News

26, January 2017

Consortium says 2 Human Rights experts have met with Chairman Agbor Nkongho ¹

The interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have revealed that two of West Cameroon human rights experts have met with Chairman Agbor Nkongho Felix at his detention facility in Yaoundé. Dr Chemuta Divine Banda and Barrister Tambe Tiku of the National Human Rights Commission were quoted by the Consortium as saying that there was no Wednesday court hearing for the detained Consortium leaders.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from a statement issued by the Consortium that the National Human Rights Commission has requested for improved prison conditions for Chairman Barrister Agbor Nkongho Felix following several complaints he made about his shambolic treatment by the state guards.

The Consortium statement also stated that both English and French speaking lawyers visited the Chairman including Barristers Akere Muna and Ben Muna. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium also observed that the Secretary General, Dr. Fontem Neba is being held at the Central Prison while Chairman Agbor Balla is in the principal prison.

By Rita Akana

25, January 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Consortium seeking travel bans on senior CPDM officials ⁰

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is reportedly drafting a document that will push for a UN resolution slamming the Biya Francophone regime for systematic unlawful killings of Southern Cameroonians since 2016. Our correspondent in Paris has gotten intelligence that some Southern Cameroonian legal practitioners will be meeting a group of French lawyers this coming week in a bid to begin legal proceedings against the Yaoundé government.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the resolution and the proceedings will include travel bans on senior government and military officials of La Republique du Cameroun. Inside sources say the group of French and Southern Cameroons advocates will be targeting the Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic, Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Minister Atanga Nji, Prime Minister Philemon Yang and General Rene Meka.

We understand that some Anglophone lawyers based in the US have been contacted to join the team in Paris. The lawyers are expected to pressure France and the European Union to charge the Francophone regime with excessive and intentional force without justification against Southern Cameroons civilians including against Anglophone lawyers, journalists, activists and peaceful protesters.

Cases of deliberate fatal shooting of individuals who posed no imminent danger to life are being assembled by the group. Southern Cameroons has become so uninhabitable that many of its residents are migrating to French Cameroun and some to neighboring Nigeria.

Culled from Cameroon Inteligence Report

25, January 2017

Tumi calls for Biya to restart dialogue with the Consortium ¹

Cardinal Christian Tumi has called on the ruling CPDM government to listen to all shades of opinion in the ongoing Anglophone crisis. The 86 year old former Archbishop of Douala now retired made the declaration as guest on Radio France International on Tuesday, January 24, 2017. The renowned Prelate believes that everyone has something to say.

Reacting to the crisis that has rocked the Anglophone regions of the country over the last two months and the shutting down of internet services including the arrest of several Southern Cameroons leaders , the Cardinal said he was trying to understand both sides of the divide.

“I am trying to understand what is happening because I spent nearly thirty years of my life as priest and bishop in French-speaking Cameroon and I am from Anglophone Cameroon. I try to understand both sides. It is now young people, who have not yet become aware of reunification and have started to protest about working conditions, the conditions for living together, and they want us to go back to where we were at the beginning of reunification. That is federalism. The central power no longer wants this. So this is where we are and there is tension.”

The Roman Catholic Cardinal told RFI that the appointment of Francophone judges who do not have a mastery of the English language and who render their judgment in French is an indication that Common Law is not applied in Cameroon. The man of God pointed out that in his native constituency of Bui, the prefect, the sub-prefect and the first deputy are all Francophones, in a region that 99% of the population speak only English. The Retired Cardinal also noted that there are Francophone university lecturers who teach in the Anglo-Saxon Universities of Buea and Bamenda without having mastery of English. “There is need to reform the education system.’

Cardinal Tumi said the decision to outlaw the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium was ill advised. “Too bad. I am against any ban. Everyone has something to say, listen to them. There is no one who loves this country more than others. Even if others prefer federalism, let’s talk about it, to see what is best for everyone. When we repress, it is not a solution. We must try to convince them including those that have gone to the extreme to demand complete separation. There will always be extremists. But the majority of Anglophones want us to go back to where we were, that is, to federalism. They do not want separation, not at all.”

The Cardinal dismissed claims made by the Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary observing that federalism is not division of a country. “The current system is showing its faults, with regard to corruption everywhere and we are seeing examples in the world where federated states are progressing well. There has to be dialogue because Anglophones are also Cameroonians. With violence, nothing is built, nothing at all.”

By Rita Akana with files from CIN

25, January 2017

Nigeria: Boko Haram using babies to thwart detection ⁰

Nigerian authorities have warned that female Takfiri bombers are using babies to thwart detection before their attacks. According to a new report, Nigerian officials stated that terrorist groups have been using women to carry out bombing attacks for some time but the use of babies in attacks signals a “dangerous” trend.

The report, published by the state-run BBC on Monday, called these bombings “suicide attacks,” but the fact that the innocent infants have no forethought or deliberation for killing themselves and others render the terminology null and void. On January 13, two women wearing concealed explosives managed to slip past a checkpoint in the town of Madagali and detonate their bombs, killing themselves and four other people. The assailants were able to slip past security because they were mistaken for civilians as they were carrying infants.

The main suspect for the blast is the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group, which is known for using women and young girls in their attacks. Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Daesh, another Takfiri group, which has been wreaking havoc in the Middle East and North Africa over the past few years. In 2015, four women attempted to launch another attack on the town. Two were stopped at a checkpoint, but the two other, who were carrying babies, managed to pass the checkpoints and explode their explosives.

Nigeria has been at war with Boko Haram since the group started an insurgency in Borno about eight years ago. Almost 15,000 people have been killed while the violence has displaced more than two million. In recent months, army troops and civilian fighters in Nigeria have managed to foil many bomb attacks involving terrorists wearing explosive vests before the assailants were able to reach heavily-populated targets and detonate their bombs of their own accord. In response to the government’s actions, the terrorists have increased their bombing attacks.

On January 16, at least four people, including a university professor, were killed after a young girl, accompanied by a small child, detonated her explosive-laden vest at a university campus in Nigeria’s northeastern province of Borno. Meanwhile, the UN’s West African humanitarian coordinator, Toby Lanzer announced that Boko Haram’s actions in the region have put the lives of over half a million children in danger of severe malnutrition.

He stressed that if these children do not receive aid soon, they will die, adding that several communities have already lost all their infants. “If they don’t get the help they need on time, they die.” “What we have seen is extraordinary…I have seen adults sapped of all energy, who are almost unable to walk. We have had villages and towns devoid of 2- and 3- and 4-year-old children because they’ve died,” he added.

While noting that Nigeria and the Lake Chad region have been hit worst by the crisis, he stressed that there are about 11 million people there are “in desperate need” of aid while some 7.1 million more of them are “severely food-insecure.”

Presstv

24, January 2017

Anglophone Uprising: Consortium announces plans to destroy the 11th February ancestral and diabolical link ¹

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has made a public assessment of the strike action currently going on in British Southern Cameroons. The West Cameroon body says the struggle against Francophone marginalization and the restoration of the sate of Southern Cameroons is a winning struggle bigger than any individual.

In a statement issued from the Consortium’s European headquarters, the interim leaders opined that there is no easy walk to freedom. “Threats will come, good friends will fall off, families will be discouraged but the restoration of West Cameroon statehood is bigger than any of us.”

The leaders also called on Southern Cameroonians to remain steadfast and defiant. ‘Don’t allow any threats, friends or family deviate you from reaching our collective goal. If this happens, pluck it/them off. This is a liberation struggle and not a democratic process.”

The leaders further pointed out that in a struggle there is no second opinion. “You are either with us for the restoration of West Cameroon statehood or you are against.” The leaders expressed satisfaction and praised West Cameroonians for rallying behind the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium to get back their country. The Consortium press release reaffirmed that the civil disobedience campaign will continue for a month and will hold every Mondays and Tuesdays to send a strong message to the colonial government.

Correspondingly, schools will remain closed until all Southern Cameroonian citizens arrested are released unconditionally for genuine dialogue to take place. Southern Cameroonians have also been reminded that anyone going against the struggle will be considered a black leg and a traitor and will be treated as such.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has declared 11^th of February a black day and the leaders say Southern Cameroonians should be preparing to stage the biggest boycott and ghost town in its history to finally destroy the ancestral link our parents added unto us by the fake union with La Republique.

Sonne Peter

24, January 2017

Consortium rubbishes Biya’s national commission to promote bilingualism ¹

The two interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, have rejected the National Commission to promote Bilingualism created by presidential decree saying it is an attempt to rubbish the integrity and legitimacy of “ongoing winning West Cameroon Struggle”

The interim leaders, Tapang Ivo Tanku and Mark Bara said, “By every logical implication, the decree is of bad faith. It is a lame walk to promote equality in the use of English and French languages and showcase the numerous cultures he seeks to present to his commission.”

According to a release of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which has gone viral on social media, the problem of an Anglophone has never been language but marginalization in areas like ENAM, ENS, EMIA, ENSET, CUSS and recently CENAJES in Bamenda where only two Anglophones were admitted in 132 candidates.

To the leaders, creating another Commission will just add to numerous others which have never worked, they cited CONAC which according to them has been a wasted body because even those who have embezzled are promoted the next day. They also said until the banned Consortium leaders are released ghost town will continue till February 23, 2017.

Cameroun Info.Net

24, January 2017

Technical failure blamed for deadly helicopter crash in the Far North region ¹

The Cameroon military has made public the final assessment of the helicopter crash in the Far North region late on Sunday. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that all four occupants – one brigadier-general, one colonel and two lieutenants – were killed in the accident that occurred at Madide, a village about 9 km from Bogo, Diamaré, Far North region.

A statement from the government confirmed our earlier report that it was a technical breakdown that caused the crash. The hypothesis of a Boko Haram attack has also been ruled out by the Yaounde regime. The officers were returning from a mission to supervise their troops on the ground, who are engaged against the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram at the time of the crash.

The bodies of the four victims, namely Brigadier General Jacob Kodji, Commander of the 4th Inter-Armed Military Region, Colonel Kameni Alphonse, Commander of the 4th Gendarmerie Region, Lieutenant Chinda Brice, Helicopter Pilot and Lieutenant Ngrassou Souloukna Basile, a copilot engineer, have all been placed at the morgue of the military hospital in Maroua and will be transported to base 101 in Yaoundé.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

24, January 2017

Southern Cameroonians snub Biya, says only Consortium has legitimate authority ²

The civil disobedience campaign launched by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has entered its fourth day today Tuesday the 24^th 2017. Southern Cameroonians are observing the ghost town in all localities in the Northwest and South West regions, where Internet services have been disconnected by La Republique du Cameroun since last Tuesday.

Our cream of reporters all over Southern Cameroons from Akwaya right down to Kumbo and from Isangele to Wum in Menchum say schools remained closed and no one is visible either in the streets or in the offices. Commercial activity remained strongly paralyzed same as yesterday.

The interim leaders of the “Consortium” are expected to address Southern Cameroonians soonest and to extend the ghost town operation to other sectors that will hit the Francophone regime in Yaounde. Day-by-day, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is losing its grip on Southern Cameroons territory. We have been reliably informed that the Francophones intend to begin trial of Anglophone leaders today in Yaounde.

On Monday, the so-called government had invited teachers, parents, students and pupils to resume classes. The Francophone authorities reassured the population that their security would be guaranteed. Some pro Biya political elites and traditional leaders were involved to convince parents to accompany their children to school. On public radio, journalists announced the resumption of classes in several schools, particularly in bilingual and francophone schools. However, it is evidently clear that West Cameroonians have gotten enough from the Francophone political elites.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

24, January 2017

Arrest of Lord Justice Ayah: Biya regime says judge did not honor a summon ⁰

The Francophone government has claimed that Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine who also moonlights as President of the People’s Action Party (PAP) did not honor a summon from a judge who asked him to report to the Secretariat of Defense on 20th of January 2017.

The Supreme Court judge was arrested on Saturday January 21st at his home in Yaoundé and ferried by six armed men to the SED where he is still detained. The Francophone regime in Yaounde say Lord Justice Ayah is a chartered member of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), an organization now banned by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization.

Paul Ayah Abine was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2014. Before this appointment, persistent information declared him as the leader of the SCNC. After being a Member of Parliament under the banner of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate from the Manyu constituency in the South West region in 2002, he resigned from the party in 2011. He created PAP and was a candidate for the last presidential election.

Within the CPDM, Paul Ayah is noted for his strong positions, usually rowing against the guidelines of the party’s hierarchy. In 2008 he opposed the constitutional revision that allowed President Paul Biya to run indefinitely in the presidential elections. In June 2006, he was one of the MPs who asked for an investigation into corruption against a cabinet minister, the late Augustin Frederic Kodock, who was then in charge of the Department of Agriculture.

By Sama Ernest

24, January 2017

Biya signs Bilingual decree amid tension and ghost town ⁰

The 83 year-old dictator signed a decree yesterday creating what his Francophone regime calls the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism. For the first time in his 34 years in power, a presidential decree was made public in both English and French. The decree is in line with an empty promise, the national chairman of the ruling CPDM made on the 31^st of December 2016.

Biya stated that the commission will have 15 members who will have to report to him every 6 months. With pressure mounting on Yaounde over the Anglophone problem, the General Manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television, Charles Ndongo spent time analyzing the decree which the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society have dismissed as a non event.

Ghost town operations will continue today Tuesday the 24^th of January throughout Southern Cameroons territory. The plan by Government for school to resume in the North West and South West regions has failed to yield positive outcome after both regions observed the fourth ghost town since last January 9, 2017

The minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Massena Ngale Bibehe on behalf of Prime Minister had signed a release calling on all students and pupils to go to school come Monday which is already the third week in Second term. The release also urged parents to send their children to school. The government went as far as sending communiqués to be read several times in churches and used the State Media as major tool of propagating their views.

But the observation Monday in towns like Kumbo, Bamenda, Buea, Limbe, Tiko, and Kumba among others indicated that ghost town was successful in spite the arrest of trade Union leaders. Schools remained closed, vehicles were off streets and shops remained permanently shut down. Few Francophone students could be seen in bilingual schools in Buea but classes were not effective.

The governors of the North West and South West regions who had programmed an inspection tour in some schools cancelled their trips because of the ghost town owing to the fact that no student was on campus. The government is battling for school to resume before February 11 which could be an embarrassment for the 34 year old regime.

CAMCORDNEWS/CIN