Cameroon is finding it difficult to meet its financial commitments as the battle against armed separatists and corruption depletes the country’s resources.

In addition to corruption and the battle against separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state, there is also the war against Boko Haram on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria and the spillover of the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR). All of these combined are draining the state of its resources.

Employees of a company constructing the Paul Biya Stadium in Olembe, on the outskirts of Yaounde, protested against difficult working conditions and non-payment of their salaries. Their spokesperson Dieudonne Nguidjol demanded that they be given a normal contract. “We are supposed to work from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. [and] 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. is supposed to be extra time. Our salaries are not good,” said Nguidjol.

He added that people who come to work as engineers earn a salary of about 80,000 CFA francs (about €120, $138), which is not in line with Cameroon’s labor code. “We have salaries of four, five and six months that have not been paid; this is the immediate cause of this strike,” Nguidjol said. Cameroon’s Minister of Finance Louis-Paul Motaze said the stadium is just one project that has been affected by the conflicts affecting the country. He said the treasury is stretched with requests for funds for development projects and money to fund the conflicts. “The people want roads. They want security. They want energy. They want agricultural products. We have to realize them with revenues. That means that we have to look for internal revenues. Those internal revenues are taxes. But we have to consider the expenses,” Motaze said.

Cameroon will no longer host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON)

Financial scandal

The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) project was one of the largest projects recently rocked by a financial scandal in Cameroon. The country was stripped of its hosting right in favor of Egypt due to massive delays in the preparations. Whistleblowers claim that an estimated 1.8 billion euros of Cameroonian public money has been swallowed in contracts shrouded in controversy. A video of a Cameroonian official allegedly defending why a bag of cement costs 15,000 CFA francs  for the AFCON project, instead of the normal 4,500 CFA francs, went viral on social media.

Ako John Ako, a university lecturer and civil society activist in Cameroon, said that the prices of the 2019 AFCON infrastructure were ten times more than is usual for the same kind of infrastructure in other African nations. “Findings indicated that public contracts suffered one of the highest hits,” Ako said. “Within Cameroon, those who implement decisions or grant the order for contracts always have a percentage reserved in their name.”

Corruption kills infrastructure

Government ministers, heads of parapublic and public as well as giant private enterprises are increasingly being brought down as Cameroon’s anti-corruption organ intensifies its efforts. According to the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s (CONAC) most recent report, the country saw 375 billion CFA francs  returned to its coffers.

Doula is Cameroon’s biggest city and its economic capital Despite these efforts, civil society actors like Ako think that CONAC, other anti-corruption agencies and poor governance remain key factors in holding back Cameroon’s development.

“CONAC and many other agencies that have been created by the state simply come to confirm that Cameroon will solve problems with commissions, but then more often than not most of the commissions created are still a problem and center for corruption within Cameroon,” he told DW. Ako went on to say that the Cameroonian government could say that the fight against corruption has been succeeding, because Cameroon does not appear among the first five most corrupt nations in the world. “But corruption still continues to be the venom that is eating and killing the infrastructure and implementation or execution of state activities,” he said.

Threat of famine

The situation in the English-speaking regions, where suspected separatists have been carrying out attacks and kidnappings, is dire. Dominic Asah, one of the supervisors of government development projects, said that up to 20 percent of planned projects could not be implemented due to insecurity and shortage of liquidity. “The socio-political climate in the field is actually what is hampering the execution process in these localities. The northwest region received a total of 490 operations. Only 52 have been executed, 69 are ongoing and 311 are still to take off the ground,” Asah said. At least 10,000 workers have quit their jobs in rubber plantations in the English-speaking town of Buea. According to director general Frankline Njie, they require at least 54 million dollars. “None of our rubber estates is operating normally. Some are shut down completely, the workers are threatened,” Njie lamented.

He said it was difficult for him to understand and accept why all this pain was being inflicted. “The banana sector has been hit. One of our pack houses, where bananas are processed for export was attacked and set ablaze.” President Paul Biya has openly called on all fighters to drop their guns  and has created a national disarmament commission to socially reintegrate fighters who surrender.

Source: DW.Com  

Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji said Tuesday that the government has assisted more than 60,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the two troubled English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

“As of today, there are 60,345 Cameroonians who have already received humanitarian assistance in the two regions. There are also 1,200 families that have returned home,” Nji told reporters in the capital city of Yaounde while meeting with seven other ministers to assess the humanitarian situation in the restive regions.

He stressed that other humanitarian organizations wishing to assist the IDPs must obtain permission from the government.

“On no account can you go to the field and start doing your activities without the formal approval of the government because if things are not properly organized there is the risk of having assistance falling into the hands of the terrorists,” Nji said.

He said, rehabilitation centers have already been set up to accommodate armed separatists who will drop their weapons.

“When you lay down your weapons, you will be taken to the centers, where you are provided health, psychological and training facilities,” Nji said.

Armed separatists have been clashing with government forces in the two English-speaking regions since November 2017. Separatists want to secede from Francophone-majority Cameroon and create a new nation called “Ambazonia”.

The United Nations estimates that over 430,000 people have been displaced internally by the conflict.

During his end-of-year speech to the nation, Cameroon President Paul Biya said he was ready to continue dialogue with “people of goodwill” in the troubled regions but warned that armed separatists unwilling to drop their arms will be “neutralized”.

Source: Xinhua

At least 23 people have died in a road accident in Cameroon’s north, local authorities say.

Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, the governor of the region where the crash took place, told dpa that it appeared a truck from neighbouring Chad collided with a public transport bus.

Boukar added that the crash was caused by “overspeeding.”

Three people were seriously injured in the crash and were receiving treatment at Ngoundere Regional Hospital.

Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur

A top security adviser to President Biya (names withheld) has revealed that the Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Groups are far stronger than the Cameroon government army. Speaking to our undercover reporter in Yaoundé on Monday, the Biya acolyte said “Two years have passed since President Biya declared the war and the conflict in Southern Cameroons is showing no signs of ending.”

“We wrongfully thought we had the strongest army in the CEMAC region. The Ambazonian Restoration Force with little or no training is even stronger than the Cameroon army,” the French Cameroun Security boss lamented. “The Southern Cameroons young fighters are totally confident in their faith today and are ready to sacrifice a lot more than the Cameroon army. My fear now is that we may end up losing Anglophone Cameroon,” he continued.

Our source also addressed the economic aspects of the military campaign in Southern Cameroons in which the Francophone dominated army has been bogged down participating in the fighting on behalf of the 85 year old dictator President Paul Biya. “In a few more months Cameroon will be importing foodstuffs from Gabon and Central African Republic!! Disaster is near,” he declared.

The senior Cameroon military officer also told our reporter that pride and naked arrogance was responsible for the Southern Cameroons war and that many senior French Cameroun army officers were exploiting its continuation for financial gains.  “I sometimes get the feeling that the war is being waged against our Anglophone brothers and sisters with the aim of strengthening Francophone political elites loyal to President Biya. Everything is done for Biya and serves Biya,” he claimed.

Elsewhere, the Ambazonian Acting President Dr Samuel Ikome Sako has continued his tirade against the French Cameroun government in Yaounde observing that they were doomed to lose in the war. Reacting to threats made by President Biya against Ambazonian Restoration Forces, Dr Sako noted that “No one scares Southern Cameroonians away from wars. Anyone who wants war: They’re welcome in Southern Cameroons.”

The Federal Republic of Ambazonia has not surrendered despite the ineffectiveness of the African Union and the United Nations. Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia is now detached from the world, subjected to a French Cameroun siege, and the Biya Francophone regime is still limited in how it can deal with it. As the Southern Cameroons war runs into its third year, Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Ambazonian Interim Government is slowly but surely forcing on French Cameroun an equation whereby a bombing will be met with a bombing.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon says it is mobilizing troops along the country’s northern border with Nigeria and in the western English-speaking regions, following renewed attacks by Boko Haram in the north and separatists in the west.

Cameroon’s military calls for troops to assemble at its headquarters in Yaounde ahead of major deployments.

Defense Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Rene Claude Meka said 2019 will see Cameroon fight for national unity and territorial integrity.

He said they have re-mobilized the military to all trouble spots. Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based Islamist terrorist group, is again recruiting fighters in Cameroon and attacking our northern border, said Meka. Meanwhile, separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state have recruited mercenaries from neighboring countries to destabilize Cameroon, he said.

Cameroon’s military says there is a Boko Haram resurgence on its northern border with Nigeria. It reports five attacks across the border and in the Lake Chad basin this month.

Last week three people were reported killed in the border town of Fotokol as troops repelled a Boko Haram attack.

Separatist fighting also intensified in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions in the northwest and southwest. The military said at least 45 rebels have been killed in the first three weeks of the year. Separatists say they are the ones killing the soldiers.

Although the numbers cannot be independently verified, villagers have confirmed fighting has recently increased.

Twenty-seven-year-old Elengu Noella said two of her three children were killed in heavy fighting around the southwestern town of Buea and she has not been able to find her husband.

She said a Catholic Church Hospital ambulance helped her and four other women escape as a battle raged between Cameroon’s military and separatists.

Separatists seeking an independent English-speaking state are accused of abducting and killing opponents and trying to make their regions ungovernable.

Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said President Paul Biya also ordered troops to Cameroon’s eastern border. He said spill-over from fighting in the Central African Republic has increased criminal activities.

“2019 will not be a bed of roses. We shall continue with various operations in the far north, northwest and southwest regions, reactivation of special operations in the Adamawa region where criminal groups specialized in kidnapping are wreaking havoc and requesting for ransom,” he said.

Isaac Sama is a political analyst at Cameroon’s Center for Peace and Development. He said while troop deployments to fight foreign invaders is justified, the government should attempt to negotiate with the separatists.

Sama said more and more civilians are displaced by the fighting each time the military attacks the rebels.

“We have practical situations of people who actually died and then those who are in the bushes, they are also in bad conditions. They have no access to anything.”

Cameroon says since fighting broke out with separatists in 2016, more than 1,200 people have been killed and nearly a quarter million displaced.

VOA