liberation of the Ambazonian homeland,” Tabenyang Brado, Secretary of the Economy, said in a conversation with our US Bureau Chief Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle

“The Federal Republic of Ambazonia will not fall in the face of French backed French Cameroun foreign threats and will remain a home for resistance,” Tabenyang Brado opined, adding that, “The Southern Cameroons struggle will not be torn apart and that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will no longer be a French Cameroun colony.”

The Ambazonia front line official also stressed that five years into its formation, the Ambazonia Interim Government now led by Vice President Dabney Yerima has become much stronger and still challenges the Biya Francophone regime and its military apparatus deployed to Southern Cameroons.

Five years into a deadly separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, hopes of finding a negotiated settlement seem more distant than ever as both the government and secessionist rebels dig in, according to civil society activists.

It’s a conflict marked by spikes of extreme violence that invariably target civilians. The latest high-profile incident was last month, when government soldiers killed nine people in Missong village, in the anglophone Northwest region.

Rights groups accuse both the security forces and secessionist fighters of serious abuses that include extrajudicial killings, rape, kidnapping, and torture.

The root of the conflict is the central government’s historical marginalisation of the two English-speaking regions, the Northwest and Southwest, home to about 20 percent of the population.

But the dynamics of the violence have changed with the growth of a lucrative “war economy”, typically involving kidnapping and the broader extortion of the civilian population. The political and economic spoils of the war have reduced the incentive to find a negotiated settlement.

By Isong Asu with files from Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle and The New Humanitarian

A bomb exploded in Damas neighborhood in Yaoundé some few hours ago as the nation’s capital awaits the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron.

French President Macron is expected today in Yaoundé for a meeting to discuss the political future of 89-year old President Biya.

The bomb was placed in a briefcase outside the busy round about in Yaoundé’s sixth district.

The explosion produced a loud blast of noise but caused no injuries.

Yaounde has been hit by a spate of bombings ever since the war in Southern Cameroons started in 2016.

By Rita Akana

Five members of the Rapid d’intervention Battalion (BIR), a Cameroonian military unit, have been reportedly killed by separatists suspected to be militant members of the Biafra Nations League, BnL.

The personnel of a Cameroonian military unit were said to have invaded the camp of the Biafra group on Saturday morning.

Reports say that men of the BIR, before invading the camp, took down two wooden poles with Biafran flags at about two kilometers away from the separatist camp as at 9 o’clock in the morning in Isangele but were swiftly resisted by the separatist militants.

The separatist militants were said to have first opened fire on the soldiers and killed five officers while it lost one man.

Residents who heard gunshots have reportedly fled their communities for safety.

Local reporters gathered that two military drone cameras were seen flying round the communities yesterday evening before the attack this morning.

The leader of BnL Bakassi Chapter, Ita Bassey confirmed the incident to newsmen. He said that the camp of a self defense partner group was invaded by Cameroon forces this morning.

He said the Cameroonian forces came with three gunboats but did not fire a shot until the boys opened fire on them, “they thought that nobody was in the camp, they wanted to go and take all the arms and ammunition but met their waterloo. As the boys opened fire on them a few kilometers from the camp.”

Source: Daily Post

Scenes like this at gas stations in Cameroon’s capital, jerrycans in hand are becoming commonplace.

Most fuel stations have run out of diesel in recent days and those that have are now rationing it.

“You line up for 4 hours, 5 hours, I’ve been here since 6 o’clock,” said Nkeudeu, a transporter.

“There is already no fuel at other stations and where we find a little bit of petrol, we are told we can’t fill our tanks,” said Moffo Koumeni, a cab driver.

In the wake of scarce supplies of diesel, transporters have increased fares. Prices of goods too are shooting up.

“While the fuel shortage situation is becoming untenable for motorists in the city of Yaoundé and surrounding towns, experts believe that this is a way for the authorities to prepare Cameroonians for a possible increase in fuel prices”, said our correspondent Joel Kouam in Yaounde.

On the international market, oil prices have soared and the state is finding it hard to continue subsidizing fuel.

“The lines you find in the gas stations is an impact. … It is a psychological moment, it is necessary to prepare the Cameroonian citizen for an increase in prices”, said Dr. Youmssi Bareja, an oil and mining expert.

Fuel subsidies cost the Cameroonian state over $1.2 billion a year and Yaounde has come under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop them.

Source: Africa News

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says he is certain that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will have a bright future after the liberation war against French Cameroun.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks during a meeting with some front line figures of the Southern Cameroons struggle in Holland hailing all Ambazonians in Ground Zero and Ground One for their perseverance and resistance in the face of five years of French Cameroun war in their homeland.

“Your leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and all of us in the Interim Government are very sure that the future will benefit the people of Ambazonia and the sacrifices and resistance of the Ambazonian people will make the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia bright,” Yerima said.

Echoing the position of the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Vice President Dabney Yerima said “Soon and very soon, the French Cameroun government in Yaoundé will have no option but to withdraw from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.”

Dabney Yerima also underlined the need for all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces to be under one command structure.

The lack of control over fighters in Ground Zero has encouraged a sense of lawlessness, which has undermined the struggle, Yerima concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong

A senior Southern Cameroons front line leader Professor Carlson Anyangwe says all genuine restoration groups should immediately come together and develop strong cooperation to bring about the expulsion of French Cameroun army soldiers from the Ambazonia homeland, emphasizing that the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders will never back down on their stance in this regard.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe who currently heads the Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs and is also a senior advisor to Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a conversation with Cameroon Concord News Chief International Correspondent Isong Asu on Wednesday.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government remains the best platform for Southern Cameroonians to pursue the struggle and the IG will continue to support all resistance groups,” Professor Anyangwe said, describing the martyred leader of the Red Dragons of Lebialem as one of the most important members of the Ambazonia war of liberation.

Anyangwe furthered that the Biya French Cameroun regime and its Southern Cameroons comedians passing for cabinet ministers are too weak now to be able to undermine a powerful resistance front involving all restoration groups.

Carlson Anyangwe pointed out that the lack of control over fighters in Ground Zero has encouraged a sense of lawlessness, which has undermined the struggle.

The largely diaspora-based separatist leadership – initially key to raising funds and buying weapons – has seen their influence slip as fighters increasingly turn to homegrown sources of revenue. Their political clout has also been diminished by constant internal feuding.

“When petty self-interest clouds the minds of so-called leaders, their relevance to the suffering masses – who are literally an ocean away – will be non-existent,” said Sarah Derval of the pro-peace coalition of female civil society leaders, the Southwest-Northwest Women’s Task Force.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Isong Asu and the New Humanitarian