7, November 2018

French Cameroun Monarch Tells Ambazonian Forces to Lay Down Arms ⁰

Cameroon’s president on Tuesday warned Anglophone separatists to lay down their arms or face the full force of the law, a day after dozens of schoolchildren were abducted in the rebel region.

Clashes between a secessionist movement and the army began more than a year ago in west Cameroon, killing over 400 civilians and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

On Monday, unidentified assailants kidnapped 79 children, their principal and a driver from the PSS Nkwen school in Bamenda in Northwest region and took them into the bush outside town, military and government sources said.

An army spokesman blamed separatists for Monday’s kidnapping. A separatist spokesman denied involvement and said government soldiers had carried it out, as a ploy to discredit the insurgents.

President Paul Biya, making an inauguration speech after re-election last month that extends his 36-year-old rule, did not mention the kidnapping but attacked the separatists.

‘Rigor of the law’

“They need to know that they will face the rigor of the law and the determination of our defense and security forces,” Biya said in the national assembly. “I appeal to them to lay down their arms.”

Last week, an American Baptist missionary was shot dead amid fighting between the army and separatists in Bamenda.

The secessionists have imposed curfews and closed schools as part of their rebellion against the French-speaking government, which they say has marginalized the Anglophone minority.

Samuel Fonki, a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, said he had been mediating with the kidnappers for the children’s release. He said separatists were responsible.

The search for the children continued Tuesday. About 200 parents gathered outside the school, waiting to hear if their children were among those who had been abducted or had remained unharmed at the school.

Authorities denied parents access to the school, according to six parents and a security guard who spoke to Reuters.

The kidnapping was a chilling echo of the 2014 abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. There are no known links between the Cameroon separatists and the Nigerian Islamist militant group.

Culled from The VOA

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7, November 2018

Yaounde Detains Journalists Reporting on Unrest for ‘Propagating False Information’ ⁰

Media rights organizations are calling on authorities in Cameroon to release five journalists detained without charges in the past month after reporting on the country’s unrest. TV host Mimi Mefo is the latest journalist believed to be targeted by Cameroon authorities for her critical reporting.

A Cameroonian gendarme summoned popular TV host Mimi Mefo, who heads English news for privately-owned Equinoxe broadcasting.

Mimi Mefo on the field in Mbengwi, North West region in Aug. 2018.

Mefo was called Monday to appear before the military legal body after several threats were made on her life.

But Mefo believes authorities are trying to intimidate her because of her reporting.

“I contacted my lawyer, barrister Tamfu Richard, who told me that an investigation has been opened against me on propagation of false information and cyber criminality. The problem here actually are my reports, my debates, my social media reports and my day to day, minute by minute updates on my website and social media on political and social issues in Cameroon. When you report the atrocities, you are threatened and considered as an enemy,” said Mefo.

Media rights groups say Cameroon authorities have targeted several journalists for critical and detailed reporting on the country’s insurgencies.

Cameroon police detained journalist Michel Biem Tong on October 23. Tong is known for critical reporting of the military’s atrocities in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists in the north and Anglophone separatists in the west.

Publisher Gustave Flaubert Kengne, whose publication Orientation Hebdo specializes in human rights reporting, was among those detained in October.

While Cameroon authorities accused the reporters of “propagating false information,” none of them have been officially charged.

Cameroon Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma says everyone should stop publishing information that jeopardizes Cameroon’s unity.

“As far as the fight, the battle against the terrorism is concerned, whoever respects the law will be at peace in our nation. What is unacceptable is the fact that the journalists would lie [to] the international community to exert influence on President Biya to get the journalist released,” said Tchiroma.

The Union of Cameroon Journalists is calling for authorities to immediately release the reporters.

Union President Charlie Ndi Chia says the government is persecuting journalists.

“Journalists have the right to receive information, any information. They are wrong and it is intimidating,” he said. “The government is just deceiving the world to thinking that there is press freedom in Cameroon.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized the attacks and also asked charges against the journalists to be dropped for those detained to regain freedom.

CPJ says since 2016 Cameroon has repeatedly jailed journalists for reporting on unrest in the western regions of the country.

Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index ranks Cameroon 129 out of 180 countries in the world.

Source: VOA

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6, November 2018

Yaounde: Kamto released, but under house arrest ⁰

Prof. Maurice Kamto, the man widely believed to have won last month’s presidential election in Cameroon has been released after briefly arrested for addressing a crowd in front of his house when Mr. Biya was being sworn in at the National Assembly.

Prof. Kamto was taken back to his residence in Santa Barbara by armed police officers where he is expected to be under house arrest, but the legal mind has refused to be quarantined in his house and is asking the police to provide a document that subjects him to a house arrest.

It should be recalled that after his swearing-in on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, ordered the arrest of prominent members of the MRC, the party led by Professor Kamto who actually won last month’s presidential election.

Among those arrested with Prof. Maurice Kamto are Barrister Emmanuel Simh, Prof. Alain Tedom Fogue, Mr. Okala Ebode and Mr. Christian Penda Ekoka who has served as Mr. Biya’s economic adviser before resigning to join the opposition. Some 20 other member of Prof. Kamto’s closest collaborators were also arrested while attending an impromptu meeting with some of their party members.

Addressing his party members at the meeting, Prof. Maurice Kamto, a legal expert, stated clearly that he had been elected by Cameroonians based on merit and not based on his ethnic background, adding that he had been elected to represent all Cameroonians.

He stressed that he had been elected based on his political program that focused on the poor, the humble and the suffering masses who have been working hard to enable the country stay afloat.

He added that today was a very bad day for democracy in Cameroon. He deplored that fact that many Southern Cameroonians were living in the bushes in the North West and South West regions of the country, with thousands seeking a safe sanctuary in Nigeria.

He said the people could count on him as he and the winning coalition that enabled him to win the election would continue to fight on the people’s behalf.

He stressed that Cameroon belonged to all Cameroonians and that no Cameroonian should be judged based on their tribe.

He pointed out that Biya had been sworn-in as the country’s president because of the system is corrupt, adding that for the past 36 years, Mr. Biya and his collaborators had fostered tribalism.

Shortly after addressing the crowd, Prof. Kamto and his collaborators were whisked away to the Elig- Essono Judicial Police where they are being questioned.

Mr. Biya’s iron feast has started striking his opponents even as he promised during the swearing-in ceremony that he would work hard to reunite the country; something he has failed to do in 36 years.

He promised to restore peace in the North West and South West regions, but did not provide details on how he was going to achieve that given that for more than 24 months, the English speaking regions of the country have been under the control of separatists who have made them ungovernable despite the government’s violent military adventure.

He urged the youths in the two regions who have given government troops a run for their money to return to the path of peace by dropping down their weapons.

“I want to call on the youths engaged in hostilities to drop their arms and follow the right path…especially the younger ones who have indulged in a fruitless cause,” he said.

He added that “I am convinced the majority of Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions want peace and I am determined to address the root causes of their frustrations.”

He pointed out that negative forces had taken advantage of the genuine demands of the people to foster a secessionist agenda which he stressed was against the country’s constitution and the notion of living together.

Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, the Cameroon Concord News Group reporter in Yaounde spoke with a senior member of the ruling CPDM from the North West region who has been pushing for dialogue and reconciliation. From the discussion, it was clear that there were lots of frustrations within the ruling party as the conflict in the English-speaking regions continues to escalate.

The CPDM member who elected anonymity said that Mr. Biya might have been sworn in as the country’s president, but he knows that he did not win the election and should use this opportunity to undertake actions that will enable the country heal.

“He knows he did not win the election. He knows that a lot of fraudulent things have been done to keep him in power. I think he should now start thinking of bringing the country together by calling for inclusive dialogue that will enable the country heal,” he said.

“He should be thinking of the type of Cameroon he would be leaving behind. He has been robbing other people of their victory for more than two decades. In 1992, he robbed Mr. Fru Ndi of his victory and today, he has been sworn in as the president of the country, robbing Professor Maurice Kamto who is very much admired by the people and the international community. He cannot continue to usurp power. He has pushed the country to the brink. He has transformed himself into a monarch and this makes it hard for those around him to tell him the truth,” the CPDM senior member regretted.

“I know Cameroonians are always expecting Mr. Biya to die as they believe his death could herald the beginning of a new era and the end of hostilities in the two English-speaking regions, but I strongly believe that he has been sentenced to life by God. He will not be dying anytime soon and he might live long to see the country change. People like him spend more time regretting in the later part of their lives. I hope he will use this term in office to reverse some of the damage his inefficient management has brought to the country,” he stressed.

“Mr. Biya has had a long time to bring peace and security to the country, but he seems to be happy seeing others bleed to death. I am a member of the ruling party and I can tell you that many in the party want the issues that have weakened our country to be addressed very fast. But the hawks in the regime like Prof. Fame Ndongo are insisting that only an all-out war can resolve the Anglophone crisis. We have already lost more than 1,500 soldiers and some 3,000 civilians in the English-speaking regions of the country. How many more Cameroonians have to die before Mr. Biya realizes that he has failed the people?” he quipped.

Though Mr. Biya has been sown in today, it is clear that not much will change. The next seven years will not witness any fundamental political changes and this will make many people to continue to think that the country is a ticking time bomb.

Cameroon is replete with many problems and many of them are off-shoots of the mismanagement, tribalism and corruption that have become the country’s hallmark. Corruption has robbed the country of the financial resources it needs to undertake major development work.

By Kingsley Betek

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6, November 2018

Cameroon Presidential Poll: Kamto and team arrested in Yaounde ⁰

After his swearing-in on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, ordered the arrest of prominent members of the MRC, the party led by Professor Kamto who actually won last month’s presidential election.

Among those arrested are Prof. Maurice Kamto, Barrister Simh, Christian Penda Ekoka, Alain Fogue Tedom, Okala Ebode and 20 others who were attending an impromptu meeting with some of their party members.

He stressed that he had been elected based on his political program that focused on the poor, the humble and the suffering masses who have been working hard to enable the country stay afloat.

He said the people could count on him as he and the winning coalition that enabled him to win the election would continue to fight on the people’s behalf. He stressed that Cameroon belonged to all Cameroonians and that no Cameroonian should be judged based on their tribe.

He pointed out that Biya had been sworn-in as the country’s president because of the system is corrupt; adding that for the past 36 years, Mr. Biya and his collaborators had fostered tribalism. Shortly after addressing the crowd, Prof. Kamto and his collaborators were whisked away to the Elig- Essono Judicial Police where they are being questioned.

He urged the youths in the two regions who have given government troops a run for their money to return to the path of peace by dropping down their weapons. “I want to call on the youths engaged in hostilities to drop their arms and follow the right path…especially the younger ones who have indulged in a fruitless cause,” he said. He added that “I am convinced the majority of Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions want peace and I am determined to address the root causes of their frustrations.”

“He knows he did not win the election. He knows that a lot of fraudulent things have been done to keep him in power. I think he should now starts thinking of bringing the country together by calling for inclusive dialogue that will enable the country heal,” he said.

The country lacks good medical infrastructure. Most of its hospitals have become consultation clinics. The road infrastructure also leaves much to be desired. The roads are today death traps that are consuming the population at a rate never seen before.

The country’s economy too has taken a nosedive. Over the last 20 years, Cameroon’s economy has been caught in a tailspin. Unemployment has continued to rise, with university graduates not being able to find jobs. Many corporations have gone under, leaving many of their workers unemployed.

But the most difficult challenge is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is very likely to tear the country apart. For more than two years, Southern Cameroonians have engaged the government in a tough battle that has resulted in the killing of some 4,500 Cameroonians, including over 1,500 soldiers.

Following a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in 2016, the two English-speaking regions have become ungovernable. The government’s military actions have caused thousands to flee to Nigeria while millions are hiding in the bushes to avoid the government’s brutality.

Many children are today seeking refuge in those bushes and many babies have been delivered in the process. The number of teenage mothers has increased and this spells another serious problem in the future. The government has not made any convincing efforts to bring the people for their bushes.

On the contrary, soldiers have been torching many homes and killing any young Southern Cameroonians found in the territory in the hope that they could eliminate any threat Southern Cameroonians pose to the government.

Schools have been closed now for two years in the region and many of the students have simply been co-opted into the armed groups that have emerged. As the government turns down any appeals for inclusive dialogue, so too does the situation deteriorate. Even after solutions to the conflict would have been sought, security issues will linger for a long time. Many young men, who have lost hope in life, will continue to use their weapons as a means of eking out a living.

While Southern Cameroonians are struggling to break away from the Yaounde government, Boko Haram is bombing many northerners out of existence. The government’s repressive approach has only caused the people to run to Boko Haram whose methods are more appreciated by the population. The government is yet to understand that its repressive approach is not yielding the right results and this is exactly what caused the Southern Cameroons crisis to escalate.

Mr. Biya might have been handed victory by the fake institutions he has created, but with that victory comes a crown of thorns that might keep him uncomfortable for seven years. The people of Cameroon have lost confidence in him. After 36 years in power, Cameroon has been put in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It will take a miracle for most of the problems currently facing the country to be addressed by the same man who is responsible for these issues.

The world is watching Cameroon and many people will be keeping an eye on Mr. Biya. Many want to see how comfortable he will be in his new crown of thorns. The country is out of cash. It has very few friends around the world and its finances are fast dwindling. With oil prices diminishing on a daily basis and separatists threatening to disrupt oil production in the South-west region, it is clear that before long the government will be taking its begging bowl to other parts of the world for assistance.

Many of its corporations are bleeding money and those in the English-speaking regions of the country that used to haul in millions of dollars are unfortunately out of business due to the armed conflict that is unfolding in the region. The English-speaking regions are in a stand-still and this implies businesses are dying and the government is losing lots of revenue.

Mr. Biya might wear the crown today, but it is clear that the hidden thorns in it will keep him permanently ill at ease. Most of country’s allies have called on the government to find sustainable solutions to the Southern Cameroons crisis and America has simply ended its military partnership with the country due to serious human abuses in the northern part of the country.

Mr. Biya will have to burn the mid-night candle on both ends if he has to post any results. His dwindling financial resources imply that he has a crisis on his hands and with the country awash with weapons, it is clear that the government’s military actions in the English-speaking regions will not deliver the military solutions it has been hankering after for two years.

Cameroonians may have avoided the streets for the sake of peace, but that does not imply Mr. Biya and his men will have to continue to sleep at the switch. They must have their noses to the grindstone if they want Cameroonians to see them differently. After 36 years in power, without anything to show for, Mr. Biya has to change his ways. He must stop using the country’s treasury like his personal ATM. He has to be transparent in the way he runs the affairs of the country and he must embrace genuine democracy. He must see dialogue as an effective tool for conflict resolution and prevention. Arresting his opponents only makes things worse.

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6, November 2018

Americans start voting in critical midterm elections ⁰

US citizens have started voting in the 2018 midterm congressional elections in which 35 million early votes have already been cast.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (1100 GMT) Tuesday on the East Coast, Republicans were keenly aware that losing their majority will hamstring his divisive, nativist political agenda over the next two years.

Republican President Donald Trump has warned voters that a Democratic victory in the elections destroys the American economy and makes way for a “socialist nightmare.”

At stake in the elections are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate, 36 governor’s posts and seats in state legislatures across the country.

Americans will elect lawmakers for all 435 seats in the House of Representative and 35 seats of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. In addition, 39 state and territorial governorship as well as numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.

Trump has acknowledged that members of his Republican Party could lose their majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump said Democrats may win by a narrow margin. He expressed more optimism about Republicans retaining control of the Senate.

In his final pitch to voters before Election Day, Trump told a huge crowd of supporters in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Monday that America’s “single best economy” was at stake and voting Republican on Tuesday was the only way to save it.

“If the radical Democrats take power, they will take a wrecking ball to our economy and to the future of our country,” he said.

“The Democrat agenda will deliver a socialist nightmare,” he added. “The Republican agenda is delivering the American dream. Optimism! The American dream.”

The president then repeated what his critics call a “doomsday message” that he has been preaching over the past days, in an attempt to spread fear about a migrant caravan that is currently moving through Mexico to reach US border.

Democrats are generally favored to win the 23 seats they need to wrest the majority from Republicans in the US House of Representatives for the first time since 2010, according to opinion polls and nonpartisan forecasters.

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6, November 2018

Paul Biya sworn-in for a seventh term, Preaches imaginary unity ⁰

Cameroon’s long serving Head of State Paul Biya popularly known as the monarch has been sworn-in to serve a seventh term, having rigged the disputed October 7 presidential polls. Biya’s acolytes declared him winner of the presidential election with 71% of votes cast, but the Francophone dominated opposition rejected the results citing electoral fraud.

Maurice Kamto, the man widely believed to have won the election has since called for a resistance movement against the outcome of what he describes as a flawed process. Biya’s swearing-in ceremony, conducted before a joint sitting of the legislature in the capital, Yaounde, has however been overshadowed by news of the kidnapping of 79 students and three officials at a school in the English-speaking Northwest region. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the kidnappings were done by agents of the Biya Francophone regime operating under the direct supervision of Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

Over the last 20 years, the monarch has become very dictatorial and he has successfully deleted any lines that existed between the executive, judiciary and legislative branches of the government. It should be recalled that Mr. Biya appoints all magistrates and judges in the country and has a huge influence on members of parliament and senators, 30% of whom are directly appointed by him, while 70% are elected in a counterfeit election whose results are usually known many months ahead of time. And this same influence could be seen during the just-ended presidential elections.

Right from the beginning, it was clear that beating the incumbent through the ballot box will be a Herculean task. The electoral code is beautifully written to ensure that the incumbent is maintained in power. Even the election organizing body, ELECAM, is replete with members of the ruling party and this makes it hard for real impartial elections to be held in a country like Cameroon that lacks basic, transparent and fair election rules.

From every indication, ELECAM is just another wing of the ruling CPDM (Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement), a party considered by many Cameroonians are a crime syndicate due to the type of people who are its members. This party’s membership comprises ex-convicts, hardened criminals, murderers, business-people evading taxes and embezzlers. It has been banned in Southern Cameroons by the Ambazonian Interim Government and designated as a terrorist organization.

ELECAM, by its very nature, cannot organize free and fair elections in Cameroon and this explains why there were many irregularities in this year’s presidential polls, a fact recognized by the American government which clearly indicated in its congratulatory message to the contested winner of the rigged poll.

It should be recalled that Cameroon has just held a presidential election whose results were known by almost everybody, as members of the election-organizing body are appointed by Mr. Biya and most of them are members of his ruling party. Similarly, members of the Constitutional Council were also appointed by Mr. Biya in January and all of them had been compromised. All of them are members of the ruling party, and many of their spouses hold positions in government.

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6, November 2018

Yaounde: Biya to be sworn-in today ⁰

Cameroon president-elect is scheduled to take the oath of office today, according to a program released by the National Assembly.

The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. local time at the National Assembly in capital Yaounde, the program indicates.

On Monday, the final leg of preparations for the president’s swearing-in were underway at the National Assembly.

The ruling party, Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), is mobilizing members and sympathizers to honour the official ceremony in a “special way”, Jean Nkuete, secretary general of the party said.

According to the Constitutional Council, 85-year-old Paul Biya won the presidential poll in October.

Source: Xinhua

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6, November 2018

Facebook’s Cameroon problem: stop online hate stoking conflict ⁰

A video link posted on Facebook on June 20 showed a man cooking human body parts in a pot over a wood fire. In Cameroon, the footage went viral. Some Facebook users said the man was a cannibal and that the video was shot in the country’s English-speaking west, where separatist insurgents are fighting to create a breakaway state.

Local websites quickly debunked this notion. The man in the video was not a separatist fighter or cannibal, and the body parts were not real. The clip was taken on a Nigerian film set and uploaded to Instagram on June 17 by make-up artist Hakeem Onilogbo, who uses the platform to showcase his work.

But the video’s rapid spread raises questions about Facebook’s ability to police millions of posts each day and crack down on hate speech in a country where internet use is rising fast, social media are used for political ends and the company has no permanent physical presence.

The day the link was posted on Facebook, a member of the government brought the video to the attention of international diplomats in the capital, Yaounde, via the WhatsApp messaging service, according to messages seen by Reuters.

Five days later, Cameroon’s minister for territorial administration cited it as justification for an army clampdown against the secessionists that was already under way in the Anglophone regions.

The minister, Paul Atanga Nji, compared the rebellion – over decades of perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority – to an Islamist insurgency waged by the Nigeria-based militant group Boko Haram which has killed 30,000 people.

“Boko Haram committed atrocities, but they did not cut up humans and cook them in pots,” the minister said in comments broadcast on state television and widely reported in Cameroon.

Nji did not respond to requests for comment. Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said that in future the government would work to verify information before commenting.

Facebook said the video had not been reported by users and that it could not comment further on the clip. It was no longer available on the site by late October.

A senior Facebook official said tackling misinformation in Cameroon was a priority for the company, which acknowledges more needs to be done.

“We’re prioritising countries where we’ve already seen how quickly online rumours can fuel violence, such as Myanmar and Cameroon,” said Ebele Okobi, Director of Africa Public Policy at Facebook.

UNDER FIRE

Facebook is under fire for carrying misleading information, including in the United States and Britain, and over posts against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar which have had deadly consequences.

Sri Lankan authorities briefly banned Facebook this year because the government said it was fuelling violence between Buddhists and Muslims. In India, messages on Facebook-owned WhatsApp have been linked to attacks on religious minorities.

In Cameroon, Facebook has been used both to incite violence and to make threatening posts.

Simon Munzu, a former United Nations representative, said he was the target of death threats on Facebook after it was announced in July that he would help organise negotiations in the separatist conflict. Afraid, Munzu went to stay with friends.

Facebook removed the posts in October, after it was made aware of them by Reuters, saying they violated company standards.

Esther Omam, who runs a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Reach Out, hid at a church and then fled to the Francophone region after receiving death threats from separatists following a peace march which she led, she told Reuters.

“The crisis has destroyed my life and my family,” she said. “I cannot work anymore. My family is divided. My husband is elsewhere, my children are elsewhere.”

Facebook has no staff operating permanently in Cameroon and says it monitors the country from Britain and the United States. It has an Africa-focused team that frequently visits the region, and has partnered with NGOs and civil society in Cameroon in recent months to combat hate speech.

This included paying several thousand dollars to civil society to help organise training sessions for journalists to spot falsehoods online, representatives from two groups involved told Reuters. Some groups also flag offensive posts to Facebook.

Facebook has removed pages and accounts related to the separatist conflict, and is working to slow the spread of kidnapping videos, the company said.

It declined to say how many people it had helping it in Cameroon, how much money it had so far invested or how many posts it had taken down.

Reuters found dozens of pages posted in recent months showing graphic images in Cameroon, some of which were months old.

One Facebook user on July 18 posted a picture of the decapitated body of a Cameroonian policeman lying in a gutter, and said the image gave him joy.

The same day, separatist spokesman Ivo Tapang applauded the killing of two Cameroonian soldiers and linked to a website raising funds for guns, ammunition and grenade launchers. Tapang did not respond to requests for comment.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was unaware of the posts before Reuters pointed them out but that they were both removed after review. It is against Facebook rules to celebrate suffering or crowdfund for arms, she said.

Facebook has artificial intelligence that it uses globally to detect problematic posts. But in Cameroon, it does not have a consortium of fact-checking companies to monitor posts – as it does in the United States.

Leading civil society figures in Cameroon say Facebook needs more resources and faces an increasingly difficult task as internet use grows.

“It is not possible to stop misinformation on Facebook,” said Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, executive director of REDHAC, a civil society group that has organised training sessions and flags indecent posts to Facebook.

NO EASY FIX

The number of people with internet access in Cameroon rose from 0.86 million in 2010 to 5.9 million in 2016, about a quarter of the population, according to the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency.

The government shut down the internet in English-speaking regions for three months last year because of the unrest.

After service resumed in April 2017, Facebook was the main outlet for people speaking out against the army crackdown, in which soldiers razed villages and shot dead unarmed civilians.

But misleading and hateful posts have persisted, groups that monitor posts say, echoing issues Facebook sees worldwide.

Facebook is not the only service facing a battle to tackle misinformation and hate speech. Offensive videos and images are posted on Twitter or transmitted by WhatsApp.

WhatsApp cannot view private, encrypted conversations, a WhatsApp spokeswoman said, so detecting hate speech there is harder. A Twitter spokeswoman said it prohibits the promotion of violence and encourages users to flag those posts.

Reuters

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6, November 2018

Oh Lucky Man: Can’t Find President Biya? Try Geneva’s Intercontinental Hotel ⁰

Blinds were drawn at a back office of the Intercontinental Hotel one day last year, as a man known to staff as The General emptied a white cloth bag stuffed with euros. It was time to pay for one of the world’s longest-serving leaders.

For weeks, several former hotel employees recalled, the five-star hotel had been locked in a secret routine serving its best two customers, the first couple of an impoverished oil-exporting Central African country. Paul Biya, president of Cameroon since 1982, and his wife, Chantal, clock so much time on private visits to Switzerland that staff in the Intercontinental’s gilded corridors refer to them by simple code names: Him and Her.

“It’s like they are at home. They live there,” said one of three former senior employees who regularly witnessed the bill-payment ritual.

As with other employees, this person recalled signing a nondisclosure agreement concerning the details of Mr. Biya’s monthlong stays: “If the Cameroonians are not coming, the hotel will close.”

The Intercontinental Hotel said it wouldn’t comment on guests for confidentiality reasons. “Our employees are fully trained not to disclose any information,” a representative said.

The Intercontinental Hotel, Geneva

World leaders dropping top dollar at luxury hotels isn’t by itself unusual. What distinguishes Mr. Biya’s Geneva getaways is the abundant time and hard cash the 85-year-old and his dozens-strong entourage spend here. The president has passed a cumulative four years on personal travels since 1982, the vast majority in Switzerland, according to flight data collected by the website Geneva Dictator Alert, and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative group specializing in anti corruption and organized crime that has tracked his travels. In some years he spent a third of the year out of his home country.

“He always pays in cash,” said Herbert Schott, a retired Intercontinental manager who first hosted Mr. Biya in 1969. “Next year he will mark 50 consecutive years of patronage. It’s a record.”

Mr. Schott welcomed a quarter-century’s worth of American presidents and once gave Ronald Reagan a mattress to replace the White House bedroom’s harsher one. But he said Mr. Biya was his best client. “He prefers to come to Geneva and sit down and nobody would bother him.”

“Lion Man,” as Mr. Biya’s supporters call him, is currently the world’s longest serving elected leader, if counting from his June 1975 arrival as prime minister, the same week McDonald’s Corp. introduced its drive-through. Since 1982, he has served as president. He is Africa’s highest-paid leader, with a $610,000 official salary annually, according to Africa Review, a periodical.

In Mr. Biya’s fourth decade in power, armed separatists are battling soldiers in Cameroon’s southwest, while Islamist terror group Boko Haram seizes villages and kidnaps children en masse in the northeast. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in the past two years. Cameroonian migrants now represent the fourth largest nationality sailing into Greece.

Last month, Mr. Biya won another seven years in office, taking 71% of the vote in an election in which riot police dispersed protesters. In some areas, less than 5% of the population voted. No Western government sent observers.

“We love him, we voted for him and there is nothing new in his habits,” said Cameroon’s Communications Minister Issa Bakary Tchiroma in response to questions about Mr. Biya’s Geneva hotel stays. “We ask everyone, all foreigners, to respect the will of our sovereign people.”

Mr. Biya has rarely given interviews to foreign media in recent years.

In Geneva, the president reserves the entire Intercontinental’s 16th floor, with some 20 rooms and two corner suites overlooking the United Nations’ Europe headquarters and Mont Blanc, said ex-employees, former Cameroon officials, and hotel reservation records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The staff haul armfuls of white flowers for his wife and fresh fruit platters—never cut, per presidential orders—for Mr. Biya, according to former hotel staff.

Mr. Biya’s trips cost millions of dollars apiece, said Christian Penda Ekoka, a longtime chief adviser to the president, turned opposition activist.

Mr. Biya and his wife arrive at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., in 2014

“He gets the money from Cameroon’s treasury” and pays in cash to keep the trips off books, said Mr. Ekoka, who used to be chief adviser to Mr. Biya and had access to trip details. “They want to avoid any trace.”

The Biyas in Switzerland in 2010

A hotel reservation receipt seen by the Journal shows the size of the president’s entourage. In one September 2017 stay, he booked at least 48 rooms. Other Cameroonians stayed in less expensive hotels, former employees said, depending on their standing with the president.

To the U.S. and Europe, Mr. Biya is a valuable if awkward ally against terrorism and migration. The U.S. keeps 200 troops and several predator drones at a base in north Cameroon. American and Israeli special forces train Mr. Biya’s troops.

The European Union has pledged 282 million euros in aid for Cameroon. The hope is the country will grow wealthier, creating jobs to lure Cameroonians back to Cameroon.

The first protests, violently repressed by the Cameroonian armed forces, broke out two years ago. Mr. Biya was at the Intercontinental. He stayed another three weeks after, according to publicly available flight data and Cameroonian state press.

In Geneva, Mr. Biya seldom leaves his corner suite, former hotel staff said. For privacy, the Cameroonian delegation installs its own internet connection and phone switchboard. He enters and exits through the service exit for daily jogs, according to former hotel employees.

Mr. Biya’s suite overlooks tranquil Lake Geneva and a boulevard with placards extolling the virtues of human rights, democracy, rule of law: Geneva is a global capital for humanitarian and pro-democracy institutions.

Then U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan with Mr. Biya in Geneva, 2004

“I find there, each time, an excellent welcome,” wrote Mr. Biya in a 1998 letter to Intercontinental management.

His wife—38 years younger than him—is at times seen in the lobby, robed in fluorescent dresses, standing more than 6 feet tall thanks to a voluminous bouffant hairstyle nicknamed “The Banana.” A Cameroonian journalist recently called her “The Belle of the Banana Republic,” and was sentenced to two years imprisonment for insulting her.

Her aides and hairdressers tip doormen hundreds of euros to run errands. “Cameroon is like a cash machine for the hotel,” said one former employee.

“Everything we can sell them, we do,” said another.

Chantal Biya greets her husband’s supporters in Cameroon in September

Visits begin unannounced, said current and former hotel employees, when an advanced team arrives laden with oversize luggage. Hotel management ejects guests from the 16th floor and moves them to other rooms.

Next comes a kitchen team—the president’s personal chefs from Cameroon—hauling jugs of palm oil and equatorial spices. Housekeepers taking days off are called in.

An enforcer nicknamed The General roams the hallways on the president’s behalf, chastising hotel staff, former hotel employees said.

Last comes an uninvited member of the presidential ensemble, a factory worker from Birmingham, England, who makes YouTube videos of himself shouting at Mr. Biya from outside the hotel.

“Two months again? In Geneva? At the Intercontinental Hotel?” screamed Emmanuel Kemta, a Cameroonian-born dissident in one of his more popular videos. “What are you doing here all this time, Biya?”

Two days before last month’s election, Mr. Biya made his only campaign speech. “What we have to do now is ensure peace reigns,” he said in brief remarks.

Back at the Geneva Intercontinental, staff were watching the elections closely. “They were so afraid he wouldn’t get re-elected,” said one former employee. “They would have a heart attack.”

Culled from The Wall Street Journal

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6, November 2018

Biya regime arrests 20 presidential election protesters ⁰

Cameroonian authorities have arrested 20 people who were protesting an election they allege was stolen by long-serving President Paul Biya.

The protesters claim Maurice Kamto, the flag bearer of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party, won the Oct. 7 presidential election.

Biya, who has led the country since 1982, is to be sworn into office Tuesday for a seventh term. Kamto’s supporters say they plan to disrupt the event.

Away Fonka Augustine, governor of the west region of Cameroon, confirmed Sunday’s arrests and said he deployed the police to keep the peace.

Ndoki Michel, a lawyer for the opposition party, said its members “shall fight until our victory is reinstated.”

The United States has said the October vote was marked by irregularities.

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