In Cameroon, the head of state is not required to pass mental health exams or psychological and psychiatric evaluations even after staying in power for 40 years. No Cameroonian psychologists and members of both the National Assembly and the so-called House of Senate have called for such mental health exams mindful of the fact that President Biya is now 89 years old.

The idea of requiring President Paul Biya to undergo mental health exams is considered a treasonable act. Consequently, there is no panel of physicians who would routinely evaluate the most powerful politician in Cameroon and decide whether his judgment such as the declaration of war against the people of Southern Cameroons was clouded by a mental disability.

This week, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the television channel Vision 4, Amougou Belinga fired Dieudonne Essomba, a senior political analyst who opined that President Paul Biya was no longer fit for office.

The French Cameroun political commentator had been invited to sing the normal CPDM praises on Biya who turned 89. However, the outspoken Dieudonne Essomba instead told the world via Club d’elites that Biya is now unable to lead Cameroon. Essomba furthered “At 89 years old, one cannot manage a country. Biya who is 89 years old is at 25% of his capacity.”

In a statement published by the Groupe L’Anecdote accompanied by Essomba’s picture, Vision 4 said Dieudonne Essomba’s contract had been terminated.

“We would like to advise the public that Dr. Dieudonne Essomba, who was a consultant, in the capacity of guest speaker in Club d’elites, is no longer a member of staff with immediate effect. Vision 4 disassociates itself completely with any statements, be they political or of any other nature, that he has made in the past or may make to the press in the future.”

Vision 4 also removed the video of the Club d’elites program from its face book and YouTube pages.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President Paul Biya has again appointed Dr Ewumbue-Monono Churchill as Ambassador of Cameroon to Djibouti.

Biya stated that “Mr. Ewumbue-Monono Churchill is, from the date of signing this decree, appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cameroon in the Republic of Djibouti, with residence in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.”

Born on February 16, 1961 Ewumbue-Monono Churchill is currently Cameroon’s ambassador to Ethiopia and will continue to reside in Addis Ababa.

Ewumbue-Monono Churchill is a long standing Cameroon diplomat who hails from the South West region. He was a technical adviser in the civil cabinet at the presidency of the Republic and a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure Internationale de Journalisme (Esijy) and the Institut des Relations Internationales du Cameroun (IRIC).

By Rita Akana

The disgraced Dr. Ikome Sako, the former Communications Secretary of the Ambazonia Interim Government, Chris Anu and the leader of one of the numerous armed militias in Southern Cameroons Dr. Cho Ayaba are working hand in hand to destroy the Southern Cameroons Interim Government-the only West Cameroon institution that is refusing to succumb to the Biya French Cameroun pressure.

The three have slowly but surely transformed into a pro French Cameroun political wing deep within the Southern Cameroons struggle and Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered intelligence that the three men have ties to Yaoundé. However, we understand the exiled leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government, Vice President Dabney Yerima is reportedly developing a Southern Cameroons resistance front in Europe and the US capable of foiling the French Cameroun teleguided Sako, Anu and Cho Ayaba plots.

Dr. Ikome Sako, Cho Ayaba and Chris Anu are using fake face book accounts including WhatsApp contacts to deceive Southern Cameroonians in Ground One and Ground Zero that they are the genuine Ambazonian leaders in order to keep collecting money from Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora. They are currently running malicious acts of sabotage in Southern Cameroons seeking to destroy all what the Interim Government under the jailed President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe had achieved.

The happenings in Maryland is a clear indication that the more the money pours in from the Southern Cameroons diaspora in Europe and the US, the more those who claim to have taken over from Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe become wayward, irresponsible, and undisciplined.

Most of them think they can continue to use the Bible to blindfold Southern Cameroonians while others also believe that they are in charge of political affairs of a state that only exist on social media.

This is happening to a people who are fighting without any international support to protect their sovereignty with the blood of their children. The action of these Southern Cameroons gangsters is simply making a mockery of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s dignity and independence. Several Southern Cameroons elites can no longer watch the comedy that is unfolding and have started declaring allegiance to the Green, Red, Yellow flag.

Recently in Holland, Vice President Dabney Yerima opined that Southern Cameroonians particularly those in the diaspora can stand firm against these so-called front line leaders who are no longer interested in fighting the intimidated French Cameroun regime, but only to line their pockets. Yerima said the Ambazonia diaspora should starve them and make them to surrender.

Dabney Yerima stated that the Ambazonian nation is now a member of the freedom seeking front in the world and thus Southern Cameroonians must apply the policy of resistance against any corrupt figure deep within the struggle.

Sako, Chris and Ayaba are trading accusations and are using their surrogates to sling mud at each other. A lot of money is missing and none of them is capable of accounting for the money, though they have been happily running the accounts of their various groups be it Sako IG or AgovC. The mere mention of the word “audit” irritates them. These are the people who want to rule a new country.  

The actions of these consortiums of Southern Cameroons crime syndicate are putting the lives of thousands of young men and woman who have opted to fight for an independent Southern Cameroons at risk. 

A simple and peaceful protest by teachers and lawyers was mismanaged and was allowed to spiral out of control by a French backed French Cameroun regime that was not wont to hearing contrary views.

The protest by teachers and lawyers was a way Southern Cameroonians wanted La Republique du Cameroun to listen to their grievances and seek solutions which could douse the fire that was burning out of control in many their minds.

Years of political and economic marginalization had sown a violent storm in many minds in Southern Cameroons. However, the Southern Cameroons revolution may still be playing out, but it seems to be on its last leg.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Ambazonia Interim Government has slammed serious violations of  Southern Cameroons national sovereignty and territorial integrity by the French Cameroun regime in Yaounde during this period of the Africa Cup of Nations, saying that the 5 year-old crisis could only be resolved when French Cameroun occupation ends.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News Group late on Tuesday, Southern Cameroons Secretary of the Economy, Tabenyang Brado noted that the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia continues to be seriously violated either through the Africa Cup of Nations or by acts of aggression carried out by French Cameroun army soldiers loyal to the Biya regime in Yaounde.

Secretary Tabenyang Brado also opined that the crisis between the two Cameroons has no military solution and furthered that the conflict cannot also come to an end without French Cameroun ending its occupation.

The Southern Cameroons front line leader said military deployments, aggression and targeted killings teleguided by the French Cameroun regime have created continuous sufferings for the people of Southern Cameroons, adding that all Francophone and uninvited Atanga Nji Boys must leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia without any precondition or further delay.

The Yaounde government has quietly acknowledged that though untrained, Southern Cameroonian fighters have proven that they are a force to reckon with. The country’s military is still not believing that a ragtag military could bring such destruction to a trained military. 

Today, instead of using conventional methods, Southern Cameroonian fighters are employing explosive devices which are wreaking havoc on government military equipment and on army soldiers. A small disagreement between citizens of a country has been allowed to snowball, ruining the country’s economy and making secession a possibility. Southern Cameroonians have lost the love they once had for a country they once called theirs.  

The success scored by the fighters in Ground Zero could also be attributed to the leadership structure which Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his collaborators had left behind following his arrest and repatriation to Yaounde in circumstances which clearly defied international law.

By Chi Prudence Asong with additional reporting from Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

More than a hundred people from Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and its main political opposition party, arrested over the past five years for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, are still languishing in jail, where some have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today as it launches a new campaign to release them.

Over the past five years, the human rights situation has grown increasingly bleak as people from Anglophone regions, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists and supporters of political opposition, have been arrested and jailed for expressing their opinions or peacefully protesting.

The campaign, ‘Don’t shut them up: Free victims of arbitrary detention now’, calls on the authorities to immediately release people arrested for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The campaign focuses on dozens of individuals from the Northwest and Southwest Anglophone regions, arrested for taking part in peaceful protests, and at least 107 supporters of opposition party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC).

Most of the jailed individuals were tried before military courts — in violation of international human rights law — and sentenced under the country’s repressive 2014 anti-terror law.

“We call on the Cameroonian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those incarcerated for practicing their rights to free speech and peaceful protest. They should also rescind the overly broad anti-terror law, which has been used to criminalize protesters for years,” said Fabien Offner.

Anglophone detainees tortured

Thousands of people, including lawyers, teachers and human rights defenders, took part in largely peaceful demonstrations in late 2016 that called for greater rights in the two Anglophone regions.

More than 1,000 Anglophone people arrested between 2016 and 2021 in relation to the Anglophone crisis are behind bars in at least 10 prisons across the country, including 650 in Buea, 280 in Yaoundé, 181 in Douala and 101 in Bafoussam. Dozens have been arbitrarily detained.

We call on the Cameroonian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those incarcerated for practicing their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.

According to testimonies gathered by Amnesty International, many of them were held incommunicado and suffered torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings and lashes, deprivation of food and water for days, mock drownings and forced extraction of fingernails. 

On 25 May 2018, the Yaoundé military court sentenced eight people to lengthy prison sentences under the anti-terror law, including journalist Tsi Conrad, who was arrested in Bamenda on 8 December 2016 after attending a protest. Conrad was sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism-related offences. In May 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Conrad’s detention was arbitrary and called for his release.

Penn Terence Khan, the vice principal of a high school in Bamenda, was arrested on 17 January 2017 and sentenced on 10 April 2018 to 12 years in prison and fined 15 million CFA francs (23,000 euros) by the Yaoundé military court. His charges included “complicity in secession, financing of terrorism and complicity with the rebellion”, yet the only piece of evidence was a T-shirt with the words “Diaspora South Africa Standing behind West Cameroonians 4 a Federal Cameroon” and “We are Cameroonians, we are not extremists” printed on it.

Protest leader Ngalim Felix Safeh, a member of the separatist Southern Cameroon National Council party, wasarrested on 29 November 2016 and placed in pre-trial detention on 7 February 2017. He was charged with “apology for terrorism, attempted murder, insurrection, group rebellion and degradation of public goods”. More than five years after his arrest, he remains in pre-trial detention. His case has seen nearly 90 adjournments before the Yaoundé military court.

Mancho Bibixy Tse, a protest leader and radio journalist based in Bamenda, was also tried before a military court and sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism-related offences.

“The Cameroonian authorities must end their relentless assault on dissenting voices in the Anglophone regions. All others who have been arbitrarily detained with their right to a fair trial violated, must also be freed”, said Fabien Offner.

Political opposition and civil society targeted

As of 15 January 2022, 107 supporters and members of the MRC remained in detention after being arrested before, during and after taking part in demonstrations held in September 2020 to denounce the way upcoming regional elections were being organized, especially in relation to the Anglophone crisis.

A group of nearly 50 people were sentenced by military courts on 27 December 2021 for “insurrection”, “rebellion” and “endangering state security”. Olivier Bibou Nissack, the spokesperson for MRC President Maurice Kamto, and Alain Fogué, the MRC’s first vice president, were sentenced to seven years in prison for “revolution and rebellion” and “revolution, rebellion and gathering” respectively.

The next day, Awasum Mispa Fri, President of the ‘Women of the MRC’, was sentenced to seven years in prison for “complicity in revolution and rebellion”. Other MRC supporters were convicted and then released, having spent over a year in detention.

Numerous detainees are currently being held in prisons in Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam and Mfou. On 7 December 2021, Dorgelesse Nguessan was sentenced to five years in prison for “insurrection, assembly, meetings and public demonstrations” by the Douala military tribunal. Before she was transferred to Douala central prison on December 30, she was denied the right to wash in the police station where she was held and suffered an attempted sexual assault by a police officer.

Intifalia Oben, a 29-year-old trader and MRC supporter, was sentenced to five years in prison by the Yaoundé military court on 27 December. He was found guilty of “complicity in revolution and rebellion”. He was subjected to torture, including beatings and mock drownings, while in detention at the Defence Secretary of State (Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense, SED).

MRC detainees have reported widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment by security forces, including the SED and the police in Yaoundé. On 5 November 2021, detainees at Yaoundé prison wrote to the President of the military tribunal to request their release and list the repeated violations of their rights.

A member of the Stand Up for Cameroon movement, Collins Nana, was arrested and after taking part in an MRC protest on 22 September 2020. He remains in detention after being sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Douala military court on 7 December 2021 for “insurrection, meetings and public demonstrations”.

Four other men from Stand Up for Cameroon —Etienne Ntsama, Moussa Bello, Mira Angoung, and Tehle Membou — were also arrested in September 2020 after attending a meeting at their Douala headquarters. They were sentenced to 16 months in prison by a Douala military tribunal on 31 December 2021 for conspiring to revolt, allegedly for having ‘mobilized’ ahead of the MRC’s 22 September marches.

“These frequent attacks on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, coupled with the widespread use of torture and trials of civilians by military courts, reveal the extent to which the Cameroonian authorities are normalizing the repression of critical voices. Their relentless repression must end” said Fabien Offner.

Culled from Amnesty International

When he went seeking glory at the VIP lounge of the Olembe Stadium, an architectural masterpiece, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Cameroon’s higher education minister, did not know he was stirring a hornet’s nest.

Fame Ndongo has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons on many occasions and he knows he is not the most loved Cameroonian at this time, especially as he belongs to a government and a political party that has messed up things in a country once considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

Fame Ndongo is no stranger to controversy and has crossed some of the reddest of the red lines which could have taken him to the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison known as Kondengui.

A few years ago, he manufactured a story about supplying laptops to Cameroon’s university students as a way of making the country’s president, Paul Biya, popular among the country’s youths; a story the head of state took down hook, line and sinker.

But Fame Ndongo’s real objective was not to make the president popular. He wanted to feather his own nest. A  project worth millions of dollars was a great opportunity for him to serve his parochial and selfish interest.

Fame Ndongo, a man noted for his grandiloquence, thought that things would just work like a conveyor belt and that the proceeds of his crime would hit his bank account with relative ease.

He is a man who overestimates himself and he thought he would   make quick work of the challenging project which became a millstone around his neck.

Once the project started hitting many bumps in its path, the learned professor came up with fake computer science theories he himself did not understand, sometimes enlisting his collaborators in crime to come and help him bamboozle Cameroonians who were already in the know of his selfish and misleading intentions.

The massive online protests about his embezzlement of funds allocated for the laptop computer program finally caught the president’s attention and many thought he would be caught out of the government in the next cabinet reshuffle.

During a ceremony in 2019 wherein cabinet ministers were extending their New Year Wishes to the head of state, Fame Ndongo, the desperate higher education minister, wanted to use that opportunity to demonstrate his enduring loyalty and unwavering support to President Paul Biya, but he was soundly and roundly humiliated in plain sight by the president.

The message was clear! Fame Ndongo was in trouble and his next destination was clearly visible. Kondengui has been a good place for many cabinet ministers who have fallen out of favor with the president and Fame does not like that residence.

In the cabinet reshuffle that succeeded that incident at the Unity Palace, Fame Ndongo was maintained in his position after many letters to the president and following the timely intervention of the president’s trusted friends.

But old habits diehard. Fame Ndongo will always be a repeat offender. He likes fame and loves lining his pocket with money that is not his.

It was fame that took him to the VIP lounge on that day when the Indomitable Lions were working hard to make Cameroonians proud.

Fame Ndongo, for his part, had organized a massive and a costly drinking party that has left Cameroonians heartbroken.

The cost of the wines, which were being consumed by Fame Ndongo’s lackeys, is what has angered Cameroonians. They could not believe their eyes and ears. To many, that is just the tip of the wasteful iceberg that is ruining the country.

A bottle of wine consumed by people who earn less than CFAF 40,000 was more than CFAF 3 miilion and many of such bottles of wine were uncorked on that unfortunate day.

A video of the party, which seemed to have been made in Heaven, tells of a bunch of sycophants forged in the crucible of corruption, extoling the virtues of the pompous and bombastic higher education minister.

But the fame Fame Ndongo got on that has become the next millstone around his neck. The head of state, Paul Biya, has ordered an investigation into the incident.

Social media has become a tool of governance and citizens in Cameroon and abroad are using it now as a whistleblowing mechanism which is causing many government officials to lose sleep.

Fame Ndongo is once more in hot water. He knows he has been in the eye of the storm for a long time and the wine incident may just be the last straw that might open the gates of Kondengui for him.

But it is not yet over. Fame Ndong still holds a trump card. He knows that the president loves his collaborators to always bow to him like angels do to God.

Being the crook he has always been, the learned criminal has already issued a motion of support,  pledging his unalloyed support to the head of state in whatever the president does.

Fame Ndongo has roped in  hundreds of people from the country’s South region just to demonstrate that the South, led by him, is solidly behind the president.

But this last gimmick may not work. The investigation has been launched and those in charge of the enquiry are already doing their work. The are meticulously analyzing the video and some of those identified in the video have already been questioned.

There is panic within the professor’s cycle and things are not really looking good for the man who erroneously holds that he can spin the presidential couple around his finger.

According to a disgruntled source close to the arrogant minister of higher education, the man is no longer at ease. He has already briefed his entourage on what to say if questioned and this situation is already consuming him.

“The professor has already briefed his collaborators in crime on what to say. All of them are losing sleep and are looking for ways to demonstrate that the minister bought the drinks out of pocket, but the government’s records are telling a different tale” the source said.

“However, he does not understand that there are two issues involved. The video does not only show that the minister is wasteful, it also demonstrates that he is not discreet. Mr. Biya hates it when his collaborators get caught in situations which portray his government as being wasteful and arrogant. The negative optics are killing the president and Fame Ndongo is regretting that moment of indiscretion,” the source added.

Mr. Ndongo might have issued his motion of support but it is not clear if it will spare him the agony he is putting himself through.

Before the investigation gets concluded, Fame Ndongo would have become a shadow of his former self. He is losing sleep and given that Biya likes holding his cards so close to his chest, the learned professor might end up with a stroke before the findings of the enquiry are released.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A senior Southern Cameroons academic says the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is under a very malicious occupation but some so-called front line leaders are closing their doors to the liberation journey to Buea, while at the same time reaching out to Southern Cameroons enemy in Yaounde.

Referring to the crisis that has rocked the Southern Cameroons group in Maryland often refered to as the Sako-IG, Dr. Patrick Ayuk said on Thursday, “We have to admit that the Maryland gang had private financial dealings with some people in Yaounde.”

“It is hard to believe that because of small amounts of money, the enemy in French Cameroun is now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Maryland group in the way we are seeing today, and the group is closing its doors to the Ambazonian struggle? Dr. Patrick Ayuk said during a meeting with the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima on Thursday.

Dr. Patrick Ayuk in a soul-searching presentation to the Ambazonia war cabinet re-echoed the view that Dr. Ikome Sako and Pastor Chris Anu had used the Bible to blindfold Southern Cameroonians who were delivering millions of dollars for war purposes.

The pastors became front line leaders in the US and carefully transformed Southern Cameroonians into their personal piggy banks not to fight the intimidated Yaounde regime, but to line their pockets.

Dr. Patrick Ayuk condemned what he described as a treacherous stab in the back and appealed to Vice President Yerima to present a clearer picture to the people in Ground Zero and Ground One on the state of the Southern Cameroons revolution.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroonian journalist Amadou Vamoulké, the septuagenarian former head of the national radio and TV broadcaster, has just completed his 2,000th day in detention without being convicted on any charge. Cameroon’s disgraceful treatment of Vamoulké falls far below even the most basic standards of justice and human dignity, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Adjourned 90 times, his trial is the longest to have been held as part of the anti-corruption drive known as Operation Sparrowhawk that the Cameroonian authorities launched in 2006. Critics have often accused them of exploiting Sparrowhawk to get rid of personalities regarded as a nuisance. Aside from the shocking treatment of journalists in Eritrea, which is one of the world’s worst dictatorships and is rightly last in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, this case has also broken all records for the longest detention of an African journalist without being convicted. Vamoulké has been held for more than five and a half years.

Arrested on 29 July 2016, Vamoulké is the subject of two distinct grotesque proceedings on charges of misusing public funds as director-general of Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) – charges for which absolutely no evidence and no witness has ever been produced by the prosecution. In letter on 29 December to the secretary-general of the prime minister’s office, whose duties include ensuring Cameroon’s compliance with the international conventions and treaties it has signed, Vamoulké’s French and Cameroonian lawyers called on the authorities to free him in order to comply with the decision issued on 12 July 2020 by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. After being referred the case by RSF, the Working Group issued an unambiguous determination that Vamoulké’s provisional detention has “no legal basis” and that the violations of the right to due process are “of such gravity” that they confer an “arbitrary character” on Mr. Vamoulké’s detention.

“Two thousand days in prison and 90 trial adjournments – these are dizzying figures behind which lies the life of a journalist broken by five and a half years of totally illegal provisional detention,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “We reiterate our appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to end this judicial persecution, which is breaking all records, which is arbitrarily depriving a journalist of his freedom, and which is discrediting all of the Cameroonian institutions involved.”

In its decision, the UN Working Group also voiced concern about the health of Vamoulké, who will be 72 next month and who suffers from an illness described by medical experts as “severe.” He has never been given the tests and treatment required by his ailment and he is in great danger from Covid-19 because of his age and pre-existing conditions, and because of prison over-crowding.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Culled from RSF

Of the five African heads of state invited by the 88-year old President Paul Biya for the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations, only Azali Assoumani of the Union of Comoros showed up. Francophone African leaders including President Roch Marc Kabore of Burkina Faso and Macky Sall of Senegal pressured by Paris to make the trip to Yaoundé were conspicuous by their absence from the gathering of world football leaders.

A highly placed Cameroon government official who spoke to our Yaoundé City reporter late on Tuesday on grounds that he should not be identified said everyone at the presidency of the republic regretted that President Kabore of Burkina Faso and Macky Sall of Senegal did not avail themselves of the opportunity to address football issues in Africa. He however added that Biya was indeed the problem “as he never visits other African countries”.  Yaoundé has also expressed disappointment at several African governments’ political decision to not attend the Africa Cup of Nations.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that some of the African administrations have called on Etoudi to reconsider its Southern Cameroons war approach and commit in good faith to live up to its political-economic commitments towards the people of British Southern Cameroons.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon has not hosted the Africa Cup of Nations since the 1972. Optimists hope the goodwill generated by the tournament can be used to foster national unity, with the south west of the country still mired in violence.

After 40 years in power, President Biya is famously not a man fond of public appearances.

But Sunday’s opening ceremony of the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations was taken as an opportunity to be centre-stage – at least briefly. The 88-year-old entered the new stadium that bears his name in a motorcade that lapped the athletics track as he and the first lady, Chantal, waved through the open roof. His speech, when it came, was only a few sentences, a formal declaration of the tournament’s start.

Biya had more to say in his New Year address to the nation 10 days ago, pitching the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon or CAF) as part of a grand plan for infrastructure development, before calling “on our Beloved Indomitable Lions to do their utmost to ensure that they end this festival in grand style on the evening of 6 February 2022”.

Dose of reality

The optimism was, however, to be contrasted with the heart of the speech focusing on national disunity. “Many of our compatriots remain within the ranks of armed groups”, he warned. “They continue to engage in criminal activities, increasing attacks with improvised explosive devices and murders of unarmed civilians. The recent assassination of three students and a teacher of Bilingual High School Ekondo Titi added to their long list of abuses and atrocities.”

That attack in the Southwest region in November 2021 served as an inconvenient reminder that the five-year “Anglophone crisis” continues without resolution. If hasn’t been enough to undermine Cameroon’s hosting status this time round, memories are still fresh from enduring the humiliation of CAF’s decision in 2018 to strip Yaounde of the tournament and hand duties to Egypt for the summer 2019 edition. Delayed preparations and the “Ambazonia” crisis played a central role.

Politics at bay…for now

This year politics has not altered the itinerary – with Group F’s Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia still set to train in the restive south-west regional capital Buea and eight matches to be played in coastal Limbé, where there were reports of an explosion as recently as 5 January and the security presence is heavy. The government will be hoping that a tournament without major incident will buttress the official position that the worst has passed.

If Cameroon make the final at the Paul Biya Stadium on the outskirts of Yaoundé, critics of the $300m facility will still be entitled to rail against the total costs of the tournament. Around $700m has been sunk into stadia and roads but home success at Afcons tends to drown out opposition.

There will have been relief that the Lions recovered from 1-0 down to Burkina Faso on Sunday, taking advantage of two rashly conceded penalties to squeeze home 2-1.

There is genuine excitement

After all, Cameroon has not hosted the tournament since 1972 (when it featured just eight teams in two groups) and have a formidable home record in competitive matches. The recent defeat of Cote d’Ivoire in the battle for World Cup qualification raised expectation further.

In 2017, a young, largely unfancied Lions side beat Senegal, Ghana and, finally, Egypt to lift the country’s 5th Afcon title in dramatic fashion. Aboubakar’s late win in Libreville sealed a tournament that entertained without ever quite hitting great heights. It had political resonance too.

In the week after that win, goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa expressed solidarity on television with the country’s English-speaking minority. “My brothers, I am from Bamenda. For you, for you,” he said, a Francophone star dedicating the victory to the north-western anglophone city at a time of ongoing repression.

On the downside, the team hasn’t progressed significantly since that title win and exited at the last 16 stage in Egypt the last time out. Defending champions Algeria and an exciting Senegal side are a rank above on current form.

Greatest threat…Covid-19

The greatest threat to the tournament may yet come from Covid-19. CAF, having vigorously resisted calls for postponement, now has to cope with public health concerns, a complex testing regime and, inevitably, missing players.

It may be that things settle down once squads have fully entered the country and remain in their bubbles. But already Senegal has been badly affected, with nine players testing positive – including Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy and Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly – just days before their opening game against Zimbabwe on Monday. Gabon, Malawi, Ivory Coast and Tunisia also had preparations disrupted by new cases.

With only 2.5% of the population double-vaccinated, the tournament requirement for fans to prove their status to gain entry to stadiums is being watched closely. According to CAF, “supporters may only enter stadiums if they are fully vaccinated and are able to show a negative PCR test result that is no older than 72 hours or a negative antigen test result no older than 24 hours.” Cameroon’s matches are already restricted to 80% capacity to ease social distancing while all other fixtures are capped at 60%.

Biya’s name may be on the stadium but the popular figurehead for this Afcon will undoubtedly be the new President of the Cameroon football federation, Samuel Eto’o.

The four-time African Footballer of the Year and two-time Afcon winner has staked his reputation on a smooth tournament and a new era for the troubled domestic game. He was at the forefront of resistance to calls for delay at the end of last year and issued a warning to voices from Europe seeking to undermine Afcon’s credibility.

“The federation that I represent will strongly defend the competition,” he said. “The Euros were played in the middle of the pandemic with full stadiums. Why shouldn’t we play?” For all the politics and problems, there is once again no compelling riposte to that question.

Source: The Africa Report