21, September 2018

Cameroon’s Worsening Anglophone Crisis Highlights Need for Dialogue and Inclusion ⁰

Anglophone Crisis – Though Boko Haram’s lethality and tactical innovation, al-Shabaab’s resilience, and the brokering of partnerships by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have rightfully dominated analysis of political violence in Africa, other situations are also increasingly relevant for those concerned with political violence in Africa.

With the escalation of the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon and the October general elections presenting a risk of further increased tensions, the evolution of the country’s conflict and its implications for political violence across the continent is worth noting.

Much can be learned about conflict escalation from the Cameroonian government’s reaction to the calls of Anglophone activists, which has pushed the country towards violent conflict and has made the prospects for peaceful dialogue ever dimmer. The Cameroonian government, historically, has not effectively integrated and engaged its Anglophone population through inclusive governance practices. And since protests erupted nearly two years ago, the Biya administration has not seemed inclined to engage in peaceful dialogue to draw down the crisis. Taken together, these suggest that the scale of the conflict, and its lethality, are likely to escalate.

Origins of the Crisis

The origin of friction between Anglophone and Francophone populations in Cameroon can be traced back to the colonial era. Originally under German rule, Cameroon was partitioned between the French and British into two territories, both governed as trusts. Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians were unified under a federal system in 1961 after a plebiscite was held in which voters were given a choice to join either Nigeria or Cameroon. It is worth mentioning that, among Anglophone Cameroonians, nearly 60 percent of Anglophones in the majority-Muslim northern region voted to join Nigeria, while roughly 70 percent of Anglophones in the majority-Christian southern region voted to join Cameroon.

In 1972, under President Ahmadou Ahidjo, the federal system was discarded in favor of a united, bilingual republic. To this day, however, Anglophone regions are governed by Common Law, whereas the rest of the country is governed by a civil code. Debates over the extent to which the country is dominated by Francophones, what sub-national authorities that the two Anglophone regions should be granted, and various cultural matters, have resulted in a proliferation of Anglophone activist groups and general politicking around the issue. Groups that may seem at face value to be apolitical—including teachers’ unions and legal associations—have taken up Anglophone issues as a part of political campaigns.

Anglophones currently make up roughly 20 percent of the country’s population and are undeniably under-represented in President Paul Biya’s government. Since taking power in 1982, less than 11 percent of the ministers appointed by Biya have been Anglophones. At present, just three of the 33 generals in the country and six of the 63-person cabinet members are Anglophones. Even within Anglophone districts, government jobs are often given to Francophone appointees.

Escalation of the Crisis

Though longstanding, the conflict between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians took a lethal turn in 2016 when widespread, peaceful protests and strikes emerged. Media reports focused on the role of Common Law lawyers advocating to abandon the Cameroonian Bar Association. Other groups, including the country’s teachers, then joined the protests. After weeks of strikes, gendarmes used tear gas against protesters. Shortly thereafter, four people were killed in clashes with security forces during a protest in Bamenda that arose after the Cameroon Teacher’s Trade Union called for a strike. Reports also emerged in late November of sexual violence against students at the University of Buea by Cameroonian security forces.

As the protests continued, the Biya government also began detaining and arresting Anglophone activists and journalists and shutting down newspapers and radio stations. Beginning in January 2017 the government cut or greatly slowed down internet services in Anglophone regions. The internet shutdown ended up being one of the longest recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, lasting just under 100 days. The shutdown was economically harmful—given the region’s reputation as “Silicon Mountain”—and also hamstrung efforts to keep track of events in the region.

At the same time, the government also engaged in some conciliatory measures. A National Commission on the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism was established and was accompanied in short order by the “appointing [of] Anglophone magistrates and bilingual teachers, and [the] releasing from prison some Anglophone civil society leaders and activists.” According to Amnesty International, however, “these moves were viewed by the Anglophone movements as being too limited,” and the protests continued.

The groups that have emerged to advance Anglophone rights have advocated different means and different ends. The vast majority of Anglophone activists advocate for peaceful resolution of the conflict, but as government repression has intensified, groups who advocate secession, or worse, violence, have become more significant. Some groups advocate for more federalism, while others call for secession and the establishment of an independent state called “Ambazonia.” A number of armed separatist groups also formed an umbrella organization, the Ambazonia Recognition Collaboration Council (ARCC), claiming to have thousands of fighters.

Through the spring and summer of 2017, however, Anglophone protesters steadily escalated their tactics. Over this period, at least 42 schools and a number of market stalls in Anglophone Cameroon were burned down. A recent report catalogued a number of instances in which Anglophone separatists targeted civilians who did not engage in the demonstrations. The Biya government imposed curfews and increased the security sector’s presence in the region in response. Despite this, Anglophone separatists declared independence on October 1, 2017; in clashes with the state security forces that day, reports indicated that at least a dozen people were killed and 40 arrested.

By November 2017, separatists were making attacks on the government more frequently and brazenly. In the Northwest province, for example, they began targeting police with homemade explosive devices. The Biya government stepped up its repression and arrests, labeled the separatists “terrorists” by comparing them to Boko Haram, and declared war on them.

Actions taken by armed separatist groups and the government continued to worsen. Separatists are suspected to have kidnapped nine employees of a construction firm and in response to the arrest and repatriation of Anglophone activists that fled to Nigeria, an armed separatist group called the Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF) began abducting government officials. Soon thereafter, a Tunisian national living in Cameroon was abducted and killed, after which the government organized a rescue mission to release 18 hostages, including 12 Europeans. Just this May, a radio journalist and Anglophone activist, Mancho Bibixy, was sentenced to 15 years in prison under the country’s anti-terrorism law in a military court. Four journalists had previously been held under the act until President Biya issued a presidential decree for their release. Bibixy’s conviction has prompted speculation about what sentences could be handed down to the other detained activists and journalists.

Throughout this escalation, more than 20,000 people have fled the country for neighboring Nigeria and an estimated 150,000 have been internally displaced. The escalation has transformed a generally peaceful, albeit contentious, debate over the extent and nature of federalism in modern Cameroon into a violent, potentially-existential crisis over the future of the Cameroonian state.

What Lies Ahead?

Though a number of the characteristics of this conflict are specific to Cameroon, the events of the past few years highlight the importance of inclusive governance measures and the ramifications of heavy-handed security responses to political dissidents. In particular, the Cameroonian experience points to the need to engage moderate political dissidents early and earnestly. In waiting months before attempting to work with the Anglophone community and doing so after violence began to escalate, the Biya administration allowed hardliners and separatists within the movement to mobilize effectively and gain influence. Had the government engaged the initial protests, led by lawyers and teachers, the escalation of the crisis may have been averted.

In October, Cameroon will hold elections, which could result in increased tensions. Anglophone territories have previously thrown their support behind the Social Democratic Front (SDF), which currently controls 18 of the 180 seats in parliament. If any perception of illegitimacy in the electoral process takes hold, the current level of violence could take an even deadlier turn. Avoiding an escalation of this kind, and ultimately changing the tone of the current situation, requires dialogue between prominent moderate, non-violent Anglophone activists and the government.

www.searchzima.com

21, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Military brutality makes school resumption impossible ⁰

For more than two years, schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions have been closed following a peaceful demonstration by lawyers and teachers in 2016 against injustice and widespread marginalization.

The demonstrations were followed by the violent military action and this has pushed the country into a military conflict with government troops killing more than 3,000 civilians. The schools are bound to remain closed as government troops are killing students and teachers.

Last week a teacher of the Cameroon Protestant College (CPC) Bali, Mr. Ndeh Blaise, was gunned down by a trigger happy soldiers for no reason. The teacher, who was going to town to run some errands, was stopped by soldiers on patrol. He was asked to present his national identity card, which he promptly did. He was asked by one of the soldiers to undress. He reluctantly did that given that there were some passengers around some of whom were women.

He was later ordered by the soldier to face a wall which he did without question. He was shortly after shot to the leg by the soldier and while lying on the ground, the other passengers rushed to help him, but the said soldier ordered them to stay away or they would be killed. The other passengers were ordered to leave and a moment after, they heard gunshots. It was Mr. Ndeh who had taken a bullet to the chest, a bullet that killed him instantly.

With situations like this, it is hard for schools to resume. Parents are scared of sending their children to school and teachers are reluctant to go to school as both the country’s military and Southern Cameroonian fighters have made them their target.

Many teachers and students in the English-speaking regions have simply migrated from the region for fear of being killed. The conflict in the region has taken unacceptable proportions and the population is moving out.

Last week, things took a turn for the worse. Huge crowds could be seen traveling from the English regions to East Cameroon where they hoped they would find a safe place. The situation was overwhelming and even the South West governor, Okala Bilai, who once called the people of his region “dogs”, had to plead with the residents to cancel their trips. But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The fear was prompted by threats by Southern Cameroonian fighters to implement a strict movement of goods and persons within the region from September 20, 2018 to October 7, 2018. It should be indicated that Cameroon will be having presidential elections on October 7, 2018 and this has ignited a new wave of fighting and killing in the region as the government seeks to mop up the environment.

Campaigns for presidential elections scheduled for October 7, are currently underway and it is generally held that Mr. Biya, considered by the ruling crime syndicate as its natural candidate, will emerge as the winner in an election that has already been rigged.

The movement of the population has prompted new tensions in the cities vacated by the population. As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

While the majority of the population is out, those who do not have relatives out of their main towns have opted to stay and this is costing them their lives. Government militias dressed in the country’s military fatigue are on a rampage. The government has trained a group of Beti killers and unleashed them on the Southern Cameroonian population. A massacre of a global scale is unfolding in many villages and towns in the English-speaking regions.

Pictures emerging from the region are too graphic to be shown. The story is hard to tell. Young men hiding in their homes have been reduced to a mass of flesh as army soldiers move from house to house to carry out a mission they have been handed by Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed; there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

“They have trained killers to kill young able-bodied Southern Cameroonians in the region. This is not the right time for any young man to be in the Southwest and northwest regions. The government has decided to cleanse the region and its militia and military are working hand in glove to implement a plan put in place by the defense minister and his collaborators,” the source said.

“The days ahead will be the bloodiest. The government has no respect for human life. I am really ashamed to be called a Cameroonian. I wish I could express myself in public, but the position I hold makes it hard for me to speak. I am dying in silence. Our country is going through the toughest moments in its history. How can a complaint by a peace-loving people be allowed to degenerate into a civil war,” he added.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many parts of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

While the killings are going on, the Yaoundé government has decided to seal its leaps. The massacre speaks to a well-orchestrated genocide. The government of Cameroon has decided to wipe out all adult males from certain communities as a move to end any opposition it might face in the region.

With presidential elections on the horizon and October 1 which is considered by many Southern Cameroonians as their independence day, the government is hard at work to ensure that it faces no challenges in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch, has not expressed any regret about what is happening in his country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaoundé government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

On the contrary, the defense minister has only issued a press statement indicating that among those who have fled the carnage in the Southwest and Northwest regions to Yaoundé, are some terrorists who have to be neutralized.

The press statement therefore implies that government security forces will be carrying out attacks and searches in neighborhoods inhabited by Southern Cameroonians. The government seems to be rolling out its genocide plan and it is clear that Southern Cameroonians are not safe even in the nation’s capital.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions has finally migrated to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become ghost town as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 20, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

The crisis in Cameroon will not be coming to an end anytime soon. The devil is at work in that part of the world. Government troops and the fighters are all committing atrocities that could not have been associated with Cameroon a few years back. The world has to step in if the carnage must stop. Mr. Biya has finally achieved his goal – leave Cameroon with a civil war once he leaves the stage. The country has finally inherited the dictator’s legacy that has affected many countries on the continent.

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda

21, September 2018

Vietnamese President Quang dead at 61 ⁰

Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang died Friday at age 61 after a prolonged and serious illness, state media reported. He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, Quang had a reputation as a tough leader with little tolerance for dissent.

Though he held one of the country’s top four positions and was officially the head of state, his role as president was seen as largely ceremonial, greeting visiting leaders and hosting diplomatic events in a bid to boost Vietnam’s profile on the world stage.

Quang had appeared thin and pale in public, and was unstable on his feet last week when he hosted a welcoming ceremony for Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Hanoi last week.

His last public appearance was just two days ago, at a meeting with visiting Chinese politicians and foreign dignitaries in Hanoi.

Quang, a member of the Politburo, had a reputation as tough and influential in the inner circles of the communist party, though often appeared uncomfortable in the public eye and lacked the charisma of some of his peers in the upper echelons of the party.

In an interview with AFP in 2016 ahead of a visit by the former French leader Francois Hollande, Quang read from a prepared statement and was quickly escorted from the room by staff when a question went off-script. State media made a somber announcement of his death Friday and celebrated his long commitment to public service.

His time in office was dominated by a simmering conflict with Beijing over the South China Sea, a long-running dispute between the communist neighbours that escalated on several occasions. Vietnam cancelled at least one oil drilling project in the resource-rich region during Quang’s tenure in an apparent bid to quell tensions.

He was the administration’s most public face at a series of high-profile events, most notably at an APEC meeting in Danang in November last year where he hosted a bevy of world leaders including US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.

As president, he oversaw a crackdown on dissidents that rights groups have decried as a chokehold on free expression. More than 40 people were jailed this year and some 100 have been behind bars as of April 2018, according to Amnesty International.

(AFP)

21, September 2018

US sanctions China for buying Russian jets, missiles ⁰

The United States expanded its sanctions war against Russia to China on Thursday, announcing punitive measures against a Chinese military organization for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Stepping up pressure on Moscow over its “malign activities,” the US State Department said it was placing financial sanctions on the Equipment Development Department of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, and its top administrator, for its recent purchase of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles.

Officials said it was the first time a third country has been punished under the CAATSA sanctions legislation for dealing with Russia, and signaled the Trump administration’s will to risk relations with other countries in its campaign against Moscow.

They also said that the US could consider similar action against other countries taking delivery of Russian fighter jets and missiles. US ally Turkey is currently talking with Moscow about an S400 deal.

“The ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia,” a senior administration official told journalists, insisting on anonymity.

“CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country. They are aimed at imposing costs on Russia in response to its malign activities.”

CAATSA, or the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, was passed in 2017 as a tool that gives the Trump administration more ways to target Russia, Iran and North Korea with economic and political sanctions.

With regard to Russia, CAATSA arises from the country’s “aggression in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, cyber intrusions and attacks, interference in the 2016 elections, and other malign activities,” the State Department said.

The legislation allows the government to take action against those companies and individuals who have been placed on the CAATSA blacklist.

EDD and its director Li Shangfu became targets after taking delivery over the past year of the jets and missiles from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms export entity already on the CAATSA blacklist for its support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Targeting Russian ‘big ticket’ arms deals

At the same time, the State Department also announced it was placing 33 Russian intelligence and military-linked actors on its sanctions blacklist under the CAATSA rules.

All of them — defense related firms, officers of the GRU military intelligence agency, and people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency disinformation group — have been on previous US sanctions lists and 28 of them have already been indicted by Russia election meddling investigator Robert Mueller.

“We will continue to vigorously implement CAATSA and urge all countries to curtail relationships with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors, both of which are linked to malign activities worldwide,” the State Department said.

The sanctions freeze any of EDD’s and Li’s assets in US jurisdictions.

They also restrict EDD’s access to global financial markets by blocking foreign exchange transactions under US jurisdiction or any transactions in the US financial system.

The senior official stressed that CAATSA is not going to be implemented across the board, but that the US was choosing Russia’s sale of “bigger ticket items” of “new, fancy, qualitatively significant stuff” that could have a “security impact” on the United States.

“The CAATSA was not intended to take down the economy of third party countries. It’s intended to impose appropriate pressures on Russia in response to Russian malign acts,” the official said.

The official declined to answer if the US would take similar action if Russia delivers S400 missiles to other countries such as Turkey, which is in talks to buy them.

However, he said, “You can be confident that we have spent an enormous amount of time talking about prospective purchases of things such as S-400s and Sukhois with people all around the world who may have been interested in such things and some who may still be.”

“We have made it very clear to them that these — that systems like the S-400 are a system of key concern with potential CAATSA implications.”

(AFP)

21, September 2018

Genocide in Southern Cameroons: Help me to understand! ⁰

The unending gory pictures from Southern Cameroons for the past two years for me is stretching my understanding to its limit. Yes, Southern Cameroonians had the “temerity”, as always, to rise up against long years of marginalisation and second-class citizenship. Yes, they went down on the streets to protest, an inalienable right of all citizens in any country that lays claim to civilised governance. Yes, they took up arms to defend themselves when the government response to their protests was excessive use of military force. But no, I do not understand the extent to which a government can come down so hard on its citizens.

Someone help me understand how for two years running, a government worth its name can be mercilessly mowing down its citizens in silence. Defenceless boys and girls are being quietly decimated on our streets and in our homes (the latest case of Njikwa is telling). How has it become normal to sit idly by and watch our kith and kin being killed in total indifference? How normal has it become for a whole part of the country to be bleeding while we look the other way? The economy of the region has ground to a screeching halt. Our children can no longer school, for want of security. I read with horror the various communiqués from schools in the Southern Zone requesting parents to come collect their children from school. How long shall this sacrifice continue while a so-called President is more absorbed by elections than by peace and security in a territory we “hired” him to protect? What government sits quiet for two years while the country is being torn apart? What government watches idly as the country slides irreversibly into chaos?

Our farms have been abandoned. Businesses have crumbled. Unemployment is now rising at an alarming rate. The people have lost their sources of livelihood. Starvation is staring this region straight in the face and before long, the region will be needing real humanitarian assistance, South Soudan-style, not the contrived humanitarian assistance which the same government has used to con people out of their meagre resources. Granted, the authorities in the country have never been known for their sense of forward thinking, either out of sheer incompetence or poor planning. But, it does not take a degree in economics to anticipate the impending doom. It will come and when it does, it will be ugly.

Please, help me to understand how the notion of dialogue became a foreign and strange notion in Cameroon. Help me to understand how it became difficult for the government to talk to its citizens. Someone please explain to me how empathy and sympathy exited from our national space.

Please, help to understand, as I am lost, perplexed and frankly frightened. I am frightened because the people we thought were human beings capable of reasoning and empathy have, sadly, turned out to be cold-blooded killers. I can bet my bottom franc that had it not been for social media, the scale of the genocide would have been more horrendous.

I am scared because within the country, we have sympathizers and enablers of this ongoing genocide, while the international community is deafeningly quiet in its complicity… We have heard the usual ineffectual noises from international organisations and other “brotherly” countries. Beyond these cliché statements, radio silence. While the killing machine turns and gathers more momentum. And, it is getting worse. We will get up one day and realise that our villages and towns have become veritable ghost towns…

I am still seeking answers…

Shey Kukih Mansah

20, September 2018

Religious leaders denounce atrocities in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Religious leaders of the Protestant Council, the Islamic Superior Council and the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon on Wednesday condemned acts of violence in the two war-torn Anglophone regions of the country, the Southwest and the Northwest.

“We denounce the arbitrary and indiscriminate killings of Cameroonians by armed forces and the Amba Boys,” the leaders said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cameroonians generally refer to armed separatist forces as “Amba Boys”, as they seek to form a new nation called “Ambazonia”.

“We denounce the rampant attacks on educational institutions and the deprivation of children of their right to education,” the statement said, criticizing the “sluggishness and inadequate methods” with which the government is acting to solve the problem.

The leaders who said they were speaking “in one voice and on behalf of all believers and people of good will” insist the conflict can only be resolved through reconciliation and peace.

“We call on the government to promptly initiate and announce a national plan for resolving this crisis, taking into account its real and profound causes in view of establishing veritable peace,” Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the National Episcopal Conference and one of the signatories of the statement told Xinhua.

An armed conflict is in progress in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon where armed separatist forces have declared “independence”.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has displaced over 180,000 people internally and at least 30,000 are seeking refuge in neigbouring Nigeria.

Xinhuanet

20, September 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Njikwa and Bafut transformed into slaughterhouses ⁰

As the crowd moves out of Southern Cameroons, the country’s military has transformed the place into a slaughterhouse. Pictures from Njikwa and Bafut speak to the type of carnage that is taking place in towns deserted by the population.

A source close to the government has hinted that the ministers of defense and territorial administration have hatched a plan to end the fighting through brute force. They believe that once many people are killed, there will be no need for an inclusive dialogue. They want to keep the system as it is, even when Cameroonians are complaining and feel that reforms are necessary.

The source, which elected anonymity, asked why the international community was not taking this issue seriously. “Why has the international community abandoned Southern Cameroonians? When will they come in to end this carnage? There is a massacre unfolding in many part of the English-speaking region. The world has to act before the militia and military kill everybody,” he said.

Ever since the slaughtering of Southern Cameroonians started in October 2017, the country’s president, Paul Biya, who is also known as the monarch has not expressed any regret about what is happening in the country.

Even with the influx of Southern Cameroonians into East Cameroon, the Yaounde government has not made any public statements regarding the welfare of those fleeing the conflict in the region.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a demonstration by teachers and lawyers in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is finally migrating to East Cameroon, as thousands flee Southern Cameroons following threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters to stage sporadic attacks on soldiers and punish civilians who have been cooperating with the Yaoundé government.

All major cities in Southern Cameroons have become beehives as helpless civilians struggle to find a safe place before the expiry of the deadline given by the fighters. Buea, Mamfe, Limbe, Bamenda and Kumba have all witnessed huge crowds struggling to leave, following warnings from Southern Cameroonian fighters that from September 16, 2018, all roads will be blocked and there will be no movement in the region.

More than half a million people, last week, left the English-speaking region as presidential elections scheduled for next month approach. The Southern Cameroons crisis has taking a turn for the worse. While there are some helpless people in the region, the government has intensified its attacks and it has, so far, not issued any statements to reassure the fear-stricken population that is still living there and local officials have been tight-lipped over the displacement of over half a million people in the region.

Over the last two weeks, more than 500 civilians have been killed in the region, while some army soldiers have been sent to an early grave by restoration forces. The government has been struggling to localize the Southern Cameroons crisis, but as the fighting intensifies, many people are seeking refuge in the French-speaking region of the country.

The mass movement of Southern Cameroonians into other parts of the country has resulted in escalating food and housing prices. The high living cost is keeping government officials in cities such as Yaoundé and Douala awake all night, as they fear that the increasing pressure might cause the cash-strapped Francophone population to rebel against the government.

Many analysts are wondering when the killing and madness will come to an end. They hold that a different approach could have produced different results and this issue could have been laid to rest a long time ago.

The little infrastructure the two regions possess is deteriorating on a daily basis as both parties do what they can to prove that they have an upper hand. Today, the road leading to Bamenda from East Cameroon has been destroyed by Southern Cameroonian fighters and this is going to cost the region a huge fortune.

Ever since the crisis started, many eminent people across the world have called on the government to change its strategy, but the president of the country, Paul Biya, and his collaborators still see military action as the only option and this is what is causing the escalation.

The devil seems to be at work in Cameroon. Power and money have caused the government to lose its decency. In normal environments, peace talks will be going on to avert the worst. In Cameroon, that is not happening. Even when the country’s economy is taking the heat, the Yaoundé regime still holds that it can only crush opposition by force.

When is the government going to figure out that dialogue can produce more results than military action? When will it know that innocent civilians are being killed for crimes they have not committed?

When will it understand that to live in peace with other people, it must not use brute force? Why has the government taken a position that is not tenable? The more it wants to destroy the fighters, the more the fighters want to prove that they can stand the test.

These extreme positions are not helping anybody. A shift in thinking and mentality could bring about peace and unity instead of military action. Cameroon is on the brink. The devil is at work in Cameroon. Many lives have been ruined. Many young men and soldiers have been rushed to an early grave.

The world cannot continue to play spectator to a situation that is resulting in thousands of deaths. Another Rwanda is silently playing out in Cameroon and the AU and EU are doing nothing to check this madness that is being encouraged by the government. The world seems to have abandoned Southern Cameroonians to their ugly fate.

Cameroon needs help. The world has to come in to stop the blood flow. The country is heading to the bottom of the abyss and if something is not done, the entire sub-region will be destabilized. Mr. Biya and government are mowing down the people of Southern Cameroons. Their only crime is that they have complained about a regime that is causing them a lot of pain.

For how long will the world continue to look the other way while the Yaoundé government reduces the size of its own population? Does one and indivisible imply that an entire region must be decimated?

By Kingsley Betek in Bamenda

20, September 2018

Congo-Kinshasa: Kabila Candidate Faces Challenges in Election ⁰

Joseph Kabila’s preferred successor as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will face a credible election challenge in December from two opposition leaders, the final list of candidates published Wednesday
showed.

Kabila has ruled since his father’s assassination in 2001. He agreed last month not to defy term limits and stand for re-election, opening the door to the Central African nation’s first democratic transfer of power.

His announcement calmed tensions that have seen dozens of anti-Kabila demonstrators killed by security forces since he refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December 2016.

Kabila is backing Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary in the long-delayed Dec. 23 election. His biggest challengers are likely to be Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo’s largest opposition party, and Vital Kamerhe, who placed third in the last election in 2011.

But in all, 21 candidates have been approved for the single-round contest, including several other prominent Kabila critics, which risks diluting the opposition vote and boosting Ramazani’s chances.

Fairness questions

The authorities’ exclusion from the race of other leading opposition figures, including former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and ex-provincial Governor Moise Katumbi, has also raised questions about the election’s fairness.

The opposition accuses Kabila’s camp of plotting to rig the elections with untested electronic voting machines, a charge the ruling coalition rejects.

In a rare opinion poll in July, Katumbi and Tshisekedi each received 19 percent support. Bemba received 17 percent and Kamerhe got 9 percent.

Ramazani did not receive enough votes to figure in the results but is expected to now benefit from the ruling coalition’s financial and institutional muscle.

Opposition leaders have repeatedly said they intend to coalesce behind a single candidate but have traditionally struggled to present a united front. In 2011, Kabila won with 49 percent of ballots cast as the opposition vote split.

The final candidate list also includes former Prime Minister Samy Badibanga and longtime Kabila ally Tryphon Kin-Kiey.

Bemba was disqualified by the constitutional court earlier this month over a witness-tampering conviction, while Katumbi was prevented from re-entering the country last month to register his candidacy after two years in exile.

The electoral commission also validated more than 15,000 candidacies for parliamentary elections due to take place the same day.

Reuters

20, September 2018

October Presidential Election: Candidates avoiding Southern Cameroons ⁰

Candidates for Cameroon’s October 7th presidential election have largely avoided traveling to the restive English-speaking regions where armed separatists have vowed the vote will not take place. But all of them are proposing solutions to the problems that have crippled the English-speaking regions for two years now, leaving at least 300 dead.

The only presidential candidate in Cameroon who has visited an English-speaking town is Frankline Ndifor Afanwi, the flag-bearer of the Cameroon National Citizenship Movement. Afanwi said he mustered the courage to visit Mutengene when his supporters assured him there was calm after the military chased armed separatists from the southwestern town last week.

Afanwi said he is pleading with fighters to drop their guns.

“Let all those who are fighting stop the fighting. The insecurity is coming up because many people are acting out of grievances. Let them not be filled with grievances anymore. We are going to bring in what will satisfy the hearts of Cameroonians,” he said.

Although the eight other candidates, including incumbent Paul Biya, have not been to the restive regions, they are proposing solutions to the crisis.

Main opposition candidate Joshua Osih, of the SDF, who is from the English-speaking southwest region, wants to adopt a federal republic granting each region greater autonomy.

“The problem is not the secession. The problem is the marginalization and injustices that led to that secession. Guess what, the secession will not necessarily solve that problem. When you have a president of the republic who understands these issue, the first thing that has to happen is to solve the problem of marginalization,” said Osih.

Candidate Garga Haman Adji of the ADD party is from the French speaking far north region. He also thinks it is worth considering a more decentralized government and wants to see more English speakers appointed to ministerial positions.

“What is remaining is a joint commission to discuss the anglophone problem. They are my brothers and sisters. I want this problem to be solved,” he said.

The candidates say their security is not assured in the English-speaking regions, where kidnappings, killings and burning of public property have occurred.

President Paul Biya is running to extend his 36 years in power. He said he is ready for dialogue, but opposes any discussion on changing the form of the state.

There are doubts the election will be held in Anglophone regions, where two years ago, residents began to press for more autonomy, complaining of the dominant use of the French language in the bilingual country.

Separatists took over the movement. Last year, they declared a new English-speaking state called Ambazonia had been born in Cameroon. The government responded by declaring war on them.

The separatists have vowed on social media that no election will take place and intensified attacks on towns and villages, provoking an exodus of people.

The country’s elections management body ELECAM says it has adopted security measures so the vote can take place.

The United Nations says 200,000 Cameroonians have been internally displaced and 40,000 have sought refuge in Nigeria.

Culled from the VOA

20, September 2018

Liberia $104m cash scandal: Former President’s son, officials banned from travelling ⁰

Liberia’s government has released a list of people that are barred from leaving the country including the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as investigations into the whereabouts of $104 million in missing cash intended for the central bank intensify.

A series of shipments of notes ordered by Liberia’s central bank from printers overseas have disappeared since last year after passing through the country’s main ports, Liberia’s information minister Eugene Nagbe told local radio on Tuesday.

The missing amount is the equivalent of nearly 5 percent of the West African country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications.

Officials under investigation

Charles Sirleaf, the son of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former central bank governor, Milton Weeks, are among those barred from travel as part of the investigation, said a Ministry of Information statement released late on Tuesday. “The government… takes the ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications,” it said.

Weeks told Reuters he had “no involvement in this matter” and was cooperating with investigators. Sirleaf was not immediately reachable for comment. Central Bank officials also did not respond to requests for comment.

Investigators are still trying to ascertain how much money was ordered, where it was printed, how much of it eventually arrived in the country, and where it is now. The money was ordered when Sirleaf was still in power, before President George Weah took over this year.

Sirleaf was lauded for cementing peace during her 12-year presidency but was criticised for failing to rein in high-level corruption.

Charles Sirleaf, one of three of her sons appointed to government posts, was suspended from his position as Deputy Central Bank Governor in 2012 during an anti-corruption investigation. But he was re-appointed interim central bank chief in February 2016, drawing accusations of nepotism.

Investigations

Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean said Sirleaf’s administration had not informed Liberia’s current government of the initial order and that an investigation had begun once Weah became aware of it in August.

Information minister Nagabe told Voice of America on Tuesday there were no records of the containers being collected from the ports, despite several bank staff employees having written a request for pick-up on March 31. The containers were recorded as having arrived in November 2017 and August 2018.

Liberia does not have its own mint, and the central bank is the only body with the power to order new currency. Liberia’s government last approved the printing of new notes in August 2016, as the country recovered from a devastating Ebola epidemic.

The missing cash comes as an unexpected blow to Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries that suffered two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. Ebola struck in 2013, killing thousands over the following three years.

REUTERS