News

Canada: Prime Minister Trudeau hits out at anti-vaccine ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters

1, February 2022

Canada: Prime Minister Trudeau hits out at anti-vaccine ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters 0

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has slammed protests that took place in the capital Ottawa to demand an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Supporters of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” rallied in Ottawa on Monday for the third consecutive day to protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers.

The protests have been largely peaceful but investigations have been opened into some incidents, including a video showing a woman dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial.

Some participants in the protest likened the COVID-19 restrictions to Jews under Nazi persecution, using Nazi symbols on protest signs.

The incidents drew condemnation from Trudeau, who refused to meet the protesters, describing them as “an insult to memory and truth”.

“Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy, but Nazi symbolism, racist imagery and desecration of war memorials are not.”

“This is not the story of our pandemic, our country, our people,” the premiere said, adding that his focus was on “standing with Canadians and getting through this pandemic.”

Candice Bergen, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, said the demonstrators represented millions who “have had enough of lockdowns and broken promises”.

“They deserve to be heard and they deserve respect,” she said in a tweet.

The supporters of the “Freedom Convoy” see the coronavirus health measures as government overreach of COVID-19 restrictions, demanding an end to all vaccine mandates nationwide.

Source: Presstv

Ambazonian leaders need to lay foundation for long term resistance: Dabney Yerima

1, February 2022

Ambazonian leaders need to lay foundation for long term resistance: Dabney Yerima 0

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima says genuine Southern Cameroons front line leaders need to put in place solid structures for the Ambazonia resistance in the interest of the people of Ambazonia.

The exiled Ambazonia leader made the comments in Den Hague during an evaluation meeting on the plight of Southern Cameroons refugees, stressing that the British Southern Cameroons society is in need of changing its approach and thinking.

Dabney Yerima said such a new resistance approach and thinking should be based on Southern Cameroons political, economic and social interests and not those being dished out from Yaounde.

Yerima also revealed that the Interim Government is working to establish a mutual understanding and close visions among all Ambazonia groups in Ground Zero and issues of mutual concern are being dealt with.

Yerima further praised the balanced role of the Southern Cameroons diaspora and support for the liberation struggle and hailed all Amba fighters as crucial players in the war to free the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, saying soon and very soon, the distractions coming from the US will disappear and Southern Cameroonians will be facing the challenges that surround them.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Burkina Faso court suspends Sankara assassination trial following coup

31, January 2022

Burkina Faso court suspends Sankara assassination trial following coup 0

A long-awaited trial in Burkina Faso over the 1987 assassination of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara is being suspended until “the restoration of the constitution”, a court said Monday, a week after a military coup.

The trial of Sankara’s alleged killers was to resume at a military court in the capital Ouagadougou on Monday.

But Judge Urbain Meda announced the hearing was suspended and told parties “to remain alert for the resumption, which will be after the restoration of the constitution”.

He made the announcement after civil parties in the case called for a suspension pending “judicial normalisation” by Burkina’s new ruling junta.

“Civilian plaintiffs feel that a trial has to take place within a reasonable time, but we do not want a trial (with) flaws,” said lawyer Prosper Farama, representing the Sankara family.

The trial opened last October and has been closely followed by the Burkinabe public.

It has been showcased as the chance to shed light on one of the murkiest chapters in the troubled country’s history.

Revered among African radicals, Sankara was an army captain aged just 33 when he came to power in a coup in 1983.

The fiery Marxist-Leninist railed against imperialism and colonialism, often angering Western leaders but gaining followers across the continent and beyond.

He and 12 of his colleagues were gunned down by a hit squad on October 15, 1987, at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council.

Their assassination coincided with a coup that brought Sankara’s erstwhile comrade-in-arms, Blaise Compaore, to power.

Compaore ruled for 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast.

Fourteen defendants are on trial, two of them in absentia, including Compaore.

Compaore and his former right-hand man General Gilbert Diendere are charged with harming state security, complicity in murder, concealing bodies and witness tampering.

Compaore has repeatedly denied entrenched suspicions among Burkinabe that he ordered Sankara’s killing, while Diendere has pleaded not guilty.

On January 24, mutinous soldiers overthrew Compaore’s elected successor, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, amid rising public anger at his failure to stem a bloody jihadist insurgency.

They set up a military junta that has dissolved the government and parliament and suspended the constitution.

It has vowed to re-establish “constitutional order” within a “reasonable time”. It has also pledged to guarantee the “independence” of the judicial system.

But Farama argued that the independence of the court was guaranteed by the constitution.

As a result, hearings in the court should be suspended since the constitution itself has been suspended, he maintained.

Source: AFP

Congo-Kinshasa court sentences 51 to death over 2017 murder of UN experts

30, January 2022

Congo-Kinshasa court sentences 51 to death over 2017 murder of UN experts 0

A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced 51 people to death over the killing of two United Nations experts.

Michael Sharp from the US and Swedish Zaida Catalan were killed in 2017 in the volatile Kasai region while on mission for the UN.

The military court on Saturday convicted the defendants, who were almost all militia members, on multiple counts including terrorism, murder, participation in an insurrectional movement and war crime through mutilation.

Of the 54 suspects on trial, 22 fugitives were tried in absentia. Two defendants, including a journalist and a police officer, were acquitted.

The two UN experts were on a UN mission to investigate a conflict between government forces and an armed group in the central Kasai region in March 2017 when they were stopped on a road and executed summarily by the armed men in a nearby field.

Catalan was then decapitated.

The bodies of the two UN experts were found on March 28, 2017, days after they went missing.

Congolese officials have blamed the incident on the Kamuina Nsapu militias, who were in conflict from 2016 to mid-2017 with the Congolese army forces in the region.

However, the DR Congo has been the scene of deadly violence for decades with armed militant groups oftentimes raiding villages and killing civilians.

DR Congo is a mineral-rich country that produces diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, cassiterite (tin ore) and coltan, which is used in mobile phones, personal computers, automotive electronics, and cameras, as well as oil, coffee and timber.

Despite the abundance of natural wealth, the Congolese people live in poverty.  In 2019, DR Congo ranked 178th in Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Sources

N. Korea conducts largest missile test

30, January 2022

N. Korea conducts largest missile test 0

North Korea conducted its largest missile test since 2017 on Sunday, sending a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile soaring into space, seen as taking the nuclear-armed country a step closer to resuming long-range testing.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that a projectile believed to be a single ballistic missile was launched about 7:52 a.m. (2252 GMT) from North Korea’s Jagang Province toward the ocean off its east coast.

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC), which convened a rare emergency meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in, said the test appeared to involve an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which North Korea has not tested since 2017.

The launch takes North Korea a step closer to fully scrapping a self-imposed moratorium on testing its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), Moon said.

He noted that this month’s flurry of missile tests was reminiscent of the heightened tensions in 2017, when North Korea conducted multiple nuclear tests and launched its largest missiles, including some that flew over Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is no longer bound by that moratorium, which included a stop to nuclear weapons tests and was announced in 2018 amid a flurry of diplomacy and summits with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

North Korea’s rulers suggested  this month they could restart those testing activities because the United States and its allies had shown no sign of dropping their “hostile policies.”

“The United States condemns these actions and calls on (North Korea) to refrain from further destabilizing acts,” the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement after Sunday’s launch.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the launch demonstrates the threat posed by North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, and called on Pyongyang to engage in “sustained and substantive” dialogue.

Bigger missiles

It is unclear if IRBMs were included in Kim’s moratorium, but those, too, have not been tested since 2017.

South Korea’s JCS and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno separately said the missile is estimated to have reached an altitude of 2,000km and flown for 30 minutes to a distance of 800km. IRBMs typically have ranges of 600 to 3,500 miles, while ICBMs have ranges exceeding 3,500 miles.

Missile experts said the data could indicate a test of an IRBM such as the Hwasong-12, which was last tested in 2017, or a new type.

“Regardless of whether it’s a IRBM or ICBM, this is a strategic missile of some sort and clearly not the same as the prior tests in the January 2022 test series to date,” George William Herbert, an adjunct professor at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a missile consultant, said on Twitter.

The launch could make January the busiest ever for North Korea’s missile programme, which analysts say is expanding and developing new capabilities despite strict sanctions and United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the country’s ballistic missile tests.

Its latest launches included a test of two short-range ballistic missiles and their warheads on Thursday, and an updated long-range cruise missile system tested on Tuesday.

‘Ramping up tests’

The test comes less than a week before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which is North Korea’s main political and economic partner. Pyongyang has said it would be skipping the Games because of the COVID-19 pandemic and “hostile forces.”

“Kim seems to be ramping up tests in bid to pressure both Washington and Beijing over sanctions just ahead of the Olympics,” said Uk Yang, research fellow at Center for Foreign Policy and National Security.

The tests would also appear to be the final nail in the coffin for Moon’s last-ditch push for a peace deal with North Korea before he leaves office in May, Uk added.

“It’s clear that North Korea is saying inter-Korean relations will need to start from scratch,” he said.

In an address ahead of the New Year, Kim Jong Un called for bolstering the military with cutting-edge technology at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled.

Since then, North Korea has tested a dizzying array of weapon types, launch locations, and increasing sophistication as denuclearisation talks remain stalled.

Jagang Province was the site of two launches this month of what North Korea said was a “hypersonic missile,” which could reach high speeds while flying and maneuvering at relatively low altitudes, but the ranges reported on Sunday were higher and farther than those earlier tests.

“The ballistic missile launch and the ones before it are a threat to our country, the region and the international community,” Matsuno said. “This series of launches violate U.N. resolutions and we strongly protest this action by North Korea.”

South Korea’s NSC condemned the launch as a violation of the resolutions and a challenge to international peace efforts, using stronger language than previous tests, when it typically expressed “strong regret.”

The tests appear aimed at modernizing North Korea’s military, bolstering national pride ahead of several major North Korean holidays, and sending a message of strength as the country grapples with economic crises caused by sanctions and COVID-19 lockdowns, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.

“The Kim regime hears external discussions of its domestic weaknesses and sees South Korea’s growing strength,” he said.

“So it wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to topple it would be too costly.”

Kim visited a munitions factory last week, where he called for “an all-out drive” to produce “powerful cutting-edge arms,” and its workers touted his devotion to “smashing … the challenges of the U.S. imperialists and their vassal forces” seeking to violate their right to self-defence.

Source: REUTERS

Biden announces small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid Ukraine diplomacy push

29, January 2022

Biden announces small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid Ukraine diplomacy push 0

US President Joe Biden on Friday sought to maintain pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, announcing a small troop deployment to eastern Europe even as top Pentagon officials backed a renewed push for diplomacy.

As President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western leaders to avoid stirring “panic” over the massive Russian troop buildup on his country’s borders, Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on the need for de-escalation.

Neither Putin nor his Western counterparts had until now appeared ready to give ground in the weeks-long crisis, the worst in decades in the region between Russia and Western Europe.

But according to a Macron aide, Putin told the French leader in a call lasting more than an hour that he had “no offensive plans.”

In Washington, Biden nevertheless said he would soon send a small number of US troops  – “not too many” – to bolster the NATO presence in eastern Europe as tensions remain heightened.

The United States already has tens of thousands of troops stationed across mostly Western Europe.

At the Pentagon, top officials urged a focus on diplomacy while saying that Russia now had enough troops and equipment in place to threaten the whole of Ukraine.

Any such conflict, warned the top US general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, would be “horrific” for both sides.

“If that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and it would result in a significant amount of casualties,” Milley said.

“It would be horrific, it will be terrible,” he said.

But speaking alongside Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said war in Ukraine could still be avoided.

“Conflict is not inevitable. There is still time and space for diplomacy,” said Austin.

“Mr Putin can do the right thing as well,” said Austin. “There is no reason that this situation has to devolve into conflict. He can choose to de-escalate. He can order his troops away.”

During his talks with Macron, Putin “expressed no offensive plans and said he wanted to continue the talks with France and our allies,” the aide to the French president said.

Their conversation “enabled us to agree on the need for a de-escalation,” the aide told journalists. Putin “said very clearly that he did not want confrontation.”

Complex threat

Since October, Russia has amassed more than 100,000 combat troops and equipment, as well as support forces, along its frontier with Ukraine and more recently in Belarus, which borders Ukraine on the north.

Western officials say Russia has also mustered more air and sea assets in the region, creating a complex threat like none seen since the Cold War.

Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security guarantees from the West, including that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO.

Those demands have been the subject of intensive negotiations, with the West warning of far-reaching consequences if diplomacy fails and Russia attacks.

“We don’t need this panic,” Zelensky told a news conference with foreign media, insisting he wanted to avoid hurting his country’s already battered economy.

“There are signals even from respected leaders of states, they just say that tomorrow there will be war. This is panic – how much does it cost for our state?” he asked.

In talks with Macron, the Ukrainian leader called for more meetings and talks “while a propitious climate for dialogue exists.”

Russia’s concerns not addressed

Putin also made clear to Macron that the written responses from the West to his demands this week had fallen short of Russia’s expectations, the Kremlin said.

“The US and NATO responses did not take into account Russia’s fundamental concerns including preventing NATO’s expansion,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call.

He added that the West had ignored the “key question,” that no country should strengthen its security at the expense of others, adding Russia would “carefully study” the responses, “after which it will decide on further actions.”

Russia has also demanded a pullback of NATO forces deployed to eastern European and ex-Soviet countries that joined the alliance after the Cold War.

In a sign of continued tensions, Russia announced Friday evening it had added several EU officials to a list of people banned from entering the country, saying they were responsible for “anti-Russian policies.”

Threat to key pipeline

The Putin-Macron phone call followed talks in Paris this week between Russia and Ukraine, with France and Germany alongside, which produced a joint statement to preserve a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.

They also agreed to hold new talks in Berlin in February.

“Taking into account the results of the meeting” in Paris, the Kremlin said, “the mood for further work of Russia and France in this format was confirmed.”

In tandem with the diplomacy, the West has upped its threats of a tough response to an invasion.

Washington and Berlin warned that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, designed to double supplies of Russian natural gas to Germany, was at stake.

Milley said Russia itself would be hurt by war.

“If Russia chooses to invade Ukraine, it will not be cost-free, in terms of casualties or other significant effects,” he said.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons: Yerima reiterates Ambazonia right to freedom and independence from Yaoundé

28, January 2022

Southern Cameroons: Yerima reiterates Ambazonia right to freedom and independence from Yaoundé 0

The Federal Republic of Ambazonia has reiterated its right to freedom and complete independence from La Republique du Cameroun through all possible means guaranteed by international law, emphasizing that all measures taken by the occupying Yaounde regime to change the legal status of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are null and void and have no legal effect.

Speaking on Wednesday on the state of the Southern Cameroons revolution, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima lambasted the colonial activities and other marginalization practices in Southern Cameroons by the French Cameroun regime.

Yerima added that it is highly deplorable that some so-called Southern Cameroons front line leaders are overlooking repeated French Cameroun acts of aggression on Ambazonia territory– the latest of which took place Bamenda when Francophone soldiers killed a prominent Senator.

Dabney Yerima pointed out that the Ambazonia Interim Government has sent several letters to key Southern Cameroonians in the USA and other relevant Southern Cameroons prominent figures in the diaspora to inform them of developments in Ground Zero and Ground One and the urgent need for a united and well-coordinated front against the French Cameroun occupation. The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government noted that he was a loss to see the distraction coming out of the US.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader stressed that the Ambazonia Interim Government strongly condemns flagrant violations being committed by the French Cameroun regime in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Yerima reiterated Southern Cameroons inalienable right to complete and total independence from La Republique du Cameroun through all possible means, which are guaranteed by international law and not subject to some kind of Grand National Dialogue or prescription from an 88-year old dictator.

By Toto Roland Motuba

Nigerian Federal High Court jails French Cameroonian for human trafficking

27, January 2022

Nigerian Federal High Court jails French Cameroonian for human trafficking 0

A Federal High Court in Kano has sentenced a Cameroonian, Wamba Jean-Gaston, 41, to five years in correctional centre, for trafficking three young women and four men from Cameroon enroute Nigeria to Europe.

The three female victims are: Belinga Ovanda, 19; Koussene Agnes, 21; and Meye Uwono, 27; while the male ones are Thomas Ange, 21; Ovanda Rodrigue, 21; Boris Kouass, 20; and Yannick Poudjom, 18.

Justice Abdullahi Muhammed-Liman convicted Jean-Gaston, after he had pleaded guilty to the two-count charge levelled against him.

Liman expressed concern over the implication of the convict’s conduct to general regional insecurity affecting many countries.

He described the convict’s act as a calamity and hazard that could befall not only the victims, but could contribute to banditry and kidnapping.

Earlier, Counsel to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mr Abdullahi Babale, told the court that the convict was arrested in Kano on Dec. 10, 2021.

Babale said the Cameroonian was arrested with the seven victims on their way to Algeria.

He said the convict was illegally processing entry documents for the trafficked persons to travel to Algeria and Europe through Nigeria and Niger Republic, without having a resident permit or visa.

The counsel said the offence was contrary to, and punishable under Section 26 (1) of Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement Act, 2015.

Source: NAN

Bundes: Holocaust survivor urges nation to fight ‘cancer’ of hatred

27, January 2022

Bundes: Holocaust survivor urges nation to fight ‘cancer’ of hatred 0

In what was expected to be one of the last addresses by a Holocaust survivor to the German parliament, Inge Auerbacher appealed Thursday to keep alive the victims’ memory.

Fighting back tears as she recalled the suffering and loss she endured at the hands of the Nazis, Auerbacher told the Bundestag as it marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day that it was essential to fight the spreading “cancer” of hatred.

“I have lived in New York for 75 years and can still remember well this terrible time of terror and hate,” said Auerbacher, 87, who flew to Berlin in the face of the pandemic to take part in the ceremonies.

“Unfortunately this cancer has resurfaced and hatred of Jews is common in many countries of the world including Germany,” she said on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

“This sickness must be healed as soon as possible,” she said to applause from MPs, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet.

Auerbacher said she had been the last Jewish child born in her hometown of Kippenheim in 1934 before the Nazis’ genocidal campaign.

While her grandmother was deported to Riga and murdered, Auerbacher and her parents were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp when she was just seven years old.

She recounted the abuse and horrific conditions she and her family endured, but also her close friendship at the camp with a Jewish girl her age from Berlin, Ruth Nelly Abraham, who was later murdered at Auschwitz.

Auerbacher will on Friday visit the family’s home to place candles at small plaques in their memory.

The speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Mickey Levy, who was also in attendance embraced Auerbacher and wept openly as he recited a prayer for the dead.

“Keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive is a difficult task, a task placed on the shoulders of the every generation,” he said.

Germany has officially marked Holocaust Remembrance Day every January 27 since 1996 with commemorations across the country.

Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit noted that Germany would “soon have to go forward without the personal recollections of the last survivors”.

Of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, more than one million were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, most in its notorious gas chambers, along with tens of thousands of others including homosexuals, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.

Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher said she had been the last Jewish child born in her hometown of Kippenheim in 1934 before the Nazis’ genocidal campaign

This year’s anniversary is marked by growing concerns about extremist violence and incitement in Germany, particularly among militant opponents of government coronavirus restrictions.

The number of crimes committed by right-wing extremists jumped in 2020 to its highest level ever recorded in the post-war period, an over five-percent rise to 23,604.

Source: AFP

New evidence reveals how British soldiers help Biya keep control and train his forces accused of executing children and burning buildings

27, January 2022

New evidence reveals how British soldiers help Biya keep control and train his forces accused of executing children and burning buildings 0

British diplomats believe Cameroon, a country with 27 million inhabitants, is run by just five men and that there is “extensive corruption”.

At the top is President Biya, who has ruled the Central African state with an iron fist for nearly 40 years. Now in his late 80s, he governs mostly from a luxury hotel in Switzerland.

But Britain supports his regime and conducted six secret counter-terrorism operations in Cameroon last year, it can be revealed.

They have code names like Cylix, Bacchus and Abbadide.

Most of the operations involved training and “capacity building” for troops tackling the Boko Haram and Islamic State groups.

This included UK activity at a barracks in Cameroon’s far north, Salak, where Amnesty International says terrorism suspects were tortured.

Britain is building training villages in Salak for elite Cameroon units, documents obtained by Declassified show.

Those forces are also accused of severe human rights abuses against an English-speaking “Ambazonian” movement.

In response to fresh demands for autonomy from the Francophone central government in 2017, Amnesty says more than 20 peaceful protesters were shot and over 500 arbitrarily detained.

cameroon corruption biya uk

Our revelations of British support for Biya’s regime come as Amnesty launched a campaign on Monday to free political prisoners in Cameroon.

Fabien Offner, a researcher for the group, said: “Over the past five years, the human rights situation has grown increasingly bleak as people from Anglophone regions, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists and supporters of political opposition, have been arrested and jailed for expressing their opinions or peacefully protesting.”

The UK government is aware of such abuses. British officials have privately noted President Biya’s “frequent detention of opposition activists and unjustifiably broad use of the anti-terrorism law”.

But Whitehall is offering considerable support to Biya’s regime. One recent UK operation, codenamed ODYSSEAN, saw a British special forces officer draft a “crisis management” doctrine for Cameroon’s president.

In return for this and other services, Biya awarded the officer — lieutenant colonel “Sid” Purser — the equivalent of an MBE.

Alongside the military support, Britain signed a £200-million trade deal with Cameroon last year. A British foreign minister met President Biya in March 2021 to discuss “investment opportunities”, which include a Guinness factory.

Ngoh Ngoh and Eko Eko

Lt Col Purser — a Falklands war veteran and marine commando — is stationed in Cameroon as Britain’s “senior military adviser”.

There, he has cultivated “influential relationships” with Biya’s “right-hand man”, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and Cameroon’s spy chief Leopold Maxine Eko Eko. Cameroon’s prime minister and defence minister appear to be the other most influential people.

Ngoh Ngoh came to Britain in May 2018 to visit the UK intelligence community.

Eko Eko runs the country’s fearsome intelligence agency, the Directorate General Research External (DGRE). British diplomats described him as a “dove” and said his spies “previously had a bad compliance reputation” until he took over in 2010.

However, Amnesty International has published allegations of torture throughout Eko Eko’s leadership of the DGRE. Former detainees say senior DGRE officers got away with torture from 2013-17.

Despite Amnesty’s detailed report, UK defence minister James Heappey met Eko Eko at a dinner hosted by the British ambassador while visiting Cameroon last spring. The British minister was briefed to “reinforce the view that protecting the civilian population is paramount”.

He was also advised to “praise” Eko Eko for his counter-extremism efforts and “thank” him for letting British troops conduct “capacity building” of the DGRE at Salak, which is “close to the area of operations”. The spy chief deployed 32 of his men at the notorious torture site to coincide with the UK training.

Ministerial visit

Ministry of Defence (MOD) briefing papers for Heappey’s visit have been obtained by Declassified. They expose the scale of Britain’s covert military role in the African police-state — where France is traditionally seen as the more dominant European power.

The documents show how British diplomats overlook Biya’s “shortcomings on human rights and democracy”, partly because he voted with the UK to condemn the use of chemical weapons by Russia and Syria.

The UK saw Cameroon as a “priority lobbying country” at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“President Biya is instinctively a supporter of the rules-based international order,” the then UK High Commissioner Rowan Laxton insisted.

A few months later, more than 500 activists from the opposition party, the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, were reportedly rounded up.

The crackdown earned Biya criticism from 14 UN human rights experts, who were “extremely worried about mass arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists who express dissent”. More than 100 activists from this group remain in detention, Amnesty said on Monday.

Rapid Intervention Battalion

As well as supporting Cameroon’s intelligence agency, Britain works with the regime’s special forces. “The main focus of UK capacity building in Cameroon” is on the Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide (BIR), or Rapid Intervention Battalion, the documents show.

This is a well-armed elite force of 10,000 men. They are accused of torture, executing women and children and burning down a village. French, US and Israeli support for the BIR is well known, whereas Britain’s role has remained largely hidden.

Minister Heappey was photographed on Twitter with the BIR during his visit to Cameroon last year. The MOD’s tweet said British troops were “working alongside Cameroon’s BIR force to counter the twin threats of Islamic State and Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin”.

His briefing notes reveal much more about the extent of this deployment. They show Heappey met Colonel Ndongo, the BIR Commander of what the Biya regime calls Operation Alpha — its mission against Boko Haram.

Heappey was told to congratulate the colonel on his “successful” work against the terror group and ask what more the UK could do. The British minister then observed UK troops providing capacity building in Salak, where detainees have allegedly been tortured.

A British army short-term training team was deployed to Salak from January 2021. There they conducted “train and advise activity with BIR and DGRE” until around mid-April 2021.

By that stage, Whitehall was considering “whether the capacity building should evolve to include assist, enable or accompany functions”. It is not clear if this development went ahead.

A UK Brigadier General who visited Cameroon during the deployment “noted the professionalism” of the BIR and DGRE but worried their successes were “generally short-lived”.

Britain’s former ambassador believed Cameroon security forces “have performed admirably”.

cameroon corruption biya uk
Armed forces minister James Heappey visited the BIR in 2021 (Photo: MOD)

Carriage of weapons

UK interest in Cameroon grew after neighbouring Nigeria snubbed some MOD offers to help counter Boko Haram. The militant group has kidnapped school girls and terrorises the Lake Chad region.

France asked the UK to “do more” to counter the Islamic extremist group in 2016. The then prime minister Theresa May agreed.

Purser’s military post in Cameroon was established and he focused “on delivering effect in North East Nigeria from the ‘outside-in’ ”.

He had spent the previous five years leading counter-terrorism efforts by UK special forces across north west Africa.

His more recent work in Cameroon has relied on troops from 1 Scots Specialised Infantry Group.

These soldiers are now part of the army’s special operations brigade, a new “ranger battalion” that is expected to fight alongside allies in counter-insurgency situations.

This concept has already been trialled in Cameroon, where an “exchange of notes… provides for UK jurisdiction and carriage of weapons in the far north”.

It also sets out Britain’s human rights concerns and “what our response would be to any infraction”. The files say “this is closely monitored”.

The risk is so high that UK training “has been designed to be delivered directly to force elements that are already deployed or will deploy shortly” on operations to counter Boko Haram or Islamic State in northern Cameroon.

This is “intended to minimise the risk of UK trained units being diverted to other theatres”, a reference to parts of the country where English-speakers are struggling for independence.

Training includes “mountain manoeuvres” and “targeted use of intelligence (to reduce collateral damage)”. The MOD claims the training has made Cameroon’s state security forces “highly effective”. The Red Cross provides sessions on the law of war as part of the training.

Private security companies

Air support for ground troops appears to be an issue. All three of Cameroon’s C130 military transport planes were grounded in March 2021.

Marshall Aerospace, a British firm, signed a contract in 2019 to maintain the aircraft but it is awaiting payment from Cameroon’s state oil company.

Heappey was instructed to ask Biya’s right-hand man, Ngoh Ngoh, to “unlock the bureaucracy” and let the payment go through.

Another British business, the Westminster-based Torchlight Group, has provided intelligence analyst training to “all force elements engaged in the far north” of Cameroon.

It helped “provide interoperability between all agencies” such as DGRE and the BIR over the last three years. Torchlight did not respond to a request for comment.

Ambazonia

The papers provide a rare insight into the Foreign Office’s view of the Ambazonia conflict. The region was once a British colony called the Southern Cameroons. During independence negotiations in 1961, local people voted to join the larger, French-speaking part of Cameroon.

A federal system that was meant to preserve some autonomy gradually broke down, and this marginalisation fuelled Ambazonian separatist sentiment.

The documents show British diplomats noting that “widespread human rights abuses continue to occur at the hands of both separatists and state security forces” in Ambazonia.

Whitehall believes: “There is no chance of — and little popular support for — independence… But the conflict will continue to simmer unless and until the Government addresses the reasonable demands of the moderate majority.”

These “moderate” demands are seen as greater autonomy, financial support, protection of civilians and respect for the use of English.

UK officials think President Biya had “a long period of denial” on the Anglophone crisis and that his defence minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, believes it can be “ended through military action alone”.

At Heappey’s meeting with Ngoh Ngoh, who is also Biya’s likely successor, he was told to point out: “There still appears to be too many allegations relating to the Anglophone crisis, notwithstanding the possibility of disinformation [fake news], all credible allegations must be investigated.”

An initial “dialogue plan” for the crisis was “developed in coordination with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson”, a right-wing MP in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson walked out on the Good Friday Agreement peace talks but has styled himself as an international conflict negotiation expert. He is now UK trade envoy to Cameroon.

Heappey was advised to tell Cameroon’s spy chief, Eko Eko, that “military operations must be intelligence-led and precise and that dialogue is essential to achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict”.

He was to “highlight our own examples/lessons from Northern Ireland where the UK did not always get it right”, such as internment — the mass detention of terrorist suspects without trial.

An MOD spokesperson told Declassified: “The UK is committed to working with regional allies in Central and West Africa to tackle violence in the Lake Chad Basin.

“Cameroon is an important partner in this effort and we are exploring what further support we can provide to tackle shared security challenges and further contain the spread of violent extremism in the region.”

The Cameroonian authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Culled from Daily Maverick

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