Tuesday February 11, 2020 marks 30 years since the late South African President Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

Madiba, as he was affectionately called walked free to become South Africa’s first elected black president.

“Whites are fellow South Africans and we want them to feel safe and that we appreciate the contribution they have made towards the development of this country’‘, the late South African icon said at a press conference in Cape Town, Western Cape shortly after his release.

When Madiba walked out from the Victor Verster prison in 1990, he said ‘‘As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.’‘

The anniversary also marks the end to a ban on political parties in South Africa and the formal end of apartheid.

The anniversary comes two days before President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the State of the Nation Address.

Liberian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leyma Gbowee will also deliver a lecture at the Cape Town City hall on Tuesday.

Ramaphosa is expected to conclude this with an address titled ‘’ The speech that Birthed a Nation, 30 years on.’‘

“Education is important, because if you are not educated, you can’t be a leader.”

AFP

At least four civilians were killed in incursions by the terror group Boko Haram that took place Saturday in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to local sources on Sunday.

Three villagers were killed in Tagawa locality and another civilian was killed in Dzamazaf locality after militants of the group raided the localities, according to several security sources.

The group also torched many houses in Dzamazaf, rendering close to 500 villagers homeless, local authorities said.

Officials said, many people in the affected communities who had registered to vote in Sunday’s municipal and legislative elections in Cameroon will not be able to vote because of the attack.

It is unclear if the group intended the raids to disrupt the general elections in the region.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched attacks in the Far North since 2014, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

At least two armed separatists and one Cameroon soldier were killed on Sunday in the country’s restive Northwest region as the polling of municipal and legislative elections is underway, according to local authorities.

“They (killed separatists) attempted to stop people from voting and were gunned down by security forces,” a security officer who asked not to be named told Xinhua, adding that the incident took place in Babungu.

A member of security was also killed by separatists in Befang in the Northwest, according to the same source.

Local media reported clashes between government forces and armed separatists mainly in rural areas where the militants barricaded the roads to prevent voters from going to polling stations to vote.

Separatists have vowed to disrupt the elections in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest where they want to establish an independent state.

Local authorities said, in spite of the tense atmosphere, the polls were unfolding as planned.

Over 6,800,000 people were registered to vote in Sunday’s general elections, about 14% of them are from the English-speaking regions, according to the latest numbers published by Elecam, Cameroon’s electoral body.

Culled from Xinhuanet

Fighting between government troops and anglophone separatists in parts of Southern Cameroons Sunday disrupted voting in legislative and municipal elections, local officials and other sources said. The authorities issued no details on casualties.

Sunday’s clash was in Muyuka, a rebel stronghold, although fighting takes place almost daily in both English-speaking regions: Northwest and Southwest, which border Nigeria.

 “There were exchanges of fire between separatists and soldiers,” said a witness contacted by telephone.” An election committee official who asked not to be named told AFP: “I called our superior in Muyuka and he said that there had been shooting early this morning, but that the situation was calm now and the electors were voting.”

 But an opposition candidate in the region, who also requested anonymity, said: “The secessionists and the soldiers clashed. There was no election.”

 Speaking by phone, a senior member of a non-governmental organisation in the region said the shooting had started early in the morning and continued until at least 11:00 am. And a senior official in the region’s administrative acknowledged that “there was practically no way of voting” in Muyuka.

 There had also been shooting at Buea, the main town in Southwest region and in Kumba in the same region, he added. But he thought it was mainly to warn off the rebel fighters and avoid a battle, she added. She too asked not to be identified.

Turnout in the troubled anglophone regions of Cameroon has been very weak, according to AFP’s correspondents at Buea, which has seen the least of the recent fighting. The three-year conflict between anglophone forces seeking to break away from French-speaking Cameroon has claimed more than 3,000 moves and forced more than 700,000 local people to flee their homes. The separatists, who declared independence from Cameroon in 2017, had made it clear that they would disrupt the elections.

Source:  VANGUARD

Cameroon’s so-called advanced democracy has continued its onward march towards a man-made catastrophe despite all the warning signs. While decency, responsibility and transparency are the hallmarks of genuine democracies around the world, Cameroon’s democracy has continued to be mired in corruption, controversy and irresponsibility for more than a quarter of a century.

While the natural tendency for a genuine democracy is to innovate and streamline processes and procedures, Cameroon’s democracy manufactured by its president, Paul Biya, has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

All elections held in the country from 1990 have been marred by fraud and lack of transparency. In 1992, the American election watchdog, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), documented evidence of fraud in the presidential elections and the Biya government declared the famous institute persona non grata in Cameroon.

The acts of fraud during these elections were so crude to the point that even the blind could see them. Elections were organized by the ministry of territorial administration. The minister was a member of government of the incumbent whose cardinal objective in life at the time was to stay in power in order to protect acts of corruption and fraud committed under his one-party state.

Voters’ registration was the responsibility of local chiefs and other government officials who were paid by a government that was still struggling to shake off the one-party hangover. The main opposition party leader was John Fru Ndi, a man who struck fear in the minds of one-party state believers. His supporters were not allowed to register for the elections freely. The presidential election was more of a war than a normal democratic process, with the ruling party preaching tribalism and promoting hate speech.

Anglophones living in many parts of East Cameroon were cut out of the electoral process because their loyalty was obvious. It was the best way to guarantee the incumbent a victory. Many of those who ever got registered never had their voters’ cards and even the receipts issued to them after registration were rejected on polling day.

On voting day, polling stations were changed at short notice. Voters were completely confused. Opposition election officers were refused entry into polling stations. Ballot boxes were stuffed with fake ballots and intimidation by the ruling party was clearly on the menu.

The results were compiled by the ministry of territorial administration and released by the Supreme Court whose judges were appointed by the incumbent. The signs of corruption and fraud were obvious except to members of the ruling party who thought more about their personal interest than about the country’s paramount interest.

Almost 30 years after, the ruling party, the CPDM (Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement), a party that is only democratic in name, has continued to use the same tactics to perpetuate itself in power. Yesterday’s elections were not different from what Cameroonians have witnessed for close to 30 years.

The context might have been slightly different due to the insurgency playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country and the general voter apathy because of the past, but the ruling party has  still employed the same tactics to sustain itself in power. The results of yesterday’s elections were known long before the voting took place.

The ruling party had eliminated many opposition parties in many constituencies around the country. All opposition parties fielded only 45 candidates in the parliamentary elections out of 180 seats. This implied that the CPDM had already won 135 seats even without any real voting.

In Cameroon, there is no strict campaign financing laws. The CPDM government grants very little financial assistance to struggling opposition parties for them to be able to participate in the elections. It grants itself the state treasury and uses military and state vehicles for its campaigns. In the two English-speaking regions, government officials used military trucks and armoured cars to go to the regions just to rig the elections.

The objective is not to convince the population, but to demonstrate that elections actually took place across the country. Fuel for the trucks, drivers of the vehicles and maintenance costs are all being borne by the poor taxpayer whose interest is never considered as a priority.

While ruling party officials enjoy all of this, opposition party candidates simply avoid the war zone and only ruling party election officers really go to the polling stations. The outcome of the election is therefore not in doubt.

In many polling stations, only government soldiers voted. Prisoners from other regions were hauled like cattle to the two English-speaking regions for them to vote for the ruling CPDM. In Buea, Bamenda, Kumba, Mamfe and other cities in the two English-speaking regions, many young men were arrested and kept in jail until after Election Day.  They were released after having voted for the ruling party. Cameroon’s advanced democracy is making giant strides; unfortunately it is making giant strides towards dictatorship and monolithic thinking.

The ruling party, known for its Machiavellian mindset, had orchestrated the real fraud, not necessarily in the polling stations, but during the registration process. Three hours after the close of elections, some of its members could be seen celebrating the party’s victory in front of Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda like a group of monkeys that has run into a bunch of bananas.

According to the country’s electoral law, only the government manufactured elections body, ELECAM, is supposed to declare election results and anybody found declaring results without the approval of ELECAM shall be found guilty of transgressing the country’s electoral law.

But ruling party officials in the Northwest region were releasing their own results yesterday and nobody has been arrested or summoned to appear before any constituted government body for them to answer for their reckless behavior. Cameroon’s laws are simply selective, and they never find ruling party officials guilty of any crime.

The ruling party has won by a wide margin in the two English-speaking regions of the country, at least according to the party’s estimates. The population of those regions simply did not participate in the elections. They have been displaced, with more than a million of them living across the country as internally displaced persons, while a similar number is hiding in the bushes or is in Nigeria because of the government’s violent military response to the insurgency.

The population of the two regions also respected the lockdown decreed by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government that is living abroad and this has actually ruffled officials of the ruling party as the internet is awash with videos and pictures of towns abandoned by civilians who totally disagree with the way the regime has ruled the country for more than three decades. But the CPDM will surely score a 100% in both regions.

It is a party populated with people who have many skeletons in their cupboards. This is a party that started off with a slogan that captured the imagination and attention of Cameroonians. Rigour and Moralisation made the party look like a product made in Heaven. But over the last 35 years, Cameroonians have seen more corruption and demoralization spreading across the country like wildfire.

The CPDM might have won the election, but its battle to win hearts and minds, especially in the two English-speaking regions of the country, will be the one that will be the most challenging. The people of these two regions have made up their minds not to listen to the political heresy the ruling party preaches. Despite the victory it has arrogated to itself, the CPDM government, also known as a crime syndicate, will not govern Cameroon in peace.

Cameroonians have become more intelligent and the dignity, for which Anglophones are known, is gradually spreading to other regions of the country. Cameroon is in for a chaotic ride into the future. The road ahead is long and bumpy, and the drivers of the vehicle are old and inefficient. The chances of the vehicle ending up in a ravine are huge. Only the international community can pull this country back from the brink.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom and Rita Akana in Yaounde 

Cameroon voted on Sunday in polls overshadowed by a partial opposition boycott and separatist violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Elections for the central African country’s legislature and local councils are taking place for the first time in seven years, after two postponements.

They are unlikely to ruffle the enduring rule of President Paul Biya, one of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders, who has held a tight grip on power for 37 of his 86 years.

As voting began large numbers of police and soldiers were seen deployed on the streets of Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region, one of two provinces gripped by bloody separatist violence.

But polling stations in the city were quiet with no violence reported about four hours after they opened at 8 am (07.00 GMT).

Most of the morning’s voting appeared to have been done by members of the security forces, deployed to keep the peace.

Opposition boycott 

The main opposition party, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) is refusing to field a single candidate.

The boycott will all but guarantee a crushing victory for the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC in its French initials), which in the outgoing legislature had 148 out of 180 seats.

The other large opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), which currently has 18 seats, will take part in Sunday’s vote, going back on a threat to snub it.

In the capital Yaounde, it appeared that enthusiasm for the vote was subdued, with no crowds outside polling stations in the district of Briqueterie.

“People went to mass first, there’ll be more coming in the afternoon,” said one election official.

“I want to do my duty as a citizen,” said Abdias Lah, one of the few voters to cast an early ballot.

‘Spiral of violence’ 

Cameroon is struggling with two conflicts.

In the two English-speaking regions – the southwest and northwest – the armed forces are battling separatists who want to secede from the majority French-speaking country.

The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives and caused more than 700,000 people to flee since it began over two years ago, according to tolls compiled by NGOs.

Amnesty International said there has been a “surge in violence” by the Cameroon military in the weeks leading up to the vote, resulting in killings and the displacement of thousands in the English-speaking regions.

“In recent weeks, brutal military operations have been conducted while crimes committed by armed separatists continue unabated. Civilians are finding themselves trapped in a spiral of violence,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty’s Lake Chad Researcher.

The SDF traditionally draws much of its support from the anglophone regions but now fears that it has been outflanked by the radicals –– and says its candidates there have come under attack.

Similar worries are being voiced for the safety of polling stations in Cameroon’s Far North region, which has been battered by Boko Haram militants crossing from Nigeria.

The government on Friday announced that all of Cameroon’s borders would be closed until Monday, and shops and drink outlets had to close on polling day.

At least 120 candidates have been abducted in the North West and South West regions over the past two weeks. 

Only about 60 of the candidates have been released, and the separatists on social media have indicated they will release the rest after the election.

Residents say suspected separatists have chopped off the fingers of at least 12 people caught with voter cards.

City power

MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, spent nine months in jail after his defeat in the 2018 presidential elections and is now abroad.

“We could have had a few seats in parliament and some town councillors, but how would that enable us to influence events in Cameroon?” Kamto said in an interview with AFP news agency in Paris last month.

Given the seemingly inevitable outcome of a legislative vote, most media attention has focused on the municipal elections that are also taking place.

Some cities, including Douala, the country’s economic hub, could swing to the opposition, according to some forecasts.

City chiefs are to gain new powers under measures taken in December to decentralise some authority out of Yaounde.

The reforms have been triggered by the anglophone crisis although they fall far short of meeting the separatists’ demands.

“The stakes (on Sunday) are local,” said Stephane Akoa, a researcher at the Paul Ango Ela think tank in Yaounde.

Source: AFP

Reports reaching Cameroon Concord News Group indicate that Prof. Maurice Kamto who is on a tour of Europe and North America, has avoided meeting Ambazonians in the city of Toronto in Canada.

The winner of the 2018 presidential election in Cameroon had said he would meet with separatists if he became the president of Cameroon.

But his actions in Toronto, Canada, have clearly indicated that he is simply paying lip service to the idea of meeting with Southern Cameroonians with a view to gaining a better understanding of their perspective.

Kamto, who was jailed for 8 months in Yaoundé for holding that he was the rightful winner of the 2018 poll, had made many public statements that it would be better to understand Ambazonians although in his view, secession was not an option.

His action in Toronto equates him to Paul Biya, the country’s contested president, who holds that he will never sit and talk with secessionists.

Because of this action in Toronto, Ambazonians have decided to withdraw their support of Kamto, a man they thought could be an ally in the peaceful resolution of the crisis that is tearing the country apart, a source in Toronto said.

“Kamto, like most Francophones, can never be trusted. He has proven in Toronto that we should never trust him,” an angry Ambazonian in Toronto said.

“We will be severing all our ties with his party and we urge all Southern Cameroonians to dissociate themselves from this man who seems to be selling illusions,” the Ambazonian who elected anonymity said.

Kamto, who is scheduled to go to the United States, will surely not be welcomed by Southern Cameroonians who now know that he cannot be trusted.

“We have already raised the issue with our fellow Ambazonian citizens in the United States and many have already declared him persona non grata. He cannot be trusted and we won’t encourage any of our leaders in the United States to meet with him,” the frustrated Ambazonian stressed.

Prof. Kamto, who is accompanied by several of his party officials, has stirred a hornet’s nest and he will surely be facing huge challenges in the United States where more than a million Ambazonians live.

“He has a choice. He can clean up the mess he has created. He should get in touch with Ambazonian leaders in the USA to schedule a meeting with them if he wants to remain a national figure,” he stressed.

“If he does not take corrective action, then he would have clearly demonstrated that his party is a regional party made up of Bamilekes,” he concluded.

Prof. Kamto should have understood that Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is home to thousands of Ambazonians and much of the money that is flowing to the two English-speaking regions of the country to fund the war comes from the Greater Toronto Area.

Many Ambazonians are based in Brampton, Mississauga, Ajax and Oakville and they are making significant financial efforts to ensure that Ambazonia becomes independent. They have been victims of marginalization and they hold that a divorce from Yaoundé will be the best option.

“Kamto and his people will have to talk with us. We are private sector operators and our money will keep on causing sleepless nights to whoever is at the Unity Palace in Yaoundé. We have the potential to sow chaos in Cameroon and avoiding us only makes it hard for whoever is running the country. Kamto must address this very fast before he goes down in our estimation,” an upset Ambazonian said.

By Joachim Arrey in Toronto