The March session of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament in La Republique du Cameroun have officially ended. The closing ritual at the Lower House took place on Tuesday the 11^th of April 2017 in Yaoundé amid confusing declarations from National Assembly Speaker, Cavaye Djibril.

Speaking during the closing ceremony at the National Assembly, the Speaker of the House, Cavaye Yegieu Djibril appealed to the Biya government to be proactive in handling the socio- political issues in the country. Hon. Cavaye stressed on the need to avoid situations that can push the country into an endless cycle of professional demands that cannot be handled.  The Speaker then made a u-turn at the tail-end of his speech and saluted what he described as the different measures taken by President Biya to improve on the working conditions of Cameroonians.

A beaming Cavaye emphasized the need for dialogue and a climate of peace to be maintained hoping the situations in the North West and South West Regions returns to normal. Present during the closing ceremony were Members of the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, Members of Government led by the Prime Minister Philemon Yang and the Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji.

It is vital to include in this report that the March session did not deliberate on the current Southern Cameroons crisis which has culminated to numerous rapes, extra judicial killings and massive arrests including many abductions in West Cameroon.

By Rita Akana

Having failed in the fulfillment of its many promises, the Biya Francophone government has again announced another move to ease the tension in Southern Cameroons. In a statement issued yesterday Thursday (April 06, 2017), the Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reform made public the launching of a special recruitment of Anglophones in to serve in the courts in the South West and North West.

As it is always the case with a dubious regime, the date of this special operation was not specified.  The Francophone Minister, Michel Ange Angouing simply indicated in his press release that the recruitment will take place from 2017 to 2020 through an ad hoc committee made up of several representatives of administrations.

These massive enrollments and those earlier revealed by the Francophone Justice Minister, Laurent Esso are part of the fake measures taken by the Francophone government to induce Southern Cameroon lawyers to put an end to their strike action that has lasted for over six months.

Southern Cameroon lawyers have boycotted court sessions in the Buea and Bamenda provinces ever since they launched their strike to denounce their poor condition and marginalization by the essentially francophone central government.

By Sonne Peter

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has rejected the fake policy of appeasement presented by the Biya Francophone regime and has announced the intensification of the civil disobedience campaign if the detained leaders and the hundreds of Southern Cameroon youths arrested are not freed.

Inside sources within the Consortium hinted Cameroon Concord News that the exit door to the Southern Cameroons political crisis is not in East Cameroun. Recently, a gang of Francophone cabinet members headed by the Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso in a scantily attended press conference made public measures which they claimed had been taken by the 84 year-old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya to address the concerns of Southern Cameroon lawyers.

The Francophone ministers said the decision included the creation of a Commission to accelerate the promotion of bilingualism and multiculturalism, the publication of the English version by OHADA of its treaty and other texts, the creation of a Common Law Section at the Supreme Court which will hold its sessions in English in accordance with the Common Law and handle all cases from the Courts of ‘Appeal in the Anglophone regions, the creation of a Common Law Section at ENAM and the creation of the departments of English Law in the Universities of Douala, Maroua, Ngaoundere and Dschang. Biya as Head of State has not committed to any of the above stipulations.

The Biya Francophone regime has also been making a mockery of the General Certificate of Education, GCE, by postponing the deadline for enrollment in the examinations. The Francophone ministers responsible for Secondary and Basic Education have been regularly announcing funny adjustments in the Southern Cameroons school calendar.

Biya and his French speaking political elites are still trading with the idea of federalism which is no longer a demand of the Consortium.  The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has reached a point of no return and have grafted the immediate and unconditional release of their leaders whose trial is held at the Yaoundé military tribunal.

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Afortekaa Neba, the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, abbreviated CACSC, whose trial opened on February 13 at the Yaoundé military court, are prosecuted for acts of terrorism, hostility against the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, outrage to the 84 year old evil butcher of Yaoundé, insult to organized bodies and civil servants, group rebellion, civil war and propagation of false news.

The regime in Yaoundé has told the world that the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium risk the death penalty if they are convicted of acts of terrorism in accordance with article 2 of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 December 2014 on the punishment of acts of terrorism. Yet, day by day, the Francophone leadership keeps accepting what the Consortium and the detained leaders had earlier said. Ghost towns will continue, schools will remain closed and an economic embargo will be placed soon on Francophone businesses operating in Southern Cameroons.

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Prof. Maurice Kamto, leader of the MRC party has said that the peaceful resolution of the Southern Cameroons problem is a political test for living together in Cameroon. The former cabinet minister added that the Anglophone problem is one of the urgent political problems demanding quick solutions for a soothed united Cameroon.

Speaking on Monday in Yaoundé, the much respected Francophone political elite revealed that there was the existence of a “black cabinet” created by the Yaoundé regime to neutralize him. “Since my departure from the cabinet and my accession, for the first time in my life, to a political party, the MRC, there is at the heart of power a Black Cabinet that works with determination for my exclusion from political competition by all means. I say by all means! “.

Maurice Kamto continued “This black cabinet has long searched, but in vain, in my management of public affairs and embarked on a scandalous affair on my scientific reputation and has mounted and maintained in public opinion a smoky public procurement case worth 14 billion CFA francs.”

During the Monday press conference, Maurice Kamto strongly criticized the international community, which, according to him, “does not care of the fate of the Anglophone Cameroonians being many of whom have been raped and killed and hundreds abducted and detained in Francophone jails.”

“Cameroonians no longer trust the international community with its electoral observers who have never helped the establishment of the electoral truth in Cameroon and whose conclusions are known in advance, because they are always the same: the elections were generally satisfactory, we are told each time, “says Kamto.

The MRC leader pointed out that the method applied by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government in the management of the Anglophone crisis – made up of repression, mass arrests and arbitrary detention, militarization of disputed areas, the use of unbridled anti-terrorist law against unarmed citizens – is a “break-in” and a general rehearsal of what will be implemented in 2018 presidential elections.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The so-called main opposition party in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front declared over the weekend that the party was in favor of federalism-a demand formulated by the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The SDF declaration was made during a National Executive Committee meeting that held on Saturday in Nkolfoulou in Soa in the outskirts of the nation’s capital.

The SDF believes that federalism could allow the country to emerge from the serious socio-political crisis in which it has been plunged since November 2016, the date of the beginning of the Southern Cameroons uprising led by teachers and lawyers in Anglophone Cameroon.

Under the guidance of Chairman John Fru Ndi, the SDF had advocated for federalism ever since 1997. The leadership has also proposed the opening of a frank dialogue as the only way forward towards resolving the Anglophone crisis.  The Social Democratic Front stated in the Nkolfoulou resolution that the Biya Francophone regime should release the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and follow with the immediate restoration of the Internet, whose cut has paralyzed activities in West Cameroon.

The idea of federalism has been rejected by the consortium of criminal gangs running the country. In a speech to the nation, Paul Biya, pointed out that the idea of federalism was divisive. For Biya, Cameroon is “One and Indivisible and will remain so.”

By Sama Ernest

The Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF has said he will not support fleeing Hon Joseph Wirba. Speaking at the opening of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at his Nkolfolou residence on the outskirts of Yaounde on Saturday March 25, Ni John Fru Ndi said Hon Wirba’s famous intervention in parliament on the Anglophone problem was the MP’s personal point of view.

“When he talked in parliament the way he did I congratulated him and told him he talked more on a personal point of view; using I not we,” the SDF chairman said about Hon ‘Joe’ Wirba. Fru Ndi disclosed that he cautioned the SDF Member of Parliament for Jakiri Special Constituency and told him that in the future when he’s talking, he should make sure that he’s talking as an SDF member.

“But he went and organized a rally in Nso, his other colleague MPs were not there, the Mayor of Kumbo was not there, the SDF electoral district chairman for Kumbo was not there, the divisional coordinator of the party for Bui never attended that rally. And so when all this is done, you want me to make a statement, what statement?” the SDF chairman said in relation to an appeal for support by the escapee SDF MP.

“When somebody does something and does not involve the party, should I just jump in and start supporting?  Is the SDF a place for opportunism where you come and start your own thing, running in your own direction or it is a place where we can sit down, discuss and agree that we are going in this direction and we find ourselves going?” Fru Ndi questioned further.

It should be recalled that Hon Wirba is on the run following a warrant of arrest for him. In a message on social media page, he has vowed to continue to the fight till the Biya regime recognizes and respects the rights of Anglophones in the country.

Cameroun Info.Net

The Anglophone problem is, without a doubt, very bad news to many Cameroonians, especially government officials, many of whom are losing both sleep and weight. Every blessed day comes with new apprehensions as the government and the protesting Anglophones stick to their positions.The Anglophone problem seems to be an effective weight loss program for government officials and this is being compounded by rumors of an impending cabinet reshuffle that may bring significant changes in the country. The current crop of ministers,according to Anglophones,has failed to deliver the results expected of it, especially as the crisis rocking the country was triggered by their inability to find reliable solutions to the issues raised by the Anglophone minority. It is also believed that the boastful and disrespectful rhetoric of the Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, and the condescending attitude of the Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, are to blame for the violent escalation of the crisis.

From every indication, the Anglophone minority has lost confidence in its political elite; an elite that has gotten richer while the people have gotten poorer. Poor economic policies of the past decades have simply melted the middle class and the ordinary Anglophone is perpetually struggling to make ends meet. Anglophones hold that Prime Minister Yang Philemon, Peter Mafany Musonge and others who purport to represent them are simply feathering their own nests and that they clearly belong to the past. They contend that the region needs new leaders, as current leaders have fallen short of their glory. These leaders, they say, have been useful, but only to their families. While their immediate families are living in the lap of luxury, the ordinary Anglophone is stuck in grinding poverty, with many being unable to have access to quality health care and decent housing even when their region accounts for 60% of the country’s wealth. They argue that these services were readily available to all West Cameroonians prior to the region’s reunification with East Cameroon.

As both the government and the protesters remain frozen in their positions, many administrative officers in the Anglophone region are at their wit’s end. The current crisis playing out in the two Anglophone regions has become a permanent nightmare to administrative officers in the Anglophone regions. All efforts to tackle those fostering the strikes and civil disobedience have crumbled like a pack of cards. The strikes that are being run from abroad are hard to nip in the bud. The population is calling for a new political elite and the failure of the current elite to put smiles on the people’s faces has made the population to take its marching orders from the Anglophone Diaspora that is keen to play a key role in Cameroon’s politics. The Diaspora has been playing the government’s role for so many years. It has been providing education to many children. It has been paying the health bills of its loved ones even when the health facilities have declined over the years. It has been providing housing to desperate parents. And today, it is clear that he who has been paying the piperis finally seeking to call the tune. The Diaspora is behind the strikes and civil disobedience and the government’s inability to rein in the protesters is causing the conflict to metastasize like a malignant tumor.

The protesting Anglophones are digging in their legs and in some parts of the region; administrative officers have simply lost their authority. In Manyu Division, ghost town operations have been very effective as the people are upset with the arrest of Barrister Agbor Balla and Justice Paul Ayah, both of whom are prominent sons of Manyu Division. In Akwaya, whence hails Justice Paul Ayah, administrative officers have simply been fired by the people and the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of the people and this is not only giving the government a bad name, it is also sapping the economy of its vitality. The people of Akwaya have hoisted the Nigerian flag in strategic locations, claiming that they are now Nigerians till further notice.This explains how disaffected the people of this region are with the government. They want their son to be released, failure of which there will be no peace and reconciliation. Many hold that the government has neglected them for too long and they point to the lack of roads in their sub-division. They argue that to travel from their region to any other part of the country, they must first of all go to Nigeria before coming back into Cameroon due to the absence of roads. This has been a torn in their side for decades. Years of promises by politicians of the ruling party have not delivered any results and the region is permanently in the throes of an economic crisis as the people cannot even move their agricultural produce to the markets. Poverty seems to have taken up residence in this part of the country and rooting it out will take decades of hard work and determination.

For many Cameroonian administrative officers, this is not a good time to be transferred to the two Anglophone regions of the country, especially in the North West region where the people are reputed for their mercurial and explosive temperament. The governors of the North West and South West regions have lots of stories to tell in this regard. Ever since the Anglophone crisis began, they have been running all over the place like neckless chicken to douse the fire. But all their efforts and tricks have come to naught, as a peaceful demonstration that the government thought had been organized by some low-class, ill-behaved commoners has turned out to be a very hot potato in its hands.

However, after four months, there is enough evidence to prove that this situation will linger for a long time if the government does not make concessions. From every indication, the government has taken a powerful blow to the liver. Its failure to restore its authority in the English-speaking region is testimony to its inability to wrestle this issue to the ground. Anglophones are determined to change the status quo. They have successfully made the English-speaking region ungovernable despite the presence of heavily armed government troops. Schools are not functioning, courts have been closed, calls for ghost towns are being heeded and even the ruling party could not celebrate its thirty-second anniversary in the Anglophone zone. With courts closed,criminals are having one big party, as even policemen are scared to arrest them, especially when it implies going to chaotic and unplanned neighborhoods. Some uniformed officers even work with the criminals to make a quick buck. They rent out their weapons and uniforms to these men of the underworld for them to operate however they want in order to have another income stream. Poverty hardly breeds virtue. With meager salaries, many policemen cannot really make ends meet in an environment where food and healthcare costs are continuously and permanently escalating.

Though reeling from the blow it has taken to the liver, the government still has an opportunity to defuse the stalemate that has been created by its violent reaction to the strike that was started by armless lawyers calling for the practice of the Common Law in West Cameroon and Buea University students protesting against the imposition of a late fee payment charge. Current measures and actions have failed to retire the problem. Anglophones are hard to please and despite the indiscriminate and illegal arrests, the government has not been able to deliver a deadly punch to the strikers. Old tricks have also failed and money has not performed the miracle it usually performs. Skirting around the main issue in the hope that it will go away is not an effective conflict resolution strategy. If anything, it only keeps the parties apart and there is nothing that destroys a relationship like silence.

If this problem has to the solved, the government has to show a lot of goodwill. It must release Anglophone leaders and all those arrested over the last four months as a result of the strikes. It has to listen to the people in order to understand their grievances if this dark period of its history has to be relegated to the ash heap of history. This problem has already dented its reputation. If sustainable solutions are not sought, it will linger for a long time and it will continue to stalk the government and its administrative officers like a stubborn shadow. Lives have been lost, a whole region has been rolled back into the dark ages following the decision to disconnect the Internet and many West Cameroonians are fleeing the country, with Nigeria serving as the first port of call as the government continues to pursue its “pest control” policy. Anglophone lawyers, teachers, business people and even members of parliament who have shown sympathy to the striking Anglophones are all fleeing the country for fear of persecution. The government has turned the heat on them, as special military squads have been dispatched to the English-speaking part of the country to cow the people into submission. But this does not seem to be the ideal strategy. The results are mixed and the population is not yielding to any threats by the government.

With the situation deteriorating on a daily basis, both parties must understand that the negotiating table holds the solutions to this conflict. Since both parties lack confidence in each other, they should therefore call on the international community to mediate. The international community should step in to help Cameroon heal. The country is hurting. If the international community fails to play its role, it will carry a huge scar on its conscience if Cameroon goes the way of the Central African Republic. Cameroon already has a lot on its plate. Boko Haram has literally become a bogey man to the government in the north. Refugee problems in the East of the country are weighing down on the government. It will be preposterous for a fragile country like Cameroon to face another major threat in its Anglophone regions. The government may have the weapons. It may have the military men, but let it not forget that David did actually humiliate Goliath even though Goliath had huge muscles hanging loosely as if meant for destructive purposes. Wisdom should guide all actions and dialogue should be embraced by all the parties to spare Cameroon and Cameroonians the agony of an armed conflict.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

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.

The appointment of Ngwane George Esambe as a member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism has reportedly generated a political debate within the Francophone political elites in Yaoundé with some French speaking newspapers reporting that he was an advisor to the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium identified by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime as the main instigator of the Southern Cameroons Crisis.

A cream of Francophone elites however observed that by appointing Ngwane, Biya simply made a political gesture which has failed. George Ngwane has recently been profiled as one of the Southern Cameroons intellectuals who have never hidden his convictions particularly that of an independent state for Southern Cameroons. Some moderates inside the regime painted Ngwane as an activist and a pacifist who is also the founder of Africaphonie, a Pan-African organization working for the strengthening of democracy and economic development.

Some Francophone political commentators have however maintained that through his appointment, Paul Biya wants to use some of those who have been accused of dividing Cameroon to try to appease Southern Cameroonians.  Ngwane George is not a solid and popular Anglophone leader and therefore his presence in the commission is inconsequential, noted an ardent supporter of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

By Fru James

Chief Tabetando of Bachuo-Ntai village in Manyu Division, who recently boasted that he requested the Head of State to shut down internet services in Southern Cameroons, has been elected to replace former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge as leader of the CPDM Senate Group.  The elections held on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé.

 As Speaker of the Senate, there were no surprises. The candidature of the outgoing President Marcel Niat Njifenji proposed by the ruling party with a majority in the Senate had an express approval. He won 74 votes against 15 invalid ballots.

The new chairman of the CPDM Senate group is Chief Tabe Tando, Senator of the Southwest Region. He replaces former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, recently appointed to head the Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multicuturalism.

Chief Tabetando was born on the 29th of October 1950 in Bachou-Ntai, Manyu Division, South West region of Cameroon. Nfor Tabetando is a qualified Legal Practitioner who is the head of a Law Firm named and styled Equity Chambers in Douala, Cameroon since 1975. He was the President of the South West Chiefs Conference and a chartered member of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM party in Cameroon.

He also moonlighted as the Vice President of the Cameroon National Forum of Chiefs/Fons/Lamidos. He was enthroned in 1977 as the paramount ruler of the Bachuo-Ntai Kingdom, in Manyu Division of the South West Region. Nfor Tabetando is also actively involved in the oil sector. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of EurOil Limited.

By Sama Ernest in Yaounde

The National Communication Secretary of the Social Democratic Front, Denis Kemlemo, has announced an ordinary session of the National Executive Committee of the so-called main opposition party in Cameroon. The meeting will hold in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital on March 25^th 2017. The Yaoundé NEC meeting comes after that of Bamenda that took place on January 28, 2017.

Denis Kemlemo did not provide any particular reason for the holding of a NEC meeting in Yaoundé. But other SDF sources say the fact that all MPs and the Senators are currently in Yaoundé obliges the party to hold the NEC forum in Yaoundé. Although the agenda is not yet known, it is a well-established fact that the meeting will be to prepare for the next elections.

According to Denis Kemlemo, the commissions that were set up during the last NEC are functioning and are presently working on the reports that will be presented on March 25th. The different regional presidents will submit to the Secretary General of the SDF the results from the primaries of their respective regions. These lists are important not only for the NEC nominations but also for the scheduling of the delegations that will participate in the next party convention to take place on the 28, 29 and 30 of April 2017 in Bamenda.  It should be said that the elective convention of the SDF is planned for the month of April 2017.

By Rita Akana