Prime Minister Philemon Yang chaired a cabinet meeting yesterday the 24^th of November 2016 at the Star Building. Focus during the political discourse was on Cameroon’s commitment to implementing the international decisions in relation to climate change.

State radio and television reported that as early as nine am, the members of government were at the conference room in the Prime Minister’s Office to begin exchanges. The session opened with a presentation from the Minister of the Environment and Nature Protection on the conclusions from the just-ended COP 22 Conference in Morocco.

The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of the Economy and the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External of Relations in charge of relations with the Commonwealth also made submissions during the meeting.

The Premier and Head of Government Business, Philemon Yang insisted on collaboration and a team spirit among cabinet members. He also urged them to respect bilingualism as stated in the law especially with the publication of official information.

CRTV

One person has been killed in Bamenda, capital of the Northwest Region during protest against La Republique. The identity of the victim is not yet known but Cameroon Concord News gathered that at least 100 people were arrested during demonstrations against the introduction of French education and legal systems in the Anglophone part of the country.

Several people were also wounded as a result of the demonstrations. Since Monday, teachers in the English-speaking regions (North-West and South-West) have been protesting against the appointment of Francophone colleagues to head technical schools in British Southern Cameroons.

The teachers protest follows the demands of the Cameroon Common Law lawyers who have been on strike since October 11. The lawyers have demanded a translation into English of Cameroonian laws and all international treaties and agreements linking Cameroon with other French speaking nations and above all, a return to the 1961 federal structure.

By Sama Ernest

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in an attempt to calm down mounting tensions in British Southern Cameroons, has made public a ministerial order signed by the minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Laurent Esso, creating a Common Law Bar Association and a Law School. The decision was reached after a meeting held yesterday with veteran Anglophone lawyers; Ben Muna, Mbah Ndam, Sama Francis and Nico Halle. Cameroon Concord News is yet to confirm the correctness of this report. But we will keep our readers posted as we get details of the ministerial order.

A man in his early twenties was injured by bullets and rushed to the regional hospital in Bamenda yesterday afternoon as Francophone troops loyal to the Cameroonian dictator opened fire at peaceful protesters. Cameroon Intelligence Report identified the wounded man as one of the unarmed teachers who demonstrated for the improvement of their working conditions in British Southern Cameroons.

The angry populations have joined the Cameroon Common Law Lawyers and the Anglophone teachers to make public popular demands contrary to the message conveyed by state radio and television of a return to the two-state federal structure in 1961.

We got intelligence that the police forces have been ordered to shoot at the demonstrators. Many witnesses have announced the deaths of some demonstrators and information is circulating that the home of John Fdu Ndi, leader of the SDF, the main opposition party was attacked by the protesters who described him as a “traitor” – because of his proximity to the regime. Fru Ndi has reportedly escaped from his Ntarikon villa.

There is panic all over the national territory as people are beginning to fear inter-community clashes between Francophones and Anglophones following the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo government’s position, which has chosen to repress by force instead of dialogue on popular and legitimate demands.

By Rita Akana and Sama Ernest in Bamenda

Barely two days into the indefinite non-violent strike action called by Common Law Lawyers and Teachers’ Unions across Southern Cameroons, President Paul Biya’s paramilitary forces have shot and killed at least two young men and injured several others.

With little in the way of self sustenance for the largely unemployed youth population, here is an opportunity for you and me to show our support and tell them how much they mean to us, and how much their efforts are appreciated. It is a generation that was long condemned by La Republique du Cameroun even before conception. If any body doubts it, this strike action is caused by the outright rejection of Common Law by the regime in Yaounde, which is in effect a repudiation of  Anglophone education, culture and identity.

While many have rushed to paint the strike action led by young people on the streets as vandalism, we strongly reject this characterization. These are heroes fighting for all of us. These are men, women , boys, and girls as gifted as everyone of us. But the failed policies of ethnicization by Paul Biya and his marginalization of Anglophones are responsible for the hopelessness that is the fuel for the current situation.

You and I can help. Many of us are giving sacrificially and we urge you to join us. Join us as we reach out to the families of the deceased with some help; join us as we extend a helping hand to the injured; join us build a resistance against this pervasive injustice and the perpetual slavery of the Anglophone by La Republique  du Cameroon.

Nothing is too small. Visit the closest Bank of America and deposit any amount. Please take a picture of the deposit slip and share with me (Innocent Chia 630 901 8400). Then do one more favor: please invite two others in your circle to do the same – only two.

The account name at Bank of America is:

*SCNC Foundation*

Account number is:

*446037637181*

Routing number is *052001633*

The Special Criminal Court will begin the trial of Gervais Mendo Ze, the former general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television, CRTV tomorrow November the 23^rd 2016. Professor Gervais Mendo Ze alongside three of his former collaborators; Yap Abdou, Yvette Siéwe and Luc Nyassa will be auditioned tomorrow in Yaounde.  Gervais Mendo Ze, will be heard in a case of alleged misappropriation of nearly 18 billion 364 million 546 thousand 702 FCFA relating to the management of TV License payments.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war against Boko Haram, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to externalize power purportedly to direct the war against terror and the war against corruption.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained the late Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat.  Recently Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefited from a purported Presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail. The fear of a presidential referral to the Special Criminal Court on additional charges of corruption under a practice devolved under the supervision of Paul Biya called “rouleur compresseur” pushed Titus Edzoa   to rejoin the CPDM Party without a public resignation or repudiation of his membership of the party on which he intended to contest presidential elections prior to his incarceration.  Edzoa was a victim of this system of presidential justice when new charges were brought against him when his first imprisonment was about to end in order to maintain him in prison. Cameroonians want the rule of law to be the guarding principle on which justice is administered in the name of the people.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Seven Cameroon elite forces were killed late on Monday in a violent attack attributed to Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that the Nigerian Islamic sect staged the attacks in the Lake Chad district of Darak that claimed the lives of the 7 servicemen deployed to the Joint Multinational Force.

Our source hinted that those soldiers killed included the head of a mechanized division of the Africa force, a captain of the Cameroonian army. The head of the local vigilance committee was also killed.  Shortly before the incident, a young female suicide bomber was neutralized in the IDP camp at Kolofata.

The suicide bomber who was shot dead by elements of the Joint Multinational Force reportedly carried half a dozen explosive that were defused by BIR deminers. Boko Haram attacks are experiencing an upsurge at the end of the rainy season.

By Rita Akana