The opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), destabilised by the mass exodus of its militants, most of whom have become the target of separatist militias, is divided over its participation in the local elections of 9 February.

With close to 40 members held hostage and three cadres’ residences torched, the SDF is suffering the full brunt of reprisals by armed militias operating in English-speaking regions. These militias continue to target those participating in the electoral process, initiated by President Paul Biya at the end of 2019. In the run-up to the February legislative and municipal elections, the SDF’s electoral strategy is causing divisions within the party.

In the North-West and South-West regions, strongholds of the SDF, members of the leading opposition party (in terms of the number of members elected to parliament) are being targeted by the militias, who have openly called for their “neutralisation” since the publication of the candidate lists, which are now closed. As a sign of the extent of the danger, John Fru Ndi, president of the SDF, was forced to abandon his residence in Bamenda and take refuge in Yaoundé “because of numerous death threats”.

While Biya’s historic challenger has often claimed he would be “ready to die in Bamenda if need be”, the aftermath of his last abduction in late June, which forces him to travel regularly to the United States for treatment, seems to have changed his mind.

Fear of further defeat

Within the SDF, the issue of participation in the February local elections is divisive. A fringe of the party, mostly comprising the remaining grassroots in the English-speaking regions, openly opposes involvement in the process. For them, the wounds the last presidential election — in which the SDF conceded a historic defeat by finishing fourth, a first since its creation in 1990 — are raw, and fears of a new setback are uppermost in their minds.

Before leaving Cameroon on 11 January, Fru Ndi reaffirmed his party would take part in the elections.

“The SDF has never had an easy election in Cameroon. We have even often had to win elections, and then we were beaten up and had our victory stolen. But we are competing because we want to let the world know that we are ready for these elections,” he told the press.

Differing opinions

According to internal sources, the SDF’s participation in the elections is a foregone conclusion, although Fru Ndi does not rule out a possible withdrawal from the race.

“If these elections are not held in safe conditions, we will cancel our participation,” he said. “We have until February to see what the situation is on the ground and draw conclusions,” said Joshua Osih, who took the reins of the party in the absence of the chairman.

Several withdrawals

However, on the ground, supporters of the boycott have already thrown in the towel. In Bamenda, Batibo, Bafut, and Bali, announcements of the withdrawal of the SDF candidates have been made one after the other and have provoked numerous comments.

Awabeng Daniel Babila, a former candidate for municipal elections in Bali, chose to resign, saying, “I have lost loved ones in this crisis. I was advised not to run, which I did. I am no longer a member of the SDF nor of any political party.”

These cascading withdrawals could seriously threaten the SDF’s chances — already weakened — in the February elections. Unlike the 2013 local elections, in which the party presented 103 candidates, only 61 candidates were registered for the upcoming polls.

Source: The Africa Report

Cameroon on Feb. 9 will host double elections, legislative and municipal, despite worrying socio-political crisis and insecurity in the English-speaking northwestern and southwestern regions of the country. 

Armed separatist groups have been threatening security in this part of the country for more than three years. A few weeks before the legislative and municipal elections, they are trying to ban people from casting their votes.

“People have to visit the southwest and go down to the fields in the northwest to see if, in a context of war, we can have free and fair elections. I am really going to say no, but I would like someone to prove me wrong,” said Njong Evaristus Ndim, deputy member of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF).

In the country’s northwestern regions, the offices of the Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), in charge of the country’s elections, are not functional, he told Anadolu Agency.

“Prove to me that you can also visit the electoral offices of ELECAM and how functional they are. Apart from Bamenda, the capital of this region, the other offices are not functional. Everyone is on the run. I am a member of the parliament for Boyo in the northwest, but I am in Yaounde. I can’t even get into my riding,” Evaristus Ndim added.

He also said his fellow MPs from the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, “who are supposed to be privileged”, are also unable to reach the areas they are supposed to represent in the conflict zones.

“Several members of our party have been and are being kidnapped in various constituencies. Police stations should be set up in different localities. And yet there are not many of them. Even the agents in charge of organizing these elections are wondering how they will set up the ballot boxes with the armed conflict. But also how will they get closer to the people so that they will have the opportunity to vote?” decried Evaristus Ndim.

According to him, with the level of insecurity, people will be forced to go only to localities with police stations and vote for representatives they do not even know.

“Is this justice? Local people are supposed to vote for those they know, believe in and expect for the development of their aspirations. But in reality, local people are afraid, threatened and lack confidence because the government fails to guarantee their safety. Meanwhile, the armed groups forbid them to take part in voting. How are these people supposed to go and vote? And if they don’t, who will be their local leaders?” asked the SDF representative.  

Real dialogue needed before elections

He does not understand why the head of the country decided to give priority to the organization of these elections instead of bringing peace first.

“Peace has not yet been established in the two English-speaking regions, it is a fact,” said Joseph Mbah Ndam, a SDF deputy in the northwest.

“We have submitted our voters’ lists to demonstrate the impossibility for these elections to take place in this context,” he added.

He also marked a factor that hinders the upcoming elections to be held.

“ELECAM asked us to put representatives at the police stations and we did not do so. We can’t do it, because everyone has left the districts. So, those are the peculiarities of the situation. How are the elections going to take place when we can’t put these officers?” asked Mbah Ndam.

But he hopes that the president of the country will allow the elections to take place freely and safely.

“But if, in the end, the pressure is not changed from what we know now, the elections will of course be impossible,” he said.

Evaristus Ndim also wondered how he and voters without protection are supposed to move for election campaigns and voting. 

He said: “The barrel of the gun can never bring total peace. What Cameroonians need the most is a real dialogue before addressing the issue of elections”.

Wanlo John Chiamua, a member of the parliament from CPDM, said more optimistically that he trusts the government, and believes it will take the necessary measures for civilians.

“Security arrangements have been made to ensure that, throughout the country, all our citizens can exercise their right to vote. If necessary, they will be reinforced,” said Cameroonian President Paul Biya in his end-of-year speech on Dec. 31. This was also confirmed on Monday by Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji at a meeting of governors dedicated to the upcoming elections.

Atanga Nji spoke from Yaounde and he would not dare to venture into conflict zones such as the city of Bamenda without a military escort, said Evaristus Ndim, being skeptical about the security arrangements.

He also reminded the multiple attacks on the governor of the northwest during his displacement in spite of the armored vehicles and all the security protocol.

Culled from aa.com

As election day approaches and doubts about the holding of the election in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon grow, ruling party (CPDM) officials are now financing terrorist groups to intimidate civilians in the English-speaking parts of the country.

According to a source close to the CPDM, the government party that is responsible for the corruption in country, government officials are paying young hungry men to intimidate the population in the hope that they will go out and vote or they will be seen as supporters of the rebellion.

The tactics vary from town to town and from the above banner, it is clear that the government is paying some ghost workers to put up those banners which are designed to intimidate Amba fighters .

The government has been working hard to turn tables on the fighters by creating parallel groups that do pose as Amba fighters.

Some of the groups set up by the Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, have been kidnapping civilians and asking for huge ransom.

In certain cases, government-created groups have been working closely with government troops and they have been razing villages; a strategy aimed at pushing the innocent population onto withdrawing its support of the genuine Amba fighters who have proven, on many occasions, that they are working for the population.

Last week, government forces went on a home destruction spree in the northwest region, an initiative that has left many old people homeless and this exposes the vulnerable to the elements, especially as harmattan is sweeping across the two English-speaking regions of the country at this time of the year.

But the killing- and home-burning sprees are not helping government efforts as they are radicalizing many in the region and uniting the Diaspora that is hell-bent on bringing about genuine democratic change in Cameroon.

The Yaounde government has decided to organize twin elections in February 2020 in Cameroon against the advice of the international community that has clearly pointed out that elections cannot be held in the two English-speaking regions of the country because of the government-sponsored and government-approved violence that has left more than 5,000 people dead.

From October 2016 when the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions started, some 270 villages have been burnt down, with the old and mentally ill being some of the victims of the government’s disproportionate use of force to quell a rebellion that started as protests by teachers, students and lawyers.

The government’s mismanagement of the situation has radicalized almost 90% of Southern Cameroonians and united the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora which has the wherewithal to bring the country’s economy to its knees.

Over the last three years, many state-owned corporations in the two English-speaking regions of the country have gone under, as Amba fighters have constituted a real threat to workers of these corporations.

CDC, PAMOL and SONARA have all run into massive storms which have put them out of business.

PAMOL was a secure revenue stream for the corrupt and inefficient Yaounde government while the CDC and PAMOL offered government officials the opportunity to have their girlfriends and relatives recruited at senior levels in corporations that have been white elephant projects for years.

Though located in the country’s southwest region, SONARA which is the country’s lone refinery, has been predominantly Francophone; something that has caused huge and intense friction between the government and the English-speaking minority.

As the government insists on using violence to address the issues raised by the country’s English-speaking minority, the country’s economy has continued its relentless march towards the bottom of the abyss.

More than 2 million English-speaking Cameroonians have been displaced, with some 500,000 living in Nigeria where they are living rough.

After more than three years, it is clear that the government’s military violence is not the right medication for a problem many around the world hold that a genuine and inclusive dialogue could deliver better results than what government atrocities have achieved in three years.

In October 2019, the government demonstrated its ineptitude and dishonesty when it hastily organized a major national dialogue that was major just in name.

To hoodwink the international community into believing that the so-called dialogue was inclusive, the government invented its own Diaspora which comprised desperate and cash-strapped individuals.

The real Diaspora was never invited and even when the government advised that members of the real Diaspora could attend, the plan was to arrest them when they arrived Cameroon; a plan that failed woefully as it was leaked by some French-speaking Cameroonians who are also against the corrupt government.

It should be mentioned at this juncture that many of the resolutions and recommendations of the so-called major national dialogue were already known as there were strict instructions that discussions at the forum must only be limited to the country’s president’s prescription.

A source close to the (dis)Unity Palace, the name of the country’s presidency, has revealed that the government is very concerned about the situation in the two English-speaking regions of the country, as it has not been able to roll back the rebellion after three years.

The source, which elected anonymity, advised that if the country’s Diaspora could be more united, the government would yield to its demands.

It added that if the Diaspora’s fundraising capacity had remained at the 2017 and 2018 levels, the crumbling government would have yielded to the pressure.

The source called on the Cameroon Concord News Group to urge all the factions to unite in order to bring pressure to bear on the government.

It stressed that the Yaounde government trembles each time an American official dwells on government atrocities and the need for an inclusive dialogue.

The source indicated that increasing divisions within the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora are given the beleaguered government a lot of hope that it could break the back of the rebellion sooner rather than later.

The government’s recent display of force by sending over a thousand forces of lawless(ness) and (dis)order to the region is designed to intimidate Amba fighters and to prove to the world that it is capable of organizing elections across the entire country, including in the restive anglophone regions.

Despite the extreme brutality unleashed by the government on the civilian population, a huge majority of Southern Cameroonians still stand solidly behind their fighters who have given the government’s sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy soldiers a run for their money.

With the government still counting on military violence as a cure for the crisis and Amba fighters holding that independence is the answer, the days ahead are really bleak and many more lives are clearly on the line.

The international community has to be more aggressive in its efforts to find a long-lasting solution to the genocide playing out in Cameroon.

The positions of the warring parties are clear and only a strong third party like the United Nations or United States can truly engineer a satisfactory solution, failure of which, banners like the one above will continue to pop up.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom and Kingsley Betek in Cameroon

Members of a French parliamentary delegation that traveled to Cameroon on January 14, 2020 to seek the truth and get a feel of the reality on the crisis in Southern Cameroons have reportedly come to the end of their stay in the country.

The MPs Rodrigue Kokouendo from Seine-et-Marne who also moonlights as the Vice-president of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the French National Assembly was in Yaoundé with Didier Quentin, MP for Charente-Maritime.  

The French parliamentarians revealed earlier today that they were sent on a mission by the president of the foreign affairs committee to Cameroon to get an understanding of the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

Both men hinted that they met officials of the Biya Francophone regime, leaders of French Cameroun political parties represented in the National Assembly, civil society actors and members of the clergy.

“We came to Cameroon to inquire about the situation in order to report to our colleagues in the national assembly,” said MP Rodrigue Kokouendo.

“The fact of having come to the field gives us a lot of very useful information,” added Didier Quentin.

Ever since the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya declared war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, the fighting has left more than 20,500 dead and more than 530,000 displaced, according to NGOs and the Ambazonia Interim Government.

The Biya regime has rejected these figures claiming that human rights groups are swelling them up to get more help and precipitate foreign armed intervention in Cameroon.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Barely 25 days to the February 9 Legislative and Municipal elections, the Board Chair of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, Enow Abrams Egbe, says almost all the materials required for the polls are in place.

The ELECAM boss was speaking in Yaoundé Friday, January 10, during a working visit to the National Printing Press, the Military Air Base N° 101, and other institutions involved in the production of electoral materials. He was there to assess the progress of work done by the Commission in place.

The Chairperson of ELE- CAM was accompanied by the Director General of ELECAM, Board Members and other officials. “We are on a tour to evaluate the performance of the Director General and his team in terms of material preparations and we are very pleased that, at this moment, the work is well done. We have less than 28 days to go for elections and we can comfortably say now loud and clear that Elections will effectively take place on February 9 and all the polling stations will be furnished with all their electoral materials,” he said.

He equally lauded the Director General of ELECAM, Erik Essousse and his team, for a great job, while urging them to remain vigilant and concentrated to make sure that everything moves in the right direction. Talking about the electoral materials already in place and the various units, during the tour, the ELECAM Board Chair cited transparent ballot boxes, voters’ cards, polling materials, among other things.

The groups concerned are work throughout the day to ensure that all the electoral materials are de- livered to ELECAM latest January 25. SOPECAM has the contract to produce all the electoral materials for the Legislative and Council elections of five political parties. The materials include ballot papers and campaign materials.

The political parties include: the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM; Social Democratic Front, SDF; National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP; Alliance for Democracy and Development, ADD; and Cameroon National Salvation Front, CNSF.

The Director of the Production Department of SOPECAM said all the materials for the election of Members of the National Assembly have been produced and delivered to Elections Cameroon. The department, he said, was finalising those of the Municipal Councillors.

At the National Printing Press, work is almost done and sealed. The Director of the institution disclosed that, for the moment, they have the contract with ELECAM to produce envelopes for the election of Municipal Councillors. The different units are lodged in canopies that have been set up for the purpose of the elections. When each of the institutions finish producing the electoral materials, they are immediately handed to ELECAM teams that carry out controls to ascertain quality and quantity before the materials are transported to the Yaoundé 101 Airbase for deployment to the field.

Despite the progress made in the production of electoral materials, uncertainty still looms in the Northwest and Southwest Regions as kidnappings of opposition political party officials in recent week has been surging. There have been repeated threats from separatist fighters that elections will not hold in the Anglophone Regions in the heat of a war. But Government has insisted that the security of the electorates in guaranteed with the deployment of over 700 gendarmerie officers in the two Regions.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

In the last week of 2019, Cameroon’s parliament approved a bill that will grant “special status” to the country’s two Anglophone regions. This initiative was a result of the Grand National Dialogue that the government convened in October purportedly to resolve the war of secession that has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced over half a million since its outbreak in 2017.

The government says that awarding “special status” to the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions will give Cameroon’s Anglophone minority greater autonomy over local affairs and settle historical grievances. According to the administration of President Paul Biya, this will mean secessionist forces will no longer have a reason to fight.

For their part, separatists have roundly rejected the measure as illegitimate. This is at least in part due to the fact it emerged out of a Grand National Dialogue that few outside of the ruling CPDM party regarded as a genuine effort to end the conflict. All secessionist factions as well much of civil society boycotted the talks, while opposition politicians that did attend, such as Akere Muna, walked out in protest over the lack of discussion on controversial topics such as the form of the state.

How special is special?

Nonetheless, it is worth examining the contents of the “special status” on its own merits.

To begin with, there is everything that will not change under the bill. For instance, the president will still appoint governors – who can come from outside the region and be Francophone – to manage state policy at the regional level. The central government in Yaoundé will still select Divisional Officers to govern districts. Meanwhile, the national government will retain significant control over local government resources, including the power to seize council-owned land “where national defense or public order requirements dictate”.

The bill also continues the government’s preference for establishing national committees to discuss contentious issues such as decentralisation and local finance, an approach that has led to little change over several years.

What will change?

Perhaps most significantly, the bill will establish various indirectly-elected organs with semi-administrative responsibilities. Each region will have a new bicameral Regional Assembly made up a House of Chiefs composed of 20 traditional leaders and a House of Regional Representatives composed of 70 members. The latter will be selected by municipal councils, but it is not specified how the chiefs will be chosen. The two Anglophone regions will also institute a new Regional Executive Council composed of eight members to be selected by regional councils. What powers the Regional Assembly and Regional Executive Council will have, however, remains unclear. In many cases, it is likely their responsibilities will largely be determined by laws implemented in Yaoundé.

The bill also gives mayors additional powers regarding educational and medical institutions in their municipalities, but it does not change the underlying governance structure that has allowed Yaoundé to manage the affairs of local municipalities for decades.

Continuing the war

Although the bill has been passed, the government has not yet provided a timeline for its implementation. This is significant given that it is renowned for taking an extraordinarily long time to implement initiatives. At the moment, the government is also focusing much of its attention and resources on the legislative and municipal elections scheduled for early-February.

In the meantime, it is notable that its combative military operations have continued. On New Year’s Day, for example, the military burnt down a village in the division of Lebialem. It has also been detaining large numbers of young men in urban areas of the Southwest region. In many instances, detainees have been taken to a secret detention facility in Buea and subjected to severe torture until their families pay a bribe to get them released. In his New Year’s address, President Biya reiterated a hardline message by promising that the military would carry out its duty “without weakness”, while there have been continuous deployments of military personnel to the two Anglophone regions in recent weeks.

The secessionists, who are internally extremely divided, have maintained unity in declaring the “special status” as illegitimate. They have also denounced the upcoming legislative and municipal elections and have said that they will use force to prevent them from taking place in the two English-speaking regions. They have acted upon this by burning down the homes of two parliamentarians and kidnapping more than twenty politicians of the opposition SDF party, threatening to kill them if they do not disavow their party allegiance. They also announced a planned five-day lockdown around the elections to prevent people from voting.

All of these events come as the so-called Swiss Process, aimed at resolving the conflict through dialogue, appears to have reached a stalemate. The Cameroonian government insists the “special status” initiative is sufficient to address the grievances of the Anglophone population, while secessionist leaders have not met since autumn 2019. There has been intense infighting among separatist factions, including a recent mutiny that resulted in a commander by the name of “General Divine” being killed by his own fighters. While some fighters remain adamant their struggle will lead to independence, others have given up on it entirely.

In all likelihood, this means that the two sides will continue to fight whilst wreaking havoc on civilians in the two Anglophone regions. The special status bill will do little to change this.

Source: African Arguments.Org