News

9, March 2017

1000s of AK 47 rifles intercepted in Douala ⁰

Some 6,000 AK 47 rifles were intercepted on Wednesday in Douala by the national gendarmerie. The information reported by a private radio station in the economic capital was confirmed to Cameroon Concord News by a leading security source of the gendarmerie brigade in Douala.

Our source revealed that a retired police officer was also arrested during the operation that took place around 3am in a travel agency. The man is the head of a gang suspected of belonging to a network of arms traffickers.

Cameroon security officials noted that the guns were destined for Central African Republic militia groups operating in the North and the East of Cameroon.

By Rita Akana

9, March 2017

International Women’s Day: All is well in French Cameroun ²

The First Lady, Mrs. Chantal BIYA has presided over an orderly and colourful march-past at the 20^th May Boulevard – Yaounde, to commemorate the 32^nd International Women’s Day in Cameroon.

A mammoth crowd of women from several walks of life participated in the event, organised by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, MINPROFF. The event was characterised by the passage of a large Cameroonian flag and the effigies of President Paul BIYA and wife, Mrs. Chantal BIYA.

Special messages on banners were also used to clamour for gender equality, women empowerment, and an end to child marriages in Cameroon. Majority of the slogans were directly connected to this year’s theme: “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030”.

The women who were particularly happy with the presence of the First Lady at the grandstand, equally seized the opportunity to denounce acts of terrorism and other forms of extremism that are aimed at destabilising Cameroon.

Groups from friendly and neighbouring countries such as the USA, France, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, participated the march-past.

Culled from the Presidency of the Republic

8, March 2017

Explosive growth in Cameroon’s White weapon sale ⁰

White weapons and all dangerous objects that can kill are now sold on the streets or in bars in Cameroon. The phenomenon is growing at catastrophic rapidity in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé, Douala and in many towns and cities in the country.

Universities graduates who can find jobs are predominantly the vendors who sell knives and machetes, between 5000 and 10000 FCFA. This arms trade that takes place on the streets, precisely in the numerous bars is slowly but surely feeding the crime industry.

The Biya regime is aware of the dangers involved in the activities currently going on in the informal sector but has turned a blind eye due to its failure to resolve the issue of high rate of unemployment. According to recent figures, the unemployment rate in Cameroon is 15.5% in urban areas and 4.3% in rural areas. It is 8.8% for male youth and 23.5% for females. The overall underemployment is 84.8% among 15-24 year olds. While it is 73.1% in the 25-34 age group.

Consequently, young Cameroonians are rushing to the informal sector, to survive, hence the emergence of unframed activities such as the trading of white weapons and dangerous objects. Anyone can buy a machete or a knife in any part of the country for any purpose.

By Sonne Peter

8, March 2017

Philemon Yang Bamenda Mission stresses nothing as regards to the connectedness, contestedness and complexity of happenings in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Southern Cameroon’s pain commands international headlines, demands quick action and sets the scene for a geopolitical drama on Cameroon’s future power in the CEMAC-Sub Saharan region. The poor handling of the Anglophone crisis by the Biya Beti Ewondo regime is pushing the intractable conflict to get worse before it gets better. What can be done about it needs much more informed and constructive African Union debate, especially in Abuja which will bear many of the actual and potential consequences if Anglophones should secede from La Republique du Cameroun.

Since 2016, there has been a systematically Bokoharamization by troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé of West Cameroon. For several months, Anglophone Cameroon has witnessed rapes, extra judicial killings and hundreds of abductions. The North West and South West CPDM political elites blame each other, with none citing the numerous atrocities committed against their own people by Francophone soldiers deployed to the region. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and its leadership have been targeted. Internet connection in Southern Cameroons has been shut down. Unconfirmed reports say hundreds of innocent Southern Cameroonians youths have been killed and buried in mass graves in the Soa locality near Yaoundé. Prominent Anglophone judges and lawyers have been arrested. These are war crimes, documented on the ground and in appalling TV and social media footage.

The only prominent Anglophone citizen in the Biya regime, Prime Minister Yang Philemon has failed to take genuine actions to tackle the escalation, arising from La Republique du Cameroun’s ruthless military campaign to bully Southern Cameroonians to submission. The 84 year old President Biya’s failure to engage the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium on the Anglophone crisis adds to uncertainty over the fragmented peace that reigns in the country.

Taking advantage

The political rhetoric coming out of Yaoundé has been very telling. Francophone media gurus have described the Anglophone people as “rats”. President Biya in his nationwide address said Anglophones were extremists and terrorists. Higher Education Minister, Fame Ndongo observed that Southern Cameroonians were like a fly in an ointment. The Biya regime is taking advantage of the division that exists among the Southern Cameroon groups both at home and in the Diaspora to assert its military and political roles in the territory while Abuja is cautious on supporting the Consortium for fear of an escalation into war with Biafra.

Whoever wins in this current Anglophone crisis will have to deal with an armed conflict in the nearest future. In the meantime, Prime Minister Philemon Yang is struggling alone to develop a coherent approach to the diplomacy on the Southern Cameroons crisis amid demands by Southern Cameroonians that the Biya Francophone government should do more by releasing all Anglophone detainees including the leaders of the Consortium, reinstate internet services in Southern Cameroons and engaged in meaning dialogue with the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Philemon Yang’s recent decision to tour the Bamenda province of Southern Cameroons could be seen as another form of provocation coming from the Yaoundé regime. The Prime Minister is in the North West with nothing to offer. To be sure, his trip stresses nothing as regards to the connectedness, contestedness and complexity of happenings in Southern Cameroons. Biya should be at the center of the diplomacy on Southern Cameroons not Philemon Yang. Philemon Yang does not have the political acumen and authority to open small spaces that can lead to sane political solutions on the Anglophone problem. The Prime Minister’s Bamenda trip is not a worthy endeavour.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

8, March 2017

Biya and British High Commissioner hold “tense” Southern Cameroons talk ⁵

President Paul BIYA has granted an audience to the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Brian Olley. Both men met on Wednesday 7 March 2017 at the presidential palace and held intensive and productive discussions on the situation in Southern Cameroons and to reinforce the long-lasting partnership between the United Kingdom and Cameroon.

The British Diplomat briefed reporters on the subjects raised during the audience. He emphasized on the necessity to strategize on the future of the Commonwealth because the UK will host next year’s Commonwealth summit. Brian Olley said they also discussed the fight against terrorism and the economic situation in the CEMAC sub-region.

The British top diplomat reiterated Her Majesty’s government desire to work closely with Yaoundé, to resolve the social tension in the North West and South West regions. The Southern Cameroons talks were frank, candid and thoughtful. It was equally revealed that economic negotiations between both countries are progressing smoothly. The British Government is ready to facilitate investments worth 3 billion U.S. dollars in Cameroon.

There are plans to construct 13 water networks, introduce an electronic visa issuing system, and extend the electricity contract with Actis. In addition, there is the construction of social houses in Douala, as announced in November 2016.

By Rita Akana with files from the presidency

7, March 2017

Pro Biya newspaper announces the creation of a Southern Cameroons Defense Force ⁴

The Francophone Beti Ewondo political newspaper, La Nouvelle has again published a report aimed at the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The Yaoundé based tabloid reported on its March 6, 2017 edition that the Consortium have created an army called the “Southern Cameroon Defense Forces”. The Francophone newspaper added that the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium had previously sent threatening messages to President Biya in which they announced that Southern Cameroonians were contributing money for the purchase of very sophisticated weapons.

The paper sponsored by barons of the Biya Francophone regime observed that the weapons were already in circulation in West Cameroon. In its attempt to make it look real to the French Cameroun public opinion, La Nouvelle revealed that the military hardware were smuggled to Cameroon through the same circuit as the flags and gadgets used by activists during the demonstrations organized in the Northwest and South-West regions.

The newspaper La Nouvelle, had in some previous editions, maintained that the oil fields of the Bakassi peninsula was one of the major stakes of the Anglophone crisis. The editors of the said publication reportedly have access to heavy government funding and are encouraging the massive rapes, extra judicial killings and arrest by the Cameroun army in Southern Cameroons.

La Nouvelle also stated that the goal of the Southern Cameroon Defense Forces would be to: “train, sensitize young people to the creation of an armed front, to fight law enforcement forces in the Northwest and South-West regions.” La Nouvelle indicated that the rebellion in the making is headed by Nsoh Foncha Nkem, who has declared himself Chief of Defense Staff of Southern Cameroon. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands Nsoh Foncha Nkem loves posting pictures of him in military attire on his Face Book page even before the Anglophone revolution started in 2016.

Culled from CIR

7, March 2017

4 policemen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in western Niger ⁰

An attack on a police post west of Niger has left at least four officers dead. A security source said Monday that the attack, which took place a day earlier, struck Wanzarbe, a town located in the western region of Tillaberi.

“The provisional toll is four police officers killed in a clear terrorist attack on Sunday night,” said the source, adding that the assault targeted a police station. The government of Niger on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Tillaberi and other areas near the country’s border with Mali and Burkina Faso.

Tillaberi and neighboring Tahoua region have witnessed several deadly attacks by militants from MUJAO, a terror outfit mainly operating in West Africa region. Most of those attacks have targeted army posts and refugee camps, including a late February assault in Ouallam, Tillaberi, which killed 16 soldiers and wounded 18 others.

Last October, a daring attack on a refugee camp in Tahoua also left 22 soldiers dead. Officials say at least 43 people were killed in militant attacks in Tillaberi and Tahoua between October 2016 and February this year. Niger is a northern neighbor to Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Takfiri terror group launched bloody militancy against the government seven years ago.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, which has also spread to neighboring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameron.

Presstv

7, March 2017

Revealed: Cameroon invested more than 200 billion FCFA in the purchase of arms ⁰

The National Institute for Peace in Stockholm (SIPRI) has published a report that Cameroon invested more than 200 billion CFA francs in the purchase of arms in 2016. The release also indicated that Cameroon ranks 6^th of the 10 African countries that have bought the most heavy weapons in Africa between 2012 and 2016.

While Cameroon’s military spending has been on an upward trend since 1988, the report further pointed out the war against the Nigerian Islamic, Boko Haram sect was the main cause of the exponential increase in military spending. The exactions of these Islamist fighters in the Far North region of Cameroon have already claimed the lives of more than 1500 people including women and children.

Cameroon’s military spending reached up to 209 billion CFA francs in 2015, against 199 billion CFA francs in 2013. However, the country still remains a small importer of heavy weapons, compared to Algeria, which head the list of the largest African importer over the period 2012-2016. The purchase of heavy weapons in Africa during the period 2012-2016 reportedly decreased by 6.6%. Worldwide, the top 5 exporters of military hardware are dominated by the United States, followed by Russia, China, France and Germany.

CIR

6, March 2017

Social Media and the Anglophone Crisis ⁰

The Anglophone crisis that has put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons clearly underscores how social media, a key development tool, can become a force for unity and mobilization on the one hand and a tool to manipulate and expose violence and injustice on the other. This crisis which,occurred amid political and economic exclusion of Southern Cameroonians, has scarred the country’s social and political landscape forever. It calls for the establishment of a new status quo as the status quo ante is no longer tolerated by Cameroon’s English-speaking minority. The effectiveness of social media in mobilizing Anglophone Cameroonians across the world cannot be overemphasized. Across the world, social media have been considered as “technologies of freedom” that have given the voiceless an opportunity to express their views and have access to the public sphere. In Cameroon, while the government has always viewed social media as tools that should drive development, the ordinary citizens have always seen them a little differently though they agree on their role as agents of development. The emergence of social media technologies raised a lot of enthusiasm about citizen political participation in the public sphere in the digital era and this was based on the popularity of these technologies and the fact that they would provide relative autonomy from state and commercial control and influence when it comes to the dissemination of information.

Social mediaare considered to be extremely effective means to record, store and distribute information and the crisis in West Cameroon has proven that beyond a doubt. Most of the information about government atrocities was brought to the world in real time, thanks to this technologies of freedom. The ferocious brutality that has been the government stock in trade throughout this crisis and the violence perpetrated by protesters was captured and released to the world, thanks to social media.The beauty of social media stems from the two-way flow of information while at the same time they are independent of spatial constraints. Considered exceptional tools for individuals and groups to promote their causes to public officials and interested members of the public, social media have demonstrated during the Anglophone crisis that they are effective in exposing violence from both sides of the conflict that is tearing Cameroon apart. The government’s response to the publication of incriminating videos, some purported to be fake, highlights the role social media can play to bring the people’s plight into the spotlight.

Based on the positive results social media have delivered in other parts of the world, especially in the Arab world where many dictatorshave been kicked out of power, the use of social media in Cameroon for participatory communication in the public sphere is viewed as a significant path to the advancement of deliberative and participatory democracy in Cameroon, especially at a time when human rights are suffering. Over the last two decades, the country’s global media sector has been decisively changed due to the globalization of electronic media and what were once highly regulated industries, often dominated by public service or governmental broadcasters, have been open to individual citizens to use to obtain access to the public sphere and influence government actions and policies. While the government of Cameroon may still be dragging its feet regarding the holding of genuine dialogue with Consortium leaders, the popular demonstrations that have taken place abroad and the population’s compliance with decisions taken by various Anglophone organizations are testimonies to the effectiveness of social media as tools for mobilization and political communication. Often seen as redemptive features of new media are the availability of large stores of information for citizens to tap without the prior intervention of media gatekeepers or other mediators; interactivity which enables citizens to find out things for themselves rather than passively receiving or ignoring what is given and the creation of virtual forums which make it possible for exchanges between citizens and officials. Today, social media dominate in the new media era and this has made information about government actions just a click away; a possibility that is widely exploited by Southern Cameroonians to challenge government authority and highlight its weaknesses.

In Cameroon, just like in other parts of the world, social media such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter are delivering information and documents to the population in a very fast way. Unlike print communication, social media have given the ordinary Cameroonian greater access to information and significant possibilities to participate in the political discourse which, in the past was a luxury to the poor. Falling Internet charges are enabling many Cameroonians to engage in online communication which has altered the substance, form, and style of communication in ways that have never been seen before, creating new-style electronic formats such as Internet discussion groups and chat rooms. These platforms have also creatednew public spaces and provided unprecedented opportunities for political discourse in the country; a tool the Anglophone minority, especially its Diaspora, is making the most of.

The coming of the social media age is not only serving as a catalyst that is instigating a populist political movement in Cameroon where citizens have greater access to the political world than before, it is going a long way in educating huge segments of the population which were once cut off from the political reality of their country. Social media are serving as stimulants to political interest and activism among Cameroonians, a situation that is very disturbing to the country’s government. In Cameroon today, ordinary citizens are able to establish meaningful and effective roles for themselves in the political arena that has been primarily the domain of the elite and this is causing the government of Cameroon to lose sleep and its decision to cut off an entire region from the World Wide Web is a clear demonstration of the government’s inability to win the war of propaganda that has been playing out on the Internet.

With social media, there is more political information disseminated today through a vast diversity of sources than at any time in the country’s history. Political news is available for general audiences through network newscasts and real time news broadcasts. The wide range of available formats also permits information to be targeted at specific audience segments, including those who traditionally have been under-represented in the political world. Social media are allowingCameroonians to receive information that is relevant to them personally and to make contact with others who have similar social and political orientations. As opposed to the “sound-bite” journalism that characterizes much mainstream political media in the country, newer forums have more time and space for the presentation of contextual and historical material as well as extended discussions of issues than the government would have loved.

One of the primary characteristics of the social media age is the interactivity that communications technologies facilitate among citizens, public officials, and media personnel. Rather than merely being the passive recipients of political information, it is now possible for Camerooniansto make their political presence and opinions known. They are today playing more visible roles in political events and this is undermining the government’s influence. For example, record numbers of Cameroonians are joining political organizations other than parties, especially those associated with particular issues. The Anglophone problem has clearly proven this and the citizens’involvement has been aided by media publicity and interactive communication forums which allow them to express their opinions, ask for and obtain information quickly, and receive instructions on how to take action. This explains, in part, why Southern Cameroonians have been successful in mobilizing their citizens across the world over the last three months to leave the government with a sticky situation on its hands.

While social media offer novel opportunities for democratic politics in Cameroon, it is presenting testing times to a regime that is wont to manipulating its people and checking the free flow of information. Social media have created significant communication forums that have the ability to spark citizen interest, increase awareness and knowledge of public affairs, and prompt political participation and dissent. Today, a significant number of Cameroonians seek out political information online and participate in discussions in electronic spaces which grant them the opportunity to develop and express their own opinions. The content and presentational style of news in the traditional media, especially government-owned media in Cameroon, is turning the public off traditional media, with more people migrating to the social media world where information is delivered in real time.

While social media is far from being the cause of recent uprisings in Cameroon, it has become an undeniable fact that social sites are dramatically changing the way protests and revolutions in Cameroon are taking place. Participants and planners have been using social sites like Twitter and Whatsapp to spread the word about upcoming protests, making it easier to gain supporters. Posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have been allowing protesters to form a cohesive voice and to enjoy a feeling of unity. Real time posts on social media have also been offering a raw look at what is happening and eliminating the editing and polishing that can dull mainstream news reports. The global reach and immediate updates available via social media have radically changed the face of the protests in Cameroon and this is highlighting the power of social sharing. Despite the government’s disconnection of the Internet, the power of social media has not declined and their use has grown exponentially among the country’s Diaspora. For many activists, Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook have become tools to help keep the spotlight on the revolution which is being run out of the country and to remember those who have lost their lives since the uprising, or those who have since been imprisoned by the authorities.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

5, March 2017

UN Security Council delegation meets Biya ⁰

President Paul Biya on Friday the 3^rd of March 2017 received in audience a delegation of 15 Ambassadors of the UN Security Council.

The UN officials are visiting the Sub Saharan region to assess the needs of the countries combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram that has reportedly made many incursions into the Lake Chad Basin area. The Delegation is led by Matthew Rycroft, the British Ambassador who is the current head of the UN Security Council.

From Yaoundé, the nation’s capital, the UN Security Council officials will travel to Maroua to get an on-the-spot update of the security situation. From Cameroon the delegation will be meeting the leaders of the other Lake Chad Basin Commission countries; Chad, Nigeria and Niger.

CRTV