11, August 2018
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bishop Bushu says Rev. Father Sob was assassinated 0
The Bishop of Buea says a priest who died in the July 2018 in the restive South-West region of the country was assassinated disputing claims that the death was as a result of a stray bullet.
His Lordship Immanuel Bushu is reported by local press to have said Rev. Fr. Nougi Alexander Sob was assassinated. “Father Sob was with two other people in his car when he was shot at close range with a silencer gun.”
The Cameroon Catholic church reported the death of the parish priest of Bomaka, a district of Buea, at the time the report said by “unidentified individuals.”
“We have received photographs of the body of the deceased priest, Alexander Sob Nougi,’‘ an official communication by the church issued in Yaoundé read, specifying that the perpetrators of the murder remain unknown and that the body is mutilated.
Security in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, the north-west and south-west, has deteriorated considerably.
Fighting became daily between the security forces and armed separatists demanding the creation of an independent English-speaking state.
Catholic Church as conflict mediator
The Catholic Church is the only actor capable of “promoting dialogue” between the insurgents and the government, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) research centre in April.
It represents almost a third of the Cameroonian population, according to the ICG, which deplored the Catholic Church’s “divergent positions” on the Anglophone question and invited it to “overcome its divisions and display its neutrality”.
This increasingly violent armed conflict in the English-speaking zone, as well as that against the jihadist group Boko Haram in the north of the country, could disrupt the presidential elections scheduled for 7 October, according to analysts.
President Paul Biya, 85, declared his candidature last week for a seventh consecutive term.
His supporters believe that he is best able to respond to the English-speaking crisis, his opponents accusing him of being responsible for the crisis.
Source: Africa News
4, September 2018
Cameroon Catholic bishops urge voters to choose responsibly 0
Catholic bishops in Cameroon have issued a pastoral letter to say voters should be able to exercise their right to freely, peacefully and responsibly choose leaders in the upcoming presidential elections.
“According to the teachings of the church, the people should be at liberty to exercise their sovereignty by freely, peacefully and responsibly choosing their leaders,” the bishops said in their pastoral letter dated Aug. 24.
Current President Paul Biya, hoping to embark on a seventh term, is now 85 years old and has been in power since 1982. In the presidential elections of Oct.7 he will challenge a divided opposition that is putting forward eight candidates.
Points of instability
These elections fall at a particularly tense moment and there are many areas of instability across the country. Since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis in 2016, the northwest and southwest regions have witnessed many deaths and there is no immediate end to the hostilities in sight.
The Nigerian border region in the far northeast is in a state of extreme volatility with deadly attacks carried out by Boko Haram. Since 2014 over 2,000 Cameroonians have lost their lives in terrorist violence and more than 1,000 have been abducted.
On top of these internal issues, are conflicts in Central Africa which have pushed more than 150,000 people over the border to seek refuge in eastern Cameroon.
Members of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon have expressed concern that these crises will have a negative effect on the upcoming presidential elections.
They state that free and transparent elections are the only way to “guarantee peace, stability and justice.”
They call on Cameroonians to choose candidates capable of dealing with the country’s social, economic and political issues and tackling inequality, corruption, unemployment and Boko Haram.
The Anglophone crisis
The Anglophone problem began in 2016 with remonstrations and complaints among lawyers and teachers who protested their marginalization in the country’s legislative and education systems, which are largely francophone.
Their protests led to strikes which turned into deadly confrontations between Cameroonian security forces and those supporting secession of Anglophone regions.
On July 25, Cameroonian religious leaders announced their involvement in resolving the secession crisis.
Among those who added their names are Cardinal Christian Tumi, retired archbishop of Douala, Babila George Fochang, a priest from the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Tukur Mohammed Adamu, an imam from Bamenda Central Mosque, and Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, chief imam from Buea Central Mosque.
To this end, they were planning a general conference for Anglophones from Cameroon and the diaspora on Aug. 29 and 30 in the city of Buea (southeast). However, a few days after the announcement, it was reported that the conference had been postponed indefinitely.
Source: La Croix International