Politics

6, July 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Biya implementing an aggressive and destructive policy ⁰

President Biya is implementing an aggressive and destructive policy in Southern Cameroons. The 85 year old dictator has precipitated an armed conflict against the English speaking community of the country which is getting worse. He is pushing the Francophone dominated army against Southern Cameroonians and he is opening and maintaining military bases in Southern Cameroons and claiming that he is fighting separatists.

Senior political commentators have recently opined that Biya has smashed the 1961 Foumban agreement with West Cameroon. And he is making matters worse because of his excessive use of force. The French government of President Macron is supporting Biya in his slaughter in Ambazonia. Correspondingly, the special relationship between Biya and Buhari has massively supported the expansion of French Secret Service operations inside Nigeria. On the top of this, Biya does not have any serious plans for solving the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

A prominent traditional ruler from the Manyu constituency who spoke to Cameroon Intelligence Report but sued for anonymity said Biya is a clown with guns in his hands. And that is why CPDM militants are now realizing that Biya is a political disaster that has been around for 35 years.

Soon and very soon there is going to be a massive anti Biya movement in French Cameroun. Our chief political editor noted that Biya is dangerous. He is dangerous to the One and Indivisible Cameroon. He is dangerous to the African Union. He is dangerous to his own country-French Cameroun and he is dangerous to the world.

By Chi Prudence Asong

5, July 2018

Nigeria: Buhari’s party splits ahead of 2019 presidential elections ⁰

Nigeria’s ruling party has split after a faction declared that it no longer supports the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, threatening his hopes of a securing a second term in an election due early next year.

A group of politicians who were part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) told a news conference in Abuja late on Wednesday they had formed a new faction, led by former Buhari ally Buba Galadima and called Reformed-All Progressives Congress (R-APC).

“The APC has run a rudderless, inept and incompetent government that has failed to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people,” R-APC national chairman Galadima said.

He said the faction, described as the authentic voice of the APC, has representatives in all Nigeria’s local government wards and states.

Coalition politics

Rifts within the APC could split support for Buhari within powerful patronage networks and among voters ahead of an election expected to be held in February.

Buhari, a 75-year-old former military ruler, said in April that he would seek another term. His candidacy depends on party approval, though that is usually seen as a formality for the incumbent.

Nigeria’s political parties must select their candidates for the election between Aug. 18 and Oct. 7.

Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and richest economy. It plays a key role in the regional fight against Islamist militants.

Galadima, who was a prominent figure in Buhari’s former CPC party and a founding member of the APC, said the R-APC would “work with like-minded political parties and groups to offer Nigeria qualitative good governance in 2019”.

Fissures within the APC, a broad coalition formed to oust Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan rather than pursue a political ideology, have come to the fore in recent months.

Atiku Abubakar, a former Nigerian vice president, has been the most high profile figure to leave the party. Abubakar told Reuters in May that he hopes to be the main opposition party’s presidential candidate.

The split comes just over a week after the APC held its convention during which party executives were appointed, including a new national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.

“For us, everybody is important, everybody matters. We want to run an inclusive party,” said Oshiomhole in an emailed statement on Thursday.

Antony Goldman, of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said Buhari had been able to defeat Jonathan in the 2015 election by drawing on sentiment among the former president’s opponents.

“There are various groups trying to do the same now, but they have yet to produce a candidate around whom that sentiment can coalesce and present a genuine challenge,” he said.

Source: Reuters

5, July 2018

Cameroon was never ONE: The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE ⁰

A Referendum is now the only solution to the Anglophone crisis. To Biya and his sycophants who claim “an overwhelming majority” of Anglophones want to remain in bondage and servitude in Cameroon; to Anglophone regime apologists and fifth columnists who benefit from the crumbs served by their paymaster and see nothing wrong with the genocide against their own people; to those ass-kissing Anglophones who blame the Diaspora for inciting and financing the struggle; and to all those who believe Ambazonia independence is non-negotiable; here is my challenge. stop the senseless mayhem and bloodbath and invite the UN to come in and organize a referendum as was the case in 1961. Only Anglophones will be allowed to vote as was the case in 1961 and voting will take place ONLY in Anglophone Cameroon as was the case in 1961 and registration will be done at the village level. The results will be binding on all stakeholders. Until that happens, for “an overwhelming majority” of Anglophones, it is now freedom or death…the struggle continues

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

4, July 2018

Bundes: Merkel reaches deal with rebellious Interior Minister ⁰

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her rebellious interior minister have reached a compromise on a refugee dispute that threatened to disintegrate her coalition government.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), told reporters after five hours of talks on Monday that he would maintain his post, saving Germany’s fragile government coalition.

He had threatened on Sunday to resign if he did not reach a deal with Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) on refugees.

“After intensive discussions between the CDU and CSU, we have reached an agreement on how we can in future prevent illegal immigration on the border between Germany and Austria,” Seehofer said late on Monday evening as he left the CDU’s Berlin headquarters.

Under the compromise, the refugees who have already applied for asylum in other European Union countries will be held in transit centers on the border while Germany negotiates bilateral deals for their return.

Merkel sounded pleased with the compromise.

“The spirit of partnership in the European Union is preserved and at the same time, an important step to order [has been taken],” the German chancellor said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is given her handbag by her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, as she arrives for a parliamentary group meeting of the conservative CDU/CSU union at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in Berlin, on July 2, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Merkel’s CDU relies on the CSU to maintain power through a coalition. The CDU/CSU bloc took 33 percent of the votes in September 2017 elections.

In March, Merkel’s conservative alliance (the CDU/CSU bloc) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) reached a coalition deal after weeks of fierce negotiations that saw Merkel relinquish the key ministry of finance, among other concessions, further weakening her hold on the government.

Both the CDU and SPD performed poorly in the general elections last year. The SPD initially resisted going into a coalition with the CDU but relented after Merkel failed to reach a deal with two lesser-known parties.

Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the doors to over a million refugees, many fleeing war in the Middle East, fueled the rise of anti-immigration parties, including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which now threatens to unseat the CSU in regional elections scheduled for October.

Europe has faced its worst refugee crisis since World War II. The continent has been hit since 2014 by an unprecedented influx of refugees fleeing conflict-ridden zones in North Africa and the Middle East, in particular Syria.

Source: Presstv

3, July 2018

Yaounde: Parliamentary elections postponed ⁰

Parliamentary elections in Cameroon have been postponed a year until October 2019 after lawmakers adopted a bill on Monday.

“The mandate of the deputies is extended for a period of twelve months, from October 29, 2018,” read the bill, supported by President Paul Biya.

Biya has been in power since 1982, making him one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, and could run again for another presidential term in an election scheduled in principle for October this year.

The 85-year-old had told politicians that the holding of presidential, legislative and municipal elections in the same period would be “difficult” due to “overlapping electoral operations”.

Tensions have repeatedly flared in the French-speaking majority country where separatist rebels in its anglophone regions have been fighting government forces since proclaiming an autonomous republic of “Ambazonia” in October last year.

The jihadist group Boko Haram is also active in the country’s far north. Since 2014, the group has killed 2,000 civilians and soldiers and kidnapped about 1,000 people in northern Cameroon, according to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Cameroon, along with Chad and Niger, has joined a military effort by Nigeria to fight the insurgents.

Source: AFP

3, July 2018

Yaounde has no idea how many innocent Southern Cameroonians it’s killing ⁰

Two years after President Biya launched his so-called war on separatists, an untold number of Southern Cameroonian civilians have been killed by disease, illness and by the French Cameroun military campaign. A Southern Cameroonian serving in French Cameroun as Prime Minister and Head of Government recently announced some kind of a humanitarian reconstruction aimed at minimizing the displacement of Ambazonians and the damage to infrastructure and the disruption of services in Southern Cameroons. The Philemon Yang Plan is still not working.

Ever since the Francophone dominated army started its genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons, thousands of Ambazonia lives have been turned upside down, lawlessness has been allowed to fester and spread, and the one and indivisible Cameroon is now a nation at risk of fracturing apart. Moreover, an untold number of Southern Cameroons innocent civilians have been killed – by disease, illness, in gruesome tortures performed by French Cameroun army soldiers and French military advisers.

In recent days, the US ambassador Peter Barlerin has forced the Biya regime to address the painful issue of Southern Cameroons civilian casualties following a publication by Amnesty International which found that, contrary to the claims of the Biya Francophone regime, all French Cameroun military actions in Southern Cameroons resulted in civilians’ deaths. Figures also released by the International Crisis Group indicate that Southern Cameroonians killed was 57 times higher than what the Biya regime has acknowledged.

The Prime Minister Philemon Yang diabolic humanitarian scheme was a hit back at the Amnesty International report. Cameroon Intelligence Report believes some 865 civilians have been intentionally killed by French Cameroun troops since the operations against Ambazonian Restoration Forces started.

The unfortunate death of Southern Cameroons civilians is a fact of the war that does not weigh heavy on the hearts of President Biya and his crime syndicate. The truth is that nobody knows how many Ambazonian civilians have been killed in Southern Cameroons since the 85 year old dictator launched the military campaign.

The French Cameroun army is now keeping painstaking records of its soldiers killed in both the Southern and Northern Zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia-120 French Cameroun soldiers as revealed by Defense Minister Beti Assomo. Yet, Yaoundé have never tried to make an overall tally of Southern Cameroons civilian deaths or those killed in other theatres in Nigeria.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has been making several attempts to come up with a figure in a project that maintains a tally of casualties based on media reports. However, the Ambazonia Communication Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu admitted to Cameroon Concord News Group that the Interim Government figures are based on reports in the media, which are themselves limited in scope and detail.

The truth of the matter is that nobody knows. The figure could be 800; it could be 1000 or more. And when you add the civilian casualties in the Cross River and Benue States in Nigeria and in the forest where the Biya Southern Cameroons war has played out – it becomes even more of a guessing game.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

29, June 2018

As Ambazonians Fight to Break Away, Violence Mounts ⁰

It has a sky-blue-and-white striped flag stamped with a dove and a national anthem that speaks of “the heroes who bore the land with their blood.”

“Glory to the father for making you a nation, a joy forevermore,” the lyrics say. “Ambazonia, land of freedom.”

The nation of Ambazonia doesn’t officially exist. But a violent battle over attempts to create it in English-speaking areas of largely French-speaking Cameroon is quickly escalating. Schools, homes and villages in the Central African nation have been burned to the ground. Travel between some towns has been blocked.

For a year and a half, the Cameroonian military has been accused of beating and arresting people suspected of being separatists, torching homes and killing unarmed protesters.

For their part, separatists have taken up arms and have also turned to violence. They have been accused of burning markets, launching attacks from civilian bases, beheading soldiers and kidnapping people they suspect as traitors.

Videos purporting to show abuses on both sides have circulated on social media, fanning already sky-high tensions. Propaganda and lies proliferate. Both sides are using incendiary rhetoric: The military calls the separatists “terrorists,” while the separatists— many part of the Cameroonian diaspora — have accused the military of “genocide.”

“We see the situation degenerating from a crisis to a conflict,” said Gaby Ambo, executive director of the Finders Group Initiative, a human rights group in Cameroon. “And if nothing is done soon, it will turn into a civil war with grave consequences.”

President Paul Biya of Cameroon leaving the Élysée Palace after a meeting with the French president

Anglophone separatists have been fighting for recognition of Ambazonia — named after Ambas Bay in southern Cameroon, an 1800s-era settlement for freed slaves — for decades. But calls for secession have amplified significantly in recent months.

So far Cameroon’s government has refused to engage in meaningful dialogue with separatists, largely because it flat-out rejects losing territory. Anglophone regions contribute to the nation’s economy and include important palm oil and other agricultural production.

“It is not possible to sit around the table with groups who would like to take the nation and cleave the nation,” said Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s information minister.

“Secession,” he said, carefully emphasizing every word, “this shall never, ever take place.”

Cho Ayaba, commander in chief of Ambazonian Defense Forces, who delivers orders from his home abroad, is convinced a section of the United Nations Charter gives Ambazonia status as its own nation.

“We are at a very, very dangerous crossroads,” Mr. Ayaba said. “The absence of willingness on the part of Cameroon to negotiate itself out of its occupation of Ambazonia and insistence on the utilization of disproportionate force leaves the Ambazonian people with no other choice than to defend themselves.”

English-speaking citizens of Cameroon make up about a fifth of the population in two of the nation’s 10 regions. Modern-day Cameroon is one of the most geographically, ethnically and linguistically diverse countries on the continent, so much so that it is known as “Little Africa.” But its two official languages, French and English, come from colonization.

Many Anglophones have long felt ignored by the French-speaking government, a sentiment dating to the post-World War I era when the League of Nations appointed France and England as joint trustees of what was then German Kamerun. The colonialists pushed their own cultures, languages, and legal and educational systems on their territories.

Independence for both territories came in the early 1960s with a reunification referendum that, over some objections, limited any option for Anglophone Southern Cameroon to become its own country. Instead, voters were allowed to choose only between joining either Cameroon or neighboring Nigeria. They chose Cameroon.

A soldier running toward the governor’s office in Buea in April.CreditAlexis Huguet/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A move away from a federal model and political wrangling in the years that followed left some Anglophones feeling cheated out of power. Even a star representing English-speaking areas on Cameroon’s flag was removed at one point. In the early 1980s when Paul Biya became president, he further centralized power to French-speaking areas.

Many English speakers contend they have been marginalized by a government that has failed to give them resources and opportunities for years.

Aid workers and analysts attribute many of the problems to the fact that Mr. Biya, one of the continent’s so-called presidents for life, has been in office since the early 1980s. His entrenched grip on power in the French-speaking capital has made it difficult for anyone not in his orbit to climb the Civil Service or political ranks.

The new violence threatens to cast a shadow over presidential elections in October when Mr. Biya, 85, is seeking yet another term.

For years, the Anglophone separatist movement was largely waged from abroad by activists who fled the country during protests decades ago. It reignited in late 2016 when a group of lawyers and teachers protested the appointment of judges and teachers to their courts and schools who lacked strong English skills and a familiarity with the British-based systems in place in Anglophone regions.

Their rallies began to draw hundreds of citizens airing grievances. As they grew in size, the rallies turned violent, with the police firing on protesters. At least 20 were killed, some when security forces fired from helicopters, according to Amnesty International.

Several months ago, separatists in the Ambazonia Defense Forces took up arms to fight for sovereignty.

A report from Amnesty International says armed separatists have killed 44 members of the security forces since September, in one instance stabbing to death two police officers at a checkpoint. Separatists have attacked teachers and students not participating in a boycott of schools and have vandalized dozens of schools, burning at least two of them.

Police officers with riot equipment patrolling a street in Buea last year.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

“Every day, there is more bad news,” said Col. Didier Badjeck, a Cameroonian defense spokesman.

The report says Cameroon’s security forces have arrested hundreds of activists and journalists, torturing nearly two dozen minors to extract confessions. Last year, Cameroon blocked the internet and cut phone lines for months. It jailed the self-declared interim president of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and dozens of others after they fled to Nigeria and were sent back.

“It’s getting dire,” said Agbor Nkongho, founder and chairman of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, who is based in Buea, Cameroon. “The average civilian is the one who’s suffering.”

Colonel Badjeck would not comment on specific abuses by the military but said that Cameroon’s armed forces respected human rights and that any reports of abuses were investigated, and perpetrators punished. The military has peacefully arrested separatists who put down their weapons, he said. “If they have their arms up, we will protect them,” he said.

But if not, Colonel Badjeck said: “We are military. We are going to shoot them. It is a war. You can’t go into a sovereign country and have weapons and shoot police and military. Even in the United States, if you see a terrorist who has a gun, the military is supposed to neutralize these guys.”

Mr. Bakary, the information minister, said that any abuses, including the burning of villages were being investigated.

“The responsibility of the army is to protect the lives and well-being and the property of our brothers and sisters who speak English,” said Mr. Bakary, who vigorously disputed the notion that the military was engaged in genocide. “It is unbelievable and unthinkable we willingly would turn the guns against our own people.“

Observers at human rights organizations who did not want to be identified because of security concerns have decried the use of the word genocide, saying that while it appears the military has carried out abuses it is not engaged in so-called ethnic cleansing. Cameroonian officials have neither talked of purging the nation of Anglophones nor said that Anglophones are not Cameroonian.

The officials have accused separatists of launching attacks from civilian bases and putting lives of innocents at risk.

Military members at a ceremony in Bamenda last year carrying the coffins of four soldiers killed in the violence.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

Separatist leaders said attacks on civilians by any of their forces were unacceptable and would be investigated. But Mr. Ayabasaid attacks on security forces were legitimate.

“We want them to withdraw from our country,” he said. “Their presence is illegal. They have encroached within Ambazonia illegally and dismantled our economic, political and social system. They have engaged in systematic policies of torture political exclusion economic deprivation.”

Mr. Ayaba, who lives in Europe in a country he refused to identify because he fears for his safety, has been fighting for recognition of Ambazonia since he was a student in the 1990s living in Anglophone Cameroon and attending a university that he said was poorly equipped and neglected by the government. Back then he was involved in protest that turned violent and involved mass arrests.

Mr. Ayaba is one of several activists living abroad, many of whom were united in a peaceful pursuit of the creation of Ambazonia until recently.

The turn to violence prompted splits within the council.

“The situation may be running out of control,” said Edwin Ngang, who lives in Minnesota and is the senior presidential adviser of the Republic of Ambazonia and community organizer for the Ambazonia People’s Restoration Movement.

Mr. Ngang’s profile picture on WhatsApp is a poster for a pro-Ambazonia rally earlier this year in Hagerstown, Md., proclaiming “stop apartheid.” The word “genocide” is spelled out in dripping, blood-red letters.

Mr. Ngang and other separatists lament the lack of attention the crisis has received internationally.

“They’re waiting for the misery index to reach a certain scale before they intervene,” he said.

The United States ambassador to Cameroon has called on both sides to stop the violence and listen to each other.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the violence, some arriving across the border in Nigeria. Others still living in Anglophone areas are hunkered down, afraid. One of them, Peter Tafu, said his six children had not been to school in more than a year and a half.

“If my children go to school,” said Mr. Tafu, “I’m not sure they’ll come back home alive.”

Culled from New York Times

29, June 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Hopes are high for Biya to announce reforms ⁰

President Biya now has an opportunity to announce significant reforms that could help him get a respectable exit from the Cameroon political scene and de-escalate tensions with Southern Cameroonians.

The 85 year-old monstrous liability of a head of state is due to meet with the US and French ambassadors to discuss the way forward for the crumbling nation and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be watching for remarks on the war in Southern Cameroons that has claimed the lives of more than one thousand Ambazonians.

It’s hoped Biya will say something specific enough and tangible enough to give Ambassador Peter Barlerin of the United States and French chief diplomat Gilles Thibault confidence that he will be stepping down as president of the republic and that negotiations will begin with Southern Cameroons leadership soonest.

Our senior correspondent in Yaoundé who contributed to this report said the question on the table is how big the Biya reform package will be and how specific it will be vis-à-vis the war in Southern Cameroons.

French President Macron has reportedly made a dramatic u turn after pressure came from the Trump administration and Paris has dispatched the French Secretary of State at the Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs to Cameroon to discuss the war in Southern Cameroons with French Cameroun authorities.

Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne has been quoted as saying that confidence building measures between Francophones and Anglophones are necessary at this time to de-escalate the tensions. Washington has long pressed Biya to step aside honorably or face devastating consequences. Not only will Biya resigning help heal the Southern Cameroons-French Cameroun relationship; it will also benefit the one and indivisible Cameroon theory.

A well-placed source deep within the Francophone regime in Yaoundé hinted this reporter on Thursday that Biya will begin with reforms aimed at getting a new head of state because it is the right thing to do.

Biya’s previous calls for dialogue and the so-called humanitarian package have all been described as a little bit too little. The United States is seeking immediate action from Biya that goes beyond fake promises of dialogue and aid to Ambazonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

28, June 2018

West Cameroon Association response to Yaounde’s Emergency Humanitarian Plan ⁰

The West Cameroon Association (WCA) strongly denounces the pretentious humanitarian initiative of the regime of President Paul Biya of Cameroon, intended to alleviate the suffering of displaced Anglophones in Cameroon. On 30^thNovember2017,in response to those he thought were responsible for the death of 6 security personnel, President Paul Biya declared on national TV that ‘all steps are being taken to incapacitate these criminals and to make sure that peace and security are safeguarded over the whole extent of national territory’. Since that declaration was made, disproportionate and indiscriminate military acts of blatant aggression have been exacted against Anglophone civilians who have been referred to as ‘secessionists terrorist’ by Cameroon’s interior minister, Mr Paul Atanga Nji, in a desperate and reprehensible attempt to justify those acts. It is these acts by the Cameroon military that have directly resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Anglophones, both internally and externally into neighboring Nigeria as refugees.

With its typical attitude of avoiding all responsibility for its actions, the regime in Yaoundé conveniently omits the mention of these crimes that it has perpetrated, as well as the shutting down of the internet for much of 2017, the burning down of business infrastructure such as Mamfe and Bamenda markets. Many videos have surfaced on social media showing Cameroon military officials burning villages and torturing Anglophones including young Anglophone girls being forced to swim in mud at taunts from soldiers. Many independent international organizations have alerted that this is genocide and crimes against humanity which officials of the Cameroonian regime are attempting to hide and obfuscate from the International Community. This makes the regime of President Paul Biya wholly unfit to provide protection or humanitarian assistance for Anglophones.

The table below shows the currently known list of the villages that have been burnt down by the Cameroon military at the instruction of Mr Biya as he rules the country by decree and ‘high instructions’ –“hâutes instructions”. In some cases, disabled and elderly victims of these arson attacks have been burnt alive in their homes. These atrocities have been highlighted in a recent BBC investigative report titled ‘Burning Cameroon: Images you’re not meant to see’: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44561929

Currently Known List of Burnt Villages

1. Ambo	11. Bakumba	21. Bole Bakundu	31. Ekona Mombo	41. Kombone mission	51. Mbene
2. Angin	12. Bangele	22. Bombele mbonge	32. Ekwe	42. Konye	52. Mongo ndor
3. Anjang	13. Batibo	23. Dadi	33. Etam	43. Kugwe	53. Muyenge
4. Anyagwa	14. Bati-Numba	24. Dipenda Bakundu	34. Foe Bakundu	44. Kuke	54. Nake
5. Ashong	15. Bekondo	25. Doti Nobi	35. Gurifen	45. Kumbe-Balue	55. Nganjo
6. Azi	16. Bello	26. Ebonji	36. Guzang	46. Kumbo	56. Ngie
7. Babadiehka	17. Big Massaka	27. Ediki	37. Kagifu	47. Kumku	57. Nguti
8. Bafia	18. Big Ngwandi	28. Efah	38. Kake I	48. Kumu kumu	58. Oshie
9. Bafut	19. Boa Bakundu	29. Ejeke	39. Kake II	49. Kwakwa	59. Small Ekombe
10. Baingo	20. Bokosso	30. Ekombe	40. Kembong	50. Mbalangi	60. Widikum

WCA condemns these callous,insincere and unserious proposals of humanitarian assistance as it portrays no intention of the Biya regime to address the root cause of the Anglophone crisis- an illegal annexation of the State of West Cameroon and an attempted assimilation of its people. Meanwhile, the regime defiantly continues to ignore the numerous calls from the international community to resolve the crisis by way of an all-inclusive dialogue without preconditions.

The WCA would like to draw to the attention of the Biya regime and its allies, that no humanitarian effort can take place when the security and safety of the Anglophone people remains in peril, as the violence continues and intensifies. This initiative to rebuild and give humanitarian assistance to a people displaced by the very same regime, is at best a window-dressing exercise. Indeed, the announced financial package which amounts to less than $40 per refugee, is a solution to nothing and worse than that, any funds provided by the international community through the government of Cameroon will not reach the refugees because of rampant endemic corruption.

The WCA has reason to believe that the Biya regime has neither the capacity, goodwill, nor the ability to deliver any effective humanitarian intervention in the prevailing situation whereits security forces continue to burn down villages. The Biya regime cannot be the arsonist and the firefighter.

The WCA calls for the following actions to be immediately taken to stem the crisis and prevent a catastrophic destabilization of the gulf of guinea which could culminate in massive loss of lives.

Calls on the government of Cameroon to publicly and unilaterally declare a cease-fire and announce its road map towards lasting peace.
Calls for targeted sanctions against key members of the regime including but not limited to travel bans and freezing of assets on the personalities in the web of command responsible for the atrocities such as Oum II Joseph (SDO of Manyu Division), Bernard Okalia Bilai(Governor of SW Region), Adolf Lele L’Afrique(Governor of NW Region),Joseph Beti Assomo(Defense Minister), Laurent Esso(Justice Minister), Paul Atanga Nji(Interior Minister)- right up to the President, Mr. Paul Biya.
Proposes that a neutral international party be allowed into the Anglophone regions to provide protection to the Anglophones and drive any humanitarian effort so that they do not feel the need to pick up arms to defend their communities against these atrocities from the regime of Mr. Biya in Cameroon.
Calls on the international community to appoint a third party to begin talks and mediation towards a negotiated settlement of the Anglophone Crisis.

WCA continues to advocate for the territorial integrity of the nation of Cameroon as sanctioned by the UN mandates of 1961 and calls for the re-instatement of the Federal State of West Cameroon in a two-state solution of a Federal Republic that guarantees the respective heritages and peaceful coexistence of the two peoples, united in their diversity and working to build a nation that will join the family of civilised nations.

Mr S Ndah-Mbi

On behalf of the Secretariat

28, June 2018

Yaounde: MPs in push for term extension ⁰

The Cameroon government has tabled a bill in parliament seeking to extend the life of the National Assembly (the Lower House of Parliament) by 12 months from next October.

National Assembly Speaker Cavaye Yegui Djiril on Tuesday announced that the bill had been served and would be examined by the Constitutional Laws Committee.

The bill will be defended by Mr Amadou Ali, the vice Prime Minister and minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of relations with assemblies.

Own interests

It has been drafted in accordance with Section 15 (4) of the constitution, which provides that “in case of serious crisis or where circumstances so warrant, the President of the Republic may, after consultation with the President of the Constitutional Council and Bureaux of the National Assembly and the Senate, request the National Assembly to decide, by law, to extend or abridge its term of office.”

Cameroonian MPs are known to disregard party affiliations in pursuit of their own interests.

In 2012, they wasted little time and effort in pushing through a similar law and pundits were already foreseeing a hitch-free adoption of the bill.

The terms of office of the president, Members of the National Assembly and municipal councillors end between October and November and according to the government, the holding of three elections almost at the same time “will lead to an overlapping of the different polling operations”.

Legal document

The extension of the mandate of the MPs, says the draft legal document, is therefore “to avoid muddling up the electoral operations which, in technical and operational terms, could affect the fairness of the abovementioned elections and to ensure a more serene organisation”.

The current mandate of the 180 MPs was due to expire on October 29, 2018, having been elected (some re-elected) in 2013 for a five-year term of office.

Should the bill be adopted without any objection as expected, the president of the republic would by decree extend the term of office of municipal councillors who were elected during the twin legislative.

Culled from The East African