4, December 2018

Ambazonia: Kidnapped missionaries freed ⁰

Three Claretian missionaries who were abducted in Cameroon on 23 November, were released safely on 29 November.

The missionaries said in a message: “We thank everyone for the solidarity shown during our captivity. It was no easy experience. In those difficult days our thoughts and prayers went to the Martyrs of our Congregation. For our part we experienced the warmth of your prayers and affection.

“At present we are at our parish in Douala and want to start negotiations for the release of our driver Jerry Berson. We are all alive.

“Although information referred to Jude, Placid, Abel and the driver, there were actually five of us! Fr Yene Anaclet, the local parish priest who came to negotiate our release, was also held by the kidnappers. Now he too has been released and we are all in Douala.”

The Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Maria (Claretians) said in a statement: “We thank God for the release of our missionary confreres abducted on 23 November . We are grateful for all the messages of solidarity, communion and prayers. May God bless us all!”

The missionaries released are: Fr Giuda Taddeo Langhe, Apostolate Prefect and director of Pubblicaciones Claretianas del Camerun. Fr Placide Muntong Gweh, student Abel Fondem Ndia, and Fr Yene Anaclet. The missionaries were abducted by secessionists present in the Anglophone area of the country, on the way to Munyenge with humanitarian aid for the people suffering because of fighting in the area.

In the two English speaking regions of Cameroon involved, violence against men of the Church is increasing. On 21 November Fr Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Kenyan missionary from the Mill Hill Mission Society of St Joseph, was murdered in Kembong, a few kilometres from Memfe, main town in the Department of South Eastern Province.

Source: Independent Catholic News

4, December 2018

Africa Cup of Nations Mess: Why it is weeping for Cameroonian business people ⁰

Two major hotels in Yaoundé that were due to host some foreign delegations had gone into a loan agreement with the government and were already carrying out extension works for better accommodation

Jarvis Bisong, a hotel manager in Yaoundé, secured a loan from a micro finance institution and started renovating his hotel ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament.
He said the renovation works to cost $17,000 (Sh1.7 million) were supposed to end by February, 2019.

“I knew that during the Afcon from June to July, I will recover the money and pay back the loan, but now that we [Cameroon] will no longer host the tournament, I am just confused,” he said.

Many hotel managers are now found in the same type situation like Jarvis, following the announcement Friday by the Confederation of African Football (Caf), withdrawing the hosting rights of the 2019 Afcon tournament from Cameroon.

Two major hotels in Yaounde that were due to host some foreign delegations had gone into a loan agreement with the government and were already carrying out extension works for better accommodation.

They groan over the news of the withdrawal of the hosting rights expressing worries over the loans they were supposed to pay back after making some brisk business during the month-long soccer competition.

The local organizing committee of the competition had selected 21 hotels in the five host cities to accommodate teams and delegations.

The group phase of the competition was due to be staged in five cities, namely Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam, Garoua and Limbe.

Yaounde and Limbe both hosted the 2016 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

In the transport sector, proprietors of inter-city bus agencies claim they had made huge investments by importing brand new buses to expand their fleet.

the Caf decision, they now weep that they will have to wait for two years to reap what they expected to recover in just a few months.

Stories abound of small and medium size enterprises, and catering services which will not go operational near the venues of the tournament due to the postponement.

According to senior analyst for Central Africa at International Crisis Group, Hans De Marie Heungoup, more than $1.1 billion (Sh110 billion) of investments had already been done in the country or scheduled in 2019.

One thing that was due to witness a hike in sales and consumption during the Afcon 2019 competition was supposed to beer as most Cameroonians cherish boozing which is indeed a way of life in Cameroon during such events.

Statistics by SABC, the Cameroon’s largest beer company, show that overall beer sales in Cameroon in 2015 are estimated at about 6,600,000 hl (660 million liters), including imports.

These figures were expected to see an increase next year with the organization of the Afcon.

The Tourism Industry in Cameroon was already envisaging a boom with thousands of visitors that were expected to come but it will not be the case again.

The number of visitors coming to Cameroon dropped since the outbreak of Boko Haram activities in the Northern part and with the recent separatist movement in the English speaking regions of the country.

The organization of the Afcon was going to change as thousands of visitors were expected to jet into the country for the football jamboree.

The African Cup of Nations is a big tournament which usually gives a boost to the economy of host countries.

Cameroon has lost this blessing which could have profited its limping economy.

Source: Daily Nation

4, December 2018

Biya and CPDM gang blamed for Africa Cup of Nations mess ⁰

There has been an outburst of reactions from football fans and analysts in Cameroon since the Confederation of African Football (Caf) officially announced it has stripped the five times African champions of the hosting rights for the 2019 African Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Caf said on Friday that Cameroon has not met a number compliance conditions and could not host he tournament.

While some fans suspect that some North African countries that were interested in hosting the tournament played behind the scenes to deprive Cameroon of the hosting right, others blame the lackluster attitude at which the government has been preparing for the game.

“The Caf decision is not a surprise as Morocco has been scheming to ensure the hosting rights are withdrawn from Cameroon in their favour,” said Ernest Nfor, a football fan, in Yaounde.

Yet, sports analyst Francis Ajumane said he saw it coming from the various Caf inspection missions that came to Cameroon. “Anthony Baffoe, Amaju Pinnick and Daany Jordan were in Cameroon months ago and I could tell from their body language all was not well despite their assurances to the press,” Ajumane said.

“It became evident when Caf postponed its decision back at the end of September due to Cameroon’s Presidential election.”

Ajumane admits that Cameroon was lagging behind in terms of construction at the various sites and tried to use diplomacy by bringing the Caf president to the country; which diplomacy apparently failed.

Sports journalist and editor-in-chief of This is Sports magazine, Franklin Sone Bayen said the socio-political climate in Cameroon is not conducive enough for the continental soccer jamboree to be staged.

“The Afcon withdrawal is shocking without measure for socio-political and socioeconomic reasons, though it should have been expected because Cameroon was falling short in infrastructure, and the sociopolitical climate is not conducive,” he said.

“It is a big blow to football fans though opponents of the president are happy because they consider that Afcon would have distracted attention from the Anglophone crisis and acrimony from recent electoral flaws,” Bayen said further.

Source: Daily Nation

3, December 2018

Cameroon gov’t soldiers planting mines in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Our chief intelligence officer in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons has hinted that there are numerous mines laid everywhere on the way to Bali and towards Wum. A Francophone soldier was reportedly killed as he attempted planting a mine in Mfuni in Manyu.

Recently, four Ambazonian women were killed after stepping on a mine planted on the highway towards Batibo. Ambazonian commanders say Cameroon government soldiers have planted several anti-personnel mines in several Southern Cameroons districts in the last three months.

Engaged in long battles with Ambazonian Restoration Forces, the French Cameroun army has turned to landmines to block entry to areas where they operate. A Cameroon government army spokesperson in Bamenda, the chief city of the Northern Zone who confirmed the planting of new mines by Cameroon government army soldiers, said “Mines are only intended to cause harm to the Ambazonian fighters.”

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government through the Ambazonia Defense Council said in a statement that mines only kill or injure civilians – children, women and non-combatants. The Francophone dominated government in Yaounde import landmines and other weapons from European countries particularly France.

The Ambazonian Interim Government has identified the need for a public awareness campaign to inform people, particularly children, about the risks of mines planted by Francophone soldiers.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

3, December 2018

Cardinal Tumi pays homage to Kenyan priest slain by Francophone soldiers ⁰

Christian Cardinal Tumi has paid homage to the Kenyan Priest shot and killed by Cameroon government troops in Kembong in the Manyu County. The Cardinal performed the Roman Catholic ritual on the remains of late Father Cosmas Ondari before the corpse was flown to Kenya.

Father Cosmas Omboto Ondari, a Mill Hill missionary, was “brutally and recklessly murdered” at the Kembong church where he was serving as the parochial vicar of the St Martin of Tours Parish, the Bishop of Mamfe, Andrew Nkea, said in a statement.

“He was killed by government soldiers, who were shooting at random from their passing vehicle,” Bishop Nkea said, citing eyewitness accounts. “I visited Kembong Parish on Thursday, November 22 and personally counted 21 bullet holes on the church building… the blood of the murdered priest was still clearly seen on the cemented entrance, just at the door,” the prelate recounted.

Bishop Nkea called for thorough investigations into the heinous crime committed against an innocent and peace loving missionary, adding that the culprits be brought to justice. The Biya Francophone regime claimed Ambazonia Restoration Forces killed the priest on the instructions of a Southern Cameroons activist, Eric Tataw.

By Rita Akana

3, December 2018

Africa Pays Approximately 400 Billion Euros Annually to France ⁰

This economic slavery is important for the development of the French economy. Whenever this traffic is likely to fail, France is ready for anything to reconquer it. If a leader of the CFA zone no longer meets the requirements of France, Paris is blocking its foreign exchange reserves and more, France closes the banks in this country considered “rebel”. This was the case of Côte d’Ivoire with Laurent Gbagbo.

A German newspaper accuses France of looting 440 billion euros each year to Africans through the CFA Franc. “The French government collects from its former colonies each year 440 billion euros of taxes. France relies on the revenues coming from Africa, not to sink into economic insignificance, warns the former president Jacques Chirac.

In the 1950s and 60s, France decided the French colonies of Africa to become independent. Although the Paris government accepted formal declarations of independence, it called on African countries to sign a so-called “pact for the continuation of colonization.” They agreed to introduce the French colonial currency FCFA (“Franc for the French colonies in Africa”), to maintain the French schools and military system, and to establish French as an official language.

The CFA franc is the denomination of the common currency of 14 African countries members of the Franc zone. This currency, which constitutes a brake on the emergence of these countries, was created in 1945, when France ratified the Bretton Woods agreements and proceeded to implement its first declaration of parity to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . This was called “Franc of the French Colonies of Africa”.

Under this law, 14 African countries are still obliged to store about 85 per cent of their foreign exchange reserves at the Banque de France in Paris. They are under the direct control of the French Treasury. The countries concerned do not have access to this part of their reserves. As the 15 per cent of reserves are insufficient for their needs, they must borrow additional funds from the French Treasury at market prices. Since 1961, Paris controls all foreign exchange reserves in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

In addition, these countries must each year transfer their “colonial debt” for infrastructure built in France to Paris as Silicon Africa 3 reported in detail. France takes around 440 billion euros a year. The government in Paris also has a right of first refusal on all newly discovered natural resources in African countries. Finally, French companies must have priority in awarding contracts in former colonies. As a result, there is the most assets in the fields of supply, finance, transport, energy and agriculture in the hands of French companies.

The ruling elite in each African country must fulfill these compulsory claims without any other choice. African leaders who refuse are threatened with assassination or overthrow of their government. Over the past 50 years, there have been 67 coups d’état in 26 African countries. 16 of these 26 countries were former colonies of France.

An example is the first president of Togo West Africa, Sylvanus Olympio, overthrown by a coup. He had refused to sign the “Pact for the Continuation of Settlement”. But France insisted that Togo pay the compensation for the infrastructures that had been built by the French during the colonial period. The sum is equivalent to about 40 per cent of households in Togo in 1963, requiring the fairly independent country to reach its economic limits quickly.

In addition, the new president of Togo decided to remove and print his own national currency, the French colonial currency FCFA. Three days after this decision, the new government was overthrown by a group of former foreign legionaries and the President killed. The head of the Legionaries, Gnassingbe Eyadema, received 550 euros from the French embassy for the attack, according to the British Telegraph. Four years later Eyadema was promoted with the support of Paris, the new president of Togo. He established a tyrannical dictatorship in this West African country and remained in power until his death in 2005.

In the following years, the Paris government kept the link with the former legionaries to overthrow unpopular governments in its former colonies. This was the case of the first president of the Central African Republic, David Dacko, overthrown by former members of the Foreign Legion in 1966.

The same thing happened to the President of Burkina Faso, Maurice Yaméogo, and with the President of Benin, Mathieu Kérékou, the author of a coup d’état. This was also the case of the first President of the Republic of Mali Modiba Keita, who was also the victim of a coup by former legionnaires in 1968. The reason, a few years earlier, he had simply decided to part with the French colonial currency. “

Source: How Africa

2, December 2018

Nigerian police arrest 12 Cameroonian mercenaries in Cross River ⁰

TWELVE Cameroonian mercenaries were arrested by the police at the weekend while on their way to fight in the internecine communal conflict between the people of Usumutong and Ediba in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State. The mercenaries were arrested on Tuesday at the Ediba/Ugep junction while allegedly traversing to the conflict zone with arms and dangerous weapons.

A source in the area said “they were caught on the way to Ediba to fight Usumutong people.” “They were armed with charms and other dangerous weapons of wars. They came in a red Sienna bus still parked at the Police Area Command Ugep. These people were hired by Ediba to terrorize Usumutong community,” he alleged.

The Clan Head of Usumutong, Oval Solomon Osim Edward who spoke to Saturday Vanguard on phone alleged that the twelve Cameroonian mercenaries were hired by Ediba people to eliminate his community. “They were arrested at a check point. They said they were asked to come and destroy plantation, they described us (Usumutong community) as plantation, these people are evil, they wrapped charms around their bodies”, he stated. But the Village Head of Ediba Uvara Imong Anani debunked the allegations, describing it as rubbish. “It is rubbish, since the beginning of this trouble, I have not been on my seat, Ediba people have not hired anybody, these are Cameroon boys, I don’t know them.”

www.vanguardngr.com

2, December 2018

Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC) Upholds Ghost Towns Across the Ambazonia ⁰

On 30 November 2018, Mr. Chris Anu, Secretary of Communications and IT for the Ambazonia Interim Government-in-exile pronounced over ABC TV that “Ghost Towns” are suspended across Ambazonia territory. On 1 December 2018, the Secretary Chris clarified over ABC TV that the “Ghost Towns” is suspended from 3 December 2018 to 6 January 2019. In response, Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC), the command and control system prosecuting the Ambazonia Liberation War, issues the following statement:

The Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC) categorically rejects Secretary Chris Anu’s pronouncement suspending Ghost Towns. We are at war and we will continue to fight so long as forces and administrators of La Republique du Cameroun (LRC) remain present and continue to kill our citizens within our territory.
Popularly known as “Country Sundays”, Ghost Towns is a civil disobedience non-violent signature activity of the Ambazonia Liberation War. For two years now, we have been staging peaceful protest marches and sit-in home strikes to press across the globe to demand for the restoration of our statehood and freedom of our revered President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, nine members of his cabinet and scores of others in detention since the crisis started in late 2016.
We urge every person within Ambazonia to comply with civil disobedience non-violent Monday Ghost Towns obligations. The security threat level is higher now and your prompt compliance to instructions that are enforced by Restoration Forces is a choice between life and dead. Remain vigilant, strictly follow instructions, and stay safe.

2, December 2018

Ambazonia: Do UK business links really ‘open channels to raise human rights concerns’? ⁰

Liam Fox, the trade secretary, boasts that a British company, New Age, has signed a £1.5 billion deal for Cameroon’s natural gas?

Conservative Peer Baroness Goldie, responding for the UK government in a recent debate on the deteriorating situation in that country, told the House of Lords, “We do not see that there has to be a choice between securing growth and investment for the UK, and raising human rights…by having a strong relationship with Cameroon we are able to have open discussions on a range of admittedly difficult issues, including human rights.”

Yet, despite that “strong relationship” and “discussions,” President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, refuses to meet any representatives of Cameroon’s marginalised English-speaking minority. Human rights groups say Biya responded to 2016’s peaceful protests with disproportionate violence, prompting a militant and violent Anglophone reaction, and pushing the country further into conflict.

Disregarding a wealth of evidence from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Crisis Group, Goldie insists Cameroon’s violence had “complex causes, and as with many conflicts, it is not always easy to establish what is happening on the ground.”

Cameroon Concord News calls on Interpol, The Serious Crimes Unit of the British Police, The FBI, The Criminal Investigations Department of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and all Police and Intelligence Agencies worldwide to urgently step in and investigate the oil and gas contract between New Age Global Energy Company and French Cameroun that was signed recently in Britain. There are many reasons for an urgent criminal investigation of this international crime masked as a business contract.

The contract is a front for money laundering conceived for criminal purposes. The oil and gas fields which are subject of the contract are in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia over which a war and genocide declared by Paul Biya the head of the crime syndicate in French Cameroun are ongoing. The contract is directly linked to the subject of this in who the perpetration of international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by one of the contracting parties, French Cameroun is ongoing. These crimes have led to a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. The contract will directly contribute to the war efforts of French Cameroun in which international crimes are being perpetrated by French Cameroun. Control over the mineral resources of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is among the reasons for the declaration of war by French Cameroun against Ambazonia. This contract therefore will substantially contribute to the crimes and the humanitarian calamity.

The contract is a front for the laundering of money and resources for criminal purposes. These criminal purposes include the bankrolling of the elections of Paul Biya and members of his criminal gang in power. These elections have all elements of fraud and criminality.

The contract is illegal, null and void in every respect. This will be the first contract where French Cameroun will be signing with a company which has no incorporation within the territory in which the oil and gas fields are located. Pursuant to the foreign imposed laws of the colonial annexationist criminal government of French Cameroun in the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, the foreign firm needed to comply with several OHADA treaty requirements. It has neither complied with Southern Cameroons laws nor that of the occupier.

The choice of a British firm in a French occupied economic annexed territory is intended to buy through this corrupt slave economic deal, the continuing support of Britain of the colonial occupation and criminal war and genocide. The fact that the Secretary-General in the Presidency of French Cameroun’s crime syndicate went to England to sign the contract far away from the battlefields of Ambazonia where the intended loot is located, and far away from its own centre of French Cameroun’s criminal operations, Yaoundé, evinces an intention to shield the fine elements of criminality contained in the criminal deal from the scrutiny of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia victims. French Cameroun has a record of signing bilateral agreements in Yaoundé and at the official locations of its partners. This criminal contract is not a bilateral agreement but a business contract.

Cameroun Concord News is not aware of any time in recent memory when French Cameroun dispatched a Secretary-General in its Presidency to move to the head quarter of a foreign firm to sign a contract of this nature or any at all. The signatory on behalf of French Cameroun is neither its Prime Minister, Minister in Charge of Mineral Resources, Investments, or its plenipotentiary in Britain. The Secretary-General in the Crime Syndicate of French Cameroun is a gate-keeper of corrupt deals; proceeds of national and international criminality and the vampire Paul Biya’s executioner of record. The poster boys of criminality such as Paul Atanga Nji, George Tabetando, Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Okalia Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, Joseph Beti Assomo, Louis Paul Motaze, General Elokobi Daniel Njock, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and all CPDM apologists and conspirators are supervised by him on behalf of the crime master Paul Biya.

This contract is in a class of its own considering French Cameroun’s rather unorthodox approach to it. French Cameroun is a well-known haven for criminal deals, corruption and international criminality. The colonization and criminal vandalization of the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun acting as a proxy for France for the past fifty-seven years is a result of a criminal slave deal between France and Great Britain on the watch of the United Nations. That slave deal encouraged the impunity with which French Cameroun entered criminal contractual deals to loot, vandalize and pillage the resources of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. This contract follows this criminal pattern with the aggravating factor being that its immediate effect will be the funding of a war in which international crimes shocking the conscience of humanity are being committed.

This contract if not investigated and halted, will stain the conscience of the civilized world; Great Britain in particular, with more blood of innocent Ambazonians. Cameroon Concord News strongly calls for an urgent investigation of this criminal deal to avert the escalation of the genocide and international criminality going on in the Gulf of Guinea and its contagious territories.

Written by Open democracy UK and Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

2, December 2018

CAF president offers Biya regime chance to host 2021 Nations Cup ⁰

Just a few hours after stripping Cameroon of the rights to host the 2019 African Nations Cup, CAF president Ahmad Ahmad wrote to the country’s president Paul Biya proposing that it hosts the 2021 edition, Cameroonian media outlets reported on Saturday.

The CAF executive committee snubbed Cameroon on Friday, citing serious delays with its preparations in the midst of a violent separatist rebellion near two of the venues that are set to host the Nations Cup games.

“I would like, Mister President, to assure you, that seeing the efforts that you have already accomplished and in light of the importance of your personnel implication, CAF and its executive committee would be honored if Cameroon accepts to host the 2021 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations,” Ahmad reportedly said in a letter addressed to Biya and that was published by several Cameroonian media outlets.

The CAF chief also added that he believes that the 2021 tournament will allow Cameroon to “complete in comfort and safety, all the projects planned for this event.”

This offer comes as a consolation for the country that was stunned by the CAF decision, especially after Ahmad’s visit to Cameroon in October where he told Biya in front of reporters that “CAF has no Plan B, nor have we ever considered taking the Nations Cup away from Cameroon.”

The tournament is set to start in June. CAF have announced that a new bidding process will be opened and countries have until the end of December to submit bids.

Source: ahramonline