A Southern Cameroons CPDM gang sponsored by the French Cameroun regime is exploiting helpless Ambazonia Self Defense Forces during this difficult coronavirus pandemic period, Vice President Dabney Yerima has told Cameroon Concord News Group.

Dabney Yerima also said that the Ambazonia Interim Government is doing its best so far in managing to prevent a criminal infiltration of the Restoration Forces by the French Cameroun consortium of CPDM crime syndicates and organised crime networks.

However, Vice President Yerima’s warning comes amid growing reports Ambazonia Self Defense Forces were dropping their weapons and getting financial support from French Cameroun CPDM surrogates in Southern Cameroons. These fighters are reportedly struggling financially in the lockdown.

Exploiting the vulnerable Ambazonia fighters is a primitive and cheap tactics designed by Minister Paul Atanga Nji to help the Biya Francophone government recruit support and increase their power in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Yerima said: “Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora should invest in the Amba bonds and be ready to counter French Cameroun violence with violence.  By donating to self defense efforts and the Bank of Ambazonia Bonds Project, you are providing the Interim Government the resources to defend your homeland. We must stop these Southern Cameroons enablers from providing toxic food and blood money to those in need in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.”

The exiled Ambazonian leader pointed out that “the French Cameroun government is a mafia group that has money, have no bureaucracy and operates far beyond its French Cameroun borders. The poor Southern Cameroons fighters are growing more vulnerable in this lockdown.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

One of the most interesting developments during the COVID-19 pandemic took place on March 23rd of this year. UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a call for a global ceasefire to deal with the crisis.

The UN General Assembly actually took this request to heart. Twice during the month of May, the body attempted to support the call of the secretary-general by passing resolutions calling for a global ceasefire. On May 3rd the first effort in the Security Council was vetoed by the United States. A little more than a week later a second resolution drafted by the European members of the council was introduced as well.

Although these calls have mostly gone unheeded there is one part of the world where the UN is attempting to double down on this effort and to ensure that a ceasefire takes place. On March 26th the regional office for Central Africa also issued a statement that supported the call for a ceasefire.

One of the countries that was covered in these calls was Cameroon. Over the last three years, the country has been the scene of an insurgency that, for the most part, has avoided coverage by most major media outlets. Libya, Syria, and Yemen have all overshadowed what has been taking place in Cameroon.

The African nation has been embroiled in an internal conflict since 2017, as members of the English-speaking population fight to create an independent state separate from the French-speaking majority. The new country would be called Ambazonia.

However, the separatists are not united. While some commanders have respected the government’s ceasefire request to deal with COVID-19, other rebels have continued to fight. For example, a commentary in African Arguments explains how, “On 14 April, separatists executed a traditional leader and his assistant in Bambili in the northwest for cooperating with the government. In Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region, they kidnapped and killed a police officer. On 10 May, fighters killed the recently-elected mayor of Mamfe, Ashu Prisley, one of the youngest and most dynamic figures in the ruling CPDM party.”

Some rebels have also attacked government-backed distribution centers of sanitary equipment to fight coronavirus.

A report by Human Rights Watch that was released in late March 2019 found that government forces were equally culpable in launching attacks and killing civilians in the strife-torn northwest/southwest region. Several members of the government forces were taken into custody in recent weeks for their actions in the region as well.

The entry for Cameroon in the 2019 Human Rights Report compiled by the U.S. State Department catalogues a list of sins committed by the government. The documented abuses include torture, arbitrary and even extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and even limiting access to the Internet, which lasted more than a year.

Cameroon also has to deal with other types of violence, stemming from radical fundamentalists. “Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed and several others injured in an attack by suspected Boko Haram jihadists early Tuesday, May 26 on a military base in the north region of Cameroon,” the Journal du Cameroun explains. The faction responsible seems to be the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, a splinter group of Boko Haram.

There are reports that the Cameroonian military is building a base in the northwestern village of Ngarr-buh, where 13 civilians were massacred in February. The military argues that the base is needed to cut re-supply lines between rebels and Nigeria, while various NGOs accuse government forces of human rights abuses.

Overall, once coronavirus is somewhat under control, operations by all sides of this complex conflict will start once again.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to take a toll on Cameroonian society, though the government re-opened schools on June 1. Educational facilities have been disinfected to protect students and teachers.

The UN Security Council has not totally ignored the crisis. During the month of June, the UN Security Council will hear a briefing on the situation in Cameroon. There is concern that this meeting could be a whitewash of the incident as France will hold the presidency of the Security Council for the Month of June. France is the former colonial power and has strong ties with President Paul Biya.

Not to be outdone by the UN, several NGOs have drafted a resolution that would encourage the United States to take over as the mediator in this crisis replacing Switzerland. There has been a lukewarm response to this effort however negotiations are always better than open conflict. There is some work that needs to be done to the resolution so that Russia, China, and other members of the Security Council can support this effort.

Coronavirus comes at a bad time for Cameroon, as it is battling secessionist groups as well as Islamic fundamentalists. The virus has prompted the establishment of a ceasefire, which has not been respected by all insurgents. There is some hope that the upcoming briefing to the UN Security Council could breathe new life into the talks. However, the details have yet to be worked out.

Culled from International Policy Digest

Cameroon’s military says three of five men recently arrested by Togolese police and portrayed by Togolese media as notorious criminals who committed serious offences against Togolese citizens are Cameroonian soldiers, while the other two are former convicts. The three military men stole weapons from the military headquarters in Yaoundé and went to Togo’s capital, Lomé, where they used the weapons to harass Togolese, according to Togolese police. 

Cameroonian military spokesperson Atonfack Guemo says investigations by the military indicate that Ntanga Clement Didier Mogo, Oumarou Abdou Fadil and Ewoundjo Elle Serge Hubert, who were arrested in Lomé for robbery and harassment of civilians, are notorious, dangerous and dishonest members of the Cameroon military. 

He says Cameroon has started disciplinary and administrative proceedings against the men as provided for by military regulations and that Togo should punish them as its law provides. He says Cameroon’s Defense Ministry denies responsibility for their crimes and atrocities because the men in question have broken off links with Cameroon’s military.

Guemo said the other two men arrested in Lomé are civilians with criminal records and were wanted. He said the five arrested in Togo were helped by another military officer, Essimbi Francis, who has been arrested for his role in other crimes and is being held in Yaoundé.

Togo media reported May 20 that the five Cameroonians had been arrested in Lomé after using weapons to rob a Togolese businessman of his car and money. 

Cameroonian media reported that Yendoube Douti, head of the Lomé research and criminal investigation unit of the Togolese police, said the five men confessed they were using weapons they obtained from the Cameroon defense headquarters in Yaoundé. 

He says investigations carried out by Togolese police indicate that the brain behind the group of robbers is Ntanga Clement Didier Mogo, known as Tony, a member of the Cameroon military. He says Tony convinced his colleague, Oumarou Abo Fadil, who was in charge of weapons at Cameroon’s defense headquarters in Yaoundé, to steal automatic pistols and go with him to Togo, where they could make a better living stealing and selling vehicles.

Mogo, speaking on the state broadcaster Television Togolese said he and his group traveled to Lomé to buy cars for a senior military official he refused to name, but that they were tempted to steal when their stay was extended by COVID-19 travel restrictions.

He says that he did not plan to steal when he left Yaoundé for Lomé but that he asked his colleagues who control weapons at the defense headquarters to accompany him with pistols for security against possible attacks by highway robbers. He says after they got to Lomé, both Cameroon and Togo sealed their borders and they could not return.

Mogo acknowledged that Togolese police arrested them after they stole money and a car from a rich Togolese businessman and were trying to escape. He said it was the only act of robbery they committed.

Cameroon’s military says whenever they return after facing justice in Togo, they will answer charges for the crimes committed in Cameroon and for damaging Cameroon’s image in a foreign country and that for now, they are no longer members of the Cameroonian military.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima has been informed that two inmates died in the fire incident at the Douala Central Prison in New Bell, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a well placed source close to the Ambazonia exiled leader.

Our correspondent in Holland also reported that the Ambazonia Vice President has appealed to two of the cream of legal practitioners representing the Interim Government to establish the identities of the two inmates killed.

Cameroon Intelligence Report can now reveal that a teenager named Malcahida died instantly when the flames engulfed the entire juvenile and girls section of the facility.

The fire actually started in the Texas section which is the most populated of the prison and ravaged a total of 25 cells.  A sea of inmates spent the night in makeshift tents hastily erected in the prison yard.

The VIP area was vandalized as detainees rushed to the area where the so-called top CPDM baron prisoners are held.  The cause of the fire is still unknown.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Authorities in Cameroon are investigating a fire inside a maximum-security prison in the port city of Douala that sent three inmates to the hospital with serious burns.

A fire official said two firefighters were also injured Thursday trying to put out the blaze at the New Bell jail in the commercial capital.

Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to a heavily populated neighborhood close to the prison.

It is unclear what started the fire, nor if the fire was linked to overcrowded conditions in the prison.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say overcrowding, poor sanitation and violence are chronic issues confronting Cameroon prisons.

Correspondingly, the Southern Cameroons exiled Vice President Dabney Yerima has reportedly ordered lawyers representing the Ambazonian Interim Government to carry out an independent investigation on the plight of Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience held in the New Bell facility.

Cameroon Concord News understands Vice President Yerima made the decision a day after the fire incident in the French Cameroun’s Douala metropolis

Reported by VOA and Camcordnews

Dr. Ntoh Daniel Balengka, Mayor of Ndop Council has said all those respecting orders from “armed separatists and bandits” will face the full arm of the law henceforth.

In a communiqué signed Friday, May 29, 2020, the Mayor revealed that a vast majority of economic operators in Ndop, the administrative seat of Ngoketunjia Division have chosen to respect instructions from armed gangs who seek to make of Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions a breakaway state called Ambazonia.

Ntoh said the business persons have gone to the extent of supporting the armed groups through the payment of levies – “Amba levies”.

Earlier this week, the Mayor took his collaborators and security officials to seal shops of persons who chose to respect a routine Monday ghost town call imposed by armed separatists. The Mayor says enough is enough, promising to return fire for fire.

Following the sealing of the shops, the Mayor says “some armed robbers” launched “intensive media propaganda” against the council. Friday’s communiqué therefore set out to make clarifications on the situation.

“Almost all the business premises (99.99%) in Ndop Municipality including the main market and motor parks are not sealed,” said Mayor Ntoh. “Only a few shops of suspected adepts of armed/terrorist movements were sealed for violating a Municipal Order banning “Operation Ghost Towns” owing to its misery and atrocities, after sufficient sensitization of the business community.”

The Mayor says all those whose shops were sealed were requested to meet him so they can discuss and have the said premises unsealed. “Even without fines where necessary, but they preferred to follow the directives of these armed groups to demonstrate their non-recognition of the authorities.”

Ntoh says a vast majority of business persons and transporters violate state authority to the extent of ‘financing’ the armed men.

His words: “Despite the declared tax moratorium by the Mayor of Ndop Council for all businesses and transporters for the rest of 2020 financial year, as accompanying measures of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of economic operators in Ndop have decided not to go operational in solidarity with the calls from these armed gangs and continue to subsidize their activities with the so called “support” – ‘Amba levies.”

The Mayor of Ndop Municipality once more appeals on the civic responsibility of the population, to carry out their normal daily activities unperturbed.

“Any person or group of persons, who shall act contrary to the municipal order, shall therefore have themselves to be blamed,” warned Ntoh. “Any person or group, directly or indirectly indulging in acts or omissions intended to destroy the municipal seals or perturb traffic shall be exposed to administrative and judicial sanctions.”

Source: CIN