Millions of French and Southern Cameroonians continue to become direct casualties of President Paul Biya’s misrule of the renowned United Republic of Cameroon. Today, the situation has become more intractable with the coming of the coronavirus.

For 37 years, the economy under Biya has grounded to a near standstill due to corruption, tribalism, nepotism imposed by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate. As a result, almost 10 million people in Cameroon have become unemployed with thousands migrating to neighboring countries.

Covid-19 has made thousands redundant overnight in Yaoundé, Maroua, Garoua, Edea and Bafoussam while thousands more have lost their livelihoods in the war ravaged Southern Cameroons and in the Douala metropolis.

President Biya’s failed policies had heralded many Cameroonian families into financial hardship before the pandemic hit. Now they have been pushed into abject poverty.

Cameroonian families are now struggling to provide just a meal a day for their children. Many now rely on their relations living in Europe; South Africa and North America.

From every indication, the economy will never pick up under Biya as many are still without work even after the Yaoundé Ali Baba launched the 2036 Emergence Program.

The threat posed by the secession war in Southern Cameroons and succession crisis in Yaoundé including a second wave of the coronavirus will only foster mass layoffs in Guinness, Dangote, and Brasseries groups.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon Concord News Group

United Kingdom

Cameroon says it has deployed more troops in the capital Yaoundé after yet another bomb exploded, leaving at least 20 people severely wounded. No one has claimed responsibility, but it is suspected that separatists fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in Cameroon and people who escaped from prison a month ago are responsible.

Naseri Paul Bea, governor of the Central Region, where Yaoundé is located, says he convened a security meeting Friday night because there has been mounting insecurity in the capital city. He says he is calling on the clergy and traditional rulers to help bring peace back to the city.

“I instructed them to control those who sell arms, to include the traditional rulers to be able to know the new people who come into their quarters so that if there is any person who looks strange, they can be able to inform the forces of law and order{military},” said Bea.

The government said on Thursday night, yet another bomb exploded in the Damas neighborhood, severely wounding five people. 15 others with wounds were later discovered in their houses.

Bea says he has information that some prisoners were organizing the attacks from their detention centers.

“Some of the organizers are in the prisons and they have people outside who are doing it {planting the bombs} for them,” said Bea. “I instructed the penitentiary administration to put their ears to the ground to be able to get those information and sensitize the population to know that the security of the country is their own security.”

Bea said the bombs were locally made. It was the third locally made bomb to explode in a popular neighborhood in Yaoundé within two weeks. At least 37 people were wounded in the three explosions. No one has claimed responsibility.

Rights activist Edwin Ayuk of the Cameroon Human Right Center says it is imperative for the government to open negotiations with English speaking separatist leaders who are detained at the Yaoundé-Kondengui prison if they want peace to return. Speaking via a messaging application from the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda, he said the government should also investigate the activities of former ministers arrested and detained at the Kondengui prison by Cameroon president Paul Biya for corrupt activities.

“We have been calling on the government to call these individuals, sit with them on the table and let them discuss their differences so that the atrocities that have been going on can come to an end,” said Ayuk.

Innocent Ngono, a peace and development lecturer at the university of Yaoundé says Cameroon should handle the insecurity in its capital city with care since it already has many security challenges.He says if Cameroon has been able to resist the security challenges it has been facing since 2013, it is because the population has supported the military through information sharing. He says he is afraid Cameroonians may now be reluctant to assist the military because the government is not showing serious signs of wanting to solve the crisis the country is facing.   

Since 2013 Cameroon’s eastern border has suffered a spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic with regular intrusions of rebels. Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroons northern border with Nigeria has entered its 10th year with at least 3,000 people killed. A separatist crisis in the English-speaking western regions of the French majority state has left at least 3,000 people dead and 500,000 displaced. The Cameroon military has been deployed to handle border disputes with Equatorial Guinea.

Many civilians say if the attacks on the capital city Yaoundé are not stopped, the military may be overstretched.

Source: VOA

A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon claims he was fired because he filed a sexual harassment complaint against his male supervisor.

Julius Banka in a lengthy statement he sent to the Washington Blade says he was a warehouse supervisor at the embassy in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé from February 2009 until his termination on June 14, 2018.

“In my years of work at the embassy, I was never given any reprimand, put on any performance improvement plan nor sanctioned for any reason,” says Banka in the statement. “Instead, I had several awards for good work done and was even awarded employee of the month in 2017.”

Banka in a complaint he sent to the embassy’s Equal Employee Opportunity office on May 15, 2018, alleges his supervisor, William McllWain, “wanted me to be his gay partner and when I refused, he started retaliating.”

“I am straight,” Banka told the Blade last week. “I am not a gay and I have never been a gay … I don’t want to be a gay ever.”

The EEO complaint, which Banka provided to the Blade, does not contain anything that specifically says McllWain wanted to enter into a relationship with him. Banka on Wednesday referred to the complaint when the Blade asked him to further explain this claim.

Banka in his complaint does state McllWain “admired my body build and would like for me to come teach him how to work out and be like me at his home.”

“I felt very uncomfortable with the discussion because of his gestures during this conversation and quickly told him that I do not know how to teach sports, but (I) will however look for someone who can help him out,” wrote Banka in his EEO complaint.

Banka further alleges McllWain “constantly make comments about how I had a nice body and how what I was wearing looked good on me.”

Banka provided the Blade with a June 14, 2018, letter that informed him of his termination. Banka in the statement he sent to the Blade wrote “the security officer” who “gave me the termination letter … sounded surprised to hear that there was any sexual harassment case I had filed two months before.”

“This clearly showed that he only had one objective during his investigations and that was to fire me,” wrote Banka.

Banka in his statement said he wrote to U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon Peter Henry Barlerin and the embassy’s deputy chief of mission “to explain what happened, but none of them reacted or responded to my complaint.” Banka also said the State Department’s Civil Rights Office declined to help him.

Banka notes he “took” his case to Cameroon’s Ministry of Labor “and after careful review, the ministry sent a complaint to the Ministry of External Relations.” Banka in his statement further notes “after going through my case and asking me a few questions, the Ministry of External Relations eventually sent a letter to the embassy stating my complaint and their violation of the law in November 2018.”

“Till date, the embassy has neither responded to the ministry nor made any statement,” he writes.

The State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs in a Jan. 31, 2019, letter noted Harby Issa, the embassy’s Human Resource Officer, had due cause to fire him.

“Your separation was a result of the Embassy Regional Security Office (RSO) finding that you had been involved in the theft of embassy property — a charge to which you admitted,” reads the letter. “Further, you involved one of your direct reports in this theft, resulting in that employee being disciplined, as well.”

“Though that letter of separation does not specify the reason for your separation other than to state that it was due to security reasons, you were advised orally at the time that your theft of embassy property constituted grounds for termination of your employment,” adds the letter. “It does not seem credible that this termination came as a surprise, after your own admission of this malfeasance to the RSO.”

Banka provided the Blade with the letter. He denied the allegations in a June 26 email.

“None of these claims were mentioned to me while I was at the embassy and I never admitted to theft,” Banka told the Blade. “This was completely false because I have never admitted to stealing. Stealing was only mentioned when I left the embassy.”

“All of this had to be proven when I was there and the termination letter I was given on the day of my termination had to include this,” he added. “However, this was only mentioned in the second termination letter the embassy sent a driver to my house two weeks after my termination.”

Reported by Washington Blade

Cameroon’s government and nine imprisoned leaders of separatists fighting for the country’s English-speaking regions have started ceasefire negotiations over their nearly three-year conflict, rebels and a UN source said on Friday.

“Nine of us met with a team from the Republic of Cameroon to initiate a ceasefire following the appeal of the United Nations,” the main separatist leader Julius Ayuk Tabe, who is in jail serving a life sentence, said in a message sent to AFP by his lawyer.

“The details are still being discussed and we will keep you informed when significant progress has been made” in the talks that started on Thursday evening, he added.

The meeting between the leaders and the government is the first since the conflict broke out in the Northwest and Southwest regions, which account for about a fifth of a population that is overwhelmingly French-speaking.

The Cameroonian government neither confirmed nor denied the meeting had been held, but a senior UN official confirmed to AFP that it took place.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict since separatists declared the independence of Ambazonia, the name given to the two anglophone regions, in October 2017 after decades of grievances at perceived discrimination by the francophone majority.

The nine leaders are self-declared members of the interim government of Ambazonia. All are in jail in the capital Yaoundé on “terrorism” charges.

After months of protests in late 2017, decades of resentment boiled over into an armed campaign for independence that was then met with a brutal crackdown.

There has been almost daily violence in the two regions since, and civilians have suffered from abuses committed by both sides, with more than 700,000 forced to flee their homes.

In early March, the UN called for a ceasefire in the two regions to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.

But the appeal had so far gone unheeded, with violence continuing and military operations even seeming to have intensified.

Source: Urdupoint.com

A small homemade bomb exploded in Cameroon’s capital on Thursday, wounding two people, a senior official told Reuters, the third minor explosion of its kind in Yaounde in recent weeks.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, which was also reported on state television. Government forces have been fighting Anglophone rebels in western Cameroon since 2016, but the conflict is more than 200 km (120 miles) from the capital.

“It’s a homemade bomb like the two that exploded recently,” Yaounde’s administrative officer Jean Claude Tsila said by phone, declining to respond directly when asked who the authorities believed had made the explosives.

“You know in which part of Cameroon they make homemade bombs,” he said.

The police and ministry of territorial administration could not immediately be reached for comment.

Some residents of northwest and southwest regions have called for a split from the country for decades, but fighting with rebels has escalated since 2017 as support for secession grows and armed groups appear.

The fighting, often in remote villages surrounded by cocoa farms and forests, has been one of the greatest threats to President Paul Biya’s government during his nearly 40 years in power.

Source: Reuters

The Yaoundé government has acquired brand new war machines after Southern Cameroonian fighters’ wreaked havoc on the country’s armored cars.

After four years of bitter and destructive fighting, the country’s military has been dealing with equipment issues as Southern Cameroonian fighters have developed new ways of rendering their enemy desperate.

Since the beginning of the fighting in 2016, the country has lost more than 20 armored cars, most of which have been set ablaze by Southern Cameroonian fighters who are fighting for the total liberation of their homeland.

The war itself has been draining lots of resources and resources that could have been devoted to development projects have been diverted to a war that will not end anytime soon.

The fighting has not only affected the country’s military. It has also affected the country’s economy.

State corporations in the country’s two English-speaking regions have all gone under and this has caused the government to lose many income streams.

The government has been pretending that the war is not affecting it, but sources close to the country’s treasury have hinted the Cameroon Concord News Group that the state is running out of cash and if genuine and sustainable dialogue is not held, the country might find itself in a very pretty mess.

It is being rumored that the Yaoundé government is mulling the possibility of granting federalism, but some analysts argue that the killings and destruction that have occurred over the last four years might make federalism less attractive at this time.

Sources close to the international community indicate that some ambassadors have been talking with the Southern Cameroons President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, about the possibility of transforming the country into a federal state.

It should be stressed that Mr. Ayuk Tabe is the poster boy of the revolution and no discussions can take place without him playing a huge role.

The Cameroon Concord News Group will be coming up with a full editorial on the discussions that have been taking place behind closed doors in the days ahead.

By Isong Asu in London

A former minister from the Southwest region John Ebong Ngole who has been sick for years, has finally kicked the bucket in a Yaoundé clinic shortly before a massive bomb exploded in Yaoundé.

The former governor, minister and Board Chairman of the country’s lone oil refinery (SONARA) died later this evening after leaving the Southern Cameroons port city of Limbe in the morning for Yaoundé where he went to seek good medical care.

But as soon as the overweight former SONARA board chairman entered Yaoundé, he was rushed to a clinic where he passed away shortly after.

There is no information about the cause of his death, but the former minister has been in the throes of severe health crises for years, with diabetes, high blood pressure and liver problems converging on him, transforming his body into a conference center.

Meanwhile, as Cameroonians try to digest the news about Ebong Ngolle’s death, a massive bomb went off at Rond point Damas in Yaoundé, injuring several people, with one person fighting for his dear life.

Today’s bomb is the third in less than two weeks. Last week, two bombs went off, but there were no casualties and this has caused the country’s authorities to lose sleep.

The bomb explosions have left the country’s authorities on edge, with many urging the president to deploy more troops in the nation’s capital.

Over the weekend, army soldiers invaded neighbourhoods inhabited by English-speaking Cameroonians in Yaounde where there were serious human rights abuses as a result of the bomb explosions.

Those arrested by the mostly Beti military were made to speak French against their will and those without identification papers were asked to give bribe before being released.

Currently, there is no claim of responsibility for the explosions, but many analysts are pointing a finger at the Brigade Anti-Sardinard (BAS) that has openly threatened to use weapons against the Biya regime which it clearly disrespects and does not recognise.

Sources close to the BAS have informed Cameroon Concord News Group that more bombs will be going off at different locations of the city in the days ahead.

The source, which elected anonymity, said that since elections could not address the country’s socio-political issues, bombs would surely cause the rogue regime to think twice before taking any other actions.

It is rumoured that the crime syndicate ruling the country is working with the French government to have the son of the country’s president, Paul Biya, take over power as the 87-year-old Biya struggles with age and many illnesses which have transformed him into a colony of diseases.

Cameroon has been unstable for many years, especially with the Southern Cameroons crisis that has given the country a very bad name and brought its economy to its knees.

In the northern part of the country, Boko Haram has completely taken over control of things, making it hard for ordinary civilians to live a normal life.

Today’s unfortunate situation is very likely to destabilise Yaounde and destroy the country’s image. Cameroon is a country noted for its natural and human resources and for decades, it has been an oasis of peace in a desert of political and military chaos.

The explosions of bombs will very likely scare off investors and corporations which had thought Cameroon could be a good investment destination.

The days ahead are very bleak for the country and if BAS lives up to its threat, Cameroon will finally be staring down the barrel of failure and it will be considered as a fragile state by development finance institutions.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga and his former colleague at CAMPOST, Paul Atanga Nji are wanted by prosecutors at the Special Criminal Court over allegations of corruption and embezzlement of state funds. Both men have been quoted as saying that they will only appear before judges at the Special Criminal Court if the Head of State President Biya orders them to do so and that the court’s allegations are nonsense.

Amougou Belinga is the owner and CEO of Groupe médiatique l’Anecdote and Paul Atanga Nji moonlights as Minister of Territorial Administration and Permanent Secretary of the National Security Council. These two President Biya acolytes are now considered in senior political circles in Yaoundé as the nation’s most dangerous men. Now the media tycoon backed by Justice Minister Laurent Esso, Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary is planning to install himself as Cameroon’s next president.

Presently, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga is ranked among French Cameroun and CEMAC region’s richest people with no genuine history existing on how he made his money. His group has successfully silenced everyone standing on his way including the Chairman of the National Communications Council, Peter Esoka. Correspondingly, no one at the Special Criminal Court is talking again about Amougou Belinga and Atanga Nji.

Amougou Belinga’s plan to enter politics from the top was leaked by the former General Manager of his television station VISION 4, Ernest Obama who is currently paying a heavy price. Despite having all what it takes to topple a government-a sea of newspapers, a television station with a carrying capacity bigger than the state-owned CRTV, multiple FM radio stations and long standing relation with top barons of the Biya regime, Amougou Belinga’s chance of success doesn’t look great!

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands he is now being targeted by three powerful figures in the ruling CPDM crime syndicate- Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister- Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Mvodo Ayolo, the Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency and Oswaldo Baboke the Deputy Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic.

To be sure, Amougou Belinga has all their dossiers in his keeping as the three had reportedly used his media empire to make public graft scandals and investigations into ministers and party officials who are presently being detained at the Kondengui High Security Prison.

Amougou Belinga’s public approval rating dropped huge percentage points following the televised arrest of his henchman, Ernest Obama and his managing of the proceeds of the Southern Cameroons war with Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

People in the know in Yaoundé have called for an investigation into Amougou Belinga’s ties to the government and many French Cameroun political elites opposed to the war in Southern Cameroons have been pushing Prime Minister Dion Ngute to get Biya to kick Amougou Belinga’s conman Paul Atanga Nji out of government.

Our chief intelligence officer in Yaoundé has repeatedly asked Minister Paul Atanga Nji about his ties to the businessman during their time at CAMPOST. But Minister Atanga Nji has always maintained a kind of deliberate silence.  After amassing a business empire he values at hundreds of millions of US dollars, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga now thinks he is fit to be Cameroon’s next chief executive after Biya.

Amougou Belinga is actually leading an organized crime group passing for a media empire with financial auditors having no traces of how his companies pay their taxes.  With nearly all renowned Bamileke businessmen gone, His Royal Highness Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga is indeed the richest and most dangerous French Cameroun citizen.

After the successful failure of many Beti Ewondo businessmen including Dr James Onobiono, Yves Ava Ava, Ongba Damas etc Amougou Belinga became a silent key figure in the ruling CPDM nasty business operations and had ties to the highest levels of government.

President Biya (87) legalized graft and Transparency International ranked Cameroon twice as the most corrupt nation on earth.  Only a handful of people have been convicted for financial crimes and many took place when Amougou Belinga and Minister Paul Atanga Nji headed CAMPOST or better still Post Bank.

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga’s intentions to enter politics are now being treated as serious but many in Yaoundé are of the opinion that it would be difficult to accomplish.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai