A video showing soldiers executing two women at close range, kneeling and blindfolded, along with a girl and a baby two years ago had caused massive outcry in Cameroon. But there is even more outcry now.

At the time, the government denied any involvement before recanting and arresting seven soldiers.

Four of them have now received a 10-year prison sentence for the killing. Another, sentenced to two years. The last two acquitted. Human rights groups are disgusted.

Maximilienne Ngo Mbe is the Director of the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa.

“A ten-year prison sentence is not only weak, it is insignificant. It is not only insignificant, but it is insignificant because those who get ten years are not, in fact, those who ordered the murders.” the human rights campaigner explains.

The defence counsel however in fact wants to appeal the verdict. Me Sylvestre Mben is a lawyer for the incriminated soldiers. He says “we should not forget a legal provision in our procedural code which states that the allegations of one co-accused against another can only be valid if they are confronted by other evidence. It is for this reason that we believe that there was, at the very least, some doubt.”

The video was one of several to emerge in recent years of alleged atrocities by Cameroonian forces during operations against Islamist Boko Haram militants in the northern part of the country and against Anglophone separatists in the west.

The trial started in January and was conducted behind closed doors.

Source: Africa News

Police on Tuesday used tear gas and water cannon to break up a protest by hundreds of people in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala calling for an end to bloodshed in the country’s anglophone regions.

Several parties, including that of opposition leader Maurice Kamto, had called for “peaceful marches” against President Paul Biya, 87, who has ruled the central African country with an iron fist for nearly 40 years.

The marchers called for a ceasefire and negotiations to end a long-running conflict between anglophone separatists and security forces that has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

The protesters also sought a reform to the electoral system.

They converged at a major intersection in a working-class district of Douala, shouting slogans such as “Enough Is Enough” and “Paul Biya Must Go” before police dispersed them, making some arrests.

The police and soldiers had taken up positions in several cities the night before.

On August 24, Kamto, head of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) and runner-up to Biya in a 2018 election, labelled his government a “kleptocracy”.

He accused Biya of “ruling through disdain and terror” and urged a “giant campaign calling for the pure and simple departure of Mr Paul Biya from power”.

Biya on September 7 called regional elections for December 6 — prompting the call for Tuesday’s marches.

Meanwhile in Paris, about 50 Kamto supporters who demonstrated Tuesday outside the Cameroonian embassy were met with tear gas after clashing with France’s CRS riot police, an AFP journalist saw.

Protesters waved Cameroonian flags and held posters reading “Chase away the Tyrant” and called for the end of “Francafrique”, the term for France’s post-colonial meddling in Africa.

Some threw chairs from a nearby restaurant at police, and traffic was blocked as officers repeatedly dispersed the crowd.

Source: Africa

Police and gendarmes in Cameroon used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters calling for an end to President Paul Biya’s near 40-year rule in the commercial hub of Douala on Tuesday, Reuters witnesses said.

The protest was called by Biya’s rival Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, who hopes to spark a popular revolt, the likes of which have been seen in other African nations such as Mali and Burkina Faso.

Security forces have in recent days packed the streets of Cameroon’s largest cities, including the capital Yaounde, in anticipation of the planned demonstrations, raising concerns among residents of a return to the kind of violent crackdowns that have met protests in recent years.

Hundreds of people gathered in the busy Ndokoti commercial district of Douala on Tuesday morning chanting “Biya must go!”. Police, camped out in trucks at major intersections, chased some of the protesters across the neighbourhood and into their houses, the witnesses said.

Long a bastion of calm in a turbulent region, Cameroon has descended into chaos in recent years as Biya fights Islamist insurgents in its far north and separatist rebels in the west.

Biya is also under pressure from young political activists in urban centres who want change, and say the 87-year-old has stolen elections and is the mastermind of a series of deadly backlashes against those who oppose him. The Cameroon government denies those charges.

Biya won a 2018 election that his closest rival Kamto said was fraudulent. Kamto was jailed for nine months in 2019 on insurrection charges following a protest. He was later pardoned, but his arrest galvanised the opposition and has led to sporadic protests ever since.

Source: Reuters

One protester was killed in Cameroon as police and gendarmes put down protests against the veteran President Paul Biya, the country’s main opposition party said on Tuesday, while accusing security forces of laying siege to their leader’s home.

Police and gendarmes fired tear gas and water cannon to break up protests in the commercial hub of Douala, calling for an end to Biya’s near 40-year rule, Reuters witnesses said.

The rally was called by 87-year-old Biya’s closest rival, Maurice Kamto, of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, who hopes to spark a popular revolt as seen in other African nations such as Mali and Burkina Faso.

Kamto’s home was “in a state of siege”, surrounded by tanks and heavily armed gendarmes, said Joseph Ateba, a senior member of Kamto’s party, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC).

Ateba said hundreds of people had been arrested across the country, including the MRC’s treasurer Alain Fogue and Kamto’s spokesman Olivier Bibou Nissack.

“He is accused of rebellion and hostility to the homeland, among other things,” said Jeanne Édith Bibou, Nissack’s wife.

The police referred requests for comment to the Interior Ministry, which could not be immediately reached.

Security forces had packed the streets of Cameroon’s largest cities, including the capital Yaounde, in recent days in anticipation of the demonstrations, raising concern among residents of a return to the kind of violent crackdowns on protests in recent years.

Hundreds of people gathered in the Ndokoti commercial district of Douala chanting “Biya must go!”. Police, camped out in trucks at major intersections, chased some of the protesters across the neighbourhood and into their houses, witnesses said.

Long a bastion of calm in a turbulent region, Cameroon has descended into chaos in recent years as Biya fights Islamist insurgents in its far north and separatist rebels in the west.

Biya is also under pressure from political activists in urban centres who want change, say he has stolen elections and is the mastermind of a series of deadly backlashes against those who oppose him.

The government denies those charges.

Biya won a 2018 election that Kamto said was fraudulent.

Kamto was jailed for nine months in 2019 on insurrection charges following a protest. He was later pardoned, but his arrest galvanised the opposition and has led to sporadic protests ever since.

Source: Reuters

A former American diplomat Herman Jay Cohen has called on President Biya to step down. Ambassador Cohen made public his position via a tweet message dated 22 September 2020 in which he advised the Cameroonian dictator to emulate the example of his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The much respected former US diplomat was reacting to opposition protest that took place in several major cities in French Cameroon. Cohen bluntly told President Biya to step down for the sake of his people, tightening international pressure on Yaounde while the wider world condemned Biya’s violent crackdown on protests on Tuesday.

 “Popular anti-government protests have spread from the English-speaking west of #Cameroon to the streets of the capital Yaoundé. President Biya should follow the example set by former President Bouteflika of Algeria and retire with the dignity and esteem of old age,” the former US Under Secretary of State for African Affairs wrote.

For several months now, Ambassador Cohen has been interested in the socio-political situation in Cameroon, especially the Southern Cameroons crisis. He has consistently called on the Cameroonian government to organize frank and inclusive dialogue with the jailed leaders of the Southern Cameroons Interim in order to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

By Fon Lawrence

Scores of people prevented from participating in the French Cameroun protest in the cities of Douala and Yaounde have vanished and remain unaccounted for; a senior official of the MRC party of Prof Maurice Kamto who sued for anonymity hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report late on Tuesday.

Many MRC party officials have reportedly fled to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in fear for their own safety. CIR understands the Maurice Kamto supporters were made to disappear by the regime of 87 year old Paul Biya who is still clinging to power despite continuing widespread crisis in Southern Cameroons and Boko Haram attacks in the Far North.

A Roman Catholic priest who spoke to our Douala correspondent at the time of filing this report observed that those made to disappear after Tuesday’s protest shall face a similar situation like the Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience and will be in jail without any court and they will be held there simply for their desire to live in a free country.

“During the demonstrations,” he said in clear English, “we still do not know the where about of 20 of our militants who were at the residence of our National Chairman Prof Maurice Kamto in Yaounde. The international community should understand that Cameroonians will not accept Biya anymore” — the MRC leader added.

“Everybody has seen all the killings and violence that Paul Biya and his gang have committed in Southern Cameroons and not one fact finding mission was organized to investigate this by the UN or the African Union” he furthered.

The MRC official spoke to CIR hours after thousands of French speaking Cameroonians took to the streets in Douala and Yaounde after the regime deployed large contingents of troops and police, and cordoned off key buildings, including the residence of Prof Maurice Kamto.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Cameroon is bleeding. The people are exasperated and exhausted. The dictatorial, increasingly repressive regime of Paul Biya — one of the longest-ruling leaders in all of Africa — seems not to care about this predicament. Daily, the situation in our beleaguered country grows worse. Cameroon is adrift and crumbling, like a ship without a captain, sailing listlessly amid the ever-cascading waves that collectively batter us.

It is for these reasons that this week — the third anniversary of the outbreak of mass violence in our Anglophone regions — Cameroonians will take to the streets to once again chase our destiny by means of peaceful demonstrations. As a collective voice for change and reform, Cameroonians will again demand that Biya and his corrupt ruling cabal step down from the offices they no longer respect or deserve.

The people believe that demanding political change in Cameroon is the ultimate act of sacrifice and patriotism. They are prioritising the future of our country, something that the ruling regime has failed to do for several decades.

For Cameroon to meet the long-subdued aspirations of its people, a bold reform agenda must be advanced; a viable path for change, regardless of the present dangers. The situation demands leadership and it is evident that the regime is unwilling or unable to exercise the necessary courage.

As Cameroonians prepare for peaceful protests, they are concerned about the potential for state violence. In the past, our placards and chants have been met with gunfire, beatings, burnt villages, torture and extrajudicial executions, as well as rape as a weapon of war against our female colleagues.

The freedom to demonstrate and free speech are protected by Cameroon’s Constitution — and duly recognised in regional and international conventions to which our country is part of — yet these basic rights are not respected in practice. My patriotic colleagues and like-minded Cameroonian citizens are law-abiding people who reject all forms of violence. Cameroonians will maintain this stance regardless of the atrocities committed against us. But our plight and demands need to be heard by the international community. Too often, and for too long, our cries for freedom have been met with silence. 

The awakening of the Cameroonian spirit, and our peoples’ reclamation of its freedom, are not very different from similar battles that were fought elsewhere such as the apartheid regime in South Africa and in segregationist America. Nor is it dissimilar from the pro-democracy struggles against dictatorships that once stood and still stand in parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe and across the African continent.

No banning or outlawing of any movement has ever prevented a committed people from demanding or attaining their freedom. This is especially so in a context, like Cameroon, where avenues for political change have been systematically nullified through shambolic elections and equally sham persecutions of regime critics.

Today in Cameroon, the nexus between the unending civil war in our Anglophone regions and the imperative of new leadership in our capital city is clear. The Anglophone crisis is part of a deeper cancer in metastasis. The humanitarian disaster is a symptom, a horrific one, of a deeper problem of governance. And until that deeper problem is addressed by Cameroonians and international allies, then the longer the Anglophone crisis will linger. It will simmer and it will continue to kill.

Because I have encouraged people to exercise their democratic rights, I know I may be targeted and arrested by authorities, *as has become the norm.  Now, more than ever, the people must speak up against injustice.

But the people of Cameroon need international support. Their struggle needs the attention that a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude deserves. As of this writing, for example, the United Nations conservatively estimates that the ongoing conflicts in our country have killed more than 3 000 people and displaced nearly 700 000 more in the Anglophone regions — this represents about 20% of Cameroon’s total population.

The situation facing our country is dire, but it is not beyond repair. Our people understand that the time to act is now. It is incumbent upon them to both exercise their rights peacefully and to demand change, fearlessly and with bold conviction. Only with change at the top can they, as concerned citizens, begin to heal our country’s deep scars and once again place faith in their future as a united people. Inspired by the words of the great Nelson Mandela, our people are saying: “Never again shall it be that our beautiful land of Cameroon will again experience the oppression of one by another. Let freedom reign. And God bless Cameroon.”

Source: Mail/Guardian

Soldiers have been deployed onto the streets of Cameroon ahead of protests planned for Tuesday which call for President Paul Biya to resign amid escalating ethnic tensions.

Those planning to take part in the demonstrations, called by opposition leader Maurice Kamto, have been threatened with “life imprisonment” after government figures accused him of insurrection.

His Cameroon Resistance Movement has called for peaceful protests to demand Mr Biya’s resignation and that regional elections in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon be reformed to include marginalised communities.

Some 17 per cent of Cameroon’s population of 17 million live in the two Anglophone regions.

The military mobilisation comes as the government fears that demonstrations could spark severe public disorder as tensions continue to rise.

At least 3,000 have been killed and 730,000 people internally displaced in clashes with the security services over the past four years.

In June, the Norwegian Refugee Council said for a second year running that Cameroon topped the list as the most neglected crisis on the planet.

Opposition figures claim that scores have been arrested ahead of Tuesday’s protests.

According to eyewitnesses, men in military fatigues detained at least eight motorcycle-taxi drivers who were reading opposition newspapers.

Government minister Paul Atanga Nji said: “I want to sound a stern warning to unscrupulous politicians looking for cheap popularity with a hidden agenda that they will face the law in case of any public disorder.”

But Mr Kamto, who claims that the 2018 presidential election won by Mr Biya was rigged, insisted the protests would go ahead despite state oppression.

“Our fight against the dictatorship is heading towards its critical phase. Despite the essentially peaceful nature of our struggle for the freedom and development of our country, the regime once again resorts to terror and judicial barbarism,” he said.

“As I have said repeatedly, we want to get out of the dictatorship.”

Source: Morning Star Online

Four Cameroonian soldiers received 10-year prison sentences on Monday for the killing of two women and two children in an incident that sparked international outcry, their lawyers said.

They and three other soldiers were arrested after a video surfaced on social media in July 2018 showing uniformed men levelling rifles and firing at the victims, one of whom had a baby strapped to her back.

The video was one of several to emerge in recent years of alleged atrocities by Cameroonian forces during operations against Islamist Boko Haram militants in the north and Anglophone separatists in the west.

The trial started in January and has been conducted behind closed doors. On Monday, the court found three of the soldiers guilty of murder, while their commander Etienne Fabassou was found guilty of complicity in murder, according to his lawyer Sylvestre Mbeng.

All four were given ten years.

Another soldier received a two-year sentence for violating orders, while two others were found not guilty on all counts and released, Mbeng told Reuters.

Under Cameroonian law, some of the defendants could have faced the death penalty, although Cameroon has not executed anyone since 1997.

Mbeng said Fabassou would likely appeal the verdict as witnesses gave contradictory accounts of whether he gave the order to shoot.

Government and army officials initially dismissed the video as “fake news”.

But the soldiers’ eventual arrest and prosecution were welcomed by activists, including Amnesty International, who accuse government soldiers of repeatedly engaging in torture and extra-judicial killings in the far north.

The government denies systematic abuses.

“All victims of human rights violations perpetrated by Cameroonian security forces in the fight against Boko Haram deserve fair justice granted by ordinary courts,” said Amnesty’s regional director Samira Daoud in response to the ruling.

(REUTERS)