Cameroon’s opposition on Sunday denounced the arrests of more than 350 supporters at demonstrations calling for the release of their jailed leader, and criticised the refusal to grant them access to lawyers.

Maurice Kamto, the country’s main opposition figure, who has been held in jail in Yaounde since January, issued a statement via his spokesman decrying “excessive and unjustified use of violence” at the demonstrations held on Saturday.

According to Kamto’s Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) party more than 350 people were arrested, including 180 at Yaounde and 100 in the western city of Nkongsamba.

The party also said that those arrested were denied access to lawyers or any medical aid. Contacted by AFP Saturday, Cameroon’s communications ministry did not respond.

The MRC has been organising demonstrations since the October 2018 presidential election. According to official results, Kamto came second but the MRC says the vote was rigged in favour of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years.

As well as Kamto, more than 150 of the party’s activists were also imprisoned after one such march at the end of January.

In February, they appeared before a military tribunal in Yaounde accused of “insurrection, hostility to the homeland (and) rebellion”, offences which carry a possible death penalty.

Their lawyers have appealed to the UN working group on arbitrary detention over the arrests.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini criticised the arrests in March and what she called the military court’s “disproportionate” proceedings against them.

US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Tibor Nagy said in March that Cameroon would be “very wise” to release Kamto because his detention is widely perceived as politically motivated.

The government has rejected the international criticism.

On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told his parliament’s foreign affairs committee that he was “very concerned” by the plight of Maurice Kamto and wanted to see him released.

As well as the political crisis, former French colony Cameroon is wracked by a conflict between separatists and government forces in its English-speaking west, combined with an influx of refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria.

Source: AFP

In Cameroon, President Biya appointed a new Government on 4 January, which included 11 women. More than half of the country’s 60 ministers were replaced. As legislative and municipal elections remained postponed by presidential decree, supporters of the main opposition parties called for a revision of the electoral law. Meanwhile, on 5 April, Parliament enacted a law on decentralization to determine the number of regional councillors. On 26 January, protests erupted in major cities throughout the country, eliciting a violent response by internal security forces and triggering mass arrests. Those arrested included several Members of Parliament from the Social Democratic Front and the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Maurice Kamto, together with 200 of Mr. Kamto’s supporters, who are currently standing trial before a military tribunal on charges that include rebellion, insurrection and public disturbance. Some of those charges carried the death penalty. In an interview broadcast on 19 March, the spokesperson for President Biya announced that the President would reject dialogue with Mr. Kamto, who had requested a face-to-face discussion.

The security situation in the North-West and South-West Regions of Cameroon remained of serious concern, with a new wave of kidnappings and killings in early 2019. On 24 January, the leader of the separatist group, Southern Cameroons Defence Forces, was reportedly killed by the national armed forces. In February, nearly 70 people were killed during a separatist-imposed 10-day lockdown to disrupt National Youth Day activities in the two regions. On 11 February, an arson attack on the Kumba District Hospital in the South-West Region resulted in at least four patients killed and several others injured. On 19 March, the former Secretary of State in charge of secondary education was kidnapped from his residence in Bamenda by suspected secessionist fighters. On 20 March, 16 students were abducted from the University of Buea by unidentified gunmen. The Government accused the secessionists of the abductions. The authorities announced their intention to carry out investigations into alleged human rights violations by security forces in the affected regions, but no outcome was made public.

Culled from Reliefweb

Hundreds of members of Cameroon’s main opposition party are being held in custody after the country’s security forces carried out mass arrests during a series of anti-government protests over the weekend.

Two people were injured and 351 arrested on Saturday in four regions of the central African country in protests against its octogenarian president, Paul Biya, and his government. Several senior opposition leaders were among those arrested. Only a handful of people have been released.

The protesters’ demands included the release of their leader, Maurice Kamto, as well as hundreds of people arrested in earlier protests, and called for an end to the killings in the anglophone regions of the country, where a bloody conflict has played out over the last two years.

Kamto was arrested in January after protests against what he and his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), say was a stolen election last October. He was later charged with insurrection, rebellion and “hostility to the homeland” by a military court, charges that theoretically carry the death penalty. Arrests have spiked in 2019, since Biya claimed a disputed landslide victory.

Saturday’s demonstrators also called for an investigation into what happened to the money for hosting the 2019 African Cup of Nations football tournament – a right Cameroon was stripped of because of delays in delivering the necessary infrastructure – and a revision of the electoral code.

“We were singing and asking them to free Mr Kamto and the other people, when they just came and asked us all to enter their vehicle,” said Samuel Kuetche, who was later released. “These people are heartless. We didn’t have any guns on us. We were not fighting anybody, but they forcefully took us to the police station.”

Opposition leaders said protest was a right enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Christopher Ndong, the secretary general of the MRC and one of the few leaders not behind bars, said: “It shows how dictatorial and how wicked [the government is] and how they are not willing to listen to the people. They shall continue arresting us because we shall not give up. You can’t be arresting people because you don’t want to listen to them.”

The situation in the anglophone north-west and south-west regions reached new depths last week with the killing of a four-month-old baby. Her parents were forced to flee after accusing state forces of killing her in a video, and are still in hiding. The government has not opened an investigation into the case.

Half a million people have fled their homes because of the violence, many of them crossing the border into Nigeria.

“Hundreds of villages have been burned, close to a million children are out of school, and tens of thousands are hiding in the bushes without any support. The international silence surrounding atrocities is as shocking as the untold stories are heartbreaking,” said Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, on a visit in April.

Another protest planned for next Saturday is expected to attract a higher number of people.

Source: The Guardian

Cameroon is accusing the international NGOs of exaggerating the crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions. Separatists there have been fighting the government troops since 2017, alleging years of marginalization by authorities of the mostly French-speaking country.

External relations minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella said Thursday his country has been the object of ceaseless attacks from international NGOs, rights groups and aid agencies over its handling of the separatist movement.

This week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers in Paris that he is disturbed by the growing loss of human life in the regions.

On Wednesday, Refugees International said the Cameroonian government has refused to recognize the severity of the crisis and that international donors may be forced to reconsider their contributions.

The United Nations estimates at least 1,800 people have been killed and more than 530,000 displaced since fighting broke out in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions in 2017. It says about 1.3 million people are in need.

Mbella Mbella said the figures are exaggerated to give the impression Cameroon is not able to handle the situation.

He said the government, with the assistance of its international partners, has distributed humanitarian assistance including goods of basic necessity, school books, planting seeds and building material to 75,000 of the 150,000 internally displaced persons.

Mbella Mbella did not give a number for those who have died but said it was Cameroon’s duty to lead peace efforts to ensure that stability and peace return to the regions.

He said the government is capable of doing that as a sovereign state without the intervention of other nations.

He said although it has been accused of committing atrocities, the Cameroon military has only been protecting its citizens from separatist fighters and defending the territorial integrity of the country. He said the military has been very professional in executing its task against what he termed barbaric fighters.

Mbella Mbella accused some rights groups of wanting to destabilize Cameroon by giving an impression the crisis is escalating and the government is not doing enough to resolve it.

One of the groups accused was Human Rights Watch.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, a central Africa researcher for HRW, was refused access to Cameroon last May, on the grounds she did not give proper information about the crisis.

She says the group should be allowed to do its work, which is essentially to promote human rights.

“We have tried to establish and open frank dialogue with the government and we will continue to do so. By enabling human rights organizations to operate without obstacles and without difficulties, Cameroon would demonstrate its willingness to allow rigorous and independent scrutiny of its efforts to adhere to international human rights law,” Allegrozzi said.

Alice Nkom, a local human rights lawyer, says humanitarian needs are rising by the day because the crisis is worsening and the military option taken by President Paul Biya is not a good one.

“He is still deaf and dumb when it is about peace or dialogue. He wants to use soldiers and give them the mandate to do what they can do with guns,” Nkom said.

Biya has said he is open to dialogue with the separatists but will not discuss the division of Cameroon. He has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Source: VOA

As students in Cameroon began their annual exams Monday, hundreds of their teachers in English-speaking regions were on the streets protesting. The teachers are demanding better security after three teachers and a student were abducted, adding to scores captured, killed, or whose property was torched during a two-year separatist conflict.

Teachers dressed in dark clothes and holding signs demanding better security walk down a street in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s northwest region.

While their students take end of year exams, the teachers are underscoring that the region’s schools are under attack.

A wave of school abductions and killings in the region’s separatist conflict has shaken the teachers, who have been protesting daily since Friday.

“We are tired. Lord, help the teachers of Cameroon, help the teachers of northwest. We do not know what to do, we do not know where to go,” says a teacher.

Thirty-one-year old teacher Wontai Vondou Olivier was beheaded here last week, and his head dumped on the street.

A video allegedly filmed by Wontai’s murderers has been making rounds on social media. In the video, Wontai begs for his life while his captors say they have caught a spy and will cut off his head.

In another post, suspected separatist fighters say Cameroon troops killed the teacher to frame the rebels.

General Robbinson Agha denies the military could be responsible and points at the rebels.

“They behead. They cut off the heads of the soldiers here and then send on social media. Not only do they do that, they attack the houses of the soldiers and then destroy their properties,” he said. “Despite all of that, the soldiers and the forces of law and order stay disciplined. The moral psychological and physical torture is not easy.”

Rights groups say both sides — the military and separatists — are guilty of atrocities in the conflict.

Schools, seen by rebels as organs of Francophone dominance, are among the worst hit in the uprising by English-speaking separatists. Hundreds of teachers have been killed, wounded, abducted for ransom, or had their houses torched.

“We need a minimum of security to be able to exercise our profession,” said Semma Valentine, who is with Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU). “Teachers are at the risk of their personal integrity. Why are we being victimized? Why are we unable to exercise the profession for which we were trained?”

Roland Ngwang, the highest secondary education official in the northwest region, says, despite the security risk, teachers should continue working.

“The situation is sufficiently painful and very serious, but my appeal has been that let us be calm. Let’s be calm,” he said.

And as the teachers protested Monday, hundreds of students at Government Bilingual High School Bamenda began taking their exams, under close watch by heavily armed troops.

Source: VOA

Rwandan Louise Mushikiwabo, Secretary General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), was received on May 24 in Yaoundé by President Paul Biya. The OIF member came to inquire about the political and security situation in the country, particularly the fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram and the situation in the northwest and southwest regions, according to a Presidential statement.

“I learned a lot, I had a lot of information,” said Louise Mushikiwabo. Leveraging her experience as former Foreign Minister of Rwanda and being a national from the sub-region, the OIF SG recalled that Cameroon is a “base country” for Central Africa and needs peace and stability. She promised Cameroon can count on the support of La Francophonie since the organization is willing to help the country find solutions to its current challenges “in a useful way.”

Cameroon has been experiencing a security crisis in its northwest and southwest regions for the past three years with secessionist claims. After 20 months’ riots, the International Crisis Group counts 1,850 dead, 530,000 internally displaced persons and 35,000 Cameroonian refugees in neighboring Nigeria.

In the Far North, Boko Haram continues to carry out attacks against military and civilians, but the extent of incidents has recently been limited. In the East, the large number of refugees is at the edge of an unstable situation.

According to UNHCR, Cameroon is currently hosting 350,000 refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, with about 10,000 new arrivals since the beginning of 2018.

Source: Business in Cameroon

In 2015 and 2016 the Republic of Cameroon could not just jubilate on their Independence Day, which occurs on May 20, but had something to show. During celebration images of major development in infrastructure and socioeconomic development were displayed for the view of invitees.

However, since 2018, the desire for development has come to face challenges arising from violent clashes between separatist fighters and the national army in the North-West and South-West of the country, thereby killing people, burning towns and villages, and displacing tens of thousands of citizens.

In his deliberation in Monrovia on the celebration of National Day on May 21, 2019, one day later after the main day, May 20, Ambassador Beng’Yela Augustine Gang said, “In recent months, my country has been traversing stormy weather with some vibrations being felt under the stout national edifice.”

Amb. Gang, however, mustered the courage that for the very large majority of Cameroonians, the long-established reputation as a haven for peace in the sub-region will not easily pass into oblivion.

He said amid the national challenges, both their leadership and citizenry have always deployed immense passion and conviction in the task of consolidating mutual tolerance.

According to the ambassador, the Cameroonian populations, despite the tough moments in the country’s history, have continued to move with confidence into each other’s ethnic and linguistic zones to find temporary fraternal relief.

While confronted by national crisis that has the propensity to halt development, Amb. Gang said the government’s intention for development of the people of Cameroon remains on the agenda.

He said in the last two years the government has been actively engaged in peace and reconciliation initiatives characterized by the creation of an exclusive, special Common Law section at the National School of Administration and Magistracy that trains career judges and civil administrators and state financial managers.

He added that under a decree of December 13, 2018, there was suspension of prosecution followed by the release of almost 300 detainees arrested in connection with the Anglophone unrest; the creation of a National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and multiculturalism by Decree of January 23, 2017, the opening of an English-speaking Higher National Polytechnique in Bamenda as an undergraduate-level institution attached to the University of Bamenda that was itself opened in 2011 as the second purely English Language State University of Cameroon.

Other were the launch of the over 20 million dollar National Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Program for the North West and South West regions, and the creation by presidential decree of November 30, 2018 of a National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration.

The NCDDR holding centers, according to Amb. Gang, has started receiving “Repented” fighters, who are assured that the laying down of their arms would be tantamount to total pardon and rehabilitation.

“With the slight resurgence of Boko Haram incursions, especially in North East Nigeria, Cameroon has been under renewed pressure to host over 30,000 hew refugees with UNHCR support; and lastly, but without being exhaustive, recent repeated calls by President Paul Biya that we have now reached the time for urgent forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation,” Amb. Gang said.

He said recent visit to Bamenda, Buea, Kumba and Limbe by Prime Minister Dion NGUTE in this May at the request of President Biya confirms that the mood in favor of dialogue and reconciliation is stronger.

He assured that Cameroon will in all circumstances move steadily toward a developing nation with the hope of attaining socioeconomic emergence as a respectable middle income country by the year 2035 (Cameroon Vision 2035).

In line with its vision, Cameroon is said to have completed various hydro-electric power plants; the kribi deep sea port, a modern, indigenously-owned cocoa transformation plant in the West Region, and a new, modern state hospital.

The defense forces of Cameroon, the Ambassador noted, has continued to play key development roles—building modern roads in areas abandoned by foreign contractors scared away by Boko Haram threats.

In sports, Amb. Gang recounted that Cameroonian under 17 National Football team won the African Nations Cup in Tanzania in April 2018, while the senior Indomitable Lions qualified for the next African Nations Cup, and aim to give excellent account of themselves in Egypt this June.

A number of activities including sport encounters in Basketball with Liberia preceded the celebration on May 21, and with the cooperation of Liberians, Amb. Gang extolled the people and the police of Liberia for making the celebration a success.

For Liberia’s situation, Gang said Cameroonians truly feel what Liberians feel, and in its current moment of tension have lessons to learn from Liberia’s past.

However, he added “We also nurture fraternal hopes that Liberia does not slip back by undue presumptions into a past that we all neither want to remember, nor to see repeated.”

He lauded his diplomatic colleagues in Liberia for remaining tireless, neutral, respectful and discreet in helping Liberia to avoid retrogression.

Minister of State without Portfolio, Trokon T. Kpui, on behalf of President George Weah and the people of Liberia, extended warm felicitations to the government and people of Cameroon and recalled how President Weah has his football history tied to Cameroon.

He expressed the hope that the bilateral relation between the two countries will continue to be nurtured.

Source: Daily Observer

The Consul-General of the Cameroon in Nigeria, Mrs Bessem Manga, has called on her compatriots at home and abroad to close ranks and embrace peace for the emancipation of their country.

Manga made the call late on Monday in a speech to mark the 47th Edition of the National Day of Cameroon in Lagos.

Newsmen report that the envoy made the call amid growing challenges in Cameroon, including the Boko Haram insurgency and secession threats in the southeastern flank of the country.

Speaking on “Unity in Diversity, a Major Asset of Cameroonian People in their Determined Move towards Emergence,’’ Manga said that peace was the crucial requirement for the country to aspire to greatness.

She said there was need for Cameroonians to come together and talk peace to make the country a united entity for its citizens at home and in the diaspora.

“The things that unite us are more than things that divide us. We need our people to come together to close ranks to celebrate our oneness.

“Peaceful cohabitation will make our country to move forward. My prayer is that peace should continue to reign in our dear country.

Manga applauded the government and people of Nigeria for their hospitality and show of love for hundreds of Cameroonians residing in various cities in Nigeria.

“I thank the government and people of Nigeria for welcoming and giving us chance to live within your midst. This shows how unified both countries are,” she said.

May 20 is marked yearly as the National Day of the Cameroon, although the French-speaking part of the country gained independence on Jan.1, 1960.

The British Cameroon joined the new state in 1961 but it was not fully integrated. A `federated’ system existed that prevented full national unity of the two Cameroons.

The National Day was marked first on May 20, 1972 when the Francophone and Anglophone speaking states of Cameroon unified to become one country.

Source: Today.ng

After the UN Security Council on May 13 held belated “Arria formula” session about Cameroon, an informal one with no outcome on which even co-sponsors Germany and the UK refused to answer Press questions, hypocrisy and cover up of the UN’s failure remain evident.

Now Turkey, which longs to be a big(ger) power in the UN, paying for example to re-name and bar the Press from the area next to the Security Council, now the “Turkish Lounge,” is lavishing praise for its business with Paul Biya’s Cameroun: in Ankara, “Cameroon’s ambassador hailed his country’s relations with Turkey Monday while marking National Day.  Victor Tchatchouwo made the comments at a gathering in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, under the theme “Unity in Diversity, a major asset of the Cameroonian people in their determined move towards emergence”.  Tchatchouwo expressed the importance of excellent cooperation and solidarity between Turkey and Cameroon. 

The ambassador said the number of high-level visits between authorities of both countries and commercial exchanges have been increasing in recent years.  During his speech, Tchatchouwo also highlighted the role of other mutual projects, including the scholarship program granted by Turkey’s Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).  The envoy added that Ankara and Yaounde are engaged in many fields, including politics, commerce, economy and education.  Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu attended the embassy’s National Day celebrations.  He stressed the importance of Cameroon’s decision to open an embassy in Turkey for the first time.  “It will improve bilateral relations between our countries in every field,” Kasapoglu said.  “Cameroon is one of the important countries in Central Africa for us.  “The bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Cameroon was around $200 million last year,” he said.  He added that the two countries aim to reach a trade volume of over $200 million this year. 

Citing Turkish contractors’ ongoing infrastructure projects in Cameroon, Kasapoglu said: “Our companies’ interests in Cameroon have been significantly increasing.”  Tchatchouwo presented his letter of credence to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in December 2018.  He is Cameroon’s first ambassador to Turkey.  On May 20, 1972, Cameroonians voted for a unitary state in a national referendum.” Really?  The blathering about business with Biya is just blood money – with an echo of the Kurdish issue. Inside the UN, Guterres’ Global Censor Alison Smale, now leaving in August, used a false complaint of Inner City Press daring to cover events in the Turkish Lounge as one of the few bases in her no due process ouster order of Inner City Press, now in its 321st day. We’ll have more on this.

Kuwait is a member of the Security Council, for seven more months, and heard what was said in the UNSC on May 13. Even the sanitized Lowcock and handpicked NGO version was troubling. But now on May 30 the Amir of Kuwait and the Crown Prince, Al-Sabah, told cabled congratulations and best wishes to 37 year ruler now killer Paul Biya. Kuwait’s mission to the UN, when Inner City Press was roughed up and banned from entering the UN amid its questions about Guterres’ performance, opined that “as long as UNCA is against you, nothing will change.” So much for freedom of the press: UNCA has had a president who gave an UN/CA screening to Sri Lanka government’s war crimes denial film, a photo op to UN briber Ng Lap Seng, and now has Chinese state media judging its “journalism” awards for UN coverage – no reporting on Chinese UN bribery, nor mention of the exclusion of Taiwanese journalists from the UN, etc allowed! We’ll have more on this.

On the other hand, publicly (mis) funded Voice of America which has Guterres favored access to the UN ran an article about the Arria meeting not by its UN correspondent but by another, who now writes about the Cameroon military with NO MENTION of its killings in the SW and NW of the country, or even abuses of civilians in the North. This is from VOA: “A Cameroon military engineering corps compactor is constructing a portion of the road linking its northern border town of Kousseri to the Chadian capital Ndjamena and Borno state in northeastern Nigeria.  Colonel Jackson Kamgain, director of Cameroon military engineering corps, says they re-launched the World Bank-sponsored project in March 2018 after it had been abandoned for four years.  He said since independence in 1961, the Cameroon military engineering corps has participated actively in the development of all localities and insures that major projects in conflict zones are not abandoned unlike in many other countries where military engineering departments concentrate only on making access easy for troops in areas of war or conflicts.” Why are taxpayers funding this? Or VOA after it lobbied UN Stephane Dujarric to oust Inner City Press? We’ll have more on this.

Because it was an informal meeting and the proponents would not answer questions and Antonio Guterres’ UN has yet to provide requested information to Inner City Press, it has allowed Paul Biya’s government to claim, in effect, that no meeting took place: “Some member states of the United Nations Security Council had an informal meeting on Monday to discuss the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Anglophone region of Cameroon.  A communiqué issued by the Cameroonian Ministry of External Relations however denied reports of a UN Security Council Meeting on the Anglophone region crisis.  According to the communiqué no such meeting is scheduled.    The communiqué further stated that, this meeting was a ‘’ free consultation entirely outside of the Council on the initiative of certain members who are interested in the humanitarian situation in Cameroon.’‘  It further added that outcomes of this meeting will not be binding on the government since the meeting was informal as specified by Cameroon’s diplomacy.”

The meeting ended without any outcome, after Paul Biya’s longtime Ambassador Tommo Monthe lashed out at social media as UNSG Antonio Guterres does. Monthe told Inner City Press, as it asked about Biya cutting the Internet in the Anglophone zones, that Inner City Press could get thrown out of the UN. And it was, by Guterres, now 321 days and counting.

(Inner City Press went and began interested at the Ambazonia / Southern Cameroons demonstration in the 47th Street park.

Culled from Inner City Press

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has sent greetings to Cameroon President Paul Biya as the country celebrates National Day, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian leader.

The head of state emphasized the interest in the development of Belarus-Cameron relations across the board.

“I am convinced that by joint efforts we will manage to bolster friendly bilateral ties and significantly expand mutually beneficial cooperation,” the message of greetings reads.

Source: BelTA’s