Cameroon’s government displayed an “openness” towards dialogue for solving the country’s ongoing Anglophone crisis, during a visit by the Vatican’s number two earlier this week, according to a top church official from the Anglophone regions.

“There is a kind of openness for dialogue,” said Andrew Nkea, Archbishop of Bamenda. “But how this is going to come about, I think we must also be discreet in the way we handle those things.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, completed a visit to Cameroon on Wednesday, after a five-day trip during which he met President Paul Biya and held mass in Bamenda, the capital of the North West Region.

Fighting between armed separatists and Cameroon’s military continues in the North West and South West regions. The Catholic Church believes the only way to stop fighting and end the conflict is to hold talks between the warring sides.

“The cardinal was able to say to all the powers that be that dialogue was the most important tool for the solution of this problem,” Nkea told Africa Calling podcast, referring to discussions he sat in on between Parolin and the government.

Boycott and continued violence

Parolin’s visit to the Anglophone regions was marked by deserted streets, as armed separatists called for a boycott of his trip to Bamenda, but nevertheless, many church goers showed up at his mass.

Fighting and violence also continued during Parolin’s visit as three people were allegedly killed by Cameroonian soldiers on 31 January in the village of Semndzen, located in Bui Division in the North West Region.

Troops were searching for separatists, locally known as Amba Boys, and allegedly shot three villagers in the bush who were tapping palm wine, mistaking them for fighters, according to information RFI received.

Cardinal Parolin said during his trip to Cameroon that the Catholic Church, at both a local level and in Rome, is ready to facilitate dialogue between Yaoundé and the separatists.

“This facilitation depends on the actors involved, we cannot force the partners to dialogue,” said Nkea, in an interview.

Both the government and separatists have at times viewed the church’s efforts for mediation with some suspicion.

Local church leader Cardinal Christian Tumi had been trying to help bring fighting to an end, however, he was kidnapped by gunmen in the North West region on 5 November.

“It depends on the openness of the government, and it depends on the openness of the separatists,” said Nkea, discussing the possibility of future peace talks.

Building foundation for talks

Nkea would not be drawn on what the next steps for possible mediation might be, but mentioned steps and instruments that need to be put in place to lay the groundwork for any talks. “Now, it’s modalities,” he added.

“Things have moved at least a step forward,” said Nkea, describing candid talks with the authorities in Yaoundé.

“One of the big problems we’re talking about in this dialogue is there are at least 8 to 10 different leaders of the separatist groups,” said Bamenda’s archbishop, underlining the importance of including everyone.

“This needs time, and that’s the delicate aspect of it,” said Nkea.

Fighting started following protests in 2016 by Anglophones over perceived marginalisation by the Francophone ruling majority.

A crackdown on demonstrations led to a self-proclamation of independence for a state called Ambazonia and ultimately fighting between the army and separatist fighters.

Both separatist groups and Cameroon’s military have been accused of killing civilians and committing rights abuses during the Anglophone crisis.

Human Rights Watch said this week that soldiers killed at least nine civilians in the South West region on 10 January. The human rights watchdog said the soldiers looted homes and threatened residents.

Source: RFI

As the world is currently more focused on the mess the Trump Administration has left behind in Washington D.C., many dictators across the world now think they have a free hand to wreak havoc in their own countries and that is the game that is playing out in Southern Cameroons where a four-year insurgency has given the Yaounde government the carte blanche to transform the country’s two English-speaking regions into an open killing field.

While the scale might not be as large as what happened in Ngarbuh, Kumba and Mautu, the killings are still gruesome and targeted which clearly explains that the Yaounde government does not believe in the rule of law.

This slaughtering has been going on for four years and it is now becoming more spectacular and anybody suspected by the country’s military is good enough to die.

Sometimes, the soldiers take it upon themselves to eliminate young men who have beautiful girlfriends just because they desire those girls.

The country’s government has simply shredded the rules book and its soldiers are on the prowl, targeting young men or any new faces visiting the region.

On Saturday, January 29, the military arrested a 46-year-old man known as Agbor Issac Assek in Ossing and promptly gunned him down without interrogating him or without following known legal procedures to determine or establish the reason for his arrest.

Cameroon Concord News Group sources in Ossing hold that the victim had been in the military’s cross hairs for some time, but the need to arrest him became urgent when the principal of Government High School Ossing was killed in broad day light by Southern Cameroonian insurgents who have been fighting for the total liberation of the former British colony.

Our source said that “Even before the principal’s death, the military has been looking for him on the grounds that he was a friend to General Macopolo, an Amba General who has been operating around the Ossing-Kembong axis.”

But human rights activists and lawyers are questioning the government’s actions in this case and many others as they argue that such summary executions will only result in an escalation of violence in the region.

According to a human rights activist in Mamfe, a town some 6 kilometers from Ossing, by undertaking such an action, the Yaounde government has clearly demonstrated that it does not believe in the rule of law.

“One would think that with the passage of time, the military and the government would learn the lessons of the past. The killing of Mr. Agbor Isaac does not address any issues. It will only call for violence and the circle of violence will only continue,” he said.

“Mr. Agbor had already been arrested and the military was supposed to have followed due process. Gunning him down is a clear demonstration that the government and the military do not believe in human rights and the rule of law,” the activist, who elected anonymity, said.

“We are really disappointed with the way the government has conducted its military operation. Just killing young men will not cause the issues to disappear. The government needs to come down its high horse to discuss with all the factions involved in this conflict that has torn the country apart,” he said.

“With such an approach, it is hard for a peaceful solution to emerge. There are many Anglophone Cameroonians who want to come home from abroad, but they cannot because of the government’s indiscriminate killing of young people,” he stressed.

“If members of the region’s Diaspora come home, jealousy could cause the military to arrest these people and arbitrary arrests discourage our brothers who really want to return to their land from investing here and this is creating unemployment and other serious economic issues,” he regretted.

“The government should be leading by examples and it is totally wrong for soldiers to be gunning down young men. This country must be guided by the rule of law and due process should be followed, especially when the suspects have been arrested. We cannot continue to conduct ourselves as if we are wild animals,” our source said.

“The Southwest and Northwest regions are not safe, though ministers like Paul Atanga Nji are misleading the world that peace has returned to the two English-speaking regions. Nobody is safe. The military has the carte blanche to kill whoever it wants. This is not how a country should be operated. It is indeed disheartening,” our source concluded.

Meanwhile, due to increasing insecurity in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the government has opted to conduct recruitment into the elite military corp known as the BIR for the Northwest and Southwest regions in Bafoussam and Douala respectively.

Many critics have already indicated that if the government is scared of carrying out recruitment in Bamenda and Buea, why would ordinary citizens believe that things have returned to normal?

The government, most critics assert, is not willing to address the issues that triggered the conflict. They argue that there are more French-speaking Cameroonian officials in the two English-speaking regions today than they were before the commencement of the conflict.

They argue that the government is clearly provoking the English-speaking minority, adding that with such an attitude, the conflict will never be over.

It is obvious that even the country’s president, Paul Biya, no longer cares about things in the country and has given his corrupt officials a free hand to handle the insurgency however they  want.

The activist stressd that if the government had to change its mind regarding the crisis that has created hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, then the international community  must hold its feet to the fire.

While the killing continues, there is however a feeling that   there is hope on the horizon. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora in the United States has already briefed the Biden Administration on the situation in the two English-speaking regions of the country and the nominee for the post of Secretary of State has already indicated that the new Biden Administration will be laser focused on Cameroon due to the gross human rights abuses.

Similarly, the arrival of a senior Vatican official in the country last week might help change government decisions on how it operates in the two English-speaking regions.

The Vatican senior official who has met with Cameroon government officials has called on the government to make peace with its English-speaking minority in order to end the killings and restore peace in the region.

The world is waiting for the government of Cameroon to realize that violence only begets violence and that there will never be any military victory in this conflict as both parties are determined to win the war.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai                                     

Paul Chouta, an independent journalist and a fierce critic of President Paul Biya’s government in Cameroon, has been detained without trial for more than 600 days – his case having been postponed 16 times. So far, the courts have failed to provide credible reasons as to why they continue to detain him and infringe on his right to freedom from arbitrary detention.

The journey leading to the arrest of the journalist who runs an online news platform, Cameroon Web, and manages a famous Facebook page called Le TGV de l’info, has been long and painful. At one time, Chouta was attacked, beaten and stabbed near his house by unknown people. In 2019, he was detained for what police called publishing defamatory content and fake news. He has been vocal in criticising the government and has written extensively on corruption and police abuse.

Freedom of speech is sacrosanct. As media freedom continues to thin in Cameroon, with journalists being detained without trial, taken to court on frivolous charges, threatened, beaten and even murdered, the international community must amplify the call to the Cameroon government to respect and allow journalists to do their work without fear or favour.

Both the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) have clearly spelled out the right to freedom of expression, and Paul and thousands of other Cameroon journalists must be allowed to unequivocally enjoy that right. The world should demand the immediate release of Paul.

Source: Fairplanet

The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga has claimed the Head of State Paul Biya has won the long-drawn separatist conflict in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

Cameroon has been embroiled in a separatist conflict that has gone past its fourth year with over 3000 deaths, 50000 internally displaced and over 40.000 refugees, according to United Nations figures.

However, at a security meeting in Bamenda, one of the hotbeds of the conflict, the country’s interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji told the media, the country’s President, Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 has already won the war and calm was gradually returning to the restive Anglophone regions.

Paul Atanga Nji was speaking in Bamenda on Monday, January 18 during a working visit to evaluate the security situation in the North West Region. This comes after at least five persons were killed in Momo Division, following an explosion in the convoy of the Senior Divisional Officer-an incident that has beeen attributed to separatists.

“After a thorough examination of the security situation (of the North West Region),I can conveniently say that the security situation is under control and that I have come to extend the encouragements of the Head of State to the local administrative authorities,”Paul Atanga Nji said.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

 After four years of silence on the government’s part over the Southern Cameroons Crisis, some major cracks are gradually appearing on the government’s wall with the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, turning on English-speaking ministers, accusing them of being hypocrites and liars.

For four good years, Anglophone ministers have toed the party line, even ensuring that they did not criticize the government or the military for its dismal handling of the crisis that has hit the country’s two English-speaking regions, even when some of their family members get killed in massive and reckless raids organized by a trigger-happy military.

Most Anglophone ministers know what fate awaits them if they show any sympathy towards the English-speaking minority or if they disagree with the violent military approach adopted by the government against the advice of the international community.

But despite their loyalty to the Yaoundé government and their grave silence about the massacres in their towns and villages, Anglophone ministers and parliamentarians are still being suspected and closely monitored by a government whose stock in trade is corruption.

Anglophone members of government are simply servants who do not have a big say even in the affairs of the ministries they head.

From every indication, they are made to understand that the Head(ache) of State, Paul Biya, is simply doing them a favor and they can be fired at anytime and could be hauled to jail like a piece of junk if they get suspected of anything that runs counter to the policies dictated by the president.

On mere suspicion, an Anglophone minister could be threatened or humiliated even in public and Elung Paul Che, the Deputy Secretary General at the Presidency, was last week made to understand that despite his loyalty, he was in the crosshairs of the government.

Elung Paul Che is someone who hardly cries and it is hard to make him cry. But the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, succeeded to make Elung Paul shed tears.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group’s source at the Presidency familiar with this incident, the pitiful Elung Paul bursts into tears after having been berated and humiliated by Ngoh Ngoh who arrogantly told him that “you Anglophones are traitors” after a meeting with Mr. Biya who is still baffled by the fact that Anglophone separatists have not yet been put out of business in the two English-speaking regions where an insurgency has been playing out for four long years.

Mr. Biya had been confidently advised that the insurgents would be made to bite the dust in just a few weeks but the insurgency has succeeded to rob the government of some of its revenue streams in the two English-speaking regions and the country’s economy has been hugely impacted by a war that might not be ending anytime soon.

Since the incident, Elung Paul Che has been holding a pity party in his house and has been sporting a lonely and miserable figure at work.

Our source at the Presidency added that Elung Paul might be crying because he is scared of ending up at Yaoundé Maximum Security prison where many of his former colleagues have been jailed for decades on charges of corruption by a president who has make corruption his hallmark.

Elung Paul’s humiliation and frustration are simply not part of a game but they constitute the sad reality that truly reflects the atmosphere within the government.

Elung Paul Che’s misery emerged because of a meeting he had with Mr. Paul Biya without the Secretary General being aware and this has transformed Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh into a wild animal, our source said.

Ngoh Ngoh is a control freak and he likes being in the know of everything. Elung Paul Che’s non-disclosure of his meeting with the President to his boss was perceived as a gross betrayal of confidence and this did send Ngoh Ngoh into an emotional frenzy.

“You Anglophones are traitors. You know that I brought you here and I have been doing everything to keep you here. You hold a meeting with the President of the Republic and you don’t even have the courtesy to inform me?”  the infuriated Secretary General quipped.

Elung Paul struggled to explain himself, but Ngoh Ngoh did not have time for his explanation. He lambasted Elung Paul, accusing him of all the crimes and scenes in the world.

“That’s how you are. You are always plotting against others. Did you think I wasn’t going to know? You know I am always aware of all the appointments and your behavior is a clear betrayal of my trust. There will surely be consequences,” the Secretary General said.

The badly humiliated Elung Paul Che was at a loss for words and he could not really figure out why his boss was so irrational and suspicious of him.

In his confusion, he started crying. He has been a loyal collaborator and his meeting with the president was held at the behest of the president who had asked him to keep their discussion confidential.

But Mr. Ngoh Ngoh was not in the mood to make things easy for Elung Paul who felt his tears could help the situation.

Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh simply ordered him out of his office. “You can leave,” he ordered the weeping Elung Paul who is being hated by his fellow Southern Cameroonians for his blind loyalty to the corrupt and dysfunctional government.

While leaving Ngoh Ngoh’s office, the weeping boy did all he could to suppress his tears and sadness, but when he got to his office, he wept like a very hungry baby whose mother had gone to the grocery shop.

Not only is his job on the line, his head is also on the chopping block. There is a lot of competition among Mr. Biya’s collaborators and some of that could be nasty.

Elung Paul knows he has not got a good stomach for such a fight and with Ngoh Ngoh having sweeping powers, he knows his days in government are numbered.

Paul, the weeping boy, wept until his loud cries caught the attention of one of his colleagues who was aware of the tensions between the two men, our source said.

Elung Paul might still be working at the Presidency, but he knows that if he does not play his cards very well, he might end up in jail like others before him. The Biya regime knows how to make people, but it also knows how to undo its appointees.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Though technically the highest-ranked minister, Joseph Dion Ngute is only the head of government in name and it is Paul Biya’s advisors who manage the executive’s day-to-day actions.

It is not strange in the minds of every Southern Cameroonian. For over 57 years after independence and re-unification, there has never been an Southern Cameroons President or a Southern Cameroons Secretary General or Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic. Nor has any British Southern Cameroonian ever held the strategic ministerial portfolio of Defense, Finance, Communication, and External Relations or even in charge of the Police, Gendarmerie, the Army and Intelligence services; not even ambassadors to English-speaking countries like the USA and Nigeria. For a region that represents about 20% of the population, accounting for over 60% of GDP, the fact that the lone oil refinery named in French (SONARA) is in Southern Cameroon, yet has been run by Francophone general managers with a predominantly Francophone workforce since its creation is unacceptable. It just cannot be that there are no competent Southern Cameroonians to occupy these positions.

Higher institutions like the National Polytechnic, ENAM, IRIC, ESSTIC, INJS, IFORD, CUSS, Public Works, ENSPT, IRAD, are heavily laden with French courses; another way of saying, British Southern Cameroonians need not apply.

Although La Republique du Cameroun passes officially for a bilingual country where both English and French are equal, the head of state has never ever made an official address to the nation in English! All official correspondences are in French, even when directed to British Southern Cameroonians. French is the language used in the administration, police, gendarmerie, army and the courts. Southern Cameroonians have to seek translators at their own expense. All road signs are in French and there is not a single word in English on the FCFA currency in circulation. Chief Dr Dion Ngute understands that this is not constitutional.

French Camerounians occupy all key positions in the Supreme Court – President of the Supreme Court; Attorney General; Head of Judicial Division; Head of Administrative Division; Head of audit Division; Head of Special Criminal Court; Special Attorney Special Criminal Court; Director of Military Justice; Registrar-In-Chief Supreme Court and Secretary General Supreme Court. 58 (39%) of the 148 magistrates in the Southern Zone of Ambazonia are French Camerounians while 54 (61%) of the 89 magistrates in the legal department in the same Southern Zone are French Camerounians. Prime Minister Dion Ngute is aware!

Of the 128 magistrates in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia, there are 67 French Camerounians (52 %). Of the 97 magistrates of the legal departments, 64 of them are French Camerounians, (65.9%); 22 (48.9%) of the 45 magistrates in Bamenda are French Camerounians. There are 27 magistrates in the legal department in Bamenda of which 21, (77.8%) are French Camerounians. Prime Minister Dion Ngute is very much aware!! There is no reference hospital and no functional airport or seaport in the entire Southern Cameroons.

Back by the French government in Paris ever since the so-called reunification, Yaounde has made it a point to assign French Camerounians who neither speak nor understand English to British Southern Cameroons.

French Camerounians disrespect British Southern Cameroonians in positions of authority, even the prime minister, head of government. Francophone ministers either ignore cabinet meetings called by the PM or come late, in breach of standard protocol.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

Over the last several years, since at least 2016, an inconceivably violent conflict has ravaged the Central African nation of Cameroon. The daily barrage of bloody images posted to social media and the accounts of cruelty and likely war crimes have – at least to date – not been enough to galvanize meaningful or concerted action to resolve what has become known as the Anglophone Crisis. After years of wreckage, there is now a domestic stalemate, a paralyzed status quo that has served to radicalize hardliners on both sides of the conflict.

The roots of the Anglophone crisis date back much farther than 2016, of course. Like many long-simmering issues in the region, hostilities can be traced to the maneuvering of former colonial powers who spliced up African territories with little regard for the dignity or preferences of local populations. This fact, however, does not excuse the failed leadership that has more recently been the norm – embodied most profoundly by President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, longer than most Cameroonians have been alive. In October 2018, Biya secured yet another term in office during an electoral exercise that was marred by credible allegations of vote rigging and a clampdown on political adversaries, including opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who had remained under house arrest until last month.

The Anglophone crisis has registered among the world’s most neglected,’ according to assessments by the Norwegian Refugee Council. And according to the International Crisis Group, the fighting has killed well over 3,000 people and displaced an additional 600,000 more. In Anglophone regions, an estimated 850,000 children are currently out of school – likely much higher today in light of the covid-19 pandemic – and one in three of the region’s four million people are in need of humanitarian aid. Cameroon, once a reputed host for refugees is now a major exporter of people who are fleeing violence and government persecution. The number of Cameroonians seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria, for example, has crossed the 300,000 mark. The instability inside Cameroon has thus produced negative ripple effects on an entire region, including disastrous economic and commercial blowback.

These statistics, as staggering as they are, barely do justice to the overall magnitude of a conflict that has exacted a huge toll on the lives of ordinary Cameroonians – mainly women and children – who have literally been caught in the crossfire between government forces and Anglophone fighters. In the words of local journalist Comfort Mussa, “hardly a day goes by without news of deaths, abductions, arson attacks and other forms of violence that have become a reality for people in [Anglophone] regions.”

As 2021 gets underway, however, there is a small glimmer of hope that momentum has built behind a reform agenda. Rather symbolically, on New Year’s Day, the United States Senate passed a resolution (bit.ly/3rU9lf1) by unanimous bipartisan consent – no small feat in Washington these days – that sent a strong signal to the Biya government and armed groups alike to end the violence and to commit to an inclusive process of international arbitration. The resolution also raised the prospect of punitive sanctions on those individuals responsible for participating in atrocities. (This author has long called for these actions by the U.S. government, a significant donor to and enduring security partner of the Biya government).

As a longtime partner of human rights defenders and pro-democracy leaders in Cameroon, we at Vanguard Africa heartily welcome this development in the halls of the U.S. Senate. We will also advocate that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration make this resolution – and the key principles upon which it is premised – a key priority of its US-Africa policy moving forward.

Put simply, it is time for both sides of the Anglophone crisis to come to terms with the fact that there is no military solution. The guns need to be silenced. The chaos can no longer continue. Importantly, there is some recognition even among the most militant Anglophone leaders, that this is the only feasible way forward. What is needed today is a negotiated settlement that holds human rights violators accountable and paves the way for a new era of leadership that many Cameroonians are demanding.

The violence perpetrated during the Anglophone crisis, and the lack of respect for the sanctity of human life, has taken a massive toll on future generations of Cameroonians. To relieve citizens from this tailspin, both the government and Anglophone leaders need to take a hard look at this freefall and their respective roles in perpetuating it. A genuinely inclusive dialogue must begin, and the U.S. Government – now vitalized by a rare act of bipartisanship – should help to fill Cameroon’s leadership void that has been so readily exploited.

Source:  Vanguard Africa

Despite all the disappointments of the last four years, some Cameroonians were still glued to their TV sets on Thursday, December 31, 2020, hoping that time might have triggered a change of mind in a man who is completely out of touch with his country’s reality. Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, who is completely out of ideas on how to address some of the major issues facing his country, addressed the country, placing COVID-19 above national issues which have rendered the country ungovernable.

Even with COVID-19 where his government has left Cameroonians to their own devices, the ailing and confused 87-year-old Biya was quick to point out that 2020 would “undoubtedly be remembered as a dark year marked by hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide,” adding that “like almost all countries, Cameroon was affected, perhaps less severely than other States. 

He also wondered that “should man take the blame because of his wanton exploitation of the planet’s natural resources and his constant engagement in conflicts leading to massacres and diseases, as well as experiments to develop new weapons?” By asking this question, Mr. Biya who declared war on Southern Cameroonians some four years ago failed to understand that his own constant engagement in conflicts has led to massacres and diseases in Southern Cameroons. While he points a finger at others, he fails to realize that he is the architect of the disaster that is playing out in Southern Cameroons.

The sick and corrupt octogenarian also pointed out that “I have personally observed that most of our fellow citizens no longer comply with the protective measures prescribed by the Government. At a time when, everywhere else, there is a second wave of the epidemic, coupled with the appearance of a new and more contagious strain of the virus, I urge you once again to put on your face masks, to wash your hands regularly and to consult a physician or any other health personnel if you notice any symptoms. This is the only way to save lives and to curb the spread of the virus.”

He, however, fails to acknowledge that if Cameroonians have walked away from their masks, it is more because his corrupt government lacks the capacity to implement its own policies and decisions. The resources placed at the disposal of the health ministry to fight the highly infectious virus have been embezzled and misappropriated by members of his government and being faithful to his do-nothing attitude, he has been indifferent to all the allegations against the health minister and the thieves in his government are not concerned about any arrests because they know they have not committed the worst crime in Cameroon – eying the presidency. 

Regarding the insecurity in Cameroon brought about by the insurgency in Southern Cameroons and in the country’s northern region, the low-energy president was quick to blame everything on external forces though it is known globally that the unfortunate military drama playing out across the country is born out of the government’s intolerance, arrogance and corruption.

“In recent years, our country has been facing external threats, particularly on our eastern border and in the northern part of our country. In the first case, the threat comes from highway robbers lured by easy prey, namely peaceful stockbreeders and their herds. In the second, the threat now takes the form of isolated raids by Boko Haram or suicide bomb attempts by teenagers. The effective vigilance and action of our Defence and Security Forces have significantly reduced the activities of these criminals,” he said.

But his assessment of the situation is not accurate. If the assessment is not his, then he has been given a sanitized version of the report which clearly underscores that Boko Haram is bombing Cameroonian soldiers out of existence. Thousands have died and many have been maimed by the highly destructive religious sect. 

In Southern Cameroons, the president who has never visited ground zero was quick to present a good picture of a very bad situation in which more than 6,000 Cameroonians have lost their lives. “The situation is different in the North-West and South-West Regions where armed groups maintain an atmosphere of terror and insecurity. They attack isolated communities and educational institutions from time to time to discourage parents from sending their children to school. The list of atrocities and crimes committed by these groups is already long. One of the most heinous of them is that which took place in Kumba recently, resulting in the death of seven school children with several others injured.”

This is really where Mr. Biya has demonstrated that he is good material for psychological and mental analyses. His government has lost credibility and Cameroonians are no longer dupes. The slaughterers of school children across Southern Cameroons are vicious elements unleashed on the population by Atanga Nji, the country’s territorial administration minister, who is an ex-convict. The government has been so desperate to prove to the world that it has a handle on the situation to the point where it has resorted to killing innocent civilians. Ngarbuh, Kwakwa, Muyengue and other towns in the two English-speaking regions are still very fresh in most minds and Cameroonians understand that their government speaks from both sides of its mouth.

“This crime, which is a shock to the human conscience, will not go unpunished. All the perpetrators will be hunted down relentlessly and brought to justice.” Mr. Biya was totally right here, but he was addressing the wrong audience yesterday and he has been doing this for years. He should be telling this to Atanga Nji, Joseph Beti Assomo and the military generals who are the architects of such diabolic and cruel acts in Southern Cameroons. 

“Already, public opinion, particularly in the two regions concerned, can realize, if that is not yet the case, that these so-called “secessionists” are actually nothing more than murderers, and what is more, murderers of innocent children. To say that the Kumba carnage caused widespread outrage is an understatement.” Indeed, it is an understatement. Which government in the world still kills its own citizens like the Biya government has been doing over the last four years? It is not Southern Cameroonians who are secessionists, but a government that is wont to corruption, brutality and injustice. The Yaoundé government has been sowing the seeds of secession for decades and now that it is dealing with a bumper harvest, it is blaming everybody, except itself. 

The purposeless president who now spots a toothless mouth said he would be downloading his responsibilities on other nations. “I would now like to appeal, once more, to the sense of responsibility of the friendly countries hosting the sponsors and of the organizations financing and running the armed gangs in the North-West and South-West Regions, through various channels. All those who would be identified at the end of investigations as initiators or accomplices of these odious crimes will answer for their actions,” he said. But true democracies do not arrest people and send them to their death. The corrupt Yaounde government might have succeeded in Nigeria in its illegal arrest and detention of the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, and his collaborators because it worked with another corrupt and lawless government, but it will not succeed in countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia where some 4 million Southern Cameroonians are residing because in those countries, there is genuine democracy and the rule of law. Mr. Biya must stop dreaming the wrong dreams if he is thinking of genuine peace.   

Despite his manifest failure in the country’s two English-speaking regions, Mr. Biya continues to promote the false idea that his government is pursuing dialogue. “Yet our Government has continued to demonstrate its commitment to openness and dialogue by, for example, releasing many former secessionists and facilitating their reintegration into society.”

Furthermore, after the Major National Dialogue, the Government fast-tracked the implementation of an ambitious decentralization policy which includes a special status for our North-West and South-West Regions, which takes into account their specificities and aspirations.” The comedy he and his government organized in 2018 was nothing more than a monologue that was doomed to failure. His special status to Southern Cameroonians came with massive violence and death to innocent civilians. He should be too old and blind not to understand that Southern Cameroonians simply do not care about his “Special Status of Death.”

He senility does not let him figure out that his collaborators are taking advantage of him. He does not seek to know anything. He depends on false and sanitized reports. In his warped thinking, he holds that he can urge the brave fighters of Southern Cameroons to abandon their noble objectives to submit themselves to the madness he and his collaborators have organized in the name of DDR. “I once more urge the youths who have been enlisted in armed gangs to come out of the bush and sign up with the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) centers in order to return to a normal life, like their other young compatriots,” he said.

“The prevailing insecurity in the North-West and South-West Regions has caused untold damage to our country. Our democracy allows for the peaceful expression of all opinions, in compliance with the laws and regulations in force. Otherwise, peace and stability would be jeopardized,” he said. For once, he acknowledged that the Southern Cameroons crisis had hurt the country in more ways than one. However, if he does not prioritize genuine dialogue over the hypocrisy he and his collaborators have been organizing, the country will continue to go down the drain.

He has a choice – continue to talk tough and let the country continue in its downward spiral or speak the language of peace in order to appease the people of Southern Cameroons. Though there are many Southern Cameroonian factions involved in this struggle, many are of the view that their goals could be achieved through genuine dialogue held in the presence of a neutral third party. President Julius Ayuk Tabe and his team are willing and ready to sit at the negotiating table where they plan to professionally articulate Southern Cameroonian ideas on the way forward. It is up to Biya to come down from his high horse and make things happen sooner rather than later.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo gangs are already setting out new political terminologies in a bid to steady a failed nation and a diving economy in the president’s 2020 end of year address to the nation. But this time around, those empty speeches will instead sow more anger, confusion and doubts that the 87-year-old dictator is up to handling the fast-worsening political and security situation in the two Cameroons.

The French Cameroun monarch did not speak to the Cameroonian people during that dreadful moment of the coronavirus pandemic when the rhythms of everyday Cameroonian life was shutting down — with schools and businesses closing, local football league suspended, hospitals were being deserted by HIV and cancer patients who feared for their lives.

Cameroon state radio and television (CRTV) instead fed the public with stories that the President unveiled via Prime Minister Dion Ngute several measures to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. In the next 48 hours, Biya’s speech will leave many Cameroonians in Limbo. However, millions of Southern Cameroonians will follow but the 2021 policy speech of the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, Dabney Yerima.

Millions of Southern Cameroonians cannot put food on the table! Thousands are living in the bushes and thousands are now refugees in neighboring countries. The story is becoming more intractable in La Republique du Cameroun with a majority of French Cameroonians now saying Biya is the worst ever in their nation’s history.

Biya is indeed the worst leader Africa has ever seen and after 38 years as head of state, he is now a good example to illustrate that practice does not make perfect. He is not only proven to be incompetent but he is indeed truly inhumane. With the backing of the French government and French multinationals, he does not give a damn about anything but lying about it all, claiming that he is a wise leader and faking his own greatness through some half-baked French Cameroun political elites. This has been demonstrated by everything French and Southern Cameroonians have seen over the last 38 years and we of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are saying that this complete and total mess must be his legacy and those such as Simon Achidi Achu, Chief VE Mukete, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Yang Philemon, Itoe Benjamin, Dion Ngute, Paul Tasong, Paul Atanga Nji and a host of other Southern Cameroons stooges and enablers who have ignored and empowered Biya and solicited this brand of his own horrible actions towards citizens of the two Cameroons.  Biya must be remembered as the worst leader ever and many Southern Cameroonians should be ready to spit on the graves of his Southern Cameroons acolytes once their remains are brought home to Ambazonia.

Biya’s ruling CPDM crime syndicate is made up of dangerous white collar criminals, all rotten to the core. Africa has never seen anything like Biya. His kind of insensitivity to humanity, his disregard for justice, the Holy Roman Catholic Church that raised him up and he is literally no friend to Islam and he’s been the President of La Republique du Cameroun for 38 good years?

We of the Concord Group do not care what your religion is? But who governs like this and still receives Holy Communion? Who does this by all accounts and is still being referred to as the Father of the nation? What is this Biya thing really about?

Everyone within the consortium of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate including the army now seems confused. But the good news is, the man Biya is the worst ever. He’s been terrible for his own family because nobody knows what the hell he is about anymore and neither do his blood relations.

After 38 years as head of state, the two Cameroons are now on their knees and the only chance for the citizens to get to a better place is for the army to step in and get rid of this outrageous man.

By Chi Prudence Asong