Five bodies were discovered on Friday in Bambili, a locality in the Tubah district, Mezam County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the men found dead were royals and employees on duty at the Fon’s palace in Bambili.

Our correspondent in Bamenda confirmed that the Fon’s Palace of Bambili came under attack from heavily armed Ambazonia Restoration Forces. The attackers entered the Bambili Palace and killed five persons who were on royal duty on that fateful day.

The Southern Cameroons self defense commander controlling the area recently blamed the Fon and his notables for French Cameroun army atrocities in Mezam. The Fon reportedly started a pro Yaounde campaign last month calling on Ambazonian fighters to lay down their weapons.  

A Cameroon government army spokesman in Bamenda confirmed the attack on the Bambili palace and added that dozens of secessionist training camps have been dismantled by the defense and security forces in Mezam.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been shaking the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon since late October 2016, has led to an armed conflict between Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

According to the UN, more than 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia as a result of the conflict. And more than 35,000 others have fled to neighbouring Nigeria.

The Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe told Jeune Afrique International magazine that some 30,000 Ambazonians have died as a result of the conflict. 

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

French Cameroun President has announced steps that will lead to the release of thousands of prisoners due to concerns about the coronavirus spreading in overcrowded facilities.

However, citizens from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia fighting for an independent state of Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun government officials jailed for corruption are excluded.  Rights groups also note that Biya’s political opponents and journalists critical of his rule will remain behind bars.

Camcordnews with files from VOA

Fellow Ambazonians,

I come to you this evening alarmed after the Interim Government was dependably informed that at 5 pm today, Penn Terrence Kahn, an Ambazonian prisoner of conscience, serving a 12 years jail term in the Yaoundé central prison was invited to the superintendent’s office for a five hour interrogation without lawyers.

At 6 pm, President Julius Ayuk Tabe, Barrister Blaise Shufai and Barrister Elias Eyambe were also taken out of the Kondengui Principal Prison by French Cameroun Gendarmes to an unknown destination.

French Cameroun authorities must be aware of the measures and guidelines put in place by the WHO to combat the spread of the coronavirus. As a government, we notified the French Cameroun regime that the health and integrity of our leaders is of paramount importance at this moment of a global pandemic and any transgression from them upon our leaders will be against international law and practices and as nation, we shall deal with this unlawfulness robustly.

We notified our legal team instantly and they will be visiting both prisons tomorrow to ascertain the facts.

In the meantime,we are pleased to inform you that President Ayuk Tabe and the other Ambazonian leaders are back in their cells this evening after taken to the office of the court administrator to explain why their appeal hasn’t been heard.

We want to thank you all for your patience during the last five hours. We advise that you maintain all the procedures put in place in Ambazonia and in your countries of residence to combat the COVID-19.

Thanks for your patience and God Bless Ambazonia

Vice President

Dabney Yerima

Dozens of people were arrested on Monday and Tuesday in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala for disregarding guidelines on fighting COVID-19 in the country, according to the police.

Police said over 50 people including six policemen were arrested for not wearing face masks in public places and drinking in beer parlours after 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).

“If we must fight and win coronavirus, citizens have to be compelled to respect the guidelines put in place by the government. Some people are just too stubborn and that will not be tolerated,” Issa Daouda, sub-prefect of Douala 4 Municipality told reporters during an inspection tour on Monday.

All those arrested were granted bail to avoid crowding them in police cells, said Mathias Fombele Tayem, sub-prefect of Douala 5 Municipality.

The government has made mask-wearing compulsory, and banned gathering of more than 50 people and drinking in bars after 6 p.m. as part of the measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Cameroon has reported to date 855 confirmed cases, according to Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making it one of the African countries worst hit by the pandemic.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon’s government should publish the findings of an investigation into the massacre of 21 civilians, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, on February 14, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today.

The government has formally denied responsibility for the killings in Ngarbuh village, North-West region, but investigations by journalists and nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented compelling evidence that points to the Cameroonian military’s responsibility for the killings.

“It has been two months since the Ngarbuh massacre, which stands as a prime example of the impunity for the Cameroonian security forces,” said Lewis Mudge Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Cameroon’s government should immediately make the findings of its investigation public and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”

In a report issued on February 25, Human Rights Watch detailed how Cameroonian military and armed ethnic Fulani deliberately killed 21 civilians in Ngarbuh. Human Rights Watch research points to the attack being a reprisal against villagers accused of supporting and harboring armed separatists.

On March 1, following international pressure, President Paul Biya agreed to establish a commission of inquiry. However, the authorities have not made any public statement concerning the composition of the commission, its work, or its findings.

In a March 25 news release, the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedom revealed that its chairperson, Dr. Chemuta Divine Banda, was appointed to the commission of inquiry and that the investigation was led by the minister delegate of the presidency in charge of defense. Before the March 25 press release, the composition of the investigation team into the killings in Ngarbuh was not public. The human rights commission members expressed their hope that the findings would be made public.

While the participation of the head of the National Human Rights Commission is an encouraging sign, the appointment of the defense minister to lead the inquiry raises concerns about its independence, Human Rights Watch said.

The killings in Ngarbuh were widely condemned, including by the United Nations Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and the Nobel Women’s Initiative. On February 22, referring to the killings, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to exert “maximum pressure” on Biya to end “Cameroon’s intolerable human rights violations.”

The Human Rights Watch findings on Ngarbuh were corroborated by investigative journalists from the New York Times. The New Humanitarian, Cameroonian Civil Society Organizations, and the Catholic Church also issued reports accusing the army of responsibility for the massacre.

Despite the widespread condemnation of the crimes in Ngarbuh, the government has remained largely silent and instead engaged in a smear campaign against national and international organizations. In a March 9 statement, the territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, accused media, nongovernmental groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and UN agencies of – among other things – fueling terrorism, destabilizing Cameroon, and producing fake reports to tarnish the image of Cameroon’s security forces.

The attack in Ngarbuh was not an isolated case, but part of a larger pattern of serious human rights abuses by the Cameroonian security forces in the Anglophone regions, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch has documented multiple abusive counterinsurgency operations by the security forces in the North-West and South-West regions since 2017.

Research has found that government forces have killed civilians, burned dozens of villages, arbitrarily arrested, and tortured hundreds of alleged armed separatists. Armed separatists have also been responsible for serious abuses. They have targeted civilians, kidnapped hundreds of people, tortured and killed perceived opponents, and used intimidation and violence to keep children and their teachers out of school. In February, separatists prevented local elections from taking place.

Violence in the Anglophone regions over the last 3 years has claimed an estimated 3,000 lives and caused the displacement of over 730,000 civilians.

Cameroon, like elsewhere, is currently facing an unprecedented public health crisis due to the spread of Covid-19. It is the most heavily affected country in Central Africa, with over 840 cases recorded and 14 deaths as of April 14. The pandemic has not halted the violence in the Anglophone regions.

“The Covid-19 crisis, while paramount, should not displace the need to take action on key human rights concerns and ensure accountability for serious military abuse,” Mudge said. “In a time of national crisis, transparency is all the more valuable, and the government should demonstrate that it will hold abusive members of its military accountable for the deliberate killing of civilians.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch

The leader of the people of Southern Cameroons, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and two of his top aides Barristers Eyambe and Shufai have expressed gratitude to Ambazonians both at home and in the diaspora for their unflinching support.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his senior advisers were taken to the office of a French Cameroun court administrator from their detention cell at the Kondengui High Security prison late on Thursday in a move that sparked outrage throughout Ground Zero, Europe and the United States.

In a statement released by the Ambazonian chief executive, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe observed that “It is well. We, Barr Eyambe, Shufai and myself are back to the prison. We were taken to the office of a court administrator who explained why our appeal had not been called today. Obviously, he said it was because of the spread of the Coronavirus. Thanks for your show of concern and love. Regards. Sisiku AyukTabe.”

Despite being held illegally by French Cameroun security apparatus, the Southern Cameroons leader has remained defiant ever since the declaration of Ambazonia independence that plunged both British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun into their biggest political crisis in decades.

By Rita Akana in Kondengui, Yaounde

Ambazonia leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and two of his top aides Barrister Shufai and Barrister Eyambe have been taken out of the Kondengui Prison by Francophone Gendarmes to an unknown destination in Yaounde.

 Stéphane Semengue , son of retired General Pierre Semengue has passed away today April 16, 2020 in Yaoundé, following an undisclosed illness.

The son of the controversial Cameroon top army brass General Pierre Semengue recently took ill and spent a month in a Yaoundé hospital. His condition stabilized but suddenly worsened three days ago.

Family sources say he died this morning in the French Cameroun capital of Yaounde.

Stéphane Semengue was not only known as the son of the former Cameroon army chief of staff. He was also the director of a company known as TKC SOS, a company which in recent years had problems with the associative branch of the mythical Tonnere Kalala Football club of Mvog-Ada where his dad had been chief executive.

By Rita Akana