The Commission that was created by President Biya to resolve the Southern Cameroons crisis and led by Senator Mafany Musonge has existed for eight months already. And so far, it has nothing to its credit. This September 23, 2017 will be nine months of its existence and the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism (CNPBM) is still on paper.

Apart from the installation ceremony of its members and the secretary general and the two sessions it held, the institution headed by Mr. Mafany Musonge is virtually non-existent. For the records, the commission was established to examined several subjects related to the anglophone crisis. A visit was was announced last June in the Northwest and South West Regions during the apex of the crisis, which began in November 2016. Musonge and his men were to visit Southern Cameroons as part of the “facilitation mission “. Cameroon Concord News can reveal that until now, the so-called National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism has not set foot in Southern Cameroons.

After the release of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium on August 30, French Cameroun political elites were anticipating a reaction from the president of the Commission on the antennas of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV). No reaction regarding this measure was made public. Mafany Musonge and his gang have never commented on the violence, particularly the destruction of schools and other public buildings, which are constantly pacing life in Southern Cameroons. Similarly, the institution headed by former Prime Minister Mafany Musonge has also refrained from any statement on the non resumption of schools.

Peter Mafany Musonge (to use his three names) was approached by a French Cameroun newspaper and he observed that there is no need to worry. “The commission is working. You will hear from us soon,” he said. The Commission was created on the 23rd of January 2017 by a decree of the President of the Republic. Its creation took place after the Government decided to end the negotiations begun with the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

A symposium on the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon has been organised for all Cameroonians to attend regardless of their persuasion. Whether you are Anglophone or Francophone, come along and let’s debate the issues.

This is a joint initiative of WCA and WCMC UK to explore lasting solutions to the recurrent Anglophone problem.

Date of Symposium: 30th September 2017, Start time 11am prompt.

Location:  The Hilton Hotel, Paradise Way, Walsgrave Triangle, Coventry CV2 2ST.

Questions from delegates will be address to our distinguished panel of speakers consisting of:

*1. Edith Kahbang Walla (Kah Walla) 2. Prof. Jean Emanuel Pondi 3. Barrister Ben Muna 4. Mola Njoh Litumbe 5. Prof. Nelson Enonchong – (as moderator) 6. Hon Jean Mitchel Nintcheu – MP for Doula and Wouri central*.

Other potential Independent guests who have been approached are:

• Representative from Commonwealth Secretariat • Representative from Ghanaian High Commission • Representative from Nigeria High Commission • MP for Coventry North East, Colleen Fletcher, MP. • Representative from the Community Secretary, Sajjid Javid’s office .

We have engaged a market research company to conduct a survey  of the views of delegates on which option they are for,  prior to the symposium and again take their views after they listen to all the panellists in order to measure opinion of a cross section of the UK Cameroonian Diaspora.

Tickets will be priced at £40 which will,

include dinner and alcoholic beverages at the end of the symposium and an opportunity to network with the panellists and some of the distinguished guests who will be attending.

This is a significant and inclusive gathering of Cameroonians in the UK to debate the issues facing Anglophones specifically. The organisers are looking to engage all parties and steer a better way forward with input from all attendees.

For tickets to book your place please call – Judith +44 7916 276295, Frank +447429880730 or Phil +44 7975981048

You can also purchase tickets online using:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cameroon-anglophone-crisis-symposium-coventry-uk-tickets-37259450018

Please note that tickets will be available on a first come first serve basis as the places are limited.

We would be most grateful to have you at the Symposium.

Organisers and sponsors:

*West Cameroon Association (WCA):* Is a Think Tank and a collective of English-speaking Cameroonians based in Cameroon and the Diaspora.

*West Cameroon Movement For Change (WCMC):* Is a Coalition of West Cameroonians worldwide who are campaigning for the restoration of the dignity of the people of West Cameroon.

A monument has been erected in honour of the late freedom fighter Ruben Um Nyobe in his village at Libellingoi Boumnyebel in a ceremony that held on the 13th of September 2017. Libellingoi Boumnyebel is located some 84 kilometres from Yaounde. The occasion was attended by many politicians in the company of the wife and son of the fallen hero, Mme Ngo Ndjock Y. Marie and Daniel Ruben Um Nyobe.

Speaking during the event, the Secretary General of the UPC party enjoined the youth to emulate the example of Ruben Um Nyobe. He regretted the fact that the freedom fighter did not live to see Cameroon gain her independence.
Ruben Um Nyobe was co- founder of the Cameroon People’s Union (UPC) on 10th April 1948. On 14th September 1958, the independence crusader was assassinated by the French army still in Libellingoi Boumyebel . On the 27th of June 1991, President Paul Biya promulgated the law on the rehabilitation of UPC martyrs as national heroes.

Ruben Um Nyobe was born on 13th September, 1913 in the Nyong and Nkelle Division in the centre region. He attended Presbyterian schools in the French occupied territory and worked as a civil servant in the Finance and judicial administration sectors.

He made several appearances at UN the headquarters in New York where he criticised French refusal to prepare Cameroon for independence or self government . His efforts paid off when the Trusteeship council issued a series of resolutions asking France to implement political reforms in French Cameroun. French Cameroon finally became independent on 1st January 1960.

The respected SDF MP from the Jakiri constituency in Southern Cameroons has said that the Biya Francophone government should engage with West Cameroon elites in relation to the 1961 Foumban Agreement.

In a correspondence dated September 7, 2017, addressed to several diplomatic missions such as La Francophonie, the Commonwealth, the United Nations, CEMAC, UNHCR, etc., the MP stated that Southern Cameroonians are being treated as slaves by French Cameroonians.

The Honourable Joseph Wirba reviewed the Bui incident of September 4, when a teenager was shot dead by a gendarme. For the deputy, it is a “genocide” orchestrated on his people with “the complicit silence and the blessing of President Paul Biya, commander in chief of the armed forces”.

The MP also described the militarization of Southern Cameroons on the eve of the new school year and the suspension of the Internet for a period of three months as “a discriminatory sanction” that has ruined several businesses in these regions.

The Honourable member noted that despite his parliamentary immunity, an arrest warrant had been issued against him. “All this to silence the injustice suffered by the marginalised people of the Northwest and Southwest regions,” the MP said.

Joseph Wirba called on the international community and the United Nations to put pressure on the Cameroonian government to engage in dialogue with the leaders of the Anglophone uprising. The MP further pointed out that he would like to see federalism on the agenda in this dialogue as ruled in Foumban in 1961.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

President Biya is planning a campaign visit to the Far North region in which he is expected to attack the interim leader of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council, Cameroon Concord News has learned from reliable sources in Yaounde. Our informants have also hinted that Etoudi intends to package the tour to appear as if the 85 year old leader’s trip to Maroua is to boost the morale of the joint Anglophone and Francophone troops combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

The date of the presidential visit has not yet been made public. However, a well-placed source who spoke to our correspondent in Yaounde said the visit may be staged in the month of October 2017. A lot of tongues have been wagging against Mr. Biya who has never been to this region three years after he declared the war against Boko Haram.

Biya is reportedly fighting for his political survival and travelling to the Far North region will provide him with a rare opportunity of signing a new pack with the huge electoral bastion in the region. With support for his party and leadership style facing a catastrophic decline in Southern Cameroons, the Maroua trip is aimed at convincing the French government of President Macron that he remains the right man for the job.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

Agbor Balla I am happy that you are free from the dragnet of the evil kingdom of Paul Biya. You are a great man who has achieved great things for his people. However you greatest achievement would be making sure that all those who were abducted and put in jails with you and those freed, are also free.

You should go out there and fight for the freedom of those you left behind, including Mancho BBC. This is where your full freedom and liberation lie. You cannot be free and will not be free until all are free and released.

This is what you must do to be fully free. That should have been your sole condition for you to leave prison. Thank you for all you have done and sacrificed for us and we thank God for you.

Please complete your task at the battle as we continue with the war. Get Mancho BBC and all the others freed.

Christmas Ebini

The Francophone Sub-prefect of Yaounde I, has forbidden a public meeting organised in honour of Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh. The senior Anglophone Cameroon citizen was scheduled to meet the press on Wednesday the 30th of August 2017 in the nation’s capital Yaounde, when it was revealed to him and his entourage that the press conference has been banned.

In a poorly worded document that was handed to an aide of the Special Representative of the National Democratic Institute, the Sub Divisional Officer stated that “I have the honour to inform you that despite a benevolent review of your request, it has not been possible for me to give a favourable response.”

The French Cameroun civil administrator further pointed out in his correspondence to Dr. Fomunyoh that the press conference organized by a group of media gurus represents a threat to public security.

Ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons revolution that has cast a shadow of doubt on President Biya’s continued stay in power, several public meetings of opposition figures have been banned by Francophone administrative authorities, unlike those organized by those close to the regime who are supervised by the police.

By Eyong Johnson
Cameroon Concord News

The regime in Yaounde has once again postponed the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium leaders hearing. Defense lawyers for Barrister Agbor Balla Felix Nkongho and Dr Fontem Neba were awaiting the start of the trial scheduled for August 29, 2017 at the Yaounde High Court but it was postponed to the 5th of September 2017.

This postponement greatly angered the defense team that arrived early at the Mfoundi High Court in Yaounde anticipating that the Francophone tribunal will rule on the habeas corpus motion for the immediate release of Dr. Barrister NKongho Felix Agbor and Dr. Fontem Neba.

The lawyers were informed by the president of the court that the detainees were not released from the Kondengui detention facility. A sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report noted earlier today that the Kondengui prison administrator told the Mfoundi High Court that the prison did not have guards to escort the leaders to the court premise.

The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium are expected to respond to lame and ridiculous charges of coercion, acts of terrorism, hostility against the fatherland, secession, revolution and insurrection in the social movements that is currently going on in Southern Cameroons. They have been imprisoned in Yaounde central prison for eight months.

The so-called Military Tribunal had rejected the request for provisional release. Next Thursday, Dr. Nkongho Felix Agbor, Dr. Fontem Neba and other Southern Cameroons detainees incarcerated in the context of the anglophone crisis are expected to attend the hearing at the Military Tribunal.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

The application for habeas corpus made by the defense team for the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will be examined today, the 29th of August at the Mfoundi High Court in Yaounde.

The two leaders, Felix Nkongho Agbor and Fontem Neba are currently being tried in French Cameroun for hostility against the homeland, outrages on constituted bodies and officials, rebellion, degradation of public property, looting, coercion of acts of terrorism, secession, revolution, insurrection, excitement And propagation of false news.

Dr. Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Neba described recently by CPDM Senator Mbella Moki as men of honour were arrested on January 18 and ever since then, the Southern Cameroons revolution has continued to shake the very foundation of the ruling CPDM party.

At the last hearing, on the 27th of July, defense lawyers pointed out that the detention of their clients was illegal. Because it violates legal proceedings. “They were arrested at the end of January and the pre-trial detention can not exceed six months without being renewed. But it was not in June.”

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News Group

Jeannette Marafa, the wife of Marafa Hamidou Yaya, jailed former Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic who died on Friday 25 August in Paris has been buried in France, Cameroon Concord News has learnt from Francophone media sources.

A relative of the late Jeannette Marafa quoted by some media houses pointed out that she consented to the idea of being laid to rest in a cemetery in Paris, France according to Muslim tradition.

The source also indicated that in her will, Jeannette Marafa reportedly said that “When my husband gets out of prison he will exhume my body and bury me in Garoua in northern Cameroon.” Jeannette Marafa has always claimed during her lifetime that her husband, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, is a political prisoner in Cameroon.

The former Minister of State in charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, who is being held in one of the cells of a secondary prison at the General Secretariat for Defense, was sentenced to 20 years in prison over the Albatross affair.

By Eyong Johnson with files from CIN