Cameroon’s Anglophone region is rapidly becoming a no-go zone. Thousands of residents fled to the country’s French speaking cities of Douala, Yaoundé, and Bafoussam, during August and September, anticipating more blood shed before the country’s October presidential elections.

English-speaking Cameroon makes up roughly 20% of the country’s 24.8 million people. It has been nearly three years since the Anglophone crisis began. It started when English-speaking teachers and lawyers went on strike demanding fair working conditions. They and other Anglophone residents complain that their language and culture are marginalised by Cameroon’s French-speaking government and legislators.

The government responded with force. The conflict that followed has been vicious; unprecedented in the nation’s history. It’s a reminder of older, brutal wars elsewhere in Africa: in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Rwanda.

Lip service is not enough. It’s time for these major powers to act. Great nation status comes with great responsibilities, and particularly in an interconnected global environment there must be a moral imperative in the conduct of foreign policy. These powers must also recognise that Cameroon’s ongoing crisis threatens the wider West African region’s long and short term stability.

Business as usual

There’s no doubt that global powers know exactly what’s happening in Cameroon. In June 2018, the US Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organisations in Washington D.C heard witness testimonies about the graphic nature of hostilities in Cameroon.

And yet, as a cursory glance at the US embassy website in Yaoundé reveals, it’s mostly business as usual for the two countries. American citizens are warned to avoid travelling to Cameroon’s English speaking regions – but that’s the extent of it.

On its official embassy website, meanwhile, France refers to Cameroon as a “friend” and a “partner”. It calls for “restraint.” Considering how vital the country is to its strategic interests in the West African region, one might expect France to say – or do – more.

Cameroon is in crisis. It needs an intervention. Shutterstock

China’s actions in this saga have also been extremely frustrating. At the recent Forum of China-African Cooperation in Beijing, President Paul Biya was given the red carpet treatment. No Chinese leaders, and none from the rest of Africa, made any public statements about the Anglophone crisis.

Strategic importance

All of this is extremely vexing given Cameroon’s strategic importance. For many years the US monitored its interest in Equatorial Guinea from Yaoundé. Cameroon and the US are partners in coordinating efforts against Boko Haram and other global terrorist groups.

Cameroon is vital to France’s interest in the West African region. The Anglophone crisis could destabilise the region by snowballing into neighbouring countries. And other former French colonies will be watching with interest, noting the European power’s hands off approach.

China’s policy of non-intervention in another country’s domestic affairs has only strengthened the resolve of tyrants like Biya. He remains one of China’s key allies in the region. Publicly, China’s Premier Li Keqiang has said little about the ongoing Anglophone Crisis. Instead he’s given more money to Biya’s government and enjoys cordial relations with the long time leader.

Perhaps as long as the crisis doesn’t interfere with China’s receipt of timber, rubber and other raw materials from Cameroon, there won’t be a shift in Beijing’s attitude any time soon.

Agitating for change

It seems unlikely, though, that the world’s major powers will totally change their approach to what are viewed as sovereign issues.

But there are things that can be done, and some are quite basic. Biya can be forced to do the right thing. For instance, he spends a significant amount of vacation time in Switzerland.

There is absolutely no reason why European nations and journalists shouldn’t speak out about the leader’s spending of his country’s resources in Switzerland, France, and other places.

Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, must turn his verbal threats into actions. Sanctions, for instance, will force Cameroon to address the Anglophone problem. France could also stop the supply of military hardware and intelligence to Biya’s regime.

China can also do more. Its policy of non-intervention doesn’t apply when its interests are threatened: it intervened in Zambia’s elections to safeguard its interests there.

Finally, the African Union has a role to play while it awaits more concerted efforts from European powers. For instance, the continental body could threaten to withdraw the hosting of next year’s African Nations Cup if Biya doesn’t offer a clear timeline for solving the Anglophone crisis. This threat to a major money spinner and point of prestige could shock Biya into action.

Source: News 24

THE WOMEN WERE slapped and shoved down a dusty road. They were blindfolded and forced to the ground. Then they, and two young children, were gunned down — 22 shots from assault rifles fired at close range — by men in military uniforms.

In July, The Intercept was the first media outlet to publish the complete, unedited footage of this murder of four civilians by members of the Cameroonian armed forces — a key U.S. military ally in the region — drawing on extensive investigative work by experts at Amnesty International. The government of Cameroon quickly dismissed reports that its soldiers were involved in the atrocity, calling it “fake news.”

A newly released digital forensic investigation by Amnesty and the BBC offers overwhelming evidence that pinpoints the location of the killings, the make and model of one of the weapons used, and even the identity of the perpetrators, not only demonstrating that they are members of the Cameroonian military, but even providing names of some of the alleged killers. The massacre took place between March 20 and April 5, 2015, not far from the town of Zelevet, in the Far North region of Cameroon, according to the findings.

A “vital” U.S. counterterrorism partner in the Lake Chad Basin, according to the Pentagon, Cameroon has been authorized to receive roughly $200 million in American security aid since 2015. For years, the United States has also provided intelligence and training in counterterrorism skills, such as urban assault operations, to Cameroon’s armed forces. The U.S. military utilizes an outpost in the north of the country, known as Contingency Location Garoua, to fly drone missions. Members of the Army’s Task Force Darby, a military unit that includes soldiers and airmen, also serve at the base to support Cameroonian forces fighting the terrorist group Boko Haram.

“We are aware of the video. At this time, we cannot confirm the authenticity of the video, nor can we confirm any possible military affiliation of those shown in this troubling video,” Maj. Sheryll Klinkel, a Pentagon spokesperson, told The Intercept after the massacre footage surfaced online in July.

The Pentagon appeared to be unswayed by the new BBC/Amnesty investigation. “I don’t have much more to provide you beyond what I have previously, nothing has changed recently,” Klinkel told The Intercept when asked about the new analysis.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s Lake Chad researcher, said of the atrocity footage. “This is part of an inherently abusive system put in place by the Cameroonian security forces to address security threats. Cameroonian security forces have a long track record of abusive conduct both in the Far North region, where they fight Boko Haram, and in the Anglophone regions, where they are deployed to confront the armed separatists.”

Last month, The Intercept published another video showing the massacre of civilians by Cameroonian soldiers. That mass killing likely took place in the village of Achigachiya, also in the Far North region, in January 2015.

In 2017, Amnesty, the London-based research firm Forensic Architecture, and The Intercept exposed illegal imprisonment, torture, and killings by Cameroonian troops at a remote military base known as Salak, which is also used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for training missions and drone surveillance. U.S. Africa Command launched an investigation, but never publicly announced details about its aims and has not released the results. AFRICOM has not responded to repeated requests from The Intercept seeking comment about the parameters, scope, and findings of its probe, which was headed by Brig. Gen. Timothy McAteer and concluded in November 2017.

“We urge the U.S. to make the findings of the AFRICOM investigation public to ascertain whether there was any knowledge of incommunicado detention, torture, and death in custody at the military outpost where U.S. military personnel were based — Salak — and to show that they take human rights issues seriously when it comes to their military cooperation,” Amnesty’s Allegrozzi told The Intercept.

The BBC identified the three men shown shooting women and children in the spring 2015 video as Cyriaque Bityala, Barnabas Donossou, and Lance Corporal Tsanga. All three appear on a list of troops arrested by the Cameroonian government in connection with the massacre. “Seven soldiers were arrested,” Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a Cameroonian government spokesperson, told the BBC. “They are under investigation right now.”

“The Cameroonian government is taking some steps to address allegations of human rights abuses. This includes the arrest of seven individuals linked to the first video, and President [Paul] Biya ordering official investigations into all videos purportedly depicting Cameroonian security forces engaging in extrajudicial killings,” Nick Sadoski, deputy spokesperson of the State Department’s Africa Bureau, told The Intercept. “The Cameroonian government has made some efforts toward transparency and reached out to the international community for assistance. This includes the Ministry of Defense undertaking a U.S. government-funded program to train and establish 40 military legal advisers to advance human rights principles and promote security force accountability in the field commands around Cameroon.”

Cameroon’s embassy in Washington, D.C. did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. Nor has Cameroon’s government released any further information in regard to its investigation of the massacre of the women and children, according to the U.S. State Department.

“The next step is for the Cameroonian government to reveal more information about those arrested, where they are being held, whether they have a lawyer, the charges against them, and when or if a trial will start,” said Amnesty’s Allegrozzi. “They also need to provide information on who was in command of those soldiers. We are calling for an independent and impartial investigation into these heinous crimes.”

Source: The Intercept

The government of Cameroon still hasn’t reacted to a recent forensic investigation, led by the BBC and Amnesty International, which claimed to prove that a viral video showing the killing of unarmed women and children was carried out by Cameroonian soldiers.

The video which went viral in July, showed a woman carrying a baby on her back and another one holding a little girl by the hand. They are led to an uninhabited area by a group of soldiers. The one filming the act introduces his colleagues as they lead the women and children to their death; telling them they are members of the Boko Haram terrorist group. “You are going to die,” one of them says. The victims are stopped at some point, blindfolded and shot 22 times.

Back in July, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, government spokesman initially described the video as “fake news” propagated to tarnish the image of Cameroon’s military. Bakary said this in spite of early investigations by Amnesty International which identified the location where the video was shot and matched the military fatigues and weapons in the video to those of the Cameroonian armed forces.

The minister, however, disclosed about a month later that seven soldiers suspected to have been involved in the killings had been arrested. Government declared the incident was being investigated while the soldiers were held in pretrial detention.

Samira Daoud, deputy director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office cast doubts on government claims that investigations would be carried out so that the executioners are eventually court marshaled.

This month the BBC published a report of an extensive investigation it carried out in with Amnesty International, online investigation site, Bellingcat, and others. Going by the report, investigators used satellite imagery to identify the location and time of the killings. They also analyzed the video and with additional information from Facebook, identified three soldiers who they claim pulled the trigger. The soldiers identified were listed among the seven arrested by the Cameroonian government on Aug. 10.

According to the findings, the victims were killed in Karawa, Mafa in northern Cameroon sometime around March and April 2015. Since the release of the report on Sep. 24, the government spokesman who is usually quick to strike back at critics, has not responded to several requests by Quartz for comment.

The investigation report comes at an awkward time for the government as it is currently in campaign mode ahead of Oct. 7 elections. Aside the long-running difficulties with the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists, Cameroon is also dealing with the so-called Anglophone crisis with militant separatists in the northwest and southwest regions trying to create a new English-speaking country which borders Nigeria.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, Lake Chad Researcher at Amnesty International, told Quartz that video evidence is often vital to prove human rights violations and it can definitely be a very powerful tool for human rights defenders, and researchers.

She however noted that accountability cannot depend on video evidence; video documentation cannot become the minimum required evidence needed for concerned authorities to address human rights violations, said she.

“We urge the Cameroonian government to make sure an independent and impartial investigation is conducted on the case. We have seen in the past that all the cases documented with solid evidence by amnesty remained unaddressed and not dealt with. This is an indication of the climate of impunity looming in the country” she stated bluntly.

Source: Quartz Africa

As Cameroonian authorities investigate horrific crimes that appear to be have been committed by government soldiers in the Far North Region, the U.S. military is calling for accountability while it continues to provide training to its Cameroonian counterparts.

“The Cameroonian government has taken recent steps to increase transparency and address allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, but the government has not yet released information specific to its investigations,” Pentagon spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Sheryll Klinkel said Thursday in an email to VOA.

The Pentagon is continuing to work with the State Department to “ensure the government of Cameroon holds accountable any individuals found to be responsible,” Klinkel added.

Cameroonian authorities arrested seven Cameroonian soldiers after two videos circulated on social media. One video showed what were alleged to be Cameroonian forces shooting two women and two small children, while another showed what appeared to be Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed civilians during a counterterror operation in the Far North Region.

An investigation by the BBC used satellite imagery, Channel 4 News footage and clues from the video to assert the killings of two women and two children were committed in the Far North by Cameroonian soldiers between March 20 and April 5, 2015.

U.S. personnel sent

Former President Barack Obama deployed U.S. military personnel to the country about six months after that incident, in October 2015, to help in the fight against Boko Haram.

The Department of Defense still has about 300 military personnel in Cameroon as part of an international effort to stop the spread of violent extremism in West Africa.

In addition to what the Pentagon calls “building partner capacity” through basic military training and equipping, the Defense Department trains foreign troops on the law of armed conflict and human rights.

The Cameroonian Ministry of Defense also takes part in a U.S. government-funded program to train and establish 40 military legal advisers to advance human rights principles and promote security force accountability in the field commands across Cameroon.

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command, cautioned before the Cameroonian government arrests that partnership with the U.S. comes with responsibility.

“We want to have a strong military relationship with Cameroon, but their actions will go a long way toward how that will play out in the future, with regards to the transparency on some of these latest allegations,” Waldhauser said on July 31.

Source: VOA

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and 27 leading civil society organisations have called for Cameroon to be added to the formal agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG). CMAG meets this week in New York and has the power to suspend Cameroon from the Commonwealth; it includes Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, and the foreign ministers of Australia, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Namibia, Samoa, and the United Kingdom.

Civil society is raising attention to indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests, detention without recourse to justice, torture, and asserts the Government of Cameroon to be in breach of the Commonwealth Charter, Latimer House Principles, and the Harare Declaration.

David White, CHRI’s London Head commented: ‘CMAG was set up to deal with serious and persistent violators of the shared principles, which is precisely the situation in Cameroon. This is a call from civil society for the the Secretary-General and CMAG to act in defence of the very values that bind our Commonwealth together.’

A video emerged earlier this year, showing some armed men in uniform brutally killing a group of women and children, and triggered uproar across the globe. It was alleged that the video, released by Channel 4, showed killing of civilians by Cameroon’s army over alleged links with dreaded terrorist group Boko Haram.

The Cameroon government denied the claim, saying that the video was not shot in the country and that the Army was being wrongly blamed for killing civilians. A statement was released by Cameroon Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, to deny the claims.

“The video that is currently going round is nothing but an unfortunate attempt to distort actual facts and intoxicate the public. Its sincerity can be easily questioned,” Bakary had said in his statement. While the statement came in July 2018, the government a month later said that seven members of the military were facing investigation.

BBC, however, decided to carry out a fact check of the video and the claims and counter claims around it. And the media group did so with the help of Google Earth. It based its investigation on three points – where exactly did it happen, when did it happen, and who is responsible for the atrocities. The BBC released its findings in a video titled ‘Cameroon: Anatomy of a killing’.

Where:

The first 40 seconds of the video captures a mountain range with a distinctive profile. BBC journalists spent hours to match the range with the topography of northern Cameroon, but it failed to give desired result. After a tip off from a source, they studied the topography of a particular region and discovered that the range was near a village named Krawa Mafa, few hundred meters away from the Nigerian border. Other details in the video, such as houses and dirt tracks, were matched with the topography of the village and found to be same.

When:

This was the trickiest part of the investigation done by BBC journalists. Several bits and pieces were put together to identify the range of period when the civilians were killed. A building was visible on the satellite imagery but only till 2016, which suggested that the killings took place before that period. Another building was spotted to have come up in March 2015. Then, a path was traced which appeared only between January and July. The journalists also analysed the shadow of walking assailants on basis of concept of sun dial. After the whole analysis, it was confirmed that the killings took place between March 20 and April 5, 2015.

Who:

The statement released by Cameroonian Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary was used for this purpose. For instance, the minister in his statement claimed that the weapons in the video were not the ones used by the Cameroonian Army, but BBC analysis showed that one of the guns used was Serbian made Zastava M21, which is used by some sections of the country’s military. The minister also claimed that the dress worn by the assailants was one used for operations in forests. Bakary claimed that the soldiers in the said area wore desert-style uniform. But Cameroonian soldiers in the region in a Channel 4 video of 2015 were seen wearing forest-style camouflage, similar to those seen in the video.

The focus then shifted to a statement released by the government in August 2018, which named seven soldiers who were arrested and under investigation. The names mentioned in the video, such as Corporal Tchotcho, were matched with some Facebook profiles. A profile of Tchotcho Cyriaque Bityala, who was among the detainees named by the government. Two other soldiers, named in the government list, were identified in a similar manner.

The findings were shared by BBC with the Cameroonian government. Responding to it, the Bakary said, “Seven soldiers were arrested, disarmed. They are under investigation right now. I can confirm that all seven of them are in prison.”

Culled from ZeeNews

Cameroon’s Senate president, Marcel Niat Njifenji, 84, has died in a French hospital a few days after he was evacuated due to respiratory problems. Mr. Njifenji who was reappointed by his friend, classmate, and president, Paul Biya, as senator and Senate president has, for some time now, been suffering from a respiratory problem.

He was once the country’s deputy prime minister and a former managing director of the country’s only power utility corporation, SONEL, in the 1980s. Mr Njifenji has been accused by many of his collaborators in SONEL at the time of embezzling the funds of the state corporation which later faced serious management problems in the 1990s.

Mr. Njifenji who just started his second term as the Senate president has been one of the many reactionary elements who have ensured that no meaningful political change takes place in the country. He has also worked with members of the ruling party to ensure that the Southern Cameroons crisis that has resulted in the deaths of some 4,000 Cameroonians does not get addressed at the negotiating table.

Mr. Njifenji was supposed to lead a delegation to his native region to campaign for outgoing President Paul Biya’s reelection.

Mr. Biya, who is himself suffering from a heart problem and a distended prostate, has not yet been seen on the campaign trail although his surrogates are all over the place trying to convince the population that he will be campaigning soon.

Mr. Biya’s poor economic performance and his inability to steer a prosperous country to safer shores makes it hard for his candidacy to be sold to a population that is hankering for change. Mr. Biya has ruled the country for 36 years and his incompetence has not only left the country with a tough economic situation, it has also caused the country to deal with a civil war that might take decades to address.

Speaking to a member of the ruling party who elected anonymity, the Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that there was a huge division within the ruling party.

The ruling party member said that it was good for some of the old members to start quitting the scene in order to create room for the new generation that could easily deal with some of the economic and political challenges facing the country.

“I have just been advised of the Senate president’s death in a French hospital. I would like to use this opportunity to extend my condolences to his family,” he said.

“With people like Niat out of the picture, our country could start healing. He was one of those reactionary elements of the government who have been blocking efforts to address the Southern Cameroons crisis through peaceful means,” he added.

Mr. Njifenji will be succeeded as Senate president by Chief Tabetando of the Southwest region who has been Mr. Njifenji’s vice for more than four years.

He will surely not be missed by Cameroonians who have been calling for change at the highest level of the country’s political realm. The government is yet to make any official statement regarding his death and our call to his office has not yet been returned.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde

The Canadian government on Tuesday issued a travel advisory for Cameroon cautioning citizens on the security situation ahead of October 7 presidential polls. A summary of the safety and security tab read: Presidential elections are due to take place on October 7, 2018. Demonstrations could occur before, during and after the elections.

• Avoid areas where demonstrations and large gatherings are taking place
• Follow the instructions of local authorities
• Monitor local media for the latest information

The upcoming polls have been cited as a key test of the security apparatus in the country especially with threats from separatists elements that voting will not take place in the English-speaking regions – North-West and South-West.

Specifically on the situation in the two regions, the advisory said: “Since late November 2016, demonstrations, general strikes and clashes stemming from local tensions have led to casualties in the North-West and South-West regions.

“The security situation has deteriorated since the beginning of 2018. Kidnappings have occurred and foreigners have been targeted. A curfew is in effect from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“Unofficial road blocks could be set up by armed groups. At any time, local authorities could impose movement restrictions. Telecommunications could be disrupted.”

It also warned against the Far North and Mayo-Louti Department and areas bordering Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic.

Cameroonians go to the polls to elect a new president. Incumbent Paul Biya is up against eight other candidates. The vote is the final process for a busy electoral year that has seen legislative polls being organised by the elections body, ELECAM.

Source: Africa News