A peace conference dubbed National Women’s Convention for Peace grouping over 1,000 women from Cameroon’s 10 regions opened in the capital, Yaounde on Thursday amid rising security challenges in the Central African country.

The three-day conference, the first of its kind, was organized by grassroots leaders in collaboration with the German-based organization Friedrich Ebert Foundation. It targets essentially women peace activists, displaced women and girls, victims of war-related violence, female traditional and religious leaders, female soldiers and women from civil society and political parties.

“Women have a very important role to play toward achieving a sustainable future and peaceful societies. The majority of women have continued to be neglected during sustainable discussions and meaningful peace-building processes,” organizers said in a statement.

The conference will send a strong collective signal that Cameroonian women are longing for peace, it said.

The conference comes in the wake of recurrent attacks by terror group Boko Haram in the country’s Far North region and separatist raids in the English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

At the end of the conference, the women will make a historic declaration for peace in the country and this will go further to create space for women in peace-building processes, organizers said.

Source: Xinhuanet

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday its board had approved a three-year financing deal for Cameroon worth $689.5 million to help the Central African nation’s economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to support promised reforms.

The arrangement allows for the immediate disbursement of the equivalent of $177.2 million for budget support, the Fund said in a statement.

“Cameroon faces significant development challenges heightened by the pandemic. An upsurge in COVID-19 cases since January 2021, has raised concerns about growth prospects,” it said. “Steadfast commitment to strengthen transparency and good governance and reduce corruption risks will be crucial.”

The coronavirus crisis and trade shocks from a sharp fall in oil prices led Cameroon’s economy to contract 1.5%, according to IMF estimates.

A gradual recovery could see the economy posting growth of 3.6% in 2021 and 4.6% in 2022, the Fund said.

Source: Reuters

Cameroon’s government has sent ministers to its northern border with Nigeria to convince villagers who fled Boko Haram militants to return. Cameroon invested $10 million on reconstruction efforts after damage caused by the Islamist terrorist group in some villages. But, in northern Cameroon, many villagers are reluctant to go home, and authorities acknowledge the militants are still a threat.

Bulldozers of Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Works fill destroyed portions of the 30-kilometer road linking Cameroon’s northern town of Mora to Banki, a town in northeast Nigeria.

Celestine Ketcha Courtes, Cameroon’s minister of housing and urban development, and Talba Malla Ibrahim, minister of public contracts, traveled to the site this week.

Courtes said they went to find out the effectiveness of reconstruction work on infrastructure damaged during fighting by Cameroonian troops and Boko Haram combatants.

She said Cameroonian President Paul Biya instructed her and the minister of public contracts to visit markets rebuilt to facilitate the purchase and sale of goats, cattle, table birds and food. She said they also saw roads built to ease travel between Cameroon and Nigeria and to facilitate trade between the two neighbors. She said Cameroon’s government is planning to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by the jihadist militant group Boko Haram.

Cameroon said the $10 million was invested this year for reconstruction of schools, hospitals and markets destroyed by Boko Haram. Alamine Ousman Mey is the minister of economy. He said civilians who fled can return and occupy infrastructure that has been reconstructed.

“It started with the reconstruction be it [of] the police as well as custom administrative facilities [buildings]. It has gone further to train those involved in protecting the population and also the community to be part of the stabilization process. It is about bringing back economic life,” he said.

Mey acknowledged Boko Haram is still a threat. He said civilians should return as the military will protect people to help in the development of their towns and villages.

But this week, Cameroon reported two Boko Haram deadly attacks that claimed the lives of 13 troops and civilians in the border villages of Sagme and Zigi. The latest attack was in Zigi on Tuesday. Authorities say five troops and six civilians were killed.

Cameroon said several hundred civilians fled the two villages.

There has been no comment from Nigeria, but a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), established by Lake Chad Basin countries to combat Boko Haram, consists of troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Niger and Chad. The troops, which have a base in Mora, are posted along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria. 

Gregory Bonglam is a teacher. He said on Tuesday, he fled Mozogo, a northern administrative unit on the border with Nigeria after yet another Boko Haram attack.

“You never can identify who is Boko Haram and who is not. We were sitting outside and discussing. Little did we know that Boko Haram was around and before we knew it, there were already explosives. Luckily, we were a little far from the incident otherwise we would have been killed. Going back there is really very dangerous,” he said.

Philemon Ndula, conflict resolution specialist with the Cameroon NGO Trauma Center, said Cameroon should ensure there is peace before reconstruction.

“What I will suggest is for the government to talk about recovery. In recovery, there is the physical aspect of building the schools, building the houses, building the hospitals and so on. So that is why I am saying that reconstruction is just a starting point. The psychological aspect is actually the heart of the matter. People can only go out to do their businesses, to go to their farms when they have that minimum security,” said Ndula.

Cameroon says security will improve if civilians collaborate with authorities and report to authorities if they see suspicious activities in towns and villages. The government is also asking for the creation of militias to assist the military fight Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin.

The violence has cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced about 2 million civilians, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

Civilians have borne the brunt of three years of fighting between Cameroonian soldiers and Ambazonia Restoration Forces in British Southern Cameroons, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The human rights watchdog collected witness accounts and analysed satellite images to assess the fallout from the fighting.

Releasing its report, Amnesty said: “Civilians (bear) the brunt of unlawful killings, kidnappings and widespread destruction of houses and villages.

“Government intervention has been limited, and there has been near-complete silence from the international community,” it added.

Members of the anglophone minority in the country’s westernmost provinces have long complained of being marginalised by the French-speaking majority and 88-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for 38 years.

Their demonstrations devolved into a bloody conflict, and rebels have extended attacks against police and soldiers to civilians.

Separatists accuse members of the Fulani ethnic group of siding with authorities and taking up arms against them.

“All parties to the conflict… have committed human rights violations and abuses, and civilians are caught in the middle,” Amnesty’s Central Africa researcher Fabien Offner said in a press release.

He cited an example in which separatists gunned down two elderly women and one in which Fulani vigilantes burned hundreds of homes and killed four people.

The report describes a surge in violence in February, with the Nwa subdivision on the northwest border with Nigeria targeted in particular.

“At least 4,200 people were displaced from seven villages in Nwa following attacks by Fulani vigilante groups in which at least eight people were killed” between February 22 and 26, it says.

The report cites the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) as saying Fulani herders carried out over a dozen raids on Nwa villages in less than a month.

Amnesty says satellite images from February confirmed the destruction of the villages.

“It is unclear whether Fulani vigilante groups attacked the villages or whether the destruction took place during clashes with armed separatist groups,” it said, however.

Amnesty also said separatists have targeted Mbororo people — a Fulani subgroup — in particular.

In the absence of official figures, Mbororo witness accounts report some 162 deaths, 300 homes burned and 102 kidnappings since 2017.

In the release, Offner pleaded for the government to take action to stop the violence, including accepting a proposed fact-finding mission by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“The Cameroonian authorities must deliver on their responsibility to protect the entire population indiscriminately,” he said.

Reported by AFP with additional editing from Camcordnews

At least 20 Boko Haram fighters were killed when the insurgents raided a Cameroon army outpost in the country’s Far North region, an official who asked to remain anonymous said on Monday .

Villagers found several bodies of the insurgents on Monday in Blangafe, an island in the region after Cameroon military repelled Boko Haram attack on its outpost in Sagme, a remote locality in the region, according to the same source.

Eight soldiers were also killed and 13 others wounded during the attack on Saturday, Cameroon army spokesman, Colonel Didier Badjeck said in a statement made public on Monday.

There has been a steady increase in attacks on the military in the region since the death of Abubakar Shekau, the former leader of Boko Haram, according to the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari.

“The troops remain on high alert across the Far North region and beyond the borders in order to prevent possible new assaults by the terrorist Boko Haram whose manifestations are recurrent,” Badjeck said.

Source: Xinhuanet

 In the most gruesome incident Boko Haram has killed and burned the bodies of five Cameroon government army soldiers.

The Boko Haram militants also abducted women and children in the raid, officials say.

The Cameroonian government soldiers were burnt to death while sleeping in their vehicles during an overnight stop, officials told Cameroon Concord News.

The attack took place in Zigue town in the Far North region of the country.

Boko Haram Camerounaise is a new militant group waging a brutal insurgency in French Cameroun and calling for the release of all top political prisoners of Fulani and Hausa extractions including Marafa Hamidou Yaya former Minister of Territorial Administration.

The Biya Francophone regime has repeatedly said that the militants have been defeated, but attacks continue.

Senior military leaders looked visibly shaken when they saw the charred bodies during a recent visit to Zigue.

Boko Haram fighters came in trucks mounted with heavy weapons, before killing, burning, and looting, the Governor of the Far North region was quoted by our source in Maroua as saying.

Cameroon state radio and television has instead been commenting on a presidential decree appointing CPDM sycophants into positions of responsibility at the presidency of the republic.

By Fon Lawrence with files from Maroua

More details on the health of Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, are gradually emerging.

The 88-year-old is in a very bad shape. Sources close to the Yaoundé dictator have informed the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Geneva that it will be a miracle if the ailing president emerges from his multiple and complicated health challenges.

According to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, Mr. Biya arrived Geneva almost dead. He was very tired and could not even walk. He was put on oxygen upon arrival to enable him breathe. His condition was already concerning before he arrived in Geneva.

“Even during the flights, there were concerns that he might die mid air.  The pictures that were sent to the media about the head of state and his wife leaving the country were designed to give the impression that Mr. Biya was in good health,” the sources said.

“The president could not go into the airplane all by himself. He was carried into the plane. He was tired. He had been down for weeks. Members of his entourage were scared that he might give up the ghost even before the plane landed in Switzerland,” the sources said.

Meanwhile, there is total panic in Yaoundé. Many people are gradually coming to terms with the new reality. Many are already seeing the end of an era that has brought more pain than prosperity to millions of Cameroonians.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Yaoundé, Rita Akana, has been speaking with some CPDM stalwarts and most of them are not hiding their fears and concerns.

“Mr. Biya’s death will not come as a surprise to many of us. He has been in reclusion for most of last year. The Coronavirus and domestic problems made it hard for him to go out for any real medical check-up. He knew that with his age, he was vulnerable. This time around, things are really falling apart. There is no other way to hide the truth. The cat is really out of the bag,” a CPDM militant told Ms. Akana.

 “Many people are already dead because of the terrible things they have done. They know Mr. Biya’s demise will bring about radical change in the country and many of them might end up in jail. Things will never be the same again in this country,” the senior CPDM militant said.

“The falsehood in which we have lived over the last four decades is gradually catching up with us. In Cameroon, political language is designed to make lies sound like the truth and murder made to be respectable. This is the tragedy that falsehood can deliver to a people. Even the press releases that were issued that the Head of State would return last Sunday were just designed to fool the people. The authors of those releases knew that Mr. Biya’s crowd of diseases had pinned him down in a Geneva clinic. We are now hearing that he might not make it, given his age,” the sources added.

Meanwhile, within the government, there is infighting with some indicating that a vacancy should be declared, while others are reluctant to go down that path not because Mr. Biya might stage a comeback, but because his constitutional replacement is in worse shape than Mr. Biya.

Sources close to the Etoudi Palace say Chantal is now the person giving instructions to the Secretary General on the day-to-day running of government affairs. Since she is the only person who is allowed to be around the president, she is using her privileged position to run the country and Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the Secretary General, who owes his position to Chantal Biya, is obliged to play ball with her.

But the frustration within the ruling party with the way Chantal is running the show might soon boil over. Many party stalwarts know that the game is over and they want a change in direction.

Some have indicated that when and if the old man kicks the bucket, the Anglophone crisis must be given the pride of place among the problems that need to be addressed urgently.

They argue that many people have been killed, especially as some two thousand army soldiers have been sent to an early grave, and thousands maimed. They understand that dialogue with the separatists will reduce the pressure on the soldiers.

Some CPDM stalwarts are already calling for a commencement of talks with Sisiku  Julius Ayuk Tabe, the poster boy of the high-level insurgency that has caused the economy to haemorrage  money and jobs, so that the fighters on the ground can know that things are going in the right direction.

The need for some form of talks comes as the country’s air force has refused to obey the Minister of Defense’s instruction that the air force be deployed in Manyu Division. The air force has argued that Manyu remains a rough terrain to its officers and that its deployment will not change much in terms of results, a source at the defense ministry has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Manyu has been a nightmare to the soldiers and behind the scenes, many CPDM stalwarts are laying the blame of the orgy of killings that is playing out in Southern Cameroons at the door steps of the dying Biya.

Many accuse him of extreme arrogance and intolerance. Some claim that his arrogance and dictatorial tendencies have ruined his health and left the country on the brink of a major implosion.

“We are sure that if we engage with Mr. Ayuk Tabe and his colleagues in jail, a few things will change. We must demonstrate to the fighters on the ground that the government is now serious and willing to make concessions. The fighters’ change of strategy has sent many of our soldiers to an early grave and this is demoralizing,” a government official said on Monday.

Over the last two months, many army soldiers have been slaughtered like pigs in the two English-speaking regions of the country, prompting the Minister of Defense to hold a security meeting with senior security officials in the West Region.

The Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo, who at the beginning of the war arrogantly declared that his soldiers would implement the president’s decision without batting an eyelid, has been very disappointed with the results posted by his soldiers.

Many have been killed, thousands maimed and Ambazonian Defense forces are now controlling large swaths of land in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Though the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon is on every mind in the country, Boko Haram’s brazen attacks and atrocities are causing government officials to lose sleep.

More than fifteen soldiers have been killed over the last three days, but the most gruesome incident is the killing and burning of the bodies of some five soldiers in Zigue in the Far North region of the country.

Government officials also believe that if the awful attacks will stop, then they must seek ways to talk with the religious sect that is striking fear in every mind in that region of the country.

Cameroon is going through challenging times. Many people hold that Biya is to blame for all the wars the country is engaged in. Millions hold that a better Cameroon will only emerge if Mr. Biya dies and many really want him to return home, but in an expensive coffin.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai