25, May 2018

What’s behind the feud between the US and the Biya regime? ⁰

Last week, the political atmosphere in Yaoundé grew a little more tense. For the first time in his 36 years as head of state, President Biya received a verbal missile fired by the US ambassador Peter Barlerin at Yaoundé. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands no one was injured at the Unity Palace even though Francophone political commentators and CPDM cronies including some pro-Biya comedians have openly suggested the attack was tantamount to an act of war by the US.

The Interim Government of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia claims that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is carrying out genocide in West Cameroon with its troops burning and destroying Southern Cameroons towns and villages. The U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Barlerin, backed the claim during a fiery meeting with the 85 year-old President Biya.

The US recently put a smile on Biya’s face by donating two sophisticated fighter jets and repeatedly warned that the planes were only to be used to counter Boko Haram incursions in the Far North region of the country.

In the short term, this latest salvo fired by Ambassador Peter Barlerin probably won’t result in any kind of direct conflict between Yaoundé and Washington. (Though it will, undoubtedly, result in the collapse of the Biya regime.) However, it will only deepen the friction between Yaoundé and the Western nations that have been supporting Biya for more than three decades. The pronouncements by some Biya loyalists including Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary and Foreign Affairs Minister Mbella Mbella have made the situation very much intractable. Here are some important ways to understand the Yaounde-Washington disputes and suspicions:

The US fears that Cameroon is heading towards disintegration and that may have a spill over effect in neighboring countries such as Chad and Gabon including Congo Brazzaville. It’s true that Washington and Yaoundé have never been on opposite sides of international politics but the rift presently going on is an indication that Biya has overstayed his time.

The war against Boko Haram and the global war on terror have certainly informed the domestic and foreign policy priorities of both the United States and Cameroon. Both countries established solid bi-lateral relations and have been sharing intelligence. But Ambassador Barlerin’s advice to Biya isn’t simply, or even primarily statements that can be ignored. It is abundantly clear that the Trump and Emmanuel Macron administrations agreed on what the ambassador had to tell Biya.

Biya’s poor management of the crisis in Southern Cameroons spawned the tensions between Washington and Yaoundé. But the atrocities being committed by French Cameroun army soldiers in Southern Cameroons played a big role in creating the hostile environment we see today.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

25, May 2018

War of words continue between Yaounde and Washington ⁰

Two Cameroonian ministers have responded to remarks by the United States ambassador who late last week accused government of complicity in deadly violence in the restive Anglophone regions.

First was Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary who in an interview with the RFIchannel insisted that the nation was rather the victim to secessionist violence. “I am really surprised at the statement of US Ambassador, We are victims, the nation as a whole a victim,” he said.

In a more formal response, the Minister of External Relations issued a statement calling on the diplomat to respect Cameroonians.

It added in part that the country was never going to allow a leader to be imposed on it by the west – in apparent reference to the call by the ambassador for president Biya to start thinking about his political legacy.

Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin had met with President Paul Biya in Yaounde to discuss bilateral issues ahead of the May 20 national unity day.

In a read out issued by the U.S. embassy in Yaounde, the ambassador said government forces and separatists were culpable in violence in the two regions – northwest and southwest.

He added that government was employing targeted killings and also detaining people without recourse to the law.

Meanwhile, the position of the ambassador was buttressed by the bishop of Mamfe, a town located in the southwest region.

According to Bishop Andrew Nkea, dialogue was needed urgently to avert a useless and senseless civil war in which the government and separatists were committing grave crimes against the people.

The bishop stressed that whiles the army was burning down entire villages, the separatists were also burning down schools and other state institutions. The international Crisis Group has identified the church as the most potent political mediator.

Its April 26 report titled: Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, averred that the clergy needed to united with a strong common position (between federalism vs. decentralisation) in order to be seen as credible mediators.

Source: Africa News

24, May 2018

Cameroon bishops alarmed by ‘blind, inhuman, monstrous violence’ ⁰

‘Not a week goes by without houses being burned down, people kidnapped or killed. Fear has taken over this territory’

The situation in English-speaking regions of Cameroon is “marked by blind, inhuman, monstrous violence and by a radicalisation of positions that alarm us,” said the president of the Cameroon bishops’ conference.

“Let us stop all forms of violence and let us stop killing each other,” said Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala, the president, in a statement May 16. “Let us save our country from an unfounded and useless civil war.”

Caritas Internationalis, in an appeal launched May 15, reported that the conflict in Cameroon “has forced 160,000 people out of their homes into the bush and a further 26,000 to cross into Nigeria as they flee regions ‘stalked by fear and death.’ Whether a person speaks English or French has become a reason to kill.”

Tensions between Cameroon’s French-speaking majority and English-speaking minority have been growing since late 2016 when lawyers and then teachers in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon went on strike to protest the appointment of French-speaking judges and the use of French in schools. In October, English-speaking separatists declared an independent state, “Ambazonia.”

Archbishop Kleda’s statement said, “the brutal repression of the army against an independence movement in the English-speaking regions of the country” has fuelled an escalation of the humanitarian crisis.

“Not a week goes by without houses being burned down, people kidnapped or killed. Fear has taken over this territory,” wrote Hippolyte Sando of Caritas Cameroon in a letter March 28 from Mamfe, a diocese in the southwest which Caritas described as being at the “epicenter” of the violence.

“The village of Kembong is a typical example of the suffering of the people. Here, young and old alike have been sleeping in the forest since Sept. 29,” Sando wrote. “Two priests and a hundred or so villagers spent months living in the compound of Bishop Andrew Nkea of Mamfe, and it was only recently that they cautiously agreed to go back to their villages on the condition that they would no longer be attacked.”

The diocesan, national and international Caritas organisations are mobilising to provide emergency aid both within Cameroon and across the border in Nigeria where many of the refugees have sought shelter and safety.

Source: The Tablet

24, May 2018

Yaounde lashes US over ‘abuses’ in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Cameroon’s government has blasted the United States for accusing its forces of abuses, including “targeted killings,” in an English-speaking region of the country wracked by a separatist insurgency.

In a statement received by AFP on Thursday, the foreign ministry said it had expressed its “deep disapproval” of comments made by US ambassador in Yaounde, Peter Barlerin, last week.

His action “violates all diplomatic conventions as well as the rules of civility and law, both in style and substance,” it said.

Barlerin was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday, four days after alleging government forces had carried out “targeted killings” and other abuses against militants demanding independence for two English-speaking regions.

“On the side of the government, there have been targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages,” the ambassador said in a statement.

“On the side of the separatists,” he also stressed, “there have been murders of gendarmes, kidnapping of government officials, and burning of schools”.

The statement followed warnings by rights watchdogs over abuses in the conflict. It was issued after Barlerin met Cameroon’s 85-year-old president, Paul Biya.

The foreign ministry statement said such allegations were “totally unfounded.”

“Despite almost daily harassment and heavy losses in terms of lives and equipment, (the security forces) have always kept in mind, with professionalism and rigour, the rules of engagment and international humanitarian law.”

Anglophones account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 22 million.

Most of them live in the Northwest and Southwest regions that in colonial times were administered by Britain, joining francophone Cameroon after it gained independence from France in 1960.

Decades of resentment about perceived marginalisation in education, the judiciary and the economy escalated last year, culminating in the announcement on October 1 of a putative separate state called Ambazonia.

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

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says around 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria as a result of the violence.

Source:AFP

24, May 2018

Amnesty International says Nigeria’s military committed war crimes ⁰

Nigeria’s security forces have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during its fight against Islamist insurgency Boko Haram.

A new report released by Amnesty International on Thursday reveals how the crimes were perpetrated for years and have continued despite a presidential inquiry established last August.

In some cases, the abuse appears to be part of a pattern of persecution of anyone perceived to have a connection to Boko Haram.

According to Amnesty’s report, interviewees “said that when the military conducted operations in their villages, they burnt down homes and opened fire at remaining residents indiscriminately.”

“It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous abuse by the Nigerian military,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.

The human rights watchdog has accused Nigerian security forces of raping thousands of women and girls at the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the country.

“Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid starvation or hunger,” added Ojigho.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters has accused Amnesty International of planning to destabilize the country. The military had announced on Wednesday that it received credible intelligence report of a plan by the human rights body to release what it calls a false report.

“The Defence Headquarters therefore, urge all law abiding citizens to continue to trust and support the military in the ongoing war against Boko Haram and go about their normal lawful business,” read an extract from the military statement.

Nigeria has waged a nine-year war against Boko Haram. Over 2 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed.

Source: Africa News

24, May 2018

Trump cancels summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ⁰

US President Donald Trump has called off his planned summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The unprecedented summit was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore.

Trump made the announcement in a letter released by the White House on Thursday.

“I was very much looking forward to being there with you,” Trump said in the letter. “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.”

On Tuesday, Trump expressed doubts about the meeting taking place as scheduled when he hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House.

Moon’s visit to the US was originally arranged as a meeting to fine-tune a joint strategy for dealing with North Korea but instead became more of a crisis session after Pyongyang last week threatened to scrap plans for the summit.

The summit’s cancellation is a major blow to what Trump supporters hoped would have been the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.

The White House was caught off-guard when North Korea condemned the latest US-South Korean military drills, suspended North-South talks, and threatened to cancel the Trump-Kim summit.

Washington will “have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea-US summit in light of this provocative military” said the North’s official news agency KCNA on Tuesday.

The United States, which has substantial presence in South Korea, was on a war footing with the North over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. But relations have dramatically improved in the past four months and a half.

Pyongyang has also announced plans to dismantle its Punggye-ri nuclear test site by the end of May, prior to the North Korea-US summit meeting. It has also suspended its missile and nuclear programs but has not publicly committed to abandoning those programs.

Source: Presstv

24, May 2018

Eto’o holds Lazio talks ⁰

There are reports Konyaspor striker Samuel Eto’o is in negotiations with Lazio for a return to Serie A after today’s four-hour meeting.

The Cameroon international is now 37 years old and only joined Konyaspor in January with a contract that runs to June 2019.

However, according to the Corriere dello Sport and Rai Sport, Eto’o met with Lazio director Igli Tare for four hours in Rome today.

It would be a return to Italy for the man who won the Treble at Inter in 2010, then had a brief spell at Sampdoria in 2015.

He then moved to Turkey, first for Antalyaspor and now Konyaspor. Eto’o would effectively replace Luis Nani, who struggled to make any impact at Lazio this season.

Nani arrived on loan with option to buy from Valencia, but scored only three goals with four assists in 25 competitive games, most of them off the bench. See the latest Serie A predictions and betting tips with Eurotips.co.uk

Source: Football Italia

24, May 2018

Francophones might hardly believe it, but it now seems the Southern Cameroons war will end with Ambazonians as victor ⁰

While we’re all waiting for President Trump to start the process of ousting Biya, Cameroon Concord News Group have spotted that the Biya Southern Cameroons war map has substantially and bloodily changed. The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces have been steadily advancing on French Cameroun government positions in both the Northern and the Southern Zones.

Two years ago, our senior correspondent Kingsley Betek met with one of the Manyu Odeshi leader, who was commanding a few Southern Cameroons self-defense soldiers in a small suburb of Mamfe. At the time, he showed Betek his map saying we will get to Buea in less than 5 years.

And then this year, Kingsley Betek met him again in Egbekaw and he said the Ambazonian fighters are going to enter Buea any time before the end of October 2018. Betek reminded him of the presence of Cameroon government forces in all the major towns and villages in Southern Cameroons. That should not bother you, he said. “In the early days of the resistance, we were using the ghost town operations and the Francophone army was executing our women and children. Now we are engaging them to fight in a guerrilla war. The French Cameroun army was trained to kill innocent civilians and protect Biya. Now they are fighting their first real war.”

Indeed they are. The Odeshi commander turned out to be almost dead on target. With the support of the powerful Lebialem Dragons, the Ambazonian Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces are heading towards Buea. Biya regime forces are abandoning the rural areas and what has always been unthinkable in Yaounde is now happening: The forces of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia look to be winning the war.

The Americans already seem to have gotten the message and have appealed to President Biya to step down. The Americans are also playing up war crimes in Southern Cameroons and condemning Biya’s pointless attacks on Southern Cameroonian towns and villages.

And what about the French? Here is a European and world power which truly counted on Biya crushing Southern Cameroonians in less than a month. No wonder French President Emmanuel Macron was instrumental in the arrest and extradition of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius from Abuja to Yaounde. Following Ambassador Peter Barlerin’s Biya declaration, the French government is so agitated and emotional. The French now know that the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is by extrapolation the United States in Southern Cameroons.

The repeated victories of the Ambazonian Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces mean that the Southern Cameroons resistance army is among the most battle-hardened in Sub Sahara Africa. Biya clearly never imagined that Southern Cameroonians might win, and that a more powerful Southern Cameroons army might also emerge from the rubble of Manyu, Lebialem, Belo and Muyenge.

The French still support Biya, but neither the US nor UK nor Germany nor Buhari of Nigeria has any interest in supporting Biya’s continued stay in power.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

24, May 2018

US ambassador’s comment: A rift within the army and the CPDM? ⁰

The pronouncement of the US Ambassador, Henry Barlerin, after his meeting with President Biya of LRC has shaken the top leadership of Cameroon to the very roots of their being. In his declarations, the Ambassador clearly called out the regime on its use of excessive force in the killing of Ambazonians, the burning of villages, the creation of thousands of refugees as well as the need for Paul Biya to step down from power. Its diplomats and academics have been working overtime in a bid to save face and protect their hegemony, as the fallouts of the meeting have hit the global press in general and the Cameroonian populace in particular. Some of them have been very crass and expletive in their characterization of the Ambassador, as they condemn his statements. The real question is how much of their reaction can actually change the stance the Ambassador took? Are we seeing a change in global response to the plight of Ambaland?

The fact is that even some Ambazonians have criticized the Ambassador for not going far enough to term the actions of the LRC military as the genocide that it really is. However, a position has been taken by the Trump Administration and the question is whether LRC has a choice in following suit. Mbela Mbela, the Cameroonian Foreign Minister, has summoned Barlerin to talk about the message he delivered openly to the press, saying that by their very nature these messages are not meant to be publicized. He further argues that the sovereignty of Cameroon allows only Cameroonians to determine who leads their country. According to Mbela Mbela, Cameroon will handle its internal crisis in its own way and foreigners should not intervene. The totality of reactions from Cameroons leadership is one of complete anger towards Barlerin in particular and America in general. So how do these play out on the ground as the days unfold?

It serves no purpose here to mention the strangle hold of France over Biya himself, through the rigging of elections, nor does it help to talk about American as the global leader in diplomacy. So, within the context of diplomacy, Barlerin has pronounced the stance of the USA. That is a very important position. Note that the scope of diplomacy spans from total silence to all-out war. His statements could not but have been made with the benefit of full intelligence as to what has been happening on the ground as well as the educated position of the United States towards the unfolding crisis. The outbursts from the Cameroonian ruling classes cannot but be seen as the rantings of a hurt ego. If Cameroon really wants to show its anger in can call back its Ambassador to the United States. It can also ask the US Ambassador to leave Cameroon. Such a move is enough to convey the message. They can then sit back and wait for America to respond. So far they have not done so. While it is still early they still have the time to do so and even threaten any other action that they see fit. What exactly is in their arsenal to use as a threat to the most powerful country in the history of the human race?

Turning the tables, what can America do to enforce its pronouncement? A few days ago, Ambazonians were agog with the “donation” of two fighter planes by the same Ambassador, to Biya and his team. A flurry of communication between Ambazonians in the US especially, followed and thereafter the meeting was held to congratulate Biya on the occasion of the National Day of 20th May…and look what came out. Ambazonian Americans have been complaining to their Senators here in the US about the flagrant violation of the terms of support to Boko Haram as Biya has turned the BIR against the people of Ambaland. One can safely say that for Biya, the tables are turning and his chickens are beginning to come home to roost.

So what can the Americans do you ask? In strict diplomatic terms, the piece of geography on which the US embassy sits in Yaoundé is actually America abroad. Even Paul Biya himself cannot walk into that land without the express permission of Washington. One can make the same claim about the Cameroonian Embassy in America and on the face of it one will be correct. However, it was President Reagan who marched into Panama, captured Noriega, the sitting president and brought him to be tried in the US. It was also Reagan who swooped into Tripoli and bombed the hell out of Gadhafi, killing his daughter and destroying the Libyan presidential palace. So while we can claim that diplomacy is diplomacy, we say in Bamenda that “njangi money na for table”. We have not even mentioned the fact that Trump is more of a “bad boy” than Reagan. So, the hoopla from Yaoundé is going to die down eventually, and they will come to their senses. Many of them have rightly quoted examples of how America went into Zaire and kicked Mobutu out, the case of Syria, Somalia, Sudan, etc. We can even add Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan etc. Has that stopped the Americans? We can only wait and see. For us Ambazonians, the important question is, where does this leave our struggle?

The expletives coming out of Yaoundé are beginning to take the typical Zimbabwean tone under Robert Mugabe. Look what happened to him. While the ire against LRC may not directly translate to support for Ambazonia, it will help to make the case of the caliber of people we have been dealing with all these years. It is not a mere coincidence that within the past week or so, we have suddenly received a flurry of encouraging words from different nations – at least condemning the actions of LRC. A good number of them have mentioned the need for the International Court of Justice to take a look at their excesses.

We have also heard rumors about secret meetings in Senegal with the facilitation of Kofi Anan. We can comfortably say that the tides are turning in our favor. Even if some of these rumors are simply that – rumors – global sentiment has definitely taken a tangent. What do we say in Bamenda – “Cow whe e no get tail…”

By John Tuma

USA

24, May 2018

Nigeria: Cholera outbreak kills 12 ⁰

Twelve people have died of cholera in northeast Nigeria’s Adamawa state, the health commissioner said on Wednesday, in the latest outbreak of the disease in the region.

The outbreak has infected 142 people in Mubi district since Sunday, Ahmad Sajo told AFP.

“We have recorded 12 deaths from (a) cholera outbreak in Mubi north and Mubi south local government areas in the past four days,” he said.

“A total of 142 people were infected and medical teams have been dispatched to the affected communities to contain the rapid spread of the disease,” Sajo said.

He said the medical teams were yet to find out the cause of the outbreak.

Cholera is caused by a bacterium transmitted through contaminated food or drinking water. It causes acute diarrhoea, with children particularly at risk.

Water-borne diseases are a constant threat because of a lack of adequate sanitation as well as stagnant groundwater during the rainy season in Nigeria.

Last month 13 people were killed in a similar outbreak in nearby Yobe state, which the authorities blamed on contaminated water.

(Source: AFP)