If Simon had the chance to tell his class about his summer holidays, the seven-year-old Simon would no doubt mention the large tarpaulin sack that for almost four months served as his sleeping bag and his magic carpet.

When the family fled their home in the town of Batibo, in Cameroon’s north west, his mother used grain bags to carry her two youngest children as Simon ran alongside. Later, out in the open jungle, all three children slept inside the bags.

“It protected them from the snakes and the mosquitoes,” says Rebecca, Simon’s mother, 25, her voice still sounding panicked as she describes the exodus and the stray bullets she feared could hit her children.

But Simon will not be telling any summer holiday stories this year. Like tens of thousands of other Cameroonian children, school has been suspended for yet another year.

The crisis in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions – the north-west and south-west – began in October 2016 with peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers demanding the wider use of English, rather than French, in local courtrooms and schools, as well as more English-speaking school teachers, adherence to a dual legal system and a fairer allocation of resources.

But the situation has spiralled out of control amid a vicious war of kidnapping, decapitations and the burning of entire villages.

Classrooms have become part of the ongoing warfare between the government and separatist forces. School attendance is compulsory for all Cameroonian children until the age of 12, but gunshots on the streets and threats from separatist forces mean many are denied this right.

In recent months, teachers who dared to show up for work have been killed, and buildings burned. This week an unknown group of men stormed a school in Buea, capital of the south-west region, attacking students and teachers with machetes and guns. This followed reports that on 3 September, the first day of the academic year, gunmen attacked a secondary school in the town of Bafut, about 25km from Bamenda, the capital of the north-west region, kidnapping five pupils.

Condemning such incidents, Jacques Boyer, who represents Unicef, the UN children’s agency, in Cameroon, said: “All children in the north-west and south-west regions – like any other children across the country – must be able to go to school in peace.”

Unicef estimates published this month show that, of more than 300 million five- to 17-year-olds not in school worldwide, one-third live in conflict areas.

But Unicef is not providing any educational support for people living in the affected regions and there appears to be little help from other organisations. Cameroonians are being left to get on with things themselves.

The country’s two Anglophone regions are home to approximately a fifth of the country’s population, estimated at 23 million. More than 180,000 people have fled their homes in the Anglophone areas, and families are growing increasingly anxious about the impact of missed schooling on their children.

“Imagine five years from now, the children still not going to school – what will happen to them?” says Bridget, 50, a retired nurse who fled her north-west hometown. “They will become a terror group fighting the government.”

Such fears may already be a reality. Claire, 38, from Kumbo, north-west region, says children she used to see in her church now run around the neighbourhood with guns.

“One of their leaders is a girl whose grandmother was burned alive in her home [by government forces],” she says. “Now she’s one of the ones giving orders.”

Today, she can shoot a gun. “But what will happen to her when she is arrested?” says Claire.

There are also worries that lack of schooling will increase already high teenage pregnancy rates. According to the Cameroon Medical Council, one in four pregnancies in the country are among school-age girls.

Though there are no official statistics, parents from the north-west region who have fled to the capital, Yaoundé, say they have noticed more pregnant teenagers. With shops and businesses closed, schoolgirls are looking for cleaning or babysitting jobs, leaving them at risk to abuse.

More affluent families have sent their children to schools in the French-speaking parts of the country, and cities like Douala and Yaoundé are beginning to feel the squeeze.

Sandrine, 17, a student at Deido billingual high school in Douala, says class sizes have increased considerably. “In theory, there are supposed to be around 40 students in a classroom, but that’s a joke,” she said. “It’s more like a hundred.”

During last summer’s exams season, she said students had to turn up extra early to claim a desk or face being turned away.

For those stuck in the crisis-ridden regions, private education – which is becoming ever more expensive – is the only option, says Frances, a mother of one in Kumba.

“The teacher charges 30,000 [West African CFA] francs per month, so for nine months the fees will be 270,000 francs (£370), while school used to cost just 90,000 per year,” she says.

Organising home schooling is not always possible, adds Frances, since group gatherings of more than five people can attract the attention of the authorities.

Simon and his family are now living in a crowded, filthy compound with 30 other people in Yaoundé, hosted by relatives. His mother says he won’t be able to attend school this term.

“I haven’t got a job, and I can’t afford the school fees,” she says. She does not speak French, the working language in the capital. She is afraid people will turn on her when they realise where she is from.

“We are too afraid to even go outside and speak English,” she says. Other mothers nod in agreement. Surveying the calm Yaoundé traffic, Claire, about to return to Kumbo, says she fears young people in her hometown will be a lost generation. “You can sacrifice anything, but not the future of the children.”

*All names have been changed at the request of the interviewees, who feared repercussions if identified.

Source: The Guardian

Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang died Friday at age 61 after a prolonged and serious illness, state media reported. He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, Quang had a reputation as a tough leader with little tolerance for dissent.

Though he held one of the country’s top four positions and was officially the head of state, his role as president was seen as largely ceremonial, greeting visiting leaders and hosting diplomatic events in a bid to boost Vietnam’s profile on the world stage.

Quang had appeared thin and pale in public, and was unstable on his feet last week when he hosted a welcoming ceremony for Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Hanoi last week.

His last public appearance was just two days ago, at a meeting with visiting Chinese politicians and foreign dignitaries in Hanoi.

Quang, a member of the Politburo, had a reputation as tough and influential in the inner circles of the communist party, though often appeared uncomfortable in the public eye and lacked the charisma of some of his peers in the upper echelons of the party.

In an interview with AFP in 2016 ahead of a visit by the former French leader Francois Hollande, Quang read from a prepared statement and was quickly escorted from the room by staff when a question went off-script. State media made a somber announcement of his death Friday and celebrated his long commitment to public service.

His time in office was dominated by a simmering conflict with Beijing over the South China Sea, a long-running dispute between the communist neighbours that escalated on several occasions. Vietnam cancelled at least one oil drilling project in the resource-rich region during Quang’s tenure in an apparent bid to quell tensions.

He was the administration’s most public face at a series of high-profile events, most notably at an APEC meeting in Danang in November last year where he hosted a bevy of world leaders including US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.

As president, he oversaw a crackdown on dissidents that rights groups have decried as a chokehold on free expression. More than 40 people were jailed this year and some 100 have been behind bars as of April 2018, according to Amnesty International.

(AFP)

The United States expanded its sanctions war against Russia to China on Thursday, announcing punitive measures against a Chinese military organization for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Stepping up pressure on Moscow over its “malign activities,” the US State Department said it was placing financial sanctions on the Equipment Development Department of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, and its top administrator, for its recent purchase of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles.

Officials said it was the first time a third country has been punished under the CAATSA sanctions legislation for dealing with Russia, and signaled the Trump administration’s will to risk relations with other countries in its campaign against Moscow.

They also said that the US could consider similar action against other countries taking delivery of Russian fighter jets and missiles. US ally Turkey is currently talking with Moscow about an S400 deal.

“The ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia,” a senior administration official told journalists, insisting on anonymity.

“CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country. They are aimed at imposing costs on Russia in response to its malign activities.”

CAATSA, or the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, was passed in 2017 as a tool that gives the Trump administration more ways to target Russia, Iran and North Korea with economic and political sanctions.

With regard to Russia, CAATSA arises from the country’s “aggression in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, cyber intrusions and attacks, interference in the 2016 elections, and other malign activities,” the State Department said.

The legislation allows the government to take action against those companies and individuals who have been placed on the CAATSA blacklist.

EDD and its director Li Shangfu became targets after taking delivery over the past year of the jets and missiles from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms export entity already on the CAATSA blacklist for its support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Targeting Russian ‘big ticket’ arms deals

At the same time, the State Department also announced it was placing 33 Russian intelligence and military-linked actors on its sanctions blacklist under the CAATSA rules.

All of them — defense related firms, officers of the GRU military intelligence agency, and people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency disinformation group — have been on previous US sanctions lists and 28 of them have already been indicted by Russia election meddling investigator Robert Mueller.

“We will continue to vigorously implement CAATSA and urge all countries to curtail relationships with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors, both of which are linked to malign activities worldwide,” the State Department said.

The sanctions freeze any of EDD’s and Li’s assets in US jurisdictions.

They also restrict EDD’s access to global financial markets by blocking foreign exchange transactions under US jurisdiction or any transactions in the US financial system.

The senior official stressed that CAATSA is not going to be implemented across the board, but that the US was choosing Russia’s sale of “bigger ticket items” of “new, fancy, qualitatively significant stuff” that could have a “security impact” on the United States.

“The CAATSA was not intended to take down the economy of third party countries. It’s intended to impose appropriate pressures on Russia in response to Russian malign acts,” the official said.

The official declined to answer if the US would take similar action if Russia delivers S400 missiles to other countries such as Turkey, which is in talks to buy them.

However, he said, “You can be confident that we have spent an enormous amount of time talking about prospective purchases of things such as S-400s and Sukhois with people all around the world who may have been interested in such things and some who may still be.”

“We have made it very clear to them that these — that systems like the S-400 are a system of key concern with potential CAATSA implications.”

(AFP)

As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

While the majority of the population is out, those who do not have relatives out of their main towns have opted to stay and this is costing them their lives. Government militias dressed in the country’s military fatigue are on a rampage. The government has trained a group of Beti killers and unleashed them on the Southern Cameroonian population. A massacre of a global scale is unfolding in many villages and towns in the English-speaking regions.

Pictures emerging from the region are too graphic to be shown. The story is hard to tell. Young men hiding in their homes have been reduced to a mass of flesh as army soldiers move from house to house to carry out a mission they have been handed by Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed, there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

“They have trained killers to kill young able-bodied Southern Cameroonians in the region. This is not the right time for any young man to be in the Southwest and northwest regions. The government has decided to cleanse the region and its militia and military are working hand in glove to implement a plan put in place by the defense minister and his collaborators,” the source said.

“The days ahead will be the bloodiest. The government has no respect for human life. I am really ashamed to be called a Cameroonian. I wish I could express myself in public, but the position I hold makes it hard for me to speak. I am dying in silence. Our country is going through the toughest moments in its history. How can a complaint by a peace-loving people be allowed to degenerate into a civil war,” he added.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many part of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

While the killings are going on, the Yaoundé government has decided to seal its leaps. The massacre speaks to a well-orchestrated genocide. The government of Cameroon has decided to wipe out all adult males from certain communities as a move to end any opposition it might face in the region.

With presidential elections on the horizon and October 1 which is considered by many Southern Cameroonians as their independence day, the government is hard at work to ensure that it faces no challenges in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch has not expressed any regret about what is happening in the country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaounde government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is finally migrating to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become beehives as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 16, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

More than half a million people, last week, left the English-speaking region as presidential elections scheduled for next month approach. The Southern Cameroons crisis has taking a turn for the worse. While there are some helpless people in the region, the government has intensified its attacks and it has, so far, not issued any statements to reassure the fear-stricken population that is still living there and local officials have been tight-lipped over the displacement of over half a million people in the region.

Over the last two weeks, more than 500 civilians have been killed in the region, while some army soldiers have been sent to an early grave by restoration forces. The government has been struggling to localize the Southern Cameroons crisis, but as the fighting intensifies, many people are seeking refuge in the French-speaking region of the country.

The mass movement of Southern Cameroonians into other parts of the country has resulted in escalating food and housing prices. The high living cost is keeping government officials in cities such as Yaoundé and Douala awake all night, as they fear that the increasing pressure might cause the cash-strapped Francophone population to rebel against the government.

Many analysts are wondering when the killing and madness will come to an end. They hold that a different approach could have produced different results and this issue could have been laid to rest a long time ago.

The little infrastructure the two regions possess is deteriorating on a daily basis as both parties do what they can to prove that they have an upper hand. Today, the road leading to Bamenda from East Cameroon has been destroyed by Southern Cameroonian fighters and this is going to cost the region a huge fortune.

Ever since the crisis started, many eminent people across the world have called on the government to change its strategy, but the president of the country, Paul Biya, and his collaborators still see military action as the only option and this is what is causing the escalation.

The devil seems to be at work in Cameroon. Power and money have caused the government to lose its decency. In normal environments, peace talks will be going on to avert the worst. In Cameroon, that is not happening. Even when the country’s economy is taking the heat, the Yaoundé regime still holds that it can only crush opposition by force.

When is the government going to figure out that dialogue can produce more results than military action? When will it know that innocent civilians are being killed for crimes they have not committed?

When will it understand that to live in peace with other people, it must not use brute force?  Why has the government taken a position that is not tenable? The more it wants to destroy the fighters, the more the fighters want to prove that they can stand the test.

These extreme positions are not helping anybody. A shift in thinking and mentality could bring about peace and unity instead of military action. Cameroon is on the brink. The devil is at work in Cameroon. Many lives have been ruined. Many young men and soldiers have been rushed to an early grave.

The world cannot continue to play spectator to a situation that is resulting in thousands of deaths. Another Rwanda is silently playing out in Cameroon and the AU and EU are doing nothing to check this madness that is being encouraged by the government. The world seems to have abandoned Southern Cameroonians to their ugly fate.

Cameroon needs help. The world has to come in to stop the blood flow. The country is heading to the bottom of the abyss and if something is not done, the entire sub-region will be destabilized. Mr. Biya and government are mowing down the people of Southern Cameroons. Their only crime is that they have complained about a regime that is causing them a lot of pain.

For how long will the world continue to look the other way while the Yaoundé government reduces the size of its own population? Does one and indivisible imply that an entire region must be decimated?

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda