23, January 2017

Panic in Yaounde as Southern Cameroons ghost town records 100 per cent success ¹

Day 1 of the three-day ghost town campaign in Southern Cameroons has recorded a 100 per cent success, thanks to the disconnection of internet and other social media which greatly angered West Cameroonians. The interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society have reportedly lauded the response to the civil disobedience calls. A highly placed Francophone government official was heard murmuring privately at the Prime Minister’s office earlier today that the CPDM government did not expect the civil disobedience action of this week to be that successful.

Cameroon Intelligence Report senior political commentator emphasized that the protest action is succeeding because of the Southern Cameroon youth’s determination and use of the social media. Thirty-seven thousand West Cameroonians listened to a live broadcast by Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang on Face Book. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society has managed to attract a large response among even Francophone citizens in Daoula and Yaounde who are now clamoring for President Biya to step down for real dialogue to begin. Today’s success has motivated even militants of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to participate in further steps against the tyrannical regime that has ruined the country.

Last week, the so-called Minister of Secondary Education issued a statement for schools to resume in British Southern Cameroons. The call was ignored as all academic institutions in Southern Cameroons remain closed. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has said that the civil disobedience campaign will hold tomorrow Tuesday the 24^th of January 2017. All measures taken by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government to stifle the Anglophone revolution have been counter-productive. The shutting down of internet services and electricity supply has completely destroyed economic activities in Southern Cameroons with soldiers begging for food and water from the civilian population. The state daily newspaper, Cameroon Tribune attempted with a montage of photos to deceive international public opinion that schools have started in West Cameroon.

Francophone security officers have detained hundreds of Southern Cameroons activists including Barrister Agbor Nkongho Felix and Dr. Neba Fontem of the Consortium. The Yaounde regime has also arrested Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon in order to prevent Southern Cameroonians from publicly protesting against La Republique du Cameroun. Amnesty International and the African Human Rights Commission have both released a call for urgent action regarding the rapes, extra judicial killings and incommunicado detention of Southern Cameroons leaders.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is the most active West Cameroon group since its members began their public campaign against the government’s oppressive policies in several Anglophone towns last year. Wilfred Tassang has also lauded the response to the ghost town calls and observed that a “continuation of the policy will bring about even better results.”

The situation in the country would have been much better if the government would have listened to the voice of reason and allowed its policies and attitudes to be reviewed, instead of underestimating and ridiculing any Southern Cameroons leader. The government’s future and the unity of Cameroon are now put to the test. It will have to base its options on the broad rejection of the people of Southern Cameroons of its devastating policies.

By Rita Akana

23, January 2017

Gambia: Former President Jammeh ‘emptied coffers’ before leaving ⁰

The Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh, who caused a political crisis in the African country before finally going into exile, has emptied the government’s treasury, plundering millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, says an aide to the country’s new president.

“Over two weeks, over 500 million dalasi (11 million dollars) were withdrawn” by Jammeh, Mai Fatty, an aide to President Adama Barrow, said in the Sengalese capital Dakar on Monday. “As we take over, the government of The Gambia is in financial distress… The coffers are largely empty,” he told reporters.

Long-time ruler Jammeh flew out of The Gambia on Saturday and headed for Equatorial Guinea, where he is expected to settle with his family. Before deciding to leave, he pushed the country to the brink of war by refusing to concede defeat in the presidential election held in December last year. The subsequent political crisis drew in mediators from regional countries, some of which were coping with crises of their own.

Those regional mediating countries also formed up a military force to force Jammeh out of power if he did not step down voluntarily. Jammeh clung to power even for some two days after his mandate expired despite the threat of the use of force but ultimately decided to go into exile. He had been in power since a coup in 1994.

A woman celebrates after hearing about the departure of former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, in Banjul, January 21, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The West African military force entered The Gambia on Sunday to provide security and allow Barrow, who has been staying in neighboring Senegal, to return to The Gambia, whose own military had sided with Jammeh. Barrow is eager to return “as soon as possible,” said his aide, warning that “the state of security in The Gambia is still fragile.”

According to Fatty, President Barrow wants the deployed West African military force to remain in The Gambia for the time being. “We want their mandate to be extended,” Fatty said, explaining that Barrow was waiting for personal assurances of loyalty from national security forces.

He said that after the full transfer of power, the new administration’s first priority will be to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of people who have fled the country in recent weeks fearing a violent escalation.

Presstv

23, January 2017

Southern Cameroons Uprising: Strikes and ghost town must continue ⁰

There are very urgent and compelling reasons why the strike action and resistance to the colonial rule and the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity to enforce it on the Southern Cameroons must continue and continue with more intensity. The collective punishment of Southern Cameroonians through the disconnection of internet facilities and electricity to ensure that the ongoing elaborate genocide and crimes against humanity are no longer recorded and shown to the world; the arrests and charging of Lawyer Felix Agbor Nkongho, the President of the Consortium of Civil Society Associations, Dr Neba Fontem, the Secretary-General of the Consortium, Hon, Justice Paul Ayah, an Advocate General at the Supreme Court and Mancho Bibixy a community activist, and the programmed abduction and trial in a Military Court of many more Southern Cameroonians in French and away from the territory of the Southern Cameroon is a declaration of war warranting sustained resistance.

It is commonsense to venture a speculation that by now, even die heart Iscariot’s like Atanga Nji have realized that the ongoing war aimed at exterminating Southern Cameroons instead of frightening the people to capitulate in fear, have rather emboldened the peoples’ resolve to unite and resist with their last energy. The people have comprehensively demonstrated that they will not succumb to perpetual enslavement through the blackmail of criminality, blood baying military, paramilitary and police bestiality.

Though the people have endured significant loss of life and limb, there are encouraging signs that the Southern Cameroons like the phoenix will emerge from this senseless invasion and slaughter a free, dignified and more united people. The people are more than ever unity in their resolve to attain their freedom no matter the sacrifices and no matter the costs. The time to put an end to the humiliations and criminality of annexation and colonial rule is now.

The collective punishment inflicted on the Southern Cameroons without distinction on political grounds and ethnic affinity has helped Southern Cameroonians to rediscover the blessings of unity among its citizens. Unity of purpose and action are the sole panacea towards securing our common existence and survival. For this purpose, the people of the Southern Cameroons have discovered strikes and ghost towns as a powerful weapon of resistance which the enemy cannot break. Therefore the strike action and ghost towns called to reclaim our right to life, dignity, freedom and the pursuit of happiness within our own territory and survive on our good given resources must continue.

The voices and wailing of our children, women, mothers and boys and fathers as they are bludgeoned to death in cold blood dragged from the sanctity of our homes and streets will torment our individual and collective consciences if we do not pursue the cause of justice for which they gave their lives. Let the strike proceed until all our people are freed and the blood of our loved ones accounted for. For it makes no sense to send our children to schools to be raped, killed and kidnapped to please a sanguinary despotic colonial regime.

Lest we forget, the genocidal forces deployed by La Republique du Cameroun to rape, maim, destroy and kill did not distinguish a Bafren person from a Banyangi or a Bangwa; a Moghamo from a Bakweri, an Oroko from a Banso, a CPDM militant from SDF. Rather the instructions to kill, rape, humiliate, and brutalize was aimed at indistinguishably on their common Southern Cameroons identity. Government Ministers and some Iscariots in Southern Cameroons have publicly congratulated themselves for the zeal with which they have executed these crimes against the unarmed people Southern Cameroonians.

Aggravating these criminal conduct, is the humiliating kidnapping and transfer our people to be tried and possibly executed by a Military Tribunal whose proceedings will be in French and whose outcome has already been made public by officials of La Republique from Governors to Ministers. Under these circumstances, there is no reason for Southern Cameroonians to send their children to school to be raped and killed. The internet and electricity blockade of the Southern Cameroons and the collective punishment of our people have comprehensively emphasized the divide between La Republique and the Southern Cameroons. The wound inflicted in these acts of bestiality may never heal and so the pathing path should have been negotiated and not at the cost of so much blood.

For the above reasons, the strike and ghosts towns are justified and should continue.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

23, January 2017

Anglophone Problem: Journalists defy CPDM censorship ¹

The National Union of Cameroon Journalists has condemned The decision of the National Council For Media Communication On The Anglophone Problem. In an outing on January 21, 2017 Denis Nkwebo, the Unions National President enjoined all Journalists in Cameroon to disregard the decision by Peter Essoka who is the regulators President.

Denis Nkwebo writes “On 20 January 2017, the President of the National Communication Council (NCC), Peter Essoka, read a statement on CRTV, warning the media about how they deal with current events in Regions of the North-West and South-West.”

Among other things, the communiqué prohibits the media from addressing issues related to federalism and secession. The outing of the president of the NCC intervenes after several measures of restriction of the freedoms, in particular the suspension of the Internet in the Northwest and the Southwest.

The National Union of Journalists of Cameroon, (SNJC) calls on all media and Journalists to disregard the injunctions of Mr. Essoka Peter, once again condemning the cynicism of the NCC, to consider the injunctions as null and void and of no effect.

The SNJC invites the Cameroon media and Journalists to give a fair and equitable echo to all the opinions expressed by Cameroonian citizens on the issues of federalism and secession. The SNJC notes that the NCC and its President are no longer hiding to defend and implement the censorship imposed by the regime that subsidizes them.

The SNJC reserves the right to retaliate against Peter Essoka, the NCC and the government they serve.

SNJC asks the Fédipresse and the other media promoters to clarify their positions on the professional existence and legitimacy of the NCC.

Done at Douala on 21 January 2017 Denis Nkwebo President of the SNJC.

Cameroun Info.Net

23, January 2017

Maroua: Brigadier General Jacob Kodji and Colonel Kameni killed in helicopter crash ⁰

Brigadier General Jacob Kodji, Commander of the 4th inter-armed military region and Colonel Kameni, Commander of the 4th gendarmerie region, died Sunday in an helicopter crash in the Far North region.

General Jacob Kodji who graduated from the Yaounde military academy in 1983, was promoted on August the 13th, 2015 by the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces, the 83 year old Paul Biya. He was later on installed by the then Minister for Defense, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o as the head of the 4th Joint Military Region (4th RMIA) on the 17^th of August 2015, in Maroua.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the late General Jacob Kodji was already acting as the commander of the 4th military region in Maroua, before being confirmed in his appointment as Brigadier General on 13 August, cumulatively with his duties as commander of Operation Emergence.

General Jacob Kodji was a native of Mogodé in Mayo-Tsanaga, a border town with the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Elected among a multitude of colonels in the Region, he was the youngest of all the Cameroon army Generals.

Culled from CIR

22, January 2017

Consortium leaders to appear in court on Tuesday ⁰

The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including 49 other Anglophone activists will appear in the Yaounde military tribunal on Tuesday the 24th of January 2017, Cameroon Concord News has learnt.

We also gathered that the leaders will be represented by Barristers Ben and Akere Muna, two renowned Anglophone lawyers. Our source also hinted that Wilfred Tassang will hold talks with the Secretary General of the African Union inside the American embassy in Yaounde.

The Consortium announced earlier today that Southern Cameroonians should observe the civil disobedience campaign for tomorrow and Tuesday and also that all schools in West Cameroon should remain closed indefinitely.

By Sama Ernest

22, January 2017

Gambia: Yahya Jammeh relinquish the mantle of leadership under increasing international pressure ⁰

The Gambia’s former leader, Yahya Jammeh, has left the country after finally conceding defeat in an election under increasing international pressure. Jammeh lost the presidential election in December last year to Adama Barrow but said he would not relinquish power, claiming that there had been irregularities in the vote and pushing the country to the edge of war.

West African nations, which had been peacefully trying to convince him to leave, gradually turned to the idea of removing him militarily and put a regional force on standby as the official end of Jammeh’s mandate approached. On Saturday, some two days after the expiration of his mandate, Jammeh finally announced a decision “to relinquish the mantle of leadership” and, now with his exit from The Gambia, the way was paved for President Adama Barrow to return home from neighboring Senegal, where he was inaugurated on Thursday.

Jammeh, who had taken power in a 1994 coup, demanded from the negotiators that he be given amnesty and safe passage out of The Gambia and that his political party be recognized. But no deal on amnesty was finalized with the negotiators and Jammeh was forced to go into exile.

Regional leaders did escort him into a plane, however, seeing him off into exile in Equatorial Guinea. His family and aides were to depart on a separate plane. The fate of his party was not immediately clear. During Jammeh’s reign, his government was accused of harsh treatment of opponents.

Presstv

22, January 2017

Southern Cameroons ghost town to target schools and internet companies ¹

Southern Cameroonians will begin a campaign of civil disobedience against the government of La Republique du Cameroun and direct action against internet companies and mobile telephone providers on Monday, to demand an end to the epidemic of rapes, extra judicial killings and the release of all prominent Anglophone leaders arrested in Buea and Bamenda.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society, a group formed in the wake of serious marginalization of Anglophones said they would “no longer stand by and watch Francophone political elites treat Southern Cameroonians like slaves.” The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which has more than 3000 operation managers in West Cameroon said all academic institutions in Southern Cameroons will remain closed until all Anglophone demands are met by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. The ghost town operation will be staged for a one month period.

The Anglophone leaders say they are prepared to get arrested in their fight against injustice, discrimination and destruction of the Anglo-Saxon heritage including the Common Law and the educational system. Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang who are helping to lead the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society ’s direct action campaign, which kicks off on Monday, said CACSC would go much further by paralyzing not only school activities, but other sectors such as transport and business.

As well as directly targeting Francophone administrative power in Southern Cameroons, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will also go after any Anglophone so-called political elite who attempts to work against the interest of West Cameroonians in the struggle. “We are going to be targeting people who are working to sabotage the Southern Cameroons revolution”, noted an operations manager in Ekok at the borders with Nigeria.

On Monday, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has asked Southern Cameroonians to stay at home for a kind of “die-in” and avoid any confrontation with troops that have been deployed from French Cameroun. Both the Ministers of Secondary Education and Telecommunication have opined that shutting down internet services in British Southern Cameroons comes right and has worked to the CPDM government’s advantage. However, new findings have revealed that the government action on internet services has recruited more followers for the Consortium and many Southern Cameroonians now believe in secession.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana, Sama Ernest

22, January 2017

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law to be White House adviser ⁰

US President Donald Trump’s hiring of his son-in-law Jared Kushner will not violate any anti-nepotism laws and can go forward, says an official with the US Justice Department (DOJ). “In choosing his personal staff, the president enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” said deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Daniel Koffsky, as reported by CNN. He made the statement amid concerns that hiring Ivanka Trump’s husband could violate federal anti-nepotism laws or make the situation harder for Palestinians, given the close ties Kushner maintains with the Israeli ruling Likud party.

“A President wanting a relative’s advice on governmental matters therefore has a choice: to seek that advice on an unofficial, ad hoc basis without conferring the status and imposing the responsibilities that accompany formal White House positions; or to appoint his relative to the White House under title 3 and subject him to substantial restrictions against conflicts of interest,” Koffsky stated. “We believe that the president’s special hiring authority in 3 U.S.C. § 105(a) permits him to make appointments to the White House Office that the anti-nepotism statute might otherwise forbid.”

Since his victory on November 8, Trump has insisted that Kushner should be present during daily presidential briefings, despite not having security clearances necessary. The presence of Ksuhner and his wife at a meeting of Trump with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drew criticism from political experts as they both lack the security clearance needed to attend a meeting with a world official.

His appointment could potentially violate the 1967 anti-nepotism law, which bans federal authorities from giving government positions to civilian relatives in agencies under their control. Kushner was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey and studied as an honors student in a private yeshiva high school in 1999. According to Tampa-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, Ivanka’s husband “has very close links with the Likud party of Israel.”

Presstv

21, January 2017

Why President Paul Biya MUST not underestimate the people of the former British Southern Cameroons: A lesson from our history ²

After forty five years of enslavement, second-class citizenship and forceful administrative integration of Southern Cameroons with Nigeria, the General Assembly of the United Nations came face to face with the reality that the people of Southern Cameroons were capable of terminating their marriage with Nigeria – against the wish of the mighty British Empire.

In May 1953, there was a serious leadership crisis within the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), resulting from the limitations of the Macpherson Constitution. The Constitution gave Legislative Supremacy to the Central Government of Nigeria and made Regional Assemblies powerless.

During the height of the crisis, 13 Southern Cameroons Members of Parliament elected into the Eastern House of Assembly on the NCNC ticket understandably adopted a neutral position on the grounds that they were not Nigerians. The dismissal of Southern Cameroons Government Minister Hon Solomon T. Muna, by Prime Minister Michael Okpara, who rejected all calls to have Muna reinstated aggravated matters.

Dr. Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley, the leader of the Southern Cameroons Parliamentary Group in the Eastern House came to the conclusion that separation from Nigeria was the only appropriate answer to the crisis. Angered by discrimination and the domineering behavior of Nigerian politicians, the Southern Cameroons representatives, declared “benevolent neutrality” and withdrew from the Assembly.

Southern Cameroons’ withdrawal from the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu generated a new spirit of nationalism amongst Southern Cameroonians – who resisted all forms of Nigerian intimidation and committed themselves to the achievement of self-government for Southern Cameroons.

In May 1953, Dr. Endeley convened a broad based meeting of all native authorities and political organizations in Southern Cameroons in Mamfe. During the meeting, Southern Cameroons leaders decided to bury their differences and fight for a separate region for the Southern Cameroons. In June 1953, Kamerun National Congress (KNC) – the first indigenous political party in Southern Cameroons was created with Endeley as President.

Following the bold, courageous and daring actions of Southern Cameroonians leaders, Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttleton agreed that the Nigerian Constitution be redrawn to provide for greater Regional Autonomy. He summoned a constitutional review conference of all Nigeria parties in London. Dr. Endeley led the Southern Cameroons delegation to the London Constitutional Conference from 30, July to 22 August 1953. The Lyttleton Constitution which emerged from the Lancaster Conference had one significant difference from the Macpherson Constitution that it replaced.

Residual powers were transferred from the Central Government to the Regions, areas of exclusive and concurrent legislative competence defined, and Regions endowed with a Premier and a Cabinet. On his return from London, Dr. Endeley received a warrior’s welcome. He went on to win the 1953 General Elections, become Leader of Government Business, and negotiated for the creation of the autonomous Region (Statehood) of Southern Cameroons in 1954.

Following Southern Cameroons’ reunification with La Republique du Cameroun, their leaders Prime Minister John Ngu Foncha and President Amadou Ahidjo respectively agreed in Foumban that the Federal Constitution of 1961 would preserve the statehood of Southern Cameroons which became West Cameroon and La Republique du Cameroun which became East Cameroon within the Federal structure.

That was the spirit of Article 47 of the Federal Constitution. President Ahidjo however used Article 2 of the Federal Constitution to super cede Article 47 and call for the 1972 referendum. The violation of Article 47 dismantled the Federal Structure of West Cameroon and East Cameroon. The autonomy of West Cameroon under a Prime Minister was reduced from Statehood to a Minority-hood referred as provinces (North West and South West). Today, the provinces are referred as regions. This is the root cause of the Anglophone Problem which has led to the submergence of the Anglophone Educational, Legal, Economic and Socio Cultural Systems (not exclusively).

After fifty five years of union with La Republique du Cameroun, the current political crisis in Cameroon is reminiscent of events that prompted Southern Cameroons to end its forty five years of marriage with Nigeria.