Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes reportedly left a Catholic church in Paris, France, through a side door to chants of “Southern Cameroons genocide” and “shame on you”.

The French Cameroun Minister of Housing and Urban Development was visiting her kids and extended family members in the French capital and made the unfortunate decision to attend Sunday service at a church but met with a stone wall erected by French Cameroun activists who pressured the presiding priest to kick her out of the vicinity.

Witnesses described the disgraced Celestine Ketcha Courtes being bundled into a taxi by her daughter amid fury from the pushing crowd of French Cameroun anti Biya activists less than five minutes after protests erupted inside the church.

The 55 year old left the church through a side door and was too ashamed to face the congregation, at which point family members had to hold back the angry BAS members, breaking up a scuffle as the so-called minister’s taxi drove off.

Footage shows the French Cameroun woman covering her face with a Covid-19 mask as she left the church.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Swiss and Dutch police have opened a joint investigation into a murder threat against the Ambazonia Vice President, Dabney Yerima as the resistance against French Cameroun regional elections and school resumption heats up. And this was confirmed to Cameroon Concord News Group by an aide to the Vice President, who said he was officially informed of the threat by the Comrade Dabney Yerima.

We understand security has now being increased around the Ambazonian leader. The Vice President was in Switzerland when he started receiving threats from a telephone number he does not recognize. The Ambazonia Interim Government issued a statement late on Sunday stating that threat against the Vice President and any Southern Cameroons public official at this time was a cause for concern.

Reports have been circulating in Europe that the regime in Yaoundé has put a one million dollar “hit” on the head of Southern Cameroons Vice President.

Dabney Yerima told Southern Cameroonians at a recent protest march in Swiss that persons linked to the French Cameroun regime want to have him killed.

“When I’m not under attack from French Cameroun agents who they hire to kill me, I’m under attack from pro Yaounde Southern Cameroonians who they hire to lie about the Interim Government” Yerima added.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Holland

Freedom Now and Dechert LLP filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Cameroonian journalist Thomas Awah, Jr. Freedom Now and Dechert LLP argue that Cameroon’s detention of Awah violates the government’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“The continued detention of Thomas Awah, Jr. is yet another example of Cameroon’s sustained campaign against media freedom,” said Freedom Now Legal Officer Adam Lhedmat. “We are confident that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will conclude Awah’s fundamental human rights have been violated, primarily his right to freedom of expression. Freedom Now calls on the Cameroonian government to abide by its international commitments and immediately release Awah and all other journalists imprisoned in Cameroon.”

Prior to his arrest, Awah worked in the Anglophone region as a correspondent for the privately-owned Afrik 2 Radio, as publisher Aghem Messenger magazine, and communications secretary of the non-violent secessionist Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), a group banned by the government. He had prior encounters with the government due to his journalism and activism and has been detained on several occasions in 2015, though he has never been tried or convicted before.

His most recent arrest occurred on January 2, 2017 when he was seeking to interviewing residents of a town in the Anglophone region of Cameroon. Military officers placed Awah under arrest without a warrant or under any specific charges once he identified himself as a journalist. The officers discovered Awah was carrying SCNC documents when they searched him. Two weeks later, the government banned the SCNC on national security grounds.

After his arrest, Awah was taken to an unknown prison where he was interrogated for four hours about the Anglophone secessionist movement. On the same evening, he was transferred nearly 250 miles away to the capital city, Yaoundé, for pre-trial detention.

In May 2018, Awah was tried before a military tribunal along with two other journalists, Tsi Conrad and Mancho Bibixy, as well as five other Anglophone detainees; despite the men having no apparent relationship. It was here that Awah first learned of the charges against him, which included terrorism, hostility to the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, the spreading of false news, the spreading of false news through electronic means, and contempt for civil authority. After a one-day trial he was found guilty of these charges and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Awah is currently detained in Kondengui Central Prison, where he shares an overcrowded cell with 25 other prisoners, several of whom are forced to sleep on the ground for lack of beds. He suffers from several medical conditions, including tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis, which have been exacerbated by poor prison conditions.

Nodem, who’s from Cameroon, is the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Associate for International Hunger Concerns. Serving in Lima, Peru, Koball is a mission co-worker serving with the Peru Joining Hands Network.

Nodem spoke about colonization and globalization. He said that although Cameroon gained its independence from Great Britain and France 60 years ago, it’s as if colonizers are still present. In part that’s because Cameroon’s natural resources — including oil, timber and coffee — are exported. Value is added in other countries, and the money made by selling those products remains outside Cameroon’s coffers.

He identified three drivers of colonization in Cameroon: gold, God and glory. The first two are fairly well-known: colonizers had a financial interest in extracting natural resources and were also interested in converting people to Christianity. The “glory” part “was about showing your influence,” Nodem said. “What resources did you find there? It was about showing power.”

As a result of the 19th century “Scramble of Africa,” countries were sliced up arbitrarily, he said. “They weren’t thinking about the consequences” of the warfare those practices would help bring about.

“Colonization makes people feel powerless in their own country,” he said. “The system is still strongly governed by foreign powers who robbed countries of a lot of resources. It’s ripped up regions that used to live in peace.”

As a college student in Cameroon, Nodem “was always going to pretty much any demonstration,” he said. “My parents were always upset. They said, ‘Stay out of trouble and don’t do anything.’” Later they told him it’s because they feared for his life.

Source: Presbyterianmission

Southern Cameroons pro independence groups have unanimously dismissed a French Cameroun school resumption and regional election politics deal as the Biya Francophone regime sought to present a scheme against the Ambazonia Interim Government.

DAC, CONSORTIUM, SCAWOL, SKEW, APOC, AIPC, Southern Cameroons Community in South Africa, Southern Cameroons Community in Germany, Southern Cameroons Community France, Southern Cameroons Community in Italy have all opined that  Ambazonians cannot accept any pro Yaoundé political elite speaking in their name.

“Ambazonians allowed it for more than three decades but they will never again allow it,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland held to commemorate the independence day of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Vice President Dabney Yerima added, “Our position on school resumption has not changed. As a government, we value the rights to life and we have publicly observed that only parents can determine if the conditions are conducive for Southern Cameroons children to return to school. The Southern Cameroons Interim Government wants children to study in a calm and peaceful environment. Correspondingly, where it is unsafe to resume, we advise parents to let their children to stay at home. We will continue to support community schools in areas where there is peace.”

Comrade Dabney Yerima further noted that “the Ambazonia Interim Government (IG) will remain the sole and legitimate representative of the Southern Cameroons people,” and that Southern Cameroons groups must all join the Ambazonia Interim Government in order to protect and strengthen its status as an umbrella organization for all Southern Cameroons compatriots and the diaspora.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Geneva

Cameroon Intelligence Report chief correspondent in Manyu on Wednesday confirmed the alleged rape of several girls at the Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Bachuo Akagbe by soldiers of the Mamfe and Besongabang Artillery Brigade of the Cameroon Army in Manyu Division.

The Cameroon government army soldiers were said to have raped the girls recently after they were deployed to the village some 12 kilometers from Mamfe to counter armed Ambazonia militia fighting against the resumption of schools in Southern Cameroons.

We gathered that many of the girls have reportedly narrated their ordeal to the Bishop’s House in Mamfe via Revered Father Chamberline Arinze, the Parish Priest in Bachuo Akagbe.

A spokesperson for the Bachou Akagbe traditional council confirmed that the ruler Chief John Etchu who is presently out of the country for medical reasons was aware of the incident, and had ordered investigation into it.

Our Manyu reporter who visited Bachou Akagbe village on Monday said the girls are willing to identify the soldiers and revealed that they were raped serially by the French speaking servicemen.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

Two language teachers, from Philippines and Cameroon, have been arrested in Thailand for alleged involvement in a face mask fraud that cost investors about 27 million baht, the Bangkok Post reports.

Pol Maj Gen Jirapop Puridet, commander of the Crime Suppression Division, said last week, Filipino Tanko Romo Jr, 27, was arrested in Kantharawichai district of Maha Sarakham, and Cameroonian Asaka Mbah, 38, in Nong Nakham district of Khon Kaen, both on Tuesday.

The two suspects are allegedly part of a gang that claimed in March to be a large manufacturer of surgical masks.

The fraudsters created a fake website with a company name and logo and false procurement and transport documents. They offered surgical masks for sale in large amounts. They attracted purchases worth 27 million baht, which buyers transferred to the gang’s bank accounts.

During the investigation, detectives managed to warn off one victim who was just about to make payment for an order, Pol Maj Gen Jirapop said.

The two suspects were working as language teachers. Police targetted them after the earlier arrest of a Thai woman who was also part of the fraud, he said.

Source: The Standard.com.hk