Ever since French President, Emmanuel Macron, expressed his frustration with the Yaounde government’s inability to address the issues that have triggered the fighting in the country’s English-speaking minority, the relationship between the two countries seems to be falling apart. The Ngarbuh Massacre seems to be the tipping point. The French have repeatedly called on the Yaounde government to explore other options, but the Yaounde old regime seems to be stuck in the past.

In the government’s opinion, only military violence can bring about peace in that part of the country. Unfortunately, after close to four years and billions of dollars poured into the fighting, the situation has only gotten worse, with the country’s economy taking a nosedive.

The government has been in dire straits for a long time, but Macrons public statements have clearly sent the beleaguered Yaounde government into a tailspin. The Yaounde government never expected the French to throw it under the bus. It is completely taken aback.

No man will continue to support a bad child until his death. If a child chooses to be ineffective, he must be cut out at one point and this is what appears to be playing out between France and its struggling former colony – Cameroon.

The French have stood behind the corrupt and ineffective government ever since the fighting in Cameroon started. The corrupt government’s insistence on using violent military action to wrap up the insurgency and its establishment of tribe-based militia to kill thousands of people in the two English-speaking regions have turned out to be the wedge that will separate it from its French masters who now believe that at 87, Paul Biya, Cameroon’s second president, clearly belongs to a different and distant epoch.

It takes a lot of courage and determination to speak the truth in public. The French are noted for their diplomatic double-speak and nobody could imagine that Emmanuel Macron would speak about Biya in such despicable and demeaning language. The cat is out of the bag. The Yaounde government has not only been receiving money from Paris, it has also been receiving firm instructions from the Elysee Palace on how to run the country.

Macron’s statement has really angered and weakened the Yaounde government. The hastily organized protests in front of the French Embassy in Yaounde and in other parts of Cameroon are clear testimonies to the desperation into which Mr. Macron has dumped the Yaounde government.

soldiers supporting anti French protesters in Yaounde

Generally, in Cameroon, demonstrations are not tolerated. But since Monday’s demonstrations were organized by regime surrogates, there was no tear gas and no riot police to beat, maim and kill peaceful protesters. The Yaounde regime has simply evolved from a struggling democracy into a full-blown dictatorship that has no regard for human rights and human life.

The disappointment of the Yaounde government is so glaring that even Cameroon soldiers of Beti extraction could be seen trampling on the French flag right in front of the French Embassy. This has touched some raw nerves in Paris and many French officials are already talking of sanctions against the Yaounde government that has reluctantly been talking of its sovereignty. Indeed, there is no love lost between France and Cameroon.

Cameroon soldiers of Beti extraction trampling on the French flag right in front of the French Embassy

This faux-pas made by the Yaounde regime will certainly cost it a ton of money and its reputation. Its leading donor and backer, France, is angry and there will be consequences for Yaounde’s refusal to obey instructions from the Elysee on how to deal with the Southern Cameroons crisis.

The government is aware of this and government ministers have been working overtime to see if things could be repaired before they get out of hand. Cabinet ministers in Yaounde have been calling their contacts in France to see if they can help repair the damaged relationship.

A source at the Unity Palace in Yaounde said that the Presidency has been transformed into a call center, with government officials working the phones all day long in a bid to find a genuine solution to the situation that has left cracks on the Franco-Cameroon wall of unity.

But the French are not buying into whatever excuses President Biya’s ministers are giving. Paris wants a sustainable solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis that has torn the country apart. It also wants the country’s authorities to find a solution to the socio-political crisis that was triggered by the fake presidential elections in 2018 which gave Mr. Biya another 7-year term.

Paris needs genuine solutions and not cosmetic arrangements which have become the hallmark of the beleaguered Yaounde regime.

The French president is sick and tired of being embarrassed everywhere he goes. He is being accused of aiding and abetting the criminal regime in Yaounde and this is not reflecting well on him, especially as a leader whose democracy is predicated upon democracy and human rights.

The French will be going to the polls sometime next year and the French president wants to go into the polls knowing that he has no blemishes on him. Cameroon’s multiple problems have become another Coronavirus and Mr. Macron wants to distance himself from this virus that might mar his re-election next year.

For the moment, the French are focused on finding a more viable option to Mr. Biya. He has fallen short of the international community’s expectation and he must be made to leave the political scene which should be full of young energetic Cameroonians who can engineer real and long-term solutions to the issues facing the country.

The world does not need leaders who are driven by their egos. The world needs leaders who can display a lot of flexibility when faced with tough challenges. While Mr. Biya may be the head of the corrupt regime, the crowd around him must be axed too as those are some of the people who are spreading extremism and ordering the killing of other young Cameroonians just because they want to perpetuate themselves in the corridor of power.

The cleanup will be challenging, but it must be done if Cameroon, Central Africa’s engine of growth and stability, must know long-lasting peace. The journey ahead is long, but everything is doable. With Kamto eroding the government’s credibility abroad and Southern Cameroonians sapping the economy of its vitality, it is clear that before long, the Biya regime will be on its knees just like its wobbly economy.

Cameroonians must continue to pile the pressure on the crumbling government. With the French walking away from the establishment, it is obvious that Mr. Biya and his people will soon be in the disgraceful past.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

Firefighters were called out to Holland Park in Kensington this afternoon (Wednesday, February 26) after a protester attempted to set herself on fire outside the Cameroonian High Commission.

A protest was taking place outside the embassy in reaction to the Ngarbuh massacre, which took place on February 14.

A Metropolitan Police said: “At around 2.10pm officers became aware of a woman attempting to douse herself in petrol and set herself on fire during a pre-planned event in Holland Park.

“Officers who were present immediately intervened and safeguarded the woman, who was not successful in igniting her clothing.

“The London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service also attended – medics assessed the woman at the scene and she was not found to be injured.”

At least 22 civilians were killed in the massacre which has been blamed on government forces in Ngarbuh, in the north west of the African country.

Reports on the incident state that at least 13 children and one woman were killed in the attack.

Source: My London

The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on Monday said that the state was currently hosting 36,044 Cameroonian refugees in its settlements across the state.

Mr Princewill Ayim, Director General of SEMA in Cross River, disclosed this in an Interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.

Ayim said the refugees were currently in three settlements in Adagom 1, Adagom 3 and Ukende, all in Ogoja Local Government Area of the state.

Ayim told NAN that with the increasing number of refugees been registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the number has risen from 35,965 in 2019 to 36,044 in January 2020.

According to him, the figure represents 69.5 per cent of the total number of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, adding that the new figure was released by the UNHCR in January 2020.

The DG said that since the crisis broke out in October 2017 in Cameroon over the demand for Ambazonia Republic by the Anglophone Cameroonians, the settlement had continued to witness an increase of Cameroonian refugees into the state through land borders.

Ayim told NAN that the official number of refugees in Nigeria has risen from 51,723 in December 2019 to 51,864 in the latest data obtained by UNHCR.

He added that from the latest figure, 45.9 per cent of the refugees are male, while the female represents 54.1 per cent.

“As we speak, the number of Cameroonian refugees in Cross River has increased from 35,965 in December 2019 to 36,044 in January 2020.

“This is so because the number keeps increasing due to the crisis that is yet to be addressed in Southern Cameroon.

“These refugees are being registered by the UNHCR as they come in. As we speak, the facilities in the camps are been overstretched because of the increasing numbers.

“We wish to call on the international bodies and the federal government to come in and assist the state government in providing certain facilities like water, education, social support and others,” he said.

He told NAN that the host communities have been very hospitable and cooperative with the refugees, adding that most refugees have integrated themselves with the way of life of the people in the area.

“On security, Gov. Ben Ayade has done a lot in ensuring that the refugees are protected and allowed to move freely with their identity cards like any other resident in the state.

“Ayade is a humanitarian by nature, he does not joke with cases of refugees in the state; he is intervening in healthcare, social and security support among many others,” he said.

Ayim added that plans were on to expand the camps with a view to prevent any disease outbreak.

Source: The Guardian

The leader of the people of Southern Cameroons, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides have renewed the call for an independent state of Ambazonia some few days after one of the Southern Cameroons frontline figures, Wilfred Tassang attempted to drag the Federal Republic of Ambazonia into the internal affairs of French Cameroun by addressing a letter to Prof Maurice Kamto that runs counter to the demands of the Interim Government.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 8 of his senior advisers approved a Kondengui-drafted statement last week that urged all French Cameroun political parties and institutions to adhere to the Southern Cameroons independence bid.

President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Barrister Shufai Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy, Barrister Eyambe Elias Ebai, Dr. Fidelis Ndeh Che, Dr Egbe Ntui Ogork, Dr. Cornelius Njikimbi Kwanga, Dr. Kimeng Henry Tata and Prof. Cheh Augustine Awasum noted that: “We remain committed to an independent and sovereign Southern Cameroons recognized under international laws based on UN resolutions 1514 and 1608. We add our voice to growing calls from the international community for a mediated dialogue between La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons in a neutral territory.”

Elsewhere in the Ambazonia government statement, the jailed leaders observed that “We, members of the Ambazonian leadership in detention write to distance ourselves from that write up. The views expressed by Mr. Tassang are in no way a reflection of what we stand for. We have the utmost respect for Prof Kamto as a person and as a leader of the main opposition party in La Republique du Cameroun.”

The statement followed days of intense killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians by Cameroon government army soldiers in Ngarbuh.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic has issued a statement to protest against the claims of a Cameroonian activist Calibri Calibro and against the revelations of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

In the empty communique, the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, rejected the statements of the activist and President Emmanuel Macron.

Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who is a blood relation to first lady Chantal Biya asserted that the President of Cameroon is accountable only to the Cameroonian people and not to a leader of a foreign country.

Ngoh Ngoh who is reportedly teleguiding the genocide campaign going on in Southern Cameroons also observed in the press release that ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons, President Paul Biya has spared no effort to resolve it.

The whole world has been holding France responsible for the killings in Southern Cameroons, but the Macron government is sick and tired of supporting an uncompromising, corrupt and inefficient Yaounde government that is hell bent on killing its own people.

French President, Emmanuel Macron is tired of being accused of aiding and abetting dictators in Africa.

In a public discussion with a Cameroonian activist, Calibri Calibro, last week in Paris following the brutal killing of more than 30 people in Ngarbur in the country’s northwest region, Mr. Macron said he had put a lot of pressure on the beleaguered Cameroon leader, Paul Biya, for him to seek a peaceful and long-lasting solution to the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

“I have been putting pressure on President Paul Biya to deal with the issue of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon and his opponents.  I told him that I would not receive him in Lyon until Maurice KAMTO was released.  And he was released because we put pressure on the government.  But the situation continues to deteriorate,” Macron said.

“I will call President Biya next week and I will put maximum pressure on him to end this situation.  I am fully aware of the violence in Cameroon which is intolerable.  I am doing my maximum best,” he stressed.

“France is still caught in a complicated game in Africa.  We are a state of law and we defend the rule of law everywhere.  But when in Africa, a French president says that this leader is not democratically elected, Africans always say, why are you getting into our affairs? You have no lessons to give us,” he pointed out.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from Rita Akana in Yaounde

Turkish authorities wrapped 47-year-old man in a plastic wrapping before sending him on a flight to his country of origin, Cameroon, France 24 news site reported on Saturday.

Video footage of Emmanuel Fosso Someon Chedjou being treated as luggage by the airline’s officials ahead of Turkish Airlines TK667 flight on Jan. 27, have sparked outrage in Cameroon, it said.

The details of the videos show Chedjou being handcuffed with black plastic straps at the wrists and the ankles. Authorities also wrapped scotch tape on his clothes.

 Chedjou said that he was on a business trip to Dubai to buy a stock of shoes and meant to step out of the Istanbul Airport to get some air during an eight-hour layover. Authorities at passport control said his transit visa was fake and immediately arrested him.

Chedjou said that he had paid a travel agency to arrange everything and it was only then he realized that he had been ripped off.

“I was taken to a sort of detention centre and I found my partner there, who had been arrested in the meantime,” the man said.

The authorities asked him to sign documents in Turkish, which he couldn’t read, and also refused his request for a lawyer.

Chedjou said that the officers continued to mistreat him (including beating) and wrapped him in rolls of plastic normally used for suitcases.  Once they put him inside the plane “like a package,” Chedjou managed to spit out some tissue that they had stuffed into his mouth and cry out for help.

The other passengers protested his mistreatment, and his partner took videos as a form of evidence. Authorities also confiscated $2400 from his pockets, Chedjou said, and said he was lucky to be alive.

Source: ahvalnew