UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, strongly condemns an unprovoked and brutal attack on a site hosting 800 internally displaced people (IDPs) near the village of Nguetchewe, in Cameroon’s Far North region.

At least 18 people were killed and 11 injured in the incident during the early hours of Sunday 2 August when assailants threw an explosive device, thought to be a grenade, into the makeshift camp while people were sleeping.

Some of the wounded were evacuated to Mokolo district hospital, an hour’s drive from Nguetchewe. 

Some 1,500 people, including terrified residents of the hosting village, have fled to the nearby town of Mozogo for safety.

UNHCR is deploying an emergency mission to assess the situation and evaluate the protection and health needs of those affected.

Local communities in this impoverished area are often the first responders to those fleeing growing insecurity and violence in the area which covers Lake Chad and north-east Nigeria. They are sometimes related and they share with them the few resources they have.

Against the background of growing insecurity, UNHCR anticipates enhanced community protection, shelter, water and sanitation will be needed as the country responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNHCR calls on all actors to respect the civilian and humanitarian character of IDP camps, and to respond promptly to the urgent needs of people who have fled violence and suffered multiple displacements.

This attack follows a significant rise in violent incidents in Cameroon’s Far-North Region in July, including looting and kidnapping by Boko Haram and other armed groups active in the region. The Far North region, tucked between Nigeria’s Borno and Adamawa states and Lake Chad, currently hosts 321,886 IDPs and 115,000 Nigerian refugees.

The incident is also a sad reminder of the intensity and brutality of the violence in the wider  the Lake Chad Basin region that has forced more than three million people to flee: 2,7m are internally displaced in Northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, while 292,682 Nigerian refugees fled into neighbouring countries.

Cameroon reports that since January this year, it has recorded 87 Boko Haram attacks on its northern border with Nigeria. Twenty-two of them were in the northern district of Mozogo alone.

Violent attacks have cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced more than 3 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Culled from UNHCR

A Cameroonian military plane crashed in a bush during landing at Maroua Airport in the country’s Far North region on Sunday, but there were no fatalities, local authorities said.

The plane sped off the runway following landing and crashed in the bush, authorities said.

Several people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured and were immediately rushed to the hospital to receive medical attention.

The cause of the incident has not been established, but preliminary investigations indicate it was caused by “poor weather,” according to military sources.

Source: Xinhuanet

Tibor Peter Nagy Jr., the United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of African Affairs, Department of State, says the UNDP-backed Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the North West and South West Regions (PPRD-NW/SW) may only succeed if government understands the “keen desire” of the people.

The U.S. diplomat was speaking Thursday, July 30, 2020, during a hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs: Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.

Nagy’s comments came as Congress listened to an update on the COVID-19 pandemic response in Africa.

“Anything having to do with Cameroon has to be overweighed with the problem of the conflict that is going on,” Nagy said, referring to the on-going socio-political unrest in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions where state forces are battling armed separatists who seek to create a breakaway state called Ambazonia.

Ambassador Nagy added that: “For example, now the Cameroonian government is talking about a new UN development program for the North West and the South West. Unfortunately, there is just no way to implement that.

“And the Cameroonian government seems to forget that the number one desire of the people of the North West and South West is to have a say over their affairs. It is one thing to talk about development. But at the heart of it, is their keen desire to have control over their own lives. Until the Cameroonian government understands that, all these plans are going to come and they are not going to succeed.”

The SUN recalls that on May 18, 2020, Nagy took to twitter calling on the belligerents in the conflict to “stop [the] violence and start talking.”

He said the killing of civilians is inexcusable, citing the killings in Ngarbuh attributed to state forces and the killing of the Mayor of Mamfe by armed separatists.

His words: “Government killing of civilians in Cameroon is inexcusable. I urge follow-through on Ngarbuh investigation and many other incidents of this nature. I also condemn separatist attacks on local officials such as the murder of Mamfe’s mayor.  Stop the violence, start talking.”

Paul Tasong and Donatus Njong were, in April, respectively installed National Coordinator and Deputy National Coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the North West and South West Regions, PPRD-NW/SW.

The duo is expected to ensure “the rehabilitation of about 350 schools, 115 health centers, 40 bridges, 400 power points, 500 KM of Low tension power points, 600KM of rural roads, 45 markets, 12000 houses, 25000hectares of farmland, livestock lost by grazers, the reestablishment of close to 3000 personal documents lost.”

Tasong and his team were in the two regions from Monday, June 22 to Friday, July 3, 2020, for what they said was an “Awareness and Sensitization Mission.”

Corporate demands by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers led to protests in November 2016. The street demonstrations later morphed into ongoing running gun battles between state forces and armed separatist fighters in the predominantly English-speaking regions, leading to untold destruction of human lives, their habitats, and livelihoods.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Seven leading mental health charities in Cameroon on Saturday led protests in the central African state’s capital, Yaoundé, against harsh treatment some African healers give people with mental illness. Some psychiatric patients undergo several forms of torture from healers who believe mental illness is divine punishment for wrongdoing.

The protests were provoked by the chaining, detention and torture of a man believed to have epilepsy, frequently leading to memory loss.

Juniour Lawan, 24, said when he had a series of epileptic seizures four years ago, his parents said he was a fool and stopped him from going to college. He said he finds it very difficult convincing his family and friends that he temporarily suffers from memory loss but insists that he is not a fool as they claim.

Lawan said after three years of hardship, he escaped from the home of a healer in the town of Ntui, about 80 kilometers north of Yaoundé. He said while there he was forced to look at the sun for three minutes every day as a form of healing. He was also beaten and given some concoctions to drink as part of what the healer said was a cleansing from evil spirits.

Unfortunately, Lawan said he did not find peace at the Yaoundé residence of his older brother, Diedonne Sadi. Sadi said he did not want his brother, who he knows is under an evil spell for wrongdoing, to live with him.

Sadi asked his neighbors to chain Lawan’s feet and hands to stop him from destroying the roof of his house. According to Sadi, Lawan escaped from the healer’s care because Lawan is not only mad but possessed by evil spirits. He plans to take Lawan to exorcist priests for deliverance.

Lawan told the police, where he was taken for safety, that he struggled to escape through the roof because of the pain from beatings.

His story spread like wildfire and on social media platforms, attracting the attention of mental health charity groups.

Dr. Nchouat Lyonga Kharim Charles, who treats psychiatric patients in Yaoundé, said the charities organizex the protests in Yaoundé to inform people that mental illness can be treated at hospitals. He said the burden on families who find it difficult to take care of mental patients will be reduced if they simply take them to psychiatric hospitals.

“It will reduce the stigma, the pain and the harm caused on these patients, like stigmatizing and insulting them on their predicament,” he said.  “Giving them over to traditional healers, where they are abandoned to themselves and left at the mercy of these healers. Where people suggest sex as a channel of healing because they consider these diseases to be spiritual or at worst they are even abandoned to the streets.”

Traditionally it is believed in Cameroon that generational curses, God`s punishment for wrongdoing, and witchcraft or spiritual possession are responsible for mental illness.

Cameroon’s government adds that trauma from the four-year separatist crisis in  English-speaking regions and stress from Boko Haram terrorism in northern Cameroon have increased mental illness in the central African state.

Source: VOA

A senior Cameroon government official who hails from the Littoral Region says the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) deployed to Southern Cameroons four years ago are under some form of illusion that they can disarm Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The chartered member of the Grand Sawa Movement whose name we are withholding hinted Cameroon Concord News that “It is almost four years now since Biya started the war in Anglophone Cameroon… I do not believe that the BIR soldiers can win this war against the Amba Boys. It is an illusion.”

The Yaoundé regime declared war against what President Biya described at the time as terrorists targeting English speaking Cameroonians.

Over the past four years, more than 6000 people have been killed and several villages destroyed by Cameroon government army soldiers. But the fighting is showing no signs of ending despite calls from the UN Security Council for a ceasefire due to the coronavirus pandemic.

By Fon Lawrence

Southern Cameroons Secretary for Defense says getting to Buea and successfully establishing security in every Ambazonia county will only be possible through unity among all restoration groups and front line leaders.

The Defense Secretary names (withheld) spoke to our correspondent in Boston, USA on the effects of COVID-19 on the resistance and pointed out that Buea is only possible within the framework of unity, complete and total cooperation both in the diaspora and in Ground Zero.

The Southern Cameroons Defense Secretary also congratulated all Ambazonia Restoration Forces for holding strong to the goals of the resistance and quest for the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Defense Secretary’s remarks concerning the importance of unity in the Southern Cameroons battle for independence came amid ongoing anti revolution statements from the former Secretary of Communication Chris Anu and his acolyte Boh Herbert.

Southern Cameroons has weathered almost four years of French Cameroun military aggression and genocidal campaign that have turned the hugely rich and peaceful territory into a lucrative market for French Cameroun criminals currently involved in kidnappings.

The Defense Secretary hoped that respective efforts by the jailed leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Vice President Dabney Yerima will contribute to bringing about unity and cooperation.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima says the presence of armed militia groups sponsored by the Biya French Cameroun regime and the invading French Cameroun government military is the cause of insecurity in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Comrade Yerima told members of the Southern Cameroons war cabinet that he has written to the UN Secretary General underlining the need for an independent fact finding mission to Southern Cameroons. The Vice President informed the cabinet of the trial of 7 Southern Cameroons health workers in Mamfe and called for unity among Southern Cameroons groups and leaders.  

“The people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia consider the presence of armed militias groups backed by the Cameroon government army and its elites force, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) the cause for insecurity, crimes and destruction in their homeland” Yerima said late on Wednesday.

“To defeat the enemy and get to Buea, the focus of every Southern Cameroonian lie in unity; the kind of unity that creates a single force in the face of a genocidal campaign and destruction currently going on in our homeland” the Vice President added.

Dabney Yerima said the treatment of the Ambazonian people by French Cameroun leaders, the destruction of Southern Cameroonian towns and villages, the stupidity of those Southern Cameroonians serving the French Cameroun regime and the actions of some Ambazonian so-called front line leaders is slowly but surely erecting a stonewall on the path to freedom and independence

By Rita Akana and Asu Vera Eyere

Cameroon’s Special Criminal Court said in a report Tuesday it has recovered 9 billion CFA francs (about 14.86 millions U.S. dollars) in eight years following concerted efforts to fight the corruption.

The report, made public to the media in the capital Yaounde by officials of the court, said the money was recovered between 2012 and July 2020 through investigations and operations carried out by the court.

The report said, the court has rendered 216 judgements since its inception, indicating how serious it was and prompting many Cameroonians to practise good governance principles and ultimately reducing corruption tendencies.

Public property which belongs to the nation must be protected for the interest of all, the report stated.

The Special Criminal Court was created to judge corruption cases in 2011 but it only went operational in 2012. It has since judged bribery and corruption cases of top government and military officials.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls it President Biya’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit.

An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value?

The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President Biya’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war against Boko Haram, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to eternalize power purportedly to direct the war against terror and the war against corruption.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

Reported by Xinhuanet and Cameroon Concord News