The news from France is not good at all. Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, is fighting for his life. The 91-year-old Biya, who was expected to attend Friday’s opening session of the 2024 Francophone Summit, was indeed a no-show. (See group picture of heads of state and government)

The ailing president was represented by the country’s External Relations Minister, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, who was rushed into Paris when it became clear that Mr. Biya who has been away from Cameroon for 38 days now, would not be attending the summit as his prostate cancer is already spreading to some of the 91-year-old dictator’s internal and vital organs.

A source in France informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Paris correspondent that things were not looking well for the country, adding that the dictator was bedridden at the Percy Army Training Hospital known in French as the Hôpital National D’instruction Des Armées Percy located at 2 Rue Lieutenant Raoul, Batamy, 92140 Clamart, France.

It is reported that the Hôpital National D’instruction Des Armées Percy is where François Mitterrand, a former French President who died of prostate cancer at the age of 79, spent his last days.

Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent is keeping an eye on that health facility with a view to extracting information from medical practitioners working in that hospital.

Our correspondent has already reported that he has identified some members of the dying dictator’s entourage around the hospital premises and from their body language; there could be some bad news on the horizon.

Since leaving Cameroon in early September for China to attend the China-Africa Summit, Mr. Biya has been hiding in the French health facility where he is receiving world-class care.

Mr. Biya, who has presided over his country’s destiny for 42 years, has been unable to build a world-class hospital which can take care of his health needs.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

A 13-year-old girl in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, was sexually abused and impregnated by her father.

According to our sources, the incident has been going on since the girl was 8 years old but the young girl has be scared to report the matter.

Even the girl’s mother who has been aware of the abuse chose to keep things under wraps and this has been like an encouragement to her husband.

The news of the scandal was made public when the mother took the girl to a nearby clinic to terminate the pregnancy but the doctor refused to carry out the procedure.

Being aware that the residents of the neighbourhood had been informed of the abominable incident, the mother took the child and fled to an unknown place while the father, who is staring down the barrel of imprisonment, is on the run.

By Cecilia M Manjang

Cameroon’s External Affairs Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella, is currently in Paris, France, where he is expected to represent Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, at the Francophonie Summit scheduled for September 4-5, 2024.

The 91-year-old Paul Biya has not returned to Cameroon since he travelled to China where he attended the China-Africa Summit wherein the focus was on cooperation ties between Africa and China.

Sources close to the Cameroonian dictator say Mr. Biya has been hospitalized in a French hospital where he is fighting for his life against wildly spreading prostate cancer.

Though members of the dictator’s entourage insist that he will still attend the Francophonie summit which starts tomorrow Friday, September 4, 2024, in the French capital, observers argue that it will be a miracle if Mr. Biya attends the summit given his current state of health.

Our correspondent in Paris has been reliably informed that the Francophie secretariat has still confirmed that Mr. Biya will attend the event, adding that the dictator’s protocol services have not yet informed Francophonie officials that Mr. Biya’s scheduled has changed.

Many people are asking questions about Mr. Biya’s whereabouts, especially as the country he leads is falling apart, with Yaoundé, the country’s capital, spotting huge heaps of garbage and posting high rates of crime.

Since taking over the country in 1982 following the resignation of the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Mr. Biya has spent most of his time out of the country, letting his ministers to run the country however they want; a situation which has led to widespread corruption and embezzlement.

Corruption, unemployment and crime have become the country’s hallmarks and this is causing many Cameroonians to leave the country. The country’s youths are leaving in droves heading to any country which can deliver some form of peace to them.

Also, the country’s death rate has escalated over the last thirty years, with many government hospitals being characterized by critics as consultation clinics. Millions of Cameroonians have lost their lives due to the lack of quality health care and there are no improvements in the offing.

Many Cameroonians are looking forward to the 2025 presidential election as they consider the election as an opportunity to vote out the incompetent and ailing president who is out of touch with reality.

Many observers are really waiting to see if Mr. Biya will be attending the Francophonie summit tomorrow. If he turns out to be a no-show, Cameroonians will be convinced that he is a dying man who is on his way out.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Financial support for armed separatist activities in the North West and South West regions has “declined over time,” largely due to government actions, according to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled).

The report which examines the separatist conflict, notes that the Cameroonian government intensified its monitoring of financial flows between the diaspora and armed groups starting in 2019, two years after the conflict began.

“As a representative for the Agence Nationale d’Invéstigation Financière (ANIF), the Cameroonian national financial crime agency explained, the government realized that separatist armed groups tended to collect their transfers in the early morning or late evening, and security forces began monitoring pickups at these times, which led to numerous arrests,” the report indicates.

According to the report, the government’s crackdown involved tracking financial movements. This tracking led to “serious consequences for some of the individuals involved.” For instance, one person was arrested after security forces examined his bank account, which revealed a transfer from the diaspora, resulting in his imprisonment at Douala New Bell prison.

However, tighter monitoring of financial flows isn’t the only factor behind the dwindling financial support. The report highlights a loss of trust among members of the Anglophone diaspora, driven by suspicions of embezzlement and the opaque use of funds by some well-known separatist leaders. Many donors, initially under the impression they were funding humanitarian efforts, were disillusioned upon discovering their contributions were being diverted to fund armed conflict. “Reportedly, many of the donors who had given money to activists fundraising for the separatist cause had been led to believe they were funding humanitarian, not militant efforts,” the report explains.

Another key factor in the decline of financial aid is the atrocities committed by separatists against civilians, which has repelled some financial backers. “A decline in the credibility of the diaspora leaders was an important factor in the decline of diaspora donations. However, this decline was also linked to a decline in the credibility of the armed groups themselves, particularly in regard to their treatment of civilians,” the report concludes.

In response to the reduced funding, armed separatists have turned to forced “taxation,” extortion, and kidnappings for ransom to sustain their activities.

Source: Business in Cameroon

After a month of seeing an empty television studio with the word “censored” splashed across the screen, Cameroonians are finally able to watch Équinoxe TV’s flagship Sunday politics show “Droit de Réponse” again.

The privately owned station fell foul of Cameroon’s regulatory National Communication Council (NCC), which judged it to have harmed the reputations of two ministers in the government of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the Central African country since 1982. The show and its presenter Duval Fangwa were suspended for one month. When Équinoxe TV broadcast a replacement Sunday show, “Le Débat 237,” the NCC swiftly banned that too.

Despite the return of Droit de Réponse, the station’s difficulties are far from over.

Two Équinoxe TV political journalists told CPJ that they had received death threats by phone and been threatened with arrest in connection with their work.

“Every day, when I leave my house, I know that the worst can happen,” said one, who does not feel safe despite relocating. The other journalist has been in hiding since early August. Both declined to be named, citing safety concerns.

Attacks on the press have escalated as Cameroon prepares for elections in 2025 that could see Biya — one of the world’s longest serving presidents — win another seven-year term. Tensions have been exacerbated by the delay of parliamentary and local elections until 2026, which Biya’s opponents fear will strengthen his hand in the presidential vote.

“The reduction of freedom of expression and the media has begun. Journalists are censoring themselves under the instructions of their bosses or editors,” Marion Obam, president of the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon, told CPJ.

Obam condemned as an “attempt to muzzle the press” a July 16 local government order banning from Mfoundi department, which includes the capital Yaoundé, anyone who “dangerously insults” government institutions or officials or takes action that could “lead to serious disturbances to public order.” Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, prefect of Mfoundi department, said he was concerned about “the statements of certain guests on television or in radio studios.”

Djikdent was swiftly backed up by communication minister René Sadi, who condemned an “upsurge in the use of abusive language” against state institutions and called for “restraint.”

CPJ has since documented the following:

• August 8
  The NCC suspended the privately owned newspaper Première Heure, its reporter Alain Balomlog, and publishing director Jeremy Baloko for one month for failing to “cross-check and balance” allegations of mismanagement by regional agriculture delegate Jean Claude Konde.
• August 13
  Police sealed the doors of RIS Radio following the NCC’s August 8 order to suspend broadcasting and to stop station manager Sismondi Barlev Bidjocka practicing journalism, both for a period of six months. The NCC said that Bidjocka aired “unfounded and offensive statements” about the powerful Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Secretary General of the Presidency, on July 22.

• August 22
  La Voix du Centre editor Emmanuel Ekouli was beaten by three men on a motorcycle in Yaoundé who stole his laptop, phone, and recording equipment. He was similarly attacked by three men on a motorcycle on July 9. Ekouli has received threats over his journalism and work with the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders investigating the 2023 murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, according to five screenshots reviewed by CPJ. La Voix du Centre reporter Guy Modeste Dzudie told CPJ that he and Ekouli had also received threatening calls and messages over a June report on corruption in an inheritance case.
• August 28
  Amadou Vamoulké, former managing director of the state-owned Cameroon Radio and Television, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement. The 73-year-old has been jailed since 2016 and was given a 12-year sentence in 2022 on a separate embezzlement charge. CPJ believes his imprisonment is in reprisal for his journalistic independence in the face of government directives.

• September 4
  Police arrested Le Zénith reporter Stéphane Nguema Zambo while he was attending an appointment related to his investigation into embezzlement in the Ministry of Secondary Education, Le Zénith’s publishing director Zacharie Flash Ndiomo told CPJ. Zambo was threatened and coerced into publishing a Facebook post recanting his findings before being released on September 6, Ndiomo said.

“We are going through a difficult period,” said François Mboke, president of the Network of Press Owners of Cameroon (REPAC). “There are risks for those who want to remain professional.”

NCC spokesman Denis Mbezele told CPJ that the regulator’s sanctions were to remind the media to act responsibly.

Police spokesperson Joyce Cécile Ndjem declined to respond unless CPJ came to her office in Yaoundé.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from the office of the Presidency, the Ministry of Communication, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Secondary Education, and Mfoundi Prefecture were not answered.

Culled from CPJ