News

24, February 2019

Maurice Kamto challenges Yaounde Military Tribunal ⁰

Cameroonian politician and opposition leader Maurice Kamto has told the military court that he is a civilian and doesn’t deserve to be tried and charged in a military court.

Kamto and his supporters are being charged of insurrection – a crime punishable with the death penalty, other charges include holding illegal gatherings and disturbing the peace the peace of the country.

Kamto, a leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) and his supporters contested last year’s elections claiming that the country’s decade’s ruler Paul Biya had rigged the election.

He then called upon his supporters to hold protests in four major cities across the country which according to authorities distorted the peace and security of the nation.

The court later postponed his trail until next week in order for court to make a decision about the legality of his trial.

PlustvAfrica

24, February 2019

High-profile journalist kidnapped in Southern Cameroons freed ⁰

Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) said Friday the president of the Northwest regional chapter of the association Ambe Macmillian Awa, who was kidnapped Thursday by “unknown gunmen,” has been released.

“He was released today Feb. 22 by 11 am. He is doing well and in good health. He was not tortured by his captors,” Fongoh Primus Ayeh, secretary general of CAMASEJ Northwest, told Xinhua.

He said, Awa was interrogated by government forces after his release. “We still don’t know who kidnapped him and why. Journalism is not a crime,” he said.

Awa, who is also secretary general of the Northwest chapter of Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union, is the first high profile journalist to be kidnapped since an armed conflict started in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon in November 2017.

Kidnappings have become widespread in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since the start of this year.

Over the weekend, some 170 students and their teacher were kidnapped in the Northwest. They were released later following negotiations.

Xinhua

23, February 2019

Cameroon’s Dictator Heads to Europe Leaving the Country on Fire ⁰

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, and first lady, Chantal Biya, are scheduled to leave Yaounde, Cameroon, for Geneva, Switzerland, on bord a chartered aircraft tomorrow February 24, 2019.

The luxurious airplane, which has been rented for tens of millions of taxpayer’s money, will also take the reclusive leader to France. He is expected to spend several weeks in Geneva where he will be seeking medical attention.

Meanwhile, the Brigade Anti-sardinards (BAS) – a Diaspora-driven initiative designed to raise awareness of the despicable military, economic and political situation in the country – which had issued a warning to the Intercontinental Hotel in Switzerland, which hosts Mr. Biya and his large entourage each time he is in Geneva, have begun taking positions across continental Europe, particularly in Switzerland, to disrupt Mr. Biya’s health tourism program.

More than 100 members of the BAS are already in Geneva while hundreds more are expected to leave Germany, Belgium and France today evening to ensure that the Cameroon leader does not know any peace during his time in Europe.

Mr. Biya and his entourage are very likely to face lots of protests in Geneva as the country’s Diaspora is prepared to give the dictator a very bad name for his brutal killings in Southern Cameroons and the imprisonment of Maurice Kamto, the country’s opposition leader.

It should be recalled that Mr. Biya had declared war against the country’s English-speaking minority in 2017 and since his declaration of war, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed by Mr. Biya’s army, more than a million civilians have been displaced, with more than 400,000 seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria that is collaborating with the Yaounde government in its determination to slaughter as many Southern Cameroonians as possible.

Meanwhile, more than 170 villages have been burnt down by soldiers who are out on a collective punitive expedition which is only making the secession of the English-speaking minority a likelihood.

It has been reported that the Cameroon strongman and his government are seeking to change his itinerary given that they are aware of the protests waiting for them in Switzerland and France.

The profile picture attached to this report is a photo of the airplane rented for the presidential couple and their itinerary. More will be yours in the days ahead.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

23, February 2019

US to deny visas to Congo-Kinshasa officials over election misconduct ⁰

The United States has made good on its threat to penalise individuals that undermine electoral processes, announcing on Friday that it would deny visas to officials that were involved in election misconduct in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Washington said it wanted to send a clear signal of the need for accountability in the conflict-torn nation but stressed that it will still work with the controversially elected new president, Felix Tshisekedi.

The United States said it would reject any visa request from five senior Congolese figures as well as their immediate family members over “involvement in significant corruption relating to the election process.”

They include Corneille Nangaa, president of the Independent National Election Commission, Constitutional Court president Benoit Lwamba Bindu and Aubin Minaku Ndjalandjoko, president of the National Assembly.

The State Department said it was also imposing visa restrictions on an unspecified number of other military and government officials over human rights abuses related to the election.

“These individuals enriched themselves through corruption, or directed or oversaw violence against people exercising their rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” the State Department said in a statement.

“They operated with impunity at the expense of the Congolese people and showed a blatant disregard for democratic principles and human rights,” it said.

A rigged election?

The United States and other international players had been holding their breath for the December 30 election, which ultimately marked the first peaceful transfer of power in sub-Saharan Africa’s most vast country since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Martin Fayulu, a former oil executive, alleged widespread fraud and accused Tshisekedi of collaborating with outgoing president Joseph Kabila.

Despite recognizing concerns over the election, regional and world powers led by South Africa quickly coalesced behind Tshisekedi in hopes of preventing greater instability.

Fayulu had accused Nangaa, the election chief, of breaking the law to help engineer the election results. Nangaa hit back after the country’s powerful Catholic church raised doubts about the election, saying it was in no position to know the vote tallies.

The opposition leader had earlier also accused Kabila of stacking the top court to have his way with the election. Kabila was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term and won praise for eventually stepping down — but he stayed in power even after his second mandate ended in 2016.

Fayulu has maintained that he is the elected president of the resource-rich nation and has maintained pressure, tweeting on Thursday,

“I say it and I’ll repeat it — I will not let Joseph Kabila take the destiny of an entire people hostage.”

The State Department, however, said that its actions were “specific to certain individuals.”

It said the United States was committed to working with the new government “to realize its expressed commitment to end corruption and strengthen democracy and accountability, and respect for human rights.”

AFP

23, February 2019

Algeria: Clashes erupt as protesters rally against Bouteflika bid for 5th term ⁰

Protesters clashed with police as thousands demonstrated in Algiers on Friday against a bid by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a fifth term in office.

Algerian protesters running in a street as police in riot gear fired tear gas and set up a security cordon to block access to the presidential palace by the demonstrators who responded with stone-throwing. (AFP)

“The president has failed during his fourth terms, so trying to win a fifth one, which means the continuity of failure, he’s also disabled,” said one protester.

Eighty one-year-old Bouteflika announced earlier this month his plan to seek a new term in April’s presidential elections in spite of doubts over his health condition.

Protests were reported by local news in other Algerian cities on Friday. Another demonstration is expected in Algiers on Sunday.

22, February 2019

UN moves fast into Southern Cameroons ⁰

A UN report has detailed how it plans to deploy its staff in Cameroon. The report slams the government and armed groups in the country’s two English-speaking regions for the deteriorating humanitarian situation. See excerpts from the report.

“The deployment of humanitarian actors to the field continues. A further allocation of CERF to Cameroon will in part support humanitarian activities in the North-West and South-West regions.As of 7 January, donors had provided 35 per cent of the US$15.2 million required as per the emergency response plan, according to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS). This amount constitutes the $5.1 million CERF allocation under the rapid response window. Additional contributions were received by other donors but not yet reported on FTS,” the report says.

“The Humanitarian Response Plan will be launched on 20 February 2019. The number of people estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2019 has increased by 31 per cent compared to 2018, from 3.3 million to 4.3 million. The number of people who will be targeted for assistance has also increased from last year, from 1.3 million to 2.3 million. This increase is mainly attributed to emerging needs in the North-West and South-West regions. More than a quarter of people targeted by the response (28 per cent or 820,000 people) lives in the North-West and South-West regions, which are now priority areas of intervention. Sectors need US $ 93 million – or 31 per cent of the total appeal – to support 437,000 IDPs in these two regions, the West and Littoral, and 376,000 vulnerable host communities due to forced displacement and disruption of social and health services,” the report points out.

See Cameroon Intelligence Report for a detailed report on UN plans to deploy in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

By Kingsley Betek

22, February 2019

High-profile journalist kidnapped in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The president of the Northwest regional chapter of Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) was kidnapped Thursday by “unknown gunmen” in Bamenda, Cameroon’s largest Anglophone city, CAMASEJ said in a statement.

“It is with great disbelief and shock that CAMASEJ Northwest just learned of the kidnap of its president, Ambe Macmillian Awa, this Thursday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. by unknown gunmen,” Fongoh Primus Ayeh, secretary general of CAMASEJ Northwest, said in a statement released Thursday evening.

Ayeh “vehemently” condemns the act and said it was “tantamount to kidnapping all journalists in the region and nation.” He said the search for Awa’s whereabouts was in progress and demanded his “immediate and unconditional release.”

Awa, who is also secretary general of the Northwest chapter of Cameroon Journalists Trade Union, is the first high profile journalist to be kidnapped since an armed conflict started in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon in November 2017.

His abduction has drawn condemnation. Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted that it was “concerned” over the abduction and stressed that “he must be freed unharmed.”

Kidnappings have become rampant in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since the start of this year. Over the weekend, 170 students and their teacher were kidnapped in the Northwest. They were released later following negotiations.

Armed separatists want the two regions to secede from largely French-speaking Cameroon and create a new nation they called “Ambazonia.” The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people in Cameroon have been displaced internally by the conflict.

Xinhuanet

22, February 2019

Abortions From Rapes on Rise in Southern Cameroons ⁰

A new study confirms rape has become a weapon of war in Cameroon’s separatist conflict, and many victims are terminating pregnancies with crude, unsafe abortion techniques.

Sixteen-year-old Mercy Azefor says she was raped in Nkambe while hiding on her mother’s farm after her parents were killed in April 2018. Nkambe is in the Northwest region, one of two areas where English-speaking separatist groups are fighting to break away from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

Azefor says a family running from the fighting drove her to Yaounde. There, she met pastor Grace Mbegno of Divine Redemption Ministries, who took her in.

Two months ago, Azefor gave birth to a baby girl.

“I gave her the name Gracious because she is all that I have,” Azefor said. “I do not want her to go through what I went through. She will certainly have good education and help others tomorrow. She knows no other father than God who created her.”

A Cameroonian nonprofit group, the Rural Women Center for Education and Development, is keeping track of at least 300 school-age girls from the Northwest region who became pregnant as a result of rape, either from suspected separatist fighters or government soldiers.

Dangerous procedures

Vera Wirsiy, coordinator of the center, says the group was motivated to carry out the study after a 14-year-old rape victim came to a hospital in the Northwest town of Ndop and asked that her six-month pregnancy be terminated.

“The young girl came to do an abortion,” Wirsiy said. “The medical personnel tried to find out what happened. She told him the community is not safe, gunshots, her grandmother is not able to take care of her. The guy impregnated her and ran.”

Wirsiy said at least 130 of the 300 girls they met had already had abortions, with some using crude traditional means that endanger their lives.

Panje Roland of Cameroon’s Ministry of Women Empowerment said many more women and girls in the Northwest and Southwest regions have been victims of sexual exploitation, but it is difficult to know their numbers because many are hiding.

‘Weapon of war’

In December, Allegra Baiocchi, coordinator of the U.N. system in Cameroon, called for the protection of women and girls in the war zone and a stop to what she called humiliating practices.

“We know that rape is today a weapon of war and many women, thousands of women, have had to flee and are today even more vulnerable to sexual abuse,” she said.

A report last year by rights group Amnesty International criticized both the Cameroon military and separatists for abuses of civilians.

In October, the government of Cameroon said it had opened investigations into reports of police and soldiers raping teenage girls and young women.

VOA

22, February 2019

Urgent support needed to respond to Humanitarian Needs in Cameroon ⁰

Humanitarian needs in Cameroon have risen by a third this year owing to an upsurge in insecurity and violence, leaving one in six people – mostly women and children – requiring assistance. Today we launch the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan appealing for US$299 million to provide support to 2.3 million people.

“The humanitarian emergency in Cameroon must remain high on our agenda. We must step up efforts to meet the needs of the affected population, many of whom are surviving in deplorable conditions without assistance,” said Ms. Allegra Baiocchi. the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Cameroon.

“In recent years, funding for humanitarian response has not kept pace with the needs. This means that we have been unable to provide enough food, water or medicine to vulnerable people, treat malnutrition or assist displaced families. This is very worrying as humanitarian needs are likely to continue growing in the coming months,” Ms. Baiocchi said.

In 2018, only 40 per cent of the $320 million needed for humanitarian assistance was received.

This year, around 4.3 million people need urgent assistance. Displacement has risen by 82 per cent compared with 2018. Renewed armed attacks have driven tens of thousands more Nigerians into Cameroon’s Far-North region, which already hosts 138,000 refugees. In North-West and South-West regions, worsening violence has uprooted 437,000 people and forced over 32,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. The East, Adamaoua and North regions host 275,000 Central African refugees.

“We acknowledge the scale of the humanitarian emergency and urge all actors to work with the Government to address the rising needs,” said MINAT. “We must also work together to not only ease the suffering of vulnerable populations, but to seek lasting solution for communities to withstand adversity.”

The crises arising from armed violence add to existing chronic vulnerabilities, including inadequate basic services, epidemics, food insecurity and malnutrition as well as the impact of climate change.

The 2019 humanitarian response plan focuses on providing immediate assistance to save lives, bolstering the protection of affected civilians, identifying risks and vulnerabilities to support the resilience of communities to shocks.

Africa News

22, February 2019

Sudan detains dozens of opposition leaders in largest crackdown ⁰

Sudanese security forces have detained nearly two dozen opposition leaders, who were on their way to deliver a petition to the presidential palace calling for President Omar al-Bashir to resign.

Media reports said opposition leaders belonging to several political parties were arrested while gathering in downtown Khartoum on Thursday.

The arrests took place as they were getting ready to deliver the petition, which demanded the formation of a new transitional government to replace Bashir and his administration.

In a statement, the Sudanese Congress Party confirmed that authorities “pre-empted” demonstrations. It said deputy head of Umma Party Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi, the party’s secretary general Sara Naqdallah and Communist Party leader Mokhtar al-Khatib were arrested.

The spokesman of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), the main protest organizer, was also arrested.

Later, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of angry protesters who had gathered to march near the Arab Market area in the capital city.

Protesters held anti-government placards and chanted slogans such as “Peaceful, peaceful against the thieves” and “Fall, that’s it” to send the message that their only demand was Bashir’s fall.

The detentions amount to the largest crackdown against the opposition in one day since the demonstrations began two months ago.

Official figures show 30 people, including some security agents, have lost their lives since the onset of the rallies. Activists and some rights groups say nearly 60 people have died so far.

Since December, Sudan has been rocked by a wave of protests calling on Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, to step down.

Sudan opposition unites against Bashir

The country’s security forces have so far used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition to break up demonstrations, and detained hundreds of protesters and opposition figures.

The president has remained defiant, addressing loyalists at a number of rallies across the country and seeking support from regional allies.

Bashir and other senior Sudanese officials have repeatedly said that the government can only be changed through elections. The 75-year-old veteran leader is considering running for a third presidential term in next year’s elections.

Sudan has been struggling with a worsening economic crisis, including a serious shortage of foreign currency. The cost of some commodities, including medicine, has more than doubled and inflation has hit 70 percent. A growing lack of food and fuel has also been regularly reported across several cities, including Khartoum.