17, January 2018
The desperately hungry and begging gendarme officer: From Sesekou Isong’s Diary 0
One of the certainties any despot and serial embezzler always maintains is a well-paid and ably greased military. It’s well recognised by all that Biya and his criminal mob have maintained power in La Republique du Cameroun by an astonishing structure and system that has kept his military placated and hence on his side. Is that actually changing?
During my recent visit to The Federal Republic of Ambazonia, something fascinating crossed my path. I was stopped at one of those colonial police/gendarmes checkpoints in the Manyu County. It’s one of those thousands of road barriers that Biya and his co-conspirators have designed around the country for the facilitation of bribery and corruption.
These days, the occupants vary from custom officers, police officers and gendarmes to forest guards and the colonial army. They habitually have whistles and are always consuming alcohol. It’s scandalous but acceptable. Almost without exception, they approach your car with no smiles, little or no training in dealing with the general public and whiff of perspiration. These so-called officers of law and order are always discourteous. You know what I mean.
On this charming sunshiny day, I was cruising along peacefully enjoying the scenery and having grand visions of how Ambaland would look like with the application of brains and love.
I was requested to pull over which I did. A young lady walked towards my car with the intention of checking my vehicle particulars and passenger identification documents I hoped. By her physical traits, I guessed she was between 21-25 years of age. Her Kalashnikov was as long as she was tall. She asked to see my car particulars and ID documents which I complied. After quickly staring at the documents she said to me ‘uncle I am an Anglophone just like you. Please for some money to buy food! I haven’t eaten since morning. I am not happy with this government and occupation.’
I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Bribing has been a permanent fixture of checkpoints in Cameroun for as long as Biya has been around but this was something else. She was begging for money to buy food. Although I was infuriated by her uniform and presence in Ambaland, I was consumed by compassion and passed her 5,000 CFA FRS which she quickly pocketed so her colleagues didn’t see it. As I drove off, my sentiment was a combination of resentment and delight. My resentment was from her being in Ambaland illicitly. My delight came from the knowledge that there must be more disenchanted in the military, gendarmes and police. I muttered to myself that if there were disillusioned members of the military, then we will certainly have many recruits soon for our struggle.
Talking to many people about this incident, I quickly learned that there were many in the Cameroon armed forces that weren’t happy at all. I was reliably informed that their daily allowance was CFA 2,000 frs which Biya’s regime is finding challenging to bear out. The one million dollar question is what can CFA 2000 frs buy these days in Cameroon? Not a lot is the honest answer.
How high up within the ranks does this gloom go is anyone’s guess. For those in Ambazonia who still find it hard to believe that victory in this struggle is possible, let me remind you that many a despot have been ousted for their inability to keep the army comfortable. Mr. Biya is indeed taking the last kicks of a dying horse.
Sessekou Asu Isong
Next on this series, the Sesekou will be looking at the conviction by many in the villages and towns in Ambazonia that victory in this struggle is close.
17, January 2018
Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria 0
Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.
EKOK, Cameroon: Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.
Cameroon has been gripped by spiralling violence since November 2016, when government forces crushed a peaceful movement of Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting against their perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority.
Violent clashes between separatists and security forces have cut many Cameroonian buyers off from parts of the Southwest region, source of roughly half of Cameroon’s total production which reached around 240,000 tonnes last season.
“Our usual buyers are scared. Some come, but they stop in towns like Mamfe and do not dare to venture further into villages that produce more cocoa,” said Takor, a cocoa farmer in Mamfe, who did not give his surname out of fear of retribution.
“Now we have buyers that come from Nigeria,” he said.
A Reuters reporter in the south-western town of Ekok saw bags of cocoa beans loaded on to pick-up trucks and into cars registered in Nigeria’s Cross River State.
Cocoa smuggling has long been an issue along the border. But Cameroonian farmers and buyers told Reuters that the crisis has aggravated the practice.
Smugglers, they said, are now paying higher prices for beans and venturing deeper into Cameroon, the world’s fifth biggest producer, to scoop up more of farmers’ output.
One farmer in the south-western village of Eyang Ntui said Nigerians paid between 850 and 1,000 CFA francs (£1.1-£1.3) per kilogram of beans. Cameroonian buyers were, meanwhile, paying around 600 CFA francs/kg, he said.
“The crisis has brought us closer together. It is easier to sell to the Nigerians who are near us,” said Mbeng, who farms 12 hectares of cocoa near Mamfe and also withheld his surname.
No estimate was available for the smuggled volumes, but Cameroonian farmers and buyers said the amounts were significant.
Farmer Georges Eyong said his cooperative had sold 53 tonnes of beans to Nigerian buyers this month.
A senior official with Cameroon’s sector regulator, the National Office for Cocoa and Coffee (ONCC), said it plans to curb cocoa smuggling by setting up check points along the Nigerian border.
“This is an illegal trade. We are not opposed to exporting Cameroonian cocoa, but exporters need to meet all the necessary terms and conditions,” said the official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press.
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