Cameroon national borders will be closed ahead of general elections polling day on Sunday, according to an order by the country’s minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji that is made public Friday afternoon.

“National borders shall be closed 48 hours to polling day. They will be reopened the following day after voting,” according to the order, adding that international flights are exempted from the border closure.

The circulation of goods and persons within the territory by intercity road, railway, and airlines is also banned from Feb. 8 at midnight to Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.

The authorities announced the measure as the election of National Assembly representatives and municipal councilors is taking place in a context of growing tension in the Anglophone regions where separatists are fighting to create a new nation they call “Ambazonia”.

Armed separatist forces have vowed they will disrupt voting in these regions, representing about 20 percent of the national population.

Cameroon had taken similar measures restricting trans-border and intercity transports ahead of last presidential election in Oct. 2018.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Yaoundé government has continued to use child soldiers to prosecute its war against Southern Cameroonians who simply complained about marginalization

Over the last years, the government has been organizing army recruitments in the South and it has been using money and fake promises to lure children, most of who are from poor families in the South region.

Though being a signatory to many conventions against the use child soldiers in wars, the Yaounde government has continued to violate these conventions by recruiting underaged boys and girls into the military with the objective of sending them to the two English-speaking regions of the country where a violent insurgency is playing out.

This is a violation of international law.

This is a 14-year-old soldier “Gaston from the South”, a child soldier recruited by the military because he was unemployed.  The older boys are refusing to join the military for fear of being killed in Southern Cameroons.

According to a source at the ministry of defense, some 2,100 soldiers have lost their lives in Southern Cameroons and this number does not include police officers and warders.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon’s military is obliging civilians in the two English-speaking regions of the country to take voter’s card which are not even in their names.

In Kumba a young man was shot in the hand in on Friday, February 7, 2020, by a B.I.R officer, as government forces scramble to get more people to vote for the failed ruling party.

There are desperate efforts to to get the young man to Douala for treatment, as nothing is working in Kumba due to the lockdown.

Across the two English-speaking regions of the country, there are massive arrests by the military.

Thousands of people have been arrested in Buea, most of who are university students and their whereabouts are not known.

It is believed that they will be released at the end of voting on Sunday, as they will be made to wear the famous CPDM attire to demonstrate that many people in the region are in support of the party that has been in power for 37 years and has nothing to show for its long stay in power.

In Mamfe, the story is the same. The government’s intimidation is on display. In Ossing, a town some 5 km from Mamfe, all the able-bodied young men and women has now taken up residence in the jungle as army soldiers move from house to house looking for young people to arrest for election purposes.

In Bamenda, the military has been poisoning the environment with its music and noise, calling on civilians to see the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy military as a friend and not a foe.

After having killed thousands since 2016 when the crisis started, the government is just realizing now that its military approach has been counterproductive.

More than 5,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and more than 200 villages have been razed by the military as a strategy to end the insurgency in the two English-speaking regions of the country.  But the results of the strategy leave much to be desired.

More than 90% of Southern Cameroonians have been radicalized, and even the moderates have had to walk back on their decision, as government bullets bring down their families and friends.

Besides, the human cost, the economic cost is also staggering. The country’s economy has taken a nosedive due to the conflict.

State-owned Corporation such as SONARA, PAMOL and CDC, all located in the country’s southwest region, has taken a hit and this has robbed the government of vital financial resources.

Thousands of people have been laid off following the collapse of these major state-owned corporations and the future is still bleak, as the end of the crisis is not in sight.

Over the last two years, the international community has been calling for an inclusive dialogue that the Yaounde government has dismissed.

The Swiss initiative supported by Canada and the United States has also been rejected by the government, although Southern Cameroonian groups fighting for the total liberation of their territory have welcomed the initiative and have agreed to meet with Yaounde government officials in a neutral place.

Instead of accepting the international community’s proposal, the Yaounde government hastily organized its own initiative in October 2019 which it branded as the Major National Dialogue.

The government limited the issues to be discussed and it manufactured its own Diaspora that participated in the pseudo-dialogue.

From the dialogue, it emerged that a special status would be granted to the country’s two English-speaking regions, but the contents of the special status remain a mystery.

Since October 2019, following the Major National Dialogue, the government has unleashed the full spectrum of its military strength on the people of Southern Cameroons, killing thousands and burning hundreds of villages.

It would appear part of the special status is to reduce the population of the two English-speaking regions of the country.

But from every indication, the people of Southern Cameroons have turned their backs on the government. The majority want a clean disconnection from a country that has brought them death and destruction.

For now, no government initiative can change the mentality of a people who have experienced marginalization for half a century.

If the government wants to win hearts and minds those regions, then it must embrace the Swiss initiative and order its forces to stop maiming and killing innocent civilians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the Uk

The citizens of the town of Ossing have all escaped into the bushes surrounding the town, as the military and fake Amba continue to sow chaos and panic in the town.

Currently, the town is empty, as all the young men and women have skipped town following a raid by the military on Tuesday that targeted all the able-bodied men and women.

The military, which is frustrated after failing to mobilize enough resources for its reckless social activities, showed up in the town and arrested a young man from late General James Tataw’s neighbourhood and took him around the town, obliging him to take them to the bushes where the honest and hardworking citizens of Ossing were hiding.

There is panic all over the place. The young man does not know all the Ossing jungle. Ossing has millions of hectares of forest, some of it being sacred, and it will be preposterous to think that an individual can have sound knowledge of the forest.

Speaking to a resident of the city, Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that the military in Mamfe has the nasty habit of raiding villages and towns when the soldiers are broke.

The military has transformed innocent citizens into its ATM and each time the soldiers are broke, they show up and arrest innocent people who must pay before they are released.

“We have all fled to our farms and bushes. They cannot find us once we melt into our jungle. We don’t have any money to give these crooks in uniform. We are tired of being arrested for crimes we have not committed. They can own the houses. We will only return after the elections. They want to oblige us to vote. We have nothing to do with their elections,” the Ossing resident told the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Mamfe.

He added that “we are really suffering here. Many people who escaped military violence in their own towns now live with us and this has made us a target. The military is always showing up to ensure that there are no fighters in the village and there are none living here with us.”

“They better go into the jungle to arrest the real fighters who are armed to the teeth and are prepared to take on the military. Our people are suffering because the military is not playing its role as the people’s protector. Instead, it is harassing us every day for money,” he said.

 Meanwhile, the criminals who killed the regent chief of Ossing returned a few days ago to capture one of the councilors. The councilor and the wife have skipped town, conscious of the fate that the fake Amba fighters have reserved for them.

Cameroon Concord News Group has been trying to get in touch with the councilor, but to no avail. Many people suspect he might have switched off his phone, as he knows that the criminals might call his number.

The lockdown in Ossing is the worst, as residents of the town are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. The military and the fake Amba seem to be in an unholy alliance.

According to another resident, the military and the fake fighters seem to have agreed on a schedule. If the military is not around, the fake fighters show up to make life hard for the residents, he said.

“Now that we are all in the jungle, the lockdown will be total. Ossing is now officially a ghost town. No young man will show up there. The military are walking the streets and they will stop at nothing when it comes to arresting our people. We are better off living in our jungle than in the city. From time to time, we only show up to see if our old parents are still alive. That’s how we now live. That’s the Hell the government has created for us,” he regretted.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from Kingsley Betek

The Yaounde government is terribly shaken by the success of the lockdown declared by various Southern Cameroonian group as a measure to prove that the two English-speaking regions of the country are still being controlled by Southern Cameroonians living abroad.

Over the last couple of months, the beleaguered and cash-strapped Yaounde government has been selling and spreading the illusion that peace was returning to the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Images emerging from many parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country speak to the seriousness of the lockdown, with army soldiers even scared of venturing outside.

In Kumba and Bamenda, the two largest cities in the English-speaking regions of the country, businesses and schools were completely shut down.

Cars and motor bikes were completely out of business and even animals and insects could not be spotted in the towns. The sound of a dropping pin could be heard as both cities had become ghost towns.

In Buea, the capital of Southern Cameroons, not much could be seen on the streets. The city’s three universities have been closed down and despite the arrival of the country’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, to the city, not many people showed up to cheer up the disappointed and depressed prime minister who is a native of the Southwest region and has the obligation of proving that the region is solidly behind the bed-ridden president,  Paul Biya, who has been in power for 37 years and has nothing to show for his long stay in power.

Under him, Cameroon has made giant strides backwards, with unemployment reaching unprecedented levels.

Despite huge amounts of aid and budget support from international development finance institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank, the country’s poorly managed economy has been caught in a downward spiral and the regime’s legendary inefficiency and corruption are pushing the economy down the bottom of the abyss.

Dion Ngute might be in Buea, but his presence will not be swaying the Southwest population that has made up its mind to head in the opposite direction.

The population knows what Dion Ngute is selling, but nobody wants to have anything to do with him. His products are poisonous and nobody needs them.

He is in Buea to campaign for his party, the CPDM that has been ruling the country for 37 years, but the population is fleeing from the party that is being equated to the Coronavirus in China that has claimed close to a thousand lives.

The CPDM is a code name for corruption. It is a crime syndicate chaired by a man whose notoriety is compared to that of Al Capone, a one-time Mafia boss whose corruption and cruelty were unparalleled.

There is not much the CPDM can say that will convince the people of Southern Cameroons. This crime syndicate has presided over the killing of thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Currently, the party is considered as a terrorist organization in the two English-speaking regions of the country and anybody found to associate with it will face the death penalty.

The people of Southern Cameroons are a dignified people. Despite the intimidation and killings that have become the government’s hallmark, they have continued to support their leaders, especially those who are in the dungeons of East Cameroon.

The Yaounde government has exhausted all the tricks in its book and the weapons in its arsenal just to hoodwink the people, but the results have been unfortunately dismal.

Dignity is a currency that is not designed for everybody, but the people of Southern Cameroons are blessed with it.

They prefer to die of starvation than to change their minds. They have been victims of the Yaounde government’s well orchestrated marginalization and they understand that the time to reverse the evils of the past is now and they have made up their minds to stand with their leaders and to walk the distance with them until they achieve their independence.

Southern Cameroonians do not want to waste their time with worthless projects. They know the elections results are already out. They don’t want the world to think that they will be there next Sunday to rubberstamp the CPDM- manufactured results.

Southern Cameroonians have survived the impossible. Their families and friends have been killed by Mr. Biya’s army. Their businesses have been ruined and their homes have been torched. They are sure they will survive the challenging days ahead.

Mr. Dion Ngute and his fellow senior southwest CPDM officials have never condemned government atrocities in the two English-speaking regions of the country. How does he think the brave people of the rich Southwest will be rushing to welcome him in Buea after the atrocities of his government?

If he had consulted any soothsayer in East Cameroon who had informed him that there would be large crowds to welcome him, then he should know that he  was mistaken. The people have made up their minds and the Yaounde regime can just go ahead and validate its own election results like it did in the 2018 presidential elections. The people’s minds have been made up.

Dion Ngute should understand that there is a limit to what the human mind can accept. The human mind sometimes rejects scripts written for it by others and that is what Southern Cameroonians have done. No support for the killer party – the CPDM.

By Rita Akana in Buea

Suspected Boko Haram jihadists attacked a village in northern Cameroon early on Tuesday, torching homes and killing two civilians just days before legislative and municipal elections, security sources said.

“Boko Haram made an incursion a little before 02:00 in Mozogo village,” in the Extreme-Nord province “killing two people,” a police officer told AFP.

They torched about 20 homes and two motorbikes and stole another five motorcycles, the officer said.

An army officer confirmed the incident.

Security has been tightened in Cameroon ahead of Sunday’s elections. Anglophone separatists are fighting government troops in western Cameroon while the north of the country has come under attack from Boko Haram.

Based in neighbouring Nigeria, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks from bases hidden in the vast Lake Chad area, where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria converge.

Cameroon says the group has carried out nearly 13 000 attacks on its territory since 2014, with the loss of “several thousand” lives.

The insurgency has forced more than 250 000 people to flee their homes and triggered an influx of 60 000 people from Nigeria.

Boko Haram was formed in Nigeria but attacks have spread to neighbouring countries. The group has also split and a faction affiliated with the Islamic State group, ISWAP, is particularly active around Lake Chad.

Source: AFP

From communication interception technology to physical security, Cameroon’s state security market is entirely in the hands of Israelis.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call it “Little Tel Aviv.”

The Israelis practically feel at home in the neighbourhood of Bastos in Yaoundé.

Four-wheel drive SUVs with tinted windows abound and the air is rife with rumours about the presence of advisors and/or spies within Paul Biya’s circle.

Abraham Avi Sivan, the Cameroonian president’s former security advisor who died in 2010, was a regular there.

Eran Moas, Etoudi Palace’s current securocrat, and his wife are also frequently spotted in the neighbourhood. Sivan, Moas and their spouses even founded an ape sanctuary in Cameroon.

Indeed, Biya and Israel have close, long-standing ties. The Cameroonian president has been wary of the French intelligence service ever since the attempted coup d’état that nearly overthrew him in 1984.

He thinks that his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, was the right-hand man of Jacques Foccart and the External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service (Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage – SDECE).

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Israel’s imprint on security in Yaoundé

Determined to side-line the French, Biya turned to Israel on the recommendation of the United States. This is how he met Sami Meyuhas, who had worked in Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko, alongside Shabtai Shavit, who led the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad from 1989 to 1996.

With Shavit (who currently runs Athena GS3, a subsidiary of Mer Group) in Tel Aviv, Meyuhas in the sub-region, and Sivan and former Israeli general Mayer Heres in Yaoundé, the Israelis gradually transformed Paul Biya’s security apparatus.

Their first order of business was to create the Rapid Intervention Battalion (Battalion d’intervention rapide – BIR), now led by Heres.

Then, in Yaoundé, they installed various antennas and technology enabling the interception of telephone and electronic communications.

Sure enough, several buildings in Bastos are outfitted just like the presidential palace roof.

The French have had to deal with this reality. To this day, Cameroon’s security market is considered “inaccessible.”

Source: The Africa Report

The CPDM convoy of the Minister of Supreme State Control (CONSUPE) was attacked by Ambazonia Restoration Forces as she braved the bad roads from Bamenda to Mbengwi to campaign for the so-called twin poll in the Momo County in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Mbengwi reported that despite being accompanied by a heavily armed military escort, Minister Rose Mbah Acha’s convoy came under heavy fire for about an hour leaving 9 top CPDM militants injured.

Speaking at the CPDM meeting venue, the French Cameroun surrogate herself confirmed the incident and observed in a scantily attended meeting that “I would like to tell you people of Momo that all the vehicles in my convoy came under attacked. But there were only five slightly injured.”

 Minister Rose Mbah Acha added that “Everyone in Momo must vote for the ruling CPDM, the party that guarantees lasting peace in our crisis-torn region.”

 Momo County in the Northern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is fully under the control of the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces.

By Sama Ernest in Mbengwi