More than 4000 Southern Cameroons men, women and children have died in the territory now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia ever since the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé declared war against the English speaking minority-though the UN Office in the Sub Saharan region under strong French government influence enthusiastically puts the figure at 400. No UN official has visited the Southern Cameroons since the Francophone genocidal campaign started. The bourgeoisie Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland only spent some few hours in Buea under heavy security provided by French Cameroun soldiers.  Meanwhile, the killing of Southern Cameroons women and children continues almost daily.

Fifty-seven years after the so-called reunification of the two Cameroons, there is not an iota of development in the Ambazonia territory by successive French Cameroun governments. So, wherever you go in the Southern Cameroons, there is mud in the rainy season and dust in the dry season. It gets in your eyes and nose and throat. With French government backing  within the African Union and the United Nations Security Council including the European Union, the Ambazonian exiled Interim Government headed by Dr Samuel Ikome Sako is denied the platform to make the Southern Cameroons case as regards the massive killings and torture orchestrated by the Biya Francophone regime to the international community.  At the same time, the UN human rights wing dominated by the French, has blocked or delayed a range of political actions against the Paul Biya regime by its continues release of patronizing statements such “The violence in the Anglophone regions has led to massive internal displacement – at least 436,000 people are believed to be internally displaced, while more than 30,000 have fled to Nigeria since September last year.”

French Cameroun military helicopters with aerial intelligence from the French government and tactical intelligence from the President Buhari regime in Abuja, Nigeria have carried out several attacks on camps hosting innocent Southern Cameroons women and children fleeing the conflict both in Cameroon and Nigeria. An American missionary, Charles Wesco Trumann was recently killed by Cameroon government forces on lame and ridiculous reason that he was a CIA agent helping the Ambazonian Restoration Forces. Several Southern Cameroons medical doctors and university professors have been killed and many have fled the territory into French Cameroun. The French government and now Saudi Arabia are supplying the Paul Biya regime with sophisticated weapons and the French Cameroun army onslaught against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons is almost every day: it is the most malicious killing of the black race in mankind’s history since the slave trade. Yet, very little appears about it in the international media due to the political packaging of the French backed French Cameroun military campaign conducted under the cover of fighting Southern Cameroons terrorists and Ambazonian separatists which have no authorization from both the AU or the UN.

In covering up for its crimes in Southern Cameroons, the Francophone regime announced a 12 billion FCFA reconstruction aid to victims of its own atrocities and ever since the Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland left Yaoundé, nothing has been heard about that plan. The Francophone army has targeted every sector in the Southern Cameroonian life including: villages, fishing boats and farmland. A farmer and his three sons were killed by Cameroon government forces as they were returning home from their farm in Ekona. A Roman Catholic priest was killed in Muyuka after Holy Mass. At the time of writing this report, another Roman Catholic priest, Rev Father Cosmas Omboto Ondari was killed by Cameroon government forces in Kembong in Manyu.  I travelled home incognito for the burial of the late Rev Father Alex Sob and I stood in the cemetery during his final funeral rites and heard an old woman from the Legion of Mary shouting that, “I want to speak to the late John Ngu Foncha who took us to these French speaking people.”

The war in Southern Cameroons is a war against Ambazonian children on many fronts. Firstly, it was a policy to assimilate them by imposing the French language upon them and enslaving them with no jobs after university education. That failed woefully as many like myself migrated to the West. The second phase is what we are seeing now and it involves military attacks with financial support from Paris and Beijing.

After the Eastern Regional Crisis in 1953 which heralded the quasi federal status for British Southern Cameroons, Southern Cameroons parents were fined for failing to send their children to school. To be more accurate, the French Cameroun phenomenon of street children or children begging was unheard of in Southern Cameroons.  Southern Cameroons had reached a stage where the people were hoping for a royal visit by Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain after our traditional rulers were invited during the Queeen’s trip to Calabar in Nigeria. After 57 years following its forged reunification with French Cameroun, Southern Cameroons with its abundant natural resources is among the world’s bottom.

Many schools in Southern Cameroons have been targets in the French Cameroun-led blitz and several hundred of the children are living in the bushes with their grandparents suffering from malnutrition, dysentery and malaria. The French Cameroun government officials have been blocking shipments of foodstuff and cloths coming from the Southern Cameroons Diaspora to the suffering Ambazonian population. When I questioned a Francophone custom officer at the Douala Port, he in a typical ruling CPDM party pattern responded that most of the materials arriving the Douala Port had been banned by the government for health and safety reasons.

The UN staffers in Yaoundé and Abuja with the help of French diplomats have developed a special relationship with Cameroon government officials with many using the Francophone lobby within the UN system to get promotions and appointments into more lucrative UN jobs and positions. Consequently, the prospect of any public expression of a rebellion within the UN bureaucracy as regards to the war in Southern Cameroons is completely absent and non-existent mindful of the fact that the UN under Antonio Guterres is slowly but surely in the process of destroying an entire African English society. History will slaughter men like Paul Ghogomu, Philemon Yang, Chief Tabetando, Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Victor Mengot, Patrick Ekema, Peter Mafany Musonge, Paul Tasong and Paul Atanga Nji including other Southern Cameroonians responsible for the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

For how long should Southern Cameroons women and children including the old and the blind be exposed to such vicious French Cameroun military punishment for something they have never done before the UN listens to the Ambazonia Interim Government? Only a corrupt mind can tolerate what is being done to the Southern Cameroons people. Yet no resignation is expected from Southern Cameroonians serving in the Biya regime. History will indeed slaughter them!! By the time the international community will wake up from its sleep to put a stop to this senseless war going on in Southern Cameroons, ten thousand lives would have been lost in the cause of nothing, fuelled by French geopolitical calculations in the Gulf of Guinea and French government support for ruthless dictators in Francophone Africa.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Dear Cardinal TUMI,
I am writing this letter to you, hoping that the people of Southern Cameroons will be patient and for once give you and your team a benefit of doubt as you attempt to listen to the different views and opinions as you find Solution to the Southern Cameroon problem during the upcoming Meeting you have convened.

As a moral Authority in Cameroon for so many years, I do not doubt your sense of truth and Justice. I say so because I believe that, on the one hand, God wants to manifest himself to the government of Cameroun as a God of Truth and Justice. On the other hand, he is revealing himself to the People of Southern Cameroon as a God of Mercy. Truth, Justice, and Mercy are all part of the attributes of God, and he chooses how to dispense them to individuals and nations without compromising His integrity.

The people of Southern Cameroon voted in a Plebiscite to join La Republic du Cameroon in a Federal system of Government in 1961. Whether this was a right step or a mistake is not the issue here. It is a historical fact. There were terms binding the two States together in that Federation. Over the years, because of the selfishness and wickedness of one party, it was considered that the other, because she was small in size could be manipulated, marginalized and systematically assimilated into the larger part. That is why, from a Federal Republic in 1961, we mysteriously find ourselves in La Republic, the name of the bigger Party at the time of the Union.

Sir, a lot has happened in Cameroon within the last two years that are facts that are in the public for anyone to read and see for themselves. My concern is to remind you that where we are now, the government of Cameroon has lost its credibility in the sight of the people of Southern Cameroon. The inability of the government to initially dialogue with the Consortium, the torture, the arbitrary arrests, the targeted killings and the War declared on the Southern Cameroonians are a testimony to the hatred of the regime against a part of the Country she wants to make the World believe she governs. Unfortunately, this has only helped to open the eyes of the people to a point where they are all willing to die than to cowardly submit to such slavery. To add insult to injury, the regime while still pursuing its master plan of wiping out protesting Southern Cameroonians, went ahead to organize elections in this parts of the Country where they have practically chased into the bushes or out of the Country the majority of the masses. Using the plight of Southern Cameroonians to their advantage, a miserable 5% (from their own statistics) for most part made up of Soldiers and government officials gave the government Party a crushing majority in S.W. and N.W. Regions. What a shame. What moral and Political injustice. Let me also recall that the government, using the plight of the suffering displaced Southern Cameroonians, made fund raising with a target of 12 billions which was supposed to go to those who lost properties and the displaced. Now that campaigns are over and the military is well equipped to continue the burning of Villages and killing of innocent civilians, I can assure you the project has been realized.

In the face of all of these, what message do we have again as Servants of God to the people of Southern Cameroon? What message does a Pastor have for a Slave under the yoke and burden imposed on him by the Slave driver, if not to stand with him and seek his liberation. Or should we ask him to remain under the yoke of slavery and die so that God will receive his Soul. Any true man of God with a conscience in Cameroon at this moment should know that our real assignment at this moment, is to stand with the oppressed in their quest for Justice. This should be done not only by Prayer, but by proclamation as well. We should speak the truth.Nobody should be fooled, the way to true Peace in Southern Cameroon is by going back to the roots. There is injustice, craftiness, pride, and deceit buried in the root of the Union. A system and a pattern of evil by the government geared towards Suppressing and Marginalizing the Anglophones for fear that they should not grow and become a bigger threat in the future. This has manifested in different ways, at different times, in different places all over Cameroon, until lately the time of full occupation was rife. Otherwise, what can even remotely explain the fact that even English Common Law Courts were already taken over by French Civil Law Judges, and English Schools were taken over by French teachers who do not understand English. Why is it that our Bilingualism only understands the French Language and only considers the Francophones?

Some people will want us believe that we were one nation in German Cameroon before the French and English came and divided us. This is a week argument and a hypocritical attempt to escape from reality by the party that always seeks to marginalize. In German Cameroon we were more than 250 ethnic groups brought together by the colonial power, in most of the cases against our will, to serve her own interest. We were only one in the sense that we are all created by God, whether Black or White, Jew or Gentile. God requires all men to repent and be united with Christ so that we can be one family here on Earth. Nevertheless, from the scattering of the Human race at the Tower of Babel, God permitted diversity. Every Nation (people) have a right to self-determination. The government is there to facilitate and protect this right. The government exist because of the people and not vice versa. That is why the quest for independence made sense. Now, when independence was granted for those who were colonized, lines were drawn, not by God but by the Colonial Powers. God created the Earth and He still keeps the title deed (Psalm 24:1). However, it is not God that drew the lines over Nations to demarcate them and set boundaries between one nation and the other as it presently stands. This was done by man. God just stood as a witness. The name Cameroon was given by man, and when it was given so many parts of the present Cameroon were not included. Also, when the Germans were in charge, the map was different from what it is today. So, the Union between Southern Cameroon and La Republic is a Historical fact, but not a Gospel Truth. The map of any nation on earth is not static but dynamic, depending on what God decides to do with that nation. That is why there are so many nations and Kingdoms that no longer exist today on Earth. God can decide to use His Sovereign Power as the Owner of the Earth to separate two people who do now agree to walk together (Amos 3:3).

In view of the facts above, and taking into consideration the devastation brought upon the people of Southern Cameroon by the Government of La Republic du Cameroon, recognizing also that the will of God in this matter is for Truth and Justice to be established(reconciliation can only come after), it is my humble opinion that the next step for the Southern Cameroonians is a Referendum. This Referendum will determine whether or not Southern Cameroonians still want to continue with the Union with La Republic. Another reason why a Referendum is the solution is because the government claims that those who are advocating for Secession are a negligible minority. The Referendum then will check the veracity of that claim. Therefore, if we are to revisit the root of the problem of Cameroon as recommended by many, we must realize and recognize that the root of our problem is a Union which has not worked. It has resulted into a situation where one party, having all the Political, Judicial, Economic and Military might, with all its numerical Strength is about to wipe out the other from the face of the Earth in which only God has the title deed. If there will be any All Anglophone Conference at all (and I think we should give it a chance), the wisdom of God demands that the people of Southern Cameroon be given a chance in a REFERENDUM to determine their future. Anything short of that will be tantamount to trying to treat a serious wound lightly.

By hook or by crook, there is a people who exist here on Earth and who see and identify themselves as English Speaking Cameroonians from the Southwestern and Northwestern Region of Cameroon (They have recently identified themselves as Ambazonians; which is also their right), the former British Colony of Southern Cameroon. These people, whose language, education, training, and values have been impacted by the British, are in a way different from those of the other part of the Country called Cameroon, who were impacted by the French. This is the difference between the Anglophone and the Francophone in Cameroon, but this is not what is bad or bringing problem. I will like our Francophone brothers to take note of this. What is bringing problem is the fact that over the years, since the two parties came together, there has been a systematic plan orchestrated by the Government and Sponsored by the French Colonial Masters, to marginalize and consequently assimilate the Anglophones thereby eliminating all that he represents in the Country. The proof is vivid in all sector of life in the Country. This is the Gospel Truth about Cameroon, and the almighty God will not allow this injustice. I love my French brothers and Sisters on the other side. I do not preach hatred and division. But I have a duty to speak the truth. I also thank God for their passion in standing to defend the truth in condemning what they see as fraud in the present Elections of October 7, 2018. This means they too have the same instinct against injustice. I only hope that they will understand and see reasons with Southern Cameroonians when they stand up to say enough is enough.

To conclude this epistle, dear Cardinal, I will like to remind you and your Team who have offered to serve as facilitators and Moderators of this event that History and above all God, stands as your Judge. The government of Cameroon, who has only accepted this Conference reluctantly because of pressure and lack of no better alternative, will try to influence it by infiltrating with its agents to have the last say. That will be counterproductive and will lead to even more bloodshed than we are experiencing now. The People of Southern Cameroon are between Federation and Separation, and only a Referendum held in Southern Cameroon for Southern Cameroonians can be a Just bargain.

May God help the people of Southern Cameroon.

Rev. T. H. Mbu-Arrey

On 6 November, Paul Biya was inaugurated for the seventh time. The 85-year-old has already been in power for the last 36 years and will now serve another seven-year term.

President Biya won disputed elections on 7 October amidst rising unrest in Cameroon. The country is divided into the Francophone area – which makes up four-fifths of territory – and the smaller Anglophone area. In the last two years, the latter region has been in a situation just short of civil war.

Over the decades since unification, the Anglophone regions have been increasingly dominated (https://bit.ly/2DDukwx) and felt resentful. This led to a movement that, in 2016, began by holding strikes and peaceful demonstrations. Activists called for the restoration of the English-speaking education and judicial system.

The government responded with furious repression and shut down any discussions about federalism. This led to a spiralling crisis. Today, the talk is about secession, while the conflict has become bloody. There are now over 300,000 internally displaced persons and more than 40,000 refugees in Nigeria. At least 90 villages have been razed, while over 400 civilians have been killed and thousands more wounded. 40% of Cameroon’s revenue derives from the Anglophone regions, but the local economy has been deeply undermined by the insecurity.

This is the context in which Cameroon’s elections were held last month. In theory, this exercise was an opportunity for citizens to shape the direction of the nation. But the reality is very different.

The body that organises Cameroon’s elections is supposedly autonomous, but all its members are appointed by the president and can be removed at will.  All electoral disputes are settled by the Constitutional Council, but all its members are also appointed by the president. The Minister of Territorial Administration, another presidential appointee, handles all other administrative issues connected with elections.

In Cameroon, the voting system is first-past-the-post and uses multiple ballots. Voters are given papers for all the candidates and then cast their vote by putting their favoured nominee into the ballot box. This means they can leave the booth with the papers of the other candidates, allowing vote-buyers the ability to check how people voted. Calls to adopt a single ballot paper system have been ignored.

For presidential hopefuls, getting onto the ballot in the first place is challenging. Nominees must pay around $60,000 to submit their candidacies. They must either be endorsed by a party with at least one elected official or, if running as an independent, produce at least 300 signatures from specific kinds of dignitaries from every region.

In the elections themselves, there are close to 25,000 polling stations. What candidate can field representatives in each of these locations? The official campaign period lasts two weeks and it is illegal to campaign before this period. How can one visit 360 districts in just 14 days? The presidential campaign team, which includes ministers and other dignitaries, travels the country at the expense of the state, meaning the playing field is nowhere near level. Meanwhile, the state media turns into the ruling party’s propaganda machine.

Despite the very high hurdles, however, I decided to run for president. I have spent the last 25 years defending good governance and fighting corruption. In 2000, at a time Cameroon was accused of being the most corrupt country in the world, I founded the national chapter of international anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. Needless to say, this earned me the ire of the establishment. I went on to work for bodies such as the African Development Bank and High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.

In this time, I watched as my country steadily moved in the wrong direction. And with the worsening situation in the Anglophone regions threatening to pull apart the fabric of our nation, a sense of responsibility weighed on my soul. I knew that I had to put my experience at the service of our citizens and attack the issues at their source – the system.

In the end, though, I withdrew my candidacy and backed Maurice Kamto. There is nowhere in African where the opposition has removed a dictator like Biya without presenting a common front. In Cameroon, the remaining eight candidates held some further meetings, but never met once together as a group. This meant that there was no single opposition candidate. This fact discouraged voters who concluded it was a waste of time.

In the final tally, Biya officially won with 71.28%. Kamto came second with 14.23%. But there were reports of massive fraud. The absence of opposition officials at many polling stations allowed the stuffing of ballot boxes. An incomplete biometric system meant that certain people voted multiple times.

The legal challenge against the election results that followed exposed the Constitutional Council as political institution. This all played out on national television and many citizens, for the first time, witnessed the fraud that cripples our electoral process.

The danger that Cameroon now faces is that its elections’ lack of credibility could lead voters to question the need to participate. And if electoral justice becomes captured by politics and hence incapable of addressing issues raised by the proper, the streets will take over. Since the presidential elections, there have been demonstrations against what has been described as a faulted political process. These demonstrations have been relayed to the Diaspora in Europe and America.

Cameroon needs to design an adequate electoral system. It is essential to make reforms so that the individual controlling the process is not also a player in it. This year, Cameroons saw first-hand the effects of a lopsided system. If the electoral playing field is not evened out then the country risks being stuck in an interminable loop created by a government for the government. Cameroonians will only stand for this so long. Till then, Cameroon remains a state captured by a few oligarchs.

Barrister Akere Muna

Madam Chantal Biya

The First Lady of the Republic of Cameroon

The Unity Palace

Yaounde, Cameroon

Central Africa

November 13, 2018

It is with greatest concern and respect for the future of women, children and people of Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) that I greet you in this unusual correspondence. It is my hope and certainly my trust that this letter finds you in the best of health.

I still recall the excitement and joyous day on April 23^rd, 1994, when as a young woman you got married and became the First Lady of the Republic of Cameroon. I celebrated that day for two reasons; that the country had as First Lady a younger woman and with the establishment of the Chantal Biya Foundation that same year, you demonstrated your desire to attend to the sufferings of the vulnerable,underprivileged, the sick and weak in Cameroon. I knew that as a woman and a mother, the sanctity of life and the burning desire to protect it was very close to your heart and this has been demonstrated through your philanthropic and humanitarian efforts through the years.With your humanitarian credentials, there was no doubt in my mind that you would protect the best interest of the people of Cameroon as their First Lady.

However, I write to you today, forced into exile and no longer in Cameroon, nearly twenty-four years later with a heavy heart. I hold a heavy heart because of the desperate and horrific situation in Southern Cameroons

The conflict in the Southern Cameroons has taken a terrible toll on the vulnerable community and the stench of death and desolation has engulfed the villages,towns and cities. The depravity and senseless disregard of human life by the security forces of the government of Cameroon is alarming. We are seeing scenes reminiscent of the Ethiopian civil war in the 80s with dead bodies abandoned on the side of our roads, charred bodies of our elderly and vulnerable, burnt alive in their homes and entire villages incinerated from the face of the earth.

The security forces are carrying out extra-judicial killings of the population, the lives of our active young men are no longer assured today than it is tomorrow, and our young women are raped with reckless brutality by the security forces of the government of Cameroon. The trauma and scars of death on the desolate eyes of our children seeing their parents savagely bludgeoned by the security forces is leaving a painful impact characterized by nightmares in these young minds. Most of the indigenous population has been forced into the open forest and exposed to the elements. Nursing mothers and women under their period are left with no options, but to use dead vegetation for their basic hygienic needs. It is a terrible sight to behold.

Cash crops like cocoa, coffee, palm kernels have been abandoned to waste in the farms because the farmers have either been forced to flee or are too afraid to even hold their artisanal tools like cutlasses to go to the farms because that is in itself a death sentence from the security forces. Almost 300,000 IDP and about 100,000 refugees living in squalid conditions in neighboring Nigeria, thousands killed, and some buried in mass graves and thousands arrested, abducted and whisked to dangerous dungeons in Cameroon. The economy of Southern Cameroons that have been systematically abandoned for the last 57 years has been completely eviscerated and devastated by the conflict, punitive curfews and road closures that make movement and commerce between villages and towns perniciously impossible and frustrating.

My hearts bleeds for the children and women rendered orphans and widows, my heart bleeds upon the dark clouds circling above Southern Cameroons, My heart bleeds for the painful and horrific burning of elderly men and women in their homes, the pain, the anger, the complete obliteration of entire communities and cultures. I weep for the mothers and wives of the young soldiers whose lives are also being wasted in this senseless war.

It was permissible in the beginning of this crisis that you stayed silent, it was permissible that you remained indifferent, but it is no longer permissible in light of what we know now. It is no longer permissible as a mother of the nation who understands the pain of childbirth to remain indifferent to the plight of the people of Southern Cameroons. It is a travesty that the pain and suffering of mothers and young women who looked up to you, who sang, praised and celebrated you have been abandoned and treated with this level of disdain. How do you sleep at night as a mother knowing that young children have been deprived of education because of the security situation for the past two years, how do you wake up each morning not knowing what may happened to your loved ones in Southern Cameroons and how can you stay mute for this long with the unravelling refugee crisis in Southern Cameroons. What has happened to the humanity in you? Cry My Beloved Country!

As the wife of Sissiku Julius Ayuk-Tabe (leader of Southern Cameroons), I understand the political implication of this crisis. However, there are times when humanity and government come together for a common goal. In this case, the goal is the protection of humanity; the innocent and helpless men, women and children in Southern Cameroons. They are unable to speak or defend themselves. They live in terror because they never know when they hear the sound of guns in their village, if it is their turn to be killed or taken away in the darkness of the early morning. Imagine the terror that overcomes them when they hear the deafening screams of a sister, aunt, cousin, a playmate or a mother being brutally raped. They know then that they are next. It is compared to an execution queue where men are waiting to be taken away for execution, and they hear the deadly sound of the firing squad as they queue in and wait their turn. The torture, taunts and torments are unimaginable, and you could hear grown men crying.

I realize that I may come under criticisms and accusations for writing this letter to you. I have no other motive to write this letter, other than for you to rally the mothers of Cameroon and bring pressure to bear on your husband and the government of Cameroon for an inclusive dialogue and a negotiated solution to this crisis and the immediate release of our leaders including my husband. The deafening silence from you is no longer acceptable. The lives of 8 million Southern Cameroonians and the fate of their leaders in jail is in your hands. Madam First Lady set the example for other women to follow.

It is not too late for you to send the message; that the mothers of Cameroon will no longer tolerate this war. The Southern Cameroons women will applaud you and women around the world will celebrate you.

The Lives of Southern Cameroons children, mothers and fathers also Matter and the continuing silence in the face of these killings is collusion.

I look forward to collaborating with you to look for an inclusive and negotiated solutions to this crisis.

Respectfully,

Lilian Ayuk-Tabe

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

On October 22, the Cameroun Constitutional Council announced that incumbent President Paul Biya won the presidential election with 71.3 percent of the vote. Opposition parties petitioned the ruling of the Constitutional Council, citing eighteen cases of voter fraud, ballot stuffing and intimidation. The Council dismissed each case. After claiming victory for himself earlier in the month, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) leader and presidential candidate Professor Maurice Kamto rejected the results. In his refutation, Kamto called on all Cameroonians to be prepared to fight for their freedom and vowed that his party would use all legal means available to restore truth to the ballot box.

In another unusual turn, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, the Archbishop of Douala and president of the bishops’ conference in Cameroon, stated that it was virtually impossible that Biya had won in the Far North and in the two Anglophone regions, the North West and South West, by the landslide margins he claimed. The northern region is the most underdeveloped part of the country, and a majority of residents there still harbor the scars of their parents and loved ones, who were brutally executed by Paul Biya’s government on the heels of an attempted coup d’Etat in 1984. In the Anglophone North West and South West regions of the country, representing roughly 20 percent of Cameroon’s 25 million citizens, Cameroun government forces and Ambazonia Restoration Forces have been fighting since 2017.The conflict has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and fighters, and Cameroonian soldiers have burnt close to 1000 homes in at least 100 villages in the Anglophone region, following the Biya regime’s “scorched earth” policy. More than 50,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria; over 500,000 people have been internally displaced, and upwards of 300,000 people are estimated to be hiding in the forest.

This presidential election was a watershed moment for Cameroonians to salvage a collapsing nation by listening to the people’s voice at the ballot box. It offered an opportunity to peacefully transition to new and fresh leadership that would reform democratic institutions and apportion political and economic opportunities based on character and merit, instead of deferring, time and again, to corrupt party and tribal lines.

Despite glaring cases of fraud, incredibly low turnout (just 5% of the electorate voted in the Anglophone regions), and popular resentment against Biya’sregime, both domestically and internationally, it appears that the election results will stand. However, these flaws in the election process could hamper Biya’s attempts to attract foreign investment in the future and could further strain relations between Yaoundé and western capitals like Paris, London and Washington.

Biya—86 years old, President since 1982, and suffering from terminal prostate cancer—is no longer considered a force of stability in the fragile central African region. In international circles, he is perceived as a fatigued despot whose failure to adequately manage contemporary political challenges could worsen the already formidable financial, political and social crises confronting the nation. These crises could in turn incur further humanitarian consequences and could exacerbate security threats and stability challenges for neighboring countries, especially Nigeria. To that end, as a measure to contain the challenges presented by French Cameroun, western powers are likely to shift their focus and begin to support the Ambazonia Liberation War in international diplomatic forums.

In the face of mounting domestic strife and piqued international attention, Biya will have to make a number of difficult decisions in the coming months and years. Will he attempt to contain domestic resistance at the possible price of alienating international powers? Ultimately, the Biya regime may opt for peaceful separation with Ambazonia and aim to establish friendly relations with their neighbors by negotiating new trade and security agreements. Otherwise, the Biya regime will face the uphill task of sustaining an asymmetric fight with highly determined guerilla splinter groups, which number over 20,000 fighters and are supported by more than 90 percent of the population. The Ambazonia decolonization process hangs over the head of Cameroon like Damocles’s sword.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon will never be the same again. The whole world was anticipating that 85 year-old President Biya will step down in the best interest of the Cameroonian nation that is badly in search for greater peace, justice, development, unity and joy.  It is abundantly clear that things have taking an excellent backward trend with condoms, bread and sardine now featuring prominent in Cameroonian politics.

To be sure, Cameroonians deserve to enjoy good living conditions, democratic governance, equity and freedom for their unbelievable tolerance and long – drawn hope which the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo (military and civilian) regime have always promised, at each election year.

Recently and particularly in French Cameroun innocent Francophone voters, youths and non-partisan technocrats have been regaled with flowery campaign promises, unimaginable project deliveries from French Cameroun’s old and new public office seekers.

This seventh mandate stolen from Prof Maurice Kamto and given to President Biya did not witness the furnace of chop – I – chop political tomfoolery. It however saw the rise of bread and sardine and the presidential distribution of condoms. The French Cameroun monarch did not even campaign but reportedly dispatched his desperate merchants who masqueraded as saviours of the Cameroonian nation and assailed the Francophone population with worn-out and empty promises.

The October 7 counterfeit presidential polls in French Cameroun revealed one small thing-small but great and it is that even the Bamileke and Hausa business communities including the clergy all live on politics. So, after 35 years as Head of State, all what a University of Sorbonne graduate is offering his people is sardine and bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The 2018 presidential elections were also quite apt for those French Cameroun CPDM professionals who make their fortunes when politics, especially campaigns, hot up.

This begs the question: Who were the immediate beneficiaries of the October 7 presidential poll? They included  Chinese printers,  French Cameroun textile merchants, carpenters, drivers, transporters, Makossa and Bikutsi musicians, news reporters, print and electronic media, food vendors, the Francophone dominated army, body guards, soothsayers, prayer warriors, native doctors, godfathers etc.

Partaking in the bread-sardine and condom party were respectable clergies such as the Arch Bishop of Yaounde and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon. Food is indeed ready!! Enjoy your meal.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya pledged to give more powers to the central African nation’s regions, starting his seventh term in office with a call to separatist groups in the country’s English-speaking areas to end a bloody insurgency.

The speech to lawmakers marked only the second time that Biya, 85, publicly addressed the conflict that has left at least 400 people dead since it began two years ago. “I understand your problems, I know them and will do well to solve them,” Biya said Tuesday in the capital, Yaounde. “Government will accelerate the decentralization process in response to the desire of the population to manage their own affairs.”

Africa’s second-longest serving head of state easily won presidential elections last month that were overshadowed by the insurgency and a security clampdown that hindered voting in the two Anglophone regions. Cameroon is divided into 10 semi-autonomous regions, which are headed by governors appointed by Biya.

Opposition Arrests

Maurice Kamto, one of Biya’s opponents in the October polls, and some of his supporters were arrested Tuesday when they protested in the capital against the outcome of vote, according to a party official.

“Our president was also arrested but quickly released,” Ndong Christopher, secretary general of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, said by phone.

Source: Bloomberg

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

Cameroon’s president on Tuesday warned Anglophone separatists to lay down their arms or face the full force of the law, a day after dozens of schoolchildren were abducted in the rebel region.

Clashes between a secessionist movement and the army began more than a year ago in west Cameroon, killing over 400 civilians and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

On Monday, unidentified assailants kidnapped 79 children, their principal and a driver from the PSS Nkwen school in Bamenda in Northwest region and took them into the bush outside town, military and government sources said.

An army spokesman blamed separatists for Monday’s kidnapping. A separatist spokesman denied involvement and said government soldiers had carried it out, as a ploy to discredit the insurgents.

President Paul Biya, making an inauguration speech after re-election last month that extends his 36-year-old rule, did not mention the kidnapping but attacked the separatists.

‘Rigor of the law’

“They need to know that they will face the rigor of the law and the determination of our defense and security forces,” Biya said in the national assembly. “I appeal to them to lay down their arms.”

Last week, an American Baptist missionary was shot dead amid fighting between the army and separatists in Bamenda.

The secessionists have imposed curfews and closed schools as part of their rebellion against the French-speaking government, which they say has marginalized the Anglophone minority.

Samuel Fonki, a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, said he had been mediating with the kidnappers for the children’s release. He said separatists were responsible.

The search for the children continued Tuesday. About 200 parents gathered outside the school, waiting to hear if their children were among those who had been abducted or had remained unharmed at the school.

Authorities denied parents access to the school, according to six parents and a security guard who spoke to Reuters.

The kidnapping was a chilling echo of the 2014 abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. There are no known links between the Cameroon separatists and the Nigerian Islamist militant group.

Culled from The VOA

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com

After his swearing-in on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, ordered the arrest of prominent members of the MRC, the party led by Professor Kamto who actually won last month’s presidential election.

Among those arrested are Prof. Maurice Kamto, Barrister Simh, Christian Penda Ekoka, Alain Fogue Tedom, Okala Ebode and 20 others who were attending an impromptu meeting with some of their party members.

Addressing his party members at the meeting, Prof. Maurice Kamto, a legal expert, stated clearly that he had been elected by Cameroonians based on merit and not based on his ethnic background, adding that he had been elected to represent all Cameroonians.

He stressed that he had been elected based on his political program that focused on the poor, the humble and the suffering masses who have been working hard to enable the country stay afloat.

He added that today was a very bad day for democracy in Cameroon. He deplored that fact that many Southern Cameroonians were living in the bushes in the North West and South West regions of the country, with thousands seeking a safe sanctuary in Nigeria.

He said the people could count on him as he and the winning coalition that enabled him to win the election would continue to fight on the people’s behalf. He stressed that Cameroon belonged to all Cameroonians and that no Cameroonian should be judged based on their tribe.

He pointed out that Biya had been sworn-in as the country’s president because of the system is corrupt; adding that for the past 36 years, Mr. Biya and his collaborators had fostered tribalism. Shortly after addressing the crowd, Prof. Kamto and his collaborators were whisked away to the Elig- Essono Judicial Police where they are being questioned.

Mr. Biya’s iron feast has started striking his opponents even as he promised during the swearing-in ceremony that he would work hard to reunite the country; something he has failed to do in 36 years.

He promised to restore peace in the North West and South West regions, but did not provide details on how he was going to achieve that given that for more than 24 months, the English speaking regions of the country have been under the control of separatists who have made them ungovernable despite the government’s violent military adventure.

He urged the youths in the two regions who have given government troops a run for their money to return to the path of peace by dropping down their weapons. “I want to call on the youths engaged in hostilities to drop their arms and follow the right path…especially the younger ones who have indulged in a fruitless cause,” he said. He added that “I am convinced the majority of Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions want peace and I am determined to address the root causes of their frustrations.”

He pointed out that negative forces had taken advantage of the genuine demands of the people to foster a secessionist agenda which he stressed was against the country’s constitution and the notion of living together.

Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, the Cameroon Concord News Group reporter in Yaounde spoke with a senior member of the ruling CPDM from the North West region who has been pushing for dialogue and reconciliation. From the discussion, it was clear that there were lots of frustrations within the ruling party as the conflict in the English-speaking regions continues to escalate.

The CPDM member who elected anonymity said that Mr. Biya might have been sworn in as the country’s president, but he knows that he did not win the election and should use this opportunity to undertake actions that will enable the country heal.

“He knows he did not win the election. He knows that a lot of fraudulent things have been done to keep him in power. I think he should now starts thinking of bringing the country together by calling for inclusive dialogue that will enable the country heal,” he said.

“He should be thinking of the type of Cameroon he would be leaving behind. He has been robbing other people of their victory for more than two decades. In 1992, he robbed Mr. Fru Ndi of his victory and today, he has been sworn in as the president of the country, robbing Professor Maurice Kamto who is very much admired by the people and the international community. He cannot continue to usurp power. He has pushed the country to the brink. He has transformed himself into a monarch and this makes it hard for those around him to tell him the truth,” the CPDM senior member regretted.

“I know Cameroonians are always expecting Mr. Biya to die as they believe his death could herald the beginning of a new era and the end of hostilities in the two English-speaking regions, but I strongly believe that he has been sentenced to life by God. He will not be dying anytime soon and he might live long to see the country change. People like him spend more time regretting in the later part of their lives. I hope he will use this term in office to reverse some of the damage his inefficient management has brought to the country,” he stressed.

“Mr. Biya has had a long time to bring peace and security to the country, but he seems to be happy seeing others bleed to death. I am a member of the ruling party and I can tell you that many in the party want the issues that have weakened our country to be addressed very fast. But the hawks in the regime like Prof. Fame Ndongo are insisting that only an all-out war can resolve the Anglophone crisis. We have already lost more than 1,500 soldiers and some 3,000 civilians in the English-speaking regions of the country. How many more Cameroonians have to die before Mr. Biya realizes that he has failed the people?” he quipped.

Though Mr. Biya has been sown in today, it is clear that not much will change. The next seven years will not witness any fundamental political changes and this will make many people to continue to think that the country is a ticking time bomb.

Cameroon is replete with many problems and many of them are off-shoots of the mismanagement, tribalism and corruption that have become the country’s hallmark. Corruption has robbed the country of the financial resources it needs to undertake major development work.

The country lacks good medical infrastructure. Most of its hospitals have become consultation clinics. The road infrastructure also leaves much to be desired. The roads are today death traps that are consuming the population at a rate never seen before.

The country’s economy too has taken a nosedive. Over the last 20 years, Cameroon’s economy has been caught in a tailspin. Unemployment has continued to rise, with university graduates not being able to find jobs. Many corporations have gone under, leaving many of their workers unemployed.

But the most difficult challenge is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is very likely to tear the country apart. For more than two years, Southern Cameroonians have engaged the government in a tough battle that has resulted in the killing of some 4,500 Cameroonians, including over 1,500 soldiers.

Following a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in 2016, the two English-speaking regions have become ungovernable. The government’s military actions have caused thousands to flee to Nigeria while millions are hiding in the bushes to avoid the government’s brutality.

Many children are today seeking refuge in those bushes and many babies have been delivered in the process. The number of teenage mothers has increased and this spells another serious problem in the future. The government has not made any convincing efforts to bring the people for their bushes.

On the contrary, soldiers have been torching many homes and killing any young Southern Cameroonians found in the territory in the hope that they could eliminate any threat Southern Cameroonians pose to the government.

Schools have been closed now for two years in the region and many of the students have simply been co-opted into the armed groups that have emerged. As the government turns down any appeals for inclusive dialogue, so too does the situation deteriorate. Even after solutions to the conflict would have been sought, security issues will linger for a long time. Many young men, who have lost hope in life, will continue to use their weapons as a means of eking out a living.

While Southern Cameroonians are struggling to break away from the Yaounde government, Boko Haram is bombing many northerners out of existence. The government’s repressive approach has only caused the people to run to Boko Haram whose methods are more appreciated by the population. The government is yet to understand that its repressive approach is not yielding the right results and this is exactly what caused the Southern Cameroons crisis to escalate.

Mr. Biya might have been handed victory by the fake institutions he has created, but with that victory comes a crown of thorns that might keep him uncomfortable for seven years. The people of Cameroon have lost confidence in him. After 36 years in power, Cameroon has been put in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It will take a miracle for most of the problems currently facing the country to be addressed by the same man who is responsible for these issues.

The world is watching Cameroon and many people will be keeping an eye on Mr. Biya. Many want to see how comfortable he will be in his new crown of thorns. The country is out of cash. It has very few friends around the world and its finances are fast dwindling. With oil prices diminishing on a daily basis and separatists threatening to disrupt oil production in the South-west region, it is clear that before long the government will be taking its begging bowl to other parts of the world for assistance.

Many of its corporations are bleeding money and those in the English-speaking regions of the country that used to haul in millions of dollars are unfortunately out of business due to the armed conflict that is unfolding in the region. The English-speaking regions are in a stand-still and this implies businesses are dying and the government is losing lots of revenue.

Mr. Biya might wear the crown today, but it is clear that the hidden thorns in it will keep him permanently ill at ease. Most of country’s allies have called on the government to find sustainable solutions to the Southern Cameroons crisis and America has simply ended its military partnership with the country due to serious human abuses in the northern part of the country.

Mr. Biya will have to burn the mid-night candle on both ends if he has to post any results. His dwindling financial resources imply that he has a crisis on his hands and with the country awash with weapons, it is clear that the government’s military actions in the English-speaking regions will not deliver the military solutions it has been hankering after for two years.

Cameroonians may have avoided the streets for the sake of peace, but that does not imply Mr. Biya and his men will have to continue to sleep at the switch. They must have their noses to the grindstone if they want Cameroonians to see them differently. After 36 years in power, without anything to show for, Mr. Biya has to change his ways. He must stop using the country’s treasury like his personal ATM. He has to be transparent in the way he runs the affairs of the country and he must embrace genuine democracy. He must see dialogue as an effective tool for conflict resolution and prevention. Arresting his opponents only makes things worse.

By Kingsley Betek and Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Now that you are here

The Cameroon Concord News Group Board wishes to inform its faithful readers that for more than a decade, it has been providing world-class reports of the situation in Southern Cameroons.  The Board has been priding itself on its reports which have helped the world to gain a greater understanding of the crisis playing out in Southern Cameroons. It hails its reporters who have also helped the readers to have a broader perspective of the political situation in Cameroon.

The Board wishes to thank its readers who have continued to trust Southern Cameroon’s leading news platform. It is therefore using this opportunity to state that its reporters are willing to provide more quality information to the readers.    However, due to the changing global financial context, the Board is urging its readers to play a significant role in the financing of the news organization.  It is therefore calling on its faithful readers to make whatever financial contribution they can to ensure they get the latest developments in their native Southern Cameroons, in particular, and Cameroon in general.

Bank transaction: Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Banking IBAN: GB51 BARC 2049 1103 9130 15

Swift BIC BARC GB22XX

SORT CODE 20-49-11, ACCOUNT NUMBER – 03913015 Barclay PLC, UK

The Board looks forward to hearing from the readers.

Signed by the Group Chairman on behalf of the Board of Directors

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Email: soteragbawebai@gmail.com