In Cameroon, there has been widespread condemnation of recent barbaric violence against civilians in the country’s troubled western regions.  In the past week, suspected separatists killed 13 civilians, including aid workers, with videos of beheaded women shared on social media.  

In video circulated on social media in Cameroon, several men dressed in black order a young woman to lie down and then appear to behead her with a machete.  

The killers describe the woman as a traitor, an indication that they are Anglophone separatists.   

Cameroon authorities confirmed that a woman was beheaded on Tuesday in the southwestern town of Muyuka.  It was the thirteenth such slaying in the last week in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions.   

Last Friday, another woman was beheaded on video in the northwestern town of Bamenda. Her killers, seen in the video on social media, claim she was seen with a Cameroon military officer sent to fight the rebels.  

Christopher Bela, of the Bamenda-based Cameroon Rights Group, says such barbaric killings are becoming more common in the separatist conflict.  

“The people of the Northwest and Southwest have been hoping that someone will come in and solve the Anglophone problem [separatist crisis].  They are tired and they would like to have peace.  Everyone wants peace.  We are hoping that these killings left and right come to an end so that Cameroonians have peace,” he said.

In Bamenda this week two teachers were also killed — one was shot and the other stabbed to death.  

The rebels, who want independence from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority, see teachers as targets for pushing Francophone dominance on the English-speaking regions.   

Cameroon authorities say the rebels are also targeting aid workers and have killed three in the past week.   

On August 7, Tanjoh Christopher, a pastor and aid worker with Community Initiative for Sustainable Development, was killed in the northwestern town of Batibo.  Country director for the foreign aid group Plan International Cameroon, Miriam Castaneda, condemned the attacks.    

“We ascribe to the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.  So, it is sad and painful that these things happen, however, we need to continue to promote the humanitarian principles,” she said.  “The only thing that we can do is to continue to be optimistic that the situation will improve and continue to work with the people that need us so much.” 

Governor of the English-speaking Northwest region Deben Tchoffo says the rebels are attacking soft targets because they are getting weaker. 

“Those who are trying to disrupt public order in the Northwest Region are going to face the might of our security forces [military],” said Tchoffo. 

Separatists’ spokesperson Capo Daniel admits that some fighters have attacked civilians.  But he claims most of the attacks are by government-created armed groups to give the rebels a bad image.  

“In Bambili [town] where a human rights worker was arrested [abducted], we actually dismissed the soldier [fighter] and we made it public.  But the population has to also understand that there are traitors who have received money from the Cameroon military to carry out atrocities,” said Daniel, speaking in a message shared on social media. 

Cameroon’s military has strongly denied any involvement in targeting civilians and aid workers.   

The United States Embassy in Yaounde on Tuesday condemned the killing of aid workers and called for investigations to find and punish the guilty. 

The United Nations says Cameroon’s four-year separatist conflict has left over 3,000 people dead and half a million displaced.

Source: VOA 

The over 36,000 Cameroonian refugees in Cross River have opposed purported plans by their home government to relocate them to the Francophone nation’s beleaguered South West region that is seeking independence.

They have also rejected the planned visit of the region’s governor to the South South state in that respect, insisting that the move was a breach of international law.

Consequently, the refugees led by Simon Fuh Ngwa (ID Card No. 720-00004985) and Arrey Arrey Samuel (ID Card No. 720-00009049) in a letter entitled ‘The Coordination of Cameroonian Refugees in Calabar and Environs’ dated August 11, 2020 and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, sighted yesterday in Calabar, read: “We have the honour to come before your high office to apply for an authorisation to stage a peaceful protest in Calabar and other refugee settlements within Cross River State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This peaceful march is to protest against a planned visit of a delegation of Cameroun government officials to be led by the Governor of South West region of Cameroun, Bernard Okalia Bilai, to Camerounian refugees in Nigeria.”

They claimed that in a meeting with Ayade, on Friday, August 7, 2020, “the Cameroonian Consul General in Calabar lied to Governor Ben Ayade that peace has returned to the warring territory in Cameroun and that reconstruction work for the rehabilitation of the refugees had commenced. On the contrary, the ruthless soldiers of French Cameroon have intensified the genocide and burning down of whole villages in a bid to demoralise the population from upholding their resolve for their right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement.”

The petitioners added that the purpose of the peaceful march was to alert the Nigerian authorities and the international community that they were comfortable and very much at home in Nigeria, and would have nothing to do with French Cameroun. “More so, any visit to us will be in violation of international law and the UN Geneva Convention of 1951 on the rights and duties of refugees.”

Also speaking on the development, a rights activist, Odey Oyama, in a memorandum to the state governor dated August 12, 2020, condemned the proposed trip, stating: “It appears to contain some elements of breach of diplomatic protocol. In my view, such a visit ought to be planned and organised between the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in Abuja and the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.”

He, therefore, advised Governor Ayade to seek diplomatic guidance on the matter.

Culled from The Guardian

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has asked three UN special rapporteurs to investigate and determine exactly how Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, a Cameroonian journalist usually known as Samuel Wazizi, died a few days after being detained by the army in August 2019. Those responsible must be identified and prosecuted in accordance with international standards, RSF says.

On the eve of a hearing tomorrow in Wazizi’s hometown of Buea, the capital of the English-speaking South-West Region, his lawyers and family still have many unanswered questions about the precise circumstances that led to his death just days after his arrest in Buea on 2 August 2019. The government says Wazizi died as a result of a “severe sepsis” but, in June, RSF reported the existence of suspicions in Buea that the journalist’s death was the result of mistreatment or torture.

In the absence of an impartial and independent investigation, RSF yesterday referred the case to the UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, freedom of opinion, and torture with the aim of getting them to put pressure on the Cameroonian authorities to shed light on the case and identify exactly who was responsible for his death. In its referral, RSF voices its doubts about the legality of Wazizi’s arrest and about the official version of events, and says he may have died as a result of torture by the soldiers holding him.

“Two months after initial revelations about this case, the independent and transparent investigation promised by President Paul Biya has yet to materialize,” said Paul Coppin, the head of RSF’s legal unit. “The government’s version is riddled with inconsistencies and we doubt that we will learn the truth from the promised investigation. We therefore urge the United Nations to do everything in their power to ensure that the circumstances resulting in Samuel Wazizi’s death are established.”

A presenter on Buea-based Chillen Media Television (CMTV), Wazizi was arrested by the police on 2 August 2019 but, five days later, soldiers removed him from the police station where he was being held and took him to the headquarters of the 21st Motorized Infantry Battalion in Buea. He was accused of speaking critically on the air about the authorities and about their handling of the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, where clashes between soldiers and separatists calling for independence or more autonomy have left more than 3,200 dead and have displaced 700,000 others in the past three years.

Respect for press freedom has been declining for years in Cameroon, where journalists covering the crisis in the English-speaking regions are exposed to a high risk of threats and arbitrary arrest. Cameroon is ranked 134th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, after falling five places in the past two years.

Culled from RSF

The Ambazonia Interim Government says Biya and his French Cameroun political elites had more than four decades to initiate their so-called one and indivisible concept with the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but successive French Cameroun regimes failed to take advantage and instead directed Biya to make the worst of mistakes in declaring war against Southern Cameroonians.  

Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remarks on Wednesday in response to recent report on French Cameroun media houses blaming the killing of a woman in Muyuka in the Fako County on Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader said Ambazonia Intelligence Services have evidence that Atanga Nji Boys with strong ties to the family of the Muyuka woman’s husband carried out the killing.

The Ambazonian official also dismissed French Cameroun’s claims as a mere ploy to divert attention from the brutal murder of Engineer Tangem Thomas in the Yaoundé Central Hospital adding that Biya and French Cameroun will not achieve their military goals in Southern Cameroons.

“Both Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya had more than  four decades to initiate a policy that would have guaranteed unity by choosing the right and legal path  agreed in Foumban in 1961. Not only they failed to do so, but Biya also made the worst mistakes of French Cameroun in decades to declare war against the people of Southern Cameroons” Yerima told the Ambazonia war cabinet on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, the Communication  and Media Chairman  for the defense  team  of President  Sisiku Ayuk  Tabe  and  other  Southern Cameroonian detainees has appointed Barrister Pekum  Emmanuel as their Special  envoy to Nkambe to represent  the Interim Government on the occasion  of the burial of Nganyu Thomas  Tangem martyred in French Cameroun on August  05, 2020.

Barrister Pekum Emmanuel is bearer of a sealed message  from President Sisiku   Ayuk Tabe to the people of Nkambe and to the family of the late Thomas Tangem, the emblematic   martyr  of the struggle  for the restoration  of  the independence  of the  statehood  of the former British  trust  territory- the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The French Cameroun governor of the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons said on August 5 2020 that Yaoundé has suspended the salaries of one hundred Southern Cameroons civil servants in his area of jurisdiction. Mr. Adolphe Lele Lafrique Tchoffo made the revelation during a meeting to evaluate the security situation in Bamenda, the chief city in the Northern Zone.

Speaking in French, the French Cameroun administrative officer noted that those affected by the decision were workers who have abandoned the place of work. The governor added that the administration took the decision to force “deserters” to return to service.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Southern Cameroons nearly four years ago, several public servants have deserted their positions because of insecurity. Some of them have often been kidnapped and others killed by soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaounde or armed militia backed by the Cameroon government military.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have also committed crimes including the murder of the sub-prefect of Batibo, Diteng Namata, who was kidnapped on February 11, 2018 and executed some days later.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

The NIS Border Patrol Officers at Yala Border Patrol base in Cross River State arrested a Camerounian while carrying out routine check to forestall Irregular migration across the border in view of the closure of borders by the Federal Government to curb further spread of Covid-19.

 While briefing the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service Muhammad Babandede MFR, the Comptroller of Cross River Command Okey Ezugwu, stated that the Camerounian by name Kouaha Dieudonne, Male, 42yrs old was apprehended with multiple passports of different countries which are not his own, two(2) passports a Camerounian and Guinea-Bissau passports bearing his name and other five(5) Nigerian passports belonging to other persons were found in his possession.

 The Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service Muhammad Babandede MFR has ordered for thorough investigation and report on the arrest, while commending the Comptroller of the Cross River Command and the Officers at Yala Border Patrol for a job welldone and display of professionalism, shunning inducement to effect the arrest. The arrested migrant will be prosecuted after necessary charges are established for his prosecution in line with Immigration law.

Source: prnigeria.com

On Friday 7 August, a humanitarian aid worker was murdered in the North West Region of Cameroon after reportedly being abducted from his home. He was working for a local humanitarian organisation providing food assistance for affected and displaced persons.

This incident followed the killing of a MSF community volunteer in the South West region of Cameroon in early July. In the crisis-affected North West South West Regions of Cameroon, over 680,000 internally displaced persons are in need of emergency assistance.

The President of the Ossing Community in the United Kingdom (ODCA-UK) has told Cameroon Concord News Group that the Elders and Kingmakers of the Chiefdom of Ossing have demonstrated integrity, honesty and sound judgment in the enthronement of Sessekou Prof Teddy Ako as the new traditional ruler of Ossing village in Manyu.

Mrs Evelyn Eyong who is leading one of the fastest growing cultural groups in the United Kingdom was cheerful and grinning with hope and expectation for her village. She said “Chief Teddy Ako is soft -spoken, extremely intelligent and knows the village inside-out”.

Chief Prof Teddy Ako who belongs to a small group of genuine Manyu academics has worked in various roles at Universities in Cameroun. He succeeds late General James Tataw who travelled to the land of his ancestors in July 2019.

The Chief Teddy Ako comes in as a senior Sessekou in his village and the natural successor from the Boh Ako clan of Ebarensi quarters where the Chieftaincy Stool now resides.

Mrs Evelyn Eyong said “at a time when many Manyu villages cannot organise succession plans for their Chiefdoms, Ossing village has remained true to the principles and foundations laid down by our forefathers”

“I hope many villages in Manyu will emulate the Ossing example” she furthered.

Mrs Eyong who in May 2020, was instrumental in organizing the Ossing community in the United Kingdom to raise funds which facilitated the reinstatement of electricity in the village, also revealed that “Chief Tedy Ako can count on ODCA-UK for maximum support towards any development projects in the village”

By Isong Asu