1, January 2018
Ambazonia: Biya Vows to ‘Deal’ with the Interim Government 0
Cameroon President Paul Biya says he will destroy all terrorists whom he says are fighting to separate his country or using it as a hiding place for armed attacks on neighboring states. In a message, Biya reiterated he was open for dialogue with the disgruntled English speaking minority in the bilingual country but that his military would deal with armed separatists fighting for the independence of the English speaking regions.
President Paul Biya says it is his duty to ensure public order, social peace, the unity of the nation and Cameroon’s integrity, and so he has issued instructions that all those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes before the courts of law.
“It is my firm belief that fast-tracking our decentralization process will enhance the development of our Regions,” he said. “To that end, I have ordered the implementation of the necessary measures to speedily give effect to this major reform. We will contribute towards consolidating the rule of law and open a new page in our democratic process.”
Many Cameroonians had expected Biya to be lenient towards armed insurgents and invite them to the negotiation table.
Biya said he requested the government engage in constructive dialogue with English speakers to seek solutions to their demands. But he added that he will destroy all those who have taken arms against the state, which he reiterated will remain one and indivisible.
He however pledged to make Cameroon a decentralized unitary state by implementing decentralization as spelled out in the country’s constitution.
Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration and decentralization, says the decentralization Biya spoke about encounters many challenges.
“We started implementing this process effectively since 2010, but of course we can ascertain the fact that the there are still some difficulties, there are still some problems,” he said. “The councils complain that the resources put at their disposal do not allow them to respond to the needs of the populations and to the implementation of their projects.”
Until a few years ago, Cameroon was referred to as a peace haven because it had never experienced major challenges. But the Boko Haram insurgency on its northern border with Nigeria that started four years ago has killed more than 25,000 people, and displaced millions of people in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger according to the United Nations.
The spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic (CAR) is also felt on the central African state’s border with CAR with repeated cases of kidnappings for ransom and attacks by armed men.
Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English speaking north west region, says he supports Paul Biya’s determination to eliminate the armed separatists so that schools can reopen and businesses pick up in the English speaking areas of Cameroon more than one year after they were hampered by the crisis.
“We are begging for peace and we are leaving no stone on turned to maintain long lasting security, securing the population, asking the population to mobilize themselves to support government to make sure the economic activity, the social activity in the region comes back to normalcy,” he said.
Biya said Cameroonians desire greater participation in managing their affairs, especially at the local level and as such he will make sure the constitution is respected fully.
Cameroon will hold local council, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018. Many hope the polls will be transparent. Biya has been president for 35 years, winning in elections opposition political parties say are always rigged to favor him.
Source: VOA
2, January 2018
Biya regime can get $100M from UN for underfunded or ‘forgotten’ emergencies 0
Cameroon is among nine countries that can avail of at least $100 million in funding from the United Nations in 2018 for underfunded or “forgotten” emergencies. The funds will come from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a voluntary fund pool that supports critical relief operations in crises around the world.
During a pledging conference in New York on Dec. 8, UN Secretary General António Guterres said the CERF would allocate $100 million each for nine countries with “underfunded emergencies.” Aside from Cameroon, the other countries are the Philippines, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Eritrea, Haiti and Pakistan.
Under the grant program, the CERF invites partners to identify projects that could qualify under CERF’s guidelines for underfunded emergencies.
The CERF defines “underfunded emergencies” as crises that cannot be funded sufficiently by governments and appear to have been “forgotten.” While local nongovernment organizations cannot directly receive funds from the CERF, they are encouraged to get involved in the process because they often serve as implementing partners.
The CERF is replenished every year and Guterres said the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2016 increasing CERF’s annual funding target from $450 million to $1 billion due to increasing humanitarian needs globally. Protracted crises from long-running conflicts and the impact of natural disasters are likely to continue in 2018, he said, while the impact of climate change was likely to grow and intensify.
In 2017, CERF reached a record high income of $504 million through additional commitments made by donors, according to the United Nations. The fund allocated almost $130 million to help prevent famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. The fund also supported relief responses such as those for Palestine refugees in Gaza, for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and those affected by hurricanes “Irma” and “Maria” in the Caribbean. Created in 2005, the CERF is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Report by the Globalnation. Inquirer