11, June 2018

New Age Africa Energy providing French Cameroon £ 1.5 Billion to fund Genocide in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Interim Government of Federal Republic of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) condemns in the strongest possible terms the signing of the corrupt genocidal Limbe Floating LNG deal with London based New Age African Global Energy and Och-Ziff in Ambazonia.

We call on the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the United Kingdom Authorities to investigate Steve Lowden, New Age Africa and Och-Ziff business deal in Cameroun, where the company have spent millions of dollars corrupting the government of La Republique du Cameroun to approve the Limbe Floating LNG project at the expense of more than 200,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP), 65,000 Refugees in neighboring Nigeria, over a 1000 dead and an unknown number of Southern Cameroonians sitting in uninhabitable prisons in French Cameroun.

We demand that Steve Lowden, New Age Africa and Och-Ziff disclose all financial payments made to Aldophe Moudiki, Paul Biya, Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement and Jean Jacque Koum.

These resources belong to the people of Southern Cameroons, therefore New Age Africa Global Energy, Och-Ziff and Steve Lowden who have had a long history of propping up dictatorships and paying bribes should be put on notice that Southern Cameroonians will not standby idly while they plunder their resources and fund a genocide against our people.

We hereby call on Steve Lowden, New Age Africa and Och-Ziff to repudiate, cancel the corrupt deal and immediately call on the Cameroun government to release our leaders, HE. Sissiku Julius Ayuktabe, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Dr. Fidelis Nde Che, Dr. Henry Kimeng, Barrister Shufai Beriyuy, Prof. Che Awasum, Dr.

Cornelius Kwanga, Mr. Wifred Tassang, Dr. Ogork Egbe, Barrister Eyambe Elias and many others currently languishing in jails.

This is the kind of corruption and theft that Southern Cameroonians despise and we will not tolerate any kind of deals done with the rogue regime in Yaounde at the expense of our people.

It will be wise and prudent for Bowleven, LUKOIL, and other financial backers to immediately disassociate themselves with Steve Lowden, New Age Africa, Och-Ziff and Paul Biya.

We call for a vigorous Cameroon Economic Divestment Campaign and we will continue to aggressively campaign against companies and individuals like Steve Lowden, New Age Africa and Och-Ziff.

It is time for Western governments to pass a Cameroon Divestment Act that will compel governments to cut investment ties with companies and individuals doing business with La Republique du Cameroon.

It should be noted that New Age Africa and Och-Ziff was formed in Jersey in 2007 by Steve Lowden. The company is backed by US Hedge-Fund Och-Ziff which had to pay more than $400 million( £295 million) in bribery settlements following an investigation by the US government after finding out that the company had paid more than $100 million (£74 million) in bribes to government officials in Libya, Zimbabwe, Chad, Niger, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to secure natural resources deals and investments.

The Interim Government is warning companies and individuals that they will be held accountable as accomplices for the burning down of our villages, the target killing of our people, the destruction of property, abduction and incarceration of our people by the genocidal crime syndicate regime in La Republique du Cameroun.

Done this 10th Day of June 2018

Tabenyang Etchu Secretary of State, Interim Government Federal Republic of Ambazonia

11, June 2018

One and Indivisible Cameroon is Crumbling under Biya’s Watch ⁰

The Bamilekes, the Hausas, Fulanis, Sawa, Bassas, Fang, Beti and Ewondos are all feeling the pains deeply seeing the beautiful dream of a strong and proud United Republic of Cameroon-a country that was expected to stand tall in Sub Saharan Africa now losing its reason for being—an enlightened democracy and secure African state living in harmony with its neighbors.

Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates have destroyed the so-called One and Indivisible Cameroon. To be sure, Cameroon’s social fabric has been torn apart by political divisiveness and massive economic injustice against the people of Southern Cameroons now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Today, what is left of the United Republic of Cameroon is a nation that is increasingly being isolated, degenerating into a garrison state with highly placed civil servants, politicians and businessmen moving around in gun proof cars, armoured vehicles and bullet proof helmets.

Cameroon is virtually crumbling under Paul Biya’s watch-a man who as head of state has served longest in this position. The one million dollar question is, where is Biya leading the people of Cameroon and what will be in store for Cameroonians tomorrow as the one and indivisible is now at a fateful cross-road and facing an uncertain future?

Pro-Biya comedians and Biya himself will disagree with Cameroon Concord News Group, but we of this publication are urging Biya to reflect on what the US ambassador Peter Barlerin told him lately and begin with a fast transition.

An American ambassador in any nation in the world is a very important figure. He represents a nation that has generously provided support to poorer countries including Cameroon all around the globe. It is the world’s most powerful nation. The Americans and even the French are now aware that Biya conveniently surrounded himself with a corrupt Francophone Beti Ewondo political elite— cabinet ministers with no morals, no compunction, and nothing but an insatiable lust for power and women. All of them are in their second or third marriages and they have all been consumed by their personal political agendas and absorbed in domestic corruption and intrigues.

Mr. Biya has several such ministers—among them Justice Minister, Laurent Esso, who had his first kids with a Southern Cameroonian woman but who endorsed the idea that Ambazonians were the enemy and made the call for indiscriminate killing that includes Southern Cameroons elderly people and its women and children and the destruction of its cities and its villages, its properties and its infrastructure.

Mr. Biya indeed has several such ministers- among them again is a National Education Minister,Nalova Lyonga, who during her time as Rector of the Buea University ordered soldiers to rape and kill innocent Southern Cameroons students and a Higher Education Minister, Fame Ndongo, who is out to stifle anything that is Anglo-Saxon in Cameroon—who even makes a mockery of the presence of English speaking Cameroonians in their one and indivisible Cameroon.

Biya has successfully enveloped himself in an ideological siege with a ghetto mentality and selective native juju precepts, supported by a blind chorus of CPDM MPs and Senators that only echoes his distorted tune. Biya and his gang have constantly manipulated Cameroonian public opinion with national security concerns and falsely connect security to genuine Southern Cameroons demands.

The 85 year-old French Cameroun dictator delights in facing an inept political opposition headed by the Social Democratic Front. With these lame Cameroonian opposition parties sitting on the fringes of political despair, they have now become easy to co-opt in support of Biya’s misguided domestic policies against Southern Cameroonians all in the name of national unity and patriotism.

Biya still boast about Cameroon’s economic prowess and he is still dreaming of his emergence 2030 initiative when in fact Cameroon’s economy as a whole is in a state of stagnation and a handful of CPDM billionaires such as Baba Danpullo control the financial heart of the nation while tens of thousands of families are scrambling to survive.

95 per cent of citizens in the One and Indivisible Cameroon are living in poverty—three quarters of whom are children—while millions of dollars was paid to President Buhari and the Nigerian DSS to abduct and extradite the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia including top aides of his government. Tourism is diving, foreign investments are plunging, and the Southern Cameroons quest for independence is gaining momentum.

The corruption and criminality among top officials is staggering; more than 40 ministers, a prime minister, secretaries and CEO of state-owned companies have been convicted of crimes by the Special Criminal Court. Dozens more have been indicted, with some escaping to Europe and North America.

Biya has spent 37 years as head of state discriminating against Southern Cameroonians with his tribal government’s policy of unequal treatment, and then is now questioning Anglophone loyalty to the state of Cameroon.

Southern Cameroonian freedom fighters challenging Cameroon government troops in the Northern and Southern zones have revealed an open and bloody wound in the heart of the One and Indivisible Cameroonian society. This is a wound of a people sounding the alarm at what they feel is discrimination, marginalization and disregard of their needs. The United States and the European Union must take a good hard look at this Southern Cameroons wound.

Demographically, the country is facing a grave danger. Both Southern Cameroonians and French Cameroun citizens are leaving the country mainly for economic reasons and the lack of a prospect of ending the debilitating conflict in Southern Cameroons.

In particular, support for the war in Southern Cameroons is consistently trending downward in La Republique du Cameroun. Many French speaking Cameroonians now understand that Mr. Biya got it all wrong by declaring war against the Anglophone community.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites have treated Southern Cameroonians like objects, to be used and abused. The Biya regime has violated Southern Cameroons human rights with brazen impunity and it will take decades for the wound to heal.

French speaking Cameroonians do not understand the meaning of being utterly overpowered by someone you have called “brother”, of having one’s house burnt down in the night, terrifying women and children, more than 77 villages destroyed and of losing the sense of having any control over one’s life. One would think that those who suffered during French government imposed policies such as La Prestation and La Cuvee (Force Labour) would treat others with care and sensitivity.

Cameroon Concord News Group does not intend to exempt Ambazonian militants of their role, but the actions of Biya and his Francophone ministers’ are inciting hostility and ultimately fostering violent extremism in Southern Cameroons. Biya’s errand boy Peter Mafany Musonge keeps using old and tired talking points about the situation in Southern Cameroons which have long been dismissed as empty, self-convincing gospel.

Biya has been speaking in support of decentralization, but he has never lifted a finger to advance it; Biya’s actions only point to the opposite direction. The children of Southern Cameroons both at home and abroad must determine their own destiny and not leave it to anybody not even the UN.

Time is not on Biya’s side, and even though Southern Cameroonians are suffering, violent extremism targeting French Cameroun will only increase. Without a carefully thought-out plan to gradually engage the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Africa’s next civil war will indeed by Cameroon.

Ending the war in Southern Cameroons and accepting that two states came together in 1961 to form a Federal Republic of Cameroon is not a charitable gift to Ambazonians. Only by accepting Southern Cameroonians rights to a state of their own will French Cameroun starts enjoying peace and security again.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

11, June 2018

Why Akere Muna, the NOW Movement and Joshua Osih will lose the French Camroun 2018 Presidential Elections ⁰

As it’s often said *’Politics is local’*. It is indeed local.

*Cameroons Electoral Political History*

At the Reunification of Cameroon in 1961, The Southern Cameroons (later West Cameroon) was an electoral Constituency (within which contested the various Southern Cameroons Political Parties).

While LRC (East Cameroon) had three Constituencies that voted along these lines (The Grand North – Fulanis, The Centre South – Betis and the West- Bamileke & Bassa).

*Case Precedent – 1992 Presidential Elections*

The results of the 1992 Presidential Elections displayed the following patterns;

*SDF* – won in the North West, South West, Littoral & West Regions.

*CPDM* – won in the Centre, South, East & Far North Regions.

*UNDP* – won in the Adamawa & North Regions.

Ever since the 1992 Presidential Elections till present, all electoral results have reflected the above patterns.

While the CPDM made inroads into the SDFs & UNDPs Constituencies, both the SDF and UNDP were reduced to Regional Political Parties as seen in the recent Senatorial Elections with the SDF winning only 7 seats of 70 contested seats. While the CPDM won 63 on 70 seats and the UNDP failed to win a single seat.

*Electoral Data*

*SDF*

Looking at the recent Electoral historical data Joshua Osih the SDFs candidate is destined to win less than 15% of the vote. And with Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia his constituency not taking part in the elections, Joshua Osih and the SDF may retain less than 10% of the vote.

*NOW MOVEMENT*

With the *NOW MOVEMENT* taking part in the elections for the first time, not representing any political party and with Ambazonia, Akere Muna’s constituency not taking part in the elections, Akere Muna is destined to win less than 5% of the vote.

*The CPDM*

This leaves the CPDM party and its candidate to win the remainder of the vote with at least 75% and the other 5% being won by other smaller parties like Maurice Kamto’s MRC.

This is based on recent Electoral data in which the CPDM won 56 seats in all 8 Regions of LRC and 7 seats in one of the two Regions in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. The above analysis is based on recent empirical data.

*The Wild Card – A Presidential Coalition of Opposition Political Parties/Movements*

Recent electoral data doesn’t prevent the Opposition parties from forming a coalition if they stand a chance of defeating the ruling party CPDM.

Based on recent Coalition Electoral data this coalition will have as members the SDF (Joshua Osih), MRC (Maurice Kamto), NOW Movement (Akere Muna), CDU (Adamou Ndam Njoya), CPP (Kah Walla) and any other smaller political parties.

Of all the above candidates only Maurice Kamto is from LRC and the rest of the candidates are from Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia whose constituency will not be taking part in the elections and whose constituency represent about 20 – 25% of the electorate.

Based on recent Electoral data any coalition will need to win the Grand North constituency (Adamawa, North and Far North Regions) which is currently in the grasp of the CPDM.

It should be noted that the Grand North constituency is the most populated constituency from recent population census data.

The possible best results for any such coalition of Opposition parties will be 20 – 30% of the vote which still leaves the CPDM with an outright victory of 70% of the vote considering Cameroon only conducts a Single round of votes at the Presidential Elections.

*The Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia Question*

With Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia having declared her independence on 1st October 2017 and currently engage in a guerilla warfare with the LRC Military it is difficult to see how up to 20% of the electorate in this part of the country will vote.

Also the Ambazonia Interim Government has prohibited the conducting of any LRC Elections within Ambazonia. The continous displacement of the population of Ambazonia and the reign of terror being executed on these populations by Military Forces from LRC indicates the majority of the populations of Ambazonia are in no mode to take part in elections being organised by a Government who has inflicted so much pain and terror on them.

*Reasons for Outright Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia Restoration of Independence*

The SDF was formed in 1990 with sole mission to restore the former State of West Cameroon. However with citizens from LRC taking much interest in the SDF party, the SDF NEC decided to take a shot at capturing the Presidency of LRC. The SDF candidate at the 1992 Presidential Elections John Fru Ndi came a close second with 36% of the vote, while Paul Biya of the CPDM won with 39% of the votes.

Ever since then the SDF has seen its electoral fortunes reduced and confined to the North West Region giving it a Regional party rather than National party status. This has convinced the majority of Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians that the only option left to them is to support the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia Interim Government to enable it restore the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia’s Autonomy as was the case In 1961.

*Summary*

Based on the above analysis and recent electoral data, it is difficult to assume or predict how either Joshua Osih (SDF) or Akere Muna (NOW Movement) could win the 2018 LRC Presidential Elections.

However in politics nothing is permanent or predictable. I will conclude by stating in October 2018 (that is if the LRC Presidential Elections are held) the results will vindicate the above analysis.

By Oswald Tebit

The opinions expressed here are NOT that of the Cameroon Concord News Group

11, June 2018

Germany’s Merkel says Trump G7 tweets ‘sobering, depressing’ ⁰

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the US President Donald Trump’s tweets concerning the G7 summit “sobering and a little depressing.”

“It’s hard, it’s depressing this time, but that’s not the end” of the Group of Seven, said Merkel during a televised broadcast on Sunday night.

Merkel added that Europe will implement counter-measures against US tariffs on steel and aluminum, similar to recent measures by Canada.

“So we won’t let ourselves be ripped off again and again. Instead, we act then too,” she said.

She added that the EU would also try to avoid retaliation by the US by imposing tariffs on cars.

“First of all, we’ll try and see if we can prevent this… And then hope that the EU will respond again in the same unity,” she said.

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas slammed Trump for sending tweets about a recent meeting of G7 group of industrialized nations, saying those statements are further destroying trust between the United States and traditional allies in the West.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the EU would continue to support the communiqué, which included commitment to a “rules-based international trading system” and a pledge to “continue to fight protectionism.”

“We spent two days to obtain a text and commitments. We will stand by them and anyone who would depart from them, once their back was turned, shows their incoherence and inconsistency,” said a statement released by Macron’s office.

“International cooperation cannot depend on fits of anger or little words. Let us be serious and worthy of our people,” it added.

Trump departed early from Quebec, where the G7 leaders were gathering, on Saturday, saying a more urgent priority for him was an upcoming face-to-face meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

He tweeted again about the G7 from Air Force One, where he was departing for Singapore, and that the text of the final statement of the summit was not acceptable.

“Europe United is the answer to America First,” wrote Trump in a series of angry tweets about the summit.

Source: Presstv

11, June 2018

Over 600 refugees remain stranded at sea as Italy, Malta close ports ⁰

Hundreds of refugees remain stranded in a humanitarian ship at sea after both Italy and Malta refused to open their ports to the vessel and engaged, instead, in a diplomatic spat over the issue.

Italy’s new Interior Minister and leader of the far-right League Party, Matteo Salvini closed Italian ports on Sunday and refused to let in the rescue boat, Aquarius, carrying over 600 refugees.

Instead, he sent a letter to the island-state of Malta, south of Italy, threatening to close all the Italian ports if the Maltese government refuses to take the ship.

The European charity group, SOS Méditerranée, which operates Aquarius, said Sunday that the humanitarian ship has on board 629 refugees, including unaccompanied children and pregnant women mainly from sub-Saharan Africans, who were picked up in six different rescue operations off the coast of Libya.

Refugees wait to disembark from Aquarius in the Sicilian harbor of Catania, Italy, May 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Salvini said in a statement on Sunday that Malta “cannot continue to look the other way when it comes to respecting precise international conventions on the protection of human life.”

“That’s why we ask the government in Valletta to take in the Aquarius in order to offer first aid to the migrants on board,” the statement added.

The Maltese government, however, brushed off the request, saying that the operations took place in international waters off Libya and that “Malta is neither the competent nor the coordinating authority in this case.”

The government’s statement also said Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had spoken to Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, underlining “that Malta is acting in full conformity with its international obligations.”

“As such Malta will not take the said vessel in its ports,” the statement added.

Amid the spat, the ship remains stuck in waters of the central Mediterranean—between Malta and Italy.

The SOS Méditerranée’s spokesperson Mathilde Auvillain said the vessel has been instructed to head north after a series of sea rescues and is now awaiting “definitive instructions.”

Controversy inside Italy

Salvini’s far-right party had campaigned heavily on an election vow to stop new refugee arrivals; in addition to closing the country’s ports, Salvini has also pledged to speed up deportation of refugees.

The Italian interior minister has said he is mulling over action against organizations rescuing refugees at sea. He has accused the air groups of collaborating with human traffickers, calling on NATO to help Rome “defend” its southern shores.

Salvini’s anti-refugee stance has sparked criticism inside the country, with several figures, including mayors of Palermo, Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci, offering to take in the refugees.

The mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando said he would allow Aquarius to dock at the Sicilian port.

“Palermo in ancient Greek meant ‘complete port,’” said the mayor. “We have always welcomed rescue boats and vessels who saved lives at sea. We will not stop now.”

Orlando accused the new interior minister of violating international law, saying that Salvini has once again shown that “we are under an extreme far-right government.”

Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris also said the city would welcome in the humanitarian boat.

Refugees on a boat after being rescued by the Aquariu in the Mediterranean sea in front of the Libyan coast on May 24, 2016. (AFP)

“Naples is ready, without funds, to save lives,” said the city mayor, adding that “if a minister without a heart leaves pregnant women, children, old people, human being to die, the port of Naples is ready to welcome them.”

Over the past five years, more than 600,000 refugees have reached Italy by risking their lives in the sea. Some 500,000 of them are still staying in the country.

According to the United Nations figures, at least 500 people have died this year as they were trying to cross the central Mediterranean. Some 2,853 also lost their lives last year.

Culled from Presstv

10, June 2018

New Age African Global Energy Contract with French Cameroun is a money laundering scam to sustain a collapsing crime syndicate ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group 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 Groups 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 Group 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.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

10, June 2018

Ambazonia: Cameroon soldier killed in the Northern Zone ⁰

A soldier was killed in an attack in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking Northwest Region on Saturday, local sources said.

The soldier was “ambushed” while on patrol with another service member, who was not harmed, near the town of Furu-Awa in the Menchum department, a regional source told AFP.

Violence occurs almost daily in the Northwest and Southwest Regions between government forces and English-speaking separatists, who are fighting for greater autonomy.

For years, resentment built among anglophones, who make up about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 22 million, fostered by perceived marginalisation at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

The crisis escalated last October after the declaration of the self-described “Republic of Ambazonia” in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, causing scores of deaths and prompting tens of thousands to flee their homes.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, at least 120 civilians and 43 security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN says 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.

Source: AFP

10, June 2018

Suspected jihadists kill six in Cameroon ⁰

Six villagers were killed overnight in northern Cameroon in an attack attributed to Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist group, a local leader said today.

The attack occurred in the village of Mangave Foya, said Abdoulaye Yerima Bakari, the head of the Dogba administrative region. “They attacked the home of a district chief, whom they shot, as well as two other people” who were in the building, he said.

When the neighbours came out to investigate the gunfire, the assailants opened fire, killing three of them, he said. A local self-defence group and the security forces, joined by some villagers, gave chase, killing five attackers and arresting three others, he added.

Boko Haram, a militant movement opposed to Western influence and seeking an Islamic state based on Sharia law, has caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people since it took up arms in Nigeria in 2009.

Their insurgency has spilled into neighbouring countries, including Cameroon. Since 2014, the group has killed 2,000 civilians and soldiers and kidnapped about 1,000 people in northern Cameroon, according to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Source: AFP

10, June 2018

Violence in Central African Republic Spills into Cameroon ⁰

Robberies and kidnappings are on the rise in eastern Cameroon, as violence from the neighboring Central African Republic spills across the border. Armed groups from the C.A.R. have been stealing supplies and taking dozens of people hostage for ransom.

Iya Gabdo, a cattle rancher, says armed men took him hostage three weeks ago after he could not pay the $5,000 they demanded. Gabdo says many of his peers were also kidnapped that day.

He says the only available water for the hostages was from doubtful sources, and they were hardly served a meal a day. He says most of the hostages are now sick, either because they did not bathe or because they drank dirty water.

Freed hostages are transported to Ngaoui, Cameroon, June 6, 2018. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)

The military freed Gabdo this past week, returning him and 13 others to the town of Ngaoui. The military said one hostage was killed in the rescue and several were wounded. Several armed men also were killed.

Ngaoui hosts one of the largest cattle markets on Cameroon’s border with the C.A.R. The market was reduced to a shadow of itself four years ago when armed groups started crossing the border to attack and kidnap Cameroonian cattle ranchers and business people for ransom, or to steal their property.

Ammunition and weapons were seized from armed men who held Cameroonians hostage, June 6, 2018.

On several occasions, Cameroon sealed the border.

In 2016, business resumed in border areas when new C.A.R. President Faustin-Archange Touadera promised to bring peace to the troubled nation. But last year, the United Nations reported that fresh fighting involving armed groups in the C.A.R. was leading to new waves of bloodshed and displacement.

Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon, says that since the fighting erupted again, there have been increasing attacks in Cameroon’s territory.

Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon, visits the freed hostages in Ngaoui, Cameroon, June 6, 2018.

“They kidnapped the chief of Akundere and they asked him a ransom of a hundred million CFA [$180,000],” Boukar said. “So, I want to invite the population to continue cooperating, giving the information to the forces of law and order, to the administration. And I think, I do hope we are going to put an end to this type of banditry.”

The C.A.R. descended into chaos after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013 by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called the Seleka. Christian militias called the anti-Balaka emerged in response, accelerating a cycle of sectarian violence.

Last month, the C.A.R.’s minister of humanitarian activities visited Cameroon and said violence continues in her country because it is hard to control the circulation of arms, or to bring the various armed factions together for true dialogue.

Culled from VOA

10, June 2018

Biya regime plotting to kill Acting President Samuel Ikome Sako ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has been hinted of a Biya regime diabolic harsh plot to kill the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako in the USA. A well-placed source deep within the Francophone government told our Yaoundé city reporter late yesterday that Etoudi has given the green light for the Cameroon embassy in Washington to bankroll the action against Dr. Sako.

The plot is understood to centre in New York where Acting President Samuel Ikome Sako will be lured by some Chadian and Gabonese diplomats for a talk on the situation in Southern Cameroons. We understand that details of the Francophone government conspiracy against the exiled Southern Cameroons leadership were contained in a document bearing the signature of Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh the Minister Secretary General at the presidency of the republic.

According to our source in Yaoundé, senior security officials who recently met President Biya at his palace in Mvomeka’a discussed a killing spree to include targeting His Excellency Dr. Ikome Sako, the Secretary of Communications, Hon. Chris Anu and some members of the Interim Government. Information of the alleged plot filtered as the situation on Ground Zero continues to grow from bad to worse. Our correspondent in Yaoundé has not been able to know how detailed the alleged plot is, how far advanced it is or how feasible is the plan.

source: www.cameroonintelligencereport.com