Last year, the U.S. announced that it was severing trade ties with Cameroon over allegations of human rights abuses in the West African country.

It was the first time the six-decade-long relationship between the two countries had been threatened. But the Americans were explicit in communicating their concerns.

The US said it was unhappy with reports of torture and extrajudicial killings of citizens by the country’s military as reasons for removing Cameroon from the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

What the US was referring to was the seemingly uncontrollable sporadic spates of violence that have plagued Cameroon’s northwestern and southwestern regions for decades.

These parts of Cameroon are populated by English speakers although the majority of Cameroonians are Francophone.

Anglophone Cameroon has for years struggled for better representation in government and civil service. The struggle has taken turns in various degrees between simple protests to separatist insurgency.

Since the 1970s Anglophone Cameroon has asked for various kinds of autonomy from language to outright independence.

President Paul Biya, Cameroon’s 86-year-old leader who has had his job since 1982, is a southerner whose predispositions on the matter are quite well-known.

The unrest is thus about Cameroon’s failure to form a national identity, or quite simply, a no-nonsense hammering of English speakers into line.

But in fairness, that is just half of the story. After World War I, Cameroon, then a German colony along with other territories in central Africa, were shared among the British and the French.

When French-controlled Cameroon gained independence in 1960, British-controlled Cameroon united with the other half after a referendum in 1961.

Referenda of such nature were a common arbitration tactic by Western colonizers to decide the matter of nationhood for newly-independent states in Africa.

But while those in the northernmost parts of British Cameroon wanted to join Nigeria, Cameroon’s modern-day border-neighbour, those in the south of British Cameroon voted overwhelmingly to join French-Cameroon.

But a federal arrangement of government meant that English-speakers had some control over some immediate aspects of their identity, including but not limited to language.

After another referendum in 1972 that pitched federal governance against unitarian governance, the majority of Cameroonians chose the latter, setting the stage for the nature of the problem these days.

The northwestern city of Bamenda has in recent years been the battleground of forces of the state against armed separatists.

In 2018, videos and photos of government forces torturing and burning building in Bamenda made their way to the internet. The BBC reported that the Cameroonian government had tried to prevent the world from knowing about the brutalities.

In the last few years alone, over half a million people have had to flee their homes for safety even as the UN also reports that thousands, mostly English-speaking civilians have died too.

Currently, there is no promise of a lasting solution and President Biya has not stated intentions of stepping down even after his current term expires in 2025.

Culled from Face2FaceAfrica

Vote counting in Cameroon’s local and parliamentary elections on Sunday has been marred by violence and opposition claims of fraud committed by the ruling party.  Opposition leaders accuse the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement of ballot stuffing, which it denies. 

Opposition candidates and officials of Cameroon’s elections management body, ELECAM, argued at a polling station Monday in the southwestern town of Limbe.

As vote counting continued in Sunday’s local and parliamentary elections, some parts of Cameroon saw protests sparked by allegations of fraud.

Fritz Ngeka Etoke is an opposition Social Democratic Front candidate for parliament.

He accuses President Paul Biya‘s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party and election officials of rigging the vote.

“It is a shame.  The international community should see,” he said. “We caught one lady with about 500 CPDM ballot papers.  This is one case; the president of a polling station has stuffed the box.  Is it not a pity?”

Etoke alleged the CPDM also declared itself the winner in English-speaking villages where civilians fled fighting between the military and rebels, despite no one voting.

Local ruling party officials dismissed the fraud allegations as unfounded.

The government, however, acknowledged fraud allegations and election disputes in almost every town where the opposition fielded a candidate.

Disgruntled opposition supporters blocked traffic in several western towns, and some protests against the alleged fraud turned violent.

The governor of the French-speaking western region, Augustine Awa Fonka, says clashes in one village left one man dead and several wounded.

He would not identify the man or give details on how he was killed but, called for a return to peace.

“There is no point for people coming out, blocking the roads, quarreling, fighting,” he said.  “Violent acts here and there are unnecessary, so I am calling on the population to be calm, to be vigilant.  They should avoid provocations.  If you do not succeed today, it is not the end of the world.  You prepare for the next elections.  I think at this point in time, we badly need peace.”

The government deployed the military to English-speaking towns to protect voters from insurgents who had vowed to disrupt the polls.

But some villagers who talked to reporters accused the military of using the deployment to have troops cast multiple votes for the ruling party.

The minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, rejected the claims.  He insists the polls were fair and successful, despite what he described as a few challenges.

“All went well in the 24,988 polling stations,” he said. “Any form of challenge to the verdict of the polls other than the constitutional legal means will not be tolerated,” he said.

The ruling CPDM party is calling on its supporters and all Cameroonians to wait calmly for official election results.

Source: VOA

The vote count in Cameroon continues after Sunday’s parliamentary and municipal elections, marred by the boycott in the central African country’s two English-speaking regions.

Several cases of fraud have been reported by observers and political parties.

“The security forces arrested a lady at a polling station in Douala with around 40 voter ID cards in her possession. She is being interrogated, “Erik Essousse, director-general of Elections Cameroon (Elecam), told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

He added that the head of a polling station in Kumba, Southwest Region, was arrested due to alleged fraud.

National and international observers said that several people did not take part in the elections, either because of the Anglophone crisis or out of respect for the boycott called by opposition leader Maurice Kamto.

In the English-speaking regions, clashes took place between security forces and separatist groups, who also called for a boycott.

“I believe that the voter turnout is far below that of the presidential election last October,” said Maxi Mbe Ngo, president of the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC).

After casting his vote in the capital Yaounde, Cameroonian President Paul Biya called on the citizens to fulfill their civic duty by going to vote, “contrary to the calls for the boycott of certain small political parties.”

The results of the municipal elections will be declared three days after the elections, while the results of parliamentary polls will be announced by the Constitutional Court within 20 days. 

Grievances

Cameroon has been marred by protests since 2016, with residents in English-speaking regions saying they have been marginalized for decades by the central government and the French-speaking majority.

The protesters are calling for a return to federalism or independence of English-speaking Cameroon.

Reports claim that hundreds have since been killed and several thousand displaced since clashes erupted roughly three years ago.

A national dialogue took place last year that focused on the grievances of the English-speaking populations of the Northwest and Southwest regions of the Central African country.

In Nov. 2019, Kamto called for a boycott of the country’s legislative and municipal elections. He said the country is not ready for elections.

The elections had been postponed twice due to growing threats from armed separatists in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Brute force has been the main weapon of the regime in Yaoundé as it has sought to crush growing Southern Cameroons uprising and quest for an independent state, killing thousands of people including women and children and torturing hundreds more. But the entire Cameroon nation has also been besieged by relentless propaganda.

In a political campaign period that has seen at least 98 die and escalating violence in all of Southern Cameroons, state radio and television including private media organizations owned by regime cronies have been blaring out songs exalting the 86 year old President Biya as the father of the nation with some anointing him president for all eternity.

The ruling CPDM crime syndicate supports President Paul Biya, one of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders, who has ruled with a steely fist for 37 of his 86 years. Sunday’s parliamentary and local council elections took place for the first time in seven years, after two postponements.

Despite the delays, campaigning was low key and the few banners put up in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé by the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates were barely more numerous than posters calling on people to pick up their litter.

The numerous baseball caps, T-shirts and flags adorned with President Biya’s face were difficult to find this time around as the “river of money” in Southern Cameroons has gone dry. CDC, PAMOL and SONARA are all facing problems and these are corporations that have stood the government in good stead over the last fifty years.  

A state television interview showed Biya making a mockery of major opposition parties that boycotted the poll while a handful of regime supporters chanted that they would shed blood for their president.

But as President Biya’s use of force has failed to crush the Southern Cameroons revolution, now in its fourth year, propaganda has become a key element of the regime’s efforts to rally support.

The Biya regime propaganda is relentless and has successfully hijacked the idea of national identity and is pushing divisions. Yaounde’s official rhetoric is now tribal and a cream of French Cameroun political elites are blaming the Southern Cameroons diaspora and Ambazonia Self Defense groups for the violence.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo crude misinformation has so far been surprisingly effective because there is no independent media in both French and Southern Cameroons. Correspondingly, reporting is difficult and news comes mainly from witnesses and amateur film footage.

The Biya regime and its French Cameroun opponents have become increasingly polarised, raising the spectre of clashes soonest in French Cameroun where tribal tensions are rising amid claims that Bamilekes are being targeted by the country’s secret service.

The voting in Southern Cameroons appeared to have been done by members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) deployed to the territory now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The whole process was teleguided to guarantee a crushing victory for the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement which in the outgoing parliament had 148 out of 180 seats.

There is one small thing, small but great and it is that even in Yaoundé, enthusiasm for Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate has now been subdued, with no crowds running behind Biya anymore.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government in exile on Sunday hailed the huge success in the lockdown against French Cameroun teleguided elections in the territory.

Addressing a cream of Southern Cameroonian elites in Holland, Vice President Dabney Yerima declared “Glory and immortality for our Ambazonian martyr and jailed leaders” after reading aloud a report about the complete boycott of the so-called twin poll in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon government sources speaking on condition of anonymity indicated that Biya may soon be forced to change his Anglophone policy or pushed out of power in Yaoundé.

Vice President Dabney Yerima also spoke of a new plan to map a new Ambazonia Interim Government strategy backed by key Southern Cameroons think tanks in Europe, South Africa and the United States. A move that will definitely signal an escalation in self defense operations against the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army.

Comrade Yerima revealed that prior to the French Cameroun elections, pro Yaoundé militias operating in Southern Cameroons and elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) stepped up attacks against innocent Southern Cameroons civilians with troops loyal to the Biya regime firing French-designed rockets from Mbouda in East Cameroun into the Mezam County.

The Southern Cameroons second-in-command condemned Prime Minister Dion Ngute for holding a campaign rally in La Republique du Cameroun’s self-designated security zone in Buea.

Sunday’s session of the “Ambazonia Interim Government Briefing” was devoted mainly to the elections in Ground Zero.   Vice President Dabney Yerima noted that the success of the boycott will begin a new process to tackle the crucial task of restoring unity to the many Southern Cameroons factions.

Yerima furthered that the Ambazonia leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe long agreed to a political and organizational reforms to cement the unity drive among all Southern Cameroons groups.

Amba News Update:

The Yaounde-organized elections flopped. Here are the statistics from a loyal ELECAM official:

1. 98% of Rural Ambazonia DID NOT Participate

2. 90% of Urban Ambazonia DID NOT Participate.

This gives a boycott rate of 98.45%; meaning there was a miserable 1.55% turnout.

Now, out of the 1.55%, a majority was soldiers and French Cameroun civilians paid and ferried across the Mungo

Cameroon Concord News Update

• Buea is a graveyard. The silence is deafening. The churches and so called polling stations were empty. No elections whatsoever.

• Kumba is a Ghost town. Only SDO out voting. Early morning gunshots from self-defence forces.

• Mamfe Extremely Quiet. Only Mayor and SDO with foreign occupiers out.

• Victoria is deadly silent. No movement.

• Muyuka is a no go area.

 Scandy Media Elections boycott updates:

1. Gunshots in Kumba, Buea, Alakuka, Mbengwi, Rendez Vous, Kumbo,etc The case of Mbengwi saw a police officer shot but rushed to the hospital.

2. Mile 7 & 8 Mankon started as early as 3 am as well as Buea 2 am : Prisoners are transported in Buea to go and vote to deceive the world :

3: Bafut had the post office visited by the consortium of fire 🔥 simply because voting materials were hidden inside the building

4: Muyuka is not left out as joint forces in collaboration with most barracks and their Generals fires gunshots to chase those ferried from French Cameroun to cast votes:

5: In Mbah – Kumbo Commander Capo of Bui and his boys transported, mounted then fired explosives that echoed all over Kumbo :

6: Victoria started in a good footing with almost everywhere shutdown this morning: We are told some CPDM enablers are in a conclave planning to open at least 4 polling stations with some few at the barracks but the feedback so far is positive

7: Most polling stations have been hit and boxes destroyed by Bui warriors causing the regime to dispatch at least 4 armored cars that are now hiding their election officers in neighborhoods  around Nji

By Asu Isong in London

Separatist militias have stepped up attacks and abductions in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions ahead of parliamentary and council elections likely to hand a sweeping victory to the party that has ruled the central African nation since 1985.

Anglophone armed groups last month called for a lock-down of the Southwest and Northwest regions and militants have targeted electoral staff and abducted at least 40 candidates running for parliamentary and municipal posts in polls on Sunday. Opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who was jailed for eight months last year, has withdrawn his party from the vote, saying it won’t be credible.

As many as 3,000 civilians are estimated to have died and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes since the Anglophone revolt erupted late 2016 following a heavy-handed government crackdown on protests against the dominance of the French language in schools and courts. Cameroon is divided in 10 semi-autonomous regions and the English-speaking minority accounts for about a fifth of the population.

The ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement already holds 148 out of 180 seats in the National Assembly and is running unchallenged in about 20% of all races, according to the International Crisis Group. Sunday’s vote will almost certainly strengthen the grip of President Paul Biya over state institutions, ICG Central Africa Director Richard Moncrieff said by phone from Nairobi.

Special Status

Africa’s second-longest serving head of state, Biya, who turns 87 next week, has been accused of allowing the crisis to spiral out of control by ignoring it in its early stages. Last year, he initiated a national dialogue that led to a bill granting the Anglophone regions special status, which means their assemblies are to be consulted by the central government over educational policy as well as the application of common law.

Yet most separatist leaders were either in prison or abroad when the dialogue started in September, fueling widespread skepticism about its purpose.

“For the special status given to the Anglophones to come into force, elections must take place,” said Fuh Calistus Gentry, a ruling-party member.

The decision to grant greater autonomy to the Anglophone regions won’t have much of an impact if the population is too scared to vote, said Kah Walla, head of the opposition Cameroon People’s Party.

“Those to be elected in parliament and in the councils will have very little powers in the Northwest and Southwest regions because they will have very little legitimacy,” Kalla said.

Oil-dependent Cameroon is a key hub in central Africa, with roads and ports that are vital for landlocked neighbors including Chad and Central African Republic. The revolt has also slashed output of palm oil and other agricultural export crops, which are mainly grown in the Southwest and Northwest.

The government has postponed the vote twice since September 2018, citing logistical and security concerns. Voter turnout during 2018 presidential elections was as low as 5% in the Northwest region, compared to 53% in the rest of the country. To provide better security, the government this month deployed additional troops in the restive regions and grouped voting centers together.

Biya’s decision to push ahead with the elections appears to be motivated by a desire to “present some form of normality” as the U.S. and the African Union have increased pressure on his government to solve the crisis, Moncrieff said.

“Instead, the vote risks reinforcing the separatists’ argument that they’re being marginalized,” he said.

The U.S. cut $17 million in military aid to Cameroon last year and said in December it planned to terminate the government’s eligibility for trade preference benefits due to reports of “persistent human-rights violations” by security forces. About 300 U.S. troops are stationed in the country to monitor Islamist militant insurgencies in the region.

Source: Bloomberg